Perfect Marriage Revenge, Ep 5 & 6 – All the Reveals and Some More

I am still impressed by Yi-joo’s insane revenge plot. I debuted my previous post on episodes 3 and 4 with this sentence. At the end of episode 6, I am still impressed by her revenge plot. Mostly because it is non-existent. But more on this later.

For now, let’s focus on the core of these episodes: Reveals. Actually, let’s go with REVEALSS double S to make it more plural.

Secondary Voice
Cecee, double plural is not a thing.

Third Voice
Fuck it, I hereby submit a petition for double plural.

My main issue is that I have, no self-control, as I mentioned before…. And at pretty much any occasion. I have found the webtoon online, and I have been reading it. I do not recommend it, unless you really like the torturous pain of a sloth-paced story with no attempt at following any plot. We’re about 111 episodes in for the webtoon, and Yi-joo is still planning her incredibly slow revenge plot. Nothing has happened. She still can’t cook. Do-guk is still head over heels in love with her. And Yoo-ra is still a little shit. But the webtoon needed another extra 105 episodes to tell the same story.

Let me tag everyone again: @mindy, @attiton, @kafiyah-bello, @lixie, @CecilieDK, @lapislazulii, @seeker, @ladynightshade, @mayhemf, @sonai, @elinor, @indyfan, @hopefulromantic @emsel @Johnb (did I forget you or did I add you while you wanted some peace? Sorry, just let me know)

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Chapter One: Super Sales on Traumas, Get 2 For The Price of 1
Can you find a drama with trauma? We’ve had Yi-joo poisoning PTSD (which she forgets whenever she doesn’t need it). Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite exuberant enough. She just didn’t eat. No over-the-top fainting, no panic attacks with tears and screams, no running to the toilet to vomit… Ah, wait, I take it back. She’s so comfortable with Do-guk that she doesn’t run. She literally vomits at the table, which he takes as an invitation to kiss her.

But, this is about to change because Do-guk, who has also signed up at the little school of trauma acting, has got something to offer. I give you the modern panic attack, which means he just falls asleep rather awkwardly by the waterside and then proceeds to “apparently” stop breathing.

Secondary Voice
Best Sleeping Beauty rendition ever.

Third Voice
Leg of Steel’s evil plan of having Yi-joo care even more about Do-guk works… What was he even trying to achieve? Leg boy, was that the best you could do?

Follows a fantastic sequence that raises many, many questions.

#1. Apparently, hospitals are messy drop-off stations where ambulances drop people in medical distress who then get ignored because doctors have decided they’ve got better to do. They are literally ignoring Do-guk. Not even an ER nurse checking on him.

Secondary Voice
Yi-joo is this the hospital where you got murdered at the start and absolutely nobody noticed? And then you called an ambulance to make sure you could get Do-guk to the same place too? How helpful of you.

Third Voice
Only the best for Panic Sleeping Attack Beauty boy.

#2. Do-guk just discharges himself, which is about as easy to do as murdering a patient, I’d say. Nobody cares, so it’s not like doctors will miss him.

Of course, you and me, Beanies, we’ve seen traumas before. We all know what a real panic attack should feel and look like. We’ve been through stuff together. We’ve suffered. We’ve been betrayed by dramas we trusted (Heartbeat you will forever be unforgiven). We’ve had our hopes destroyed more than once. So, we feel a familiar knot in our throats when we read the name of a writer, for example, or when someone spoils something before we’ve had time to watch it ourselves. So, obviously, we knew what the next step of a panic attack would be: a bad cough.

Secondary Voice bis
Let’s summarise for all K-drama therapists in the making here. A panic attack is characterised by falling asleep, then a coughing fit.

Third Voice
Can a panic attack be resolved with a cup of coffee and a honey sweet? This is the official question for the K-drama therapist certification. You’ve got one hour.

Anyway, we thankfully get to find the best way to approach someone with a cough. And these are the steps recommended by Du-gik’s psychiatrist (who got her psychiatry degree from a ramyeon pack, a spicy Buldak one): Go and scream in the face of the patient.

Buldak ramyeon degrees, as it happen, do not mention anything about patient confidentiality. It’s okay, it’s dramaland. We don’t care. But bonus point for Writer-nim to have Do-gukl asking about it. On the plus side, the screaming psychiatrist did prevent Yi-joo from serving the rice porridge she was preparing, which, given her cooking skills, would have only made the situation worse.

