The thread is open, @nrllee, @GB, and @Fern.
gifs from bareums’ tumblr
Look at his eyes!
I laughed way harder at this scene than I should have.
Enjoy the show!
39 Comments On “Summer Strike: Eps 7 & 8 Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
The thread is open, @nrllee, @GB, and @Fern.
gifs from bareums’ tumblr
Look at his eyes!
I laughed way harder at this scene than I should have.
Enjoy the show!
Comments are closed.
LOLOL @pkml3. I wondered why he didn’t aim for her shoulders or for her waist but her breasts were all that he could see!!! 😂 😅 🤣 😇
I did laugh so much during that scene.
Yes, he saved himself at her expense. Lol.
Things are getting interesting in Ep7. More running. This time together. Sweet first date. Awkward but realistic. Loved the Q&A. What does “DaeBeom” mean in Korean? His name must have a meaning to it because he used it as his explanation for why he preferred to run the different routes with her rather than stick to his own path? Metaphor alert. He changed his usual routine and experimented with different paths because of her. Her “intrusion” into his life would move him in different directions in life and would be the catalyst to free him of his guilt. JY couldn’t do that. Didn’t like how she planted all the blame for his relapse on YR for coming to Angok. 😑.
We are shown who’s been spray painting the roller doors. GeonHo definitely has an intellectual disability but what is his part in the whole death of DB’s sister?
DB running on his own again in the latter part of the episode. Our couple are hitting turbulence even before they get a chance at starting. Preview for Ep8 looks promising though. The foursome are on a holiday together and it sounds like DB sets YR straight. At the rate this is going I doubt we will even get a kiss? 😂. We won’t need to figure out if we think SiWan has improved or not.
Thank you, @nrllee for the keeping me up-to-date.
I want to tell you, @GB and the others, that this thread is being read by many lurkers so keep your commentaries coming. 🙂
@packmule3 YR is STILL as scatterbrained in Ep7 🙄. She bought 2 tickets to a movie premiere that she claimed she was really wanting to watch and invited DB to go with her. They queued up only to find that she had gotten the date wrong? Had she spent so much time “doing nothing” that all her days blurred and she no longer has a sense of time? They ended up having chicken and beer outdoors instead. Which in hindsight was probably immensely better as a means to get to know each other (at least they can talk instead of sitting in silence watching a movie). I liked that DB did his research and gave her the option of 3 different places to have chicken and beer and went along with her choice. They ran together to the venue 😂😂😂. Worked up an appetite 👍.
It sounds like DB never really experienced much love in his family. Both parents seemed to preference his sister leading him to feel resentful towards her as a child. Hence his guilt ridden adult self as he blamed himself for wishing them ill.
This writer for the most part opts not to tease the audience too much (not to frustration anyway) and provides answers readily to the questions raised in the plot. I am still not entirely convinced that she’s (?) giving us any clear message as to the rationale of “doing nothing” and how it could potentially be beneficial? For someone who has opted to “do nothing” and work out a new direction in life (which I thought would be more zen like), YR has become ironically deeply involved in everything related to Angok life. The voiceovers which gave the drama a more contemplative air has disappeared. This is a pity because it would‘ve maintained the metaphysical in the drama. Eg if she had been portrayed writing a journal for example and we are privy to her thoughts. That’s just my opinion of course.
@nrllee, the wrong dates is a shame. (Actually is the sort of thing I would do, ’cause I’m a ditz.) You only do it once, right, but how embarrassing!
I agree that the voice-overs would make it better. She does have some people to confide in now, however, so she can expose her thoughts better, but it would be good to ‘hear’ what’s going through her mind when she speaks to Dae Bum.
I guess it never has occurred to Ji Young that Yeo Reum makes Dae Bum happy and being happy is healing – not a bad thing. I can understand jealousy but it’s petty to blame YR for DB’s breakdown when she had nothing to do with it apart for existing. @nrlee, good catch with the alternate jogging routes!
I laughed when Thomas the Native English teacher responded to Bom in Korean. He heard and understood everything including the aunt threatening to get Bom expelled. I’m very glad that Jae Hoon stood up for Bom.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the disabled neighbour is the guilty person but I think he saw the murder/death and can’t express himself due to using the incorrect terms. I think his mother believes he did it and has shut him away since then. There’s a tragedy there whether or not he is guilty.
@Fern I agree about the disabled neighbor. The fall out from the scenario if he was the one who killed the sister would be too much to cover convincingly in the remaining eps. If he were the perpetrator, then DB would’ve wrongly accused his father of murder. He’s already bearing the guilt of the whole affair as it played out. To add wrongful accusation to the list would be too much to bear. So I think you’re right about the neighbor. His parents are probably living with the guilt as well. Hence their angst when YR moved into the billiard hall and their treatment of her. They didn’t want their secret discovered.
