The Clash Of Opposing Ideas
Episode 12 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 2 begins with Yu-Shin meeting Pi-Young at breakfast. He tries to act like everything is okay but she’s having none of it. She’s determined to follow through with this divorce. Well, Yu-Shin asks for 3 more years and to forget anything ever happened. Pi-Young is livid and disgusted in her husband, telling him that the best thing he can do right now is to stop showing his face.
Y-Shin tries to play the misunderstanding card, claiming men and women are wired differently. Pi-Young demands he drive them to court but instead heads back to their apartment. With his phone on airplane mode, he drops to his knees and begs. As thy talk, Yu-Shin lets slip that he loves A-Mi. At least in a roundabout way anyway. He tries to weasel out of it, claiming he was only being chivalrous to begin with.
As a last ditch attempt to appease his wife, Yu-Shin even offers to hand over all of his assets and change them into her name. When that fails, Yu-Shin then uses Ji-A as a bargaining chip, presenting a made-up scenario and comparing himself to unfermented kimchi too.
Thankfully, Pi-Young sees through all of this and knows how cunning her husband actually is. And now the truth comes out.
Yu-Shin claims he needed a change of pace and blames stress at the hospital as the reason. Pi-Young has ammo to fire back against that though, pointing out the time she needed him the most he was in A-Mi’s arms at the hospital. It’s actually made worse by the fact her Mum was dying at the time. For that alone, she won’t ever forgive him.
Yu-Shin continues to spew these ridiculous analogies, claiming it’s just one mistake that he made. What he doesn’t understand (and what Pi-Young continues to remind him) is that being unfaithful is a pretty massive mistake to make. It wasn’t exactly a one off kiss, it’s a full-on affair that he knew would tear this family apart.
Yu-Shin’s reasons become more cruel and desperate as the episode progresses, eventually seeing Yu-Shin start to cry when he realizes Pi-Young and Ji-A will be moving out. She’s amicable enough when it comes to Ji-A though, allowing him to still see her. And that ends things for good.
Pi-Young starts to pack up her things but seeing Yu-Shin on his knees brings back memories of her Mother. She weeps, struggling to hold back as she realizes her Mother’s passing was worse than it should have been because of all this. Eventually, he agrees to sign the papers and asks her for the option of sitting and having a meal together from time to time. When she nods tentatively, the pair stand up and walk out the room.
The Episode Review
Wow, where did that come from? What a fantastic episode! Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) comes storming out the gates with a masterful verbal sparring match between Yu-Shin and Pi-Young.
As someone who loves going to the theatre, this entire episode felt like a two-person stage production, with both characters telling a story through their words.
Throughout these 75 minutes, Yu-Shin’s excuses grow ever-more desperate and cruel as the episode progresses. His reasons are despicable, ridiculous and quite frankly insulting as a male watching this. There is no excuse for cheating and Pi-Young will undoubtedly garner the sympathy from most people watching – as she should.
Seeing both of these characters and understanding more about them in this hour is probably the best work Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) has done. To be honest, the past two or three episodes have really started to pick things up and transform this show into a much better proposition. Anyone who has followed these recaps knows I’m not the biggest fan of this show but credit where credit’s due – that was a brilliant episode.
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Episode Rating
(4.5)
This episode was the best for me, out of the whole season. I realise this is quite an old show but I came late to it. I also didn’t even realise how long that scene was until I read reviews and how so many disliked or skipped it. Just like one other person also said I also wondered how they managed to remember their lines, stay in character and really show such emotion. At so many points I wanted to throw my shoe at the screen :(( haha because of what Yu-shin was trying to justify. I’ve never heard a man who could gas light, try any kind of way to justify his behavior or try and blame the other for his actions or not just come out and take responsibility for HIS actions. This was a WHOLE year of lies and deciet. This wasn’t just a “simple”mistake. He used any kind of reasoning and excuse he could and it was laughable. He also tried to use his stance as a psychologist in the argument. If anything, I would have thought he would have recognized how unstable his mistress was in the beginning as he kept going on about “my clients” this and that…lol. If he recognized such traits in his job he should have seen through the fun, flirty, clingy, big brother act from get go. Also the kneeling was a reach on so many levels and I’m glad by the end of the dialogue his wife didnt fall for any of it. Mentioning their daughter and his wife’s mum sickness or death was a really low blow. He’s arrogance was so infuriating. The writers really went all out on this one. I ended up asking 2 of my friends to watch it too as a discussion point – just so we get each others opinion on marriage, how this dialogue made then feel and how they would have reacted in such a situation (one friend is female and married and one male friend is divorced with a child). It’s a good one to discuss so many things that they were throwing at each other. I just find humans psyche interesting and what lengths some would go to when caught in a lie. This dramatisation was fantastic in my eyes. I think it would have been interesting if they had a different female character (married) having a long and well though out affair and see how the audience reacted to that..In many cultures it’s frowned on and somehow men always come out the other end with excuses such as “I couldn’t help myself, it’s the nature of men, you weren’t fun anymore, we have been together longer” and the wives take them back even after divorce or seperation. In this show I’m glad the women stood their ground and divorced their husbands. Also it seems in Korea divorces only take a few weeks or a month to be processed that’s fascinating.. or is that for dramatic effect???
