The thread is open.
Sorry for my absence. I took a week’s break from kdramas. I’ll resume after our Easter celebration. First things, first. 🙂 –pm3
Let’s enjoy the show.
The thread is open.
Sorry for my absence. I took a week’s break from kdramas. I’ll resume after our Easter celebration. First things, first. 🙂 –pm3
Let’s enjoy the show.
Thank you, @pkml3! Episode 7 is enjoyable. As expected, HW has to suffer for his BIG boo boo(s) and as we follow him and HI we join their roller coaster of emotions, but it’s all good!
HW continues to choose that HI should live, instead of wanting her to die. He puts her well-being before his own: he gives her reasons to live.
I like how he has quietly lived his life all along, and how he was sincere in taking care of doing background checks to make informed decisions over the Hong’s businesses. They can find no fault in his private or work life.
He is able to clearly point the finger at the real culprits in embezzlement, and warn against Eun Sang, despite being in hot soup himself.
HI’s illness grows worse and she really should not be left alone.
Truly in this royal household, HI is king and HW is queen. The tears are more from his end. He gives Park Shin Hye a run for her money in the tearing-up-bountifully-at-the-right-time department. LOL
Perhaps when more have watched, I’ll add spoilers. Or maybe after Episode 8. 🙂
** Spoilers **
@GB – This was a beautiful episode. Loved how he so caring and let him be used by HI so that she would have a purpose to live. His Divorce attorney friend is thoroughly confused as to why HW is doing this when he wanted to divorce her.
As we all knew, EunSang is the son of you know who. If grandpa loved the girlfriend – he probably would have married her. Why is she still a gf after 20 years? Grandpa watching his son and 3 grandkids was the highlight of the show. I guess the death of the eldest grandson must have been pretty traumatic in the household. Aunt knows about grandpa’s GF – since she got the info from the PI.
The cleaning lady sending photographs of HI garbage to Eunsang. Jeez – how many people are under the gf / ES thumb working in this household.
Eunsang stealing HI pills from her purse and HI regressing was sad to see.
Happy Blessed Easter to all who celebrate!!
Hi @angelwingssf, yes, it was lovely, wasn’t it? I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode. I expect more tears and emotions and twists!!!
I’m waiting to see how many episodes it takes for these 2 obtuse characters to realise that they are really in love with each other. What they show upfront, how they interpret what they see, and/or what they say about themselves seem designed to hide the fact that they love each other.
At the moment, it’s hard for HI to believe anything that HW says. But I’m glad he did manage to say some of those things. I need to do a rewatch to catch again the stuff that struck me. 🙂
Episode 7
Where do I begin? The parts where I cried? 😭 You can see through my emojis.
HI tried holding back her tears from falling after HW told the truth about the divorce papers. She was steeling herself from breaking down. She was devastated. I was too. 😭
I know it’s good that HW tried to talk to her but she is HI and he gets that so well. When she said so calmly, ‘Baek Hyunwoo, if this ever happens again, don’t save me.’ Far out! 😭 😭😭
Way to go HW! Reverse psychology. But ya! No need to shout bring it on! 🙄 I liked that both of them were teary. They really have to go through this to have a chance.
It looks like Dahye is bothered about Eunsung’s plans. She will probably take her husband’s side later and change to the good side.
It was funny how Yangki was checking if he’s ok physically. I’m sure HI can be terrifying but I doubt she’s beaten HW. 😬
The three steps to overcome hardships in life by Dr Oh. 1 – acknowledgement (accurately assess the current crisis). 2 – self awareness (find out how bad the situation is and how much worse it could get). 3 – sorting it out (decide what you’ll give up on and what you’ll keep. Then act on it). It makes sense. We’ve got acknowledgment of the divorce (already signed 🤣) so we’re at number 2 now.
I liked that HW warned HI to not get close with Eunsung. HI’s reply of ‘he won’t fool me that easily’ but HW said I did. Touché!
I laughed at the office worker getting blinded by HI’s Bvlgari Serpenti Viper necklace. 😂The peacock reference means HI’s ready to fan them all out. 😂
The peacock then becomes an eagle and HW is an owl. 😂
He’s been calling Yeong-suk (raccoon dog?) because HI told her about it. Im not sure. She was there when the epilogue shot was shown in between the palm leaves. But he was gullible too. 😄 Oh there’s also Aeong (a neighbourhood cat) which he feeds and HI does too. ☺️
Notice how HI suddenly likes the funeral hall where Ms Kim Min-ji’s Mom’s funeral was being held.
