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I’m Not a Robot: Episodes 15-16

With the saddest start in the world, things can only get better, right? But with Min-kyu still struggling with the fallout of his emotions, Jia is forced to bear the brunt of it (it’s not his fault, he thinks she’s a robot!), and that makes hard watching for the tenderhearted. Now that his illusions are lying in ruins around him, maybe the time is right for him to build something real?

 
EPISODE 15: “I’m not a robot”

“If you wished that robot were a person… fold,” Min-kyu whispers, folding down his last finger. His head drops to the table.

Jia lays hers down next to his. “I’m… not a robot,” she tells his sleeping form.

Baek-gyun and Pi walk slowly back from their drink-buying run, which Baek-gyun thinks Sun-hye meant as a punishment to him. He guesses that he must have wronged Jia badly, and says he feels like he’s caught now in a one-sided love. “Still, you made it this far,” Pi encourages.

Elsewhere, Hok-tal gazes up at the sky and tells Sun-hye how bright the moon is, while Ssan-ip sleeps in his lap. Mirroring his earlier comment, she points out that it’s only a crescent.

Jia wakes up the next morning to the sound of glass breaking and discovers the team trying to stabilize Aji-3’s grip and motor functions. Jia’s excited that the robot is mobile again, but Baek-gyun explains that they still need to synchronize Jia’s input with Aji-3’s system, especially so Min-kyu never realizes the change-out.

Baek-gyun tells Jia it’ll be another few days before the robot’s ready, and then he plans to tell Min-kyu the truth. She thanks him for explaining everything to her in a straightforward way.

Dr. Oh is back in Korea, and calls Min-kyu. He wants to meet Aji-3, but a solemn Min-kyu tells him no. There’s not a problem with the robot, “There’s a problem with me,” he says, and plans to resolve it within the day. After they hang up, Dr. Oh wonders what went wrong when Min-kyu was so happy about the robot before.

Jia makes her way to the mansion, nervous but excited about seeing Min-kyu. But Min-kyu grimly just tells her to get changed because they’re going out. Dissatisfied with her choice, he stops off at department store where he tersely orders the outfit on a mannequin.

He says nothing to Jia except a clipped, “Let’s go.” They enter a fancy restaurant, but Jia’s face falls when she’s seated alone at a separate table and Min-kyu doesn’t look at her once.

Instead, he warmly receives Ri-el and her father. Jia looks on, increasingly upset, wishing he’d told her in advance, so that she could emotionally prepare. Ah, but there’s the rub! Only she is aware of what a big deal it is when Min-kyu—who can only eat food of his own making—takes a bite of steak, and struggles to keep it down.

He turns a collected face to his guests, though, and says to Ri-el’s dad that he wants to get engaged. Dad thinks that’s a great idea and is eager to solidify their position in the company. “Excuse me,” Ri-el objects, “I’m the one who’s going to get married, do you think you could listen to my opinion, too?” I know, right?

Min-kyu excuses himself from the table, and then rushes for the bathroom where he throws up the bite of steak. When he returns, Ri-el’s dad asks him when he started liking Ri-el. Min-kyu says it started fifteen years ago, and he was touched by the birthday cards she sent him every year.

Ri-el looks up at that in confusion, clearly about to deny it when her father cuts her off. He covers for her, saying that she was always a thoughtful person. Has he been sending them all along? Oh my god, Min-kyu’s whole life is a lie. For the first time since they came in, he looks over at Jia, who gazes back at him in anguish.

Afterwards, Ri-el confronts her dad, and he admits he sent the cards in her name. Angry, she wants to tell Min-kyu the truth, but her dad points out that the truth now would only hurt him. That thought stays her hand, but she’s furious. Aw, you’re a good egg.

At the restaurant, Jia has to endure the neighboring table’s gossip about her not touching the expensive meal in front of her. When Min-kyu comes to collect her, she ignores his hand and leaves on her own.

On the drive back, Jia asks if he’s okay. “Are you really worried, or is it just a line you’re regurgitating from your input?” Min-kyu mutters. She wonders if he even remembers what he said last night.

“I said I wished you were a person. So what, what meaning does it have? Will you marry me then?” he snarls. He tells her she can erase those words if they bother her, because he doesn’t care whether she remembers or not.

“You’re really horrible,” she tells him, eyes full. He reminds her that he said he’d reset her if she went back to Friend Mode, and she yells at him to do it: “Why on earth are you being like this to me?”

Pulling over, Min-kyu turns those words back to her, full of emotion. He asks why she, as a robot, makes him think of her thoughts and feelings.

 
Watch the video

It’s not like you’re going to marry me!

 
“You, without feelings or thoughts! Why are you doing this to me?” he yells. I think I want to cry. Turning away, he collects himself and tells her to select a wardrobe for Ri-el, since that’s what she’s good for as a robot. Jia struggles to hold back tears.

At the barn, Jia heads straight to her bed, shaking off Baek-gyun’s questions. With the curtain drawn, her tears are finally allowed escape. She leaves soon after, when her sister-in-law calls her out for a favor.

Min-kyu takes out his box of keepsakes from Ri-el, and at last, he notices that the handwriting is different on each card. “Why didn’t you realize all this time, Kim Min-kyu?” he asks himself, with a broken little laugh-sob.

When he gets up, his bookshelves on the upper level catch his eye: The books have been formed to make a display in the shape of a heart, and we see that Jia did it earlier.

As Min-kyu heads out, Baek-gyun blocks his path and orders him out of his car so they can talk. He reminds Min-kyu that he’d asked him not to be careless with Aji-3, who’s precious to both of them. Min-kyu retorts that it’s all meaningless in the end, since she’s just a robot without feelings.

 
Watch the video

Did your robot suddenly grow feelings?

 
Impassioned, Baek-gyun asks how all the time and effort he put into her can be nothing. “If it’s not nothing, then delete it. It’s as straightforward as that,” Min-kyu replies, and drives off.

Baek-gyun returns to the barn where Pi sits him down for a presentation… on Jia? Lol. She starts by professing that Jia may not be as simple as they thought, and asks why she came back to work for them without pay.

“Because of me?” Baek-gyun asks uncertainly. Pi agrees that he’s the constant, but then why did she bring those heart lamps with her? She tells Baek-gyun that Jia entered her preliminary design in a college competition four years ago, and she’s now a finalist in KM Financial’s contest.

“You fixed these lamps without even recognizing them. There’s one item that connects the past and the present… might these heart lamps be your broken part? That’s my deduction,” she finishes.

Jia pops in to her sister-in-law’s to collect her niece Dong-hyun for her appointment with the country’s leading allergy specialist, who of course, is none other than our Dr. Oh. Dong-hyun turns out to have several allergies, for which Dr. Oh gives a prescription.

Before leaving, Jia asks him if he’s ever come across an allergy to human contact. He tells her it exists, though its causes are psychological. He says he came across someone who got better after meeting someone he could trust. “The human heart is really quite mysterious,” he smiles.

On the bus, Jia wonders why Min-kyu is fine with her when she’s a human. They stop off at Sun-hye’s, where Jia leaves Dong-hyun for a bit to run some errands. She doesn’t see Min-kyu’s car pull up as she leaves. Ohh this should be good!

Sun-hye leaves Dong-hyun eating her rice balls while she pops to the bathroom. Masked and batoned, Min-kyu jerks the door open, but turns to leave when he only sees little Dong-hyun, who stares at him with frank curiosity.

“It’s peanuts for me,” she confides, “What are you allergic to?” Taken by surprise, he says (a little sniffily) that his is worse than hers. Haha. Introducing herself first, she asks him his name, and Min-kyu finally unhooks his mask and answers.

“My aunt doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Dong-hyun says in reply. HA. She shows him her rice ball and tells him her aunt made it. This girl is hilariously full of non-sequiturs, it’s killing me. Min-kyu smirks, clearly getting ready to turn her down, but she grips it possessively and says they’re hers. Hahaha!

She tells him the story of the first time Jia made them for herself for a school picnic, explaining matter-of-factly that it was because Jia didn’t have anyone to make her kimbap. The kids must have made fun of her, he says in gruff sympathy. Dong-hyun says only her mom ate with her, “And that’s why my aunt became my mom’s guardian angel.”

Sun-hye returns just then, and he tells her that he got engaged thanks to her. He says the person who stole his first kiss knows too, since she was right beside him. “Lousy jerk,” Sun-hye says. Min-kyu stares at her in shock and she pretends she was talking about a passerby.

