by: Raine
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Almost over…one…more…episode…*gasp*
AGB Nielson Nationwide had this episode coming in at 25.6%.
episode 49 recap
Soon-shin wakes up in bed with a bad feeling as Mi-ryeong walks towards the water. The next morning, the news covers Mi-ryeong’s disappearance. Granny has the t.v. turned off and bad mouths Mi-ryeong. She mourns Chang-hoon and Soon-shin feels terrible.
Then, reporters disturb the set of Soon-shin’s drama and won’t leave until Soon-shin shows up. The director kindly asks her to leave for the day and reschedules her scenes for another time. She apologizes and then leaves with reporters on her heels. In-sung smartly gets her out of the fray quickly.
In the car, In-sung says it better that people pity Soon-shin instead of turn on her. It’s a relief that Mi-ryeong disappeared – it takes the heat off of her.
Hwang goes to Joon-ho to ask for help in finding Mi-ryeong. He’s really worried about her because of how harsh he was with her. He hasn’t been able to find her at her normal haunts. Joon-ho suggests waiting for her to make contact – she’s isolating herself on purpose.
Then Joon-ho has to go meet with the investors who are not happy with the Mi-ryeong scandal.
Soon-shin broods and worries about Mi-ryeong. She doesn’t have to do it alone anymore, though. Joon-ho comes to sit beside her. After he asks about her, she asks after him and the company. D’aw. He assures her this isn’t the first time for him and that he’ll be okay. She apologizes and he puts his arm around her and places her head on his shoulder. He wants to cuddle just for a moment. Taking her hand, he tells her to cheer up.
That was cute. That’s what a boyfriend is for!
As Hwang leaves the agency he gets a call from Yeon-ah who is frantic with worry. Hwang, however, really doesn’t give Yeon-ah the time of day. He reminds her of her threats and leaves her.
Young-hoon comes to pick up the pieces. Yeon-ah starts to cry, but stops herself because Mi-ryeong is Soon-shin’s mom, not hers. Well….yeah.
The Ex calls Hye-shin to tell her he’s going back to Hong Kong the next day. He is too ashamed to say goodbye to Woo-joo in person and wants Hye-shin to tell her. Woo-joo overhears and Hye-shin offers to take her to say goodbye. The answer is “no”.
Hye-shin meets with Jin-wook to tell him about the Ex going back to Hong Kong and that Woo Joo doesn’t want to say goodbye to him. Hye-shin is worried Woo Joo got really hurt, but Jin-wook thinks she’ll bounce back. He asks if they found a suspect, but they haven’t yet.
The case is weighing heavily on Yoo-shin who worries Chan-woo with how tired she sounds on the phone. She heads home and gets an earful from Gil-ja who has returned to a messy house and blames Soon-shin’s ineptitude as a homemaker. Gil-ja thinks that she should quit if she can’t keep the house neat for her husband. Yoo-shin defends herself and says she’s trying; then she storms into her room, on the verge of tears.
Bok-man confronts Gil-ja who says that Yoo-shin isn’t the only tired one. Two seconds later, Chan-mi comes in and tells them about what happened with Mi-ryeong and they figure out why Yoo-shin has been so upset. Gil-ja feels like glorified dog poo. Heh.
Chan-woo gets to comfort Yoo-shin as she cries her frustration out over Gil-ja and her father’s death. She’s pretty desolate and decides to crawl under the covers and cry it out. Sometimes you just need to.
The next morning she heads out and is still pretty subdued. Gil-ja demands to know why she didn’t explain why she was so down yesterday, but she can only apologize and leave.
Hye-shin tries to get Woo-joo to say goodbye to her father, but she refuses. Granny overhears and intervenes in her obnoxious way: blaming Jin-wook. Hye-shin doesn’t have the guts to defend herself and it is Woo-joo who cuts off Granny’s tirade and defends her mother. She says the Ex is going to Hong Kong to see his girlfriend and tells Granny not to be mean to Hye-shin anymore. Granny changes her tune and badmouths the Ex and while she’s blabbing, Woo-joo leaves in tears.
Jin-wook sees Woo-joo passing the bakery and catches her, knowing she’ll hurt more if she doesn’t say goodbye. He manages to convince her to “help” him by bribing her with sorbet. Of course, the sorbet isn’t what does it, but she doesn’t want to turn her beloved ahjussi down.
Granny rambles about how she sucks and her life sucks and how everything is her fault, even Mi-ryeong’s bad life. She was mean to her when she was young.
Hye-shin reports that Jin-wook took Woo-joo to the airport, shocking Jung-ae. Woo-joo is also shocked and is only convinced when Jin-wook gets down on one knee and convinces her to go. He was too scared to see his grandmother when he was in jail and didn’t know she was sick at the time. He regrets it and doesn’t want her to regret it. She goes in and it’s actually kinda cute how touched the Ex is when he sees her. He doesn’t say a word about Jin-wook, but is completely focused on his daughter.
She tells her father she understands and she’s satisfied just to see him before he goes. When he turns to go, she calls him back to say that this time he has to answer her phone calls. She also wants to go to an amusement park the next time he comes. He looks moved by her and it’s a pretty sincere scene that doesn’t feel forced. There is something about the earnestness of a child that can move even the stoniest of hearts.
