[Daily Drama 2016] TV Novel - My Mind's Flower Rain 내 마음의 꽃비 Monday-Friday 9:00/9:40

[baduy]

Sad to say, the writer didn't think much of my proposed scenario for further delaying the recognition scene, despite its inventive use of a flour-sack, pop-up witness bribery and a possible sighting of Elvis Presley. The actual events were just as daft, but,  in my biased opionion, a lot less interesting.

We already knew that YH doesn't have very much between her ears. But today we learned that those ears themselves aren't up to much either. Recognising the woman who mysteriously knew his real name but whom he hasn't been able to track down, James calls out to her loudly enough several times, but she strides away from him totally oblivious. Her deafness colludes with James' vision problems. We already knew that he has problem seeing people's heads in his flashbacks, but now we discover that he has more general vision issues as well, since he collides in broad daylight with an old geezer who's pushing a clumsy plot-device thinly disguised as a handcart. By the time that's sorted out, YH has vanished into one of those Near Miss Facilities conveniently located on every Kdrama street.  He's standing there helpless, which is probably about the best idea he's had so far, since anyone who goes into a Near Miss Facility is bound to come out eventually, when along comes the next plot device in the guise of our long-suffering Heroine, grinning in her usual "bright" fashion and asking in a cut-and-paste bit of dialogue what he's doing in her humble neighborhood. As that chunk of outworn dialogue requires, he promptly asks KN "can we go somewhere and talk?"  And so they do, walking off at the very instant that YH emerges from the Near Miss Facility just a few feet away from them, but safely behind their backs. I still think the flour sack idea would have been  better.

Our wobbly-walled studio Home Town has a specially Elegant-But-Nonetheless-Homey Café, complete with chinzy curtains and bowls of roses that complement the native beauty of the human "flower" KN, where Fathers Too Dim To Recognize their Own Daughters can have awkard conversations with Daughters Too Dim to Recognize their Own Fathers. In this ideal ambience, James tells KN that "his Secretary" [he doesn't of course know that KN is well acquainted with KW] found a witness who has credibly testified that "it wasn't you who pushed HJ downstairs". Which is one way of putting it, but as even our pretty Flower-Brained Girl can see, that phrasing suggests that even now the whole truth about HJ's evil ways hasn't hit James yet. James apologises to KN and says he owes her parents a humble apology, too. KN accepts his apology with good grace, but when he then goes on to ask her to come back and resume running the café-bakery development, she unhesitatingly refuses. Not because she bears him any personal resentment, she hastens to explain, but because she doesn't want to inflict any more distress and anxiety on her parents than this false accusation and criminal charge has already caused them, and if she went back to work for James her parents would have agonising worries on that score. It doesn't occur to James to ask her why she's so sure her parents would have such ongoing worries, and before he gets round to asking, KN declares -- in a way that by Korean standards, then and now, is borderline rude to an elder -- that she's not prepared to say any more about the matter and is taking her leave of him.

We next see James, presumably some time later that same day, who has repaired to different surroundings complete with battered tin-top tables designed to emit a satisfying crash when soju glasses are furiously banged down on them, a suitable place for Fake Daddy to meet him. Fake Daddy gives him a much harder time than KN. Apologizing is all very well, he says, but forgiveness is another matter. Has James any idea how badly KN was hurt to be treated as a malicious liar and accused of attempted murder by someone she respected and admired? That's not the sort of hurt that passes easily, no matter how much of a brave face KN may be putting on it. He downs the shot of Soju that James pours for him (James uses both hands for the pouring, and Fake Dad doesn't turn away as he downs the drink, clear signals that the situation has overridden the normal social hierarchy and made James the underdog) but then gives an impressive demonstration of the bang-generating capabilities of that tin table top, to signal he's not inclined to forget the matter so readily.

Sobered by this encounter, James returns to Bakery Mansions and confronts HJ in the sternly righteous tone he previously showed only when reproving KN for her supposed offenses. "Is it true that KN pushed you?" he demands to know. "Are you doubting my word?" HJ asks with her best "offended innocence" look that fooled Daft Granny so many times. But it doesn't work this time. "Never mind whether I doubt you or not, just answer the question!" he barks. Foolishly, HJ decides to try to face him down. "It's true," she avows. "KN pushed me from behind." "In that case," says James furiously, "I've no choice but to tell you that a witness saw KN come downstairs before you. The other witness who claimed she saw KN push you has admitted she didn't actually see the incident." HJ professes bewilderment, and so does James, asking how can she persist in such blatant lying. Time for plan B. She drops to her knees and admits that out of jealousy at seeing how fond her father was of KN, she made the "little slip" of falsely accusing her. "That was no little slip," James admonishes her. If it was indeed an impulsive act of jealousy in the heat of the moment, HJ has had plenty of time to admit her fault and set matters right. The fact that she didn't do that shows that far from being a momentary slip, it was part of deliberately calculated plan, and the way he feels right now, he isn't sure he'll ever be able to forgive her. "Think hard about how you can make an adequate apology to KM," he orders her. "That's all I can think of to say to you right now."

He storms out, past the eavesdropping Evil Pair. Mrs Fake asks him to be indulgent towards HJ's "little failing". "Little failing?" he ripostes. "Telling slanderous lies about someone... that's your idea of a 'little failing'? I appreciate how hard it was for you to bring up HJ alone, but the way she's behaved is intolerable."  And he leaves the Evil Pair to retreat, as so often, to their Evil Plotting Room to consider their next move, but they can't come up with one apart to keep their heads down for the time being. Back in her room, HJ too would like to think of some totally evil way out of her predicament, but she's equally all out of wicked inspiration just now..

KM is perched on the foot-washing station waiting for her fake father to come home. He tells her where he's been and that James said he made her an offer that she refused. KN explains that she could'nt bear the thought of causing Fake Parents more worry by going back to the only Department Store in town where the Framing Department is very active, but doesn't frame any pictures. Just as well she's now self-employed, since she could hardly go back to working at the Set-You-Up Cinema or the Steal-Your-Recipes Bakery either. Fake Dad assures her that since she so much enjoyed her work on the café-bakery both he and Fake Mom would be happy to see her go back to it. As a cello accompaniment comes to his aid, he proclaims that no parents ever want to see their child not doing the job she loves purely to spare their feelings. KN wants to know does he really mean that, whereupon the piano and violins join in to re-inforce his point, and she's finally tearfully convinced to continue her project.

Next day at the Park Family breakfast table, HJ's previously eager MiL-to-be is having second thoughts after hearing that HJ's account of how KN pushed her downstairs has turned out to be a pack of lies, although her main problem is not so much with what HJ did to "that brat KN" but with the fact that someone saw what really happened and caught her out. She's surprised her Quietly Noble Son hasn't heard already, but he alarms both parents by saying nothing about his fiancé's disgrace but instead saying he always knew KN could never do anything like that.

At the Bakery Mansions, the leaden atmosphere at breakfast inspires Granny to ask the Inevitable Question "Did something happen" so her Fake Daughter-in-law can give the standard shifty "No, nothing's wrong at all" reply.  But Granny for once decides to dig a bit deeper. HJ's looking even more miserable than the others, she observes, so why is that? HJ blusters that she's a bit preoccupied because thanks to the staircase incident she's gotten behind with the planning for the café-bakery. "You can forget all about that" James exclaims sternly. "KN will be back in charge of that project." (He says that with conviction even before he gets his visit from KN a little later, despite what she told him.)

Granny is incredulous. Dropping the criminal charges against KN was one thing and demonstrated the kindness of her son's heart, but surely James doesn't expect HJ to work alongside KN after what KN tried to do to  her?  James doesn't bother breaking things to her gently. "What HJ said was all lies made up to slander KN" he says. Both of Granny's overtaxed brain cells jump wildly to and in her otherwise empty skull until she finally realizes "You mean... KN didn't push HJ downstairs?" Without awarding his mother a prize sticker for insight, James merely addresses his supposed daughter directly. "For the time being stay away from the Department Store. You're confined to this house." Mr Nasty slams down his chopsticks in protest about James treating his own daughter (HAH!!!) so harshly. "It's precisely because she's my daughter that I'm being harsh with her," James shouts back at him. "She's got to learn some human decency." That sends Mr Nasty completely off his rocker. "How dare you imply our HJ isn't human?"

James arrives at his office to find KN waiting for him. She tells him she's going to accept his offer after all. He's delighted but wonders what changed her mind. "It's because my father told me I should do it," KN beams. "The more I hear about your father, the more I realize what an admirable man he is" says James. "That's true," KN agrees with an even broader smile than before. "My father is the most admirable man in the whole wide world."

KN is about to pass through the outer office without speaking to KW,  but he decides to risk a stupid question, even by this show's standards "Is your meeting finished?" though he can't bring himself to look at her as she tells him the news that she's back in charge of the café project. "And it's all thanks to you," she adds. He glares at her as if that was some kind of insult, but she presses on regardless to say how she heard all about how he sought out the true witness and made the false witness admit her lies and that she's hugely grateful to him.  "No need to feel grateful," he says churlishly. "I'd have done the same for anyone at all who'd been unjustly treated."  KN stands taken aback at this downer, and he continues in the same ungracious vein, "Was there something else you wanted to say?" KN leaps at the chance. "Actually, there is something I've been badly wanting to tell you. My mother is actually..."  But he cuts her short. "If it's not a business matter, it can wait till some other time. I'm busy right now." And he paper-shuffles morosely till she says sheepishly "Right. Seeing how busy you are... See you some other time, then," and leaves.

Back at the plotting desk, the Evil Pair can't come up with anything except their shared conviction that "All of this is that brat KN's fault." Suddenly it occurs to Il Ran that it's strange, not only that YH didn't leave for Miguk after all, but that she hasn't been in touch with them since apparently deciding to stay. How come she isn't worried about their not sending her daughter to her unless she obeyed their instructions? "Surely she can't have discovered that KN is her daughter?" asks Mr Nasty. Il Ran says they'd better meet up with her to do some probing.

After getting Il Ran's call, YH explains to Fake Mom that she's not yet ready to reveal to the Evil Pair that she's rumbled their deception over Seon Ah/ KN. She wants to keep the fact that she and KN  have found each other a secret for the time being. She needs to find out first just why the Evil Pair were so keen to trick her into leaving the country.

