Sorry!!! I scheduled a couple of posts to be uploaded while I was gone this week, but as usual, I’m such a computer dunce, I didn’t realize I’d typed in the wrong days (like they were scheduled to be posted NEXT WEEK!!!)
Ugh! I swear some of my blog incompetence are self-inflicted wounds. Thanks for bearing with me in this crazy time.
Reminder to me: Today is 7/18/2020. NOT 7/25/2020.
The thread is now open. Let’s enjoy the show. 🙂
I should be home Saturday morning to catch up on the blog. Sometimes, when I feel jaded, I must find my groove and fall in love with dramas again.
My groove:
See y’all Saturday.
I must say. The Pandora’s Box is now open 😭
Thank you, @pm3!
Many wonderful little moments in this episode and a heartbreaking last scene…
Thanks @pkml3. Glad to know you’re back safe again. Pity if you’re taking a break from shows. They are good de-stresses as you know.
I’m watching a funny, Chinese costume drama now, that’s a true blue love story with a twist (plus many little twists). Title is ‘The Love by Hypnotic’. It premiered in Oct last year and is complete, so I’m more or less bingeing it while waiting for PBIO.
I love that it’s mostly totally focused on the OTP and has real LOL moments because of the unexpected little twists. We can see the romance developing and understand why it stagnates. We can even understand the side characters reactions and motives.
Hope you get back into the drama groove!
Not sure if this drama will end well … or they are just stringing us along.
[After Jung-Tae at the hospital after he broke up w/ A-Reum]
MY – Is he a fool? Why let her go if he loves her?
GT – Because he loves her a lot. Sometimes, that’s why you must let someone go.
MY – So they broke up because they love each other? That’s complete bullshit. I will never let you go.
GT – Don’t be so sure of it. You never know what could happen.
Spoiler – Did anyone feel like that kiss did not do this drama justice?
Thank you for opening a new blog, @packmule3 and thank you for the hit of Louis.
@John L, I saw the kiss as a pure and chaste first kiss, something young GT did not get a chance to do, and something MY never experienced as a child. I liked how the kiss scene was similar to the noodle lunch scene in Episode 4. In the noodle scene we saw GT as a little boy longing to be loved. In the flower scene in Episode 9 MY was a little girl who just had her first kiss.
@John L I feel like that conversation foreshadows what’s going to happen once we get to uncover the mystery of the mother and MY. I feel like she will break up and walk away from Gang Tae to protect him because she’ll finally understand that to love is to let go. Either that or it’s foreshadowing her getting therapy and having to leave him for a bit like Areum and Jung Tae
It’s interesting that MY couldn’t share friends as a child and won’t share GT with anyone as an adult. The truth about MY’s mother seems to be getting closer. How many people will GT have to protect?
I liked that Dir Do and Soon-deok were close in the past. She’s still bossing him around.
I was impressed by Jung-Tae who understands and acknowledges his weakness. It would have been so easy to give in and hope that his and Areum’s relationship would save him. A relationship might help, but without a healthy base, both side could founder.
Take your time @packmule3. Recharge the batteries and refresh. TKEM (plagiarism woes) and HP (rabid fan girls) would’ve knocked the wind out of anyone’s sails. That and the spectre of COVID (and the turmoil it brings) always looming large in real life. I had to take a breather after HP (and that was just a battle on one front, you had multiple) just to regroup and feel sane again. Sometimes it’s a matter of finding the right fluffy drama to watch. I think PBIO is kinda heavy going in our current climate.
Btw if it’s not too much to ask, can you start a 3rd post for HP during hiatus? The 2nd one is already 300+ comments long. It’s a bit hard to scroll down. Thanks in advance. 🙂❤️
Okay! Will create another HP post.
I was looking for a fluffy drama but… whenever I was with my colleagues, I noticed that I was so behind the “conventional” Netflix fare that I couldn’t contribute anything to the small talk. I was a fish out of water!! 🐠🐠🐠
Then when I asked them if they knew of Kdramas, and I was met with horrified looks. 😱😱
Their comments, verbatim:
“Isn’t that similar to Days With Our Lives?” 😂
“Don’t get started on them. They’re 50 episodes long.” 🤦♀️And no I didn’t bother to correct them that they’re confusing kdrama with Chinese drama. Kdrama is 16 episodes.
“I watched Parasite. And I didn’t understand the ending.” 🤪 I didn’t have the heart to tell them that Kdrama isn’t a movie.
“I heard it’s a rage among teenagers.” 😂They don’t know we’re ahjummas here.
“I’ll get dizzy with subtitles.” 🤦♀️ That’s bogus because I know that she watches foreign movies.
“Giri/Haji is on Netflix but it’s a BBC series.” 🙃 Giri/Haji isn’t Kdrama. It’s about Japanese guy in search for his brother in England. Japanese isn’t Korean. Wrong East Asian country.
😎 I can tell that revealing to them that I watch kdramas will blow their minds. 🤯 I’ll do it next year.
Is it on Viki? Or Youtube?
@pkml3 “The Love by Hypnotic”is on Tencent Video on YouTube, 36 half an hour episodes. One grouse I do have is that there are moments in some episodes where the sound is totally not working for a minute or more. Then it comes back on. I guess I could go look for the show from some other place, but I’m not bothering since I’m mostly reading subtitles anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6-ugWjiCwU&list=PLOW9dYWFXJ7HqCu4JxkM66bIlNYMTb9Uz
That’s the link in case you’d like to check it out.
@packmule3, I really enjoyed Mystic Pop Up Bar
It was 12 episodes. Hwang Jung-eum played against type. Choi Won-Young and Yook Sunjae were funny. and supporting cast,Joon Hyuk Lee, Baek Ji-won and Yeon Hye-ran were their usual excellent selves. Wohl’s modern hanboks were to die for. And there are some fun flights of fancy.You don’t have to overanalyze it and you can fast forward through some of the darker stuff (not too much if that). and there were some scenes where I was howling with laughter. Also, enjoyed the movie, Whatya Wearing with Ji Sung- wrong number phone sex leads to romance. and if you don’t like either, you can turn them off. I want you to have some easy down time to recharge. I don’t know anyone who enjoys K dramas and movies,so this is my go-to discussion place. But it is also pretty deep, except for the LMH appreciation posts. So I hope you find your happy place where you can get a well-deserved rest with some lighter fare.
Ok, I’ll check it out.
Re. the sound disappearing.
On a few occasions, I noticed that an uploader deliberately muted the audio when there was music in the background. My take there (and I’m not a YouTuber😂 and I’m not on their legal team) is that the uploader received a copyright claim on the music. By muting the audio when that disputed music came on, the issue with the copyright strike would be resolved quickly and the uploader wouldn’t be required to take down the whole video.
@pkml3 Aaahh! Good ‘guess’!! That explains it very well! I do believe that in the shows I watched in YT (the only place where disappearing audio takes place) it does happen during an OST. Taking that as the case, now I understand why perfectly clear audio and dialogue inexplicably stopped for indefinite lengths of time. LOL. Fortunately I’m not too particular or something of an audiophile or I’d go crazy!
Hi packmule3. I am sorry that it’s challenging for you right now. Your blog brings so much comfort to us and I wish we could do the same for you.
You know what one of my fave LOL bits of Ep 9 is? Sang Tae and Dir Oh eating in the canteen, with Dir Oh saying about Sun Deok:
Oh : “Did you see that. She still has feelings for me.”
ST : “Don’t be delusional. Drink your soup.” And Dir Oh obeys.
LOL.
Did Publisher Lee actually bribe Seung Jae to say a good word about him to JR, or is SJ just doing it out of her heart’s goodness?
Being that ST recalls years-old dialogue verbatim, I found suspicious his retelling of the near-drowning trauma from childhood. ST knows very well that he fell into the river when he broke through the ice: it was not because GT threw him in the river. GT knows the truth, so I don’t understand why he dissolved into tears instead of speaking up. Yes, GT had said cruel words WHEN HE WAS A CHILD about wishing his brother was dead. Within a short time they had reconciled and were playing well together, before ST fell through the ice. Even though GT paused, he did do the right thing and rescue ST at great peril to himself. I think ST is intentionally misrepresenting the memory because he’s angry with GT. MY has pegged ST as being shrewd, and here we see it in action.
@Snow Flower, about being bribed to say a good word – I wonder about that myself. It could be that Seung Jae was thinking more about what might be good for Ju Ri than that she is helping Sang In.
@Old American Lady, I watched Mystic Pop-up Bar and found it a warm, little series with the required injections of the supernatural, the life after death shenanigans that imitate life before death LOL, and the awkward romance(s) giving a mostly happy and hopeful vibe throughout. I did like Hwang Jung Eum in this role.
@John L, in the same way Kwon Ki Do’s story prefigures the ‘right’ process or outcome for GT, so too Jung Tae and Ah Reum’s story tells us the preferable way GT and MY’s relationship should go. Loving people does actually include a lot of letting go, and more than once.
@Fern Ju Ri’s and MY’s relationship backstory was relatable. I recall that issue of kids in cliques and people getting left out. In MY’s case there’s the added issue of exclusivity, as you mentioned. I was thinking last episode, that the very 2 people who’d have this exclusive ownership issue with GT were the very ones he ends up with and that spelt trouble. The blow up is good, although a pity it happened so publicly. It marks the need for re-communication and change.
MY Development – I look forward to seeing more growth in MY. Show looks to be going the fluffier way but not totally unrealistically. MY does not get a personality change, but she gradually reveals that she is able to accede to others a little from time to time. She is still selfish and possessive, but is shown to be capable of a little empathy. I note that she recapitulated when she heard GT’s story of why he chose the bridge walk, and she had a tear running down her cheek when she witnessed ST berating GT in public and saw the effect on GT. Still, her care only lies where it suits her, so we’ll have to wait for more developments to see how far she’s a sociopath made or born.
