Great episode. Fun watch.
Noteworthy things:
1. Doha doesn’t tell untruths or falsehoods, but…
a. he has a way of admitting the truth without causing the other person more injury.
SolHee: You heard everything, right?
Doha: I wasn’t trying to. I just overheard.
Here, she was definitely feeling awkward that he heard everything. But he couldn’t lie that he didn’t hear a single thing.
SolHee: Anyway, now you know. My family’s a mess.
Doha: Families can be like that.
He did a good job empathizing.
b. he does have a way of omitting or withholding parts of the whole truth. This is lying by omission. Since Solhee doesn’t hear the words, she can’t tell that’s he’s lying.
SolHee: Thanks for jumping out to help me.
Doha: You were about to get beat up right in front of me. I had to help, right?
SolHee: Nobody else there did anything.
Doha: They’re strangers.
SolHee: And we know each other.
Doha: (pausing) Well, we’re not strangers.
He was able to avoid telling her that they had previously met on the bus from Hakcheon to Seoul. This is okay for now, but there’ll come a time when he must come clean.
c. he sidesteps questions.
Drunk ex-fiancé: Who are you?
Doha: I’m the pianist.
The drunk had rhetorical questions, “Who are you to interfere in my conversation witih her? What right do you have to butt in? Are you her boyfriend?” But Doha just said he was the pianist, implying that he had the right to deal with patrons like him as a representative of the establishment.
Doha: (asking SolHee) Do you have any more to say to him?
SolHee: No:
Doha: (taking SolHees’ wrist, leading her away)
This is okay for now, too. But I’m sure this created the impression that he was the boyfriend.
This can potentially become a “scandal” if the two ahjussis she met a restaurant were to come out in public and say that they met her in a restaurant and she complained that her boyfriend ran away from her. (One of them is a casting director, right?) lol.
2. Self-harming to attract attention
Where have we seen this before? When the kpop singer threatened to kill herself if she was rejected by her oppa Doha, I had to roll my eyes. Is the kdrama screenwriter really going to make this a recurring issue? I hope not.
With Doha’s ex-girlfriend EunJu, the audience was given the impression that she tried to kill herself after Doha broke up with her. Now, this kpop singer speaks blithely of suicide.
President: Aigoo. Is this what you wanted by putting on a show of falling onstage? 35 seconds.
Meaning, all the attention she received from Doha was a measly 35 seconds. lol
President: You don’t really think Doha likes you, do you? To him, you’re just a friend and colleague. It’s exactly as he worded it when he denied the scandal with you. If you want to confirm, just tell him how you feel?
Singer: But what if I get return? I’ll just kill myself.
3. My theory re. SolHee’s ex-fiancé
He loved her, no question. But I think he found out about her mother’s scams belatedly, and that gave him cold feet. He didn’t know how to deal with being a family member of a con artist when he was in law enforcement.
4. Family meals
DoHa: Families can be like that.
SolHee: They’re not even family. They say you’re not family unless you share a meal. I don’t ever remember eating a meal with my mom. She doesn’t even like talking to me face-to-face.
DoHa: My mom’s the same way.
Anyway, by the end of the day, Doha and SolHee were eating dinner together. Just the two of them. That makes them a family, right?
Lol. The foreshadowing lacks subtlety but it’s okay.
5. The client
SolHee: Do you have any questions?
New Client: Miss Hunter, do you have a boyfriend?
SolHee: I didn’t mean personal questions.
New Client: I’m sorry. If you were in a relationship, I thought you would better understand how I feel?
SolHee: I only deliver the truth. I don’t think you need extra understanding.
New Client: (smiling unhappily)
SolHee was saying that the truth is black-or-white. She doesn’t need context, empathy, sympathy, or anything else. Nor does she think her client will benefit from them. The plain truth is all that she needs.
During dinner, the client started to cry after SolHee signaled to her that the fiancé was lying throughout dinner.
SolHee: If you want, I can find out who he’s seeing.
New Client: (handing her the fees) Thank you. You can go now.
SolHee: What?
New Client: It doesn’t matter. I don’t think I can leave him. So, this is all I want to hear.
SolHee: After hearing all his lies? Okay, I understand.
New Client: Could you lie to me just once? Tell me that your God of Truth is all fake. Tell me you actually don’t hear anything.
No. What SolHee needed to do is put a disclaimer that she wasn’t omniscient, and that she couldn’t guarantee the accuracy, completeness, usefulness and impact of the truth/lies she could hear.
SolHee: I can tell you that you will not be happy in this marriage.
This is a big leap. I don’t think she should have said that.
New Client: Miss Hunter, does knowing everything make you happy? I know I look pathetic. I don’t know. I just…want to believe the things he say.
And here the client got it all wrong. Being omniscient makes no mortal happy. It’s too much of a burden for a mere human to shoulder. For one, she wasn’t gifted with foresight or the ability to know the consequences of telling the truth. For another, she’s still powerless to prevent the fall-out from speaking the truth.
Case in point: when she helped the neighbor get back the money her mom scammed from her but she ended up incriminating her mother, and possibly sending her to jail.
