Our second half kicks off in Yongdu-ri, as the Hongs are now jobless, penniless, and friendless. Good thing they’ve got a devoted son-in-law to champion their fight against the usurpers. Despite their divorce, our lead couple cannot stop worrying about each other, and there’s only so much a villain can do when his opponents put up a united front.
EPISODES 9-10
Last week, the Hongs were kicked out of Queens Group and Queensville. And since Grandpa Hong put his family as joint surety in the contract for the failed resort project, the family’s real estate is seized, and their stocks and personal bank accounts are also frozen. They lose company cars and credit cards and they’re practically broke now. *Chuckles and then remembers that Hae-in and Aunt Beom-ja are also affected* As a result, it’s Welcome to Samdal-ri Yongdu-ri for the humbled Hongs.
Hae-in is uncomfortable accepting help from her ex-husband and ex in-laws, but Hyun-woo won’t have it any other way. He wants her under his nose because he doesn’t have the luxury to worry about her elsewhere. “I’ll stop worrying when you’re better. Just stay with me,” Hyun-woo says. Happiness together might be a stretch, but at least they can focus on being less miserable together. Still, Hae-in draws the line: just because she’s in Yongdu-ri doesn’t change things between them. But guess who spends the night texting each other — and deleting what they actually want to say in favor of more mundane stuff? That’s right, it’s BaekHong! Lol.
When Hae-in confirms her high school connection with Hyun-woo via the music player in his room, she can’t help but think that he was born to love her. A teasing Hae-in asks if the owner of the MP3 was pretty, and a panicked Hyun-woo flies into the room to reassure her that he can’t even remember the owner. LMAO! BaekHong thrives on misunderstandings and miscommunication, but of all the times for Hyun-woo to be vocal, it’s now? Loool. This drama cracks me up in the most unexpected ways. It’s even funnier when Hyun-woo tells Yang-gi later on that not only does he remember the owner of the MP3, he’s sure he’ll recognize her right away if he sees her again. Tsk. For all his smartness, Hyun-woo can be really dense sometimes.
Anyway, since Hyun-woo and Hae-in are under the same roof once again, they forget that they’re supposed to be divorced. If Hyun-woo is not smiling to himself when he comes to check in on a sleeping Hae-in in the morning, a worried Hae-in is getting secret updates from Secretary Na on Hyun-woo’s activities in the office in the light of the restructuring at work. It’s either BaekHong is going to the hospital together for Hae-in’s checkups, or they’re plotting Eun-seong’s downfall — as they should. But you know how it is with this drama. One minute you’re laughing because their divorce is not really divorce-ing, and the next, you’re hit with Hae-in’s newfound goal of doing everything to get back on her feet so that she can part ways with Hyun-woo for good. Sigh.
The reality of a fall from grace is humbling. It also exposes the strength of the relationships our characters have cultivated over the years. Mommy Hong’s sister doesn’t bat an eye at the Hongs’ predicament after receiving so much help from them in the past. It’s the same story with the people around Daddy Hong — and to an extent, Daddy Baek after losing the village head election. At least Daddy Baek has his family, and Hae-in has Hyun-woo and Secretary Na to rely on. As for Beom-ja, well, we don’t know much about her friends, but she has her go-to private investigator on her side, and that counts for something.
Hae-in, Aunt Beom-ja and Daddy Hong readily adjust to their new reality at Yongdu-ri, but Mommy Hong and Soo-cheol take their sweet time to adjust. Mommy Hong envies Hae-in’s warm relationship with Mommy Baek — but she’s the same person who campaigns for gold medal in the suffering Olympics and dismisses Hae-in’s “anemia” when Hae-in passes out on the street. “It’s not normal to faint,” Mommy Baek counters, and this is why she wins the mom Olympics.
Mommy Baek is crushed when she inevitably learns that Hae-in is sick, and she doesn’t hesitate to scold Hyun-woo for his initial reaction to Hae-in’s illness. Of course she makes sure to properly feed and tend to her daughter-in-law, and Mommy Hong can go hit her head against a pear tree or something if she’s so jealous. As for the dads, they bond over losing the election and the Queens’ vice chairmanship by drinking, watching dramas — and shading drama writers for lack of proper research. Lol.
