While Geum Sae-rok from ‘Iron Family’ received an 800 million won surgery, Kim Jung-hyun set fire to the clean laundry shop.

In episode 8 of KBS2‘s special weekend drama ‘Iron Family’ (directed by Sung Joon-hae, Seo Yong-soo / written by Seo Sook-hyang) aired on the 20th, Da-rim (Geum Sae-rok), who had given up on surgery, dramatically entered the operating room thanks to Go Bong-hee (Park Ji-young), Ahn Gil-rye (Kim Young-ok), and Lee Man-deuk (Park In-hwan).

In the episode that day, Kang-joo, Da-rim, and Cha Tae-woong (Choi Tae-joon) watched a horror movie together. For the blind Da-rim, Kang-ju explains the movie scenes in detail, and when Da-rim becomes scared and clings to Tae-woong, Kang-ju pulls her towards him, making people laugh with his strange war of nerves with Tae-woong.

After leaving the movie theater, Kang-ju, Da-rim, and Tae-woong move to an udon restaurant, where the two men engage in a tense fight with Da-rim in the middle. Kang-ju tells Tae-woong that his mother remarried and his last name is different from Seung-don’s, and Tae-woong makes a spicy remark, saying that his last name is Cha, after the orphanage director‘s last name.

In addition, Kang-ju tells Da-rim that they should watch a romantic movie together next time, and Tae-woong dislikes this and treats Da-rim like his own younger sister, which makes her feel resentful.

Meanwhile, Ji Seung-don (played by Shin Hyun-joon) receives an email from Noh Ae-ri (played by Jo Mi-ryeong), whom he dated in college. Ae-ri tells Seung-don that she is dying and that he has a child. Seung-don flinches for a moment, but soon deletes the email, shocking the viewers.

In the meantime, Bong-hee, who saw the wads of money in the air conditioner, reveals to Gil-rye and Man-deuk that she will spend 800 million won on Da-rim’s eye surgery. Upon hearing that their granddaughter could open her eyes, Gil-rye and Man-deuk give her the money and say, “Prison is heaven. If Da-rim can open her eyes,” which moved the viewers‘ hearts.

The next morning, Bong-hee wakes Da-rim up early and takes her to the hospital, where she immediately sets a date for her surgery. When Da-rim wonders where the money came from, Bong-hee lies to her that Seung-don, the chairman of the Jisung Group, is her friend and that he lent her 800 million won, creating an exciting development.

At that moment, Kang-joo, who lost his grandfather’s lighter, visits the Clean Laundry. Gil-rye and Man-deuk, who were trying to set aside 800 million won for Darim‘s eye surgery, hurriedly closed the air conditioner lid and greeted Kang-joo, who asked if there was a lighter in the Burberry he had left behind. Kang-joo, who soon found the lighter, lit it to test whether it worked properly, but a spark suddenly occurred and the lighter fell out of his hand. Kang-joo, Man-deuk, and Gil-rye barely managed to put out the fire on the plastic packaging of the laundry, but the fire spread to the fallen dry cleaning detergent and quickly spread throughout the laundry, surprising everyone.

Kang-joo, who was flustered, tried to hurriedly leave the place with Gil-rye and Man-deuk, but Gil-rye and Man-deuk could not bring themselves to leave Darim’s surgery money in the air conditioner and cried, which was heartbreaking. When Bong-hee heard the news of the fire, she was also shocked, and when she heard that Kang-ju started the fire, the Cheongryeom Laundry family members were consistently cold to him.

Furthermore, when Seung-don, who was Kang-ju‘s guardian, went to the emergency room to apologize politely to Gil-rye and Man-deuk, Bong-hee chased after him and hit the back of his head with a pillow, saying, “This time, calculate correctly,” which made everyone tense. After that, Bong-hee went into the Cheongryeom Laundry to look for money, but she was frustrated and she cried when she saw that there was nothing but a pile of ashes.

In the end, Bong-hee went up Mt. Eogak with her in-laws and grabbed the remaining bag of money there, and the desperate appearance of Da-rim, who went into the operating room, and her family waiting for her surgery left a lingering impression. It has raised viewers’ curiosity about what will happen to Bong-hee, Gil-rye, and Man-deuk, who have all taken the money bag, and whether Da-rim will be able to safely undergo the surgery.

The viewership ratings for the 8th episode were 16.2% (based on nationwide households, provided by Nielsen Korea), breaking its own highest viewership ratings record for two weeks in a row and taking first place among all programs broadcast on the same day. In particular, the scene where Bong-hee, Man-deuk, and Gil-rye climb Mt. Eungak again and dig up the bag of money proved the viewers‘ hot interest by soaring to a peak viewership rating of 16.8%.

Episode 9 of ‘Iron Family’ will air on the 26th (Sat) at 8 PM.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com reporter jhj@donga.com