I’m Not a Robot: Episodes 7-8

by Saya

After the nonstop hilarity of the last episodes, this hour takes a contemplative turn, and a trip to the past gives us new insight into Min-kyu’s condition. But the laughs are never far away when you throw together a bunch of dorks and a fauxbot, making for a stream of endless tittering that stills only for love (see: Min-kyu’s sweater). I’m so onboard with this romance that I almost don’t care which way it’s served to me. Bring it, bring it all!

 
EPISODE 7: “Painful Memories”

The scene opens on the past: Little Min-kyu’s parents cheer him on as he builds his very first house of cards. When it topples down, Dad chases away Min-kyu’s disappointment with cool card tricks. Present Min-kyu narrates, “There are some moments that become memories you long for intensely.”

In another memory, little Min-kyu plays boisterously with little Yoo-chul. Everyone then gathers for Min-kyu’s birthday party, where Yoo-chul adorably dabs some frosting on Min-kyu’s face. Present Min-kyu narrates again: “Some moments become beautiful memories you’ll never see again.”

On the drive home, Min-kyu and his parents play word-games. As Dad rolls down his window, one of the birthday balloons gets in his face and their car gets caught in the path of an oncoming truck.

“And some moments…” The narration tails off.

He next wakes up in hospital, sobbing for his parents, both of whom were killed in the crash. Yoo-chul’s father comforts him, saying, “You’re my son now. Yoo-chul and I will become your family.” Aww, little Yoo-chul is crying nearly as much as Min-kyu.

He takes Min-kyu to his parents’ funeral, where a sea of company officials part to make way for them. Someone brushes by Min-kyu, slipping something into his pocket.

KM’s Managing Director Yoon finds Min-kyu afterwards and gently consoles him. He then asks Min-kyu to sign off on the funeral, but Min-kyu goes to the bathroom first. While there, he discovers a card in his pocket, from “Madame X.” Ohhh! Inside, she advises him not to sign anything.

He doesn’t think much of it, until he overhears Director Yoon reporting to Yoo-chul’s dad (not yet chairman) that an unsuspecting Min-kyu was about to sign the papers. Hiding, Min-kyu watches all the company directors pay their respects to Yoo-chul’s dad as if he were chairman already.

Yoo-chul comes looking for Min-kyu, excited that they’re going to live together and become family. Yoo-chul offers, “I’ll be the hyung and you be my dongsaeng. Or if you don’t like that, you can be the hyung and I’ll be your dongsaeng.” Aww.

He has the papers with him, and Min-kyu leafs through to the last page, which would make Yoo-chul’s dad his legal guardian. Looking tormented, he signs it and hands it back. Thrilled, Yoo-chul grips his friend’s hand.

“Be strong, my friend… wait, we’re family now,” Yoo-chul corrects, smile wide. But when Min-kyu looks down at their hands, Yoo-chul’s turns into monstrous claws. Terrified, Min-kyu runs away screaming, blisters forming where Yoo-chul touched him.

Concerned, Yoo-chul returns the papers to his father, who opens the last page to see “son of a bitch” written in place of Min-kyu’s signature. Face tight, Yoo-chul’s dad says that it looks like Min-kyu wants to live alone.

Little Min-kyu returns to his dark, empty home. As day breaks, he catches sight of his reflection, and screams to see himself covered in red welts.

“Recollections, memories… all became punishments for me,” Min-kyu’s narration finishes.

Min-kyu jolts awake in the present, with Jia beside him. He tells her that he was dreaming of people stabbing him in the back, and he’s surprised to find that he’s in totally normal condition, not a mark on him. “You recognized me!” he says to Jia, elated, “and you gave me the injection!

Jia beams and assures him that she’d recognize him no matter what. He squishes her cheeks and says she’s promoted to the Pretty Squad, which she’s totally psyched about, hee. But he glares at her when he finds needles sticking out of his thigh and shoulder, and she explains sheepishly that she was able to inject him, but not quite able to remove the syringes. He cancels her promotion, but she won’t let him take it back.

 
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Promotion to the Pretty Squad

She asks what he’s allergic to, but he says it’s a secret. “Secrets between friends are bad,” Jia replies, and he reminds her she’s meant to be in Operation Mode. She asks if he’d like Friend Mode right now since it looks like he could do with one, but he plans to take a nap and sends her away.

On her way out, Jia asks about his foot, and Min-kyu looks down in dismay at one final needle sticking out of it. Hahaha!

