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The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

Our leading couple’s romance is a pendulum that swings back and forth between two extremes — sickeningly affectionate and dramatically argumentative — and neither mood is appealing to the neighborhood residents. But in between the ups and downs of our leading lady’s relationship, she tackles a new case and sets out to expose a scummy politician.

 
EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

Jung-ho and Yuri are officially together, and while this is usually a cause for celebration in dramaland, my opinion is aligned with that of Joon, Eun-kang, and the neighborhood ajumas: their sugary sweet relationship is pretty dang annoying. I will concede, though, that their dynamic does have a note of maturity that is refreshing and unconventional (by K-drama standards). I mean, I’ve certainly never seen a character discuss birth control and orgasms with Yuri’s level of frankness before.

In my opinion, the novelty of this particular morning-after conversation was lost in the humorous formality of Yuri’s written relationship contract. While it was interesting that her blunt discussion of their sex life was her way of overcompensating for relationship insecurities and preemptively avoiding future misunderstandings by fostering open communication and intimacy, I’m not a fan of how her desire to talk about their sex life is quickly ignored in favor of featuring Jung-ho’s “passion” for PDA. The intended humor of the scene — and how quickly it diverts to a more socially acceptable topic — undercuts the important role such discussions play in real adult relationships. But, hey, maybe I shouldn’t get so caught up in how the content is being presented and just be happy it was included. Baby steps, amirite?

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

As our couple’s public displays of affection increase in frequency and intensity, the rest of our characters decide it’s time for an intervention. They can only stomach so much of Yuri and Jung-ho’s not-so-secret relationship, and it’s time for the couple to tone down the lovey-dovey crap. Unfortunately, without their former bickering and will-they-won’t-they tension, the spark is gone, so what does the drama do? Predictably, they are given a new case and a recycled reason to begin fighting again.

Yuri’s next case involves CHOI SONG-HWA (Lee Min-young), a cafe regular and the (single) mother of KANG YI-SEUL (Ahn Se-bin). Yi-seul seeks out Team Cafe because she fears her mother is terminally ill and won’t tell her about it, but the truth is that Song-hwa’s bouts of sickness are a psychological reaction to being sexually harassed by her boss Assemblyman CHOI YEO-HWAN (Lee Jae-yong), who is in bed with everyone’s favorite bad guy Pyun-woong.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14 The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

The case stirs up relationship drama between Yuri and Jung-ho because — of course — Jung-ho is worried that provoking his uncle (again) will put Yuri in danger. Didn’t he absorb anything she said the last time they had this argument? Guess not, because when Yuri’s purse — and the spy pen containing audio of Song-hwa’s covert operation to record Yeon-hwan acting like a pervert — is stolen by one of Pyun-woong’s goons, Jung-ho goes into white-knight mode. Yuri, however, won’t allow fear for her personal safety prevent her from seeking justice for her client, so she and Jung-ho begin a new round of fighting that’s so uncomfortable for outsiders that our secondary characters host a second intervention.

While Jung-ho realizes that there’s no fighting Yuri on this particular issue and seeks his father’s input on how to bring down Yeo-hwan, Yuri takes a road trip out to a prison and picks up a recently released thief (cameo by Kim Jin-woo), who is kind of like a modern day Robin Hood with pick-pocket and safe-cracking skills. He, along with the rest of Team Cafe, perform an elaborate heist to steal back the recording from Pyun-woong’s hotel room, and once they have the audio in hand, they play the recording over the loudspeaker at an event Yeo-hwan is (ironically) hosting in honor of women.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

This is only the first stage of their plan, though, because Seung-woon’s advice to Jung-ho was for him to create a rift between Yeo-hwan, Pyun-woong, and the rest of their corrupt boys’ club. They need to give the other members of the group a reason to abandon Yeo-hwan and hang him out to dry, so the sexual harassment allegations against Yeo-hwan need to be irrefutable.

Of course, the villains of this drama try to save their buddy by ruining Song-hwa’s reputation, twisting the narrative to paint her as a gold digger who was “asking for it.” Even the investigator for the prosecution is disgustingly sexist, ignoring Song-hwa’s statement that the skirt she’d worn on the day she was sexually assaulted had been modestly knee-length. Instead, he frustratingly latches onto the fact that the A-line design made it easy to lift up. Yuri and Jung-ho — who are now back to cooperating peacefully — take turns getting incensed and reining in each other’s urges to throttle the investigator for his obviously biased interpretation of events.

