You From Another Star: Episode 5

by javabeans

Lots more good stuff in today’s episode, with feelings being awakened and engaged (then denied, and maybe mocked a little—always fun), mysteries deepened, and aliens sighted. Plus jealousies are stirred and murderers get more murdery. All in all, an eventful episode, to match the ever-climbing ratings. (22.3% already!)

SONG OF THE DAY

Jung Joon-young – “병이에요 (Spotless Mind)” [ Download ]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 
RECAP: FIFTH RECORD

Min-joon saves Song-yi from falling overboard, and as he puts her to bed, she pulls him down to her to give him a kiss. She murmurs, “You’ve gone crazy,” but it’s more to herself than to him, believing herself to be dreaming him up. She hushes him from speaking and sighs, “Yeah, I was too lonely all this time and it’s been hard on my body. I’m even dreaming up sexy dreams now. It’s time I married. Hormones are honest.”

Drifting off to sleep, Song-yi curls into Min-joon’s coat for warmth—the one he’s wearing, which pulls him even closer to her. Looking completely out of his element (well, even more than he is, for being an alien and all), Min-joon carefully extricates himself.

As soon as he exits, he overhears scary hyung Jae-kyung confirming with his secretary that “it” has been completed, without witnesses, and that if not for somebody being greedy, he wouldn’t have had to do this. Classic you-made-me-hit-you abuser line. They become aware of Min-joon’s presence and the secretary takes off after him, but of course he’s no match for those alien superpowers.

Min-joon rematerializes back home in his library (smooth), only to realize he picked the staircase as his reentry point and then literally tumbles down it (not so smooth). Ha, I laughed out loud. It aggravates his shoulder, which is still sore now in the present as he sits with Song-yi in his apartment. (The boat kiss was a flashback, so we’re back to the current timeline where paparazzi are parked outside his front door.)

Min-joon asks Song-yi about the dream she had casually mentioned having, and when she tells him to mind his own business, he declares, “It must’ve been a sexy dream.” LOL. Song-yi puffs up indignantly and says she has no reason to be dreaming about him, blustering, “Just last month I kissed Jo In-sung! …in a movie.” Then she snaps at him for knowing who Jo In-sung is but not her, and turns on the TV to prove how ubiquitous her presence is.

Min-joon says he only watches the news, which happens to be on. It’s a report about a UFO sighting earlier that evening, which he watches intently. Song-yi crows, “You like this kind of stuff? Are you a grade-schooler?” I love that she so loves having something to make fun of him about.

But there are more pressing concerns on Min-joon’s mind as he takes in the sight of UFOs zipping through the air in a strange flight pattern. It’s the same pattern used in Joseon times, which is our segue to another flashback:

The glowing saucers causes such commotion that it’s a headache for the local government. The skeptical governor (cameo by Kim Su-ro) knows that reporting such a fantastical story to the king would open them up to ridicule. Told that the public sentiment is very uneasy, the governor instructs his men how to change that sentiment: Distract people with an even bigger event, so they forget about this one. HA. For a fantasy-romantic-comedy, this drama sure is getting in a fair share of barbed social commentary.

There’s one story that might do the trick: A young widow supposedly committed suicide, but was then sighted traveling toward her parents’ hometown with a strange man. Her family must have faked the suicide and thus the honor bestowed upon them for her virtuous act was fraudulently gained.

The governor sends his men to Yi-hwa’s parents’ home, where Lord Seo insists that his daughter is dead. The house is searched, while he quietly assures his wife that Yi-hwa has already run away. He admits that he couldn’t kill his own daughter—he’d trusted that his wife would ensure her escape.

But there’s a wrinkle in that assumption, because Dad hadn’t realized Yi-hwa would be determined to save her savior. While she huddles in the storeroom, trying to rouse a poisoned Min-joon, her father faces off against the officers to prevent them from entering. For that, Lord Seo gets stabbed over and over, fighting until he literally falls down dead. Thankfully the delay has given Yi-hwa and Min-joon the time to escape, and the storeroom is found empty.