Some things I’ve appreciated about episode 8:
The image of Jae Hoon and Bom connected by the wire of the earphones the first time they spoke. Like a 21st century version of the red string.
The reaction to rain by the 3 couples: It brought Bom and Jae Hoon together; Ji Young and Sung Min went their separate ways – she in a taxi and he on his motorcycle. There was a great shot of Yeo Reum standing in the rain, separated from dry Dae Bum by a curtain of rain falling from the porch roof. He joins her in the rain to speak to her after hearing that she wanted him to go to Seoul, but although he said that he, too, liked to be in the rain as a child, they stayed apart.
There was a conversation between YR and DB, when she told him of all of the choices she had made that she believed resulted in his breakdown. He replied by telling her all of the moments they had shared that were precious to him and that he was happy she came to Angok. It reminded me of the film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A person who doubts their utility is shown, through their positive effect on others, that they have value.
@nrllee, I wasn’t 100% convinced that the father was the murderer. I thought he might have been in shock when he ran. We viewers didn’t get any evidence like fingerprints on a knife, just the police horribly bullying a child to finger a suspect quickly. But I would hope that they did proper forensics to support a conviction. If not, I wonder if there will be a twist. I think that DB already is carrying the guilt for his father’s sentence and subsequently his mother’s death. I don’t think, as a child, he would have believed his father could be guilty.
We’ve heard that Jae Hoon’s parents are both well known psychologists. I wonder if they will get involved in Dae Bom’s treatment.
It seems that Dae Bom and Jae Hoon have in common parents who thought their children weren’t smart enough. So damaging.
If Bom’s best friend has returned from jail and not from the military, he may be a link to Dae Bum’s father.
@Fern I was wondering how police could interrogate a minor like that with no guardian/parent (where was his mother? 🙄) present. You could argue that they forced a confession out of him. The flashback in DB’s mind of the interrogation process I thought was just his inner consciousness speaking via the police. I can’t imagine them badgering him like that in reality and telling him it’s his fault the sister died. I wasn’t convinced of his father being the culprit initially either but I didn’t want DB to suffer anymore guilt so I just decided that his version of events was correct.
Thanks for your thoughts @Fern and @nrllee… I agree. I’ve watched Ep 7 and 8 with pleasure (although I did nod off!) which brought on the progress in relationships and fleshed out our side characters as well as main characters.
Dae Beom and Yeo Reum
Ji Young notes that DB has changed.
We don’t know him well enough to know how much he has changed, but I’m guessing that he has moved from sameness to adding variety in his life. JY in her usual bossy way, (since after all she’d taken care of him like a big sister for a long time), expected that he’d automatically be the same with her, take rides home with her, etc but he chose a different direction, to not get into the car with JY but to walk towards YR.
He looks for new running routes, marking them on a map in different colours, so that he can offer YR more variety in their morning runs. We recall that his first map had been a simple black line drawing marking the location of the estate agent’s office. It’s interesting that in the bus home from chicken and beer, the camera focuses on the blue ceiling railing, with 3 suspended grips for passengers in red, green and yellow. More colour has come into the lives of DB and YR as they start their travels together?
DB usually runs to clear his mind, because he cannot sleep, or to get away from his pain. However in Ep 7 instead of running away from something, DB starts running towards something or for a reason not linked to his pain. He runs to catch up with YR, runs with YR to get to the chicken restaurant, in Ep 8 he runs to join in the group trip and he looks for YR to run with. He seems to have chosen his companion for the long distance.
When YR keeps calling DB by his title of ‘manager’, he reminds her that his name is Dae Beom, ie he wants her to call him by his name to signify that they are familiar with each other, and he wants to get close to her, if she’ll let him.
DB has changed to speak more overall. Even with JY in the past, he did not necessarily say much, but he is more comfortable with YR, and more quickly than even JY probably expected.
DB and YR play a question and answer game of getting to know each other on the bus ride home. These are the usual ‘blind date’ sort of questions, suggesting that although they do not acknowledge it as such, YR and DB are on a date, and that they had mutually asked each other out.
When asked about his fave season, he says he likes summer/yeo reum. YR smiles because it could have held a double meaning although he clarifies that he means the season. They have a lot in common, both liking summer, running, reading, remaining in Angbok and Gyeol.
When asked why he never spoke to her when they first got to know each other, he admits: “I can’t initiate a conversation with people I’m not familiar with.”
YR picks up the hint : “Oh then I guess it means you feel quite comfortable around me now. You talked a lot today.”
