When the Camellia Blooms: Episodes 19-20

by fencejumper

Our heroine draws on her inner strength to pursue a more fulfilling life, one that leaves space to date as well as care for her family. Meanwhile, her cop paramour races against time to track down a dangerous villain. Can he succeed before tragedy strikes again?

 
EPISODE 19: “Nice People Can’t Get Lucky”

As our two lovebirds kiss, Dong-baek’s eyes pop open. She thinks to herself it felt like the air stopped and she thought she saw snowflakes–nothing made sense.

They sit in a daze at their dumpling spot and we hear a radio broadcast about the unusually early snowfall in Ongsan. They hold hands under the table and we hear them think that being “reckless” beats taking things slowly.

At Dong-baek’s doorstep, Yong-shik lingers to say, “I like you.” She shyly replies that she knows, everyone knows. He nods and continues that he’s gone past the point of just liking her though. Dong-baek tries to stop him from continuing, but he persists. He slooowly starts to profess his love…until he’s interrupted by a chicken delivery.

Dong-baek says she never ordered any food, but Jung-sook pops out to take the delivery. It turns out she heard everything, and she asks Yong-shik why he stutters so much before going inside.

Dong-baek asks if her life is too much for him but Yong-shik assertively says no, and that she shouldn’t lose confidence. Smiling, she assures him she won’t let people bring her down anymore. After a few beers and some chicken, Dong-baek’s in a chatty mood. She tells Pil-gu and Jung-sook that she’s done being a doormat; she’ll live how she wants! She’ll make her own destiny!

Pil-gu cares more about what’s on TV, but Jung-sook smiles to herself at Dong-baek’s affirmations. While Dong-baek is fast asleep, Jung-sook rummages through her drawers.

The next day, Dong-baek makes a splash as she struts through the market in a bright red dress, with heels and lipstick to match. She greets the ajumma squad and tells them she’ll be at the next co-op meeting. As she leaves with a smile and a wave, and the ajummas sit in a daze, wondering if Dong-baek had always been so pretty.

Outside of a coffee shop, Dong-baek repeats her affirmation that she’ll live how she wants, and strides in.

At the Camellia, Yong-shik questions Hyang-mi about the cat food that someone’s been leaving out by the Camellia. She says she has no idea, but all talk stops as they notice a beaming Dong-baek walking over a used moped.

Turns out she wants to start offering food deliveries. Yong-shik is bewildered–but it gets worse. Dong-baek praises the coffee shop owner Mi-soon, saying that she got a huge discount but Hyang-mi gasps to hear the price; it’s twice what Mi-soon paid for it. Yong-shik gives the moped an inspection and his verdict is that Dong-baek’s been scammed. When he slaps the moped’s trunk for emphasis, it pops right off lol.

Back at the police station, Yong-shik’s excited to share the news that his Ongsan connections have helped him finally track down the owner of the building across from OK Aesthetics. They learn from the owner that there’s only one entrance and no one ever visits the building. At the sound of a fire engine roaring off, sirens blaring, everyone stops what they’re doing.

At school, a couple of kids gossip about how Pil-gu is the only one who is 2D1M (i.e. 2 Dads, 1 Mom). Pil-gu seems to let it slide, but then he stands up and calls out to the kid before punching him right in the nose.

Chief Byun and Yong-shik are at the scene of the fire–it’s at the building across from OK Aesthetics. Chief Byun is surprised to learn from the firefighters that there was another blaze recently and a lighter found there. Yong-shik is unsettled to learn that the firefighters suspect oil was used in both of the fires, which points to arson.

As they leave the building, Chief Byun mutters that he’s getting a bad feeling and holds onto a crushed lighter that was found on site. Yong-shik however, can’t get over who keeps refilling the cat food bowl. There’s always a ton of cat food but never any cats around.

