As I said when I began doing these movie comparisons, I treat the title as a springboard. To optimize my understanding of the significant scenes in the episode, I look at the film (or the song, as in the case of “I Know What You Did Last Summer”) for which the episode was named.

But while the eponymous movies do shed light on the special moments, I also enjoy finding “Easter Eggs” – or the hidden images or clues in the drama.

For instance, in the “The Boy, or the Girl, We Liked Back Then” I pointed out that the boy’s high school uniform with its blue-pen stains parallels the drawing that Ung kept with Yeonsu’s gash of correction fluid. These two very visible blemishes created by the heroines are symbolic of the unseen scars they left on the heroes.

Then, in “Pride and Prejudice” I said that Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley is equivalent to Ung’s awe-inspiring skill and dedication at illustrating buildings. Both of them blew the heroines’ minds away.

As for this episode, “Catch Me If You Can,” I say that this scene,

and this scene are directly lifted from the movie.

lol. Those are my “teasers.” You’ll have to read the rest of my long post to learn why.

To me, the hunt for “Easter Eggs” is like Carl Hanratty discovering the age and location of Frank Abagnale, Jr. from a seemingly irrelevant detail. It’s a (cheap) thrill. lol.

That said, the casual viewer doesn’t have to catch any of these details to enjoy watching this kdrama. To each his own, as they would say.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

“Catch Me If You Can” (CMIYC) is a 20-year-old movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie is billed as a cat-and-mouse thriller, but to me, there’s more to the caper than meets the eye. I think it’s about a drama about father-and-son relationships.

The cat is a jaded FBI agent named Carl Hanratty. His mouse is a 16-year-old runaway boy named Frank Abagnale, Jr. Although he wasn’t born a crook, Frank Jr. “accidentally” finds himself doing con jobs to support his life on the run.

From what I read, the significance of Frank’s being a “Junior” is lost on many reviewers of this film. But in a typical Spielberg fashion, this suffix presages a lot about the character’s motivations, identity crisis, and destiny. Frank Abagnale, JUNIOR idolized his father, Frank Abagnale, SENIOR.

Frank Jr. learned his first lessons on how to scam people from his father. He witnessed his father’s ruin because of the IRS, losing not only the family business, but also the adored trophy wife, and the luxurious lifestyle. He ran away from home to avoid deciding which parent he would live with after their divorce. He vowed to reunite the family, and regain everything that his father lost, including his mother. He took to heart all of his father’s words of wisdom (more like, words of the con artist, lol). He was a mini-me of his father.

Thus, in my opinion, the first person he tried to impersonate wasn’t an airline pilot — like it’s generally written. It was his father. And it was his father’s death that symbolically freed him from scam artist days. Since he was no longer a “Junior” he could come into his own. He didn’t need to impersonate a pilot, a Secret Service agent, a lawyer, a doctor, to become the leading expert on bank fraud detection. And it’s all thanks to Carl the FBI man.

It’s truly poetic that running away from Carl eventually brought him full circle to Carl.

Frank Jr. didn’t realize that while he was living a fugitive’s life, he was slowly replacing his father’s image with another father figure, Carl the FBI man. Carl was the polar opposite of Frank Sr. Carl was abrasive while Frank Sr. was suave. Carl was clinical while Frank Sr. was foolishly sentimental. Carl pursued Frank Jr. relentlessly, never giving up on chasing until the final scenes. Meanwhile, his own father didn’t care a hoot that his teenaged son was a runaway.

Frank desperately wanted his father to tell him to stop running, and to save him from his downward spiral. But it was Carl who delivered the hard truth that crime doesn’t pay. And that’s because Carl understood that, behind it all, Frank, Jr. was just a kid who was in over his head. So he showed Frank the way to end the cat-and-mouse game.

Carl was the father that Frank, Jr. didn’t know he needed all along.

Now, that’s my analysis of the movie. How does it relate however to this episode? I’ll limit myself to explaining six points.