The meeting with HW was the coldest ever. She just said how she will be unforgiving to him.
I’m not going to bother about Eunsung and His Mom. 🙅🏻♀️ I’m just glad HW is on to them.
The last scene was 😭😭😭 That was so hard on Hyunwoo. If HI lost her will to live at the beginning of the episode then he’s realising that he’s really losing her, his world especially after Haein said saranghae to him.😭😭😭
I’m already on my rewatch, why are there still tears?
@agdr03 Thanks for listing those emotional scenes.
The one that struck me when I watched it was Soo Cheol learning to ride the bike, Da Hye’s reaction to him wanting to be the dad who’d teach his son to ride, skate, etc… and how Mummy Seon Hwa was so over the top protective of him. No wonder his growth was stunted and he lacks a degree of confidence and opportunities to prove himself.
I agree that Da Hye’s reaction of guilt and perhaps regret over Soo Cheol’s fatherly devotion to her child – whom he has been tricked into thinking is his son – could mean that she’ll have a change of heart and come over to the good side. I’m hoping that she might be the whistleblower among the baddies. She is already the one who is perceptive enough to see that HW and HI love each other.
I’m not surprised that HI’s disease has progressed. I expected more symptoms of it more frequently. So now she’s losing her more recent memories entirely, and lives in the past. But then she might bounce back again.
At this stage, it may be that she has only 1.5 months to live.
Hi @GB ☺️
Yeah, I like that SC is trying his best to want to be the best dad for his supposed son. DH may think he’s not that smart but she’s seeing that side of him so yeah you might be right that she will be the one to break all of the gang’s plans. 😊
HW needs to get HI to do her treatment again soon. It’s so heartbreaking when she has her relapses. 😭
Let’s see what episode 8 has for us. Oh Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joongki) is dropping by tonight.
Phew! What a week. I feel relieved that the Queens takeover has happened & now we can move on with trying to get the company back, and our OTP falling back in love, and the family finally having some sense.
EPISODE 10 – A masterfully executed episode. So much happened, everything fell into place and HW can prove his true worth, (plus another BIG plot twist) while the Hongs have to eat humble pie. Loved it!
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
LOL the SJK Vincenzo mash-up. HW’s friend’s imagination offers us some fun moments.
I was wondering why Grandpa chose that moment to sign over power of attorney to Girlfriend.
How ironic that on the day of the divorce HI goes to the places that HW used to go to alone and even gets to hear him confess that he had wanted to be by her side. Instead of rejoicing at being free he was sadly thinking that he wanted to be with her. That made all the difference in her attitude towards him.
Loved how Aunty got to hear that HW also had no intention of leaving HI and how they teamed up to expose Girlfriend. It was just a few minutes too late, but it’s just as well that everything fell apart.
Now the Hongs have to be more united, and behind HW, I look forward to the rebuilding of Queens with team HW, his family and in-laws in the battle against Eun Sang.
The epilogue was great as usual. HI now wants desperately to live because knowing that HW still cares about her, makes her want to live a long life with him.
I love the epilogue because it was really HI crying her heart out saying she wants to live so she can be with HW. 😭
It was hilarious to have Vincenzo as HI’s divorce lawyer. 😂 He’s still killing people, what with the blood on his suitcase. 🤦🏻♀️ But well put in the drama.
The scene of Soocheol trying to ride the bicycle while shouting Dahye and Geon-u’s name. Wow! 👏🏻
I look forward to the Hong and Baek’s family uniting and our divorced couple getting back together. 😃
If there’s anything on the show it’s how quickly the story is going. Chop! Chop!
@agdr03, yes, I agree that Show is going on at a phenomenal pace, but I really like that. Now that the total downfall of the Hongs is done in Ep 8, we have 8 more episodes for HW to help them rise from the ashes, and he with them. There is no better way for him to prove that he was sincere and honest all this time (except for hiding the divorce) than by now sticking by the hapless Hongs, when he risks losing even more financially by helping them, than by dropping them.
Aunty is strange. She has good perception about scheming Girlfriend but none about her ex-husbands. Still she seems to have rightly pegged HW as the trustworthy one in that den of serpents. Loved the team up with Conan LOL. I loved HW’s expression when he heard that name.