Jessica snaps a post-volunteer session group selfie with some other players’ wives. As they enjoy some fancy drinks, they gossip about the cheating baseball player that everyone’s been talking about. Apparently he’s a Seoul Ligers player. Jessica chokes on her drink and swears when she hears the “mistress” lives in a backwoods place called Ongsan.

Speaking of Ongsan, Jong-ryeol’s back in lurker mode at Pil-gu’s school. When he sees the state of Pil-gu’s face, he rushes up in concern, but gets the brush-off. Joon-gi’s the one who fills Jong-ryeol in: some other kids called Pil-gu a 2D1M. Unfortunately, Jong-ryeol mishears the insult as “tofu.”

Jong-ryeol tells Pil-gu that he shouldn’t fight kids over a friendly nickname–and tofu’s a great source of protein! It’s all too much for Pil-gu to handle and he bursts out that it’s 2D1M, meaning 2 Dads, 1 Mom. Jong-ryeol looks crushed…then furious. He yells at the two bullies to get their butts over here.

Instead of a telling off, Jong-ryeol treats all the kids to a buffet meal and attempts to play peacemaker. But kids being kids, they’re more interested in all the yummy food options.

Pil-gu’s listless, so Jong-ryeol keeps trying to entice him to have more food and while giving advice. But the more he talks, the more upset Pil-gu looks and as Jong-ryeol goes on about eating dried herring, Pil-gu starts crying.

The tears keep coming as Pil-gu insists he’ll never eat dried herring and he hates everything. Most importantly, he doesn’t like Jong-ryeol. Taking in Pil-gu’s tears, Jong-ryeol realizes that Pil-gu knows they’re father and son.

There’s a new dish on the Camellia’s menu, dumplings (Yong-shik’s favorite). Dong-baek denies that she’s adding them to the menu just because of Yong-shik, and she cheekily ignores Hyang-mi’s advice about strategically playing hard to get. She tells Hyang-mi life is complicated enough, and frankly, she’s lonely. She likes Yong-shik and being honest with him. But Hyang-mi warns her not to trust him completely. Guys who fall in love that quickly tend to fall for anyone and he looks like an easy mark.

Yong-shik is horrified when Chief Byun divulges that four fires broke out before the Joker began his murder spree. The fires were mostly small, so they didn’t attract much attention, but on the day of a big fire at the town’s bathhouse, the Joker claimed his first victim.

Just then a large signboard falls off the building, narrowly missing the two men. Chief Byun is enraged, but Yong-shik spots a security camera mark on the wall. This might mean a new lead for the Joker case.

Hyang-mi is spins a yarn about her dear friend Sook-hee, who’s in need of funds for a medical emergency. A distracted Yong-shik nods along and calls Hyang-mi a great friend for helping to raise funds but Dong-baek cuts in to say that the story’s fake. He sits there confused as Dong-baek, Hyang-mi, and Jung-sook tsk at his gullibility.

Another uncomfortable talk is taking place by the ocean, as Pil-gu and Jong-ryeol finally sit down to have a talk. Pil-gu says honestly that because he never knew his father, he never missed him. Now that he’s met his father, he can’t say he’s excited. It’s weird knowing his dad is Superman.

Jong-ryeol tries to explain that if he’d known, he wouldn’t have left. But Pil-gu’s actually asking why Jong-ryeol left his mom. Dong-baek used to cry whenever she heard the word “dad,” meaning Pil-gu avoided watching cartoons or singing songs about dads. He continues that he doesn’t want anything Jong-ryeol gives him–he doesn’t want Superman for a dad. Jong-ryeol is left to cry on his own as Pil-gu walks away.

EPISODE 20

Ja-young’s grilling eels for her mother-in-law and friends and one of the women praises her for coming all the way over just to buy them lunch. Ja-young stays silent but when the women start asking for free legal advice, she tells them to make an appointment with her. She only came because Mom-in-law asked for a ride home. She coolly bids them good-bye and walks out.

Jong-ryeol stops Pil-gu outside the Camellia and shows him how to wear a baseball uniform properly. While he re-does the uniform, he tells Pil-gu to just be a kid. Yong-shik sees this from afar and turns to go.

