[Drama 2013] Thorn Flower / Spine Flower 가시꽃

[baduy]

Today's episode (100) was very clearly originally designed to fall on a Friday and provide a meaty weekend cliffhanger. There are now 19 episodes more to go, jtbc having decided to trim one episode to avoid the slot lost to an awards show from pushing the drama beyond its scheduled dates.

A lot of the action is pretty clear from the visuals, expecially Ji Min's descent into paranoid delusion, which we might think was making her the next candidate for confinement in the mental hospital, if it wasn't for what the teaser for tomorrow suggests is soon coming at her, in more senses than one. Ditto Hyeok Min feeling so guilty at having sold off Mommy's favorite vacation villa that he has to go and cry himself to sleep tucked up in Mommy's bed. Incidentally, the scenes between Ji Min and Je Joon show that, like other Kdrama parents of young children, they benefit from a wondrously useful and highly discreet service which allows children to be whisked out of the way for hours at a time when it suits the plot, with no-one (apart from snarky viewers) ever thinking to wonder where they've gone. Similarly clear enough is the way Seong Min, near the close of the episode, is prevented by the evil doctor from taking his father away from the mental hospital, being told that his stepmother has explicitly banned him from visiting, to which he says that though he'll bow to force majeure and leave for now, he'll be back very soon to take his father to safety.

The main thing that probably won't be quite so clear to people who can't follow all the Korean is what's going on with Soo Ji, Jennifer and bent cop Choi, a motif that opens and closes the episode. Actually, the full details of what's going to happen there are deliberately not clear to anyone else either just yet, since all three participants in this particular high-stakes game are being pretty shifty, but the resolution of today's cliffhanger will no doubt she more light.

It starts with Soo Ji still trying to figure out what makes Jennifer tick. The important thing here is that Soo Ji now sees that her earlier reading of Jennifer as someone who had set her sights on Hyeok Min only after coming to Korea on her family's business was mistaken. The way Jennifer  ingratiated herself with Soo Ji's mother while she was abroad shows that she is much more than a man-snatcher who just fell for him on impulse when she met him and decided to grab him. But Soo Ji's problem is that her growing certainty that Jennifer is pursuing a long-term malevolent strategy isn't matched by any grasp of what her motives could be. In particular, if she were after Hyeok Min's money, she wouldn't have led him into a course that seems likely to ruin him financially. In another of the parallels this writer is so found of setting up, Soo Ji's puzzlement is similar to Je Joon's in major respects. Of course, he knows a lot more than Soo Ji currently does, since he knows Jennifer's true identity, and is well aware of why she would be full of malice and resentment towards him and his wife. But as we were reminded by him pleading in vain the previous episode for her to tell her what on earth the Kang family had done, apart from Ji Min's trickery, to deserve what she is doing to them all, what he lacks, along with Soo Ji, is the knowledge of how what happened to Se Mi and her parents was entirely engineered by the Kang family. And what we can only speculate on is how each of them will react if and when they find out, not just what Jennifer is doing, but why she's doing it.

It looks as though bent cop Choi is going to move Soo Ji closer to finding out the clue to the riddle, though that's not his actual intention. She has just drawn the conclusion that "from the very start right up to this moment, the whole thing was planned" when she gets an unexpected call from Choi, who claims he has some important information to offer her. At first she reacts coldly, suspecting he's just trying to extract money on false pretenses. She warns him it's no use claiming that he's now come up with anything compromising from Jennifer's fingerprints, because she's already had them independently checked through Seo Won. Believing Choi had found nothing against Jennifer, but knowing she paid him off with a large sum of money, indicating she indeed has something to hide, even if her fingerprints didn't provide a clue to it, Soo Ji has concluded that Choi tricked the cash out of Jennifer, and is no doubt now trying to trick more cash out of her.

But Choi insists that beyond the mere matter of fingerprints, he's found out something that will astound her about Jennifer that she will certainly want to know, and he's sure they can do a deal. He refuses to say any more right then, so she agrees to meet him the following day to find out what he has in mind.  But later the same evening, she rings Jennifer to tell her that Choi has promised some startling revelations about her, and she can't help wondering what they'll be. Jennifer claims she's too busy to talk to her right now, to which Soo Ji says that's fine, they can talk again the next day, but she fears Jennifer will have a restless night ahead of her.

No sooner has Soo Ji hung up, than Choi calls Jennifer. He tells her he's right outside the house and thinking of coming in with his copy of the fingerprint evidence to show her husband and observe his reaction on finding that he's married to the same woman with whose attempted murder he was once charged. Jennifer realises she's dug herself a trap by alienating Choi instead of buying him off a second time, because with his access to police records he's discovered, not only that Jennifer is Se Mi, but that she is now married to the man who wanted to kill her, and thought he'd succeeded. Choi guesses that keeping that fact a secret should be worth a lot of cash to Jennifer, and it looks like he's planning to see which of the two women he's contacted will offer him the bigger payoff. He hangs up after saying that unless she comes out to discuss a deal with him in the next five minutes, he'll come right in. Reflecting that she's got herself into big trouble, she decides to comply, only to hear Choi gloat that he's obviously got her just where he wants her, because she's come running out in only three minutes flat.

