I’m separating my Episode 2 commentary from my Episode 1 First Impressions.

1. The glow-in-the-dark star stickers

In high school, SeokRyu (SR) coerced SeungHyo (SH) to help her out at a part-time job cleaning barbecue grills. With her earnings, she brought glow-in-the-dark star stickers for her bedroom ceiling. Though SH nagged her back then for wasting her money on stickers, he remembers to adorn her new room with the same glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.

The way I see it, the stickers serve two purposes.

One, the stickers are a reminder for SR of the time she fell while attaching the stickers and SH caught her. They landed on top of each other on the bed — which flustered them both. I’m taking a wild guess (ha!) that the awkward moment was meant to be the first stirrings of love for them.

Two, in the future, the stickers will remind them of the evening at the jungle gym in the playground. Let me replay what happened then.

They sat on the highest rungs of the jungle bars. According to SeungHyo, SR had always wanted to eat the clouds like cotton candy and crunched on stars like candy. The viewers are meant to be awed that he could still remember small details like that about SR if he didn’t like her.

She replied that, back then when she was a kid, she believed that she could reach the stars when she grew up. But when she grew up, she learned that it was impossible.

SH looked at her pensively as she spoke. Her dejection was plain to see. She was using the stars as a metaphor for the shambles her life was in. And note here: the jungle gym was also a metaphor of the working environment they were in. It’s a cutthroat world out there but both SR and SH have reached the top of the jungle (gym).

Then the rain came down.

Although SH went off to buy themselves one small umbrella, they decided to forego sharing it, and to just get wet together. The viewers would have to be blind not to see this ploy as an excuse to let SR cry in the rain. Remember that pathetic fallacy I told you about? In movies, the weather is supposed to reflect the inner turmoil of the character so….

Let her tears fall with the rain! Let the rain wash away her sorrows! And after the deluge, let serenity reign! 

After the rain, SH proceeded to give her a life lesson about love and hate. Lol. Again, viewers should have known that he’d been itching to impart his “words of wisdom” to SR ever since she started talking about stars. IHow could we not expect anything less from a goody-two-shoes umchina like him?

SH: Did you know that just like Earth has the moon as a satellite, hate has its own satellites? Your high expectations, your faith, your fondness for a certain person are all interconnected. But when any of those elements leaves orbit or reverses its movement, it can turn into hate. You cannot hate someone unless you love them.

And then right on cue, there was another pathetic fallacy: the rare meteor shower. They enjoyed the sight of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower together, and they prayed.

Lol. Wouldn’t it be funny if choirs of angels suddenly appeared and started singing “Hallelujah. Blessed are these two good-looking people”? It was that kind of religious moment to me: artificial and contrived.

Anyway…

That’s how the glow-in-the-dark star stickers are significant in this episode. From this time on, every time SR looks up at the stars on her ceiling, she’ll have a memory from the distant past, and a more recent memory. The memories will either keep her awake at night or comfort her to sleep.

Now, I don’t have any problems with the execution of this plot point. The acting, directing, editing,  cinematography, and lighting were on point.

But what I bitch about is the obviousness of it all. There’s a lack of subtlety in the storyline that offends me. The director and screenwriter knew exactly the right buttons to push to make the audience swoon.

2. The gold brooch

We’re supposed to recognize SR’s “heart of gold.”

As a teenager, she slaved away after school to clean grills in order to buy her mom with a golden brooch that would never tarnish. When she was a working woman, she gifted her mom tons of expensive facial cream which her mom never used. Then, in this episode, she delivered the misplaced golden brooch to her mom at the opening day event but her mom just quickly pocketed it away without thanking her. It solidified in her mind that her mom never appreciated her gifts, efforts and overall thoughtfulness.

Boooohooo.

This whole plot point is set up so female viewers can feel a certain kinship with SR and affinity for her “sacrifice.”

I cringe at this sort of drivel thrust upon me.

3. Reply 1997

Viewers have pointed out the many similarities between this drama and “Doctor Slump” (2024) in the last episode.

