I was going to “power through” Episodes 4 when I realized that there were so missing links in this story. That’s why viewers are getting confused.
For instance, who’s this woman? She’ll show up in Episode 4.
Why is she in the story? My guess is she’s Jisoo’s mom, and the writer’s setting us up for another one of her trillion silly “coincidences” here.
This lady just happens to be a patient of the doctor involved in Ha Won’s study, and she ALSO happens to be related (by work? by blood??!!) to Seowoo’s male roommate.
My bet is she’s his mom, too. That’s why they talk in familiar terms.
She was checking out her son’s girlfriend and their set-up. She had no intentions of renting the place.
Given this writer’s penchant for coincidences, SeoWoo’s male roommate and Jisoo would be siblings. He SHOULD have recognized her when she dropped off the box. But he was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by Seowoo, and it was SeoWoo could ran down to help JiSoo with the box, not him.
Do we have his name? I know JiSoo’s last name is Kim. (lol. See my limited Korean proficiency is coming in handy here.)
I guess, we’ll find out sooner or later why this woman was introduced.
But there’s also this confusion over the identity of Grandma Moon. She’s the lady in the photograph.
If we take Ditzy Gardener’s words at face value, then she’s the real blood relative of Grandma Moon, and Ha Won is not. He’s just one of those people whom Grandma Moon the Diplomat helped out.
She said so in Episode 1.
And she said so in Episode 2.
But what a coincidence, right? Ha Won has the same last name as Grandma Moon. That’s why viewers think he’s also related to the Ditzy Gardener.
Then whose gravesite?
Written the Gravestone: 11.10.1965 to 05.01.2005
That’s Ha Won’s mom, not the Grandma. Grandma Moon is still alive.
HW’s mom was 40 years old when she died. HW was in high school when she passed away and forty is too young to have a grandson in high school. 🙂
Next, the timeline. That’s confusing, too, so let me piece things together.
1996: JiSoo was a taped practicing piano
1997: Grandma Moon arrived in Norway (according to AH)
2005: His mother, Im Suock, died.
2005: Grandma Moon left Norway (according to AH)
2005 is also important to Jisoo because she named her pottery company, Norway2005.
2011: Ditzy Gardener began living in farm (according to Ditzy Gardener)
According to AH, she’s only been there for 8 years. I’m going with Ditzy Gardener on this one, because AH’s data is based on Ha Won’s memories which can be faulty. He wasn’t there when Ditzy Gardener left for the farm.
2012: He broke up with Jisoo while watching the sunset at Misiryeong Ridge
2013: He lived in Gangreung the following year all by himself, when he was working on the location tracking feature.
The VIKI subs didn’t include this but I went over to Kissasian to verify.
Viki subs
Kissasian subs
2020: Jisoo’s been married 8 years to the pianist.
**************
By the way, didn’t any of you felt that Jisoo did a rotten thing here?
They left Seoul and went to Misiryeong Ridge in Gangwon Province. According to google, Gangwon Province is about 107 km or about 60 miles. Ha Won didn’t have any car so I’m assuming they went there by public transportation.
Then, after taking the train and hiking up to the top of the mountain, she told him, “In the past, I’ve only imagined being here with you. I’m so glad I came here with you. Now I can say it to you. I’m getting married.”
Like, seriously, girl. Couldn’t you have said this back in Seoul???
This was heartless.
She knew that he’d come running as soon as she texted him. She’d just been told that he flew all the way from the US because of her text. She must have known that he invited her to see the sunset at Misiryeong as a homecoming, as sort of a reunion for them.
And she broke up with him there?!
Yeah… I understand now why Ditzy Gardener wanted to smack her.
My feelings:
Will write about the moon next.
True, I thought it was cold hearted of JiSoo to go all the way to their favourite place only to break his heart. It was cruel and heartless.
I appreciate this post in clarifying things. Thank you. 😊
Not only that. She stood him up. She knew he was waiting in the cafe. And she knew that he was “simple” like that. So couldn’t she have told him sooner that she wasn’t coming?
