If you have already read the webtoon, please leave your comments on the Open Threads instead, not here. I want to exercise my brain cells so don’t spoil the story for me. 🙂
However, I’m testing not only my skills in discerning the integral plot points from the dialogues of the characters and visual clues of the director, but also the director’s skills in focusing my attention on those plot points. Should I miss the connections, then it’s on him for failing to give enough well-placed clues for me to come to a logical conclusion.
Take for instance the timeline that I drew up for Episode 4. I repeatedly said that it wasn’t possible for SaEon (SE) to have met with the police on the day of HeeJoo’s job interview. I based it on:
a) internal logic of the story. He arrived late on the morning of her interview because he dropped off his father-in-law at his new retirement home. Also, speaking as someone who has a busy work schedule like his fictional character, I would schedule only ONE family situation per day, not two. Transporting and settling his father-in-law into the new place would have taken at least two hours of his time. Giving a police report (plus the promised photo-op) would have taken at least another hour.
b) the visual clues. He was noticeably wearing a different suit and tie on the day he went to the police station. Similar, but different.
With that said, I wish the director was less enigmatic about the timeline to avoid the viewers’ confusion and speculation that he knew during the job interview that HJ could speak.
Moving on, here are my quick takes.
1. His protectiveness towards HJ
a. After his initial reaction when he found out that HJ could speak from the video, he wanted to find out more about her selective mutism. He didn’t fixate on the secrecy for long. Instead, he went in search of her mother to ask why she was still suffering from the effects of a car accident (Note: it was a car accident, not a fire accident) that happened more than 20 years ago.
To me, he saw the video as evidence that HJ could vocalize if she was in distress (like, when she cried after her father’s abduction). He didn’t obsess over it as proof of her deception, because in the first place, he wasn’t looking for signs of duplicity from her. He trusted her implicitly.
He raised the issue that there was more to her mutism with his mother-in-law (MIL).
SE: Selective mutism is when someone stops speaking due to psychological factors. Isn’t it strange that she’s been like that for over 20 years?
MIL: Well, the guilt was just so overwhelming.
SE: What guilt? Was the car accident HeeJoo’s fault?
MIL: She lost her brother, and her sister went deaf. How could she be okay after that? She shouldn’t be.
He wasn’t pleased with her response but kept it civil. He warned her to be careful in treating HJ because she was his wife.
Later in the episode, after he saw two young sisters sharing confidences with each other, it dawned on him that HJ could have been FORCED to keep silent because of some perverse “crab mentality.” It’s a mindset steeped in jealousy and selfishness. If the Unnie Hong InA couldn’t have a fully functioning life, then neither could the younger, half-sister HJ.
This was his phone conversation with 406.
SE: Have you heard HeeJoo’s voice?
HJ/406: What are you saying? She can’t speak. How could I?
SE: Then do you know why she can’t speak? Since the accident that caused Hong InA to lose her hearing, she hasn’t worn hearing aids. She didn’t learn to sign. Instead, she took HeeJoo around and had her convey people’s words through notes.
Two comments:
a. Ah… This explains why HJ was always hanging around unnie. Contrary to gossiping ladies in the powder room, HJ wasn’t “creepily tagging” behind her Unnie around like a shadow because she was an “attention-seeker.” She was, in fact, helping IA as her personal interpreter.
b. Noteworthy: Hong InA must have had a medical procedure done to restore her hearing AFTER she fled the country three years ago. Why? Because she returned to SK with her sense of hearing back. She heard the sales lady at the dress shop when she offered to get her the blue dress in a smaller size, and she heard the voice of SE thanking the store attendant. I find it curious that for somebody who was deaf from the moment she met SE and until the day she ended her engagement to SE, she could recognize his voice.
SE: (finally, seeing the light) Wait! Surely, it isn’t because of Hong InA?
HJ: What do you mean?
SE: Chairman Hong’s only biological daughter became disabled, and HJ who lived under the same roof, was probably forced to keep quiet, too. That’s the ridiculous story I had in mind. Aside from that, I can’t find another reason.