In the marketplace, he gets flustered and fidgety when Dong-baek invites him over to taste her dumplings. She guesses right away that Jong-ryeol’s back and tells him not to be so considerate. Yong-shik says he’s not being considerate of Jong-ryeol; it’s more that he sees himself in Pil-gu. He understands that though he hates Jong-ryeol, Pil-gu might not feel the same way.

Jong-ryeol finishes smoothing out Pil-gu’s baseball uniform and lovingly tells Pil-gu he doesn’t need to act so grown up. Dong-baek waits for Pil-gu to go inside before approaching Jong-ryeol and telling him to stop coming by and acting so friendly with Pil-gu. He’s a shy kid. With a sigh, he says Dong-baek doesn’t know her own son at all. Pil-gu knows. Pil-gu knows who his dad is.

Yong-shik sees his mother struggle with a heavy bag of rice, and carries it into the restaurant for her. Inside, they’re all raised voices and bickering. Yong-shik asks if she’s going to make him lunch; though she fires back that she has nothing for him, the next thing we see is a huge spread just for Yong-shik.

She places tasty morsels onto his rice, but he stops eating when he sees she’s wearing his old clothes and sneakers. Yong-shik pleads for her to take care of herself. If she keeps saving her money just to pass it on, when she dies, his heart will ache.

Dong-baek fusses over Pil-gu’s injuries and is taken aback when Pil-gu tells her that he met his dad, Kang Jong-ryeol. It was super obvious, what with all of Jong-ryeol’s fancy gifts. Dong-baek tries to find the words but Pil-gu stops her. She doesn’t need to say anything, he’s okay, he just wanted her to know that he knew. Deok-soon takes off the old World Cup t-shirt and tells her part-timer to use is as a rag.

Kyu-tae, his mother and Ja-young are having a meal, which involves lots of petty comments from Kyu-tae’s mom, aimed at Ja-young. Having had enough, Ja-Young asks why it is that she’s shown off to everyone, but also berated for being more competent than Kyu-tae? Her mother-in-law snaps back that she finds Ja-young annoying and no man would be interested in her — no wonder she’s childless. Ugh.

Kyu-tae actually stands up to his mom (albeit timidly) and tells her to go home, but Ja-Young is out of effs to give and says she’s not the problem, it’s Kyu-tae. He’s been wasting his energy on his bar girl mistress. Mom-in-law refuses to believe it until Kyu-tae deflates and says she shouldn’t have provoked Ja-young. That earns him a slap from mom. Ja-Young tells them normal legal proceedings won’t be enough to cool her anger.

At a hair salon, the infamous Sook-hee says she’s the one who leaked the Kang Jong-ryeol rumor. Her friends say she’s reckless, what if he sues her? She casually says she’s didn’t start the rumor, she’s just a source. Her Garibong best friend is taking a break in Ongsan; she’s the real source. At the mention of Garibong, a man gets up while getting his hair shampooed and stares Sook-hee down. The mere sight of him is enough to make her nervous. Nak-ho smirks as he repeats what he heard, that Sook-hee’s friend is in Ongsan.

Hyang-mi talks to someone on the phone and complains about coming up with more money before hanging up on them. She goes through the fridge at the Camellia and finds the stack of cash hidden in the abalone box. She mutters that it’s because of people like Dong-baek that traitors exist. She also messages Jessica on Instagram, but Jessica is too busy looking through Jong-ryeol’s GPS to notice. Ongsan Elementary School pops up multiple times.

The next day at school, Pil-gu spots Jong-ryeol’s car and tries to get in–but it’s not Jong-ryeol. Jessica asks him what he thinks he’s doing and Pil-gu just apologizes and says he made a mistake.

He goes to leave but Jessica calls after him. Have they met before? Pil-gu he says no, it was only because her car was familiar.