Watching the news, Song-yi wonders about aliens, saying that Supermen existed, they should catch all the bad guys and help the unfortunate. Min-joon balks, though—why should the alien put his neck on the line just because he has powers? “You humans should just live amongst yourselves and help each other,” he instructs, not catching the slip of the tongue that excludes himself from the statement. Song-yi jokingly asks if he’s an alien or has powers, and Min-joon caaaasually turns away, saying no.

Out on the terrace, Song-yi looks out at a huge billboard of her face on the building opposite theirs and says she moved here because it gave her a good view of it. Haha. It’s not (only) narcissism driving that sentiment, though, because she explains that that slot is the most expensive one in the nation, and having her image hanging there means she’s the current top star. And so, looking on it lifts her spirits when she’s feeling low, offering a bit of consolation when people hurt her feelings.

Min-joon offers a tip on how not to let people hurt her: “Don’t give or receive anything, or depend on anyone. Then you’ll have nothing to be disappointed in or hurt about.”

Song-yi wonders, “What’s the fun in living then?” She figures he has no friends, possibly no family, and asks if living like an island isn’t lonely. The words have some effect, but he turns them around on her to point out that Song-yi is constantly surrounded by people, and yet she’s also here alone.

“Why do you say I’m alone?” she asks. “We’re here together.”

In a playful mood, Song-yi flings an arm around Min-joon’s neck and shouts out into the night air. Min-joon stiffens and barks at her to observe his 1 meter radius rule.

Out in the hallway, the reporter siege is still going strong. Hwi-kyung rubs elbows with a group of reporters and argues that there’s no reason to suspect Song-yi in Yura’s death, listing other factors that could be in play. The others chuckle at his naivety—people don’t want facts, they want a scapegoat to take the brunt of their anger for this injustice.

Hwi-kyung asks indignantly who’ll take the brunt of the anger for Song-yi’s injustice if she’s innocent, and his heated defense has the reporters wondering who he works for. He laughs it off nervously.

It’s time for bed, and Min-joon gives Song-yi blankets to sleep on the couch. She makes a big show of sighing that she’ll be unable to sleep a wink since she’s sooooo sensitive, but he ignores it and heads off to his room, where he reads a book titled “Mysterious Voyage.”

The story is about a ceramic rabbit that once loved a girl, and watched as she slowly died. “The rabbit swore never to make the mistake of loving again.”

Min-joon wanders back out to check on Song-yi, tucking her in as she sleeps. He freezes at the sight of her, thinking back to Yi-hwa and her confession of liking him, and how she wanted to grow up fast to show him her grown-up appearance.

The book continues, “But answer this. Without love, how can this story end happily?”

That night, Jae-kyung’s secretary sneaks into Yura’s room and slips an envelope into a book. In the morning, her sister finds the letter and breaks down in sobs.

Hwi-kyung sneaks home in the morning and gets caught by his disapproving parents, who aren’t terribly concerned about Song-yi’s well-being (having had a history of Hwi-kyung ignoring them to be a besotted fool for her). Even so, Hwi-kyung begs his parents to help, saying that there’s nothing chaebols can’t do with their money, power, or connections. He pleads for them to consider this saving their son’s life, but Chairman Dad orders his new golf clubs to be brought, because he’ll consider this the death of their son. Lol.

Min-joon finds the living room a mess, and Song-yi’s busily shaking her limbs in the air (to reduce sodium-induced bloating, heh). She chirps that he probably couldn’t sleep because of the thrill of having her in his house, and “apologizes” for being the cause. He says drily that one person’s presence has totally transformed his home (say, into a pigsty), which she of course interprets in the most flattering way. And then she remembers that her new door PIN was 1111, specifically to make it easy to remember, which she then forgot.

Annoyed, Min-joon snatches the pillow under her head, Song-yi retaliates, and they end up in a juvenile fight that somehow turns sexy (really, it’s pretty hot) as he climbs on top of her to grab her flailing fists. Which, naturally, looks like a different activity altogether in the eyes of Lawyer Jang, who has arrived unheard. HEE.

Min-joon blurts out “Father!” and Lawyer Jang confusedly jumps from jondaemal to banmal and back to jondae again, trying to fit the cover story. Song-yi introduces herself to “Father” and speaks very prettily about how nice and neighborly Min-joon was to offer his home to her, and then gets a gleam in her eye to see the homemade food he’s carrying.

