Let’s get down to business.

1. Sexual gestures, and other hand gestures

In the opening scene of this episode, the Japanese raided GaGyeong’s friend’s pawnshop which doubled as love motel. The pawnshop owner (PO) described his establishment as a watermill (or “mulle-banga”) because in the olden days, watermills were found on the outskirts of villages, making them a convenient rendezvous spot for lovers wanting to engage in a tryst or sexual dalliance.

Moreover, there’s an equipment inside the watermill for grinding grain that appears to simulate the sex act when it moves up and down. Picture this, if you will: a watermill in a secluded place; the flowing stream rotating the wheel non-stop; and the wheel making a wooden log rhythmically lift and drop onto a receptacle.

This is how the PO described his inn.

PO: A watermill is where the wheel starts turning, and the pounding begins…

Meanwhile, GaGyeong (GG) was too embarrassed to translate his words, so she tried another euphemism. She said that the inn was a place mostly used by young men and women during daytime to play sports. Lol. In she knew tennis, she could have said “mixed doubles.”

GG: This is where people come in pairs to play sports.
Soldier 1: What?
Soldier 2: Sports in pairs?
GG: Yes, sports.

And she clapped her hands together. (Sidenote: Did she think bodies slammed that hard?)

When the soldiers asked Sato Hideo aka Kim TaeEung (TE) what he was doing at the inn, he was forced to pretend that GG was his partner in sports.

TE: This lady…is here with me.
Soldier 1: With you?
TE: That’s right. We’re a pair. She’s my partner in sports.

And he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and held her tight to him.

His gesture signaled that they were lovers.

Now, later on, when Philip Yoo (PY) met with Shinichi and TE, he cleverly pushed them to hire GG as their interpreter.

PY: Do you happen to remember our live-in maid?
Shinichi: The live-in maid? I remember her.
PY: So you remember her? Her English is quite good. She’s very bright. She can handle the job with no problem. It would be wonderful if she could work at the Government-General and assist with the Commission’s visit alongside me. Wouldn’t that benefit us both?

And he raised a pinkie.

Shinichi: Uh… I was wondering.

Pretending to be embarrassed, he covered his eyes with his other hand and raised his pinkie.

PY: That’s right. She’s my sweetheart.
Shinichi: (laughing out loud) That explains it.

In Japanese, holding up a closed hand with a pinky sticking out means that he has a mistress or girlfriend. Sidenote: in Japanese sign language, the sign for female lover is a double tap under the eye with your pinkie. The sign for a male lover is a double tap under the eye with your thumb. Lol.

Interestingly, when TE asked GG her motives for joining his office, she lied.

TE: Why did you go through Mr. Yoo Philip to come to the Government-General? Why do you keep getting involved with me?
GG: (silent)

She had nothing to say because she couldn’t tell him the truth that he had nothing to do with her presence her. She was ordered to spy on the government, not him.

TE: I knew you’d have nothing to say.
GG: (blurting) I like you! I’ve had feelings for you since we first met. That’s why I came here.

The camera moved down to show her crossed fingers behind her back.

I find it noteworthy that all three – TE, PY and GG – lied about a sexual relationship, but it was only GG who felt guilty about lying. She crossed her fingers to ward off the “bad luck” or “karma” coming her way for her dishonesty.

Her hand gesture is her way of coping with her many lies. She’s acutely aware that dishonesty is bad. But when she’s trapped in a crisis that can only be averted by deception, then she has no compunction about lying. So far, I don’t see her lies as driven by malice, but by circumstance and/or exigency.

To me, this is how she’s set up to be fundamentally different from SoRan’s ex-husband, SeokJung (SJ). SJ couldn’t lie to save his daughter, and then, he surrendered his comrades’ names anyway.

I’m reminded of the famous “Nazi at the door” dilemma. A Nazi comes knocking on your door, demanding to see your friends whom you have hidden in the attic. Do you tell the truth or lie to protect your friend?

SJ would have vacillated between his options and (mis)calculated the risks. But GG would have outright lied to protect her friends.

And I think SoRan respected her for that.

Case in point.

SR: Lee GaGyeong.
GG: Who is that? Lee GaGyeong?
SR: As an orphan, you worked as a live-in maid for an American missionary. You’ve been living in the shantytown in GyodangRi these past few years. You live with a young rickshaw puller and a little girl who can’t walk. They’re not your husband and daughter. Lee No Ma and Bank Kkotnim?
GG: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
SR: You told those two to report it, didn’t you? But who do you think those two are with now?
GG: I really have no idea what you’re talking about.
SR: Fine.

Unlike Soran’s ex-husband, GG understands that when she’s faced with two conflicting realities, i.e., “Lying is bad” vs “Dying is bad,” common sense dictates that her supreme priority is survival and preservation of life.

2. SoRan vs GG

Remember my first write-up when I said that the word “Keijo” could mean “competing women”?  I told you all that SR and GG were two women with competing interests and, that if GG hadn’t “crossed” her lane and became too greedy, then her fate and SR’s would never have entangled like this.

They have a battle of wits again.

SR: Let me ask you something. You’re smart, resourceful and even fluent in English. Why do you live like this?
GG: That’s none of your business. Then, why do you live like this? Why do you fight for independence? You could die doing that.
SR: I might as well have died a long time ago. So I’m not afraid of death.

Meaning, she’s a dead woman walking anyway.