Sang In Snippet – The point about Sang In that I said I was surprised about before, gets developed a bit this episode. So he really did know MY well enough to understand her loneliness, and (aside from needing her for business), he did have her interests at heart. The snippet inserted in his walk with JR was nicely placed to not only give us insight into his character but also to give JR something to think about with regards to MY. A bridge to more possibilities in the following episodes.
Healing Endings That I Want
I feel a lot for both brothers but so much pathos for ST who had been elated over having a best friend at last, only to find that best friend was appropriating his brother. Both ST and MY will need to understand that people cannot be owned exclusively. I hope show can give us a good, healthy relationship for all three with each other (The healing ending 1, that I want ie the threesome as a family)
One Fifth of GT – There are shows where a girl has 4 suitors. However in this show, it’s GT who faces a 5-way split … or 6 if we consider that even the patient Kang Eun Jae had wanted GT for her dead daughter! Everyone except Sang In (LOL) had or does want a piece of him. Seung Jae liked his looks, Ju Ri is coming out of her crush, Jae Su is unhealthily wife-like, both MY and ST are possessive. Poor GT is suffering a variation of what MY suffers: she was alone and lonely, he is besieged by too many, but still lonely! He needs a life-giving and healthy relationship. (The healing ending 2, I want)
The continuation of the backstory – Unlike how MY’s relationship story with JR seemed to end, I really liked that this episode brought us together with GT and MY back to their childhood story, of what would have happened if MY’s mother had not intervened. Finally being able to give and receive the flowers, being able to give and receive that sweet salute of a kiss and be accepted, was a fitting righting of a wrong (in terms of the false message given and received), and a tremendous weight lifted off their friendship. It is now more appropriate that their relationship can move on (even with a separation ala Ah Reum and Jung Tae) and develop. (The healing ending 3, I want)
I like that Ju Ri is given food for thought on MY’s loneliness. Might she be picking up MY’s books to read to figure out more about the writer that she never understood and possibly feared? It’s still so unlikely at the moment, but with GT’s suggestion that MY reconcile with JR, and JR’s rethinking what MY is like, might the 2 become something like friends at the end? (The healing ending 4, I want)
@Fern, about knowing more about MY’s mum – I’m glad Dir Oh is gently investigating the ‘ghost’ and what Ko Dae Hwan is thinking. So the idea that Do Hee Jae (MY’s mum) could have killed someone and then been killed herself is not entirely far-fetched. We do not know what KDH means by saying that he killed her. Might he have provoked her to take her own life or to be careless and thus to have fallen to her death? Regardless, KDH needs to re-adjust how he sees MY, and see not only her mother’s shadow still in her, but that she is an individual in her own right. (The healing ending 5, I want)
(Sidenote: the only other death we know of in the period Do Hee Jae was about, is GT’s mum’s murder. Show has set up the possibility of throwing this spanner into the GT-MY relationship, should DHJ have anything to do with it.)
(The healing endings 6 and 7, I want) – Jae Su becoming less like a girl with GT and more like a man with Seung Jae, AND Ju Ri to finally get the kind of attention from a boyfriend that Sang In will give her.
Duality,/b> – we see once again the duality in MY. As her character summary had said, she dresses to look intimidating, but she is actually defensive and hides her weakness behind armour. She wanted a friend in Ju Ri, but sabotaged it by scaring away the other kids and getting JR ostracised. We see that also in the very first episode where the animation shows that MY had offered gifts to make friends, but the gifts were dead birds, which repulsed them. She couldn’t figure out how to make friends and was lonely. Perhaps her story of re-making friends will continue.
Insecurity question – I never liked people asking (teasing?): “Who do you like more A or me?” (Worse are parents asking kids which parent they like more!) Terribly unwise, tearing at loyalties and facile. It does nothing except call either for lies or hurtful truth or some unsatisfactory compromise. It has come back to bite GT who asked it of ST more than once. Even GT when faced with that question from Jae Su, refused to answer it. It’s never a question of quantity when it’s different how we like each person, and when the kind of liking seldom stays the same. I feel the one who asks the question is insecure and no amount of assurances will convince them anyway.
Wow, @Growing Beautifully. Your comments are very thorough and thought provoking.
Bribery. @Snow Flower, I wonder if it could be both. Seung-Jae seems like a sincere character and I don’t think she would support Sang-in unless she agreed with the idea.
Sang-in’s snippet. I agree with @GB about being surprised with his steep character arc. He has developed from a one-dimensional buffoonish businessman whose character was more showboat than capable, to an astute analyst of human behaviour.🤨 In terms of JR, this gives him depth and respectability and potential.
Over-reaction by GT. Like MY, I was fooled by the end of ep. 8, too. She was so looking forward to pulling GT’s safety pin. 😆😈 She wondered if he was teasing her and her reaction was how to get revenge. Now I’m relieved that GT’s character stayed true and didn’t let him abandon ST. It’s ironic that it’s ST who threw the revenge grenade. That was an amazing scene.
I’m starting to feel that Jae-Su may be the person who is the most unhappily left out. I was looking at his body language at the pizzeria. He nagged GT about his job and touched his hair. To paraphrase MY, Jae-Su had the face of a wife whose husband is cheating.
@Welmaris, it is possible that ST is lying. He normally has an excellent memory so it would mean that he is calculating, as MY describes him, and desperate. Another possibility is that he is mis-remembering due to physical shock at the time, in the same sort of way that GT didn’t recall good things about his mother. The only reason that I say this is that I feel that ST normally doesn’t mis-represent things, even when it makes social interaction awkward.
Tonight’s episode will be interesting. The preview has GT’s voice blaming MY for rescuing him. I am feeling now that MY didn’t actually rescue GT, but she helped him to rescue himself.
@Fern
I didn’t notice any ‘feminine’ vibes in JS in the first few episodes. Show suddenly had him ramp up his ‘feminine’ side to play the ‘betrayed wife’, which doesn’t do his character any favours. Maybe show is trying to give us another character on yet another spectrum. Poor JS.
At this stage the only ‘normal’ people are JR, her mum, Sang In (I hope) and Seung Jae.
I tend to agree with you. ST seemed to me to be ‘unable to lie’. He just blurted out the truth repeatedly, regardless of how inappropriate it was. This means that he has harboured a memory of GT’s wanting him dead and tied that to the accident of falling through the ice. He does not seem able now to separate GT’s running away at first from the way he ST) fell into the water.
Yes, it’s another case of an inaccurate memory or constructed memory, of someone fitting in events to make up a scenario as imagined/expected, based on the emotions.
All MY did in the name of rescue was throw the float or box (I think she’d been sitting on it) into the water. Seeing that GT had managed to break the surface of the water and hang on to it, she left him to get out by himself. A most indifferent sort of rescue.
@Growing Beautifully, yes it certainly was an indifferent sort of rescue. I was thinking it may end up being used as a metaphor. It could indicate that while getting help is desirable, rather than an outright rescue, a person must ultimately sort themselves out. Sort of the way Dir. O repeatedly holds back and lets things unfold. But I’m probably over-analysing. 😜
The Serengeti reference and farting during meal times is a nod to the 2005 Korean Movie Marathon. It’s a true story and a brilliant depiction of the reality of autism in the days where nobody in Korea knew what it was. It was the Korean equivalent of Rain Man and thrust autism into the mainstream. I highly recommend it. Cho SeungWoo was at his artistic best. SJ’s fascination was with the Stegosaurus. CSW’s character Bae was obsessed with zebras in the Serengeti.
This is the CNN report about it.
https://youtu.be/XBYoVSx6nx8
There’s something that bugs me. What song is MY humming? She’s done it twice now and I can’t really pick the tune. Is it My Darling Clementine? It sounded like it in the car…the last few bars.
Howdy Queen/Girlfriend! ☺️ Glad to see you back but please make sure you get re-charged.😉
Oh and correction, it’s Days Of Our Lives. 😆 They go together with Young And The Restless and my fave because of Ridge and Taylor (never Brooke), The Bold And The Beautiful! 😂
You’re comments were so funny! 😂 You should record it when you finally reveal to them that you’re into kdramas. 🤣 But then again they might just give you blank faces. 🤔😲🤷🏻♀️
I’d like to think that what GT said to MY about don’t be so sure that she won’t let him go is a foreshadowing of their future and yes letting go means loving someone too.
I love the OST when GT gave MY flowers. I can just keep that frame of themselves looking at each other with genuine smile and happiness. The kiss was just right and meant to say that he likes her. So sweet that she finally got her first kiss.
Have a good day all! 🙇🏻♀️☺️
@GB, I wish for the same healing endings as you. I hope writer Jo wraps everything to a satisfying conclusion. When this happens (I dread saying “if”), I will be crying tears of joy.
@Fern, totally agree on Jeong Tae. I had this uneasy feeling that he and A Reum would do something rash and would have to suffer the disastrous consequences, but I was so relieved that none of that happened. Yes, leaving the hospital was rash of Jeong Tae, but I was amazed by the level of maturity and self-awareness he displayed to justify the need for a temporary separation with A Reum. I agree that JT and AR parting foreshadows what will happen to our main couple, but a temporary separation (letting go) may be a necessary step towards real and permanent healing.
@packmule3,
I’m bouncing here, not about drama, but about the Louis Armstrong song.
Here’s this beautiful song by him, “We have all the time in the world”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RktwEMS0u28
For context, this song is taken from the OST from the James Bond movie “At Her Majesty’ Secret Service”. Starring the unknown actor George Lazenbi, of which this is the only James Bond film. Maybe not the best actor, but he was lucky enough to be in this one. It is not apparent at first glance, but it is one of the best of the series, and at least the only one that gives a real emotion to the viewer, with great actress Diana Riggs. The other James Bond films are more action or style oriented. Note that this film is very close to Ian Flemming’s book, unlike many other James Bond films.