He asks Sun-hye if she thought the friend he was with last time (Jia) seemed interested in him. “Very much,” she replies, and says that friend was always looking at him: “The eyes follow where the heart goes.”

He says that there’s no way to confirm that heart, and Sun-hye agrees, saying you can only measure your own feelings. In lieu of the fist (jumok) Sun-hye wants to throw at him, Dong-hyun launches a foil-wrapped rice ball (jumokbap) at him instead and pumps a fist supportively.

Before he leaves, Sun-hye asks him if he’s thought at all about accepting that friend’s feelings, “No matter what she turns out to be?”

 
EPISODE 15: “One person is enough”

Jia returns just as Min-kyu leaves, and Dong-hyun tells her about the “pitiful ajusshi” who just came by. Sun-hye wonders whether Jia can still confess her feelings.

Min-kyu ponders Sun-hye’s question, which reminds him of what he said to Jia before, about hoping she would recognize him no matter what face he showed her.

At work, Ri-el thinks back to when Yoo-chul called her out mid-date. “Let’s get married,” he’d said, pointing out that the fact she cut out of her date to see another man meant she had feelings for him. “Man? You’re a friend,” she told him. Angered, he grabbed her arm. She shook it off and warned him to watch his behavior.

Yoo-chul approaches her now and she tells him of her engagement. She says the three of them should have a meal and work things out.

Jin-bae scrambles away from Yoo-chul (why, lol) and hides when he gets a call from Jang Doo-sam, Daeyang’s late chairman’s driver, whom Min-kyu commissioned him to find. Jang says he’ll turn over secret recordings he has if Min-kyu promises to send Chairman Hwang to prison.

Director Yoon accosts Jin-bae and takes him to Chairman Hwang himself. The chairman says he knows Jin-bae is working for Min-kyu, but asks him to share his information with their side first, intimating that there’s about to be a change in leadership.

Chairman Hwang privately tells Director Yoon that it will be enough if they can get Jin-bae to betray Min-kyu. A flashback shows that he met Daeyang’s late Chairman Park and urged him to sell to Bold Group, claiming that Min-kyu wouldn’t invest in robots.

They were unaware of Jang Doo-sam secretly recording the meeting. Chairman Hwang says they have to find Jang before Min-kyu’s side does.

The girls shop for Jia’s disguise for the contest presentation, which is the next day. Sun-hye tells Jia to just confess to Min-kyu, since it’s no problem for a person to love another person (“It’s not even like you’re an alien!”). Jia says she planned to tell him after the test, but worries that he might be even worse to her after.

Meanwhile, the hapless Curly tries to convince Director Yoon that he saw the robot eating, but also that she’s definitely a robot. Director Yoon is frustrated with their failure to kidnap the robot and gives them one last chance to bring Aji-3 to him within three days.

Baek-gyun treats Jia to a steak dinner that evening. His weird niceness makes her suspect that he wants her do another job for him, but he reveals that he heard about her making the KM finals. Jia swears that Min-kyu had nothing to do with it, plus she’s totally going in disguise so that not even her brother will recognize her.

She says she’s confident this time since someone called her a genius, but outraged, Baek-gyun says whoever said that was out to scam her. Ouch. Dude, you really suck sometimes. Hesitantly, he asks about the competition she failed four years ago, and she confirms that that was the day they broke up.

We flash back to the competition four years ago, where the judge slammed her idea as an attempt to pad her resume. Upset, she tried to call Baek-gyun afterwards, but he didn’t answer, so she went all the way to the university. At his lab, she was sad to discover her design plans wrinkled and stained from being used as a placemat for their food.

A colleague told Baek-gyun that Jia was waiting for him, and added that he shouldn’t help her too much. Baek-gyun pointed out that Jia never asked his help, and told the woman to mind herself talking about his girlfriend. But when he entered the lab and found Jia clearing up, he angrily tore into her for it.

Later at the sandwich shop, he said she should come to the US with him, where she could do what she wanted, instead of wasting time struggling on pointless things. She pointed out that his work was also a struggle, and he had casually replied, “Are you and I the same?”

Hurt and incredulous, she broke up with him. “Let’s not see each other again,” she said, before leaving the shop in tears. In the present, Baek-gyun revisits the sandwich shop—and the memory—with a heavy sigh, finally understanding.

Min-kyu learns from Jin-bae that Chairman Hwang knew that Santa Maria was a robotics team, and that he’d met the Daeyang chairman the night before he died. Jin-bae says it’s proof that he tried to sell the team out, but the recording isn’t legally admissible; the best they can do is remove him from his position. They guess that Chairman Hwang must have pocketed a substantial sum in brokering that sale.

Determined to protect the Santa Maria team, Min-kyu decides to connect with Jang Doo-sam directly, and gives Jin-bae his KM Financial master ID and password to gather more evidence. Oh no, is that a good idea?

Before he leaves, Jin-bae apologizes for misunderstanding Min-kyu all this time. With an awkward splutter, Min-kyu promises him a one hundred percent bonus after this is over. “Three hundred,” Jin-bae says. “Two hundred. That’s it,” Min-kyu decides. Oh, I saw that tiny smile, Min-kyu!

Ssan-ip has finally cottoned on that there might be something between Hok-tal and Sun-hye, and he argues with Hok-tal outside her coffee shop, convinced that they went off together behind his back. Inside, both men gaze at Sun-hye, who comments that they must like her coffee (Hok-tal: “Because it’s cheap”).

She says coffee is like dating, in that you have to try many blends before you find the one that’s right for you, but it aggravates her that Hok-tal keeps criticizing the taste. Baek-gyun bursts into their complicated interlude and urgently asks Sun-hye’s help, acknowledging that he’s wronged Jia a great deal.

Jia returns to the barn and and the team surprises her with a party. They’re even wearing matching T-shirts which spell out a message cheering her on to first place tomorrow. She’s touched, and even little Beetle cheers.

Baek-gyun offers the team to act as judges so she can have a mock run. She explains how when one lamp lights up, the other will too, no matter where it is in the world, so they’re always connected.

The scientists listen a little agape, Hok-tal explaining that she’s grasped quantum entanglement just like that, when it took him years of busting his brains. Thrilled, Jia asks if she can consider herself a member of their genius group now.

As Min-kyu works, he keeps getting distracted by the sight of Jia’s heart-shaped display of his books. Unable to concentrate, he finally opens Jia’s petition that has been on his desk all this time.

“There was something my father used to say all the time,” she wrote, “If there’s just one person, that’s enough. If there’s only one person, you can bear it without breaking.”

She continues that they endlessly search for that one person who’ll be the star to light their way, and hope to become that one person for them, too.

Min-kyu takes Dong-hyun’s rice ball and unwraps it. Slowly, he takes a bite. “Perhaps you are already that one person for someone,” she finishes.

The next morning, Dr. Oh tries to get through to Min-kyu to tell him that his latest blood results are really good, but Min-kyu ignores his phone.

Decked out in a curly wig and novelty glasses, Jia’s ready in the presentation hall, where her friends and fellow inventors laud her efforts in getting the competition reinstated. The atmosphere is festive and they agree to cheer for whoever wins.

At the last minute, Yoo-chul decides to attend, too. Director Yoon explains to her that it will have a good effect on her performance evaluations. On the way, Yoo-chul bumps into her dad, who thanks him, though he doesn’t look happy about it. Yoo-chul says he’s doing it for Ri-el.

Baek-gyun also makes his way to the hall. Ri-el opens the final round and introduces CEO Yoo-chul. He takes the podium with a smile, but it fades as he looks up at the gallery and sees Min-kyu looking down at him in challenge.

 
Watch the video

The boss shows up for the show

 
COMMENTS

Agh, what a place to stop! I just want him to properly meet (and fall in love with, obviously) real-Jia already arrrrgghhhh! Seriously, though. The previous episodes were so sad I thought I would die. I didn’t think I’d be particularly invested in this competition, but it’s been built up with so much emotional tension that it’s become a surprisingly high-stakes affair for a lot of our characters.

Let’s talk Baek-gyun before we talk Min-kyu. Firstly, I rate a man who knows how to change. (But wow, was he bad.) I’m really rooting for him and Pi, though. They obviously understand each other really well, and I love that Pi is helping him with Jia. These scientists are ultimately problem-solvers, and whatever the outcome, it feels like it’s in Pi’s nature to uncross what tangled wires she finds. She strikes me as someone who would be decent at a relationship, which is more than we can say about our (lovable) romance-impaired dunderheads, Hok-tal and Ssan-ip.