Hye-shin sees Woo-joo wishing her father well and I just think that little girl who plays Woo-joo rocks. The ladies meet up with Jin-wook who tries to quickly leave, thinking he’s not wanted. Hye-shin wants him to go with, but he doesn’t listen until Woo-joo reminds him that he owes her sorbet. D’aw! You accepted him! Jin-wook can’t help but smile and takes her hand as he takes the ladies home.
Hwang finally finds Mi-ryeong in her home town. She tried to drown herself and Hwang runs out to the beach to stop her from another suicide attempt. But she’s just wandering. He screams that he was worried and wants to take her back to Seoul. He can’t believe he came back to the place where she tried multiple times to suicide in her past. There are people who make come backs after worse scandals, he tells her, and tries to drag her to the car.
She assures him she’s not trying to kill herself, but she’s relaxing and letting old memories wash over her. She thanks him for worrying about him and has put severance pay in his account. She sends him back to Seoul alone because it’s better for everyone. He only leaves when she threatens to disappear again.
Guh, woe-is-me is annoying.
Yi-jung lures her mother out for a massage at Dong-hyuk’s hospital. They talk about her blind date and Soo-jung wants the man to really love her daughter. Yi-jung gets her to buy her lunch and it’s pretty obvious that it’s a setup to slap Soo-jung together with Dong-hyuk. He appears moments later and Yi-jung slips away, leaving the adults to awkwardly chat. Dong-hyuk takes charge and she softens towards him immediately.
I like seeing them reconcile. I don’t like seeing the show gloss over emotional cheating. It is just as bad as physical cheating.
Joon-ho reads about Mi-ryeong and then Hwang comes in to beg him to save Mi-ryeong. His solution: go to Soon-shin. I’ll admit it is the best solution, but I’m so anxious for this to end that I want Mi-ryeong to hurl herself into the ocean, let everyone have a big cry, have a marriage with lots of babies and let that be that.
But anyway, Soon-shin wants nothing to do with Mi-ryeong, but Joon-ho has a bad feeling about her. She asked Dong-hyuk to hand in the black box and went to the police station. Joon-ho doesn’t want her to forgive her mother, but just to meet her. He says it’s because Soon-shin is in pain – she refuses to admit her pain and leaves.
Soon-shin drinks away her sorrows and the pojangmacha ahjumma says drinking while unhappy is poison, which is what her father once told her and she once told Mi-ryeong. She continues to drink.
Jung-ae finds Mi-ryeong’s bracelet, which Soon-shin snatches away. Jung-ae immediately guesses it’s from Mi-ryeong and Soon-shin says she’ll throw it away. She sends her mother out so she can sleep off the alcohol.
Gil-ja cleans the house and immediately jumps on Chan-woo when he comes home. Is Yoo-shin okay? she wonders. Turns out, she’s been worried all day. When she hears that Yoo-shin is still at work, she goes to visit and sees Yoo-shin tiredly working alone in the office. She’s brought food for her and uses it to start her apology. She knows that Yoo-shin has been trying and apologizes for yelling. She knows how hard it is to work and take care of family and apologizes again for being so hard on her. They have a nice moment.
It was long in coming, but this resolution, too, doesn’t feel forced.
Hwang drinks his sorrows over Mi-ryeong away. Then he drunkenly stumbles to Soon-shin’s to beg her to bring Mi-ryeong back. He says it’s his fault because he didn’t let her report the accident. He tells Soon-shin not to be so hard on Mi-ryeong who has no one. Soon-shin snaps that it’s not her business and tells him to get lost and never come back. Jung-ae witnesses it, but Soon-shin has nothing to say.
She goes into her room to brood and I can’t blame her. Jung-ae follows her and watches her breakdown over the confusion, anger and hurt that she feels. She hates Mi-ryeong and that she’s her mother and that she can’t stop thinking about her. Jung-ae holds her as she cries.
Where was this a million episodes ago? Guh.
Jung-ae talks to Chang-hoon’s pictures and says she hates Mi-ryeong, but can’t truly hate her because she pities Soon-shin. She also doesn’t know what to do without him.
The next day, Soon-shin decides to go see Mi-ryeong and asks Joon-ho to take her there. Mi-ryeong is shocked to see her and wonders if Hwang sent her to stop her from killing herself. She just came to avoid reporters and gossip. But Soon-shin knows she tried to kill herself. She won’t forgive her if she dies or pity her and Mi-ryeong says she doesn’t want her to because she made Soon-shin suffer. She just wants her daughter to pretend she doesn’t exist.
Soon-shin wonders how long she’ll run like a coward. Wasn’t abandoning her enough? How can Mi-ryeong show up and then ask Soon-shin to pretend like she doesn’t exist. Didn’t she regret abandoning her and enjoy reuniting with her? Was that a lie?
Soon-shin orders her not to run away anymore because she’s her mother. At least once she should act like one. Then she leaves Mi-ryeong to think about everything she said and runs into Joon-ho’s arms to cry.
Comments:
Mi-ryeong didn’t change at all. It’s what I wanted most out of this show, but it didn’t happen. She’s still a selfish coward. I guess there’s something to be said for consistency? Maybe?
I’m glad Soon-shin finally said what she needed to say. She should’ve done it a long time ago instead of just letting Mi-ryeong walk all over her.
I think the show was trying to explore what makes a good parent and has determined that the non-biological parents rock more than the biological ones: Jin-wook, Jung-ae. I kind of want to take Jung-ae out of that line-up, but she’s better than Mi-ryeong. It’s not worth analyzing further.
On the the LAST FREAKING EPISODE!
Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 (final)
Lisa Espinosa 