If last week was a rollercoaster ride, this week is the Titanic! As our lead couple come to terms with their divorce and what it means for their relationship, the unrelenting evil quartet delivers a big blow that will take everyone a while to recover from.
EPISODES 7-8
The good news is: our show has reached its halfway mark! The bad news is: I have just four weeks left to see my oppa. *Sighs in impending heartbreak* Back to this week’s happenings, Hae-in storms off after confronting Hyun-woo about the divorce settlement. And to prove that his character growth is real, Hyun-woo doesn’t play his usual running away card. Instead, he goes after Hae-in wanting to explain everything, but she’s too betrayed to be curious about his explanation. The next thing you know, the Truck of Doom Association contacts its German branch to say hi to Hae-in, but not on Hyun-woo’s watch. Phew!
But at this point, Hae-in has given up on her life, and she tells Hyun-woo not to save her if such an incident occurs again. That’s scary enough, and to make matters worse, the new treatment plan doesn’t improve her white blood cell count. According to the doctor, “It’s those who have something to hold on to who desperately fight for their lives. Even if [Hae-in] gets another chance, it will only be meaningful if she has something worth fighting for.” So Hyun-woo decides to provoke Hae-in into fighting for her life by bringing up the divorce and all his pent-up frustration about their marriage. Now Hae-in’s attention has been successfully diverted from morbid thoughts to vengeful thoughts of ruining her husband.
When BaekHong returns to Korea, Hae-in bans her family from dealing with Hyun-woo. “His ass is mine!” she says, but in a more refined manner. Hae-in storms the office dressed in red because the more upset she is, the fancier she dresses (and the more I envy her closet), and it’s all professional disses and seething best regards between Mr. and Mrs. Hong Hae-in. But Hyun-woo doesn’t care, as long as Hae-in looks after her health and stays away from Eun-suspicious. Hae-in is pretty confident in the strength of her Ulterior Motives Radar — until Hyun-woo reminds her that he fooled her, and he advises her not to make the same mistake with Eun-seong.
Daddy Hong has the Queens scandal prevention team (lol, these guys!) look into Hyun-woo’s private life, but there’s no dirt on him. His only extra-marital rendezvous is with a stray cat, and when the team hacked his phone, they could only find pictures of Hae-in and the cat. Awww. Daddy Hong shuffles between pity for his lonely son-in-law, and suspicion that the team is incompetent because they couldn’t find anything. But hello? These guys once located a target in North Korea! Lool. Okay, these Crash Landing on You references are starting to get old. Park Ji-eun, you’ve written other famous dramas!
Hyun-woo’s professional life also passes the audit team’s inspection, and in the process, Hae-in learns that he has been sending flowers to bereaved staff and donating condolence money in her name. Hae-in is once again reminded of her impending death when she visits the funeral hall, and she tells Hyun-woo that she will resent him until her last breath because he let go of her hand when she was most hopeless. “Even if I lose my memory, I will never forget what you did to me,” she says.
It’s almost like fate listened in on their funeral hall conversation, because the next time Hyun-woo finds Hae-in, she can’t remember their Germany trip and everything that happened afterwards. The second Hyun-woo realizes what’s happened, he starts to cry, and this time, it’s Hae-in who initiates the comforting hug. “Baek Hyun-woo, I love you,” Hae-in says, and she’s the only one who’s smiling because the rest of us are in tears. This woman lost a part of her memories, yet she did not forget that she loves her husband.
But as much as Hyun-woo — and the rest of us — wish the moment won’t end, character growth bids him to jog his wife’s memories by telling her everything that happened on the trip. Now Hae-in — and the rest of us — have to relive the pain of the divorce all over again. Thank you so much for this, Show! Hae-in can no longer spend her remaining days with Hyun-woo, so she decides to go ahead with the divorce. But she has no intention of making things easy for her husband, so she hires Vincenzo freaking Cornsalad (cameo by Song Joong-ki!) as her divorce lawyer. Holy smokes. Someone, pick me up from the floor!