BAEK GUN-MAN (Oh Min-suk), the prosecutor assigned to the case, is not as prejudice as his investigator, but his narcissism blocks him from seeing reality — namely that Yuri, his ex, is over him. His ambition, however, works in Team Cafe’s favor. Jung-ho picks up on the fact that Gun-man has political ambitions, and this is just the kind of career-building case he needs to take to get his name out to the public. There’s just one problem: in order for the charges against Yeo-hwan to stick, he’s going to need more evidence that will push it past a classic case of he-said-she-said.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14 The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

That’s where Team Cafe comes into play, and they begin contacting Yeo-hwan’s past and present employees. While most of them are unwilling to come forward, Eun-kang and Joon — who taps into his own experiences with sexual harassment during his military service — are able to convince one of Yeo-hwan’s former employees to come forward. And luckily, the employee also has dated journal entries chronicling the handsy assemblyman’s molestations.

With another witness coming forward to corroborate Song-hwa’s accusations, Yeo-hwan’s allies begin distancing themselves from him, and when Yeo-hwan catches wind that they are about to cut him loose, he turns to Byung-wook for help. He’s hugely mistaken in thinking Pyun-woong’s father will throw him a bone. Instead, Byung-wook not only tells Yeo-hwan to turn himself in, he wants the assemblyman to turn over a flash drive to the police and take Pyun-woong down with him.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

With the case mostly wrapped up, the focus of our story returns to our leading couple, and while Yuri and Jung-ho worked harmoniously together during the latter half of the sexual assault lawsuit, trouble of a different kind has been steadily brewing. And the source of that trouble is Jung-ho’s relationship insecurities.

First, Gun-man dismissed Jung-ho as a viable suitor for Yuri. Then, Byung-wook tricks Jung-ho into attending a blind date because he disapproves of Yuri, and Yuri is — much to Jung-ho’s frustration — totally copacetic with the situation. Because, you know, it’s not like he chose to go on the blind date.

So how does Jung-ho compensate for his unjustified jealousy, anxiety, and overeagerness? Well, he decides to follow Beyonce’s advice and “put a ring on it.” (Oh, Jung-ho, you’re flying more red flags than the flagman at a NASCAR race.)

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14 The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

It comes as no surprise that — just as Jung-ho is about to propose — Yuri unknowingly crushes his plans by saying how happy she is in the moment. She, unlike Jung-ho, has no desire to rush things. You’d think that would be the billboard-sized hint he needs to slow down and remember that she isn’t on the same timeline as him. But nooooooo, after dinner, Yuri reiterates how blissful and secure she feels in their relationship, and Jung-ho decides her present happiness is the justification he needs to pop the question after all. *Facepalm*

Thanks to this cliffhanger, I have very mixed feelings going into the finale week. Best case scenario, I’m hoping there’s some yet-to-be-seen disclaimer that he tacks on to the end of his proposal. You know, like, “Will you marry me…two years from now?” Yeah, I doubt that will happen. In which case, my preference would be for Yuri to reject the proposal, but do I really want to suffer through the inevitable conflict her refusal will cause? Not particularly.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

The longer I watch this drama, the more I realize I’m not actually a fan of the Yuri and Jung-ho pairing. Instead, I like Yuri, and until recently, her uniqueness — along with the drama’s representation of often avoided topics — has successfully overcompensated for Jung-ho’s dumbassery. But now that they’re a couple, the writers have taken measures to prominently feature and integrate Jung-ho’s flaws into the plot, and I find myself consistently siding with Yuri — and growing increasingly annoyed with Jung-ho’s clinginess. I definitely liked him better when he was trying to avoid her.

I’m also a bit disappointed in the side romance between Eun-kang and Song-hwa. On the one hand, given Song-hwa’s situation with her boss, it wasn’t the appropriate time for a flashy love confession, so I do like that Eun-kang expressed his interest in a more subdued manner. (Jung-ho could learn a thing or two from Eun-kang.) On the other hand, I still feel like Eun-kang didn’t get much of a redemption after that whole trapping-a-teenager-in-a-burning-building fiasco.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

But I guess Eun-kang still got a better deal than poor Joon, who has yet to have his own little featurette. I’m resigned to the fact that we will not get to know much more about Joon, which is shame. After learning about his awful experience in the military, I’m even more curious to know more about his character.

One thing I am looking forward to is the final showdown between our heroes and Pyun-woong. I just hope this isn’t one of those dramas where the entire resolution to their conflict plays out in the courtroom — thanks to whatever evidence Byung-wook gave to Yeo-hwan. Obviously, I don’t want our good guys to go completely Vincenzo and set Pyun-woong on fire while blasting jazzercise music, but I at least want a climatic moment where we see Pyun-woong go completely off-the-rails before he is detained by authorities. And based on how we ended things with him this week, that moment may occur between him and his father.

