‘Lean on Me‘
Matthew certainly seems to have developed a bit of a saviour complex with regards to Ye-jin. Perhaps the pathos in her nighttime sleep-talking calls to her mother sparked a protective instinct in him. Especially after one such call clues him in that she’s potentially in some danger and he rushes to her rescue, reaching just in time to witness her sleepwalking. On a side note, aren’t the village and city supposed to be quite a distance from each other? However did he reach her in time! And how did he even know where to find her? I don’t mind some suspension of disbelief in a show but this just feels like a gaping plot hole! In any case, he returns her home safely (Ye-jin none the wiser) and his blossoming feelings for her clearly get a boost from glimpsing this more vulnerable, real side of her behind the shiny TV host exterior.
Later on, he accidentally ends up with her sleep medication and arranges to meet her at a rest stop midway between their homes to give it back. When he gets delayed due to an emergency on the farm, it clearly strikes a nerve with Ye-jin reminding her of her abandonment issues thanks to a whole childhood spent waiting for a mom who never showed up. Thankfully, Matthew is more reliable and eventually appears prompting Ye-jin to fly into his arms in relief. I actually like this scene even more than the sleepwalking one since here it is a conscious, if impulsive, decision by Ye-jin to let down her guard. As a net result of these and all their past interactions, Matthew comes around to the idea of renewing his contract with L’Étoile in order to facilitate an exclusive product launch on HIT (I’m sure the chance for more time with Ye-jin didn’t influence him in the slightest!). However, he’s seen the effect of all these medications on Ye-jin so he decides to kill two birds with one stone by agreeing to give her only one day’s dose at a time. Not only does this protect from some of the more harmful side effects, but it also gives him more opportunities to see her. Smart right? Unfortunately, given how busy she is in the leadup to the launch, he barely meets her for a minute every evening so that didn’t work out quite as planned. Not that that stops him from doing the two hour drive every evening. This guy has got it bad for her!
The pre-launch activities also finally bring the three sides of this love triangle together. Is it really a triangle though since Ye-jin doesn’t seem to have any feelings whatsoever towards Eric? Yes, when he asks her out for dinner she doesn’t flat-out decline, instead merely saying that she prefers not to mix professional and personal matters when on a project. But to me at least, it feels like she views him quite impersonally. The launch, and by extension her career, depends on Eric, so of course she will be diplomatic with him. But she seems way more comfortable in her interactions with Matthew (and without any borderline uncomfortable power dynamics to boot). Eric and Matthew however sniff out their romantic rival and try to subtly (and not so subtly) get Ye-jin’s attention during a joint shoot. After seeing so much of Matthew’s stoic facade, it’s amusing to see him fuming with jealousy in the background and accidentally ruining the shot.
Minor antics aside, everything seems to be going swimmingly for the launch and anticipation is high. Unfortunately, at the literal last moment, Matthew discovers an alarming trend in the microbial test results for the product. Levels are just high enough to lie in that gray area between potentially serious or a non-starter. The levels are still within the permissible limits, but the growth trend indicates that it could well reach dangerous levels in the near future. He takes the findings to Ye-jin and begs her to delay the launch.
This is clearly set up to parallel her past disastrous experience with face cream and to test her resolve to never sell a product she is not 100% convinced by. To her credit, she rises to the situation and goes on air to announce the delay of the launch. The backlash is immediate with everyone from L’Étoile to the HIT board fuming about what they see as her overreaction to a minor non-issue, and she ends up getting fired for her convictions. Myeong-hwa shows up and for a moment I thought we’d see the start of her redemption arc but she’s only there to deliver a few more kicks to Ye-jin when she’s down (Mother of the Year I tell you!).
Naturally when she’s at her lowest, Matthew shows up to rescue her with an offer to stay with him at the village. Bit contrived but just what she needs. It’s at the village that we’ve seen her be at her freest so it makes sense that that’s where she has to be to rediscover how to live her life outside of work. It also gives her the space and time to realize her growing feelings for Matthew which sets things up nicely for the second half of the series.
One quibble I have with the show is how underdeveloped the secondary characters are. They just show up to move the plot along with very little character development or insight into their stories. For instance, in one throwaway scene, we find out that Eric has some unresolved past issues with his sister. But why should we care when there’s been no buildup to this and almost all that we’ve seen of Eric has only been him smiling like a lovestruck idiot while thinking of Ye-jin. In a similar vein, Ji-yin was briefly introduced earlier only to be completely absent after that. So, what exactly was the point of showing her pining for Matthew? And the sudden attraction between Ye-jin’s friend and producer, Sung-mi, and Matthew’s employee, Kwang-mo, comes out of nowhere. We know next to nothing about them, and we barely see them interact barring a near recreation (with a slightly better ending) of Ye-jin’s and Matthew’s initial meeting. Yes, the main draw of a romcom is the lead pair but it just helps for a richer, more engaging storyline when at least a handful of the key secondary characters are also better fleshed out.
Stray Musings
- Goodness, is Ye-jin’s phone ever charged? It seems to perpetually die off right at the moment she needs it the most.
- The dream sequence of Matthew turning into a chicken while mocking Ye-jin was so cringe and just felt like filler.
- Som-yi is one sharp cookie who immediately clocks the spark between Matthew and Ye-jin and realizes her sister has no chance. Refreshingly she doesn’t take it out on Ye-jin.
- Matthew is such a sweetheart for trying to figure out what Ye-jin might bump into while sleepwalking and baby-proofing his house for her.
- I know it’s Eric’s sister who throws Ye-jin under the bus to save L’Étoile’s reputation, but he honestly doesn’t seem to have much of a plan to actually help her out and doesn’t even seem to be trying to contact her to see how she’s doing. One point in his favour though for demanding an internal investigation at their production plant to ensure nothing is actually wrong.
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