I forgot this one because of @lovebangwon’s request to review “Love Alarm.”
1. Cute Manwol
I like that he finds her cute when she’s showing her caring side. He smiled when she was griping that talking about pizza made her worry about Sanchez. She caught him off guard because she rarely expressed “worry” for somebody else.
But he didn’t fall for her bait-and-switch.
MW: Let’s go shopping. The department store is closing.
CS: Why did you insert a non sequitur about a department store now?
MW: If I’m sorry…isn’t going completely empty-handed like this and saying “I’m sorry, Sanchez,” and getting a pretty present and saying, “I’m sorry, Sanchez” completely different?
He stared at her for a nano-second and then smacked her hands down.
CS: You just want to go shopping. It’ll be enough to tell Sanchez that you saw Veronica off on the bridge to the afterlife and she went well.
Honestly, I fell for her. I would have nodded and given in to her because I was looking at her eyes. She reminded me of Puss in Boots.
2. Samdocheon foreshadowing
MW mentioned that the Yudo Bridge goes over the Samdocheon (or the river to the afterlife).
I didn’t realize that the tunnel outside Hotel del Luna actually went under the Samdocheon river too. I thought the tunnel hooked up to a highway which would bring the limo to the tunnel. And the passengers would be dropped off at the foot of the bridge on the other side. lol.
So the water trickling down inside the tunnel was actually water from the Smadocheon river.
I admit I was annoyed with that little boy who wandered. My children weren’t wanderers, thank goodness. When we let them wander on their own to explore (like, at the public library, museums, Disneyworld, etc.) they would report back at the designated place and time without fail. Child abduction was, and still is, a big concern here so I didn’t like THAT plot device in this episode.
3. Cheesy jokes
Like this one, branding himself as her possession. He’s hers.
He was sweet when he said that she could call him a shitty manager from Harvard, but she should also remember him like he was at that moment: someone who could make her smile when she looked at him.
But I understand what he’s trying to tell her. She’d borne 1300 years of unhappiness. Now, she could also treasure these brief moments of spontaneous happiness which were fair share, too.
And getting him to wear the tiger suit. Manwol said that she’d get him a zebra print one next time.
CS: Do as you please. Whether it’s a tiger or a zebra.
MW: You were cool. The tiger in front of the Room Manager was a lot cooler than the Mount Baekdu Tiger.
Then, later she asked him:
MW: GCS, when that man comes, just as you did for the Room Manager before, could you be a tiger for me?
CS: I told you to trust me. I can do anything for you. Because I’m yours.
Cheesy but it worked for me.
And this one was funny when CS teased her about nudity — in a very non-offensive way.
MW: If you don’t wear this right now, I’m going to take off all your clothes.
CS: Do as you please. (looking at her) But do you think you can handle it? (staring at each other intently) I don’t you can. (looks away)
MW began to roll her eyes because she’s imagining him naked. Then she unconsciously covered her chest with the suit jacket which is a sign that she was thinking of something that embarrassed and flustered her.
CS: Let’s eat the galbitang tomorrow. I should go home to see Sanchez right now. (looks back at her) What are you doing?
MW: (snarkily) You don’t need to know! (turning her back on him)
And the joke about being called “Oppa.”
4. The bellhop and the intern
That’s a famous poem by Christina Rossetti in the 19th century.
When I am dead, my dearest
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
The point of this poem is the poet didn’t want to be mourned for by her dearest upon her death. Whether she was remembered or forgotten after her death, it didn’t matter to her, because she herself was unsure whether she’d remember or forget her dearest.
source: When I am dead, my dearest
This would have been shocking during her time because Christian faith believed in Heaven where the dead would join the rest of the dead loved ones, and watch over the living loved ones and friends.
5. The Housekeeper
For me, her story has three important points.
One, it proved to Manwol that death and killing someone wouldn’t solve the problem. Chansung already pointed it out to her, “Will it really be like that? If the baby disappears, will everything be solved?”
She doubted him. That’s why she offered to bring the Housekeeper with her to witness the death of the baby. She told the Housekeeper, “Someone told me that just because you witness it (meaning, the death and fulfillment of a grudge), it doesn’t mean you’ll feel better.” She wanted to prove Chansung wrong.
But the Housekeeper couldn’t bear watch the baby die. She told Chansung that although she was determined to see the Yun family cursed to death because of her deep-seated grudge, she couldn’t let the unborn baby die. A dead baby would have meant her freedom and her release from her 200-year-old grudge but she couldn’t stand there while an innocent child was sacrificed as a revenge for her baby’s death.
Do you see it?
Manwol admitted that he was right.
Second, I wish Manwol would have been more self-aware. If she would only remember the death of Yeonwoo, then she would realize that Chansung spoke the truth. Witnessing death doesn’t make anyone feel better… unless he/she is a heartless and sick person, murderer, devil, or…hmmm… MaGo4.