I also want to rewind a bit and deal with Baek-gyun’s assertion that Min-kyu’s apparent recovery is all the robot’s work. To put it plainly, he’s wrong, and this week’s episodes prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Aji-3 is responsible for one thing: what happened in their first meeting. That is, a contact with her that didn’t elicit an allergic reaction. While that laid the foundation for his belief in the robot, his current state is much more complex than that: It’s no longer about simple contact. With Jia, he’s become practically normal, able to have contact even with other people and function in the outside world. All that stems from the very real trust he began to place in her after the second time she saved his life (with all those needles). The fact is, the real robot would never have been able to achieve the relationship Jia-as-fauxbot did, because it came from doing things the robot could never have done. Put even more simply, that relationship came around because Jia was a human. She reacts to him with human sympathy and warmth, not to mention that she now has feelings for him of her own.

Here’s the thing: Min-kyu is very definitely in love with her, and I think he knows this on a visceral level, even if it’s unthinkable to admit it. But she’s not “real,” and that’s what kills him. It was all fun and games when the emotions weren’t serious: you know, “Cool, a robot likes me!” But the second his emotions turned out to be real—more real than he anticipated or imagined—then it’s immediately a tragedy. It’s not even comparable to being “a man or an alien” because those offer a possiblity of resolution, where a robot offers none. And that, as Min-kyu proves, is utterly, absolutely soul-crushing. When you’ve felt loved, encouraged, supported and understood, and then you face the reality that it’s nothing but the result of algorithms and computations from a system you’ve trained to understand your input…there’s no way to reconcile that.

Having experienced all the best parts of a real relationship with fauxbot-Jia, he’s now had to confront the fact that it was nothing but the illusion of a relationship—the illusion of closeness, reciprocity and authenticity, as created by a robot. And he’s at last reached the point where illusion no longer suffices, because what he really needs is something real. That’s what he’s needed all along, even though he’s only realizing it now; that’s what Jia was giving him, even though he doesn’t know it. But therein lies his crisis: The robot can never be real in the way that he wants and needs. That’s what makes the truth about Ri-el an even worse blow, as everything crashes down at once.

All that said, however, I think he will accept his feelings, if harshly tempered by the reality that comes with it. But I don’t know if he’ll be able to hold onto that “truth” as long as Jia does things like make heart-displays with his books. That’s not the result of input—that’s all Jia! (That’s why he keeps falling for her!) It’s just as well that he’s inching ever closer to the real Jia, and I kind of love that the whole Jo family has a hand in helping him step back into the world. Jia aside, Min-kyu’s actively chosen to trust Jin-bae (even though I’m scared that it’ll go badly somehow), who’s acknowledged him in a way I don’t think anyone has before.

Dong-hyun is even more fantastic, because she kind of meets him on his level, and that at once disarms him and forces perspective on him. I don’t know about you guys, but I found his moment of eating the rice ball a thousand times more emotionally affecting than any kiss. It just means so much more. As much as he was provoked by Dong-hyun, he was touched by her and the story of her lonely, outsider-aunt. It’s emotional closeness and relating to that experience that brings him to the point of trying her rice ball. Lastly, real-Jia herself has reached him in so many ways, and the letter was really lovely because it offered that closeness to him again, literally speaking to him personally. I am just dying waiting for him to put all those separate pieces of Jia together. I know there’ll be angst first (whyyyy?) but then there’ll just be puppies and rainbows forever, right?

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Saya, I love your comments! You pointed out everything I wanted to say. Such a painful episode this was! It was so hard to watch Min Kyu looking so hopeless - like he accepted the fact that there really is no way for him to feel the closeness of another human being. So so sad 😞

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I felt so bad for Min Kyu in this because until now he's been a complete bubble boy. Not just physically, but emotionally. On the one hand, he's coming outside for the first time and that's good. On the other hand, once the bubble bursts all of reality comes rushing in, not just the good stuff.

Because this show is so good with metaphorical imagery, I was reminded of his house of cards literally tumbling to the floor when Jia first came to him. Yes that eventually let in the light but for a while after it happened he was devastated by the loss. Min Kyu's life is that house of cards. I can only hope we get to the "let in the light" bit soon.

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I know, exactly! He was so optimistic at the beginning. now he looks like he has lost all hope 😔

Thank you for that interpretation on the house of cards! That's a very interesting way to look at it. Didn't think of it that way 😊

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Just don't ask me about Jia's hearts. We'll be here for a while ;-)

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Ahahah now you made me curious! 😅

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Jia's hearts: Essay Part 1

Jia built her hearts while she was dating the Professor. They were designed to represent two hearts in perfect sync. The Professor didn't treat her hearts with respect, which led to the end of their relationship.

It took four years but after the break up she finally got the hearts working again, right before she met Min Kyu. She then submitted them to a competition run by his company and they saw the value in her hearts but Min Kyu shut the competition down. She then agreed to pose as the Robot in the hope that she could convince Min Kyu of the value of her hearts.

Her brother broke her hearts when he threw her out of his house. But then her ex-boyfriend finally recognised their worth and repaired them right around the same time that Min Kyu's reinstated the company to assess the worth of her hearts.

Now her hearts are working after being repaired by her ex and she's just desperately waiting for Min Kyu to accept them.

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Jia's hearts: Essay Part 2

The use of her hearts as an invention.

I've been wondering about the use for the hearts. But during this episode I suddenly had this image of having one of these in my home. Assuming it did work anywhere in the world, can you imagine having one of these and giving the other to a distant parent, child, sibling or partner? It would randomly light up in your home and at that moment you'd know the other person is thinking about you.

I can imagine going about my ordinary mundane life and having this heart light up and knowing somebody I love, in that moment, wanted to tell me they loved me.

You could brush past it, light it up, and know you've said a quick "I love you" to someone who is far away. No need to craft a specific message, just place your hand on their heart.

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@leetennant this is AMAZING! love your analogy! Thanks so much for sharing! And yes, the hearts are such a great invention 😉😄

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@LeeT THAT's exactly how I imagine Jia's heart lamps would be used. It is especially effective in context of Min Kyu's loneliness. I'm not a person of many spoken words so I would love to have a set of those hearts for my kids when they move out. I bet a lot of Asian parents can make use of her heart lamps,

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Oh yeah, and the heart lamps would be a great way to condition a person who is afraid of the supernatural to think of flickering lights in a positive way...as long as that person buys in to the idea that a heart=love. I'd take that invention further and include some kind of picture holder where the person gifting the heart can take a picture of herself hugging the glowing heart (just like Jia did in the earlier episodes) for the recipient to understand and visualize upon receiving the other heart. No mechanical explanation necessary. Just feel the love. LOL

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@LeeT loved the two heart essays so much! You wrote it so good now I would love to have Jia's invention. I wish Jia would present hers in that very touching way as you did.
It only came to me throuhgh your essay that the hearts actually represent Jia's. It is very accurate.

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Such a great read, Saya, especially your comments at the end!

I always get a little worried when shows that start out light and fun tread into more serious territory, but this show is bringing the angst in such an organic way. Of COURSE Min-kyu would be feeling this way as he believes himself to be falling in love with a machine that can’t reciprocate his feelings. Yoo Seung-ho is hitting it out of the park, too. The torment he feels is just so raw and real. That scene with him and Jia in the car had me absolutely captivated, he was so good.

I’m equal parts terrified and excited for the reveal that’s sure to come soon. Eagerly looking forward to this week’s episodes!

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Same. I was bracing myself for the angst since the beginning because how can you have a robot romance without the angst? I honestly would have been a little worried if Min Kyu weren't going through this torment rn, lol. And I'm so grateful every week that Yoo Seung Ho ultimately took up this role because, as talented as Dong Ha is, I can't imagine any other actor being able to so masterfully portray such an adorable, yet tragic character. His pain is so riveting that I don't even mind that the plot has slowed.

