I’ll respond to your comment here, @growing_beautifully. 🙂

Thoughts on Attire
Back to this show over here and the mystery of the missing button from CS’s cuff. CS did not realise his suit was incomplete.

MW had pulled so hard on his sleeve that the button had gotten loose (it looked like all 4 buttons were still there when she let go) but by the time CS met Sanchez the button had dropped off. He recalled how MW had tried to stop him from leaving while he was upset but he had wanted to grieve.

Then Mi Ra and Det Park came in and shocked CS so much he could not even greet Park. Before he could even grieve properly over his ‘family’, he meets MW’s past ‘family’ consorting with MW’s past enemy.

Poor, generous CS, put his own needs on hold to attend to MW once again.

He had not noticed the missing button. It took another person to point it out to him. He now realises that he seems to be the conduit bringing MW’s past back to her. MW would never have known of her missed opportunities to resolve (or fufill) her grudges, if CS had not been engineered into her life.

Yes. I agree.

I also think the button connects with the previous episode about being cool and uncool. Link here.  Manwol took the button because she, too, is holding on to Chansung. Despite her endeavor to look fashionably COOL (i.e., matching her attire to the occasion), she’s becoming emotionally uncool.

According to MaGo2, “It’s cool when you’re taking her side. And being in the way (obstruction) is uncool. The role of being cool like holding her, consoling her…anyone would want to do that role. The role of holding her back and hanging on to her and becoming uncool is something only a good person can do.”

Since last Episode, Manwol herself has been flitting between cool and uncool. It started when she tried to hold him back from meeting with the Spirit of the Well. That time, she only hung on to him VERBALLY. Here’s their dialogue again.

CS: There’s lot of mist here.
MW: If you’re just trying to look cool but you want me to stop you, I’ll you this one time: “Gu Changsung, don’t go inside the room and just go back.”
CS: Since you’re stopping me, it makes me look a little cool.
MW: That’s enough! You coward! why are you talking about looking cool. Just run away. I let you run away but why did you even come back?

lol. I like how she reverted to her normal shrewish ways and pretended NOT to care one whit about his safety. But he understood that she was worried about him, and he touched her shoulder to reassure her.

Then, he left her to do what he had to do: get rid of the Spirit of the Well for her. She watched him leave her.

She did it again in this episode.

Holding on to his sleeve, she was now hanging on to him PHYSICALLY.

But this was probably the first time she’s done this in her 1000-plus years of existence. Since she was new to this “Kajimaaaa! Don’t leave” emotions, I’m going to forgive her for not knowing about the ETIQUETTE of holding back somebody. lol. She didn’t know that she was NOT supposed to filch a button when she held on to his sleeve.

No, no, no. Not cool.

@GB, I think she did it deliberately. It didn’t come off accidentally. She looked down as she took her hand off from his sleeve. But I guess once a thief, always a thief, right?

Here’s their dialogue.

MW: (angrily) Then, what do you want to do? You figured out this crappy fact because I made you see ghost. I should do something for you.
CS: I’m just..in a situation in which I met my mother for the first time, but can’t be happy about it, I’m just sad. Just let me grieve.
MW: (grabs to him then lets go) Forget it. Go.

She’s lost that “bite,” that shrewishness. She said it in a resigned tone. Then, she watched him turned his back and leave her again.

But what’s my point here? I’m bringing this up as a reminder that she’d watched the Captain leave, too, but she didn’t try to hold him back.

From Episode 8

MW: This is the last time we’ll spend time together. I’m leaving soon.
Capt: Are you thinking of joining the nomads’ revolt?
MW: We’re going to repair a broken nation. It’s better than stealing from here and getting caught and killed.
Capt: Come to the castle. I can watch over you.

lol. Literally, he was going to WATCH (i.e., stand guard) over her. In my head, he’s that spider in “The Spider and the Fly” poem. “Will you walk in to my parlor?” said the spider to the fly. The spider was luring the fly to his web by using charm and flattery. And just like the spider, the captain disguised his true intentions in a web of lies.

MW: You’re telling me that I should ditch my friend and go with you? (standing up) I can’t go.

That body language – to get on her feet – means she was resolute.

Capt: (grabbing her wrist) Then should I go with you? (she doesn’t answer) If you hold on to me sadly, then I will try to put my life on the line.

There! He wanted to hear “Kajimaaaa! Don’t go.” and a “Hajimaaaaa! Don’t.” from her. “Kajima” and “Hajima” are like the “Dumb and Dumber” of kdrama tropes; they come in pairs. They’re evil twins.

Seriously now, he was toying with the idea of her holding on to him. If she had called his bluff and said, “Sure! Come with me and join the nomads’ revolt,” he wouldn’t have done so. He had the Princess and his men and his Silla-building mission in top priority.

