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Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

by Unit

After an almost two-year period between its announcement and premiere, the drama of the year is upon us! Queen of Tears hits us with tropes, meta, humor, and wistfulness, as its lead couple begins an uncertain journey toward reigniting their burnt out romance.

 
EPISODES 1-2

I apologize in advance for the person I’m going to be throughout this drama’s run. My oppa is back in dramaland, he’s in his suit era, and his forehead appears a lot more times than it did in his last few roles. I’m living in my answered prayers, y’all! There’s no way I can be normal about this.

For a drama about what happens after happily ever after, it’s only fitting that we begin at the beginning of happily ever after: the wedding of the century between our salaryman hero, BAEK HYUN-WOO (the amazing Kim Soo-hyun), and chaebol heiress, HONG HAE-IN (Kim Ji-won). *Wipes happy tears from my seat in the audience — and then swoons and almost dies from the sweetness of their honeymoon montage.* Seriously, we had a dozen different kisses in less than six seconds! And as for the dreamy “how they met” story, we got a full rom-com plot within a few minutes.

They met back when Hae-in was an intern at her family-owned Queens department store — as in the usual chaebol rite of passage before ascending the throne. She had a problem with the copier and Hyun-woo appeared as a knight in rolled-up sleeves to fix it. A series of weaponized copier incompetence later, and Hyun-woo fell for Hae-in. Things were good between them until Hyun-woo found out that Hae-in is not just the queen of his heart — she’s the queen of Queens! Noble idiocy followed with him resigning and ghosting her, and they eventually had a last minute reunion after she went to fetch him from his hometown with a helicopter. Cue: their marriage, and the end credits of our trope reversal rom-com.

Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

When we meet Mr. and Mrs. Hong Hae-in three years later (our current timeline), their relationship has soured. I mean, constant digs at each other and sleeping in different rooms kinda sour. But to quell Hyun-woo’s gold-digging rumors, Hyun-woo and Hae-in keep up the happily married act with tell-all interviews — where Hae-in chops apples like she’s chopping gossipy netizens’ fingers. Our ice queen is so unnerving! Then again, oppa likes his women a little feisty.

Starting from the “how we met” story to their current soured romance, it has always been a he-said-she-said retelling when it comes to Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s relationship. From Hyun-woo’s point of view, he might have become the legal director of Queens’ Group, but his opinion does not count at work. It’s the same story at home with his in-laws. He has the thankless job of cleaning up after the Hong family’s mess, they dictate every aspect of his life — and worse, he feels that Hae-in doesn’t care about how her family treats him.

Hyun-woo has always been the expressive one in the relationship, so he’s vocal about his pain and frustration with Hae-in. You can almost see the “save me” plea written with neon lights on his forehead. Frustration leads to drinking, and drinking leads to Hyun-woo doing what Kim Soo-hyun does best: crying. He is really the funniest and most adorable drunk ever! This entire drunken sequence was funny, and the appearance of the actors who played Yoon Se-ri’s assistant and insurance agent in Crash Landing on You as Queens Group’s scandal prevention team made it all the more hilarious. (Random fun reminder: Se-ri’s father’s company was also named Queens Group.)

Hae-in’s father lives by the mantra: “Never bid farewell to those who abandon you. You should stab them in the back,” and this is the singular reason Hyun-woo hasn’t filed for a divorce. He is not ready to get stabbed in the back by his father-in-law, and I just about died of laughter when he shuffled out of Daddy Hong’s office backwards. Three suffocating years of living with three generations of the Hongs and their other extended family members eventually makes Hyun-woo seek out a psychiatrist (cameo by Oh Jung-sae for a Tae brothers’ reunion). Hyun-woo is diagnosed with extreme stress levels, and the only solution is for him to get a divorce. (I’d have recommended the Queen of Divorce team to him, but those guys are terrible at their job.)

For a breather, Hyun-woo dips out of an appointment with Hae-in to visit his hometown. The Queens may rule Seoul, but in Yongdu-ri, Hyun-woo’s family and their 35 cows are kings. In contrast to the cold and gloomy atmosphere at Queensville, there’s so much warmth and vibrancy in the Baek family house — and I’m not just talking about the difference in color palettes between both locations. Hyun-woo is in the most relaxed state we’ve seen him in, and with the way he wolfs down his lunch, you’ll think he was starving at the Hongs’.

Hyun-woo’s family scolds him for being absent at Daddy Baek’s 60th birthday — because he and the other male in-laws were on kitchen duty at Grandpa Hong’s late wife’s memorial service on that same day. But the scolding ends when Hyun-woo drops the divorce bomb on them. His mom is all for her son’s happiness, but his dad and siblings try to talk him out of it — especially his siblings because of the financial benefits they get from his marriage. And at this point, I am thoroughly exhausted on Hyun-woo’s behalf. Let this man breathe!

Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

Hyun-woo returns home to serve Hae-in with the divorce papers, but she beats him to the surprise punch. She’s dying! What? Apparently, Hae-in has been experiencing headaches and memory lapses for a while, and a visit to the doctor — the appointment Hyun-woo brushed off — confirmed her condition: Cloud Cytoma, a rare form of brain tumor. Progressed symptoms of the condition include hallucinations or personality disorders, and to top it all, there’s no cure. Hae-in already experiences hallucinations, and the doctor estimates that she has three months left. Just like that! Oh, Park Ji-eun writer-nim, I did not sign up for terminal illness.

We’re dipping into Hae-in’s point of view now, and things are beginning to make sense. At an earlier appointment, Hyun-woo thought Hae-in stood him up on purpose. But it turns out that she had one of her memory lapses and she forgot! When she eventually showed up, he had already left. Hae-in might put up an icy exterior, but underneath all of that is a woman who still cares about her husband. She is not as warm and as expressive as Hyun-woo is, so she may not stand up for him — in his presence — in front of her family. But she’ll go behind his back to beat up her younger brother, HONG SOO-CHEOL (Kwak Dong-yeon), for disrespecting her husband. She will stop her mom from barging into Hyun-woo’s office to scold him, and she sure as hell won’t sit back and listen to her business rival chatting shit about her man.

Hyun-woo feels isolated — and rightly so — in the midst of the Hongs, but in a way, Hae-in feels the same way. She’s just better at hiding her emotions because she grew up in the family and she’s used to them. From bits and pieces of the conversations at home, it seems like Hae-in lost a sibling, and her mom blames her for it. This incident is probably tied up in the trauma that manifests in Hae-in’s hallucinations. Hae-in is dealing with so much internally, and it’s quite depressing that she can’t confide in her family because they have a business relationship. She’s dying, but all she can think about is hiding her diagnosis from her family because she’s convinced that they will kick her out and fight over her assets while she’s still alive. Sigh. Like her husband, my good sis also has the “save me” plea written on her forehead — but with a pencil.

Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

Hyun-woo is shocked to hear that Hae-in is dying, but his primary emotion is joy because he just needs to hold out for three months, and then he can be free from the marriage without the hassle of a divorce. Oh no! Unfortunately, you can never make me hate this man, so I find Hyun-woo’s attempts to fake sadness and concern for Hae-in amusing — even though he’s so wrong for this. But I can most definitely give his best friend and drinking buddy, KIM YANG-GI (Moon Tae-yoo), the side eye for advising Hyun-woo to use the three months to win Hae-in over so that she can include him in her will. This is emotional manipulation at its finest! What is Hyun-woo even thinking? Shouldn’t he know better than to divulge Hae-in’s diagnosis to someone else after she specifically warned him to keep it to himself? Tsk.

It’s ironic how Hyun-woo spent his entire marriage having to prove that he is not a golddigger, but now that the end is in sight, he has decided to wear that gold-digging cloak. Hyun-woo enters his loving husband era — and while his actions amuse me, it’s also sad because he’s doing all of this for the wrong reasons. Hae-in is totally uncomfortable with her husband’s sudden attention, and she tells him to just act like he always has. By the way, elevators might just be BaekHong’s special place because that’s where Hae-in reveals the cracks in her walls and subtly conveys her hurt and resentment for Hyun-woo.

Hae-in suspects that Hyun-woo has an ulterior motive for his sudden change in attitude, but when she discovers that he has been secretly looking into how long terminal patients can live past their given date of death — for selfish reasons, of course — she’s touched by his concern. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to die that easily for your sake,” she assures him. This sounds like a threat to Hyun-woo, and it sucks because Hae-in is actually feeling hopeful for the first time since her diagnosis thanks to his faux concern.

To further complicate BaekHong’s romance — or what is left of it — hotshot investor, YOON EUN-SEONG (Park Sung-hoon), returns to Korea. Eun-seong is Hae-in’s ex, and he’s the key to launching the luxury brand that she wants to bring to Queens department store. For someone who supposedly no longer loves his wife, Hyun-woo feels totally uneasy with Eun-seong’s reappearance in Hae-in’s life. It doesn’t even help that Eun-seong is invited to the Hong family’s hunt, and he fits right in with them — in a way that Hyun-woo has never done. If jealousy is one of the tools this drama wants to use to wake Hyun-woo up to the realization that he still loves Hae-in, it seems to be working.

Everyone disperses to their assigned corner of the grounds to secure their prey, and Hyun-woo and Hae-in go their separate ways as well. Unfortunately, Hae-in gets stuck in another hallucination episode — right as a wild boar charges at her in what seems to be a premeditated incident. *Gasp!* Proving that he will never stop being Hae-in’s white knight, Hyun-woo appears at the nick of time to gun down the boar before it attacks his wife — and this marks his first ever kill on a hunting trip with the Hongs! Hae-in’s hallucination fades as she stares at her husband in shock/relief/admiration? And with this, we come to the end of our premiere week.

Wow! This was one long ass set of episodes. I will never say no to extra extra Kim Soo-hyun minutes, but it was a wise choice to not watch both episodes at a stretch. I know this production has cast half the K-drama industry to bring in the drama, but my first thought when I saw the second episode’s runtime was: I hope these guys have enough story to fill up the rest of the episodes. That said, I absolutely loved the Queen of Tears premiere! The premise is interesting, and so far, the execution has been fun — but not too fun that we forget that we’re dealing with a couple in crisis.

Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

I find the show’s use of the point of view storytelling fascinating, and I think it’s one of the things that’ll pull me back when I’m tempted to lean into team Hyun-woo or team Hae-in. The whole point is to not take sides, because both their feelings are valid and they seem to be jointly responsible for the breakdown of their relationship. Watching the epilogues and seeing how confident Hyun-woo and Hae-in were about their love makes me wonder at what point — and why — everything began to go wrong.

In this miscommunication sandwich that the drama has prepared for BaekHong, it feels like they are both operating under assumptions about each other, and being influenced by external forces. Hyun-woo and Hae-in are too wrapped up in their individual struggles that they fail to see that the other person is struggling, too. This is why couples are encouraged to pursue healthy communication and take each other’s feelings into consideration. But K-drama couples would rather convulse and die than do so. Speaking of which, I am a big non-fan of the terminal illness trope. There’s 1001 ways to go about mending a broken relationship without involving terminal illness or impending death. But oh well.

