The thread is now open for Episode 9.
Introducing the Saturday Drama Rangers:
@Growing_Beautifully, @Cleopatra, @FGB4788, @Janey, @Welmaris, @WEnchanteur, @Sayaris, @Fern, @OldAmericanLady, @Viva, @Juriel.
13:00 UTC
09:00am EST
06:00am PST
09:00pm Singapore, Philippines
08:00pm Indonesia
03:00pm Greece
12:00am Sydney (Sunday)
08:30pm India
The schedule according to @Growing_Beautifully.
1) Episode 1: For the intro to the characters and their dreams
2) Episode 2: For some cool Healer action
3) Episode 5: For the dynamics of relationships and a getaway
4) Episode 8: For the elevator rescue and you know what happens after that
5) Episode 9: For the telephone convo and makeover
6) Episode 10: For the rooftop convo
7) Episode 11: For the movie date
8) Episode 14: For Healer’s turn to be ‘rescued’ in his lair
9) Episode 20: For the finale
Woo hoo-I’m a Saturday Drama Ranger, Aa most exciting event to happen to me in a long time…thank you.
Yay! TGIF and ready to be Saturday Drama Ranger!
LOL, Drama Ranger GB reporting for party early!
Thanks @pkml3! So much fun!
I hope to attend. Many thanks for the thread.
Healer OST No. 3
(This is the song we get with the snow kiss in the beginning of Episode 9. It reflects the longing of Jung Hoo’s heart. I couldn’t find this in klyrics.net, so these lyrics are a hodge podge from different sources and edited to read better.)
Song: What the Eyes Say (by Tei)
Who are you looking at?
What are you thinking of?
I often just watch you, from the side
You probably don’t know
Seeing the back of you makes me sad
When you turn around
I want to spread my arms and give you a hug
Don’t go, I want to hold onto you
Don’t know why …
Why my eyes only look for you
Why it hurts when I look at you
Why my heart beats like crazy
I don’t know
When my eyes meet yours
I try to turn away
In case my eyes say the words
that my lips don’t dare to say:
the words, ‘I love you’
Don’t know why …
Why my eyes only look for you
Why it hurts when I look at you
Why my heart beats like crazy
(I don’t know)
I don’t want to let you go
As if I’m dreaming with my eyes open
You’re close, but you’re so far
‘Stay by my side’
I’m afraid you’ll leave if I tell you that
Do me right
I don’t want many things
If only I can be in your heart
If I can see you, that’s all I need
I don’t want to let you go
I don’t want to let you go
Kalimera fromy part of the world!
Today I cannot be with you! Enjoy the Show!
😘
Take care @Cleo! See you later!! 🌷 🌻
Thank you my agapimeni @GB!
I can’t participate today.
Serious events are taking place right now.
Have a good rewatch.
Thanks for letting us know, @WE. All the best to you and be safe! We’ll see you next week hopefully.
@WEnchanteur, I hope you are okay.
@Growing Beautifully, thank you very much for the lyrics. They fit so well with the theme.
You’re welcome @Fern! It was such a pleasure find them and get them to read slightly better. When I did a rewatch of this episode and heard the song, I felt that I just had to check out the lyrics, and yes, they fit so well! They say all the things that Jung Hoo wants to say. I felt that if only Young Shin had not sister-zoned him (LOL), she might have paid more attention to how he looked at her, and seen his eyes saying what the lyrics say.
As it was, even in this episode when they were getting their fantastic makeover, she was still calling him Bong Sook-ah. I’m actually impatiently anticipating the next episode where he speaks with her on the roof, and she starts to realise that this is not a Bong Sook, but a man.
Hi Everyone, I trust everyone is well, and whoever can be here will be here! I’m around and waiting. 10 minutes more to go!!
I’m here! The sun’s just coming up here in Southern California, which is a sight I don’t often see because I’m not much of a morning person. Night owl is more my style. But I’m lLooking forward to starting our rewatch in a minute!
It’s just about 9pm my time, and although it seems at the moment I’m a group of 1 LOL, I guess it’s time to begin. I’ll go slowly and hope all who can join in do join in soon!!
Let’s go!!!
Yay! @Welmaris, glad you’re here!
Kyaaa! We get more of the snow kiss to begin with. What a great start! (Although I’d not recommend that girls allow strange men to kiss them when they are blindfolded! LOL).
As I was saying last week, it’s so sweet that even in her panicky, shocked state, YS is concerned that Healer could have died.
At first MH asks YS if she can walk. But we find later that it is Healer whose legs give way (LOL), because he had never kissed a girl before. He was ok until he thought about retrieving the phone for YS, remembered the kiss and shocked Ahjumma by ‘falling down’.
“What’s that sound? Healer? Healer?”
“Yes, I fell down.”
“Fell down? You? The boy who doesn’t fall down even if someone throws him, fell down on his own? And why are your vitals like this? Your heartbeat is …”
JH does not want to listen to Ahjumma telling him about his vitals. He knows his heart is beating fast. He removes the earpiece and remains in shock, hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat.
