Errr… Takes! I mean “My Quick Takes”! The Babi kiss is undeniably distracting.
1. The “FOMO” Cell
This is the first time in the drama that I was underwhelmed by the portrayal of the Cells.
Love Cell is understandably reluctant to love again because she worries about getting hurt. Once bitten, twice shy.
In her place, Feelings Cell has taken a lead role. Feelings Cell launches “Heart Fever” to energizes Yumi to act despite the absence of real love. Yumi powers up with this faux feeling of love, and chases after BaBi in the park…the same park where she dragged WuGi away from Ruby in Season 1, Ep 2.
Trivia: if you want to visit this park, it’s the Ilsan Lake Park Rose Tunnel. (source: creatrip.com)
Back in Season 1, she misunderstood WuGi’s feelings for her and got all worked up for nothing. This time in Season 2, she misunderstands her own feelings. She doesn’t love BaBi but she gets worked up again because “Heart Fever.”
To me, Yumi fears missing out on a good guy like BaBi.
In conjunction with “Heart Fever,” she has what’s known as FOMO or “Fear of Missing Out.” And if I were to draw the FOMO Cell, it would resemble the Feelings Cell but with a big hole in the middle of her body.
Like this:
I wish that Yumi realizes soon that she doesn’t need a man to make herself complete or feel loved.
2. One moisturizer for face and lips
Product placement alert!
Nope. I don’t care for this PPL. I think it’s gross. I’m not a cat; I don’t lick my face.
The moisturizer that goes on my cheeks is different from the lip balm that goes on my lips.
3. The office romance
It looks one-sided to me. Babi seems to be the one generating the romance. He slips her a chocolate. He seeks her out at the breakroom and at the elevator. He arranges their dates. He bought a car so they can go to work and home together.
Yumi is the passive participant.
Although this behavior is expected since Yumi isn’t in love with BaBi, it’s inherently unfair to BaBi.
4. The fastball and the 28-character password
First, Woong entered Yumi’s heart because of disarmingly cute disguise as a frog.
Then, BaBi broke through her defenses because of his fastballs, a metaphor of his directness and plainspokenness.
But I’m still interested to find out who will discover her 28-character password. I’d like to think that the man who unlocks her heart by using the password is the man she’ll marry for love.
Love Cell: But this is the first time this has happened. I’m talking about the village yielding.
Reason Cell: This is how we started dating BaBi. It wasn’t Love’s decision but because of the haphazard straightforward attacks and the village yielding…. It was a white flag surrender everyone was happy about. Except Love.
I’ll have to insist that if it isn’t love in part of the relationship, then it isn’t good enough.
5. Falling down the stairs
I thought this was a weird moment because of the absence of the Cells. She tripped and touched his muscled chest.
At the very least, I expected Naughty Cell to revel at the accidental skinship. However, the moment passed without us hearing the usual chatter of Feelings Cell, Naughty Cell, Stingy Cell (because she dropped the coffee), and company. They were missing in action! What’s up with that?
Is this a sign of Yumi maturing? That she doesn’t need her individual cells speaking and directing her emotions as frequently as before? If so, this is a step towards the right direction.
6. The Tongue Cell
Lol. I laughed when the Tongue rubbed the mint all over his body, including the butt.
However, if I were the artist, I would’ve Frenchified the Tongue Cell to foreshadow the French Kiss he will exchange with BaBi’s Tongue Cell in the next episode.
Overall, I found the animation of the Cells a bit uninspired in this episode. They weren’t as involved in Yumi’s life as they once were. I don’t know if it’s intention or not. But in view of the end of this Kdrama, it’s probably best that Yumi’s slowly being weaned off her dependency on her Cells to regulate her feelings, thoughts and actions.
Thanks @pkml3. Yes, it’s FOMO and not even real attraction or even a crush. It’s just grab him before someone else does, and fear of regretting that such a nice guy liked her but she did not reciprocate.
It’s unfair for Babi/Bobby.
On the other hand, he’s going rather too fast, and we watch to see if he’s really as decent as he appears.
I think there’s fangirling going on because of the existence of the Fanclub Cells.
There’s a sexual attraction (because they did French kiss in the car).
There’s also that thing that’s known in kdrama as being “soulmates” since they’re on the same wavelengths.
But it is NOT love.
Yes. It’s unfair for BaBi.
As for him being a decent guy… I’ll talk about it in my episode’s write-up. 🙂
Thank you @Packmule3 – I enjoyed this. Acutely observed.
I am wondering if FOMO is a big part of it as you say at this stage but not the whole picture. My theory is that FOMO is galvanising her to be open to someone new and explore a possibility.
When I think too of her response to Woong – the initial response wasn’t there and her attraction to him turned on a pin, metaphorically speaking. He took her to hospital and bought her a Frog hoodie dress.