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This is perfect! I 100% agree with everything. Something to add: while I've spent the last 14 episodes seriously concerned with MK's mental health and how devastated he will be when the deception is finally revealed, the last 2 episodes have changed my mind: I feel he is a lot stronger than everyone gives him credit for. Living in the bubble created by his allergy he never had a chance to show it, but we see it now. After discovering that his first love story was a lie he is hurt but still forges forward. Having hit rock bottom, he cannot hide anymore but has to go out in the world and it's Jia's love that sustains him through it. Conversely, his admiration for her inventions gives Jia the burst of confidence she needs. They push each other forward and make each other better, proving that one person is indeed enough. :-) Happy new year everyone! Lots of love from NYC, and keep up the good work, Show.

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Marathoned 16 episodes last night. I forgot how much I like YSH. This drama is great light fluff. I love it. And CSB is getting a lot better since Sassy Go Go Go!

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I really like Pi, I liked that in ep 14 we saw her outside wok environment, but really this lab & team are great makings for a multi-seasonal drama.. I am so glad we got a team of INVNTORS in a kdrama, and that the smartest one of them is a woman. not that gender would matter in science.

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*WORK envionment.

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Wok environment would be a show about a chef.

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female chef for a change ...who gets stuck under a pile of frying pans during an earthquake and is magically transported back in time.... to which time? Joseon would be overused, let´s say Japanese occupation. And she becomes a revolutionary through food.

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Both Pi and the Professor came off really well this episode.

I really like that the Professor is not doing this to get back with Jia but to genuinely make up for his past relationship mistakes. He's finally seeing her as a person. This is the first time I've liked him.+

I also like that Pai is trying to help him despite her jealousy. She clearly has feelings for him but it's motivating her to give him support, not undermine him. It's a really mature response from both of them. I think they'd be good for each other.

+not entirely true, I also liked him when he responded to Min Kyu's illness with genuine concern and compassion

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true, Pi helping him and pushing him slowly towards the right conclusions is really altruistic, maybe it is a scientist thing.

also, I really want to know already if Ji-A´s IQ really measures at 94 (even though IQ tests are rubbish, they actually measure your willingness to solve the most senseless tasks someone anonymous has set up without more justification than to rank people based on their assumed intelligence. ) but scientific research can come to rather senseless conclusions as well at first...until you get to the bottom. I have always felt that rather than sit down and try to solve test questions as fast as possible like an obedient little grasshopper, I would like someone to explain the reasooning behind the choice of questions and what exactly it shows about the human brain. If they can´t explain, then I´ll assume those are just random questions sucked out of a pen.

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Do they IQ test everybody in Korea? A score of 94 is "barely tying own shoelaces". There's no way she's below 120 and I want to know why she was tested in the first place.

IQ tests are supposed to be divorced from culture and from knowledge but they aren't. African tribes famously failed because they couldn't understand the purpose of the questions.

The idea of the test is test reasoning skills divorced from acquired knowledge. Of course that's impossible. You can't divorce a test like this from culture or from embedded cultural knowledge. If a person like this got that score I'm stunned they didn't retest her.

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Reasoning silla, huh? My reasoning would be that it is unreasonable to spend my time solving those questions when I could do something productive instead.

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@redfox There is a purpose to them, though. For example, when I was born I was deprived of oxygen and potentially brain damaged. I was IQ tested to make sure my cognitive skills were adequate for a normal school.

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Please, Angst, pass like a fickle tide...

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Thanks for the recap! Love all your comments. The angst this week was so painful. On the one hand, I want the angst to resolve quickly but, on the other hand, I'm not sure where the story will go once this conflict is resolved. I hope the story doesn't peter out. *fingers crossed*

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What a great recap, @saya! Your review makes me want to go take a look at these episodes again, that's how good it was, for sure. I really am amazed by the writer and his/ her skills, and how much creative/ liberal he/she is being with the script. Until this happened I could never know, how much you could do with a script based on a pseudo-robot, especially on the romance front! I especially loved that mini folding game, and then how cute jia looked with this expected look on her face. And the angst that followed, omg..how much I adore those push and pull moments in books/ dramas. I am officially a fan of the writer now. And then all the supporting casts are not just there in the background to fill up the remaining minutes, they actually are inevitable for the story. Especially jia's girlfriend, who has her own ways of changing any atmosphere hehe . Also erm, have to say, I got my new ship, YSH and CSB in min kyu and jia, they are so cute together! I am kind of hoping they date erm. But will keep that to myself for now haha.

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By showing the other patient, they have clearly linked the cure for the 'human allergy' to be: being with someone you trust. I'm worried about what's going to happen when MK realises that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, have been lying to him. And he'll interpret it that Jia has been most deceitful of all. That trust is going to be well and truly destroyed and I feel an anaphylectic shock coming on. As long as it doesn't bring on a coma followed by amnesia, I'm fine with it.

Because, like Saya, I'm sure it will be puppies and rainbows forever after, once he realises that it's better all round that she's not actually a robot. Yes, Min kyu, you've been lied to, but it was all for your own good, really.

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I keep imagining the kind of anguish he'd go through when he finds out he'd been lied to by EVERYONE. The past few episodes has been bad enough already, could it get any worse when the truth is plain to see?! And PLEASE Jin Bae, don't betray him! And the thing about the coma and amnesia, couldn't agree more. That stuff gets super frustrating in any Kdrama.

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Jin Bae seems like a good guy... but there are still guys lurking around who might end up kidnapping his sister. And giving him the passwords was such a huge red flag.

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@Cloggie Imagine how great Yoo Seung Ho would be in expressing it, though. Maybe I'm just a bit masochistic, but so far I'm in love with the rawness that he's been showing us in the show. Yes it hurts, but it hurts so good.

I agree with the non-makjang direction this drama should go into. I hope it wouldn't be one those dramas that fizzle out toward the ending. Fingers crossed!

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Im having a feeling after they show that patient, the doctor will assigned the real Jiah as MK nurse in replace for Aji3 after the test. If my predictions are right lol

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My fear stems not from the incoming angst, but the fact that his psychosomatic allergy stems from having been deeply betrayed by the only people he had left to trust. He created the allergy to protect himself (albeit unknowingly) from ever being betrayed ever again. So it only makes sense to me that finding out that everything has been a lie, will only ever break him and the trust that has cost him so much to build. Trust is a really fragile thing built with difficulty. I don't think of it as much of a "typical kdrama angst" but more of a human breaking down after feeling betrayed by the one being who he thought he could trust fully. I think any of us would feel horrible after being lied to like he was, even if in the end we could understand that it was for the best and that there were no ill intentions, I think we would all have some trouble being ok with it.

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Completely agree with what you said. I am also really worried about how it is going to affect his allergy once he realizes he has been lied to again. :(

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These episodes didn't have much as far as moving the story forward, but I truly enjoyed the emotions they showed, and it did bring Baek Gyun's history out into the open. Still, the main couple, even with Sun Hye's help is having such a hard time. I so want Jia to be the "one" person that will cure Min Kyu, making him believe in all of the things he used to before his parents were taken away from him. Wednesdays take forever to come along every week. Thanks for the recaps, they give me a nice forum to pour out my opinions and emotions.

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"I don’t know about you guys, but I found his moment of eating the rice ball a thousand times more emotionally affecting than any kiss."
OMG, tell me about it! It's these little moments that just has me like... *sigh* It's a big leap of trust for him. Min Kyu and the real Jia are getting closer and closer together even though they never meet face to face (only as a fauxbot, but ya know what I mean), so I'm really, REALLY hoping that they would next week. ARGH!! I'm getting impatient!

YSH can be awesomely terrifying and creepy. I've seen him in Warrior Baek Dong Su as a silent, expressionless assassin that lurks like a shadow. I've seen him as a psychotic serial killer that made me really wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him to death. And now I'm seeing a similar aura of menace (but in an entirely different context) in Min Kyu. His acting is just incredible, and I will probably keep saying this every time he goes on screen.

That aside, I am REALLY impressed with Ri El. You're right, Saya, she's a good egg. She doesn't want to deceive Min Kyu like that and she speaks out her mind very frankly; that's an admirable trait. She's REAL.

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Re El is the only one who doesn't deceive MK, I hope JA comes clean before he finds out from someone else, although it will break his heart and trust again.

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I wrote Ri-el off when we first met her but this week, specifically this episode, changed my mind completely about her character. Well done, show. She's a much better character than I initially gave her credit for.

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"Ri-el" = "real" ? About as close to a normal, non-deceptive person as we see in this show?

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👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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well put

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Oh. Good one 👍👌👏

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I love that, in general, there isn't a single catty woman in this show. That makes me unbelievably happy for some reason.