Third, Manwol and the Housekeeper have something in common. lol. That’s why the Bartender mistook the Housekeeper as Manwol. There was a double meaning.
They’re similar because they were both made to suffer the loss of a precious and much-beloved person. For Manwol, it was the Yeonwoo, the only family she had,
and for the Housekeeper, it was the daughter she never expected to have.
When Manwol’s and the Housekeeper’s loved ones were taken from them and killed, they both lost their minds.
The Housekeeper was killed by her husband and she cursed his family. “The Yun family tree will die. Even after I die, I will watch it happen. I’ll make sure of it.”
The Housekeeper’s curse:
Although the Captain didn’t physically kill Manwol, emotionally and mentally, he killed her. As I’ve been saying all along, he made her into murderer.
lol. Look at the ~~~loving~~~ look he gave her before he grabbed her sword and impaled himself with it.
She cursed the Captain too. “I’m going to kill all of your people. And burn down this place too. Our last moment is like this. You will witness all that before you die.” To which the Captain counter-cursed her “Manwol, I will hold you in my heart. And be a moon that doesn’t rest to watch over you.” Just look at his eyes, and see if he meant those words lovingly.
Manwol’s curse:
Do you see what I mean that the ghost stories also reflect Manwol’s life?
6. True love is uplifting.
Chansung lifts her up.
MW: My sins are heavy and my resentment is deep. This is my bottom. I’ve been waiting for that man all this time. I was going to drag him down to that bottom once he appeared and then disappear.
CS: But I came instead. I can’t turn your painful memories into something that didn’t happen. But I want to bring you up from that bottom.
Teasing her is one way he lifted her spirit. Just like when he suggested that carbonated water is the same as champagne.
But being her moral compass was also another way he lifted her up. She was becoming a better person because of him. Unlike that Capt. Firefly, he made her question whether killing a person, even if that person was an unseen and unborn baby, was the right thing to do.
And she realized that it was wrong.
Do you see the difference between him and Capt. Firefly? Chansung would not have her kill or harm another person.
He puts himself in danger, like with the Blind Ghost’s motorcycle driver, the Room 13 vengeful ghost, and the Mira curse because he trusts her to protect him and do everything NOT to see him dead.
Thus, when he takes over — or puts himself in the place of the people she hates the most, like Mira and the Captain, he already knows that she cannot kill them.
Smart of him, right?
To me, that’s what the Unnie MaGo5 meant when she said to Chansung to take care of the “First Guest.”
In Episode 14, he could have told Manwol that the Captain was a weak fluttering firefly in a glass jar, and Manwol would have swatted it dead. Without guilt, she could have squished it because it was just a bug.
lol.
But he didn’t reveal the truth to her. Instead, he made her think that HE was the reincarnated Captain. He was also protecting the Captain…just like he protected Mira from the curse.
He knows Manwol loves him too much to kill him.
Lovely highlights @packmule3! I loved the jokes and the cheesiness. I like how every episode still manages to make me laugh somewhere in the first half before it gets serious.
SPOILER WARNING to readers of this blog who have not watched beyond Episode 13
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I was aghast in Ep 14 that the lesson of Ep 13, which MW had acknowledged to be true – ie that fulfilling the grudge would not make her happy – she refused to apply to herself. She preferred to be destroyed and be unhappy even in the fulfilling of the grudge. It felt wrong and as if her character had not developed a whit. The only difference was that she could not actively commit murder, but she wanted to stand aside and let it happen if it would. I can’t put this down to being un-self-aware at that stage in Ep 14, since she already knew it in Ep 13.
Wish I had more time to play … preparing for a few of projects that are taking up my limited brain juices. Catch ya again!
Not to beat a dead horse with CS vs. CM, but I don’t recall the CM ever marking himself as MW’s “possession.” CM did take her booze though, I remember that. What CS did was cheesy, but it was low-key romantic. As was much of their dialogue in this episode anyways, but cheesy works great in this episode.
On another note, one thing I liked was that even before Seo-Hee and MW went to see the pregnant woman and unborn baby in trouble, when CS was telling her how nice MW was and she was acting awkward because of guilt about Mira. It’s like when you catch a kid doing something bad and they won’t admit it, but they look guilty and know what they did is wrong. So it’s not like her sudden decision to confess to CS about Mira came out of nowhere – it shows her gradual growth. Plus, at least this time she saw Mira she didn’t do anything crazy. And for this I agree with @GB about her later behavior being out of place with the lessons she’s learned.
Speaking of the hotel staff, the similarities between Seo-Hee and MW, while very evident, were handled quite deftly. I await to see how the similarities between MW and CS, and Bellhop and Intern, will be handled later on, as well as whether there will be anything for Scholar/Bartender Kim too (if there is, it’s going to be a pretty crazy twist I guess).
