Psycho But It’s Okay: Eps 7 & 8 Open Thread

The thread is now open for spoilers, comments, analyses, guesses, hypotheses and theories.

Let’s enjoy the show!

********************

I like this scene from Episode 6.

Gifs are from dreamingsnowflake20’s tumblr

credit: dreamingsnowflake20’s tumblr

I liked it because while she was screaming at him to run, leave, and get out at once, she was clutching at his shirt like she needed him there right beside her in order to stay alive. Her conflicting actions drive home the point that she’s been exhibiting dual and split reactions to GT’s presence. On one hand, she claims to be obsessed with him but on the other hand, she sabotages herself to drive him away.

And I like that GT acted as her “safety pin” at this critical moment. I know that there’s been an intelligent discussion on the possible meanings of safety pin. Thank you. 🙂 To add my small bit, I thought that the safety pin meant the opposite of a butterfly pin.

To a butterfly collector (or a lepidopterist, if you must know trivia), pins are used to mount the butterfly on a display case. Aside from a butterfly net, the pin is important.  So, if you’re a poor butterfly to be placed in a collection, a pin is a reminder of death, a memento mori, if you wish. It’s inserted in the butterfly’s thorax (in human anatomy, a thorax is the chest) to hold the butterfly in place.

In a sense, this principle of restraining the movement is similar to a butterfly hug. According to GT, the butterfly hug keeps the distressed patient immobile until he/she has calmed down. The butterfly hug is a self-soothing technique which, unlike the butterfly pin of a lepidopterist, isn’t associated with death.

And that’s how I view the safety pin — with the emphasis on the word “safety.”

MY: Don’t get me angry. I’ll explode.
GT: That’s why I taught you the butterfly hug.
MY:  That stuff is useless. I want you to be my safety pin.
GT: What?
MY: Keep me under control so I don’t explode.
GT: You told me to mind my own business. You told me I had no right to stop you.
MY: You hold grudges.
GT: That’s right.
MY: I am giving you the right to be Ko MoonYoung’s safety pin.
GT: Why would I be your safety pin?
MY: Because you’re a caregiver. Isn’t it your job to keep an eye out for potential patients and care for them?

(Thanks, nrllee, for writing this dialogue down.)

 

GT pins her down so she doesn’t fly into a rage or go off the deep end. But he isn’t a weapon. He isn’t anything like the sharp, pointed instruments that she’s so fascinated with. He isn’t going to be the death of her. As a her safety pin, he’s her caregiver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

82 Comments On “Psycho But It’s Okay: Eps 7 & 8 Open Thread”

  1. It’s hard to look at butterflies now without thinking of GT, ST and MY. I love butterflies, when I look at them I just smile and feel happy.

    I liked that scene too, telling him to go away but her hold on him says something else. I’m curious to that shallow drama you mentioned.

  2. Oooh there you are, agdr03! I missed you.

    I have a drama to recommend…make it TWO dramas to recommend. Light dramas.

    I’ll do the write-ups. One of them is a complete so you can binge watch them. I only saw Episode 1, skimmed the middle for anything interesting, then watched the final episodes. lol. I’m sure you’ll love the final episodes because it showed the guy panicking over the girl’s pregnancy. lol.

    I thought the middle part would be boring but the girl challenged the guy that she’d make him fall for her with her “flirtation/seduction” so it was funny (to me at least).

    On the shallow side: I found the girl very pretty and the guy wasn’t bad-looking. There were lots of scenes were he was shirtless. (hahaha. VERY VERY important.)

    The other drama is ongoing so I don’t know how this one will turn out. But it’s amusing enough.

    Wait– let me finish writing something or I’ll get distracted.

  3. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    Great! A fresh open thread and a thought to start us off. Thanks @pkml3.

    From EPISODE 6 to begin with…
    GT : “I know. You wanted me to recognize you. But I wanted to avoid you. I wanted to keep acting like I didn’t know and ignore you.”
    MY : “Why?”
    GT : “I already told you the other night. (Flashback of GT saying to MY: ‘She saved my life, but I ran. Like a coward.’) And I’ve been running away since then.”
    (GT is reassuringly self-aware again, but unfortunately this is not enough to withstand the needs of his brother and the manipulations of MY.)

    MY : “Did you get sick of putting on your despicable act? Why are you suddenly opening up?”
    GT : “So that I can properly end this. Thank you for saving me that day at the frozen river. I’m sorry for running away when I was the one who liked you first. I regretted it the moment I turned away …” (I would have liked to have heard the rest of what he wanted to say here.)

    MY : “Cut it out.
    GT : “I didn’t get to say this to you that day when I came here.” (He refers to the day he came with the flowers, ie the day she tore up the butterfly and ran away.)
    MY: “Stop talking.”
    (Why does she not want to hear what he wanted to say to her that day? He probably wanted to apologise for running away, and that actually he still wanted to be friends. So why wouldn’t she want to hear this … I know I would!!!)

    GT : “That kept bothering me and I think that’s why I couldn’t get over you.” (Once again he is aware and examining his own needs and motives.)
    MY : “So you no longer have feelings for me?”
    (He does not say: ‘No’, because I believe, he does actually still like her, but gives an excuse. He is practical.)
    GT : “My brother is already a handful. That’s more than enough for me.”

    (He turns to leave but she snatches at his wrist and stops him.)
    MY : “You care for your brother, so why not me?”
    (This is the conversation that bothers me. Such an unhealthy need that she’s imposing on him.)
    MY : “Take care of me, too. I need you as much as he does.”
    (She has no clue how to appeal to him. She is only relating to him as her caregiver/Safety Pin and not as a person with needs and rights of his own.)

    GT : “I’m done with being someone who is needed by others.”
    (He goes down the stairs but she catches up with him on the landing.)
    MY : “You can’t reject me. I saved your life. I let you live that day.”
    (Once again, she has no other way of relating with a person except to order, threaten, make them feel beholden towards her. Always, she is the ‘entitled’ one.)

    GT : “And I thanked you for that. Because you saved my life that day, I’ve been living a fucked up life.”
    (This is an interesting ‘turning of the tables’ against her or canceling out his gratitude. IE, he’s grateful at one level, but has mixed feelings about his lot in life.)

    (She runs after him again, angry, and grabs his wrist again.)
    MY : “I’ll kill you if you go.” (Not a good thing to say at the top of the stairs.)
    (He throws her hand off and turns to go down.)
    MY : “You can’t run away. You’re mine.”
    (In the end, the reason he did not run away was not because of her alone or because he was ‘hers’, but for a combination of reasons. Whether she makes it all about herself alone is something to note.)

    (She runs and almost falls down the stairs but he catches her in time.)
    GT : “Have you lost it? Do you want to get yourself killed?”
    (This hearkens back to the Filicide dad asking if she had a death wish … sometimes I feel she does.)

    MY : “Don’t go.” (Her left hand grips his collar tightly.) “Let’s live together.”
    (This is the first time she grips on to him tightly, but this is when she deliberately wants to control and pin him down ie she’s the Pin holding down the butterfly.
    GT : “Let me go.” (He pulls her hand off. Further argument is suspended by Sang Tae who calls to his brother.)

    This shirt clutching scene is beautifully contrasted with the one @pkml3 describes above.