Greetings, @WEnchanteur. How good to hear from you.
Off topic: Thank you for the Louis Armstrong song and clip. When I went away to Uni, my friend’s mother gave me her own Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald album from the Verve label. She had a great jazz and vocals collection and I think I must have spent a lot of time listening to her records. She was very tolerant, thinking back. I have been a fan since that time.
Thinking about James Bond – I think the general public prefer Bond to be single. They wouldn’t mind dating scandals. It reminds me of some fans of Korean actors and performers.
Eeeyyyyyyyy… I’m not buying Park Ok Ran as Do Hui Jae. In the previews, they are deducing that it is so, that POK underwent surgery and all. Can we have a time machine here so that we can see the next episode ASAP 😭
Episode 10 was a heavy episode for me, but I knew that going in after 9. I think it was heart wrenching to see GT take a few steps back instead of move forward. It was really difficult for me to hear and watch GT say those things to MY. That rejection would probably of sent most people back to Seoul.
In Episode 9, when Jung-Tae and A-Reum have a conversation outside GT & MY’s guesthouse …
AR: Who’s more in love?
JT: The one who’s more patience.
AR: Why?
JT: Because love is all about patience.
At first glance, it seems JT was inferring that GT is the one w/ more patience. However, after 10, I actually think MY is the once that is more patient–figuratively & literally. MY has taken great lengths to get to GT. She is doing so willingly knowing that GT and ST are a package deal (BOGO). This coming from a person that has never experienced a loving relationship; some experienced daters would just not entertain this period.
The one line that stood out to me in 10 was from JR telling GT … “You know there’s that thing we always say to the patients. ‘If you want to make the people around you happy, you must find your own happiness first.’ Being selfish isn’t always a bad thing. Try to only think about your happiness when things are too stressful. It’s okay to do that.”
I guess that is why patients are prohibited from having relationships w/ each other while under care. It being difficult to having a healthy relationship if both are not okay (GT & MY). So in a way I can understand why GT and MY cannot be together at the moment.
They kill me w/ the previews.
I have not seen Episode 10 yet.
MY’s reaction to the kiss in Episode 9 made me think that maybe that was her first kiss too. If that is the case, then she is just as inexperienced as GT and all her shocking remarks are part of her armor. It is possible that her mom was promiscuous and MY is channeling her own mother as a mechanism of self defence.
Hi @Welmaris, I don’t think that ST is shrewd. Just doesn’t compute with people on the spectrum because it involves an ability to read other people and that’s not characteristic. I do believe that he’s hurt and scared, for one thing because his routine has been broken. And I suspect that ST is angry at MY because his “best friend” chose little brother. ST did have a classic meltdown.And perception is a tricky thing. GT did try to help ST keep some routine by asking his good friend pizza/chicken shop owner to get ST, but it appears that he didn’t show up. And did anyone catch what I thought was our friend’s romantic interest in GT. Lots of things to digest in this episode.
@Fern, I’ve been watching Twogether on Netflix-afun reality/travel show with Lee Seung-gi and Jasper Liu. At the end of a series of challenges they get to mert a fan in each of their lications (Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal and Korea). Apropos if your comment about Korean fans and dating “scandals”, one fan said she went from being a Lee Seung-gi fan to a Jasper Liu fan because Lee had a dating isdue with the papparazzi. Sometimes I think that some fans should just get a life. It’s fun to fantasize about these people but it’s kind of creepy when it’s taken tonreal life.
@John L, You’ve expressed the patience aspect so well. I agree with you about MY being patient, albeit not in a relatively quiet way like Ju-ri, and certainly not without scheming and manipulating. I think ep. 10 is a turning point for several of the characters.
@Growing Beautifully, your hated insecurity question comes up again, but Sang-In is the first person to answer it not only correctly, but with the greatest imagery.
I’m feeling worse than ever for Jae-su, who has admitted that he feels unrequited love. I wonder how he will cope? He seemed to be speaking about himself and GT was talking about his own relationship with MY. Jae-su’s story has been building for many episodes now – in one early episode when he was sleeping near GT, didn’t he mutter something like, ‘Don’t look down on me?’ I feel there’s the potential for another explosion there, if he feels that GT has been using him.
Oh, it will be a long week.
@ Old American Lady, gosh, such fans are too strange, aren’t they? What an awful thing for her to say. My impression of Lee Seung-gi is that he’s a rather good-hearted bloke (unless it’s all an act). I think that such fans simply can’t reflect on, and accept, reality.
@Fern, Seung-gi’s on so many reality/variety shows,where even editing can’t remove all the warts. He comes across very well on Little Forest, where he’s interacting with little kids, including taking them to the potty. Koreans have anti-fans. Americans have rabid show fans who become toxic shippers. Some fans of the male lead of Outlander went as far as threatening his relatives, alleged girlfriends and even him. He had to go to social media to voice his objections. And this show was his big break. I met a drama school classmate if his who told me that he is the kindest, nicest person. So, like certain fans on another platform, I am sad that they can’t distinguish fiction from reality. On the Seung-gi front, he did a great job with the fan who seemed to be embarrassed by her confession.
That last bit in Ep9 stumped me too. When ST retold the near drowning incident. I went back to take a look at the whole incident as it unfolded. I dissected it here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C2sdSogD3ff8hgEPz9O70fE4G-pexOLmeGrhEQdvkxg/
I am not sure how writer will deal with the whole issue about whether ST is manipulative. As some have intimidated here, autistic people are very black and white. Lying is bad. Period. Thing is though, GT keeps lying to ST? His meltdown at the end of Ep9 for me is him mixing up the sequence of events and being confused about what’s true and what’s not. He remembers GT saying he wish he (ST) were dead. And GT’s consistent lying (despite promising not to do it again) had confused him even further. And I get the feeling he’s feeling guilty for leaving GT to die (and probably leaving his mother to die as well). Thing is though. Guilt (and grief) is a compound emotion. It’s a mix of a lot of different primary emotions eg fear, anger, sadness. It’s almost impossible to explain to someone who is autistic? So for me, ST is not manipulative. I can’t see someone who is autistic doing that. But I can picture that he is confused and fearful and he can’t rationalize it in his mind and therefore it’s playing out as a meltdown with a muddled up retelling of the drowning incident because he’s just overwhelmed? He doesn’t understand “guilt” so it’s coming out as a garbled retelling of the events that transpired.
@Fern, yes! It’s going to be a long week indeed. I am contemplating about what to compose next. I am thinking about MY missing GT and realizing it. Definitely in a minor key with a memory of the first kiss mixed in. I will have to rewatch both episodes in order to decide.
@nrllee, thank you for the scene-by-scene analysis of the frozen river scene. I agree with you that ST is not manipulative. He is stressed out and confused thinking that his dongsaeng will leave him and his meltdown is a way to cope with his emotions. Nice job by Nurse Park cheering ST.
On the lighter side, drunk JR is a scene stealer!
Publisher Lee continues to impress me. He really knows and understands MY. Someone in his position could have easily taken advantage of MY’s instability, but it looks like Mr. Lee has always looked out for her. True, he has made a lot of money in the process, but he is still there for her even when he’s broke.
As for Patient Park Ok Ran being MY’s mom, I am not so sure. The writer keeps dropping hints, but it is also possible that the hints are red herring. If she is indeed the mom, how did she survive a cracked skull nd twisted limbs? If she isn’t, she probably picked clues from the book. But she also knew MYs birthday (though such information can be easily acquired online), and, more importantly, she knew the location of the Cursed Castle. The previews always show scenes out of context, so it is possible that we will be surprised with a different answer rather than the one we are anticipating. Long week indeed…
@Snow Flower, I agree that it’s hard to be too certain that Park Ok Ran is anything other than another manipulating, (dare I guess, narcissistic?) patient who’s out to be entertained by watching and provoking upsets in the people around her.
WRT to an idea for the next melody to compose, the thought of the First Kiss scene in that lane with a nice fence, and the mountain scenery in the distance, came to me.
I liked that there was a road behind and in front of them, with possibilities open for the journey they can choose to take together. The kiss was perfect with the sun angled on their faces, and MY’s smile afterwards. I felt it was also appropriate that it was MY as a child that we saw but that GT remained an adult. The boy GT, would probably not have had the courage to give her a kiss, whereas it was the adult GT who had made the decision to continue where they’d left off as children and to embrace a new option for his life, and the flowers, then the kiss, were signs of those.😄
Yes @GB I actually liked the chaste kiss (reality). I preferred it to the near kiss on the balcony (fairytale).
@SnowFlower I am not convinced either about OkRan being MY’s mom. Ok Ran is a fan (maybe obsessed?) of MY’s mom. When she snatched the book away from the head nurse, I think it hints at her getting angry that MY’s dad “stole” the mom away from OkRan. OkRan is tormenting the dad as a form of revenge for him “stealing” her favourite author away from her. The other alternative is that she’s finally living up to being an actress (as suggested in her character brief). She’s playing the part of MY’s mom by embodying all that she is/was to her?
I am going all in on MY’s mother being Ok-Ran because (1) I don’t think they would throw us the same mis-direction twice as a patient being MY’s fake mother (ie. Eun-Ja), (2) Ok-Ran knowing MY’s birthday, and (3) she knew how to get to MY’s remote home.
^^Ooops, ignore 2 and 3 since it was said by @SnowFlower beforehand. I stand by 1 though.
@nrllee Thanks for the breakdown of the near drowing with screenshots. Yes, I like how the red belt and red shoes symbolise more that’s going on in the minds of the protagonists.
Also, at the end of that scene, it seems to me that if anyone should be apologising, it should be ST for leaving GT to drown. Was he not aware that GT had pushed him out of the water?
