Divorce Attorney Shin Episode 4 continues the trivial case of Park Ae-ran and upon learning useful intel, Park Yu-seok schemes to antagonize Sung-han & hamper with the case. Also, Jang Hyeong-geun finds himself in a daze after receiving some distressing personal news.
The cast of the series includes Cho Seung-woo as Shin Sung-han, Han Hye-jin as Lee Seo-jin, Kim Sung-kyun as Jang Hyeong-geun, Jung Moon-sung as Jo Jeong-sik, Kang Mal-geum as Kim So-yeon, Jeon Bae-soo as Park Yu-seok, Han Eun-seong as Choi Jun, Cha Hwa-yeon as Ma Geum-hee, and Noh Susanna as Jin Young-joo among others.
Netflix’s synopsis of the show reads:
DRIVEN BY A PERSONAL TRAGEDY, A PIANIST-TURNED-LAWYER NAVIGATES THE COMPLEX WORLD OF DIVORCE — FIGHTING FOR HIS CLIENTS TO WIN BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
-Divorce Attorney Shin Episode 4 Review and Recap Contains Spoilers-
The episode starts with Shin Sung-han waking up in a melancholic mood after getting a dream about her dead sister. He reaches his office earlier than usual and finds Lee Seo-jin standing by the main entrance door. He ushers her in & she apologises for coming with her resume abruptly. She further says that it was a mistake and will take her resume back.
Before she could undo everything, lots of people come for a consultation at the office, probably after seeing Seo-jin coming in & also because of Sung-han increase in popularity after winning her case. He asks her & para-legal Jang Hyeong-geun to deal with it, meanwhile he goes to consult Park Ae-ran.
At the same time the intern appointed by Park Yu-seok is seen at the office building & catches Sung-han talking to Ae-ran. He goes back to Keumhwa law firm and reports about the case. Thinking it’s a mere case, the intern Choi Jun gets appointed as the attorney against Sung-han. Meanwhile Ae-ran tells her attorney that she couldn’t find the ownership transfer document & got caught by her husband, who revealed that it wasn’t there.
Morever, her mother-in-law is also planning to sue, while Ae-ran is going down in depression for which she has been getting a treatment since last 3 years. This strikes something in Sung-han’s mind and he says that before MIL does anything they will file for defamation against her claiming that Ae-ran never hit her, yet the rumours were spread by MIL.
Her husband Seo Byeong Chul also gets visited by Yu-seok, who persuades him take up Choi Jun as his attorney, absolutely free of charge. We also get to know that Ae-ran got pregnant before they got married, while the MIL had plans to marry off her son to a Vice Principal’s daughter. She despised Ae-ran from the start & taunted on everything from the type of diaper used to even going on a simple office trip with her husband.
The three friends were seen to go camping on the weekend, where Hyeon-geun states that he doesn’t know when Sung-han might quit suddenly & that’s the reason for not expanding their work or staff. Sung-han also reveals about getting a dream about Ju-hwa & how her son was not even allowed to come to the funeral by her ex-husband.
In the present day, her son Gi-yeong is living a lonely life with his stepmother, who wants to cut off all contact with ex-wife’s relatives or anything that reminds of her. She was the one who got custody of Gi-yeong by making Yu-seok work in her favour. His dad complies to stop allowing monthly visits to Sung-han but requests to send him one last time, to bid goodbye.
Talking about goodbyes, after meeting up with Ji-eun, Hyeong-geun gets a text from her saying that she couldn’t say it that day but she is pregnant & wants to get a divorce, as soon as possible. He receives the text while having a conversation with Sung-han but walks out crying & ends up eating extra spicy ramen with wine at the noodles shop.
The other two friends come looking for him to his home & after knowing what happened, they try to sleep over. But Hyeong-geun sends them back but not before they grabbed all the sharp objects, incase he tries to harm himself. Finally, the day of defamation case mediation comes & the husband’s attorney claims that the building was a gift to his mother.
Sung-han replies to it by stating the fact that the husband hasn’t been working for the last 8 years, the sole earner is Ae-ran and thus deserves a share in it. He asks the husband if he thinks it’s only his building, even though his wife has been feeding the family. Before he could go on further, Ae-ran confesses to beating her MIL & lying about it.
Seeing her in such a miserable state, Byeong-chul takes out the recording and the notarised document about ownership. Due to which it was confirmed that it belonged to the husband only & thus Ae-ran gets her share in the same as well. Back at home the MIL gets furious at her son and once again brings up how the Vice principal’s daughter would have never done that.
At this point, the son reveals that the daughter actually refused to marry him when she got to know that he plans to with his mother. She wanted to live alone with him. Sad by the refusal he took up drinking and Ae-ran was the only one who helped him through that phase. Slowly they fell in love and got pregnant, leading to their marriage.
Even at that the MIL wanted her son to have married the other girl and says that he should have build a life of his own, instead of taking care of the mother as an extra burden. However, their story ends on a rather heartfelt note when Ae-ran apologises for putting her hand on the mother and in return the MIL also thanks her for taking care all these years.
On the other hand, the defendant lawyer Choi Jun resigns from Keumhwa Law firm & straight away goes to Shin Sung-han to ask for a job. At first, he refuses to employ anyone from that firm but then Jun brings up a deal that he will delete the piano playing video uploaded by him, if he gets a job. Although the episode ends with Sung-han looking at Jun with furiousness but we can expect him to be working at the office from next episode.
Summing Up: Divorce Attorney Shin Episode 4
The episode was a mix of some new beginnings and some ends. However, the ending of Ae-ran’s story doesn’t sit right with me. After despising her until the previous day, a MIL can’t have a change of heart so quickly. It would have been a better ending if the husband stood up in favour of his wife and not portray that she was the only one who compromised to live with his mother.
Although Sung-han co-related their marital issue with the classical musician Robert Schumann & Clara Schumann, who received same kind of opposition from Clara’s father. But at least Clara was strong enough to pursue her love & not comply by her father and marry the guy that he wanted to hook her up with.
He talks about the composition Three Romances & particularly about simple, heartfelt among them. If you listen, it sounds like something that would play when two lovers decide to end their relationship even though they clearly are in love with each other. Although a beautiful composition but doesn’t exactly match with the case, in my opinion.
Divorce Attorney Shin is currently streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Check Out All Our Divorce Attorney Shin Reviews Here!