Perfect Marriage Revenge, Ep 9 & 10 – Yi-joo constantly forgets that people want her dead

Most people are driven by passion, especially when it comes to writing. I am driven by rage. I need to rant about things. If I don’t like it, I need to roast it. And this is where it is getting more and more difficult to find stuff to say about PMR because there isn’t much to roast. I enjoy the makjang definitely more than I did Nam-soon’s trail of self-destructive idiocy or the Good Bad Mother earning full forgiveness through the power of cancer death (nope, lady, if your only redeeming feature is being dead, that is the exact opposite of acing parenting). So… no much to say this week.

Secondary Voice
Not that it will stop me rambling, though. I thought I’d warn you first.

Who’s hoping for a short commentary? I am! Glancing at my notes (only 2 pages), I should be done in a few minutes really.

Third Voice
A few minutes? Challenge accepted.

Let me tag everyone again before I start: @mindy, @attiton, @kafiyah-bello, @lixie, @CecilieDK, @lapislazulii, @seeker, @ladynightshade, @mayhemf, @sonai, @elinor, @indyfan, @hopefulromantic @emsel @Johnb @vienibenmio (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: Yi-joo, the Eternal Martyr
We’ve all known/suspected/guessed for a number of episodes now that Fake Morticia was always out there to try to get rid of Yi-joo. Nothing new so far. After all, this is precisely how Yi-joo found herself back one year into her own past because Fake Morticia murdered her in a hospital bed.

So you’d think that, by that point in the story, Yi-joo would probably be a little more aware that perhaps Fake Morticia is not exactly her biggest fan. I certainly thought she would be. But nope, apparently, it’s a big surprise to epic Victoria fainting scale when she figures out that her adoptive mother was the one who’s been trying to kill her along.

Secondary Voice
Ah, i was missing those Victorian fainting spells. They might explain, as well, why Do-guk is the only one in therapy. Everybody else seems to faint their emotions away.

Third Voice
Wait… He did take a little nap the first time he was by the water with Yi-joo, so perhaps that also counts as fainting? Can anyone here have a proper conversation without immediately fainting?

Fourth Voice
This reminds me of any Sherlock Holmes story (the actual ones written by Conan Doyle, not Benedict Cumberbatch wearing a bed sheet in Buckingham Palace)

People, stop fainting and get on with the sotry, please. We’ve got Fake Morticias to send to jail here. We can’t afford to waste time.

Anyway, as soon as Yi-joo is done with her own little fainting speel (I don’t blame you, girl, everyone had a go, it’s your turn now), she’s reminded by Do-guk that truly it isn’t her fault and she was surrounded by bad people while all she deserved was love. I mean, yes sure, nice sentiment here.

Secondary Voice
Oh, by the way, this is an emotion right? Quick, Yi-joo, faint again!

At the same time, if those people had not been busy being evil, we would have been stuck with bland-turnip-personality Yi-joo for the entire show. So, I’m happy the baddies spared us the trauma and proceeded to killing Yi-joo immediately. Thank you for your services to the viewers.

We get a little more of Yi-joo queen of martyr when she finally meets and confronts her birth mother, Jamie. Here I’d like to point out some key moments that captured the worst of my imagination, as per usual.

First of all, the inevitable question “Teacher, are you my birth mother?”.

(old Dr Who episode for no good reason whatsoever)

Here, I am surprised that Jamie answered the question rather than fainting on the spot. She spent time in the States, so obviously she’s less of a feeble Victorian lady. And, to be fair to her, she had a perfectly valid excuse. She risked her life saving her child from a fire, and she spent several months in a coma. By the time she woke up, her dad told her the child had died. Why would she doubt his words? You don’t doubt people, this is Makjang. You take everything that is said at face value ALL THE TIME. Those are the rules.

But the tale carries on. Many years later, Jamie comes back to South Korea to see her terminally ill father. On his dying bed, he confesses that the child never died. He faked her death and gave her away for adoption. And just when I thought we couldn’t top the fainting spells, dad figures his own way out of what would have been a very awkward conversation: he dies on the spot.

Secondary Voice
Very well played, dad.

Third Voice
It doesn’t quite have the same reusable potential as Victorian fainting, but I appreciate dad’s resourcefulness. The lengths he would go to rather than apologise! He deserves his own Good Bad Father drama.

And just when we are ready for a reunion between the mother and her child, Yi-joo decides to lose her mind and take it out on people who are essentially innocent. She did the same thing in a previous episode with Se-Hyeok, being all superior while he was kneeling in front of her and giving her the most sincere, mature, and emotionally-aware apology. Yi-joo version 201 seems to be running around demanding that everyone apologise to her… and this, low-key, makes me want to slap her with kimchi. Preferably while she’s wearing a light-coloured top.