YS is in MH’s car and she’s also having a hand on her chest, sort of … as she holds her bag close. She is probably remembering the kiss as well.
Yes, and Moon-Ho calls her Ji-an-ah by mistake. Boom! She’s quite out of it, but she knows.
How nice to start my day with the tender kiss between Healer and YS. When MH runs up to YS/JA, I think her stupor is at first caused by her emotions from the kiss. Then the trauma of the elevator murder attempt hits her.
Healer seems business as usual in his demeanor, until he stumbles. His heartbeat is high. We know from him pressing the back of his hand to his lips that he’s thinking of the kiss with YS. How cute! He’s human, not a cyborg. He has more feelings that even he knows he’s capable of, since he’s suppressed them for so long.
@Fern, yes, she was still aware that MH was calling out a different name. Not bad for someone who was in shock.
LOL, she tells MH that she wants to sing a song but she’s holding it in. What was it she said last time? That when she’s upset or scared, she sings?
That’s what she said to Bong Soo when she was posing for the camera as well. But most people would take it as the opposite reaction.
YS has wonderful trust, in spite of having gone through much abuse and abandonment.
She tells MH : “It’s going to be alright because that person, Healer, will protect me. Even in the elevator that was falling down, he saved me, so – ”
She believes that Healer will never abandon her or break her trust.
And even after MH tells her that Healer will work for the guy who pays him more, she still goes out and waits for Healer without much fear.
MH: “…forty minutes ago you almost died…is your personality good or are you just dense?”
YS: “The truth is I want to sing a song. But I’m holding it in.”
That’s our YS!
One of the strengths of this drama is the consistency of the characters. Even Healer, who adopts various personalities for his work, has his true character show through with brief smiles, etc.
Moon-ho looks directly at her when he say Oh Ji-an, to see her reaction. But she doesn’t recognise the name.
We get the backstory of Ji An – so heart breaking. So lovely how Daddy Chae befriended that frightened child and brought her round and raised her to be a confident young woman.
Words that we need to hear, such good advice for those with trust issues.
“Did the whole world become trustworthy after I met my dad? Of course it didn’t. As someone always stabbed in the back if I became careless, and if I opened up my heart, someone came in and left a wound.”
“Still it was OK. If there was one person I could trust while living even if I get stabbed in the back, that doesn’t hurt me too much. I was like that. So now, instead of suspecting someone it is easier to trust them.”
This is shallow but Moon-Ho’s eyelashes should get 2nd billing. Or it could read Yoo Ji-Tae and his eyelashes. They are distracting.
Hello rangers!!! I made it after a couple of snoozes… catching up in a bit!
YS bravely walks down the stairs from the 39th floor all by herself!!! (OST: ‘Highlight’ plays)
She sings her song and Healer finds her song cute enough so that he moves in time LOL.
YS learns MH did call her by another name. He tells her the name is Oh Ji An. I am surprised there isn’t something deep inside that responds to that name, since she heard it her formative years. But her emotional defenses that allowed her to survive the traumas of her ages 5 through 8 must have pushed the name Oh Ji An and memories of her happy first years out of her consciousness along with all the subsequent bad memories.
Welcome @Janey! Glad you’re here!
We are now admiring Yoo Ji Tae’s expressions as he confronts his brother.
@Welmaris, That’s likely. I did wonder why YS didn’t find the name Oh Ji An familiar.
I like the Moon Ho and Myung Hee scenes. Wish there were more of them. The background OST for them is so full of poignancy.
With her MH is just the little kid who wanted to cry and couldn’t until she let him. I’m so glad that he managed to offer her a way out, for his own peace and sanity, as well as for her.
Chae Chi Soo, his neck mole, and the tin robot act are the best! Those funny faces he makes at YS are so non-threatening. And that he shares his love of music with her is like he’s opening his soul to her. She recognizes this, I believe, which is why she sees him as trustworthy after the horror of the physical abuse she’d recently suffered at the hands of the previous guardian.
She doesn’t know it, but as climbs down the stairs from MH’s penthouse, singing as she goes, Healer is also being a trustworthy person in her life. The music that comforted her and caused her to trust her adoptive father bubbles out of her at time of deep emotional need, and Healer is there, in the background, guarding her and appreciating her resilience.
I love how Ahjumma can just hack into MS’s home and control his monitors.
MS should never have touched Go Sung Chul. This is payback.
LOL, Ahjumma’s voice is actually naturally low but she uses the high pitch voice to hide her identity. Too tiring to speak in that tone for long.
I’m still in the aftermath of the kiss. Love the heightened reaction of Healer from his vitals. LOL!
Sabu and Healer: You know what bothers me is that Jung Hoo had looked forward to seeing Sabu and having that birthday cake, but he missed it, and didn’t even get to eat the cake, by the looks of things.
But worse, Sabu and Jung Hoo had only 1 meeting later, but it was unfortunately a fraught interview. The next time they met, Sabu replaced him as Healer. And that was it. I was so upset that Jung Hoo never had a happy scene with Sabu.