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100% agree. Every woman in this show -from Jia the lateral thinker, to the see-all outspoken best friend, the sweet and loyal sister-in-law, the 4D niece, smart analytical Pi and no-nonsense Riel- is kind of awesome.

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I'm still shocked at how genuinely sweet Jia's sister in law is every time she pops up in a scene. I fully expected her to be a mean character especially with Jia's strained relationship with her brother but nope, she looks and acts like an angel 😇

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I love her sis-in-law

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I love your comments at the end Saya, they make me think. You know what's interesting about it, is that while there's this big power play regarding KM financial, Santa Maria, fancy robots, it's actually a game that Min Kyu can still lose and yet win. I mean if he really thought about it, all of the trappings of wealth are truly just hollow trophies that have little meaning for the past 15 years. If he loses to his frenemy, and the company, he will lose the wealth, but there's still a chance that he can get what's most important, and that's Jia. He can still cook for himself, and she can become the one. That's what will make him happier than all of the wealth and power he currently has.

I guess the only reason why he would protect his wealth is because he thinks that in doing so, he's protecting his ownership of Aji-3. Too bad the owner of his heart is really Jia, whom hopefully he'll get to meet soon, and discover that she's what's important to him.

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That's an interesting point. I suppose that without human contact, all he ever had was wealth and power. When he was a kid, he refused to move in with his uncle and cousin if that meant signing away his inheritance. Not a choice that everybody would have made and over the years, all of that must have become more and more important to him.

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I think the reason he doesn't want to lose to his frenemy is not because he doesn't want to lose the wealth or the company, but his pride. The fact that they tried to trick him into giving up his wealth is what hurt him the most and made him lose his trust in other people.

I mean, if somebody asks me for something, I wouldn't mind giving it, but if somebody tries to trick me into getting it (especially someone I trust), then I would make sure I don't lose it. Because they believed I am weak enough to fall into their tricks, I would always want to appear intimidating to them (like min kyu). So, in that regards, I don't want him to lose the company to the chairman.

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Thanks for the recap! It was interesting to see how the main characters come to their senses in this week's episodes. Min Kyu realizes that his relationship with the robot is a sham; the team, on the other hand, sees more and more that their "test" is a failure. It seemed very weird to me that Baek-gyun was convinced that his substitution of Aji-3 with a real person was a "success" in any way (except that in his mind, Jia and Aji-3 were fused together). Now, he and his team must deal with the fact that their greatest scientific achievement might turn out to be a gigantic fraud.

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When I decided to watch this show, I was merely looking for fluff and laughter but in this episode, while I didn't ask for (and of course I didn't want) the angst (no matter how organic it is). I was grateful for the lessons I got in human nature and much more, thanks to Saya's illuminating and insightful comments.

This episode is the first one that totally grips my heart and made me so impatient to get my hands (or eyes) on the next episode. I like the fluffiness of the earlier episodes, the LoL moments and the swoony bits but I struggled to connect emotionally with Min Kyu's sad backstory, his current lonely plight and the super cheesy lines spouted by the characters. But seeing how Ji Ah endured stoically despite Min Kyu's cruel and mean treatment of her, that got to me. I just wanted her to be happy - she deserves happiness, Show! I kept alternating between being mad at him on her behalf (I lost count the number of times I called him an effing jerk during the episode) for hurting our dear Ji Ah and sympathy for him because he doesn't know that she is not a robot and has REAL human feelings. You can't really be too mad at someone who doesn't know better, right? Right? But he doesn't have to be such a jerk about it but then he's hurting, and it's not really his fault but he doesn't have to be so mean to her even though she's a "robot" but then....ahh....you get the drift of my warring emotional state while watching the episode. I didn't like being in such a state but finally it made me feel things on an emotional level.

Everyone raves about how great an actor Yoo Seung-Ho is (and he is) but for me, it's Chae Soo-Bin who got me feeling things I didn't expect to feel coz she made me so sad, teary and also indignant at how she was being treated by the men in her life. And her excellent portrayal of the two characters in that show - never once do I have to wonder which role she is playing. She deserves my admiration and heart ❤️.

Apologies for the lengthy post - I just have to make my love for this under-rated gem known! And Wednesday, please come faster!!!

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Don't apologize for the post, it was lovely to read. Please keep writing your thoughts in the upcoming episodes too! :)

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Aww....thank you Imbuk for the kind words. I normally don't write such a long post coz other Beanies write and articulate better than I ever could but for this episode, this show finally get my heart and I want to acknowledge that ❤️❤️❤️

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Oh my gosh yes! I was equally conflicted! I wanted to punch MK every time he hurt JA's feelings but then I'm reminded that he doesn't know she's human and I feel so so bad for him! It was such a tormenting episode.

And I totally agree with your thoughts on CSB. I love her portrayal of her character. And she emotes sooo well! Love her!

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Nice post. CSB was really great in this episode. I liked every scene that she was in, from the opening scene, when she "confessed" to a sleeping Minkyu that she's not a robot, when she was bearing the brunt of MK's anger during the proposal and the drive back home, and also during the retelling of her break up with Baekgyun. Major props to CSB for pulling off those emotional scenes.

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she's actually a cutie and all laughs on the behind the scene cut!

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She seems to get along well with everyone. I remember seeing an article on Soompi wherein the PD team of INAR called her their dependable mascot. LOL. 😅

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Oh, Chae Soo Bin, she deserves recognition as much as Yoo Seung Ho. To make us, viewers, feel the emotional connection of a show, it has to come from both of the leads, CSB and YSH did that. It really helps that both connect so good even off screen that it manifested perfectly onto the screen. (Cue: Seung Ho's interview where he said that he actually miss Soo Bin whenever he shoots a scene without her and that he did feel that 'emptiness' which he admitted, helped him in acting these kind of scenes. Soo Bin is also a very cheerful (and cute and aggresive in learning) who according to him, makes her likeable and attractive)

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Love your thoughts on Min-kyu’s reaction - how it’s all fun and cutesy until he realizes that he likes her back and there can be no conclusion simply because she’s a robot. Couldn’t have put it better myself!

Of course from the viewer’s POV it’s frustrating because we know she’s not a Robot and I feel so bad about the inner turmoil he’s going through. What I really hope for is that he doesn’t drag the anger too long when he finally finds out the truth.

I was like ARGHH when he ate the riceball and had no reactions to it. It was an indescribable feeling. Too many emotions!

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Omo, he ignored his real girlfriend because he was too busy building a robot girl? This show.

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Thank you for the wonderful recap, Saya! To give some lightness admist all the angst. Here is a video of chae soo bin and yoo seung ho promoting I am not a robot in the MBC awards. I can't get over how they couldn't stop laughing! ❤️

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdWJCFIH5v3/

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I don't know much about what they were saying except for some snippets, but when he said in his commanding voice "A-Ji 3", I think I smile like a crazy person 😍😍

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I think they were introducing their characters in the drama. I have rewatched it a few times now and every time it makes me smile!

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OMG so cute 😍😍

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Thanks for this, @imbuk! They really look so cute together.

Here is another one of them arriving together at the MBC Awards: https://youtu.be/d2sFbGsi7z0. They kinda look awkward but still hella cute.

Here's YSH giving an acceptance speech but you may fast forward @ 2:00 minute mark, towards the end, to hear him promoting INAR,
with CSB laughing and cheering him on: https://youtu.be/f9xBRkln13U.

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Hi, DoubleFault! Thanks for the links, they are so cute! I hope the ratings rise atleast a little after this.

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There was a preview episode the week before INAR premiered, that had a hilarious and adorable cast interview and I just came across the subbed version on youtube in case you guys missed it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEArg7kup-s

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MK totally lied when he said that pink does not suit Jia. She looks lovely and they make the pretties couple there. And the fact that neither can say their lines seriously is just adorable.

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oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh.... and i couldn't be more agree than this recap-commentary by you, gaaaahhhh..love this! jjaaanngg!!!
after 2weeks rerun of this show, maaaannn my heart ache, like... i know its there, waiting the moment to show up and then here we have... drumroll pleaseeeeee........
*durururumdurururum*
welcoming the sacred emotions we all waiting for, the Angst!
see u next week Aji3!

btw, prof Hong is my favorite this week with all his conciousness to be better and correct what might he did wrong in past time. he's sweet....