SR: Someday, I hope you’ll make it to America, GaGyeong. Go there and be happy.
GG: I told you, I’m not Lee GaGyeong. (turning to go) But you know what? If you plan to die fighting for independence, don’t have children. Whatever the reason, there’s nothing worse than leaving a child all alone.

GG’s speaking from experience. Her mother abandoned her and, in her mind, there’s nothing worse as being abandoned by one’s mother. However, she doesn’t know that, from SR’s perspective, there is something worse than leaving a child all alone. And that’s burying your child who died in your arms.

It’s a daughter’s pain vs mother’s pain.

3. “Bulssanghan nyeon” or “pitiful wench”

The boss of the pickpockets called her a pitiful wench.

Boss: (talking to No Ma) Do you know why that bitch’s so good at pickpocketing? It’s in her blood. She’s got the blood of the Japanese who stole our country. The blood of a thief is bound to show. (talking to GG) Yah! Do you think your mother hooked up with a Jap just once? You know deep down you’ve probably got Jap blood in you, don’t you? Aigoo. You pitiful wench.
GG: Watch your mouth.
Boss: What? She’s still your mother, so you’re upset because I insulted her?
GG: (yelling) No! Watch your mouth about me.
Boss: What?
GG: I am not pitiful wench.
Boss: What are you then? If you are not a pitiful wench, then what are you?

Three points:

a. I translated what the boss called her using Naver. The boss didn’t say “wench.” Instead, he called her “bitch.” A pitiful bitch. He alluded to the fact that her mother was a prostitute or sex worker who slept with the enemy.

b. The boss incorrectly assumed that GG was furious because he insulted her mother. No. In truth, she was mad because he insulted HER. You see, all her life, she tried so hard to dissociate from her mother’s occupation.

c. The symbolism of water

Later that night, as she walked on the streets, she looked back at how she lived her life. Her flashback came as a montage.

First, there was a village woman who shouted at her, “Disgusting. That filthy blood. Get out of my house.” Then, on top of that, the woman spat on her.

GG had only been a little girl then.

Obviously, by “filthy blood,” the woman was referring to her mother sleeping with a Japanese man and producing a child. Her filthy blood came from both parents: one who was a prostitute and the other a colonial oppressor.

After that, the montage always showed GG with water. She was symbolically washing that “spit” off her body.

First, she was washing clothes in the house of the American family. She learned English from listening to them and repeating their conversation.

Next cut, she was washing clothes with the women at the stream.

She heard the women gossiping about a “widow” who had an affair with a Japanese man and ran off to Japan. The women stopped talking because she was there. Maybe they didn’t want her to be reminded of her mother, too.

Then, one day, as she was carrying laundry, she was stopped by a recruiter and offered a job to work at a textile factory.

Historical note: many women were falsely promised jobs at textile factories. They found themselves being trafficked as sexual slaves.

In the next cut, she was fending off a Japanese man. The man asked her, why she kept saying no when she must be after a Japanese man like her mother. The water is right there again, in the form of a waterfall.

There was a struggle and the next thing we saw was Japanese slippers, her bruised face, her hand on a bloodied rock, and the body of Japanese man floating in the water.

To me, the water in these sequences meant that she attempted to cleanse herself of that “filthy blood” all her life.

She didn’t want the Boss calling her as a pitiful bitch because she refused to see herself as trapped and tainted by her birth.

4. The symbolism of the tram

Back in my first write-up, I also pointed out the tram to the readers as something important. There was a black and white tram loading up with passengers in one scene which transformed into a blue-gray tram in the next scene. I said the scenes were matched to show that political change was on its way. Whether one wanted to metaphorically jump on the bandwagon…or in this case, the streetcar…the resistance movement was coming.

Well, in this episode, the tram was again seen passing behind GG as she arrived at the General Government Building (GGB). Just like in Episode 1, she stood there, looking at the grand structure.

But to me, the symbolism of tram has now broadened. It no longer simply means that change is inevitable, but it also represents a dilemma, a famous dilemma which is aptly called the “trolley dilemma.”

The “trolley dilemma” asks what will you do if you see a runaway trolley hurtling down the main track toward five people. There’s a lever right next to you that can divert the trolley down a side track toward one person.

Will you intervene and pull the level, killing one individual OR will do you do nothing, let events take its course, and watch five people die?

To me, the tram behind GG in this episode shows the decision of SoRan and the pro-independence movement if they’re presented with the trolley dilemma. They would sacrifice the one for the many. They knew that GG’s chance of surviving as a spy is nil yet they still forced her to become their spy for a 100 days because their cause was too important. To them, her life would be collateral damage.

So far, there are three people who care for her existence/survival: her pretend family, No Ma and Kottnim, and of course, her love interest, TE. As for SoRan, my guess is that she’ll sacrifice herself for GG because GG reminds her of her dead child. It’s not lost upon me that had her daughter lived, she would have been around GG’s age.

5. The Government-General of Chosen (or the Japanese General Government Building)

FYI on this building because we aren’t Koreans….

If you visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul today, you’ll see a wide open area once you enter through the Gwanghwamun Gate. This open space was where the Government-General Building used to stand.

Its construction began in 1916 and ended in 1926. The Japanese ensured that their new building towered over the Joseon palace and awestruck visitors so they would never forget that Japan was strong and powerful while Korea was weak and obsolete. The Japanese also moved the Gwanghwamun Gate to another location because it was an eyesore blocking the impressive facade of the Government-General Building.

GG’s reaction when she saw the outside and inside of the the Government-General Building is as expected.

In 1996, the Korean government began the demolition of the building to “rectify history” and “restore their heritage.”