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13 Episodes 2021 - 2021
Episode 1
Wed, Jun 2, 202122 mins
Umma receives a diagnosis of having multiple sclerosis, it caught in its early stages meaning that the disease will not progress drastically in the immediate future if she manages it well. With it, the Kims are eligible for a disabled parking pass, which Umma doesn't want to use, at least not yet, until she tells specifically Janet about the diagnosis. Appa, on the other hand, sees the benefits of using the pass, even when Umma isn't with him. Umma telling Janet the news is more difficult than she anticipates as Janet is still settling back into life at home after her volunteer time in Tanzania. What that trip has showed Janet is that she wants to work for a non-profit, most specifically in international development. What Janet may not yet realize is that while she is shooting for the moon for her first such job, her resume may not yet match her aspirations. Meanwhile, Shannon and Jung, the latter now in business college in El Segundo, California, are doing what twenty-first century couples are doing in long distance relationships, namely having video sex. The problem is Shannon's seeming lack of computer savviness.
Episode 2
22 mins
Local morning television show personality Beverly Chan has just joined the congregation at the church. Most, including rabid fan Pastor Nina, are in awe of Beverly, who has agreed to make the church announcements at the weekly services, what Beverly likes now to coin as "Channouncements". The one person who is not enthralled is Umma, who used to make the announcements until a few months ago when Pastor Nina said they were no longer needed. Feeling like she is being pushed aside in favor of celebrity, Umma tries to regain her position and pride using whatever tools she has at her disposal. Meanwhile, Janet has kept a journal ever since her return from Tanzania, Appa who feels that the journal is taking the place of what used to be their regular conversations which he misses. After Appa "accidentally" happens to read something nice that Janet wrote about him in her journal, he does whatever he can to get Janet to say those words directly to him without letting her know that he read it. And needing to keep the exterior doors open in dealing with chemical fumes is making the garage at the Handy office like a furnace as all the hot air is blowing in from outside. Although against company policy, Shannon is allowing those working in the garage, namely Terence, Stacie and Omar, to wear shorts. Terence is adamantly opposed, he later confiding to Shannon that being teased for a birthmark above his knee when he was younger has always made him feel self conscious wearing them. Assuring Terence that they are all grown ups and that his colleagues won't tease him, Shannon does not expect what Terence does with those words of reassurance, a problem which results that is exponentially worse than his birthmark or Shannon allowing them to contravene the no-shorts policy.
Episode 3
22 mins
With tickets for court-side seats, Jung invites Kimchee to Los Angeles for the weekend centered on a bros outing to a Raptors/Clippers game. The one caveat Jung has is for Kimchee not to tell Shannon who would probably feel hurt that Jung didn't ask her. This caveat places Kimchee in a difficult position in needing to ask Shannon for time off from work, despite it being the first time ever he's made such a request. Meanwhile, Janet discovers that Umma hasn't told any of her friends about her MS, she telling little white lies to explain issues around it. Janet thinks that Umma should be more open about it, with a good first step being to join an MS support group. To Janet's amazement, Umma does heed her advice about the support group, but it isn't quite as Janet envisioned. And much to Gerald's horror, Appa, who mistakes it for a rag, not only uses Gerald's sentimental baby blanket to clean up a mess, but rips it in half right in front of him. Even after Appa finds out about the nature of the blanket and Umma sews it back together for Gerald, Appa, in kidding Gerald about being a man baby because of the "blankie", still doesn't understand why what he did seems to be such a big deal. Gerald may find a way to demonstrate why.
Episode 4
22 mins
Using her health issue as the right button, Umma convinces Appa to play tennis with her more often until she can no longer do so. As a surprise, Appa takes her to a well kept public court in an upscale neighborhood frequented solely by the wealthy residents of that area rather than the shabby court they usually play on in their own neighborhood. As such, they pretend to be from that neighborhood so as not to feel out of place. Things get complicated when they meet couple Eleanor and John, with Umma and Appa's lies about themselves snowballing as they try to keep up with the Joneses in seeing Eleanor and John as potential new friends with wealthy benefits. Meanwhile, Janet too makes a new friend in Maya, a conscientious colleague at the community center who helped her out of a jam of Janet's own making. In a girls' night in as Maya shows interest in seeing Janet's photos from Tanzania, Janet will discover Maya isn't quite who Janet thought she was. And Omar, in asking for some time off with his family from Saskatoon coming to town for a wedding, confides to Shannon that he hates the constant pressure they place on him every time he sees them in asking about his non-existent love life. Shannon's advice to him to lie to keep the family peace takes on dimensions that she didn't foresee.