@Janey IKR, Healer himself was stunned that his heart was going overboard, over a kiss. Such an innocent soul even after Sabu tried to corrupt him with naughty girly magazines.
I find it so cute that as YS walks home, she tries to ‘catch’ sight of Healer. And he’s right there with her but she never sees him. She even calls him never knowing that he’s watching over her all the time.
She goes to a phone box and calls PBS to hear a comforting voice. She naturally gravitates towards her ‘sister’ for a listening ear.
LOL. He keeps flip-flopping from panmal to chundemal until she gives up and lets him speak informally to her. A good move towards closer friendship.
I am convinced during the confrontation between MH and MS that MS didn’t know about the attempt to kill YS. But that he continues to stay the course with the Elder, that he decides to continue deceiving his wife about her still-living daughter…he proves he’s truly evil. He has opportunities to choose the right path, but persists in pursuing his interests at the expense of others’ happiness and welfare.
I love that MH comes to his Noona for comfort, just as he did as a child.
Ajumma sings too, when she needs to release emotions. She and YS’s dad would get along well.
YS’s outside instead of going home … she says it’s because her dad will ask 175 questions. Then she admits: “But that’s an excuse. I’m actually waiting for someone. There’s someone I’m waiting for.”
JH looks super alert.
“Waiting?”
“I thought I would be able to meet him if I wait. I thought he would suddenly appear behind me. But he’s not coming. That person definitely has something to say to me. It’s not right to not say anything like this. I’m ready to listen. I also have something to say.”
(She covers her eyes.)
She sobs a bit : “He’s not coming.”
JH looks conflicted. He knows what it’s like to be expectantly waiting, the way he’d been waiting for Sabu. So he understands why YS is upset.
I love the split screen in the phone call scene. YS does most of the talking, but Healer’s face and eyes react to everything she says.
I have to go now. Apologies, but RL is a bit busy just now. Enjoy!
Her adoptive father was so patient with her to come out. I’m glad he did not report her to social services or something. Dad definitely built trust there and helped her be brave. But going down the elevator was still scary after her trauma. I like this BGM while she sings going downstairs.
Ahjumma has investigated and found that YS and Myung Hee are biologically related. She realises that Sabu is right. MH had been searching for Ji An and had found her.
The situation is complicated. All of Healer’s protocol to not be involved and remain invisible would have to thrown out the windows because the people involved are from his father’s past.
And worse, Healer was involved/in love with the daughter of the man his father killed. A big ‘No-no’ in this culture.
It’s lovely that YS takes this in her stride after a short struggle, and accepts JH regardless.
Bye @Fern! This seems to be a busy weekend for many of us. Even FGB is not here today.
@Janey, yes I love YS’s resilience. If I were her, I’d have holed up in the nice penthouse and not gone down 39 floors on foot!!
The phone booth scene.
Before, it was so in character for both of them that YS sensed she was being followed, but Healer was clever enough to not be seen despite matching her steps from nearby.
The conversation YS and Bong Soo/Healer have on the phone is warm and comforting, like the hot pack they mention. Yet it is deep. YS shares so much of her soul with BS. When it comes to her longing for Healer to come to her again, BS/Healer realizes YS is in love with him. His taking and cherishing the origami star YS made while talking on the phone is evidence of his heart opening to YS: he cherishes her. He wants to protect her, he appreciates her in all her quirkiness…the foundations of love are laid. Because of all the abandonment he’s suffered from those who should have loved and protected him, he’s hesitant.
My heart aches for JH who just wanted to ask Sabu questions. He wanted to be taught by his teacher, who abandoned him, but didn’t get a chance. There was no proper closure for them, accept for that video message, from Sabu’s police interview.
I’m drawn to watching the scenes that I am so late to comment.
So funny how YS walks and hides to find if Healer is tailing her. She want him to come out. And she knows BS’s phone number. Instinctively they have the connection.
I will not remember any phone number if my cellphone gets lost. Ah, our dependence on technology. I’m thankful for birthday reminders of Facebook. 👍
MH still doesn’t trust Healer, thinking he’s only motivated by money, soulless. Afraid that Healer will turn and take a job that puts YS at risk, he dangles the promise of catching Healer in front of Detective Yoon. Although his motivation is good, his execution is bad, because Healer being caught will deeply hurt “the child” MH is trying to protect.
Detective Yoon isn’t a bad guy either. He’s doing his job, and doing it with integrity. His problem is he’s made assumptions about Healer and tries to force the partial facts he’s gathered to fit his assumptions. Healer isn’t a killer. Healer would not take a hit job, ever, no matter how much money was offered him. Healer thinks he doesn’t have to bother himself with ethics, but in truth he has strong ethics in the areas that matter most, despite being misguided about the illegality of his actions (that, as an errand boy, all the guilt should lay on the ones who hire him to perform the tasks).
@Janey, I cannot recall phone numbers anymore too.
I’ve been pausing and re-watching parts to catch the dialogue.
On the phone scene, I noticed that YS covered her face – she was crying a bit too – that action was a go signal for Healer to approach her. But since he is BS at that time, he can’t come.