I’m also wondering of MG5 will return, and if there are even more MGs out there.
Just watched Episode 15 teaser and it looks like there’s gonna be an element of time travel. Saw CS entering a door to the past. I don’t know if that’s just a symbolism that he’ going to see her past or if he’s actually going back in time.
Maybe he’s going to see his past? And why he’s the chosen one?
Didn’t the Hong sisters do this too in Master’s Sun? The lead male died or had a near/death experience and he was transported into this weird place of his unconscious.
Whatever it is, I’m going to prepare for a rough landing. 😂
@packmule – Rough landing? – I re-read a part of your first impressions (yes it was very long!) on this show and you did give due warning about how show may start to unravel in the usual Hong Sisters way. It has already begun. Let’s see if we can survive a trope or 4!
Nooooo. Two tropes. Just two.
Hwayugi was pretty bad with the lead doomed to search for his partner (bec she died). Some could argue that there was at least still hope for their next encounter bec the Monkey King was an immortal god and she could be reincarnated. And she had one of his eyes so they could see each other.
But a repeat of that ending will not sit well with me in this kdrama. The Hong sisters already had two years (three? depending on when they started to conceptualize this kdrama) to come up with a better ending for two characters in different lifetimes.
MW already said that she could forgive (or “let pass”) the relationship between Mira and Yeonwoo2 because they were in different stages from her. She was still in the original lifetime while they already moved on.
But what about her and CS? Surely, of all people in that hotel, she deserves a happy life too before she dies. A full and happy life, instead of that stunted, stalled and retarded life she had, thanks to Capt Firefly there.
I’m fine with a reboot of their relationship NOW, but not as a ending for Episode 16 like in Hwayugi.
The ending will be MW from the 600s waking up while sleeping at the tree and realizing it’s all been a dream, and that CS is actually her horse. The end.
On a more serious note I’ve read some theories online that CS is the merchant or whoever who saved her from dying as a kid. That would be a bit too neat and convenient but hey. I do hope the time travel is more a symbolic thing than literal.
Anyways, thanks to you all I am now properly prepared for the plot to completely fall apart like in the first half of episode 14.
You had me lol’ing at the vision of CS as her horse.
But wait. I’m still writing about the death of Captain Firefly and all that moon references.
I think MW said even after learning a lesson from Mira situation and all that she will not let CM pass unscathed. So she just did what she said in the ep 14.
@The Scholar-gentry LOL!
One of the funniest things to be taking credit for, but perfectly understandable with these writers! But like I said on DB, I’m still optimistic that we’ll get a surprisingly good ending, and anyway, I’ve enjoyed these 14 episodes and I refuse to let a lousy ending take away from that enjoyment! 😉
@GB, don’t laugh but right now I honestly feel like we’re old high school buddies. While it’s typical to anticipate a sad ending for this kind of drama, I still can’t help feeling optimistic about it too. I don’t know how the writers will put each thing into place but for me, the fact that they let Man Wol lived a very long miserable stuck-kind-of-life is already a good reason for them to give her a pleasant life this time. C’mon, have mercy HS! MW’s joys in life had just began. Rough estimate, she’s having a taste of genuine happiness for only a month or two. That’s so short.
@Storm Moon
I think by taking CS back in time (hopefully in his dreams), we will see Scholar Kim’s story.
If we want to go high school literature class level analysis, CS could totally be the horse because the horse is carrying MW and her burdens.
Anyways, my gut instinct is a happy ending is plausible, but then again since I know little about these things and am relying on you guys, what do I know lol.
An ending I’ve seen suggested is that CS and MW die together, and cross the bridge together (with hands held, why not), with their respective memories being erased one by one, until they reach the end and the last thing they remember is each other before they step off the bridge. Bittersweet, but romantic and not tragic at least.
@sph_7 Previews sometimes deceive (the one for episode 13 made some think that MW passed on and CS runs into the tunnel to chase after her), so perhaps you’re right – CS goes back in time to help Scholar/Bartender Kim with his personal issue or grudge, but in doing so meets MW from the past, perhaps if he messes up the time travel or something.
@packmule3 I’ve not bothered to create or mark off against my own checklist of tropes needing to be fulfilled before the Hong Sisters sign off this show. 🤪 However, if they give you a nice re-start between the OTP sooner rather than later, then yes, they won’t be able to squeeze in more than 2 tropes.
@Storm Moon how nice! I’d love to be able to consider myself, or rather to be considered by my fellow drama watchers, as a old high school buddy! I’d like to imagine that I have some well thought out thoughts (LOL) with thinking viewers!
@sph_7 That’s an interesting prediction. We have yet to understand what Kim is waiting for that he’s so unwilling to leave. Maybe his story will have a parallel with or will foretell how CS brings MW back.