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Chapter Two: Baddies Scheming Some More
Leg of Steel, who is completely convinced that Yi-joo will not pick up on his sketchy vibes (keep dreaming, Leg boy) explains that he cannot possible mention the accident that happened in the past between himself and Do-guk. This is subtle as a brick and it goes approximately like this:

Leg of Steel: Absolutely cannot say it. Quit insisting, girl, I am not telling you.
Yi-joo: Okay. I didn’t even ask.
Leg of Steel: I really should not have mentioned that. I can’t tell you about it.
Yi-joo: I don’t really care.

He’ll carry on making partnerships with everybody’s favourite scheming duo, Yoo-ra and her evil I-believe-in-one-colour-outfits-bitch, IBIOCOB mum. Dare I say I am disappointed that IBIOCOB seems to have stronger manipulative skills?

Secondary Voice
Reading the webtoon, I always placed Leg of Steel as a much smarter opponent…

Third Voice
This is why fashion is important, Leg boy. The moment you stop dressing like a virgin accountant, you’ll be able to release your full inner villain. Believe in yourself!

But, let’s still applaud the fact that, thankfully, the combined aura of smugness between Leg of Steel, IBIOCOB mum and Yoo-ra means that Leg boy can assault Yoo-ra’s blind date with a cane in the middle of a crowded café and nobody sees anything.

Secondary Voice
This must be the superpower of Creeps United, together, they become invisible.

Perhaps, that is why the customers in the same café are shocked when Do-guk turns up to beat the crap out of gently conveys an opinion while pushing Leg boy to the floor.

Third Voice
Double standards at their finest. It’s okay when Leg boy caned someone through the head, but apparently, one shouldn’t push his smug little face. Mind you, nobody bothers jumping to his defence, though. I wouldn’t either. Why would you leave your coffee and slice and cake for a stranger? Nah… This is dramaland. Cake and coffee over canes.

They’ll be actively trying to scheme later on, and I can’t wait for the cane to land right in the middle of Yoo-ra’s hopes.

Another fun little bit of scheming is IBIOCOB mum openly selling Yi-joo’s painting — the same paintings she claimed had never been sold. You’re making it too easy to catch, now… But, I’d like to mention here that the more IBIOCOB mum tries to scheme her way through, the more delectable it’s going to be for us, viewers. It must be incredibly fun to play someone who has not one redeeming feature.

Secondary Voice
A round of applause for IBIOCOB who has to wear those impossible uptight outfits at all times.

Third Voice
I too would want to unalive people if I had to walk around like an underfed 1980s coat-hanger.

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Chapter Three: Wedding Schenanigans
I think the king of bad luck, in these two episodes, is Se-hyeok (Mister not-to-be husband). We see him take a call from the wedding dress shop for a fitting… and he goes to attend because, apparently, Yi-joo walking out on him last time wasn’t quite clear enough.

Secondary Voice
Se-Hyeok, let’s be serious. Yes, yes, she can be happy without you. It’s not like you were a beacon of joy and happiness.

Third Voice
Is nobody going to leave a MINUS 5 STARS review to the shop that felt that the most appropriate thing to do was to call the ex fiancé in?

Then, cue to Se-hyeok looking displeased at his ex-fiancée’s wedding… Why exactly did you come?

He has no other option but to drown his sorrow in alcohol… until he gets a call from Yoo-ra, who is bored out of her mind and doesn’t want to call a taxi. So, she calls Se-hyeok, because, as we’ve seen, he is easily manipulated and considerably cheaper than a taxi.

I’m not going to hide it, I felt a little sorry for him when he woke up completely naked in a hotel room bed. I felt sorry because while this seems to be completely meaningless for Yoo-ra, it obviously isn’t the same for him. While he did give Yi-joo a heartache, he has never shown any malice or intent to hurt her… by like, oh I don’t know, murdering her in her hospital bed. Among the bad guys, Se-Hyeok is perhaps the most sincere and honest soul around. He was never blinded by greed or power. He just got married to the girl he didn’t love. As the Makjang goes, this is nothing compared to what we’ve learned from all the other characters. So, when he explains to Yoo-ra that they probably shouldn’t be dating openly right now… Well, the look she gives him is obvious enough.

Secondary Voice
Will this be his redemption arc when he finally turns against Yoo-ra? I’m as clueless as you because the Makjang and the webtoon are not following the same path or even pace.

Third Voice
I can’t believe I’ve dutifully read through all those webtoon episodes to find out the plot and there’s more happening in 6 episodes of drama than in 111 of webtoon. All that time I have wasted!!!