About the reasons for Ok Ran tormenting Ko Dae Hwan … that’s chilling!! I would like to know what her disorder might be. She seems to be one who might be psychopathic. Goodness knows how it plays out in terms of .
The other reason why I have doubts that Park Ok Ran is Do Hee Jae, is that unless she can be acting all the time, there will be shifts in her behaviour. Ko Dae Hwan would have been able to recognise other things about her like her gait or habits, even if her voice and face changed with surgery.
@GB yeah I am unconvinced that OkRan is Do HeeJae. She may have obsessed over her so much that she wants to become her? Like the movie Single White Female (I never watched it but it has a similar story)? If she were DHJ she wouldn’t need to read the books. She wrote them?
I’m on the fence about Ok Ran. On one hand, we had the clue of Mrs Kang (mink jacket) asking MY if she didn’t remember her despite a few plastic surgeries?
On the other hand, there are things that plastic surgery and acting can’t fix, as @Growing Beautifully says. I can see Ok Ran acting a particular way in front of MY to disguise herself if she is the mother. But she doesn’t seem to change whether she’s in her company or not. Voice inflections, unconscious movements, the way a person stands or walks, certain reactions, clothing, grooming (long hair) and colour preferences. I hope that MY will look for these clues. She’s so intelligent; she won’t want to be burnt twice.
I wonder that Dir Oh or Nurse Park didn’t think to take Ok Ran’s fingerprints to compare with Do Heejae. Maybe it’s happening too quickly?
@nrllee, @John L @Fern @Snow Flower and anyone else with a guess.
So interesting this conjecture about whether Park Ok Ran (POR) can be Do Hui Jae (DHJ).
My Notes:
POR grabbed the book more than once, but I’m not sure she was reading it. In Ep 10, someone left the book “The Murder of the Witch of the West” by Do Hui Jae in the room for ST to read. It had a note in it which said, “THE LITTLE BROTHER KILLS HIS BIG BROTHER”. This sounds like POR’s doing, to provoke more problems between ST and GT. Ju Ri mentions to GT that Park Ok Ran had a long chat with ST as well.
I get the impression that POR likes to cause trouble and then sit back to watch the fallout with malicious amusement.
@Fern and I are thinking she’s an avid or delusional fan/friend? of DHJ who thinks that she is DHJ or wants to make others think so. Having both Ko Dae Hwan (KDH) and Mun Yeong at the hospital gives her opportunities to mess with them.
Case for POR = DHJ
1) KDH seems to think POK is his ‘dead’ wife. @Fern suggests that show has pre-empted the possibility she looks different:
2) POR knows the song that DHJ used to sing. If this was only sung as a lullaby, it’s unlikely that she’d know it.
3) KDH says that his wife was a monster and should be killed, or she’d kill others, by which we infer that he considers her dangerous. We see her provoking KDH and being generally rude to others. We wonder about the possibility of her causing harm, when POR turns up at MY’s doorstep.
4) @John L thinks the show
Case against POR = DHJ
1) KDH is adamant that he killed DHJ. MY waited for her for something like 5 years and then reported her as dead. No more books were sent to be published by DHJ.
2) POR behaves the same regardless of whether she is with MY/KDH or others. It’s hard to put on a false character 24/7 without giving herself away by her habits and movement/gait or by the way she speaks. It’s remarkable that she never seemed familiar to her husband or daughter.
2b) KDH has been in close quarters with POR, speaking with him even when she grabbed the book that he was about to take. He did not think it was DHJ until she started humming that song.
3) It’s weird that she should be reading her own book.
4) POR is a failed actress (this is from her character summary from @nrllee). This could be the greatest performance for her who used to be ignored, but who now finds herself sought after, just because she hummed a tune that got KDH into convulsions. It’s possible that she’s happy to keep playing the part as far as possible to scare MY and KDH and to provoke more excitement.
4) On the fence with this point. There are 2 different actresses, but maybe this was easier than making the same actress look different.
5) Information on the Castle’s address and MY’s birthday is likely common knowledge as MY is treated as something of a celebrity.
Poor MY gets abandoned by those she wants to hang out with, and the period she is alone, she receives the visitor impersonating the one person she most fears, coming to hang out with her.
@GB I think everyone would know about the Castle abode. It’s not a run of the mill house in town. It seemed like a place everyone in the township knew about? A house like that with a mysterious disappearance would gain infamy? MY’s father was a renowned architect (in his character description) SangIn spoke about the beginnings
“It’s a mansion that MY’s father built to celebrate her birth. He built it in a remote forest so that his wife could focus on writing. It used to be a fancy mansion. It even won a grand award for architecture. But it’s turned into ruins. It’s like a haunted house. Nobody would want to buy that house.”
Thanks @nrllee, I’d forgotten that the Castle was ‘famous’ LOL. So the only thing that might be strange that POR knew is that DHJ had sung the Clementine song. But that might have been mentioned in a interview or something, so again, it’s not conclusive.
Gah! What an episode! Come here GT, I’ll hug you! I cried with him a few times today. 😭
But that severing ties with MY was so heartbreaking and it felt like a 🔪 really stabbed you to death.
‘You’re a firecracker 🧨, a one time event. I’ve enjoyed it while it lasted but you can disappear now.’
Ouch! 🔪🔪🔪💔💔💔😭😭😭
@agdr03, I am currently watching Dream High because I need to have my daily Kim Soo Hyun fix while waiting for new episodes of Psycho. In one episode of Dream High, one character says to KSH’s character: “You have the ability to give people goosebumps.” These words apply to GT’s scenes in Episode 10 too. I liked the firecracker dialogue. My favorite part was MY’s response: “I am not a firecracker! I am a bomb!”
I’m not sure about POR too. The way she looked at MY after popping the popper, looked like she’s ready to eat MY. 😬 Does GT think his superman? Hopefully he doesn’t pass out at the haunted house gate since his already sick.
I liked Ju-ri’s scene. She let it all out too which is good for her.
I agree, Sang-In is a nice guy after all even when he kept trying to talk down to the assistant, forgot her name. I’d like Ju-ri to like him back.
Jae-su is just the best best friend, I think. It did look like he had a feminine side there for a short while but he just loves the brothers so much really.
I looooove Ju-ri’s Mom! 😍 She’s honest but treats everyone fairly. Love all the food she cooks! 😋
I hope what the Director said about one day ST helping GT will come true.
@Snow Flower, yes MY’s response is so her and very honest too. That’s a great comeback alright. I felt her tears and anger though at the same time.
I’ll never forget this firecracker dialogue too 😊
The goosebumps, when GT said to MY, you should have let me die and then a single tear falls down without wrinkling his face. Respect! 🙇🏻♀️
How did GT get a car? I must have missed something as I thought he took the bus in to work. Is it Ju-ri’s mother’s? I guess we’ll get the extended replay on the weekend.
And yes, he could have let MY down a bit softer. EEEsh.
@Fern, I think yes, Ju-ri’s Mom’s car. But I thought their car was white? Maybe it’s the hospital’s car?
GT was cruel alright. 😞
I guess that was GT’s idea of a “clean break.” Poor MY and poor GT. The preview for the next episode showed them back in happy mood, so we’ll have to wait and see. Looks like GT is going to rescue MY from patient Park Ok Ran or maybe MY will find the mental strength to deal with POR herself. I hope that GT not feeling well is just a result from stress and exhaustion. Writernim, please don’t give him a terminal illness!
@nrllee, So many autistic people are dependent on routine. If you look at St, his toutines are always being messed with. How many times has GT moved his small family. Routine broken. New schoolw, living places, jobs. GT tried to plan for his date by arranging ST’s carecwith his pizza shop owner friend, but it didn’t pan out. (A problem many of us parents have probably all experirnced) But for autistic people, broken routine is a huge panic producer. So GT’s date with bestie MY and its aftermath triggered ST’s meltdown with so many of his caregivers absent.
In Ep. 9, when everyone except GT and MY were eating at Ju-ri’s house, the clothing colours were nicely coordinated. Ju-ri, Jae-su and ST were wearing sort of a sweetcorn yellow, Sang-in and Ju-ri’s mom were wearing pale sage green and Seung-jae was wearing light blue with a pale pattern – near enough to the green but not quite. Maybe because Seung-Jae was the one who dropped the ‘maybe GT and MY are together’ bomb.
I found the whole scene pretty. ST wasn’t wearing stripes for once.
To all the BoD posters, This drama has so much going for it. It has important messaqges about psychiatry, mental health in general, the treatment of people on the spectrum, child abuse and neglect neglect and parenting, It alsonhas a group of very interesting and engaging characters played by very talented actors. And so many mysteries. And how did I neglect strange romances. I am also taken by how visualoy interesting 5his drama is from the settings, to the costuming to the make-up. ST has got to be overv30, butbhe is dressed in what looks like children’s clothing and his haircut is also juvenile. MY’s costumes are so beautiful, but jarring too, as is her hair and make-up that give her face a stark glow except when you get a peek at her radiant, almost sweet smile. And the whole overlay of fairy tale myth and imagery presents so much to oonder.
From our discussions here, there’s lots to talk about. I pray that the creators don’t take the eay way out, but give us a satisfying ending that makes sense given all that has gone before. Am looking forward to seeing how this all will unfold and am optimistic because thevepisodes are not all 60 minutes long-so time is being used like in HPL.
@packmule so glad you are ok and back here! Every time MY called ST “oppa” I couldn’t help thinking of how it was on your banned list of words lol.
@nrllee I liked your analysis of the scene on the frozen river!
@GB I loved all your healing endings, and I hope those come to pass too. Wrt your case for POR=DHJ point 2, KDH did tell Dir Oh about his wife singing the song as a lullaby, and it was recorded in the counselling notes. Dir Oh was shown to revisit those notes. Perhaps POR had read about it from KDH’s case file?