She agrees to meet him nearby, but before she can do anything more, she's startled by Seong Min's arrival. He wonders what she's doing outside on the street at that hour and she once again pleads pregnancy cravings, for ice cream again this time. Ever chivalrous, Seong Min insists that he'll go buy her the icecream while she goes back in, and she daren't risk doing otherwise. But on her way back in, she gets another call, this time from Nam Joon, who's heard from Soo Ji about Choi's message, and is now warning Jennifer of what she already knows only too well. He reproaches her for not consulting him before making such a mistake where Choi is concerned and asks what she will do if he makes good his threat to burst into the house and reveal all to Hyeok Min. That at least he won't be able to do that night, Jennifer says, because she's spiked Hyeok Min's wine again and he'll soon be out cold. (It's not clear whether she also drugged the whisky bottle from which, shortly afterwards, Ji Min swigs close on half a pint, thus contributing to her delusionary attack)

Apparently, Jennifer decided it's the lesser risk not to arounse suspicion on the part of the still-conscious family members by sneaking out yet again to meet Choi that night and is instead once more studying the topography of the vacation villa and its surroundings on her laptop with intense interest, obviously elaborating whatever plans she has for the doomsday scenario she intends to stage there, when Evil Mom, now seeing in Jennifer the last hope of financial salvation, comes to butter her up and apologize for any "misunderstandings" there may have been between them in the past.

Next morning at the thinly-populated breakfast table, Hyeok Min gets a call from ex-detective Seo saying that Choi has been in touch to indicate that he has important information concerning Jennifer. But Hyoek Min refuses to hear any more, saying that this is just something Soo Ji must have put him up to. However, a little later, when Hyeok Min has left, Soo Ji herself arrives at the mansion and asks Jennifer if she's going to join her in going to meet Choi. When Jennifer inquires why she should go along to such a meeting, Soo Jii sarcastically says perhaps she'd prefer it if they called Choi to the mansion instead so everybody could hear whatever it is he has to say She adds that she's sure Jennifer must be as curious as Soo Ji is herself to hear the shattering revelations that Choi has promised.

[Auntie Mame]

I wonder if Jennifer wanted her hands on the villa so that she can stage Hyeok Min killing her, in front of everyone.  And, this time, there can be no cover-up.

What I haven't figured out is how Jennifer will exact 'payment' from Evil Mom.

@Baduy:  Thanks for the tidbits.  Thank goodness that you're here for the home stretch. =D>

[Triton823]

at this rate...this could be the one show that I am glad I watched....but cautiously optimistic that I'm going to get the ending that I want...blood blood and more blood....I want vengeance to actually mean something! Not like that pansy glass mask or yellow boots...I want pain, did I mention blood yet!? I want some people to hurt...LOL

[Guest d0137]

Not hopping much of Soo Ji and Je Joon, they might try to stop Jennifer, writer seams to randomly change characters with Soo Ji becoming a little off her initial self the turning into a obsessed "detective" on Jennifer "case" and Je Joon deciding to become a "proper Kang family member" as a result of what he has found out, actually i am surprised he has not revealed her identity... "Seo Won" well we knew him all along...Ji Mi suddenly becoming a sort of victim to get viewers sympathy or so it looks like it ...
If we get a taste of proper revenge with no lets all forgive each other and live happy "together" Amen i will be quite pleased, even if they all just go join president in a private looney ward exclusively for the "KANG FAMILY" where Je joon can join in to look after them all (my precious but special family)... the daughter well i noticed she is never around, wonder what writer will do to her (abducted by Aliens at some point, then no need to have her around at all)
Preview shows a possible accident and just wonder if one of them will be in critical condition which will lead to a  Glass mask end...no kidneys or comas again please!
Villa can only think of a party just as the first one, but this time the Kang family being the one to be "wiped out" with the revelations and straight to the looney ward or cell... I am sorry all we have done scenes don't bring the death back to life neither they restore the happy past, plus characters only apologise when they wrongdoings are uncovered and have the guts to say "SORRY" and beg for forgiveness for god sake!....lets be realistic for once and not play the Angel that forgive them all ...
Baduy is ever so helpful, thank you!
Just checked out forum for Empire of gold and it looks promising, looking forward to it! 

[Auntie Mame]

"Just checked out forum for Empire of gold and it looks promising, looking forward to it! "

Stellar acting by Go Soo.  But, do I really want to see a drama where one rich family bashes another rich family? ???    Do I care?  They should let the common folks alone and just do 'pistols at 10 paces'.  Preferably, they wipe out each other and leave the common folks in peace; still toiling away regardless of who is on top of the empire.

I don't even know how big of a part she has in that drama.  But, Jennifer is not in the lead role. And, there's already blood in the first episode and she was party to it!   (That's all I got from the visual.)
=))

[Guest d0137]

@Auntie MameLol lol!
Could't see the visuals as traveling at the moment and don't seam  to be able to check some videos... heard Jennifer is on it and guessed as much as i know Lee Yo-Won is the lead actress, so she could only be a sideliner for the good or bad...
We shall see...i will wait past episode 5 before i start watching and decide whether worthy or not ...

[Triton823]

Je joon i want him to live in misery as he watches from afar as se min has her happy ending with her son....i want that roach to suffer a fate far from death or the rubber room.

