Psyche Out
Episode 9 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 2 begins with Pi-Young furious. She confronts Yu-Shin and demands answers. Only wait, no she doesn’t! Remember that really annoying fake-out that this show has been doing? Well, that happens again. In reality, Pi-Young remains quiet. We’ll have more to say about that little transgression n the review portion.
Anyway, it seems Pi-Young has lost her voice and she’s speechless when Yu-Shin reveals that her Mother is suffering from cancer. Yu-Shin acts professionally with A-Mi, deciding to move her to another hospital for the time being.
Back home, Dong-Mi learns that Ji-A has been seeing Ki-Rim. Somehow she can sense him but admits that he’s just been hanging about not doing much. Well, they both show up to visit Pi-Young who’s still unable to speak.
On her way out, A-Mi looks set to see Pi-Young but she’s not in her room. Instead, she’s out checking on her Mother. Pi-Young’s inability to speak also means Hye-Ryung and Si-Eun’s arrival at the hospital falls on deaf ears. Yu-Shin tells them what’s happening and encourages the pair to leave given there’s not much they can do to help. When they do, Pi-Young pulls away from Yu-Shin and refuses to hold his hand.
Speaking of disgusting cheaters, Hae-Ryun and Ga-Bin show up to see A-Mi in hospital. Hae-Ryun knows she’s seeing someone but isn’t sure who. Well, we do and there continues to be tension between the homewrecker and Pi-Young in their relationships with Yu-Shin.
Elsewhere, Song Won shows up to dinner with Seo Ban. They’ve both been set up on a date but they agree that they’re not compatible. It’s at this point where she introduces him to his friend Chang-Hui. He also mentions the radio show too, which immediately causes her face to drop when she finds out who this man is.
Meanwhile, Hae-Ryun meets up with Si-Eun and breaks the news about Yu-Shin’s cheating. With this revealed, she contemplates just how to break the news to her friend.
At the hospital, things take a urn for the worst when Pi-young’s Mother loses consciousness. Her heart monitor flat lines and Seo-Hyang is declared dead. Dong-Mi is awoken by a ghostly fist smacking her in the face not long after. It’s Ki-Rim and he’s had enough of creepily watching people sleep. Now he’s turned into their personal alarm clock too.
Anyway, we then skip forward to Seo-Hyang’s funeral. The whole family arrive to say goodbye, with specific emphasis on Pi-Young who tentatively kisses her Mother goodbye.
The Episode Review
Honestly, if Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) wasn’t bad enough already, it now seems to be emotionally manipulating its audience with these fake-out arguments. It almost feels like the writers are afraid to pull the trigger and instead just ha these moments play out in fantasy land. The result is a tonally discordant and flippant show that’s hard to take seriously.
Speaking of which, this second season has been an unadulterated mess just like the first. Instead though now we have this weird ghost situation which has gone nowhere and a bunch of boring, pointless scenes between the two or three compelling or well written segments. Beyond Pi-Young’s vision of confronting Yu-Shin and the death of her mother, there’s very little else going on here.
Only this time the show makes you second guess everything you’re watching as it intentionally obfuscates the truth with these visions that may or may not be truthful. Still, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in tomorrow’s follow-up to see if it continues. Given how this series has played out though, I wouldn’t be surprised if this entire second season is just one big vision.
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Episode Rating
(1.5)
Thanks, Greg, for replying to my comment and suggestion.
I totally agree with your annoyance with the writers’ (over)use of fake-out: the next time we see some really interesting scene — like an explosive argument, or an amazing confrontation, a withering retort … — we would half-expect it to be just imaginary !!
Dave
Hey Dave, thanks so much for your comment, it’s really appreciated. I do know there’s a pretty big audience for this show and I do apologize if I sound over-critical at times! To be honest, I actually really liked episode 10 and gave it a decent review when I finished watching it about an hour or so ago. I do agree that the show tends to piece together a variety of different subplots but for me there’s so much fluff in this that just doesn’t add to the overall picture.
A scene involving Moon-ho stroking his dog, for example, will just be randomly placed in the middle of two characters arguing. These sort of edits just feel so jarring. I also really detest this manipulative way the writers have been pulling fake-out visions of arguments that haven’t come to fruition and I guess that’s probably why I’m so critical to be honest! I do try to be fair in the review portion though and episode 10 is a massive step up in quality so there is that.
Thanks so much for reading along with the recaps though and bearing with the critiques!
-Greg W
Sorry : please delete the last (incomplete) line — Many thanks,
Lots of thanks for this, and for your many other reviews. Your recaps and comments are always timely, generally useful and at times insightful.
But it seems to me you’re a bit harsh overall on this drama series, especially Season 2. A friendly suggestion: it might be helpful to take into account the views held (apparently) by many viewers — as judged from recent domestic Korea ratings. Perhaps quite a few of these viewers like some of the things that you detest? For example, I quite like the way Season 2 is giving us a lot of jiggle-saw pieces which are slowly, slowly being put together … so some scenes might seem pointless now, but they hint at interesting pictures that may emerge soon. I also appreciate the irony of Pi-yong experiencing the same kind of pains that her mother suffered from being cheated upon by her father: Pi-yong used to hate and shun her mother for the same kind of reactions that she herself now displays. Other examples of irony abound ….
Personally, I find the slow-burn, putting-together-the jigsaw-puzzle way taken by the Scriptwriter has taken to