Hyun-woo and Hae-in have pulled me in with the subtlety of their gestures, their vulnerability and emotional turmoil, and those little moments where the feelings they still have for each other resurface. I’m heavily invested in these two, and if the title is anything to go by, we’re in for a hilarious but also emotional ride with BaekHong. Officially, I’ll be tuning in each week to see how the rediscovery of their romance pans out. But unofficially, I’m here for my weekly dose of oppa, Hae-in’s outfits, and the meta of cameos, reunions, and dramaverse crossovers.

Queen of Tears: Episodes 1-2

 
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Tags: Jang Yoon-ju, Jeon Bae-soo, Jung Jin-young, Kim Gab-soo, Kim Ji-won, Kim Jung-nan, Kim Soo-hyun, Kwak Dong-yeon, Lee Joo-bin, Lee Mi-sook, Na Young-hee, Park Sung-hoon, Queen of Tears

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OK, I kept crying until the end of the show...

I loved all the cast, the crew, all of the scenes and even the 10 kiss scenes, OMG! I hope this show won't disappointed me.

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I am sold! The drama has managed to balance the fun, the seriousness and the sadness into two episodes. I am glad that the cast are more established and the disease part is revealed early in the drama, instead of waiting for later...

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I thought I will never be able to watch a good romcom this year. But boy, I am wrong....thank god the writer still has what it takes to produce another heart-fluttering romcoms that I will remember for ages.

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@unit Yaay! That was a hilarious recap befitting this fun drama. Your fan level is contagious and I love all the references to different shows!

As far as for me, I had a jolly good time with the premiere episodes. Among all the chaebol shows, this one had the most LOL moments because of the mockery on patriarchy. If people are worrird or disgusted by this kind of humour, they should talk to women in asian countries that are largely conservative and patriarchial socities. All the characters in the FL's family are exaggerated to ridicule power and money like the panic attacks experienced by Soo Cheol for wasting one million won🤣🤣🤣

I have watched only 1 show of Kim Ji Won and was never her fan, but she simply outshined everyone here by playing a detached character with a cool aura around her. Hae In was rude to her husband when asking to evict less profitable shops from the mall, but she is a business women first and foremost, so I do not see her actions to be as psychopathic as the FL from "It's Okay To Be Not Okay". I guess, she excepted Hyun Woo to be her safe spot, but both have failed in their respective roles as spouse, but I am leaning more towards misunderstanding on Hyun Woo's side because he seems to be a character who acts on assumptio. Case in point was the start of their love story where he thought she was a poor intern.

I also feel they are playing with male ego because Hae In's grandpa got outsmarted by his girlfriend during the game and Hyun Woo mentioned he expected to marry a working woman, but he can settle for the useless and poor intern.

Surprise me in a good way, show!

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I must say emsel, Unit’s recap and your comment have made me look at the drama with fresh eyes. Thank you!
We’ll be there to cheer them on as they resolve their misunderstandings.

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The brother overpaid ₩8 billion ($7 million) not ₩1 million ($900). And the mother acted like that's nothing and Hyun-woo is the one at fault (for doing his job well)

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@unit Below had me going LOL. Great recap!

*Wipes happy tears from my seat in the audience — and then swoons and almost dies from the sweetness of their honeymoon montage.*

the only solution is for him to get a divorce. (I’d have recommended the Queen of Divorce team to him, but those guys are terrible at their job.)

The Queens may rule Seoul, but in Yongdu-ri, Hyun-woo’s family and their 35 cows are kings.

Sigh. Like her husband, my good sis also has the “save me” plea written on her forehead — but with a pencil.

But unofficially, I’m here for my weekly dose of oppa, Hae-in’s outfits, and the meta of cameos, reunions, and dramaverse crossovers.

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Unit’s recaps are more awesome than the drama. I hope and pray🤞 the drama lives up to the recaps’ level of awesomeness.

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Hae-in's outfits were stunning, there must be a very large budget.

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A-listers' outfits deserve nothing but a huge budget. It matches the big and expensive drama they act in.

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😁

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@Unit dear, we love you and support you and cheer you, always and forever!! No apologies required. ❤️🫰Thanks for some perfectly selected screencaps. I’m sure if you had your way the whole recap would be you (and us) squeeing over the pictures. 😊

*ahem* As per reliable sources there were 14 kisses in the honeymoon montage. We hope to “see” them all. 🫣

Haha … thanks for the CLOY reminders. There were some fun easter eggs. Just waiting for the scented candle held aloft now. 🥰

I want to know who is the psychiatrist’s wife you hung up the phone on his saranghae. 😂

I don’t know how I feel about this “dying” business and his “reaction” to it so I won’t comment on it for now. But I really appreciate your comment about not taking sides as yet and how this is a storytelling choice. This is such an amazing perspective to see the drama. That is precisely why we all love DB recaps.

Did I say this before … I love you @Unit and I wish we have a genuine super awesome drama (and Oppa) to bond over this time round! 😘

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❤️

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I chanted "Divorce, divorce, divorce!" through the whole first episode. I'm on Hyun-woo's side. He is suffocating in that chaebol family. His friends and family encouraging him to stay married is no different than encouraging a domestic violence victim to stay with their abuser. Except for his mom, they don't care about his happiness or well-being at all. Therefore, I have no moral quandaries about Hyun-woo celebrating Hae-in's death, especially because he isn't after her money. This is his only way out and not end up dead at the hands of her mafia family.

Queen of Tears is an all-out black comedy. I don't see any rom or com. Nearly every character is unlikable. I don't feel sorry for Hae-in even if she loves Hyun-woo deep down or over her terminal illness, but I did feel bad about her vile mother playing favorites with her spoilt younger brother and suing her own daughter.

I love Moon Tae-yu. Yang-ki is my favorite character. I'm so glad that Hyun-woo has someone (besides psychiatrist Oh Jung-se) to confide in. I loled when Yang-ki tried to shake Hyun-woo's hand to congratulate him. I burst out laughing every time our Crash Landing assistant and insurance agent duo Ko Kyu-pil and Im Chul-soo tailed Hyun-woo. Eun-sung is a villain? I thought that Park Sung-hoon was just going to play the second lead. It was hilarious when Eun-sung saw through Hyun-woo's lack of interest toward Hae-in and Hyun-woo said to himself, "How did he know?"

This drama makes a great argument against ever getting married. Thanks a ton for recapping our oppa's new drama, @Unit!

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I don't feel sorry for Hae-in either regardless of her illness as she has been portrayed as such a cold, nasty, toxic human being. It will be interesting to see how they redem the character. A bit of a gamble having written her so cold and heartless. If this was say for example King the Land, the character would get away with the behavoiur because it was Juhno playing the character so lets see how the writers do so with a female character.

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That is such an astute observation. 😍 Indeed Junho can be as obnoxious as he wants but will be still lovable. Hehe. Yes let’s see her “redemption” although tbh those behind his back scenes of her “protecting” him from her family were good enough for me. She doesn’t want to reveal how much he matters to her or how important a position he has in her life.

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It's a huge gamble not to have a likeable female lead. Look at the reactions already. Despite some welcome exceptions, we have been raised on tsundere male leads and female candies. But it's not just the gendered trope reversal that grabbed my attention, but that our male candy is not being perfect himself. It's made the drama more interesting to me at least.

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It's a huge gamble not to have a likeable female lead. Look at the reactions already. Despite some welcome exceptions, we have been raised on tsundere male leads and female candies. But it's not just the gendered trope reversal that grabbed my attention, but that our male candy is not being perfect himself. It's made the drama more interesting to me at least.

^I second all of this! There are comments even on the posts about the Queen of Tears teasers etc saying the female lead (weeks before the drama even aired or we had a full trailer) is "unlikeable" and that the drama would have to do 'a lot of work' to win viewers over to her. And this despite the drama coming from a writer with a long track record of writing heroines who are NOT your average Candy girl and are in positions of wealth/fame/power, like Hae-in is.

If anything, I find the gold-digging motive off-putting but also intriguing from a story perspective. Also the gendered reaction to flawed men vs women is no joke - I've seen more sympathy on db for literal serial killer male leads in kdramas (and in one case, a conman planning to con a blind heiress) than for women and girls who are 'mean' even when the drama makes it crystal clear the latter have good reason for being that way.

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Hear! Hear!

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Preach!

And wow I just came across your comments the other day on old Kdramas. It feels surreal to see people from the initial days of DB be active on the site 😁

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@emsel lol yes I'm a dramabeans dinosaur, though I'll admit I haven't been on here much in a few years - the first page of my comment history still shows comments on Vincenzo and that was from early 2021.
But yes, it's very interesting to see the pov through which people judge this particular character for not being 'nice'. Like I said, it was happening right from teaser time i.e. when we didn't even have a full trailer.

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“Therefore, I have no moral quandaries about Hyun-woo celebrating Hae-in's death, especially because he isn't after her money. This is his only way out and not end up dead at the hands of her mafia family.”

But doesn’t he start behaving nicely toward her after his friend suggested doing so might make her change her will and leave him some money? Or did I misunderstand that?

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That was my understanding too. 😅

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I personally don't think he is there for the money, he is desperate and wants out of the whole family after being treated like dirt for so long. He just wants to get out without the repercussions of divorce and family making the rest of his life even more miserable.

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I thought so too for the most part. But while he is rather flustered in his reactions to her after the diagnosis, directly after a convo with his friend suggesting a change of tactic if he wants an inheritance, he immediately starts showing up with flowers, peeling shrimp, and other excessive gestures. It seemed to me the drama wanted us to think his new behavior was connected to his friend's advice, but maybe not...

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yeah it feels very pointed, it wouldn't be so clear if the flowers and prawns had been before the gold-digging advice.

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He wasn't thinking that way until his friend said so, and while negating that angrily, the venom his friend dripped in his ear was already spreading through his veins.
So for him and Hae-in to find back together they will have that too fight, too. I am certain that just as his hate is disappearing, she will learn about it, and he will have to convince her.
I hope they will not end up like Romeo and Juliet, but I will be surprised if we don't almost get there.
Mind you, there will be Bugs Bunnying.

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Exactly. Plus I think the writer makes it obvious he’s not in the right head space. He’s seesawing between trying to get confirmation that she’s truly dying to asking himself “why isn’t she home yet, is she *actually* sick?” It’s like a part of his brain hasn’t exactly comprehended this info despite getting it point blank. He’s angry with her, a part of him hates her, and he hears from someone that she apparently left nothing for him or their eventual kids during the time when they were in love. So it’s all coming to a head and clouding his judgement.

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I have argued for reasons for Hyun-woo's way of reacting on my fan wall.
It's about the talk they have in the car with gifs, so I can't post it here.

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That wasn't his initial intent, though. He told Yang-ki, "It's (her will) fine. I'm just happy that I can escape from them safe and sound in three months."

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He clearly was affected that there was a will and that he won’t get anything in a divorce. After having slogged for the family I assume he wasn’t even paid a salary? He did have some divorce terms.
I don’t blame him for wanting to leave with some money to start a fresh life since he worked so hard.
But the way he going about it is awful. I am ok if he is doing all this and will leave. But we know she ain’t dying 😅

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What affected him first was not the money, but that she had thought about him not getting one single dime, even before the marriage. As if they were enemies, as if she expected him to murder her.
The woman who told him that did so to put a wedge between them, and she has told her something, too. What she has told her, we don't know.

