Happiness Battle (Season 1), Episode 3: Recap & Ending, Explained

Happiness Battle (Season 1), Episode 3: Compared to the previous episode, this episode had a slower start but was more emotional from Jang’s perspective. We see Ji Yul and Ha Yul feel an attachment towards Jang. The culprits for the murders are yet to be found. Yu Jin’s Pandora’s Box is yet to be found but it will surely bring chaos.

Happiness Battle (Season 1), Episode 3 Recap:

The episode begins with the police and the forensic team collecting evidence in Yu Jin’s house, A.K.A., the murder scene. We get a flashback to when Yu Jin and Jang were kids and were living together because of their parents. We get a glimpse of Jang being protective of Yu Jin when they were children. During Yu Jin’s funeral, Ha Yul asks Jang to style her doll’s hair in a certain fashion but Jang does not know what it is; Ji Yul throws the doll away and tells her sister that only their mother knows how to do it. The other mothers visit the funeral to pay respect.

One of the mothers reveals the truth about who Jang is. She tells the others that Jang was Yu Jin’s sister, and Yu Jin’s father-in-law got to know about it recently and had asked to fill the space for the family during the funeral. They discuss Ji Yul and Ha Yul’s future. Jung Ah stops the other moms from uploading funeral pictures on social media. Ji Ye shows up to the funeral late. Ji Ye and Jang are acquainted from work, and Ji Ye is surprised to know Jang is Yu Jin’s sister. Jang asks Ji Ye to keep this information a secret and not let anyone know, and Ji Ye agrees. Ji Ye checks on Jang’s feelings and assures her that the culprit will be caught.

Yu Jin’s father-in-law asks to speak to Jang and requests her to take care of the kids for a couple of months as their father is in the hospital and he needs time to recover. Jang refuses, saying she has a job and does not like kids. As the kids and the grandfather walk out of the coffee shop, Ha Yul asks Ji Yul if their real aunt has left them, and Ji Yul nods his head. In the marketing team’s Messenger group, everyone is asking Jin Seop if Jang had murdered Yu Jin as detectives had come by many times to talk to her. Jin Seop, in anger, reveals that they were sisters and warns them not to spread false rumours about her.

The police officers are tired of not finding clues to catch the culprit and follow Jang home to ask more questions. Jang tells them to go elsewhere if they want to find Yu Jin’s enemies. The officers ask her if she remembers what Yu Jin had said on the last phone call. Jang does not answer and enters her house. At home, Jang is trying to decode what Yu Jin meant by ‘Delete it.’ She scrolls through Yu Jin’s social media and finds Na Young’s comments on Yu Jin’s post about three snakes living in the house, one being the mother who was crazy and the second, a father snake. Jang wonders if Na Young and Yu Jin did not get along.

The next morning, Na Young asks Jung Ah if something is happening that she was not aware of, and Jung Ah asks her the same. Yu Jin confronts them with her Pandora’s Box containing their secrets. Jung Ah assures Na Young that she has a plan and she should knock the frown off her face. The nanny brings Ji Yul and Ha Yul to school, and Jung Ah asks the kids and the nanny to join her in planting a tree in Yu Jin’s name. Jung Ah drops a note when no one is looking into the pit dug for planting the sapling.

She asks to talk to the nanny separately. The nanny tells Jung Ah and Na Young that the kids’ grandfather is managing everything, and that Jang refuses to take the kids in, making her work overtime. Jung Ah tells her that she has a nanny to look after her kid and that she would also look after Ji Yul and Ha Yul. She gives her money and tells her that one of her acquaintances needs a nanny, and she should work close to her house.

Jin Seop sees rumours about Jang spreading and he tells his colleagues that it is not true. Jang’s boss asks to speak with her alone and asks her about the rumours, which Jang is clueless about. He asks her to use her pending leave days to sort things out that she has not taken care of yet. Jang refuses to take a break. Jin Seop apologises to Jang for mentioning her being Yu Jin’s sister and asks if she is disappointed in him, but she refuses. Yu Jin’s father-in-law continuously calls her, and she eventually takes the call. Yu Jin’s father-in-law asks Jang to meet him urgently as he has a favour to ask.