Two comments:
a. In this episode, he’s been hit with one ridiculous idea after another. In the rooftop, he first suspected HJ of being 406 after his security guy, DoJae, told him that 406 was much closer to him than they thought. DoJae asked, “Is there anyone suspicious around you?” SE looked around and spotted HJ waiting for the elevator. He scoffed and muttered, “What am I thinking?” He dismissed his doubts because he trusted in HJ’s innocence.
b. In order to protect her, he wanted to understand her family dynamics better. But I find odd that he hadn’t figured it all out after 20 years of knowing her and being in close contact with her family.
2. What’s SaEon’s secret?
In his mind, he wanted to call HJ out for her deception. But in reality, he knew he couldn’t because he had secrets of his own.
He imagined knocking on her bedroom door and going in to confront her about it.
SE: All this time, you’ve been deceiving me, haven’t you? Don’t look at me like you don’t know. I know everything. Why? Why did you go that far? You’ve deceived me for 20 years! You’ve even resorted to doing this? (writing on his palm) But why? Yeah, let’s just say you were young back then. But you…you’re not a kid anymore. You’re a grown-up. At least, once you started living with me, there was no reason to hide it.
HJ: Everyone has secrets. Don’t you have any? Something you’re hiding from me?
My comments:
a. Is he gaslighting her? Didn’t he tell her on the morning of their nuptials to “forget the illusion that we are married. You were sent as a hostage to me”? With such hostile words, why would she open up to him? What’s her incentive to stop hiding the truth?
b. I think there are two ways to understand this secret of his:
The first one, and the popular one among viewers: his secret is that he isn’t the real son. He isn’t the real Paik SaEon. He’s the adopted one from the orphanage and the real Paik boy is the masked one in the mansion whom SangWoo played with until he showed his psycho tendencies.
The second one, and this is my alternative suggestion: his secret is that he’s been in love with her since they were children.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I like the way the director used visual shots of the doors as if to establish parallel storylines. (Sigh. I wish I had time to do the screenshots).
In the first sequence, the director filmed SE in front of the HJ’s bedroom double-doors. The doors had privacy glass to obscure the vision inside. The doors fit HJ’s character; SE believed that she was transparent and easily understandable, but she turned out to be a very private person and inscrutable, too. He pushed the double doors wide open.
Then, after realizing that he had secrets of his own to hide from her, he was filmed in front of his bedroom door. In comparison to HJ’s door, his door was a plain wooden one. Again, it described his personality. He’s unemotional, guarded, off-limits. He let go of the door handle.
Then, on the second sequence, the director also filmed SangWoo in front of a dark wooden door in the abandoned mansion.
To me, the film shots of the doors is the director’s attempt to visually connect SE to that psychopathic playmate of SangWoo. Those are his hints at the mystery surrounding SE’s family history. Of course, the mystery gives way to lots of (conspiracy) theories.
Perhaps the psycho boy is the real Paik grandson.
Perhaps SaEon is the adopted one.
Perhaps that boy is the biological son of Mrs. Paik, shunned by the legendary Paik chairman, because he was a “rusty spoon” in his household.
Perhaps that boy is the young 406, the cat-killer and the fish-butcher.
Perhaps Mrs. Paik and 406 are mother and son.
But one thing I know for sure is that boy-in-the-tiger/cat-mask isn’t SaEon based on timeline and character traits.
a. timeline. According to SangWoo, he met the masked boy twenty years in a mansion near his orphanage located somewhere in the countryside. The masked boy seemed to live in isolation, in exile. But twenty years ago, SaEon was living in the neighborhood near the Hong sisters. He went to school; he was the tutor of Hong InA.
b. character traits. The masked boy wanted to torture a defenseless cat. In comparison, SaEon was encouraging a defenseless HJ to fight back. He noticed HJ’s red cheek and knew that it was because she had been slapped on the face. So he told her, “Be it your mom, sister, or whoever, prepare yourself to fight back. Whether it’s parents or family, there’s always a chance for revenge.” Then, to make light of the situation, he joked that the sunset was as red as her swollen cheek.
Aside from the doors, I also noticed that the director aimed the camera twice on the nametag on SaEon’s school uniform: when he was piggy-backing HJ and when he was waiting at the gate for his tutoring session. To me, those shots were calculated to make the viewers doubt…or question whether he’s the real Paik SaEon.