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Well, her thinking (in terms of the show's logic, this is) could be explained by her desire to remove any gold digging taint from her husband, also assuage her own insecurities that he wasn't a gold digger, and finally a misguided attempt to remove the taint of family misbehavior based on wealth. I imagine something like this will come out if they reconcile. (of course in real life,in their honeymoon phase of the relationship they would have discussed that honestly.)

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Yes, and as I said elsewhere, whoever is in charge in that family may have demanded it for her to be allowed to marry him.
Of course, it's a free country, (supposedly), but apart from losing both their jobs and all her money, the family could have decided to make it impossible for any of them to ever get a job or a place to live again.

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wills can definitely be an emotive matter irl, and it's not just over money, it's over principle/the relationship between them. I definitely don't hold it against him for being upset, since the implication was that Hae-in signed that will when things were still good between them

(considering she had a full-on marriage proposal from Hyun-woo when he assumed she was just an intern who'd never be able to keep a job, she knew he didn't want her for her money - because he didn't know about it. She may well have believed his feelings wouldn't change so the will was just an 'ok I'll sign this, he doesn't care about my money anyway' for her but obv that's not how things turned out)

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@pogo1
She didn't tell him then and up until now so we can understand that she didn't trust him from the beggining and the misscomunication they have started with her. I think that if she would have told him, he would have agreed to the will. I can understand him being upset because he feels that she never fully trusted him from the beginning and never thought him being her equal. His "revenge" plan does not really hurt her if she doesn't know that he knows about the will. Also, he is not actually hurting her by being nice to her in her last few months. He doesn't even have to leave her to get his money, that will be God's work, so he will not be hurting her feelings. He thinks is a win-win situation for him and her. It is still unacceptable to me and it shows a big crack in his character even if this was just a first impulse reaction to get even when he first learned of the fact that she didn't trust him. You don't get to use someone that is already is dying unless you are the biggest jerk there is. His jerkiness beats her Bness thus far and I am afraid is in line with the modern narative. Both ML of her previous kdramas were overall good guys so it is really dissapointing that she went in this direction with the story.

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We cannot assume she didn't trust him.
Signing him out of her will can be a lie from that clearly not-nice lady, -
- it can very likely have been a demand in negotiations with her family that he doesn't know of,
or it can be routine in her family.

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This guy doesn't really know his own feelings. His love is buryied under a thick layer of anger and alienation, but obviously, it only takes a boar to get his feelings right up to the surface.
A rival also helps.

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She didn't trust him enough to tell him about the will. Why? I guess we will find out. But she signed it when they were still on good terms, or at least that is what we all were made to believe. Very well she could have sign it after everything went south. Or maybe is all a lie. But if she did before they got married and didn't tell him that still is because she didn't trust him. I think he should have known and it would have been a better marriage. The money issue burdened him and being free from it, at least with a will or prenuptial, would have made him be more in control with the family and with her. I don't know why he didn't ask for one from the start, maybe he should have.

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DIdin't trust or didn't think it was relevant, since that was not the reason they married.
Or hoped to keep him out of the family fights by freeing him, if she died.

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Totally agree with the money up to the marriage. But not after because he might have contributed to her wealth more than only the actual job he had as the company's lawyer (that I assumed he was compensated for). For example, just by being at her side when she needed him at that party to meet that wealthy guy to make the deal. Or doing things for her while she has other meetings. Or legal advice that he gives to her family or herself beyond the ones he is hired for. It is his time he is dedicating to the family in those home meetings where they discuss bussiness and that should count as his contribution to the extra wealth.

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Yes, Hyun Woo was clearly affected when the matchmaker/spa-owner/Hae In's-mom's-lackey lady told him about the will.

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Which may (the existence of such will) or may not be true. Hae-in could have written such will or been presented with one and ultimately consigned it to the shredder.

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if he has enough money to be supporting his siblings, I highly, highly doubt he doesn't have a salary from his work for Queens Group.

For starters, that would be illegal unless he had some kind of equity in Queens - and do we really think this lot were going to grant him equity?

Their marital problems began long before the disclosure about her will, nosy matchmaker lady absolutely did it to put a wedge between them and profit off what she sees as Hae-in's inevitable divorce and remarriage (and while Hae-in appears well able to see through her manipulations, Hyun-woo is vulnerable to them - the problem is that they don't talk)

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I think he def. has a salary but also that he is worth many times that, and is expected to be at their ... beck? beg? ... and call at all hours.

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Yes so much to a Hyun-woo bestie shoutout! He’s so supportive and was willing to risk it all - after admittedly a lot of hemming and hawing - to help Hyun-woo with the divorce. Love that he sat through the hilarious I-hate-that-I’m-so-cute rant session, and that he’s genuinely looking out for Hyun-woo’d well being. He’s so much more supportive than Hyun-woo’s supposedly close knit family.

I think Eun-sung isnt The Big Bad, but he’s likely got a streak of villain in him. There’s a lot of characters and they all seem to have differing motives. It’ll be interesting to see who ends up in who’s side. I think Boem-ja and dad will be on Hae-in’s. Grandpa feels like he’s downplaying his strength somehow, and I’m very certain either Da-Hye or grandpa’s girlfriend is the puppet master.

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I haven't watched episode yet. So thank you for the recaps before watching. Although I feel a bit cheated that I'm reading before watching it.

Honestly, I was ready to tear Hae-in apart. Not until she came for her younger brother's head and warned him to steer clear of her husband. I wondered why she didn't cover for him when they were gathering. And I reasoned that perhaps she didn't want to reveal a weakness of hers to the entire family. Better let them know individually than as a collection all at once. That scene in episode 1 was what calmed me down about Hae-in. But episode 2 did the job of pulling the rug off my feet. At this point, I'm all for watching them more as a united front, with each POV lending perspective at each end.

I love Hyun-woo's mom already. The rest of the family - they're a warm version of Queens.

I squeed when I recognized Im Chul-soo and Go Gyu-pil as scandal prevention team. That is a combination. And it is already funny enough without considering the meta surrounding the cameos.

I don't like Hyun-woo's turn of actions in episode 2. I'll have to sit through it when I get down to watch it though. But I'm sure he's going to turn back and be right on track.

About the unusually long hour of episode 2... I sat through almost two hours each of episodes 10-12 in Hospital Playlist 2. This one is chicken change compared to that.

I'm officially joining the Kim Soo-hyun fanclub. I watched You From Another Star at a time when I wasn't all that concerned about who's acting on TV. To finally witness the acting prowess of his that's always talked about, I'm already a member of the fanclub.

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I’m totally with you on wanting to tear the FL apart … but the way she protected him behind his back was swoony. I want him to have the look she has at the end of episode 2 when he realises how much he’s been protected by her over the years. Talk to each other people and sort it all out. You’re a team!!

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Welcome to the fanclub!!

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🙋‍♀️

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That last minute slide as the ML stood in front of her was legit hot!! 🥵 Thump thump … my heart flutters even when he’s not drunk er, … make that especially when he is not drunk. Although I must admit that scene was really admirably well done. 👍 👏

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Nothing like a sober hero

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The drunk scene was hilarious for him being so ugly while crying loudly that he was so cute when drunk.

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I had no particular hopes for this show. In fact, after reading the initial wave of beanie reactions, I set them to negative, adding a black comedy lens before I started watching. And I’m glad because with that reset, I quite enjoyed parts of QoT.

I probably ought not to have laughed at Hyun-woo’s divorce dilemma turning into a death dilemma… Yeah, probably, but these grey characters and even darker humor are working for me.

And as mentioned, switching up the POVs is working well to balance our alignment with the leads. I remember how cold Hae-in seemed at the elevator at the end of Episode 1 from Hyun-woo’s perspective. While Episode 2 showed how angry he seemed from her perspective at a vulnerable moment for her. Otherwise, it would be too easy to side with the poor, crying boy over the rich, ice princess. We needed to dirty him up a bit.

Sadly, there was also quite a bit that didn’t work for me: their flat romantic backstory, the heavily filtered and sanitized settings, the exhausting family members, some under-acting and some over-acting, and, that very unrealistic CGI boar! Tho that hunt really reminded of sageuks. Their whole family setup feels like palace politics. Shudder.

Anyhow, let’s see how it goes. I’m definitely tuning in for the next episode.

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🫨 Black comedy lens … yes exactly that!! The Beanie comments and Unit’s great recap are really making me want to rewatch the episodes. Although the length of the episodes are making me baulk at the thought … maybe some YT edits then!?

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I'm waiting for the wave of beanies who didn't like the show. You might change your mind again. 😂

As for the length, perhaps consider ffwding the family scenes that don't involve the OTP? I've already started!

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Hehehe … well I was predisposed to like the show … any expecting a rom-com. I didn’t watch too many teasers so as not to be swayed so it would be fair to say I was caught unaware. The fanwall comments also made me wary. But I love this recap and the comments. So yes … I’m all in. 🙌

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* and expecting a rom-com.

Yes a rewatch is in order for this show. I’m all excited for the grandfather’s girlfriend too!

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Cera @Seeker My gut feeling is that grandpa's girlfriend is evil and tiger aunt Beom-ja is right.

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I have to reluctantly agree with you @panshel. As a character I feel its better if grandfather Chaebol's girlfriend is the evil one. 😅 As my beloved mom-in-love from PMR, I want uri Lee Mi-sook to be purer than driven snow. 😢 😂

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You noticed how even the scary patriarch was afraid of the rampaging aunt (his daughter? Somebody make a family tree?)
And how again, the murderous aunt seemed right in her suspicions that grandpa's girlfriend is not innocent ... I scent a whole lot of muddying up and grey-zoning before us. Maybe it'll all slowly turn and end up with a happy, not-dead family.

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yeah once you put the 'black comedy' perspective on, Hyun-woo's last-minute gold-digging starts to seem funny in a very cynical way vs 'ewww you expect me to root for this man' but the drama's got my attention for establishing both leads as flawed and multidimensional and not just "poor crying boy vs rich ice princess". Which is how a lot of people seemed to see it pre-airing, going by how many people even in these comments saw Hae-in as "unlikeable" based on the trailer alone.

Also we almost never get to see what happens after the 'happily ever after' in the married-a-chaebol-happy-ending dramas, the last drama to go there was Heard It Through the Grapevine (2015) so this is interesting to me too even if it's going to be more of a classic kdrama with a 'happy ending part 2' (I hope? as long as she doesn't die) than the pure black comedy of Grapevine.

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Yes, I quite like that the show is spotlighting what happens after the HEA of these improbable unions. At least it's a change from the usual.

I have not seen Heard It Through the Grapevine, but I'd be fine with a less cynical ending (pretty please). Tho reading DB, this scriptwriter grants her OTPs less than perfect happy endings (such as CLOY and YFAS). So maybe Hae-in won't fully recover from the brain tumor. She'll remember him half the time, but not the other? 🤷🏽‍♀️

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NO-o! I want the kind of ending where Romeo and Juliet wakes up and weren't really dead at all.