My impression is that POR is not MY’s mum. We still have 6 episodes to go and it seems too early to have the secret about MY’s mother being revealed now. POR seems delusional, and since she’s supposed to be an actress and craves attention, she may be “acting out” her version of the ending of scenes that she thinks need a resolution, which includes pretending to be MY’s mum.
Ep 10 seems to reference Shakespeare a few times, and I think POR assumes certain Shakespearean roles to act out her “scenes”. The references to Shakespeare are:
1. POR asks nurse Park about the argument between the brothers, and nurse Park says it was just a misunderstanding. POR counters that a misunderstanding caused Othello to kill his wife. In Othello, Iago manipulates others and causes Othello to think that his wife was unfaithful, and Othello then murders his wife. I wonder if POR was trying to play the role of Iago, by causing strife between the brothers.
2. JS refers to SI as a merchant. It immediately made me think of The Merchant of Venice. The play ends with 3 happy couples though, which perhaps points to a similar ending for the drama?
3. Someone slips MY’s mum’s book to ST, with a note that says the little brother killed the big brother, and it seems like it may be POR who might have done it. With the earlier 2 references to Shakespeare, it made me wonder if the note was a nod to Hamlet, since it was Claudius who killed old Hamlet his brother (and I assume Claudius was the younger brother since Hamlet was the King), and Claudius then married Hamlet’s wife.
Most of the patients seem to be familiar with KDH’s story about killing his wife. POR may have read KDH’s case notes and decided to “play” the part of dead wife come back to haunt him, by walking along the corridors singing Clementine. (Similarly in Hamlet, the young Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father, who tells him it was Claudius who murdered him.) She also goads him by singing Clementine in the day and pretends to be his wife, as if she was trying to get a reaction/confession from KDH. (In Hamlet, the young Hamlet arranges to stage a play that mimics the murder of his father, in order to see how Claudius reacts.)
KDH had shouted that he should have killed MY as well, and perhaps POR would then had decide to continue the “act” by going to look for MY at the castle. If POR had read the case notes, I would think MY’s details (such as birthdate) would be included as she is the daughter and guardian? Also, KDH’s previous residential address (the castle) might be included too.
Finally, in the scene where A reum’s ex husband hits MY, GT steps in to protect MY. However, at the end we see MY holding a rock behind her back (presumably to hit the ex husband), and she drops the rock. Later, when POR escapes, she lures Cha yong out and hits him with a rock (I think it might be the very same rock), as if she was re-enacting and finishing the scene from that day.
Given the references to Psycho/Bates motel, and MY saying her mother is dead, I am assuming that MY’s mum is really dead. Going by how crime novels end, it’s usually the most innocent looking person that commits the crime, so I am thinking it may not be KDH who kills MY’s mother, but someone totally unexpected. Since the screen writer isn’t very established, I would assume he’s not going to risk incurring the wrath of fans by making one of the beloved characters the culprit (like GT/Juri’s mum/MY), so I’m wondering who else might be it. (Random side note: Nurse Park and POR look like sisters, don’t you think? And they share the same surname. Also, Dir Oh mentioned having a son, and I wonder if Oh Cha Yong is related to him? Or maybe I’m just overthinking things.)
Ooo I love the Shakespeare references @JT7. Great pick up 👍. I only picked up the obvious Othello one.
As for the death of MY’s mom, she could’ve committed suicide. KDH May have found out about her murdering GT’s mom and locked her up in the basement for a spell? She may then have taken her own life and MY found her body.
@OldAmericanLady yes I did think that all the breaks in routine would’ve been less than conducive for ST’s state of mind. I find this writer somewhat inconsistent when writing ST’s character. He seemed happy to just move to the Castle and sleep on a bed and no tantrums?
I still find MY’s character hard to warm up to. I really don’t like mean malicious bent (threatening to wipe out the videos of Dooly). Conversely I find myself preferring JuRi? She’s kind like her mom. Sigh. At least SangIn has a good heart too so I am happy for her.
Speculating on the nurse and the repeated references to “real mums, step mums” in episode 10, the conversation between the nurse and Sang Tae was too poignant for me to ignore. Having rewatched the series and her interactions with him. I think it’s possible that Sang Tae is not Kang Tae’s mum’s biological son.
The nurse has been putting off some creepy vibes and has taken a keen interest in Sang Tae. The scene in episode 8, where she asks him where he learned how to paint and he answered he was born with the ability, made wonder whether or not she paints too. She did try to ask if she could paint a flower on his mural, but was waved off by Sang Tae. That episode he kept singing a nursery rhyme/song about flowers blooming in the field when getting ready for work, he continued singing the song while painting the mural at the hospital. The nurse sang that song back to him on the stairwell. When she asked him if his mother was a good mother in episode 10 it was interesting, then we had an entire scene about the benefits of real mums vs stepmums.
Her creepiness is also echoed in episode 7 when Kang Tae asked if she would read Moon Young’s book, to which she replied that she couldn’t relate to such stories, as she prefers cruel love stories and horror stories. I’m wondering if she had anything to do with Kang Tae’s mum’s death.
@JT7, great references to Shakespeare, thank you.
Nurse Park and ST had an interesting conversation about step-mothers – how the two dinosaurs didn’t look alike.
ST:There’s a secret behind Dooly’s birth…Dooly’s mom was a step mom. I mean an a fake mom.
NP: Oh, so she was a good mom even though she was a fake mom.
ST: That’s right, anything fake is bad. But all moms are good.
NP: Was your mom also a good person?
ST:(Thinks a bit) She was a good mom to me but a bad one to Gang-tae. Could Gang-tae be adopted despite what his mother said about his birth?
Cut to GT being fed in the cafeteria by Ju-ri’s mom.
That’s cool Shakespeare references @JT7, even though I’m not familiar to all his work except for Macbeth. ☺️
@nrllee, I get you with MY. She really has a wicked way of getting what she wants and if she doesn’t get it, she’ll do something bad sometimes to the point of violence. 🤦🏻♀️
@Fern, I think it’s possible but I feel ST said that because his seen how their Mom’s priority most of the time is him and not GT. You’re right about the waiting til Friday.
@Old American Lady, thanks for your reminder on how autistic people need routine. I was posting in the fairytale thread (link below) in line with The King Has Donkey Ears story, that his meltdown was also due to feelings of being betrayed and abandoned. I suggest that poor ST was the crown maker in the story, who shouted out the secret to the trees, not to reveal the secret per se, but because he was expressing his deep pain.
http://bitchesoverdramas.com/2020/07/10/psycho-but-its-okay-fairy-tales-and-other-stories/
@nrllee I agree I find it hard to warm up to MY’s character. Esp after seeing how she treated Juri when they were young.
@agdr @fern I wonder if it was just meant to show that GT felt alienated by his mum’s apparent preference/care for ST, as if GT didn’t belong within the family unit, just like how GT remembered being left in the rain while ST was sheltered by mum.
I found it interesting that Dooly’s name (둘리) actually means 2 (both the dul and yi), and his older sister is named Hana (which means 1), a nod both to the birth order of the 2 brothers, as well as to the show’s constant reference to being the first/second or wrt who is liked more.
@snowflower Your mention about GT being unwell reminded me, in the later scenes of Hamlet, there’s a drowning, stabbing and lots of poison going around. Makes me wonder if GT was poisoned by POR as part of her act.
I hope it’s not poison @JT7! 😱 He’s been working the long hours and trying to forget MY right? I can imagine him collapsing just after arriving at the castle though. Ottoke GT?
@JT7, Hamlet has a high body count indeed. I hope this is not the case in this drama. Poisoning GT seems far fetched, but who knows? He spent a couple of days at OK Hospital without going home, so there would be plenty of opportunities for psycho POR to tamper with his food or drink.
When it comes to Shakespeare, I prefer comedies. Midsummer Night’s Dream is my favorite!
As for MY, it is difficult to like her. I was not too happy with her antics, especially in the earlier episodes, but every time her more vulnerable side is revealed, I can’t help but feel sorry for her. The rejection really hit her hard. I liked the scene when she was just sitting on GT’s bed, missing him terribly.
Does anyone else suspect that Park Nurse? She is suspicious, I think she is the mastermind behind it all, she is the one influencing the sick lady, the dad, even yuriko so that she invited GT to the hospital. I really think so. ALSOOO I think GTs friend is GAY! Seriously, he gives me the vibe that he is in love with GT. I think they make it more clear in ep 9
I think GT would be in a car accident rather than being poisoned or terminal illness. In the preview he has wounds, so something really would happen whether an accident or a fight.
There are still 6 episodes left, so aside from the mysteries of the moms, I hope the drama would also show MY getting actual help/therapy with her antisocial behavior. Yep she’s slowly learning a little bit of empathy but she is still a long way to go as she still exhibits such behaviors.
Thoughts about Dreams and Stories
Twice in Episode 10, GT says: “I’ve woken up from my dream. I should’ve focused on my brother. But I dared to dream an impossible dream. I should have known my place. I dreamed the impossible dream.” I find this too simplistic of him, as if it is all or nothing.
It is interesting that MY’s fairytales are steeped in reality, but GT’s dream seems to him to be a fairytale.
We often think of ourselves indulging in dramas and stories for escapism, to help us take our minds off our troubled realities and to enjoy light, vicarious moments of fantasy, romance and adventure. Therefore I’ve been struck by how MY takes every fairy tale or story and reinterprets each in a no nonsense, objective, but also cynical way, and plants them firmly in our troubled realities. Her point seems to be that stories help us face ugly truths and the better we are at accepting this reality, the happier we will be. While I agree that accepting our reality will make for greater happiness than living in a delusion, I still feel that stories are to be interpreted by each person according to their need, and can be both escapism and hard advice.
