Oue penultimate week is heavily focused on our mobster and the lengths he will go to protect his people from not only his past but theirs as well. Unfortunately, when your enemies are emotional or willing to fight dirty, it’s hard to notice their every move or be in multiple places at once, which leads to some tense moments.
EPISODES 13-14
Last week, I completely omitted one of this drama’s mini-side-story arcs from my recap because I had a sneaking suspicion that our drama would reveal additional details that put everything into a more noteworthy context. Sure enough, we begin My Sweet Mobster’s penultimate week with some insights into our maknae deerling’s backstory. Previously, there’d been hints that his past brush with the law (a.k.a. Hyun-woo), which inevitably led to his employment at Thirsty Deer, was the result of a tragic incident involving his high school friend/crush. It turns out, Maknae Deerling borrowed a scooter so he and his crush could skip school and go on an adventure, but on their way to see the ocean, he became distracted. His negligence caused an accident that tragically ended his crush’s life.
Although Maknae Deerling has served his time and paid his penance to society for his involvement in the accident, his crush’s bereft brother, who wants Maknae Deerling to suffer for the rest of his life, storms into the Thirsty Deer office building and causes a scene. I’m not sure what part of this is sadder: the fact that Marketing Deerling is so weighed down by his guilt that he’s willing to quit his job and forgo his own happiness to appease his crush’s brother, or the fact that Ji-hwan, who gets down on his knees to apologize on his behalf, has obviously been in this position before with other employees and their victims.
I appreciate that the writers took the time to use one of our deerlings’ backstories to remind us that our mobsters — as much as we love them — have committed crimes that have hurt people. Given how loveable they are — and how much the narrative relies on their shenanigans and one-liners to provide comedic relief — it’s easy to forget the unnamed fictional victims to all their crimes. That said, it also feels like the writers threw us a softball so that we wouldn’t feel excessively conflicted over our love for this band of misfits. Maknae Deerling’s story is tragic, but unlike some of the other deerlings, who’ve obviously seen and done some shady shit, his crime — if you can even call it that — was an accident completely devoid of violence or malice. I mean, I’ve seen murderous Truck of Doom drivers get off with lighter sentences in dramaland!
Then again, maybe I’m looking too deeply into the intended impact of the maknae’s backstory when the real focus of these scenes was on Ji-hwan. His loyalty to his employees and willingness to kneel and carry their burdens for them is enough to make Hyun-woo finally admit that he was wrong about Ji-hwan and the rest of the deerlings. And just like that, Hyun-woo is accepted into the fold, becoming another member of the deerlings’ family. More importantly, though, Hyun-woo formally asks Ji-hwan to help him bring down Yang-hee and Ji-hwan’s father, and Ji-hwan agrees with an awkward handshake.
Things are also looking up for Ji-hwan in the romance department, in that he’s noticeably more comfortable talking about himself and answering Eun-ha’s questions when she probes about the incident between Maknae Deerling and his victim’s family. Ji-hwan explains that it’s his responsibility to share his employees’ burdens. To reward Ji-hwan for his honest and frank conversation, Eun-ha tries to alleviate his mental load by suggesting he yell his problems out into the universe. He’s too shy to follow her example — not with a residential area so nearby — so Eun-ha does it on his behalf.
Eun-ha is having a grand ol’ time waking up the neighborhood, so she doesn’t notice the kink in her ponytail until Ji-hwan steps in to retie it for her — an action that once again makes her nostalgic for her childhood friend. It’s not the first time Ji-hwan has done something to remind her of young Hyun-woo, but after the latest incident, she’s not able to shake the niggling feeling that Ji-hwan and young Hyun-woo might be the same person. She calls Hyun-woo and tells him that she’s reached the point where she needs to know the identity of her childhood friend, and Hyun-woo confirms that Ji-hwan is the Hyun-woo she’s been looking for all these years.
Eun-woo is crying by the time she tracks Ji-wan down, and Ji-hwan’s panicked silence at the sight of her tears turns to stunned speechlessness when she apologizes for not recognizing him. He hugs and comforts her, and once she’s had time to calm down, he explains that he’s equally apologetic for not saying goodbye to her when they were kids. And although he’s known for some time that she was his childhood friend, he never revealed his real identity because he feared she would be disappointed in who he’d become. Eun-ha, however, is overjoyed to discover that the boy who shielded her in the past and the man who protects her in the present are the same person.
Our lovebirds accidentally fall asleep together in Eun-ha’s bed, and although their night together was entirely innocent, Ji-hwan panics when he’s caught exiting her room in the morning. (Loved this scene.) Well, if there were any deerlings that still hadn’t put two-and-two together and figured out Ji-hwan and Eun-ha were a couple, they certainly know now. And, of course, because these are our deerlings, they aren’t going to let Ji-hwan escape without some good natured ribbing. As luck would have it, though Ji-hwan is prematurely rescued from his deerlings’ teasing by Il-young’s shocking news: he’s getting married.
