Climax K-Drama Episodes 7-8 Recap: Who Is Jang Young-min?

After struggling for months in last week’s episode of “Climax”, Tae-seop and Sang-ah finally got going. They jointly faced the press, debunked the claims against them and decided to start everything with a clean image. However, Yang-mi used her sources again and tried to sabotage the press conference. But most importantly, the thing that felt a bit unsettling was Jeong-won apparently murdering Sae-jang. In this week’s episodes, Tae-seop gets back to the election campaign after the Creation Party allows him and he is warmly greeted by Assembly man Choi. Things start to improve for Tae-seop as he starts getting a huge response from the public but Sang-ah starts losing movie offers. Her assistant finds out that she has lost a lead role in a big upcoming movie because Yang-mi has backed away from producing it. Tae-seop, on the other hand, discovers that his popularity is no match for his rival candidate Hong-jip since his party is backed by Yang-mi and the WR Group. Back at home, he sees Sang-ah’s tense face and understands that it’s time to retaliate.

Spoilers Ahead

Who Is Jang Young-min?

Yang-mi was always an opportunist, probably the biggest among all the characters in “Climax”. She always chased high standards, better results, while being ready to turn her back on anyone to achieve what she wanted. Years ago, before Yang-mi was this influential, she was a struggling director. She was in a relationship with Jang Young-min, who was in a worse financial spot than her, comparatively. When Yang-mi came to know Chairman Kwon and saw how big WR Group was, she broke up with Young-min and married Kwon. Naturally, he was heartbroken and founded the TG Group, a rival group to the WR conglomerate. Also, Young-min was Sang-ah’s boyfriend way before she met Tae-seop and they stayed together for a couple of years before breaking up. When Tae-seop approaches him for funding, he is not aware of Young-min’s past with Sang-ah. Things go smoothly given Young-min finds Tae-seop a self-made man like him and hence, he agrees to fund his election campaign. One evening, Tae-seop gets invited to a yacht party held by TG Group CEO Young-min where they discuss about Yang-mi. Shortly after that, Tae-seop lunges forward to hit Young-min after he makes explicit remarks and demands Sang-ah for a night in return for his funding. Although things get tense, Tae-seop ultimately bows down to Young-min because he has nowhere else to run to.

What Does Yang-mi Want?

Yang-mi knows that Chairman Kwon is sick and can pass away at any moment. Once that happens, she may face a tough competition from Jong-uk, his eldest son, and that’s why Yang-mi needs to fortify her standing in the world of politics. She can then use any of her “special methods” to drive Jong-uk out of inheritance. When she came to know about Tae-seop’s popularity, Yang-mi wanted to drive him out of the race by supporting his rival’s Assembly man, Son Guk-won. That’s why she hired a shaman to take a look at Guk-won’s energy and his resident’s fengshui before she invested in him. But days later, the shaman reveals that the only appropriate man who will not let Yang-mi’s efforts fail is Tae-seop. It leaves Yang-mi perplexed since she desperately wants to balance the scales and make Tae-seop’s life a living hell.

Why Does Yang-mi Misbehave With Sang-ah?

Yang-mi and Sang-ah were once very good friends before everything fell apart. They used to drink together and at the same spot for years. Despite their history, Yang-mi used everything in her power and made it impossible for Sang-ah to revive her career. When she started to lose her footing in the entertainment industry, her long-time assistant could not see it and suggested she make amends with Yang-mi. Sang-ah came to know about Yang-mi wanting the lead actress to shoot some explicit scenes. Even after she agreed and reached out to Yang-mi, Sang-ah did not get any reply from her. She sat at their old diner, waiting for Yang-mi but she never showed up. 