    I liked it because while she was screaming at him to run, leave, and get out at once, she was clutching at his shirt like she needed him there right beside her in order to stay alive. Her conflicting actions drive home the point that she’s been exhibiting dual and split reactions to GT’s presence. On one hand, she claims to be obsessed with him but on the other hand, she sabotages herself to drive him away.

    In this hanging on to GT, she was clinging on out of desperation, not knowingly out of selfishness, and while wishing for him to save himself from her and her mother.

    He did the only thing a good caregiver could do: he gave her the best Butterfly Hug he could.

    I like @pkml3’s idea that the Safety Pin here is not to hold one imprisoned, (as pinned butterfly) but rather to help restrain one from hurting oneself, in order that one can ultimately return to one’s senses and gradually become freer. 😃

    Another point I like … the duality of MY: it is hinted at that duality resides in several characters as well. Ju Ri is called two-faced (if she’s two-faced by being polite in society then I guess I’m two-faced too!!), GT faces the paradox of loving and hating his brother, wanting to be free of MY’s neediness and responding as a caregiver to her, Dir Oh is the doctor who behaves like a gossip auntie to get his diagnoses checked and whom patients think should make up one of their number LOL.

    Yup, I’m enjoying this show.😎

  4. New piano piece: The Cursed Castle

    https://soundcloud.com/user-858010722/the-cursed-castle

  5. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @Snow Flower You’ve done it again! Thanks for sharing your musical talent with us!! That was so appropriate for a waltz around the halls of the Cursed Castle. Round and round I feel it goes … I was listening with heart beating anxiously, it sounded like at anytime, the melody might spiral into wild abandon, like MY’s unfiltered words, but it resolved/revolved into light and a cycle of hope. I like that the pensive notes (minor key?) keep us in mind that we are thinking about people who are far from whole. And yet there is so much to be positive about.

  6. @GB, I did include a couple of wild and unexpected harmonies because it’s MYs waltz after all. I also added a whole section resembling butterfly flutter.
    By the way, I found a video of Kim Soo Hyun dancing, and he was pretty good. He was not doing a waltz though. I doubt that GT is good at dancing. If MY and GT are not dancing, they can engage in a staring contest!

  7. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @Snow Flower Ah yes! Those wild and unexpected harmonies had me going for a while… was this going to crazy-ville or would we get a calming butterfly hug for our dancers (listeners) LOL. I listened to it over and over again. I liked it very much. Among your compositions, I still prefer the lullaby, Evening Star, the best, but this one and Lighthouse in the Rain come tied as close seconds!

  8. Beautifully done @SnowFlower. 👏. Bravissimo.

    @GB I am with you in this “love story”. I can see the appeal of MY and GT. They are beautiful people with haunted pasts inextricably entwined. Yet there’s the cynic in me (Cynical Islander) which invariably pulls me back down to earth again when I think about how a relationship like theirs could possibly fair well in reality. It seems so tied to the past that there’s not much talk about a future? What happens when their demons are finally dealt with? Or are we to believe that it’s to be a lifelong battle and so they will keep “healing” each other till death do they part? I think that’s why I think realistically, JuRi and the stability her character and home life affords is the “better” option for GT/ST (for a future)?

    Or perhaps as @phikyl suggested, if MY doesn’t have ASPD, one could surmise that her latent emotions and ability to empathize would resurface once the spectre of her mother is dealt the final blow, thereby allowing the OTP a plausible functional husband-wife relationship in the future? Or are we overly dogmatic about what a “functional” relationship should look like? And therefore prejudiced? Had GT shown less resentment about being fettered to his autistic brother I would possibly be more lenient. But given his obvious bitterness about his plight, how would adding another “needy” person be a solution? Even if ST became “his own person”, GT would merely be swapping the needs of one for another?

  9. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @nrllee Yes, Cynical Islanders are we. I agree that the scenarios you describe are not at all the way we want them to go.

    About ‘latent emotions and ability to empathize’: I was just ‘looking’ for evidence about whether MY might be a killer. And also evidence for ASPD. The scene of her watching ST calling for help and her smirk of derision when GT ran away, followed by her egging him on to ‘leave/just go’ when he hesitated … chilled me. When he went back to save ST her lips curled in disdain ‘How boring!’ That was entertainment to her.

    Her saving grace was (and this one I missed before)… she used the flower with 8 petals to pull out, in order to decide to help or not. Petal 8 landed on to ‘Not help.’ She looked at it and was dissatisfied. So she wanted in the end to help, whether or not the last petal said yay or nay.

    However her lack of urgency in helping when every moment made it more dangerous for GT, and her walking away when he was still in the water also says a lot about her very different way of looking at the plight of others. Since a lack of empathy is one of the symptoms of several disorders, she has definitely some disorder or other. The problem is that she does not see or acknowledge that how she treats others is not alright. Even at that age, she had latent lack of empathy, and I don’t think it was ‘mother-driven’.

  10. Wow! I’m writing with this emojis 😱🥰 after listening to your Cursed Castle piece @Snow Flower! 👏🏻 Thank you for sharing. I can totally imagine GT and MY waltzing with that and staring into each other’s eyes. 🥰

    I’ll just go with the fairy tale side with this because as everyone stated already, their not healthy together. 😞 It’s hard to just see people as they are where you can see the wrong things that they’re actually doing. I just want an ending where they all heal. 🤞🏻 It doesn’t have to be that GT and MY can be together too. I just want another drama for the leads because they’re very good in camera together. ☺️

  11. @agdr03 I know. They are ridiculously good looking. Pure eye candy. And her voice! The low timbre is just delectable.

    @GB I agree. Her total detachment when assessing the potential drowning incident was very disturbing to watch. It was bad enough watching GT walk away from his brother but it was even more so with her cold unfeeling commentary. We’ll see how the writer resolves it at the end. Somehow I get the feeling I won’t be totally satisfied but I will reserve final judgment till the drama ends.

  12. Our Queen! 🙇🏻‍♀️ I’ve missed you too! 🥰

    I got excited with the 2 dramas that you mentioned especially the one with the pregnancy at the end. I love couples with babies and we haven’t really had babies in any of the dramas we’ve watched so it’ll be good. I’m looking forward to it. ☺️ Oh a lot of shirtless scenes? Deal! 😂 I’ll make sure @Phoenix sees it too. Like I said we’re the shallowest. 😆

  13. Oh @nrllee! You know what? I actually find her voice mesmerising for some reason 😱😁 I like it too. As in it goes with her beautiful face, it’s so right for her. This is my first time watching her and yeah together with KSH, I’d give anything to see them together again.

  14. I first saw her in Save Me. I couldn’t take my eyes off her (and her voice). Even though Taecyeon was the ML, I shipped her with dishy Woo DoHwan 😂. He was hardly on screen but he totally stole Taec’s thunder. I couldn’t finish the drama. It was too disturbing a drama to watch – about cults. ☹️. I ended up switching to Lawless Lawyer. Even though Lee JoonGi isn’t my cup of tea (he looks like a real life goblin? 😂) I watched it to the end for her.

  15. Real life goblin 😂 I’m not really into him as well but maybe I can give that a try too sometime just to watch Seo YeJi again.

