I’m re-posting some of the comments and my response here for convenience.

From Fern:

Is Jeong Hyuk’s family name Ri the same as Lee? Confused because in ep. 8, on the Christmas tree Seri’s heart ornament says ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lee’. Made me curious.

Please remember that I don’t speak Korean.

The letter ㄹ is sometimes pronounced like a R, sometimes like an L. Noooo. Don’t make a joke about fried rice/flied lice.

The Americanized version says Lee but it’s spelled as ㄹㅣin Korean. The letterㅣ is their vowel “i” and pronounced as “ee.”

From Linda p:

Wish I could remember the article I read about some Christian group suing the drama for its depiction of N Korea. Anyone else read the article?

agdr03 shared the link with us earlier from soompi. Here it is:

Christian Liberal Party sues tvN

I wish political parties would stop using the word “Christian” in them. I’m also side-eyeing Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and France’s Christian Democratic Party.

From stardust:

Hahaha those cringes i had them too but I give 2 brownie points to the writer and crew because if this is what it takes to show that Jeong Hyuk will find her anywhere, they managed to make cringe worthy actions and lines worm their way into my heart!! I really like the 2 actors expression at this scene. She has that I can’t believe this look while he switched to this really gentle gaze when he saw her. I think Jeong Hyuk sometimes thinks he surprises himself that he finds her always. In a way, he never forgave himself for failing to protect his brother and seri is like a substitute, not a bad way substitute- something that he loves that he will not lose a second time.

Agree. He’s channeling his feelings and redirecting his past anger and frustration for being unable to protect his brother, towards the protection of Seri. This “Never again!” mindset is a psychological defense from a traumatic experience, and it was to be expected.

For sure, the writer linked Seri’s dangerous situation to JH’s Hyung’s death THREE times already. The first time was during JH’s conversation with Dan in the hospital. He told Dan that, he learned from his Hyung’s death that dying was infinitely preferable to failing to save a loved one. The second time was at the military tribunal. ChulGang threatened Seri’s life as payback for sending him to prison. Then, the third time was during the ChulGang’s phone call to JH. JH swore on his brother’s memory that he was going to catch him. And ChulGang taunted him to go ahead and catch him as he was going South to kill Seri.

The existence of Seri has now become linked to the death of his Hyung.

That’s why the watch for me presents a fascinating symbolism. Seri found the watch at the pawnshop and bought it as a gift for JH, not knowing that it was JH’s going- away present to his Hyung and that all the incriminating evidence needed to send ChulGang was hidden in it.

The gift that keeps on giving…

Like a timepiece, Seri was a metaphorical link between the past and the present.  She brought the past and present together.  Because she brought the watch, and it was returned to JungHyuk by the Rat, the past mystery of the Hyung’s death was solved. However, the unintended and unforeseen consequence of that resolution was a current threat on Seri’s life.

Hmmm…I’d be interested to see Seri’s reaction when she discovers the watch on JungHyuk’s wrist.

But what intrigues me about JungHyuk’s “Never again!” mindset is his disproportionate reaction to danger. I know it’s a hero trope. I know that this is the writer’s way of inserting extraordinary feats of heroism to titillate viewers. I know that these “I’ll take a bullet for her” and “I’ll rescue her no matter what” scenes are part of the formula of a romcom. But at some point, these over-the-top scenes (if it continues in this trajectory) will make JH into a caricature, like some sort of North Korean Rambo, rather than a character with believable motivation and reaction. At some point, these OTT rescue missions are going to be counter-productive. As it is, they’re contradicting why we fell for this character in the first place. We fell for him because he was natural and uncomplicated. He wasn’t doing stunts. He did simple gestures which became romantic precisely because they were so simple.

Like when he bought her an unscented candle because he didn’t understand the difference between scented and unscented.

Take note, clueless guys —

An unscented candle = purely functional
A scented candle = to create mood, ambiance, romance

It’s like giving your wife a vacuum cleaner or a spa membership for a birthday gift. lol.

Or like when he told her not to bother calling him on the phone at work, and he patiently answered all her questions anyway. And bought her shampoo and conditioner.

I don’t know about other viewers, but those ordinary moments created a deeper impression on me than these Rambo scenes.

Back to basics, please, like this scene,

and this scene.

From Grace:

The connection with the trees/plants! I feel like I in my literature class all over again, finding the connections with the details…and the satisfaction on finding the connection. How many times do you watch to find that?