We find that DB can joke: “Is that why? My throat is a little sore now.”
YR laughs : “You didn’t talk that much.”
In Episode 8 (timestamp 21:55) YR says: “When I’m with you, DB, I don’t have to talk a lot. So I feel more at ease.”
DB : “It’s the opposite for me. When I’m with you, I keep finding myself talking to you. Every since I was young, having a conversation with people has been such a big burden for me.”
Despite YR being a stranger, making a mess of herself when drunk and inconveniencing DB more than once, he does not find her, or speaking with her a burden.
To be continued…
Dae Beom and Yeo Reum Continued
On the group’s fun trip and as it was about to rain…
YR says to DB : “I have been thinking non-stop since that day. Had I not quit my job, had I not come to Angok for the beach, had I not gone into the library, had I not rented the billiard hall… Had I not done one of those things, you wouldn’t have gone through that (episode).
Personally I feel the game of ‘if only/had I not’ should not be played because there’s always much to regret and nothing that can be done about it. It’s best to acknowledge the mistake if any, learn from it and let it go. Although affected by trauma over what happened in his past, DB seems to have got a better handle on this, since he does not hold on to resentment. He proves it by countering all her ‘if onlys’ with a list of all the times her presence brought him happiness, ending with: “You see, I’m truly happy that you came to Angok.”
JY had sadly known that it was more likely to be YR, rather than she herself, who would be able to convince DB to go to Seoul. She commissions YR with the task to get him to agree to go to Seoul, likely with a view that he’d stay on to help the ex-professor and take up a post there. YR steps out in the rain and raises the topic of DB’s going to Seoul with him, although she’d personally prefer that he remained near her. It’s likely that she wants to hide her tears in the rain.
When he asks if she wants him to go to Seoul, she says yes but then turns around so that he cannot see she’s upset about it. He thinks about it for a while and possibly guesses that she’s upset, but illustrates his coming on board with her advice, by joining her in the rain to say that as a child, he too liked the rain.
Perhaps afraid to feel more pain at the separation, YR does not meet DB for the morning run when they are back in Angok. She tries to avoid him in the library although he wants to speak with her, and lies that her shoes are ripped. She does not even say a proper goodbye to him when he tells her that he’s leaving the next day.
DB sets out to buy YR a pair of running shoes, but first he carefully checks what her shoe size might be by measuring out how much of the floor boards her feet covered LOL. So different from YR who does not prepare or plan.
Possibly in an effort to put aside her sadness at DB’s inevitable departure, YR embarks on bathing the dog and cleaning the bathroom.
YR’s Voiceover – finally we hear again her voiceover thoughts: “In this world, you have to co-exist with people you like and dislike. It’s just the way it is, and there’s nothing you can do about it. However as for those you dislike, you can just forget about them. But people you like can make you sad because you like them. The people who have made me really sad were always the ones whom I loved very much. The depth of sadness is always directly proportional to how much I like the person. Knowing that, I am now afraid to like someone. I don’t want to be sad anymore.”
Listening to JY had got YR to do a lot more thinking before she acted. However I like that this time, she does not let JY’s reasoning take over but, goes against her own ‘decision’ to not risk being sad. She decides to not ‘be such a loser’ and gets up to do the usual YR thing ie rush into action without further thought. Instead of running away as she had done, she runs with purpose to DB’s home, not knowing that he’s out, but fortunately gets to tell him that she would see him when he’s back, and that she hadn’t canceled their movie plans.
He understands her message and gives her the new shoes. He’s amused that she’d lied about her ripped shoes but he does not question her. His only comment so as not to embarrass her too much: “Then run twice a day when I’m gone.” (IE once in the old pair and once in the new LOL.)
YR decides that she likes summer. The next day in the library feels different without DB but she follows his instructions to locate his fave spot in the library, the place where she can wait for him.
I forgot to add
Ep7 title – DaeBeom’s trauma and relapse
Ep8 – Different ways of seeking happiness
Ep8
I could not stop staring at the peaches they picked. Glorious globes of juicy goodness.
@Fern I couldn’t understand how 2 psychology professors could treat their son like that? Of all people they should be able to understand and work through his situation rather than (in JH’s words) be ashamed of him? 🤷🏻♀️ That he wasn’t as “smart as they were”?
And yes that scene with the earphones was brilliant. Loved how she made first contact. By entering his world as she removed one earbud and listened to what he was listening to. And commented about the music. Then as they walked home after collecting his luggage, their hands made contact again. This time after he had told her his story. Deeper connections. Then it was DB and YR’s turn. As YR recounted all the events that led to that day when he suffered his relapse, quitting her job, coming to Angok because of the beach, visiting the library, renting the billiard hall, all she could see was the negatives. Then DB recounted all the other things that happened because she came. All the little things that made him happy. So all the happiness for him far outweighed the relapse he suffered.