[Guest d0137]

> i openly wish him the same.. watch Jennifer happy with her son from miles away ...
Having taken Ji Mi and Kang family side after being cheated for 7 years i wonder if he really suffered or he just saw it as an opportunity to take the burden to look after his vegetable girlfriend off his shoulders and only lived in guilt for taking that decision....still don't get how he never knew from Hospital that she was pregnant??????and never again went to see how she was doing?????even if married i mean is that even Human????????
Really don't expect him to act any different when he finds out the all truth since Ji Mi is now nuts the writer might come up with him stating that he will not abandon her since he has done this mistake with Se Mi bla bla bla... but i think he must have said that to Se Mi before ... Just make him go crazy as Ji Mi and lock them in one go, moving to next characters that need to be cleared off the scenes  =))
Really didn't get his change of heart and attitude towards that family...to think most of us thought he was a victim...well he decided he wasn't since he accepted it all so well that became one of them ... 

....so i wish him to suffer and go down with his family, with no chance to even see the son from afar ... > ... 

[baduy]

Yet again in today's episode (101) there's a fairly equal mixture of visually pretty understandable parts with sequences where following the details of the dialogue is rather important.

The cliffhanger sequence continues with Jennifer, after a long silence, making a poker-faced response to what Soo Ji had intended as a strictly rhetorical question about whether Jennifer wasn't curious to find out just what Choi had to reveal about her. No, Jennifer says serenely, since she's not aware of anything she needs to hide, she's not the slightest bit interested in finding out what Choi may have trumped up in order to extort cash from Soo Ji. But Soo Ji isn't impressed by her show of cool. Choi certainly sounded like he had something big to reveal, she replies, and for that reason alone, she would have thought Jennifer would have wanted to come with hear what it is, even if she was sure there was nothing in it. But if she won't come along, never mind. Soo Ji says she'll go by herself to find out what Choi has to uncover, then get back in touch.

As soon as Soo Ji has left, Jennifer lets her real anxiety over this development show, but before she's thought out her next move, she gets a call from Seong Yeon, who's waiting outside in her car. She's come over after hearing from Nam Joon that Soo Ji was about to meet Choi, anxious that if Soo Ji learns from Choi about Jennifer's true identity, she'll go straight to Hyeok Min with the news and everything will collapse.

Jennifer says that's a risk she'll just have to take, and she rejects Seon Yeong's offer to go intercept Soo Jin before she gets to see Choi and tell her the whole truth about what happened to Se Mi and her family, in the belief that if she can be persuaded of the truth of those events, she will at least not expose Jennifer (behave as Je Joon is doing, in other words) and maybe even come over to their side. But Jennifer very firmly says she mustn't even attempt that. She doesn't want to win Soo Ji over to her side (It sounds like she has a part mapped out for Soo Ji in the final showdown that requires her to stick with, or rather, to Hyeok Min to the bitter end). And from what Jennifer knows of Choi, he won't want to do a deal with Soo Ji at their first meeting. It's much more likely that he will want to play Jennifer and Soo Ji off against one another and go with the highest bidder, so there's no immediate danger of Soo Ji finding out the truth right away.

When Seon Yeong reports back to Nam Joon, he is as skeptical as his aunt about Jennifer's assessment of the situation, but when we move to the meeting between Choi and Soo Ji, we see that Jennifer's hunch was right. Choi refuses to provide even the slightest hint about what his shattering revelation might me until he sees the color of Soo Ji's money, and the amount he demands, a billion Won, is much more than she has in her bank account let alone her purse. She insists she needs time to think about it, and to raise that amount of cash if she decides to go ahead, and he says that's fine provided she realises that in the meantime he'll see whether Jennifer is willing to match or beat that amount in return for his silence, so she'd better hurry.

Jennifer recalls the phone call Hyeok received over breakfast, and decides on a pre-emptive strike to divert any suspicions away from herself. She calls Hyeok Min and in her best maiden-in-terrified-distress manner tells him she's scared stiff, having received several threatening phone calls from Choi. Just as she anticipates, he tells her not to worry, says he'll soon settle Choi's hash, and puts ex-detective Seo on the case. [it's a pity Jennifer didn't take the opportunity to get Hyeok Min to send the bully boys after whoever designed that ghastly top she's wearing as well, but she obviously hasn't had time to look at herself in the mirror, or her sobs would have been genuine enough.]

Soo Ji tells  Nam Joon that she's minded to raise the money and do a deal with Choi. He urges her to do no such thing, saying she's just being taken for a ride by a conman. But Soo Ji now follows through with Nam Joon the line she'd already taken with his aunt when she queried the story that Nam Joon and Jennifer were only recent acquaintances with no hidden past history. She wonders aloud why he is so insistent that there can be nothing sinister about Jennider for Choi to bring to light, and tells him she suspects that his advice to reject the deal has more to do with protecting Jennifer, and maybe hinself, from discovery than with saving Soo Ji from a trickster. He denies that, but she re-iterates that it's plain to her that he and Jennifer have some sort of long-standing relationship that he's keeping hidden, and it looks like the only way she's going to find out what their secret is is to buy the truth from Choi, if Nam Joon won't come clean to her about it.

Back at the mansion, Jennifer is letting in a caller who looks just like the economy cabin bit-part actors who get dragged in when dailies pass the 100 mark and funds are running low, but who is in fact supposed to be an exclusive jeweller to the social elite who has come to value and discreetly find potential buyers for Evil Mom's collection of rocks and bling. Actually, he's not all that discreet, because no sooner have we seen him depart with the precious items, after which Evil Mom goes to her vanity table and steels herself to maybe parting with the few remaining baubles she hasn't put up for sale, including her wedding ring, than we hear that he's offering the best pieces to Soo Ji's mama, upping their value by revealing the pedigree of their previous owner.