The Law Cafe: Episodes 13-14

 
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Jung-ho's need to play Yu-ri's protector I can understand in a way, after all she was attacked several times, hit by a car and kidnapped by a stalker and at least in the last case she probably wouldn't have been able to free herself on her own. I think that's where I would also overcompensate and wish Yu-ri would take it down a notch.
But when it came to the preparations for the marriage proposal, the whole time I was thinking, Jung-ho, don't do that, you're rushing it and you won't get the answer you want.

My favourite scene was the discussion about condoms and orgasms. Typical Yu-ri and in keeping with the tone of the series so far thanks to the humour.

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I love the conversation about the orgasm. I was like yesssssss, COMMUNICATION!!!! This drama does a good job of having real life couple discussions and I love it.

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It's funny that once I finish the episode, I have my own thoughts, feelings, and opinions that I'm so eager to share but then I read the weecap and I feel like I'm supposed to respond to that so things I thought get replaced by rebuttals or replies to what I just read. To be fair, reviewers/critics tend to be way more analytical and objective than me so their thoughts make me see things differently sometimes which is something I appreciate and is the whole reason I read them in the first place.

I was tickled when I saw Yuri's contract/written agreement about their sex life for a few reasons. I have NEVER seen or heard of sex, birth control, and orgasms being talked about so bluntly or openly in a kdrama. I love that Jung Ho was all about consent and Yuri took that another step further to think about all the things she wanted for both of them and wrote it down so there were no misunderstandings. I'm genuinely curious about what else she would've included haha but I don't need it to be satisfied with what we got. I also found it funny that he instantly thought it was back for the contract he gave her when she first rented the space. I did not remember he wrote 125 clauses into the contract haha. How could he even come up with 125 things?! (Honestly, since I forgot about the contract he wrote, I thought he was apologizing for not satisfying her 😳😯🤭 haha)

Maybe it's just me but I never thought or felt tension from them because I always knew they were getting together. No spark was lost for me. For me, I've just liked seeing their relationship playing out. It's interesting to me that whether the characters change or not, just because they're now officially together, they're preceived differently.

Jung Ho and Yuri have a familar fight? Yeah, because the guy wouldn't change overnight! Same with his anxiety. None of that would or should just change a week later because he acknowledged it especially if the things that trigger it presents itself such as Yuri getting hurt and then preparing to do battle with guys who can and would ruin her life. (Plus them fighting and having differing opinions is apparently their thing. Se Yeon even said Jung Ho and Yuri never agree and that's part of the reason she knew Yuri was lying)
This feels a little like I'm about to have a soapbox moment but I feel like nowadays, people make it seem like it's easy to just be brave and moral and righteous. I even saw something that said Jung Ho "was a good guy who doesn't get it" and all I could think was that's certainly one perspective but I think he does get it but at the same time he didn't want her to be hurt which is a normal reaction. Maybe other people haven't been in situations where something happens and folks who care will say things like "don't get involved, don't say anything, it doesn't have to be you",etc but these things happen! I know! I've experienced it! And it can be a process to get to point where they say "even...

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...though it's going to be crazy hard and I could be hurt, I'll still do it" and people support it.

I think I've said this before and I'll probably say it again next week but Yuri is my favorite kdrama character. I love how progressive her character is and what she represents. I love how she stands up for herself and her clients.

I was surprised about Joon being revealed as an assault victim though I appreciated them showing male victims of sexual harrassment and assault. That's another thing I've never seen mentioned or acknowledged in kdramas.
From the very beginning, I wondered what Eun Kang's interest in the single mom was, whether it was attraction or something more and to me, for me, I liked that it seems like it leans into the something more side. I'm not really into them being in a romantic relationship but this "something more" space is something I don't mind.

Oh Jung Ho's proposal(s). I get that he was reacting to people not taking his relationship seriously but dude, it's only like 2 week old relationship and she just said she was happy where they were at the moment.
I'm curious how they'll navigate the awkwardness of her rejecting the proposal or at the very least, not being enthusiatic about the proposal.

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I loved the contract scene, like others, my jaw dropped at the mention of orgasm in a kdrama, but I loved the surprise, and Yu Ri was exactly the person to deliver it. I was OK with JHs response also (once he got over his shock) which was 'let's see if everything is covered...'
I thought the case was on point, and showed that both men and women can be subject to harassment, again, a new kdrama angle and very welcome to see.
I get JHs insecurity and his proposal, which, while not ideal, I could empathise with - the guy has had a crush on YR for 17 years! I can see why he doesn't want to waste any more time faffing around. Appreciate YR isn't in the same place however and may need time to get there. Interested to see where the final week will take us.

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I think if Jung Ho & Yuri ever did end up getting engaged, Yuri would be the one to bring it up haha
That's exactly how I felt when she got down to tell him how much she cherishes him and how safe & content she feels with him.
I honestly can see why he once again thought after that moment "yeah, I'm going to put this out there even though I'm rushing things".