Healer was one of my first kdramas and I realized how cold they must be while shooting. I would have been shivering like crazy and be frozen.
@Welmaris, the other reason that MH gets Detective Yoon on board to ‘catch’ Healer is that he wanted YS to get the protection of detectives nearby. In the end, she still managed to steal out of her house despite the detectives doing stakeout outside her home.
So it’s only us @GB ang @Welmaris? Three rangers left but it’s ok…RL calls.
I’m at the part when Healer went home and there were traces that Healer1 was there but is now gone.
I’m at the part where Hwang Jae Gook is sealing his fate by calling Elder and threatening him. Of course he is not aware that the person who answered the phone is Elder himself.
MS is present and knows that Hwang is going to be sacrificed as the ‘killer’ of Go Sung Chul. He takes it as just the normal course of business with Elder. His conscience seems quite dead.
@GB – MS is unscrupulous person now. Elder apologized for touching Jian and he was ok with that!? Geez… as a good soldier, he will take care of his weaknesses- his wife and brother and now Jian.
I love it when the OST Highlight plays, it means that action is moving along. Here MH is setting Someday News up for covering the Kim Eui Chan’s interview. Everyone has something to do, so it’s busy and exciting and the music accompanies all this.
BS comes just in time to be dragged out to drive YS to the interview.
If @WE were here, he’d comment on how the exposition or voiceover explanation of what Someday news is to do, is brilliantly supported by all the action that we see.
This show uses split screens and voiceovers with action to good effect to show us more than 1 scene concurrently.
Poor Healer. His emotions are so mixed about seeing his teacher again. He’s angry after being abandoned. He loves him because he was an effective mentor. Healer became the person he is because Teacher took him in after his grandmother died while he was in juvenile detention. Teacher wasn’t the best father figure, but he’s the only one Healer had while growing up.
I love Healer’s attention to detail, that he notices the entrance to his lair has been tampered with. I also like how he knows by the hot cup of tea that Teacher is nearby. Good script writing and set direction! Not all the story has to be told in dialogue.
But at the end of this scene, I’m back to feeling sad on behalf of Healer. Teacher withholds himself from Healer, denying him the reunion he longs for deep in his heart, and denying him the opportunity to have questions answered about his past.
But at least Healer ate some of the cake Teacher left for him, although it was in bad shape after Teacher pigged out on it. You can see there’s less cake than when Healer arrived at his place looking for Teacher.
@GB I like that background music also. At this time, I am not familiar with OSTs yet. I am starting to play Healer’s. I hope they have a YT on background music as well.
Operation “YS be famous” commences!
Yup @Welmaris, I noticed the cake had been more eaten, and was mildly comforted that JH had a bit of his birthday cake. Yes, I was upset with Sabu for not staying on all night to wait for JH after years of abandonment.
@Janey, I love that ‘Camouflage Penetration’ that reporters have to do, when it involves this great a makeover!
Love how in this show, it’s not just one or the other of the OTP who has to be ‘transformed’ but that both of them get the makeover to stunning effect.
@Welmaris – healer made his entrance to be complicated so he will know when it’s tampered and someone came. YS will be able to figure this out in later episodes whe she does there.
Yay, makeover scenes here! I like the OST here too. I find myself singing or humming it when I do my chores. Oh oh oh…
My favourite scene, with the voiceover of PBS and CYS to each other as they are going through the makeover.
JH : “Don’t talk to me now. I’m not in the mood.”
YS : “Why? Didn’t you sleep last night?”
JH : “I didn’t.”
YS : “Why? Oh, because I woke you up yesterday night.”
JH : “Because I was thinking”
YS : “Aigoo, our Bong Sook-ie. You know how to think.”
(So patronising LOL.)
JH : “I did … quite a lot of thinking, unusually.”
YS : “What did you think about?”
JH : “Should I say I was looking for an excuse?”
(These were the words that she used the previous night, but she does not seem to put 2 and 2 together here.)
YS : “What excuse?”
JH : “Oh …an excuse to meet again.”
YS : “Meet again? Who?”
He does not answer.
The OST playing is I think ‘Ben’, cute with guitar strumming.
And the ep ends with the beautiful couple makeover! Ehem ehem. Aw, next is the rooftop convo – can it be me??? Reserving that for next week.
Thanks rewatch rangers for today!!!! Have a great day and weekend!
From my notes: PBS comes out looking like a million bucks and so too does YS. At the sight of her, JH forgets to breathe and chokes.
She notices him and tries to do a wolf whistle but utterly fails. LOL.
He’s amused by her antics. She wants to do a hi-5 but he offers his arm to lead her out like a gentleman does with a lady. She finally figures out her correct demeanour and hooks her arm through his.
I love how they strut their stuff!
Thanks too @Janey! See you next week!
Aah this ending never fails to leave me smiling as ‘Eternal Love’ plays.
