Oh boy! We’re halfway through with the season of The Good Bad Mother and the plot just keeps on thickening.
In the recently released episode of the Netflix K-drama, we learned that Choi Kang-ho (Lee Do-hyun) actually prepared for the inevitable. He learned that what he was doing was dangerous and that he went to certain lengths to explain things to his mother, Jin Young-soon (Ra Mi-ran).
This episode also gave us the answers we were looking for on how Kang-ho turned into a cold-hearted prosecutor and dumped the love of his life, Lee Mi-joo (Ahn Eun-jin) for no reason.
If you still haven’t watched episodes 9 and 10, we warn you not to go further since this post contains spoilers! Otherwise, let’s go through the series of events together.
How Did Young-soo Learn About Kang-ho’s Past?
In episode 8, Young-soo realizes that Kang-ho was sending her a hidden message in the note he left behind with his building’s security guard. He wrote:
“But I still live in the memories I shared with you and Father.”
This note bewildered Young-soo since her husband died before Kang-ho was born. So there was no way he could have had any memories of him other than the stories she shared. But Young-soo thought nothing of it at that time.
While they were relaxing, Kang-ho was pointing the picture frame to Young-soo and told him they should add his father to their new family portrait. This brought back her son’s words to him.
In a hurry, Young-soo stood up and took the picture frame off the wall. There, she found an SD card hidden inside the picture frame.
What Was Inside the SD Card?
The next day, Young-soo sought the help of her neighbor, Mr. Bang (Jang Won-young), to insert the SD card onto a laptop. When he left, however, the screen required a password.
Upon Kang-ho’s suggestion, Young-soo tried entering his birthday, 0907, which was also the password for their bank account. Unfortunately, this was not the right password.
Young-soo asked Kang-ho for any other numbers he remembered so Kang-ho started to look at the note he gave her before. He noticed that a different date was on the card but the note read that he’ll see her next week for her birthday. The note was written on his birthday, September 7. His mother’s birthday is March 12 so she tried 0312.
Once in, Young-soo found several notes from Kang-ho detailing his experience growing up. He also wrote about how he learned why he needed to become a prosecutor and how he wanted to avenge his father’s death, which turned his mom into a bad mother.
Furthermore, the SD card also contained details of how he found someone who “shed a ray of warm light into my dark, cold, and rough life.” He also wrote about how he had to let her go to seek the revenge he desperately needed.
The note did not specifically mention Mi-joo’s name so we cannot know for sure if Young-soo realized that she played a big role in her son’s past.
What Happened to Tae-soo’s Secretary?
More importantly, the SD card revealed details about his last actions before he lost his accident.
Kang-ho wrote about the mother and son whom he helped escape but staged their death. Kang-ho believed his father’s murderer was Oh Tae-soo (Jung Woong-in) instead of Song Woo-byeok (Choi Moo-sung).
To get back at him, he helped Chairman Song get dirt on his opponent. And one way he could do that was by helping Tae-soo get rid of his former secretary, Hwang Soo-hyun (Ki Eun-se), who he has been having an affair with.
Before that, however, Kang-ho promised to keep her and her baby safe. In return, Soo-hyun gave him all the evidence that would pin down Tae-soo. After all, Soo-hyun was actually working for Woo-byeok to spy on Tae-soo.
In the first few episodes, we saw that Kang-ho pushed the car down a river. During that time, we were led to believe that the vehicle contained an unconscious Soo-hyun and her baby. But we refused to believe Kang-ho would or could do such a thing.
In episode 9, we learned that Kang-ho actually helped them escape and staged the killing. The car was actually empty when he pushed it down the river.
That’s because he drove the two to his former employer, a seafood restaurant owner, who promised to bring them to a larger boat that would take them to the Philippines.
Kang-ho provided them with some cash and fake passports so they could live a quiet life until it was okay for them to return. He knew the danger they were in so he asked for the help of someone he could trust (Sung Nak-kyung).
Unfortunately, he was in an accident the next day, so he wasn’t able to learn what happened to Soo-hyun and her baby.
Is Soo-hyun’s Baby Still Alive?
By the end of episode 9, we learned that Soo-hyun’s body has washed ashore, along with her yellow stripe purse. The episode did not reveal much about how she died but that she wasn’t able to make it out of Korea.
The flashback scene also detailed that the restaurant owner actually kept calling Kang-ho while he was driving to Jou-ri Village and while he was talking to his mother. But Kang-ho was unable to answer the phone call since he was with his fiance, Oh Ha-young (Hong Bi-ra), who was also the daughter of Tae-soo. He might have already suspected Ha-young would betray him to her father so he didn’t take the phone call.
After the series of events that happened next, we don’t know for sure how Kang-ho will remember Soo-hyun or her baby.
In episode 10, the police confirmed that it was indeed Soo-hyun by saying that she had wads of cash and a fake passport in her purse– these were items that Kang-ho gave her before she boarded the boat.
While we wait for further episodes to unveil what happened to Soo-hyun, her baby, and Kang-ho’s friend, the restaurant owner, we have some theories of our own.
The first theory is that Tae-soo was able to get to the restaurant owner, which tipped them Kang-ho’s plan. When Kang-ho left, they attacked Soo-hyun and her child. The restaurant owner could have fled the scene.
But with this first theory, we wonder why he was calling Kang-ho. Perhaps to lie to him that they were safe and en route to the Philippines?
Our second theory sounds more plausible and we believe this to be the case. It’s possible that when Kang-ho left, Tae-soo came after the restaurant owner, Soo-hyun, and the baby. Soo-hyun fought Tae-soo to protect her baby, whom she asked the restaurant owner to keep safe. The restaurant owner escaped along with the baby. But Soo-hyun wasn’t fortunate enough.
This second scenario explains why the restaurant owner was calling Kang-ho the next day– to tell him that they were attacked and he has the baby.
Another proof we have that this is what happened can be seen at the post-credits scene of episode 10.
We see a DNA test form in the episode 11 teaser, which teases us that Kang-ho gets to learn he is the father of the twins. But we see it this way: the baby was found and a DNA test was performed to pinpoint Tae-soo as the father.
We’re also wishing that either Soo-hyun and Kang-ho made copies of the documents and kept them with the baby. This way, when Kang-ho finds the baby, he also finds the copies of the documents that his mom destroyed by the end of episode 9.
How about you? What do you think happened to Soo-hyun and her baby?