Right then Dong-baek calls out to Pil-gu and the two ladies see each other. Dong-baek recognizes Jessica as Superman’s wife–and Jessica recognizes Dong-baek as Jong-ryeol’s “Sunshine.”

Flashback to summer 2017: Jessica snoops through Jong-ryeol’s phone and sees Dong-baek’s pictures in a folder named “Sunshine.” She thinks to herself that she found Jong-ryeol’s sunshine that night, and learned her name later on after hearing Jong-ryeol talk about Dong-baek when he got drunk.

Seeing Jong-ryeol’s sports car outside the Camellia, Dong-baek turns to Pil-gu and says she has to take care of some things. He offers to go with her but she says she’ll be okay. Pil-gu leaves her with his usual tip, “punch ’em in the nose.”

Dong-baek informs Jong-ryeol that Jessica was at Pil-gu’s school. Inside the Camellia, Hyang-mi stares at the abalone box full of money, but moves away when Jung-sook tells her to stop being a joke or she could die. Hyang-mi says she gets it…then casually asks why Jung-sook’s pretending to have dementia.

Yong-shik arrives with a bouquet, but deflates when Pil-gu says his mom and Jong-ryeol left together. At a ramyun restaurant, Dong-baek tells Jong-ryeol that she barely lived after they broke up, but she’s going to lead a proper life. She’ll never be a mistress.

Jong-ryeol says he doesn’t want her to be a mistress, he just wants her to wait–but no, Dong-baek’s done waiting for him.

Yong-shik nurses a bottle of soju as he waits for Dong-baek. When it’s just the two of them, Jung-sook suddenly starts talking to him with remarkable clarity, and says he’s a considerate guy–too considerate. She warns that a man who protects the girl will never win against a man who tries to steal her. If he keeps waiting, he might just lose Dong-baek

Jong-ryeol asks why Dong-baek moved to Ongsan. Was it because she was waiting for him? When they were still together, he had talked about Ongsan. He’d described it as a peculiar place, almost run like a feudal state. At the same time the people there treat their neighbors like family.

After a pause, she says yes. Back then, she so much false hope and wanted to call for his help. She half thought one day he might show up in Ongsan. But even on her toughest days, she never reached out to him. He has no right to be a part of her life anymore. Jong-ryeol asks for a second chance, but Dong-baek won’t entertain the thought of it. They’re different people now and there’s no going back.

Yong-shik spots Jong-ryeol’s car outside the restaurant he hesitates and thinks about all the times he’s backed away before. Hyang-mi walks by an alley and spots someone refilling the cat bowls.

Their meal is over, but Jong-ryeol still has questions. If he came back with a divorce and begged, would Dong-baek take him back? Again, it’s a no from her.

He asks if that’s because of Yong-shik. If so, how can she even trust someone like that? Jong-ryeol says Yong-shik is exactly like he was 10 years ago: quick to love, but quick to care only about himself. Just then, Yong-shik pops up and sarcastically commends Jong-ryeol for being honest about himself. But just because Jong-ryeol’s a jerk doesn’t mean everyone is.

Yong-shik points out that he’s treated Jong-ryeol with enough respect for being Pil-gu’s dad, but that Jong-ryeol should stop being clingy now. With utter confidence, Yong-shik says he’s the one Dong-baek likes, and she and Pil-gu aren’t people Jong-ryeol can take back.

He tells Dong-baek not to hang out with Jong-ryeol one on one ever again. Saying that he gets jealous easily, Yong-shik asks Dong-baek to grab his hand and sticks his hand out at he, wiggling it for emphasis, and Dong-baek takes his hand. The couple walk away together, leaving Jong-ryeol gaping.

Hand-in-hand, they walk back to the Camellia and poke fun at each other. Dong-baek says her life’s a mess right now: there’s the Joker, her lease ending, Jong-ryeol being a jerk and Pil-gu finding out about his dad. Despite all that, she smiles more than ever these days.