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I agree with you that their original love story is not convincing at all! Perhaps that is the point & hopefully round 2 is better.

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You're right. Their foundation was so flimsy, it crumbled under the onslaught of her bulldozing family. Hopefully, OTP 2.0 will be stronger, better, not just as a couple, but also individually. 🤞🏽

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I think Hyun-woo fell for her because he thought she was completely hapless and needed him, but then that dynamic COMPLETELY changed when he found out her real identity

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That's right! I'm hoping we get some more flashbacks in the future (funny that) that flesh out what happened then. But also, this may be the first time since they've married that she's needed him again. So that might bring them together again. Ofc, I wish in the end, they both realize a relationship involves give and take on both sides.

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Where are the negative reactions? All kspaces and professional reviews seem to be full of praises for the show.
And I didn't find any under/over-acting. On the contrary, this seems to be of this rare shows where everybody knows how to act, without any weak links (that memorial scene could've easily turned into a circus but they managed to keep it grounded).
As for the CGI boar, not great but thankfully they intergrated it with the fog from the hallucinations so it doesn't stand out. I actually had to google the size of a boar and if they are that fluffy in real life, and it turns out that the show didn't get it very wrong

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seems to be one of these rare shows*

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Ah, I can't speak for the larger dramaverse, but a number of pre-recap beanie reactions weren't so positive. But I quite liked parts of it myself, and it looks like most recap reactions seem more positive. I'm glad you're enjoying it all.

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I suppose this could be a negative reaction. I just found it hard going and boring. I kept breaking off to do other things that seemed more interesting to me (pretty much anything). I'll watch the next 2 eps and see if it grabs me but somehow I can't imagine it will.

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Great recap, @unit, and like you, I am smiling from ear to ear with KSH's return. So much to enjoy in these episodes - but the crossovers from other dramas stood out for me. How much I enjoyed the CLOY duo's reappearance (although Im Chul-soo will forever be Agent Ahn to me...) and Moon Sang Tae's reappearance as a psychiatrist was brilliant (the BTS for that one has to be comedy gold!)

The Hong family are suitably bonkers and I loved the fact that we have every family-member trope going from the unhinged aunt to the grandfather's younger girlfriend. Kwak Dong-yeon once again shines in a stellar cast - he's just all in in every role he undertakes, and so believable! Going to need that family tree, though, to keep abreast of who's who... The montage of all the male married-in members complaining after the memorial service was equally hilarious and painful - and I loved the repeated references to the family trying to keep living as royalty. Such an effective way to capture and summarise their essence - and the more I thought about it, the more I saw it 😄

I need to understand Hae-in a bit more in eps 3 and 4 as I'm struggling to understand her arctic treatment of Hyun-woo, but I fully expect to be enlightened. I'm in, and eagerly anticipating weekends for the next couple of months.

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I’ve been defending Hyun-woo a lot so I think Hae-in deserves some defence too lol. I think she genuinely doesn’t realize how cold she comes across to him. That elevator scene was a great example - when we see his reaction from her perspective, he had fire in his eyes, and the anger was staggering. From his perspective, he was tired and defeated and she was the unreasonable one. It’s a rather realistic view of how marriages can turn out I think.

The other scene that really got me was when she calls Hyun-woo out (again in the elevator). He’s never taken her side in front of her family, and when has he ever peeled a shrimp for her? He’s the one acting strange… it’s a great way to show that from her perspective, he never even tried. She was defending him behind his back and she obviously still loves him, but in her eyes, he doesn’t care at all. He even says “do you think we are close?”

I think she’s always been cold. He fell for her despite that. But like his friend said, when people get married, they stop putting the effort in. No doubt she’s at fault for how this marriage turned out. She never shows him any warmth, and her defence of him is never known to him. But he’s also to blame. And I think that makes this drama really really interesting.

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I wanted to say
They both have their preconceptions, assumptions about "how people do" and hers are more crazy than his, but that is because she has grown up in an ice box.

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Yes, I one hundred percent think that Hae-in isn't dumb and, deep down, knows that Hyun-woo really doesn't care about her. She suspects he's happy that she'll be out of his life soon. She's starting to question that suspicion the more he's there for her and acts caring, but I don't think it's gonna disappear

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Exactly and she actually says that outright to him too! She tells him she thought he’d be happy to know she was dying, especially after he’s acting nice to her when he didn’t do that for years. But I think Haein’s emotional vulnerability, Hyun-woo’s more genuine actions, layered in with the fact that he was once madly in love with her - that’s going to convince her he wants her to truly live. I mean, to me it feels like she hasn’t fallen out of love with him they way he has.

It will undoubtedly break her heart once she finds those divorce papers, and she will lol. But it will most likely come at a time when Hyun-woo isn’t faking anything anymore.

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I also think that she is still in love with him and he is not or at least he thinks she is incapable of love growing up in that family. But I think that she expected him to get a divorce but didn't think that he would actually do it. It will come in handy that he wanted to divorce and not care about the money somehow more so than breaking her heart that he wanted a divorce, in my opinion.
One thing that came up in my mind was the fact that he loved her initially when he thought she was vulnerable in the beginning when he didn't know about her being rich. And now she is again, being ill, and he will fall again for her. And the FL needing someone to protect her even when she has nothing, although she would not admit it. She, as a rich girl, will always wonder if he, as the poorer guy, loves her or her money and everyone around her reminds her of this. He just wants to be "the protective man" that takes care of his woman but cannot because he is seen as a trophy husband, even by her. I think that this is the cause of their problem in the marriage. I hope for her to allow him to be needed from time to time, to allow him to be the man sort of thing, and for him to get over his insecurities from not being rich and assure her of his feelings.

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@kodra

that’s a good point regarding her being heartbroken that he’d wanted the divorce irrelevant on the will situation. But also, I think that’s a great thing in saving their relationship because Hyun-woo’s real motivation was never money. It was his sanity and freedom basically.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt Hyun-woo doesn’t love her. I think it’s very obvious he does but there’s a lot of resentment and anger that obliterates the feeling to some extent. Also, I don’t buy the Hyun-woo wanted her when she was weak argument. Not at all. He wanted her *despite* the fact that she may be jobless, but it doesn’t mean he actually wants her to depend on him. Not once has the drama shown Hyun-woo resents her for her position. He hates that she embarrasses him in front of their colleagues. And he hates that she doesn’t respect his opinion at work at all. Honestly that whole scene when she calls him to her office mid meeting and starts demeaning him was supremely uncomfortable to watch and if I was in his position, I’d flip. It’s not even that she should treat him better as her husband - she should treat him better as the director of the legal team where he is giving her legal advice.

But despite all this, never has Hyun-woo wished he was above her, never showed jealousy in what she’s achieved. This drama just isn’t about that to me. I get what you mean about her showing she “needs” him from time to time but also, I don’t think that’s really going to save their marriage. What prob would is her showing she cares for him in front of him, showing him warmth and love that was there when they were dating.

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@mandy
Probably I didn't expess it well before. He felt more comfortable he thought they could be equal or when he could provide for her. That was when he kind of propose to her the first time. She was vulnerable in the sense of job security and that is why we know that he was not into her because of her money. When he first learns, his first reaction is to run and hide, it scares him, he is not comfortable with being the "weak" one but his love for her is stronger and he agrees to marry her. I don't think he is gelous of her but doesn't feel comfortable in the family meetings or when she is showing everyone who wears the pants in the family, as in that office scene you described. The family does not see him as worthy enough for her because of him not being rich. Even her frenemies. I don't know how much she likes the fact that they are pointing this to her, telling her in other words that she is not good enough because she got a husband that had no money. I don't know how much she likes the fact that she has to defend him to mom, bro and "friend" and I don't know how much she does it to maintain her status and not so much because of her love for him. I don't know if she would have liked for him to step up more so it would be easy for her when dealing with her family, even if doing the dirty jobs as throwing out the retailers that do not perform. Or kill more animals in the hunting trips along with her instead of doing it all by herself. He certainly does not have a voice in that marriage and probably would like to do things differently, as he wants. So he prefers to run away again, even if he is scared of her family. Her being vulnerable now and reaching out to him will give him an opportunity to help her and care for her as he did and wanted to when they first met. Without the money issues and the reverse status that separated them. It gives him a chance to be her hero. Or at least I hope so.

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I am sure she would have liked for him to step up more, and he thinks he needs to be polite to her family. And the family is used considering all sons-in-laws as gold-digger slaves.

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I LOL at how their royal traditions always seem to put the male in-laws at a disadvantage. Just like how the usual traditions always put women at a disadvantage.

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As always, I went into this drama completely unprepared, having only watched a trailer shortly beforehand. So I had no expectations and was absolutely pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first two episodes. I love the black humour and hope that it continues throughout all the episodes.

It usually takes me a long time to recognise all the members of an extended family and to find out how they relate to each other, as I'm mostly not particularly interested in that. Here I already have a very good overview because I find the characters so interesting.

I'm already looking forward to the next episodes.

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Are you the one to make a family tree and tag me on the post? Yes Please? 🥺🥹

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Hahaha I think the production team released an official family tree somewhere! They knew ahead of time lol

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Thank you!
... Ach, but where?

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I may have misled you 🙈

Apparently the chart they released did not actually include who is related to who. Here - I’ve marked it via my phone. Lol sorry bad quality scribbles galore and not comprehensive whatsoever but I’m sure someone will come up with a legit one soon.

https://imgur.com/a/EFKhPG9

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So far, so good.
Thank you.

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Thank you for the chart and kindly marking it. 👍👏

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now that I can finally type without spoiling.....

I did NOT sign up for a terminal illness! Dead heroine at the end is even worse than 'male lead forced off-planet for years at a time' or 'can see each other only once a year' and I'm going to be so, so bad-tempered at episode 16? 20? if that's how this shakes out BUT this is Park Ji-eun and not a melo so I have hope.

That said, I loved these first two episodes minus one thing and I'm almost nervous because what are the odds the rest of the drama can live up to it?? But with this cast and this writer, they're good odds (contd.)

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(part 2) I know this drama's going to be all about Hyun-woo and Hae-in's journey back to being in love again but it's going to be a steep climb back for a hero who decides to.....be nice to his terminally ill wife (even one he hates) so she'll change her will and leave him her money?! I get it, they hate each other + deep down he legitimately cares for her and vice versa but the gold-digging is rather grubby.

Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won's chemistry is everything I could have hoped for though and not just because they look incredible together and the styling/cinematography team seem determined to show off the exquisiteness of Kim Ji-won's face the way jewellers like to show off a particularly flawless diamond. They're nailing it on the acting front - no surprise given their track records - and so is everyone in the cast including scene-stealing crazy auntie Beom-ja. Hae-in feels like a classic Park Ji-eun heroine, in the same spiritual lineage as Chun Song-yi, Cindy, Yoon Se-ri or even Tak Ye-jin - she seems to like writing heroines with strong personalities in a position of power, but Hong Hae-in feels like a wounded ice queen sort, quite distinct from her predecessors (who were also distinct in their own right), though the part with him offering her an umbrella in the rain feels like a callback to Baek Seung-chan and Cindy in The Producers. Like the 'will make you believe she wouldn't care if someone hurt her husband but will inflict violence on the 'someone' if they dared' sort, as we see with little bro and business rival.