As Jia dashes off, she bumps into Robovac, and apologizes to “sunbae-nim” before catching herself. “We’re on the same level now,” she says smugly.

She notices the box of the action figure she got for Min-kyu, and finally sees the smear of sauce across it. She realizes she’s been in the wrong all along, and recalls him saying how much he hated being misled and deceived. “He must’ve suffered a painful betrayal,” she says to herself.

Baek-gyun reviews the footage of Min-kyu telling Jia to take off her clothes, and becomes convinced he’s a pervert. As soon as Jia returns, he scolds her for going off with Min-kyu, but she defends her master.

“I’m your master!” Baek-gyun argues, and Jia points to the robot and tells him Aji-3’s over there. She moves on to the more urgent matter of Min-kyu’s right-hand man also being her brother. To her relief, Baek-gyun agrees to help her keep her presence secret.

She looks for Pi to help her undo the titanium corset. Little do they know that Butler Sung has called out the rest of the team, jubilantly putting them to work on a huge paint job. Without Pi, Jia has to resort to getting help from Baek-gyun, who swears he’s not looking at her (and to be fair, he’s not).

As she gets dressed behind the curtain, Baek-gyun tries to tell her that she’s no longer a woman to him, but in a hurry, she just runs out as soon as she’s done. He sighs heavily.

Jia catches up with Sun-hye, giving her all the news on Min-kyu, including how she saved his life. But there’s no chance that the universe is conspiring to bring them together, Jia tells Sun-hye, because his “flower-like first love” just showed up.

Noticing that Jia’s gone from calling Min-kyu “that psycho jerk” to “that man,” Sun-hye tells her she should have a go seducing him. “But I’m a robot,” Jia says. Sun-hye thinks that’s even better—it’ll prove man and machine can have a transcendent love! But she wonders if Jia’s okay working with her ex every day. Oh, Jia’s fine…

“Horrible girl,” Baek-gyun mutters in his workshop. “Me?” asks the real Aji-3. He clarifies that he meant Jia, and Aji-3 tells him to specify the subject so her input is accurate. “Horrible girl,” he says again, and this time, he specifies that he means Aji-3. Aw, he’s kind of hopeless, isn’t he?

Meanwhile, Sun-hye gives Jia the letters of petition she’s gathered, asking to reinstate the competition. Considering how she misunderstood Min-kyu with the action figure, Jia reckons her case might not be lost after all.

Min-kyu wakes up calling for Aji-3, before remembering she’s gone. He phones up Dr. Oh to report his unusually rapid recovery, but the doc thinks it must not have been as serious. Disgruntled, Min-kyu insists that he very nearly died.

The package with the necklace catches his eye, and he next calls Jia. She actually answers, “Yes, Mast—” and juuust manages to catch herself at the last moment. Min-kyu is so hilariously inattentive, it kills me.

He tells her he got her package, and asks how he can be sure she didn’t break it. By opening it, you silly nitwit! Jia urges him to believe her, to which he replies that he can’t. As they bicker, he wonders why he’s even talking to her, and hangs up. I can’t type, I’m laughing too hard!

Back to calling him a psycho, Jia berates herself for thinking for a second that he was normal.

At that very moment, oppa Jin-bae is in Yoo-chul’s office, watching a video demonstration of Aji-3. Jin-bae can’t believe how much the robot resembles his sister, though he keeps his thoughts to himself. He disavows any knowledge of robot development within the company, but Yoo-chul notes his nervous movements and asks Jin-bae to let him know if he discovers anything.

Yoo-chul shares his suspicion that Jin-bae seemed to recognize Aji-3’s face with Director Yoon. He asks Yoon what the progress is on tracking down the Santa Maria team.

The bumbling men in black are still on the case, and call up the number they got via the team’s license plate. Ssan-ip is too busy laboring to answer, and the Bumblers hilariously put this down to genius. They lure them with a package at the old address instead, and Hok-tal and Ssan-ip rush over thinking it’s the part they’ve been waiting for. The Bumblers tail their van, only to lose them literally at Min-kyu’s gates, hahaha.

Meanwhile, Min-kyu struggles to take his mind off first love Ri-el and her proposal. He switches on the TV to the handcuff-kiss scene from W—Two Worlds, which only makes him think of what Ri-el said about agreeing to marry him if she finds she can kiss him.

He switches it off in annoyance, and an imaginary Aji-3 asks him if he needs a friend right now. Scoffing at the idea, he turns to Robovac, but immediately finds the little machine lacking. “That’s right! What I need right now isn’t a friend, just someone to talk to,” he rationalizes.

