Ghosts Of The Past
Love With Flaws returns with another slice of comedy, one that sees Seo-Yeon finally make her choice between the two men in her life after a short-lived love triangle. There’s also a few scenes late on where Seo-Yeon confronts the ghosts from her past but if I’m honest, I’m not sure the darker tone really suits this one. Regardless of that, Love With Flaws continues to entertain, even if its story and various subplots don’t always hit their stride as well as they perhaps should. The episodes begin with Mi-Kyung contemplating whether Seo-Yeon is gay, given she felt nothing after her kiss with Kang-Woo. However, she quickly dispels that idea and instead decides that her lack of feelings stem from Kang-Woo being a bad kisser. In order to find out the truth, she encourages Seo-Yeon to try and kiss him again, but this time with a bit more passion. Back home, Joo-Hee runs into money problems and contemplates taking some from Jang-Mi’s bag of cash. Only, when she approaches her back home, she thinks twice about it. Instead, she confronts Seo-Joon about his shifty behaviour but he tells her to leave, given she doesn’t understand their family issues. At Kang’s house, Seo-Yeon kisses him several times and after some initial awkwardness, they finally lock lips properly, leading her to tell him she’s going to marry Mi-Kyung instead. However, Hyun-Soo arrives at her house in the middle of the night, prompting her to beat him with a plant after asking her to marry him. (She says no of course!) Back at school the next day, Kang’s grandmother arrives and berates Kang for abusing his power. She requests him to come to the headquarters while assigning someone else to his position. That someone being Min-Hyeok. When Seo-Yeon learns what’s happening, she approaches him and he pleads with her to like him. After awkwardly showing some affection, she heads home where she finds Jang-Mi dressed just like her, and she takes her aside to discuss Seo-Joon’s condition. Back home, she tests this theory and locks him in a cupboard, eventually letting him go and finding him curled up in a ball on the ground. She embraces her brother and apologises, eventually sitting her brothers down together and discussing what’s happening with Seo-Joon. His brothers agree that he needs to see a doctor regarding his condition. Given it was Jang-Mi who admitted the truth, Seo-Jun assumes it was actually Joo-Hee and gives her the cold shoulder on the way out. Joo-Hee approaches Jang-Mi about the situation and after clearing the air, approaches Seo-Yeon where she admits what happened a while back with the lights and apologises for not telling her the truth sooner. It’s here we find out what really happened that fateful night with Seo-Jun and just why he’s afraid of the dark. Won-Jae receives a call from Kang-Hee requesting his assistance and together, they head out to a restaurant where she heads in alone and makes him wait outside. After what seems like an eternity, she reappears from the dinner and they talk together at the park, where she admits to him the reason she works as hard as she does is because of her Father. At school, it’s publicly announced that Kang has stepped down and Min-Hyeok has taken his place. After introductions, he and Seo-Yeon discuss his new position and in particular, Kang-Woo’s place at the school. Seo-Yeon claims he’s the one who’s changed and leaves. Instantly regretting what she said, Seo-Yeon apologises for being so rude and tells Min-Hyeok he deserves this position. Only, it turns out he took that position because he likes Seo-Yeon and wanted Kang-Woo to disappear. It’s enough of an incentive for Seo-Yeon to suddenly think she actually does like Kang-Woo and heads back home where she finds him snooping around her house. They go on a date together and seem to hit it off, heading to a fairground where they eat food and snap some photos. While Kang-Woo’s aunt and uncle find sketches of Seo-Yeon in Kang-Woo’s study, the couple continue their date, heading to a movie where Kang-Woo winds up crying, prompting our leading lady to admit she can’t cry no matter what happens. Back home, Seo-Yeon heads downstairs after a nap and speaks to her brothers about the accident, having miraculously remembered what happened that fateful night. It turns out she wanted to head out and see Kang-Woo and pleaded with her parents to take her, which is why they were on the road. With tears in her eyes, Seo-Yeon blames herself for her parents dying which is where we leave the episode. Well that was a pretty grim way to end things this week. The short-lived love triangle is a little disappointing too, feeling like an idea abandoned almost as quickly as it began, and sending us back to the traditional Kang-Woo/Seo-Yeon set-up. I just don’t see any chemistry between these two and Min-Hyeok’s brash behaviour this week feels a little out of character too, especially given how quiet he’s been for much of the season. Jang-Mi is another character I’m not really sure the purpose of. Given her tiny amount of screen-time each episode, I’m not quite sure what her purpose is and to be honest, the only interesting characters with some depth and chemistry are Kang-Hee and Won-Jae. Their storyline is pretty interesting and to be fair, there are some good themes around homophobia at play but beyond that, there just isn’t a whole lot else going on. I don’t want to say Love With Flaws is winging it but right now I don’t see what the end-game is here and that makes this a difficult Korean drama to recommend.