Song-yi drags Min-joon to the table, overriding his whole “I don’t eat with others” rule, and praises the food. Min-joon glares, muttering, “Can’t you shut up and eat?” Song-yi snaps back, “How can I shut my mouth and eat?” And through it all, Lawyer Jang is happy to take her side. HA.

Prosecutor Yoo is still hard at work on the Yura investigation, but Detective Park is ready to call the case closed with Yura’s (planted) suicide note coming to light. It’s nice to know there are still some brains on the case (okay, one brain) because Prosecutor Yoo wants a handwriting expert to confirm the letter and is suspicious about the way these details are lining up conveniently after the fact.

At S&C Group, Hwi-kyung’s manager sucks up to him mightily now that he knows he’s an undercover chaebol, and assures Hwi-kyung that he had that problematic sunbae transferred to a different office. (Ha, clever way to explain away the cameo.) Hwi-kyung remains blissfully ignorant of the office politics around him and just sighs that it’s too bad ’cause that sunbae seemed nice.

Jae-kyung is eager to have Yura’s case closed, and decides it’s time to look into the prosecutor in charge. Oh, and Prosecutor Yoo is Se-mi’s brother? Nice twist. We catch up to him at home, and his mother calls him Seok (which we can now use as well). It’s his first case, and while Mom talks about it as a clear suicide, Seok corrects her that it’s not confirmed. Mom and Se-mi want details, but Seok is principled and keeps his mouth shut. Isn’t it amazing how competence can be so hot?

Seok and his cop partner follow up with eyewitnesses to the beauty salon fight, and the story turns out to be quite different from all the exaggerated Song-yi-bashing tales that have leaked. Watching security cameras shows that it was Yura who’d had the temper tantrum… and then a man stepped in, looking just like that man from the boat.

Min-joon heads out to the supermarket with Lawyer Jang, who is loving every moment of Min-joon’s discomfort as he shops for things for Song-yi, just like all the other husbands out shopping for their wives. Min-joon insists that his only reason for continuing to associate with Song-yi is to see if there is a connection to Yi-hwa, which sounds totally unconvincing.

On his way home, Min-joon notices Song-yi’s advertisement being taken down from its wall, and the reporters are filing out of the building to cover other calls. Is she no longer the hot story of the day?

But he can’t bring himself to let her know that, so when Song-yi asks if the reporters are still outside, he mumbles that they are. And when she moves to take a look at her billboard, he blocks her path and tries a number of excuses (and a telekinetically broken vase) to prevent her from seeing its absence.

A call from manager Bum distracts her, but the news she gets is worse: Yura left a suicide note, and that means public sentiment will be mounting against Song-yi. Well, even more.

That gets Song-yi fired up, and she heads to confront the reporters outside to insist on her innocence: “The heavens and earth know it, I know it, and the deceased Yura knows it too. So I’m okay.” But in her haste she’s stepped right into the path of broken glass, and her foot is bleeding.

Min-joon sweeps her up to carry her to the couch, and she asks in a small voice, “It isn’t really because of me, right? If it really was because of me, what do I do?” Min-joon sees that she’s crying and tells her firmly that it’s not her fault.

Outside the manhwa store, Bok-ja watches a pair of kidlets having a Very Serious Discussion in front of her shop, and this gives us an Heirs parody with the little boy stealing Tan’s whole “Do I like you?” speech and the girl making up excuses for why she’s too busy to think of love right now.

The boy is heartbroken at the rejection, and sits numbly in the manhwa shop as Bok-ja offers him a consolation yogurt drink. “Is life always so difficult?” he asks. Bok-ja offers some words of wisdom: If you wanna live an easy life, it’s easy. But if you live a tough one, it can be mighty difficult.

As Min-joon rushes to the pharmacy for first aid supplies, Bok-ja narrates: “If I just want to love myself, living is comfortable. But if you start to love someone else, life becomes complicated and difficult.”

Min-joon cleans and wraps Song-yi’s cut, then tells her that the reporters are gone. She thanks him for his help and for saying that it wasn’t her fault, and Bok-ja narrates, “It comes in an instant. That’s how it happens, without giving you time to prepare your heart, abruptly, suddenly, without warning.”

