Recaps: The Witch’s Diner Episode 1

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The Witch’s Diner starring So Jin-hyo as Jo Hee-ra, Nam Ji-hyun as Jeong Jin, Chae Jong-hyeop as Lee Gil-yong is a Dark Fantacy genre drama.

Starts airing on: July 16th 2021 on Fridays.

Total Number of Episodes: 8

Duration: 1hr 10mins per episode

Director: Choi Jung Gyu.

I really got excited after watching the trailer. It is one of the ongoing kdrama am looking forward for.

The poster reminded me of Hotel Del Luna kdrama and I exactly don’t know why. Maybe because of the mysterious hotel !!

I loved the teaser and am a big fan of Nam Ji-Hyun.

Without any further ado let’s dive into episode 1 😉

~ Bloody Steak Of Revenge ~

The episode starts with a couple standing at the gates of The Witch’s hotel one fine night and wondering if it’s closed as there are no lights. They look at the board which says the hotel is open from sunrise to sunset.

The couple leaves assuming it is closed and some words present itself on the board ‘We can fulfill your wish’.

A man sits in the hotel explaining his difficulties in life. Like how he went bankrupt and his brother scammed him and he has two kids to raise and also says if he were to win the lottery, he will take care of his kids well.

While he is talking, a woman cooks for him. She makes a black-colored pancake, some red-colored paste for a spread. She prepares his plate with those pancakes and pastes and some cream on top of it she also sprinkles something on top of it.

She walks gracefully to him, and the woman is actually Jo Hee-ra, with the plate as she speaks. She concludes whatever he said and asks if he wants to win the lottery. The man agrees and she asks if he knew there is a price for everything.

He nodes and asks what she wants. She looks into his eyes and says she likes his eyes. He asks if he needs to finish the food in order to win the lottery. Hee-ra nods gracefully and he starts eating and says it is delicious thing he has ever had. Hee-ra smiles.

The man sits in his house while watching the tv where they are announcing the winner of the lottery. He cries out as he wins the lottery and leaves in a hurry as he got money. He calls someone to gather all the scumbags who cheated him and when he is about to start the car, rain starts pouring and his eyes become blur. When he tries to see clearly he remembers Hee-ra saying she likes his eyes and screams as he losses his eyesight.

The night, Hee-ra talks with a middle-aged man about shutting the hotel as the man was their last customer( who lost his eye sight).

The man asks if she is going to ‘the kid’ and she agrees saying she has no other choice.

As they leave, the words on the board disappear. The purple sky above the hotel was really creepy.

In the Seoul. They show how we are pressured for taking a decision even for trivial things. Jeong Jin’s voice explains how we don’t even know how some decisions even in trivial things change our life until that moment. She says they didn’t know that every decision has a price until they met that ‘women’.

Jin reaches her office and his boss scolds her for being late. She explains that she worked until 4 am last night and took the morning off.

But her boss keeps scolding her asking if he has to do the job and also says girls aren’t that competent as they say.

Jin sighs heavily while thinking how she is working for 56 hrs per week and how stressed she is to work and can’t even take her morning off.

The boss plans for a company dinner and everyone sits there without any interest and having their own problems while the boss praising himself for being good to the employees… I mean seriously!?🙄…

Jin sits next to her boss and he asks for a beer Soju mix for everyone. She prepares it and drinks while encouraging herself for changing the job.

Her boss gets drunk and plays with Jin while hitting playfully in her shoulder.

A bulk woman wearing a bright red dress enters the restaurant asking ‘it is you this time?’ and goes straight to the boss and pulls Jin’s hair aggressively. When everyone tries to calm her saying she misunderstood but she pulls the boss’s hair on the other hand.

After this Chaos, Jin sits there while everyone left except for 3 people who are consoling her saying the boss’s wife is like that and she does that every once a year. Jin, her hair all messed up, drinks a glass full of Soju in frustration.

Hee-ra and the man reach a rooftop house but when they open the door and head in a palace presents itself and the door they just came in through disappears. She looks around the beautiful place and says it is ok!.. and gazes outside the window while thinking ‘is it still not time for my wish?’.

Jin, who is drunk, reaches her home and gives her mom some food she got and she gives lettuce from her handbag. Her mom asks what is she doing after drinking so much alcohol and asks if it is difficult. Jin complains that she is too sweet for this world and goes to sleep on her mom’s lap. They seem to love each other a lot.

The next morning, Jin runs to the bus stop but misses her bus.

They show us a High school student going to a school. He seems to be a transferred student. He introduces himself as Lee Gil-yong to the class. He seems to know a boy(Young Jae) from the class and greets him while sitting but the boy hesitates and just nods.

Jin reaches her office to know that she got fired because of the boss’s wife. She throws tantrum at her boss and leaves. She meets her boyfriend and scolds his boss with all frustration but the boyfriend announces they should break up as they grew cold towards each other for the past 5 years.

Jin walks in the street thinking how people say it is not over until it’s over, But it is over when it’s over. And realized how everything feels like a dream.

She meets her friend in a restaurant. They both discuss their problems. Jin says she is jobless and broke up with her boyfriend. While her friend, who seems to be a teacher, says students nowadays are difficult. Her friend raises her volume now and then which makes the whole restaurant stare at them.

They look for their tomorrow’s fortune. Jin’s says that her misfortune will go away and she mocks at herself saying yes good fortune for a jobless and broke-up person. Her friend’s says she is surrounded by her enemies and she should be careful.

Lee Gil-Yong sees a tree in his school and sees a butterfly stuck in a spider’s net and tries to release the butterfly. A girl from his class asks him what will the spider eat now. He thinks about it and asks her if she knows him.

She says she saw him in the local news how he got injured in the national running race that he had to come back to the school. It bothers him and he leaves.