Checking in on the usurpers, Eun-seong and his mom clash because Hae-in is no longer at Queensville. “How can we live under the same roof as those we stole from?” Ms. Girlfriend asks, and I co-ask as well. Eun-seong was more unique when he was just a sociopathic villain, but the advent of these “feelings” for Hae-in makes him like other dramaland second male leads.
Eun-stereotypical claims to have done everything he did because of Hae-in, and he threatens to choose her over Ms. Girlfriend. After all, mommy dearest chose the Hong family over him for 20 years. Smh. Mr. Delulu needs to pick a side and stick to it because I’m sending a drone of curses to him, and I don’t want it to drop on innocent people. That aside, the cracks in the mom-son relationship gives me joy. Ms. Girlfriend makes it look like she “sacrificed” the joy of motherhood and sent Eun-seong to be adopted abroad for their grand takeover plans, but I don’t think she loves her son as much as she claims.
Watching last week’s dog attack flashback, I found it odd that Ms. Girlfriend was more concerned about Hae-in’s injury than Eun-seong getting scolded. Not a single backward glance to see if her son was all right. Even at Grandpa’s birthday when Mommy Hong wanted to seat Eun-seong with the family, Ms. Girlfriend was very firm in her insistence that Eun-seong was not family. Pretense or not, these actions aren’t very motherly of her.
Since they’re now rivals rather than co-conspirators, Eun-seong turns down Ms. Girlfriend’s attempt to take over Hae-in’s position at Queens’ department store. Ms. Girlfriend reminds him that as long as Grandpa is still in a coma she controls 21% of the stocks. So what does Eun-seong do next? He kidnaps Grandpa from the hospital to force his mom’s hand! I mean, if the old man kicks the bucket, her power of attorney becomes useless. Ha!
Speaking of hospitals, Eun-snoop finds Hae-in’s hospital card in her room at Queensville, and he uses it to print out her medical reports. Shocked at her diagnosis, he storms into her doctor’s office demanding answers, but since he’s not Hae-in’s guardian, the doctor refuses to tell him anything. Tsk. Not this guy violating Hae-in’s privacy and expecting an applause because he’s “worried about her.” What is he even supposed to be right now? A knight in rusty armor? Lord Protector of the Order of Hae-in? Smh. Eun-stalker further tracks Hae-in to Yongdu-ri, and gives her two days to return to the department store — and to him — otherwise, he’ll tell her parents about her condition. Oh! He’s crazy crazy.
While Eun-seong has become chairman of Queens, he needs one of the Hongs — in this case, Hae-in — to publicly show support and add legitimacy to his claim. But since Eun-steal didn’t achieve the position legally, Hyun-woo is determined to expose him as a fraud. Hyun-woo has a whole plan to this effect involving a scammer attached to the land for the failed resort project, but the business-y stuff hurts my brain, so we’ll just focus on how super hot and sexy Hyun-woo is in the middle of all this plotting.
We get an action sequence when Hyun-woo has to fight off Land Scammer and his thugs, and it turns out that not only does Hyun-woo have a sexy brain, he’s also got sexy fists! *Fans self* Oppa needs to star in an action flick next. Moving on, Hyun-woo gets home with a few cuts and scrapes, and Hae-in jumps into mother hen mode. Again, this is not how divorced people behave.
Hae-in tears up on seeing his bruises, but Hyun-woo can’t promise not to further put himself into harm’s way as long as Hae-in is concerned. This is not what someone in love wants to hear when it concerns the person she loves, so Hae-in reminds Hyun-woo that only married couples throw caution to the wind for each other. Now she remembers that they’re no longer married? Sigh. These people stress me. If I grow gray hairs after this drama, just know it’s because of them.
Following this incident, Hyun-woo wonders if things would have been different if they had treated their marriage with the same care and attention as Hae-in did to his wounds, and Hae-in wonders if he would have gotten hurt in the first place if they never got married. But Hyun-woo replies that — even knowing how their marriage eventually turned out — he’d still choose to marry Hae-in if he went back in time. The only difference is that he’d be more attentive towards her because that’s one of the things he regrets not doing while they were married.
Meanwhile, since BaekHong hasn’t launched their How to Navigate Marital Crisis podcast, Soo-cheol has no manual to deal with his current situation. In Da-hye’s Dear John letter, she revealed that: 1) she’s 5 years older than Soo-cheol — who already has noona issues stemming from his inferiority complex towards Hae-in; 2) GEON-WOO, their son, is not Soo-cheol’s. Damn! Way to kick a man when he’s already on the floor. When Hae-in remarks that Soo-cheol won’t be able to find Da-hye because she’s probably in hiding after scamming them, Soo-cheol replies that Da-hye forgot something: “Me!” LMAO. This is so funny and sad at the same time, and Kwak Dong-yeon is totally killing it as Mr. Pathetic and Sympathetic.
