Key Points to Recall for Season 2

The television adaptation of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee returns with a second season of the family saga on August 23 on Apple TV+.

Unlike Lee’s book, the show mixes the timelines of Book 1 and Book 3 with Minha Kim portraying a young Sunja and Youn Yuh-jung playing the older version. Season 2 picks up with older versions of Sunja’s two sons Noa and Mozasu and the start of World War II.

Those in need of a refresher on what happened in Season 1 of Pachinko can read on for a recap.

A Family Will Endure

The show opens with Sunja’s mother (Inji Jeong), who visits a Korean shaman woman to reverse a curse she believes has fallen on her and her husband Hoonie (Lee Dae-ho). Her husband has a cleft-lip deformity, which was seen as negative in society in Korea. This story takes place five years after Japan annexed Korea, leading to a 35-year occupation of the country. Yangin, Sunja’s mother, had given birth to three sons who all didn’t make it to the age of one before she gave birth to Sunja (Jeon Yu-na).

Intercut with scenes of Sunja’s birth, the show flashes forward to New York City in 1989, where a grown-up Solomon (Jin Ha) works at American bank Shiffley’s, where he anticipates a promotion to Vice President. Solomon is Sunja’s grandson, son of her younger son Mozasu (Soji Arai). Shiffley’s delays Solomon’s promotion, asking him to work another year at a branch in Tokyo. Back in 1915, Sunja grows up close to her father, unafraid to haggle at a fish market or confront a fisherman when he puts her parents and their Yeongdo boarding house in danger with anti-Japanese sentiment. Nine years after Sunja’s father dies of sickness, Koh Hansu (Lee Minho) enters the picture as an overseeing figure in the market Sunja frequents. He notices her right away.

Sunja and Hansu’s Love Affair

Hansu saves Sunja from three Japanese men who attempt to assault her. She offers to wash his shirt the next day at a cove where she does laundry if he’ll bring it. They get to know each other. Hansu explains he grew up in Japan before coming to Korea. He too is Korean, and there are significant differences between the pair as Sunja can’t read while Hansu can, and Sunja’s social status is lower than Hansu’s. They have sex at the end of episode two.

Sunja gets pregnant. When she tells Hansu, expecting him to marry her, he reveals he can’t as he already has a wife and three daughters in Osaka, Japan. He assures her that their child will be well taken care of even though he cannot be her husband. Sunja refuses his help and runs away to confess the news to her mother later. Hansu continues to remain involved in Sunja’s life throughout the first season of the show.

Isak Arrives in Busan

Isak (Steve Sang-Hyun Noh), a Korean pastor, arrives in the Yeongdo District of Busan, South Korea, very ill. He stumbles to the boarding house, bumping into Hansu who is leaving the cove where he was meeting up with Sunja. Isak collapses, and Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. He overhears Sunja’s confession of her pregnancy to her mother.

Later, he suggests she give up the child to another family, but she resolutely says she will keep the baby. He hints that he would marry her if she could, in time, learn to care for someone else and move to Japan with him to start over. Hansu confronts Isak at a tailor when Isak gets a new suit for his nuptials. The priest that marries them shames Sunja for getting pregnant outside of marriage. Yangin wants to make the moment special, so she goes to the market and begs a vendor for white rice, a luxurious meal for them, and she cooks Sunja and Isak a feast before they leave to join Isak’s brother Yoseb (Han Joon-Woo) and Yoseb’s wife Kyunghee (Jung Eun-chae) in Osaka, Japan. This was in 1931.

Solomon’s Effort to Get Promoted

Meanwhile, in the 1980s timeline, Solomon suggests to his superiors that he could close a major deal for a piece of land that just needed one last property to sell for development. He is certain that he can sympathize with the Korean landowner (Park Hye-jin) stalling the process as she clings to her house on the plot of land. He brings Sunja to meet her, and Sunja recognizes a detail in the white rice the landowner makes — that it was grown in Korea. The woman’s lawyers call Shiffley’s to tell them she will sign over the land for a million dollars after Solomon suggests to his boss Tom Andrews (Jimmi Simpson) that they make her an offer she can’t refuse.

As Shiffley’s is about to celebrate, Solomon gets a call from his childhood friend Hana (Mari Yamamoto), who has gone missing. Hana’s mother Etsuko (Kaho Minami) is dating Solomon’s father Mozasu. Hana has called Solomon before, but he tries to trace where she could be calling from. As the woman appears to sign the deal, this scene is intercut with Sunja leaving Yeongdo for Japan in the hull of a ship. A popular singer switches from classical opera to a low-belting Korean song after meeting Sunja before she boards. The old woman asks Solomon if she were his grandmother, what would he tell her, and he says he would tell her not to sign the paperwork. The deal is off, and work is about to get tough for Solomon.