Episode 5
22 mins
After doing some traveling, Nayoung is on her way back to Korea via a western Canada swing, she making a stop to stay with the Kims before catching her westbound flight. While Appa is happy to see her, he isn't as happy about her companion, her recently acquired pet tarantula, of which Appa is obviously scared without wanting to appear so. Appa has opportunity after opportunity to overcome his fear. Meanwhile, Jung has returned to Toronto, and with Kimchee now having settled comfortably with Gwen in his and Jung's old apartment, Jung has decided to move in with Shannon and Kwami. In Umma seeing this move as Jung stating that he and Shannon are serious if not on the way to the altar, Jung believes a lunch at the apartment with the three of them is in order as a certain strain exists between Umma and Shannon in both directions. While all three overthink the lunch, Jung takes it to another level. And Kimchee is deemed heartless by the Handy staff in he having seen "whatshername" (the employee whose name he can never remember) crying in the corner, and he having pretended not to see her as he was in the middle of a managers' telephone meeting with head office. He devises a scheme to overcome this new heartless moniker.
Episode 6
22 mins
Going into Janet's room since it is also the store room and laundry room, Appa finds a bag of marijuana. Appa is incensed not only because of Janet violating house rules with the marijuana, but because of he believing of the ills of drugs, it the cause of the issues between him and Jung, who at the time dealt drugs, leading to their estrangement. Despite the marijuana being brought in by her friends without Janet having smoked any, Janet is still incensed in turn by Appa's hard and fast stance against something that is now legal. The issue brings Janet and Umma closer for a reason unaware to Appa, but it also unwittingly causes Appa to feel the effects of the drug first hand. Meanwhile, Shannon wants to host a small dinner party at the apartment for the staff both as a welcome home for Jung and as a thank you for a job well done with impressive latest quarterly numbers. But as Jung, at home, is ill-equipped to handle the food preparation on his own while the others are still at work, the evening doesn't go quite according to plan for no fault of Shannon, who nonetheless receives the brunt of the evening's neglect.
Episode 7
22 mins
Janet finds an envelope containing $210 in the store. Deep down, she wants to keep the money, but Umma wants to do "the right thing", especially if it belongs to a little old lady in need, Janet ultimately convincing her to hold on to the money for forty-eight hours after which they'll decide what to if no one claims it. They take opposing approaches during that forty-eight hours, but the problem becomes if their lie radar - knowing when someone is trying to scam them - is as accurate as they believe. Meanwhile, Kimchee and Appa, each by himself, run into each other in the process of grabbing lunch, they deciding to eat together. They can both admit to themselves that they had a good time hanging out together, but that may not be a good enough reason for either of them to plan to hang out together again. And Jung and Shannon decide on their night in to stream the latest episode of one of Jung's favorite shows. The experience is ruined for Jung with Shannon, a neophyte concerning the show, being a Sally Soundtrack. In Jung taking Kimchee's advice to do the same to Shannon when they watch one of her favorite shows, Jung will discover something very basic about both his and Shannon's nature.
Episode 8
22 mins
In noticing that Umma and Gerald have matching head wounds. Appa learns that Gerald helped Umma when she slipped in the shower, the implication that Gerald saw Umma nude which doesn't really key into Appa's brain in his concern for Umma's well being. The situation may be slightly different when the slippery shower floor claims another victim who needs assistance. Meanwhile, Janet is trying to increase her cool factor in front of some of the participants in her photography class at the community center in they already having been impressed in earlier meeting her. Those later measures are passing herself off as doing the criminal things that Jung did when he was a teenager. To make the stories more realistic, Janet tries to find out directly from Jung the details of him as a teenager without letting him know what she intends to do with the information. And it's Jung and Kimchee's ten year high school reunion, which neither intends to attend, which is only what Kimchee wants Gwen to think when Kimchee learns that "his" Ingrid, i.e. his old girlfriend, will be attending. In figuring out if he should make the effort to go because of Ingrid, he enlists the help of Stacie who seems to know the ins and outs of online stalking.
Episode 9
22 mins
Pastor Nina and Jimmy Young have broken up which makes the upcoming championship baseball game in which they are coaching the opposing teams more tense. Appa, the umpire, vows not to favor one side over the other in his expert umpiring skills. What happens at the game turns the feud between two into a relationship of a different kind between three. Meanwhile, Janet has a bunch of new used clothes in a clothing swap with Samira. A sweater that Umma ultimately claims may, as Gerald warned and Janet begins to believe in unusual occurrences around the house, contain the spirit of the deceased former owner who shows how she feels about Umma's treatment of the sweater. And a last minute Kimchee and Jung babysitting session for Gwen's adolescent niece Becca that was supposed to be a boys' night in devolves into an argument about their respective parenting styles and how they themselves were parented.
