‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’
We’ve now reached that stage in most any romcom where that big relationship blocker, ‘miscommunication’, steps in and creates problems all around. The show pulls a bit of a fast one on the viewers, at first lulling us into thinking everything is going swimmingly before blindsiding us with a very out of character twist.
Rewinding a bit, we start off with Ye-jin settled into Matthew’s house and both of them dancing around their feelings for each other. Ye-jin seems to take the initiative and kisses Matthew when he returns from work. But it turns out she did this in her sleep (although spoiler alert – not really), and Matthew panics and decides to act like it didn’t happen. Now this is another situation where a frank conversation would clear the air and move things along much more quickly. But I don’t have a problem with it here because it’s very much in line with that awkward initial phase of a relationship where nothing’s official, and you’re unsure of each other and afraid of rejection.
Things come to a head at the local village festival where all our main characters assemble. Sparks fly, feelings are discovered and, wonder of wonders, some characters even clearly communicate with each other! It’s frankly enjoyable to just watch everyone interact without any contrived drama (but hey, you can’t make a 10 episode series of just that!). Still it makes for a pleasant interlude. Seomg-mi continues to low key flirt with Kwang-mo who in turn realizes he’s finally over his years long crush on Ae-ra. Meanwhile Ae-ra is trying to chase off Mu-won but her prickly persona doesn’t faze him. Difficult to feel too invested since all of them are just broad caricatures, but enjoyable to watch given the show doesn’t spend too long on their storylines. (I know, I know that sounds contradictory but if the show isn’t going to develop the characters too much, then at least it’s a good thing their stories are not detracting too much from our main couple). Jin-yi confesses her feelings to Matthew knowing full well that they aren’t returned. However, she wants to be open about it just once so that she can start moving on. And I just love how neatly this was wrapped up – her feelings were acknowledged, discussed and then they moved on. No unnecessary drama or plotting. If only Eric and Ye-jin had had a similarl open conversation. Eric alludes to being ready to wait for Ye-jin however long it takes and she just…nods! I know she’s still uncertain about Matthew’s feelings at this point, but she definitely knows how she feels so it just seems like she’s stringing him along. At least Matthew did not leave Jin-yi with any false hope that she still had a chance.
And at last we get the moment we’ve been waiting for. Fed up with his mixed signals Ye-jin directly asks Matthew how he feels about her. They confess their feelings, kiss and spend the next half hour or so being a super cute couple. Unfortunately, that doesn’t even last a full episode. It’s all set off by a sudden worsening in Som-yi’s condition due to some food she ate. Jin-yi is distraught and lashes out at Ye-jin cluing her in that the tainted face cream she had sold 5 years back was responsible for Som-yi’s condition. Eaten by guilt over it, Ye-jin’s sleepwalking flares up again, which in turn feeds into Matthew’s guilt. And at last, we get the whole story about the face cream incident. Ye-jin was just starting out as an assistant host at the time. When the main host fell ill, she was pulled in to front the product sales on HIT at short notice. Despite her misgivings about not having enough time to research the product properly, she agrees when she finds out her mother will be co-hosting. After the scandal breaks, rumors abounded that Ye-jin was paid off by the manufacturers causing Myeong-hwa to bitterly reprimand her since the scandal tanked her own career. Ye-jin was so heartbroken at her mother’s lack of faith in her that she leaned into the story instead of defending herself. Hence her mother’s hard, bitter attitude towards her even in the present day (still unjustified in my opinion). And also the reason for her insomnia and her bordering-on-obsessive determination to fully understand any product that she endorses.
That’s not quite the end of the story though, since the scandal also links back to Matthew and his past trauma. It turns out that Matthew and his friends were the ones who formulated the cream. From some past conversations with Mu-won, I imagine it was one of their friends who either tampered with the formulation or took a call to go ahead with the launch despite a possible contamination risk. But Matthew carries his own share of guilt from it, guilt that is aggravated when he sees Ye-jin blaming herself over Som-yi.
Further bringing things to a head, test results finally show that Ye-jin made the right call to halt the L’Étoile launch. Despite Eric’s sister showing up to try and bury the evidence, Eric accepts full responsibility on behalf of the company in a press conference and exonerates Ye-jin. HIT is desperate to rehire her to take advantage of the tidal wave of positive sentiment towards her. But for once, Ye-jin is thinking of something outside her career. In the blissful early stage of her relationship with Matthew (at least before Som-yi’s hospitalization) and feeling cared for and safe in the village, she isn’t in a hurry to return to HIT. She communicates as much to Eric who then proceeds to destroy any goodwill that his press conference may have engendered among viewers by instigating Matthew to sacrifice his feelings and let Ye-jin go. Wracked by guilt, Matthew does so in spectacularly bad fashion by confessing his role in the cream incident and then essentially dumping her so that she’d return to her job. And this is despite Ye-jin being mature and giving him a chance to explain rather than rushing to conclusions. Uff!
Stray Musings
- Poor Matthew is so distracted by the memory of the kiss that he ends up tanking the village’s chances of winning the festival. However, it was really sweet how he noticed Ye-jin’s hurt ankle and decided to take the blame for losing the relay race to spare her further pain.
- It’s touching watching Ye-jin and Som-yi bonding while Ye-jin coaches her for her class president speech. And I cheered seeing Som-yi finally let go of her self-consciousness about her mask after hearing Ye-jin’s words of wisdom. I have no doubt she’s heard similar advice from her sister before but sometimes getting that reassurance from a neutral party is what’s needed for that final push.
- Jin-yi really is a great salesperson. She’d probably do a great job on HIT and I hope they do develop that storyline further.
- I like that Jin-yi resolved her feelings about Matthew before Som-yi’s hospitalization. Her lashing out at Ye-jin could then be attributed solely to her worry over Som-yi, rather than cheapened by a desire to get rid of a romantic rival. I do wonder though if she knows about Matthew’s role in the cream formulation. If so, how has she forgiven him so completely while still blaming Ye-jin for her role as host?
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