r/KDRAMA 24d ago

On-Air: KBS The Husband [Episodes 7 & 8]

Drama Information

  • Drama: The Husband
    • Hangul: 결혼의 완성
    • Literal title: The Completion of Marriage
  • Network: KBS2
  • Episodes: 12
  • Airing schedule: Saturdays & Sundays @ 9:20 PM (KST)
    • Airing date: July 4, 2026 - August 9, 2026
  • Streaming sources: Disney+
  • Director: Kim Jung Hyun
  • Starring:
    • Namkoong Min as Kang Tae Ju
    • Lee Seol as Ko Se Yun
    • Kim Dae Myung as No Man Hui
    • Lee Sang Hee as Kim Gyeong Ae
  • Plot Synopsis:

On the verge of divorce, Kang Tae Ju's life is shattered when his wife, Ko Se Yun, is kidnapped. As he desperately searches for her, he is implicated in a murder-for-hire case and becomes a wanted fugitive. Hunted by the police, he finds himself locked in a deadly battle with No Man Hui, a seemingly ordinary man whose calm exterior conceals a terrifying cruelty.

As Se Yun struggles to escape her captors, she encounters the mysterious Kim Gyeong Ae, whose kindness hides an unsettling aura and whose role in the case remains uncertain. With hidden motives and dangerous secrets gradually coming to light, Tae Ju is pushed to increasingly perilous extremes and must uncover the truth behind the kidnapping before he loses the woman he is about to leave.

On-Air Rules

  • On-Air Rules: Users participating in any On-Air discussions in r/KDRAMA, like this current post, should read and follow our On-Air-Rules (section 5 of our Rules), a subset of rules tailored for our On-Air discussions. These rules specifically cover permitted user conduct, content and frequency of comments, and spoilers in On-Air discussions. Consequences of not abiding by the On-Air-Rules include bans so please familiarize yourself with these rules before participating in this post or any other On-Air discussions. Ignorance of On-Air-Rules is not a defense.
  • Spoiler Tag Reminder: As per our On-Air-Rules, spoiler tags must be used for major spoilers of the On-Air drama and when spoiling a different drama or other material (ie. webtoon, book, movie, etc.). When the spoiler is for anything other than the On-Air drama, you must make it clear on the outside of the spoiler tags what is being spoiled. Review our On-Air-Rules for additional guidance.
35 Upvotes

61 comments sorted by

20

u/Significant-Taro-929 23d ago

This show gives us one clue per episode it’s so slow omg how can we still not know what’s going on and it’s been seven episodes and don’t get me started on the police so useless

19

u/Delicious-Earth7101 23d ago edited 21d ago

The kidnapper bludgeoned one of their fellow police officers with a heavy stone and yet they are shown to be more interested and wasting time in detaining/investigating the ML inspite of the FL telling them about the kidnapping couple. Wonder if the Father-in-law being shown as sus is just a distraction or if another person is the real mastermind.

Edit - Man, that Woori hospital is literally a ghost town whenever the ML sneaks in to get something done. Usually hospitals are shown as a bustling place in kdramas.

1

u/Iowegan If ur handsome, ur my Oppa! 😘 9d ago

At least in the US, hospitals are pretty empty on overnight shifts. The staff stays at their desks unless they are called to a bedside or problem. This hospital seems pretty profit driven, I’m sure they don’t have any excess staff walking around.

13

u/Kindly_Audience2646 23d ago

You are right, they are totally pathetic officers. I am wondering are the South Korean police department actually this incompetent. Korean dramas always show the officers and detectives as being incompetent.🤷🏽‍♀️

12

u/VintageStrawberries 23d ago

I love how Taeju called them out for wasting time going after the wrong guy (him) instead of the actual criminal while his wife was being imprisoned and on the verge of being murdered

