Ep 8 Life is unpredictable; therefore life is meaningful.

I shared my notes on this blog while this drama was showing. Now, I’m sharing my thoughts on the meaning of the title.

I see three interpretations of the title.

1. Let’s begin with the obvious one.

When an unexpected crisis comes our way, it galvanizes us to take decisive action to protect, defend, and rescue the ones we love. Our actions become purposeful in uncertain and unpredictable times because we see who/what is important in our lives.

SoonDeok demonstrated this in the very beginning of Ep 8.

She discovered that JungWoo and her Orabeoni had gone on ahead to stage HwaRok’s arrest without her so she rushed off to the meeting place. She fished JungWoo out of the river. She feared that he had drowned. When he came to, she cried with relief.

JungWoo: Aigoo. W-why are your crying? D-did you get injured?
SoonDeok: (yelling at him) Have you gone mad? Why would you jump in when you cannot even swim?
JungWoo: (sheepish) I mastered swimming last night.
SoonDeok: What?!

He told her how he studied the technique of swimming from a book and practiced it on a table.

SoonDeok: Wait. So you are saying you learned how to swim from a book?
JungWoo: I could have done it perfectly, if only I wasn’t hit by an arrow.

She saw his injury and right away, tore off a piece of her garment to bandage his arm.

SoonDeok: I heard you have to do this to stop the bleeding.
JungWoo: Did your orabeoni tell you so?
SoonDeok: (smiling) Yes. You are right.
JungWoo: (shyly) I am glad I got hurt instead of you.
SoonDeok: (studies his face)

Though SoonDeok’s meticulously arranged scheme was thrown into disarray by JungWoo’s meddling, she didn’t overthink what she had to do next. Although she was still in denial about her feelings, the unexpected turn of events (i.e., life is unpredictable) confirmed that JungWoo is important in her life (i.e., life is meaningful).

2. The second interpretation was given by the youngest sister Samsoon.

After her marriage proposal was rejected by SoonDeok’s Orabeoni, SoonDeok went after her to console her.

SoonDeok: I told you I would set you up at Dano. Why did you propose to him suddenly?
SS: I could not hold it in anymore because I like Officer too much. Also, I was certain Officer liked me as well. So it happened before I knew.
SoonDeok: What made you so certain?
SS: It is just that you do not know. He fixed the fences and replaced the roof tiles at my house. Did you also not see him worrying I was going to jump off the cliff? What else could those things mean besides liking me?

According to SamSoon’s logic, when a man acts out of character with a woman, e.g., suddenly shows care and attention, it’s a sign that he regards her in a special way.

Her remark gave SoonDeok pause.

She remembered that Jungwoo too was worried about her jumping off the cliff.

Then, after he jumped and almost drowned, he expressed relief that it was him who got hurt instead of her.

JungWoo’s behavior surprised her because normally, he only cared about his own convenience. He wouldn’t worry about her welfare. This sudden, inexplicable change in his behavior (i.e., life is unpredictable) indicated that she had become important and meaningful to him (i.e., life is meaningful).

3. The third interpretation is related to the book which SoonDeok once read to her husband. I’ll have to explain this. 🙂

In my opinion, the book described SoonDeok’s attitude towards her widowhood. Remember how fascinated she was with the ending?

In Episode 2, she daydreamed about the time her husband talked about the bride in the book.

Husband: Twenty years had passed. How could she have sat in the same place?
SoonDeok: Please be patient. You will know the reason when I read the end.
Husband: I apologize. I was just too curious.
SoonDeok: I will continue to read. “Looking at the bride sitting the same way she was the first night twenty years ago, I felt more worried than scared. The scholar caressed her shoulder. At that moment, the bride turned into ashes and broke into pieces. The ashes turned into a butterfly and flew away after wandering around the scholar.” (closing the book) The end of this story is always sad yet beautiful to read.

In Episode 8, the book was once again brought up when Lady SoHyun remembered the same incident.

Her maid had come to show her the banned book she rifled from SoonDeok’s room.

Lady SoHyun: She is lending a book?
Maid: Yes, Madam. Even though the Defense Minister went through so much trouble because of the novels! You know how the Young Madam would always read novels to Young Master after she married him.

The maid wanted SoonDeok to get in trouble with Lady SoHyun for reading a book exposing Park’s crime. But to the maid’s disappointment, her smear campaign had the opposite effect on Lady SoHyun.

Lady SoHyun was reminded of the incident five years ago, when she had walked in on her son and SoonDeok reading together. She overheard her son expressed his incredulity that someone could sit still for 20 years.