1. “To Tell the Truth”

The opening scene of CMIYC shows Frank, Jr. in a game show called, “To Tell the Truth.” He was one of three contestants posing as himself, Frank Abagnale, Jr. (lol. I love the meta!) The other two men with him on stage were his impersonators, or actors pretending to be him. The point of the game was to outwit and trick the guests into choosing either one of the imposters as the “real” Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Then, in the next scene, we flashback to Frank in solitary confinement. He was never the type to give up his freedom easily, so he tried to escape the French prison…on his knees. C’est fou! Fortunately, Carl was there to end his days of running (or crawling, lol) and to bring him home.

None too subtly, the introduction of this film pushed the connection between telling the truth and running away. In my opinion, the crux of the matter is NOT that Frank lied, scammed, and impersonated people, but that Frank couldn’t face the truth.

The young Frank couldn’t deal with the reality that:

a. his mother, whom his father had adored, was an adulteress, and
b. his father, whom he hero-worshipped, was a scam artist.

He didn’t want to face the truth that his parents’ romantic marriage was a sham, so he ran away. That’s when trouble ensued.

If there’s one takeaway from this movie, it’s this: it’s sometimes easier to live a lie than face the truth. Though Frank had to survive on his wits while running away from the FBI, he found that this world of deception and pretense was much easier to survive in than the real world.

The lead characters in our kdrama are like Frank. Ung and Yeonsu alternated playing Frank’s character, in this episode. The reason they decided to run away that morning was because, like young Frank, they couldn’t face the truth.

Take for instance, Yeonsu.

She realized the previous night that her insufferable pride was the real reason she broke up with Ung. But instead of telling this to him to his face, she opted to internalize it. She told herself, “It was my pride that told me that I could live without you.”

In short, she didn’t deal with it. Dealing with this new self-discovery would have required her to humble herself, own up to Ung that she was wrong, and make amends. She didn’t want do that so she pondered about running away the following  morning. Clearly, she knew it was a feckless thing to do.

Yeonsu: Running away? I’ve never done anything so cowardly in my entire life. It’s all just a pathetic excuse.

Then, she remembered her escape the night before. Rather than answer Ung’s loaded question, “How have you been?” she lied that she was drunk, then she scurried away, like a mouse, to the safety of her home.

So, she repeated herself with a sigh. There was no escaping the simple truth that she ran away.

Yeonsu: (sighing) Running away is what cowards do.

She tried twisted logic to explain her action. Like, only cowards run away. But she was known to be a hot-tempered fighter like her grandma. She was no coward. She couldn’t have run away last night because she wasn’t a coward. It was impossible.

lol. She probably need self-hypnosis to convince herself of the lie.

In comparison, Ung freely admitted that he liked to run away. In fact, he gave many reasons why running away was the SMART thing to do. To begin, he used a quote from “The Art of War.”

I like the contrast between the two as they reflected on running away. She looked frazzled; she was unglamorously brushing her teeth; the bathroom looked simple. He looked refined and cultured with his white couch, white vest, potted plant, and shelves of books. He was elegantly tending to his plant. And instead of convoluted logic, he quoted from a book and stated his position well.

Ung: There’s this phrase in “The Art of War.” “Attack is the secret of defense.” But I’m not sure about that. I don’t exactly agree. It’s hard enough defending yourself. You won’t have the strength to attack. So I believe the best defense is running away.

See that? For Yeonsu, cowards run away. For Ung, it was the opposite. Smart, battle-hardened tacticians know to run away. And from personal experience, he could attest to the success of this evasive maneuver.

Ung: I have a long history of running away.

Flashback to the time in kindergarten when he successfully avoided a class presentation by running away and climbing a tree.

Ung: At a young age, I tasted how sweet it could be. Of course, I run away for my sake.

Meaning, he ran for self-preservation. He remembered being chased for breaking his dad’s TV antenna, for ruining JiUng’s shirt, and for provoking Yeonsu.

Ung: But it’s also for the other person. It’s to give them time when they get too emotional and lose the ability to think clearly. I’m buying time for them so we can have a calm conversation.

Meaning, he ran away for magnanimity. He was being considerate of others. Lol.

Ung: But that doesn’t mean I always run away from everything.

Flashback to that time he wanted to train for a half-marathon because Yeonsu promised him a couple ring if he did. Ung was confident he could do it but he barely last four days of training, so he quit. He knew when running away was a lost cause…like a marathon. Lol.