And as you pointed out @Fern. The rain scene was particularly poignant for our 3 couples. The impetuosity of youth and the passionate kiss in the rain for Bom and JH. The sad parting for SungMin as he bid JY goodbye in the taxi (like the heavens were crying for him). And then YR heading out into the rain in an attempt to hide her tears as she tells DB she thinks it’s a good idea for him to go to Seoul even though every fibre in her body is screaming “KAJIMA!”. As you noted, the rain acts like a barrier as he stands under the roofed veranda. But, he doesn’t stay there, he joins her in the rain. And the scene finishes with this
https://i.ibb.co/0YCwyWS/896456-B4-3-AC5-45-F5-9763-810-ECC74-F3-CC.jpg
See the little stone path meandering between them? It’s as if they are pledging to walk it together. Nice camera work from PD.
The next scene though is DB running back on his usual route in Angok…he stops and turns to look around…twice. He was hoping she would turn up. But she doesn’t. She gives the lame excuse that her running shoes were ripped and she couldn’t use them anymore (she was avoiding him). How cute was he trying to figure out her shoe size from the wood panels on the floor of the library 😂😂
O…the voiceovers return. And we hear YR’s thoughts again.
“In this world, you have to coexist with people you like and dislike. It’s just the way it is and you can’t do anything about it. As for those you dislike, you can just forget about them. But people you like can make you sad because you like them. The people who have made me really sad were always the ones I loved very much. The depth of sadness is always directly proportional to how much I like the person. Knowing that, I am now afraid of liking someone. I don’t want to be sad anymore.” As she ruminates over this, she comes to a decision. To love is to be vulnerable. “Come on” she chides, “Don’t be such a loser.” With that, she sprints to find DB at his house. And comes as close to a confession as we’re probably going to get with these 2 😂😂.
“I haven’t canceled our plan to watch a movie together,” says she.
DB replies, “yes, I will see you when I get back.”
So it’s not goodbye. It’s see you again soon. And she waits for him in his favourite spot in the library whilst he’s away in Seoul. Keeping the seat warm. Aww… so cute.
Looks like we will see the disabled man GeonHo revealed next week. Then we have a wrap up and hopefully we get an inkling as to where the writer is taking this whole “do nothing” business.
Our posts crossed @GB. Great that we concur on many of the points in Ep7/8. 🙂
@nrllee, at this time in Korea, an attorney is mandatory to be present for a minor once the case has been established, but I can’t find anything that says an attorney or other person must be there for a minor during the interrogation process. Someone on another thread suggested that there is no rule for accompanying a minor to interrogation in South Korea, but I didn’t believe them.
I like your interpretation that the second interrogation (indoors, with a table between them) is in part imaginary, or a dream-like memory of events. I guess Freud might have implied that Dae Bom killed/got rid of his family in his mind.
@Growing Beautifully, thank you for your thorough recap of the situations. Wasn’t the corner desk a lovely going-away present from Dae Bum?
What did you think about Sung Min in his wrestling gear on the beach? Initially I thought he was wearing a life-guard swimsuit but when he started wrasslin’ with the dummy, I thought it was a bit of an OTT way of explaining his feelings. Is he still competing, so feels okay to do that in public, albeit at night? Maybe his wrestling skills will come in handy later.
@nrllee, right about the parents – and that aunt as well. I thought/hoped perhaps he is misunderstanding them and their worries, but they are separated from him. I wasn’t sure if the subs covered it, but I assume they remained in the USA while he was sent back to Korea.
Whilst there are schools in the US where minorities are at a disadvantage, there are others that have a lot of diversity. I wondered why they didn’t seek out a school like that – or did it not occur to them because they were successful in academia regardless of race? In RL, my family lived for some years in a small town in the UK. When our children went to primary school, diversity and bullying policies were the first questions we asked about in interviews.
This is pretty shallow, but in episode 8 at about 7.57, doesn’t a.mond look just a bit like a young Park Hyun Sik? Not exactly, but like they could play brothers?
I’m not going to say a word about the wet t-shirts in the swimming scene.
Dae Bum’s sister.
Did anyone get the feeling that she was difficult to get along with? Dae Bum assumed that Ji Young and she were friends, but JY says she was bossy. Dae Bum told JY that he didn’t like her – “Because of her, I always got yelled at by Dad.” If his sister had been kind or protective of him despite that, he wouldn’t feel that way.