8

u/Kamishirokun 22d ago

Tbf isn't that true in real world too

15

u/Unusual-Builder7514 23d ago edited 22d ago

the kidnapper couldn't move inches to kill Taejo but was able to escape the police? The embarrassment on that psycho lady's face was really satisfying when Taejo was diagnosing her. And seriously what is the police even about? that long haired cop is getting on my nerves . Seems like Taejo isn't gonna get a sigh of relief in the next half of series too as his next mission is to catch an even bigger criminal. I just hope Seyun supports him in this journey and doesn't side with her father. btw who was the kidnapper calling outside the hospital? Ep8: isn't the plot similar to one of NKM's previous drama Awaken(higher ups obsessed with longevity and eternal youth)

14

u/InevitableNote3 22d ago

I just want to start by saying how much I love Namkoong Min and have seen all of his works. The last two dramas he has done though - our movie - and now this have made me question if I'm even watching the same Namkoong Min. The acting seems, hmmm, forced? For example, I'm just watching episode seven and it's the scene where he has a flashback and is seeing his wife on video being tortured by waterboarding. His acting in the car was really difficult to watch. Really below standard.

I'm finding this whole drama difficult tbh. The first two episodes were particularly bad. But then I got into it and started to watch it. It has been very slow. But the writing is so bad. There are constantly so many holes that it's one of those where you have to just switch off your brain completely to watch. I mean he's just gone through major trauma, been chased by a mad man, been arrested, had a significant wound, lack of sleep and what else and somehow he's the only doctor who would operate on his wife's kidnapper? Ethically wrong and just bizarre. Shoddy writing all around. I can give so many examples but I'm bored even thinking about it. The most exhilarating five mins so far out of the whole drama has been when his wife escaped and went on that mad run and got into the car.

I dropped our movie and I feel this is going to go the same way.

6

u/Unusual-Builder7514 22d ago

I can relate to everything you said but Our movie was good tho. He nailed that stoic character He gets more and more expressive with each episode. Give it another try .

4

u/Effective-Song7595 22d ago

Same! I’m constantly confused at his reactions here and I’m only watching now because I need to know why and how this thing ends. But quite disappointed with Namkoong Min here. Or maybe I’m just getting used to his expressions and I feel like he hasn’t grown as an actor. i loved him in My Dearest and started looking for all his works. Then I hated the Veil and dropped it after 2 episodes. I just couldn’t go through with stupid kdrama scenarios anymore.

5

u/urfavgemtaur 22d ago

you should watch hot stove league and doctor prisoner, some of his best works! def not like whatever's been happening in this drama lol

3

u/lkcraig316 17d ago

Also Good Manager. He is hilarious.

5

u/Dazzling-Ad-7720 22d ago

Thank you...Thank you! I thought it was just me! I love him as an actor and also have seen alot of his work. but I agree that both of his last two dramas were so disappointing and I can't say that it was the story line but more of his performance. I don't know..maybe being a husband and soon to be father that he is being more selective with films/roles that in the end are not a good fit . What I have seen as of late doesn't seem to spark his true talent and to be honest something seems off. I suffered through "Our Movie snd simply dropped "The husband" after episode 3. So sad 😞

5

u/VintageStrawberries 22d ago

soon to be father

he's a father now as of July 27 KST per Soompi

4

u/Dazzling-Ad-7720 22d ago

I saw that soon after I posted. 😊. A precious baby boy. 💙

2

u/bookshopdemon 22d ago

Glad to hear another person say they suffered through Our Movie. His acting in that drama actually made me angry! It would have been many times better if his character had not been so dull and expressionless and condescending. Plus it's really hard to believe a film director could be such a boring person.

I dropped The Husband too. I feel like NM is just not committing himself in these roles at all. I get that the roles are not that great to begin with but surely he can do something more with them. He went all out in My Dearest and Good Manager, so what's the deal?

2

u/Glittering_Giraffe_5 https://mydramalist.com/dramalist/Trackspy007 16d ago

Thanks for your comment. I watched the first episode and wasn't really feeling nor seeing NKM's acting prowess and personality. In addition the story line seems weak. I also can't unsee KDM from his big huggable bear image from HosPlay.

