Even though our writer has joined the cast of her own show, her true feelings remain hidden from the cameras as she and her fellow cast members pair off in ways that are best for ratings — and for their personal ambitions. But even after the cameras stop filming, our writer and news anchor — can we still call him that? — discover that the lies told on “reality” television have a way of blocking them from their happiness in the real world.
EPISODES 7-8
Nothing about reality television is real, so it should come as no surprise that the cast of our dating-show-within-a-Korean-drama was given a heads up that Woo-joo would be joining them in front of the cameras. Yeah, all those shocked faces we saw last week when Woo-joo walked around the corner and revealed herself as the newest cast member on Couples Paradise? 100% scripted. The actual reality behind this particular reality show is that Jung-heon suggested Woo-joo should replace the missing Ms. Former Swimmer, and once Woo-joo begrudgingly agreed that she was objectively their best option to salvage Couples Paradise, the rest of the cast was then looped in and asked for their input.
For the most part, they were just curious as to why Woo-joo — one of the writers, of all people — was the chosen replacement, and Jung-heon volunteered the information that he and Woo-joo used to date. After that particular cat was let out of the bag, the rest of the cast acknowledged that her presence on Couples Paradise (as Jung-heon’s former girlfriend) was thematically on brand. And with everyone in agreement that the show would proceed with Woo-joo, filming reconvened the next day as though Ms. Former Swimmer was never there. (Seriously, how are they going to explain that one to the viewers when they have no idea why she fled in the middle of the night?)
The next morning, filming is off to a rather rocky start. Woo-joo, who has spent her entire career behind the scenes, doesn’t quite know what to do with herself once she’s put in front of the camera. She’s stiff and unable to quelch her support staff instincts that have her hollering at the crew when she realizes the tissue box on set is empty. However, all is not lost because, in Woo-joo’s moment of awkwardness, Ki-baek and Jung-heon’s low-key chivalry is caught on camera. Thus, a new love triangle for Couples Paradise is introduced, and Yeon and Ha-young breathe a sigh of relief.
After breakfast, Team Testosterone is tasked with picking an item belonging to one of the ladies from a basket in order to determine the pairings for the next challenge. Jung-heon and Ki-baek are the last two to pick. Jung-heon assumes the cat keychain belongs to Cho-hui, so he picks the lip gloss and smirks at Ki-baek, whisper-taunting, “Enjoy your date with Cho-hui.” Jokes on him, though, because the keychain belongs to Woo-joo, and Ki-baek knew it all along.
The next competition is an ATV race across the beach, and Woo-joo is so excited that Ki-baek doesn’t even attempt to fight her for the right to drive the all terrain vehicle. The rest of Team Testosterone take up the traditionally masculine role of the driver and have their partners hold on from behind, but Ki-baek sits behind Woo-joo and clings to her. Honestly, it was this little detail that single-handedly doubled my love of Ki-baek’s character. It would have been so easy for him to have tried to prove his manliness by being the one to race head to head against Jung-heon, but he put Woo-joo’s happiness first. And in the end, it turned out to be a smart move, and their combined enthusiasm won them the competition and the right to go on a date together.
Except… Ki-baek doesn’t want to cash in their winning ticket on a date with Woo-joo. Despite her objections and her insistence that they should follow the script that her fellow writers’ are setting up for them, we all know there’s a little part of Woo-joo that’s hurt to know he wants to use the ticket on a date with (bleh) Cho-hui. Woo-joo need not worry, though, because Ki-baek doesn’t have any romantic feelings for Cho-hui. Instead, he wants to use the date as an opportunity to ditch the mics and camera crew so he can be alone with Cho-hui and ask her why she blackmailed Ms. Former Swimmer into leaving the Couples Paradise. (Yup, I knew she was suss.)