Reviewing Min-kyu’s allergic reaction footage, Baek-gyun pegs him as definitely abnormal. I guess it takes one to know one, eh? He can’t decide whether to let Jia go to him again or not.

When Hok-tal and Ssan-ip return, aching all over from painting all day, Jia tells them to take off their shirts so she can put medicated patches on. Baek-gyun leaps in and says he’ll do it, causing the boys to halt their disrobing and politely decline.

Gloves on and baton extended, Min-kyu approaches the team’s barn. Man, I love his Dork Scamander look. But he’s scandalized to hear strange moaning come from within. Baek-gyun is helping them after all, and both boys yowl in pain/ecstasy as the patches go on.

Jia laughs with everyone else, and Min-kyu recognizes Aji-3’s voice. “You’re laughing like that even though your master’s not there?” he grumps indignantly to himself.

Inside, Jia suggests swimming to the boys, as a cure for their aches. This seems to give them an idea, but they’re distracted when Jia points out a red light that’s been flashing for a while. Uh-oh, it’s a GPS tracker, probably on Min-kyu.

At that moment, Min-kyu eases open the barn door…

 
EPISODE 8: “Beautiful Memories”

Min-kyu pokes his head around but bolts back when he’s met by Baek-gyun. Deflecting suspicion from himself, he accuses Baek-gyun of keeping tabs on him.

Baek-gyun says he came out to buy medicated patches, and complains of Butler Sung working his team like farmhands. Min-kyu imperiously explains that he doesn’t like outsiders; he’s only tolerating them because of Aji-3.

He wants to see Aji-3 right now, but Baek-gyun vetoes, saying she’s charging. Min-kyu argues that he just heard her talking, and Baek-gyun argues that they’re fixing her skin sensors because someone’s been touching her too much. Hahaha!

 
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No touching!

Grinning darkly, Min-gyu says that’s his call. Baek-gyun laughs back and replies, “Whether I send Aji-3 or not is my call.” These two are so immature, I love it. Min-kyu tells him to pack his bags if he’s going to be like that, but when Baek-gyun calls his bluff, Min-kyu knows he’s lost and leaves in a huff.

Earlier, Hok-tal and Ssan-ip had explained to Jia that they installed a tracker on Min-kyu’s phone. She’s touched by them looking out for her that she calls them both “oppa,” to their everlasting joy. The memory makes Baek-gyun sigh.

Min-kyu floats in his pool, lost in thought, but flounders at the noisy arrival of Hok-tal, Ssan-ip, and a giant inflatable flamingo. The boys peel off their clothes and drop into the bottom of the pool… where a cross-legged Min-kyu stares at them like a ghoul. Letting out soundless screams, they flee.

Pi asks Baek-gyun what’s bothering him. He shows her the allergy footage and asks what she thinks. She thinks that Jia probably has the best understanding of the situation. “Why can’t you trust Jia’s judgment?” she asks. “Was she untrustworthy while you were dating?”

He concedes that she wasn’t. “That’s it then. Whether Three Part Baton [Min-kyu] is a pervert or not, you don’t want to send her to him,” she observes.

Jin-bae can’t sleep that night, and his wife (whose name is Hong-joo) treats him to a midnight snack. She can see he’s tired, and smiling, she tells him that he should do what he wants to do, adding that being a lawyer suited him best. (He was previously a human rights lawyer.)

She learns that Jia isn’t taking his calls, and laments that if it’d be different if Jia had met a better guy than a professor who makes robots. That’s news to Jin-bae, and he’s shocked to find out Jia’s ex is, in fact, Baek-gyun.

Back at the barn, Jia also lies wakeful. Gazing at her from his desk, Baek-gyun thinks back to their first proper meeting. She’d come to ask him to find a way to realize one of her ideas—an umbrella that becomes opaque or transparent at the touch of a button.

She explained that while she had ideas for items, she didn’t have the technical knowhow to create them. Baek-gyun didn’t think it would have mass appeal, but Jia replied that she wanted to make things that would be used lovingly, if only by a few people.

Later, it started to rain as she sketched outside, and a dark umbrella sheltered her. She looked up and saw Baek-gyun. Leaning closer with a smile, he’d pressed a button and the umbrella became transparent.