MW: (stares at him). Don’t. There’s no way we can be together.
Capt: (letting go) That’s right. I guess there’s no reason for me to come back here again. I guess there’s no reason for me to come back here again. (gets wine bottle) If a good drinking buddy disappears, you’ll miss him.

She watched him leave. We get a wide-angled shot.

In comparison, whenever Manwol told Chansung to “Go! Leave me!” he’d be the one to stick to her. He returned with the wheelbarrow for her.

He promised her several times that he wouldn’t leave her side. The last time was when she cursed Mira.

MW: Is it disgusting? Then run away, Gu Chansung. I’ll let you go.
CS: I won’t leave. Please protect me.

Chansung’s determination to stay by her side disturbs and unsettles Manwol. Unlike the Captain, Chansung means what he says. Unlike the Captain, when she doesn’t express what she really wants deep down inside, Chansung still understands her. And unlike the Captain, he follows through with actions. He’s willing to sacrifice everything for her.

This episode mentioned buying and selling. CS told MW that he’d come to sell the painting and had asked MW what she came with CEO to sell. Heheheh! She’d ‘sold him’ to CEO for his granddaughter! (I like that smile on her face when she realised that CS was not on a date). But when she had ‘bought’ CS from his dad 21 years earlier, she had no clue that she was bringing in someone who’d find her missing buttons. Her beautiful ‘outfit’ was incomplete but she never knew what she was missing.

Did you also notice her outfit in the library?

The bling on her jean was golden dollar signs. hahaha. And her hat (if I remember my fashion terms correctly) is called the “poor boy’s hat” that Oliver Twist would wear.

With all that talk about buying and selling, and scamming, I’m glad she finally clarified her “business” arrangement with Chansung’s father regarding Chansung’s “indentured labor” at the hotel.

She revealed the truth to reassure and comfort Chansung. He was telling that his father was the only one who wanted him, and that his father named him Chansung because his father was in favor of [keeping] him. Here’s their dialogue:

MW: Did you live with your father since the beginning?
CS: Yes. Do you know why my name is Chanseong. My father said he was the only one who wanted me to be born. He was sorry for me, so he named me Chan Seong. (to be in favor of something.) But he wasn’t good with Chinese characters. I became a shiny star.
MW: Your father sold you, not because he wanted to live, but because of you. You would be left alone without him.
CS: Of course, I know. He’s my only family.

Manwol probably sensed that it was a good time to dispel any misgivings he had about his father’s love for him. She’s letting him know that his father WANTED him despite giving him up to her. She didn’t want him to think that his father gave him up in exchange for his (the dad’s) freedom. In truth, the father loved him so much that he gave him up to Manwol. He said, “If I die, Chansung will be alone.”

Giving Chansung up = an act of love

Look: this ties up too with the Wannabe Wife’s choice. Her choice to give up her comatose boyfriend, and not drag him to death with her, is a decision made out of love.

Cutting him from her life = an act of love.

That’s also why I’m giving Chansung’s mother the benefit of the doubt. As I said she didn’t abort him and she lived with him till he was a toddler. She could have also given him up for a good reason.

Mother leaving him behind = an act of love, too???

The appearance of things may be different from the actual truth. That’s one of Heidegger’s points in “Being and Time.” I said this in the comment section and I’m repeating here because I believe it’s a very witty interpretation of Heidegger.

I said “lichtung” was German for clearing, (i.e., in the middle of the dark forest, there’s a clearing). Heidegger said that we understand things based on our PERSPECTIVES. When we shine a flashlight on an object in a darkened room, we see that object. But Heidegger also said that when we spotlight and reveal a true reality, we also CONCEAL certain true things about the reality. That is, when we spotlight on something in a room, we leave the other spaces and corners in the room in the dark.

See the dog with the flashlight? That’s Heidegger’s light.

In this sense, there’s a paradox. To reveal = to conceal

And this is literally what happened in this story. The student beamed her light in the shadows and she saw a ghost.

Then, when Chansung and Manwol investigated, they were able to SHED LIGHT on the truth about Chansung’s mother.

However, the rest of the mother’s backstory, i.e., why is she afraid of her family, why did she abandon Chansung, why was the dad trying to keep contact, why didn’t she throw away the pictures, why is she the principal in an ELEMENTARY school? Everything else about the mother is in the dark.

So, that’s Heidegger for you right there.

We found out more about Chansung’s past but there’s a whole lot more that we don’t know about his past. That’s why Manwol was upset with the other hotel employees.

The housekeeper had asked Manwol why she didn’t know anything about Chansung when she spent a lot of time with him, and she replied that an employer doesn’t need to her employee’s life but a colleague should.

