Clean With Passion for Now: Episode 15

by abirdword

Nothing’s worse than not knowing what you’ve done wrong, except maybe learning that it’s the actions of your selfish family members and friends that have completely ruined your life. Our poor CEO’s whole world comes toppling down thanks to his grandfather, and there’s only so much that Seon-gyeol can do to try to reverse the ill effects. Meanwhile, those impacted by the chairman’s machinations struggle with the decision to keep fighting or to lie down and quit.

  
EPISODE 15: “When I madly want to hug you”

As Seon-gyeol talks with Mr. Choi, he spots Oh-sol at last and demands to know what he’s done to upset her and her entire family. Mr. Choi asks them to take their time talking and makes his exit. Oh-sol sits with Seon-gyeol but offers him no further explanation than she’s already given, that she’s tired of everything. She stands to leave, but Seon-gyeol pulls her back.

“What if I won’t break up with you?” he asks her, and Seon-gyeol says that he doesn’t believe that Oh-sol means what she’s saying. But Oh-sol tells him to believe whatever he wants and walks away.

Mr. Choi’s prepared food for Oh-sol, but she complains that she has no appetite. Mr. Choi pivots to the topic of Oh-dol’s hearing. Oh-sol is surprised to hear that they can apply for a retrial, and then she receives a call from the coach to let her know that Oh-dol is skipping school.

Instead of school, Oh-dol goes to Cleaning Fairy and tries to pass Yeong-shik as he demands to see Seon-gyeol. Seon-gyeol arrives to work, and now Oh-dol demands that Seon-gyeol help him visit Chairman Cha in person.

By the time Seon-gyeol arrives at his grandfather’s home, he’s learned all about his grandfather’s interference in Oh-dol’s trial. Chairman Cha tries to redirect the blame onto Seon-gyeol for making him interfere in Oh-sol’s family’s lives once they started dating, but Seon-gyeol isn’t fooled by any of that. But Chairman Cha strikes with the one piece of information Seon-gyeol still lacks–Oh-sol’s mother’s death and AG’s responsibility in it.

This throws Seon-gyeol, and as he drives home, he recalls six years earlier when he visited a memorial for the victims of the accident. Though he doesn’t notice her, Oh-sol is camped out at the memorial, and watches as Seon-gyeol places a white rose on the table in front of the victim’s portraits. In the present, Seon-gyeol’s emotions overwhelm him and he pulls over on the side of the road.

Oh-dol finally turns up at home after Oh-sol and Mr. Choi have spent the day looking for him. But when Oh-sol brings up the retrial, Oh-dol tells her that he’s given up. Mr. Choi hasn’t given up yet though, and he gets a list of names from Secretary Kwon of all the people Chairman Cha stacked on Oh-dol’s disciplinary committee.

Mr. Choi has submitted the request for retrial, and he now walks with Oh-sol, trying to reassure her that everything will be fine. Oh-sol tells him that she has to go to work, and he’s surprised and concerned to hear it. He hopes she isn’t working herself too hard, Oh-sol thanks him for supporting her and heads to work at a bbq restaurant.

It isn’t long before the Cleaning Fairy crew turns up, and Oh-sol joins them after her shift. From them, she learns that Oh-dol visited Cleaning Fairy looking for Seon-gyeol, and also that Seon-gyeol isn’t doing so great, acting distracted and falling down stairs. She surprises them with the news that they’ve broken up.

Oh-sol doesn’t notice that Seon-gyeol is close by, and he trails after her on her walk home. He sees her trip on a piece of loose pavement and stops below a streetlight that goes out as he watches her climb the hill into her neighborhood.

And then a day later, Oh-sol walks the same path, but now there are workers repairing that piece of pavement where she tripped. From the bus window, Oh-sol’s eyes lock on Seon-gyeol for a brief moment, who stands outside as the bus passes. Mr. Choi meets Oh-sol at the bus, and she notes that the broken streetlight is now working again as they walk home. Mr. Choi says that someone must have reported it (hmmm, I wonder who…)

But while Seon-gyeol takes care of Oh-sol, he’s not doing such a great job taking care of himself. As he signs a contact with clients, they can’t help but notice that Seon-gyeol’s gloves are clotting with blood. Seon-gyeol is back to washing his hands obsessively, and Secretary Kwon calls Seon-gyeol’s mother to let her know about the escalating concerns. Mom lets Chairman Cha know that she fully intends to blame him if anything happens to Seon-gyeol.