    Yeah WDH never fails to impress me, love him in My Country and TKEM. I hope his adjusting well in army life.

  16. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    I managed to watch Ep 7 without subs. Hmmm…I saw more evidence that MY could hurt people without a qualm. Troubling.

    It’s another mother-son, mother-daughter sort of episode. This time we get a slightly different and more complete view of what we’d been shown before.

    We also see that healing is taking place in the OK Hospital, and maybe a start is being made with MY as well. It’s interesting how patients who get ‘treated’ by MY end up recovering.

    In that episode when MY stole the little sleep talisman figure from Dir Oh, did she know it was meant to help prevent sleep paralysis? Anyway, she gets a new talisman that she prefers.

    We asked the question before about how sick her father really is. He seems to be recovering well enough to hold decent conversations, even with MY. So there might be hope for them to reconcile but he’s now being haunted. It will be sad (for us) if something happens to him before some kind of reconciliation takes place.

    MY insists she’s not like her mother and makes a change. A fresh start. However, I don’t like that her ‘bad behaviour’ is not called out. Instead of being told off she is indulged.

    Some of the missing bits of GT and his mum’s backstory are remembered. So she wasn’t such a forgetful and careless mum to GT. However he maybe tended to focus on the hurts he felt and failed to bring the whole memory to mind. Therefore we, the viewers also received only a skewered point of view.

  17. I’m gonna miss long-haired Moonyoung 😢. Now it’s time to cut the leash and get used to the new MY short hair 😃.

    And omg MY’s forever sexual innuendos. Goodness gracious, she’s thirsty 🤣

  18. @GB – “Some of the missing bits of GT and his mum’s backstory are remembered. So she wasn’t such a forgetful and careless mum to GT. However he maybe tended to focus on the hurts he felt and failed to bring the whole memory to mind. Therefore we, the viewers received a skewered point of view.”

    I believe most of us have a tendency to do this–“… he [we] tend to focus on the hurts he [we] felt and failed to bring the whole memory to mind …” In any sort of relationship, the bad tend to resonate more than the good. I’m guilty of this myself. MY also mention this in an earlier episode that bad memories tend to stay in our hearts longer.

    In the epilogue, it’s implied that MY and GT’s relationship could be a wedge b/n GT and ST. Is MY the scissor that cuts the leash from GT to ST so GT can finally be live? I can’t wait to see how the story between the 3 of them unfolds in the coming episodes.

    We also discover in Ep7 that MY’s mother disappeared; there is no hard evidence that she died. In previous posts, someone mentioned in MY’s dream sequence that the woman that rose from the lake was MY; not MY’s mother. I am wondering what if MY’s mother is still alive and could possibly be one of the patients at the hospital.

    Scenes that I loved in Ep7: (1) MY drawing a happy face on the car window as she spends time w/ GT on the car ride. (2) MY and GT laughing with each other after she cut her own hair and announcing to GT that she cut the leash. (3) GT telling MY she is pretty after he did some finishing touches to her hair.

  19. Btw ,finally we are able to see what JR is like when she’s drunk. She may be violent, but other than that, she exhibited normalish drunk behavior {I mean, she’s talkative, says things all out, she’s kinda like my father when he’s drunk (there where times when he would be violent, but he’d just lash out on objects really, not on us)}.

    Hahaha idk if CEO Lee would be turned off by her after that incident. Or he would still like her? But wow he saw the other side of JR hihi.

  20. Also ST wanting to have friends 💔 I hope he would be friends with Seungjae.

    I like how ST pointed out to SJ how rude it is to talk to someone about one work in the workplace of that someone’s other work

  21. Episode 7 was a trigger episode for me. The theme of motherhood made me think of my own mother. The anniversary of her death is just a couple of days away.
    Thank you, show, for giving us beauty and healing at the right moment!

  22. Loving this drama so far, the visuals and the main leads are so captivating and yes to Seo YeJi’s voice, so mesmerizing. First time I have heard of a Korean actress with such a unique voice.
    Loving this episode, some of my favourites
    *spoilers ahead!*

    1. GT’s care and concern for MY. He stayed with her all night after the nightmare. Interesting how a nightmare turns to a fever. Also, MY’s crying reminds me so much of my kids night terrors, her acting is so on point, that real fear. Though I think if she remembered her dreams it is likely a nightmare instead.

    2. ST tells GT “Your body is honest. When you’re in physical pain, you cry. But the heart is as liar. It stays quiet even when it’s hurting.” Which I think is a theme in this show, we are not always truthful about our own pain.
    Same as how MY tells GT to “Get lost” but her heart really wants him to stay, but she has been conditioned by her mother to push people away, esp GT.

    3. Also, I love it when MY verbally pushes the boundaries of physical contact…yes including eating him up.
    MY: I like what you prescribed me
    GT: Where do you want to go?
    MY: A motel.
    GT: (Ignores her answer but isn’t surprised or angry) What do you want to eat?
    MY: You
    And these things can be things you do when you try to cover up or suppress what is really wrong inside.
    On the flip side if like GT, MY says “You don’t want to eat, have or do anything. You always look apathetic.” These two are polar opposites.

    4. ST and SJ’s convo, one of them wanting and friend and the other wanting a brother to love or be loved. A little worried about the part where SJ says that ST will be like the dog that chased the chicken. From the preview it looks like ST might be feeling left out

    5. GT describing MY as a thug instead of an empty can. MY can really be one!

    6. GT’s good memories of his mum, remembered. Yes like @GB said, it might have been easier to remember the hurts than the good times. GT’s reflection was important in helping him come to terms with his r/s with his mum.

    7. GT & MY’s chat at the stairs after he comes back somewhat drunk by still a bit sober. Thought i sensed a more relaxed, carefree GT. Also him giving MY the “piece of crap”.

    8. MY’s unintended cutting the lady with the deceased daughter free from her burden which gave her courage to cut her own ‘leash’. We all need some recognition and acknowledgement to help us grow.

  23. “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”
    ― Coco Chanel ☺️
    I think a lot of the characters will soon try to cut their leads.

    MY’s dad told Dir Oh that his wife sang ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’ to her and he wondered if she knew what it meant. The same song sung by the ‘ghost’ at the hospital. I think GT gave Dr Oh a big clue when he asked if MY might fear her mother.

    I still don’t like that MY needs reparation every time something goes wrong. GT praised her for helping the woman even though I don’t believe it was her intention. I think he’s moving forward in some ways – remembering his mother’s kindness to him as well as the burden she left. him to shoulder. He’s starting to smile more and laugh with MY, but I have mixed feelings about that. Is she sucking him into her orbit, or will he be able to draw the line when necessary?

    MY chucked Dir. Oh’s statue the same way she chucked the knife backstage. I wonder what ST will think when he sees that she has his nightmare catcher?

    Ref ST, in the preview it looks like he doesn’t like her hair short – it’s a change that he doesn’t like. Will they argue about it? He seemed to deny that GT left Jae-su for MY. He compared it to a BOGO deal that came about due to his contract. Is he unaware of how MY feels about GT and visa-versa?

    Ach, Jae-su. Gosh, even the way he curled up on his side next to GT reminded me of a wife or girlfriend more than a buddy. I felt sorry for him with all the years of fried chicken odor and grease trailing behind him. 🐓 And ST always got the legs. 🍗🍗🍗 No wonder he feels like the chicken head, useless and unwanted.