Cho-hui hides behind the “it’s wrong for her to be on the show because she has a boyfriend” excuse, but even if Ki-baek believes she’s telling the truth, he scolds her for how she handled the situation. Cho-hui assumes he’s upset because Ms. Former Swimmer is the mystery woman he admitted to liking, but his cavalier denial has Cho-hui putting one and two together and figuring out that Woo-joo is the real third in our drama’s love triangle.
Cho-hui, it turns out, is our resident white lotus character, and although her motives remain a secret, it’s clear that she wants to be paired up with Ki-baek. And, for some even more unfathomable reason, he’s willing to go along with her agenda — at least while on camera. Off camera, though, he’s head over heels for Woo-joo, which is why he places Woo-joo’s hand on his chest when he explains to her that he will be selecting Cho-hui in the rapidly approaching final selection. He’s gotta turn off that switch so he can lie his way through his confession to Cho-hui.
After Ki-baek choses Cho-hui on the last day of filming, the cameras turn to Woo-joo to film her choice, but before we find out her selection, we skip a month ahead into the future to the premiere date of Couples Paradise’s pilot episode. Both Ki-baek and Jung-heon are anxiously waiting for someone– Woo-joo, obviously — to appear, and it’s Jung-heon who ends up disappointed. However, Woo-joo’s appearance on the rooftop to watch the pilot episode with her and Ki-baek’s families isn’t an indicator that she picked him on the show. In fact, (cue flashback) she picked no one.
So how is Woo-joo and Ki-baek’s relationship in the real world now that filming is over? Well, Ki-baek would like to know the answer to that question, too. Woo-joo was “busy with work” (aka avoiding him) for the last month, and even though their reunion resulted in a kiss, their relationship status is what Millennials familiar with the early days of Facebook would call “complicated.” You see, even though Woo-joo didn’t pick anyone during the final selection on the Couples Paradise, Ki-baek did, and now that the show has started airing, they shouldn’t be seen in public together. Can’t have people figuring out it’s all fake, ya know?
Woo-joo’s appearance on her own reality show has also affected her professional life. People at the television network seem more interested in casting for variety shows than partnering with her as a writer, and she’s told to stay away from her writing team in order to avoid negative rumors about her addition to Couple’s Paradise. So, in the meantime, Woo-joo is temporarily assigned as the writer for a foodie variety show, and as her unfortunate luck would have it, the host can’t make it to their scheduled shoot because of an emergency appendectomy.
Her misfortune, however, becomes an opportunity for Ki-baek to play the hero, gallantly stepping in to replace the missing host. The restaurant he is supposed to review just so happens to be one he frequented when he was a college student, but it’s changed over the years. The sweet ahjumma who used to give him and his friends extra ribs has become a cantankerous cook who yells at her patrons, and the food — although appealing to the eyes — is not as good as he remembered.
The truth-telling Ki-baek gives a frank and honest review of his meal, and exposes the ahjumma and her social media obsessed children out on their gimmick. The ahjumma, who has grown tired of all the lies, is inspired to take command of her kitchen, and the director is so pleased with the feel-good exposé, that he wants Ki-baek to take over as the permanent host of the foodie show. Ki-baek refuses — unless Woo-joo becomes the permanent writer. Nope, she tells him, not gonna happen.
And while she’s on the topic of things that aren’t gonna happen, Woo-joo reminds him that they should be cautious about their public interactions. They must protect the authenticity of Couples Paradise, so they can’t have people figuring out how they really feel about one another. That’s easier said than done, though, and when the cast of Couples Paradise meet up to film some show promos, it’s obvious to anyone with an above average emotional intelligence that Ki-baek is jealous as he watches Woo-joo and Jung-heon partnering up for all the photographs.