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True, despite being so annoying from time to time, Prof is not a bad guy. There is no malice in him and now he's starting to act like a lovesick fool, he becomes more interesting and relatable. Poor fellow. I hope he starts to look at Pi. Sun Hye should give him some lessons and Pi some lessons too!!! 😂

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He’s still an ass! >_< You don’t don’t that to your girlfriend, buddy.

Happy New Yea, GB! <3

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You don’t do*

Edit button where are you??? :/

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Because he cant find any reason not to, because he's so in love with her, n she broke up without telling why, well we can say he's obsessed, why not? JiA is wonderful in his eyes... Hahaha. He couldnt find and calculated why she ask for broke up, but now, since he saw it all, maybe he would realize she's not meant to be with him. But i hope they talk about their past relationship. And move on.

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You know, if Baekgyun wasn't so much as dense and as wrapped up in his projected image of Jia, he would have known why Jia broke up with him. (It took lessons from Pi and Sunhye for him to finally figure out.) They're both good people but they're just so incompatible and, like you said, just not meant to be together.

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Don't know if he's still an ass by the end of the ep with his show of support for Jia's competition but he was certainly a snob in the past. He felt he was so much superior to her, being this scientist who's creating a super robot that Jia should just drop her silly endeavours to join him in the US. His snobbery became crystal clear to me during their last meal together before Jia broke them up. Although as said by some, BG may have no malice, he was still an ass then, if not still.

OTOH Jia is not as hung up on him as he was, no _is_ on her seeing that she has no problems

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cut off....
meeting him again. She wasn't as invested in their relationship as he was then, that she didn't try to talk it out with him, whatever their problems were. Don't blame her for that, not when he berates get every now and then. They were just not meant to be. And BG's still an ass! 😅

@Giegie Hello GG! It's been a while! 🤗

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@patinalee
Hello! It’s been years and I’m sorry for the late reply. Glad to see you active again. 😊
Yes, still an ass, but not so much anymore! 😆

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This episode was so heartbreaking in so many levels. But I love the relationship they're building between the real Jia and Min-kyu. It's almost like they're frenemies! The phone conversations aside, getting to know her through her niece, her letters and possibly her inventions too - I love that the drama creates a palpable connection between them, completely separate from what they already have as master-robot.

I think Sun-hye's words might actually get to Min-kyu. She asked him if he can accept her despite the changes, I think his eventual answer would be a yes. He might allow her back in his life despite believing everything is fake. And that would take so much effort in itself. But then he'll find out it was all a lie, and that's obviously the biggest angst to come.

I feel for Jia when Min-kyu gets cold to her. But I don't ever feel mad at him for doing that to her because she chose to deceive him for whatever reason. She fell for him and is so deep in this love already that she takes in all his anger because she just wants to be around him. Even when he's so unfair to her (like in that restaurant) the first thing she asks is if he's okay. And the biggest irony of it all is that Min-kyu's become a shadow of himself BECAUSE he thinks she feels nothing. And it's not even a situation where we can all just say "tell him the truth". Because the truth can actually destroy him.

I did say last week as well, the key to his cure is his trust in Jia. The reason he can touch others without getting a reaction is because his mind believes Jia is around to protect him. So this ruse is going to shatter him completely and I foresee some sort of amnesia plot coming up. Honestly, I LOVE amnesia lol. It's my guilty pleasure but I think everyone here will hate it so I'd rather not lol.

But logically, the way Min-kyu's mind works, I think amnesia is the most obvious (realistic?) reaction. The pain and betrayal will be too much to deal with that he will most likely push everything out of his mind. I think it's a way for him to start fresh instead, even if I don't want him to run away from his issues. We can all judge that if/when it ever goes there.

For now, this competition is going to be interesting. I do want him to meet Jia as Jia. It doesn't matter that she looks like Aji-3 because she can just tell him the truth - that she's the inspiration to the robot. I don't see it being a big issue obviously ignoring the fact that currently she IS the robot too. But he can get to know her as her. It'll maybe make the whole thing a bit more bearable because as Jia, she can be as true to him as possible.

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No to the amnesia. That would mean taking the coward's way out again. While running away was understandable as a kid (and his allergy was initially a sort of protection mechanism), he is an adult now and needs to act as one. He has to face problems head on and take control of his life. I am hoping that he'll eventually reach the conclusion that Jia's feelings were real even if the robot wasn't; the same way how he realized that holding on to the past (castle of cards) was preventing him from seeing the sun.

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Like I initially said, I don’t want him to run away from his issues either. But the more realistic way of dealing with it is initially pushing it all out. The way Min-kyu has grown up, he hasn’t grown up at all. And while I’d love for him to mature and really decide his life direction, it’s not as simple as a choice. It’s a psychological reaction. I don’t think pushing it all out is exactly cowardly, however it isn’t strong either.

As a kid, he pushed people out in a way to protect himself from betrayal. Then when he slowly and barely managed to let people in again, they betrayed him yet again in the most deceiving way possible. Rather than being weak, I think his reaction of possibly pushing everyone out isn’t even about protecting himself anymore at that point. It’s probably being unable to accept reality instead. So I’m assuming it wouldn’t last very long, most likely just an initial reaction.

Anyway it hasn’t happened and absolutely no hint of it happening either so we shouldn’t worry or discuss too much about it. Lol, I dunno why I brought it up and elaborated so much myself. I get carried away sometimes lol.

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I really liked your post but I have to disagree with you on amnesia. Memory loss, reality reboot, timeline change. One day kdrama will realise these are not solutions but narrative copouts. I admit I'm still a bit burned from Black but Min Kyu needs to deal with these issues head-on NOT have his struggles wiped away with a stroke of the pen.

He needs to realise that his allergy was fine because of a human, not a robot. That his issue is entirely psychosomatic and that he can be okay around people without an emotional crutch. It's going to be a super painful journey but, if the writers stay on course, a rewarding one.

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Lol, I like amnesia as a plot in general - like in Nice Guy or Autumn's Concerto. I enjoy (abeit sadistically) the struggles and eventual triumph in that. However, I don't necessarily want it to happen here. However, I do see the writer eventually or possibly taking that route because it makes sense from a narrative perspective that the first reaction of Min-kyu's mind will be just forgetting everything.

I totally agree with you that his struggles shouldn't be written off in one stroke because that's the easy way out. However, even with amnesia coming into play, he still has to deal with it in the end. Sometimes, amnesia is introduced in the most ridiculous scenarios (trot lovers for example) but in this case it would be completely justifiable. I don't necessarily want it happening though. Because of all above reasons.

Anyway, I feel like I opened a can of worms. I'll try to chase them down and close it back now lol.

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As I said, burned by Black. And not just Black. I watched a LOT of drama this year. Between my Mum's stroke, my Dad's cancer and my time off work I've had a lot of time to watch dramas and I watched a great deal. It seemed like every drama was barrelling along and then, "She wiped everybody's memory!", "He wiped himself from existence!", "The timeline changed", and "His girlfriend is now his niece!" (ok, that one was good).

And in the 15 times this happened, maybe two were narratively justified. The rest was just done to gloss over the central conflict or cause unnecessary angst. So I think you've unwittingly jammed a fork into a nerve for people.

Also, Black. Still traumatised by Black.

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Black. Sigh. I claim I never watched that. Maybe it's amnesia.

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@Cloggie
LOL 😂

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LOL Black made absolutely no logical sense in the end. That was downright frustrating. Also, what drama is "his girlfriend is not his niece"???? I'm just curious.

While we're at it, everyone can just recommend me amnesia dramas. I'm the only one who'd give those time anyway 😂

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@mandy: 'his girlfriend is now his niece', is from Nine. That one was actually good, as she was so wrong as his gf

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@Cloggie - Ah, I skipped that one but it's time travel so I see how that could've happened. Incest is not my thing though, no matter how they can twist around to justify. It's a bit... icky?

Anyway totally unrelated lol.

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@mandy LOL. Since you asked, well, for the classic ones, there's Winter Sonata, Stairway to Heaven, and Save the Last Dance for Me. For the more recent ones, there's I Hear Your Voice and Master's Sun. (Like you, I also seem to give these the time of day. 😅 )

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@mandy In Nine, the protagonist changes the timeline and his brother ends up marrying the mother of his girlfriend when his girlfriend was a child (about 10?). So they're not related but she is legally his niece.

