The Alliance
Episode 11 of Mine begins with Mother Emma in the future, finding Ji-Yong dead and revealing a big secret. Someone was standing atop the stairs. Who could it be? We then cut back 15 days before the murder. Hi-Soo leaves court after dropping the bombshell divorce reveal to Ji-Yong. This all came off the back of Hye-Jin trying to patch things up with Hi-Soo but understandably meeting fierce resistance. Hye-Jin knows what it’s like to lose a child and pleads with Hi-Soo, wanting to be the one to take care of her. Hi-Soo refuses though, at least initially, but Hye-Jin continues to do her best to comfort the grief-tricken woman. She knows Hi-Soo won’t forgive her but tries to atone for her sins. We then see the moments leading up to the court trial, including Seo-Hyun getting involved and setting up Hye-Jin for a losing court trial. They’re doing al of this for Ha-Joon’s sake. After the court case, Hi-Soo thanks Hye-Jin for her help and hands over Ha-Joon’s first tooth he lost as a way of saying thanks. When she receives it, the girl begins weeping. Meanwhile, Ji-Yong calls his PR team in to try and salvage the situation with his wife. Seo-Hyun reminds him that the media are intimidated by him but Ji-Yong is confident they won’t release anything. He next turns his attention to Seo-Hyun’s sexuality, but Seo-Hyun bites back. She tells him to step down before he’s forced to. In fact, she’s happy to face whatever he has up his sleeve but warns that if he does, then he needs to be ready to face her wrath. While Jin-Hee starts writing up her letter of apology, she receives a call from Jin-Ho who’s just found out about Ji-Yong’s appointment. He escapes from the treatment center, brandishing his suit and preparing to face his brother. On the way out though he faces Yu-Yeon and tells her to leave, accusing her of flirting and seducing Soo-Hyeok. Unbeknownst to him, Joo happens to be filming this entire encounter. When Soo-Hyeok returns and finds out Yu-Yeon has been fired…again, he quickly goes to confront his family…again. Jin-ho tell him he knows best but Soo-Hyeok rasps back, telling him he should disown him then. And just like that, our tortured soul heads off and sees Yu-Yeon, confessing his love after spending the night together. Meanwhile, Jin-Hee comes storming in to the offices to see Ji-Yong. Although she’s kept out in the offices, Ji-Yong continues to exert his dominance by forcing the reporters to hold off releasing any information about the lawsuit. That’s particularly problematic for Hi-Soo given she had news due to be released at 6pm that night. Their higher-ups at the newspapers have been paid off to keep quiet. Seo-Hyun returns to her office and finds a present from Suzy Choi left for her. She’s leaving the country soon. However, she meets Hye-Jin who admits she wants to break Ji-Yong down. Seo-Hyun continues to go through the motions though, especially when a hotheaded Jin-Ho confronts her about Soo-Hyeok. Unlike Jin-Ho, she understands what he’s going through. Eventually it all becomes too much for her and she begins to cry. With the office free, she finds a painting from Suzy Choi with instructions asking her to draw the other side to help free her soul. Speaking of which, Hi-Soo heads over to see Mother Emma, deciding to spend the night with her. While they sit together, Emma speaks about her past, including the origin story around how she became a nun. Jin-Ho approaches the chairman and implores him to see sense and pick Soo-Hyeok. He’s going to do his best to convince him otherwise. Instead, the chairman simply turns and tells him to love Ji-Yong. The chairman is now willing to accept Ji-Yong as his son and wants Jin-Ho to open himself up too. Of course, he doesn’t know how awful his son actually is. Using the same lawyer that’s working for Seo-Hyun, Hi-Soo decides to use everything she has to exercise her shareholder rights to get back at Ji-Yong. Ji-Yong however, knows that Hye-Jin has aligned herself with Hi-Soo and confronts her at her house. It’s no good though and Hye-Jin comes out with a video confession about Ji-Yong’s transgressions. Seo-Hyun receives the video and decides to play it at the board meeting coming up the following day. When Ji-Yong returns home, he refuses to grant Hi-Soo her divorce. However, Hi-Soo smiles and hands over a set of keys, telling her husband that the nursery is ready. As he heads upstairs, he finds the blood-soaked dress hanging from the rafters, signifying her miscarriage. When Ji-Yong sees, Hi-Soo spells it out, claiming he’s the reason she lost her child. We then cut to the day of the murder, with Ji-Yong on the floor. Up above however is Seo-Hyun… was she involved in some way?
The Episode Review
Mine returns this week with another dramatic episode as Ji-Yong continues to exert his dominance over the family at the head of Hyowon. The Yu-Yeon/Soo-Hyeok romance continues to be the weakest subplot of the show, alongside Grandma’s trademark shouting and peacock drama. Where the show is a lot stronger however, is in its depiction of Seo-Hyun’s romance and the growing dissent between Hi-Soo and Ji-Yong. Now that the secret of her miscarriage is out, it’ll be interesting to see how Ji-Yong reacts to that. With 15 days until the death, there’s a lot of different suspects that could be responsible for what’s happened. I’m still thinking Mother Emma is involved in some way. She’s suspicious running away like that but again, that’s just speculation at this point. Quite what will happen tomorrow however, remains to be seen but this one is just starting to get interesting!