Ung: I make objective judgments to make the best decisions.

Meaning, he always had a good reason for running away. He considered all options before making a decision to run away.

Ung: So I’m not embarrassed about running away.

However, given his well-reasoned argument for running away, he couldn’t believe he committed a mental lapse last night when he begged her to confide in him.

“Now, that we’re reunited, we can say, ‘Have you been well?’ ‘How have you been?’ ‘Was it tough for you?’ ‘It was tough for me.’ Can’t we tell each other these things?”

He knew it was a colossal blunder. At a critical juncture, he forgot to run away. Instead, he attacked. He forgot all that well-reasoned argument about self-preservation, giving Yeonsu time to calm down, and strategy. He attacked! And as a result of his preemptive strike, Yeonsu scampered home like a frightened animal.

That’s why he ran away (belatedly) to avoid meeting Yeonsu at his celebratory party.

Recalling his tears as he talked to her, he wondered whether he was drunk or drugged but conceded that he cried just because. He thought she wouldn’t remember his embarrassing moment because she was drunk, so he decided he’d wait it out.

Ung: I’ll avoid it for now and think things through.

To me, he was avoiding the truth. He wasn’t drunk nor drugged. But he acted uncharacteristically and forgot to run away like he usually did because he was overwhelmed by his feelings for her. That’s the truth he wasn’t ready to admit.

Just like 16-year-old Frank, both Yeonsu and Ung found themselves running away because they couldn’t be honest with their own selves. It was easier to run away than to face the truth.

BTW, did anyone of you realize that Yeonsu and Ung were sitting so near each other at the park? Pay attention to the young bikers.

Here’s Ung. The young boy and girl passed in front of him.

Here’s Yeonsu. The young boy and girl passed by her, too.

2. Who’s Carl?

I think there are four Carl Hanrattys in this episode. I’ll start with the obvious one: NJ.

She caught her antifans (or “antis”) enlisting in the charity event she sponsored so they could avoid getting sued. She confronted them and decided to pursue justice by suing them for their malicious posting. In this sense, she was like Carl the FBI agent. She captured people engaged in an illegal activity.

However, she was also similar to Carl on another level. She was tough with her antis, but she was unfailingly kind and patient around Ung.

After the incident with the antis, she ran away to meet him.

I like that the mere thought of seeing him made her laugh. He made her lousy day bearable for her.

Although the thought did cross her mind that Ung could only be “pretending to be nice” to her (just like her antis), she was more amused than upset by this idea.

NJ: Let’s have lunch together.
Ung: Well, I just ate.
NJ: (bursting into laughter) Mr. Choi. I really didn’t want to say this myself (because she might look like she was lying or trying to gain sympathy) but I’m introverted and sensitive even though I might not seem so. My blood type is A and my MBTI is ISFP. So I wrote some things in my heart diary.
Ung: What diary?
NJ: First, “Mr. Choi got famous because I bought one of his works, but why doesn’t he want to buy me a meal?” Second, “I commissioned him to draw my building, but why doesn’t he even contact me?” And third, “I made him even more popular by going to his drawing show when I wasn’t even invited, but why won’t he still buy me a meal?”
Ung: Well, I—
NJ: Those are the three debts you have. How will you repay me?

In my opinion, NJ was aware that he was pretending to be clueless because he was too nice to rebuff her. She was playing a cat-and-mouse game with him, and she thought she got the mouse (aka Ung) trapped. She thought for sure Ung was going to invite her to lunch because she guilt-tripped him with that heart diary story.

But then, like the quick-thinking Frank in CMIYC, Ung saw an escape.

Ung: Well, since you bought three drawings I’ll give you one for free. I don’t usually do this, but since you’re NJ, if there’s anything—

NJ was flabbergasted.

She had not choice but to laugh. She was laughing at him, as well as herself, because he foiled her scheme and she had to accept defeat. Her antis know her to be as wily as a fox, yet here she was, outwitted again by such the unassuming guy like Ung. He might look nothing much (didn’t she say he looked like her puppy, “Tofu”?) but she respected him because he was a worthy opponent.