We learn this in the course of a scene where Soo Ji has obviously just asked Mama to give her a billion Won so she can meet Choi's asking price for the dirt on Jennifer, and is getting a very firm refusal. Then the call comes in from the jeweller offering Evil Mom's goodies for sale. [Historical note: this may well be the last time in Kdrama that a character has to pretend not to be annoyed with the design of the offical Samsung Galaxy S3 cases that means they have to open the flap to see who's calling, swipe to accept the call, then close the flap again so they can actually speak. As is very plain from Shark, Samsung is now flooding the Kdrama studios with S4s, where there's a letterbox-style slot in the cover-flap where you can both see the caller id and swipe the underlying screen if you want to accept the call. Of course, this means that the case no longer protects that part of the screen from pocket grime or purse-bottom gunge, but then those Samsung cases never protected the phone anyway, as my son discovered the other day when his S3 fell out of his pocket as he got out of a cab and was a total write-off. Fortunately, Baduy's Principles of Parenting Rule #123 states that offspring over 30 years of age can no longer expect Dad to fund replacements for dropped gadgets.]

The discovery that Evil Mom has been reduced to selling off her finery sends Soo Ji straight over to Hyeok Min's office to do some digging there. He's disconcerted to hear she knows about the sale of the vacation villa, but even more upset to learn via Soo Ji what his mother's been reduced to, which is news to him. However, he assures her that these sales are merely to overcome a cashflow problem which will be completely solved in a few days' time by a means that's no concern of hers. Ah, Soo Ji responds, you're relying on that inheritance of Jennifer's? Again, Hyeok Min is surprised that she knows yet another piece of supposedly confidential information, but then he surmises that Nam Joon must have found out somehow and passed the information on to Soo Ji. Soo Ji asks him straight out is it Jennifer's wealth that is tying him to her, but he protests that her prospective legacy has nothing to do with his feelings for her: as he's told her so often before, he truly loves Jennifer.

A sudden cut tricks us into thinking that Ji Min, holding the conveniently re-surfaced Ye Jin by the hand, is paying an unnanounced visit to the bakery. But we soon realize that we are in yet another of her alcohol-driven delusions, as she imagines herself witnessing Je Joon, Eun Seok and Seong Yeon as a happy family group. a vision that reflects her abiding belief that Seong Yeon is Je Joon's mistress and the mother of Eun Seok. She wakes up, still in the grip of the notion that Je Joon is with Seon Yeong and Eun Soek, and phones him, refusing to believe that he's alone, and in his office. Je Joon thereupon calls Jennifer, says he's just had a weird call from Ji Min and asks her to check up on her. She goes to do that, only to find Ji Min staggering back to her room with whisky re-inforcements from the dining room, having finished her earlier bottle.

Before Jennifer can do any more, her phone rings yet again and this time its Choi, asking does she really think she can afford to ignore his threats and saying he's about to come right over there. Jennifer replies that she will indeed talk turkey with him, but he must stay where he is: she will come to him. All thoughts of impromptu alcohol abuse counseling abandoned, she's about to head on out when Seong Min comes dashing in, partly because the writer has clearly seen too many Feydeau farces and wants to show he can outdo the French master of rapid sequence entrances and exits, partly because he needs money, fast, and Jennifer is the only one likely to lend it to him with no, or very few, questions asked. He's right about that. Despite his frank admission that he can't tell her what it's for, she tells him to text him his account number and she'll transfer the the ten million Won he's asked for the following day..

As she gets into her car to go meet Choi, her driver warns her that someone is tailing them. But she's not at all surprised or worried about that, and tells him to get moving. At their meeting place (where the authentic French bistro decor is somewhat undermined by apparently serving up coffee in Hello Kitty mugs) they are duly observed by ex-detective Seo's minions, and the photographic evidence is soon in Hyeok Min's hands. Of course, just as Jennifer planned, he takes this as proof that Choi is blackmailing her, while being convinced that she can't have anything serious to hide, otherwise she wouldn't have so readily told Hyeok Min about the matter. The teaser tomorrow suggests that Hyeok Min will soon be dispatching some black-suited bruisers to pay a little call on the diminutive greaseball.

In the meantime, Jennifer is telling Choi she knows he already met with Soo Ji, to which he responds by saying that Soo Ji is on the verge of paying him a billion Won for his information, and can she outbid that? She pretends to consider, but says that the most she would rise to is half that amount, albeit cash in hand. She's shrewdly aware that even if Soo Ji were prepared to come up with such a sum, she wouldn't be able to lay her hands on it immediately, but she also knows full well that Choi won't really settle for half the amount, either, so she can buy the time she needs. And her ruse works. Clearly encouraged by Jennifer's apparent readiness to accept that she has to part with a lot of cash, but unwilling to settle for what's apparently on the table just then, and hoping Soo Ji will at least meet his initial price, he says he'll give Jennifer another day to come up with a better offer.

Jennifer is chauffered back to the mansion just in time to see Seo Won come staggering up, having had his own bout of delerium tremens in which he imagined Je Joon caught the pair in flagrante and was strangling him.  So he's come along determined to "rescue" Ji Min from her house and her husband, so that they can run away and, if they can't live together, die together, as he cheerfully proposed they should do in his phone call with Ji Min earlier in the episode. Jennifer tells her assistant to operate the remote control lock that will let the crazed Seo Won into the mansion, then delays her own entrance just long enough for the cauldron to come nicely to the boil, as Seo Won shoves Evil Mom roughly aside and totters upstairs saying he's come to take Ji Min away. Evil Mom phones Hyeok Min in fright, saying she's all alone in the house with the drunken pair and begging him to come right over. He says he'll call the police, but she's horrified by that idea and points out that they can't afford to have Seo Won spill the beans about the many dark secrets he's privy to, so Hyeok Min needs to come over in person to keep things all in the family while throwing Seo Won out.