@Gb I like that it’s a couple makeover which is indeed rare in kdrama. It’s normally the girl. Hmph… as if guys are perfect, hah! So it’s a treat to see 2 imperfect persons be transformed (at least physically) to a better version of themselves and still be on equal footing.
This show does the best setup for the makeover. We find out why YS needs to become famous, to protect her from future attempts to make her disappear. We learn the means of making her famous will be her crashing the Seoul mayoral candidate’s press conference to do a guerilla interview. We learn that attendance at the press conference is tightly restricted, so they’ll have to do camouflage infiltration. Hence the makeover. All the pieces line up, and it makes sense for the story development. It’s not gratuitous. But that YS and BS transform so amazingly is icing on the cake!
That slack jaw, blink, and cough (can’t catch his breath?) of BS’s when he sees YS done up in that red sheath dress…yah! He says it for all of us without a word. Although we know in the back of our minds that both actors playing these roles are probably very used to dressing up because of their careers, they may us believe that for YS and BS this is a unique experience for them. I like how YS tugged at the front of her dress to hide some of her décolletage. The struggle with her high heels was a bit overdone, but I’m willing to let it pass because I can empathize with never wearing heels, then facing the challenge of how stilettos would realign the body and change the center of balance.
The voiceover of the conversation between BS and YS is reminiscent of the phone booth conversation. Sweet, but deep. BS repeats the line YS used about the phone call being an excuse while waiting for a desired meeting.
Does anyone know what YS is trying to say when she’s squeaking words through her closed lips to BS when she first sees him after their makeover?
I’d have loved more slo-mo of the gorgeous couple at the end of the episode, but I’ll just have to rewind and rewatch until I’m satisfied. This was fun. In a bit I’ll read through the comments above and respond.
@Welmaris – you’re right, the makeover was organically included in the the story and achieved multiple levels of satisfaction.
I can’t walk on heels so I sympathize with YS. LOL!
@Welmaris, was she saying anything else besides doing the wolf whistle?
What struck me is that just as MH had seen his brother and the friends do guerilla radio shows, so too is MH now doing a guerilla interview. He certainly watched and learnt.
@Janey, I can’t walk in heels anymore too. I just want well padded and good support in my almost flat shoes.
@Welmaris, we’ll see our made over couple strut into the hotel in the next Episode. Yeah, I wish they’d given us a runway scene with them taking that slo mo walk.
It’s almost 11pm over here. So thanks you two for another great rewatch! See you on the threads!
Oh, one more thing before I go … didn’t you just love how squeamish Bong Sook was when the make over ladies were trying to measure him? He’d never been touched by strange women before!!! I laugh every time I see that. That was one of the cutest JCW scenes ever!
Thanks @GB! Have a good rest and see you in the other threads. I’m actually watching ep10 now and saw the strut of the makeover couple. A slo mo would have been great, too!
Sorryyyyyyy!!!! I forgot!!!! ;_;
LOL @FGB, at least you remembered now. You can still read us and respond. 😉
@GB, about the phone booth scene and YS covering her eyes. I hadn’t thought of it as her signaling Healer to come to her, but that makes sense. I thought she was just wiping her tears with her scarf. Covering her eyes while talking about waiting for Healer would also bring back to her the feeling of being in his presence and experiencing him with other senses heightened due to lack of sight. Those would be comforting memories for her. And yes, I can believe that Healer waiting so long for Sabu would make him empathize with YS’s painful wait.
@Janey, I also don’t remember phone numbers anymore, except for my husband’s because I have to write it on forms now and then. YS is not only clever, but perhaps because she used such an old phone, with far less features than the smartphones of 2014 (when Healer started airing), she typed numbers into her phone instead of relying on the contacts list. Those old phones were a pain to use, having to hit the number keys so many times to get to desired letters, that searching for a frequently used contact by name may have not been worth the bother: just memorizing and typing the number itself would be quicker.
@Janey, check Spotify for the Healer OST album. That’s where I go to get my Kdrama OST fix. https://open.spotify.com/album/0EQJ8RXISHsoZafV3PgUFv
I’m going to do another comment, which will be a long one, about the push and pull between Healer and Sabu. I think I’ve got some insight as to why they struggled to connect after Sabu returned.
Thanks @Welmaris for the Spotify link!! Have a good weekend.
Hi Rangers, I woke up too late for viewing but I think Healer is a meta. I keep thinking of Superman, where Healer takes on a Clark Kent role, with our heroine being a little like Lois Lane (journalists all). And I love that when Healer kissed her, she could not see him. And the phone booth also reminds me of superman. And I just love Ahjumma and adoptive Dad. And my superficial self just loves looking at our three leads-they are a feast for the eyes. And Park Min Young cannot be made to look plain, even in a short wig.
As I said above, this will be a long comment because I want to analyze the push and pull between Healer and Sabu.
Let’s go back to the beginning of Episode 8, when Sabu breaks into the phone call between Healer and Ajumma and speaks to Healer for the first time in years.
Sabu: Kid, have you been well?
Healer: Ah, this perverted old man, really.