Older Sunja Returns to Korea to Spread Kyunghee’s Ashes

The older version of Sunja decides to spread Kyunghee’s (Felice Choi) ashes since she always wanted to go back home but couldn’t. Kyunghee died in episode three of cancer. Sunja travels to Korea with Mozasu, locating her father’s grave as well as Bokhee (Kim Young-ok), one of the two women who worked for Sunja’s mother at the boarding house and cared for Yangin when Sunja left.

Younger Sunja Adjusts to Ikaino and Yoseb, Helps Pay Off a Debt

Living with Isak’s brother Yoseb presents challenges for Sunja, as he is suspicious about her motives to marry Isak. He observes that she is farther along in her pregnancy than expected, suspecting she may have trapped Isak into marriage. Kyunghee proves more welcoming to Sunja, making her white rice on arrival and easing her into household chores despite her pregnancy.

When two men come to the front door demanding payment for a loan Yoseb took out for Sunja’s passage to Japan, Kyunghee frets, but Sunja immediately knows to pawn the watch Hansu gave her to pay off the loan. Kyunghee worries about Yoseb’s reaction, but Sunja’s determination accomplishes the task. Her mother almost gave her precious earrings for emergencies, but when Sunja showed her the watch, she kept them. Their farewell was tender as Yangin gave Sunja a pep talk and advice, making Sunja sad.

Yoseb’s ego takes a hit when he realizes what Sunja has done.

Sunja Gives Birth

Immediately after Yoseb storms out in frustration, Sunja’s water breaks. Kyunghee supports Sunja during childbirth, but a nosy neighbor barges in, complaining about the noise before helping out. Isak goes to find Yoseb and brings him back just after Sunja bears the baby boy. She asks Yoseb, as the head of the household, to name their son. He chooses Noa, based on the Biblical figure who saw a new world and hailed new possibilities.

Solomon Finds Hana

Hana calls Solomon, claiming she doesn’t want to die alone, and he finds her. She reveals she has AIDS, and Solomon takes her to a hospital, but she doesn’t have long to live. In a flashback, a younger Hana tries to convince Solomon to steal something, but he gets caught. This small crime lands him in police custody until a phone call from “a powerful friend” secures his release. Mozasu decides to send Solomon to school in America, forcing him to leave Hana behind.

Sunja, Mozasu, and Etsuko take turns caring for Hana until she dies. Solomon makes a deal with Mamoru Yoshi (Louis Ozawa) to get hospital heads turned while they move Hana outside to be in fresh air during her final moments. Yoshi first approaches Mozasu when he loses his job at Shiffley’s, suggesting they enter the pachinko market together. Mozasu takes out a loan to open another parlor. Solomon originally tries to pitch Shiffley’s approaching Yoshi, who seems interested in developing the land.

Hansu’s Backstory

Another unique aspect of the show is its development of Hansu’s backstory in a standalone episode, the seventh of Season 1. The penultimate episode follows a younger Hansu growing up with his father and tutoring an American boy. He is offered a chance to go to America, but the Kanto Earthquake strikes, killing his father and the American family. Hansu confirms their deaths, finding the wife’s body and taking the watch he later gives to Sunja. Later, Hansu buys back the pawned watch and returns it to Sunja, who then gives it to Solomon. Without a reason to go to America, Hansu stays and starts working for his father’s old yakuza boss, contributing to the rumors surrounding his reputation when he comes to the fish market at the beginning of the series.

The quake struck the Kanto region in 1923, claiming over 100,000 lives. Hansu witnesses a brutal burning of Koreans by Japanese soldiers, fueling his complex character.

Isak Was Arrested

Right after young Mozasu’s doljabi, or Korean choosing ceremony, Isak is arrested for a political crime. Young Noa chases after him before Japanese officials take him away. Noa’s birthday celebration involves his selection of a red thread, indicating a long life. Noa jokes that Mozasu should choose coins because he has a “beggar in his belly.”

Yoseb loses his job at the factory due to his affiliation with Isak. Sunja meets a couple who influenced Isak’s political leanings, and Noa translates between them. Determined to support her family, Sunja starts selling homemade kimchi at a market near the train station, ending the series on a hopeful note as she raises her voice to joyfully promote the Korean specialty.

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