'Idol I' Episodes 5-6 Recap & Ending Explained: Does La-Ik Find Out About Se-Na’s Fan Life? 

Episodes 5 and 6 of Idol I just made the show get even better. Now that the idol and lawyer have been spending more time together, things are changing between them. Mainly, La-Ik can’t hide away his true personality anymore, and his natural kindness is showing, despite everything he’s going through. But, at the same time, Se-Na’s been hiding her true identity as La-Ik’s biggest fan so well, you just can’t imagine how he’s going to react when he does find out. To be fair, the duo do have a conversation about hiding truths, but La-Ik laughs it off at the time; however, is that how he’s really going to react, or will he end up in a much worse situation? La-Ik and Se-Na are honestly quite cute, and I’m honestly already disliking Hye-Joo for everything that she is. I know, it’s shameful, but that’s just how the show’s made her out to be, so what can I do really? Anyway, I can’t wait for La-Ik and Se-Na to get together, though I know it’s going to take some time. But, with that said, let’s jump into what happens in episodes 5 and 6.

Spoiler Alert

Why Does La-Ik Become Extra Nice To Se-Na? 

In episode 5 of Idol I, things pick up right where we left off last week, with Se-Na losing control of the car and nearly getting killed with her favorite idol sitting next to her. However, when she wakes up next, she’s woken from a terrible dream where she’s little Se-Na, with her dad, and he suddenly disappears from her sight. She begins to cry and holds onto her dress, while in real life, La-Ik lets her grab his hand (how sweet!). Obviously, as soon as she’s awake in the hospital, she knows this was done on purpose, so she asks a worried Chung-Jae to figure out what’s happened, all while escaping with La-Ik because the press has already found them at the hospital. When they get to her street and have to walk uphill for a bit, La-Ik carries Se-Na bridal style because she’s hurting in the leg too and he feels guilty. But, of course, she’s bursting at the seams because this is literally her idol! 

Now, this is when the romantic stuff begins, as Se-Na and La-Ik end up spending more time together. La-Ik can’t help but be caring, even setting her up with a stand fan so she doesn’t have to struggle with drying her hair. La-Ik also learns that “nemse-na” (stinky Se-Na) is a random nickname that she doesn’t actually like. Later, when he’s trying to impress her with some food, he’s surprised to notice that his face is on quite a few jars in the fridge, almost like she’s a fan, but Se-Na denies it (maybe she should’ve just said yes). But really, La-Ik also doesn’t love being a product that gets sold along with the milk and peanut butter that people are buying with his face on them.  Truth be told, La-Ik is fed up with the idol life, and this show doesn’t shy away from showing the true feelings of idols, because he says nobody truly cares about the real La-Ik; it’s only his public persona that people love. However, only Woo-Seong genuinely cared about him. 

What Is Byung-Gyun Planning? 

Meanwhile, Byung-Gyun gets in trouble for messing up this case, and Se-Na’s involved, so he definitely can’t lose, so he decides to investigate Jae-Hee too, who had apparently lied to Byung-Gyun about him being in the hospital on the night of the murder. Now he suspects the duo is a team, and whatever info he can get, he must solve this high-profile case. On the other hand, Chung-Jae tells Se-Na that La-Ik might’ve set up the accident, but Se-Na’s certain he didn’t and tells Chung-Jae that she trusts him. More importantly, La-Ik overhears all of this and is happy to have Se-Na on his side. But the accident was set up by the two stalkers from earlier, who believe La-Ik killed Woo-Seong. They just want justice for their idol and even blame Se-Na for simply helping out the guy as his lawyer. But, instead of putting up a fight, La-Ik lets the two girls go just like that. But at the same time, when Se-Na goes to the office, she’s shocked to learn that her boss wants her to let go of La-Ik, because this case isn’t working for her, and it’s just going to get worse. 

What Happens With Jae-Hee? 

Now, this whole thing is because Jae-Hee made a statement against La-Ik, and they’re going to have a face-to-face interrogation. Before that happens, La-Ik learns from Young-Bin that on the day of the murder, Jae-Hee was very upset, because someone had leaked to the media that he’d had an argument and physical altercation with La-Ik. But all Jae-Hee can see is the negative comments of La-Ik’s fans towards him, which is why he’s even more upset. Turns out this is not the first time something like this has happened, though. Right from the start, as soon as La-Ik became popular, Jae-Hee was kind of jealous because he became the “lead” of the band. However, this got worse when La-Ik removed Jae-Hee’s part in a song, and Jae-Hee started acting up during practice, making La-Ik mad too. 

Later, Se-Na and La-Ik are under the tickle tree. This is the tree from Se-Na’s dream, where her dad told her that if someone is lying, the tree shakes, and she tells La-Ik this story. He says some stuff to the tree, like he’s handsome, and the tree doesn’t shake. But then, in his mind, he says he didn’t hurt Woo-Seong, and the tree still doesn’t shake, making him feel better about himself. But their bliss is ruined when Hye-Joo shows up out of the blue, even calling Se-Na a bad lawyer because she immediately thinks they’re romantically involved. However, La-Ik tries to send her off and even admits that Se-Na’s the one person he needs by his side right now. 

What Happens at the Interrogation?