At that point, Jennifer comes in with her alibi shopping bag, to be told what's going on. She phones her assistant for help, who after a delay long enough to ensure matters get even worse, overpowers Seo Won and throws him out, before Hyeok Min has time to get there.

At the bakery, Nam Joon asks his mother where Nam Hee is, and is told that she's cooped up with Seong Min in the other room, earnestly discussing something or other which they plainly don't want anyone else to hear. She mentions that Seong Min was talking earlier about wanting to rescue his father from the asylum, but Nam Joon reassures her that Seong Min is a sensible guy who wouldn't try such a foolish stunt. But we have our ideas what the project is that Jennifer is, wittingly or not, financing.

Seo Won is still lurking outside the mansion, this time in his car. He calls Ji Min and says he's got Ye Jin and will harm her unless she comes out to join him. In fact, Ye Jin is in the kitchen making kimbap with her Daddy (I do so hope that's a strip of carrot in her hand, not another snake), but Ji Min is so distraught at the threat to her child (this is meant to be a sign that There Is Some Redeeming Good In Her -- does glass-maskish repentance beckon...?) that she doesn't bother to check, or to heed Je Joon's assurances that the little girl is inside the house, perfectly safe.  Whereas she and her hubby, desperately trying to restrain her, are anything but safe as Seo Won revs up his engine and drives straight at them, with Jennifer rushing out but able to do no more than yell "Watch out!!" (or, as the "translate the actual words" school of hamfisted fansubbing invariably renders that cry, "Dangerous!")

[Guest d0137]

@BaduyLove some of the remarks they are great )
Choi is asking for a beat to the pulp session with H Min MAN IN BLACK which he might just get it and so is Seo Won...
Looks like Nam Joon is underestimating Seon Min determination to save his father. It smells like trouble is around the corner and Nam Hee might well get hurt by the MAN IN WHITE in an attempt to help lol.
What could have been the reason writer showed us the evil side of Ji Mi child ? would be funny if there was a snake in the Kimpab, Je Joon would have been in shock and realise he is raising a little snake which will soon enough be like mum and granny to complete the family circle.
What's with Je Joon look on Ji mi alcohol-driven delusion...those dark clothes, patterned dark shirt semi opened at the top and his own behaviour in the delusion: he looked like a debt collector  gangster/Pimp orrrr is he somehow related to the supposedly sly "dead rat"...  =)) , seeing those images the thought that they resembled each other in style crossed my mind ... only the shirt was not from a stall in the Hawai...
From some of your comments i start thinking that Jennifer might want to re-play what had happened but this time around to get them all locked up together, if not dead.  

[Auntie Mame]

@Baduy:  On the days that I don't read your summary and, especially, your comments, my day is totally lacking in joy and fun.  I wonder what people around me think when they hear me laugh aloud because of your editorial comments.  8-}

I was going say that Jennifer must have doctored Ji Min and Seo Won's liquor supply with peyote, for them to be hallucinating like that. (In case anyone is curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyote)

I certainly hope that jTBC doesn't use the typical SBS, MBC & KBS K-drama forgive and forget as a finale.  Instead of hagwons, someone should open up a cram school on how to thoroughly exact revenge.

[Guest d0137]

Baduy's best insights with the comic touch, love them as well...
Auntie Mame said:"I certainly hope that jTBC doesn't use the typical SBS, MBC & KBS K-drama forgive and forget as a finale.  Instead of hagwons, someone should open up a cram school on how to thoroughly exact revenge."

I am following the forum in expectation of a REVENGE drama ending (does not include Glass Mask or Yellow boots.
They killed her mother, dad and supposedly her after ruining her life...begging for forgiveness is nothing specially when it only happens when their dirty secrets are exposed and they are at risk of dying or going to a confinement (prison or asylum).
Before that they carried on living their happy lives and ruining other peoples lives and forgot about forgiveness or having a conscience so WRITER DON'T PULL THE FORGIVE AND FORGET CRAP OR THE PLEADING that make her waver...KEEP IT A REVENGE DRAMA even if it has a sad or mysterious ending for Jennifer's (thinking of A man called God or Bad Guy endings- one disappears but do not die, the other dies) as long as the others receive the punishment they ask upon themselves!

Had to stop writing to catch a flight after 1 hour delay lol!

[elegance1]

I am also hoping for a bitter end - I miss those endings.   :x

[baduy]

Though it's Wednesday, today's episode (102) was pretty Tuesday-ish and uneventful, betraying its original scheduled airing day. No squashed bodies by the roadside, thanks to Je Hoon's unexpected athletic prowess in flinging himself and Ji Min out of the path of Seo Won's car, and even the black-suited pulping squad were notably under-employed since all Choi got was a single whack on the head and the usual threats to his "lovely wife and pretty daughters" (backed up by a snapshot to prove ex-detective Seo knew all about them and where to get at them). Oh, and Seo took his cellphone away, though it's not clear why he did that apart from the need to motivate a further plot complication, of which more in a moment.

If the stealing away of President Kang from the mental hospital was meant to be suspenseful, then the PD seems to have been forgotten that we've only just stopped laughing at the ease with which Jennifer and her aide were able on a previous occasion to extract the same gentleman from that extremely low security establishment without being observed, let alone challenged, despite being dressed like saeguk assassins equipped with baseball caps instead of swords. So it was a doddle for Seong Min and Nam Hee to pull off a repeat performance, especially since Seong Min, true to his reputation for being "very smart", had hit on the brilliant idea of dressing himself and Nam Hee up as paramedics. Though quite why surgical masks should be needed when moving a patient who is neither infectious nor immune suppressed isn't clear. And maybe they would have been a tad less at risk of detection as fakes if the female paramedic hadn't had her arm round the male paramedic while wheeling the patient along, since that's hardly normal professional practice. Anyway, President Kang was duly removed, hitch free, to the apartment Seong Min had rented with the cash he borrowed from Jennifer, and where he says he will from now on personally tend to and guard his father.
    
Beyond that, Hyoek Min vows he'll have Seo Won's blood for trying to mow down his sister, and Evil Mom is terrified he will indeed either murder his former friend or lead him to trade all the dirt he has on the Kang family in return for police protection, so she begs Jennifer to act as a moderating influence on her husband, which she professes she will do, though plainly she isn't trying very hard. Fortunately, by the time Hyeok Min arrives at Seo Won's apartment, with Jennifer following rather a long way behind, Seo Won has decided, in the nick of time, to take Evil Mom's frantically telephoned advice and get out of there while he still can.

Meanwhile, Ji Min is getting nuttier by the minute, convinced that her husband saved her life only so he could have the satisfaction of murdering her himself when he felt more up to it. She sneaks out of the mansion to go ramsacking his office at the company in search of incriminating evidence before really going to the bakery this time, convinced her earlier hallucinations are real, and expecting to catch Je Joon there with Seon Yeong. Once again, Jennifer alerts Je Joon about his wife's disappearance and he goes to fetch her back.
    
Jennifer is also cooking up the next stage of her grand plans with her helper un the US. We are left guessing about the details of what they're referring to, though it seems to involve dealings with Ye Jin's real father, but their conversation is abruptly halted when Hyeok Min comes in expectedly, giving Jennifer barely time to put her conspiracy phone back in its hiding place.

However, the next stage of Jennifer's moves against Seo Won is less enigmatic. She calls his former assistant with instructions to go round to Seo Won's apartment and pile on the agony. He duly appears with a basket of fruit and offers his condolences over Seo Won's plight, deploring the chaos left by Hyeok Min in his fury at not finding Seo Won at home when he stormed there, and asking with mock solicitude just how Seo Won plans to earn a livelihood now he's no longer on the payroll at the Public Prosecutor's office. Seo Won replies that won't be a problem. He graduated with top honors in the bar exam, after all, so he'll have no problem establishing a lucrative private practice, and indeed he's already made moves to find a suitably prestigious office suite to house his new firm. At that news, his former assistant's tone changes. Oh dear, he says, that was rather foolish. He does hope Seo Won hasn't paid any rental deposit on an office, because he hasn't a hope in hell of being licensed as a private attorney. He produces again his little black book recording all Seo Won's misdeeds and points out that if he reveals any of the shady deals he's meticulously recorded, Seo Won will be disbarred for life, and disgraced so thoroughly that he'll never find work again in any capacity, however humble. He departs the scene, leaving Seo Won to take out his rage on the poor innocent basket of fruit.
    
While all this is going on, Soo Ji is trying to phone Choi, but getting no answer, not suprisingly seeing how Choi's cellphone is now in Seo's possession. Seo is intrigued to know why Soo Ji should be phoning the man he's just dissuaded from blackmailing Jennifer, but Soo Ji inadvertently removes his puzzlement by following up her failed call with a text message, saying that she's prepared to discuss a deal and asking Choi to get back to her. Seo decides to find out what sort of deal she's talking about, though his next steps aren't yet shown. The cliffhanger comes when Evil Mom is informed, in Jennifer's genuinely surprised and alarned presence, that her husband has disappeared from the mental hospital yet again.
    
With the high hallucination and nightmare content in recent episodes, we have to be cautious about what the teaser for tomorrow apparently shows; we must wait and see if Seo Won really does find himself in a deep hole in the most literal sense imaginable. I somehow doubt it, on past form.

[Guest yukiyoshinori]

Hi to all  :-h
I've been away so long I forgot my English (joke). I started a 2nd job a month ago and have been too busy and too tired to visit K-dramas and forums online. Now to catch up to all the postings here.

~yuki

 

[baduy]

In today's episode (103) things are really moving, and it looks as though the editing team has got the plot line back into synch with the original schedule despite the loss of an episode, so we can have a big bang cliffhanger tomorrow to take us into the weekend.

Learning of her husband's renewed disappearance from the mental hospital, Evil Mom's first suspect is Yang Hee, but Jennifer says that's most unlikely, and suggests that maybe the President discharged himself [despite offering that daft idea, Jennifer doesn't really think Evil Mom's as pig-stupid as her eldest offspring, but she's trying to deflect attention and suspicion from Seong Min].

Hyeok Min's first suspicion, as he hears the same news from henchman Seo, is that the police may have come to take his father away. After all, he was talking about turning himself in, and that was why they were so anxious to get him locked up as insane again. But Seo says him that wouldn't have happened without some publicity, though he too emphatically denies that Yang Hee, Hyeok Min's next suspect, could possibly have been involved. When Hyeok Min asks about Seo Won, he's told that he'll be grabbed the moment he returns to his apartment that evening.

Seo Won has been called out by Soo Ji, who's baffled by the behaviour of Choi. She explains how Choi said he wanted to offer her a deal, and that she'd shown willing, but then he disappeared into thin air and now can't be contacted. Seo Won draws a triangle with Nam Joon at the apex and Jennifer and Seon Yeong at the base corners. He surmises that these three form the "Nam Joon Syndicate" who are somehow connected in a common purpose, which appears to have to do with damaging the Kang family. He can see what sort of connections there are between Nam Joon and his Aunt on the one hand, and the Kangs on the other, but he can't see how Jennifer fits into the pattern. However, he adds that from what Soo Ji says, it sounds like the key to that puzzle, and maybe the key to the aims of the whole "syndicate", may lie with Choi, the very man who has now disappeared.

Soo Ji responds that she isn't really interested in unravelling the motives of Nam Joon or Seon Yeong. All she really wants to know is the truth about Jennifer. Seo Won taps Choi's name with his pen and writes three question marks under it. [Although I'm not normally keen on BTS shots, and jtbc doesn't routinely publish them in the way the mainstream stations do, I'd love to see how they actually got Soo Ji's knees under that table while she was wearing those heels. I suspect they sat her down first, then lowered the table into place using a crane.]

Seo brings Hyeok Min his copy of the complete contract of sale for the vacation villa, and he wonders about the identity of the buyer. Jennifer makes sure he soon finds out. She phones Seon Yeong to check that the sale has indeed been completely finalized, then tells her she's off to reveal to Hyeok Min that the villa has now passed into the hands of Nam Joon's family. Seon Yeong suspects that that discovery will drive him crazy, but Jennifer replies that that's the whole idea, and she can't wait to see him banging his head against this humiliating fait accompli.

She goes to his office and commiserates with him over the loss of the villa but assures him she will soon be in a position to buy the family a much better villa to replace it, then she asks to see the contract, remarking that she heard that Seon Yeong had just acquired a property in the very same area. She pretends to be astonished that the name of the buyer is none other than Son Yeong's sister-in-law, Nam Joon's mother (there's no reason why Hyeok Min should have realized that, of course, because the purchaser's family name is different from her husband and her son's). Time for Seo to get another vicious kick on the shin, before being ordered to rescind the sale contract, but he explains that it's simply not possible to do that now. Jennifer makes a token effort to restrain Hyeok Min, who eventually grants Seo a stay of execution on the strict condition that he doesn't mess up his assignment to deal with Seon Won later that day. Seo assures him there'll be no mistakes there before being allowed to limp away. In fact, Seo will slip up there too, but Jennifer will be be at hand to make sure he makes his catch as Hyeok Min had ordered.

Seo Won himself is paying an unexpected call on Nam Joon. He explains that with so much time on his hands, being out of a job, he's been pondering various matters, including why Nam Joon should have decided to get a job with Taekang despite the way his father had died. He's concluded, he says, that the only explanation that he is carrying out a long-term plan for elaborate revenge. He's also decided that Jennifer Dyer is plainly a false identity, under which someone who is clearly Korean born and bred is masquerading as an American-raised visitor and has determinedly wormed her way into the Kang family [however, now as earlier, both he and Hyeok Min are so struck by the extent that Jennifer's personality is so palpably different from Se Mi's that  they can't entertain the notion that she might be one and the same person, despite the physical resemblance].

He goes on to say that the fact that Jennifer is so friendly with Nam Joon's sister strengthens the evidence that all three of them are conducting an elaborate vengeance scheme. Nam Joon of course pooh-poohs all this, but Seo Won says there's no need to worry, since the last thing he wants to do is to stand in the way of enemies of the Kang family. On the contrary, he wants to get in on the vengeance act, and if they let him come on board he has some powerful ammunition to use, against Hyeok Min and his mother in particular [This writer's fondness for creating and pointing up parallels surfaces again: we recall how Nam Joon offered Je Joon his assistance in avenging his treatment at the hands of his in-laws, and how Je Hoon turned that offer down, as Nam Joon now scorns Seo Won's wish to change sides, accompanied as it is by a stuffed envelope which is meant as a sweetener to induce Nam Joon to get his assistant (whom Seo Won knows was working with Nam Joon) to forget about revealing the contents of his little black book and so allow him to get a practice license.]
 
Je Joon is spoon-feeding his home cooking to Ji Min, who still wants to know why he is apparently being so kind to her. He asks her to remember all the good times they had together and tells her how grateful he is that, thanks to her, he could send his sister to the States where she was able to grow up and study without the obstacles that confront hearing-impaired young people in Korea. Hmmmm.....
 
Downstairs, there's now only Evil Mom, Hyeok Min and Jennifer left at the family dinner table [Ye Jin having been locked away again in the Not Wanted in Plot closet] and when Seong Min arrives he doesn't join them, saying he's eaten already (and we know where and with whom). Evil Mom asks him meaningfully does he know his father's disappeared again and inquires has he heard any news about Yang Hee maybe having come back to Korea, but he successfully feigns surprise and innocence.