Yes, I felt for poor Soo Cheol. Such a foolish kid, but with a heart for his ‘son’. The main thing that concerned him was that baby Geon Woo would not be able to sleep if he didn’t tuck him in. I wish the letter that Da Hye wrote had been translated for us.
I suppose the foolishness/naivete when it comes to the ability to suss out people was passed down from Grandpa himself. It seems to have been inherited by Beom Jun and Soo Cheol. Probably older brother Beom Seok and Beom Ja would have made better decisions than Grandpa. To an extent, Grandpa deserves the downfall for being an adulterer, and bringing his girlfriend into his home to rule the roost. Since he had no respect for the intelligence of his children or grandson, he should have found more good advisors, like HW for them.
Only granddaughter HI has all the brains and the perception to know that even now, HW is needed and not to be dismissed. Despite hating him for hiding the divorce, she listened to his advice to not trust Eun Sang. She is able to separate professional advice from her personal feelings. She even stepped in to keep HW from being ousted from the office.
Family
I was thinking that this must be the first time in many decades that the Hongs shared one car as a family. Despite being silly and bratty, they did still have a heart for their Grandpa. I look forward to better family relationships (may they sit close together like the Baeks do for their family meetings) and the re-romance of HW and HI. How nice if some country folk medicine could cure HI!
The Change in Hae In
The part to love is how she changed her reason for the divorce. In front of the lawyers she wanted the reason to be that she and HW had grown distant, (after all she had married him because he said that he would stay by her side) but by the time she disses Eun Sang, her reason for the divorce is that she felt bad that HW had gone through so much as her husband.
Last episode, her reason to live was to punish HW, but in the epilogue of this episode, her reason was so that she could spend a long life beside him, to love him.
Instead of being mainly selfish, HI has become more other-centred, with HW.
Annyeong,
Ep 8 highlights for me
Vincenzo!!! Haha
Love the rain scene between our OTP and when it reversed to symbolize HI gaining her memory back.
The sunset from the train. And HI following the routine of HW land liking the batting range haha.
The sad parts-
Can’t believe that Moh is YES’s mother. The bad guys are growing. I’m glad Hi told YES that she didn’t divorce to give him a chance. YES is so confident. I like HW’s car.
Hong MD deserves losing his company for driving out HW and Boem. Ugh! Love that HW and Boem are working together. Poor man. He didn’t believe HW and Boem. And she has POA. Doomed! The family has lost it all. Yikes!
DaHye leaves SC and Korea with her son. 💔
Epilogue – HW wants to live! To be by HW’s side. Awww
The Hong family has disappeared to Yongdu-ri LOL This is gonna be fun!
@GB, your mentioned of Conan makes me laugh again. Conan sounds like hardship in Korean, the private investigator must have gone through lots of hardship tailing Aunty’s ex-husbands to name himself “Hardship”. But I don’t get why a stubborn person drink ice americano though.
I also laugh so hard at the way Yang Ki introduced HI’s divorce lawyer: The youngest heir of a conglomerate family (Reborn Rich); a former soldier stationed abroad (Descendants of the Sun); someone who came here on a spaceship (Arthdal Chronicles); others say he’s a werewolf (Werewolf Boy) and his name is Vincenzo (Vincenzo). They basically listed all the hit drama/films of Soong Joong Ki’s. And HW’s reaction when he doesn’t get Yang Ki’s fuss about Vincenzo is such a contrast. The part when Vincenzo mentioned that HI is in the One Trillion Club when it is factually wrong, is telling us that he is not all that thorough in his job, he bluffs his way through or he is a fake. I am so tickled by this.
More adhoc thoughts on Episode 10, yes, I liked it a lot!!
Parallels and Contrasts
Four years previously. HW and HI walk in an aquarium, a dating spot. There the tonnes of water is contained in man-made tanks. HI also, the controlling one, had engineered that no one else should be where she went on her multiple dates with HW. We see the marriage proposal by HW who was the one to go down on one knee to offer her the ring which she had gladly accepted. HW and HI were smiling at each other in the beginning.
In the present, we see a sort of ending. HI gets up from feeding a cat and it’s raining. Water is falling from the sky, not contained or in her control. HW shelters her with his umbrella. HI has also lost control over her memories. She cannot remember the recent trip to Germany.
She is surprised that HW cries because her illness has progressed. He reminds her that they had made the trip to Germany, that she could not get treatment and that she resented him for wanting to divorce her. He manages to get her to remember and when she does, they part with acrimony. As the greatest contrast to the proposal, she wants a divorce, and they end in tears.
