I’ll go briefly over the scene with Ma Go at the funeral, okay? Then, I’ll go for my morning run. My Part 3 should come later today.
**************
The Grim Reaper doesn’t like that Manwol interfered and stopped the Granny Ghost from proceeding to the afterlife. Ha! After 1000 years as a hotelier, Manwol is very good at perceiving the secret desires of the dead. She knew that Granny Ghost would be “foolishly greedy” to want to see her great-great-grandkid. Of course, after witnessing her family and her descendants grow in number, Granny Ghost takes pride in seeing the latest addition.
But Manwol isn’t worried that Granny Ghost will become lost, because Ma Go is always there. She says, “They won’t let such a special soul wander the living realm.” And she says this with a tinge of ridicule. She’s mocking the way Ma Go tends to these special souls and calls her a “nosy woman” or a busybee
To me, Manwol misses the obvious here. She, too, must be a very very very special soul because for 1000 years, that nosy woman Ma Go, has been keeping an eye on her.
But Ma Go knows what Manwol is up to and she goes straight to the point.
Mago says that while Manwol is all shriveled up and living like a “dead” person in the real world, Mira has been reborn so many times. Mira hasn’t had it easy. Her reincarnations were in a tough and hard conditions.
Ma Go tells Manwol to “just let her pass by.” Meaning, Ma Go wants Manwol to be understanding of someone who was in a more dire circumstances that she was. MiRa is a person to be pitied.
Manwol asks, “How could I just let pass me by?”
Ma Go answers, “To you, she may be an object of an unfinished grudge. To her, you’re a piece of her previous life which she doesn’t remember.” Ma Go wants Manwol to be the bigger person here. She reminds her that Mira is an innocent person and Manwol will be hurting an innocent person if she takes out her anger on Mira.
But the weakness in the reincarnation logic is obvious here. There’s a conundrum: how can the reincarnated person be innocent and at the same time, GUILTY of her previous sins. A person is either innocent or guilty. She can’t be both. If she’s innocent, why is she paying for a crime she didn’t commit?
Manwol: You wanted me to let her go. That’s why you made me meet her through Chansung.
Remember the lesson from the Wannabe Bride’s ghost story: Letting go is more difficult than holding on. Manwol needs to learn to cut off the relationship, not the romantic relationships, but her hate-filled relationships, too. And Manwol gets it wrong again. Ma Go is doing this for her own good, for her transformation, for her own sake, not MiRa’s.
Ma Go commands her, “You cannot harm that girl.”
Manwol concedes, “Only then shall I leave this world peacefully. Just like Warmhearted Ma Go wants.” She adds, “To give you some relief, I’ll go back to the hotel without causing trouble and stay there.”
To me, she says this sulkily. Her tone is petulant. She’s agreeing to Ma Go’s orders because she has NO choice in the matter. And when she says that she’s going back to the hotel, she means “Fine! I won’t bother you anymore then. I’ll just take sorry ass out of here.”
She leaves in a huff, in a snit.
She goes to the car and addresses the Grim Reaper, “Drop me off on your way or you can take me to the Sanzu River.”
Her comment made me laugh. Sanzu River is that river to the afterworld. She’s saying that either destination is the same for her. She can be dropped off at her hotel or at death’s door because NOBODY CARES FOR MEEEEEE!
Manwol reminds me of a girl whining that her mother’s a meanie because her mother is unfairly spoiling her no-good sister while ignoring her. However, the truth is she’s her mother’s favorite daughter. Remember, Manwol has been wandering for 1000 years on earth with that “Nosy Woman” making sure she and her tree are alright.
As Manwol whines, Grim Reaper looks at the Old Woman. The look that they exchanged is noteworthy. I think the Grim Reaper is silently asking her whether Manwol has a little bit more time to spend at the Hotel del Luna. The Old Woman nods yes. Meaning, Manwol can be driven to the Hotel. It isn’t her time yet to be brought over to the Sanzu River.