I thought i wanted a toilet break after Pi-Young and Yu Shin’s conversation but neither did i expect the scene to carry on for the entire episode 12. It is indeed a rare case in most kdramas, at least of all of the kdramas I’ve been watching thus far. I have read several comments on this episode and some didn’t like it that it was too long a scene just showing the same couple. But as someone who is married myself, i really enjoyed the whole episode watching them having such deep talk, to the extent it felt as if i was also sitting there on the couch with them. I love watching this drama, it portrays what happens in our real lives. A pity we need to wait few more months for Season 3.
I thought the conversation in this episode went on far to long! While yes, it was very realistic because that’s exactly how I’ve found these conversations go ’round and ’round in real life, but I got the gist in the first 30 minutes and felt we could’ve spent time
on our other couples as well. (I also felt the same when Cheating Middle-Aged-Loser was being told off by his daughter. Although I loved that he got told to his face that he’s a loser (in so many words) by his daughter, it still went on for too long for my attention span.) 😆
And as I was, again, thinking how weird it is that a show that had been so serious suddenly has this ghost in it when it hit me that that’s exactly what I thought about New Tales of the Gisaeng. Then it hit me that the Cougar-Mom-in-Law and Sung hoon both starred in that drama so I checked and, whaddayoknow, it’s the same writer.
The ghost in New Tales… served no purpose other than filler and I’m wondering if it’ll turn out to be the same case here. The gimmick didn’t work in New Tales… and it’s not serving any purpose (as yet) here either. The writer should be able to come up with more original ideas, or at least interesting ones without needing to rely on a bizarre, recycled, storyline.
Seems like a case of midlife crisis for all 3 husbands. Throwing away a stable family life for a moment of “fun” is inexcusable especially if there are kids involved. Yu-sin will probably toy with A-mi play dates then tire of her clingy stalking behaviors and an overbearing jealous stepmom. Hope Pi-young goes through with the divorce and finds a better more handsome qualified man. Bet Yu-sin will do everything in his power to interfere. A-mi is a psychiatric case study in immaturity and selfishness with Daddy issues.
A realistic show about … the crisis of love or something like it.
The bottomline is, don’t follow ‘love’ all the time cos it can be very messy. Thanks to the show though, I now have some CLASSIFICATIONS for some cheaters.
SPOILER ALERT….
In the completely senseless cheat category, we have Hae-Ryun and Yu-sin. For Yu-sin, think about it, he has a SUCCESSFUL wife so secure and overly confident in him…Sa Pi-Young. That situation tends to make men want to eat their cake and have it. She said he was the perfect husband. She refuses to have another kid for him so she could have a figure that pleases her husband. She was always defending him with her colleagues and beefing with her mother because she couldn’t forgive her for leaving her father for cheating and broke his ties with his daughter. Yu-sin was in the relationship with Ami for a bit of fun. Yu-sin cheated for THE THRILL reason of it. The EXTRA FUN. It’s just so obvious… Ami was just a ‘pretty young thing, a plaything’ to him. he never wanted to be caught by Pi-Young and went to great lengths to cover up the affair. including trying to actually end everything. He loves his wife but he wanted some more excitement clearly. Pi-Young was just too cocky about him while despising her mother… Talk about what goes around comes around… Now, its a ‘how do you like them apples’ moment for Pi-Young. But I do hope she takes Yu-sin to the cleaners and makes him pay for what he did.
Hae-Ryun is such an oblivious cheat…it’s obvious he cheated for EGOCENTRIC reasons…he felt his wife was making her kids and job her no.1 priority and neglecting her looks…and him, of course, he felt like an afterthought…. not to mention, them being together for so long,… he just had to remain faithful though because he just threw his family away for his love which i find far selfish and that makes him my least favorite of the male leads… which also make Ga-bin, my least favorite mistress because you took a married family man and made him your ‘rebound’ from a heartbreak. Part of me feels she’s just doing all this just to show Dong-ma. I had a client who married someone to avenge an ex and the marriage lasted under four years THERE will be payback for such acts.
I really feel like Sa-hyeon cheated BY ACCIDENT? I mean, He didn’t set out to cheat, but he needed someone to cherish and respect him and it ‘happened’. Lest i forget, he met Song Won at the gym… the gym Hye-ryeong KEPT nagging him to attend even though he didn’t really have to. Hye-ryeong just had to let her materialistic tendencies and obsession with outward looks, blind her to the fact that men have roving eyes and women can act senseless when it come to their emotions. Hye-ryeong kept saying her husband was ‘mediocre’ to her colleagues. No respect for your rich and handsome lawyer hubby but suddenly, someone else is a gold digger for liking him. Make it make sense.