Conversely, GT had an unrealistic dream of running away, forgetting for a while, the harsh reality that would always await him. Looking again at the story from the first episode, GT is like the Boy Who Fed on Nightmares. He had let MY (the Witch) distract him for a while (take away his memories), from remembering that he was still a caregiver to his brother. This would not bring lasting happiness, obviously, because his upright character would require him to always remember his responsibilities.
In MY’s words in the story:
Since we see now that ST as well as GT had indeed kept their memories of hurting others and being hurt, of being abandoned, etc in their hearts, we trust that they will move on and grow. Again in the words of MY:
ST, in some ways is very much the kid who’s grown. He was successful in holding down jobs and he had a plan for the family. He regarded himself as the older brother who could be depended upon. GT who bore more responsibility was strangely still very much a kid, or rather an adult who regretted the loss of his childhood, and wished to forget his role. He had erroneously thought that only he could care for his brother, that they could never settle in one place, and lacked a plan for the long term. We see in fact that he is wrong. There are many others who can help him care for ST and ST often cares for himself.
GT should regard his dreams from a wider perspective, realise that there is not just black or white, and see that dreams are not only meant to be short-lived and to be awoken from, but could embody the goals to reach for long term happiness. He is still too much a kid in terms of thinking it’s all or nothing when there’s so much possibility in between.
@GB it’s really interesting isn’t it when the “simpleton” is the one who gives greater insights into reality? Like Forrest Gump. I still love that show. I watch reruns all the time. Forrest with his simple kind ways and Jennie who is “normal” but just keeps running to find the “happiness” that keeps eluding her. Until she finally comes home. I often wonder about my autistic nephew. He seems happy enough in his little world? It’s only when we impose our version of what happiness should look like ie for him to be playing WITH lots of friends and thereby force him to interact in social circles that he’s not comfortable with that it goes pear shaped.
@nrllee I like to go through the stories that show has highlighted to us and see if our characters can be placed in those stories. The tales are supposed to give us clues as to what’s going on in those relationships, just as events prefigure or foreshadow what will be required of GT, ST and MY.
In the process, I have found that every character embodies elements of the story characters as well, since every character is wonderfully round and multi-faceted. For the characters alone, I already love the show, although, I’ll still take issue if the quick fix for MY and GT is the way that it will go.
Going back to the Zombie Kid: we look at our hungry characters or the ones who are regarded as hungry.
1) From GT’s point of view, ST is the hungry Zombie. GT probably has felt that he’s been eaten up by his brother, with no chance for a break and a separate life. He’s had to be both mother and brother to him.
2) At the same time, GT is the Zombie Kid who craved his mother’s attention and acknowledgement. And conversely, ST has been mother to him too, as far as his autism will allow him.
3) Mun Yeong is awfully lonely and thus hungry, and another one who wants to eat GT, even if it means having ST as the side dish. MY is similar to ST. She is rigid and black and white about rules and what she thinks she is entitled to. However both of them have been shown to be able to bend a bit, therefore there’s hope.
I really liked that there is a possibility that they could be best friends, since each one of them needs that, and in a limited way, they could understand where the other is coming from. But it’s scary since they both want to eat up GT (LOL) and in Episode 10, we do see them tear him apart like they did to Mang Tae.
The worrying repeated motif in Episode 10 is ‘THE LITTLE BROTHER KILLS HIS BIG BROTHER.’ With these words slotted into the book: “The Murder of the Witch of the West” by Do Hui Jae, we are getting hints for the next conflict. I’d really like to have the synopsis of this book by DHJ to know if the ‘brother as killer’ idea is related or not.
Although the brothers have reconciled, the echo of those words has been shouted to the trees in the bamboo forest, and one of those trees in the shape of Park Ok Ran is going to push all available buttons to see what entertainment she will derive from the events that ensue.
We note though that the book: “The Murder of the Witch of the West” is a reference to “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” … a story about the killing of a wicked witch. There are several candidates for this. LOL. (More on this under the Stories thread: http://bitchesoverdramas.com/2020/07/10/psycho-but-its-okay-fairy-tales-and-other-stories/#comment-32970
I agree with the posters who have mentioned that Kim Mi-kyung as Kang Soon-deok is so good. I love how she takes over the scene ep. 10 at about 11.48, when Sang-In and Jae-su are arguing.
chop, Chop, CHOP! Don’t mess with a knife-holding woman whose pots are about to boil over. Then she turns around and thinks of GT and MY; ‘I know they have a lot on their minds, but I hope they didn’t skip their meals.’ Later when she feeds GT, her wish that he could be her son, by marriage or in the next life, comes out. Finally, she feeds MY, too, home made seaweed birthday soup and other things. I love how well her toughness and tenderheartedness are combined in such a realistic way.
I want to go back to something we overlooked about the day in his childhood when GT blew up at his mother and wished he wasn’t held responsible for ST: that red belt GT had just been awarded signified a great achievement. Red is the last belt in Korean taekwondo before earning a first-degree black belt. I imagine GT came home after attending an awards ceremony during which he was given the belt. GT was very excited and proud of himself for what he had accomplished, and his mother’s response–verbally berating him and physically beating him–must’ve hurt in extra measure because his accomplishment was made garbage.
On the night of his dad’s death anniversary, GT overheard his mother saying that she’d live long enough to watch ST grow old and die, then she’d die the next day. It must’ve been shocking for GT to hear that she didn’t consider him worth living for, that caring for ST consumed so much of her that there wasn’t anything left for GT. His mom followed up by telling GT, “You need to stay by your brother’s side until the day you die. I’ll raise him. Your job is to look after your brother and keep him safe. Okay? That’s why I gave birth to you.” (The smile falls off GT’s face; his arms, which had been hugging his mother, release their clasp and drop.)
These are the messages GT got from his mother:
-I live for your brother, but not for you.
-You must live for your brother: you were born to do that.
-If it is not also for your brother’s benefit, whatever you achieve does not have value.
GT’s cry, “Moon Gang Tae belongs to Moon Gang Tae!” is a desperate declaration of self worth and self determination. I have no doubt GT loved ST at the time of his angry outburst. Shouting that he wanted his brother dead was a child’s way of expressing extreme frustration with the burden that had been foisted on him, which he wanted removed. He loved his brother, but hated being responsible for him.
I have never lived in a climate where bodies of water freeze over in winter, so I don’t know how much ice safety is common knowledge. The implication is that GT had some knowledge of ice safety because he recognized the danger to ST before ST broke through the ice. But even I, who live in a temperate climate, know that to save someone who has broken through ice, you don’t approach the edge of the ice standing upright; rather, you’d lay down to distribute your weight and ease toward the edge. That would be a valid reason GT, standing near where the ice broke, stopped and backed away. Then he ran toward his red belt & dobok (taekwondo uniform) bundle. Honestly, I thought he’d do the wise thing and grab it to use to save ST, throwing him an end of the belt to help pull him out of the water. However, GT was a lot smaller than ST, so he many not have had enough weight to leverage ST out of the water, especially with ST’s clothing saturated and adding to his weight. Hypothermia may also have affected ST’s muscle control. Hence GT’s decision to jump into the water and push out ST. So if this were a real situation, there was a lot of thought processing through GT’s brain in a short, stressful amount of time. We, the viewers, were only shown the most damning thoughts.
I know reel life and real life are different, but I was bothered by not seeing any follow-up to the boys’ near-drowning experience. And we, the viewers, are to believe that this event was a pivotal one in the boys’ lives, setting them on an fated path. If I were a mom of two boys who came back home soaked to the skin on a snowy day, I’d find out what happened. Was she not at home when first ST, then GT returned? Did they never speak about it again? Did neither of the boys end up sick from being severely chilled? What happened to all the soaking wet clothes, which would be a clue something had happened even if the boys were able to change into dry clothing without their mother’s notice. My real life brain has trouble believing the reel life story that the boys were able to keep it all secret from their mother, not talking it out with her.
When ST had his meltdown at OK Psychiatric Hospital, he took memories based on fact and escalated them into untruths.
ST: You said to Mom every day that you wanted me to die. (No, GT spoke the words once, as a child, in a fit of anger.) That’s why you pushed me into the river that day. (This is false: ST broke through the ice due to his own actions.) You left me alone in the water and ran away. (GT briefly paused, moved from ST toward the red belt, briefly paused again, but never was more than a few steps from ST.) I bet you wanted to kill me.” (GT did not actively cause harm to ST, nor do I think he wanted to; he could have harmed ST by withholding help, but chose to save his brother’s life at his own peril.)
It broke my heart to see GT’s response to ST’s meltdown, sobbing and rubbing his hands together in supplication. And as forward and opinionated as MY is, I’m surprised she didn’t cry bullshit and set ST straight, since she’d been an eyewitness. Instead, MY just stood there, silently, in tears. That did not seem in character for her.
After GT walked away from OK Psychiatric Hospital, shoulders drooping, MY followed him at a distance. They’d switched places from their childhood, when GT shadowed MY.
GT has let two moments of weakness in his life define him: His angry outburst, and his hesitation before saving ST. He does not forgive himself, despite having chosen to do the right thing and save ST from drowning, then chosen to be responsible for their little family unit after their mother’s murder instead of ST being institutionalized.
I’m disappointed, but I can see it being in GT’s character, the exchange the brothers have as they reconcile after ST’s meltdown. When ST is asleep, GT takes ST’s hand and lifts it to his (GT’s) face.
ST: I’m your big brother.
GT: That’s right; I’m your little brother.
ST: You’re mine. Moon Gang Tae belongs to Moon Sang Tae.
GT: (pause, blinking his eyes [a stress response]) Yes. I’m all yours.
I agree with Director Oh’s assessment of GT, “He’s like a trapped ghost. He can’t approach you (ST). But he can’t leave either. He’s just like a ghost that’s trapped.” I hope that in upcoming episodes GT is able to fully become his own person, free of entrapment. That doesn’t mean he can’t choose to accept obligation, but it should be his choice, with consideration of his terms, and without having to abandon himself.