That said, at the end of episode 2 I have more questions than ever - these two weren't a marriage of convenience and actually did love each other, so what went wrong???

P.S. (I am still DEAD with laughter @ him proposing to her with the 'I can take care of you I have an officetel on lease not rent and my family has 30 cows' not knowing she's the main boss's daughter lol)

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I want to know how they went to separate bedrooms

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The cow proposal and 'If it's you, I don't mind trying to be the sole provider' and the bathroom scene, 'He should have tried harder and married her. He would have saved my life. Is he teasing me?' Had me crying with laughter.

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I think there's a decent chance she'll survive, since they emphasized that cases can have spontaneous remission

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Hyun-woo, Hae-in and Soo-Cheol have a lot of flaws but the actors are so good that I can't help to love them anway.

Hyun-Woo doesn't need Solution team, he went to Seoul University and he's competent.

Hae-In's choice is kinda weird. I understand she's in denial. But she has 3 months to live and her goal is to make the mall bigger, but it will be her family who will profit of it. So she will overwork for them? I wish she didn't drive... I mean she had "episode" of hallucination without any control of her part.

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I feel like Hae-in sees it more as her life's work and an achievement she badly wants for herself, not really for her family. And her illness is shown as already affecting her work (and memory), so I assume she'll want Hyun-woo's help to conceal it.

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Oh yeah, she wants to prove herself. But at the end, her family will get the mall and she will be dead without enjoying her last 3 months.

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I mean, the illness is affecting her brain, I'm not surprised she isn't being logical here.

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I think she didn't understand work is not everything yet. For example, she thought if she had a perfect healthy life, she will be fine. But it doesn't work like this. She needs to open her horizon from her family and work. She needs to learn to enjoy other things.

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That family is trauma and bad upbringing. Remember, originally he thought he would be protecting her against the consequences of her own ill humour and really, unlovability.

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Her having been involved in her sibling's death and her mother doesn't pretend not to resent her for it may have led her to try to output two people's worth of work and value. I'm sure she must have heard some variation of "why couldn't you have been the one who died instead?"

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I think she doesn't believe that she'd actually going to die.

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Yes, what wasn’t told us directly but came through as several of the highest ranking family members make mention of his work with praise, is that Hyun-woo has the smarts and vision to run the high level legal proceedings of the family. He does fit in in that way. If he saw that and saw Hae-in’s ability to handle the political side of that understanding, they would (will) make a formidable team.

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i didn't realize how much i've missed Kim Soo Hyun!! he had me in stitches -- the man simply does NOT AGE! they look good together, i am very much liking this drama!

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I have missed him, too. But by now, I would like to see more of the work of time and less of the surgeon on his face. Especially around the mouth.
But then I am one of those old enough to appreciate a few wrinkles and their story.

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his mouth always had that "curly" corners look... he was absolutely gorgeous when we saw him at Kcon LA in 2015 -- my daughter and i were in the mosh pit about 15 feet from where he stood on the edge of the stage...

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Oh wow! What a special memory for you both to have.

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I'm glad to hear it. I mean, everybody should be free to improve their looks like they want to, but I do like the thought that he just has that pretty look.
Maybe I am wrong, I just think there's a certain defined-ness around his mouth that I have seen in a few other actors (like Park Ji Young?) and that I seem to recognise with him now, too. I may have misunderstood - I know like, nothing about what people usually get made and how it looks.
I know that with Jang Hyuk, the wrinkles that he has looks so good on him. So as people go nearer to forty, I would like to see a few more of those wrinkles underlining their moods.
Of course not so that they should have wrinkles specially made to accommodate my idea of a grown-up person. 🙂

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i know what you are talking about. regarding Jang Hyuk - if you watch Chuno, you will see his fabulous "lines/wrinkles" that they filtered out while showing his younger years -- i LOVED those lines! it gave his face character, but now he's been botoxed and filled - which i find very creepy. he is handsome in his own right with his earned age and experience!

wish they'd stop doing so much work, the older actors. whereas, Kim Soo Hyun is still young enough that he doesn't need wrinkles... i hope he hasn't done much to his face, but ya know, filters do wondered for these dramas. i know they don't look like how we see them in the dramas and films...

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😍😍😍 Lucky lucky you!!

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and Daniel Henney was there the night before -- he is also VERY HANDSOME... it was lots of fun. i don't know if actors attend Kcon anymore, or maybe more of them do now? we saw Son Ho Jun in a side panel session with a writer -- darn, can't remember which woman writer was there...

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@spazmo It is wonderful to be able to interact with or at least hear our favorite artists talk about their art.

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Weirdly enough, the second episode drastically changed were I stand with the leads. Hae In doesn't seem to have changed with how (confused but) receptive she is of her husband's affection. It seems like the one who opted out of that relationship is Hyun Woo. So far, it seems like he stopped liking her after witnessing & experiencing her leadership style. Hae In doesn't make dumb business decisions like her brother, but I also don't think she is particularly good at her job. She is definitely not the most moral one. At a certain point, I was chanting "eat the rich" in my head.

On another note, I feel like I am somehow too sensitive for the recent kdramas. This is strange, because I mostly have a sensitivity of the brick. Still, I was a bit too on edge about throwing objectively terrible friend at the abusive husband in MMH, because the domestic violence against women just feels wrong regardless of who the women is, and now, I am on edge at the dude celebrating his wife's terminal illness, because at its core, she is still the person who he married for love and such an absence of sympathy is terrifying.

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Hyun Woo also knows Hae In is alone and has no one else but him to rely on. She must also be terrified. I know Hae In is not a particularly good person, but I think those reasons should be enough to genuinely feel bad for her.

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I think he thinks she has her family, but that he is beginning to see that it is not so, e.g., in the car when she talks about how they will jump at her assets like vultures as soon as they pick up the scent of her impending death.
Somehow, only now he is beginning to see her loneliness and struggles. Of course he will slowly revert from his present hate (and now also gold-digging) to feeling and realising his deeper love, and she will find out about his hate just as it is evaporating.

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I noticed that he didn't put away the divorce papers in his pocket, but shoved them under some ledge in her bedroom. And I shouted, No Sir! That will come back and haunt you. Yes it will!

OK, maybe he did put them away, but I expect she will learn about his hate at some critical juncture as they tend to do in dramaland.

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When we saw that he didn't put them in his pocket, we know she will find them at an inconvenient time, likely in the moment he is starting to actually love her again. Or be aware that he does.

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Ep 8 ending 😂😂
It can’t be a kiss. So gotta be this.

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@mayhemf Ha, ha. We can write these scripts...at least as a junior screenwriters. I'm still waiting for a similar set of papers to come to light in FxC. Tho gosh darn, they're already at Episode 12.

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Yes that was my thought when we didn't see him with them at any point later that day. The housemaids will probably find them. They already found it weird that he was sitting close to her at breakfast time.
I was wondering if they had their own dinning room for breakfast as it seemed from his conversation that they always ate just the two of them and yet always sat at the two heads.

I also thought it was weird that they were the only two sitting on the other side of the dinning table at dinner time and were sitting so many chairs apart.

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The moment he finds out that she can't tell her family members he has very little reaction to that (maybe a bit of a surprise?). Frankly, Hyun Woo shouldn't be needing to see the ex or even have a romantic love to have some empathy for someone who is clearly in a tragic position.

I wouldn't have expected him to grieve, but Hyun Woo is a bit too chill about the whole deal.

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It shook his picture of the state of the whole thing. But not like: "WHAAAT?", more like an inside "But ... wow ... tough." Remember, along with that, her priorities of achieving trillion status or what it was, came out. Had she said "... and it make me feel so lost and lonely," he would have understood.
As someone remarked, they have really always spoken completely past each other.
"You fill up paper here"
"Huh. He is falling for me, obviously."
Admittedly, though I am sure he meant exactly what he said, her later interpretation was not entirely wrong, but also didn't get the point:
"You act like a crazy person, and I feel sorry for you."
"Explore that feeling. Pretty sure it's desire. (And love)."

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I thought the opposite from that car conversation. I gathered that it made him more afraid of her greed that even her illness will not stop her from getting more power.

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He lived 3 years in that house. Even if he despised her crazy family, he still married her out of love, so he should have sensed her loneliness. I don't know what kept him from questioning her.

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I am on edge at the dude celebrating his wife's terminal illness, because at its core, she is still the person who he married for love and such an absence of sympathy is terrifying.

yeah same but I think it's supposed to show us how badly their relationship has deteriorated, that he could be that way. Through a very black comedy perspective, it's almost funny that the 'nice one' is the one celebrating his wife's impending death and scheming for her to will him her assets, which is a 180 from episode 1 which presented her as the mean ice queen.
Interestingly, Hae-in seems to be the one more invested in the relationship but does it in a way that's hidden from Hyun-woo - defends him against perceived slights outside of work settings (whether from her bro, her business rival or even the interfering matchmaker), wants him with her to receive a serious illness diagnosis, stops her mother from scolding him....but all behind his back or without making things clear to him so he has no idea.

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I do think he should have at least some idea about her feelings. In their relationship, she was the one initiating the meeting, reminding him about her family dinner and wanting him in the hospital. She is objectively not a good person, but his attitude feels extra cruel considering she is still the one putting some work in the relationship.

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To him, it does not feel like work on their relationship at all. The family dinner certainly is not something he enjoys, and he had no reason to think what she wanted him to was as support at the hospital; of course, he was expecting another business matter, and even without being informed beforehand. Mind you, she didn't tell him she was going through tests, and she didn't look at him as someone who needs loving support, but as someone giving and order.

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Hae-in is not a 'nice' person (Park Ji-eun female leads never are - and long may that tradition live, I'm so tired of the strangehold of the 'self-insert relatable girl next door' trope on younger female leads in kdramas) but I haven't seen enough of her to say whether she's 'good' or not.
I mean, Hyun-woo is nice and he's looking like a bit of a terrible person as of episode 2.

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She was trying to fire a large number of people and screw their businesses. She also encouraged her employee to manipulate the said people into not suing them. Hae In is not a good person.

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Hae In is clearly a business woman. A chaebol at that and it is no surprise she would resort to gimmicks to earn more profits. Plus, it is not her job to improve the performance of the shops. She is a land owner and it is upto the shops capacity to utilize the opportunity and space. Hyun Woo being the legal director was right in saying that the shops could sue them, but Hae In is not the right person to dicsuss on improvement plans when he should have discussed it with the shop management team. Of course, had the FL mentioned that the shops can be shifted to another alternate location then she would be winning brownie points from the viewers, but the writer is not going for a goody-two-shoes character.