So SoonDeok continued to read, “At that moment, the bride turned into ashes and scattered away….”

That line from that book left a big impression on Lady SoHyun.

She understood the tale as a cautionary tale on widows living such desolate lives that they eventually fall apart and fade away into oblivion. And she must have felt pity and concern for her daughter-in-law.

She assumed then that SoonDeok had been going on her nightly escapades to find books to find meaning to her lonely existence. She worried that if SoonDeok wasn’t given a challenging task she would end up like that bride in the book – just silently biding her time till she “turned into ashes and broke into pieces.”

That’s why Lady SoHyun immediately put an end to her maid spying on SoonDeok.

Lady SoHyun: You can stop looking into what GeunSeok’s mother is doing.
Maid: But no! If I keep at it for a bit longer, I can catch her red-handed.
Lady SoHyun: Do not make me repeat myself!
Maid: Yes, Madam.

Later that night, Lady SoHyun gave SoonDeok the key to the shed and the records of the tenant farmers. She was giving SoonDeok a new task, so SoonDeok wouldn’t feel bored.

Lady SoHyun: From now on, you should handle the tenant farmers and the grain supply in our house.
SoonDeok: Me?
Lady SoHyun: Do you not feel suffocated from only sewing at home? I have told Mister Kim, so you should look after our family’s fields, and check on the tenant farmers.

To many viewers, Lady SoHyun was just another villainess. But the way I see it, Lady SoHyun cared about her SoonDeok in her own way. She believed that SoonDeok felt trapped in her widowhood. Of course, she was unaware that SoonDeok had a secret life as a matchmaker.

Now…

SoonDeok might not be PHYSICALLY trapped in her state of widowhood. After all, she could come and go if she carefully planned her outdoor activities to avoid detection like she had been doing for years.

But MENTALLY and EMOTIONALLY she had trapped herself in widowhood. You see, that bride-who-sat-in-the-same-way-for-20-years was her ideal of a loving wife. In her mind, she wanted to imitate that bride. True, she engaged in the business of matchmaking, and she derived happiness from watching the lovers come together. But it was her aspiration to resemble that bride in the book. If she was to become like that loyal bride, then she must live as a widow for the rest of her life.

That’s why it was obscene to think of herself falling for JungWoo. She denied her feelings for him because she considered it a) emotional cheating on her deceased husband and soulmate, and b) antithetical to the romance she so admired in the book.

She told JungWoo as much.

JungWoo: You know so much about romance, so why are you living as a widow? Is it similar to how a monk cannot shave his own head?
SoonDeok: Though I was with my late husband for less than a half a year, I received so much love from him that there is no space in my heart to like anyone else.
SoonDeok: (internally) Now that I think about it, I think I knew the moment I said this that I already gave my heart to His Excellency Gyeongwoonjae.

But then, as the title of this episode indicated, life is unpredictable, and that’s how life holds meaning. SoonDeok wasn’t looking for love but when it found her, it gave her a new meaning, a new purpose in life.

She unwittingly revealed herself in her conversation with her Orabeoni.

Orabeoni: Quit the matchmaking business right away.
SoonDeok: Pfft. You brought a basket of unripe plums to tell me that right now? I did not start matchmaking secretly yesterday. Do not worry.
Orabeoni: Matchmaking isn’t the problem. (looking around) If what you did to the Defense Minister this time becomes known, it will not end with you getting kicked out of this house.
SoonDeok: How will it become known? You did not know who I was until I fell into the water, either.
Orabeoni: But I know now. Quit it. It is dangerous.
SoonDeok: I will quit after this job is over. This match is a really important matter for His Excellency Gyongwoonjae. He said it was a royal decree.

Suddenly, she was doing this for JungWoo’s sake. She wanted to help him marrying off all the three spinsters. The interesting part here is that she didn’t realize that her determination to finish the job is at odds with her ideal of the bride-who-sat-still-for-20-years. She literally wasn’t going to sit still. She found her moxie. Unlike the bride, she wasn’t content just doing nothing.

Naturally, her brother was naturally shocked that she would endanger her life for JungWoo.

Orabeoni: Do you actually like His Excellency Gyeongwoonjae?
SoonDeok: (upset) Are you crazy, Orabeoni? Even though I carry myself like this, I am a noblewoman who is married to one man for life. My late husband is…all I have for the rest of my life.

See what I told you about her idealization of the bride in the book? She romanticized being a widow.

I like the small hesitation here.

That’s why I say that the third interpretation of the title is related to the book. She found love, and a new meaning in life, when she least expected it.