The next time Min-joon comes to his living room, it’s empty. He cleans up Song-yi’s mess and eats alone, feeling extra-lonely tonight. And when he steps out onto the terrace, he casts a curious look over to Song-yi’s balcony before wondering, “Have I gone crazy? What am I doing?”

Police station. Little brother Yoon-jae sits with a busted lip while a cop takes an incident report from three students, all of whom look more battered than he does. They insist that they were doing nothing to merit the attack in the PC room, just writing comments online, which explains to us exactly how things escalated. Aw, poor kid—it must be tough loving and hating your sister at the same time, wanting to defend her while also wanting to lash out at her yourself.

The victims and the cops assume he’s just a fanboy, smirking that his star crush has lost it lately. The cop blames bad parenting for the trouble, and Yoon-jae is barely prevented from attacking him too by the arrival of Hwi-kyung, who takes the cops to task for spreading false rumors about Song-yi.

He gets Yoon-jae released, having been called by Yoon-jae’s mother. Apparently she couldn’t risk being seen at the police station and sent Hwi-kyung instead, which, oof. That woman is terrible. Yoon-jae warns Hwi-kyung against his mother’s machinations, but Hwi-kyung doesn’t even mind that Mom only wants him as a chaebol because the end result is that Mom supports him marrying Song-yi. Hwi-kyung is already calling Yoon-jae Future Bro-in-Law and promises to help out if he needs anything.

Yoon-jae has no use for any of this, and he seethes to see the feast Mom lays out for Hwi-kyung, knowing how fake and selfish her motives are. He leaves the table when Mom goes on about how Song-yi got her sense of responsibility from her (…which may actually be true, if you think about it) and Mom continues to fawn all over Hwi-kyung, telling him that this is his big chance to make a move. It’s a surefire way to earn her favor by stepping in to help in a woman’s time of need.

Song-yi heads out for the first time in days, ready to resume work. But as soon as she steps into her agency doors, she hears her team worrying about the CF shoot that just got canceled. So she puts on her fiercest face and tells her CEO that she won’t do that CF after all, because the product is crap, and that they can forget about her ever modeling for them: “I dumped them.”

Then it’s on to her drama shoot, and Song-yi drapes herself in an armor of luxury clothes and jewelry. Her stylist nervously points out that she’s playing an orphan who got kicked out of her rented apartment, but Song-yi retorts, “You should really rid yourself of those prejudices. Can’t orphans wear nice clothes? And if she’s so busy running around with so many part-time jobs, why do you think she couldn’t pay rent? It’s because she spends it on clothes and bags.” LOL. She speaks a certain kind of truth.

But she won’t be able to film anyway, because Bum receives last-minute notice that Song-yi is being written out of the show with a sudden trip abroad. HAHA. (A clear jab at Aurora Princess.)

Song-yi hears this from the van, and steps out with her pride armor in place to raise the complaint first, before she’s the target. She complains about the terrible script and declares, “Go and tell them that Chun Song-yi cannot act in this drama. Chun Song-yi dumped this drama.”

Next is the beauty salon that she dumped, and the photographer she refuses to shoot with.

Song-yi works up an appetite dumping everyone and wants her go-to comfort food ordered, fried chicken and beer. But the restaurant rejects the order, and Song-yi bursts out, “What, now I can’t even eat chicken? They won’t serve chicken to someone like me?!” (Thankfully no, the restaurant’s just busy.)

Song-yi calls Se-mi out for chicken and beer, and Se-mi assures her that her oppa is on the job and said nothing is confirmed. Se-mi has nothing but sympathy for Song-yi’s predicament… until she gets a text from the director asking for an emergency meeting regarding the lead actress issue. Ah, her big break? She lies about her mother injuring herself, cutting dinner short.

Jae-kyung reviews photos of the yacht wedding and finally sees where Yura’s clutch ended up—in Song-yi’s purse. Gulp.

Sure enough, he calls her to say he was in the building to visit a friend and asks to meet for coffee. So he drops by the building—just steps ahead of Min-joon, who saw just enough of him on the boat to find it suspicious. Unfortunately, he’s prevented from going after Jae-kyung because he’s stopped by Detective Park, who wants to question him about the Yura case. Jae-kyung overhears the conversation, which points suspicion away from him, and continues on his way.