And WHY has Hye-ryeong developed a radar for the Seo brothers all of sudden? Obviously, because they are rich and attractive, the same things that probably attracted her to Sa-Hyeon. Of course, Sa-Hyeon seems spoiled and pampered because he is. Everyone is saying Sa-Hyyun is a man-child but being the youngest child of a rich family or being raised by traditional moms (the ones who just love to pamper their sons) can do that to a person. He likes to be taken care of like his mom did to him and Hye-ryeong couldn’t seem to bring herself to do that. Being a ‘good wife’ and a ‘career woman’ are not mutually exclusive. And why does she have to resort to violence so much? Why does she hit her husband?
AND THIS makes me inclined NOT to blame Song Won a whole lot for what happened between her and Sa-hyeon cos she was lonely and has a genuinely good outward character. Plus she went to church to repent and actually apologized during the wife’s confrontation. I mean i don’t hate her. i didn’t appreciate her sleeping with Sa-Hyeon TO MAKE HIM FORGET her (that never works…sigh) and getting pregnant as a result (though I’m sure she must’ve though she was infertile going in, hence the fact they used ‘no protection’). per their tradition, I just feel like parents would gravitate towards a more respectful person, not to mention, wanting a male grandchild. Sa-hyeon’s parents reaction to Song Won is actually very likely in the part of the world where I’m from where people have very traditional values about marriage. Some actually end due to basic disrespect, sexual incompatibilty and lack of children. The children of a marriage or non-marriage are more treasured than wives in our laws here.
Ay, I hope by the end of the show, all the mistresses all learn a lesson or two from their experiences. Ami should focus on her career since she’s young, Ga-bin should stick to Hae-ryun even when he gets old and weak without becoming like another Dong-mi and regretting Dong-Ma’s betrayal and Song Won ends up with her baby and Sa-Hyeon’s parents or someone who loves her. I appreciate how adamant she’s been about ending things with Sa-hyeon and not wanting to be the cause of him divorcing Hye-ryeong. Out of all the mistresses, she has the most justification to be with the man she cheated with, being of a better character and pregnant with his child and all. But she doesn’t seem poised to take that route. Hye-ryeong can also change for the better and make the marriage work.
I give this show 5 stars for not being afraid to dip into adultery and for also depicting a lot of realism with it.
Greg, thanks for not being the biggest fan of the show and yet recapping and reviewing it so well.
EP. 12 WAS A FIRECRACKER! I couldn’t believe i sat through 1 hr 13 mins of verbal sparring between Yu Shin and Pi-young! one thing is for sure the acting was phenomenal! Great job to the actors for the awesome delivery of all their lines. i kept wondering how many takes it must’ve took them… i felt like grabbing my hair by the roots every couple of seconds. That’s how frustrated I was by the Doc’s arguments. Most of it sounded like the argument my husband might have with me if i ever caught him cheating… my husband already likes to tell me to treat him as my ”first son”…! WHAT WAS THAT FORGIVE ME ‘as if I were your child argument’?! Men will be men’ ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’! WHAT!
Okay… whatever happens… Yu-shin and A-mi must not get away with this. I hope their lesson is coming right around the corner.
I love this show. Beautifully written. But season 2 episode 12…. I could not stomach the lies and deceit coming from Yu Shin, so I skipped it. I can’t believe Pi Young sat through and listened to him for so long without walking out of the room.
It took an extraordinary woman like Pi Young to take on an extraordinary cheater like Yu Shin. He tried every trick (some very dirty) in the book, and there were times I thought she would give in (especially when he played dirty, using her mom and Ji-A) but she didn’t back down from what she rightly believed a marriage should be. When he finally admitted that it was due to his trauma, that he wants the love of all women, AND that he played dirty during this conversation, it just showed how well Pi Young conducted herself.
Some persons may have been tired out by the 60 minutes of talking, but I became intrigued by the unique direction taken by this episode. When I realized that this was all we would be getting, I started to appreciate the risk the show took. It was well done, and for this couple, a long time coming.
I don’t watch this show as it literally gives me headaches so I end up turning to your reviews, which are so on the point! I haven’t watched this episode either but what do you feel about this couple getting an entire episode to them when there are so many other characters in the series? apparently, Korean viewers were frustrated by their screen time
We really got to see how manipulative Yu Shin is in this episode. It’s scary how he said so many lies without batting an eye. He was the seemingly perfect husband, but when his affair got exposed, his (seemingly nonchalant) reaction and excuses to it made him worse than the other two men. I’m just glad Sa Pi Young could see through all his gaslighting.
Di tutte le puntate che ho visto , e anche in maniera non continua ….queste ultime 3 sono le migliori di cui non ho perso neanche 1 minuto !!! Pi-young è stata bravissima ha distrutto ogni tentativo di suo marito di giustificarsi e così ottenere il perdono !! Vedendo l’anticipo della prossima puntata ci sarà da ridere tra Ami e la suocera innamorata 😂 che vogliono lo stesso uomo
Grazie per il riassunto della puntata 👍🙂
Best episode of the entire two seasons. I am
Just hoping that all the Men get their comeuppance – I feel for the lawyer because his wife is not nice but the doctor getter get his out of all of them.