From his smooth entrance and introduction with some of the biggest hits of his career, to the background sound effects of the Vincenzo lighter and the Italian dialogues, this Song Joong-ki cameo is hands down the best one yet. The man is literally at the center of the cast and crew reunion venn diagram, and I absolutely loved the meta overload. But what good are cameos and meta when it eventually leads to BaekHong’s official divorce? *Cries in Italian*
When Eun-seong learns that Hae-in has been taking anti-cancer medication, he seems worried about her. And via a flashback to their childhood, we see that Hae-in stood up for him in the orphanage after he was scolded for hitting a dog that tried to bite her. Her locket fell in the midst of the chaos, and he picked it up — and still holds on to it till now. Please don’t tell me he actually has feelings for Hae-in. Ugh! On a lighter note, from her music player with Hyun-woo to this locket with Eun-sentimental, Hae-in definitely has a thing for leaving her stuff behind for other people to pick up. Lol.
Eun-seong tries to get Hae-in to fire Hyun-woo now that they’re divorced, but Hae-in insists that the company needs him. Eun-substitute then tries to pitch himself as Hyun-woo’s replacement, but Hae-in calls off the Hercyna deal — and this is huge because the deal is a sure shot at reaching her one trillion won sales goal! “Do you know what I’ve done in life to become someone useful to you?” Eun-shocked asks, but nobody cares.
“I didn’t divorce [Hyun-woo] so you could have a chance. I divorced him because I felt bad about everything he had to go through,” Hae-in replies, and it’s her self-awareness for me. My good sis has finally seen their marriage from Hyun-woo’s point of view, and this romantic tension between BaekHong and character growth is fast becoming one of my favorite things about the show.
Meanwhile, Hyun-woo has caught on to his secretary’s spy activities, and this is what Eun-silly gets for recruiting someone who can’t even send office gossip to the right group chat. Tsk. During their super hot “If you mess with my wife, I’ll do the same to you” confrontation, Hyun-woo notices that Eun-seong’s luxury watch is the same as the one on the wrist of the cropped out person in a picture with the directors involved in setting Grandpa Hong up for embezzlement. It’s a limited edition wristwatch, and a little digging reveals that Ms. Girlfriend is the only Korean on the list of buyers. See? Sometimes, not being able to afford luxury items is a blessing. No one keeps tabs on common items. Just saying. Anyway, how did the watch end up with Eun-stylish? Well, there’s nothing wrong with a mother giving her son a little gift, is there? That’s right, Ms. Girlfriend is indeed Eun-seong’s mom!
As part of their takeover plans, Eun-seong arranges for Soo-cheol’s resort project to run into problems, then he swoops in to “help” the company. Hyun-woo warns the Hong men against accepting the investment from Eun-sabotage because there’s a risk of losing their shares to him if the project goes bust. But Grandpa Hong believes in his girlfriend’s shaman over solid advice, and Soo-cheol is an idiot, so I’m not surprised they didn’t listen to Hyun-woo. But I’m disappointed in Daddy Hong’s wishy-washy attitude, and I wish he took a firm stand.
Sure enough, Grandpa fires Hyun-woo from his director position, but Hae-in stops the security team from retrieving his things. BaekHong might have taken off their rings, but not their feelings. Hae-in is upset that Hyun-woo chooses to stay on in Queens despite the humiliation, but Hyun-woo only puts up with it because he wants to stay in her orbit. Awww. I have so missed their honest elevator moments.
Aunty Beom-ja, the professional divorcee with a history of cheating husbands, is ready to throw hands if BaekHong’s divorce was due to Hyun-woo’s infidelity. “Hae-in is the only woman in my life,” Hyun-woo assures her, and I swoon. Now that Beom-ja is sure of Hyun-woo’s loyalty, she shares her findings about Ms. Girlfriend with him, and asks to team up. Yassss! With a little more digging, team Crazy-Smart eventually traces the line from Ms. Girlfriend to Eun-seong, and it’s time for a DNA test.
