Kim's Convenience recap: Janet's ready for a new mission

Welcome! For the fifth season of Kim's Convenience on CBC, we'll be recapping each episode weekly, starting with the season five premiere.

If you haven't watched the new episode yet, you can check it out on CBC Gem. Go ahead, we'll wait. (And if you are outside of Canada, please wait to read this until the episode is available in your country!)

Do you want to be featured in a future recap? Send us a note at [email protected] and let us know why you're a huge fan of the show! 

We're back, & everything is cool… or is it?

Kim's Convenience is back for another season with its usual bright aesthetic, playful scripts, and brisk pace that make it our happy place of TV. Last season was full of new relationships, love-triangles, characters getting out of their comfort zones and making big life decisions. This season, a lot has changed.

In the first episode we catch up with Janet who is back from her volunteer trip to Tanzania, while Jung is in Los Angeles, and Umma is struggling to come to terms with her diagnosis. 

Janet's wants to help people, but only internationally

Finally back in Toronto after four months, Janet is holding on closely to her Tanzania experience. She's looking to help underprivileged communities, so Shannon gets her an interview for a social justice program run by her roommate Kwami (Daren A. Herbert). 

Janet's focus on international issues leads her to turn down this opportunity to work locally. Instead, she gets her hopes up for an international job, which she gets rejected from for being unqualified. She learns an important lesson of being truthful on her resume, and goes back to Kwami begging for the volunteer job teaching kids photography.

This first episode seems to tackle the idea that social issues and "underprivileged communities" are only "over there" in "developing countries", and not right in our backyards. It will be interesting to see how Janet's perspective changes as she volunteers in her own community.

Janet's love triangle, or square… we can't keep track anymore.

Long-time friends and roommates Janet and Gerald left off last season with a spontaneous goodbye kiss that Janet didn't want to talk about before they parted ways, but said the kiss was "nothing". That was right before Raj decided last-minute to go to Tanzania with Janet. Before leaving for the airport, Gerald said he'll be thinking of Janet every day (in Korean, so Janet didn't understand him). But it looks like these relationships are taking a different tone this season. Raj and Janet decided to be just friends after a mysterious incident, while Gerald is back from Korea working at the convenience store, and things are WEIRD.

I mean, am I the only one who was expecting them to pick up on their romantic connection? Making things even more awkward, Gerald told his girlfriend Chelsea about their kiss! Janet and Gerald both agree they should be friends, but Gerald seems to be the one who decided this. We can't help but wonder how their relationship will be changed, how Chelsea really feels about their smooch *giggle giggle*, or if there was actually more to that "nothing" kiss they shared.

Other big moments:

• Shannon and Jung go long-distance: We get to explore another side of Shannon and Jung as they develop their long-distance relationship... Maybe too many sides of them.

• Umma tells Janet about her diagnosis: Umma has Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and is having a hard time telling Janet, especially with so much happening in Janet's life. But finally, at the end of the episode we're left with a tear-filled mother-daughter moment that sets the tone for the next episode.

• Quote of the week: When Shannon asks about Tanzania, Janet tells her that "farmers chase away elephants by throwing condoms filled with chilli powder at them." 

Do you have any favourite moments this week or any fan art to share? Tag us at @kimsconvenience or @cbccomedy.