The Winning Try: Episodes 5-6
by lovepark
A botched tryout, a tarnished name, and a litany of mistakes push our characters into a corner as they worry about their futures and the direction they should take. While life rarely has one correct answer or path, our newbie coach hopes to light the way for his students even if it means neglecting his own health in the process.
EPISODES 5-6
The show picks up with Yi-ji discovering Ga-ram on the floor, but as she approaches him, Principal Kang swoops in with an unconvincing lie. She tells Yi-ji that Ga-ram drank himself silly to celebrate Woong’s admission, but Yi-ji finds it strange that her ex, who never once drank, would suddenly get passed out drunk at school.
Ga-ram and his sudden drinking habits, though, are the least of Yi-ji’s problems at the moment since Woo-jin’s little stunt the other day gets Coach Jeon seeing red. He dismisses Woo-jin from her captain position and then punishes Yi-ji like a child rather than treat her as his assistant coach. She accepts the punishment without a word of complaint since she needs to prepare for the upcoming national tryouts and get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.
As rumors of the shooting team debacle circulate throughout the school, Sung-joon feels responsible for getting Woo-jin in trouble and goes to apologize. He assumes she lost because of his request, but Woo-jin bursts his bubble and turns down his indirect confession. From the bushes, the other third years giggle at their captain getting rejected and tease him in the dorm room about creating “synergy” together.
Without anywhere to train, Ga-ram gets creative about practices and utilizes the swimming pool as well as the neighborhood soccer team. His “spartan” approach (he kicks people into the pool like the movie) helps the boys improve much to the vice principal’s dismay, but what the team really needs is game experience against actual rugby players. Alas, all the other schools have already made their schedules, and no one can pencil in Hanyang High for a match.
Pulling some strings, Ga-ram gets his old pro team to come for a day, and all the boys are excited except for Young-kwang. He has the police entrance exam on that exact date which means he cannot play. Ga-ram is disappointed at the news — going as far as to accuse Young-kwang of running away — but the third year argues that he does not have the talent to make a living off rugby unlike their coach.
When the others hear of Young-kwang’s decision, they lash out, calling him a traitor, and Ga-ram yells at them to run laps and cool their heads. Afterwards, he takes Young-kwang aside and agrees to let him skip practice if he makes 200 out of 300 drop kicks. Young-kwang points out that even professionals only make half their kicks but goes along with his coach’s unreasonable demand.
In the end, Young-kwang only gets 163 in, but Ga-ram tells him that he did better than his old teammate (cameo by Kwon Yul) who only succeeded 147 times. He shows the younger player that he does, in fact, have talent, but regardless of the bigger lesson, Ga-ram apologizes for his earlier reaction and hands Young-kwang his permission slip. He tells him that every player will step off the field one day, and all he wants as their coach is for his students to leave on their own terms.
The day of the practice match arrives, and Young-kwang heads off to the exam hall. As he finishes the first portion, he notices a present from his teammates in his bag along with a note. Apologizing for their earlier words, the others cheer him on to do well, and Young-kwang finally realizes what he truly wants to do and runs out the door.
On the field, the rest of the team waits anxiously for Young-kwang to appear — still holding onto the hope that he changed his mind. However, when a taxi pulls up, a member from the pro team gets off, and the boys visibly deflate… until Young-kwang comes up from behind! He decided that it wasn’t his time to leave the field yet, and the team of seven plays together once more. Though they lose the game, they also scored 12 points against a professional team which Ga-ram calls the start of their comeback.
Meanwhile, at the tryouts for the shooting national team, Woo-jin takes the lead, Yi-ji sits at third, and Seol-hyun comes in fifth. Since only the top four pass, Coach Jeon worries that the nepo baby will fail, so he calls Yi-ji aside in the middle of the match and orders her to give up her position to her student. He threatens to ruin her career if she refuses, and though Yi-ji does not even entertain the thought for a second, the damage is done.
Yi-ji loses her concentration, and her aim is off. As she gets down to her last bullet — Seol-hyun now in fourth and Yi-ji dropping to fifth — our player-coach just stands there as the clock ticks down. Failing to fire, she gets disqualified, and Coach Jeon has the gall to celebrate Seol-hyun’s default win.