@Fern, the silver Volvo SUV that GT is driving belongs to MY. Sang-In used to drive it, but MY took it back from him, then gave the keys to GT.
@Welmaris, I agree whole-heartedly with your words about the ‘drowning’ day. It struck me on first view that his mother’s immediate response to scold GT on that day was so hurtful. I think that she realised that later in the scene. When his mom was drunk (in vino veritas) on the memorial day and essentially said that she lived only for ST, I was astonished at her lack of maternal attachment to GT. Even ST says that she wasn’t a good mother to GT. I think that GT’s current repeated apologies and lack of self-defense in regards to ST stem from his mother’s words as well as his guilt. He reverts to a servant-like role showing no self-esteem. It was for these reasons I wondered (some post above) whether he might have been adopted.
btw, coming from a cold place, I learned ice safety early on. You are completely correct about the steps to take. Some of what I remember:
First, NEVER play or skate on ice over water unless there have been x number of days consistently below freezing and always ask an adult first.
If someone falls in, get help. If you can’t get help, don’t walk to them; crawl towards the person on your stomach and throw something or hold something long, like a broom, to them so they can reach it and you can pull them out without getting near. –This was before the days of mobile phones and the recommendations have probably changed, too.
How many kids or even adults bring a broom, or even a taekwondo kit, with them when messing around on the ice? How hard is it to wait or go for help when someone is dying in front of you? I think this is why so many people, especially relatives, die trying to save someone drowning, even if ice isn’t involved.
@Welmaris What a great bringing together of thoughts and scenes on the Moon family’s troubling (to us) relationship. Yes, I was upset that the mother failed to acknowledge and appreciate GT for himself in those scenes. I find it baffling that she’d ever say those words to him. Couldn’t she tell how hurtful they sounded, how worthless the poor child was made to feel? And ST had also witnessed enough to understand, even though he never displayed it before, that he knew his mother had been good to him but not so good to GT.
I’m saved from ranting endlessly about another lousy parent, but having to at least concede that she did look like she had been struck by some remorse at GT’s outburst, by her giving GT a kiss and hug as he slept and by their visits to the restaurant to eat GT’s favourite jjamppong. Still, I find it a very unfair thing that she did, to place such a burden of responsibility upon a child. GT would never be able to shake of the idea that he’d been an afterthought, valued mainly for how useful he was.
The rescue: I agree that it speaks of great presence of mind and was very smart of GT to figure out that the best way to help his brother was to jump in and push him out. He hadn’t reckoned though, on ST’s totally abandoning him. Since we didn’t get the epilogue I was imagining that once again poor GT might have gotten the short end of the stick for letting ST fall into water on a Winter’s day. I would like to have a flashback to the aftermath of this accident, but it’s unlikely show will have shot the scene.
The outburst of ST: I agree that MY should have shaken off the shock of the moment and even if she had to do the ‘should I/shouldn’t I help’ decision game in her head, she should have acted. Show is deliberately making MY act out of character in this scene, but I can’t think of a good reason why.
I like what you say about MY following GT as a switch from how he’d followed her in the past. We recall also that his following her had ended in her reviling him with the killing of butterflies, or rejecting him outright. This Ep 10 version of following GT ended up similarly, this time in him being hurtful so as to get rid of her. However, because GT is not on an ASD Spectrum and because MY is perceptive, she could still tell that he was lying when he said he’d had his fun and didn’t want her around anymore.
I was noting that MY’s way to get back GT was similar to what she’d done earlier. She targeted ST to get him on her side. This time it fell through since ST was no longer star struck by her and he’s also good at sussing out liars. First she tried to exchange Mang Tae for ST in order to get him to be friends again. When that failed, she tried to appeal to his sympathetic nature, and get him to excuse her lies, by telling the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, alleging that she’s the lonely one who lied to get company. She was as manipulative as ever when it came to getting what she wants, and I’m glad that ST stood firm against her.
@LeeDale9198 Yes, I’d really like for MY to get therapy too and learn to manage her extremely reactive tendencies, without relying constantly on poor GT. She has entitlement issues too which leads to her stealing as and when she likes. Not to mention her habit of pushing persons down the stairs when she’s pissed. 🙄 I’d love it if she’d hang out with Dir Oh and get sussed out by him thoroughly. She owes him his sleep talisman!
@Snow Flower, thanks for your note on how the wizard is similar to Dir Oh. I really enjoy his way of gently suggesting ideas that get the patients up and taking care of themselves. I’d love to have his kind of perception when dealing with real people who aren’t psycho at all!!
I was wondering if you’d chosen a theme yet for your next composition. We were speaking of the first kiss before and now the idea of being healed in a whimsical fairyland of the hospital, where the patients discover that they can get better with just a little help, has tickled my fancy.
@JT7 WRT the thoughts of witches and previously on Shakespeare, @Welmaris and I were speaking also of the Witches of Macbeth. There was no direct reference from this show, but a phrase of the Clementine song is taken from a speech of the witches in Macbeth … yes quite an obscure reference – your mention of witches made me remember. As for who is the Witch of the West, as in all stories, I find that several story figures will fit 1 character and vice versa. Therefore depending on how we interpret the characters, either one or both MY and her mum are the Witch of the West. However based on your body of evidence (LOL) it seems more likely that MY is the Witch of the West, and her mother is the other wicked Witch who had been crushed by the house. You know what’s morbidly scary? … It could be literally true. Maybe MY’s mother really still is in the house, buried somewhere in the basement. Perhaps MY had an inkling of it as a child, and that’s why together with her dreams of horror tied to her mother’s treatment of her, she also had dreams of her mother lying wet and dead behind the basement door.
About Nurse Park, I don’t have very much evidence, but I’m just a tinsy bit uncertain about her. I couldn’t find the post by someone here that listed her actions that are a little suspect. I didn’t take enough note of her before, and I’ve a rotten memory so too bad about analysing her in depth at the moment. Cute thought about her being related to POR, and Oh Cha Yong being related to Dir Oh. Never know, it could be true!!! If so in Dir Oh’s case, when he ended GT’s suspension and said he should fire the newbie, he’d have been speaking about his own son LOL.
Wow! So many excellent comments and insights here. Thank you everyone for your contributions. There are 3 things that help me cope with anticipation anxiety over the week:
1. Reading the comments on this site
2. Composing at the piano
3. Watching young(er) Kim Soo Hyun cry and sing his heart out in Dream High
I just found out that the title of the next episode is The Ugly Duckling. From what we have seen in the show so far, the writer tells us that fairy tales are open to multiple plausible interpretations, and that multiple characters in the show can identify with various fairy tale characters. Also, both King Donkey Ears and The Ugly Duckling were mentioned in MY’s class back in Episode 3. We already saw how King Donkey Ears played such an important role in the story, so now I am curious what The Ugly Duckling’s significance would be. MY’s interpretation in Episode 3 was curious and probably not random. (Is there anything random in this show? The only thing I could think about was the magical appearance of the Volvo in OK Hospital’s parking lot, so that poor sick GT has a convenient method of transportation to the Cursed Castle. I am not complaining at all. I am happy that the car was there for GT. He needs to go to MY ASAP. I cannot imagine him hiking all the way to the castle, at night, when he is feverish, depressed, and exhausted.)
There was also the curious and very sweet scene between Nurse Park and ST when she gave him the Dinosaur Mom and he revealed that the baby dinosaur was not dino mom’s biological son.
So who is The Ugly Duckling?
@GB: Body of evidence lol! But given the reference to the film Psycho, it might be possible that MY’s mother is dead and somewhere in the basement. Thing is, I don’t understand why the show is trying to put MY into the role of the witch of the west. Are they trying to suggest MY has more to do with her mother’s death than what has been revealed so far? I just recalled another ref to MY being the witch: CEO Lee mentioned that there is a witch hunt going on for MY, but the witch disappears.
I just remembered something else that might point to Cha Yong being related to Dir Oh. Aside from Dir Oh mentioning he had a son late, his sleep “doll” is named Cheo Yong. Dir Oh was calling the doll’s name when hunting for it after MY filched it. I went back to check the Korean for their names, and both Cha Yong and Cheo Yong’s “yong”s are the same character. Makes me think of the 3 “brothers”: GT, ST and Mang Tae. Now there’s also Cha Yong and Cheo Yong!
Hi Bs, Re:Ice on ponds and lakes -in New York City, the Parks Department strategically places red ladders by all bodies of water where thin ice would occur tonhelpnwith rescues. You can’t miss them.
I feel for GT because from his youngest days his motherbhas asdigned the caretaker rolevto him. This is a trope used in different settings whrre thebyounger siblingnis conceived to be a csrevtaker, an organ/bone marrow donor, and pseudo-parent. It is so heart breaking and unfair. The child can never be a child. And the parent’s obvious favoritism, no matter what the motivation, makes that poor kid so conflicted. In ourcdrama, GT iscreally a saint in so many ways, experiencing guilt, love, the mortification of the flesh, sublimating his own needs. His “relationship” with MY is alsonfraught because, efen with her, her needs are primary. He has the opportunity to haveva healthy relationship with our sweet nurse, who brings along a wonderful mom who wouldbprovidr him with the rescuevparent he needs, but he doesn’t acceptbthe normalcy. This reminds me of Pip’s love for Estella-so obssessive, but based on what he hasvlearned and seen in childhood. It is a wonder that GT has chosen his life’s work-just more of the same withoutvregard for his needs and feelings. He maintains a stoic exterior, with lots of brooding and underlying anger, basedbon lots of guilt. His major coping mechanism is moving away when the going gets tough.