  24. @John L., thank you for putting it into words how memories of a relationship the bad resonates more than the good. GT has been feeling ike a victim and sorry for himself which is understandable. I’m grateful to Ju-Ri’s mother for saying that all parents make mistakes and for pointing out how well GT’s mother raised him and ST. ST adds to this when he remembers that they ate jjajangmyeon because it was GT, not ST who liked it so. The mother didn’t even order for herself; pretended she wasn’t hungry. Recalling these good memories helped GT balance his bad memories and allowed him to miss her love. There were a lot of great moments in this episode, but Ju-ri’s mom raising a toast to GT’s mom was nice. Must re-watch.

  25. Did anyone mention that the Wicked Witch of the West (the last book MY’s mom wrote) carried an umbrella (not a broom) in the Wizard of Oz? That would tie in with the umbrella that MY dragged along the ground in an earlier episode. The original book had her wearing silver shoes and not ruby slippers (that was changed in the movie to take advantage of the introduction of Technicolor).

    Source (Wikipedia).
    “The Witch did not carry a broom in the novel, but rather an umbrella, which she uses on one occasion to strike Dorothy’s dog Toto. Her nature is a volatile and yet somewhat cowardly one. Despite her immense power, she avoids face-to-face contact with her enemies, and is frightened of Dorothy at first when she sees the girl wearing the Silver Shoes. She is also afraid of the dark in Baum’s original story for reasons unknown. For that reason, the Witch never tried to steal the Silver Shoes while Dorothy was sleeping. Despite her fear of water and the dark, the Wicked Witch of the West was one of the most powerful witches in all of Oz. In ensuing Oz books, her power is described as having been so great that even Glinda the Good Witch of the South feared her.”

  26. Hello everyone, there is also that (my) question hanging, who is the awful lady patient who slapped nurse Ju-ri?

    My instinct tells me she is the FL – MY’s mum but… that’s too shallow, right? 🤷‍♀️

  27. One more thing, what with the falling down the stairs..actually it is almost falling down the stairs. The only one who fell was the reporter, in the rest of the incidents, the were saved in the nick of time. If I see them around stairs again, my heart rate will go up!

  28. Heard another joke inserted into the background music. Did anyone else notice? It is during the scene when JuRi is drunkenly spilling her heart about unrequited love and Publisher Lee overhears. The BGM is a variation on Für Elise. Nobody knows for certain who the Elise is that Beethoven dedicated the piece to, but there are at least two women possible whom Beethoven wished to marry, but they married other men.

  29. Ep.7 wrapped up the story arc of guest actor Bae Hae Sun, who played the mink- wearing patient. The last drama I saw her in was Hotel del Luna, where she played the room service manager. It was good to see her again, doing a remarkable job with this role. She was able to convey a lot of layers, switching from aggressive to vulnerable to confused in just a few beats with subtle changes in her facial expression.

  30. It kills me in a good way when GT and MY can just laugh casually like when she said to GR that he’s good with comebacks when his drunk and when he first sees her uneven haircut. 😊 I liked their smile at each other when GT said she’s pretty. ☺️

    I was laughing at the ‘motel’ and ‘eat you’ scene. This girl is so forward I’m like 😱😂

    That jjamppyong? Sorry for spelling mistake but it looked delicious! 😋

    I cried when GT finally remembered that his Mom loved him too when he’s able to put the pieces together.

    Out of all of MY’s book I like The Cheerful Dog the best. The other books looks haunted and unhappy especially the Zombie Kid. 😬

    Thanks for the info on Bae Hae Sun @Welmaris! I couldn’t place her but Hotel de Luna, yeah! 😊 I actually like the boy actor who plays young GT too. I’ve seen him in a few dramas before.

  31. I felt sad for the Cheerful Dog in the story. It reminded me of a neighbor who kept his dog tied to a picnic table even when it snowed. She was friendly to all the locals and kids on the way home from school. The neighbor didn’t like her because she wasn’t aggressive.

    @agdr03, yes, MY knows what she wants and isn’t subtle about it. I sort of feel that the clock is ticking. Pulling his safety pin indeed.

  32. @Fern, you’re poor neighbours dog. I’d always prefer a gentle dog anytime. Yes, the Cheerful Dog is a sad story especially when nighttime comes.

    I feel it too, the ticking and the pulling. Can we get any more shock if it happens? ☹️

  33. Lyrics to O My Darling Clementine (I can’t remember if anyone commented before). She drowned? Not a very nice lullaby for MY’s mom to sing…and again, allusion to shoes.

    Oh my darling, oh my darling
    Oh my darling, Clementine
    You were lost and gone forever
    Dreadful sorrow, Clementine

    In a cavern, in a canyon
    Excavating for a mine
    Dwelt a miner forty-niner
    And his daughter, Clementine

    Yes I loved her, how I loved her
    Though her shoes were number nine
    Herring boxes, without topses
    Sandals were for Clementine

    Oh my darling, oh my darling
    Oh my darling, Clementine
    You were lost and gone forever
    Dreadful sorrow, Clementine

    Drove the horses to the water
    Every morning just at nine
    Hit her foot against a splinter
    Fell into the foaming brine

    Ruby lips above the water
    Blowing bubbles soft and fine
    But alas, I was no swimmer
    So I lost my Clementine

    Oh my darling, oh my darling
    Oh my darling, Clementine
    You were lost and gone forever
    Dreadful sorrow, Clementine
    You are lost and gone forever
    Dreadful sorrow, Clementine

  34. Thank you, @nrllee. ‘Clementine’ was a popular ‘sing-along’ song when I was little. But I think we only sang the first couple of stanzas and didn’t analyze further. 🤫

    Like fairy tales, a lot of songs like that are rather dark when you look at them more closely. Sort of like ‘Waltzing Matilda’, ‘The Streets of Laredo’ and ‘The Frozen Logger’. The last is a bit more campfire humour, I suppose.

    Looking forward to tonight’s episode!

  35. @agdr03, ref the Cheerful Dog, one has to hope that something kind will help or encourage it to chew through its rope, or that a sympathetic person will rescue it, because surely a cheerful dog deserves better. ❤️🐶 I was thinking of how ST said that GT made sad noises while he slept, like a dog. 😢

    I wonder if MY’s wardrobe will start to change, too, now that she has taken the step to cut her hair.

  36. There is a costume director who explained the concept behind their styles here:
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCc3lyUpo6n/?igshid=1tloxtkbych5t

  37. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    Mun Yeong’s Inadvertent Therapy
    So far, the one-on-one encounters between MY and psychiatric patients, have been fraught with upheaval of some kind or other, but this show has made it seem that she offers the right therapy, and not necessarily intentionally.

    In Kwon Ki Do’s exhibitionist case and with Kang Eun Jae’s ‘shock’ therapy LOL, they became well enough to be discharged.

    Even MY’s father has improved tremendously. He has gained consciousness, is able to walk and seems to be lucid, after that strangulation incident.

