When the Camellia Blooms

September 18, 2019

Oh Dong-baek (Gong Hyo-jin), a single mother, moves to the small seaside town of Ongsan and opens her bar Camellia. The town immediately gossips. Police officer Hwang Yong-shik (Kang Ha-neul) spots her and is smitten on sight. Guryongpo's preserved colonial-era streets are established as Ongsan.

September 19, 2019

Ongsan's residents make their displeasure at an unmarried single mother known. Yong-shik's earnest, uncomplicated devotion to Dong-baek begins its long battle against her self-protective walls.

September 25, 2019

The Camellia bar and its nightly regulars are established. Dong-baek's skill at listening to people who need to be heard — the actual service she provides — is shown.

September 26, 2019

Dong-baek's ex Jong-ryul (Kim Ji-seok) reappears in Ongsan. His reasons for coming back — and his relationship to her son Pil-gu — complicate the drama's geometry.

October 2, 2019

Yong-shik's feelings for Dong-baek, expressed with complete lack of social armour, are the drama's purest comedy. She is mortified. He is undeterred.

October 3, 2019

The first evidence that a serial killer called Joker is operating in Ongsan is established. The drama's thriller dimension enters its world.

October 9, 2019

Dong-baek's son Pil-gu (Kim Kang-hoon) and his own social struggles in Ongsan. His relationship with his mother — protective, perceptive, funny — is the drama's most underrated thread.

October 10, 2019

The Guryongpo harbour at night. Dong-baek and Yong-shik's relationship in its most tentative and most honest phase simultaneously.

October 16, 2019

Ongsan's community begins its slow turn toward Dong-baek. The drama's ensemble — every resident with their own story — is fully established.

October 17, 2019

Yong-shik's family and their initial horror at his feelings for Dong-baek. His mother Deok-soon (Kim Sun-young) is one of 2019's finest supporting performances.

October 23, 2019

Jong-ryul's real reasons for returning to Ongsan and what he wants from Dong-baek become clearer — and more complicated.

October 24, 2019

The police investigation into the Joker killings and their connection to Ongsan's history.

October 30, 2019

Dong-baek and Yong-shik at the drama's midpoint — her defences weakening, his devotion unwavering. The Camellia bar at its most alive.

October 31, 2019

Ongsan's residents are fully invested in Dong-baek and Yong-shik's relationship. The community's warmth is the drama's most generous quality.

November 6, 2019

The full story of how Dong-baek came to be a single mother in Ongsan — the history she has been protecting Pil-gu from.

November 7, 2019

Yong-shik fights for Dong-baek against everyone who thinks she doesn't deserve happiness — including herself.

November 13, 2019

The Joker's connection to Dong-baek becomes clear. The drama's thriller and romance dimensions are fully intertwined.

November 14, 2019

Dong-baek and Yong-shik together. The drama does not rush this or make it easy.

November 20, 2019

Ongsan's residents reckon with how their judgement of Dong-baek created the conditions the Joker exploited.

November 21, 2019

The finale. 23.8% nationwide — highest-rated Korean drama of 2019. Gong Hyo-jin and Kang Ha-neul's performances, and the drama's argument that community warmth is both the problem and the solution to the violence that grows in its blind spots.