They meet in the old familiar bullying section of their favorite café. but although YH is still sitting in her usual place on the victim's sofa, she reveals that she now has the whip hand. "Why did you send for me?" she asks. "That's a stupid question," Mr Nasty responds. "Why do you think we sent for you?"  "I asked you the question first," YH insists. Il Ran decides to duck that one, and instead asks YH why she hasn't gone to Miguk. "Because I didn't believe you two when you said you'd send me my daughter if I did," she explains. "So where will that get you?" asks Mr Nasty. "Doesn't it matter to you any more that you'll never ever see your daughter again?" "Quite the reverse,"  replies YH. "I'm acting this way to make sure I do see my daughter." She asks why are they both dead set on getting rid of her to Miguk. Is there some special reason they want her out of the country? "Special reason?" blusters Mr Nasty. "What other reason do we need apart from not wanting to have a piece of trash like you around?"

Then we see the Evil Pair back in the plotting room, puzzling over YH's "strange" behavior. Could it be, Mr Nasty wonders, that YH has formed some suspicions about Il Ran?  If YH  really has found out that KN is her daughter, she must have thought about who might have stolen her baby in the first place, and, more importantly, why they would have wanted both YH and her baby out of the way... That has Il Ran really worried.

KN pays a call on her real Mom (nice to know she looks her up occasionally when she isn't playing house with Fake Mom and Dad as if nothing had happened) and finds there's a present waiting for her. And now we realize what that silly business about buying the two identical dresses was all for. YH tells KN  how she and Fake Mom had fantasized about KN and the re-discovered Seon Ah both wearing identical dresses at their grand Reunion Celebration. Well, KN chuckles, that's not going to happen, but since she's already worn the dress Fake Mom bought her, she'll put on its counterpart right now. Which entails her taking off her blouse, and revealing the scarring on her shoulder. YH is astonished to see it and wants to know how KN came to be so badly scalded. She reports what she's been told: that when she was tiny her gormless Auntie had accidently poured boiling water over her while bathing her. While YH is looking with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism at the scars, up pops Fake Mom and asks YH what she thinks with her nurse's training that the origin of those scars might be. KN looks surprised, obviously never having realized the careless Auntie story isn't very plausible. Fake Mom now reveals that the first time she saw the baby KN, she had extensive inflamed areas of skin which eventually healed into that scar tissue. But YH insists that when she last saw her baby, there were no such injuries on her. They realize that there is an important piece missing here, and that the scars are a clue to the mystery of what happened to the baby after she went missing and before she ended up with Fake Mom.

Meanwhile, Il Ran is reflecting on Mr Nasty's surmise that YH may latch on to the fact that her daughter disappeared for a reason, possibly so that some other baby could be passed off in her place. She flashes back to how she stole YH's baby and was running along with the infant, constantly checking over her shoulder to see if anyone was chasing her, when she crashed into a street vendor and scalding soup was spilled over the child. She tries to reassure herself that even if YH  has indeed found out that KN is her long-lost child, there's no reason why she should suspect that it was Il Ran who stole her away.

Or so she thinks. But at that very moment, doting dotty Granny-Mom is taking her now-slighty-less-clueless son a late night snack, and she spots the embroidered hanky, recognizing it as the one he showed her shortly after he first re-appeared, and had asked her did it mean anything to Granny, which at the time it didn't. He explains that in the meantime he's discovered it was embroidered for him 20 years ago by Fake Wife, which is how he'd instinctively known it was important to him. Really? gasps Granny, reflecting that she's never in all the years seen so much as a darning needle in her Fake DiL's pampered hands. "Really?" echoes James in his turn.

Cut to YH contemplating the other fate-laden example of her embroidery skills, and, we assume, Thinking Significant Thoughts. Or maybe not. Perhaps the absence of the sort of voiceover we expect in dailies at such moments is a realistic representation of her empty noddle. Come to think of it, maybe there's Deep Symbolism in the way James can only recall his lost love as a headless figure.

Next day, we assume, and James gets a surprise visit in his office from HJ. He makes her very unwelcome, reminding her that he told her in so many words to stay home and not set foot in the Department Store building and ordering her to leave at once. Put she pleads for forgiveness, promising never to do anything like that again. James tells her firmly that the final decision about whether she can be forgiven doesn't rest with him. "The person whose forgiveness you need to beg isn't me, it's KN. Have you still not grasped that?"  "But Daddy, KN of all people..." HJ whines.  "So you can't  bring yourself to do that?" James asks unyieldingly. "Well, in that case, never set foot in this place ever again." He cuts off another reproachful "Daddy!" with "If you've nothing to say apart from that, get out of here."

She glumly complies and pauses at KW's desk to take her frustration out on him. "It was you who brought it all to light, wasn't it?" she asks fiercely. "What?" he replies. "Ah, about you being a liar?"   "Just you wait," HJ hisses. "I'll make you regret what you did." "You saying that doesn't scare me in the slightest," KW assures her. "You may not think I'm scary now, but you'll soon see," is her parting threat.

YH is in the low budget studio back lot realistically recreated 1970's smalltown marketplace browsing RED and GREEN thread. You know -- the sort you use to EMBROIDER RED FLOWERS on HANKIES or BABY CLOTHES.  This time, Granny bumbles along and utters an "Omo" of astonished and delighted recognition. After inquiring where YH is now living and promising to come by often, her eyes fall on the RED and GREEN thread. "Goodness me," exclaims Granny. Do you do EMBROIDERY?" "Yes indeed," admits YH, ever since I was really young I've always liked to make EMBROIDERED KEEPSAKES to give to people I FELT CLOSE TO." Granny says that's wonderful and encourages her to keep it up.

When Granny gets back from market, she finds HJ waiting in her office in an agitated state. She says its about her being confined to the house, couldn't Granny maybe sweet-talk her father going easy on her. But to her dismay, she finds Granny is even less sympathetic than James. HJ complains that her father only has ears for KN's side of things and refuses to understand her own position. After all, she urges, she didn't deliberately lie...  "That's quite enough!" Granny yells, cutting her short. Has she forgotten all her former offenses towards KN, let alone this latest incident, the worst one of all. "Your father and I think the same way about this matter," she continues. "You have to stop ignoring the real issues and take responsibility for your actions. Whatever else you do, go and beg KN's forgiveness. Go down on your knees and beg her." "You want me to get down om my knees to KN?" gasps HJ. "Why shouldn't you?" Granny counters, "Despite her being completely innocent, you got her threatened with jail. You think that doesn't warrant going down on your knees to her?" "There's no way I'll ever do that," HJ proclaims. "Demand anything else of me, but not..."  "I've heard quite enough," interrupts Granny. You've said what you came to say, so get out."

Il Ran follows the tearful HJ into her bedroom, wanting to know what's wrong, but is told to go away and leave her alone. "You've got to tell me what's wrong, so I can help you," Il Ran urges her. "Help me?" scoffs HJ. "What exactly could you help me with? Can you overrule Granny? Can you alter how Father feels about me?" Il ran tries to convince her that James' anger will soon die down. "True," HJ concedes. "Maybe it will...  If I go down on my knees and apologize to KN, that is."  Il Ran plainly finds that idea as unthinkable and preposterous as her daughter does. "It's what Granny says I have to do," HJ explains, "she says it's the only way to win Father back round."

Il Ran goes to report this monstrous suggestion to Mr Nasty in their Evil Planning Room. However, this traditional dwelling, despite having a hideous avocado colored landline phone, appears to have an advanced public address system which for once makes eavesdropping unnecessary, since Granny gets to hear every self-incriminating word the Evil Pair speak even though she's nowhere near the Evil Planning Room door. Surely Il Ran could persuade HJ to put on at least a show of repentance sufficient to fool Granny, says Mr Nasty. Il Ran replies that knowing her daughter's headstrong pride, would rather die than kneel to KN, even in pretended repentance, but he protests that she should insist that HJ does what her mother tells her and as Granny orders. Not to mention, he goes on, obeying her own father's wishes. After all WHOSE DAUGHTER IS SHE?  SHE'S MINE, OF COURSE!  Even the extreme dimmness of Granny's wits can't stop her realizing the awful significance of those words, giving us our cliffhanger.

 

[rikimaiu]

Read from other forum that this drama will end next Friday at episode 126. At last we see an end of our agony. 

Now that Grandma has heard what she should not hear, I bet Evil duo will stage an accident to keep her mouth shut. James also needs to be involved in an accident whereby he will wake up and miraculously remembers everything. 

 

[UnniSarah]

1 hour ago, rikimaiu said:

Read from other forum that this drama will end next Friday at episode 126. At last we see an end of our agony. 

Now that Grandma has heard what she should not hear, I bet Evil duo will stage an accident to keep her mouth shut. James also needs to be involved in an accident whereby he will wake up and miraculously remembers everything. 

 

   So very happy to hear that Chingu. @rikimaiu They need to end this drama soon because The lead is never happpppy. 

 

@baduy   I am quite shocked at HJ's bewilderement to see how James is treating her. I find it quite funny and thanks for the translation Chingu.nuoi made it reall fun to read.

[baduy]

Having discovered a part of the truth, Granny gives her listening presence away by dropping her handbag in shock, allowing the Evil Pair to shift into damage limitation mode. Mr Nasty "explains" loudly to Il Ran that what he meant by saying that HJ  was "his" daughter was that in the absence of HJ's real father, he had always played the paternal role, so HJ ought to obey him rather than James.  Satisfied that that will fool the old biddy, they exchange their usual Evil Smirks and then go out to face down Granny.

Granny, however, finally seems to have gained a smidgeon of sense. She gives the pair a scare by saying the racket they were making could be heard all over the house, but the way she makes no mention of what she in fact heard gives them a false sense of security. Mr Nasty is taken in by her ruse (understandably, in view of all the garbage she happily swallowed in the past) and feels able to go on the offensive in more senses than one. He protests that it's intolerable that James should have any say in disciplining HJ against Il Ran's wishes. Il Ran had all the hard work of bringing the girl up when her father was nowhere to be found, so James should have no say in his daughter's "education" now, and he demands that Granny, as family elder, should rule accordingly and veto the absurd notion that HJ should apologize on bended knees to KN.