Seon-gyeol finds Mr. Choi waiting for him when he gets home. Mr. Choi wants to continue treatment, but Seon-gyeol tells him that he wants to quit, and that he doesn’t see why he would need to get better anymore.

While Mr. Choi tries to help Seon-gyeol directly, Seon-gyeol’s mother reaches out to Oh-sol. Mom asks her to see Seon-gyeol just once, but Oh-sol stands firm. She says that Seon-gyeol isn’t weak and that he’ll get over everything with time.

Back at Seon-gyeol’s place, Mr. Choi prepares a sedative and hand ointment for Seon-gyeol. He’s even got a pack of batteries for his clock, which Mr. Choi noted isn’t running anymore, though Seon-gyeol just tells him to go.

Outside, Mr. Choi runs into Oh-sol. She wants to know how Seon-gyeol is doing, and Mr. Choi promises that he’s watching over him. Oh-sol drops her head into her hands, and Mr. Choi wraps his arm around her to comfort her.

Mr. Choi thinks about that intimate moment as he tries to sleep that night, and later discusses his conflicting feelings with his fortune teller client. He tells her that he feels pathetic, because one of his first thoughts was whether he should try to approach Oh-sol again romantically. His client reminds him that he’s still human, and that he’s cared about Oh-sol for a very long time. Mr. Choi understands though, that it’s Seon-gyeol Oh-sol wants to see, not him.

Chairman Cha studies his brain scan images before arriving at Cleaning Fairy. He’s here with his usual pitch for Seon-gyeol to leave his business behind and take over AG Group, and Seon-gyeol of course declines. But there’s yet another reveal–it seems that Chairman Cha is one of the major investors in Cleaning Fairy (oh no).

Seon-gyeol suffers another blow as he learns that Secretary Kwon knew about AG Group’s investments and kept it a secret from him, and that she’s been working on the chairman’s behalf as well. Seon-gyeol can barely look at her as he dismisses her, and then swipes everything off of his desk in anger. His raw hands begin to bleed.

Repercussions move swiftly, as Dong-hyun calls Oh-sol to let her know that there’s a board meeting to potentially remove Seon-gyeol from his role as CEO.

Seon-gyeol’s emotions overwhelm him again as he drives home as he thinks of Secretary Kwon’s betrayal and Oh-sol’s rejection, his hand wrapped and bleeding, until the truck of doom is right in front of him. Seon-gyeol’s windshield shatters on impact, and he’s rushed to the hospital.

Mr. Choi tells Oh-sol about Seon-gyeol’s accident, and though she tries to not care, she’s soon running for the hospital. Chairman Cha stands between her and Seon-gyeol’s room, and he tries to intimidate her into leaving.

Oh-sol stands strong against him as she places the blame for everyone’s suffering on the chairman. Oh-sol joins the unconscious Seon-gyeol in his hospital room.

Oh-sol isn’t the only one placing the blame on Chairman Cha, as Seon-gyeol’s mother makes sure to let her father know that he is at fault for everything before she too rushes for the hospital. Meanwhile, Secretary Kwon arrives at Seon-gyeol’s room, but she stays out of the room when she spots Oh-sol by his bedside.

Oh-sol soon joins her in the hallway, and Secretary Kwon admits her deceits to Oh-sol and the regret she now feels. She confirms that more than half of Cleaning Fairy is owned by AG Group and that Seon-gyeol will be removed from his own company.

Oh-sol leans over to kiss Seon-gyeol. His eyes open, and he’s surprised to see Oh-sol returned to him. He wakes up in his bed at home, Oh-sol now nowhere to be found. He looks for her and calls out, but he can’t find her. And as this dream fades, Seon-gyeol wakes up for real in his hospital bed, a tear trailing down his cheek. His mother is there with him and runs over when he wakes up, doctors following shortly. But Seon-gyeol struggles to escape them all and try to find Oh-sol.

Secretary Kwon is next to arrive to see her old boss awake after his week in a coma. He asks her about the company, and her silence is enough of an answer for Seon-gyeol. He asks her to leave, since they no longer work together. Secretary Kwon retreats to her car to cry, and her son passes a tissue to her from the backseat.

In Seon-gyeol’s hospital room, his mom tells him that Oh-sol visited him every day this week while he was in a coma. But at Oh-sol’s home, she overhears Mr. Choi and her dad talking about how Seon-gyeol has woken up. While Seon-gyeol paces at the hospital, hoping that Oh-sol will visit, she remains at home.

Mr. Choi spots Oh-sol while she does laundry and asks about her absence at the hospital. She says that she’s glad that he’s awake, but that she worries what her father must feel when he sees her go to see him.