Like he hasn’t done enough damage, Eun-separation lies to Da-hye that Soo-cheol has vowed revenge on her so as to ensure Da-hye remains unreachable. But Soo-cheol gets an eureka moment when he remembers that they used to play an online game together. Through the in-game messaging feature, he’s able to send a message to Da-hye — but it’s not a hate mail as she expects, it’s Geon-woo’s vaccination records and a reminder to make sure he gets all his shots. Soo-cheol’s love for his wife and son makes me tear up, and you just know if they return, he’ll welcome them back no questions asked. I don’t like what Da-hye did to my boy, but she needs to come home before he dies of a broken heart.
By the way, Hae-in is such a typical noona. She’ll smack Soo-cheol upside the head for being a brat to the in-laws, but she’ll sympathize with him over Da-hye’s departure, and ensure that he doesn’t blame himself for trusting Eun-seong and leading the family to ruin. Of course, all of this is done in the Hae-in style because she just cannot be a normal softie when it comes to things like this. Lol.
As the week winds to a close, Secretary Na informs Hae-in that Hyun-woo has been hit with a malpractice charge. The same Hyun-woo that was cleared by the audit team last week? Ha! This frame-up has Eun-seong written all over it, and he gleefully confirms that he’s going to send Hyun-woo to prison. Okay, is my drone of curses stuck in traffic or what? Hyun-woo doesn’t mind the humiliation, but Hae-in is done. Hae-in can’t just sit back and watch Hyun-woo suffer because Eun-sadistic is an obsessed fool, so she tells Hyun-woo to quit worrying about her. She will handle her business herself, thank you very much.
Hae-in takes up Eun-seong’s offer to return to Queens, and Eun-seong is excited to announce their upcoming wedding at her welcoming press conference. But first, Hae-in has to speak, and… she informs the press that Eun-seong “threatened to falsely charge and put Mr. Baek Hyun-woo, my husband, and former legal director, behind bars.” *Screams in 16 different languages* Hae-in addressed Hyun-woo as “my husband,” people!! What is a divorce? What is an ex? Those terms don’t exist in BaekHong’s dictionary. Hae-in also reveals her diagnosis to the press, and Eun-shut-the-hell-up loses his final leverage against her. That, ladies and gentlemen, is queen behavior.
Earlier on, Hyun-woo assumed that Hae-in had switched to Eun-seong’s side, and he’s shocked — and touched — to see his wife publicly defend his honor. Hae-in really said noble idiocy is not allowed in their household. Lol. In the sea of reporters, Hyun-woo and Hae-in can only see each other, and these two are going to kill me with all the acting they are doing with their eyes.
We’re rewarded with the best epilogue yet, as we finally get to see where Hae-in told Hyun-woo about his drunken adorableness back in their dating era. But more importantly, we get a drunk Hyun-woo in the present day confessing his love for Hae-in in front of her closed door. Hae-in hears him, of course, and that press conference was her “I love you too.” This is romantic and all, but I am a simple person, so I need them to say their I love yous to each other without the liquid courage and grand gestures. Yes, I am also an Oliver Twist.
In other news, Eun-seong and Ms. Girlfriend dumped Grace Go-screw-yourself after the successful Queens heist, and I can’t even lie this made me soooo happy. Grace was working for snakes and she thought she was immune to their venom? How cute. All it took was a little threat from Hyun-woo, and Beom-ja’s satisfying hit on Grace’s head to get her to switch alliances and locate the hospital where Eun-seong is holding Grandpa Hong. And without Ms. Girlfriend’s negative energy around him, Grandpa seems to have come out of his coma.
We’ll know for sure next week, but this development makes me happy for Beom-ja because she needs that old man to wake up and assure her that it’s not her fault he ended up that way. Ms. Girlfriend was going to incapacitate him one way or the other even if Beom-ja treated her with respect. From the look of things, Beom-ja is also being set up for a love story in Yongdu-ri, and since there’s enough love to go around, can someone spare some for my BaekHong? They also deserve to be happy after everything they’ve been through.