= = =
I like the theme of family and trust. Should a family not trust each other first? The simple country folk whom the Hongs looked down upon illustrate what it is to have a healthy family life. They gather around to support each other in bad times. They are outspoken and honest.
Grandpa Hong preferred to trust extraneous individuals who brownnosed their way into his good books. He naively gave control away to assorted individuals so that it was easy for them to conspire to scam him completely.
Living the simple, rustic life of the farmers will be an eye-opening experience for the Hongs. I hope they gain lots from it in the way of being humble and appreciative of what sincerity is.
= = =
There is another reverse trope … besides the fact that HI is the king to HW’s queen, the childhood meeting and first love trope is also upended because it was Eun Sang who had met and saved HI from the dog when they were children (he still carried around her necklace), but he’s not going to be the one she ends up with.
= = =
Over and again no one can fathom why HW would divorce HI. Dad Beom Jun, Aunt Beom Ja and to an extent HI can only come up erroneously with the idea that it’s because he had a mistress. But in all his activities, he was alone. I hope it struck HI that while she wanted him to be by her side, she failed to be by his side. It was not that he had failed their marriage unilaterally.
I liked that she took some time out to mourn. She visited the places he visited by himself, observing the families there doing things together. She realised how lonely he must have been. When he was no longer in her life as husband, then only does she do the things that she should have done with him. Whether exercising or batting or eating together. What irony that they are both simultaneously experiencing their loneliness for each other, and yet are alone.
Listening to what his friend, Yang Gi said of how HW had to take so much indifferent treatment as an in-law and under the thumb of the Hongs, has made her appreciate HW even more, just as she has lost him. She’s been so ‘strong’ in keeping her feelings in check, but now it’s finally the right time for her tears of regret at having to die soon. I’m glad that she’s linked her regret to the loss of the time to be with HW.
@FF, I just realised that my reply to you didn’t get posted. I was agreeing that the advert of SJK’s many shows was a hoot! I’ll find out if maybe it’s in @pkml3’s SPAM.
Sigh. Our HW and HI took off their wedding rings already even before entering the divorce proceedings with Lawyer Vincenzo. 🙁
I’m not currently watching this show but saw the YT of SJK cameo as lawyer Vincenzo! how fun! They included all his shows in the dialogue, too. His line about irreconcilable differences, didn’t he use that in real life for his divorce?
@Janey, yes, SJK used that in his famous divorce I believe.
My favorite part about episode 7 is that even after they had divorced and HI was in the Grandma’s Restaurant crying in the epilogue, she called HW her “husband” even though they had already divorced. They may have signed their divorce papers that day, but that was the day she visited the places her husband frequented and understood how lonely he was and how tough life was for him.
Glad he told Eun-Sung he had no chance and that she didn’t divorce HW for him.
Look forward to the Hongs living the country bumpkin lifestyle and being taken down a few notches, especially HI’s mom. Hope she changes the way she does her eyeliner! Looks like the aunt is going to find her new love in the village philosopher! I looked it up, the actor does look like the Cantonese actor/singer Leslie Chung we sadly passed away in his 40s due to suicide.
I’m amazed at how well the actors emote. I’ve always liked KJW but like her even more now.
She seems down-to-earth and sincere, doesn’t seek attention (unlike another female lead who has been posting and deleting posts frantically on IG sadly about her relationship/break-up, etc.). Every scene keeps you captivated and guessing what will happen next.
It looks like Eun-Sung really does live HI or perhaps see her as a trophy he wants to capture, wonder if he will get in a rift with his mom over HI. Hope the brother’s wife will go over to the other side and reunite with him. That scene of him trying to ride a bike to search for his family was heartbreaking.
Glad to join everyone again chingus!
Hi @Hatlady, glad to know that you’re with us on this Show. It’s been a great watch with many emotions to experience along with our characters.
Yes, I also noticed and liked that HI still considered HW her husband. She only became more thoughtful of him after the divorce. It was the wake-up call that she needed, to pay attention to the one whom she had taken for granted would be beside her, regardless of how she had neglected him.
Here’s a bts while waiting for the next episode. Hae-in didn’t even noticed she was wearing the ring already. 😄 CTO!
https://x.com/roobinotruby__/status/1775886636385268155?s=46&t=BT0tHWWRRX1rx64As5f8XQ
PS. Queen, I hope you’re ok. 🙏🏼