If Ji Young was the same age as Dae Bum’s sister, then Sung Min also was at school with them. I imagine that Sung Min was on the school wrestling team. I wonder if these things are important or just details to colour the characters.
The drunk man at the outdoor cafe.
When Dae Bum and Yeo Reum had their fried chicken and beer feast (gosh, that made me envious!) a drunk man stumbled then loudly blamed DB. YR asked whether DB never got angry (she’s one to talk). Is it his nature or is it deliberate? It is a conscious effort because DB replied that he put himself into their shoes. It made me wonder if he had incidents of uncontrolled anger in the past, and whether we’ll see him really angry again later. Im Siwan does angry very well – he gets scary, going from angel to fallen angel quickly.
Hi @Fern and @nrllee,… yes our posts crossed and we’re on the same page!
Yes a.mond does look (more than once) like a young Park Hyun Shik.
Scatter Brain Disease
It’s not only YR who’s a scatterbrain, booking movie tickets for the wrong week!
– JY forgot to turn off the car lights and let her battery go flat (this is worse since she had to trouble Sung Min to get her going again.)
– Jae Hoon forgot his bag of food on the bus.
In contrast, DB prepares for everything that he plans to do. He looks up restaurants and their alternatives, he looks up routes, and he knew how many minutes away the trip destination would be on foot.
Bom is also not scatterbrained, but resourceful. She got them to work in the peach orchard to get paid in food. Unfortunately they couldn’t slaughter the chicken. 🤪
The scene with that chicken … I know I’ve seen another show, which I cannot recall the name of, with a similar scene where no one could kill the chicken, so they starved LOL. At least they had a cauldron of ramyeon to eat!
Ah, that chicken reminded me of someone we know who had pet chickens. 🐔😆
Trauma
Poor DB since childhood felt that his whole family was somehow destroyed by him. He found his sister (stabbed?) and saw his father running out of the house. He feels responsible for putting his father into prison and for his mother’s suicide. The guilt is doubled for DB because he disliked his sister on top of everything else.
The parenting of his parents was terribly dysfunctional. Not only did they dote on the elder daughter while putting down their son, but DB’s mother’s committing suicide at home where she would be found by her young son was unconscionably thoughtless; or if done out of malice, then cruel. The adults around him were callous during the investigations, disregarding how he would have been traumatised. Yes, I agree that he should have had a counsellor with him or a guardian during police questioning.
I wonder who protected DB if he was protected at all. All we know is that Ji Young and her mother have a soft spot for DB and JY sees to him getting treatment when he has an episode.
In the present, YR breaks the locks on the shutter doors of the billiard hall so that she can raise the shutters to hide the words: “Did you kill’ “Sun Ah?” Although DB did not participate in his sister’s murder, his sense of guilt over having disliked her were like those locked shutter doors in his heart. Perhaps it’s prefiguring or overly idealistic but show suggests that DB will be the one to break the locks that imprison DB.
Another person with trauma who’s not being treated is restaurant ahjumma’s son, Geun Ho. He’s mistaking YR for Sun Ah. He must have know Sun Ah, probably a peer in age. His spray painting is possibly not to threaten, but to warn of danger.
I was a bit taken aback when DB mentioned that JY was his sister’s friend? His sister is older than he is. For some reason I thought by a fair bit? So unless JY is younger than his sister by a lot, then JY would be much older than DB. Noona romance? I don’t think it helps that everyone seems set on the fact that both of them are going to get married. The doctor/psychiatrist asked her that question? What ever happened to SungMin’s wife?
@Fern it took me a while to work out the wrestling with the dummy on the beach too. 😂😂. I did think in the beginning he was going to do some life saving and then figured it out when he did a wrestling hold after tossing the dummy onto the sand.
🐔🐣.
As for an anger management problem, it did cross my mind in an earlier ep when he had that meltdown in the lecture theatre? And yes to SiWan doing anger well. He does a lot of emotions well. So far he hasn’t had to extend himself too much.
@Fern yes to DB’s sister being unkind. I just get the feeling she was overindulged as a child like @GB suggested which probably fueled her feeling of superiority over DB. Same @GB, I thought it was horrible for the mother to decide to choose to die where her son would be the first person to find her.
Yes, @nrllee, I feel uncomfortable that anyone considers a JY-DB pairing, because she looks, and likely is, so much older. Also because he shows totally no interest in her in that way. I could accept the noona romance in cdrama The Rational Life, because the leads sold it so well. Here, JY is just kidding herself if she thinks she’s got a hope.
We see that JY is Sung Min’s contemporary. From the look of their ages, Sun Ah must have been known by Geon Ho, Sung Min and Ji Young. They were likely schoolmates.