That’s why she’s Carl.

Her respect for Ung’s wiliness (or cunning deception) resembles Carl’s respect for the young Frank. All participants in these cat-and-mouse skirmishes were at the top of their game: NJ and Ung. Carl and Frank. The “cats” NJ and Carl couldn’t help developing respect, even fondness, for their “mice” because of their indefatigable wit and will to thwart them at every opportunity.

3. So, what’s the ice cream about? 

It started with the banana. Ung dropped it accidentally.

And he learned. He dropped the ice cream at the bus stop,

and his ice cream at the swing set.

Ung’s clumsy act in front of NJ parallels the locket scenes in the movie.

It was Frank Sr who began it. Frank saw his dad try to charm the shop owner with a locket. Frank Sr pretended to have found a locket in the street and wondered if it belonged to the lady.

So Frank Jr tried out this  “con act” at the bank with the teller.

And he re-played it on the plane to charm the stewardess.

You can watch it here.

My point here is that both Frank and Ung learned the art of misdirection, and the importance of charm. Frank used his good looks to charm the ladies with the locket, while Ung used his clumsiness with the ice cream — and feigned innocence — to charm NJ.

Neat, huh? You first read it here at Bitchesoverdramas. lol.

4. Who’s the Second Carl?

In my previous article on Episode 6, I made a guess that Yeonsu’s bestie was the one who called up Ung and told him that Yeonsu was going home drunk.

Now, in Episode 7, I’m changing my mind. I say it was JiUng who called him up.

It’s because of this scene from CMIYC.

In this scene, Carl managed to track down Frank in his hotel room. He burst into his room to arrest him but Frank was fortunately/unfortunately in the bathroom. When he came out, he coolly introduced himself as Secret Service Agent. He played the act of an agent so convincingly that Carl didn’t realize that he’d been duped until Frank was already out the building.

And that’s what Yeonsu did to JiUng. She deceived him.

When JiUng asked her the previous night whether she still liked Ung, she answered, “That’s impossible. There’s no way that can be true.” Like Frank, she lied so convincingly that JiUng let her go.

To me, two possible things could have happened.

a. JiUng saw no harm in calling up Ung to tell him that his ex-girlfriend was drunk. He didn’t escort her home (probably because she refused) but he wanted to make sure she was fine so he told Ung.

I thought it was interesting that he let the Bestie assume that he took Yeonsu safely home that night.

b. JiUng was a noble fool. He gave Ung and Yeonsu a chance to clear the air about NJ’s unexpected appearance at the event. He expected the two of them to resolve the situation right away. He certainly didn’t expect Yeonsu — who assured him that she was over Ung — to be distressed by it.

He was so surprised to hear that Yeonsu ran away that he had to take a seat.

Btw, the misspelling of “Congrats” is really an eyesore. C-O-R-G-K-A-T-S?

He realized he made a mistake letting the two of them meet up but he had only himself to blame.

I’ll talk of the third Carl later.

5. “Getting back together again”

In the movie CMIYC, Frank’s prime reason to get rich quickly by doing all sort of scams was to reunite his family. He believed his family was unfairly torn apart by the IRS so he felt no guilt stealing money to get his family back together again.

There was one scene when he invited his dad to a fancy restaurant. He gifted him with keys to a “1965 Cadillac DeVille convertible. Brand-new. Red with white interior, split seats, air conditioning. The works.” He told his dad to “go drive to mom’s house, pick her up, take a little joyride.” He thought the trappings of wealth would entice his mom to return to the family.

His dad dashed his hopes by declining the car. He said the IRS would find out.

Then, in another meeting with dad, this time at a local restaurant, he gave his dad an invitation to his engagement party. Excitedly, he told his dad that he was getting a brand-new Cadillac and a $60,000 house. He was getting everything back. “All the jewelry, all the furs, everything. Everything they took from us. I’m getting it back.”

Of course, the fact that he was engaging in illegal activity to get everything back didn’t matter to him. Everything was okay as long as he could get his mom and dad together again. When he heard that she passed by his dad’s place to get her personal items, he brushed it aside, saying she was going to his wedding.