Before she takes La-Ik to the face-to-face interrogation he’s meant to have with Jae-Hee and the prosecutor, Se-Na tries to prep him in advance. Besides advice about taking his time with questions and not answering without thinking about it, she says the most important thing is that he not get angry during the interrogation, since that could really backfire. He laughs off the idea at the time, saying nothing could drive him to anger, but then the first thing we see at the interrogation is him getting really frustrated and yelling at Jae-Hee to shut up. Throughout the entire interrogation, Jae-Hee keeps trying to claim that La-Ik and Woo-Seong were antagonistic towards each other and that La-Ik had a history of anger issues. When it gets to be too much, Se-Na cuts in and reminds the prosecutor that Jae-Hee had lied about his alibi, so none of his testimony is particularly reliable.

This is when Jae-Hee’s lawyer pipes up and says they have evidence to prove that La-Ik was negotiating with a rival management agency, and that he was planning to leave the Gold Boys. Jae-Hee claims that Woo-Seong had gone to speak to La-Ik the night that he died after finding out about this information, aiming to convince him to stick with the group rather than go solo. This blindsides La-Ik completely, and he’s stunned into silence, especially after the prosecutor interjects to say that his mother’s account had been credited with a signing bonus. The prosecutor uses this to make it look like he’d been trying to make this deal untraceable by using his mother. When Se-Na and La-Ik later go and track down his mother, she confesses that she did take the money on his behalf, but that she deserves it; she raised him after all. She’s absolutely remorseless that her actions have made him a murder suspect and further blames him for being such a bad son that she was dragged in to be interrogated. She even seems to believe he might’ve done it, saying he should just accept the ten-year sentence instead of making things worse for himself. There’s been a real trend of exploitative moms in K-dramas lately, and this one’s about as distasteful as any other.

In return for his snake behavior, Jae-Hee had been hoping for immunity from prosecution, but he’s in for a rude awakening when the prosecutor tells him that he’s still a suspect, even after he testified against La-Ik. He is told that immunity is off the table, and he has no choice but to fully cooperate with the investigation if he wants the court to go easy on him. Later, we see the prosecutor in the back of a car with his boss, but the advice he receives is very problematic. After he brings up how shaky Jae-Hee’s testimony is from a legal standpoint, his boss accuses him of being weak and indecisive. Given they’ve already picked their suspect, La-Ik, apparently the prosecutor’s supposed to stick with him till the end, even if the evidence is insufficient and it’s starting to look like he’s innocent. The prosecutor nods along, but he’s clearly uncomfortable with this twisted philosophy of justice.

What Turns La-Ik Against Se-Na?

Even though La-Ik’s in a foul mood after the interrogation, Se-Na drags him somewhere and says they have to hurry. Eventually, after La-Ik finds himself on a rooftop somewhere, Se-Na tells him that they’re right near the practice room where he and Woo-Seong first met and then directs his attention towards a massive screen that fans of the Gold Boys have paid to run an ad on. It starts playing, and La-Ik tears up seeing the tribute to his and Woo-Seong’s friendship play out. The video ends with a message telling him that there are still fans out there who believe in him and support him. Shortly after, Se-Na also meets Hye-Joo, La-Ik’s (ex?) girlfriend, who offers her support to them, including access to a powerful law firm, saying Se-Na would still be the lead on the case, just with more support. Se-Na declines but says she’ll come to her if they ever need help. 

La-Ik and Se-Na go to see CEO Geum to see if he can testify on their behalf that La-Ik wasn’t trying to leave the Gold Boys and that he was negotiating contracts for all of the members. To La-Ik’s great fortune, the old man says he’ll do everything in his power to help him, as long as it doesn’t hurt the company. He even tells La-Ik that if he’d ever gotten married and had a son, he’d be around La-Ik’s age, implying he feels paternal and protective towards him. While this is going on, Se-Na meets Gwang-Soo, her boss, in the waiting room, and they share a coffee and talk about how important it is to believe in your client. This is really a conversation about Se-Na’s dad, who Gwang-Soo represented when he was accused of murder, back when Se-Na was still a young girl. Se-Na’s biggest regret is her not being able to say “I believe you” when her dad told her to her face that he was innocent. La-Ik emerges from Geum’s office smiling, and he sees Se-Na, and the smile doesn’t fade; it just changes. That night, he tries to get to know her, but since she spends the whole conversation just trying to hide the fact that she’s a massive La-Ik fan, all he finds out is that she loves gimbap. He later drags her to a piano and plays her the same song he sang to her when she was just a kid crying by the water, and the tears start flowing down her cheek.

At the end of Idol I episode 6, when Se-Na leaves the house, he asks her for the keys for unspecified reasons. Se-Na tracks down the exploitative idol manager who’d gotten La-Ik’s mum to sign a contract for him, hoping to have it dismissed so it can’t be used as evidence, but what she discovers shocks her. Turns out, Woo-Seong was the first one to sign with this rival company, and he was supposed to bring La-Ik over with him. On the other hand, La-Ik sets off to the supermarket dressed in his incognito outfit, ironically making him stand out like a sore thumb. We find out from a phone call he makes to his old house help later that he’s actually planning on making gimbap “for the person who loves gimbap more than anyone else.” 

He puts all the vegetables and the seaweed together, but then realizes he’s missing rice, so he heads up to the attic as referred by Chung-Jae (why the attic?) looking for some, only to uncover Se-Na’s box of La-Ik merch. Se-Na comes home to find all this merch scattered all over the floor, and La-Ik is furious that she kept this secret from him. How is he going to react to his lawyer not being honest with him about herself? Clearly, he’s hurt and feels like she betrayed him, but why? Because he’s never been able to trust someone so easily before, but this becomes much worse because now he probably thinks she believes him only because of his idol persona, not because of who he is as a person. The previews for next week’s episodes suggest he’s going to fire her, but how will that play out? We’re going to have to wait and watch to find out.

...