More later. Must wrap gifts or I’ll never finish by today.
Is it possible that the switch between Psycho 406 and The Man Currently Known As SE occurred before SE met HJ? Maybe the Psycho Kid was kept at the remote mansion while another kid was appearing at public functions as SE?
SE’s mother clearly has issues with her Father in Law. If she is not SE’s real mother, that explains why she is trying to sabotage both SE and her husband.
Haha. I like how succinct that moniker is, Psycho 406.
Yes, I agree with you. If there was a switch between SE and Psycho 406, it’d have to be:
– before SE met HJ,
– before SE was socially introduced as the grandson of Chairman Paik (otherwise, there would have been rumors circulating about a psycho kid….unless the newspapers squashed it totally)
– and most likely before the car accident involving the Hong siblings and HJ.
I keep going back to the dragon ring
on the man in the portrait. That must be important… like a Chekov’s gun. It was twice incorporated in the story. First, when SangWoon stumbled into the mansion. Second, when SangWoon brought it up again. It must be relevant to the plot. But somehow, the only existing person I can think of that pays significant interest to family connections and family legacy is the Hong patriarch/the newspaper magnate.
HJ’s mother doesn’t care about family as long as she can live a luxurious life. SE’s father doesn’t care about family as long as his presidential campaign isn’t jeopardized. SE’s mother is supposedly concerned about her family, specifically, her son. But the real identity of her son is now in doubt.
HJ’s step-father Mr Hong is the one who keeps bringing up SaeOn, and how important it is that he’s beside his father. What does HE know? 🤔
Anyway, aside from a scar on his neck, Psycho 406 has a mismatched eye color or heterochromia. That’s possibly genetic (which could be then connected to the “rusty spoon” insult made by Chairman Hong to her daughter-in-law.)
But a heterochromia can also be due to a trauma. Just like HJ’s selective mutism (which isn’t selective after all but enforced mutism) and Hong Ina’s deafness.
Hong Ina doesn’t appear deaf anymore when she returned.
Noteworthy: she texted HJ but HJ didn’t appear to have texted back.
Maybe Chairman Hong suspects that SE is not the son of Presidential candidate Baek?
I was glad to see that he was able to think of things from her perspective and not jump to an indignant emotional reaction of feeling deceived.
I do wonder why he never questioned her mutism before or thought to consult a physician. Did he just take it for granted in a non analytic way? Is it because he is too preoccupied with his own secrets?
@monmor,
I can come up with four reasons he never questioned her SM.
1. His career.
He went from being TV announcer to presidential spokesman. He was already working for the Blue House when he got married. The responsibilities and duties of his job demanded his 100% focus.
2. Status quo.
He was fine with maintaining the status quo between them. For 20 years, he and HJ communicated via the written language so he was accustomed to it. He didn’t see the method as a hindrance. He lived with her disability and accepted their mode of communication as part and parcel of living with a wife with disability.
In a way, it’s a testament of his acceptance and tolerance for her handicap, and his patience for weakness.
3. His faith in HJ.
It should be clear to us viewers by now that his singular blind spot is HJ. He doesn’t see her as capable of harboring evil intentions. For instance, when they were kids and he was tutoring her Unnie, he discovered that HJ wasn’t interpreting his orders to her Unnie directly, but was instead couching his exasperated words in encouraging, more diplomatic words. I guess, he knew by then that HJ possessed a good nature, that she wasn’t capable of jealousy or envy, that she always tried to do her best, that she was some sort of angel, blah blah blah.
So he never questioned her SM. He accepted her SM in blind faith.
4. Time.
He probably reasoned that since SM is a psychological trauma, HeeJoo would “grow out of it” on her own pace and time as long as he provided her a safe place and buffer zone.
That’s what he said to her in that imaginary confrontation in this episode. He ranted, “You’ve deceived me for 20 years….Let’s just say you were young back then, but you…you’re not a kid anymore. You’re a grown-up. At least, once you started living with me, there was no reason to hide it.”
He implied that she could be honest with him and that she had nothing to fear because she no longer had to live with her oppressive mother. She was under “his protection.”
