I didn’t finish Season 1, and I skipped Season 2 because I had little patience for the emotional rollercoaster of her love life. I tuned in, however, for the premiere of this final season as she’s supposedly meeting her last love and true love, Shin Soon-rok (SSR). I was hoping that she’d learn from her past relationship failures and finally display more self-awareness.
But nope. She’s still as petty and cringey as ever.
I guess her character foibles are this webtoon’s shtick. Her childish reactions and poor choices create the conflict – not to mention, the comedy – of the story.
And I think the screenwriter was tacitly referring to this situation when, in the beginning of Episode 1, the viewers discovered that Yumi’s cells had all but disappeared in a cryogenics chamber for lack of usage. She had been living an exemplary life for the past three years as a successful writer, so her cells had no reason to run amok. Thus, they went off to sleep.
Living a stable and mature life meant her cells deactivated.
However, getting assigned a new PD for her project revived these dormant cells. First, she was miffed when SSR labeled the breed of the dog she was pet-sitting, a Maltese, as stupid. (Frankly, I agree with him. I prefer border collies and Aussie Shepherds to a Maltese, Pekingese, or Shih Tzu for their cognitive ability and trainability.) Instead of calmly ceding the point, she rose to her pup’s defense by inventing fake news.
Sidenote: If you ask me, the male lead SSR comes off as a Maltese type, anyway. He has that cute lapdog/low-energy vibe instead of a workaholic border collie or a sharp German Shepherd.
Next, she couldn’t forgive him for buying the last eight “strawberry cream custard bungeoppang” that she loved despite her hinting at him to share one (or two) with her. Seriously: the grownup thing to do here was to just come out and ask him if she could buy one from him, instead of seething all night that he didn’t give her one.
Why couldn’t she just admit that fish bread was just the last straw? She had been spoiling for a fight ever since he broke etiquette and put on his earphones while standing on the bus with her. But I don’t think it entered her mind that he saw her looking down at her earphones in her hand, and that he assumed that she wanted to put them on but held back because of him. As she’s his senior (or boss), he was likely deferring to her needs.
Unfortunately, her first encounters with the new PD only managed to hardened her prejudice against the guy. Even when he pleased her with great feedback on her writing, her pesky pride cell stopped her from thanking him. I’m sure that if she had shown a bit more appreciation for his effort and insights, she would have made great strides in bonding with him.
Then, after he extricated themselves from a driving snafu, she mistook his vague reaction as mocking her driving skills. Or to be precise, her village of cells (mis)assumed that his curiosity about her driving experience and his subsequence silence when she answered a paltry “six months” indicated that he considered her hopelessly incompetent.
Honestly, these would all have been funny if she was in her mid-20s, early 30s, but as Yumi must be in her mid to late 30s (when the series began she was 32 years old), I couldn’t help wondering why she still couldn’t act her age and how long she would keep up these romantic shenanigans.
Look: enemies-to-lovers is a very common plot but there must be a really good reason for enmity to exist between the couple (e.g., rivalry, revenge, opposing missions, and/or conflicting ideologies) in order to make the romance believable and worth our emotional investment.
So far, all I’m getting is Yumi is peeved primarily because the new guy isn’t a sycophantic admirer.
She tried incessantly to become friends with him by chatting with him and finding a connection. But for one reason or another, he wasn’t reciprocating her friendship overtures. Honestly, I don’t get why she even bothered. She could just aim to develop a cordial working relationship with SSR and eschew any thought of an informal/familiar socialization with him. There’s nothing wrong with keeping it professional between the two of them. To me, her insistence on being chatty with him while he remained impassive and looked even uncomfortable with her unwanted conversation, could be seen as disrespecting his personal space and boundary.
Originally, she was ecstatic (and relieved) that she didn’t need to endure his sphinx-like company for long. But when she realized that he was the one to ask to be dropped as her PD, she saw red.
The clue was his words of gratitude.
Yumi: I just talked to Editor An.
SSR: Ah.
Yumi: (fake regret) We just started, and already it’s goodbye.
SRR: Right?
Yumi: (fake gaiety) I guess we need a farewell party. I’ll miss working with you.
SRR: I’m sorry.
Yumi: You’ve got nothing to be sorry for…
SRR: Thank you for understanding.
Yumi: (silent)
For me, thanking her revealed two things.
One, thanking her for understanding meant that a) he had made a request to be replaced, knowing full-well that his request would inconvenience the workflow, and b) he was grateful for her accommodating his request. Lol. I don’t know why Yumi assumed that the PD-swap was done purely on a whim by Editor An.
And two, thanking her indicated that he wasn’t as a) oblivious to good manners and b) ignorant of social cues as he seemed to be. Remember, Yumi assumed that he was a rudesby because he put on his earphones while in her company and didn’t give her a bungeoppang. Asking to be replaced meant that he realized that he and Yumi weren’t getting on well together. Saying that he was “overwhelmed” by the work was probably just his face-saving excuse.
After her discovery, she went to clear the air with him. While she sounded like a “woman scorned,” he looked like a scared rabbit. Sigh. To me, this was the moment when I thought that the actor playing SSR, Kim JaeWoon, was miscast. Not only does Kim GoEun outshine him, giving a more nuanced performance in every scene, but his character is vapid and totally domitable by Kim Go Eun’s Yumi. I hope I’m wrong….
Hi @pkml3! Thanks for the thread and your take on Episodes 1 and 2. I have yet to watch it and your opinion gives me pause.
I went back to read what I wrote about Yumi’s Cells before. I found her even then to be too prideful, too OTT when entering into relationships…. not able to compromise or take the middle path. So if she still has not changed in Season 3, I guess I may watch mainly to roll my eyes.
