3 Times The Plot Turned Yet Again In Episodes 5-6 Of “The Affair Was Just The Beginning”

All hell has broken loose. Not only has Kyung Hee (Kim Hye Soo) accessed the video of her husband Jae Hong (Kim Ji Hoon) and neighbor Soo Jung (Cho Yeo Jeong) in a compromising position, she has embezzled 300 million won (approximately $217,000) from her own company to pay off the extortionist who had filmed it. She has also, along with Jae Hong, covered up the tracks in the hit-and-run case involving their daughter Ye Ji, only to learn that it wasn’t Ye Ji, but Soo Jung’s daughter, Min Seo. Min Seo was the one driving, and Ye Ji is taking the fall for her.

Things get even crazier with Soo Jung’s former husband, Bo Sung (Kim Jae Chul), becoming the third wheel, or in this case the fourth. And the truth about Ye Ji and Min Seo’s relationship further complicates matters when the two find themselves witnessing unexpected developments between their parents. As each side is left guessing who knows what about the other, things are unpredictable if not getting crazier by the minute.

Here are three times the plot turned yet again in “The Affair Was Just the Beginning.”

Warning: spoilers below.

Kyung Hee’s troubles pile up

Bad luck comes in threes, and it’s Kyung Hee who is the recipient. She’s shocked at the discovery of her husband’s affair with Soo Jung. Even though Kyung Hee may have had her own reasons to become friends with her, she had never, ever thought that her husband and this woman would end up having an affair. It is the ultimate betrayal, and you can feel her anger as she silently seethes in fury.

But one has to hand it to her for calmly addressing the situation. It’s hilarious how she nonchalantly plays the video, as both Soo Jung and Jae Hong wait to see what’s on it. One doesn’t know whether to laugh at the absurdity of the situation or at the horror-stricken faces of Soo Jung and Jae Hong.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Kyung Hee has managed to collect 500 million won to pay off the person who sent the message to her husband, threatening to upload the video, and she realizes it wasn’t even her cross to bear. Further complicating matters is when she learns the one behind the hit-and-run was never Ye Ji in the first place, but Min Seo. And underneath it all simmers the messy business of the teens and their tangled relationship. It’s a tricky triangle, with father and daughter both involved with the mother and daughter. So where does that leave poor Kyung Hee?

Fate really seems to be playing a joke on her. Yet it’s amazing to see Kyung Hee’s resilience. There are no histrionics or dramatic hysteria; she remains poised through the sequence of events. She is practical, she accepts what’s happened and makes sure all traces of the accident have been removed. It’s time to move onto the next chapter. She clearly tells Jae Hong they are just business partners, and he cannot expect anything else from her.

She packs her bags and moves out of the house, making both Jae Hong and Ye Ji tremble in fear. And she throws herself into work with her new client, Bo Sung, blissfully unaware that he is Soo Jung’s former husband.

But shocking news comes, which breaks Kyung Hee: she’s accused of embezzling the 300 million from her company, with repercussions for the investment deal. The investment will be made, but Kyung Hee will be replaced as CEO by her aide, betrayed yet again by someone she trusted.

She breaks down, and the pent-up hurt, the rejection, and the infidelity resurface all at once, but it’s also catharsis. Because Kyung Hee is not a woman you put in a corner. She is self-made and, though down, is not out until she says she is.

But there is one wrinkle: Bo Sung seems to be a little too clingy and a little too keen on her, and things are getting dodgy.

The phone swap mystery

Everyone in this drama is a criminal now, and none of them can trust the others enough to compare notes, which is exactly what makes the mix-up over detective Na Sol’s phone so delirious. Kyung Hee and Jae Hong think they’ve disposed of the detective’s belongings cleanly. The phone that they actually have is Sang Cheol’s, who is the lawyer Soo Jung had hired Na Sol to investigate in the first place. Sang Cheol, as it has been confirmed, is the one who killed Na Sol, who in turn had incriminating evidence against him. In the skirmish between them, their phones had gotten swapped. Na Sol is dead, and Sang Cheol wants his phone back badly enough to hunt down a stranger over it.

What follows is a small masterclass in how not to be subtle. Vanity is Jae Hong’s fatal flaw, and Sang Cheol plays it like an instrument—a “chance” gym encounter, a pair of limited-edition shoes, and Jae Hong never once stops to ask why a stranger is gifting him sneakers. He just assumes he’s got a fan. It’s the kind of gullibility that would be unbelievable if the show hadn’t already spent several episodes proving this is exactly who Jae Hong is.

The spiked drink that follows is almost beside the point. The real comedy is in the dramatic irony piling up around it. Soo Jung spots her lover and her husband’s lawyer out drinking together and assumes the worst kind of betrayal, when the truth is stranger and far more dangerous than an affair. Everyone is now protecting a secret from someone else who’s protecting a secret from them, and none of them have any idea they’re circling the same hole.

Sang Cheol wants his phone which would cost him his career. Soo Jung feels she has been conned by the dead Na Sol and that her affair will be known to her ex-husband. Jae Hong, who has curated the image of the perfect husband, is running scared. If his affair became public knowledge, it would ruin his reputation.

That’s the real joke of this arc: this is a group of people so committed to self-preservation that they can’t see they’re all trapped in the same maze, each one about to stumble into the other’s. And, unknowingly, there’s Na Sol’s twin, Na Do, who’s quietly working his way toward all of them.

Min Seo and Ye Ji discover their parents’ affair

Even among the kids, trust is running thin, mirroring the adults’ own game of charades. Min Seo, convinced the video will implicate her as the killer, wants Ye Ji to erase it. But there’s an edge to her pressure: Min Seo can’t shake the suspicion that whatever happens, Ye Ji will walk away unscathed while she alone pays the price. It’s turning her against the one person she should trust most.

Ye Ji, meanwhile, is fighting a battle she doesn’t even understand. Her mother has walked out, and she assumes it is because of her taking the fall for Min Seo, oblivious that the real reason is her mother’s discovery of her father’s affair. Into that confusion arrives a stranger, Sang Cheol, claiming to be her father’s friend, lurking in her home. The adults have been too warped to notice that the children are observing everything around them.

This is when the pieces collide. Ye Ji finds the USB hidden in a packet of salt, and just as she plays it and is stunned by what’s on it, Min Seo walks in on her own father and Ye Ji’s mother together.

Father and mother, mirrored and swapped—it’s the kind of coincidence that would feel ridiculous if the show hadn’t already built its world on the idea of absurd circumstances. How these two families untangle this, with the noose tightening from every direction, is the question the finale now has to answer.

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Puja Talwar is a Soompi writer with a strong Yoo Yeon Seok and Lee Junho bias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewed Lee Min Ho, Gong Yoo, Cha Eun Woo, and Ji Chang Wook to name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram.