More Marriage
Episode 5 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) begins back at the swimming pool with Ki-Rim possessing Seo-Ban. He invites Dong-Mi over to his for some wine, which she gladly accepts. Meanwhile, Hye-Ryung confronts Si-Eun over her feelings for Seo-Ban. She believes it’s one-sided but he explains that they used to know each other from the academy all those years ago. Si-Eun admits to Hye-Ryung that things just progressed naturally. Si-Eun tellingly admits that she “doesn’t mind” Seo-Ban, sidestepping whether she likes him romantically. However, things are progressing slowly between them and for now, she’s okay with that. Ki-Rim invites Dong-Ma over to Seo-Ban’s place but just before kissing her, he has a change of heart. He remembers how Dong-Mi let him die and instead begins assaulting her. She smacks her numerous times before forcing her out the house. I’ts a horrific scene of domestic violence, and one that takes a lot out of Ki-Rim too, who stops possessing Seo-Ban and leaves. Dong-Mi is distraught and eventually heads home, feeling sorry for herself under the blankets. A-mi shows up and asks about her swim but Dong-Mi is nonchalant and pulls up the covers. After his big reveal last episode, the girls quiz Soe-Ban over his ties with her in the past. Pi-Young gently encourages him, pointing out that Si-Eun is essentially his first love. Because this show has a real problem with its run-time and filling up the allotted 65 minutes allocated to it, the girls decide to bring Seo-Ban to a karaoke bar. Si-Eun sings, allowing a montage to bleed through over the top and showing the journey our characters have taken to reach this point. The night goes well, at least for Si-Eun and Seo-Ban, who connect at the church together, with the latter admitting he has strong feelings for her and that won’t change. Unfortunately, Hye-Ryung is a drunken mess and eventually rocks up at Yu-Shins place. She’s really fallen off the deep end and she tells the family that she wants to help with the baby. She’s rebounded back to Sa-Hyeon who’s understandably still distraught about what’s happened to his mistress. Meanwhile, Dong-Ma takes Ga-Bin out to the theme park, and realizes while there that this isn’t what he wants. Dropping her off back home he breaks the news that he can’t marry her. Ga-Bin is brought to tears and calls him garbage, forcing him out the door. Dong-Ma ends up having breakfast with Seo-Ban who decides that he wants to marry Si-Eun. Dong-Ma is taken aback and begins asking about Si-Eun and her age. When Seo-Ban asks Dong-Ma about him ending things with Ga-Bin, he avoids most of the questions. However, Hye-Ryung appears and wants to join them for breakfast. Seo-Ban ends up receiving a message about his friend passing away and makes a quick getaway. When he does, it leaves Dong-Ma and Hye-Ryung open to talk. In fact, she actually thinks “I’d throw myself at him if my eggs were more productive.” Good grief Hye-Ryung you’ve only just met the guy, slow down. So now Hye-Ryung has a new target, admiring Dong-Ma from afar and deciding to pursue him from now on. A-Mi catches up with Pi-Young and is concerned about Dong-Mi. Given how out of it she’s been and the strange behavior she’s exhibiting, A-Mi reflects on how Ki-Rim could be doing something to hurt her, explaining why he’s acting this way. I tell you what, he should be banished to Hell for physically abusing Dong-Mi, there’s no excuse for that. Anyway, I digress. Dong-Ma meets Pi-Young for some food and admit that he works in AI technology and wants to help get her car fixed. In exchange for helping, Dong-Ma suddenly blurts out that he wants to marry her.
The Episode Review
Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) finally returns to form after a momentary blip of excitement. Yep, it’s business as usual for this soap opera that fails to actually add any sort of exciting drama to the fold. Instead, this chapter features an overlong singing montage, shots of Dong-Ma and Ga-Bin at the theme park and some domestic violence to boot. All of this combines to form a directionless episode that doesn’t really do anything to advance the plot in a meaningful way. We get more of Dong-Ma and he suddenly decides he wants to marry Pi-Young for… reasons? I guess? And then you have Hye-Ryung, who started out as a really strong and purposeful character in season 1 and now she’s been utterly butchered by the writers, made out to be pathetic, petty and even trying to get Sa-Hyeon back. That completely 180’s her character and it’s one of the more egregious examples of the writers just trying to force drama for the sake of it. Unfortunately this has not been a show to remember, and even those who liked the first 2 seasons must be starting to lose faith in this one. Still, it looks like we’re gearing up for more shenanigans in the episodes ahead so we’ll have to wait and see what the rest of this show has in store for us.