If I watch, I want to know what the cells are up to. At least I re-read that I liked her Stomach Cell. I hope he/she will make a come back.
I see that @WE liked the Season 1 for SJJ’s creativity. That, at least, will be something to look out for. 🙂
@GB,
Yes, you were able to pinpoint Yumi’s major flaws: her pride and inflexibility.
The pride cell already made her presence known, but I don’t think the screenwriter/webtoon writer is aware that his character has a “my-way-or-the-highway” predisposition. To be fair, Yumi originally wanted to swap SSR out because she couldn’t adjust to him (Lol. She was stress-eating because of him) but she talked herself out of it. That’s the reason she was incensed when she found that the feeling was mutual, that is, he also didn’t want to work with her, but SSR had the guts to act on it, and beat her to the punch. He dumped her when she could have dumped him FIRST.
For me, the cells are hilarious only because Yumi’s decision-making processes and subsequent actions are imperfect. Given her age when the series started, her missteps and screwups were understandable because she had just begun “adulting.” But if considerable time has passed and she’s still making the same errors, then that tells me that there hasn’t been a significant character growth.
More cells — or to be precise, DIFFERENT cells — should show up, e.g., a self-control cell (not just the rational cell) to tame her emotional cell, or a compromise cell to restrain the pride cell, or even an abstemious cell to deny her eating impulse aka hunger cell whenever she’s stressed out.
But I’m not totally hate-watching the show. 🙂 I’m watching this because I like Kim GoEun’s acting and I find her many expressions very comical. She’s versatile actress like Shin Hye-sun (“Mr Queen”), but unlike SHS, she has a cute, adorable and pinch-able face. You should see the scene in Episode 2 when she successfully snatched all fish bread from the stall. Both glee and SPITE were gloriously combined in her a) facial expression, b) body movement, and c) voice. She nailed the performance. Thus, despite being shocked by her pettiness, I can’t help but side with her.
Hi @pkml3, that’s so true!!! Until you put it into words, I never thought through how Yumi should have had a gazillion other cells that could have been activated, if she’d only developed that area of her ‘brain/mind/will’. She (perhaps like many of us) seems to mostly be rational except when she’s being emotional. Hence the 2 cells we see most are the Rational and Emotional cells.
However when she starts feeling anything other than indifference and a lack of desire for anything, her emotions seem to take over and Rational Cell has a real hard time.
Truth to tell, I started watching Ep 1 and fell asleep about two-thirds of the way into it. I’ll make an attempt to cover Eps 1-4 and see what may be happening on this thread or any others on YC3. 🙂
As usual @pkml3, you validate all feelings that a performance arouses in the viewer.
I have tried several times to watch Y1 and Y2, but I couldnt get past Yumi herself. So embarassing, cringey.
But what a good actress! To make one hate her in one role and love her in another. That is skill, magnetism, and control.
(I asked Grok to translate my comment)
And yes, after two seasons, Yumi is still timorous, or even worse. 🙂
But that’s what makes the drama funny, right? Not to mention the dozens of amusing situations, very well crafted by the writers throughout all the episodes. This drama is a gourmet dish that you savor.
Yumi has a stable and mature life? Stable yes, but mature, I don’t think so. She’s cryogenically frozen herself emotionally. It’s peaceful like a zombie life without hunger!
The first 20 minutes of episode 1 were as boring as Yumi’s life, but the last part of the episode was thrilling, with the care of the cute little doggo. He says that the Maltese bichon sometimes eats its own poop, and that drives her crazy. But fun fact, Ruby later says that yes, Coco (the dog’s name) does lick its poop sometimes. ^^!
Ah yes, Yumi could have just bluntly said, “Hey, I want strawberry donuts, let’s share them, I’ll pay half”… but no, she’s timorous, ahahaha, you have to deal with her dumb personality!!! 😀
The guy was really rude though, whether it was the headphones on the bus, or just not understanding the obvious hints about the donuts, plus other stuff… This guy is really annoying. You could say he doesn’t owe Yumi anything, but as her producer, he should be much more considerate. He has zero social score. He doesn’t even do his job properly to build a good, engaging working relationship. Just saying “yes” and shutting down is unworthy of a producer dedicated to her. So I give 100% credit to Yumi!
He’s a man of writing and reading as we’ll see later, very talented, sincere and insightful in that area, in contrast to his social skills. But no way to thank him, the slate of other vexations is too heavy!! Everything is perfectly orchestrated in terms of scenario. I noted quite a few clever transitions and visual effects, but I won’t make a list like in season 1. The screenplay is gold, you can feel it.
Okay, Yumi is 30 years old and she’s not really mature on certain points, but that’s the point of the drama and it resonates with a lot of people, because many people aren’t mature on certain points. I myself am not mature overall, but I am more so on other points. There’s an imbalance.
Then, the twist: it’s him who asked to leave his position. Ahahah! Enough to drive Yumi crazy. No really, both are equally pitiful.
I’m more positive than you about the male actor. So far, he’s played the role as it was required, and did it correctly, even if one could argue that it’s not a very demanding role. Anyway, I’m positive about the drama. The first two episodes were funny and sharp.
@Pm3: Oh yes, Kim Go Eun acting is excellent here, so many expressions or chaining expressions (I remember a moment in the scene in the train). After so many episodes she gets the character in her skin.
@GB: yes, ep1 start is a bit slow, but it gets interesting fast when the new guy enters.
I started to watch Ep3 now, and we see the world of this weird “calm and rational” guy.