Unfortunately, we don’t have “ghost eyes” like Yeonwoo2 to know what’s in his “severed” relationship.

I thought it was a hoot how she said she was dressed inappropriately for reading books, as if attire mattered for every ‘scene’. But that’s what show has been doing in her frequent outfit changes. She has been changing on the outside to suit what she thinks the scene demands. But as we noted before, she has failed to make the crucial change on the inside.

Now she has to consider how to respond appropriately to the reappearance a big, past enemy, seeing as she’s expecting Capt CM to pop up around CS.

The trouble with her is that she pushes the wrong buttons in herself, the button of self-destruction instead of going for forgiveness and healing. What irony, when she’s in a Hotel that provides healing for everyone else.

I found her last outfit with the beautiful vine branches motif on her skirt to be so appropriate. She has decided to face her next challenge not alone and all by herself like before, but with help. A great step in her growth and in blooming her spirit tree.

hahaha. I like that! Manwol does have buttons, doesn’t she?

As far as I’m concerned, she can keep Chansung’s button because Chansung definitely knows how to press her buttons too and rile her up.

He didn’t really mean to keep the Mt. Baekdu painting to himself, but he’s only teasing her.

I think we’re led to believe that the Captain is coming. Here’s the dialogue, for the record.

MW: Did you send her off well?
CS: Sorry.
MW: I’m sorry. I escorted her here on my own initiative.
CS: Thank you for escorting her on your initiative. Also for asking me to come back.
MW: It makes me look weak as boss, however, let’s make it clear. You didn’t come because I asked you. You just came. I could have forcefully given you that medicine, making you unable to come back. But I didn’t do that. I thought that, whenever I gave you a chance to run away, you always just came back with your own will. To be honest, I was hoping that you would come back again.
CS: It’s good that you’re making it clear that I’m not the only one clinging. It feels nice.
MW: Gu Chansung. I will use you. That woman…and YeonWoo…you brought them to me. Then…you’ll probably bring him too.
CS: (nods) It’ll probably turn out that way.
MW: (voice hardening) It must be that way. And I…will never let him just pass by safely.
CS: Is that why you’ll use me?
MW: That’s right. I’ll be very tenacious. And because of me, you might be used or become messed up.
CS: (getting agitated) Do you mean…you’ll threaten me again, in order to make run away from you—
MW: No. Don’t run away. You already made up your mind. That you’ll get in my way and be in danger. With that feeling of being in danger and not being able to do anything, stay beside me. I…will run like crazy and even if I disappear one day, please stay by my side.
CS: No. (steps in closer) I’ll not let you disappear. (Touches her face) Trust me. (Embraces her and he places her hand on his back.)

To me, she could be talking about a metaphysical, rather than actual, Captain.

You see, the problem with the Captain is that he made her to lose moral core. He betrayed her, executed Yeonwoo in front of her very eyes, and then, freed her. In effect, he burdened her with guilt of the deaths of her people. She was “sleeping with the enemy.”

Now, because of her unprocessed guilt, grief and anger, she retaliated with vengeance. In the heat of the moment, she went on a killing spree. Just for perspective here: the Wardrobe Ghost, who was victim of the Spycam, only killed four in her revenge. She was punished by MaGo4 with extinction. Meanwhile, here’s Manwol who killed more, and her judgement has been delayed.

And again, another perspective: Manwol was enraged that the Spy Cam CEO couldn’t remember his victims of spy cam. She (and the viewers as well) thought he was pure evil. Ha! But Manwol couldn’t remember the victims of her rampage.

Again, helloooo, pot!

To me, what’s reprehensible about the Captain is that he injured her, not physically, not emotionally (although that was bad enough), but MORALLY. He caused her to lose her sense of being a good person. She was forced to kill. She killed people for the sake of those who died. But in the act of vengeance, she became both a victim and an aggressor. If we want to talk about souls here, then she has a soul divided against itself. Her conscience is divided.

Thus, to me, the Captain doesn’t have to arrive in his physical form, for Manwol to deal with her residual hatred. He can come in the shape of this serial killer Seol Jiwoon, for instance. Or he can come in the form of Gu Chansung. (ha!) I’m not looking for the Captain’s reincarnated being. I’m looking for his ESSENCE because what’s important here is that she stops herself from repeating the same thing she did last time — go berserk.To me, if the Captain comes in the Captain’s body, there’s no surprise.

Meeting up with Mira and Yeonwoo had been healing moments for her. With Mira, she regained her capacity to forgive and forget. With Yeonwoo, she received closure for her “severed” relationship. Her next challenge will be harder. The good thing Chansung is by her side.

Gotta finish my Go Go Squid review now.