When the Stars Gossip EP 5 & 6 Photo-Recap: Space Waste

Okay. Let’s try to shoot some secret space hooch into our mouths and gather round for a chat. There are so many fun elements to this show: the setting, the premise (apart from the actual plot), the editing and creative cinematography, the cast, the bonkers hijinks, and whatever else is keeping you around. However, liking something doesn’t mean we ignore its faults, and whoooooooboy, does When the Stars Gossip have a plethora. 

Things I thought were going to happen in episodes five and six of When the Stars Gossip:

• We’d find out Ryong’s relationship with Goeun was a ruse (beyond a one night stand) and they had an agreement to pull a shenanigan on her father. 
• We’d find out there was Ground Boyfriend intrigue regarding his new company (espionage!). 
• We find out the Space Printer is actually a Decepticon (who has a printer in space???).
• The lottery ticket would be revealed to not actually be a winner. 
• That Daebak Podcast would be correct in her theory that Evil Ex used his own sperm to make The Egg Thing work. 
• Maybe aliens? We honestly can’t rule anything out. 
• Something to do with that floating space suit from the pilot. A dead body! A sentient robot! Hidden treasure inside! 
• Some fun banter and/or cute little romantic moments.

Things I did NOT think were going to happen in episodes five and six of When the Stars Gossip:

• A Gong Ryong temper tantrum where he wishes death upon his love interest. 
• A mutiny.
• Rampant misogyny. 
• A suicide??? 
• Evil Ex depicted as a golden money God (lol)
• The Egg Thing seriously being the whole plot. 

You guys, words truly cannot express how much I do not care about The Egg Thing. I just don’t. I empathize with that poor woman who simply wants to be a mother and have a part of her late husband still existing in the world. Anything beyond that, I don’t care who does it, how it happens, or what it means for our characters. 

So, before we dive into the snark, I have a genuine question: do you care about The Egg Thing? Do you care about the lottery ticket? Are you rooting for the main romance? And lastly, if you’re sticking around—why? That’s not shade, I’m just genuinely curious what the consensus is. What’s continuing to draw you in? 

For me, I think it’s for the cast, the cool cinematography, and yes, genuine curiosity to see just how bananas this show can get. Give me more emergency mouse surgeries and unrelated montages. I’ve given up on intrigue at this point (is one of Ryong’s aunts his real bio mom???) so at least throw in some more zany shit, you know?

Everything about this opening scene of Ryong remembering the night before was horrible. There wasn’t a single cute thing about this. Our leading man burst into a woman’s private room, invaded her space, demanded she thank him for completely disregarding her orders and putting her crew at risk, then made romantic advances even though she said no. Not only did he not leave after she told him to, he tried to physically push past her when she said he couldn’t come back in. He even used the “You made me this way,” line. 

All the while having a fiance. 

This is our leading man??? Not even the charms of Lee Minho can save this disaster of a romance. Even if she DID have feelings for him before this, she shouldn’t after. This is, to use a trendy buzz term, a giant red flag. At this point in the show I don’t want them together, and knowing that they’ll probably end up that way is pissing me off. 

“I don’t want to go back to Earth pretending like nothing happened here. I don’t want to lie to myself.” Baby boy, nothing happened! What happened? You spent a few days with a woman you’re attracted to and had mostly professional interactions, then you made it SO WEIRD. He’ll wait a year?? He’ll WAIT A YEAR FOR HER??? I’m sorry, okay, I’m moving on. I promise. 

It’s just SO WEIRD, RIGHT???? Like, this is the kind of stuff women make tiktoks about captioned “men are not okay,” you know?? Now I’m really moving on.

(But it’s just so weird). 

Rule #1 of having a secret is maybe don’t scream about it on a space station where the walls of your ‘room’ are a blanket? Space Twin was giving her sister a “previously on” episode recap and Mouse Doctor overheard. And here’s what I’m liking about this show: the shot afterwards of a glowing rush of money was such a cool visual representation of what he was feeling in that moment. 