Same question: I asked a couple of episodes ago, ‘Where’s Sung Min’s wife or Joon’s mother?’ So far no one misses her.
DB and JY
Ice Princess JY feels entitled to a lot from the guys she’s known most of her life. I presume they’ve pretty much let her get away with her demands most of the time.
She makes a point of getting DB to acknowledge that she’s not just a friend, but even when he says yes, we know that their interpretations of ‘not just a friend’ probably differ. JY probably senses this because she steps on his toes until he complains that it hurts. She’s a bit of a hoodlum is our JY, when she can’t have what she wants.
JY : “I’m hurting too, because of you.”
DB just looks uncomprehendingly at her.
JY’s car won’t start a metaphor for how JY, is pretty stuck in life and that her hoped for romance with DB is a non-starter LOL. She wants to stick herself in the civil service and bring DB with her when she goes to Seoul. She’s stuck in what she wants, overriding the wishes of others (like Sung Min a couple of episodes ago about her birthday celebration), but finds that DB is a harder nut to crack. I like that despite owing her a lot and calling her noona, DB does not buckle under her bossiness.
If she herself felt that DB’s sister was bossy, then Sun Ah must have been a difficult soul to live with.
Yes, why would the show keep Joon’s mother a secret? Gosh, I hope that Joon’s mother wasn’t Sun Ah. It doesn’t seem possible, but she’s the only missing person that age that we have been made aware of.
I also wonder if creepy professor was Sun Ah’s mentor for a little while as well. If she was such a genius, she may have gone to University early, too. But suggesting that he was the murderer is probably a step too far and would require too many episodes.
@nrllee, yes you. And me too, in the past, I suppose.
Nice Moments and a Positive Representation of Characters
Gyeol, the dog, seems to be a great bringer together of YR and DB. Gyeol alerts YR to DB’s presence outside her home in Ep 7. Separately Gyeol insists on waking her for her morning run, so that she meets DB. That more or less starts them off on more conversations and opportunities to meet.
Bom – Although we have first seen her as a rude, entitled brat, we find that she’s a person coping with bullying, and a drunkard father. Out of gratitude towards YR, she accepts her friendship. She was the only one willing to befriend Jae Hoon. So it turns out that she’s a nicer person than she appeared to be. Without YR, she would have hidden her niceness indefinitely.
Sung Min who used to be unpleasant to YR turns out to be a regular guy, happy to have a ‘date’ with an old friend, Ji Young. Once he got out of the obsession to sell the hall, and in order to keep what his son, Joon did with YR’s money a secret, he is a pretty nice guy who turns up as a helping hand at odd times.
There was also what seemed to be an unconnected surprise in Ep 7, where the drunkard who took issue with DB for tripping him up (although DB had been innocent), paid for DB and YR’s chicken and beer meal. I wondered what slotting this scene in was supposed to do for the plot or characters. Might we see such a ephemeral character as that drunk again? Was it just a means to show us that DB does not get angry (anymore)?
It’s good to see that although DB had gone into hiding for a while when his trauma hit him, he had pulled himself together well enough to join in the trip with YR, Jae Hoon and Bom. We can guess that the prospect of spending time with YR had galvanised him into taking his medication and recovering enough for the trip.
YR’s niceness is on display more than her stupidity in the last few episodes. She gives Bom books on drawing to encourage her to continue practising her art. She reads out a letter to Bom’s granny. It’s likely she has agreed to teach granny to read and write as well. Is YR’s niceness supposed to cover a multitude of sins, such as her inability to let go of resentments, like DB?
@GB, thank you for your clear notes. To me, it seems YR has grown into herself in Angok. Perhaps, despite it being an imperfect place, it’s a great place for her at this point in her life and she can take lessons learned there forward when/if she leaves.
I wondered about the drunk as well. I thought, 1. a drunk – it’s Bom’s dad (but we would have recognised him), then I thought, 2. oh ANOTHER drunk; lots of drinking in this drama. They could have left it as a means to show DB’s reaction, but then why have the man pay for their meal? I wanted to know what happened to make him do that. Later I thought, 3. could it be DB’s dad, unrecognisable after his long stay in prison, or someone with another link to our characters? Or finally 4., is it just to show that keeping one’s temper while attempting understanding makes good karma?
@GB I think YR’s personality requires moments of pause for her to live well? We notice that she’s NOT always running anymore. In the beginning she was ALWAYS running and there were not any moments of pause where she could just stop and take stock. That happened when she missed her train. And she saw the springtime cherry-blossoms. Just like Bom (her name means Spring). Both appeared in her life at crucial points and changed the course.