But Mr Nasty comes unstuck because he hasn't grasped that Granny is a Woman of Principle, and the reason they've been able to manipulate her so far is that they've repeatedly  tricked her into applying her Principles to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. But for once, the facts are plain, and Granny applies her Principles to them very firmly. "So you're saying HJ should be allowed to get away with whatever she likes?" Granny asks, matching Mr Nasty's anger. "Her father has said to her very plainly what needed to be said, and told her equally plainly what she must do," before heading off to her room. But Mr Nasty yells after her "That's my whole point! That approach of his is wrong!"  Il Ran is terrified that Mr Nasty is going to blow it, so she takes Granny aside for a word in private. But she gets nowhere either, and rises rudely to her feet and says she's ending the conversation before she's driven to say something disrespectful to the elder. At that point James comes home to join the party, unwittingly fuelling the flames by revealing that he's come home early to check up on whether HJ has made her apology to KN yet. He's as bewildered as he is offended by Mr Nasty's ranting that he has no right to act like HJ's father when he's been absent most of her life, but Granny calls them all to order, giving her absolute support to James' stance on this matter and leaving the Evil Pair fuming.

The Evil Pair are worried that if she's forced further into a corner, HJ may inadvertently blurt out to someone her knowledge that KN is James' real daughter, not her. They accordingly change tack, and Mr Nasty sets out to persuade HJ that the most important thing for all of them is for HJ to get back into her father's favor, and the only way to do that is to put on a show of apologizing to KN. He promises her that if she agrees to to that, he'll come up with some way of getting KN thrown out, for good this time.

He manages to get her to go through the motions, but when HJ does seek KN out, the "apology" is far from convincing and extremely grudging, and she never comes anywhere close to getting her knees grubby. When KN says she's not convinced that the apology is sincere, so she's inclined not to accept it, HJ accuses her of arrogance and admits that KN is correct in thinking she's only apologising because James ordered her to, and that she doesn't really think she's anything to feel sorry about, since everything she ever did to KN was provoked by seeing the way KN had wormed her way into the favor, first of Granny, and now of James. So if she doesn't want to earn still more of HJ's resentment, KN had better accept her apology and tell James she's done so, otherwise KN will be comitting the heinous offense of coming between a father and his daughter. And if she really thinks so highly of James, KN wouldn't want to do that, would she now?

KN reports to Fake Dad that she's quite certain HJ's apology wasn't sincere and doesn't deserve to be accepted, but she may do so anyway because she indeed doesn't want to think that she is causing a rift between James and his daughter. Fake Dad says it shows the goodness of KN's heart that she puts concern for someone else's relationship with her father above the serious wrongs done to her, and says how proud her real father would be of her if he only knew who and where she was. Wouldn't KN like to find her real father as well as her real mother? Of course she would, she says, but adds that come what may, Fake Daddy would always be her Daddy and she would always be his daughter.

And now we find that Granny really is -- very slowly -- growing some sort of brain. In her office, she recalls what she overheard, and the conviction in Mr Nasty's voice when he insisted he was HJ's father after all. But her train of thought is interrupted by Il Ran coming in with some paperwork and taking the opportunity to apologize for stepping out of line the previous day. Granny says that's pardonable in the light of her understandable concern for her daughter, but Il Ran's brief sense of relief is banished again when Granny says she's trying to seek out people from James' past who might help him recover his memory. Can Il Ran think of anyone from back then who might be contactable? She claims there isn't, but while she's still trying to wriggle out of that one, Granny changes the subject to that hanky supposedly embroidered so many years ago and says how she'd never realized her DiL was so good at embroidery. Ah yes, says Il Ran, she was, way back then, but in the meantime she's been so busy with other matters that she thinks she's lost the knack. All the same, Granny says, she's sure she could embroider a nice hanky for her if she tried. Preferably one exactly like the one she once made for her husband. Il Ran flounders and says it really was so long ago, she really does doubt whether she could still manage anything as skilled and intricate... I see, says Granny, causing Il Ran to doubt what exactly it is that she "sees". It looks as if Mr Nasty's worst fear is being realized, namely that Granny may start to have her doubts about Il Ran really being who she claims to be and is setting her a trap.

Time for an urgent trip to the Evil Planning Room to report to Mr Nasty that Granny seemes to have smelled a rat (or two, or three, while over at the Department Store, Saint KN is smilingly telling James that she's going to accept HJ's apology. James admits he surprised she felt able to do that. It's can't have been an easy decision for her, so why did she reach it?; And now KN, for the first time in our drama, apparently tells a HALF TRUTH (Well, nore like a 10% truth, with a 90% lie to avoid James delving into her true fellings about the matter, which would thwart her determination not to "come between" James and HJ). "It's because I sensed her sincerity." "Her sincerity?" queries James, somewhat pop-eyed. "Yes," KN , "I sensed how strongly she wanted her father to accept her," she explains. "I feel exactly the same way, she adds." James is on the verge of tears over this heroic filial piety. "Yet again, I'm enormously in your debt," he declares. There's just one more thing he'd like to suggest, he says. He wants to appoint HJ as KN's assistant so she can learn her skills. What does KN think of that idea? For a second, it looks like KN might say, "Not a lot, actually," but no, after a very slight hesitation, she says "Sure, fine!"  At which James thanks KN for giving HJ this chance to rehabilitate herself and immediately calls HJ in to hear the good news. He's far too dim to take in that HJ acts like it was a death sentence, not a great opportunity. Plainly, his brain is shrinking while his mother's is growing.

His mother has taken her growing intellectual powers on the visit she promised to make to YH, and, surprise surprise, finds her EMBROIDERING a RED FLOWER pattern. As Granny asks what kind of flower that is, KN and HJ arrive outside KN's store to start her learning experience, and to her horror HJ spots Granny and YH together in the restaurant accross  the way. She's even more horrified when KN cheerfully explains that YH is has been friends with Granny from way back when. HJ  leaves her new reluctant mentor standing and dashes off for an urgent consultation with the Evil Pair on this alarming new development. "What's going to happen if YH gets to see Father?" she wails. "Don't worry," her mother assures her. "We'll come up with a way of driving a wedge between Granny and YH." "You'd better think of something quick, then", HJ warns them. And of course, they do.

It always seems to be breakfast time at the Park family dwelling nowadays. The Lady of the House announces that her future DiL has been released from her house arrest and allowed to go back to work for her father. Her husband says he knew it would all be a storm in a teacup. No father could ostracize his own flesh and blood. But there's a snag, his wife adds. HJ is to be KN's subordinate. KN is going to run the whole café bakery show while HJ will merely act as her assistant. What an appalling thing to do to his daughter, President Park exclaims, making her the subordinate of someone with no background or pedigree. His son disagrees. It merely confirms that James is a magnanimous person who treats everyone according to their qualities and abilities, not their background. No-one seems to notice that this is equivalent to saying his bride-to-be is intrinsically inferior to KN.

At the Bakery Mansion table, James is explaining that because HJ has made an apology to KN, which KN has accepted, she'll be returning to work, though initially as an assistant to KN. Granny exclaims that's a great idea. There's nothing like collaboration to produce great results, she assures HJ. James seems puzzled that his plan has lead ballooned with everyone but Granny, and asks Il Ran whether she's upset, though given the length of her face this is yet another of this drama's trademark stupid questions. Of course she's not upset, she says glumly and concentrates on poker-faced excavations in her rice bowl. 

But there's more appetite killing stuff coming her way. James asks her doesn't she have any contact details of people who knew them in the old days? Even one such face from the past might jog his memories into returning. Il Ran looks on the point of collapse, but Granny, whose breakfast kimchi seems to have reversed her recent minimal mental growth, saves fake DiL's bacon by explaining that she's already asked that the previous day, and the answer was, sadly, no. With all the upheavals of the war and its aftermath, and after so much time has passed, it could hardly be otherwise, Mr Nasty hastens to add.

But then Granny has what would be a brain-wave, if only she had a brain. "What about going to the lodging house where you two used to live?" she suggests. I mean the lodging house run by the hospital where you used to work. I recall Seung Jae once saying that the landlady of that lodging house was especially fond of you" she adds, looking in Il Ran's direction. "True, she was," Il Ran responds with a forced smile as she anxiously treads water. "She had many children herself , and she treated Seung Jae and me just like we were her own kids." "What?" responds Granny. "I thought that landlady was the same age as you?" Alarm and despondency freeze the chopsticks of the Evil Trio until HJ stammers "Mommy's getting very forgetful nowadays..." and Mr Nasty says she's starting to show her age, following up with a forced guffaw with which HJ joins in. But both Granny and James are emphatically NOT AMUSED. They not so much smell a rat as almost spot  one advancing boldly down the table.

Granny retires grim-faced to her room, fetches out her treasures box and unwraps a wrist watch, which we recognize as the one we'd seen Il Ran plundering from what she thought was the dead body of Seong Jae after the airstrike. Granny now recalls how Il Ran had showed up claiming to be the late Seung Jae's fiancée and sayin that apart from a small bundle of clothes, no personal affects of Seung Jae had survived. But then subsequently, a pawnbroker has showed up, saying that Il Ran had once pawned this watch with him, but he now felt he should return it to his bereaved mother. James comes in and she shows him the watch, saying it used to be his. It had been a treasured gift from his father, which he never ever took off. But when Il Ran became a peniless and starving refugee after he was thought to be dead, she had pawned it, but it had found its way back into his mother's hands. All the same, she says, she's always thought it strange that her daughter-in-law could bear to part with that watch, no matter how destitute and desperate she was. "What do you mean?" asks James in an unusually severe burst of stupidity, even for him. Never mind, says Granny. She was just rambling on about nothing in particular...

The Evil Pair's scheme for separating Granny and YH is to reveal  to Granny (who is just about the only person in the drama who hasn't worked this out) is that YH and Julia Kim who had plotted to take the Bakery away from her are one and the same person, while at the same time contriving (in a way too tedious to go into) to make YH briefly re-adopt the Julia persona) then making sure Granny encounters her in that guise. YH begs Granny to believe her that she had never any intention of robbing her of her life's work. But she can't even try to explain that her real aim was to unmask and eject the Evil Trio before  hand ing back the company to Granny's control, because Granny still has no inkling of what the Evil Trio so amply deserved that fate. Granny contemptuouly tells her she never wants to set eyes on her again.