Even though she knows that Sang-ah is the perfect face for WR, Yang-mi puts out Jeong-won’s face on the billboard. She knows it will break Sang-ah’s heart once she sees it (and it does). What really happening here is, Yang-mi is playing hard to get because her sky-high ego is not letting her show how much she needs Sang-ah. Apart from making her the face of her company, Yang-mi needs Sang-ah to channel her inner frustration, anger, and resentment. That’s why when Sang-ah comes to the golf course to meet and mend their relationship, Yang-mi makes her pick up a golf ball from the urinal. She gives Sang-ah the lead role after that but keeps tormenting her, indirectly. During an explicit scene with Jeong-won, Sang-ah gets choked to a point where she almost passes out but Yang-mi and the directors say nothing. It leaves her shaken but considering her current status in the industry, Sang-ah has no choice but to let it slide. This situation worsens the bond between her and Jeong-won to the point where they stop seeing each other eye to eye.

Why Do Sang-ah and Tae-seop Agree To Yang-mi?

Tao-seop’s election campaign team and strategists from the Creation Party gave their best to bring his numbers up. However, things were difficult because they had never won in that district for the last thirty years. Tao-seop did not stick with Young-min because of obvious reasons and without WR Group’s backing, he had no hope of winning the elections. Sang-ah’s hands were tied from the very beginning. We all knew how much she tried to avoid doing intimate  scenes but at the end of the day, Sang-ah wanted to revive her career. Both Tao-seop and Sang-ah received the benefits of Yang-mi’s support within days. Sang-ah’s face was back in the WR Group promos and Tao-seop’s support in the district went up by a considerable margin. 

Who Actually Killed Sae-jang?

Everyone who watched the CCTV footage of Sae-jang’s motel noticed  Jeong-won coming out of the room and escaping through the hotel lobby. Tae-seop and Sang-ah also thought that it was Jung-won, and quite naturally kept their distance from her. However, days before Sang-ah met Yang-mi, Tae-seop came to know that the original suspect was a sturdy man whose cloth fibres were found on the scene. According to reports, poor Sae-jang put up a fight before dying and Jeong-won was in no condition to stop someone like him. Actually, when Jeong-won was entering the motel, she spotted Ji-ho’s waiting outside and by the time she sneaked inside the room, Sae-jang was already dead. When Jeong-won spotted a tall man in the alley, she got knocked out and later, she found herself in the back of Ji-ho’s car. After that night, she started to work for Yang-mi because Ji-ho threatened to frame her for Sae-jang’s murder. Jeong-won already spent years in prison after murdering her father and she was not at all ready to go back there.

What Happens To Sang-ah?

Even after bowing down to Yang-mi, Tae-seop knew that he needed to take revenge for Sang-ah’s harassment. He contacted Jong-uk because of his connection with Assembly man Choi and Tae-seop decided to expose Guk-won somewhere down the line. Jong-uk had intel that Yang-mi is using the movie to launder money for Guk-won and shared it with Tae-seop. After the meeting with Choi, the three of them pursued Guk-won’s closest aid  Shadow, or Sang-Hyun, and convinced him that Guk-won exposed him. Tae-seop knew that Guk-won made his slush fund out of the Daeyang Fund after someone mysteriously killed its CEO, Yoon. When Shadow heard that Guk-won was a snitch, he revealed everything he knew about the politician’s slush fund.

Days before the election, Jong-uk gets tense because he has seen Ji-ho getting more active and Yang-mi exhibiting suspicious behaviors. Tae-seop has kept the slush fund scam intel for the presidential election but decides to drop it on the general election day because he thinks that Yang-mi can target Sang-ah. He knows that Reporter Hwang, one of the well-known journalists, lost his father to the Daeyang Fund collapse. Tae-seop hands the drive containing files on Guk-won’s scam to him and on the election day, Hwang uploads all the videos on the internet. To Tae-seop’s surprise, just after he wins and Guk-won’s scam rattles the city, Yang-mi pulls off an ace move. She uploads an explicit video of Sang-ah across multiple social media channels with Ji-ho’s help. When the video reaches Tae-seop and the Creation Party, their celebrations reach a standstill despite a win in the election. Tae-seop’s reaction at the clip is just pure shock and horror because he has never expected Yang-mi to stoop this low. But is the video even real or it has been heavily doctored to crush Sang-an and Tae-seop? Hopefully, we will find out next week.

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