Perfect Marriage Revenge, Ep 11 & 12 – Karma gets served, and not everyone gets what they deserve

Finally, the end of a short but epic journey, and for me, it means recovering a good 4 hours of my life which I dedicated to making notes and writing random rants on PMR. I have enjoyed the ride, in most parts, but that ending does leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Although that might be that cup of extra super dark 97% chocolate I’m drinking.

Secondary Voice
But even if it is the chocolate, I will still blame Yi-joo because fuck her.

I have enjoyed most parts… but I do have some complaints.

Third Voice
Cecee, everybody knew you would complain. You’re a grumpy grinch.

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, My Reality is the Only Reality
I was already annoyed by Yi-joo’s attack at her birth mother. It was not only random, it was also profoundly stupid.

Did you even love me? she asked to the woman who got herself a permanent 3rd degree burn scar on her arm and spent several months in a coma just to save Yi-joo from the flames. I already wanted to kimchi slap her in the face at that point.

And then enters Yi-joo’s next crisis when she notices Do-guk has got the same wrist date as her. Yes, I hear you, he should have told her. But here’s the thing: What should he? Did Yi-joo go out of her way to display her wrist date and actively share her thoughts with him. Nope. She didn’t. She just insisted on the fact that she had only one year to achieve her goal.

Why is that such an insurmountable issue to her?
Why is this such a test for their relationship?

Some may explain that Yi-joo felt betrayed. I argue otherwise. Yi-joo is, and has always been from the moment Do-guk showered her with his undying support and affection, a spoilt, self-entitled individual in a way that isn’t completely dissimilar to Yoo-ra. Hear me out.

#1.Yi-joo decides to marry Do-guk to get her revenge.
She doesn’t love him when she suggests getting married with him. It is a contractual agreement from her perspective. Do-gul serves a purpose; he is the tool she wishes to use to get her revenge.

Now, let me think… That does sound very much like Yoo-ra being nice to Se-hyeok when she thinks she can use him to hurt her own sister.

#2. Yi-joo welcomes Do-guk’s full support as something that is normal just because she needed it
Bearing in mind that she doesn’t give him much in return for a long time. He is the one doing her bidding and loving her silently until she finally decides to open up a little. And what we see is that he is the one constantly reassuring her and protecting her.

While we know he’s got another agenda because he is trying to save her this time, she isn’t trying to do much for him. I’d say, in the great lines, Do-guk is the one carrying the most of this relationship.

Similarly, Yoo-ra also finds it completely normal that Se-hyeok does her bidding as long as he serves his purpose.

#3.Do-guk gathered Yi-joo went back to the past like himself
And this is interesting because he took enough of an interest in her life to realise that she wasn’t being like her old self. She didn’t take the same interest in him at all. In fact, she didn’t even consider someone else be in the same situation. To me, this only emphasise how short-sighted Yi-joo is. She is so focused on herself, she’s got no time or interest to think about others, including the man she’s decided to use for her revenge plan.

This is paying attention to the other person. And this is exactly what Se-hyeok does for Yoo-ra. He warns her she’ll be left alone. He reads through her when she comes back demanding shelter. Even though he does not love her anymore, he knows her well enough to read through what she doesn’t say.

#4. We see Do-guk’s almost entire family working together to help Yi-joo
And it feels like watching the A Team where for absolutely no reason whatever, a bunch of people get together to help solve someone’s problems. Why? As much as George Peppard loved to chew on his grubby cigar and claim in his worst acting voice that he loved when a plan come together, the truth is even in dramaland, dropping everything to help someone when there’s nothing in for you is not a feasible vocation. That was her fucking idea to get revenge, why does everyone else have to make it happen for her?

Secondary Voice
I’ve always preferred Murdock anyway.

Third Voice
You’ll all be pleased to know that I am wearing my “Bring back the Dodo” t-shirt under 12 layers of jumpers. I am Murdocking while writing about Murdock.

Secondary Voice
In the webtoon, she runs in front of his car and gets hit… which I would not fault Do-guk for it for a second, because moving targets are not supposed to jump under your car when you’re driving.

Third Voice
It reminds me of that time I was driving at night in Germany (I’ve been all over the place) and the road was covered in snow. Normally, you get snowploughs clearing the road, but they hadn’t come yet. So I was driving slow, and I still couldn’t avoid the insane hare that ran in front of my car (THE ONLY CAR ON THE ROAD). I did hit the brakes, but my tyres were already on said hare. The thing is, it literally appeared out of nowhere, one second in the darkness at the side of the road and the next right in front of my car lights.

So, with that in mind, even though I was thoroughly angry at myself for running over the hare, I know that there isn’t much you can do when something or someone suddenly appears in front of your vehicle where they shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel guilty. You do. But technically, it’s not your fault. And in the webtoon, whatever Do-gul thinks, it isn’t his fault for hitting Yi-joo. It’s hers for forgetting basic safety as an adult pedestrian. (something Ep 11 proves she is prone to doing).

Anyway, in my perception, Yi-joo might want to sit down and learn a bit more on road safety because she is putting everyone at risk, both in the webtoon and in the drama.

And this brings me to Yoo-ra’s own metaphorical collision, getting pregnant, which she blames on Se-hyeok. Well, I am pretty sure it takes two people and that at least one of those should perhaps be using some sort of contraception. Birth control pills and condoms should be easily accessible to any fake chaebol’s heiress.