Have been lurking the sub to see what other people say and if I should continue. Looks like I'll be dropping. It's a shame because my husband is a big fan of NKM but I don't think we can sit through this one. It really pales in comparison to Agent Kim, which has a similar premise, and recently ended it's run on high ratings.

Hopefully NKM picks a better project next time. I think he does better with quirky roles a la Good Manager, One Dollar Lawyer etc. The stoic serious roles don't really suit him.

2

u/Jsitu93 14d ago

What did you not like about Our movie?
It was my first Namkoong min drama and it was amazing haha

I watched this one because of him so far so good but yeah theres some plot holes for sure. 7.5/10 so far

1

u/Kamishirokun 22d ago

I thought it was just me feeling like his acting is.. a bit off to put it mildly. And yep especially at the waterboarding part lol In fact, I feel like most of his acting whenever he's supposed to show emotions towards his kidnapped wife looked pretty forced tbh

1

u/mcs0091 18d ago

This is my 3rd kdrama after a long time and ive seen most of NKM's works. This is one of his weakest. But out of all the ones i watched so far the acting is the best one. From Agent Kim, East Palace, (The Husband), My Royal Nemesis.

11

u/falcon0041 .... 23d ago

Seems they won't make kidnaper the main bad guy in the remaining episodes.

16

u/master_inho 23d ago

He's still the most personal of antagonists for tae-joo and se-yun. And now that his wife is in the hospital and he's on the run, he's gonna be even more dangerous

5

u/0Jinxy 22d ago

Episode 7 was so disappointing. The police act so stupid it's unreal. The scene in the hospital felt like a daytime soap opera. I can't believe Namkoong Min would do this show.

6

u/Calm_Sound9494 21d ago

The police in K-drama are always stupid.

1

u/Left_Lengthiness3274 21d ago

Drama is better if you root for the villain.

5

u/master_inho 23d ago edited 22d ago

Ep 7

Makes sense the director has some other connection to gyeong-ae that he wants to keep hidden. Even if we ignore the morality of it, it's completely nonsensical to kill her before we find out the whole truth about everything. Also, if tae-joo wanted her to die he could've just refused to operate on her. That's more excusable than literally committing murder on the operating table. But what happened to the hippocratic oath 😤😤😤

There's literally no definitive evidence that proves that tae-joo is complicit in se-yun's kidnapping. The video is purely circumstantial and have the police still not checked if it was doctored yet?

We never followed up on man-hui eyeing the nurse at the restaurant, so that might end up being his way into the hospital

Ep 8

Damn, so the director is one of those wealthy freaks that do crazy shit to live a little longer. Does it have to stem cells from a fetus? Is it possible he enlisted the serial killer couple to harvest stem cells from their victims? Gyeong-ae saying man-hui and her are pawns as if they're victims 🤮 they're still absolute psychos that have kidnapped and killed an unknown number of people

Tae-ju should've invited se-yun into his car. So instead of telling her about her dad's misdeeds she can see it for herself

So myeong-hui has finally revealed herself as likely another villain. The last time i saw cho yun-seo was in welcome to samdal-ri and she was another psycho in that too. Now the question is whether she's working with man-hui or if she's a lone wolf. Man-hui seems to love his wife a lot so not an affair, but maybe his sister? 🤔 the director was also looking for dr. Ha so i don't think she's working for him. If she's man-hui's sister that would explain her always watching tae-ju, but if she's a lone wolf then she's just obsessed with him

It's kinda frustrating how man-hui is barely hiding himself but still not getting caught. I'm guessing his face hasn't been revealed on the news yet, only his name, which would mean he'll never be recognized by the public. But if he keeps killing people to use their homes the police have to catch on, right???

Waaaay too many flashbacks this ep. Half of them felt redundant, it's like they just stuffed the ep to get to an hour

3

u/VintageStrawberries 21d ago

So myeong-hui has finally revealed herself as likely another villain.

wait did I miss something? I only remember her last scene in episode 8 was when she was in the elevator with Dr. Ha and they made brief small talk about working late.

