This week, our con artist heroine warms her way into the lives of her target family, and try as he might, our superpowered hero is not as immune to her charm as he thinks. But while our heroine has succeeded in infiltrating the family, she soon finds out that she might have bitten more than she can chew with them.
EPISODES 3-4
The good news is: Gwi-ju has regained his time traveling powers! The bad news is: he can only return to the Da-hae moments in his life. Gwi-ju doesn’t understand why Da-hae is the only person in color in his usual black and white time-travel scenes, and when he sees himself briefly smile at her in one of his trips to the past, he wonders if he was indeed happy in the moments he spent with her.
As expected, Man-heum chalks all of this to the power of love, and invites Da-hae to move into the Bok mansion. I never knew I could dislike the forced proximity trope, but here we are. Da-hae’s plan is to become the Bok daughter-in-law, claim that the family is mentally ill — thanks to their superpowers nonsense — and then become their legal guardian to manage their assets. Da-hae moves in with a bouquet which she claims Gwi-ju gave her at a previously arranged fountain date, but as far as Gwi-ju — and I — remember, he stood Da-hae up. He didn’t hold a bouquet as he watched her from a distance, much less approach her for a hug as she also claimed. But if last week taught us anything, she might have met with Gwi-ju’s future self.
Speaking of time travel, we take a trip to Gwi-ju’s happiest memory: the day Yi-na was born. Unfortunately, that also happens to be his worst memory because his firefighter sunbae — who covered his shift when he went to see his wife and daughter in the hospital — died in a high school fire that same day. Afterwards, a grief-stricken Gwi-ju travelled back to his moment with Yi-na in the hospital, and for the first time in his time traveling career, the door of the hospital room appeared in color. Gwi-ju could touch the door and walk out, but despite his multiple attempts over the years, all he can do is run to the burning school. He cannot undo the fire or save his sunbae.
This reveal makes me conflicted because on one hand I want to knock Gwi-ju upside the head for obsessing over the past and neglecting his family and his job. But on the other hand, he couldn’t seem to control his return to the past. “That moment won’t let me go.” Sadly, as Gwi-ju’s wife grew increasingly frustrated with her husband’s frequent absence, poor Yi-na also grew up thinking that her father didn’t like her.
Things got to a head on their way to celebrate Yi-na’s (sixth?) birthday, and Gwi-ju got an ultimatum: his wife would leave with Yi-na if he disappeared again — which he did. Oops! But Gwi-ju was very intentional about not lingering in the past, so he quickly returned to the present. Unfortunately, by the time he returned, he found himself in a wrecked car — and for now, we are made to believe that Gwi-ju’s wife intentionally crashed the car.
Notably, before the accident, Yi-na’s eyes flashed blue when she met her mom’s eyes in the mirror — and this can explain why she’s sensitive about her eyes and wears glasses to avoid eye contact with others. Unsurprisingly, Da-hae capitalizes on the family’s negligence to get closer to Yi-na, and when Yi-na inevitably looks her in the eye, the blue glimmers for a second. Watching Yi-na seemingly stare at her with some level of trust/child-like innocence convinces Da-hae that Yi-na holds the key [to achieving her scamming goals]. “You mean the key to the 50 billion won building?” Yi-na mutters before running off — and this is how we confirm that she has superpowers. Yi-na is a mind reader, y’all!
An upside to this is that a surprised Yi-na finds out that her classmate and crush, HAN JOON-WOO (Moon Woo-jin!), thinks she’s pretty. Awww. But when Yi-na gets the “stay away from my man” memo after reading the school’s Miss Popular’s mind, a nervous Yi-na is forced to say that Joon-woo is a jerk — which he overhears. Nooo!!! It’s mission accomplished for Miss Popular, and it’s a reminder for Yi-na as to why she never wants to read minds.
And now that I think about it, I wonder what Yi-na read in her mom’s mind before the accident — especially since we’re still going with the assumption that the accident was intentional. We also learn that Mom was supposedly pregnant from another man at the time, and honestly, I don’t know how to feel about her in light of all the information we’re being fed.
Moving on, Gwi-ju sees a flower vendor outside the house with the bouquet he supposedly gave to Da-hae at the fountain, and to test his “future self” theory, he takes the bouquet and returns to the past. As usual, Da-hae is able to see him, but he is determined not to hug her or give her the bouquet. Enter: The Speeding Motorbike of Fatal Attraction. Gwi-ju instinctively pulls Da-hae out of harm’s way, and ends up hugging her. She takes the bouquet from him afterwards, and thus, the future self theory is proven true.