SolHee was about to exit the restaurant when she saw the surprise that the fiancé had planned for her client. He’d been planning a proposal. Her error in judgment made her reflect on her own relationship with her ex-fiancé.
6. The use of Doha’s musical gift
Ah. We finally got the connection between their gifts of hearing. We know that her gift of discerning lies will ultimately prove his innocence. But now we see how his music will help her out. She can drown out the lies she keeps hearing everywhere with his music.
7. Protecting her
I didn’t find it weird that Doha stepped in when SolHee was about to be attacked by the drunk ex-fiancé. When the strange, disheveled man up to borrow a phone from them, he moved in front of SolHee to block the man’s approach.
8. “Omo, Chagi!”
That was a cute ending to this episode. It seems like every time she has to rescue him from danger, she has to pretend that she’s the girlfriend.
And hopping like a bunny is cute. Cuter and more original than anything I’ve seen Yura doing on “King the Land.”
That’s it for my “Quick Takes.”
Thank you, @packmule. What you write makes sense.
Solhee was certainly a joyful drunkard!
I understand now why Solhee converts her earnings to gold and keeps the bars in a bank vault. In her flashback to her childhood, she handed her mother’s savings book to one of her mother’s fraud victims. At the current time, she is paying her mother in cash. Despite her mother writing rather than saying the words, Solhee was able to spot the lie without her ‘gift’.
(I would want to tell the mother to get a job and take some responsibility for her own life while she still can.)
I wonder if that the fraud victim turned blackmailer to get the savings for herself? Or whether she turned all of the evidence into the police? But if it went to the police, the mother would go to jail and Solhee would go into care and I don’t know the full story yet.
I like that she gave the money back to the lady who got engaged. I think this was a first incidence we see of her ability working ineffectively. She isn’t yet wise. How dreadful it would be to be able to discern all lies and to perceive everything so much in black and white. I think you and @Cleopatra are correct; Solhee will get her comeuppance later. She may have to make a leap of faith at a time when her truth sensing ability isn’t a help.
Kalimera @Packmule3,
I really enjoyed your notes! Up to the point as always.
DoHa is kind and doesn’t want to hurt people. I still believe that he has nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend’s disappearance.
I think that is why his music is her calming point.
As person of integrity and values, his music differentiate him from the others. He writes music, but his attributes are in his music too. Especially in his jazz plays. There it speaks volumes.
I don’t like the k-pop idol. She seems not to understand that DoHa doesn’t like her more than a friend and colleague.
Regarding your theory about SolHee’s ex fiance, it makes sense.
Still, he could have talked about it with her. He didn’t even know her part of the story, growing up in an enviroment where she was alone.
I really liked what you wrote about being omniscient. SolHee is burdened by her gift. That’s why she drunk in that jazz venue.
Since, I wrote some thoughts on the main thread, I don’t want to repeat myself.
Still, the chagi line and her hopping like a bunny was cute indeed!
@packmule3, it would be quite a stir-up if those two ajussis from the first episode caused problems for Solhee and it would be ironic if she were in trouble from her own lies. I think those men are set into the drama to provide comic relief, along with the lady with no filters who works at the Boor Boor.
That man wasn’t a casting director – it was only his cheesy pick-up line. “I want to cast you as my girlfriend.” 😊 He’s the pub owner across the road from the other man’s bakery.
Thanks, @Fern. I stink at facial recognition, especially when it comes to Asian faces. I thought those two men were new characters!
And I guess I would’ve been picked up by his cheesy pick-up line because I totally fell for his lie that he was a casting director. rofl.
I wasn’t sure if SolHee was playing a bunny or a kangaroo in that scene. But that was very sweet of her to save his reputation by destroying her image.
Right, @Fern? At least, she wasn’t a mean drunk.
Later on, I won’t pay much attention to her mom’s antics because she’s only a secondary character. She’s another plot device, like the kpop idol, manager and villagers. They’re added to the mix to stir up the main leads.
I did recognize the actress as the capable nurse in “Romantic Dr. Kim.” I’m glad that she’s found work so quickly.
Yes, I thought it was very decent of SolHee to return the money back to the newly engaged lady. Will she be getting a wedding invite in the mail, though? I wonder if she has any repeat clients or client testimonials? During the scene with the cheating/drunk ex-fiancé, it struck me that one of the problems of her job is the lack of follow-up. Since she operates in a clandestine setting, she can hardly maintain a relationship (much less friendship) with her clients once her work is done. It isn’t very satisfactory, is it?
@packmule3, “And I guess I would’ve been picked up by his cheesy pick-up line because I totally fell for his lie that he was a casting director.” It did occur to me. 😉 My husband offered to bring me a piece of cake — and did. 🍰 I guess I’m a fool for a good pastry.
No, I don’t think SolHee will get a wedding invite. I would imagine that most of the people who hire her are ashamed that they had to stoop to a form of espionage to figure out the truth and they wouldn’t want to associate with her. Even more, I think that at some point being a hired lie detector for the wrong person could be dangerous.
The last thing I saw SolHee’s mother (Jin Kyung) was playing another FL’s dreadful mother in Love in Contract. It would have been nice to see her playing someone capable.