Granny passes by a watchmaker's store, and the owner comes out to hand her the watch we saw earlier, saying it's now been completely repaired. Back home, she prattles on to the housekeeper about the origins of the watch and that she intends to give it back to its rightful owner, and the housekeeper alerts Il Ran. Il Ran reflects that she certainly never gave Granny that watch, so how on earth has it come into Granny's possession? She realizes it must have somehow found its way back to her via the pawnbroker. She recalls how suspicious the pawnbroker was about how she'd come by such a valuable item, and she'd declared it was her bridegroom's. Has Granny somehow acquired information about who pawned it and why? She decides to go do some instant prying, on the pretext that she noticed Granny had come home early, so she's come to see whether she wasn't feeling well. While Granny is supposedly distracted by the business document Il Ran has brought her, Il Ran slips into Granny's room and is peering in horror at the watch when Granny comes in behind her and demands to know what she's doing. Cliffhanger.

[rikimaiu]

What is the significance of the watch ? Why is IR so worried that Granny has the possesion of the watch ? I thought Granny understood that IR pawned it because she needed some money to survive before she came to granny's house. But to IR, even if she pawned the watch, it wouldn't blow her cover. 

[baduy]

13 hours ago, rikimaiu said:

What is the significance of the watch ? Why is IR so worried that Granny has the possesion of the watch ? I thought Granny understood that IR pawned it because she needed some money to survive before she came to granny's house. But to IR, even if she pawned the watch, it wouldn't blow her cover. 

 

It becomes a bit clearer in the first sequence of today's episode, but I'm not sure I'll have time today to recap the whole episode, so I'll sketch he openng in here.

As I already mentioned, when Granny shows James the watch, she says, more or less to herself but nevertheless aloud, that she finds it strange that a newly bereaved woman could pawn her late husband's most precious possession, even if she was in dire need.  James, in one of theis drama's frequent convenient bouts of  sensory falure, asks her to repeat what she just said, but she said to forget it, she was just rambling.

The reason Il Ran is so alarmed by the watch being in Grandma's possession is that she's terrified of each and any link to her past, and the watch is plain evidence that there must be some connection between Granny and her past in Daegu that she doesn't know about, otherwise the watch wouldn't have found its way to there. She now asks Granny how she came by the watch, and learns about how the pawnbroker, an old acquaintance of Granny's, brought it to her and said her DiL had pawned it with him. Il Ran explains that she lied about Seong Jae having left no personal belongings apart from those few clothes because she was so ashamed of having pawned the watch, but she was so desperate she could see no alternative. But why did Granny never let on before now that the watch had found its way back to her? Il Ran is relieved to hear Granny say that she understood how Il Ran must have felt ashamed about pawning the watch and so Granny didn't want to bring the matter up and make her relive that traumatic time. She assures her she fully understands why she did what she did in the circumstances, and why she'd felt too ashamed of herself to admit what she'd done. They need say no more about it.  She settles down on her sleeping-mat  and pretends to fall to fast sleep (but not  before a bit of business about what Granny can and can't see without her reading glasses, which I fear is going to feed into the next Evil Plan...)  and Il Ran, temporarily re-assured, leaves her. But no sooner has Il Ran gone away than we see that Granny is anything but asleep. She sits up fully alert and says "There really plainly is something going on here.," as she casts a look that is suspicious to the point of hostility in the direction of the door Il Ran has just closed behind her.

[joyblack4]

This drama has been nothing but sad when watching it, no  excitement at all, each and every episode the bad people always have upper hands,while the good ones languish in pain, what punishment Will this writer give to a woman and her evil daughter plus the father of evil daughter deceiving an old woman for more than twenty years, on top of that going after the person they stole her adenitity to get raid of her and her daughter.120 episodes is a waste of air time, can any one believe 20year plus no photos of duel couple, even some hints of lies been ignored by the grandma and James coming back with no memory and KW biological mother droping her revenge even when she found her  daughter without the evil pairs help

 when she clearly knows she was been decieved after giving them everything is the dumbest  thing ever happens in Korea dramas. After this drama tv novel dramas never again. 

[valsava]

Hello All I don't know which novel is the worst TV novel Eun Hee or this one .. Too The Moon Alice LOL  

[joyblack4]

@ valsava, all of tv novel dramas, I been watching tv novel  dramas quite some time now,it always end up disappointing me yet I am still drawn to it, even when I said to myself never  again, honestly speaking I will say this one is the worst of all, word's can't describe how worst this one is, 120episodes the criminals are still wining, nowdays I just come here to read the translations nothing else, thank you all for contributing your opinions in this drama,your contributions are the ones thatmakes me not to regret watching it too much,  thanks guys.

good to hear from you @ valsava, see you again and stay well. 

[dramalover245]

On 8/25/2016 at 1:43 PM, valsava said:

Hello All I don't know which novel is the worst TV novel Eun Hee or this one .. Too The Moon Alice LOL  

My vote is for Tomorrow, Victory.That turkey should be served at Thanksgiving!!!

 

[baduy]

A little later in last Thursday's episode from where I left off,

Granny sets up another of her breakfast-table rat-traps up, and once again Il Ran walks into it. Granny extolls the refreshing qualities of the sea-urchin soup and asks Il Ran did she make it herself. No, Il Ran replies, the housekeeper made it with supplies fresh in from Jeju Island. Ah yes, expounds Granny, apparently slipping into senile trivia mode, but with hidden purpose, Jeju Island is reknowned for soup made from a variety of sea-urchin known locally as gusal, which is why it's called gusal soup. Now as a piece of culinary information, that's true enough  (see  http://archive.worldskills.org/2012jeju/enjoyJeju/food-58115.do  ) But at Granny's repeated naming of this delicacy the evil pair flinch slightly, for reasons no subber could ever hope to capture. The Jeju dialect word 구살 is a native Korean term, which can't be written in Hanja. But its second syllable is also the Korean reading of the character 殺 which means "murder". And there are two Sino-Korean words that have the same sound and Hangeul spelling as the first syllable, namely 構 - to construct,fabricate - and 毆 -- to beat someone violently. So 구살 can also mean  "violently murder" or "frame someone for murder", which in view of the sticky end of YH's fake daughter and the consequences for her mother is uncomfortably apt, and suggests that that way Granny says the word no less then five times in two sentences is anything but random. Like the Evil Pair themselves, we can't help wondering whether Granny knows a whole lot more than her outer dippiness suggests.

But her real trap isn't reliant on Hanja punning. Granny expresses great astonishment that Il Ran says she's never heard of gusal soup before. "As far as I'm concerned," Il Ran remarks blithely, "sea-urchin soup is just sea-urchin soup." "That's most strange!" responds Granny. "I distinctly recall reading in one of Seung Jae's letters that your grandmother was one of the famous Jeju Do women divers, and she used to send you gusal she'd dived for herself." Il Ran realizes she's put both feet into it. "Ah, really?" she stutters. It's so long ago now, I don't really remember." HJ sputters and Mr Nasty tries his usual diversionary tactics "My word, what a wonderful memory you have! he compliments Granny. "Gusal, Gusal, I'd completely forgotten about that, too." But Granny hasn't finished the torment yet. "You and Seung Jae ought to take HJ to meet her relatives on Jeju Island some time," she suggests mercilessly to Il Ran. Squirming, Il Ran explains that her parents and grandparents have long since passed away, and she now has no kinsfolk at all on the Island. "Really?" responds Granny. "I'd have thought there would be at least somebody related to you still there."  While the evil pair are more worried about the fact that if they Seung Jae and Il Ran did take that trip toe Jeju Do, they have to share a room and a bed in that romantic spot, something that Mr Nasty says he certainly won't stand for, Granny has concluded that no-one could have a Jeju Do diver for a grandmother and forget all about it because it was "so long ago". She admits to herself that she's coming round to the belief her nephew Dok Su expressed nearly 20 years ago, earning him the vengeful wrath of the interloper, that Il Ran was a fake.

But the fact that she's now finally seen something that has been plain as a pikestaff for 20 years (or 120 episodes, which in all honesty actually seem a lot longer than 20 years) doesn't mean that Granny has found her way out of LaLa Land. YH shows now up and begs to be allowed to explain why she masqueraded as Julia Kim and apparently tried to ruin Granny's company. She had grave reasons for that, YH says, and if Granny will just hear her out, she'll understand both why she acted as she did, and that she meant Granny herself no harm whatever, quite the reverse. But Granny is adamant that she doesn't want to hear. She tells YH to get out or else she'll have her thrown out, and repeats that she never wants to set eyes on her again. YH tearfully says that if at some future time Granny does feel able to hear what she has to say, she's at her disposal any time. And of course, on her mournful way out she has another KDrama Near Miss with James at the company gateway.

By the end of Thursday's episode, the Evil Pair think they have Granny finally stitched up.  By bribing both her lawyer and her doctor, they've got a power of attorney granting them complete control of the company in the event of Granny ceasing to be compos mentis before James recovers his memories and can assume control himself -- we aren't allowed to wonder, let alone actually ask, why if he can manage a department store he can't manage a bakery despite his amnesia. The idea is to slip the power of attorney in with a batch of other routine business documents requiring Granny's signature, then hide her reading glasses. Then they'll produce the medical certificate to establish she's bananas and have her shipped off out of the way, and set about selling off the bakery to the its grasping rival Sam Yeong Foods and decamp with the proceeds. [Actually one thing 삼영 식품 could mean (though it doesn't of course) is "Three Zeroes Foods", and it's tempting to think that, had the name not already been taken by their bigger rival, "Three Zeroes" might have been an excellent name for Granny's bakery once the new rightful owners are in charge, because it's hard to think of three greater nullities in the brains department than James, YH and KN.] Of course, Granny hears their deliberations through the door, but she also hears the Evil Pair realizing they they never destroyed the photo of Seong Jae and YH, which sends Granny on a topspeed totter to the Mansion (she'd have moved faster if she wore flats like most ladies her age sensibly do, but not Kdrama Granny....) to rifle Il Ran's drawers. That takes us across the clifhanger to Granny breathlessly telephoning YH to ask her what her supposedly late and definitely lost hubby's name was, When she confirms it was Min Seung Gae, light finally dawns on Granny and she says she's coming right over to see YH.

But then of course the Evil Duo, who oddly enough were easily outrun to the Mansion by Granny despite her unsuitable footwear, show up and it's time for Granny to have a heart attack watched by the Murderous Pair who make sure she can't get to her life-saving pills before they flee the scene. They are spotted rushing back to the Bakery to set up an alibi by President Park, though they don't see him. He goes into the house (he was calling on Granny re wedding arrangements) and finds Granny unconsious.  He also finds the tell-tale photo whicih the Evil Pair had forgotten about yet again in their haste to leave Granny to expire, realizes its significance, and gloatingly pockets it before summoning help for the old lady. He later first scares them by saying he saw them hurrying from Mansion to Bakery, then gives them false reassurance by deliberately lying about what time that was, so they think their alibi is safe.