I am so ambivalent about MY. Her reaction to ST’s meltdown and how it affected GT was so selfish. Right now, it appears that she has no capacity for real empathy. While a brilliant writer with a dark take in her stories, she has,nevertheless found popularity in her readers. Her need for sharp objdcts, including the fountain pen, is downright scary. Hrr parents are both hortibly flawed, it seems. I wonder if the blood in the basement was partially her fault. And are her “memories” psrallel to ST’s in their misinterpretation. (Her dreams/nightmsres include a mother full of homicidal threat-a mom who incidentally is a best selling mystery writer(no doubt writing books of murdrr and mayhem). So right now, unless the drama does a time jump, I can only see the main characters starting on the road to healing with an ambiguous ending. Unless it’s all a fairy tale -but even there, if it’s like MY’s books, the endings are not happily ever after.
No matter what, this drama is another think piece. No fluff here.
@JT7, thank you for your thoughts on the similarities between Cha Yong and Cheo Yong. I was taking Cheo Yong at google face value as a reference to a kdrama; ‘Cheo Yong: The Paranormal Detective – AsianWiki’.
@Old American Lady, as a child I remember a short public service cartoon on TV showing how to rescue someone in the water and thinking to myself, ‘How often will I bring a broom to reach someone who has fallen through the ice?’ Thanks for reassuring me that NYCPD leaves ladders about! I once went skating on a river near my cousins’ house and being terrified that we’d fall through despite adult assurances that it was safe.
@Snow Flower, I think you and I are having the same suspicions about Dooley, the Ugly Duckling and some very unequal maternal instincts. I wonder what will come of it? ST has a very good memory even if there’s a 4 year difference between the brothers. If our suspicions are correct, it could be another stab in the heart for GT.
Ditto for the magical appearance of the car – it may be explained on Saturday. Nearly everyone except poor Sang-in has at least one PP Volvo, so it could belong to any of the staff. 😄
I think the availability of the car for GT to use has a simple explanation. It is the car MY owns, that she took back from Publisher Lee. That left her in possession of two cars at the castle, a sedan and an SUV, both Volvos (because…product placement). She then gave the keys and use of the silver SUV to GT. We witnessed both of those events in earlier episodes. GT had driven the car to OK Psychiatric Hospital before ST had his meltdown. GT didn’t go back to the castle following ST’s meltdown, so he was still in possession of the SUV. Reinstated from his suspension, we are told he stayed at the hospital several days in a row, not going home, so the SUV sat all that time in the parking lot. No magic about it.
Unless there was a mistranslation for the English subtitles, we have been told that GT is the biological son of his mother. In the scene the night of his father’s death anniversary ceremony, GT’s mother says, “Your job is to look after your brother and keep him safe. Okay? That’s why I gave birth to you.”
The Car that GT drove at the end of Episode 10
I understand why the car’s appearance was questionable. It’s because in the sequence of events, we normally assume that MY had driven the car off from the beginning.
Here’s the sequence… MY had witnessed ST’s meltdown and gone home after GT told her to leave. Since GT and MY had come together in 1 car, we assume MY took it and drove home. BUT, maybe she didn’t.A couple of days earlier, she’d thrown the car key to GT, which might mean that she’d passed him the car for his own use. She might have gone home by taxi. For this scenario to work, we assume that MY did not take the car when she left the hospital. GT still had the car key with him. This agrees with @Welmaris’ assessment.
Timestamps:
25:00 MY walks the path from carpark to hospital. We assume she had just parked at the hospital carpark, having driven her second car. GT and MY go to the beach to talk. GT tells her to get lost. She’s left on the beach screaming that she’s a bomb that will explode and kill everyone.
43:15 MY is home and watching ST’s videos. She takes a selfie threatening to wipe clean the video tapes. Her texts are ignored.
44:15 Ju Ri turns up at MY’s Castle.
47:10 GT is with ST after having apologised and the brothers reconcile.
59:29 GT and JR take the bus to work. This means that GT had left the car at the hospital when he went home to Ju Ri’s place. This is possible because the bus was sufficiently convenient and maybe there was no where to park near Ju Ri’s home.
1:04:20 Sang In calls MY to invite her for a birthday steak dinner.
1:09:56 MY is waiting outside Ju Ri’s home and gets fed seaweed soup. She also speaks to Sang In and goes up to manipulate ST into becoming her friend again but fails. She goes home.
1:17:06 MY is home alone.
1:18:26 At the Hospital, newbie got hit on the head and GT hears that POR had run away to meet somebody.
1:19:00 MY hears knocking on her door. GT is shown running out of the hospital. MY opens the door to POR.
1:19:45 GT is in the car license plate 23 7343 which I believe is MY’s Volvo.
So the only way he could have had MY’s car with him was that from the beginning, MY had left it with him.
Hahahahahaha so I guess the mystery of the car is finally solved! 😂.
Maybe I should buy a Volvo car in my lucid dreams lol 😁
More on the complicated relationship between the brothers
I’m sorry to flog and almost dead horse, but I’ve been thinking about those brothers. I did not re-watch Ep 9 at first but when I did, I noticed even more than before (I already wrote about their relationship somewhere) that this ‘bro-hood” is a mite more complicated than I thought.
Caregiver or guardian? Who’s the guardian?
We are used to thinking of GT as the one put in charge of ST, therefore he should be ST’s guardian, however ST in his conversation with MY, prided himself on being GT’s guardian.
ST told MY: “Ko Gil Dong is a caregiver for Dooly, Douner, and Ddochi. (Then he corrects himself) No, I mean, he’s their guardian, and he gives them a place to sleep, gives them food, and protects them. Just for your information, I’m GT’s guardian. And a guardian should be dependable and trustworthy. I’m an adult and his older brother. That’s who I am.” – He takes part of his identity from this role, and regards GT as his ‘ward’.
What this conversation shows is that ST does not consider GT his caregiver. He may or may not consider GT his guardian, but he does believe that as the elder brother, he has a responsibility towards GT and that this comes with rights over him, as well (in a similar way that parents have rights over their children, or a guardian over his ward).
Favourite person/playmate
ST tells MY about GT: “He likes me. (quoting GT: ) ‘You’re my favourite person in the whole world, Sang Tae.’ GT only hangs out with me.”
(Both ST and MY want a person to be exclusively their own, ie they won’t share.)
MY : “No wonder he doesn’t know how to have fun.” (ST looks at MY a little anxiously.)
MY : “I should make sure he has a blast.”
ST protests : “No. Mang Tae. I gave you Mang Tae. You can play with Mang Tae. GT will play with me. And I will play with my best friend.” (What is omitted here, but inferred, is that GT cannot play with ST’s best friend, just like how his best friend should not play with GT.)
MY : “Can’t I play with GT?”
ST : “No you can’t. GT can only have fun with me. He’s my little brother.”
ST has the concept that his younger brother belongs to him. In Episode 10 he says that Moon GT belongs to Moon ST. He had also originally conceded that MGT belonged to MGT, and that MST belonged to MST.
Mother or ‘spouse’
GT called ST to check on him like a mother. To an extent, he might even have sounded like a wife.
GT asked him what he was doing. ST instead of immediately answering GT, this time asks the question : “What are you up to?”
This was uncharacteristic of him and a sign that his suspicions which had been aroused a few episodes earlier had increased. He had just heard from the dinner conversation that GT and MY were likely together. His brother and his best friend were colluding behind his back.
GT was a bit stunned that ST had asked a question : “What? Me? (Uncertain pause) … Well I’m chatting with you on the phone.” (By hiding the proper answer to that question, he was lying.)
ST : “When will you be back?” (Sounding like a parent or a spouse.)
GT : “Oh, I’ll be back very late.”
ST : “Around midnight? Or around 1 or 2 am?”
GT : “No, I may have to sleep here tonight. Don’t wait for me. Just go to bed Hyung. And make sure you close the window screens before you go to bed. Don’t sleep on the floor. Also make sure the fan is rotating. if you get bored or can’t fall asleep, call me.” (This is GT being a ‘mother’.)
ST : “You too. Call me if you get bored.” (This is ST being the hyung.)
It seems from this that the role of ‘mother’ or ‘son’ could flip from time to time. ST probably felt that he had the right to check on GT since he was the guardian. At the same time, he was willing to obediently do as GT instructed.
Unfaithful spouse
MY must have been looking at GT’s face after he spoke to ST over the phone. She saw that he was feeling guilty over withholding the information that he was with her.
MY: “Oh I’ve seen that face in TV dramas.”
GT: “What do you mean?”
MY: “The face of a man who is cheating on his wife.” She went on to say that she didn’t want to be the mistress, but the faithful wife.
Her words, are perceptive. She knew that ST wanted GT in an exclusive relationship, the way a marriage should be exclusive, and that GT chaffed against it. She too wanted the same thing, but in her case, she could really become GT’s wife, whereas, ST would have to settle for sharing his brother.
When confronted with the question of whom he liked more -ST or MY – GT was unable to answer with conviction. He himself was no longer sure. He probably felt that he was being disloyal/unfaithful towards his brother, and it showed in his eyes. ST had watched GT carefully, (having learnt how to read his mood and with a natural bent for recognising falsehood), before pronouncing judgment that GT was lying, and having his meltdown.
He felt so wronged at being lied to, that he remembered the other big sin of GT, ie, his wishing ST were dead. He identified as a victim.
The brothers were navigating a complicated, multi-facet relationship. When there was betrayal, it happened in every facet: as brother, mother, ward, exclusive person, victim/perpetrator. What implications this holds for their being able to heal and improve their relationship, is that it will be more challenging than MY’s and GT’s relationship, by a long shot.
@Welmaris and @Growing Beautifully, you are such amazing sleuths!
@Lee Dale 9198, if you live in a cold country, they are famous for having heated seats. Bliss in the winter. Also, they are well-known for safety.