Our Sticky Love Episode 11 Recap

Who's in the cast:
Jung Hae-in as Jang Tae-ha
Ha Young as Go Eun-sae
Heo Sung-tae as Baek Sang-gil
Jeon Bae-soo as Hong Do-yeop
Kim Young-ok as Go Yeon-hong
Jang Hye-jin as Pang Hui-ja

Go Eun-sae, the Seoul prosecutor who lost her memory, has it back. While it was gone, she believed boxing coach Jang Tae-ha was her boyfriend. Now he really is, and crime boss Baek Sang-gil is behind bars. Asked what he wants for his birthday, Tae-ha suggests visiting his family.

A birthday back in Taffy Village

A montage sketches that family: an unquestioning grandmother, loyal sisters, a pure-hearted friend, a brother-in-law and a younger brother. At a food stall, Tae-ha misses Eun-sae's question. He is busy hearing people around him say oppa, the word for an older brother or a slightly older boyfriend.

In the village, Do Jeong-hwa, home from the hospital, says the stay made her and her husband clingy as newlyweds. Someone is relieved the car accident was not worse. Eun-sae runs to Grandma, Go Yeon-hong. Greeted as Ms. Prosecutor, she says that here, she is Tae-ha's wife. Their bond, she adds, is like taffy.

After the birthday song, Pang Hui-ja is told no gift could top what Tae-ha already has. "His fake bride has become his real bride." Yeon-hong remarks that Eun-sae is the spitting image of Tae-ha's mother.

Yeon-hong takes in a young mother

Thirty-two years earlier, Tae-ha's mother, Jang Hye-su, sings about African flowers on a farm path, her baby with her, until a younger Yeon-hong corrects her: acacia. She has come for a live-in dishwashing job, but it is already taken. Asked her age, she gives the baby's instead. Yeon-hong lets them stay the night.

Hye-su is 23 and plans night school once the boy is older. His father is not around and she has no parents, so she will be grandma, grandpa, dad and mom to him. She thanks Yeon-hong with gochujang stew, a red pepper paste stew she says she has made many times. "Because someone likes it."

Her son may be unlucky with parents, she says, but he could still sink a late dunk, as in the basketball drama The Last Match. Yeon-hong calls her an admirable mother and invites her to stay and make taffy. At the boy's first birthday, he faces the traditional spread of objects said to foretell a child's future, and the grown-ups coax him toward the gavel.

Back in the present, Yeon-hong recalls a woman who owned nothing yet stayed bright and hated being called a lady, like a certain someone. Tae-ha's mother must be smiling down on them, she adds. Before Eun-sae heads back to Seoul, the women confirm she is his first girlfriend. Someone warns him that from tomorrow, people will think he is a lunatic.

Tae-ha wants to be her oppa

Tae-ha grins for days, even admiring the bird droppings that land on him. On a video call, Eun-sae says calling him Jang Tae-ha feels too formal. He replays every oppa from the food stall. She rules the word out as a cliché, and he swears he does not care.

On their weekend drive, she wants to play her g.o.d oppas, the 1990s boy band. She is 33 and he is 34, so Tae-ha qualifies too. At the clinic, Dr. An Gi-jun poses for a photo with her. Treatment is over, she says, but he can be her oppa now. Tae-ha notes that he and Gi-jun are the same age, then goes to get the car.

At a village dinner, Kim Gang-rok, Tae-ha's former underling, says he looks old enough to be her oppa too. She tries Gang-rok oppa, and he likes it. Tae-ha leaves to feed the dog. The table sends Eun-sae after him.

At home, Tae-ha claims he left because Blessing, the dog, might be hungry. Gi-jun, Gang-rok and even g.o.d get to be oppas, he grumbles. Eun-sae calls him babe instead, then teases him with Tae-ha oppa anyway. She is happy to stay Go Eun-sae, the name her mother gave her. She guesses her mother dreamed of a pretty bird. Tae-ha guesses his own name means a big river that takes everything in. They agree to visit his mother, who rests overlooking the village.

The birth register in Sang-gil's safe

Before the trial, Eun-sae asks what Tae-ha knows about Sang-gil's distant past. In a flashback, she shows Sang-gil a Seoul birth register for May 1993 to 1994, from his office safe. Raised in an orphanage, she knows about illegal adoptions and newborn trafficking. One more charge cannot raise a life sentence, she reasons. One fewer cannot lower it either, he replies, so she should stop digging.

After a caption reading REHABILITATION, Sang-gil smokes heavily in prison. He tells someone that one man's disobedience has dragged up memories he never needed, and that it is time to cut that trouble down. On the news, Sang-gil and former Gangju mayor Ju Min-jong go on trial at the Seoul Eastern District Court. Eun-sae, billed as Prosecutor Go Ji-won, asks for 15 years for Ju and life for Sang-gil.

At his mother's memorial, Tae-ha apologizes to his mother for disappointing her and tells her he is happy now.

Sang-gil breaks out

At work, talk of old crimes lacking evidence is cut short: Sang-gil has escaped from a prison transport van. On what looks like a group call with Hong Do-yeop and Gang-rok, Eun-sae says she is under government protection and violent crimes detectives are heading to Gujin. If Sang-gil wants revenge, Taffy Village could be his target. Nobody can reach Yeon-hong or Kim Song-wol, and the boys are out looking for Tae-ha.

Tae-ha calls his grandmother's phone. The voice that answers says it has been a while: bring police and the old woman dies, so come alone. Yeon-hong shouts at him to stay away before she is cut off. Tae-ha curses Sang-gil by name. Do-yeop and Gang-rok refuse to let him face so many men alone, and he asks only that nobody gets hurt.

Holding the old woman hostage, Sang-gil comes across photographs of Tae-ha with his mother. He recognizes the woman he once knew and realizes Tae-ha is his son. A voice says Tae-ha's mother, who would give her life for her child, must be protecting him from heaven. Facing her captor, Yeon-hong apparently swears he will never touch Tae-ha. "There's something in this world that you can never win against." Tae-ha reaches her, and she scolds him for coming while he tells her she is safe. In voiceover, someone tells an unseen listener that their favorite things are boxing and gochujang stew, and Hye-su says she cooks the stew because someone likes it.

Up next: Our Sticky Love Episode 12 Recap. See every episode in the Our Sticky Love episode guide.