Can’t Lose: Episode 10

by girlfriday

It’s time to mend some fences and rebuild the relationship… only that turns out harder than anyone anticipated. When the couple was at odds, their family and friends rallied together. But now that the couple is trying to work things out, the support around them starts to crumble. Can’t they catch a break?

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

In the aftermath of the break-in, Hyung-woo holds Eun-jae close and tells her that she should’ve called him. She cries on his shoulder and he suggests they get out of the apartment for a while, but Eun-jae reminds him that there’s no longer a lock on their door.

He offers to start cleaning up, but she grabs his arm, “Don’t go.” Aw, she doesn’t even want him to be in the other room.

She lies down with her head in his lap, and he comforts her until she finally falls asleep in his arms. And then he gets to work cleaning up the apartment, so that it looks normal and safe. Aw, when he’s like this, he’s the perfect husband.

She wakes up alone and finds the house spic and span. She finds Hyung-woo installing a new lock and a safety latch, but now her moment of vulnerability has passed, and she tells him he can leave now.

But he doesn’t let her off the hook so easily, and asks her to sit down for a conversation. He tells her that since she left the office, he’s come to realize just how much she does, and how hard she’s worked all this time.

He knows now that it’s because of everything she’s done, that he’s been able to do the work he wanted to. He sincerely apologizes for all the lies, for Hee-soo, for acting so foolishly, and tells her that she’s the most important thing to him.

She apologizes in turn for the way she’s been acting, and confesses that she’s regretted her decision more than once, wondered if she gave up too hastily, knowing that she’s probably not the only one who’s hurting.

He presents the divorce like a problem they have to solve, and asks for time to figure out an answer. She agrees to try her best to mend things until the next court date.

They wake up the next morning… snuggled up in each other’s arms in bed. Eun-jae’s a little surprised he spent the night, but he says he didn’t want to leave her alone. He tells her that he’s moving back in, and she shouldn’t stop him. She doesn’t, and seems happy about it, though she doesn’t let on, of course.

He wonders if he ought to skip work today and stay home with her, but when she protests, he suggests they go to work together. When they walk into Hope side by side, the staff’s jaws drop.

Hyung-woo announces with a big smile that they’ve decided to work on things together, and they ooh and aah about where he spent the night, sending Eun-jae running into her office out of embarrassment.

Professor Jo hears the good news and comes by the office to offer the couple a resort vacation that he has no use for. They try to turn him down, but he goes into a tirade about going on vacation to work out their issues, and it’s clear they have no choice in the matter. Forced vacation it is! He even assigns a report on the vacation afterwards, like they’re still in school.

Gogi tells Hyung-woo that the best thing to heal a relationship is skinship, so he ought to figure out how to put the moves on Eun-jae. Boys. But of course, Young-joo is at the same time telling Eun-jae to spend the time talking out their issues.

Meanwhile Eun-jae’s mom wonders if Eun-jae really had such a hard time living. She asks Tae-young about the divorce and the real reason behind it. He tells her, though of course from Eun-jae’s point of view and his own.

She comes home to Hyung-woo’s mom with a new perspective, wondering if Hyung-woo wasn’t the one to put her daughter through hell. Uh-oh. I guess the moms are done taking the other kid’s side in all this?

The couple goes on their mandatory retreat in good spirits. As soon as they arrive they go for a walk, and Hyung-woo shyly tries to hold her hand, though he can only bring himself to graze it and wait.

Eun-jae realizes what he’s doing and looks up at him, and smiles as she puts her hand in his. Aw. They walk hand-in-hand, and bolstered by his newfound confidence, Hyung-woo puts an arm around her, and she does the same.

Soon they’re in bed, kissing and snuggling, and looking at each other with dreamy eyes…

Only the whole thing is Hyung-woo’s fantasy, and they haven’t actually budged from the living room since they’ve arrived. Heh.

They go out and Eun-jae tells him that what she wants is a husband who will listen to her talk all night long. He promises to do so, and they stay up all night, talking in bed…

…which turns out to be HER fantasy. They’re still sitting on the couch, looking at each other in anticipation. Her thought bubble: Conversation. His thought bubble: Skinship. This is going nowhere good.

So they head out, and just as Hyung-woo tries to reach down for her hand, his phone rings. And just as Eun-jae tries to start talking, her phone rings. Then before they can get anywhere, she trips on her shoelace and he has to piggyback her back to the room.

She heads to the bathroom and grabs all the toiletries first thing, insisting that they take them home. Heh, I love that she’s such an ajumma. He barely stops her from taking all the towels too.

She draws a bubble bath, and then he opens the bathroom door dramatically and walks toward her, making scary bedroom eyes. Well scary to her, since she’s wanting to take a bath alone, and doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.

He leans in, and she tells him that they haven’t worked out any of their issues yet, but he doesn’t listen, trying to somehow force romance out of this very awkward situation. He leans forward, and she leans back, dropping her phone right into the tub. Whoops.