#6.Does Do-gul coming back one year in the past change anything to her revenge plan?
Nope, it doesn’t. If anything, it helps because she didn’t have to do a lot of convincing. So, I’m not sure why she is annoyed he didn’t tell her or why she thinks it was his duty to tell her.

I appreciate, at a push, that she might feel betrayed, for lack of a better word. But where exactly is the betrayal? At which point did Do-guk do anything to hurt her or prevent her plan? Not once, while she’s been completely fine getting married and going on a solo honeymoon the next day without him, or not telling him that she thought she only had one year to live. So, why does she sees his behaviour as betrayal but her own as completely acceptable?

Secondary Voice
Yi-joo or the “you have displeased me say you’re sorry” queen.

Third Voice
If you don’t know how to react, just faint and be done with it, Yi-joo. Nobody has got time for pointless drama in the middle of a revenge plot!

This is incredibly double standards of Yi-joo. But we’ve seen previously that she is incapable of seeing the other person’s experience.

She gets mad of her birth mother for no valid reason exempt that she wanted to blame her miserable childhood on someone. Great. But Jamie was never responsible for it. Yi-joo decides that her moral standards are the sole path worth walking, and anybody who does not bend backwards to follow her way is immediately pushed away and rejected.

Well, we’ve seen a lot of that double standards behaviour in Yoo-ra, especially when she thinks that Yi-joo was the fake daughter but cannot bear being treated the same way when it turns out Yi-joo was the only real daughter.

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Chapter Two: Yoo-ra, Paving The Way To More Loneliness & Depression

In many ways, this is probably the only satisfying ending for Yoo-ra. But it remains bitter because poisons everyone around her.

I am ready to bet that if she had stopped earlier on and followed Se-hyeok’s advice, he would have helped her land on her feet. She would have hated it, of course. But help would have been available if she had been able to stop herself from scheming some more.

Why didn’t she stop herself?
This is an interesting question because, even though she despises Fake Morticia with all her being, she is still walking in her mother’s footsteps.

One could claim she doesn’t know any better. But here’s the thing. She does know better. She’s seen and heard Se-hyeok. She knows she could build a path where she doesn’t inflict pain on others. He already told her to stop. But she refuses.

She chooses to not know better. What makes it really interesting is that she knows this is going to be a lonely path filled with hatred and pain. And she still chooses it, and a part of me, wants to believe that she chooses not because she doesn’t know anything else but because she truly believes she isn’t worth any better.

She is the fake daughter, and the disgust she has both for herself (and her mother) is something that never go away. Yoo-ra’s sole call for self-love was that she was everything Yi-joo wasn’t. She was the loved child, the real daughter, daddy’s beloved little princess. The moment she switch places with Yi-joo, she comes to realise that there is nothing else to her identity.

And this is deeply sad (even though it is deserved). Yoo-ra has no sense of self beyond comparing herself to Yi-joo. And because she always thought she was entitled to everything Yi-joo couldn’t have, she now applies the opposite logic to her new identity as the fake daughter.

She can’t have anything because Yi-joo has everything.
As mad as Fake Morticia was, Yoo-ra did grow up with two “parents”. So the fact that dad did not remotely try to reach out and help her heal herself from the years of indoctrination she went through says a lot about his absent parenting style. He wasn’t there for any of his daughters, whether real or fake. So, I demand humbly that Karma wakes up and go kick his ass, thank you.

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Chapter Three: Fake Morticia, Long Live The Madness
Ah, Fake Morticia, I have loved hating you. You walk a fine line of evil and insanity. You remain your true deluded self, from start to finish.

And one thing we all regret is that the prison outfits are not packing as much hmmmph as the rest. I demand shoulder pads. I demand black lace. I demand more corse belt.

There would not be any drama without a proper villain, and she has all the betrayal, manipulation, and borderline psychotic traits we need. Thank you for your hard work, Fake Morticia. It is hard to be despicable without becoming frustrating or farcical.

Secondary Voice
As thank you, I wish to send her a suitcase of baggy denim clothes.

Third Voice
Can someone record her reaction, please?

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Chapter Four: Karma’d Better Have Something Good for Se-Hyeok in his Next Life
Just nope.
Karma, you picked the wrong target. We all know this should have been both dads, Yi-joo’s and Do-guk’s dads, for allowing their families to tear each other apart.

Dad 1 turned a blind eye to his daughter’s abuse.
Dad 2 acted as an enabler all his life for his elder son, which would lead to him almost stabbing to death the other son. (I’m actually surprised Scallion Mom hasn’t divorced him in the end)

And for some absolutely insane reason Karma gets back at Se-hyeok because… he didn’t love Yi-joo? He never tried to hurt her. He did defend her against his family and against Yoo-ra a few times. He also helped her get back at Yoo-ra. Finally, both Yi-joo and Do-guk forgave him. But Karma, apparently decided that it needed a black sheep to make a point.

And that point reinforces my belief that Yi-joo is a spoilt git because all those who somehow do not love her are to be punished, regardless of their fault.

I am deeply unhappy with that because, I too, do not love Yi-joo and I don’t want to be punished.

The boiled turnip is dead. Long live the turnip of double standards.

PS: All typos, formatting, and grammatical monstrosities are bred in an unsafe and petty environment.

PPS: I did not re-read because lazy.