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NO AMNESIA OR I QUIT

It would literally make no sense. Like @charlieblue17 said above, Min-kyu has actually been becoming stronger with each emotional setback, and amnesia takes that away from him.

I do think that when he discovers the truth, he will initially become 'allergic' to Jia/fauxbot (and maybe even the real robot) - possibly really strongly, because it will reflect the level of betrayal he feels - but then he'll work through it and be able to trust Jia again (not without her effort, of course, but also not without his desire to do so). At one point, he'll have to make an active choice to accept that the robot he trusted is a human - and he can love a human! (and the human can love him) - and that will ultimately trump the breach of trust. Although obviously it won't be as easy as that.

But she's his 'one person' - and interestingly, that's exactly what Dr Oh discovered as the 'cure' himself, that he needs one person he trusts. As a nice mirror to that, he's Jia's 'one person' too. I don't know if her letter telling him he may already be someone's 'one person' is prescient to that (didn't she write it before he called her a genius?), but that's why she's able to have new confidence in her work. She would have gone to the contest anyway, but the boost she got from him could easily be the difference between winning and losing. So it's not a case that only he's benefiting from their relationship, but he's made a really meaningful impact on her heart, too.

though I digressed there, lol

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I won't comment further on this because I think I've been a bit repetitive now on why I think it's completely justified.

Let's agree to disagree! But! I totally agree on Min-kyu making a difference in Jia's life too. I think that's why she fell for him. Not because he calls her a genius or respects her work, but because she sees the loneliness and fears he has, and unexpectedly the power she has to take them away. She's always wanted to be useful to people in general, and the fact that this ruse has made her someone so important to him, I think it makes her feel really glad to be a part of his life. As I said in my initial comment, she is so deeply in it that all the pin he causes doesn't make her run away. Because at some point, he's become more important to her than herself. I think that's super cheesy btw lol, but in their case, true as well.

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Already in episode 3, he calls her 'smart and creative' after the box-smashing problem solving and she sighed/thought that it was the first time that anybody had called her smart... so he was her 'one person' from early on

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When BG tried to put her down in his characteristic style of old, and Jia replied (paraphrasing) "the hell with what you think. there is one person who thinks I'm a genius" I literally cheered. As I already said, they do bring out the best of each other.

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“There was something my father used to say all the time,” she wrote, “If there’s just one person, that’s enough. If there’s only one person, you can bear it without breaking.”

Aww, Jia. Can't help but look back to her break up with Baekgyun after this was read during the drama. BG is a nice guy but he can also be quite dense and controlling as a boyfriend. When Jia's world came crashing after not doing well at the competition that she entered, she badly wanted BG, as her then boyfriend, to be that "one person" for her to bear the pain. Too bad he wasn't. No wonder she didn't look back after the break up and decided to forget the happy memories that she had with him. Even if it took a while for him to find out (while also creating an obedient robot version of Jia in between which is just ugh), I am glad that BG is finally making amends for what happened.

Minkyu and Jia are just soulmates, aren't day? Even if they are not in front of each other and even if they haven't had a real interaction with MK knowing her as the real Jia, they just connect. From Donghyun, to the letter, to the phone calls, it is just heartwarming.

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My heart broke for her in those moments. She just needed "one person" and it was heartbreaking how that one person couldn't even share her pain or be with her. She even said, "I just want to see your face." , as if that alone could comfort her wounded spirit. I haven't felt this kind of need in real life but at that moment, Jia gave me an idea of how it would have felt to be relieved of your dejected feelings just by seeing your partner's face.

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When Jia couldn't contact Baek Gyun via phone, she went straight to his office. Brokenhearted she needed comfort from him, what did she find on the table, the drawings of her hearts soiled from having been callously used as a placemat, then he criticized & berated her in front of his colleagues. When they met at the sandwich shop, although she cheered his projects, he, without flinching, told her that she and her ideas were a useless waste of time. Partial payback, the password: sandwich.

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This has been a good few episodes. But, as many have pointed out, the end of the deception is going to be a huge issue.

The problem is that the Robot Team and Jia are fully responsible for the deception - and none of them appear to have much of a guilty conscience as yet. The Robot team is literally perpetrating a fraud. Persuading investors to fund an invention by falsifying progress, even if you believed you'd eventually succeed, is legally and scientifically fraudulent.

While the initial deception (ie. 1-2 hours) was perhaps justified due to the imminence of the shutdown and sale, the additional time spent on fauxbot is less and less justifiable.

Jia can pretty much shut down the fraud by simply not turning up or confessing. Stripped to it's bare bones, she is continuing to deceive another person (whether you "fallen in love" or not) for selfish personal gain - she actively tried to get him to continue the inventor's selection, and got a place to stay with the team. Especially when she found out about the allergy, a normal person should have thought "I don't know what or why this is happening but surely I shouldn't be risking someone's health/life in pursuit of this sham".

For all their cuteness and bonding etc, their behaviour has less and less excuse as time goes on. The team and Jia should end the deception immediately and as gracefully as they can - the obvious being to claim that a fault had lost all of Aji-3's programming and Jia has to stay away from MK permanently. Or take the brutally honest way and reveal the whole truth.

In any case, the writer's choice to prolong the deception story appears to be driving it towards an exceedingly far fetched resolution.

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You are so very right. The more I watch the cuteness the more I get an icky feeling. It is just not right. It is fraud plain and simple and I wish the would stop, because it started to mess with Minkyus head. The poor guy has mental troubles enough and it is just not fair to him. He is being gaslighted by Jia and even though we know she doesn't want to harm him and fell for him, this doesn't justify her actions. The longer this goes on the less I'm rooting for her. (Still really like the show though...go figure)

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The problem is that this is scientific fraud. They're basically just hoping that they can swap out Aji3 and he won't notice. Because this whole "testing phase" is a scam. The fact that the Professor is a discredited scientist trying to recover his good name makes it that much worse. He's fabricating research data.
The thing is that everyone is involved in some serious motivated reasoning right now. The team for thinking that Aji3 can replace JiA without Min Kyu noticing. The Professor is so convinced that Aji3 is capable of passing for human that he doesn't see the problem with an actual human imitating her.
Min Kyu for continuing to believe she's a robot and for ascribing human emotions to a machine. He's "seen" the robot repeatedly so is motivated to ascribe her behaviour to a robot.
And JiA for thinking it's okay to keep lying to him as long as she gets to stay beside him because "he needs her". She's only just now realising that's cruel.
While I agree with you and agree that what Jia is doing at this point is gaslighting, I don't think prolonging the deception plotline means the story is farfetched. This is ultimately about the motivated reasoning we all engage in when it comes to a relationship. The metaphor is sound. As long as the writers have the courage to deal with the fallout properly then this drama will work.
I'm concerned because, in my experience, kdrama writers often set up these complex moral quandaries and then panic and gloss over the implications. I don't want this to be another Big.

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I totally agree about the motivated reasoning. The far fetched part is how the deception ends. They're at a point where MK would have to be super-duper-generous to forgive the deception or the writer would have to concoct some really outlandish scenario to "force" them to reconcile. At this point, if MK found out the truth, he could sue and win easily. The criminal fraud has jail time involved too.

And other beanies have already mentioned, if his allergy is psychosomatic and came about because of his lack of trust in others, then this could make this return with a vengeance. I guess they could go with some kind of cheesy "love solved it" explanation.

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Well, what Min Kyu needs is not love or a person he can absolutely trust. What he needs is to be able to function in a world of ordinary, flawed people. He needs to be able to get out of bed and move among people knowing that they're lying to him for a multiplicity of reasons at all times.

He trusts Aji3 because he knows a robot is physical incapable of betraying him. But at the same time, he's grown to the point where her unwavering, mindless loyalty isn't enough for him. That growth is the point, whether he ends up dating Jia or not.

I mean, of course he's going to end up with Jia because otherwise the continent of Asia would revolt. But Min Kyu and Jia ending up together isn't the point of the drama and that's what I particularly love about it.

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This is perfect.

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That’s a pretty fabulous comment. The growth is the point indeed.

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the continent of Asia would revolt! lol 100% agree with this.

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I feel like Baek-gyun is so convinced that it's the work of Aji-3 he doesn't quite grasp how problematic his change-out is. In fact, none of them have clocked on at all that there's something between fauxbot-Jia and Min-kyu (they really are extremely dense), so that's also something that has to come to a head in the next few episodes. Maybe they have to realise that first before they can understand the nature of MK's crisis and how what they're doing is no longer science, but fraud.