See, what had happened was, Il-young finally let it slip to Mi-ho that he knows she’s pregnant (yup, it’s confirmed and canon now). After which point, she was justifiably suspicious that his sudden pursuit of her was because of the baby. She insisted that she could take care of herself and the baby and that she didn’t want him to see her and the baby as an obligation. Il-young, however, assured her that he wanted to be there for her because it’s her that’s pregnant with his child. He says he likes her, finds himself confiding in her in ways he’s never done with anyone else, yadda yadda yadda, more lines that would be romantic with better delivery and under different circumstances.
Even if we ignore the implication that he was saying he wouldn’t be supportive if it was another woman, it still feels like one helluva shotgun wedding, especially since they met approximately three months ago and have spent very little time with one another since their one-night stand. Shouldn’t we be a little concerned about the depth of Mi-ho’s feelings when she dismissively states, “Oh, you know I have a thing for pretty faces,” when Eun-ha expresses her surprise that she’d been “dating” Il-young?
Thankfully, Mi-ho’s dad is around to mimic my disapproval. Arms across his chest and his whole body radiating major hell-no-this-ain’t-happening energy, Mi-ho’s father explains that he values Mi-ho’s life more than the unborn child, and he’s not going to approve of a marriage that’s forged for the sake of a pregnancy. But, alas, even Mi-ho’s father caves when Ji-hwan, Il-young, Eun-ha, and Mi-ho all team up to plead their case, so it looks like this shotgun wedding is happening. I honestly think I would have liked this secondary romance a lot more if they’d just agreed to platonically co-parent, and a time skip showed hints that they were developing a genuine romance. But, alas, the best thing to come from this plot is seeing the rest of the deerlings getting all excited about the little Bambie that will be joining their midsts. (Can we get a spinoff? Six Mobsters and a Baby?)
All this talk about marriage has got Eun-ha thinking about it, too — not that she’s in any hurry to walk down the aisle with Ji-hwan, of course — but she’s dismayed to hear that he intends to wait until he has all the deerlings married off first before even considering tying the knot. Just the thought of Ji-hwan’s extended marriage timeline is enough to ruin Eun-ha’s excitement over discovering she’s surpassed ten thousand followers, so it’s a good thing the deerlings are around to distract her and suggest that she host a live event to celebrate the milestone.
While Eun-ha and her helpers prepare for the live event, Ji-hwan spends his time buying a sparkling gift for Eun-ha to apologize for his obliviousness and working with Hyun-woo to put together a case against his father, who has been forcing former members of the Bulldog Gang out of retirement. Before either of them can make a move, though, Gangster Dad storms the Thirsty Deer castle, interrupts a board meeting, and intimidates half the executives into quitting. It’s organized chaos systematically designed to take away everything Ji-hwan has built, and Gangster Dad thinks this will inevitably provoke Ji-hwan into returning to his side. (In the words of Cher Horowitz, “As if!”)
Yang-hee, who’s caught between his desire to look good for his boss and get his revenge against Ji-hwan, suggests they kidnap Eun-ha and blackmail Ji-hwan with her as their bargaining chip. Gangster Dad doesn’t like this idea, and explains to Yang-hee how his suggestion is just another example of his inferiority to Ji-hwan. Yang-hee is forceful and steals what he wants from others, whereas Ji-hwan has finesse and makes the others hand over what he wants to him.
As you can imagine, Gangster Dad’s words needle an already jealous Yang-hee and push him over the edge. He and two of his goons stake out Eun-ha’s live event, and when she ventures off on her own to throw away some trash, they ambush her. Hyun-woo, who attended her event after hearing about what went down at Thirsty Deer, rushes to her rescue when he hears her scream, and he jumps in front of her just in time to block the brick aimed at her head. When Ji-hwan finally arrives on scene a few moments later, he finds a bloodied Hyun-woo collapsed in Eun-ha’s arms.
Oof! Those were some intense final moments, but I’ve got mixed feelings about Hyun-woo’s hero moment. After all the crap Hyun-woo gave Ji-hwan about him being a danger to Eun-ha — not to mention the times that Eun-ha has scolded Ji-hwan for being overprotective — it feels like Ji-hwan was robbed of his chance to simultaneously prove he was justified in being worried for her safety and also capable of taking care of her when there’s an actual threat — not that we ever doubted his abilities, of course. If Hyun-woo survives his head injury, I sincerely hope he doesn’t go back to his old ways. The last thing Ji-hwan needs to hear before he faces off against his dad is more accusations that he’s not worthy of redemption or love. Then again… maybe Hyun-woo won’t survive his injury? As the second male lead, he is kind of expendable. He could plausibly die a martyr to amp up the emotional steaks leading in to the finale of My Sweet Mobster — but I highly doubt this rom-com is going to go that hard in its final hours.
Personally, I think I’ve reached the point in our drama where I’m ready to see our story wrap up because, as much as I’ve loved covering this story, the more it goes on, the more apparent it becomes that it should have been only twelve episodes. The deerlings and their antics have become my second favorite part of this drama — first being Uhm Tae-gu’s cheekbones — and if each of them isn’t getting an equal allotted amount of time to explore their back stories, like Maknae Deerling, then what’s the point of all this extra airtime? If you ask me, we should have gotten more one-on-one time with the deerlings and fewer pissing contests between the male leads.