IBIOCOB mum, who we haven’t seen in 2 minutes, is back to her favourite hobby, poisoning people. She’s currently poisoning dad… and apparently, he’s completely clueless so he makes it really easy for her. Yet, dad’s not dead. But he’s probably kneeling in front of a bucket rather than attending his adoptive daughter’s wedding. But for some reason, IBIOCOB brings an empty chair at the wedding party, to make it extra obvious that dad isn’t here.

Secondary Voice
This makes me think of that time when Suga was off BTS RUN and they just waving a little photo of him around. IBIOCOB must have been watching the same thing but she thought an empty chair would be more impactful.

Third Voice
If you’re wondering if I am BTS-obsessed… I get hyper-focused when I don’t know something. Not with all things. But when it gets to me, I’ll accumulate pointless amounts of knowledge. Back in school, we learned Yesterday in Music class and the teacher talked a bit about the Beatles. My parents had an old record somewhere, one of those people give you when they don’t know your tastes but want to acknowledge the fact you’ve got a record player. So there was that record with 4 faces on it and I could not tell them apart. I couldn’t even tell the voices apart, and that bothered me. So, long story short, I read and listened to everything I could find about the Beatles until I could tell them apart (not saying that’s why student me moved to the UK, but yes, I wanted to see the Yellow Submarine on the traffic island in Liverpool — it’s gone now, but it was there when I went). And when I came across Sample of My Pasta and I started to educate myself on said pasta. I was very disappointed to find out that there was no pasta whatsoever.

My favourite part of the wedding would be Yi-joo considering redoing mum’s hairstyle with a glass vase.

Secondary Voice
Yi-joo, we don’t kill people wearing white. It’ll never wash off.

I’m going to destroy them all, says Yi-joo who has not gotten very far in her revenge plan.

Third Voice
This is episode 6, girl. Get your shit together and get on with the non-existent revenge plan!

And she immediately proceeds to plan her honeymoon, alone, the day after her wedding.

Secondary Voice
I mean, we do like an independent FL, but perhaps not that independent.

Do-guk is, thankfully, quick to realise that his wife went on her honeymoon alone and joins her, by the ocean, while wearing his best 1990s oversized, shapeless trousers… The revolting trousers also seem to soak up all the water til the knees just by looking at the waves.

Third Voice
How do these get wet so quickly? Also why do people love running on the beach and getting their clothes covered in saltwater?

Anyway, if you were as offended as myself about the trousers, fear not, but those are most definitely going away a little later as Do-guk suggests sleeping while holding hands. And they do both depending on your definition. More importantly, this gives us a nice unreadable zoom on Do-guk’s wrist. For clarity, this is the same date as Yi-joo because, as we’ve seen, he was in the other car that was truck-of-doomed that day.

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Chapter Four: All the Reveals
I’m not going to lie, the makjang wastes no time with reveals… which is great because the webtoon is the complete opposite.

So what have we learned?
Yi-joo is adoptive dad’s real daughter.
Yi-joo’s real mum is “missing’. Did she die in the accident that supposedly killed Yi-joo? I’m not going to say more because I know the answer. But I suspect many beanies have already come to the right conclusion.
Do-guk and Yi-joo died on the same day in the same accident. Do-guk is aware of this Yi-joo being reborn after the accident, but he hasn’t yet shared his situation with her.
Yi-joo (and presumably Do-guk too) is neither alive nor dead.

Leg of Steel hurt his leg while trying to throw his younger brother overboard. But their father still believed an 8-year-old would be able to push a teen over the rail… and he somehow was going for a slap but it does look like he’s punching a child. Thanks dad.

Scallion mum is forever team Yi-joo and, she remains loyal to her initial scallion-inspired outfit by being the greenest of all flags around. Mother-in-law of the year.

But anyway, so far, we’re all waiting to see Yi-joo’s slow revenge plan develop.

I’m not taking part in theories because… well because I’ve rushed to the webtoon after the first week. But, there are a few things I can say:

In general @seeker has been pretty much spot on for the big lines of the plot — First to mention the second car in the accident and to make the connection to Do-guk. Sooooo, for now, I would recommend following @seeker’s fan wall for all spoiler-free theories!
@attiton’s eagle eye spotted Secretary Kim… and, he’s also proven to be a much more useful character than we first thought. So, this may also be a safe place for spoiler-free theories that are likely to turn out to be accurate (or close to the truth).

The Makjang is not a 100% copy of the webtoon. Some aspects have been changed, and that isn’t just a matter of telling the story faster. Besides, the story is not going to be the same because the drama has an end date while the webtoon is still ongoing.

PS: All typos and grammatical monstrosities are caringly and lovingly hand-grown.