Baek-gyun is very single-minded and that's his major character flaw - when he's fixed on one goal, that's all he can see, and as we've seen in his past relationship with Jia, and in his current situation with Aji-3, it can come at the expense of all else. He needs something like a kick in the head to snap him out of it, and I sense something like that coming. Also, I watched the preview XD

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I'd give BG the benefit of the doubt not knowing how much Min Kyu is attached emotionally and romantically to Aji3/Jia.

But Min Kyu already told Baek-gyun how the robot affects him as far as his allergy is concerned. At this point, any rational person should have had a few thoughts about what would happen to him medically if the real Aji3 replaces Jia on a public outing for example. So Baek-gyun is willing to bet Min kyu's safety/life on the idea that this wouldn't cause a severe allergy attack? This is a LOT of WILLFUL BLINDNESS on his part.

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I think you might be forgetting the fact that Baek-gyun thinks Aji-3 cures Min-kyu, not Jia. He believes that his robot is the reason Min-kyu can now interact with people, have no allergic reaction and live a normal life’s. He’s said that on multiple occasions too despite knowing fully that Min-kyu has hardly interacted with the real Aji-3.

So rather than willful blindness, he simply rates his robot too high to the point that it’s a direct equivalent to Jia in his eyes. He truly believes that with all his being so he’s not at all concerned about the swap being obvious or how Min-kyu’s allergic reaction might flare once Aji-3 takes Jia’s place.

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@mandy

What you're describing is exactly "willful blindness". Thinking that his robot can do something that it has never done before i.e. his robot has never been in a position to "cure" MK. He disregards the actual evidence which is that Jia (acting as the robot) was the cure.

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I think the key here is that when it comes to the research team Jia is supposed to be an avatar - a practical solution for the mechanical problems of the robot. If you are studying the AI and how Aji3 learns about a new person, then the mechanical part is kind of irrelevant. The issue is that Jia is NOT an avatar of Aji3. She does whatever she wants 99.9% of the time. As a viewer it's easy to condemn them for the deception but one should keep in mind that we are allowed to see the big picture in a way the characters are not. Since Pi stopped monitoring the video feeds from Jia's camera they don't have a clue about Jia and MK's relationship. Not even Jia knows about his feelings for her and the torment they are causing. What matters is what they do once they understand the implications (Wed come sooner).

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I think some reasons they're having such mechanical problems with Aji3 is because Jia doesn't follow the patterns and movement that Aji3 is limited to. When Aji3 gives her robotic responses Jia decides if it is the best thing to do or say, which "stresses out" the realbot. I'm a little concerned since they're not monitoring what Aji3 is actually storing and how it may cause malfunction later, or maybe just maybe be instrumental in helping protect him later for an outside danger, that she's learned to distinguish.

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I really like that as a way out: claim that Aji3 has been reset to the factory default settings and has forgot all that's happened between them (and that's not amnesia :-) ). Jia can meet him as herself (CEO Jo) and explain that Aji3's looks are modelled on her face - which is the truth anyway.

That could work for a while (I'm thinking 4 episodes) and then slowly it comes out that Jia knows stuff about MK that she's not supposed to know (and will be protective of him), but Aji3 does as well because the AI has been observing Jia and MK together...

If I were writing this show, that's how I would delay the truth from coming out for a bit longer but still put an end to the deception.

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I NEED him to find out soon so we can get over his hurt at the lies and have all our cute when they can finally be together as humans hehehe. Ahhh it's always at this part of a drama (that angsty build-up), where I grow most impatient. I guess the other thing I would comment is that as their relationship and feelings develop further (I mean they're both in love at this point), I think it's harder and harder for me to imagine how they'll reconcile in a somewhat believable way. It's definitely going to be a huge mess. I already he has a lot of issues with trust---his allergy, hello? This is a guy that created his own psychological allergy from a trauma deeply connected to trusting people. For him to get over this lie with this girl/robot he so clearly is over the moon about, especially after all the hurt and angst he's going through now because he thinks she's a robot, it's gonna be tough.

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Yoo Seung-ho's range leaves me speechless. When he smilies he lights up the room, when he cries you know he's the most unhappy person in the world. But when he glares... holy shit. He's actually terrifying. I admit I was sceptical when I heard he played mostly bad guys and psychopaths before ("this teddy bear?? with those cheeks?? pft!") but I really admire Jia for not breaking down in that car. I'd resent him if he wasn't hurting himself more than Jia's feelings at this point. Next week, though...
His expression in the last scene doesn't make me look forward to ep17, but by god am I craving it so badly the rest of the week might as well disappear.

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But when he glares... holy shit.

EXACTLY MY FEELS. He made me shiver with all those glares he was shooting the whole episode/s.

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...But I don’t know if he’ll be able to hold onto that “truth” as long as Jia does things like make heart-displays with his books.

- The heart wants what it wants. Even though Min-kyu is clearly giving her the cold shoulder, she still couldn't help but do romantic gestures like this. Ah, this girl. She really does wear her heart on her sleeve.

Thank you for the wonderful recap, @saya . I enjoyed reading your thoughts as always.

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Same with Min-kyu. He’s mad at her but still tells her to wear warm clothes because it’s cold outside and her battery might die. It’s like telling her she might get sick if she wears non-comfy clothes. ^__^

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The book display is such a Jia thing to do: it's both an act of rebellion (against the original task of sorting the books by publication date that MK gave her when he got mad at her for 'forgetting' the kiss) and an act of love (because he has been in a terrible mood and could use a pick me up). Can't help but love her.

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for me the moment that sadden me the most was when he asked the real Aji-3 in the barn, "are you MY Aji-3?" because at first sight his heart knows the robot is not his Aji-3 that he fell in love with.. and most likely he was hoping for the answer that he wants from the robot - his Aji3 is a human..

(oh, this was actually a scene from the previous episodes, but yeah i was binge watching so the feeling kind of spill over.. :P )

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I felt really bad when he looks at the post cards he received.. Seriously why do people play with others feelings just for money?? "Money is really scary" isnt the heart & feelings of a person is more important than money??

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I want min kyu to know that jia is not a robot by himself, I don't want anybody telling him the truth.
But with the way things are, his doc may be the one to reveal the truth to him based on the preview.
seriously the team and jia especially baek hyun really have some great boldness I admire, making human acts like a robot is such a dangerous act no matter what the reason was.

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This episode was so hard to watch, I didn't even watch it all. I was frustrated, but not even angry, because I understand the drama here. Hope for a break this week... it's a new year, even for them inside the story, so let's hope for some laughs and cuteness again.

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Anybody else giddy with the thought that the girl young Jia made wheelies for in a past episode is her sister-in-law?

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Here's the thing I am worried about...if the reason for his allergy to be cured by Jia was built on this idea of trust (and love), does this mean there will be the potential problem that when he finds out the truth and realises that he was deceived by Jia (and Santa Maria Team), he will revert back to having an allergy and EVEN WORST, an allergy towards Jia? I worry about this as we have learnt that his problem is definitely more psychological then physical. I don't want this week's episode to happen because I can feel the angst already.

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oh my goodness. i have binged this in a very unhealthy manner, but i love it. Kdrama oh how i have missed being in your presence, two years too long. i want to stay here for a little while longer!

p.s. loving all your recaps 😍

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I'm feeling really bad about this drama rating. 😥. I know rating is not everything in acting because they were really acting very well. Soo bin really cute, like a doll. Seung ho do his best as usually and I really like their chemistry. The worse may be the story seems not logic for a man falling in love with a robot in those modern and high technology setting. Imho, I prefer if Jia falling in love with Min kyu not inverse. How she struggle with her feeling and then How Min kyu find who she really is (a human). How Min Kyu stuck with his first love and knew that woman not really in love with him and how tragic his life with fake people around him and then find the only one who always be there is Jia..but never make he falling in love with robot. Let he falling in love when he found Jia is human but not giving his allergy....That more properly plot with me. Haha..hope next episode getting better. Fighting!!!

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I actually lol'ed in a serious scene in episode 16, mostly because of a background character. One of the men behind Dr. Hong winced openly when he was berating Ji-Ah. Like an absolute "oh man, you done fucked up", open mouth, teeth out, shaking head wince for his friend and leader. It was the cutest thing I saw during that tragic moment that I laughed when I shouldn't have. Oops.

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