While Gil-yong working in a conventional store he sees a bruise in his friend Young Jae’s face and asks him if he is okay. He asks Gil-yong to stay out of it and leaves.

Jin who is all drunk goes to the conventional store where Lee Gil-Yong is working. She buys a drink and forgets to take her card back while heading outside. She sits on the bench near the store and starts crying as the drink reminds her boyfriend. Gil-Yong comes outside with her card and tissue and she leaves after getting her card from him.

Jin wakes up in the morning and pretends to leave for work but her mom catches her saying it is too obvious and says maybe they can start a restaurant.

They go to a super busy restaurant and her mom explains she was working here but now the owner wants to sell the restaurant and it will take a loan with their house, her installments, and also Jin’s money. Jin says her installments were for some emergency. Her mom explains that the emergency is now.

They meet the owner of the restaurant and signs the contract with her.

They start running the restaurant and it is super busy.

Gil-Yong practices for his next national running race with his coach in the school. When he reaches home, his father, who is drinking, says that he found a new house and they can move in the next week. Gil-Yong looks at his mom in a picture and ensures her that he will go to a university as she wanted.

Jin’s friend seems to be the home teacher for Gil-Yong’s class.

Some bully boys from the class bully Young Jae and make him eat rotten food. He throws up in the History class when he gets blocked by the bully on his way to the washroom.

Gil-Yong glares at the bully boy and asks young Jae to leave to the washroom as he will clean the classroom.

After cleaning, he goes to the bathroom and gives his PT dress to Young Jae, and also washes his clothes for him.

Young Jae, who is pleased takes Gil-yong to his house. They greet Young Jae’s mom who is sick. Gil-yong remembers his mom being sick in the hospital.

Hee-ra asks his man what will happen if she makes another wish while caressing her scar in her thighs. The man replies that she and that scar will disappear as per the contract.

Young Jae calls Gil-yong. When he reaches the spot where the 3 bullies beating him. He gets into a fight with them for Young Jae even after his coach warns him not to get into any trouble. And the police catch them all.

Jin’s restaurant’s cook goes on a vacation and her mother says she will manage for 2 weeks.

The restaurant seems empty and nobody shows up but Jin and her mom consoles themselves saying they will come back soon.

Jin dreams a weird dream where a girl runs through a forest and she gets blocked by a woman who asks if she wants a red candy or a blue one where she can choose only one.

Her mother’s scream wakes her up. Her mother cries and they both head to a nearby restaurant which got opened in the same name they just bought. Yes, they got scammed. The owner took the employees and also the chef from Jin and her mother.

Jin complains to the police in the police station but the police say they need to handle it in the civil court.

Gil-yong, young Jae sits no far from Jin. And the bully says Gil-yong and Young Jae were fighting and the three of them were just stopping them. When the police asks if that is right, Gil-yong sees Young Jae’s hesitation and he agrees with the statement given.

Another policeman comes and says the higher-ups want to leave the 3 bullies and they do so. No wonder they were jerks.

When the police talks crap about Gil-yong and Young Jae’s background, before Gil-yong could react, Jin steps in and asks why the policeman talking about the background when it is clear that they are the victims.

Gil-yong cuts in and asks if it was a misunderstanding and if we settle it, whether they can go. The policeman agrees and Gil-yong apologizes to Young Jae and everyone leaves the station. Gil-yong thanks Jin. When Jin lectures him not to be too good as the elders ask because that won’t work in this world. And on the contrary, she also says he was cool while helping his friend. When Gil-yong says she just now said not to be good, Jin realizes it and says not to be good and leaves.

Jin talks with a lawyer and realizes the suit will take time and requires a lot of money in the long run.

Jin then sticks the sales notice in her restaurant and steps in. Her mom call and says she has to visit her father in the sanatorium as his health is bad.

A purple fog surrounds Hee-ra and boom she is in another costume now. She then heads to Jin’s restaurant.

Jin looks at the door when the bell rings but no one comes in but to her surprise, Hee-ra is already standing in front of her. Jin explains that they are closed but Hee-ra says she will make her wish come true if she sells her failed restaurant to her.

When Jin asks who she is she introduces herself as a Witch and gives her a card in which the words present themselves. Jin mocks saying witch from ‘little mermaid’, ‘frozen’? it is Korea 2021.

When Hee-ra sees Jin not believing her, she touches her and they are suddenly in the middle of the foundations before a palace. And suddenly she is hanging on the edge of the cliff, Hee-ra catches her while she is about to fall in the water. And suddenly they are back in the restaurant.

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Hee-ra explains that it is the information Jin’s mind gave, people don’t see what there already is. Like the heartbeat. That’s how she can do it.

Hee-ra then explains that she can fulfill her wish in exchange for the restaurant. And asks her to not play good when she is actually weak. Jin thinks carefully and says she wants revenge after thinking of the owner who scammed her.

Hee-ra smiles and takes out her cooking things which are impossible to fit in her small bag and cooks steak for her.

Hee-ra says there is a price for everything in this world after giving her the plate. Jin looks into the plate mesmerizingly. Hee-ra says her to keep the person she wants revenge on in her mind.

Jin starts eating. After the first bite, she mesmerizes with the taste and eats everything while keeping the owner in her mind.

The owner, who is counting her money in her restaurant, is suddenly surrounded by rats. And in the shadow, we can see something piercing through her heart. She falls on the ground when something is seeping all over her body. It’s like her veins became so much bigger that it is about to burst.

On the other side, Jin’s dreams bother her in her sleep.

And the mysterious side of Hee-ra’s face comes out in the end of the episode.

The end was creepier than I expected.

Let’s see what happens with Jin’s decision in the next episode. I hope she don’t regret it.

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