Gwi-ju returns to the present in disbelief after using his time travel power to save someone’s life for the first time ever. Going through the family’s archives, he learns that the desperation to save people could amplify the magnitude of their superpowers. You mean Gwi-ju was more desperate to save Da-hae from the bike than he was to save his sunbae from the school fire? Oh well, since this is dramaland where love answereth all things, it is also possible, according to the archives, that the full extent of the family’s powers only manifests when the right person comes into their life. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, Dong-hee and her fiancé break up after she catches him in a compromising position with Grace, and she also has to move back to the Bok mansion after Man-heum sells her apartment. Dong-hee snoops around the family vault for something expensive to sell, and as she stretches to reach a top shelf, she begins to float. A spying Da-hae is shocked at the sight, and she runs upstairs like she has just seen a ghost. She trips and lands in Gwi-ju’s arms at the top of the stairs, but when she looks into the mirror by the wall, she sees herself leaning against the air. Wait, what?! But while Da-hae focuses on the invisible man in the mirror, I’m focused on Gwi-ju’s wet hair — which totally looks good on Jang Ki-yong. Hehe.
Convinced that the Bok mansion is haunted, Da-hae rushes back down the stairs — and runs into Gwi-ju again! This Gwi-ju is completely dry, and Da-hae can’t deal anymore, so she passes out. Man-heum scolds Dong-hee for scaring Da-hae, and ignores Dong-hee’s concerns over what Da-hae was doing in the vault in the first place. She also doesn’t believe Dong-hee’s suspicion that Da-hae puts sleeping pills in her tea. Tsk.
The next morning, Man-heum shares a dream where Da-hae is rushed to the hospital from a sauna, and Da-hae is freaked out when Man-heum name-drops Sauna Mom’s establishment. At this point, Da-hae is done with targeting the Boks, but not Sauna Mom. We come to learn that Da-hae inherited her father’s debt, and Sauna Mom — and Roy — are the loan sharks. Da-hae is forced to participate in their scams to pay off her debt, and she needs to register her marriage with Gwi-ju if she wants out of the arrangement.
Gwi-ju is worried that his mom’s dream would come true, so he tails Da-hae to the sauna. “I thought you said you had no family,” he says to Da-hae when he sees her with Sauna Mom, and Roy hits the fire alarm to distract them. Da-hae’s fire trauma kicks in, and she ends up in the hospital. Sauna Mom introduces herself to Gwi-ju as an acquaintance of Da-hae’s late father, and Gwi-ju smiles as he listens to Da-hae’s life story. Maybe it’s because I’m attracted to Jang Ki-yong’s smile, but I’m just noticing that Gwi-ju is dressed in brighter colours — and he’s been like this since the flower vendor scene. Lol. Looks like our hero has stepped out of his dark closet of depression.
On the drive back to the Bok mansion, Gwi-ju tells Da-hae that the “Gwi-ju” she saw at the mall and the fountain, was him from the future. As to why Da-hae is the only one who can see and touch him in his time travel moments, Gwi-ju has no idea. But one thing is for sure: Da-hae’s past is Gwi-ju’s future.
Gwi-ju quits drinking now that he has found a purpose for his superpower: saving Da-hae. He returns to the past in an attempt to save her from the sauna accident, but he ends up in the women’s changing room at the sauna. Lol. Gwi-ju hurries back to the present to wash the X-rated images away from his head in the shower — and this is the wet-haired Gwi-ju who goes back to the past again to save Da-hae from tripping on the stairs. Gwi-ju is still wet when he returns to the present, and when Da-hae sees him now, she connects the dots.
Since Gwi-ju has no idea of what transpires between his future self and Da-hae until much later when he experiences the moment, Da-hae lies that his future self gave her a marriage registration form. Gwi-ju highly doubts his future self would go that far, and Da-hae tells him that his future self did something else: he saved her from the high school fire. Smh. From all indications, Da-hae was indeed a student at the time, but this is clearly her way of manipulating Gwi-ju. Da-hae succeeds in fanning the flames of hope in Gwi-ju that he’ll finally be able to save someone from the school fire that sent him into depression for years, and this just makes the manipulation worse — even though there’s a high possibility that he indeed saved Da-hae.
Anyway, if Da-hae thinks the marriage registration will result in wedding bells immediately, she needs to think again. According to Gwi-ju, they have to fall in love first for them to reach the “future” where they registered their marriage. Next thing you know, he grabs Da-hae and kisses her, and the week comes to an end. Pfft. I have never been more uninterested in an OTP as much as I am with Gwi-ju and Da-hae. While their backstory makes me understand them a little more than I did in the premiere week, I’m still not fond of them as individuals, much less as a soon-to-be couple.
More than a love story, I’d like to see Gwi-ju bond with his daughter, especially since he’s out of his depression funk. I also want more Yi-na and Joon-woo scenes as I find them wayy more interesting than the OTP. Dong-hee refusing to allow Grace to get under her skin was my favorite thing this week, and I totally loved the drama-free nature of her breakup. Dong-hee deserves better, and I can’t wait for her to regain her powers completely. As a whole, I’m not enjoying this drama as much as I’d like, but maybe that’s a me problem. Thankfully, I’ve got Yi-na and Dong-hee to keep me coming back each week, and hopefully, I will grow to like our main characters in the coming weeks.