    We see MY wanting to get acknowledgement from GT for what she does right. She suggested to GT that she’d done the right thing for Kwon Ki Do. She kept asking GT if he had chosen his brother again because of something she had done. However when she really did do the right thing, inadvertently, and got Kang Eun Jae out of her delusions, she was not aware of it until GT gave her a pat (literally) not on the back, but on her head. That was a nice smile that they exchanged.

    I assume the good patient results placed at MY’s door, puts MY in a positive light, especially when she is beginning to show some signs of empathy in her interactions with GT. However they also make us forget that she still has dangerous tendencies and the bad habit of expecting everyone to dance to her tune.

    Another Point of View
    This is one theme this episode: that matters may not be as they seem. We and the characters, can be mistaken in what we think we know or remember. In GT’s case, this has perpetuated his wounds and prevented healing. We consider if we too might be suffering unnecessarily or stagnated in our own healing for similar reasons.

    Some instances where I was surprised:
    Ju Ri shows her other side when drunk, but it’s nothing as bad as we are led to think when MY calls her two-faced. Certainly the slapping and cussing drunk JR is not what we ever see when she’s sober, but I find her no worse than a normal polite-in-society person who has loosened up and has become rude.

    We find out, (to my surprise), that CEO Lee while he is indeed interested in MY mostly for the money her work will bring him, did also play a role in helping her. He has some intimate knowledge of the things she feared and of how her home and her mother affected her. He wasn’t all talk and no knowledge.

    ST has looked like he has a childlike mind and is often in a world of his own, but he has a pretty good sense of what may be going on with GT, more perhaps than we give him credit for. He suggests from his quoting (possibly from MY’s book?) that GT whimpers in his sleep, because his heart is in pain. This is a revelation to GT who neither knew that he whimpered in sleep, nor that ST would know how to interpret it.

    JS is obsessed with being someone of significance in GT’s life but that’s been one-sided for 15 years. He’s shown in this episode to have some traits that are attributed to women. Like obsessing what ‘later means’ and needing to talk out an issue to a listening ear (poor ST). He is even portrayed behaving in a ‘much put upon’ pouty girlfriend way when GT brings the beer.

    The biggest misconceptions were Gang Tae’s. He had been stuck in the rut, unhappily believing that he’d been the un-preferred child, assigned the unappreciated workhorse role to care for ST for life. His faulty selective memory had to be shaken out of the rut. It took seeing Kang Eun Jae’s (the mink coat patient) regret over her last words to her daughter, to get GT thinking that his mum might have regretted what she had said or done to make him feel discriminated against. Ju Ri’s mum (Kang Soon Deok) points out a mother’s perspective, chastening GT into realising that he’d only been thinking from his point of view.

    He’d held himself rigid and always in control to fulfill his promise to his mother, but he’d resented it for most of his life. Now that he has begun to acknowledge his pain, GT can start to let go more and start to heal.

    I’m guessing show will want to offer MY’s inadvertent therapy to also work magic for GT, and vice versa. We’ll see (with 😣 cringes and eye rolls 🙄).

  38. Oh man, when MY and ST fight over the Nightmare Catcher Doll (MT). They end up ripping the doll as they play tug-of-war–MY ends up w/ the head and ST ends up w/ the body. Is this a foreshadow of things to come? GT will definitely have to manage his relationship w/ ST and MY at some point. Else, it’s possible they could rip GT apart.

    [Conversation w/ GT & ST after the fight]

    GT: But when you don’t need something, it’s nice to offer it to someone who needs it.

    ST: “Offer?”

    GT: Yes, that’s right.

    ST: But if I give all my stuff to people who need them, what about me? What will I have left?

    [Long awkward pause]

    GT: You will always have me. Forget Mang-tae. You have Gang-tae.

    ST: Ms. Ko is alone, so she needs Mang-tae.

    GT: Then you will let her have Mang-tae?

    ST: Yes, she can have him. She can have Mang-tae, not Gang-tae.

    [GT pauses to think about ST’s statement]

    ST: She can have Mang-tae, not Gang-tae.

    GT: Yes. She can have Mang-tae, not Gang-tae.

    ST: Yes, she can take him.

    [GT stares at ST and looks down on the the split doll]

    What is GT going to do? In the epilogue, MY tells GT “I don’t want you to spend your entire life taking care of your brother.”

  39. @John L Sang Tae is a child in a sense and Gang Tae is like his parent. I think he just needs some time to come to terms with the idea of GT and MY together. It seems to me that ST [having seen the reactions GT is having around MY] will come to the realization that GT needs MY as much as ST needs GT.

    There’s also the route of GT is ST’s but MY is GT’s to make ST feel like GT is still “his” even with MY spending more time with him [GT]. ./shrug

    I loved how they showed the duality of everyone having a “beauty” and a “beast” side of them. GT is constantly referred to as pretty by MY but the fight really showed that he has a beast inside him also.

    There’s constant comments about JR being two faced but in reality everyone is. There are very few people who show their real selves to everyone and every thing. And when they do, it’s usually because they can’t control themselves enough to be “polite in society.”

  40. If MY expanded her class to include interpretation of folk songs, she probably say something like the moral of the story of O My Darling Clementine is “Wear proper footwear around water, if you don’t want to drown,” or “ “Don’t waste your time with useless lovers, who can’t swim, if you work around water.”😒

    I mentioned on another page that there’s a Korean version of Clementine, where Clementine is a daughter, who is lost to her fisherman father. It is not clear if Clementine drowned, sailed away, or was otherwise lost. Ko Dae-Hwan could relate to both a drowned lover and a daughter, whose relationship was lost to him.

  41. Thanks @Dlia. I thought someone mentioned it but it was difficult to sift through all the comments to find it. I like the Korean version too. Sounds like drowning is a theme. With the near drowning episodes of ST/GT and the dream of MY and her mom in the lake, and the references to The Wicked Witch of the West.

    I like your take on how MY would’ve interpreted the song. 😂.

    What’s the consensus here on MY’s mom? Is she dead or alive? I see some In other forums trying to figure out if someone in the hospital is actually her mom? Personally I think she’s dead.

  42. I should probably be happy and be on cloud 9 with the last scene of ep8 . Instead I am actually so nervous. I was holding my breath when the last scene panned out. Yes, GT is finally loosening and is happy he’s free and would like to play together with MY, but the sad reality is that he’s not totally free. He still has to take care of his brother, it’s a lifelong responsibility. Now he left his brother behind. As what he said in the preview he must be out of his mind.

    Also because of my nervousness I do not quite grasp the whole meaning of Beauty and the Beast and its significance to this drama, specifically this ep. My mind went blank after MY said Stockholm Syndrome and the following discussion on Beauty and the Beast.

    Now that GT somehow be losing control on his emotions, what with what he did to the visitor, I hope MY could learn how to be patient so that she would not react violently in the future. Also MY has to learn that GT needs to be with his brother until death, all she could do is be there to the brothers.

  43. Kimono lady’s character brief – only because she keeps appearing. And she grabbed the book first with the cryptic “you’re too slow” or something to MY’s dad in Ep7.

    “She used to be an unknown theater actor. She was not given the chance to recite a line, so she repeated plastic surgery several times. The more that happened, the lower the self-esteem and the higher the sense of inferiority. She continued to hurt herself, trying to show “I” (the real me?). She is a huge fan of Do Hee-jae’s “The Murder of the Western Witch” series.”