After the photoshoot, Woo-joo and Ki-baek carpool home, and he’s extra pouty because he didn’t get to pose for photos with Woo-joo. Despite the potential risk of being seen, Woo-joo pulls over so that they can take a picture at a photobooth, and Ki-baek is instantly more cheerful. His enthusiasm is infectious, and Woo-joo drops her guard enough when they’re back in their neighborhood to hold Ki-baek’s hand. But, it’s as if the universe is trying to prove that there are eyes everywhere, and that’s how our not-quite-a-couple gets caught by Ki-baek’s dad. He does his best to pretend he didn’t see anything, but he ain’t foolin’ anyone.
While Ki-baek and Woo-joo have been skirting the boundaries of what they should and should not do for the sake Couples Paradise, Jung-heon has been languishing in despair. The man truly loves Woo-joo, but he’s also realized that his past f*ck-up has ruined his chances of a future with Woo-joo — a truth made more evident when he sees her sneak mutual glances with Ki-baek on set.
Over the course of this week’s episodes we’ve discovered the cause of his breakup with Woo-joo: he lied to his family that Woo-joo was the daughter of two teachers. The truth, however, is that Woo-joo was raised by a single mother, OHN BOK-JA (Baek Joo-hee), a woman who — given context clues and the South Korean social stigma associated with orphans that would likely prompt Ki-baek to lie — probably isn’t Woo-joo’s biological mother. Woo-joo assumed Jung-heon was ashamed of her upbringing, which prompted her to break up with him.
In the present, Jung-heon books a hair appointment at Bok-ja’s salon and apologizes to her. He wasn’t ashamed of Woo-joo or her mother. He thought his lie was a way to shield her from his parents’ unfair judgment. Woo-joo, who overheard his conversation with her mother, accepts his apology. She finally has closure and feels better knowing his actions were unintentionally hurtful rather than a sign she’d invested three years of love and trust into someone who was secretly ashamed of her. Her forgiveness, however, does not mean she wants to start over. As she told him on the set of Couples Paradise, she’s put their past behind her, and now she’s ready to start something new. Even though he already knows the answer, Jung-heon still asks, “Is Ki-baek the person in your heart now?”
We don’t see her answer him because it’s time for the tragic misunderstanding part of our story. Cut to: Ki-baek, who is on his way to formally confess his feelings and hopefully change his “complicated” relationship status to something a little less ambiguous. Sadly, before he can ask Woo-joo to be his girlfriend, he spies her hugging Jung-heon outside their building. It’s very obvious (to us) that Woo-joo was only giving Jung-heon a pitying sorry-I-just-rejected-you hug, but we’re going to have to wait until next week to find out how long it’s going to take Woo-joo and Ki-baek to clear up this little misconception. (Boooooo.)
The further we get away from this drama’s original premise about an uncontrollably truthful news anchor, the more I seem to enjoy the story — but I think that’s only because the romance is strong enough to tie everything together. Without them, I’d have whiplash from the way the story bounces from the newsroom to the various production stages of Couples Paradise. Like, is anyone else baffled by the speed at which they wrapped up production? Is that because filming will commence again only if the pilot episode garners enough ratings to merit more episodes? Or is the premise of Couples Paradise to film a new crop of singles every three episodes or so?
I, for one, am not happy with the one-month time jump. I actually would have preferred it if more of our story’s romance would have played out on the set of Couples Paradise — especially since our OTP is still having to act as though cameras are pointed at them. At least while they were filming, we had the Singles Inferno parody to make the Cho-hui drama seem relevant to our story (seriously, why is Ki-baek helping her?!) and fuel our amusement.
And speaking of amusing, my favorite scene of the week was — hands down — the reveal that Yeon is Gu-won’s mother. The setup of having Eon-baek first get on Gu-won’s bad side by refusing to share his chicken — because he gotta get dem gains, bro — only to find out the kid is his crush’s son was priceless. Even better, though, is that his disappointment doesn’t stem from the fact that she has a son. No, he assumed that Gu-won’s existence meant she was married, so his exuberance when he discovers she was actually a single mother is so lovely. Eon-baek is my favorite gym bro, and I hope little Gu-won makes Eon-baek squirm during his courtship of Yeon.