Two Mothers
The latest episode of Hi Bye, Mama reinforces just how much Min-Jeong loves Seo-Woo and concentrates on the growing relationship with Yu-Ri whom she admires. This is quite the interesting plot as we see how important family is and that you don’t need to share the same blood for a strong bond to be formed. We begin episode 10 with a flashback of Min-Jeong in school deciding to be a nurse before jumping forward to a conversation she had with Gang-Hwa about stopping work after they get married to look after Seo-Woo as she wanted to be a real mum for her. We then return to where we left off with Yu-Ri shouting at Gang-Hwa while Geun-Sang is stuck in his car; the angry fans are throwing eggs at him. Hyeon-Jeong comes to the rescue and tells them to get lost. They ignore her and start throwing eggs at her but she dodges them easily. Hyeon-Jeong starts throwing eggs and aims perfectly as she manages to get rid of them. Back home, Hyeon-Jeong confronts her husband about the diagnosis of Kang-Bin but he defends himself as he is sure he wasn’t depressed. Geun-Sang then remembers Kang-Bin asking him to diagnose him with depression as it was what the club wanted. Meanwhile at the charnel house, Kang-Bin’s mother comes to visit his urn and leaves a message saying sorry to her son while Min-Jeong tells Gang-Hwa that she wonders if they should get a different pick up helper as she looks so much like Seo’s mum. Yu-Ri realises that half her days are gone so she decides to get rid of the ghost once and for all in Seo-Woo’s house. She sees him going inside Gang-Hwa and Min-Jeong’s room and although she feels a little awkward at first, she finds him alongside a virgin ghost, there to haunt Gang-Hwa. We see that she has been trying to possess Min-Jeong but she hasn’t been able to as she is too strong-minded. She manages to send the ghost to Pil-Seung’s flat while she takes the virgin ghost to the shaman. In the Charnel house, Mi-Dong is getting anxious that no other ghosts are leaving to go up. They ignore her though and leave to go about their days while Gang-Hwa meets with Eun-Sook to discuss Yu-Ri. He explains that she currently works in the school and also as the pick up helper but that his wife doesn’t know who she really is. They decide to think about the situation before doing anything else. Now that she has got rid of the ghosts, Yu-Ri asks Mi-Dong if Seo-Woo will stop seeing any more. Mi-Dong is not sure but suggests that the girl becomes a shaman, which makes Yu-Ri angry. She later meets with Hyeon-Jeong and reveals that she used to be a ghost and that the little girl sees ghosts because of her. She explains that she wants to make sure she helps Seo-Woo before she has to go and starts crying. We then see some flashbacks of Yu-Ri as a ghost, frustrated at not being able to do anything around her daughter but realizing just how nice Min-Jeong is. While looking at an old picture of Yu-Ri, Min-Jeong calls her to have drinks together. She arrives in Hyeon-Jeong’s restaurant and sits down with both women. Min-Jeong asks Hyeon-Jeong if she feels uncomfortable around her but she replies that she is grateful. Hyeon-Jeong then returns the question but towards Yu-Ri. Min-Jeong tells her that she is just curious about Seo-Woo’s mum and has been for while. They then drink and start ranting about Gang-Hwa, blaming him for everything. Geun-Sang and Gang-Hwa arrive in the restaurant and are shocked to see the state the women are in. Gang-Hwa takes his wife home and asks Hyeon-Jeong to look after Yu-Ri. The next day, we find out that Yu-Ri was not actually drunk but pretending to be when she saw Gang-Hwa. In the hospital, Geun-Sang and Gang-Hwa are asked to sign a petition to stop prioritizing VIP patients. We then see that Gang-Hwa has been feeling guilty whenever he has been happy which has slowed his recovery down. Walking down the street, Yu-Ri sees a woman about to be run over by a bike. She jumps to save her and seems to have taken the shock of it. She manages to call Gang-Hwa, just for a few seconds, which prompts him to race down the halls of the hospital as we flashback to the day he found out Yu-Ri was hit by a car 5 years ago. Mi-Dong gets a visit from a strange man dressed in black who claims to be there to get someone as he hasn’t heard from her. We then see an afternoon where Yu-Ri played with Seo-Woo all day, before showing us a flashback of a time where Yu-Ri was watching Seo-Woo on the floor sleeping with Min-Jeong lying next to her as the episode closes out. With quite a few more flashbacks, Hi Bye, Mama returns with an episode showing us just how much Min-Jeong cares about Seo-Woo and how Yu-Ri has realised this over the years. She is determined to do her best to help both her daughter and her new mum which is really a noble thing to do. The chemistry between all three main women is quite good too and it will be interesting to see where the show goes from here. It was also fun to see Yang Kyung-Won (Pyo Chi-Su in Crash Landing On You) make an appearance and his character looks like it could be a really intriguing one going forward. Hi Bye, Mama may sometimes be a little slow but it has enough heartfelt messages, interesting story lines and great characters to make this fantasy drama worth adding to the list of top Korean shows of the year so far!