But I have to remember that head nod signal because it’s counter-intuitive. I expected a nod to mean “Bring her to the afterworld stat!” and a shake of the head to mean “Nope! She stays here.”
Anyway, I think Manwol should stop taking rides in the Grim Reaper’s car. Who knows when the Grim Reaper will change direction, like Manwol changed the GPS on that porno guy, and bring her to the afterworld unprepared?
Manwol touches the car door handle and stops, “Will (he) come too?” No answer. Ma Go frowns.
Manwol may be referring to two people here: the Captain or Chansung. My bet is on Chansung. She’s asking Ma Go if Chansung is coming, too, and Ma Go doesn’t respond.
I’ll give you two reasons.
One, because of the foreshadowing. The arguing married couple ghosts foreshadowed her departure. I told you ghost stories are indicators. With the married couple ghosts, the husband ghost left on the afterlife bus by himself. The wife stayed with her Oppa, her first love. The script’s been playing us with the reverse/mirror image all these past episodes and here’s another one. Chansung will stay with his first love, Mira, and Manwol will get on the limo.
Clarification:
When I said that Manwol would get on the limo and Chansung would stay with his first love, Mira, I meant it as an actual fact, not as a prediction of their future romance.
Fact: Manwol got on the limo. Then later, Manwol left the hotel, leaving Chansung.
Fact: Chansung ended up living with his first love, Mira, but not by his choice. He went home and discovered to his HORROR that Mira had been invited by Sanchez to live with them. He didn’t even want her there in the same house with them. lol.
So, when you look at the arguing married ghosts’ story, the foreshadowing already came true in this episode but in a very twisted and witty way.
Two, because of the Episode’s ending. At the end of the episode, we see that she left Chansung behind. To me, she’s resigned to leaving him behind because she was already PRE-CONDITIONED (or given heads-up) by Ma Go’s non-reply that she’d be traveling solo.
There’s a third reason, but let me think about this some more…. 😜
Manwol gets in the car and she’s driven away. Ma Go muses, “For a flower to blossom, she needs to feel the wind and face the rain, too.”
We all know the meaning of that one, right?
less than 10min ago I made the observation that I tend to be really contrary these days and lo and behold this appears. Usually I’m fully on board these analyses, but this time my take was radically different.
I think the key point is who was the ‘he’ in the ‘Is he coming too?’. Because I was 100% sure that the ‘he’ was CM. It is clear to MW (and anyone else) that MR’s appearance is a test, one that everyone (including herself) expects her to fail. So she sees the gods playing a cruel joke. But while MW hates MR enough to make sure she never smiles again, MR is not her nemesis… CM is. The last one… the most hated. MR was easy to kill because of that – swift, clean, almost clinical. Whatever happened when CM entered that room — it was not easy. you actually see her preparing for ultimate battle. Facing MR is hurtful and annoying, but ultimately she can find a way to satisfy her grudge without formally sinning. Facing CM would be her breaking point and she knows it.
A very long way to say that she *thinks* that the gods dangled the proverbial carrot in the form of CS, of a blooming tree and speeches about moving on and redemption, only it was all a cruel joke, where they are putting her in a situation where she has no out except for dissipating in the wind. And if the gods are that perverse, then the best way to achieve their goal is to make CM appear in front of her.
Side notes: I agree that she is very^3 special to MG (and there must be a reason for that).
About dropping her off at the hotel or the bridge into the afterlife: that comment I took to be sarcastic. She is inviting herself to a place that she has just been banned from.
With Mira?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT MIRAAAAAAAA
I understand you and @agdr03. @agdr03 was also thinking it was the Captain.
That’s the beauty of the Hong sisters’ use of the ambiguity of pronouns. They know what they’re doing when they purposely leave out the “subject” from their sentences and let the audience guess from the implied words.
And I’ll say that the public agrees with you and @agdr03. The general consensus is the Captain is the one being talked about here because it’s the “logical” choice and it goes with the natural flow. Since Mira already appeared and disrupted her life, it was natural for Manwol to ask whether that bastard Captain was coming, too.