This gives her a fantastic conversation where she pointlessly demands that Jamie say she’s sorry.
Sorry for what exactly, Yi-joo?
Sorry for saving you from the fire at the risk of her own life? Sorry for having been lied to by her own family and not knowing that you were alive? Or sorry for the pain you went through by no fault of her own? Because no matter what you say and how much you try to defend Yi-joo, this angry explosion just irritated the hell out of me. There is literally nothing to resent Jamie for here, but Yi-joo still decides otherwise.

Yi-joo carries on with one of the most painfully stupid questions here: “Did you even love me?”
Apparently, she lives in a world where people risk being burnt to a crisp for fun, not out of love in an attempt to save someone’s life.

Secondary Voice
Yi-joo, you’ve got bigger fish to catch. Jamie is not one of them.

Third Voice
In the webtoon, Jamie explains that she thought Yi-joo was happy in her married life and she didn’t want to interfere unnecessarily.

Anyway, we get to see one of the arguable ugly sides of Yi-joo. Even worse than the turnip. She tells Jamie “if you’re sorry, help me take revenge.” Proof that if you spend enough time with Fake Morticia, you can learn to become a manipulative bitch too. Well done, Yi-joo, you’re turning in the thing you despise the most.

But, I strongly suspect that this is just here to pave for way for more sense of betrayal once Yi-joo finally sees the mark on Do-guk’s wrist. There is a fine line between lying to people to hurt them or not revealing everything about yourself while helping. One is betrayal. The other one isn’t. I’d argue that betrayal comes with the intention to manipulate, hurt, and take advantage of. I’m pretty sure Yi-joo will not agree with me.

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Chapter Two: Do-guk, the Angel of Revenge
I love that when Yi-joo asks Do-guk to help her get revenge, she actually means for him to do most of the work, which he gladly accepts.

Secondary Voice
In the webtoon, this eagerness to help makes a little more sense. He prefers his women like he likes his turnip, blend and overboiled, which he why he felt for Yi-joo in her first life. But also, more interestingly, Yi-joo dies differently in the webtoon. She is run over by a car. Interestingly enough, Do-guk is the one driving the car. He dies instantly when another car collides with him, that one driven by Secretary Kim who, in the webtoon is the third person with a date on his wrist. Both Do-guk and Secretary Kim feel guilty about the accident in the webtoon, even though one couldn’t have avoided her, and the other one was being targeted by Fake Morticia’s henchmen.

Third Voice
Yi-joo crosses the road like every good K-drama character, without checking for cars. Also, she suffers from acute deadness and blindness as soon as she steps on the road so she can’t hear ongoing vehicles — a disease shared by 100% of K-drama characters; they just never hear or see anything when they need to cross the road.

As part of his self-imposed duty to do absolutely everything Yi-joo need for her revenge plot, Do-guk tries to gather intelligence on Fake Morticia from Secretary Kim (who in this version of the story does not have a date on his wrist as far as we know of)

Do-guk: ”I’d like to kill her but that wouldn’t be enough. “

Secondary Voice
I believe that’d be perfectly fine, but anyway, you decide, Do-guk-sshi.

Do-guk: ”How can I torture her?”

Seconday Voice
My suggestion: Burn all her clothes and send her only a pair of baggy denim with an oversized worn-out t-shirt in non-matching colours.

Do-guk: ”What is her worst fear?”

Secondary Voice
Your stylist.

But Do-guk ignores all my suggestions, even though I personally thought they were brilliant. Instead, he sends Secretary Kim on a manhunt for the person who set Jamie’s home on fire when Yi-joo was still a baby. I also note that Do-guk doesn’t seem to know about bank transfers, so he prefers giving a suitcase of cash like it’s 1932.

Another aspect of the revenge plot was for Do-guk to suit his company and go back to the family’s firm, which he was already in the process of doing in the past few episodes. But he makes it official by stepping down from his company. Yet, before he does, he has a last chat with Se-hyeok, which essentially cements my thoughts he recognises Se-hyeok’s support both in the company and in thwarting Fake Morticia/ Yoo-ra’s plans. It’s short, but it carries the same sincerity as Se-hyoek’s apology last week.

Follows Do-guk’s celebration party for which he has to host and cook for all his guests, namely his sister and brother-in-law, his cousin/ Yi-joo’s journalist friend, and some random guy whom I can’t remember. Yet, they also came here to work and share intelligence, not just to eat and tease Do-guk.

But, we’re still reminded that Do-guk should cook for his sister who went all the way to the police station the previous week to sort out online rumours against himself and Yi-joo (because apparently, the police in South Korea does not have phone numbers or email addresses you could use to connect them…).

The reason why I am mentioning the party at Do-guk and Yi-joo is because they pull out the best anti-social move I’ve ever seen and I’ll be sure to use it next time I have a guest. They leave their guests and go for a shopping trip.

Secondary Voice
Inspirational.

Third Voice
I also note that Do-guk is wearing Fake Mortica’s worst fear during this shopping trip.

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Chapter Three: Fake Morticia or 50 Shades of Betrayal

Is there someone this women tells the truth to? Debatable. But it is so enjoyable to watch her slowly fall from grace.