It’s honestly too bad all this cool editing is going to waste with such a bleh plot. 

Anyway, he followed her as she tried to do the ‘right thing’ and give the ticket back to Evil Ex, but Evil Ex was a total dick and she changed her mind. A lesson to us all! Don’t be a dick to your coworkers, it may cost you millions of dollars! 

UUUUUGHGHGHGHHGHHG can we skip this whole storyline? Can we take the ‘rom’ out of this ‘com’? Ryong called Goeun to break up with her, gave her zero explanation, then hung up before she could ask follow-up questions. OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN. 

And yet she is STILL fighting for him on the ground. Ugh. #JusticeForGoeun

Evil Ex sent news about The Egg Thing, which made Potential Mother switch sides, and Chaebol Dad got SO smug about it that I was hoping he’d spontaneously combust on the spot. 

I don’t understand why they’re not just letting both doctors try, but then again I don’t really understand anything about this storyline, so moving on. 

When the pilot first aired, a lot of people seemed upset that both Eve and Ryong were in relationships. But in one episode, both relationships were effectively shoved out of the way. Ground (Ex) Boyfriend slept with Ground Boss, and in a true Kdrama move, Eve saw them canoodling because her video call was answered when the phone was kicked off the bed (which is definitely how phones work). 

Ruh roh! As Evil Ex was sending some pictures that Chaebol Dad demanded of his ‘grandkids’ (the human body is not capable of the amount of eyerolls needed for this man) Eve came in looking for Santi to reprimand him about the alcohol. But whoopsie! She saw all the science-ing, and since our girl is no fool, she knew what was up and immediately called a staff meeting to discuss the plot. 

Evil Ex lied and said the sperm was Santi’s (RUDE) and in the end, Eve decided it all had to be destroyed. 

Truly what in the embarrassing eff was this? Have you ever seen a male lead recover from a tantrum like this?? Where he yells that his love interest is a murderer after she follows protocol and gets rid of some (what she was told were random) cells, then says he regrets saving her life and will make sure to never do so again. Then says he doesn’t know how he “fell” for her and is “over her” (all in span of five days). 

Someone wrote this. Then several someones read it and thought it was good enough to go ahead. Then even more someones acted, shot, directed, and edited this scene, and everyone in that process was like, “Yep, just giving the people what they want!” 

I’m losing hope that he’ll have an arc where he learns to respect women, but who knows, maybe the show will surprise me. 

Eve told Team Ground what Evil Ex was up to and he was fired in disgrace, which is awkward enough when you work on Earth and have to walk by everyone with your cardboard box of staplers and that one sad plant you let wither on your desk for a year and a half. But IN SPACE?? He has to wait until the next shuttle back down to Earth, and like… hang out with everyone until then. Yikes on bikes.  

Out of everyone on this show, Chaebol Dad is the stinkiest. He has relegated his daughters to baby making machines without agency, assigning them tasks like “make me a grandchild” and “marry whoever I want you to,” in order to get ‘rewards’. So, when he learned during this dinner that the eggs had been destroyed and he had some sort of fit, I was rooting for his death. But he survived (**eye roll**) and now he wants Ryong to take over and risk everything and everyone. Because of course.

Ohhhhhhhhhkayyyyyy, so now that the entire crew minus their commander were in on the lottery nonsense, Ryong had something over them and could recruit them to betray not only the commander, but the entire Ground Crew team and the program in general. He explained The Egg Thing and asked them to help in exchange for his silence over the ticket. 

Our romantic leads had a flirty conversation about some mice that would have been super fun and cute if they weren’t ignoring the fact that he basically wished for her death the last time they saw each other. 