(We hear a voiceover of their conversation as we see Healer driving away from MS’s house. Healer is driving aggressively, like he’s in a hurry or angry. He’s told by Sabu the identity of MS’s wife, who she is in the photo that includes Jeong Hoo’s father and Sabu.)
S: Would that be enough for you? That’s still not enough for you, right? Ah right, I’ll go to you. Are you crying? You’re crying, right? Did you miss me that much? Seriously, just wait. Don’t cry.
Then we see Healer standing alone by a desolate, semi-frozen lake. I imagine he wasn’t in a hurry to get to that location, so his aggressive driving must’ve resulted from his emotional state after his phone conversation with Sabu. We hear Healer’s voiceover: “Ever since my mother left home when I was eight years old, I haven’t cried because of any people. (So Sabu must’ve been taunting him when he spoke of Healer crying.) I’ve also never had anything to expect from them. What I hated the most in this world is a human’s understanding and interest.”
Next we see more of Seo Jeong Hoo’s backstory: being truant for a week (probably when he searched for his mom); violent conflicts with schoolmates; parents both gone; living with grandmother; mother remarried; father dead by presumed suicide (which is apparently thought shameful by the schoolteacher). The schoolteacher talks about understanding JH, but already judges him–out loud, in JH’s presence–as damaged goods. The schoolteacher’s version of understanding is demeaning: prideful pity, as if he’s thinking, “Glad it’s him, not me.”
We go back to Healer as he muses by the lakeside. He picks up a phone call from YS. She’s worried about Bong Soo. Is he working too hard? Did he get any sleep? Why wasn’t he answering his phone? Is he okay? Then YS asks BS’s help making a decision and talks business with him. We get another voiceover from Healer: “What I hate the most in this world was a human’s understanding and interest. It ‘was’. I WAS like that.”
Jump ahead in Episode 8. The elevator event is bookended by these thoughts from Healer. Healer has saved YS from death by falling in the sabotaged elevator. The two of them are on the building’s roof, YS with her knit beanie still pulled down over her eyes. She’s upset that Healer risked dying for her sake, but also thanks him sincerely. Healer moves away from YS, fearing discovery because he’s dressed as she saw him earlier in his Bong Soo guise. Healer notices it is snowing. YS had mentioned the possibility of snow during the camera check. During the camera check, Bong Soo had heard YS lay bare her embarrassment, believing Healer thought her delusional after their previous meeting because she was crushing on him. Healer’s voiceover: “Ever since I was alone and up to now, I’ve never expected anything from a human. So I was okay.” (Healer sees MH arriving below, which motivates him into action. He turns back to YS, who is standing patiently with her eyes covered. Remember, she’s just endured a life-threatening trauma. Yet she’s calm, because she knows Healer is with her.) “Whether someone understood or misunderstood me, it didn’t matter. I was like that.” Then Healer kisses YS tenderly. He doesn’t want her to misunderstand him.
What does this have to do with the push and pull with Sabu? Let’s go back to the cafe after the interview has wrapped. Healer gets a phone call. It’s Sabu, cryptically asking about chocolate or sweet potatoes.
Healer: Since you’re blabbing random words, you had no intention of meeting me, right?” (In their previous phone conversation, Sabu had said he’d come to Healer if Healer waited.)
S: Run quickly, let’s meet at your house.
H: Run quickly. Then do I have to run right away? –Look here, you old fogey–
S: Don’t be late. You know I don’t wait more than 5 minutes for a man, right?
H: Wait. Wait. Since when was it 5 minutes? (Sabu hangs up on him.)
Because Healer sees cake slices in the cafe counter display, he remembers it is his birthday, and figures out why Sabu was asking about preferred flavor. Healer runs off with a smile on his face.
Healer is driving home to meet Sabu when YS goes missing due to the voice falsification call. Ajumma, then Healer, learn from MH about the Elder and his warning. Healer immediately redirects his car to search for YS. Ajumma knows Healer is on his way to find YS. They’re both busy looking for her using the location tracker in her bag. We see Sabu trying to get into Healer’s home right when the elevator incident starts. He doesn’t know what’s going on; both Healer and Ajumma are too busy to be in contact with him. Besides, Ajumma probably doesn’t know the meeting between Sabu and Healer was about to happen, as she wasn’t part of that phone call. And Healer may not know how to call Sabu, if Sabu was using an untraceable number. At this point, Healer’s mind isn’t on Sabu anyway: it is completely focused on YS and her safety.
Healer saves YS from the falling elevator. Instead of going to his home to meet Sabu, he decides to tail YS even after MH has met her on the rooftop then taken her to his penthouse home. MH leaves YS at his penthouse and goes to confront his brother; rather than staying and sleeping at MH’s home as directed, YS decides to go to her home. Healer tails her down the stairs. He’s made a decision. He was told by Sabu to hurry home to meet him, but he decided to stay with YS even after he knew she was with MH.
Ajumma learns, and we see that Sabu has gotten into Healer’s home. He’s eating the birthday cake by himself; roughly half of it is gone. It is apparent he’s waited longer than 5 minutes for Healer, despite his earlier warning.