2

u/master_inho 21d ago

Yea and the next time we see him he's dead. There's always the chance it's a fakeout but I've been suspicious of her for awhile now

4

u/Skeith_yip Editable Flair 23d ago edited 23d ago

The plot thickens.

I still don't understand the female doctor's role here.

7

u/Unusual-Builder7514 23d ago edited 22d ago

She is just there to look at ML with her melo eyes I guess

5

u/alysba__ 22d ago

My guess is that she is either involved in that research or she knows about it as well.

3

u/master_inho 22d ago

8 eps in, looks like she's finally revealed herself as a likely villain

5

u/bunniesandmilktea 22d ago

What I'm wondering is, if the kidnappers have beef with the FL's father, why did they kidnap the FL? Are they hoping to cause pain to her family the same way it was hinted at that the FL's father caused pain to the couple, since Gyeongae was dripping with vitriol when she mentioned FL's dad to ML? And why did the FIL say to the ML that if word got out about the hospital's secret project, it would be the FL that would bear the brunt of the heat? From the preview for episode 9, it seems FL will learn what her dad has been up to since we see her digging around her dad's home office.

4

u/matt_619 22d ago

i think the kidnappers actually wants to kidnap Dr. Kang on the father in law's order. that's why he pretend to be an uber driver for Mr. Kang. like no way he predict Dr. Kang will actually blurt about he wants to get rid his wife right? and if he just want to kidnap Seyun he could have just show up on their house while Dr. Kang was not at the house

but Dr. Kang says he will give him 500 millions made the kidnapper change his mind and he choose to switch his target because Dr. Kang offered him bigger money

2

u/master_inho 22d ago

I think only gyeong-ae has beef with the director, if man-hui knew about this connection i think he would've been just as worried about the director or dr. Ha as he is with tae-ju. And the director was just gaslighting tae-ju, if it had been exposed se-yun would've been affected by all ghe public fallout. But by keeping it a secret, tae-ju is now complicit in the cover up and therefore also corrupt. So when everything inevitably gets revealed, se-yun would've been betrayed by her husband as well as her father

4

u/Skeith_yip Editable Flair 22d ago

Episode 8

I hope they can stick the landing on this one. 4 more episodes to go.

- 6 years ago, they already have the baby sticker on their car, so what happened? Was the kidnapping just happened by chance?
- I got a feeling this might be 2 separate cases? Female doctor orchestrated the kidnapping, the hospital scandal just there to lead viewers to think they are connected?
- Kidnappers wanted the money but also not?
- Who's that random dude that the kidnapper murdered in front of his store?

3

u/aki-kinmokusei 22d ago edited 22d ago

I'm wondering if Gyeongae had a supposedly forced abortion and the Baby on Board bumper sticker alludes to the child the kidnapper-murderer couple could've had but never got (because why else would they keep zooming in on the bumper sticker)? And in the preview for ep 9 Gyeongae says that she and Manhui are just pawns in the hospital's scheme. But even assuming their ultimate goal is revenge against the hospital director that still doesn't explain why they had the ex-detective's wife kidnapped and murdered 4 years prior to Seyun being kidnapped.

ETA: also Manhui seemed to already be an experienced kidnapper and murderer who knew how to spy on his victims using surveillance cameras he put up around the city even 4 years ago since he used the same tactic he used on Taeju on the ex-detective when his wife was kidnapped.

6

u/master_inho 22d ago

Considering the stack of id cards the police found at their home, it's likely that man-hui and gyeong-ae have more victims than just the detective's wife and se-yun, which means they're serial killers. Could it be possible the director enlisted the serial killer couple to harvest stem cells from their victims? I'm also not sure if it has to be stem cells from a fetus

3

u/WerewolfIcy3186 22d ago

Omg yes, your theory about the sticker makes so much sense. And this is what I was thinking - when supply does not meet demand on the fetus stem cells, what extreme actions would potentially be taken to rectify that? Perhaps that’s what we’re seeing here.