He promised to get his dad a brand-new suit to impress her. When his dad replied that his mother wouldn’t want to see her, he urged his dad to call her up and tell her that a first-class ticket to attend her son’s wedding was waiting for her. He was clearly getting agitated about getting his mom back to the family. Finally, his father dropped the bombshell that his mom remarried. This news devastated him.

Back in Episode 6, I told you that Ung planned the art duel as a way to somehow get Yeonsu back. He wanted to impress her with the progress he’d done over the past 5 years. He probably thought that he succeeded — to some extent or at least until NJ appeared — because he brought up being “reunited” with her as if their reconciliation was a done deal.

Then, at the library, he got her to admit her feelings. This was a small step but it was step nonetheless toward the right direction.

Ung: You know this is really awkward, right?
Yeonsu: Really? I feel fine though.
Ung: Really?
Yeonsu: Yes, I’m totally fine. Why would we be awkward?
Ung: I see. You must have decided to pretend not to remember anything.
Yeonsu: I don’t know what you’re saying.
Ung: Kook Yeonsu.
Yeonsu: All right. Fine. It’s awkward. I got drunk and cried in front of my ex. So I feel really embarrassed. Happy now?

He then bid her to follow him for lunch. He brought her to his parents’ restaurant. When she hesitated outside the restaurant, he asked her what she was waiting for.

To me, he had a reason for bringing her back to his parents’ restaurant. He wanted to show them that he was going to get Yeonsu back.

His move is reminiscent of Frank offering his dad the Cadillac keys, engagement invitation and first-class tickets. When he arranged to meet his dad at the restaurants, he would offer these little “gifts” like a token of his vow to bring his family back together again.

Ung was doing a similar move. He showed up at his family restaurant with her to give them the impression that he and Yeonsu were beginning all over again, and that, in due time, he would be reunited again with Yeonsu. He was pleased when his mother fussed over Yeonsu, and when Yeonsu remembered her favorite food. It was like the olden days. They would be one happy family again.

Everything was going well until he brought up the unanswered question.

Ung: You didn’t answer me yet.
Yeonsu: (quiet)
Ung: How have you been?
Yeonsu: Well, I just graduated and started working. Nothing. I’ve been okay.
Ung: (confused) Is that it?
Yeonsu: Yes. Nothing special.
Ung: (skeptical) Then, yesterday…?
Yeonsu: Yesterday, I was really drunk. It’s embarrassing, so just forget what happened. You know how stressed I was working on this project.
Ung: (silent)

To me, Yeonsu’s answer had the similar effect on Ung as the news of Frank’s mom’s remarriage had on Frank. It devastated him. At that very moment, it dawned on him that Yeonsu was shutting him out again like she did in the “olden days,” and he wouldn’t stand for it.

Yeonsu was lying to him about being okay, and she expected him to accept her picture of reality. But he knew that she didn’t get drunk easily, and she thrived on stress. He knew that her work wasn’t the reason she was miserable yesterday, but she didn’t want to share it with him.

What’s the point of getting back together again if they were about to repeat the same mistakes? The outcome would be the same.

Yeonsu: (smiling) I enjoyed the food. I should get going. (standing up)

His parents were surprised that she was leaving right away. They gave her food to bring to her grandmother. When his father told Ung to walk her home, Ung headed out the door before she could finish refusing the offer. However, the speed in which he moved conveyed more his anger than eagerness to escort her home.

6. “Nobody’s chasing you.”

This is a great scene towards the end of the film.

Frank was going to run away again, and Carl caught him in the airport tunnel.

Frank: I don’t understand.
Carl: Sure you do. Sometimes it’s easier living the lie.

Frank stops to glance at his boarding ticket. The boarding ticket symbolizes his lies. It allowed him to escape reality so many times in the past.

Carl: I’m going to let you fly tonight, Frank. I’m not even going to try to stop you. That’s because you’ll be back on Monday.

See here: Carl was always the person who tried to stop Frank. Frank’s dad didn’t. He didn’t even try because he was proud of his son’s con artist’s life. But Carl decided to back off this time. His sudden change of heart caught Frank off-guard.