A: So, is Jeong Hoo there?
S: No. What a petty guy he is, putting all those locks and securing means on the door…While trying to break in, the sun already set.
A: So, why are you there when Jeong Hoo never lets anyone in? I don’t even bother that place.
In their conversation, Sabu and Ajumma figure out that MH has been looking for Oh Ji An.
The scene switches to YS walking out of the building containing MS’s penthouse. Healer continues to shadow her. When she comes to the phone booth, she calls Bong Soo. It must be late, because she thought he was asleep. The two have a lengthy conversation. Healer has devoted his time and attention to YS, setting aside his desire to see Sabu and get answers to questions about his father, and perhaps about Ji An’s father. Perhaps Healer assumed Sabu, after making that threat about 5 minutes being the most he’d wait, had already come and gone.
In the meantime, Ajumma–while still being in voice contact with Sabu at Healer’s home–looks at the DNA results from MH’s assignment on YS. Ajumma and Sabu realize YS is Oh Ji An, and that Jeong Hoo’s father is accused of killing her biological father.
Sabu: Jeong Hoo, that punk, after his mother left him, used to think of women like gums stuck on the street. You said he started to look at a woman for the first time, right? (It was Ajumma’s concern that JH’s usefulness as Healer was compromised by his interest in YS that caused Ajumma to call Sabu back from the South Pacific to whip some sense into JH.) But, that’s that child?
A: Yeah.
Healer finally comes home, after the phone conversation with YS, picking up the origami star from the phone booth, and presumably, making sure YS gets home safely. He notices evidence of someone’s entry, sees what’s left of the birthday cake (verifying it was Sabu who entered), and sees a still-steaming cup of tea. Healer runs here and there in his lair and the warehouse, looking for Sabu.
Healer: Come out. Aren’t you going to come out?! Hey you old fogey. I know you’re still here. I have something to say, you old fogey. Come out while I’m asking nicely. You’re going to be half dead if I catch you hiding. I have something to ask you, so please come out! You are a teacher. Since you’re a teacher, I! (screams in frustration, collapses on the floor, then rises to his knees and speaks in a pleading, not angry, voice) I have something to ask you. It’s because I really don’t know. What can I do? What should I do, Teacher? Please. Teach me. (groans, collapses again on the floor and rolls onto his back)
We don’t know if Sabu stayed long enough to hear any of Healer’s words, including the begging at the end. But Sabu knew Jeong Hoo had questions about his father and Ji An’s father, and Sabu ditched JH before JH could ask. Sabu was avoiding JH because he was avoiding an uncomfortable conversation.
When Ajumma earlier asked Sabu if Jeong Hoo’s father killed his friend then committed suicide due to guilt, Sabu’s response was that’s what people said. I assume by that time Sabu had been captured and was serving his long sentence in jail, so didn’t have first-hand knowledge of the events that affected his four other friends. All he knew was that all four of the others were alive when he was captured; he suffered physical abuse at the hands of authorities but stayed silent to protect his friends’ identities; then learned when he was released years later that two of his friends had died, one was badly injured, and one had become unexpectedly rich, powerful, and married to the widow of one of the deceased friends. The only person who’d visited him in jail was Detective Jo, who quit the police force and became his partner when he became the first Healer errand boy. Detective Jo had not met any of Sabu’s other friends, so could not judge for herself the truth or falsehood of the rumors about Ji An’s father and Jeong Hoo’s father. However, both Sabu and Ajumma didn’t let their doubts about Jeong Hoo’s father keep them from stepping up to help JH after his grandmother died.
Sabu remained committed to helping Healer, despite avoiding him so he wouldn’t have to answer difficult questions. When JH was overwhelmed by the SS henchmen, Sabu resumed his role as Healer in order to allow JH to escape, not only from the immediate danger, but from the police that were closing in on him. But it wasn’t until Sabu realized he’d been poisoned at the police station–to die in the same way and in the same place as Jeong Hoo’s father–that he was fully convinced JH’s father was innocent, neither murdering a friend nor committing suicide. That is why he used his final moments to leave a video message for JH. It was his way of answering the questions JH had for him.
@OAL – your perspective of older movies are always valuable! Yes yes yes this is like Superman meta especially on the characters and their roles. And I remember the classic Christopher Reeves Superman (not the new versions).
as an aside, I’m watching park Min Young in Her Private Life which is an older kdrama but new in Netflix. She is very pretty and cute and a good actress.
@Janey, I loved her in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim with Park Seo-joon. She plays a great working woman. Fun fact-she was an exchange student in the US, speaks excellent English (not heavily accented) and is also known by the name Rachel. She could easily cross over to international projects.
SABU and JH
Thanks @Welmaris for the recap of the events around the relationship between JH and Sabu, and how his behaviour towards JH might have been informed by his avoidance of having to answer difficult questions. We have seen that between Sabu and Ahjumma, they were uncertain about how much JH should be told. In their conversation during a sunset drink, when they looked their best, they laughed cynically at the thought that the truth would out, and that it could ever bring happiness.