In this episode, the fight between SR and her mom duplicates the fight between the female lead and her mom in “Doctor Slump.” In both dramas, the argument was precipitated by the mother’s high expectations and the daughter’s failure to live up to them. In both dramas, copious tears were shed. In both dramas, the hostilities were quickly resolved. In both dramas, the peace-offering was the mom’s homecooked meal.

Because this brouhaha was already done before in “Doctor Slump,” I find that this episode lacked novelty.

Hmmmm….come to think of it, I also similarities with “Reply 1997” (2012). In that drama, Seo InGuk’s character had been in love with Jung EunJi’s character ever since they were in school together, but he was forced to hide it out of fear and trepidation that EunJi would ratchet up her bullying. EunJi was the dominant one, just like SR in this drama.

Like pushovers, the boys let the girls walk over them.

4. The chokehold

Speaking of bullying, as I told @Beth in the comment section in the other thread, I’m not surprised by SR’s violent tendencies. Because both the screenwriter and director portrayed the beating SR received first with the leeks, then with the backscratcher as comedy central, it was predictable that they saw nothing amiss with SR putting SH in a chokehold.

In the real world, however, I’d say this is a case of “monkey see, monkey do.” If a child has been the target of a parent’s corporal punishment or physical violence, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise if she mimics it later.

Like with the beating scenes in Episode 1, I disapprove of chokeholds for laughs.

5. The pomegranate tree

What a sorry looking tree that was. I hope she bought it on sale.

While SR didn’t lie about the pomegranate tree being a symbol of abundance, I don’t know if she deliberately omitted telling SH that it was also a symbol of fertility on account of the numerous seeds inside the fruit.

It shouldn’t be hard to guess that the screenwriter meant the tree to be a symbol of their feelings. Right now, it’s not even a sapling. The roots, stems and leaves are underdeveloped. But with tender nurturing, of course, it will bloom.

You know how it is in kdramas. They’ve brought the FTD slogan “Say it with flowers” to a whole new level.

6. On the meaning of maeum

One feature I do like about this series is the title. In these first two episodes, a title is seen evolving at the end of the show to reveal the direction of the plot. I hope this continues.

Episode 1: “Comeback” ➡️ “Come back home”
Episode 2: “Hate” ➡️ “Love”

My focus is on Episode 2 and how the subber translated the words written in the stars. Remember now: I’m not Korean. 

The first word, “mium,” is easy to translate because it has an equivalent in English. It’s “hate” or “resentment.”

However, the second word, “maeum,” is a bit tricky. It isn’t love, actually.

But I get why the subber settled for this word. First, it makes logical sense as love is the antonym of hate. Second, it nicely frames the flashback as an “Aha! moment” for SR. She finally discovers her dormant feelings for SH.

The meaning of maeum varies depending on the context.

It can mean “heart,” but it can also mean “mind.” It can mean “emotion,” but it can also mean “reason.” According to Korean philosophers, this duality (lol, I call it ambiguity) is because the heart and mind are viewed as interconnected.

An aside: If indeed the heart and mind are regarded as one, as these philosophers say, then I wonder how they will explain their society’s obsession with MBTI scores? The MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) categorizes people’s personalities according to four categories: whether they’re introverted or extraverted, sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. Evidently, many people don’t believe that the mind and heart, and the thinking and feeling are inseparable concepts.

Note: In Western philosophy, there’s a clear dichotomy between the head and heart, between cognition and emotion, between thinking and feeling. It’s been like that since the time of Plato (c. 428 – c. 348 BCE).

Plato himself believed that the soul has three – not just two – parts: the reasoning part which is like the head of the body, the spirited or courageous part which is like the heart, and the appetite which is the part controlled by the desires of the belly and groin.

There’s also Blaise Pascal who wrote, “The heart itself has its own reason that reason itself cannot understand.”

And Rene Descartes insisted, “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.”

And Sigmund Freud counseled, “In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.”

Anyway, keep this in mind when you see the title again: Maeum doesn’t exactly mean love. It’s possible that SeungHyo has entered SeokRyu’s “heart” and that he’s won over her “heart” but it’s also entirely possible that she hasn’t yet made up her “mind” and that her “mind” is still unsettled about him. She’s thinking about her feelings for him.

At this point, SeungHyo can be stuck in either her “heart” or her “mind.” 🙂