But I’m not the general public, and I don’t go with the majority view. People have been known to accuse me of having preferential treatment for the minority.
That’s why I say it’s Chansung. And I’ll explain my third reason soon. Let me think about flesh it out.
And there is no way in hell CS will ever end up with MiRa.
Do you have discriminate against her because of her chipmunk cheeks?
hahaha.
Of course, he’s not going to end up with MiRa. He doesn’t have the time…if you know what I mean
Just wait for my third explanation. Y’all so impatient.
I am familiar with the wondrous minimalism of the Korean language (namely that you can leave out large important bits out of the sentence and expect people to still get what you mean… I have been repeatedly complaining about it in my Korean101 class, way back in college). And the Hong sisters are masters at exploiting this feature — one of the main reason I still watch their stuff despite their complete inability to tell complete stories. Also, as said, I’m pretty contrary myself, so I don’t care what the majority opinion is. But I do care (a lot) about logic. And in the context of that conversation, it makes no sense to me for her statement to refer to CS.
Chung sung is better off leaving together with Man weol than staying with Mira. 😅 Her tendency to steal credit cards, borrow money under his name will make him a broke pretty soon. Man weol atleast listen to what he says even though she kind of whines at first. But Mira completely ignores or dismisses him when talking about the money that she borrowed. If chung sung doesn’t get man weol i hope he will find someone worthy of his love. Not the leechy gf Mira.
Okaaayy. This has to end right now. I’ll write a clarification on the original post later.
What I meant was Manwol will get on the limo by herself and Chansung will end up living with his first love Mira — which he actually DOES.
The fact is he goes home and he finds out to his HORROR that Mira has been invited by Sanchez to live with them.
So, when you look at the arguing married ghosts’ story, it did come TRUE…but in a very twisted way.
But I don’t contest that Changsung is better off with Manwol. Even though both ladies are stinking thieves and liars, Manwol’s thievery strikes me as funnier and more outrageous.
reading the last few exchanges…lol…I didn’t get everything, but I KNEW you couldn’t have meant what the sentence seemed to mean. Ah, the power of ambiguity!
IF MW is a live human whose clock is just starting to move again, how could she possibly cross the river? The exchange makes sense if MW is already a spirit.
IF MW is a live human whose clock is just starting to move again, how could The fate of the escapee ghost apply to her? The exchange makes sense if MW is already a spirit.
How did MW get her powers? Makes more sense if she is part of the spirit world.
Are we sure MW isn’t a spirit? The opening scene of episode one would work if MW was a spirit who didn’t know she was dead. (How does a living person know of the Inn of the Moon?) Does it make sense that, no matter how good a fighter she is, she would come out unscathed from a fight with the captain, escape from the castle, and elude legions of pursuers? …… yeah, I know.
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No, she’s not a spirit.
The bartender mentioned it in this episode.
“She almost became an evil ghost so Ma Go put her here.” Then, in Episode 1, when she wanted to kill herself as a sacrifice, Ma Go laughed. The conversation is in my first impression write-up. Had she killed herself, she would have become an evil ghost but Ma Go stopped her taking her life. She can pay for her sins here and go to the afterworld in peace. But you already know this…why are you asking me again? lol.
I’ll get to my Madcap Part 3 after my little detour. I’ve another one to write before Part 3. But I need to show my pretty face at work now. 4pm meeting. See ya.
Dear @packmule3 , I also thought how Man-Wol is extra special, and wrote about it in DramaBeans.
Second, the thing with (Buddhist) reincarnation is that yes, you paid for what you did and you lost your memory between lives, but the thing is that karma and reincarnation is more a situation that generates other situations later. Is kind of “I studied to become an MD, so now I can afford a luxurious house… but I can be called any moment for an emergency so my social life is kind of random”. Mi-Ra paid for her sins in her Silla life by having less luck or being poorer in an ulterior reincarnation. So yes, she is innocent since what happened in a past life she doesn’t remember was made by another person under other set of circunstances, and she have paid for that. The alternative is for stains to become eternal, and that has a problem too (Original Sin, everyone?).