Motherly Love
Episode 11 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) begins with Yu-Shin at the bar with A-Mi, talking about the happiest moments of their life. A-Mi’s happen to be when she got into UCLA. This surprises Yu-Shin, especially as he sees her as a happy-go-lucky girl. The conversation then turns to horse riding. This, of course, is deliberate given A-Mi’s dream about riding horses on the beach together. After, they discuss first loves, where Yu-Shin admits that his was his Mother… not his biological mother though, as if that makes it any better! Instead of running for the hills, A-Mi just quizzes him further about his family upbringing. In fact, she even tells him to psychoanalyze himself into what sort of person he is. As they talk about clusters, he eventually decide she should get to know him more and touches her shoulder. This moment lingers, as they eventually get a taxi home. On their way, A-Mi snuggles up to him and admits that she’ll never forget this night. At home, Yu-Shin continues to exhibit his weird Mother-issues and tells Pi-Young to treat him like a baby in his drunken state. Later on, we cut back in time from this incident as Yu-Shin puts his jacket over A-Mi and promises to phone her the following night. She knows exactly what she’s doing, as A-mi reaches out and encourages him to hug her. That hug eventually leads to him walking away but you can tell there’s regrets there. In the morning, Yu-Shin drops off some food for A-Mi as a way of easing her hangover but telling doesn’t go inside her apartment. Meanwhile, Pi-Young continues to avoid calls from her Mother, acting really short with her and refusing to let her see Ji-A. Meanwhile, Hye-Ryung and Sa-Hyun’s Mother butt heads, as Ye-Jung settles in for the night. Only, Moon-Ho shows up at the door. Hye-Ryung offers to set the table but he refuses, telling her they need to leave. Mr Park’s Mother has died so he’s all dressed up in a suit ready to go. Ye-Jung refuses to go though, telling him to show up alone. She even refuses to cook for him too. Succumbing to her wishes, he decides to stay…and settles in to sleep in the same room. Only, tensions are obviously still high between them over the dog incident last episode. Ironically, on the back of this Sa-Hyun asks Hye-Ryung whether they can get a dog. She immediately shuts him down though. In the morning, Sa-Hyun finds his parents have both left while he himself heads to the gym, ready to work out. Well, he’s actually waiting for Song Won, whom he’s quick to sit with and shares food with. As they talk, Song Won admits she has one older brother. In fact, as he makes small talk, he convinces her to text him the recipe for the food he’s made. As they engage in an easy-going conversation, Hye-Ryung phones up panicking that she has a lump in her mouth. This causes him to rush out and see her. Hye-Ryung is okay though, but Sa-Hyun continues to fret over Song-Won. In fact, he even tries ringing her but her phone is switched off. Elsewhere, Hae-Ryun is unable to sleep and in the middle of the night decides to check out videos of Ga-Bin on his computer. Shi-Eun thinks nothing of it when she spies him doing this, but it’s clear there’s something more going on. Speaking of more, Dong-Mi shows her true colours, off the back of the news report last episode, continuing to feed Ki-Rim fatty, carbohydrate-heavy food. When Pi-Young and Ji-A head over for dinner, Dong-Mi acts shadily and refuses to tell Pi-Young her recipe. As the night draws on, Pi-Young instead scoops up some food in a plastic container and takes it to Yu-Shin without his Mother finding out. Dong-Mi does eventually realize what’s going on after they’ve left and tries to phone and talk to her. Instead, Pi-Young notices the call and hands the phone to Ji-A, deflecting her call cleverly. Dong-Mi eventually retreats. Meanwhile, Yu-Shin heads over to A-Mi’s apartment to pick up his things. As he arrives, A-Mi agrees to see him out as they get in the elevator together. It turns out she’s going to the US the following day so they decide to go for a walk before she goes. A-Mi slips given she’s wearing heels (intentionally, obviously) and clutches his arm as they walk down the street. Things seem to go well, as A-Nu quizzes him over how Dong-Mi feels about him and vice versa. He claims she’s like an angel but nothing more than an older sister and friend, which is still pretty weird. Anyway, he invites her into his car where Yu-Shin has a gift for her in a red tin. He leans over and puts her seatbelt on as romantic music plays. They eventually drive off together as the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) returns this week for a whole episode of…not very much. There’s barely anything here that actually progresses the story forward and these long flashback segments simply work to fill in the blanks over what we already know. We know all three of these husbands cheat on their respective partners and this leaves very little in the way of imagination. Beyond that though, Yu-Shin and A-Mi have the lion’s share of the screen-time but for some bizarre reason we’ve got romantic music over their moments together. It’s certainly a strange choice stylistically because there’s nothing romantic about sneaking around behind your partner’s back and growing closer to another woman- especially with no drama or tension in the actual relationship to hint that Yu-Shin would do this. I’m no expert at relationships (my own marriage lasted 4 months before I got a divorce!) but surely no girl is going to find it attractive if a guy mentions how their first love is their Mum. That just seems super creepy and a massive red flag. Then again A-mi is quite clearly a bull, charging head-first for those red warning signs so who knows! As the episode closes out, it promises more drama to come as this lackadaisical Sat/Sun drama continues to limp along.