She freaks out, scared she’ll lose all her contacts, and insists they go back to Seoul right this minute. He refuses, trying to remind her why they’re here, but she can’t focus on anything else.

So off they go, Eun-jae limping and clutching her phone for dear life. Hyung-woo is not pleased, but Eun-jae is just as disappointed, and reminds him that without their contacts, Hope is dead in the water. They hobble away, both bubbles burst.

They return to the office and Hyung-woo lies through his teeth that the vacation was a smash hit, and Eun-jae handles it with clenched teeth. But her frustration doesn’t stay contained for long, because she finds out that Hyung-woo borrowed money from his mother to float Hope while she was away.

She reminds him that she swore she’d never ask his mother for money because it hurts her pride. She’s already the daughter-in-law that Mom doesn’t like, and this just adds to the vast array of things Mom can hold against her.

He assures her that it was just this once, and that he doesn’t like it any more than she does. She asks him to get Gogi to pay him back for that loan so they can pay Mom back right away, but Hyung-woo balks at asking his friend for that money, knowing his situation.

I feel like we’re heading back to square one with the money issue, which is bad news. Eun-jae tries to silently nudge him into asking Gogi, but he refuses and avoids eye contact. She has to ask him directly, but he pretty much does the same, passing the buck onto his wife who handles the money. Oy.

Hyung-woo goes to the extreme end of the spectrum in his efforts to win Eun-jae over, trying a little too hard to be someone he’s not. He goes to meet those lawyer sunbaes he hates (who dislike him in turn) to try and grow Hope’s business.

It’s the kind of thing that the idealistic Hyung-woo hates more than anything – schmoozing and sucking up to move up in the world, and his face betrays how hard it is for him.

But Eun-jae already knows this about him and drags him out, insisting that if he’d just understand her, she could hold up the money-making end and he could continue to do what he loves. But he refuses to let her deal with guys like that on her own.

He keeps trying a little too hard, as if forcing her favorite intestine soup down his throat is somehow going to mend bridges. It only sends him to the bathroom, where he promptly throws it right back up.

He then tries AGAIN to skip steps and go straight to skinship, and Eun-jae has to shoo him off her side of the bed. He pouts and turns over with his back to her, and then decides that butt contact is better than no contact.

I’m not sure if he meant to start it out as hey baby, here’s my butt, but it turns into a butt-war, ending in something more like, move your ass, buttface.

Tensions are still high with the moms, and it finally boils over one day. Hyung-woo’s mom doesn’t think lending the kids some money is a big deal, but Eun-jae’s mom knows her daughter, and her pride most of all. Yeah I’d say.

She knows that Eun-jae wouldn’t just accept money like that, and wonders just how hard things are for her. They escalate into another argument, and decide it’s time to part ways. Looks like the honeymoon period for this odd couple is over.

Eun-jae finally screws up the nerve to ask Young-joo for the money, only to find that she’s been giving Gogi regular payments… to be given directly to Eun-jae. Oh dear. And they were doing so well too.

Young-joo grills Gogi about the money, and finds that he’s been sending it to his sick dad instead, which was their initial sticking point—his refusal to consult her before spending their money.

But their argument is cut short, when Young-joo gags from nausea, which can only mean one thing in dramaland: she’s pregnant. They confirm it with a doctor, and Young-joo sighs at the timing of it all, while Gogi jumps up and down like a little kid.

Eun-jae gets the money back from Young-joo and brings it over to Hyung-woo’s mom. Mom tells her that it wasn’t a loan; she was giving them that money. But Eun-jae refuses it, telling her that they haven’t once taken any money from her, and they’re not going to start now.

By now it’s a point of pride for Mom too, and she’s offended that Eun-jae is refusing her money. She sighs that if Hyung-woo had met someone who was more understanding, he’d be able to do what he loves without having to worry over such trivial things. Ouch.

She offhandedly adds that she also dislikes her in-laws. Eun-jae fumes at the insult to her mother, and snaps back, “Well you won’t have to be in-laws with her anymore!” She tells her that they can just divorce and then Mother won’t have to deal with her family at all.

Mom wonders why she’s so defensive of her own mother when she refuses to even see her, but Eun-jae points out that it’s one thing for her to live without seeing her mother, but another for someone else to insult her. Mom snaps too and tells her to just get a divorce then, since she’s tired of it all. Yikes.

Hyung-woo in turn goes to see Eun-jae’s mom, who admits that she’s been staying with his mother up until now. But she says that she had to leave because she couldn’t take her daughter’s suffering anymore.

He tells her that he’s working on it, trying to fix things, but Mom tells him the thing the sticks in her mind – when Eun-jae said that being with Hyung-woo makes her even lonelier than being alone.

Mom says, tears in her eyes, that before she got married, Eun-jae used to shine so brightly. But now…

Hyung-woo’s face falls as the words sink in. When I hear Mom’s words, I really wonder if being married to Hyung-woo IS the best thing for Eun-jae. She’s so clearly unhappy, but whether that’s from the divorce, the marriage, or both is unclear.