Episode 10
22 mins
Appa believes something that Janet did was a move to prank him, when in reality it was just a fluke of nature. Still, Appa is determined to prank Janet back, but even better. Janet may unwittingly prank Appa back first, or did she *not* again? Meanwhile, Shannon has just undergone eye surgery. Trying to be a good boyfriend, Jung makes Shannon a Korean stew that Umma always used to make for him when he was or pretended to be sick, or so he says. In reality, Umma made the stew knowing that Jung would have have messed up her recipe. That white lie has unintended consequences. And while Shannon is off work, Kimchee, with Shannon's blessing, is taking his first solo meeting with Ruth, the Handy District Manager. Without having the information at hand, Kimchee, not wanting to look unprepared, agrees to pilot test a kiosk at their outlet, he determined to make it a success at any cost as his first managerial as opposed to assistant managerial act, that is until he learns the unexpected measure the outcome of success.
Episode 11
22 mins
Umma immediately sees Vince, a tradesman who has come to the store to provide an estimate for some brickwork, as the perfect husband for Janet: he's Korean, young, good looking and Christian. While Janet can admit that he is good looking, she doesn't want Umma forcing random strangers on her. What Janet does with respect to Vince may give people in general the wrong impression. Meanwhile, Shannon, in having seen them in the store, has bought a gift of a box of persimmons for Appa and Umma in remembering a sweet story about the fruit that Jung has told about his childhood in relation to Appa, the gift which Jung is reluctant to pass along in he and Appa not doing "spontaneous gift giving" well. That initial act has a snowball effect, not always in a good way for Jung. And Shannon and Kimchee are conducting the staff performance evaluations. While they consider Stacie an almost perfect employee, Shannon has noticed that she has recently been coming in late. To give Kimchee practice, Shannon wants him to address this issue with Stacie, which is difficult for him to do in seeing the staff as his friends who he doesn't want to criticize in any way. What ends up happening may negatively affect Kimchee and Shannon's working relationship with Stacie as collateral damage.
Episode 12
22 mins
In part because of a mishap involving Gerald but largely because of Umma's health situation, Janet is able to convince Appa to join her in a basic one day first aid course at the community center. Janet purposely doesn't tell him about one key aspect of the course, it which Appa jumps on in his usual manner upon the discovery. However, it may expose Appa's bullying tendencies as opposed to what Appa believes is his general jocular and witty nature. Meanwhile, Umma begins to retreat from her role as prayer leader at the church. While she can admit that her prayers for many congregants having not resulted in the well being of those congregants is the reason, she is a little more reluctant to admit something more fundamental in believing that God is pulling away from her. And after three failed attempts in sending in audition tapes, Jung and Shannon have made it to the interview stage as contestants for the next season of the reality television competition show, "The Astounding Trek". While others at Handy believe they made the shortlist as the "drama couple" trope which they are fine with, they learn the reason is something else, which could fundamentally change the nature of their relationship forever.
Episode 13
22 mins
After his time in California, Jung is feeling like he is stuck in a rut returning to work at Handy, the timing being bad in the job market being in a slump. The one person who thinks Jung may be a benefit to her family's business in the most minor of ways is Janet, who wants Appa and Umma to consider letting Jung make a presentation to them about how to update the store if only for Jung. In Appa and Umma indeed doing it solely for Jung, the thoughts of the future of Kim's Convenience comes into the forefront of all of the Kims, albeit not always in the same way in each thinking about his or her own individual future. Meanwhile, old, embarrassing photos of staff are being used as memes at the Handy office, each successive meme meant to one up the one previous. One of Kimchee hits home for him in showing him in his childhood with his father, who abandoned the family shortly after that photo was taken. Kimchee has to decide if these memories of his father, who he has not thought meaningfully about in quite a while, are enough for him to make an effort actually to find him, his thoughts affecting someone else in the office directly in thinking about the future. And Jung and Shannon haven't yet talked about their Astounding Trek application, where they both spontaneously agreed to the producer to get engaged on camera if it meant they would make it onto the show (which it didn't). While Jung barely remembers the situation, Shannon may see it more as a harbinger of the status of their relationship.