    So she may we’ll be someone in their family’s past. But due to multiple plastic surgeries, she’s unrecognisable to them now. Could she be tormenting MY’s dad because as an avid fan, she felt he was responsible for her disappearance?

  44. @Welmaris, I heard the stylized version of Fur Elise. If La Campanella is MY’s theme, Fur Elise is JR’s. It is not known for whom Beethoven composed the piece, but I like to imagine it was the same person as the recepient of the Immortal Beloved letter. The letter was found after Beethoven’s death, undated and never sent, the recepient’s identity still a mystery.

  45. @Fern, I had never heard about The Frozen Logger, so I looked it up. I am not sure whether to laugh or to cry. I choose to interpret the ending as happy (poor waitress finds another logger, hopefully he is not going to break her jaw!)

  46. @LeeDale9198,

    I too was left feeling uneasy after Episode 8. Things are starting to well for MY and GT, but there are still 8 more episodes left. I anticipate a huge crisis soon. I suspect the crisis will involve ST, his fear of butterflies, and GT and ST’s mom’s murder. Another possible crisis scenario could be about MY’s own mom. Or maybe the two sources of crisis are connected?
    We will have to wait and see.

    @nrllee, I think MY’s mom is dead. MY described finding her body in vivid detail. The dad also seems to think so. I think it is too far fetched believe that Kimono Lady is the mom herself after multiple plastic surgeries.
    But I am also not so sure if MY and her dad are reliable narrators. One thing is sure: dead or alive, the mom was the shadow and the leash that kept MY imprisoned in darkness, and she (the mom) still haunts poor dad. Both MY and her dad must come to terms with the mom’s role in their lives. MY has already made the first steps outside her mom’s shadow. I hope she will help her dad too.

  47. On a lighter note, JR and Publisher Lee are definitely fated to be together! He gave her a piggyback ride, so the matter is settled. Of course, they will have to go through cohabitation hijinks in order to realize that they are right for each other and I am looking forward to their interaction.

    Now the only two characters left to be paired are Jae Soo and art assistant Seung Jae. Since they are also living in the same building, it is going to happen sooner or later.

  48. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @Snow Flower I laughed to see the co-habitation of all things, right under the nose and with the approval of JR’s mum (Kang Soon Deok). These are the pairings I was playfully imagining doing the Waltz to your melody, in the Castle hall (ah my bad memory … I cannot even find my own post to check) and I’ll be so pumped to have them getting together. This show began with so many people on their own, (some lonely), it’s the most healing thing to the romantics in us (yes even for an inveterate fence sitting cynic, like me) to see the folks being happy together. I am even hopeful that Ah Reum and Jung Tae (I think his name is) can recover well enough to have a working relationship.

    The only loner left, who would also like a friend, is Sang Tae. I hope he can be the hyung who can let go of his doensaeng and enjoy being part of the family rather than just holding on to GT.

  49. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @Snow Flower, I just re-read your post about your mum’s anniversary which should be around now. Hugs and healing! 🤗 😃

    @Welmaris and @Snow Flower there are very few melodies that I can identify by name and Fur Elise is one of them. I laughed to hear it played but didn’t know the background of that composition. We can take the joke to mean that while JR insists that she only likes GT, Lee Sang In’s and her mother’s machinations may help her get over GT much sooner than expected. LOL.

    @agdr03 I like all the scenes in which GT finally allows himself to smile. I must admit, that there are times a resemblance to the Joker makes me giggle. I’m glad that MY can smile genuinely and without calculation.

    @agdr03 @Fern The Cheerful Dog story is somewhat more positive, however the ending seems open ended… once again, an ending waiting to be written by the events that will unfold in this show? I know a real life tragic story of a dog that was tied up, but I shall not elucidate. It is too upsetting. So I have mixed feelings about this story.

    @Fern I feel that MY has succeeded in loosening the Safety Pin in GT rather a lot already. It happened quite fast although it must have started, unbeknown to GT, since MY’s strangulation. It must have been coming loose when GT saw that MY was confused if Kang Eun Jae could be her mother … it was relatable to him who missed his own mum. Then it loosened some more when he approved her helping KEJ to cut loose from the burden of the shawl and finally when he acknowledged that he still liked MY despite all his previous protestations, that pin was about to drop out! 😆

    @nrllee Thanks for putting out for us the lyrics of O My Darling Clementine and giving your take on it. I also copied it from a site and was thinking that it was not a pleasant song at all… something like how fairy tales are not exactly pleasant, feel good stories.

    My simple take on that song was that it brought up once again drowning. A motif of wet corpses and wet footprints and voices from the depths of water still haunt me. So in that way the song was apt. Ah yes, the shoes… might the sandals instead of, say, boots, have had a difference? Was it just a facile reference, as in did she stub her toe and that’s why she drowned?

    It was such a simple but unfortunate thing: tripping and falling into water to die because one’s lover could not swim. It marries the horrors of drowning with the ridiculous: a tragicomedy of a song. The tone of callousness and indifference in the repeated refrain and what sounds like insincerity in calling the dead girl ‘My Darling’ and ‘dreadful sorry’ struck a chord of horror for me. Further verses mention that the singer kissed her little sister and forgot his Clementine. It might have been something of a joke, but it elicited outrage in me.

    What a horrible lullaby, to be caught in a narrative of someone’s death that is made light of by the ones who should love her best, and to have to sleep to that!!

    If MY’s father knew how inappropriate that song was for a lullaby (as his words to Dir Oh seem to indicate), MY’s mum would likely have known as well.

  50. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    Thanks so much @grace. I really appreciate a show’s bringing together many elements to communicate more information to us viewers, including of course the wardrobe. I noticed MY’s power dressing and GT’s self-effacing style, but I hadn’t cottoned on to the rest of the cast. I like that ST is somehow childlike in both dress and interests, and yet he still considers himself the hyung who can be depended upon.

    LOL @Dlia

    If MY expanded her class to include interpretation of folk songs, she probably say something like the moral of the story of O My Darling Clementine is “Wear proper footwear around water, if you don’t want to drown,” or “ “Don’t waste your time with useless lovers, who can’t swim, if you work around water.”😒

    I’d love to hear what MY would say about the Clementine song.

    @nrllee Thanks for the kimono patient’s brief and thoughts on MY’s ghostly mother (Do Hee Jae). What you say about the kimono patient being someone who knows Do Hee Jae, whom MY and her dad cannot recognise due to plastic surgery, and who might be ‘haunting’ Ko Dae Hwan with the Clementine song, is plausible. A character like Do Hee Jae could have crazy fans. I thought that kimono patient Park Ok Ran has a streak of cruelty in her throughout.

    I believe that Do Hee Jae is dead, and that the circumstances of her death made it necessary for it to be hidden. This comes from me trying to reconcile KDH’s insistence that DHJ is dead with MY’s dreams/nightmares of a corpse in the basement, with the fact that no corpse was found. (ref my reply post to you and @Fern on MY’s dad before the dementia.) Gosh, if after all this the mother is alive, I’ll flip!

  51. @GB Rockabye Baby’s lyrics aren’t particularly comforting either, about the bough breaking and…well…down will come baby, cradle and all. I need to find time to watch Ep8.

