Castaway Diva: Ep 6 Secrets vs Lies

@WEnchanteur asks:

I find it curious that the episode title uses “VS”: it’s “versus”, so a confrontation? A competition? The one to know who get the girl?

I don’t think “vs” or “versus” is used to show a competition per se. I don’t think it’s meant to indicate who gets the girl, either.

What it does is to compare and contrast two different concepts introduced in the episode.

For instance, in this Episode 6, the title is “Secrets vs Lies.”

We know where BoGeol stands.

At first glance, secrets and lies seem to be related because both involve deception. But for BoGeol, there’s a clear distinction between the two. A lie is telling a FALSE statement while a secret is hiding the TRUTH.

He seems to lie only on rare occasions (e.g., when he lied to MokHa that WooHak told him to go to Seoul Station) but he hides a big secret all the time (i.e., that he’s KiHo).

When it comes to levels of depravity, it appears to me that he considers keeping secrets the lesser evil.

That’s why he could tell MokHa and RanJoo to stop the lies at the end of this episode —

BG: Enough with the lies now. I get you had good intentions and no other choice. But a lie is a lie. If you keep it up, your weakness will grow and you’ll have to stay silent. And eventually, it’ll be out of control. So if Ms. Yoon wins this match (pausing), I want you to go up on stage, Ms. Seo. Go up and be honest about who has been singing all this time.

But he told to WooHak to keep their identities secret in the beginning of the episode —

WH: Let’s get our names back.
BG: No, we can’t. If Father finds out, he’ll look for us.
WH: Let him! I dare him to hurt us.
BG: Hyung!
WH: Listen, we were young back then so Father — no, so That Man could beat us. But we’re adults now. I can handle him on my own.
BG: Please don’t do this.
WH: Why do you keep saying no? Why must we hide? Let’s put him behind bars. We can get our names back and tell MokHo that we found KiHo. Why can’t we do that?

WooHak didn’t want to hide in secret anymore. He wanted to expose his father — or “That Man” — for the abuser he really was. To BG, keeping secrets was necessary to protect his family.

BG: If we do that… our entire family will be destroyed.
WH: What do you mean?
BG: (no answer)

WooHak grabbed his arm then changed his mind and released it. He stepped back. BoGeol turned away and covered his face with his hand, and WooHak stared into the distance.

Then, in a voice-over, MoHak began to speak.

MH: KiHo, how long can a secret remain a secret? If we cover the secret under layers of lies…can we keep the secret from surfacing? I truly hope this peaceful moment granted to us by the secret will pass slowly. I hope it will last for a long time.

Then an old man was seen surveying the river. He complained of the drought that was causing the water level to fall.

To me, this scene can be interpreted in three ways:

1. As a foreshadowing of their father’s hidden crimes. Given how their father intended to kill Daewoong with the hornets, it wouldn’t be a shocker if he actually murdered someone before and threw the body in the river.

2. As a metaphor. There’s no secret buried so deeply that it can’t be unearthed in time.

3. As a caveat. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children.

I’ll explain more, @WEnchanteur, but the bed is calling me. ‘Night!

6 Comments On “Castaway Diva: Ep 6 Secrets vs Lies”

  1. Thanks for the theme: hide the truth VS tell a lie. It seems obvious, but I hadn’t thought about it.

    You could even say that Bo Geol only lies when it’s to protect his secret.

    Why can’t they get their names back? I wonder if there might have been an additional reason, because just Ki Ho’s father doesn’t seem like a good enough reason.

    The pond intrigues me in this episode. There are too much long shot on it for just a symbolic meaning. It goes even further with the old dude talking about the dry.

    Hypothesis: a serious event (hidden until now) involving the death of two young men. They’re named with the names of dead people whose bodies are in the pond. And if they were to recover their real names, the world would wonder “Where have the two original people gone?”.

    Now that’s a secret that could really destroy the family.
    The kind of secret that rises to the surface like a corpse.

    Goodnight!
    (or good morning, as you’ll read that tomorrow)

  2. GrowingBeautifully (GB)

    @pkml3 @WE
    I agree… CONJECTURE: the river hides the secret that will destroy the family because the father’s crimes will be discovered… likely murder and his sons will becomes sons of a murderer which will affect their social standing. Or worse, they may become suspected of colluding with the crime(s).

  3. @GB,

    Yes, the sins of the father are visited on the son. Society can easily forget that the Jung family members were themselves victims. They will also suffer notoriety, slander, and even blowbacks on their careers because of the crimes their father committed.

    Sometimes, secrecy is necessary.

  4. Thank you, everyone for these thoughts. I hadn’t thought about the fall out from the father’s crimes across the generations, but we have seen it in other k-dramas. It would affect the salon and the jobs at the TV station.

    I hope there is no suspicion of collusion. When Woo-Hak asked BG if the family was guilty and BG gave a nebulous answer, this could be why a doubt was raised about whose crime might be uncovered by the falling water levels.

  5. Pingback: Castaway Diva: Ep 6 The Timeline – Bitches Over Dramas

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