I was wondering why that random incident with the drunken man tripping over DB was slotted in there. In part I think it was to highlight how DB handled anger but I think the fact that the man paid their bill reminded me of the earlier episode where the writer juxtaposed how YR reacted to random events and how DB did. Remember how she got mad when a man’s backpack caught her earbud and she had to get off her train? The man was frightfully rude and she had every right to be annoyed because he didn’t seem sorry at all. She missed her train but saw the cherry blossoms. And she decides to skip work. DB has his own encounter with a random event with apples at a market stall and he decides to make the most of it instead of getting annoyed.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AyUtOzQkXXC8X8kbnWeKPoTqtqH2TYf4RG2Apupkglo/
Random events can be harbingers of good things even if initially they may appear to be inconveniences/annoyances at the start.
@GrowingBeautifully, during the rain scene in Episode 7 between Dae Boem and Yeo Reum, after Yeo Reum turned her back to Dae Beom due to her emotions from saying she wanted him to go to Seoul, I liked how Dae Boem ran around to stand almost, but not quite, in front of her. He could have spoken to her back, but didn’t. He made the extra effort to speak to her where he could see her face, and she his, but gave her a little personal space by being slightly off to the side. He’s got a lot of emotional intelligence, which is unusual for someone who’s got a lot of numbers smarts (at least in my experience).
@GrowingBeautifully, I think the lesson learned from the scene where Dae Boem de-escalated the situation with the drunk, then the drunk paid for their meal, is that kindness goes a long way. Dae Boem was innocent of what the drunk accused him, and was within his rights to stand up to the drunk’s bullying, but chose the path of nonconfrontation. It paid off for him in this case. Which makes me wonder if Dae Boem’s insistence on staying in Angok, the site of so much tragedy for him, where rumors about him swirl, is his answer to the difficulties life has thrown at him. He does not run away, but quietly stands his ground.
The only time Dae Boem ran away was when his college professor did not believe his work was correct. We saw in a previous episode that Dae Boem worked himself to physical and mental exhaustion doing that work, only to have the professor mock it in the classroom. Now a team in another country has come to the same conclusion as Dae Boem, independently verifying the theory, and his professor seems too eager to capitalize on it. At first he offers Dae Boem a chance to publish together with him. I’m suspicious of the professor: I think he’s using Dae Boem to gain fame for himself. My suspicions grow when I learn he bought Dae Boem’s work (failing to give DB credit when it was published?) at a time Dae Boem wanted money. The professor had to have known that was a big academic no no, but did it anyway.
There are some things that have bothered me in this show:
–Bom’s halmoni, although sweet, has been enabling her drunkard son and betrayed Bom at Bom’s weakest. Even if Bom’s dad ended up going to rehab and is doing well, I don’t think Bom should have been the one to pay the highest price for his second chance.
–The police detectives, if not a revised memory of Dae Boem’s, are unspeakably cruel to a child who has already been traumatized. And I agree with @Fern, that sufficient evidence would have to be gathered in order to get a conviction, not just the testimony of one eye witness. And Dae Boem didn’t witness his sister’s murder, just his father running from the scene.
–Jae Hoon’s aunt should not be in the teaching profession if she’s got so many knee-jerk prejudices against students. Why doesn’t she reach out to Bom and try to understand what impedes her learning? Why does she automatically assume everything is Bom’s fault? She even blamed Bom for causing trouble, and let the obvious perpetrators walk away, when the bullies dumped foul water on Bom’s head while she was locked in a bathroom stall. In that woman’s eyes, Bom can do nothing right just because she’s Bom. I wonder if we’ll find the aunt has got some kind of connection with Bom’s dad.
–Another thing that makes me upset with Jae Hoon’s aunt is her dereliction of duty, so to speak. Jae Hoon’s parents bought the fancy house so she could live there and keep an eye on Jae Hoon. Why is Jae Hoon living there alone? She keeps on threatening to report Jae Hoon’s friendship with Bom to his parents, to get him into trouble. What will happen if they learn she’s left him alone in that house? Or that she’s renting out part of the house?
–The owner of the building with the billiard hall blames Dae Boem for his not being able to rent out the structure. What? The building owner has done nothing to improve the property since the murder and suicide took place at that site. He hasn’t even cleaned thoroughly, or removed the billiard hall signage. He can’t blame his being fearful, lazy, and miserly on a child. If he wanted to get that property back on the market, either for rental or for sale, he should have remodeled it. If made to look different than it had at the time of the tragedy, it wouldn’t have such negative associations.
My take on Jo Ji Young:
She struggled with academics as a student, and suffers from test anxiety as an adult. She is disappointed in herself, and has low self esteem despite having friends and a respectable career. She tries to bolster her self esteem by being disrespectful to Bae Sung Min, even though she frequently turns to him for help and considers him the only person on whom she can count. She’s unsatisfied with her career and home, desperate to secure a different job and move away from Angok.