Really. The flight to Norway would have been 10 hours at least. She could have called him up, before her flight, to tell him not to wait. Or text him — if she didn’t want to have a conversation with him.
See why I hate this writer for glossing over the time? It’s one way of minimizing HW’s misery and FORBEARANCE.
Jisoo is cruel. It’s a good thing that Seowoo isn’t at all like that. From my “skimming” Eps 3 and 4, SW always had an attack of conscience and turned around when she thought of HW’s suffering by himself or was being lonely by himself. Jisoo didn’t. It’s time for HW to move on.
I agree, she could have just messaged him to say don’t wait. He waited, 2 days? So on the last day, he stared at the moon till it wasn’t there anymore and he decided that he won’t wait for her anymore.
Yeah, SW tries to help him all the time and she can tell when he’s having a hard time and she told him too that it is time to stop and move on.
🙂 Also, that thing about the moon disappearing in the sky when he stared up at the sky? I’m assuming that the moon simply disappeared because of heavy clouds in the night sky.
You see, if we’re being serious about astronomy here, it’ll take about 14 to 15 days (or half a month) for a full moon to disappear in the sky. A new moon (when the moon disappears in the sky) occurs only once a month. So, it’s not possible for HW to see the full moon one night, then not see it the following night, unless there was some sort of cloud cover on the second night.
But let’s just say it’s “coincidence” that the cloud came just when he was pining for JiSoo. If HW was being logical and scientific about this (and he’s supposedly a Zuckerberg), he could have just waited till the cloud cover moved in the atmosphere or he could have moved to a different spot. The moon was still definitely up in the sky. 🙂
lol. This writer is soooo — I’ve to bite my tongue and shake my head…
Well the cafe itself was significant for him because of Jisoo so he forgot about the astronomy bit of the moon while he was standing outside.
He should have just stood there when the cloud covered it. 😂
lol. But that’s it! It just so happened (i.e., coincidental) that he was standing there when the cloud covered the sky.
If he really wanted to, he could have a) waited 15 minutes and looked up at the sky again, or b) walked around the neighborhood to see the moon.
I think this is what’s known as “pathetic fallacy” in literature. The atmosphere, the weather, the surrounding are supposed to reflect or mimic the character’s feelings. HW is sad because Jisoo stood him up, so he looks up at the sky. He sees that moon is gone so his sad feeling is validated and confirmed by the moon. “Woe is meeee!” The moon and Jisoo have abandoned me.
Aigoooo.
What I like better was Seowoo running and breaking down in the middle of the street. There was an aerial view of her standing between two manhole covers. I thought THAT was more symbolic. She was supposed to be the bridge between two “celestial beings” or two broken islands — Jisoo and HW — and she lost.
To me, that screenshot was better than HW staring up at the moonless night.
🙂
Ottoke! HW sure isn’t Mark Zuckerberg. 😄 Maybe it’s been cut to 12 episodes because the writer won’t be able to come up with anymore coincidences for the story to progress. 🤷🏻♀️
If the story’s about healing after the death of Jisoo, I think he’s already halfway healed by Seowoo’s attention and unselfish regard for him. They just need to fall in love.
I mean, viewers wouldn’t stay for 4 episodes to watch unrequited love. There’s no fun in there.
The other sideplots,
like the Ditzy Gardener an the Depressed Pianist: it’s not interesting enough. And it muddies the water. The Depressed Pianist isn’t heroic enough.
As for the roommate and the landlady, that’s not interesting either. Either she dumps him or she doesn’t. Right now, the roommate does seem to care for her. That was the point, right? Viewers don’t know if his intentions are real. But if he had asked his “mother” to secretly check up on his girlfriend and the house, then it must be serious. He wanted his mother’s approval without his girlfriend knowing it.
— at least, that’s how I interpreted that weird visit of hers.
You’re right about Grandma Moon @packmule3! She’s alive. She sort of makes an invisible “cameo” visit in the beginning of ep6 – Ditzy Gardener makes a phone call and talks to her asking her when she’s coming back coz she’s been away for so long. I jumped to the conclusion she was dead because Ditzy Gardener was lamenting how hard it was to look after the farm. I thought she was left to care for it after her death. 😂.