There's more apparent good news for the wicked, when Mr Nasty beamingly shows Il Ran a copy of Granny's Last Will and Testament that the lawyer has slipped him. To their delight, they find that the will leaves everything to her DiL in trust for her granddaughter, so Mr Nasty says they won't be needing to get her signature on the power of attorney and they can dispense with the certificate of mental incapacity, too. There's just the little matter of making sure she dies without further dithering. Il Ran is attending to that tidying-up operation when James shows up and demands to know what she's doing.

So we enter the final stretch -- stretching our patience and the bounds of probability, that is.  Time soon for James, YH and KN to start doling out the all-round forgiveness that they've probably already pre-ordered, had delivered in several huge truckloads and stockpiled in their storerooms.

Text oreview for tomorrow:

Learning via Seon Ho that Il Ran and Su Jeong are planning to sell the Bakery to Sam Yeong Foods, Dok Su  summons an emergency meeting of the Company Board to hold them to account.

Meanwhile, President Park hears of the proposed sale of the Bakery and demands that Il Ran must cancel it, telling her how he witnessed the two of them on the day Granny collapsed.

 

[baduy]

So, into the mercifully last week we go, and both the writing and the plot are still getting even more ridiculous. "What are you doing?" demands James, but although Il Ran's body language plainly says "I was about to bump off your dimwitted mother and run off with the loot", her words "Mother's breathing mask had slipped and she seemed to be in discomfort, so I readjusted it" are enough to fool him completely, and so Granny gets to live another thirty minutes or so of runtime. 

"I thought you'd gone home before me,"James remarks adds, faintly puzzled as always. She sure had, but she'd beetled back after discovering what was in Granny's will, and deciding that will had to come into force without further delay. She gets off James' feeble hook by re-interpreting that as "I did, but I couldn't sleep through worrying about Mother, so I cam back to put my mind at rest." Such thoughtfulness moves James to the verge of tears. "Thank you," he snuffles, "You're a daughter-in-law like no other". Many a true word is spoken through idiocy as the old saying doesn't quite go. Il Ran seizes the chance to pile it on extra thick. "Living all these years with your mother, I've come to think of her as my own mother rather than yours," and James gulps it down with gratitude.

Next morning, HJ is apparently surprised to take a call from the hospital (who else did she think would be ringing that early in the morning, some Evil Deed for the Day Suggestions Service, maybe?) and the family is summoned to hear the news that despite her brief return of consciousness the previous day, Granny's condition has worsened overnight, and there's no further hope of recovery. "You mean... you're saying... she might DIE?" HJ asks in a way that shows her switch from medical studies to bakery management was on the whole a Good Thing for the health of the nation.

What bothers Mr Nasty when he and Il Ran confer in the corridor in stage whispers is that, in the brief recovery of consiousness the doctor mentioned, "Granny may have said something about you and me". But Il Ran assures him that wasn't the case. She just opened her eyes for a moment, asked for her son, then fell back into unconsciousness again. So they're in the clear, provided Min Dok Su doesn't suspect anything about his Aunt's collapse. They decide to tackle that one by a variant of the way they framed YH for the killing of her fake daughter to deflect attention from themselves. In a sequence even more tedious to summarize than to watch, they manage to do just that.

Learning from his son, via Dok Su,  about the plan to sell off the Bakery to Sam Yeong Foods,  President Park reveals to the Evil Pair that he lied about the time he witnessed them leaving the Mansion in a hurry and that if he tells the truth, they will become prime suspects, so they'd better back off from their plans. Dok Su overhears pert of this. He had already threatened to summon an emergency Board Meeting to question the Evil Pair's authority to make s uch a sale, but Il Ran brandished the document supposedly signed by Granny, giving her full power to act in her name. This puts Dok Su in line to be made a scapegoat.

Dok Su tells James what he overheard President Park saying about the Pair scurrying away from the Mansion only moments before he found Granny unconscious, but while James is still wondering about what to make of that, the Bent Housekeeper, primed by Il Ran, has told him that Dok Su had been seen rushing out of the Mansion just before Granny was found. This leads to what must be the craziest scene so far in a drama that hasn't stinted on such things, with James taking Il Ran aside and asking her what sort of a person Do Su is, and whether his word can be trusted. He's basically a good man, she says, but his greed got out of hand and he had to leave the bakery after this plans to grab it for himself and disinherit HJ in favor of his own daughter were uncovered (Incidentally, that little girl is the only character in the whole drama with a well-functioning brain, but we got to see too little of her: I think we can expect to see great things of the child actress who played her in years to come).  That settles it for James. Cleary the Greedy Uncle has tried to incriminate Jame's saintly wife and her noble brother while villlainously polishing Granny off himself.

Meanwhile, the thought has VERY slowly formed in that mass of wadding between YH's underperforming ears that since Granny was intending to rush over to see her urgently when she had her heart attack, it might just possibly  be a good idea to pay the patient a little call on her deathbed. Which she finally does. With Granny in Kdrama Unnoticed Finger Twitching Mode, she reflects aloud on how glad she is that Granny was apparently prepared to forgive her the Julia Kim antics on the grounds that her lost husband and Granny's long-lost son had the same name (even in the possession of that information, YH can't make two and two add up to much more than a tad over 3) It's the best news she's,had  she continues,  since discovering that her real daughter is still alive, and moreover that that daughter is none other than that "lovely, pure-hearted girl", KN. Granny's finger twitch becomes more like a live octopus wrigling on its way to the boiling pot in one of the endless food porn shows that KBS churns out between dramas and variety slots, and she even makes a moribund attempt at the Fist Of Vengeance. None of which YH spots of course, but she does notice that Granny appears to be shedding a tear, which she gently wipes away with the HAND EMBROIDERED RED FLOWER HANKY she's brought along, and which she presses into Granny's hand saying "please wake up so you can use this hanky", so this drama has at  least added something new to the Kdrama List of Daft Things to Say to Dying People. Next morning, James finds the hanky in his mother's hand and gives it to the petrified Il Ran, saying blithely "I think this is yours." "So it is," she says looking as though she needs to share Granny's life support system, but of course James spots nothing odd. Il Ran hastens to dump the hanky in a handy Kdrama Don't Chuck Incriminating Items Into Here Or You'll Get Found Out trash can in the hospital corridor.

That night YH is visited in her slumbers by Granny's departing spirit, who apologizes for all the sufferings she's caused YH and in the Understatement of the Century adds "I ought to have seen the truth sooner". (Of course, even with the insight of dreams, YH is clueless about what Granny means by that "truth") . "But never mind," adds soon-to-be-totally-ghostly Granny, "from now on I'll be watching over you and my granddaughter, no matter what. When you meet my son, be sure to tell him how sorry I am". Then we're transported into dying Granny's head (there's plenty of room for all of us there in that vast empty space) to witness her Vision of What Might Have Been  before she reaches out to touch her sleeping son's hand, waking him to hear her last words "Seon Ah... My baby!" before James once more demonstrates the endemic Kdrama belief that death is merely a form of deafness, and that if you yell at the newly deceased loudly and reproachfully enough, they'll "wake up".

Cliffhanger.

 

[rikimaiu]

This drama really lives up to the expectation of a very typical daily drama. The bad guys winning 99% of the time and the good guys are the dumbest set of people. It's amazing how the bad guys are ALWAYS at the right place and the right time overhearing converstations to their advantage and 100% of the time they are able to bribe anyone on to their side and do their bidding. 

It looks like the EvilDuo are the main actor and actress in the show. They got so much screen time and the most common scene is the two of them always together either in their room or in the office scheming. 

The supposedly 2 male leads have the least screen time and are the weakest characters. Their presence in the show is so insignificant. 

While watching this drama, I have always wondered how the writer thinks because a lot of things just don't make sense. If the plot looks so ridiculous to us, wouldn't they think it is ridiculous too ? Didn't this drama goes through a committee to get it approved and the people who approved (who should be very experienced) it didn't find it ridiculous ? 

The only good news is that this drama will be ending this friday. Will I watch another TV novel ? Most probably because I am a sucker who is always hoping that the next one will be better than the previous one. I just can't believe that there isn't any intelligent TV novel writer out there. Perhaps I need to be taught a hard lesson to wake up to reality. 

My salute to @baduywho provides such interesting recaps. 

[baduy]

 

FINALLY, in the very last minute of today's episode, the Baddies start to come unstuck. All thanks, as I prophesied, to Il Ran's hasty chucking that HANKY EMBROIDERED WITH A RED FLOWER into the hospital's Don't Chuck Incriminating Items Into Here Or You'll Get Found Out trash can. But we've still 35 minutes of genuine trash to sit through before we get there.

Reflecting in the presence of Granny's corpse, Il Ran shows her Softer Side. Recalling how all those years ago, Granny virtually fooled herself into taking her in without much deliberate effort on Il Ran's part, she says she sincerely wishes Granny had never found out she was an impostor and so could have died in peace. She thanks the old lady for the love and care she's given her and her daughter over all those years and vows that in future she will repay her debt by ensuring that she and HJ take the best of care of Granny's son and look after her heritage.

The funeral comes round, and to the horror of the Evil Pair, YH and KN show up in full mourning. Mr Nasty swiftly distracts James before he catches sight of his real wife, while Il Ran fiercely chastises her for daring to show her face at the funeral of the old lady she killed. When YH is understandably puzzled by that accusation, Il Ran claims that what led to Granny's fatal heart attack was her bitter disappointment at discovering that the YH she thought so highly of was none other than the villanous Julie Kim who had brought Granny's bakery to the brink of ruin.

YH is, of course, daft enough to believe that, and tells KN that they should go quietly away again as Il Ran demands.  But for once KN applies a little sense to the situation and asks YH why she is lending credence to the words of a woman who has told so many malicious lies both to and about her in the past. She persuades her to go into the funeral hall regardless. Quite how the Evil Pair then manage to avoid James seeing her there, given the customary Korean condolence rituals, we are left to imagine (or rather the writer hopes that in sheer gratitidue at the thought of being soon released from our torments with this drama, we'll refrain from asking that sort of awkward question, in case we get punished by a 20 episode extension.)

Back at the mansion, James has been acquainted with the contents of the will and finds them wholly fair. In fact he declares that there need be no delay in execting his mother's wishes, and tells Il Ran to take over as President of the bakery starting next day. Then the phone rings...