She carefully puts her husband in hospital (through poisoning, of course, because she is not very imaginative) but she still blames his poisoning on Yi-joo. ”it’s your karma she says, presumably meaning it’s his fault Yi-joo didn’t die when she tried to poison her as a child…?

Yet, despite all the red flags, dad only truly becomes suspicious once Yi-joo pays him a visit and points them out to him. She also reveals she’s his birth daughter, which he finds unsettling for now… and it will get even worse once he runs a test to get it confirmed.

Dad: “How can I make her forgive me”

Secondary Voice
You can’t. You chose to be blind to the abuses she suffered in your home. There’s no winning her over. She’s mad at her birth mother who did nothing but putting her own life at risk for her and spending months in a coma… so dad, I don’t think Yi-joo will forgive you any time soon.

But what I would like to see more of is Dad’s reaction to Fake Morticia’s fall. He’s conveniently absent, which he’s been for the major parts of the story.

What we get to witness, though, is Yoo-ra’s sudden and painful reality check. We certainly gain a better understanding of Fake Morticia’s relationship with her daughter, which was partially implied in the first episode but never revealed entirely. Fake Morticia is, of course, a queen of manipulation, a skill Yoo-ra has picked up on for her own benefit.

What we didn’t know, though, was how selfless the relationship between mother and daughter was. It turns out that it isn’t quite selfless. But I wouldn’t call it selfish. I’d call it maladapted and misguided.

Is Fake Morticia using her own daughter for her own benefit? I think not. I think she truly believes that everything she is doing is for her daughter’s and her own sake. She has brainwashed Yoo-ra all her life into wanting the same thing as herself. Not voluntarily, not with the desire to hurt or use her, but simply because she is convinced that what she wants for both of them is the only possible option available. This is the only path to happiness and there can be no other.

So, as we see Fake Morticia receiving as much as she’s given throughout the episodes, a scary delusional pattern begins to appear. She blames everyone else to the point where, even though it would serves absolutely no purpose at all and would make her case even worse, she still wants to take Yi-joo down. Fake Morticia truly lives in a world where she’s painted Yi-joo as her nemesis, and by doing that, she made herself the evil stepmother. She deluded herself in believing that Yi-joo’s existence was a threat to her illusion of grandeurs. The world can only go back to normal if Yi-joo dies… This is an interesting perspective on madness. Well done Fake Morticia, you’re not just a random bad bitch. You’re a bad bitch with incredible style and her very own psychotic delusional disorder.

Also, can I direct your attention to Fake Morticia’s officewear as she tries to take over as the new chairwoman? Have you noticed those suits? The woman is dressed… normally, which is interesting because she somehow had the presence of mind to think that her usual attire would scare the living shit out of the shareholders.

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Chapter Four: Yoo-ra or The Art of Loneliness

Se-hyeok warns Yoo-ra early in Episode 9 when he tells her that she’ll end up like him if she carries on. What he means is that she will end up alone and discarded but this isn’t entirely accurate.

First of all, Yoo-ra would never end up like Se-hyeok because he has a conscience and a moral compass. He blames himself for what happened to Yi-joo (or what he knows happened to her) and punishes himself for it too. We see in his last conversation with Do-guk that Do-guk does not hold any grudge against him and that is because he, like everyone else, realises that Se-hyeok never intended to cause any harm to Yi-joo. So, the only reason why Se-hyeok feels abandoned and discarded at that point is that he has chosen to atone for his faults (and probably is wondering how to move away from his insane family).

Yoo-ra, on the other hand, is not able to self-reflect and blame herself. She blames others. It’s never her fault. It’s her mother’s fault for lying to her. It’s Yi-joo’s fault for taking what was rightly hers all along. It’s Se-hyeok’s fault for speaking the truth. It is never Yoo-ra’s fault, and this mindset (which she might have learned from her mother) will be her end.

We get another D word. Her mother is deluded. Yoo-ra, when she finally learns the truth, is disillusioned. The last conversation she had with her own mother is clear. She sees clearly who Fake Morticia is, and is disappointed in her. But in the background, the pain we can feel in Yoo-ra is precisely what makes her different from Se-hyeok. She does not accept any responsibility for the poor treatment Yi-joo has received. She refuses to face her reality and chooses to maintain the tapestry of lies woven around herself.

Her actual dad is as much a disappointment as her mother. So, she eats the paternity test results, because this is Makjang and we don’t use shredding machines.

Secondary Voice
Yoo-ra, a new career for you: the first human shredder.

Third Voice
Does it help with morning sickness?

She could at any point step away and reconsider her actions. She could, if she wanted, stop right here. We all know that she won’t, and this is precisely why she will stay lonely as Se-hyeok warned her.

PS: All typos, formatting, and grammatical monstrosities are bred in a safe environment.

PPS: I did not re-read because lazy.

In response to my comment above, this was not a few minutes… It was approximately 2 hours of rambling. *inserts facepalm*