The only area in her life in which Ji Young feels accomplished is taking care of Dae Boem. She helped him after he lost his entire family. When he’s in a low spot emotionally, she tough talks him back to relative normalcy. She makes sure he gets medical attention as needed. When Dae Boem is doing well, it reflects well on Ji Young. When Dae Boem is not doing well, Ji Young has purpose. Yeo Reum’s affect on Dae Boem is a threat to Ji Young, not only as a romantic rival, but as someone who might undermine Ji Young’s sense of importance. I worry that Ji Young might be petty enough to sabotage Dae Boem’s emotional recovery and growth. I hope my concerns about that are unfounded.
I do think it shows how little Jo Ji Young really understands about Dae Boem that she tricks him into meeting with his professors. She knew that he chose to avoid them, yet did it anyway. That’s callous behavior on her part. She thinks she knows what’s best for him, bullheadedly imposing her will on him.
It is also telling that Ji Young, even after knowing Dae Boem most of his life, thought he looked like a different person when she watched him working with his professor. That should give her a clue that there are many facets to her old friend, some of which she hasn’t seen, so she can’t claim to know him through and through.
@Fern, I have four words about a particular scene in Episode 8: Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy.
LOL @Welmaris … Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy would be the white, wet shirt?
@Welmaris that’s a great summary on why JY seems to want to thwart our OTP. I think we’re all agreed that she doesn’t really “love” him in the true sense of the word. As for Colin Firth and that iconic scene – 😮😉
Hi @Welmaris,
Yes, I noticed that rain scene and how DB stood respectfully diagonally in front of her. Not in her face but not where she couldn’t see him. It reminded me of First Love where after the kiss, Harumichi knew that Yae was uncomfortable, and he walked sort of behind her diagonally so that he could be close enough to see the side of her face and speak with her, but not beside her or too near where he might embarrass her.
Good point about the drunk. DB usually stands his ground.
I don’t know what to think about that professor. I am also suspicious since he’s pursuing DB… is it out of concern or out of self-interest. He was not nice towards him in the past, hence he is likely out to benefit himself.
Yes to your take on the problematic decisions of the residents of Angok. Many flawed characters about. I was pleased that Bom did not apologise to home room teacher (as YR would have been likely to do in her position) but pointed out through Jae Hoon that teacher was making a wrong accusation. I also like that JH was not afraid to push back against teacher/aunt.
About the attempt to sell the billiard hall. It’s been there for years, why the attempt to sell it now or another way to put it… why did restaurant ahjumma want to buy it? Does buying it have something to do with her son and his obsession with Sun Ah’s death.
It’s amazing that DB has turned out as calm and stable as he has given that the environment is full of people who talk about his past and put the blame on him for something that was beyond his control.
Good take on Ji Young. She finds that afterall she does not have that much power over DB. She’s the resentful type but not otherwise able to control others (not even the kids) so it will be unpleasant but I’m not sure DB will allow himself to be affected by her.
She’s generally got her own agenda, whether it’s taking care of DB or insisting on sleeping at his place. She just bulldozers her way into his life for her own purposes, without really seeing him.
I trust that YR, for all her air-headedness is more able to observe what DB is like. Perhaps he’s also more willing to open himself up to be known by YR. It was significant that he admits to wanting to talk more with her. He was also willing to answer her questions about himself
@Welmaris and @Growing Beautifully, I thought a lot about that professor. Not just his appearance of being insincere, but he may not have put Dae Bom’s name on the paper at all. Dae Bom should have been 1st author, but could have agreed to be a secondary author for some reasons. I think someone from Dae Bom’s class must have exposed the professor.
For me, the question is: would Dae Bom have wanted the attention and fame subsequent to the publication of his work? At this point, with his psyche so wounded, I’m not sure.
This is a tangent: There is a famous example of professors getting top billing: Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars in 1967 while she was a postgraduate student at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) carrying out research at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory with Antony Hewish. Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for the discovery of pulsars. She was finally publicly recognised for this when, in 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for ‘fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community’.
Ha ha, @welmaris. Your mind and mine work in tandem regarding the wet shirts.
Both of the MLs must work out because Jae Hoon/a.mond looks too bulky for an average high school student.
“It is also telling that Ji Young, even after knowing Dae Boem most of his life, thought he looked like a different person when she watched him working with his professor.”
@Welmaris, it looked to me like she was fan-girling Dae Bum. I can understand that smart can be sexy, but it was a bit creepy. She really upped her interest in him after that.