A new, later, will of Granny's has turned up, made just before her collapse. The lawyer will attend to read it to the family at three o'clock the next day. A little before that hour, Mr Nasty has a henchman in place outside the lawyer's office, who waits till he emerges to walk to the Mansion, then grabs his briefcase and makes off with it. So much for the new will. Except that the lawyer, although arriving will-less, says that of course Granny was given a copy for her own safe keeping and the doubtless it will be somewhere among her belongings.

Il Ran and HJ try to persuade James to "get some rest" while they take on the business of frantic rummaging, but he insists on joining in the rifling of Granny's boxes and drawers, with HJ on his right and Il Ran on his left. He is only a foot away when Il Ran spots the telltale legal envelope and hastily pushes it back out of sight. At a signal from her mother, HJ on the other side of James yelps in pain as she pretends to prick her finger on Granny's sewing kit. While James is fussing over HJ. Il Ran grabs the envelope and rushes off to meet Mr Nasty in the Conspiracy Restaurant. As they feared the new will makes no provision for them. In the light of the fact that her son has wealth and a flourishing business of his own, Granny leaves the Bakery her father founded to her nephew Dok Su, thus still keeping it in the family.

Mr Nasty has at the ready a fake version of the new will, which keeps the core provisions of the earlier one they had been relying on, with the only substantial change being the explicit disinheriting of Dok Su and his daughter. He slips it into the envelope the new will came in and Il Ran then creeps into James' bedroom while he is asleep and secretes the fake new will in his closet, where of course next morning James finds it and summons the family, including Dok Su, to hear its contents. Dok Su is furious and declares the "new" will an obvious fake, since Granny would never have changed her will in a way that treated him and his family so badly. A fierce row ensues, with James convinced that Dok Su's objections are proof of the "greed" which Il Ran said was Dok Su's weakness.
 
Meanwhile,  President Park, over at his office, is staring at the photo he found on the floor next to the unconscious Granny. His minion comes in to report on his investigations about how Seong Jae and Yeon Hui had worked together at the "One Heart" hospital in Seoul and had been planning to marry when the war intervened. Park now grasps the truth and is in a dilemma. He has of course always had a soft spot for YH, but he realizes that if he exposes the injustice done to her and the wrongs done by the  Evil Pair, that will destroy his prospects of swallowing up the bakery into his own business empire through the marriage of his son to HJ. Whereas if he  holds his peace, he will always have a stranglehold over Il Ran and Mr Nasty that he can exploit to his advantage. His wife comes in an scolds him for not going straight over to the bakery to congratulate his future in-law on succeeding to Granny's position and wealth. He agrees they ought to go and do that without further delay.

They burst into the bakery office and almost catch the Evil Pair in flagrante, intoxicated as they are by the realization that "All this" is now "theirs", and President Park, without his birdbrained spouse noticing anything is amiss, sends out repeated plain signals that under his congratulatory words there lies the menacing message that he's rumbled them, so they'd better realize that from now on, he has the whip hand.

James has returned to his office in the Department Store, and KW comes in to tell him that a nurse from the hospital where is mother died has brought an item over, saying James' wife must have accidentally dropped it. It is, of course, a HANKY beautifully EMBROIDERED with a RED FLOWER. Oh dear, says James, that shows how distraught his wife must have been over his mother's death. There's no way she would normally have been so careless with such a precious object as to leave it behind without noticing. So where did the nurse find it? KW shuffles in embarrassment, and hesitantly says she found it in a trash can in the corridor.  "IN A TRASH CAN?" repeats the dumbfounded James. "I guess your wife must have accidentally had it in her hand when she threw some rubbish in" answers KW without much conviction."  "Really?" says James, with the sort of skepticism he's previously kept reserved for KN's attempts to profess her innocence.

Back at the mansion, the Evil Pair are considering how to tackle the President Park Problem, but their latest evil plotting phase is interrupted by James' return. He goes to change out of his business suit, and Il Ran hastens to offer to help him, apparently forgetting that he is steeped in the decadent individualistic culture of Miguk, where men actually take off their jackets and hang them in the closet without relying on a dutiful wife's assistance. But before taking his jacket off, James reaches into his inside pocket and says "Ah yes, you've lost a handkerchief, haven't you?"  He was plainly expecting her to be surprised and overjoyed that he's retrieved the precious item which she must surely have missed, but his hand freezes in his pocket when she cheerfully replies, "A handkerchief? No, not that I know of." He stuffs the hanky back out of sight, and says "You mean you haven't lost a HANKY EMBROIDERED with a RED FLOWER??"  "No," she confirms, why do you ask?. "Never mind," he says, clearly minding a great deal, but she notices nothing and tells him to come join them for dinner once he's finished changing. She at once goes to her room and verifies that "her" hanky, the one Mr Nasty had made to trick James, is still there. But in the meantime, James has taken out the REAL hanky YJ had thrust into his mother's hand and is looking at it intently.

KN is paying one of those visits to her real mother, and finds her lovingly folding up those baby clothes EMBROIDERED with a RED FLOWER. YH reveals that, while he was  looking at these baby clother she was making, her father had suddenly come up with the name Seon Ah for her. [Lucky she turned out to be a girl, eh, but let's not allow such commonsensical consideratioms to intrude in these fantastic realms...] While, in his room, James, still intently gazing at the hanky, has a sudden headache attack worthy of third-rate actor in a low-budget painkiller commercial and remembers himself suggesting to his (still invisible) beloved that they should name their child Seon Ah. Then he remembers his mother's puzzling dying words "I', sorry, Seon Ah. my baby! and that he'd heard her referred to her DiL not as 'HJ's mother', but as 'Seon Ah's mother.'  SO...  light seems to start to dawn, taking us into the cliffhanger as he asks himself who Seon Ah's mother can possibly be if it isn't the woman claiming to be his wife.

[joyblack4]

@ Rikimaiu, @ baduy, thank you guys so much for translating this drama, believe me, you guys are daring  to be able  sit  dawn and watch full episode of this drama without losing your cool , I will say this, it takes a lot of courage to do that, because for me the last time I watched this drama, I am watching it,fast forwarding it equally angry, I just do  myself a  favor and stop, so right now I am just waiting to hear what happened in the ending whether the writer finally decide to make the evil doers president of south Korea, or they received award for wining hundred percent in this drama, nevertheless, I don't want to trust anything called tv novel drama anymore because no good  story will come out of it. 

[baduy]

Ep 124 begins with the Evil Trio  amusing themselves at the breakfast table by practising their new status titles, with HJ reminding her mother to get a move on over her wedding now she's in the driving seat of both the firm and the family. They don't notice James' pensive silence, till he suddenly asks "Tell me, who is Seon Ah?" Well, that sure ruins their day before it's even started. "How do you know about Seon Ah?" asks Il Ran anxiously. "Have your memories come back?"

That regrettably gives our writer yet another chance for resumé-enhancement through demonstrating skills at writing "natural" dialogue for language-learning textbooks.
On the verge of death, my Mother called out for someone named Seon Ah".
On the verge of death, your Mother called out for someone named Seon Ah?
Yes, On the verge of death she called out for someone named Seon Ah."

OK class: that's 임종 or 臨終, literally "drawing near of the end" and 직전 or 直前  "immediately ahead" You all written that down? Be ready for a vocab pop quiz any time soon now. But that's enough fun for now, we've a tedious drama to get through before the bell goes for recess.

James breaks off the grammar drill to add an new item that paralyses them all. "Yes, she said 'Seon Ah, my baby'." "Is that all she said?" inquires Mr Nasty, as if that wasn't bad enough, and this time James opts for the other form of vocabulary re-inforcement, namely paraphrase to show the learner that two ways of saying something are equivalent in meaning. "Yes, those were her only words."

But the Evil braincells are working again now after the shock. "That was your name for her before she was born", Mr Nasty explains. Il Ran shoots her partner in evil a look that says, "Heck, the guy's goofy, but will he really fall for that one?" But James is too intent on enhancing foreign viewers' grasp of Korean usage and culture to notice anything amiss. So he obligingly repeats "Her name before she was born?" That gives Il Ran the chance not only to repeat the key piece of vocab, 태명 or 胎名, literally "fetus name" a third time, but also to give an explanation for the benefit of any non-Koreans watching their first Kdrama (although if anyone is unlucky enought to pick on this drama as their first acquaintance with the genre, it may well also be their last) and who doesn't know about the Korean practice of couples thinking up a name (often either ultra-cute or embarassingly aspirational, like "genius") for their unborn child which they have no serious intention of using once the infant is born (and in traditional families, the grandparents are the ones who settle the name the child will be registered as, not its parents, so this is the parents' only fleeting chance to call their own child what they themselves want). But Il Ran is aware that Seon Ah is rather too "normal" a name for such a use, so she adapts Mr Nasty's brainwave to make it a bit more plausible. "Yes. Don't you remember? At the hospital when we first learned I was pregnant, we decided that we'd call the baby Seon Ah if it was a girl, and Seon Jun if it was a boy." "I see," says James, looking perilously close to being taken for yet another ride. But just like his real daughter, he does have occasional attacks of common sense, albeit they are very rare and shortlived. "But..." he continues, "in that case, why did you name her Hae Ju instead of Seon Ah?"

That sets Mr Nasty's chopsticks nervously twitching again, but Il Ran isn't out of ideas yet, and she produces from up her sleeve the "Grandparents Decide The Name" card and plays it cleverly. "Ah yes... well... you see, your Mother consulted a very famous authority on child naming, and came up with the name Hae Ju." "Ah, I see" James says, but as on an earlier occasion when Il Ran was pulling the wool over his eyes, his tone leaves it uncertain as to what exactly it is that he's seeing, and his look suggests he's far from satisfied. Presumably even he can't help wondering why with her dying words Granny should abandon the name chosen as auspicious by an expensive expert in the matter for one used by the parents before the baby was born and which James had never before heard cross her lips. Mr Nasty plainly is worried that the explanation hasn't been convincing, and he picks up his rice spoon while still keeping hold of his chopsticks, a piece of uncouth table manners he wouldn't have gotten away with when Granny was still at the head of the table.