  52. @GB I’m dating myself, but my first remembrance of O My Darling Clementine is associated with a cartoon character named Huckleberry Hound, who used to sing it as sort of his theme song. The song will always be cartoonish to me. However, to a child growing up in that castle, with her sinister mom and a father losing his grasp on reality, it must have been chilling.

    @nrllee Thank you for sharing the information about Kimono Lady and eliminating her as MY’s mother, once and for all. (Her backstory partially explains why she now seems to be relishing the attention she’s getting.) I think that MY witnessed her mother’s drowning and in an act of self-preservation, she did not attempt to help her. Since the body was never found, MY and her father do not have the closure to make peace with her death. I predict that, at some point, we will learn more about “The Death of the Wicked Witch,” and that there will be clues to Do Hee Jae’s state of mind and foreshadowing of her death in that book. However, if she did fake her death, I think there will be clues there, too. I wonder how soon after her disappearance the book was published.

  53. @Snow Flower, your Cursed Castle piece is beautiful. I love the tension and release of the unusual melody as the waltz beat flows smoothly throughout. I applaud you!

  54. @Snow Flower, I heard the Logger song over a cup of coffee near Sequim WA during my misspent youth. 🤣 Hysterical serenade.

    Because this is a Kdrama, the Clementine is more likely to refer to the Korean version, I think.

    @Growing Beautifully, yes to MY’s loosening of GT’s safety pin. That last scenes were so out of character. I was thinking YES! -but …

    As far as I can tell he didn’t even say goodbye to ST, so I expect another explosive situation there.

    😂 “The cohabitation of all things “. Yes, combine that with the gothic mansion and spooky back stories and you arrive at the Addams Family. Pffffft.

  55. Sigh just finished Ep8. There were moments where I got caught up in the fairy tale…they look so beautiful together. They laughed, they smiled, they connected. And the background music just created the perfect ambience. BUT…BUT…it’s a dream. ST and GT are a package deal? The umbrella scene was reminiscent of when GT was little and his mother looked after the one with the greater need. Running away from your responsibilities is not a solution. Yes, get respite. Take a breather. Live a little. But only so you return rejuvenated to shoulder that responsibility once more? 🤔

  56. @nrllee, yes. I agree. It’s all happening to GT too quickly and, in real life, there would be huge consequences. I understand that he’s ready to blow, but heck, even ST was saying things like ‘don’t hit’ and ‘did you count to three?’

    The scene with MY and ST fighting like adolescents over Mang-Tae and GT having to act like their parent was just too much and said a lot about where ST and MY are at respectively. There is a lot of work to do before they can be trusted to get along, but get along is what they will have to do, right?

    Speaking of pairing people off, only Sang Tae is left out of the theories. Is it too strange for me to wish that he could find a special someone, besides GT, who could be his safety pin forever?

  57. @grace, Thank you for sharing the info on our characters’ clothes. It was very insightful.

    @GB, Thank you. Episode 7 brought bittersweet feelings for me. It made me miss my mom, but I also felt reassured in her love. Here is the piece I listen to when I need a butterfly hug:

  58. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    @Snow Flower. You’re welcome. What a calming and comforting piece of music!

  59. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    The Mother Syndrome

    Psycho – Thanks @Welmaris for reminding me about the details of Psycho (in the thread on Fairy Tales). Yes there was the mother and the knife, so Psycho is so suitable a reference for this show.

    I looked it up, and saw these points of similarity.
    1) Another show which includes mental illness, and this one did not end too well. We trust PBIO will have a happy ending.

    2) Another terrible, controlling and possessive mother (in the mum of Norman Bates), who is jealous of any female her son takes an interest in. She is heard arguing with Norman about him allowing a female to stay at their Motel. MY’s mum could be modeled after her.

    Episode 6:
    Child MY : “Mum why did Bluebeard kill his wives?”
    Mum Do Hee Jae (DHJ) :”Because they didn’t listen to him. you have to listen to Mum at all times, okay? That makes you a good girl, right?”
    (Silence)
    DHJ : “Answer me!”
    Child MY : “Yes, I’ll listen to you at all times.”
    DHJ : “Good. You’re such a good girl.” (She strokes her hair, then raises her voice in a scream.) “But why did you bring him here?” (Mum jerks MY’s head back by her hair and MY seems to awaken, but actually suffers another sleep paralysis, with the ghost of DHJ floating above her.)

    Psycho is equally chilling.

    3)Another child who is damaged by his mother. Norman is so fettered to his mum, that he even has her often in his mind, and can’t be rid of her, similar in a way to how MY keeps having nightmares of her mother.
    (I hope I managed that without spoilers 😝)

    What’s this thing about mother’s being so ‘proud’ of their children being like them?

    Did anyone notice that 3 different mothers said something similar? Is this a Korean thing?
    MY’s mum Do Hee Jae says to her : “Long hair suits you because you take after me. Never cut your hair short.” (DHJ is obsessed with making MY into her image and controlling her for life, even from her afterlife.)

    Kang Eun Jae, the Mink coat patient, said on the phone to her ‘daughter’ about meeting GT [paraphrased : You take after me and go for handsome men, therefore you will like him because he is handsome.] (She says it as if it’s something to be proud of.)

    Ju Ri’s mum, Kang Soon Deok says of JR to MY : “She takes after me so she can’t hide her feelings.” (KSD speaks fondly while she draws JR to her side.)

    In varying degrees, all mums seemed to want their kids to be like them, and the kids either accept resignedly or reject this motherly expectation.

    What ST and MY seem to be needing is a mum.

    In ST’s case, he was always rather childlike, taking his cue from his brother. GT behaved like a mum towards him at times as well, for instance in the way he calls to check on what ST ate and what he is doing.

    In the fight over Mang Tae, ST and MY looked like nothing more than children, and related to GT as the parent who’d solve their disagreement and clear up their mess.

    GT approached them exactly as ‘the adult’ and more often the ‘mum’ who had to separate the kids, sort out what was fair for each kid, reason with them and fix the broken toy. Instead of parenting 1 child, GT is now dealing with 2. 🙄 😬

  60. @Growing Beautifully, yes, I thought GT was acting like their parent, too, and the poor man could do with a bit of mothering himself if his interactions with Ju-ri’s mom are any indication.

  61. Off tangent; @GB mentioned parents who want their children to resemble themselves. I was thinking that there are a lot of ‘prior claims’ mentioned. Ju-ri tried to tell MY that she knew GT before, but MY trumped her due to childhood acquaintance. CEO Sang-in claims MY prior to GT because he has worked with her for >10 years. ST claims Mang-tae because GT gave it to him first. Jae-su says he should have preference over MY because he has known GT and ST since he and GT were 16. Is this ‘validity’ of first acquaintance a common thread in Kdramas? It seems to go with the ‘first love’ trope.

  62. @Snow Flower, thank you for sharing that music for violin and piano. I can see why you find it calming.

  63. @Fern, Arvo Part is my composing hero and role model.

    I am rewatching Episode 8 right now and just wanted to say that in my shallow heart I want the dreamy dress MY is wearing in the morning after she cuts her hair.

  64. Ah, @Snow Flower, it is such a lovely dress. It makes a contrast with her straight hair.

  65. @Snow Flower, my thoughts are with you as you remember your mom at the anniversary of her passing. May memories of her love for you be a comfort.

