In Matchmakers Episode 1, the characters and their backgrounds are introduced. We see how both the main characters are struck by ill fate and are left widowed. By the end of the first episode, the clogs of destiny have already started to turn again as Sim Jungwoo’s advice to stop the Crown Prince’s marriage lands him in hot waters. With the King threatening him with death, Jungwoo had no other option but to try and solve an impossible problem.
The Matchmakers Episode 2 Recap: How will Jungwoo escape death?
Episode 2 starts with Jungwoo clarifying that his appeal for the annulment of his marriage was not because he wanted to remarry but to join the government. Being the unabashed egoist that he is, Jungwoo sees it as the loss of the government to lose one who is this talented. But his claims are not just stories, as he does have qualifications to back them up. From the art of music to painting and even medicine, he excelled in all.
In the cell where Jungwoo was kept, the King asks him to devise a way to get the crown prince married that year. Realising that the only way to make that happen is to solve the spinster problem, the fact that it would be impossible to do remains. He suggests that they can make an exemplary marriage between an old bachelor couple.
After much discussion, they came to the solution that it would be the King’s old friend’s daughters who would be made as an example. The girls, dubbed Nam Valley’s old ladies, provide enough challenge to be an example, plus their father’s relationship with the King, as Jungwoo suggests, provides enough grounds for his involvement.
Jungwoo, thinking this would be how he would get his job at the government, agrees to the challenge, but the King secretly admits that he would never annul his marriage.
Sooduk, on the other hand, saves the life of the young woman whose marriage she had ended previously. She was ready to die with her lover, who was of a higher status than him. Sooduk stopped the tragic end and was successful in getting the lovers married.
Sooduk expresses her romantic view on marriage quite in contrast to Junwoo’s mechanical definition. Jungwoo approaches the matchmakers as a way to escape meeting the ladies. The matchmakers prove to be even trickier, first by teasing him and then by their refusal to take up the case.
They proved helpful, though, as they introduced the three daughters. The second daughter was quite harsh and aggressive, even though her needlework was surprising.
The second daughter’s nature is shown in an incident where she fights with a nobleman who accused her of stealing a shoe. She refuses to let her basket be checked and, in the process, gets hurt. The nobleman was the family’s son with whom she had broken up the marriage previously, Lee Shi Yeol.
The oldest daughter was beautiful but was too picky to get married. Moreover, she was rumoured to be possessed by the ghost of Lee Cho Ok. The third was seen in the clothes of a man, thus might have different sexual preferences. The innkeeper brought along a Chinese trader to look at Junwoo. They were interested in him because he inquired about the poison. Thinking him to be only a rich bum, they dismissed their concerns.
The matchmakers declared that only Lady Yeoju could get them married. Meanwhile, the Lady in question shares her secret to a happy matchmaking. It was to observe the people. Lee Shi Yeol, for example, showed the characteristics of a thoughtful young man. Sooduk says that for this, a woman with a strong character will fit him the best. She should also be someone who could get along with his mother. The second Lady of the spinster sisters fits the role perfectly.
The story is already in motion as the young man seems to be developing feelings for the Lady after the incident with the shoe theft.
Jungwoo ends up as the witness to the blooming love story. This infuriates him, but he calms himself, thinking he has to visit Lady Yeoju. After abandoning his servant, Jungwoo skips to the house of Lady Yeoju.
Sooduk in the house of the peddler doses off. She dreams of the time when her husband was alive, and she used to read to him while he slept on her lap.
Jungwoo arrives in the house then, seeing the bag slipping from an asleep Sooduk’s hand, he jumps in to catch it. Sooduk still, in her dream, mistakes Jungwoo for her dead husband. She pulls his head towards her lap for him to sleep in, and Jungwoo meekly complies.
Sooduk soon comes to her senses and pushes Jungwoo off.
Jungwoo defends himself, saying that it was her who pulled her. Sooduk, unwilling to stretch it any longer, apologises and tries to leave.
Jungwoo stops her, saying that he has some work for her. Sooduk, still sceptical about Jungwoo’s character, brushes it off, saying that she is already working for families.
Jungwoo follows her out, saying he only wants to “mop” up the old ladies. This offends Sooduk greatly, and Jungwoo consistently corrects her pronunciation. Frustrated with Jungwoo, Sooduk makes her escape from him.
Jungwoo and Sooduk are genuinely different, almost opposites, as shown by their morning routine. Sooduk is busy and chaotic, contrasted with Jungwoo’s disciplined and slow-paced routine.
The maiden that Sooduk had in mind for Shi Yeol turns out to be her sister-in-law. She visits his mother, suggesting the marriage. However, she immediately gets shot down because the families are political rivals. She smoothes the situation by saying that the girl’s family offered the wedding and sent the time and date of birth.
But she cannot go to her mother-in-law; therefore, she asks the peddler, who turns out to be the real Lady Yeoju, to go. She straight out refuses.
Jungwoo is also just as busy. He decides to go to the district office to force them to get the ladies married. He suggests that if they didn’t care for the fatherless ladies, who would? The official blames the fact that Jungwoo never took office for his lack of knowledge. The Ladies were far from helpless.
They provided their sick mother with the best medicine. Therefore, they did have enough money. Thus, it was their reputation that left them as spinsters rather than the situation.
Still smarting from the rejection, Jungwoo comes across the copies of the erotic book “A Lady’s Private Life” in a room. Unable to contain himself, he reads the book, imagining himself in the situation.
Lmao Shim Jung Woo is reading the Book and his imagination 🤣 damn Rowoon I love you #ROWOON #ChoYiHyun#TheMatchmakers#TheMatchmakersEp2pic.twitter.com/mbVjhNiw4h
— Nisha💛Jang Shin-Yu Brainrot (@seoguniverse) October 31, 2023
He gets discovered by an officer. Who was using it as evidence to study the death of Lady Lee Cho Ok.
Jungwoo scoffs at the officer for basing a death on such flimsy evidence and asks for the actual reports on the end. Jungwoo sees a book on anatomy on the officer’s table and reads it even though the officer snatches it away. When Jungwoo reads the reports, he concludes that the woman was stabbed and then dumped in the river, according to the autopsy report, even though the officials concluded that it was the river’s currents that caused the wounds.
The fact that the officer was doing a private investigation using the book that Jungwoo co-wrote makes him happy.
Jungwoo visits where the spinster sisters’ mother gets her therapy but ends up meeting the oldest daughter. He tries to talk the Lady into marrying a bachelor but ends up offending her. He could only threaten the Lady with treason, which scares the youngest of the sisters.
The Matchmakers Episode 2 Ending Explained: Will Sooduk agree to help Jungwoo?
The Matchmakers Episode 2 via ViuThe King’s guard revisits Jungwoo to take him to the King, who is in disguise. The King scolds him for complaining to the official who works for Lord Jo, his political enemy. Jungwoo rests his concern by saying they would never be able to understand his motive truly, which turns out to be true. The King ends the conversion by advising him on politics, scoffing at his lack of knowledge.
The King’s advisor says he has asked Lady Yeoju to help Jungwoo. Sooduk again gets struck by the same request for the third time this week, this time by the author, Hwa Rok, the youngest of the spinster sisters, dressed as a man.
Jungwoo and Sooduk meet again. In a hurry to get their words out, they blurted out what was on their minds. Jungwoo apologises while Sooduk accepts his offer for matchmaking.
The preview for the next episode shows that things would get much more exciting and perhaps dangerous for both.