I am watching this from the vantage point of Ep 4 but can’t remember when everything happens or how Love Cell’s responses develop and that would be TMI in this thread.
Annyeong 🌼
@PM3 enjoyed your Ep 3 Quick take -err Kiss 💋
FOMO – well, i would, too haha. it’s all part of Yumi’s journey.
1 moisturizer for lip and face – i noticed that, too, with chagrin. eeks!
office romance – have you ever seen the movie “romancing the stone”? well, i think Babi is romancing Yumi here. i don’t mind that it’s all Babi. let him work hard for her affection hihi. i’d love that, too. all that attention! yes, please!
28 PW – yes! i would like to find out also who that person will be to finally break her PW. you got me thinking here. yes, i await this man. who who who?
because you were underwhelmed by the cells in this episode, you may be right that Yumi is being weaned off her cells. but i can’t. i want her cells. LOL. maybe the director just wants us to focus on the action *stair fall and french kiss ⭐⭐⭐ so the cells interjecting will be distracting haha.
@pm3 but aren’t Yumi’s cells her thoughts, actions and feelings? I don’t think they are different from Yumi as a person.
I totally agree with whatever you said about Babi. I’m just not feeling this relationship. The only thing I’m unsettled about is how people here have confirmed that there will only be 2 seasons. Jinyoung is clearly the male lead of this season, with all the promotions and less amount of episodes. That makes me sceptical that there may not be another love interest in the drama.
Yes, @wapz. Yumi’s cells are her thoughts, actions, and feelings. They are no different from her person.
What I’m criticizing when I wrote that’s “it’s probably best that Yumi’s slowly being weaned her off her dependency on her Cells” is the over-analysis of her actions.
Look: self-awareness is good. With self-awareness, we can make good decisions in life. In this drama, for instance, Yumi’s cells demonstrate how her self-awareness leads her to make good decisions. Example: how she handled her break-up with Woong.
However, *too much* self-awareness is equally bad. It can lead to:
second guessing every action (that’s what the Cells do 24/7),
becoming hypersensitive to the littlest annoyances,
seeking approval from others,
and/or micro-analyzing every decision to the point of paralysis (e.g., paralysis-by-analysis).
That’s what I mean.
The Cells are certainly entertaining to watch. But at some level, I don’t need to see every bit of Yumi’s introspection, just like Yumi doesn’t need to scrutinize her internal state all the time.
I’m hoping that when she falls in love for real, she’ll shift her focus outward, and just go with the flow. 🙂
1. FOMO. “Fear of missing out”.
The writer really thinks about all the details of this kind of situation. It’s exactly true. I don’t know if most people perceive this in themselves when they experience it. And no doubt FOMO often prevails (and so people get married). You put a hole in the emotion cell, but I don’t think it’s necessary. That’s not its job! It’s given to the “reason” cell instead, which lists all the positive aspects. And there too, the reason cell does its job and in a correct way. I don’t remember if the episode features the Anxiety cell. FOMO seems to me to be more appropriate for this cell.
3. Yumi’s behavior may be dishonest to BaBi, but it is explainable nonetheless. With the restlessness of all the cells driving her to this, it is not clear that she has any real awareness of what she is doing. And it’s remarkable to unpack all of that.
It may push her into a deeper relationship and perhaps trigger her “Love” cell later. Does a reason-first marriage necessarily lead to failure? I’ve seen many people in whom it leads to disaster, and my gut tells me the same thing. I’ve often thought so, but I’m not sure now.
For the sake of the drama and what it tells us, I find it much more interesting that Yumi is in such an uncomfortable gray area. It’s a penalizing situation for BaBi, but also extremely conflicting for Yumi. To the point where I couldn’t tell who would suffer more.
4. Excellent analysis for the password!!! Any man using any other way than finding the password is not the right one.
5. Falling down from the stairs: missing cell reactions. I noticed this at other times in the drama. I think it’s impossible to make the cells react systematically to everything. Just a question of balance in the screentime.
6. The tongue cell rubs with the candy. I find this appropriate to show the action of slowly sucking on a candy. Like soap being diluted in the shower when used. It was also unexpected!
During the kissing scene, the actor is comfortable, but you can feel that it is a difficult scene to shoot for Kim Go Eun.
From the perspective of having watched through Episode 6, for a Kdrama there seems like a lot of snogging going on here (to borrow a British term). Not that I’m complaining…
This discussion about marrying for love versus using reason to choose a life’s partner: I think about stories built around the contract marriage trope. And in real life, there are people and cultures that believe feelings alone aren’t to be trusted when it comes to choosing a mate. A look at the inner workings of the male and female leads of a Bollywood movie might be very different than what we’re seeing in Yumi’s Cells.