Doxing
Episode 14 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 2 begins with Seo-Ban sitting with Pi-Young and discussing her current situation. Pi-Young is obviously still reeling from her divorce, but the attention soon turns to the uplifting subject of death. Specifically, the focus is on the passing of Pi-Young’s Mother. Seo-Ban knows how she feels. He mentions his own Mother and how he regrets not scattering her ashes around a tree after she passed. However, their conversation is interrupted by Do-Dam ringing regarding Ga-Bin’s performance. It turns out the pair used to be engaged. He drops off some flowers for her (catching us up to the cliffhanger last week) and makes a hasty retreat. This leaves Hae-Ryun with her. The next day, Do-Dam requests Ga-Bin show up so they can talk. While there, she admits that her parents have passed but she was unable to get out and see them because she was performing on stage. To be honest, it’s a miracle she was even able to perform that night given the grief she was suffering from. Meanwhile, Sa-Hyun receives a call from Song Won who has cravings. The family completely upend what they’re doing to be there for her, which eventually sees them going off for dinner together. Elsewhere, Dong-Mi and A-Mi share food but the former is less than enthused over how this is turning out. She’s unhappy with A-Mi’s lack of intelligence and seethes over how nonchalant she is about cooking. She even calls Dong-Mi old too. Hye-Ryung has pretty much done a full 180 although later in the episode we find out why. Anyway, for now Hye-Ryung is absolutely fine with the affair and claims there’s “no hard feelings.” She claims to be foolish for not having a child straight after getting married and even hugs Sa-Hyun goodbye. As they part ways, she tells him to have a good life. Hye-Ryung then heads out and decides to go for a drink with Seo-Ban. Now, it’s worth bearing in mind that she’s no longer wearing thick layers of makeup and looks all the better for it. This meeting also comes off the back of Seo-Ban’s earlier chat with Pi-Young, so it seems we could well be getting a love triangle of sorts in the near future. Hye-Ryung believes Seo-Bam is the one who can “heal her heart.” However, she does think about how dating the CEO of SF Electronics too, which would be the perfect payback against her ex husband. Meanwhile, Yu-Shin shows up to see Pi-Young and Ji-A unannounced. It’s Ji-A’s bedtime but Yu-Shin completely stirs things up and encourages her to eat the ice-cream he’s just bought instead. This is just the ticket Dong-Mi needs to stir things up. She rings Pi-Young when Yu-Shin leaves so A-Mi can hear that the pair were together. There’s nothing going on of course but it’s all a ploy to try and break the pair up. There’s a ridiculous scene with Ki-Rim thrown in the middle of this, depicting the old man dancing, which comes in the middle of a filler scene involving Sa-Hyun talking to Song-Won in bed. After, Moon-ho greets his son and Song-Won, showing the pair food they’ve cooked up. Meanwhile, Hye-Ryung holds a press conference regarding her divorce. She claims Sa-Hyun was the one who instigated this and she was forced to go along with it because of his mistress. She also mentions her in-laws and the settlement she agreed to. On air, Hye-Ryung begins crying, admitting that Song Won is pregnant and doing her best to stir up this maelstrom of drama. This puts Sa-Hyun in a bad light as the topic begins trending online. Seo-Ban is a little uncomfortable about Hye-Ryung’s actions, especially doxing her ex so publicly. To be honest, they’ve had it coming but it’s still one heck of a bombshell. Not long after, Hye-Ryung phones Moon-ho and plays the fool. She apologizes for what she deems are reporters spinning the truth. At the evening’s theatre performance, Pi-Young sits with Seo-Ban but Yu-Shin shows up with A-Mi. As he catches a glimpse of her, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) rolls round with another dose of drama. This time we see Hye-Ryung’s true colours comes out as her slow-burn revenge comes to fruition. Playing up the victim, she manages to spin what Sa-Hyun has done to her advantage. While her methods aren’t exactly moral, Sa-Hyun shattered that when he slept with someone else. It also doesn’t help that that whole family have just fawned over Song Won without a single thought about Hye-Ryung’s wellbeing. It’s hardly surprising it’s come to this. Meanwhile, the Pi-Young/Yu-Shin situation continues to turn and now sees Dong-Mi stirring things up. The show has really struggled with its long-form storytelling though and there seems to be no end-goal in sight for what we’ve seen so far. With 2 episodes left, it looks like we’re dragging things out for season 3. Is there really enough here to warrant that though? I don’t think so. The show has a few high points but it’s ultimately stuck in busyw0rk mediocrity. The editing and general pacing of the show is way off and the series struggles to actually give each character a consistent arc. Dong-Mi, for example, has had a completely sporadic journey from murderer to comic relief with no discernable rhyme or reason. This is only made worse by the Ki-Rim situation which has had no pay-off and doesn’t make any sense. While the second half of this show has been better than the first, this is one frustrating makjang and given the time investment required, makes it clear that there are far better shows to sink into than this.