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My thoughts exactly. 😄

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I forgot to mention how I love that Jung Ho talks legalese with kids haha
And then the little girl tried to claim self defense for hitting the girl who was trash talking her mom. I also liked how it started with the kids' fight and ends with the other girl's mom possibly getting the punishment for the trash talking (since for adults that might be considered slander which is punishable).

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Asdfghjkl well at least this drama is ... consistent?
Still has all this good character writing between the leads like seriously has no business being that good at times? Nowhere near as good between everyone else but THEM? Truly. But then like 10 was just mostly nonsense villain plot filler, especially in the way it "resolved", to drag us to the final week like asdfghjkll oh if I could rip out the OTP line and put it in a different tighter written show 🤣😅

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@sicarius I'm right there with you! Even though I'm not fully on board with these two as a couple, I feel like the problems I have with them (and this show as a whole) would be resolved if a few of the plot elements were removed so time could be better spent on the elements that were kept. I kind of like the crazy villain, though, but that might be because I'm so over the politian pulling strings behind the curtain. Pyun-woong is refreshing in comparison, so I'd hate to see him go. haha.

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I'm not as into the Uncle as much as you guys are, but he could definitely be kept and then utilised better and in an even more fun way probably?

CC: @britney some rambling musings about what I think this show needs to be stronger/ how I'd fix it:

I'm just not sure what I'd replace the conflict plot conflict with. Maybe none at all. Keep the Uncle as like a loose villain parody but never a proper threat.
There's more than enough character content for 12 episodes (minimum to be honest); I keep getting surprised at how much genuine stuff they pull out for that - serious conversations and development for our leads about genuine relationship things, now and going forward, even AFTER they've got together - it's that that makes me think this should be a character based show and not anything else.
But then at the same time, even though it wasn't always well done, sometimes it'd be a procedural and use a lite background case to highlight the character moment or issue of the week, as it were. Which, isn't a bad idea tbh.
But getting that right balance of low stakes plot to launch a relationship character study off would be hard, especially with getting the tone right- you don't want to trip, and fall over into too serious a law drama or melo 😅 I think the plot ridiculousness of the first 2/3rds of this show would have be toned down a little as well- you need to hit the sweet spot of comedy with a few parodic undertones, but not too serious, and not too outrageous that it's more likely to pull your audience out if the actual story as well.
(I don't feel like it SHOULD be that hard but Dramaland is prone to screwing up the easiest stories, and struggles with tonal balance A LOT so...)
I also don't want to lose the funny neighborhood found family but at the same time I'd want Seul Gi and her hubby to get more screen time- so there's almost TOO many side characters as well.

Anyway just some thoughts...

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"Still has all this good character writing between the leads like seriously has no business being that good at times? Nowhere near as good between everyone else but THEM? Truly."
Haha yeah, this is probably a fair accessment haha

It's like the leads are definitely the draw and everyone else is the window dressing haha
Though I think the uncle is such a fun antagonist. It's like he strong arms his way into being a standout. I think one of my favorite moments of his is when he saved Yuri solely so it would bother her and he kept calling himself a prince while throwing his tie behind him like a cape haha

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Me too, I laughed so hard when he whipped his tie around and called himself a prince.

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There’s so much what might have been with this show. It doesn’t help that I’m watching it sandwiched between two shows that have similar elements (case of the week, and friends to lovers) but seem clearer about their purpose (Good Job and Love is For Suckers).

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I didn't specially like the conversation about sex because it didn't feel like a conversation for a couple but more like a moral lesson like they did with the stalker. It's like their break the fourth wall moments are so random and I still don't understand what they added them in this kind of drama.

For the story, they could use way better the supporting characters. Now, they're just playing our role as viewers.

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One thing that I've liked since the beginning is Joon's dynamic with Jung Ho. It's cute how he admires him and instantly endears himself. I like that even when he didn't know he was admiring him, he was such as thinking Baek Gun Man seemed cool when he actuality, he was just saying exactly what Jung Ho told him to say.

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Jo Han Chul was wild here?! Dude always plays his creeps as cowardly as possible. He’s a hoot! Family loss and ties were apparent these episodes. I saw how despite being blood related, he wasn’t deemed as worthy. But he’s also a psycho so…

What I do like about this show is how they weave in hard and sensitive issues facing society, in a way that’s not too heavy or dark. The case with sexual assault was heavy. I know the real world this would’ve been much harder since there’s no traitor who would expose it easily. However, I do like that Yu-ri and Jung-ho eventually joined hands to help. They are different in their approaches, but together they make a good team.

Also love their frank pleasure talk, quite realistic, and mature way. While our couple can get wishy washy, I do enjoy that they are attracted to one another but also give each other space too. From Ep 1-2 to now, I think the supporting cast have gotten a chance to shine.

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