But as their hastily convened Conspiracy Consultation immediately after  breakfast reveals, Il Ran has another worry too: can they be sure, she asks, that what James just reported was all his mother told him before she died.
Mr Nasty assures her that had his mother given James any hint of what she'd discovered, he would have been treating the three interlopers very differently. Il Ran takes his point. The way James actually brought forward her taking ownership of the company shows he can't have any inkling of the true state of affairs. They convince themselves they've got clean away in this occasion, too. But in Jame's bedroom, his thoughts show that they most certainly haven't. "So we decided on that name together in the hospital? That doesn't tally with how I remember it..."

Over to YH who is laying out her latest batch of side dishes when KN comes in and exclaims "Wow, bracken!!"  [Yes, bracken. Although bracken grows virtually everywhere on the planet, Korea is one of the few places that people regularly eat lots of it. You probably have too if you've ever tucked into bibimbap, of which bracken is a common constituent] "Bracken is my favorite vegetable!" explains the Innocent One. "Really!" says YH. "It's mine too. Isn't it amazing how mich we're alike?"  [Well actually, no. You do remember that you now know you're mother and daughter, don't you?] "Your father was really fond of bracken, too." [Well, that was in the 1950's before there was the scientific awareness of the now-known carcinogen in bracken and a suspicion that that is linked to the exceptionally high rates of oesophageal and gastric cancer in Korea: a lot of medics nowadays stay well clear of the stuff, while still gulping down all the red-hot spicy items which pathologists outside Korea suspect may be largely responsible for those malignancy rates]

The jollity interlude is soon over as KN goes back to her fake family and learns from Dok Su what happened over Granny's new will. He explains that he's leaving on a trip to find a witness who can testify that Il Ran is a fake. Over at the bakery mansion, James overhears HJ talking to the Bent Ajumma after giving her a present for her daughter, who has just given birth. Despite being under Il Ran's thumb, Bent Ajumma was fond of the old lady. She says that had she not been absent from the house on that particular day looking after her daughter who'd gone into labor, Granny might still be alive. Hearing that, James recalls how the selfsame Bent Ajumma had fed him the story supplied by the Evil Pair to get themselves off the hook, namely that she had seen Dok Su at the house just before Granny collapsed.  He then remembers Dok Su telling him that President Park had seen not him, but the Evil Pair scurrying away from the house on that occasion.

At that moment, HJ arrives to accompany him in to work, and he says he's told that the ajumma's daughter has given birth. That's right, HJ confirms, to a girl. He's like to send a present too, he explains, so would HJ find out what the new mother's address is. Sure says HJ, she'll ask the ajumma. Don't let her know you're asking on my behalf, James urges her. I want the present to be a surprise.  Well, it's not immediately clear what James is up to here, but at least, after all these episodes of being led by the nose, he seems to be up to SOMETHING, which is progress of sorts.

At his office, things become clearer as he asks GW to check out the woman who lives at the address on the slip of paper he hands him. She recently gave birth, but he needs to know exactly when. GW detects that his employer is very uneasy about something, and James admits that he's in confusion because he senses there's something amiss concerning his mother's death, but doesn't know who or what to  believe among his family members, which is why he needs KW's help. He says he wants to ask one further service of him, namely to "investigate some of the people surrounding me". GW isn't quite sure whom or what he means, so James provides him with a verbal list. "My wife, her elder brother, and Dok Su.. Oh, and President Park as well. But it has to be done with absolute secrecy."

Immediately he's dispatched GW on his detective mission, James calls up Il Ran to invite her to have a "cozy little dinner together" that evening, just the two of them. She's taken aback at first, but then agrees to come over to the Department Store after work. She tells Mr Nasty she won't be home for dinner that evening, but lies to him that the reason is a need to attend a meeting she'd forgotten all about. So Mr Nasty is gobbling his home-made mixture of left-overs when HJ comes home and shocks him by saying her mother and father are off for a cozy dinner together somewhere.  

That sends Mr Nasty out into the street to catch Il Ran, and he grabs her just as GW is coming the other way, pondering his investigative mission. GW steps back out of sight to observe their row. Mr Nasty is ferociously jealous, and asks whether Il Ran has fallen for James and is planning now to dump him for all his pains. (Actually, to judge by Il Ran's thoughts over Granny's dead body, that's exactly what she has in mind...) He demands that she sleep with him that night to disprove his suspicions. From a nearby payphone, GW calls a contact he's apparently already asked to help with his investigations, and asks him to prioritize investigating the woman calling herself Seo Yeon Hui who's associated with his father.

Il Ran arrives at James' office to find him suffering again from either bad acting or a bad headache or both. She suggests taking him to hospital, but he says he'll be fine once he's gone home to rest, but it looks like their evening date will have to be cancelled. He says that what's now troubling him most was that his mother must have suffered agonizing pain that could have been relieved if only her medication hadn't been just a little way out of her reach. After taking him back home, Il Ran  has a dream encounter with Granny's ghost who accuses her outright of murdering her. Shocked into wakefulness, she gets up and leaves her bedroom, only to find herself stepping on Granny's pill bottle. "What was her medication doing right outside my door?" she asks herself, unaware that James is secretly watching her reaction to that find. Quite how he arranged with his mother to pay the haunting visit that brought Il Ran to encounter that conscience-stinging object isn't at all clear.

It's next morning at the Park mansion, and their normally placid son is giving his parents a shock -- although in his usual placid way, of course. He's being transferred to the Gangwon Province division as part of a downsizing of the production staff. His father is furious at this treatment, saying those two obviously don't realize how much they're beholden to him. He calls Il Ran and demands a meeting, despite his son's pleas to stay out of the matter. When she refuses to discuss his son's transfer, he hints that he's in possession of a photograph that could cause Il Ran big problems if it was seen by certain others. He found it on the floor after Granny had been rushed to hospital. That leads Il Ran to ask breathlessly where he is right now so she can come straight over. "Instead of asking me where I am, you ought to be wondering where I'm going next. I rather think I ought to go show James this photo, he smirks." "Just what are you up to?" gasps Il Ran". "I guess we'll just have to see who gets to me first," he chuckles and hangs up.

President Park sets off for James' office, but meets him in the street coming in the opposite direction. "I need to have an urgent word with you..." he begins but at that moment the Evil Pair come pelting up, panting for breath. I'm delighted you're all here, proclaims Park. "You are?" asks James, relapsing into cluelessness. Indeed yes, affirms Park. What I have to say is of interest to all of you." "No! Please talk to me alone first" begs Il Ran, but Park takes no notice. "What I want to say is..." he begins and enjoys heightening the Evil Pair's torment by a long pause " that we ought to confer about date of the kids' wedding in the light of recent events." "If that's all," James responds, "then a postponement until the Autumn might seem appropriate."

The Evil Pair and Park repair to their favorite plotting hostelry where he reassures them that the photograph will be safe him. "But in return, I require a half share in the Bakery." He leaves them indignant and horrified but powerless, warning them they'd better give him an answer fast.

GW reports to James with a certificate showing the ajumma's granddaughter was born just at the time of Granny's collapse, bearing out what she said to HJ about her not being at the mansion at the time and indicating that her tale about Dok Su being there was a slanderous lie. He goes home to confront her, and she finally admits she lied on Il Ran's orders. He tells her to resign at once and to contact Il Ran an let her know she's quit her job, which she duly does, making Il Ran very anxious, since she knows tha ajumma was badly in need of money.

Meanwhile, James has gone into his Mother's old room and remembers how she told him that there was something weighing on her mind, but she preferred to say nothing more until she had been able to check out the matter further, just in case she was mistaken (we know she was referring to finding the man whom Dok Su has now gone in search of who could vouch for or refute Il Ran's identity). He recalls his mother's last words and the awkwardness with which Il Ran had tried to explain why his mother should have spoken of "Seon Ah" He's writing the name "Seon Ah" over and over on his notepad when Il Ran comes home to investigate, and asks him what it is he's writing down like that. Immediately she's spoken those words, he hears in his mind exactly the same question, but spoken in the real EH's voice, and suddenly,also in his mind he sees EH, COMPLETE WITH HEAD!!!. And EMBROIDERING a RED FLOWER on baby clothes. He stares in horror at Il Ran as though she'd suddenly appeared in headless guise instead, and stutters, You... you... you...

Cliffhanger.

And no teaser for tomorrow, but instead the first trailer (aka sucker bait) for the next long ordeal TV Novel, 저 하늘에 태양이, starting next Wednesday.  Well, the girls look pretty, and maybe not quite so daft as the ones in this drama, but NO THANK YOU, KBS.

 

[rikimaiu]

Looks like the drama won't end on Friday and instead it will end at episode 128 which is next Tuesday.

I can't believe they make KW fall for HJ's suicide trick to keep the secret from James. 

Hopefully @baduy will provide an insight on today's episode. 

 

[valsava]

On 8/25/2016 at 9:36 PM, joyblack4 said:

@ valsava, all of tv novel dramas, I been watching tv novel  dramas quite some time now,it always end up disappointing me yet I am still drawn to it, even when I said to myself never  again, honestly speaking I will say this one is the worst of all, word's can't describe how worst this one is, 120episodes the criminals are still wining, nowdays I just come here to read the translations nothing else, thank you all for contributing your opinions in this drama,your contributions are the ones thatmakes me not to regret watching it too much,  thanks guys.

good to hear from you @ valsava, see you again and stay well. 

@joyblack4  Hello my dear friend I think we all sware not to watch another one but for me I'm always glutton for punishment and looki forward to the next one hoping that one of them may just get one of them right..

Last night episode was totally a joke..

On 8/27/2016 at 5:11 AM, dramalover245 said:

My vote is for Tomorrow, Victory.That turkey should be served at Thanksgiving!!!

 

That Turkey wasn't worthy enough for  thanksgiving table. LOL

Thanks everyone for your contributions

[baduy]

12 hours ago, rikimaiu said:

Looks like the drama won't end on Friday and instead it will end at episode 128 which is next Tuesday.

 

That's the worst news I've heard in ages. KBS haven't released their detailed schdule of next week on line yet, butI notice that the next episode isn't flagged as the :last", and there are indeed ominous signs in the content of today's episode that I'll come to in a moment that everything isn't going to be settled in just oen more episode. We'll know for certain in a few hours.

One of those signs that we won't be put out of our misery as soon as we were hoping ia the way that it actually it turns out after the cliffhanger that James didn't actually say You... you... in that half-menacing half-questioning way at all. He just THOUGHT it. But still, any sign of thought in his guy deserves some credit. What he actually says to her as ep 125 starts is "How come you're home so early?" Il Ran explains that the ajumma called saying whe was quitting right away, but giving no reason, so she's home early to attend to household matters. Didn't the ajumma say anything to James to explain why she was quitting?  