She confesses that she likes him and Yong-shik beams. They giggle as pass the alley where Hyang-mi and the cat-feeder see the giggling couple pass by and Hyang-mi says Dong-baek’s getting prettier with love. She sadly wonders if she’ll get to be loved like that in Copenhagen and live a life that befits her pretty name.

Back at the scene of the murder, Yong-shik whispers she can’t be dead. Chief-Byun shows him the wallet and ID card found on the body. The ID is damaged but we can see a birthdate and name, 1986.12.24 Choi Go-woon. He asks Yong-shik if he recognizes her, because that’s her real name.

 
COMMENTS

Choi Hyang-mi is such an interesting character and I’m not quite sure if she’s good, bad, or something inbetween. She’s managed to make enemies of quite a few people: the loan shark oppa, Kyu-tae and Ja-young, Jong-ryeol, possibly Jessica and definitely Jung-sook. It may be a fake-out, (Dong-baek mentioned that her real birthday is sometime in the winter, but her legal birthday became Aug. 29, the day she was abandoned at the orphanage) but it seems pretty clear she’s the victim at the crime scene. She mentioned wanting to live a life that was as pretty (a.k.a. “go-woon”) as her name, then seeing that ID card for Choi Go-woon…poor Hyang-mi. Given that she’s made contact with the suspected Joker, it’s not a huge shock but was it the Joker who killed her or one of the many people she crossed? Hm…I feel like Sherlock!

Every time we end on an eerie scene, I’m hit with mixed feelings of dread and frustration at the same time. We’ve come so far but know so little. There’s always a lingering focus on the cat food alongside the emphasis that there are no cats around, which leads me to believe maybe the food is poisoned. I remember Yong-shik made a comment about how psychopaths commit arson and abuse animals too. I’m still betting it’s Heung-shik, because in addition to always wearing gloves he has ready access to paint thinner (used in the random fires) and he’s familiar with Hyang-mi too.

I think the person who set off the sprinklers and saved Dong-baek the first time around might’ve been Jung-sook because of how unnervingly scary and determined she gets when she talks about protecting Dong-baek. She must have been keeping tabs on Dong-baek since she had the Camellia’s phone number on her bracelet, as well. I can’t quite reconcile her fierce protectiveness and the suspicious, secret rummaging through Dong-baek’s drawers though. What is going on with Jung-sook? Why is she pretending to have dementia and where has she been all these years?

The focus on families this episode showed moments of true vulnerability in everyone–everyone in Camellia feels so real and genuine, flaws and all. Pil-gu is out for my heart–and my tears. Every time he’s on screen, the sun shines a bit brighter, and so his breakdown in front of Jong-ryeol made me want to wave a wand and make everything right in the world. For an eight-year old he’s incredibly perceptive, and he’s taken it upon himself to be an adult and his mother’s protector. But he should have space to just be a kid, like Jong-ryeol said. Little Pil-gu deserves all the rainbows and love in the world. I am rooting for his relationship with both Jong-ryeol and Yong-shik to blossom so that he gets to benefit from a large support system and doesn’t have to act all tough and grown-up all the time.

I do think that Jong-ryeol deserves bonding time with Pil-gu, he is his biological father after all, but he needs to learn to treat Dong-baek with respect and accept that he can’t just turn back the clock because he wants to. Dong-baek doesn’t want (and shouldn’t have to) let bygones be bygones, but I do hope the two of them learn to be parents to Pil-gu in a way that’s healthy and positive for everyone involved.

Dong-baek deserves a shout-out for growing and staying strong throughout all these events that have upheaved her life. I love that she’s putting her foot down when it comes to making decisions in her life, like making Jong-ryeol understand why she left him and will never go back. I also adore Yong-shik and the way he constantly reminds Dong-baek to remember she’s worth it and that she shouldn’t expect any less. He’s grown too, in how he maintains boundaries with Dong-baek and is confident in his love and respect for her. There’s no wrist grabbing in his repertoire, instead, a trusting outstretched hand. Is there anything not to love?

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