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finally something beautiful! it recalls the series of the golden period 2018-2022

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I love Oppa, but/and I didn't see him being cute when he was drunk, which in itself was hilarious, because he referred to exactly that claim about himself. "I was always cute, everybody said so, she said I was cute when I am drunk". And he dares not go home in that state, because "I am too cute when I am drunk, WAAAAHHH".
I have heard some say that his crying is always exaggerated, because they only the respect the "single tear brimming, overflowing and then running down a cheek" kind of crying, but I have always felt Kim Soo-hyun was someone who could cry realistically like an unhappy person.
In this case, though, he looks horrible while doing so, and it's on purpose, a satire on the fandom objectification of his moods. While one feels with him in his predicament (not only the family patriark, but also the Crazy Ex-Sister-in-Law of the century show a frightening perspective on leaving that family), his open-mouthed self-pitying wailing is while complaining about his own cuteness (Starting, even more hilariously, with Soo-hyun demonstrating his cute-drunk ability, making his (character's) friend saying "What was that? You make my heart flutter!").
In "It's Okay ... " he told his friend that his brother was always watching him and that he had to control his facial features, always, to not spread panic in his brother, in case he saw hints of anger, annoyance, or fear, in his face.
In this drama, he is in front of the mirror again, slowly forcing a not very creditable look of sorrow to appear on his face.
https://www.dramabeans.com/activity/p/1547677/

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I thought this "I'm cute when I'm drunk" line was among the funniest in the first episode, and was a direct hit on the kdrama trope of good looking male leads not getting hostile, belligerent, or "handsy" when drunk, but rather acting cute and funny. In fact, if the show had been filmed a little later, I would have thought it was a direct satire of Park Hyung Sik in Dr. Slump (but of course, his character there is just the most recent example, and cute ML drunkenness also has played a role in Wedding Impossible as well.

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And, as Oppa Soo-hyun says, he himself has been demonstratively and celebratedly extremely "cute while drunk" before.
What I see is first and foremost a satire on himself as an idol.

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What I like about it, everything has double meaning. I laughed a lot. Kim Soo-hyun how long not to see you 😘

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Even being drunk and crying is meta and reverse.

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So far I liked the first two episodes although the humor felt a bit off ( not a fan of making comedy out of terminal illness) . However, the trope reversal was fun to watch & I'm loving Kim Ji Eun's aura in this. I hope they end the gallows humour soon so that I can warm up to KSH's character a bit more.

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^^ 💯 You have beautifully expressed what I thought! 😊

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I am on the fence about this one. Gorgeous actors, gorgeous production values (although the Netflix polished look makes me a bit wary these days). The main weakness for me is that even if the differing points of views, the relationship and marriage seemed to have started out on misunderstandings—the first epilogue (her point of view) may have hinted that she loved him but didn’t really reveal much depth and the second epilogue where Hyun Woo describes his love for her was based on the illusion that she was a hapless intern instead of an intern who didn’t care her performance because it wasn’t important. I didn’t even see a whirlwind (unless a helicopter counts) romance and rush of initial attraction as a basis. So I am not that invested in them as a couple (or people) yet. Seeing the show as a black comedy may be the best lens for this, but I don’t feel it on that level. Oddly, I don’t hate it either.

For this writer, she likes inevitable separation plots—North/South Korea, alien/earthling, etc.— terminal illness/death is the latest. Somehow meeting periodically crossing these divides seems to be her solution to the endings. Maybe she can resolve this in an Adonis/Persephone manner and have a River Styx crossing for a few months of the year. The show has an Adonis and Persephone is the Queen (of the Underworld), so the set up is there.

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Enjoying this, despite the marathon episode lengths! I think we're in good hands with this write and cast. Standouts for me so far are Kim Ji Won, Park Sung Hoon and Kwak Dong Yeon.

Obsessed with how ugly the interior design and styling of the Queen family is?! Also, the choice to style Hae In's mother with that single strand of hair down the middle of her face - what is with that?

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Yeah I don't like the set design/look of this drama that much... the single/double strand of hair seems to be a weird trend lately...

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"My oppa is back in dramaland, he’s in his suit era, and his forehead appears a lot more times than it did in his last few roles."

No worries, I AM WITH YOU 😆🫶🏼✨

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Can we agree that even though a bereaved parent will mourn their child forever in what may seem to others "unreasonable" ways, there is just no excuse for blaming another child (his older sister?)
That leniency called upon with the line: "Don't expect me to be reasonable", should not include hating our FL.

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I had written a long comment about meta, playing with the fandom, and the reversal of expectation, but it seems to have disappeared out there somewhere in the "online/offline".
So this time, I will add a link here to the post on my fan wall and the giffed "drunk and cute" show.
https://www.dramabeans.com/activity/p/1547677/

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Dark comedy with an outstanding cast, great director and good writer - well, I am hooked! The terminal illness was a twist I did not expect, it is quite disturbing, because I am not convinced there will be a miraculous recovery.

Love Ice queen Kim Ji-won in her stylish outfits. She and Kim Soo-hyun are perfect with their facial expressions, experts at their craft, as are the others like always fabulous Lee Misook with her dry humour, not to be beaten at a board game by a patronizing boyfriend.

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Personally, I loved the first two episodes (with the exception oft he crazy aunt because I hate slapstick comedy). I found both Hyun-woo and Hae-in to be sympathetic characters.

Obviously Hyun-woo is justified to want a divorce, and his situation is the one we can more readily sympathize with.

But Hae-in is sympathetic too, and I love her characterization. I like that she is brash and brusque, and blunt to the point of rudeness and could stand to learn some tact. Not everyday sweet and unfailingly kind women. I also like that there's layers to her, and that at least some perceptivness lies behind that cold exterior. And we can see she's been lonely her entire life with no real love from family and no friends neither. So no wonder she's had to be cutthroat to survive. And tbh, she's a more realistic picture of a woman at the top in business than if she were sweet and kind to everyone (I also think she's been drawn with far more nuance than the cold male leads we've forgiven way more cruelty 🤷🏾‍♀️). So I'm team Hae - in!

Given that they both aren't communicating/interpreting each other's signals properly, it's very easy to see how they lost themselves, and I'm looking forward to see them find their way to each other.

Unlike many beanies, I see the rom, the com, and the black, and I really hope it continues as splendidly as it has begun.

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Lol @unit that first para!! Atleast for these witty recaps I should continue the drama 😅

I am fine with couples who fell apart, I understand his frustration etc. but the complete lack of compassion when his wife he once loved says is dying made me feel uncomfortable. It’s one thing to wait it out instead of divorcing but to actually rejoice and manipulate is another.
I get she is not expressive but what was the scene in the car? Did she have a problem with him using the arm rest?? Really?
I dislike all characters so far so it makes for a detached viewing. I am all for character growth.
But the episodes are way too long and too many characters in her house.
Still on the fence. Will give it another two episodes.

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The scene in the car and the joy on hearing the bad news is symptomatic, I think, of when love is completely gone. When you dislike/despise someone, even the smallest things they do are great irritants. It's not rational. So yes, it's mean-spirited of both of them, but it encapsulates where they are in their relationship.

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I have something to say about the scene in the car, but it's on my fan wall (third post from the top at present) because I am giffing.

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I understood her finger knock was to get his attention as he was looking through the window. They don't seem to call each other sweet names or have physical contact, so that was her way of communicating to him. IDK they have a lot to work on.

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I loved everything about this, I laughed and I laughed. As for our leads, the amount of miscommunication is CRAZY, but that is the point. I like the both of them, there are no sides for me. Seeing how Hae In grew up, I can see how miscommunication can grow. She is cold because of the predatory nature of her family. Hyun Woo is the essential opposite of that, so it makes sense he grew to hate her. They also don't talk, but she clearly loves him more than he loves her, but i don't think she knows how to reach over. The terminal illness makes sense for writer, she writers about "impossible" separations. First was someone literally from a different planet who is allergic to kisses and another was two people from nations at war. So death makes sense to me.

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[pouting] Only if she comes back from death, like Soo-hyun came back from that "star".

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They already talked about miracles.

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That could just be to give us some hope to be disappointed from.

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Lol, well the writer has never not found a way for her leads to be together, even in the HOT TRASH mess that was Grid, (spoiler alert) the leads ended up together. So have hope chingu, all will be well.

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Thank you, Kafiyah.

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Sadly not really a fan of either lead - Kim Ji-won or Kim Soo-hyun - and not a fan of this trope reversal with the abused husband or of this boomer joke of the husband waiting / celebrating the wife’s death. I dunno… I watched episode one and enjoyed it while also being very uncomfortable with the implications. Couldn’t get into episode 2.

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I can't get into Kim Soo Hyun's acting... doesn't draw me in...don't understand the appeal... too bad because I do like the screenwriter a lot.

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I had forgotten how much I love Kim Soo-hyun's acting! I'm really enjoying every single of the cast here. Cameos are so smart and interesting.
There's just one thing that bothered me a little, the constant shift between comedy scenes and very sad moments.

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Well, that's standard K-drama. If it's any comfort, Shakespeare did it too ... even inserting dirty jokes in tragic death scenes.

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I love how the leads are complex and morally grey: Hyun-woo celebrating his wife's impending death, Hae-in putting up with her family's treatment of him, etc. I think we need more to the backstory and seeing how their relationship deteriorated, but I'm sure we'll see it. I find the FL's brother and his wife's relationship refreshing, it seems like they're really in love and, although he's not a great person, he isn't really malicious either. Despite Hae-in's flaws, the drama has me sympathetic for her (that scene with her frenemy? Ouch) and I find myself rooting for her. I assume that she was forced to sign that will by her family in order to marry him, and that she thought it would be okay because she thought she would outlive Hyun-woo.

Also my husband really likes this one, and he hasn't actually liked a drama since Castaway Diva.

I did not expect a terminally ill FL, and I have hopes that the drama will end happily (they didn't show us those articles about spontaneous remission for no reason).

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Hae-in is not putting up with her family's treatment of him. She beats up her brother and argues strongly with her mother, stopping her from storming into his office at work.
But he doesn't know.

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1. Yes, he doesn't know
2. I still think she can do better. She could have taken his legal advice into considerations about the underperforming tenants, or speak up on the family meeting about having children and getting MBA. It's like he's a doll for her family to order around. The only family member who actually appreciate Hyunwoo professional expertise is actually the crazy aunt. and I think she will play a huge role in mending the relationship in the future episodes

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I agree that the crazy aunt will somehow prove to be "a good'un". At least, you can say, she seems to be true to her feelings. 🤣

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I think the truth is in the middle: she is to some extent intervening, but he doesn't know about it, and there are also situations that she doesn't seem to be trying to change. But I also think her social capital in her family is lower than he believes it to be

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As most people, she doesn't know how crazy her family is. Less so because their family life is so close, like a crazy aggressive cult.