Santi convinced Dr. Lee to join the mutiny party, and Dona joined later when Eve almost caught them. So now Eve is the only one in the station who isn’t in The Egg Thing club, and I honestly, this is what upsets me the most? Is that weird? They’re all leaving her out and going behind her back, that’s so hurtful and mean and– oh shit, am I accidentally working through some childhood trauma? Whoopsie! Sorry, moving on.

This scene was pretty great, with the back and forth between Ryong’s moms watching archery and cracking eggs and whatnot. I know I keep saying it, but the direction and editing on this show is superb! 

Why the actual eff this woman isn’t telling this man-child to screw all the way off is beyond me, but again—I’m holding out hope that he’s going to grow and learn and become the kind of man who deserves to be in a romcom with a character like Eve. 

Ryong did The Egg Thing (congrats?) as we witnessed the potential suicide of the Egg Mother (???) then he went to flirt with Eve, who inexplicably flirted back. 

And that was that. 

It’s hard to admit that a show you’re trying so hard to enjoy might be bad. Like… irresponsibly bad. And not in a cute, “it’s low budget and making fun of itself bad,” but like… perpetuating misogynistic romantic themes and trying to normalize emotional manipulation and disrespect. 

Like I said before, if this man goes on a journey—great. I can get on board with that! Having him at this starting point would make it pretty satisfying to see that turnaround. And who knows, maybe we’ll get some intrigue (is Santi a spy? Is the space station really a bunker on Earth and the only person who knows is Ground Boyfriend? Is the tail-biting mouse an alien? Give us SOMETHING!)

For now, I’m sticking around for the inventive storytelling devices, if not the story itself. What about you guys?

SOME STUFF

• Lee Minho’s English has not improved since the day he started acting and I love him for it. Stay indecipherable, king. 

• Imagine being an employee of Chaebol Dad and continuously getting called into the board room to look at pictures of embryos. 

• Eve’s justification for destroying the embryos was SO valid! They may have been condemning both the mother and child to painful deaths. What if they created a contagious disease and she was patient zero? SO much could go wrong, and yet the show really wants us to side with Ryong on this. I don’t! I was happy she threw them out! 

• Dr. Lee punched Evil Ex for risking everything for The Egg Thing and then went ahead and did it himself for money. Who even are these characters? I feel like Eve is the only one with any consistency. 

• Santi thinking the eggs were his ‘babies’ was heartbreaking. It’s so rare to find a good foreign actor in a Kdrama! 

• “My heart withers in space, every day I feel it getting smaller and smaller. I can’t do it.” Wh… what? And why? But seriously, WHAT? But more importantly… why? 

• Ryong’s moms went to a shaman to get a reading, and she was like, “He doesn’t love his fiance, but everything’s fine? Oh, and one of you has had a baby.” Was this a weight thing (Korea’s gonna Korea) or is it INTRIGUE??? Is one of them actually his bio mom and he’s been lied to? Or does he have a secret cousin?? (It was probably a weight thing… wasn’t it? **sigh**)

• To anyone under the age of millennial: a dial tone is something that used to indicate the phone line was open, which meant there was no one else on the other line. I know they don’t exist anymore, but sometimes one must be anachronistic for the joke.

• I want this director / cinematography / editing team to do a different romcom together. One with whimsy and intrigue. I feel like their talents and efforts are wasted on a plot like this. 

• Who has sex with their phone on the bed?? Put it on a table or something!

• Our romantic hero needs to stop grabbing the COMMANDER of the station he’s on by the arm every time he wants to make a point. We get it, Ryong, you don’t respect her position, you proved that in the pilot when you refused to call her by her title instead of her first name.

• My apologies, I know these recaps are a lot more fun to read when I’m loving on the show, but at this point I am just not quite as on board as I was after the mouse surgery. But please! If you ARE loving it, let me know why! I’m open to being brought around. I want to be brought around.

THANKS FOR POPPING BY I HOPE SOMEDAY YOU GET TO TRY TO CATCH FLOATING ALCOHOL WITH YOUR MOUTH!