In the meantime, Ms. Girlfriend offers to go to jail on Grandpa’s behalf if he is indicted for embezzlement, and the old man is so grateful that he signs over a power of attorney to her — including the right to make medical decisions for him. Ha! Grandpa is so blinded by the “loyalty” that he doesn’t believe it when Beom-ja tells him about Ms. Girlfriend’s hidden past. Unfortunately, by the time Hyun-woo informs him about the positive DNA test result, it’s too late. The shock plus Ms. Girlfriend’s prior poisoning leads to Grandpa’s heart attack, paralysis and coma. Checkmate! It’s hard to feel sorry for Grandpa since he was warned. It’s just sad because Beom-ja really cares about her dad.
As Grandpa’s legal guardian, Ms. Girlfriend bans the Hongs from seeing him in the hospital. With her power of attorney, and all the shares that Eun-shady has acquired over time, the mother-son duo also kick the Hongs out of Queen’s group and Queensville! OMG! The family did not see this coming, and the visual of all the Hong nameplates being taken off their respective desks and thrown into the bin hit hard.
Since the gig is up, Da-hye leaves a Dear John letter and flees to the U.S. with their son, and this is the most devastating thing to happen to Soo-cheol. He might be a little annoying, but he was a good husband, and all he ever wanted to do was parent his son better than he was parented. After being coddled all his life no thanks to paranoid Mommy Hong, it was sweet that Soo-cheol learned how to ride a bicycle so he could personally teach his son to ride. And I felt bad watching him eventually fall off the bike in his panicked state as he attempted to go after his already gone family.
It was a nice change to see Soo-cheol as something other than the dumb businessman and whiny grandson, and I trust that we’re not saying a permanent goodbye to his husband and fatherhood era. I mean, Da-hye has been wavering for a while now, and she seemed to have second thoughts about leaving him, so this most likely won’t be the last we see of her. Their story is far from over.
Anyway, after getting exiled from their own company, the Hongs have nowhere else to go but to their ex in-laws at Yongdu-ri. Ha! I don’t think I’ve laughed as much as I did watching them file out of Hyun-woo’s van right when the Baeks were roasting them for kicking Hyun-woo out. Lool. Mr. Baek Hyun-woo, it’s time for you and your 35 cows to make good on that promise to be by Hae-in’s side even if her family is in debt.
As always, we move on to the cute epilogue featuring Hae-in visit to Hyun-woo’s go-to spots as reported by the scandal prevention team. She ends up at his regular diner, and of course he comes for dinner and she has to hide. Lol. Hyun-woo is with Yang-gi, so of course they talk about the divorce — and overhearing this conversation is what helps Hae-in reflect on Hyun-woo’s perspective of their marriage. Hae-in is touched to the point of tears when she hears Hyun-woo say that he chose life with his crazy in-laws because he wanted to be by her side, and this, ladies and gentlemen, is the motivation Hae-in needs to desperately fight for her life because she also wants to stay by his side. Now I’m tearing up.
Love aside, Hyun-woo proposed to Hae-in because he believed that the universe was on their side (even though said “universe” was Hae-in’s behind the scenes chaebol machinations. Lol). Now I need the actual universe to be on their side for the sake of Hae-in’s health, and for the rekindling of their romance. I don’t mind the divorce as much because it affords BaekHong the opportunity to take a step back and reassess their relationship in the light of what they have come to know about each other, and the reality of all they’ve been through in the marriage. Plus they’re finally coming to terms with the beauty that is communication, and this will help when they eventually recommit. They will get back together, right, Show?
I have to hand it to Queen of Tears for always keeping its plot moving without dwelling too long on a particular issue. Divorce settlement? Exposed and resolved. Angst? Done and hopefully dusted. Ms. Girlfriend and Eun-son’s relationship? Revealed and owned up to. Evil quartet’s plans? Bam! Actualized. I honestly didn’t think the villains would get their win this early, and I’m still not sure why they targeted the Hongs specifically. But the drama seems to know what it’s doing, so I’m just going to trust the process. This is the most action-packed week we’ve had so far, and it’s an explosive way to end what has been an excellent first half. I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait to see what the latter half of the show will bring.