Seo Won is just about to walk into the trap laid for him when he spots that the door to his apartment has been forced, so he avoids the reception committee and hides out in his car. Seo reports the failure back to Hyeok Min, who is still at the dinner table, and when Evil Mom pleads with her son not to go after Seo Won (fearing Hyeok Min will be jailed for murder ) Jennifer reminds her that Seo Won has to  be stopped somehow, seeing how he tried to kill Je Joon and and Ji Min. But beyond this open refusal to intervene to calm Hyeok Min down, she is secretly plotting to lend a hand in Seo Won's capture.

She goes to borrow Ji Min's cellphone (which Je Joon hands over to her with rather implausible readiness while Ji Min is fast asleep cuddling her pink teddy bear [!!]) and uses it to send a fake text in Ji Min's name, telling him to come meet her at once we-all-know-where. While Hyeok Min is on the phone to Seo from his father's study, telling Seo that unless he doesn't kill Seo Won that night he'll be dead himself, Jennifer has managed to slip a shocking pink femme fatale jacket over her girl-next-door shorts and tee, and don some even-more-killer-than-usual heels and is on her way in her limo to the BM. But not without taking care to call Hyeok Min to say where she's headed, adding that Seo Won is going to meet her there. Which of course means that Seo and his thugs show up to drag Seo Won away, leaving Jennifer to gloat "Baek Seo Won... Now you're really done for."

The hideaway apartment where Seong Min has stashed his father is the next stop for those heels [which are being applied to the ground in a remarkably slow and deliberate fashion that makes us wonder for a moment whether Jennifer's been pulled over by a cop for suspected drunk driving and is being made to "walk the line" as in pre-breathalyzer days, but then we realize this slow motion clump clump is supposed to create the Sinister Footfall of Approaching Doom for the President, though he's dozing in his chair so doesn't hear her anyway].  That doom takes the form of the choice Jennifer offers him. Either he's shipped right back to the asylum for good, or he walks "on his own two feet" to the police station and gives himself up for all his many crimes. However, in view of his mobility issues, she doesn't hold him to the walking bit literally, but instead gives him a prosecutor's card to call. His professions of repentance and pleas for mercy are of no avail, he has to choose one or the other. The sole bit of comfort she's prepared to offer is a promise that if he turns himself in she'll take care of his younger son and protect him from what she's going to inflict on the rest of his family, but she's doing that for Seong Min and Nam Hee's sake, not his.

Jennifer gets back to the mansion where Hyeok Min asks her why she intervened to help grab Seo Won when simply calling him to the BM and tipping Hyeok Min off without going there herself would have done the trick [but he doesn't ask her why she's carrying a bag that looks like something some granny took to a corner grocery to stock up on potatoes, but then absent-mindedly left behind -- which is a pity, because we'd love to know the answer to that one]. She says she was so outraged at what Seo Won had done that she couldn't just sit back without doing something to help him get his deserts. Before Hyeok Min can take her up on that, he gets a call from Seo saying that "Everything's ready". Hyeok Min tells him to go ahead and esconces himself in his father's study to watch a live video relay of what we glimpsed in yesterday's teaser, and which now turns out to be anything but a fantasy or dream sequence. And as Seo shoots the ringgraveside view, Jennifer's aide is hiding nearby, sending her a longer-focus but equally live video of the same scene, which she is relishing in her room.

However, it's a very big hole, and there doesn't seem to be nearly enough dug-out soil around to anywhere near fill it it in, but before that problem makes itself felt, Hyeok Min apparently decides that Seo Won has sniveled and groveled enough, and he orders Seo to ease up and leave it at that.

The teaser for tomorrow suggests that wasn't such a good idea. Seo Won, showering clods of wet clay onto his upmarket sofa, is digging out his incriminating files on the Kang family and preparing to go public with them, while President Kang is phoning his wife to say he's handing himself in, and Soo Ji seems to have decisively outwitted Jennifer in the poker game where Choi's information is the jackpot, with the final image (which will almost certainly be the weekend cliffhanger) showing her examining the proof that Jennifer is Se Mi.

[Triton823]

What is so ji's actual purpose in this show? To me she seems to be an extra character that is pointless!

[baduy]

The writer's original intention for that character is revealed in the character outline I translated a couple of months back, but things have plainly been modified since then, with Soo Ji becoming a less "innocent" role, though the basic notion is still there that Jennifer's most formidable foe, and the one who contributes most to her unmasking, is someone who is in one sense as much a victim as she is, and who would have been outraged from the start at what happened to Se Mi if she hadn't been so deceived (and partly self-deceived).

[Auntie Mame]

Since there is no evidence to prove what was done to Se Mi and her parents, the only way Jennifer can exact revenge is to drive everyone to the breaking point and confess.  I guess Daddy is first on the list, since he's admitted to raping Se Mi's mother.  And, Se Won will probably be next.

BTW, whose idea was it to stage the car accident with Se Mi and her father in the car?  Se Won or Hyeok Min?  I don't remember, if I ever knew.

Also, what happened with Se Won's father?  Why did he return to Korea? 

BTW, it's no wonder that TaeKeung Company is going down hill.  No one is running the store, since they're all too busy stalking and checking into each other . . . and going to the 'one and only' bar in town. )

[baduy]

Auntie Mame said:
BTW, whose idea was it to stage the car accident with Se Mi and her father in the car?  Se Won or Hyeok Min?  I don't remember, if I ever knew.

Also, what happened with Se Won's father?  Why did he return to Korea?