And now we realize, with a mixture of trepidation and unkind amusement, that James is trying his hand at CUNNING DECEPTION. "No, she never said a word to me" he claims, hunting for the off switch on the flashing LIAR neon sign om his forhead. Unsurprisingly suspecting this isn't the truth, Il Ran in turn asks why he's come home early. He hasn't actually come home as such, he stammers. He's just called back briefly to get changed for an evening meeting and gosh! is that the time?! He has to dash or he'll be late for that meeting.  He actually dashes only as far as his room to contemplate the HANKY, then he recalls his enounter with the mysterious woman he found collapsed in the street who somehow knew his name, and, finally, a vast load of pennies drops. "THAT was the real YH I'd intended to marry. The woman living here in this house is a fake. And she went so far as to kill my mother to hide the truth. But what should I do about it?"  His eventual answer to that is in effect, "not much really," or as he puts it "Until I uncover the whole truth I'll have to play a waiting game." And, regrettably, so must we.

Meanwhile, Chairman Park's wife has decided to bug HJ about her son being transfered to Ganggwon. That's news to HJ, who's still trying to make sense of it when Chairman Park, who's been on his wife's tail, shows up as well and says there's no need to pester HJ to get her mother to change her mind, since from now on "We're the ones who'll be making all the decisions at the Bakery."  "Does that mean we can make our son a Director?" squeals his wife in delight. Her husband scoffs at the notion of their son becoming merely a Director. "What are you saying?" HJ asks anxiously. "You'll soon see" replies her future FiL smugly.

Il Ran has just summoned Mr Nasty home for an emergency conspiracy meeting in view of James's strange behaviour when HJ bursts him to confront him over her her fiancé being transferred without anyone so much as telling her. He makes no bones about his dislike for the boy and his father and tells HJ to give up the idea of marrying him. She doesn't need such a nonentity now she's will inherit the Bakery. "But at least he's his father's real son!"  HJ retorts. "I'm nothing but a fake!" "What do you mean, a fake?" her real father yells. "You've obviously told so many lies that you've forgotten all about the truth" she yells back even more loudly. "Mother, you, me... We're all total fakes!"  And of course, along comes GW just in time to hear her through the door.

Then it starts to get really crowded at his listening post as Park Junior joins him. The late arrival hasn't heard what's just been said, but inside the office Nr Nasty and HJ hear him asking what GW is doing there, and they realize they've been overheard.  Mr. Nasty chases after GW and warns him not to pass on anything hie may have heard, since it's none of his business. GW retorts that he refuses to recognize Mr Nasty as his father, so he's no authority to order or forbid him anything and walks off. HJ now arrives and nervously asks whether things have been sorted out with GW. Mr Nasty admits that they haven't, but says they needn't worry. Even if GW tries to expose them, no-one's going to take the word of a loser like him against the newly-enthroned Rulers of the Baked Goods World.

"But he's Father's private secretary!" HJ exclaims and as Mr.Nasty takes that in, she adds that this isn't something that can be settled by the Evil Pair's usual methods. She'll have to go see GW and appeal to him as his younger sister. After all, he really is her Oppa, though he doesn't know it, and in KDrama land no Oppa ever does the dirty on a distressed little female Dongsaeng. Especially is she's of the so-long-lost-I-didn't-know-she-existed variety. Well, she proves to be right about that one, but it's harder work that she anticipated, and simpering and tears don't work, so she has eventually resort to the pill bottle and the fake suicide to kick-start his Oppadom. But I'm rushing ahead, and we can't allow that, not in this drama.

GW has just got back to the office and found that James isn't there. Just as he picks up the phone to call him, HJ rushes in to try to deploy her sisterly persuasion. He's at first contemptuous about her "Oppa" ploy, asking what on earth gives her the right to call him that, whereupon she reveals that she has every right, since they are both Mr Nasty's children and share the plight of having the same despicable father. So can't he turn a blind eye and save her from ruin? When this dpens't work, she says that no matter how much and how rightly he despises her and their biological father, can't he come up with some ruse that will prevent her father James from discovering she isn't his real daughter. GW replies that she, like him, had only one father, and, alas, it isn't James. Realizing she's failed on all fronts, HJ begs for a little time, just a couple of days, so she can reveal the truth to James herself rather than him hearing it from others, which, she emphasizes, would hurt James so much, and we can't have that now, can we?  Sadly, GW has sat for too long in close proximity to James' office door and now even he has succumbed to the stupidity virus, so he agrees on a week's stay of execution. [A WEEK??  That's even more than the "few days" she asked for. Are they really going to drag this thing on to the very end of the original slot next Tuesday]

HJ accordingly shoots off  back to the Evil Pair and tells them she's done her bit by winning them a respite. Now it's up to them to come up with their Ultimate Plot that can save the situation  Il Ran declares that's impossible in a week. but Mr Nasty's nastiness mill is plainly already grinding away at full power.

James shows up at the local office of the national nursing administration, hoping to find the current whereabouts of a nurse called Seo Yeon Hui who was employed 20 years ago at the One Heart hospital. Is that all the information he has, the clerk asks him. He admits that it is, but can she be traced all the same? Fortunately for him this is before the era in which the answer would be the one that was a catchphrase in a popular UK TV comedy series: "Computer says 'No.'" But she does plausibly explain that if the lady in question hasn't been in continuous employment as a nurse for any length of time, she'll no longer be on the nursing register.

Walking back to the office, James spots GW coming towards him but just as he starts to  hail him, Mr Nasty comes running up to start a furious row with GW at top volume, from which it becomes plain even to James' well-blunted wits that Mr Nasty is GW's father. He shows himself to be Granny's true intellectual successor by immediately concluding that in that case "GW isn't to be trusted, either" and he'll have to find some other source of information about his nearest and not-so-dearest. He appears to have one available though. We hear him calling "Mistah Jo" (the assistant he brought over with him from Miguk, asking him to investigate the Evil Pair and meet up with him with the results tomorrow if possible. He addresses his mother, confessing that he failed her badly, but that he won't rest until he's "put everything back in its proper place" as Daily Dramas say. Though we might think it could be difficult, to use another well-worn Kdrama phrase, to do that with his mother in particular...

He goes home earlier than expected and almost catches the evil pair at it again, but he's disgusted at the sight of them in any case and goes grimly upstairs for another Big Talk but Zero Action inner monologue, vowing to "Finish off" that "inhuman pair."  Oddly enough, he doesn't seem to reflect on the fact that his fake daughter isn't very nice either.... Next day, he has his meeting with Mistah Jo, who produces docuiments proving that the Evil Pair are fakes and discusses the best way to expose and  them without damage to the Bakery's reputation. He feels obliged to tread carefully to avoid any blemish on the memory of his mother or the company his father established.

At KN's Fake Family dinner table, talk turns for no apparent reason than to set up the cliffhanger scene, on what Fake Dad recalls about the night he found the abandoned and badly scalded baby. In particular, can't he recall anything that would identify the woman he glimpsed running away from the spot? He says it was dark and he saw her only from behind, but he remembers she was wearing a bluish=green durumagi, the traditional Korean voluminous outer coat.

HJ decides to have another go at Oppa-izing GW. She rings him from a payphone, saying that she can't bring herself to tell her supposed Father the truth, so she's decided to "leave this world". Then she goes home, roughs her hair up a bit, scatters pills all over the floor then rather impatiently waits for GW to come to intervene. Which of course he does, and off he takes her to hospital, where the doctor informs him that she had absorbed very little of the drug before arriving at the hospital and will be perfectly fine soon. He asks GW what relation he is to the patient and GW finds himself having to admit she's his younger sister. Hearing him say that, JH's eyes spring open and she "wakes up" to reproach GW for saving her when she'd nothing to live for. Unless he gives in to her pleading to keep her secret, she'll make another attempt at suicide and next time she'll succeed. She casts a sly sideways glance at him to see if this is working, but beyong producing a sigh of sheer exasperation from him, she spots no other hopeful reaction.

Changing out of her working clothes, KN suddenly realizes the solution to the riddle that's been puzzling her and both her Mom's fake and real. Just how did Il Ran get to know that KN, of all people, was the real daughter of YH whom she had snatched away and dumped 20 years earlier? KN now recalls the strange incident where she caught Il Ran peeping at her as she stripped of her blouse while she was still working at the bakery. She now realizes that Il Ran was checking to see if she had the scalding scar on her shoulders, signs of an injury EH knew nothing about and which the baby had already suffered when her Fake Parents found her abandoned. She rushes to share this insight and its implications with the Two Moms.

At the same time, Fake Dad is surprised to see Il Ran running past him down the street (she's been told that JH had been taken to hospital after a suicide attempt, but is now back home again) and her whole manner and gait convince him that it was the same woman he saw running along with with a crying baby wrapped under her blue-green durumagi that they's been talking about at dinner time. He hastens to report this to the Moms and KN.

So EH finally realizes, not that she is James's missing wife and Granny's real DiL. No, that would be too vast an intellectual leap for her limited headgear, but she does now grasp that Il Ran was the woman who stole her baby then dumped the infant in a badly scalded state, the missing piece of Seon Ah / KN's early life that had kept them all so puzzled. She rushes off for a cliffhanger set-to with Il Ran, demanding to know "what reason" she had for making off with her baby then abondoning her.

Well... if this is indeed going to be stretched out till next Tuesay I won't be in at the end, because I'll be out of drama-viewing action next week. But I'll see what  tomorrow's show brings.

 

[saatchiko]

On 2 September, 2016 at 5:47 AM, baduy said:

And now we realize, with a mixture of trepidation and unkind amusement, that James is trying his hand at CUNNING DECEPTION.

 

On 2 September, 2016 at 5:47 AM, baduy said:

He shows himself to be Granny's true intellectual successor by immediately concluding that in that case "GW isn't to be trusted, either"

 

On 2 September, 2016 at 5:47 AM, baduy said:

he's disgusted at the sight of them in any case and goes grimly upstairs for another Big Talk but Zero Action inner monologue,

 

@baduy I know I sound repetitive but I'm just in awe! You are spectacular with words! I love the way you write!  I don't really watch this drama, just a couple of episodes but I have enjoyed this drama (haha! really) because of your witty updates! Will miss you next week. Hope you will be back soon...