Min-joon goes with the cop, and they find themselves stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. He focuses his concentration on his memory of the boat murderer to recall his face, and that confirms that Jae-kyung is the man… who’s currently on his way up to see Song-yi. Min-joon looks up in alarm.

At home, Song-yi opens the door for Jae-kyung and lets him inside.

Min-joon is barely paying attention to the cop’s questions, which turn to his alibi the night of Yura’s death, and he makes the decision to run to Song-yi’s, darting out into traffic.

 
EPILOGUE

We replay the scene from the balcony, when Song-yi flings an arm around Min-joon and he barks at her to keep her 1 meter distance. She steps aside, and then he adds, “A meter is closer than that.” She pays him no heed and marvels at her advertisement, and quietly Min-joon takes a step closer. SO CUTE.

 
COMMENTS

More than anything, I find myself responding to the characters, who are a great combination of endearing traits and interesting foibles, with most of the characters exhibiting a very human mix of good and bad, weak and strong. Minus the scary brother, of course; I’m just enjoying him as an over-the-top villain of the Dr. Evil variety. Just with better hair.

This most obviously applies to Song-yi and Min-joon, but even the side characters are doing a solid job of being fleshed-out and interesting. For instance, I hate Song-yi’s mother (and Se-mi’s mother ain’t no picnic either), but both women seem complex and fascinating, both on their own and also when they’re together. Se-mi’s mother, for instance, is the cultured and elegant one but hates being left to second-string status because her daughter is consistently shoved to the side in favor of Song-yi. So while Song-yi’s mother is crass and so garish with her nouveau riche status, she still gets the limelight (even if she has to steal it most of the time). Then on her own merit, I find myself wondering if Song-yi’s mother has any depths beyond her money-grubbing nature, because a mother is still a mother… right? She has to care? Maybe?

By extension, that makes Yoon-jae compelling, because he’s the only sane one in a family of drama queens, and yet you can’t exactly argue that he’s got the most healthy handle on the situation given his violent streak. Yes, he’s misunderstood and his rage is understandable, and he’s still just a kid trying to earn his way through life when his mother and sister just want him to coast on her wealth and fame. But he wants to live a decent, hard-working life, if only they’d leave him to his own devices. Yet he obviously loves his family, even as his family brings out the worst in him.

The Yoon-jae scene was one case where I was really happy to have a guy like Hwi-kyung around, who took a few episodes for me to figure out what I felt about him. He’s such a frivolous airhead at times, but on the other hand his good nature is a welcome breath of positivity, and he sincerely means well. Plus, all his scenes at work crack me up. I liked his speech to his father about chaebols being able to do anything they want, because it’s partly true but also really naive of him. Maybe it’s also a little ironic that the one time he wants to flex his chaebol muscles is the one time he can’t, either because his family refuses to or because he’s just not The Guy in the end.

Then there’s Se-mi getting her potential big break just as Song-yi gets kicked to the curb—getting it at Song-yi’s expense, really. She’s still good-natured enough to feel conflicted about taking this step… but definitely not enough to turn it down, I notice. I’m most curious to see which path she takes—will she embrace her inner Eve Harrington and try to take over, or will she be able to retain her innate sweetness?

So it’s the characters that have hooked me, though I enjoy the plot and all its sly meta winks at the audience with the pop-culture parodies and showbiz jokes. But those are the icing on the cake. I wouldn’t mind a little less of the murderous brother on the loose, because now we’ve got the UFO reappearance to contend with, and I can see that being a hotbed of emotional conflict. Min-joon’s just starting to clue into his growing feelings for Song-yi (having had to get past that massive wall of denial first), which is of course the best and worst time for his hopes of returning home to be revived. Eee! And also, muahaha. I love a good juicy conflict.

RELATED POSTS

• You From Another Star: Episode 4
• You From Another Star: Episode 3
• You From Another Star: Episode 2
• You From Another Star: Episode 1
• Superpower meets superstar in You From Another Star
• Sparks, showers, and near-kisses in You From Another Star
• Jeon Ji-hyun as Hallyu goddess in You From Another Star
• Kim Soo-hyun suits up to play alien professor man