The Wedding and the Funeral
Hi Bye, Mama has so far done a great job at tackling strong and difficult themes like grief and how to say goodbye. These have been handled really well and with respect as each episode shows us different backstories for some of our ghosts while we follow Yu-Ri facing difficult choices, along with her friends having to deal with her return. Episode 8 of Hi Bye, Mama begins with a flashback to 2016 when Geun-Sang received a letter from the HR department showing the Donsung university hospital applicants being Yu-Ri, Gang-Hwa, Hyeon-Jeong and himself, while we see Hyeon-Jeong writing a sad post on Yu-Ri’s page and her mother frantically cleaning her flat. Back where we left off in the last episode, Gang-Hwa and Pil-Seung come face to face with Yu-Ri and Min-Jeong. After the initial shock, Yu-Ri quickly leaves but Pil-Seung follows her under her umbrella. Gang-Hwa and Min-Jeong walk home together and as they discuss Yu-Ri, they agree that she should be the pick-up helper. Gang-Hwa relays their decision to Geun-Sang and Hyeon-Jeong, who think it is a mistake. They then talk about Yu-Ri avoiding them as they know she never tried to find them when she came back to life and wonder how she knew all about Min-Jeong. Before leaving, Gang-Hwa confides in Hyeon-Jeong about feeling guilty towards Min-Jeong and reveals the results of the test Seo-Woo took. She berates him for not doing anything about it and tells him to speak to his wife. The next day, Yu-Ra’s family is wondering who keeps giving them gifts and who could know them so well as they are relevant to their tastes and medical ailments. While opening the medicine, Yu-Ri’s mother thinks of her daughter which prompts her to start taking them. She then goes back to her room and plays the same card game again on her phone. Later in the day, she decides to take a bike ride in the park and almost sees her daughter on a bench. In the Charnel house, Pan-Seok is happy to learn that one of his daughters, Kim Hye-Su, is finally going to get married which means he will be able to leave with no worries. The other ghosts congratulate him but Granny is nowhere to be seen as she is currently crying by her sick daughter’s bed, who is in a lot of pain. In the kindergarten, Yu-Ri is pleased to see Seo-Woo finally playing with other children. Suddenly she sees a ghost arriving and runs to chase him away until she realises it is Pan-Seok who came to see his daughter, Mrs Kim. Yu-Ri and Pan-Soek talk on a bench about her trying to protect Seo-Woo. He then mentions that he has noticed that Hye-Su has been looking very sad lately. At the temple, Mi-Dong chases another shaman who is pestering Eun-Sook about her daughter. While doing so, she almost lets the truth come out while Yu-Ri goes out for a meal with her colleagues. Towards the end of the evening, Hye-Su bursts into tears wondering why she should get married. She finally tells Yu-Ri that she feels bad for her dad as he wasn’t able to have a wedding party for his daughters and feels like she never did anything for him. Pan-Seok is there during the whole conversation and, looking heartbroken, he walks away. At the same time, Granny listens to her daughter talk about her pain and explains that whenever she feels pain, she thinks about her mother who was in a lot of pain before she died, as we see a flashback of her last moments. She feels bad that she insisted and got her mother to try a lot of treatments, which is why she feels she has to tolerate the pain. In the evening, Pan-Seok asks Yu-Ri for a favour. The next day, Hye-Su visits his father’s remains and sees a note by his urn from her dad saying : “it’s ok” as it is something he often used to say to comfort her when he was still alive. He also apologises for being poor but promises that he always worked hard and appreciated everything she did for him. We then cut forward to her wedding and as she walks down the aisle, we see Pan-Seok walking with her with tears in his eyes. Mi-Dong meets Yu-Ri in Hyeon-Jeong’s restaurant to tell her that she accidentally told her mother that her daughter is wandering around the temple. They start arguing about her not going to see her mother and mention the 49 days she has before she has to leave again. Hyeon-Jeong has been listening to the conversation and bursts in, demanding to know what they are talking about and if she will die again in 49 days. Hyeon-Jeong orders her to fight for her life but Yu-Ri tells her that she thinks Gang-Hwa loves Min-Jeong and she doesn’t want him to cry anymore. After seeing a sad flashback of Gang-Hwa crying in his car with the ghost of his wife next to him, Hyeon-Jeong comforts Yu-Ri who has collapsed on the phone sobbing. After confronting her husband about pictures of Seo-Woo on his phone, Eun-Sook leaves the house and ends up riding her bike past Yu-Ri and Hyeon-Jeong. She falls to the floor as she looks at who they are. After getting up, she walks towards her daughter in shock as the episode closes. The epilogue shows her father, Cha Moo-Poong, at the funeral completely devastated and heartbroken as he wails on the floor begging to have his daughter back. What a cliffhanger ending! Eun-Sook finally sees her daughter and this promises to be an emotional reunion for the family next week, one that I am looking forward to see, especially after seeing how much Yu-Ri’s parents have been suffering. Moo-Poong’s reaction at the funeral was very heartbreaking to watch and just as harrowing as the other ghosts and the sadness they are going through. So far, the drama has done a good job at building towards the revelation that Yu-Ri is only back temporarily which will ultimately lead to a very emotional climax, one that I am sure will bring tears to many people. Yu-Ri granting favours to the different ghosts is a really nice touch too and one that I am hoping we will see more of with each episode to come.
