The world of love and classical music continues to be quite tumultuous for our couple. This week, our hero is pushed into another crisis, and our heroine makes some important decisions. It was easy for our couple to fall in love, but will they be able to stick it out through all the hardships thrown their way?
EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP
I’m not going to sugarcoat it: this was a rough week in Do You Like Brahms. If you were like me and thought we reached our lowest lows last week, you’d be wrong. I got spoiled by how well our couple was communicating — I didn’t think that there was room for yet more misunderstandings and mishandled situations to come between them. But I was sadly wrong. This week, Song-ah reached her breaking point, and a collective weep fell across the dramaverse.
Last week’s episodes ended with Song-ah witnessing Joon-young and Jung-kyung in the taxi together. To her credit, Song-ah brings this up right away to Joon-young, and is met with vague explanations and sincere apologies. It’s become their pattern — and even more so, and their holding pattern. Their relationship can’t advance because a) Joon-young can’t seem to untangle himself from Jung-kyung and b) Song-ah can’t help but notice.
Dong-yoon pointed out towards the beginning of the show how carefully Song-ah thinks a thing out before she makes a decision. It was quite an accurate observation, and this week we see it in action with some painful, but quite believable, results.
The first decision Song-ah makes is to cut ties with Professor Lee and her chamber, which was 100% satisfying. Sure, it might have been more entertaining if Song-ah grabbed that feather duster and snapped it in two over her knee, but the resignation scene we got was much more in line with Song-ah’s personality. Professor Lee’s remarks this week were truly slap-worthy, so I’m glad that losing her minion was the consequence of that.
But if we thought Professor Lee was bad, this week the contention only grows between Joon-young and Professor Yoo. And for good reason. Seeing the dynamic of their teacher/pupil relationship over the course of the drama was rough, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much lighter and happier Joon-young could be if he had had a different teacher, since so much joy was taken out of his music because of Professor Yoo.
This week, though, that contention reaches a whole new level, when Professor Yoo allows a recording of Joon-young playing the meaningful Schumann piece to be posted on YouTube… with Professor Yoo credited as the pianist. It’s unthinkable!
It’s all downhill from here, because Jung-kyung is the one that find out, tells Joon-young, threatens Professor Yoo, and lords the whole entire thing over Song-ah. It’s a disaster sandwich. Joon-young has Song-ah’s best intentions at heart (keeping her from finding out so she doesn’t misunderstand) — but, thanks to Jung-kyung, that’s exactly what happens.
I regret semi-forgiving Jung-kyung last week. She’s impossible here, not only refusing to accept Joon-young’s relationship with Song-ah, but doing everything she can to undermine it. Using misunderstandings and lies to break up someone’s loving relationship is not cool. While I kind of wanted Jung-kyung to end up with Hyun-ho again, because he’s such a good seed, now I’m firmly against it: he’s way too good for her.
Jung-kyung’s lies and meddling pay off, though. If Song-ah ended on an emotional low last week, she’s continued to sink all through Episode 13 and 14. So, as painful as it is, by the time we reach the end of Episode 14, it makes sense that Song-ah breaks up with Joon-young. Much like playing the violin, what once brought her joy is now only causing her grief. She doesn’t know if she can shoulder much more, so she taps out.
The silver lining in Song-ah’s unhappiness is that it leads her to reunite with her bestie Min-sung. And even more satisfying, it’s Dong-yoon that sees how much Song-ah needs her friend, and then makes their reunion happen.
This week’s episodes might have been depressing and upsetting — but they also rang really true. The dynamic that hit me the most was when Song-ah told Joon-young that she wants to be able to lean on him, but can’t, since he’s struggling even more than she is. Ouch. These two have the best of intentions towards each other, but it always seems to backfire. How will this get resolved? I’m not willing to give up on this OTP. In fact, I refuse to.
That being said, it’s late in the story for such a rough break-up, and with only one week left in our drama, I’m a little worried about where our leads will find themselves when the story comes to a close.
The emotions and character development in this drama have all been very believable and well-paced, so I’m anticipating some sort of time jump in our final chapter — it’s the only way I can think of to give Joon-young and Song-ah the perspective (and fresh slate) that they need. They’re so, so far from the happiness they deserve right now, and there isn’t a quick fix for any of their challenges. Still, I’m remaining hopeful for our final week. It’s always darkest before dawn, right? Right?!