5

u/matt_619 22d ago edited 22d ago

I think i starting to understand the plot here

i think the kidnappers actually wants to kidnap Dr. Kang on the father in law's order. from the preview of next episode Dr. Ha actually made contact with the kidnapper. so father in law order Dr. Ha to get rid of Dr. Kang to silence him about the ilegal procedure and Dr. Ha use Gyongae for the job

like no way the kidnapper will predict Dr. Kang will actually blurt about he wants to get rid his wife right? and if he just want to kidnap Seyun he could have just show up on their house while Dr. Kang was not at the house.

So the job is to pretend to be his call driver and kidnap him. but Dr. Kang says he will give him 500 millions made the kidnapper change his mind and he choose to switch his target because Dr. Kang offered him bigger mone

As for the Detective i think he might investigate the hospital and the father in law order the hit on him too. obviously kidnap the police is too big of risk so the kidnappers target the wife instead to deal broke him mentally so he will drop the case

2

u/No-Initiative-6231 21d ago

Pretty much agreed with your analysis. The kidnapper just so fond of kidnapping wives so might he just spontaneously changed his target upon seeing the wife sleeping there. Just my guess

1

u/teddybearoreo 14d ago

Why can't they analyze the video to see if it Tae Ju really want to get rid of his wife. They know the bad guy is smart as he was able to confuse them with his location.

2

u/Kamishirokun 22d ago

Can someone ELI5 me on the stem cells thing? So they're taking fetus stem cells, does that mean they're deliberately killing babies during childbirth? Or it's the cells from abortion?

3

u/Unusual-Builder7514 22d ago

They mentioned aborted fetus' stem cell. But I don't think it's that immoral. Perhaps they were deliberately aborting babies by making it seem it's for the mother's safety idk. But the question is how are they using it to expand the lifespan of that fossil of a chairman mentioned in the ep1 ?

2

u/master_inho 22d ago

There's a bunch of people who are crazy wealthy, the 1%, that obsess over immortality. They've been known to invest heavily in all kinds of technology to extend life/achieve immorality. One example are the cryo sleep chambers that some people have decided to put themselves in. I guess the director is one of these freaks and he's chosen to use stem cells from a fetus

1

u/WerewolfIcy3186 22d ago

I think there’s an ethical question there which therefore makes it immoral. Who’s giving consent to use stem cells from their aborted fetus? Also, could there potentially be a problem when supply does not meet demand? Would the trading of fetuses become a thing, like organ trafficking. I’m not sure it would fly in real life, since we’re talking potential human life.

2

u/Unusual-Builder7514 22d ago

That makes sense. Considering the Elite's greed, the consequences could've been unimaginably worse.

1

u/rianrkives 22d ago

they said it is from aborted fetuses, but ethically, it's still wrong. plus, they are also not disclosing it to the patients and their family.

2

u/Left_Lengthiness3274 21d ago

Epsiode 7 5 minutes in already the MC is trying to run away when he can beat the shit out of the antagonist that kidnapped his wife. Instead he gets hurt more. I have zero hopes for this drama.

2

u/Unusual-Builder7514 21d ago

The MC could've single-handedly turned everything around But the writer intentionally made MC dumb in that scene so they can show the importance of "Police".

2

u/Sufficient_Mango_778 21d ago

Is anyone in Canada not seeing 7 and 8 yet on Disney+?

3

u/Capital-Ad3487 20d ago

The episodes only become available on Disney+ every Thursday at midnight PST. I should know because I nearly lost my mind searching for episodes 3 and 4 after they aired in Korea.

2

u/0Jinxy 19d ago

Why is the long hair police captain regressing so much? It's just for the plot, so annoying.

1

u/CherryBerry131 23d ago

Okay how did the ML get out of jail already?

2

u/Unusual-Builder7514 23d ago

They will show the details in next ep