But then again, I must point out that their marriage didn’t exactly start out in good terms, especially with the brusque and harsh way that he told her to “forget any illusions” of a real marriage and she was sent to him as a “hostage.”
His words weren’t friendly, much less endearing.
My guess is something happened behind-the-scenes that triggered his ire. For example, he could have been informed that a family secret (about his birth? adoption? twin brother? fake mom?) would be exposed unless he married a Hong daughter. HJ was his “hostage” in the sense that as long as he was married to her, he could make demands and/or force the Hong newspaper magnate to mute bad press about him/his family.
There are other possible reasons but those are all I can come up with right now.
Yes that he was preoccupied with his career and was not invested in the marital relationship because of how it came to be.
I had not thought that he And
His family Members might be being blackmailed. That makes a lot of sense.
Now I understand why they are calling her a hostage.
TY
Although he was rescuing her from her family, He also would have felt badly For putting her in this situation of an enforced marriage.
Hence he would have kept his distance and that becomes admirable to some extent.
In my original notes for Episode 2, I had explained my understanding of the usage of “hostage” and “weakness.” But computer klutz that I am, I accidentally deleted the file. Now, I’m too busy to re-write the whole thing.
But yes, in Episode 2, the viewers got the context of word “hostage” that SE used to refer to HJ in Episode 1. Just rewatch his brunch (or dinner) meeting with his mother.
She updated him of her last meeting with HJ and her mom. According to her, she told HJ to quit working, to keep quiet and stay low during the election period. She added, ” I don’t know why I have to be bothered by her. This marriage should’ve never happened.”
SE’s comeback: Aren’t we the ones who wanted to establish ties with Chungwoon, even if that meant switching the bride? Father was able to get this far thanks to Chungwoon Daily News burying his scandals.
The mother had no response.
On a sidenote: HJ’s mother thought that her daughter would finally get a share of the limelight as Paik’s daughter-in-law so she ordered HJ to beautify herself (e.g., go to the dermatologist). lol. Her mother couldn’t read the room.
Anyway, to me, that’s the obvious interpretation of the word “hostage.” His family took HJ as a “prisoner” to force the Hong family to ally with them, support the presidential candidacy of his father, and suppress bad media about his family. He didn’t expect his hostage to turn the tables on him and become the hostage-taker.
As usual, I’m still waiting to see if there’s another context to the word “hostage.”
Interesting thought that there may be another meaning to the word hostage. What happened to those disappeared children? Was HJ A hostAge in her family? She was held hostage by being kept silent. Maybe both of them know things that are being hidden.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the plot unfolds. I had been afraid
The drama’s plotlines Would not account for their lack of communication But now I am feeling more confidence in the writing.
I am hoping though for a scene which might clarify why he did not question further her mutism and whether it was treatable or not. Traumatic mutism which is what her mother is pretending this is is treatable.
Howdy! I hope your Christmas wrapping is all finished. ☺️
I didn’t have time to read the webtoon but I’m updated up to episode 7. Are you up to date? If not there’s spoilers below.
So SE did go to the police before the party. I liked that he was always paying attention to what she was wearing so he was able to get her jacket from the hotel staff.
That was a lot of restraint from SE when he saw her with the phone and it was gone as soon as he saw her falling.
I thought it was nice that he wanted to gift her something for her new job. I didn’t like how abrupt he was though to his staff when he wanted to seat next to HJ. Did he have to throw the coffee? 🙄
He’s finally loosening up after all the years of being on guard?.
I liked the scenes at the hospital where he was washing her hair, drying it and putting her to bed. It was good of HJ to acknowledge that over the years SE was there for her and that she likes him too.
At the look out and the conversation between fish guy and the accomplice, fish guy said that accomplice pushed HJ. The hand that pushed her had black clothing (typical 😂), and the only one with black clothing was Do Jae. Is he the accomplice???
I tried to spot another person who was wearing black clothes. I didn’t see any unless I totally missed it.
So 4 kids were abducted. It’s for sure now too that SE was a replacement child. 😬 How awful to hear the mom say ‘my son’ is this and that to SE. 😞