    @Fern, it does seem to be a Kdrama trope that knowing someone first, being a first love, is seen as laying some sort of claim, like fate. What a terrible pressure to be under for those who watch Kdramas and think it is the truth! If the first relationship isn’t a good fit–friend or lover–hanging on isn’t healthy. We see that with A Reum and her ex-husband, who knew each other since middle school. How are children to know what is best for their future?

  66. I am very thankful for the support I am receiving in person and online. I am sure my mom would have loved watching and discussing dramas.

    I am intrigued by patient Park Ok Ran. She lied about the song. I still find it very far fetched if she is indeed MY’s mother after plastic surgeries and possibly suffering from amnesia. It is possible the song was referenced in one of MY’s mother’s books which would explain why patient Park knows it.
    Now that GT is suspended, he won’t be able to keep an eye on Ms. Park as Director Oh requested.
    Asian Wiki gives the name of the actress who plays the mom and it is definitely not the same actress who plays Ok Ran. If the mom is indeed alive, it would a very makjang-y twist. How does one survive a cracked skull and twisted limbs? These injuries suggest that the mom suffered a fall. I am thinking that she either had an accident or was pushed down the stairs either by MY (possibly as a self defence) or the dad, and the body was then thrown in the lake.

  67. @Snow Flower, I looked at Arvo Pärt’s information. What an extraordinary composer. I liked ‘Für Alina’, which could hardly be simpler in terms on notes, but comes across as concentrated and profound.

    I wondered about the difference of names between the actresses. Also, I’m thinking now that if Ok Ran were MY’s mother, wouldn’t MY recognise her voice in spite of time and plastic surgery? Ok Ran must have a link with the family. Sister of the mother, perhaps? Is that why she is tormenting MY’s father?

    She is needy, in the sense that she wanted to have her picture taken and she wanted attention from others at the hospital, which she didn’t have until that point. Her bio said that she was an actress, so as a performer she might crave an audience. I also wondered if she is jealous of MY’s youth, importance and attraction.

  68. @Snow Flower, I found the piece you shared in another You Tube video played on piano and cello. Along with it was this comment from three years ago by someone named nita kinney, which moved me: “10 years ago my brother’s first grandchild was born. She was not thriving, her body could not get rid of fluids and her breathing was not regulated, it was ragged and on and off. The family was told to not hope. My brother got a recording of this music and told the staff in the infant ICU to play it constantly next to her. Gradually her breathing came to match the steady slow rythm [sic] of this music and her body began to function normally. He acredited [sic] this music. She is now a healthy beautiful girl who loves to dance.”

  69. @Welmaris, Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror) has many versions. I listened to one for cello and piano and was struck by one of the comments (sorry, don’t remember the name of the commenter): The piano is the heartbeat and the cello is the breath. It ties really nicely with the comment about the sick baby.
    I sent my piano pieces to one of the instructors I met at a composition workshop a year ago, and now I am waiting for a feedback.
    I am also thinking about sharing them with the writer and the director of PBIO but I have no idea how to reach them.

    My composition prompt for this week is “Smile.” I am thinking about something pure and simple, like the first snow of winter or the smell of freshly baked bread. No unexpected chords. We’ll see how that goes…

  70. @Snow Flower, if you ever lack for composition prompt inspiration, could I suggest Maximus? Still missing our favorite Senior Seventh Rank Official.

  71. @Welmaris, for some cheer, there are some lovely photos here:
    https://www.koreaboo.com/news/maximus-horse-king-famous-celebrity/

  72. Tangent: Just for fun, I looked up songs and music about horses. This, by U2, rather reminded me of MY, especially the phrase, ‘You’re a piece of glass, left in a beach.’
    https://www.google.com/search?q=Who%27s+Gonna+Ride+Your+Wild+Horses%E2%80%9D+by+U2&rlz=1C1GCEB_enGB824GB824&oq=Who%27s+Gonna+Ride+Your+Wild+Horses%E2%80%9D+by+U2&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

  73. @Welmaris, you pushed me into the rabbit hole. The wheels in my head are spinning! Now I have to work on 2 pieces at the same time. Not that I am complaining….

  74. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    This is a couple of portions of the Google Translated article on the international popularity of this show taken from: https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/241/0003037911 It is not rated highly, domestically, I gather. A point of interest is that Seo Ye-ji seems to be the more popular than Kim Soo Hyun at the moment, if I’m interpreting the language correctly!

    ‘Psycho, but it’s okay’ World wide popularity is better
    World wide popularity is considerable.

    TVN Saturday drama’It’s okay to not be okay’ starring Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Ye-ji is gaining popularity not only in Korea but also in Asia and South America.

    At the present time, the ranking of platform Netflix, which has overseas viewers from 190 countries, is quickly becoming a measure of world wide popularity,’Psycho but it’s okay’ on the 13th, ranking sixth in the worldwide ranking of TV shows related to Netflix.

    … Previously,’Itaewon Class’ and’Unexpected Love’ were popular, but it was the best in Korea to be ranked 7th in the world ranking of’The King: Lord of Eternity’ starring Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun. ‘Psycho but it’s okay’ broke this record. …

    It is still popular in Korea. According to the drama topic provided by Good Data, it has been ranked first for three consecutive weeks. In addition, in the topic of drama, Seo Ye-ji is first and Kim Soo-hyun is second. The CPI index, which is based on data collected through the Broadcast Content Value Information Analysis System (RACOI), has not been given the top spot in the second week. …”
    Reporter Jin-Seok Kim superjs@joongang.co.kr

  75. My new piece for this week: Smile

    https://soundcloud.com/user-858010722/smile

  76. @Snow Flower, that was perfection. I loved the high register and the calm and positive feel. The phrasing made it seem that words could be added as well. Thank you for your compositions.

  77. @Packmule3, check your email, as I’ve sent you a present. It’s just a project I did for fun, apropos of nothing.

  78. Howdy! I’m late in the comments but I thought the scene where the three was having breakfast was funny. ST is very honest and I think you’re right Queen when you said he is the most mature out of all of them. It’s a sign when he was watching GT and MY from the bus that something’s gonna happen. And so he said straight away that Man-Tae can be given to MY but not GT. 😬

    What’s with the quail egg though? I love them but I’m like MY, it is hard to get. 😆

    As much as I like GT being jealous, when I saw that rock that MY was holding I was 😱 She really is unstoppable and no worries about the consequences.

    That smile of GT at the end of the episode though, he hasn’t smiled like that at all but at what cost? 😩 Sigh!

  79. @Snow Flower! Thanks for Smile! I enjoyed that while looking at hubby’s beautiful orchids from our backyard. 🥰

  80. Calling our Queen B! 📣

    I hope you and your family are safe and well. I’m still waiting on those two light dramas that you mentioned.

    We’ll wait for you! Take care! 🙇🏻‍♀️

  81. Growing Beautifully (GB)

    Hi @pkml3, this is just a gentle reminder for an Open Thread for this weekend’s episode. I trust you were able to catch some of your lighter shows as well as watch this heavier one. 😄

  82. I’ll second @GB on the gentle reminder 😊

    I hope you’re ok @packmule3! 🙇🏻‍♀️

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