Wind From the Tip Of a Sword
Episode 10 of Green Mothers Club begins with Yun-Ju noticing Man-Su driving off with Chu-Hui and following in a taxi, suspecting the worst. Remember that banging on the door from Chun-ui’s perspective? Well, it turns out it’s actually Yun-Ju. She pounds on the door, determined to catch her husband red-handed. Yun-Ju bursts into the room, desperate to find Man-Su. Only, he’s not here. We left the car just prior to this, so it’s something of a lucky escape for him. Finding nothing, Yun-Ju leaves feeling embarrassed as Chun-Hui claims she’s drinking with friends. However, Man-Su actually meets with Luis. Someone has made an accusation against the company and he wants the truth from Man-Su about exactly what’s going on. He doesn’t divulge much but does tell him that Ju-Seok blamed the death of a patient on Chun-Hui. With his suspicions cast on Chun-Hui, Luis questions her over the nature of her business with Jin-Ha. In particular, he brings up the drugs and how Jin-Ha was suffering from insomnia. He believes she’s the one responsible for killing Jin-Ha, when in reality (at least according to her anyway) she only gave Jin-Ha pills to help her insomnia. Chun-Hui is adamant that she’s not the one responsible for Jin-Ha’s death. Chun-Hui’s guilt and extreme stress is not helped by the amount of drama she’s dealing with at home. Between pressured in-laws, issues with Ju-Seok and a shady drug-selling gig on the side, it’s a marvel that Chun-Hui hasn’t completely snapped. Over at Eun-Pyo’s place, she calls over Yun-Ju to learn the truth about the threatening message found on Dong-Seok’s crane. There, Yun-Ju explains that she’s the one who wrote this and together, they decide to cover this up. Eun-Pyo’s attitude toward raising her sons continues when she decides to parade Dong-Seok onto TV for that talent show. Jae-Ung isn’t so sure and believes it’s not good for Dong-Seok, given how sensitive he gets. Eun-Pyo hasn’t even asked him either, and the more she talks about this, the more similarities she has to Chun-Hui over the way she handles her daughter, Yu-Bin. The difference here though, is that Dong-Seok is a naturally gifted genius and he seems to work well with the pressure. He even helps his team win the whole contest, coming from behind to show his genius talents. Given it’s broadcast on TV too, Dong-Seok’s brilliance is there for the whole nation to see. The thing is, it has the knock-on effect that random people start to recognize him in the street. Dong-Seok is shy and uncomfortable, especially as people start mentioning money. That afternoon, Eun-pyo receives a call from Bang Jeong-Hui, who happens to be the chairman of the Sungmyung University Foundation. They met briefly at the award ceremony. Jeong-Hui reveals they’d like to have her come over and lecture again. Given everything she’s been through, that’s a massive breakthrough. That evening, Dong-Seok heads home but he’s nonchalant and not responsive as he heads into his room. When Jae-Ung heads home, Eun-Pyo breaks the news about her being appointed as a professor. Chun-hui’s luck continues to turn from bad to worse. While driving, Kim Ju-Seok hammers home how important educational background is, belittling those who don’t do well with their studies. The irony here, of course, is that Yeong-Bin and Yu-Bin are both in the back, listening to all of this silently, knowing they’re not doing too well right now. When Ju-Seok turns his attention across to Chun-Hui, bemoaning her for asking his family for money, Chun-hui loses her temper. She stops the car, and points out how he’s gambled their money and left them in financial distress. The thing is, Chun-Hui isn’t the only one feeling regret about their marriage. It turns out Ju-Seok does too. Having heard enough from him, Chun-Hui leaves her husband by the side of the road and drives off. The pressure gets to Dong-Seok that afternoon. In the middle of the academy class, he rushes outside and runs away from Eun-Pyo. He almost gets hit by a bike but as the pressure gets to him, he ends up wetting himself. It’s heartbreaking to watch, as Eun-Pyo realizes the stress of this is just too much for him to bear. Giving him a piggyback and with a coat draped over her back, Eun-Pyo takes him out the academy and back home. Meanwhile, Yu-Bin snaps mentally and begins telling everyone she made it into the academy. Chun-Hui is concerned but the parallels between her and Dong-Seok, being pressured by their parents, is plain to see. In fact, as the episode closes out we cut back to Dong-Seok, who hides under the table with a bag on his head. As Eun-Pyo reaches out to touch him, he bites her finger.
The Episode Review
As a parent, there’s nothing you want more than for your kids to excel. They say pressure builds diamonds but sometimes when you push too hard, that pressure becomes too much. That’s what we’re seeing in Gren Mother’s Club. The parallels between Eun-Pyo and Chun-Hui’s teaching is so poetically written and ultimately harks back to a wider societal issue across the world about pushing your kids and the danger of using them as a trophy to parade around to everyone else. The less desirable part of this show, however, stems from the murder mystery and the drama surrounding this. It’s almost like the show feels like it has to add in this extra drama in order to spice things up. We get a few moments early on and a random scene involving Jae-Ung checking CCTV footage and that’s about it. It’s like the writers even know that the commentary about parenting and the actual mothers’ club is far more appealing. But then this brings up another issue with this show – Eun-Pyo. Despite standing up for her son, she’s now swung the other way and become pushy and competitive, just to get a one-up over Chun-Hui. She was never like this before and although the writers are obviously drawing parallels to Chun-Hui and how delicate that balance is, it makes her rather unlikable. Either way though, this leaves plenty of questions leading into next week’s double-bill of episodes. What’s going to happen next?