On the kiss after crossing the border, it was something I could see coming. I wondered when he would have done that goodbye kiss: before or after she crosses the border, so no surprise there.

On him running into her in S.Korea, it was a perfect contrast to the part when she found him after being lost at the market. The situation that they met, however, is what hubby and I will look at each other and roll our eyes and say…做戏做戏 aka “It’s only a drama” because obviously ONLY in a drama will such things happen..you know, coincidences. So yes, I agree it was sooooo exaggerated.

Re. the trees/plants. For me, a *good* drama, play, movie, and script allow the viewers to derive as much meaning as they can based on their imagination and interpretation. I saw her houseplants and immediately thought, “Awww. I don’t think there’s going to be a tomato plant here.” 🙂 The tomato plant was for JungHyuk.

Yes, I agree. Finding her in that marketplace was more possible than finding her in the middle of Gangnam.

But you know, if you calculate something well, anything’s possible. But it’s not going to be coincidental anymore.

A long, long, long time ago, when I was in high school, my classmates went to Italy for the spring break. I wanted to join them, but my parents didn’t permit me because they’d already made plans for us to vacation in Rome as a family. So…I got my friends’ itinerary and, on the day that they were supposed to visit Rome, I hung around Pantheon.

Now, remember this was before cellphones were invented so I had no way of contacting them. But I knew that a) Pantheon was a “must-see” tourist site, and b) unlike other tourist sites, there was only one entrance/exit. So, armed with books, my father’s camera, and notepad to amuse myself, and sandwiches so I didn’t have to leave my spot, I waited for them to arrive all day.

They didn’t come till late afternoon.

They thought it was a shocking “coincidence.” What were the chances of meeting friends vacationing in another continent?

But I knew it was just good old-fashioned stubbornness. I was deprived of their company and I wasn’t returning to our apartment till I met them.

So yes. I could imagine JH waiting to meet her in Gangnam. It was plausible because I did it once. I know how it feels like to wait for a “chance” encounter. However, unlike JH, I wouldn’t be just *standing* there. lol. That would have driven me nuts.

From Arihsi:

To me, the plain reason of such “minor” injuries (that don’t require resuscitation 😝) is to evoke viewer sympathy for the character and increase the romantic quotient. A “plain” and healthy-looking JH may not scale up to the “swoon” of the hurt, disheveled and freezing JH (the preview shows him wearing SR scarf which she probably lent after noticing the same) proving that his love was indeed more than life to him. It is probably an extension of the theme of his suicidal missions to save SR as you wrote in another post.

True. It wouldn’t tug at our heartstring had JH looked all chic and handsome.

It certainly added to his rugged appeal when he reappeared looking like he braved the elements to get to her.

And *desperation* is always a killer; it slays us to imagine that he’d been waiting for her for eternity.

But I wonder if he smelled as bad as he looked. I’ve a sensitive nose. 😊

From Fern:

Thank you for this analysis. I loved the reunion setting; the architecture has such charm. I have also been wondering about his reaction to her apartment and her seeing it through his eyes.

The ‘One step should be okay’. If it was principles, discipline or law that kept him initially on the north side of the line, any or all have been swept aside in favour of him coming to her. First for the kiss that I feel would have had a different effect north of the line, and then for the reunion. I’m sure there’s a ‘road to hell’ saying for this sort of initially slow transgression, but can’t pull it up.

I wonder what was going through her mind when she sees him in Gangnam. It’s too complicated a situation for her to fall into his arms; he is in too much danger here. Funny if she should get mad at him the way he got mad at her when he woke in the hospital.

I’ll post something about his and her houses later. 🙂

Yes, it would serve him right if she threw back the words that he said to her at the hospital when he woke up and saw that she missed the flight.

He said, “Did you not take the flight? (she replied) Why? (she replied) You should have gone. (she replied) Just to send you back home, we all risked our lives. Do you know what that means? (she replied) If you do, why are you still here? You made all that effort go down the drain. How much more do you have to trouble us until you feel sorry?”

I know that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” and saving her from the murderous ChulGang definitely qualifies as a good excuse to see her again. But  I like how the screenwriter just raised the stakes on our couple. We all know that his presence in South Korea isn’t going to end well for his family back home. There’s more urgency now for our couple to resolve their romance as it has now become a matter of national security, too. As their relationship “levels up” so do the challenges they have to face.