Jang comes to the school as the kids want to go to the aquarium with the other kids and their mothers. She meets Ji Ye on the playground, and Ji Ye tells her that the other mothers wanted a scapegoat, and after Yu Jin’s death, they treated her like a culprit because there was a small incident between her and Yu Jin. These mothers assume I would have killed Yu Jin because of a grudge. Someone had plucked the sapling planted for Yu Jin. Jung Ah suspects Jang or Ji Ye to have done it, but the other mothers assume it must be one of the kids. Ji Ye also tells Jang that if she were the police, she would have questioned those mothers first as they had their grudge against Yu Jin. Jung Ah asks Jang to get back to work while she takes the kids to the aquarium. The kids are disappointed when they realise Jang will not go with them.

Jang rushes back to the playground to accompany the kids to the aquarium. Jung Ah tells her that she is like a sister to Yu Jin and will take good care of the kids. Jang tells her it wasn’t that she didn’t trust her, but she was asked to look after them and wanted to do that just for one day. Jung Ah asks her if she has refused to take the kids in, and she says ‘yes’, because of work. To prove her point indirectly, Jung Ah tells Min Ho not to give Ji Yul peanut candies as she is allergic to them. Jin Seop takes Jang’s side in front of their boss.

In the aquarium, in the name of taking care of the kids, Jung Ah makes Ha Yul cry, and Jang comes to the rescue. Jung Ah tells the mothers that they have reserved the entire theatre so they can enjoy the mermaid show, but suddenly, more kindergarteners come in. The staff politely tries to clarify the mistake from their end but Jung Ah creates a scene. Ha Yul and Ji Yul are desperate to watch the show. Jang confronts Jung Ah for her behaviour and tells her not to justify her anger by using the kids. The other mothers side with Jung Ah, but Jang lets Ji Yul and Ha Yul watch the mermaid show.

Jang drops the kids at home and leaves, but one of the kids follows her to the elevator. The nanny is on a call telling the grandfather that she has done him a favour many times and asks him to get home soon. The grandfather asks the nanny to leave the kids by themselves. Ji Yul listens to their conversation but goes back to bed, pretending to be asleep when the nanny comes to check on them before she leaves. Ji Yul wakes Ha Yul up after the nanny leaves.

Jang returns to her office but remembers the faces of the kids and decides to go to them. Then, she receives a call from Yu Jin’s father-in-law telling her that the kids are missing. Jang yells at the nanny and the father-in-law for leaving the kids alone and asks him how they could be so calm after knowing what the children must be going through. She rushes out of the building, searching for the kids, and Jung Ah asks her what has happened. They use social media to spread the message to find the kids. One of the mothers calls Jung Ah from the playground, explaining that the tree planted for Yu Jin was completely uprooted.

The kids are on the bus by themselves. In the group chat, someone mentions that they had received a D.M. (Direct Message) stating that the girls were spotted on bus 740, and Jang realises that the kids must have seen the bus number the day she left the coffee shop. She calls the bus company and informs them of the situation. She finds the kids and they start crying and tell her that they got on the bus to see her. She brings the kids home. Jang calls Jung Ah and thanks her for the help. Jung Ah’s husband appreciates her for her work that day.

Na Young is seen hitting the plate that was attached to the sapling. Jung Ah tears a talisman that looks similar to the one she threw in the pit before planting the sapling. Jang helps the kids wash up and puts them to sleep. Jang tries to read about the murder case on the internet when she hears the kids crying as they miss their mother. The kids want to return to their home and Jang takes them. We see their father still at the hospital.

The episode ends with Jang informing her boss that she will take leave from the next day onwards. Na Young takes pills, and Ji Ye is on the balcony.

Happiness Battle (Season 1), Episode 3 Ending, and Explained:

The episode ends with Jang entering this begrudging, hateful, two-faced, mysterious world. We see Jang getting attached to the kids and willing to do anything to protect them. While Jang is suspected of the murders from many people’s points of view but Ji Ye, Jung Ah and Na Young seem the most suspicious.

Na Young and Jung Ah were confronted by Yu Jin before her death, making them highly suspicious. It is also quite evident from their behaviour in this episode that something more sinister is going on. Ji Ye portrays herself as innocent, but in the last scene, it is evident that there is something fishy.

We see the positive sides of using social media in this episode. The mothers and others use social media to find Ji Yul and Ha Yul. The next episode will get more catty as we will surely see Jang enter the world Yu Jin was living in.

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Happiness Battle (Season 1) Episode 3 Links: IMDb
Happiness Battle (Season 1) Episode 3 Cast: Lee El, Ye-ryeon Cha, Hyo-ju Park