He comes home and finds Eun-jae sitting quietly on the couch. She tells him that she paid his mother back with money from Young-joo, and he gets angry, but she informs him that his mother told her to just get a divorce since she dislikes everything about her in-laws.

He tells her that they just have to keep trying together, but she wonders if it’s something that can be fixed with effort. It makes me sad to say, but I wonder too, sometimes. I want them to work it out, but clearly he’s putting in the kind of effort that’s actually making things worse somehow.

She tells him that she’s done trying, and leaves the room.

Hyung-woo goes over to Woo-shik’s place, where Gogi is already throwing back a beer. The three guys just sit blankly in front of the TV for hours, talking to themselves about each of their women troubles, not at all listening to each other. You guys are a fun bunch.

Eun-jae gets a call from the same sunbae that Hyung-woo drank with the other night, and rushes over happily to meet with him. He lets her in on a big case he’s working on, but tells her to leave Hyung-woo out of it.

She assures him that he’s busy with his own cases, but just then, Hyung-woo comes storming into the office to drag her out of there, calling her his woman. The sunbae makes a point of saying that she’s about to be solo now, and grabs her other wrist.

Ew, smarmy. Hyung-woo flips his lid and decks the guy, landing him in jail because duh, LAWYER. Eun-jae asks if this is his idea of helping, and he asks if she really had to work with the sleazebag. Sigh, their words to each other always come out twisted, defending her to the scumbag but criticizing her to her face.

He refuses her help so she leaves him in jail. He thinks about her words earlier, that she didn’t want a fat wallet; just not an empty one. She thinks about his words, that he doesn’t want to be considered a good husband by everyone else but her.

He comes home after his half a day in the slammer and asks if she still intends on going through with the divorce. She says she’s weighing it, though the thought of facing his mother pretty much suffocates her.

The next day he doesn’t see her at the office and asks where she is. It turns out she’s back at the sleazebag’s office, to make nice so she can still work on the case. He finds her there, and in a shocking move, swallows his pride to apologize to the dirtbag for yesterday.

But this time it’s Eun-jae’s turn to flip out, demanding that he stop apologizing at once. “Why are you apologizing to this asshole?” Hahaha. She says that she came here to try and score some cases for Hope, but won’t allow Hyung-woo to stoop to apologize for something that wasn’t wrong.

This cracks me up. I love that at the end of the day, despite complaining that he brings in no money, she loves him for his idealistic moral stance too. She doesn’t want it sullied any more than he does.

The sunbae looks at the pair of them incredulously and asks if they’re really getting a divorce, since it clearly doesn’t look that way to him. Eun-jae gives him a piece of her mind and storms out, leaving Hyung-woo slack-jawed.

He finally comes to his senses and goes running after her. He races up to her and backhugs her, asking:

Hyung-woo: Have you been living like this, the entire time? What have we been looking at, all this time?
Eun-jae: This is how we lived. Only looking ahead, and not to the side.

They stand there, holding each other for a while. It’s maybe the first moment I feel like they’re in the same place at the same time, emotionally. Perhaps he finally understands a little of what she’s sacrificed for him.

It’s the day before their next court date, and Young-joo asks if Eun-jae’s made a decision. She hasn’t yet, because she feels like maybe she could understand Hyung-woo, but fears that the two mothers will never resolve their issues. I’d argue that you’ve been married this long without seeing your mother; it’s hardly a reason to get divorced.

Hyung-woo goes out early the next morning, heading to a temple to observe the anniversary of his brother’s death. It’s a burden that I don’t understand why he carries alone. It’s one thing to say, hide your involvement in his death or something. But to pretend he’s still alive? To your mother? That’s just twisted and weird.

He contemplates the things that his mother-in-law told him, and what he’s seen Eun-jae go through the last few days because of him. Oh no. Are you doing what I think you’re going to do?

Eun-jae goes to court and the Hope staff notes that her face looks bright. She tells them that she’s reached a decision. She smiles.

They head into the courtroom and Hyung-woo arrives late. She stands up to give her statement…

But Hyung-woo stands up and cuts her off. He asks to speak first because this trial won’t be needed anymore. Eun-jae smiles at him, thinking they’re on the same page.

And then he says, “I’ll do as the plaintiff wants. I’ll divorce.”

ACK!

 
COMMENTS

Argh. Why is it always at the moment when Eun-jae is about to turn around and kill the divorce that Hyung-woo always steamrolls ahead, all of a sudden? These two are just bad timing, through and through.

The thing is, I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong for thinking that maybe she’s better without him, or that she needs time away from him to reclaim herself, and vice versa. But the timing of it stinks to high heaven, because it’s at the exact moment she’s willing to give him another chance.

If these two would just learn to SPEAK to each other instead of making declarations in court, we might actually have a relationship to save. Can we just lock them in a panic room with a bunch of liquor? I know you think I’m kidding, but it just might work.

 
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