Not many were expecting this drama; however, Netflix’s newest k-drama seems perfect for taking some time off the busy world and delving into this slow yet peaceful setting. Once Upon a Small Town Episode 1 was released on Netflix today, and we expect the show to be a fun ride. The exciting chemistry between the actors has us all looking forward to tomorrow’s “Once Upon a Small Town Episode 2.”
Without further ado, let’s get into what happened in the show’s very first episode.
Once Upon a Small Town Episode 1 Recap:

The first episode of Red velvet’s Joy starrer kicked off with our main character Dr Han Ji-Yool (Choo Yeong-Woo), a vet examining a pug, Mr Walnut.
Mr Walnut, an old dog, is suffering from a typical case of Brachycephalic syndrome. Han explains to the owner how the treatment might be overwhelming for the dog at its age.
While examining Mr Walnut, he keeps getting a call, which he ignores as a spam call. However, after picking up the call, he realised it was an emergency regarding his grandfather.
He rushed back to Huidong, only to be misunderstood by An Ja-Young (Joy) and her partner.
Young mistook him for a petty thief; however soon realised who he was after checking his identity, but it was too late as her partner had already knocked him out.
After regaining his consciousness, he learned that it was a setup by his grandfather (Director Han).
Han and his wife had already gone on a cruise that morning but developed that ploy to summon his grandson and hand over the responsibilities of their veterinary hospital responsibilities.
Han and An sets out to treat an angry Goat:
Later, officer An apologises to Dr Han for the mishap, and she gives him a ride to his next call.
On arriving, Han learns about the owner illegally setting up a trap to catch a dog ravaging his chicken farm. Despite the owner’s reluctance, Han decides to treat the wounded dog first and takes it back to the veterinary.
Throughout their journey together, An keeps a close tab on Han as if she already knew him.
After setting with the dog’s case, they receive yet another call from a goat owner. Han gets perplexed after hearing about the workload as it seems the entire town is always in need of a vet.
Han gets advised to be on standby by all the time till he is there, and soon they leave the place to attend to the goat.
On arriving, they see an enraged goat tied up. Feared of it, Han doesn’t seem to be in any mood to deal with it; however, An makes sure he doesn’t back out.
Once Upon a Small Town Episode 1 Ending Explained:
Dr Han gets pretty roughed up dealing with the goat; however, his day wasn’t going to end at that.
After returning home, three uninvited women barged into her home. They got word of his arrival from Seoul and couldn’t wait to see him in person.
Although they didn’t mean any harm, Han was too tired to deal with them and eventually ended up saying how their uninvited barging could lead to some severe consequences in Seoul.
They didn’t pay much heed to his saying and told him to adjust to the new ways of the town before leaving his house. Officer An soon followed them after bidding him goodbye for the day.
Before retiring for the day, Han reads the letter left by his grandfather. It was an apology letter from Director Han.
He apologised for burdening him with the responsibilities of the ‘Han Deok-Jin Veterinary Hospital’ at the most critical point of Han’s life.
However, he had to do so to fulfil Han’s grandmother’s all-time wish of travelling the world on a ship.
After so much hardship and losing close ones, Han’s grandmother had been living a half-dead life, and she deserved to have her wish fulfilled before it was too late.
Once Upon a Small Town Episode 1 ends with Dr Han visiting the hospital and running into An, who he found swimming with a headlight.
Once Upon a Small Town Episode 1 is currently available for streaming on Netflix.