Choi Kang Ho is a hotshot prosecutor working in Seoul and is regarded as one of the best in the country. He is smart and ruthless. His only aim is to earn money and power, and he can go to any length to do that. The Good Bad Mother is about a mother who did her best to raise her son after his father was wrongfully killed and a son who never liked his mother because she never let him enjoy his life due to her ambition of making him a prosecutor.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Does Kang Ho’s Father Get Killed?
It’s 1987, and life is easy for people in a town whose daily lives revolve around farming. Young Soon works at an animal feed shop, and one day, one of the customers, Hae Sik, proposes to her for marriage. He brings a piglet with a ring tied to its neck, but it runs away, and Hae Sik ends up putting a ring on Young Soon in front of all the people in the market. Hae Sik and Young Soon get married immediately and are soon blessed with the news of a pregnancy. Hae Sik is happy that his child will be born in the year 88, the year of the double dragon, which comes once every 300 years. They are happy living in a cottage near their pigsty and excited about the future until the Seoul Olympics comes up. The Olympic march and a marathon are going to go through their village, and the road constructors demand Hae Sik give up his farm and pigsty for petty money. When Hae Sik refuses to do so, they burn down his pigsty overnight. He puts up a case against the constructor but loses it because of the lack of evidence. However, Hae Sik doesn’t give up and collects evidence this time. He shows all the evidence to the prosecutor and requests that he open the case again. Hae Sik trusted the prosecutor, but the constructor had already bribed him. He informs the constructor that Hae Sik has solid evidence against him, and on the same night, Hae Sik gets killed. The constructor sets it up to look like Hae Sik took his own life and saved himself the trouble.
Young Soon is heartbroken and in disbelief, but she braces herself for the child inside her. She moves to a nearby village to start a new life. She builds a pigsty again and starts working. Her troubles don’t just go away, as the villagers collectively oppose the existence of a dirty and stinky pigsty in their village. They go to Young Soon to complain about it but can’t say a word seeing that the owner is a widowed pregnant woman. However, one woman raises her voice and says that they would file a civil complaint, but Young Soon doesn’t get scared and says that she will also file a complaint for interrupting her business. Their argument stops when Young Soon’s water breaks and the women help her deliver the baby. The men try to contact the clinic through a satellite phone, but the baby is delivered even before they are able to find a stable connection. Right after Young Soon gives birth to Kang Ho, her son, another woman gives birth to her third daughter, Mi Joo. The mothers think that they will all be good friends, along with Sam Sik, who was born just a few months ago. Kang Ho and Mi Joo become best friends, but Sam Sik and Kang Ho become enemies. Kang Ho grows up to become an ideal student, whereas Sam Sik becomes a troublemaker. The only thing they have in common is Mi Joo, their friend. Mi Joo grows up to become a bold girl whom even her father is afraid of. Her father abuses her mother for not giving him a son, but he doesn’t mess with Mi Joo.
Young Soon has raised Kang Ho in a strict environment, and Kang Ho hasn’t enjoyed his childhood like others his age. His only aim is to become a top prosecutor, and he needs to study hard for it. He hates his mother for not letting him play, hang out with his friends, or even go to school picnics. However, he is already in high school and closer to achieving his mother’s dream of him becoming a prosecutor. He just needs to do well on the college entrance exam. He even studies during the lunch break, when everyone else plays games. Sam Sik likes to bother Kang Ho, and he locks him up in the storage room to stop him from attending extra classes. However, he doesn’t know that Mi Joo is already inside. While Kang Ho gets worried after not being able to go out, Mi Joo gets excited. She likes Kang Ho and is happy to spend time with him alone. However, Kang Ho keeps on studying without even looking at her. When Sam Sik hears from his mother that both Kang Ho and Mi Joo have not returned home, he regrets his decision to lock up Kang Ho. He rushes to the school and opens the storage room. Other villagers doubt what the two are doing inside, but Young Soon is worried about Kang Ho’s study schedule. Kang Ho’s entrance exam is more important to her, but unfortunately, on that important day, Kang Ho misses the exam. Kang Ho’s life has been intensely controlled by his mother, and even after he misses the exam due to Mi Joo’s accident, instead of understanding him, she tells him that his only way out of this torture is to become a prosecutor.