Jia makes her way to the mansion the next morning, while Aji-3’s been hidden in the lab’s bathroom to keep her from Baek-gyun’s visitor, Jin-bae. Locked in a faceoff with Baek-gyun, Jin-bae formally introduces himself as Jia’s elder brother. Baek-gyun introduces himself as Jia’s ex-boyfriend.

At the mansion, Min-kyu immediately switches Jia to Friend Mode. He’s disappointed when she responds sullenly, because he has tons of stuff to talk to her about. She says he must have tons of friends to talk to, but he replies simply that he’s only got her.

She brightens for a second when he says Ri-el’s not a friend. “She’s a woman,” he says glumly. “But why do I feel like I’m being interrogated by an ex-girlfriend?” he wonders .

Eager to deflect his attention, Jia seizes on the still-unopened package she sent him. But she puts her foot in it again by asking about the necklace. She passes it off as a lucky guess, and he has her open it up. Relieved that it’s in perfect condition, he tells Jia to put it on him, which she does with an accompanying eyeroll.

But she smiles to see him so happy, and he tells her it’s a keepsake from his parents: His dad proposed to his mom one night during a meteor shower, and there’s a piece of meteorite inside the necklace itself.

He calls up an image of the night sky in the place his dad proposed, and Jia looks at it in awe. “When you look like that, you seem like a real person,” Min-kyu tells her. Aw, look at you looking at her. He lights up and says he’ll take her there in the winter to see a meteor shower.

 
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I want to be part of your star

But the one going then will be Aji-3, not me, she thinks sadly. Min-kyu tells her that when he wants to get married in the future, he’ll propose with that necklace. I swear she fell about 12 percent in love with him just now.

At the KM office, Ri-el’s turned up to work a day early, but is disappointed that Min-kyu’s not there. She pops in on Yoo-chul, who’s pleased to see his old friend. They playfully trade chat-up lines, and she tells him about her dad wanting her to marry. He guesses with dismay that it’s Min-kyu.

Pacing in front of Jia, Min-kyu explains that his friend—not him!—got a proposal from his first love, but he has a sliiight also fatal illness. “If he can’t kiss or hold hands, would it still be possible to get married?” Min-kyu asks.

Jia is doubtful, since the point of love is to embrace each other till death do them part. But when he admits that his first love still makes his heart race, Jia says there’s nothing for it but to give it a shot. She tells him to go to that first love and hold her hand—

“I told you I can’t hold hands!” he exclaims, and finally spills that he has an allergy to human touch. Aji-3’s scan for data on such an illness comes up empty, and Jia accuses him for taking her for a fool.

“And until Galileo came along, everyone thought the earth was flat,” he retorts. Touché.

Hungry, he switches her back to Operation Mode and prepares to cook lunch, which is tiny crabs. She encourages him to share with the team and with a wicked smile, he says he already did. Oh no, you did something evil, didn’t you?

Hok-tal and Ssan-ip crow over the box of seafood they’ve received, but scream as soon as they open it, as the box seethes with tiny live crabs. Ohh this is punishment for the pool, isn’t it?

Jin-bae and Baek-gyun are still locked in their showdown, even as the crabs overrun them and they’re throwing them away left and right. Jin-bae tells him to change Aji-3’s face and Baek-gyun bows his head.

Min-kyu chuckles about the terror he’s sure he’s unleashed over at the lab, and Jia curses him under her breath.

Oh no, it looks like the crabs are even getting into the computers at the lab, and the team struggles to catch them. With every surface now crawling with crabs, Jin-bae and Baek-gyun are even flicking them out of their hair, though somehow they both retain the utmost dignity.

Lastly, Jin-bae asks Baek-gyun why Jia had such a hard time with him when she liked him so much. Baek-gyun doesn’t know either, but intends to find out. The crabs finally make them lose their composure, and Jin-bae asks, “Are these robots, too?”

Jia eyes Min-kyu’s food longingly, and comments that he would make a good housewife, hee. He says he learned to cook because he couldn’t eat anyone else’s food. He can now cook just about anything, he tells her, and can even replicate his mom’s cooking.

“Did you know?” Min-kyu asks, “Tastes are memories.” He mentions ruefully that while he could learn his mother’s cooking, he wasn’t quite able to learn necessary skills from his father.

Jia stares at him with liquid eyes, imagining little Min-kyu (surely too little to shave) struggling with a razor. She puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “Nevertheless, Master, you grew up well.”

As little Min-kyu fades into present Min-kyu, Jia quickly removes her hand and steps back. Min-kyu stares up at her and breathes, “My heart is tingling again.” She asks if he’s thinking of his first love.