Seon-gyeol’s mother comes to tell him the doctors will release him, but Seon-gyeol’s hospital bed is already empty. He finds his grandfather and tells the man to leave Oh-sol’s family alone. The chairman is surprised Seon-gyeol isn’t here to talk about the dissolution of his company. Seon-gyeol says that he thought that just once, his grandfather might grant him a request without any conditions on it.

Seon-gyeol lays the blame for the accident on his grandfather, and this seems to strike something vulnerable in the chairman. He retorts that it was an accident and that nothing could be done about it, but Seon-gyeol insists that it was his fault. He asks again for his grandfather to leave Oh-sol’s family alone as his last chance to be forgiven for his mistakes, and leaves the chairman blinking in the bright sun.

At Oh-sol’s home, she argues with Oh-dol about the upcoming retrial. He asks if she’s doing all this out of guilt and her desire to start dating Seon-gyeol again. Oh-sol says that she may feel guilty, but that she won’t see Seon-gyeol again, ever. She says she feels like a coward for giving up her dreams, but that she wants to try hard to fight for his.

Seon-gyeol makes an effort to help with the retrial as well, as he meets with an official and shows the list of names that are related to AG Group. The official sounds doubtful about the evidence, but Seon-gyeol promises him that it will all prove true.

On his way out of the court, Seon-gyeol runs into Oh-sol, who is there to deliver the retrial documents. They greet one another awkwardly, as Seon-gyeol says that he’s here to help any way that he can. Instead of fighting to win Oh-sol back, Seon-gyeol just thanks her for the moments that they shared. Oh-sol reaches out to shake his hand in goodbye, and that’s when she notices his cracked, peeling hands. He holds them close to his body, unable to reach up and take her hands in his own. Oh-sol turns her back on him and walks away, her face collapsing into sobs.

  
COMMENTS

I guess I have to finally admit that Seon-gyeol’s grandfather is just an asshole. I wanted to believe that Chairman Cha had some realistic (but still evil) ulterior motives that would be revealed in the end, but it seems the dude just sucks and enjoys chaos.

It felt like the same confrontation kept happening over and over again with Chairman Cha for the entire hour, with scenes of general angst mixed into the in between. Oh-sol blamed him, Seon-gyeol’s mom blamed him at least twice, and Seon-gyeol had plenty of confrontations in just this episode, and yet, has anything actually changed? The chairman has burned the whole house down, but he still won’t get what he wants in the end. I’m not sure where we’re supposed to go from here with him, and all I can imagine now is just waiting for him to die (which feels very morbid, even when it’s a supreme jerk).

I’m a little sad that this will be my last recap for this show, just because it felt like a waste. Everything’s all in position for the finale, but none of what happened was enjoyable or even all that relevant to the paper-thin issues the characters are supposed to be facing. This cast has been so good at the fun and sweet humor, that this episode felt like they’d been vacuumed up into an alternate universe of pain, and no one was enjoying it.

But even with all these misgivings, I’m still in it for the finale, because we know once these two finally do reunite, it’s going to be so epically adorable. Just… gotta get through the angst.

I feel like Seon-gyeol’s mom has been all over the map throughout the episodes, but I’m grateful for her here in the end. If Chairman Cha is the bad intention trying to fix Seon-gyeol for ultimately selfish reasons, Seon-gyeol’s mom is the force of good, often making bad decisions in the how of everything, but her reasons why are ultimately in the right place. I’m glad she was able to give Seon-gyeol the knowledge that Oh-sol visited him, because even if he believes that they can never be together, knowing that she still cares is a more honest and caring goodbye.

I want to root for Secretary Kwon again but I mean, it’s Episode 15. It took too long for her to realize that manipulating her boss as a sort of experiment was going to hurt him in the end. I think that the show has done a great job of showing that the more selfishly that others try to intervene with Seon-gyeol, the worse his phobia becomes. It takes a person who is willing to love him as he is to make him want to try to change his behavior. I would really be fine if by the next episode, Seon-gyeol still has some hangups, but is otherwise just happy in his relationship with Oh-sol.

I didn’t expect to tear up in this episode, just because everything feels like it’s been coming for too long, but the moment where Secretary Kwon confirmed that AG had basically killed Seon-gyeol’s company stole a tear from me. Through all the other troubles, Cleaning Fairy has been our constant, something that I didn’t think we could lose. Oh how wrong I was. But we know how loyal the Cleaning Fairy boys are, even Jae-min I suspect, so I think that no matter what, Seon-gyeol will be able to start again.

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