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Just when I was complaining that only ML are portrayed as jerks in Kdramas, this writer slaped me in the face with a really B (I won't type the whole word, you know which one it is) FL. And what a B! Loved it! And I loved more how the writer shocked everyone. It is so unlike so many Kdramas lately, when we have the perfect smart, do it all, fight it all, morally pristine and with the perect family smarty pants. So freaking boring and unreal. This reminds me of my husband in our young years when he kept telling me that it will be great if the world had more female leaders in the world because the women are more caring and therefore the world would be better. And I was like "Hey, don't you see what I have to deal with every day?" Of course, him being young and handsome and green at that time did not see them yet as I did because they were at their best around him. Its good to be reminded that power and not gender is the evil in the world because it is my belief that women that get the power will be just as evil or mabe more because they have to compensate to show that they are more than men. With that being said, I know this is kdrama and we will have, just like in jerk but actually great story, a B but actually awesome woman one. I just love that we get to see it, the good (men preparing the food) and the bad (B FL in power) through different lenses. I also liked that his poorer family is more real as they pushed their son to stay in the marriage because of the status and the money the in laws have because we had so far all these poor FL perfect families that were not after money, which is BS in my oppinion.
As refreshing as it was, I felt it was all over the place. The writer wanted to make so many points that it felt too much too soon. Sometimes too much of the same point. It was all jamed and cramped that it was hard to watch and follow. Of course, we had the usual beating of a man by the FL early on. That seems to never, ever, ever, never, ever be missed in these new kdramas. I wonder though if this has an effect in RL in SK and if women start beating men. And more so, what happens if the men respond in RL. Will that be considered defense or women will claim that are abused? Just wondering since it is in each new kdrama and I don't get the point the writers are trying to make. But hey, great gifs come out of it.
And of course, we have the usual narative that marriages are not good for the leads. We were told so by the drinking divorce lawyer buddy of the ML. So we kind of get the idea where this is going unless the writer shocks us again and turns it around just so she would not read about the bad endings in her dramas. But I don't think so, that's wishful thinking on my part.
The writer gave already so many excuses for the FL Bness. We have the brother tragedy, we have the push of her patriarch family (of course) to get to that 1 trillion whatever, we have the hate of her mother. And this just in the first episodes, I assume we...

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...And this just in the first episodes, I assume we will wonder how one did survive in those conditions by the end of the series.
Another thing that was in my face and couldn't get out of my mind while watching these episodes was the ML face. He is one of my favourite, of course, it was him that I have as my favourite scene and one that makes me cry everytime. But, what happened? I kept being distracted by the uneveness of the skin from the neck and the face. Not happy about it, bad decision in my oppinion. But maybe it was just the bad lighting or cold filter because in the warmer scenes it was not noticible. And I think he was miscast, at least in the beginning of the show. He does not do bad guys well, sorry to say this. Didn't feel it. She does ice cold B very well, but not him, he cannot pull a jerk. A crying jerk? Not even close. As the character turns around and becomes the nice guy, I assume the acting will get better. I don't know if she can pull the nice woman though, her face is just so cold and detached, in Liberation Notes it felt the same in the few episodes I resisted to watch. About the ML story, I guess I could understand his wish for divorce, the staying in the marriage after hearing her illness, him wanting to know if is terminal or how long because staying in the marriage longer or even if she survives is like a death sentence to him with her attitude, from his pov and from what we were presented of course. But the being nice to get something out of it after her death, that is probably the cruelest and unhuman bagage a ML had to carry thus far and something that an evil second lead, male or female, or a evil step mom or sibling used to carry. But hey, we had to balance the Bness with something, we just don't get the B all by herself as we get the jerk in other dramas. But at least we get it.
It's a mess so far, but the visuals are perfect. I bet if they had to show their s%$t, ot would have been in the most perfect shape and color of brown.

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If you need a B*tchy FL, you should go watch "It's OKay not to be Okay".

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That's one of my favourite. I loved everything about it and it has a part that is very similar to my own life. One of the best kdramas, in my opinion. I have watched it many times and I still cry every single time.

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LOL this recap had me giggling throughout - digs at QoD, weaponized copier incompetence, 35 king cows - thank you so much for such a humorous take on an already hilarious drama!

I genuinely didn’t realize how long the episode was until someone pointed out total run time. I was loving every second of it - OTT aunt an all - that I was disappointed when the epilogue showed up. I love the black comedy, and how there’s realism injected in the crazy moments. Sometimes, marriages don’t work despite a couple being madly in love. Reality comes in the way. And the drama did such a great job of showing it wasn’t just Hae-in who’s cold in this marriage. Hyun-woo - probably unknowingly - was just as cold and indifferent too.

Hae-in is obviously scared despite how much she denies it. She also unconsciously trusts Hyun-woo despite her suspicions. It’s why he was the only person she thought to bring with her to the hospital as soon as she got the call, the only person she trusts to keep her secret (which he broke but I’ll give him a pass considering he technically told his lawyer this who is sworn to secrecy). But… in the past 3 years, it’s obvious she hasn’t loved him enough. She doesn’t see how this marriage is eating him alive, how her family’s treatment of him and her silence is killing him inside. Even in the scene where she get to the hunting site, she gets off with her ex, walks with her family and Hyunwoo is left behind like he doesn’t belong. She doesn’t wait for him, doesn’t turn back, doesn’t even notice he’s not walking with them but was left behind. It’s obvious that was the case throughout their marriage.

Hyun-woo is definitely the interesting one to me tho. He’s looking real bad right now to the point where I feel guilty for laughing at his antics 😅 But KSH keeps him grounded throughout and somehow relatable too. So many moments when the mask slips and Hyun-woo seems to forget he hates her. The thing about a relationship going bad is, sometimes, you only remember how it ends instead of how it began. Hyun-woo is obviously so fed up with his current situation that he’s only thinking for himself and how to get out of this marriage. To the point where his wife’s death is a small price to pay. In his words, Hae-in’s a stranger.

But then there were moments when she wasn’t a stranger - he gets worried when she doesn’t come home, and literally asks himself “is she really sick? She’s so strong tho…” - I genuinely don’t think it’s quite sunk in for him yet that she’s actually dying dying. Will be gone from earth dying (partly due to her absolutely cold reaction to her own death lol). I love that even when he’s never stood up for himself when dealing with his in laws, he stood up for her without hesitation (something she’s clearly never done for him in front of him). Then the last scene where he jumps in front of her and shoots a Boar. He just doesn’t come across as calculating or heartless despite his motives.

He’s such a contradicting,...

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He’s such a contradicting, fascinating mess and I absolutely love it. Underneath all the anger and resentment and pity for himself, it’s obvious he still loves her. He’s forgotten it more than she has, he resents her for how his life turned out, despises her for how she and her family treats him - but the love’s still there in smaller moments when he forgets himself. He hasn’t seen her suffering from the illness, she’s just as she’s always been. Strong, indifferent, cold. It’s quite easy to imagine him doing a 180 the moment she shows real weakness because it’s obvious where his heart is at. I find both characters fascinating in that they both think they know themselves so darn well, where in fact, they both keep hiding themselves from themselves. I hope this drama isn’t just about them finding a way back to each other but for Hyun-woo to find himself too.

Overall, I’m quite enamoured by this drama. Personally, I was expecting fluffy, quirky, hilarious, fast paced and while it’s all that, it’s also a dark comedy with so much potential for it to be deep, angsty and thought provoking on what makes a marriage last, and how to find a love that’s lost.

P.s. It’s absolutely hysterical that for some perverse reason, it seems like aunt is the closest Hong member to Hyunwoo. Their scenes are adorable in a completely whacky way and I love the OTT-ness contrasting with calmness.

Pps. Damn I didn’t realize just how much I rambled on. I have way too many thoughts on this drama 😂

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Wow, that was so well said and I agree with all of it! The leads are fascinating and complex

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Thank you for your "rambling". We are happy to read it all. 😂
You're right - none of them is actually doing anything to make their marriage work and the distance is only getting wider. Hopefully now this shared secret will bring them together and make them remember how to work together as a team.

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I wasn't sure about this. And I wanted so very badly to like it, having spent the past two years anticipating its release. So I'm really glad I enjoyed these episodes a ton.

I lost track of how many times I awwed during the first episode, when we were treated to the backstory of our leads' relationship. And I laughed a bunch.

I'm thoroughly entertained by this drama and will be tuning in next week, and the week after that, if it continues to be this fun.

I love Hae-in's outfits, and I love their home, massive and not very welcoming though it is. I love the cameos (so many cameos) and the funny bits. And I love the supporting characters. Everyone feels perfectly cast and the drama is a feast for the eyes.

One complaint though. Hyun-woo, can't you even find a tiny morsel of sadness at your wife's diagnosis? Really?? It's the one thing ruining the drama for me at the moment. But I'm trying not to think about it too deeply because I've invested too much time into anticipating this drama to let anything make me want to quit watching it.

Hyun-woo. Don't be an a*****e. Do better.

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Since their lovestory is so aww-worthy I wonder how did they become so distant. Did the stop making efforts to make their relationship work, did the daily interference of the FL's family chip away at their tenuous link, when did they stop relying on each other.
Yes, Hyun-woo - do better.

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Exactly. How did it get to this? Hopefully we find out soon.

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Yay! Thanks @unit

Taking a chance watching this one live, don't let me down show!! I'm enjoying QoT so far.

The security/investigation guys from CLOY are back! So funny as they mirror getting up out of their chairs for Hyun-Woo. Yoon Se Ri must have new people working with her, namely Ri Jeong Hyeok who is now living in South Korea with his wife, because of course he is. Just as Kim Soo Hyun made a cameo in CLOY it would be great fun if Ri-Ri show up in QoT, perhaps meeting about one of their stores in a Queens Group mall.

Fish out of water theme for both lead characters with each other's families. I'm glad they're flipping the cliché arrogant cold male chaebol to female. I like both FL & ML actors and how they are together. The literal territory crossing by SML, funny!! I look forward to seeing how this story unfolds!

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Oh man, if we got a cameo from Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok married and living in SK, my life would be complete

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My heart started thumping!

"it would be great fun if Ri-Ri show up in QoT"

From your mouth to God's ears. 🙏 ♥️ 😍 👏

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I didn't care for this. Feels like so much could be solved with one or two conversations, so they threw looming death in there to up the stakes.

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It is a reverse drama inasmuch as it starts where most end ... so let's see how they take it forward. Obviously there is no HEA yet.

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I told my husband "imagine Dallas as a dark comedy and apply it to a kDrama..."

I think she'll survive, whether it's a miracle cure from another country or a misdiagnosis. Given the nature of her family, I wouldn't put it past someone to try and poison her/get her an intentional misdiagnosis.

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Does Writer-nim Park Ji-eun have the guts to kill off FL Hae-in after 16 episodes? (Or do the Producers for that matter?) I doubt it.

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(Lol, I thought that comment might go into moderation.)

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Not if they want to live up to the comedy and romance tags. Omo 😳didn't Heartbeat have those very same tags. 🤐 🙃

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Oh! I hadn't thought of that but you're right of course. 👍👏

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I love the unreliable narrator thing because we see the same scene in two different POVs and I think that's the strongest selling point for a drama about a broken relationship that is probably due to no communication/miscommunication. As usual, KJW and KSH bring their A-games and I can't wait to see where this is going.

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I don't know how the redemption arc will go for Hyunwoo but I better see it in the next episodes soon because clearly Hae-in cares for him. He does not see it because he's feeling isolated and not cared for. Like the elevator scene when Hae-In wanted him to come with her. From the first episode, Hae-in sounded so cold since I'm assuming this is HH's POV but in the 2nd ep, HI sounded like pleading him to come with her. So yes, I better see some changes in HH soon.