Frank: Yeah? How do you know I’ll come back?
Carl: (chuckling) Look. (signals to him to look behind) Frank, nobody’s chasing you. (then he walks away)

This was a very powerful image, especially to Frank. The view of Carl’s disappearing back would’ve distressed him because deep down inside, he got used to Carl chasing him. It undoubtedly reassured him to know that someone cared enough to go after him.

This “walking away” in CMIYC scene was duplicated in this scene. Instead of a deserted airport tunnel, however, Ung and Yeonsu were an empty neighborhood street.

Ung is the third version of Carl.

Yeonsu: I’ve always said this. But you should be good to your parents. They’re so kind and nice. Are you going home? JiUng won’t still be waiting there, would he? We both went AWOL without telling them, so let’s apologize tomorrow and start filming again…

Yeonsu had seamlessly slipped into her previous girlfriend mode. She was nagging him, making decisions for the two of them, and taking his cooperation for granted. She wasn’t giving him a chance to have an input.

In the past, her chatter would have ebbed and flowed without him taking umbrage. But he was incensed with her still after she shut him out in the restaurant. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to her monologue.

Ung: (stopping) Right. This is how I felt.
Yeonsu: (clueless, she didn’t know what he was talking about)
Ung: This is how I felt while dating you. I was just waiting like an idiot, watching you walk away, step by step. It was always like that.

I don’t know if he was referring to their breakup.  think he was talking about their breakup. She walked away then. But then, it could also be the breakup at the theme park. Or the time when she had assignment to do and she skipped their lunch date. Or that time in the library in 10th grade when she walked away after interrupting his reading. Or last night when she lied that she was drunk then entered her house. (Hmmm…maybe I should compile all the times she walked away?)

Yeonsu: What do you mean?
Ung: When you said you were okay, I had to just accept it. When you said nothing was wrong, I had to say I worried for no reason.

He wasn’t allowed to worry about her. She pretended that she was fine when he knew she wasn’t.

Ung: And when you wanted to break up, I had to accept it without knowing the reason.

In other words, she could do whatever she pleased, and he was supposed to put up with it. It was as if he took a vow of obedience.

Ung: And when I met you again, I didn’t know how you’d been or what you were thinking…but I had to just accept things without knowing anything. (inwardly) “Attack is the secret of defense.”)

Ung: It really feels like you’re back, Yeonsu.

I think he was being sarcastic here. She was back to acting like her normal self but he didn’t sound particularly enthuse that it.

Yeonsu: Choi Ung.
Ung: I’m really sick of this.

Ung’s voiceover: I guess that’s what I’m doing right now. But this wasn’t my choice.

He finally confronted her. His trigger was her response in the restaurant. She was detached, secretive, cold, deceptive. He realized that he didn’t want to get back together again if it meant repeating the same pattern of interacting, communicating and relating with each other. Their previous dynamics no longer satisfied him.

Note this: he was “attacking” their problem by “walking away” from her.

To me, their relationship could be best described as a cat-and-mouse thriller like CMIYC. Although Yeonsu appeared to be cat who chased after Ung,

she was actually a mouse like Jerry who knows how to work its way around Tom the Cat, and get the upper hand.

Ung felt he had no choice. He was walking away from her to get the message across that he was done running. The game was over.

Like Carl, Ung could see that Yeonsu was in over her head at times, but she didn’t know how to stop and ask for help from him. He believed, that after all they’d gone through together, she could entrust her troubles to him or share her worries with him.

But as she demonstrated in the restaurant, she was still pretending. Despite her own admission that her false pride misled her to believe that she was self-sufficient, she didn’t want to take the first step toward him.

7. Last, crime does not pay. 

In CMIYC, Frank has hauled in the French police car and driven away to prison.

For their crime of running away from the filming, Ung and Yeonsu were whisked away to serve their prison time in close quarters.

I didn’t forget the fourth Carl Hanratty. It’s the original PD who advised JiUng to just wait patiently, and the two cast members would return on their own.

That’s what Carl did. Although it was nerve-racking, his patience paid off when Frank returned to the office on his own volition and started working as if nothing happened.

Moving on…