Who Is Kang Ho’s Girlfriend?
Kang Ho has become a prosecutor, and he is introduced as he wins a case against the construction supervisor whose mistake caused a laborer to lose his life. However, right after the hearing, the supervisor’s wife comes to him with evidence that her husband was framed. Prosecutor Kang Ho impresses us first with his kind demeanor, but his real face is shown soon enough. In a similar manner to how his father’s prosecutor betrayed him, Kang Ho is also in the same league as the constructor. And whether to call it fate or coincidence, the constructor is the one who killed Kang Ho’s father. Kang Ho has been working alongside Chairman Song and has become rich thanks to him. He takes care of all of Song’s cases, and Song admires him so much that he even asks him to become his son. Kang Ho also asks him if he can call him father because he never had anyone to call father before. While Kang Ho has become the pride of his village, his friends are living totally different lives than him. Mi Joo has given birth to twins, but their father has abandoned them. Mi Joo’s mother has lied to the villagers, saying that Mi Joo is living with her husband in the USA when, in reality, she is working at a nail studio in Seoul. Meanwhile, Sam Sik is serving time in prison for some crimes.
Young Soon had told Kang Ho that becoming a prosecutor was his only escape from her, and Kang Ho took that seriously. Ever since he became a prosecutor, he hasn’t returned to his village or talked to his mother. When Young Soon goes to Seoul to meet Kang Ho on his birthday, he makes the excuse of not being home. Young Soon has been getting updates about her son from other people, and she even asks Kang Ho’s apartment security guard to contact her if he sees anything wrong with him. Kang Ho is hungry for power because that’s why his mother tortured him to become a prosecutor. Kang Ho’s girlfriend is current presidential candidate Oh Tae Soo’s daughter, Ha Young. He met Ha Young when he raided a club to find drugs, but Ha Young was innocent. They met a few times afterward, and now Ha Young has introduced Kang Ho to her parents as their future son-in-law. However, it all looks as if it was planned by Kang Ho. Oh Tae Soo was the prosecutor in charge of his father’s case, who betrayed him by colluding with Chairman Song. Meanwhile, Oh Tae Soo threatens Kang Ho to break up with Ha Young because he has already set up her marriage with a businessman’s son. Kang Ho has to have a powerful background to become Ha Young’s husband, and he can do anything for power. He requests that Chairman Song legally adopt him so that he can also develop a relationship with Oh Tae Soo. Tae Soo and Song worked together for a long time until Tae Soo joined hands with another businessman over Ha Young’s marriage.
‘The Good Bad Mother’ Episode 2: Ending
Kang Ho is returning to the village for the first time after becoming a prosecutor, and with his fiance at that. Young Soon and the villagers are excited and are preparing a feast for them. They are speculating on all kinds of things and even think that Kang Ho might take Young Soon to Seoul, but Kang Ho comes with dreadful news. He gives Young Soon the papers of renunciation of parental rights and asks her to sign them. Young Soon is shocked and not ready to accept it, but Kang Ho reiterates her own words, telling him to become powerful. She signs the papers, thinking that nothing can change the fact that she is still his mother. Kang Ho leaves hurriedly, but he doesn’t feel good. Even though his mother hurt him, she is still his mother, and it is painful for him to take away parental rights from her.
Ha Young notices that Kang Ho is not feeling well and takes over the steering wheel. Ha Young steps out of the car to get her scarf that flew away while Kang Ho is asleep in the car. In that small frame of time, a huge truck crashes into the car, and Ha Young witnesses that horrifying scene. The Good Bad Mother has made a diligent son into a cold-hearted prosecutor who even gives up on his mother. Kang Ho is driven for revenge, and it is evident in his every single move. He knows his enemies, and they are the reason he doesn’t have a father, and his life is miserable. Young Soon only wanted the best for her son, but she was too harsh and lost him. Now, someone has tried to kill Kang Ho, but it could be targeted at Ha Young as well, as she was with him too.