Some scenes are a little bit dragged like that nasty classmate in the party, I don't think that was needed but hey, we have 14 eps and no idea how this will go.

I'm also glad that Moon Tae-yoo (lawyer friend) has moved up in terms of role bcs I still watch the audition clips for HosPlay1 once in awhile. That's why, I feel happy for actors getting these roles now.

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Oh, I believe Hyunwoo still cares for her, too. The problem is the family, and neither of them seems to be able to team up with the other and act as a unit against their crazy. I think they will get there though.

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I really hope we see a glimpse of it in the next two eps

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@unit, thanks for the recap.

I’ll be tuning in next week.

Kim Ji Won 😍
Lee Mi-Sook as the Girlfriend-in-law ❤️

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The girlfriend-in-law line got me.

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I should have known that when I saw a chaebol family Lee Mi-sook would be in it

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For me she's Girlfriend-i-love.😍

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I cannot wait for more of the rampaging chairman's daughter. I also get this feeling she is going to become an ally of our couple. At least, I hope she does because the rest of the family is terrified of her.

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It would be nice to have her in your corner when push comes to shove.

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I kinda regrets the Hyunwoo character choice in the beginning of episode 2, as I interpret his crying in the end of the first episode as sadness and guilt. Will stay around for the acting party and the beauties, but one thing for sure, I am intrigued at how they can mend this marriage in the coming episodes (that is, if it still can be mended afterall)

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I think we are on our way to second chance love. 🤞

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I agree with you. When Hae In revealed her diagnosis to Hyun Woo, my first impression was that he was genuinely upset. Prior to this scene he was emotionally wooden and guarded (except for his "cute" crying!). I felt like Hyun Woo was not pretending here, that he was shocked and unhappy with the knowledge that she was dying. His gut reaction, his true feelings buried under several years' worth of anger and disillusionment. It's after his brain starts operating again that he realizes this is his penalty-free way out of this awful family. Then he begins his loving husband act.

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I don't know what the budget is for this show, but man, the cast is worth its weight in gold.

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👐

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I feel like a horrible person for laughing so much, when the character has only 3 months left to live... In my defense, I watched the episodes one after the other and so I got immediately to Hyun-woo's reactions. I think he was happy about it mostly because it meant his father in law wouldn't stab him in the back...
For the time being, I am on his side, because I can understand how he got alienated. I wonder what happened to her, after a loving start of their relationship. How did she get so cold towards him? And why does she care only about business (and proving herself) even in the face of death?
Kim Soo-hyun's beauty is out of this world, and he made me die with laughter when declaring he's so cute when he's drunk. And also when he tried to turn his smile into a sad emoji mouth.
And the fact that the second ML is Park Sung-hoon is the cherry on top! We've been blessed, hope the dramas stays as good until the end!

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"I feel like a horrible person for laughing so much, when the character has only 3 months left to live."

You are not the only one. But I laughed more from getting smacked with such an overused trop in such a drama. It was unintentionally hilarious.

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Sad emoji mouth 😂😂

That whole scene had me in stitches. The whole dragging himself from the mirror to her room with that plastered fake sad face, the horrified dramatic gasp when her arms just plopped down the bed. It’s hilarious. So many LOL moments in both episodes.

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Agree on all your points. I think the mystery of their declining marriage is something which will be unraveled slowly.
🙏 for the drama to be "good until the end!"

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Could not have picked a better pair of bunglers than those 2 clowns tasked with tailing Hyun-woo.

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Hilarious!!

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Also makes me wonder who exactly are they reporting to - in-laws or wifey!?

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Who had TERMINAL ILLNESS on their Bingo Card of Tropes?! I am a Minion of Tears laughing so hard from this (unintentional?) hilarity caused by revelation.

The GOOD: The reversal of traditional roles is awesome and hilarious and I'm here for it! I laughed so hard when they showed all the males-in-laws toiling away at memorial services like they are subservient wives of Joseon era. The Leopard Aunt (and the actress who plays her) is PITCH-PERFECT in her comedic timing and delivery of her lines. Her Leopard Memorial Crash scenes is a sight to behold, and it was truly a highlight of episode 1. The production is GORGEOUS, and those chaebol helicopter scenes gave me Succession vibes, while Memorial Services scenes gave me the New World "mafia" vibes, and omg, I'm here for it.

The REALLY REALLY INTERESTING: The likability factor (especially in episode 1) between our leads is chaebol-female-shoulders-mile wide. Hyun-woo is such a sympathetic character, and you just want to take him under your wing and fight anyone who even looks the wrong way at him. While our Robot AI that goes by the name of Hae-in is emotionless and expressionless, and utter control freak and a bit of a snob with some past traumas and secrets (a rather typical MALE chaebol lead, no?), and again I'm wondering if our writer plays up with the reversal not only of depiction of traditional roles but also of *traditional* depiction of male and females roles in such a drama. Super interesting.

The BAD: You could already probably see our 2nd ML being a PRIMA ROMCOM VILLAIN, and if he's going to be anything like a villain in You From Another Star, sigh, I predict these will be the most boring parts of the drama.

THE UGLY: none-none. I'm enjoying this hoot of a show! Even when I laugh at supposedly *serious* parts of the drama (like terminal illness revelation), I'm still enjoying the unintentional hilarity. The dialogue is crisp and fast-paced and all the situations and acting is very funny. I'm here for it with a BIG tub of popcorn. Fair warning: You won't ply me away from this drama even with hot-white-burning tongs yet!

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Personally, I think the show could do without the second ML trope. It's really old and overplayed, anyway. There is more than enough chaos going on that is not really needed. Now, if they found an original way to use him, that might be interesting.

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I think he is needed because of the contrast with the ML. If she will regret dumping him before because of the money and the influence he now has plus her family acceptance of him. Hopefully he will not turn to pure villain but used for character growth for the FL. He already made the ML "mark his teritory" in that hunting shooting scene.

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I don't care for the second ML trope. I've seen it in too many variations, and I don't really care anymore.

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“He is needed” is basically a description of a stage prop. Which is a pity. Why not make him an interesting character from her past life with interesting interactions, through which we get to know her character a bit more. At least in that way he doesn’t just serve a “jealousy” prop and token romcom villain.

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My "he is needed" was a response to the "...is not needed" comment. I don't have a problem myself with a jealous SML trope, maybe I haven't seen too many kdramas to get tired of it. But I have seen many western ones. In this particular kdrama I feel that it will show us the character of the FL from the past, as in why she didn't chose a a guy from the same status and why it was so important for her to choose the ML that was "beneath" her status while going against her probably family's whishes. And also her growth in the present, to see if she regrets her decision, to see if money still really doesn't matter to her as it doesn't matter to the ML. I don't think his character is only being used here as a jelous villain prop because the contrast between them is big when it comes to their status and her family's perception of them.

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^^ 🤞

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I'm trying to convince myself that he is needed so that Hyun-woo realizes that deep down inside he still loves his wife. And I also want to hope that his presence will only bring shenanigans/a p!$$!ng contest between 1st ML and 2nd ML. A girl can dream.

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^^ 💯 I do hope since its Park Sung-hoon it will be a good role. Hwaiting Oppa!!

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What would be great if after she gets into the trillion dollar club she tells the second male lead she is not interested and to get with the programme she was being nice because business is business and whatever led to their original break up is still valid. I want her to be the one who wipes the smug look off his face. Too many times the second male or second female lead is given a sympathetic send off rather than being told abruptly their presence is not needed and to stop kidding themselves when they are in a one sided love affair no one asked for or appreciates.

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Whoa whoa!! I can only applaude Mother Bean! 😍👏👏👏

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I really got a kick out of the gender-role reversal. Also interesting is that all the male in-laws are very educated at prestigious institutions with promising careers. Very much like how the daughter-in-laws/kitchen-slaves likely spent their twenties going to incredible universities with rising up the career ladder. Then marriage and in-laws happen and their lauded architecture skills are being used to stack up fried cakes.

The 2ML is totally giving off the rich and bitchy 2FL energy - particularly when he told Hyun-soo that he was Hae-in's ex. Totally something a 2FL would do and say - clinging to a past relationship and trying to make the FL (or ML in this case) feel insecure about not being from their world.

I also got the Succession vibes from the helicopter taking them to the hunt and it's all led the elder patriarch.

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I loved how everyone was saying grandad had hit the target and male lead queried it, twice 😆

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Yes I thought this was hilarious!! Looking at the sky, confused expression on his face. He is not going to pretend just to boost grandad's ego. And they claimed he hit the largest bird too! But it must have landed in the bushes. Ohhh that was funny!!

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Our hero is a bit clueless, don't you think? Like he fails "to read a room" sometimes? I've noticed that all the way back in episode 1 when he made SO many assumptions about our heroine's profession, feelings and background. The way he started talking immediately about the marriage and "30 cows" got me laughing so hard, and actually wondering if our hero is not just extremely naïve but also neuro-divergent. I can totally see, how Hyun-woo would fail to "read the room" and just point to the white elephant in the room. I wonder if it's also why he became the lawyer in the first place. Like he maybe believed that being a lawyer was an "honest" profession when in reality it turned out to be nothing but, lol

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“Then marriage and in-laws happen and their lauded architecture skills are being used to stack up fried cakes.”

Omg, I loved that scene. Watching these makes-in-laws in their best evening attire and gently perching that final delicate detail on top of a cake. So funny!

“Totally something a 2FL would do and say - clinging to a past relationship and trying to make the FL (or ML in this case) feel insecure about not being from their world.”

I SEE it now. So well said. I absolutely love these reversals so much that I keep calling this drama Queen of Reversals, which is an earlier drama of this writer. But here it’s all about reversals on so many levels. Love it, love it!

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Your neurodivergent comment - maybe! His point of view is a bit black and white. And he doesn't seem to pick up on subtleties.

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🍿 Let's sit together!!

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Great recap @unit. I really enjoyed the first two episodes with maybe one exception. I am not sure if you intentionally blocked off Auntie Beom-ja from your recap but I think the drama could have survived nicely without her character and saved some of those tvN episode minutes.
(If folks remember the tvN PRISON PLAYBOOK (2017/18) marathon of 16 episodes with running times from 77-102 minutes per episode they should be prepared for tvN longish episodes.)

You asked the big question that interests me:

..... makes me wonder at what point — and why — everything began to go wrong.

So far we haven't seen in flashbacks any post wedding bliss between our couple. After three years the marriage is pretty much over.
This is my first Kim Soo-hyun drama and I am looking forward to the rest of the story.

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Noooooo, I LOVED The Leopard Aunt! 😂

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I could probably tolerate her if her butt was still sitting in a jail cell lol.
Funny thing is that later when push comes to shove Auntie will probably be the one to stand by Hae-in.

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EXACTLY my guess too. She’s feisty and inconstant and takes very deep to heart all the slights. But these qualities also make her loyal and a formidable enemy. I think she’s going to kick the whole family to the ground and be the ultimate winner in chaebol politics game! 🐆

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