Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) – K-Drama Episode 14 Recap & Review

An Exercise In Tedium

Episode 14 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) begins with Yu-Shin sitting with A-Mi drinking tea. Together, they discuss the terms of their affair, including how Yu-Shin won’t ever sleep out and will turn his phone off after a certain time. He also asks her not to make him choose between his family or her.

After establishing the ground rules, Yu-Shin heads out for dinner with his family. He gushes over Pi-Young, calling her his baby and feeding her food. For now, everything remains simple but it’s clear it won’t remain that way for long.

Meanwhile, Sa-Hyun continues to get on well with Song Won, eating dinner and heading to the bookstore together. They continue to flirt and grow closer as they continue to call each other by their pet names.

As they talk, Sa-Hyun mentions how after the honeymoon his feelings for Hye-Ryung started to thin. He asks her to take his hand at this moment, as if badmouthing his wife is a really romantic thing to do. Predictably, Song Won refuses. Instead, they continue to walk together, discussing their jobs. It turns out Song Won is a translator when she’s not at the gym. Hilariously (or not, depending on how you view these two) they’re mistaken as a couple by one of Sa-Hyun’s old classmates.

Eventually they head outside, discussing Song Won’s past as they go for a drive. While they do, she starts crying as Sa-Hyun leans over and gives her a big cuddle. Romantic music plays, once again reminding us that… it’s okay to cheat on your partner? I’m not sure anymore what this show is trying to accomplish. Anyway, on with the story:

Woo-Ram continues to try and win over Ji-A’s affection at school. In order to do that, Woo-Ram asks his Mother to buy him some new clothes. At work, Hae-Ryun continues to meet Ga-Bin. It’s a brief visit though as she heads into class next and speaks to Hae-Ryun’s students about what it’s like to have fans. She even mentions the super fan who gave her 100 roses. This perks the class up completely, as they ask her about love.

Yu-Shin plays his role well, managing to handle this affair by continuing to be romantic with Pi-Young and A-Mi in equal doses. He even buys her and Pi-Young the exact same fragrance too.

We then cut across to Ga-Bin. It’s here we receive more flashbacks within flashbacks as we see Ga-Bin’s ex and the time she spent with him. Midway through her trip down memory lane though, she’s invited out by her friend Jin-A. However, Hae-Ryun happens to be there already. Apparently he’s well-acquainted with her husband. Anyway, as they sit and drink together, Hae-Ryun starts to see Ga-Bin in a more romantic light.

That evening, Ga-Bin hurts herself and phones Hae-Ryun asking him to take her to the ER. He helps put her seatbelt on too as the pair drive to the hospital. Thankfully she doesn’t need stitches and despite bleeding a lot (apparently), she has a tiny plaster put over her wound. Hae-Ryun then drives her home. After dropping her off, he admits that he has become her fan, which prompts her to invite him in for a drink.

Dong-Mi struggles to sleep after cooking so much fatty food for Ki-Rim,, leading to him snoring in his sleep. In the middle of the night, she gets up and eats a meal of her own.

The next day, Sa-Hyun arrives at the gym. It turns out he’s been waiting for Song Won as he’s just had an argument with Hye-Ryung. It turns out he asked her to remove some of her make-up and broke the news that fans were calling her a racoon. Hye-Ryung stormed out the restaurant and that’s what brought him to Song Won. She sticks up for Hye-Ryung though, telling him that he can’t change people, giving Sa-Hyun food for thought.

The Episode Review

There’s a video on YouTube that my son showed me this weekend of a piece of bread falling over. Amazingly, this video has 2 million views and is exactly what it says in the video description. Those 5 seconds were more entertaining than the last 4 episodes of this show.

Still in the flashback-era, Love ft. Marriage and Divorce continues to show how these couples came to be but leaves the question – why should we care? Would it not make more sense to edit this show in a linear fashion with these three couples growing closer, including the mistresses, with an air of tension and drama as we wonder whether the wives will wind out? Why should we actually care about these husband or mistresses who clearly set out to deceive?

With all three male characters sharing similar storylines of cheating on their partners, the subplots are just dull and pad out what’s already a bloated run-time. Did we need a 20 second clip of Mo Seo-Hyang staring at the moon? Or how about the will she/won’t she poisoning and murder of Ki-Rim? In fact, the latter is almost done in a way to make us feel sorry for Dong-Mi and justify her killing her husband. I’m not quite sure why but this meanspirited edge does absolutely nothing for this show’s credibility.

Ultimately though, Love ft. Marriage and Divorce has petered out and become an exercise in tedium. If next week’s double bill can keep this up, we could well be looking at one of the worst TV shows of 2021.