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MBC drama Motel California starring Lee Se-young and Na In-woo, premiered on January 10, 2025. The show is directed by Kim Hyung-min and written by Lee Seo-yoon. The 12-episode series airs every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 pm KST.
The story revolves around Ji Kang-hee, who returns to her hometown after 12 years and reunites with her first love, Cheon Yeon-soo, now working as a village veterinarian.
Having grown up at Motel California, Kang-hee endured gossip stemming from her mixed-race background and family hardships. After leaving at 20 to establish a successful career as an interior designer in Seoul, her homecoming stirs up unresolved feelings and new challenges.
In episode 2 of Motel California, Kang-hee visits her hometown again for a funeral but ends up getting into an altercation with her school bullies. While Kang-hee and Yeon-soo both find new admirers, misunderstandings grow.
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Motel California episode 2 recap: Kang-hee meets Yeon-soo after years
Episode 2 of Motel California starts with Yeon-soo speaking to Chun-pil at the funeral. In a flashback, the group of friends is shown throwing a birthday party for Kang-hee. As she walks out, annoyed, Yeon-soo follows her, promising to be with her throughout life. In the present, as Kang-hee enters, he immediately hugs her, much to everyone's surprise.
In this episode of Motel California, Kang-hee pays her respects to her deceased grandfather and decides to leave. Just then, Yeon-soo's mother comes running in and falls and has to be carried away by Yeon-soo. Kang-hee decides to leave, bothered by the comments but is stopped by Yeon-soo, who asks her to have food before leaving.
Seung-eon comes and asks her to meet Ah-reum before leaving. Kang-hee goes and sits with her friends. As they are having their food, a group from another table starts commenting on them for being raised in a motel. The viewers are taken back to the first scene in episode 1.
Heon-yeol and his friends are bullying Seung-eon. The rest go and call Kang-hee to help. After landing a kick on Heon-yeol, Kang-hee and her friends get up to leave but face more mean comments from him. Kang-hee tells him that he will be struck by lightning, and he does.
At present, Kang-hee decides to join Heon-yeol's table. As she tries to strike up a normal conversation and distributes her business cards, Heon-yeol's absurd questions are met with harsh answers. As the two get into a heated argument, Heon-yeol throws water on Kang-hee. Kang-hee picks up a ramen bowl and drops the contents on his head.
In a fit of rage, he throws a bottle at her but Yeon-soo takes the blow. Heon-yeol charges towards them, and Yeon-soo lands a punch on his face. Kang-hee recalls the time when she left the motel, and Yeon-soo helped her with the luggage. She leaves for her Goshiwon after speaking with Seung-eon.
The next day, she receives a call from Seok-kyung. Wondering why he is calling her, she remembers drunk-dialing him after being fired and calling him to her terrace to see the design.
She is called to Jeong-gu's office, where she is congratulated. At the client meeting, Esther and Seok-kyung had asked for Kang-hee since they liked her design and wanted her to lead another project. Mr. Mok offers her the project team leader position, but she refuses, wishing to have the luxury of not working with people she does not like.
Instead, she gives the design to Esther directly and refuses to take any payment in return since she feels they paid her by restoring her confidence as a designer. Esther, touched, invites her to her wedding as a friend.
While Ah-reum and Yeon-soo talk about Kang-hee, a young woman asks them for help since her dogs and the puppies have escaped. Since they are test dogs, Yeon-soo sends them to his facility, which helps adopt the animals. She introduces herself as Yoon Nan-woo, his junior. Later, Nan-woo speaks to Ah-reum and arranges to go on a date with Yeon-soo.
Kang-hee goes to Esther's wedding and fantasizes about getting married to Yeon-soo. Kang-hee greets the bride and meets Jeong-gu at the wedding. Jeong-gu, moved by Kang-hee's words, had also decided to leave the company. She wanted to work together with Kang-hee in the future and asked her to talk later.
As Esther jokes about Seok-kyung leaving her and being regretful, he tells her he has found someone he likes. After this conversation, he finds Kang-hee and asks her to come to the after-party but she refuses, telling him she has other plans for the night.
The plan is the yearly ritual of meeting Chun-pil to celebrate their birthdays with a cake in an expensive hotel room. As Ah-reum talks to Kang-hee, she mentions that Yeon-soo has a date later. Kang-hee calls Yeon-soo but, when hearing someone else's voice in the background, hangs up.
Since she is unable to cancel her appointment with Chun-pil, she asks Seok-kyun to pretend to be her boyfriend and assure Chun-pil that there is another man who cares about her. However, when she goes into the room with Seok-kyung, locking her arms with his, she finds Yeon-soo waiting for her in this episode of Motel California.
Yeon-soo remembers Seok-kyung. Once, when Yeon-soo managed to find Kang-hee in Seoul, she was getting yelled at by her convenience store manager. Seok-kyung had recorded the incident and helped her then. As the second episode of Motel California comes to an end, Seok-kyun extends his arm for a handshake and asks Yeon-soo to transfer Kang-hee's ownership to him.
The next episode of Motel California is scheduled to be released on January 17.