After the tryouts, rumors spread quickly about Yi-ji rigging the match, and Seol-hyun’s father warns the coaching staff to clear up this mess or else. While Coach Jeon continues being a pest without any sense of responsibility, Yi-ji feels powerless and blames herself for being a “loser.” It is the opposite lesson from last week with Ga-ram, and we see the reality of players who do not win in a world that only cares about first place.
In the midst of this shooting tryout scandal, the rest of the school gets ready for the Presidents Cup. Though Hanyang is up against Daesang first in the bracket (cue the woes and laments from our rugby boys), Ga-ram has a bigger problem on his hands: no scouts have signed up to watch their game.
Ga-ram’s reputation in the community has tainted the team’s name, and though he tries to convince the scouts in person, no one will give him the time of day. The only one to at least hear him out is his old national team coach, and even then, he can barely look Ga-ram in the eye. Despite their history, Ga-ram tells his old coach that he does not resent anyone anymore and merely asks that his boys get a fair chance to be judged on their own merits.
While we know what happened three years ago, Ga-ram’s illness has been kept a secret from most people (including his girlfriend of ten years). However, the vice principal tasks Coach Bang of the aerobics team to figure out what happened, and he starts to notice Ga-ram’s odd behavior. To make matters more complicated, our rugby coach’s symptoms have gotten worse to the point where he needs to make emergency stops at the hospital, but he keeps pushing back his neurologist’s advice to get a scan.
If the Presidents Cup and his declining health weren’t already enough issues for Ga-ram to tackle, one of his players dislocates his shoulder while goofing off outside of practice. He loses his cool at the boys, projecting his own insecurities and fears onto them, but they understand the reason for his outburst and apologize for messing up. Ga-ram also acknowledges that he took it too far, and the team ends up arguing over who is more sorry.
Seeing the rugby team fight and make up in one day makes the contrast with the shooting team even more stark, but some things remain the same for both sides. After ruining her tryout and possibly her career, Yi-ji worries that she could wake up one day and find herself useless, and Ga-ram empathizes with her fear. It hits her for the first time that her ex-boyfriend stresses over the same things, but one meaningful conversation is not enough to undo three years of pain.
While Yi-ji has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with Ga-ram, he insists on staying in her life and asks for a chat. He hands her a pair of earplugs — her favorite kind that was discontinued — and tells her to ignore all the rumors and naysayers for the time being. His thoughtful gesture confuses Yi-ji, and she asks why he cares about her when he abandoned her once already. Before he can answer, Ga-ram’s breathing stops, and he faints.
Ga-ram wakes up in the hospital and standing above his bed is Yi-ji. She knows about his condition and asks if this is the truth behind those three years. In an epilogue we see that Ga-ram met up with Yi-ji after hearing about his illness, but when he told her that he was sick, he suddenly turned it into a joke. Her tryouts for the national team were coming up, and it seems Ga-ram didn’t want to stand in her way.
For the most part, Ga-ram is a winsome character, but that only applies to his coaching. As a boyfriend, he is terrible, and I agree with Yi-ji. Why is he showing up in her life after all these years with no explanation for his actions, no apology, and no signs of growth? He still has not given her answers yet loiters around to “support” her. No wonder she is confused because for the last three years, she turned all her fears and doubts inward, wondering if she was ever good enough for him. Then, when he suddenly came back as if his feelings for her never changed, his actions seemed selfish rather than selfless. I do feel bad for Ga-ram and his situation, but he denied Yi-ji the chance to make her own decisions — the very thing he fights for his boys to get — and kept her in the dark for as long as possible. Even now, she only knows the truth because he couldn’t hide it. It’s clear what direction the show wants to take with their relationship, but alas, I prefer my ships to be built on trust rather than noble idiocy.
On the other hand, while all the adults have been nothing but frustrating this week (can someone please accidentally shoot Coach Jeon or get him expelled?) at least the show has golden retriever Woong. His interactions with Woo-jin are adorable, and I thought his method of saving her from her mother’s lecture was cute — especially his little “Did I do good?” question afterwards. Though he seems to be wrestling with his own troubles at the moment, I get the impression that Woong isn’t scared of hurting himself but possibly other people. He just seems like the type of person who would be more terrified of ruining someone’s life rather than his own because he witnessed firsthand how an injury could destroy a person through his dad, but until the show gives us more details, I’ll take what little crumbs I can get. Hopefully, with the tournament coming up, we’ll finally see some rugby!
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