Laughing a little, he smoothes her hair and reaches for her hand. “If she were a robot like you, I could touch her hair like this, and hold her hand,” he says.

Drawing her so close that they’re only inches apart, he whispers, “We could kiss, too.”

 
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Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Dooooo iiiiit, kiss, dammit…

 
COMMENTS

Ermagerd, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought that he really did go for the kiss! But I’m also afraid he’s so close that he’s sure to feel her breath—did they think of that? Did they?

I find it hilarious that Min-kyu and Baek-gyun somehow have met a match in each other. It’s not that they see each other as equals—far from it! They each see themselves as better than the other, and I think it also irks them no end that they end up echoing each other’s thoughts. And Baek-gyun says “no” to Min-kyu a lot, which is probably a novel experience for him, so I’m all for the frenemy antics this relationship promises. However, I’m really uncomfortable with how Baek-gyun freely accesses the footage of what is essentially Min-kyu’s private life. It feels like an intense violation of privacy, especially when Min-ku was assured that it would be safeguarded, and I need the show to address this.

It seems like Jia’s the only person who can rattle Baek-gyun, though I may be in the minority thinking that he has no romantic arc in this show. I think his development will center on learning to relate to people as people, because all his interactions with Jia end the same way: with a scolding. It’s pretty clear that he’s just blundering around with no idea what he’s doing, or indeed, what he’s feeling; he might be great with all that math, but it surely is actively getting in the way of his chemistry. I’m also relieved to find that Jin-bae’s not actually terrible (though breaking Jia’s stuff is still not okay), but like his sister, he’s trapped between conflicting things. At work, he’s caught between two powerful superiors, and in his heart, he’s caught between doing his duty and doing what he wants. Maybe that’s what cuts him most about Jia—that while he’s denying himself, he sees her living as she likes. Neither of them are really wrong in their choices, but it’s all a matter of perspective.

Speaking of perspective, I realize that my affection for Yoo Seung-ho softens me to Min-kyu’s faults. I genuinely enjoy his haughty moments and imperious nature, not only because it’s so at odds with the vulnerable, sad boy he is beneath, but also because his pride always precedes embarrassment. But he lets his guard down with Jia, and as he admitted to her last episode, that hard exterior is a deliberate construction for his own preservation. Given the circumstances, I agree with her: He’s turned out all right. So if he’s a little evil from time to time, I can’t hold it against him.

The way Min-kyu relates to the robot also makes sense to me. As far as he’s concerned, Jia is a hunk of metal and wire, so there’s no argument that he should treat her like a person or an equal, AI or not. I mean, he already treats his electricals like people. I also don’t think his (or Baek-gyun’s) connection to the robot is remotely sexual. Both men are very in-their-heads types, and Min-kyu has much more basic needs to be fulfilled: emotional security, personal connection, and just simple human touch.

Yoo-chul’s backstory also adds another layer to the game. Because he was such a sincere, kindhearted kid, I feel like I can believe in adult Yoo-chul not to ultimately be an enemy. If Min-kyu severed their bond without explanation, it may well have caused a wound that never healed for Yoo-chul, and that’s a pain that can easily turn to bitterness. I think Yoo-chul exists in an uneasy place where he’s forced to see Min-kyu as an enemy because Min-kyu treats him as an enemy. But I also feel like their friendship still has a chance, and that if we peeled away a thick layer of hurt, that love still lies beneath.

I’m curious about what everyone thinks about the origins of Min-kyu’s “allergy,” and how his feelings manifested in… hallucinations? Does this mean he’s potentially psychotic to start with, or is it just a child’s overactive imagination? It doesn’t seem like he sees monsters anymore, but clearly the somatic effect continues. Why did one stop and the other didn’t? Also, any speculations on Madame X’s identity?

I have a new favorite thing, though: how he calls Jia up (under her real President Jo identity) just to bicker. I thought there was no way to engineer a Jia/Aji-3 love triangle, but this is it, this is how! Phone calls! I can see how easy it is for him to fall for fauxbot-Jia who’s right in front of him, but how can we make him fall for real Jia? It’s also why the three-hour robot limit is great plot-wise, because it still leaves a zillion hours of the day empty, where he lolls around increasingly itchy for human contact. And this is a problem he hasn’t foreseen: that the human(oid) interaction he has with “Aji-3” makes him ever hungrier for it, now that he’s got a taste.

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