So they had more or less decided to keep JH in the dark, since the truth was not pleasant, never knowing that the poor kid had grown up knowing that he was anathema among his peers and teachers, because his past was blighted by the alleged murder-suicide of his dad. It was the lack of knowledge that caused this issue. If they had known how damaged JH was, because he already knew the ‘truth’, they might have taken steps to investigate further.
We assume that JH himself believed the ‘truth’, until the photo of the 5 friends, and MS’s interest in him cropped up more than once.
What I found more upsetting about Sabu was his apparently flippant attitude to things of great weight. He avoided them all through, by teasing and provoking JH. I really disliked how he covered up what was important by speaking of sexy ladies to distract JH, but mostly how he ran away when JH had become competent enough to become Healer, without a word of warning. Sabu behaved as if JH had been a burden that he’d long wanted to get off his hands, and at his (I’m guessing) 19th birthday, he couldn’t leave fast enough. He didn’t even stay to have the ramyeon that JH had made for 2. I felt it was most ungracious and unfair,… however…
It probably says something about Sabu’s personality and maybe it was his defence mechanism. If he had stayed for ramyeon, maybe he’d not have been able to walk away. He called JH autistic, but I felt Sabu behaved kind of ‘unusual’ for a person who had been out in society. Maybe he was the one who was a ‘special’ adult and had trouble interacting in a way consistent with being emotionally mature. And I am reminded that Sabu hurried back when Ahjumma called him about JH. Regardless of how indifferent he appeared (or wanted to appear), he cared enough about the boy to leave the fleshpots of the South Pacific (or wherever he was), and return to S Korea.
Sabu had admitted to Ahjumma that he suspected foul play, but didn’t want to investigate because he didn’t want to know the truth… and the truth would have made little difference to the past. However it didn’t occur to him that it would make a big difference to JH, since he didn’t yet know, how much JH knew. However, the other aspect of Sabu that might be considered, is that like Moon Ho in the beginning, (and even the Someday News boss, Jang Byeong Se,) he was afraid to know or confront the truth. He was a coward of sorts. So this probably played into why he avoided JH the way he did. Still it was heartbreaking.
However, considering that he himself lacked family, as far as we can tell, Sabu managed to raise JH from his early angry, rebellious teen years to some kind of stability. He teased, but didn’t trample on JH, who remained loyal, affectionate and (as you have said) ethical in his own way.
I love how JH really did seek out his mum and kept some tabs on her. He maintained contact, so that he knew about his step-brother and so that Mum could still recognise him. He’d visit her now and then and be upset that she cried at the sight of him, but recognising that she still cared and was sorry towards him, he generously accepted her gift of a jacket, so that he could assuage her guilt a little. He got hold of her mobile number so that he could remain in touch. And at their brief meetings, he’d buy her red bean dessert to share with her, because it was her favourite flavour, although he himself did not like it.
On the whole, flawed as he was, and misguided in how to make a good goodbye, Sabu was the only one who stepped up to take care of the boy who was left behind and of whom nothing good was expected, and turned him into ‘Healer’, with a direction and purpose in life. His video message to JH was at last a fitting farewell from a mentor, giving good advice.
From the video (Episode 14 timestamp 29:38)
‘ …No matter how I’ve lived, I should die as a human being. So that I can meet the people I wanted to meet again. The people who left first. I have one regret. I should have stopped already.’
He turns to address the camera (ie Jung Hoo).
‘I should have stopped this, and had two kids with a woman I love, one dog, two cats, three goldfish, and lived while raising them. I should have done that, huh?’ And Sabu smiled his usual, cheeky grin at the camera, as if he could see JH.
At least our last glimpse of Sabu, is of him still caring about JH before he died.
Correction to the song title I mentioned above… at the makeover, the OST was Healer OST No. 2,
Song: When You Hold Me Tight (by Yael Meyer)
and not Ben’s “You”.
@pkml3, if you don’t mind, please open up a Healer OSTs thread. I’d really appreciate having all the lyrics in one place for all to see.
@GB, although I might not, with my mother’s heart, ever forgive those that walked away from JH, I do have some admiration for Sabu. He suffered for his friendships, tortured by the police to make him turn in his guerilla radio compatriots, but he never did. He kept silent and their identities secret at great cost to himself. I could understand him becoming embittered as he spent year after year in jail. I could understand him not wanting to have anything to do with his past. Instead, he took on the role of single father to a troubled boy, the son of one of his deceased friends.
In the montage of JH’s training, we don’t see Sabu belittling JH: he sets goals for JH and encourages him to reach for them. Keep trying! Work harder! Work smarter! And Sabu gave JH time to practice and improve. He was present and engaged in JH’s life for many years. I suppose that’s what made his abruptly walking away from JH more cruel.
I take all of Sabu’s bragging about his South Pacific beauties with a grain of salt. It’s the image of himself he wanted to portray, but we have no evidence other than his word. For all we know, he could’ve been living a hermit’s existence on a mountaintop in Tibet, rather than dallying with island ladies.