Anyway, back to watch the rest of the ep. But yeah I agree, JS was cruel. I thought once she ran away that would be it? But she started up conversations with him again? And agreed to meet him (sort of? She didn’t say no?). Yes he rang her but she didn’t spell it out to him? Maybe she was vacillating about telling him hubby’s secret. But honestly if it was an “accident” and there was no ill intent in it, there shouldn’t be any guilt apportioned? Isn’t it better to have it all out in the open and resolve it rather than this mess where everyone’s left hanging?
But I agree about the fact that there’s really little to hold the viewer’s interest for a whole 16episodes. This should’ve been a mini-series of 4-6parts.
“If the story’s about healing after the death of Jisoo, I think he’s already halfway healed by Seowoo’s attention and unselfish regard for him. They just need to fall in love.”
I agree, HW is halfway healed already because of SW’s. I mean the fact that he smiled a few times already when his with her says a lot. He’s opening up to her and I feel he listens to her too.
Yeah, I’m not feeling the gardener and the pianist nor the housemates love life. hehehe
If psychiatric patient/grieving mom is Ji Soo’s mother, then the apple fell far from the tree. Ji Soo was timid, and this woman certainly is not. In an ep. 6 flashback we see that after HW left Norway, a teenaged JS is fearful almost to the point of paralysis to walk alone on the pathway she’d walked with HW since she was a child. In the other flashbacks of them traveling the path together, HW is always leading and JS following. Psychiatric patient/grieving mom (I’m going to call her Power Suit because that’s what she’s usually wearing) is bossy. Power Suit’s backstory is that she is retired, but in whatever job she had she didn’t take any time off, and accumulated enough hotel vouchers that she intended to use them to house herself for a year or so. She knows Soup Guy, as he brokers her move into the boarding house. I doubt he’s her son or possibly JS’s sister. I think if JS had a brother with her in Norway, her dynamic with HW would have been different, less dependent. But Power Suit’s job could have landed her in Norway for a time, with JS in tow if she’s her daughter. I’m guessing at most Soup Guy is Power Suit’s nephew and JS’s cousin, if any relation at all. Power Suit is imperious enough to tell her talkative, over-friendly psychiatrist to scram because she’s interrupting her lunch. (And what’s with Power Suit eating a sandwich on a park bench when back at her hotel, room service had brought her two identical meals and she’d walked away without taking a bite?) Power Suit is bull headed enough to try forcing her will on the boarding house owner, even though Host hadn’t met her, promised her a room, or signed a housing contract with her (I doubt Soup Guy doing it in Host’s stead and without her knowledge is legally binding). And here’s a funny thing I noticed that I think is a symbol of Power Suit being a control freak: as soon as she started hanging around the boarding house and sitting in the chair out by the street lamp, the legs are shimmed up so the chair sits level. Nobody bothered with that before.
The contrast between JS’s voice recording session in the studio and Power Suit’s is hilarious. JS is dreamy, intuitive, and does it in the first take. Power Suit…well…you just gotta watch it.
AI JiSoo is gone. HW gave AI JiSoo a verbal hug and told her to rest in peace. HW told SW that he got rid of AI JiSoo. AI Model D will have Power Suit’s voice and personality. Are any of us ready for that?
Power suit lady’s name is Kim Min Jung. I think you’re right that she’s Jisoo’s Mom.
Kim Ji Soo – Kim Min Jung
I’m just watching it now.
@agdr03, Power Suit’s name being Kim Min Jung is an argument against her being Kim Ji Soo’s mother. Traditionally, women in Korea retain their surnames after marriage rather than taking their husband’s family name. Children are given their father’s surname. Kim Ji Soo’s father would have had the family name Kim. Ji Soo’s mother would likely not have been a Kim, as it is culturally taboo for men and women of the same surname to marry.
Pardon me @Welmaris. I forgot about the taboo marriage having the same surnames in Korea.
Let’s wait and see who Power suit lady really is. 😊