[Drama 2019] Shady Mom in Law, 수상한 장모

[Lmangla]

@msmy ~ it looks like it will be a series of big episodes. even the next episode should be big with jenny confronting man soo about why he didn't reveal the truth and both man soo and jenny standing with a bag waiting I guess for shady mom to show up and possibly get caught.

 

today's episode, mrs ji found the truth and was naturally upset. she really liked man soo and actually cared about him. so while she isn't surprised about shady mom, she is shocked that man soo hid this from her. he tells her that he really wanted shady mom to confess and so he was pushing her and blackmailing to try get the truth come out.

 

the preview has jenny confronting him but that one makes me shrug. this is the same girl in the beginning of the series who couldn't believe shady mom did stuff to her even when eun seok presented proof to her. she still went back to live with shady mom after all that. so I am not going to blame man soo for not telling jenny because that girl would have never believed him.

 

the only reason this is now okay for her to accept is because she has crossed that point where she is fed up with shady mom and she has a relationship with mrs ji and song ah. so they aren't total strangers to her. otherwise, the reveal should have happened much earlier and then have jenny try and learn to figure out how to navigate these strangers who are her blood. because she was so unhealthily attached to shady mom regardless of whatever nonsense she pulled, jenny was more likely to have rejected song ah and mrs ji if she had found out earlier. so from that view, man soo did approach this rationally and tried to create some actual ties between the three of them. while it sucks they didn't know the truth, because they already have an existing relationship, it is less weird and awkward.

 

eun ji and eun seok found out from the doctor that jenny is pregnant. aunt is shocked but both grandpa and aunt are still not quite prepared to accept jenny. they are willing to pay for the expenses and maintenance of the child but feel it is best for both eun seok and jenny to move on post divorce.

 

 

[nohamahamoud2002]

1 hour ago, Lmangla said:

the preview has jenny confronting him but that one makes me shrug. this is the same girl in the beginning of the series who couldn't believe shady mom did stuff to her even when eun seok presented proof to her. she still went back to live with shady mom after all that. so I am not going to blame man soo for not telling jenny because that girl would have never believed him.

 

 

Jenny needed therapy to regain her memory back, that was the best way, that's why I think MS wanted shady mom to tell her the truth herself. He was worried about the shock that Jenny will get.

 

In my opinion, he should have told Mrs Ji only, and I think she would have wisely solved the problem. But I think he didn't tell Mrs Ji, because he was more loyal to shady mom, he kept giving her a chance to reveal the truth herself. Only when shady mom attempted to kill him, he decided to say the truth.

 

It was MS's favoring his mom over Mrs Ji that made him act like that. I don't know if it is right or wrong, since he did feel something towards his mother. It is complicated

 

Really the drama dragged for so long, they needed to fill the 123 episodes by delaying everything. this usually happens in dailies.  But here it went too far by the Youngman, Eunji and the aunt's side stories. They made a sub-plot that was out of place. The other dailies are more logical

[liyahsbutterfly]

4 hours ago, O said:

EJ and YM are both bimbos.. YM is the male version.  Not enough, they have to throw in one more who is more annoying that the siblings put together.

 

I see no lies.

[tulip06]

Good episode.  Ms. Ji had a point.  I thought MS was dragging it out with making Shady Mom, who he knew was too narcissistic to admit to her wrongs, tell Jenny to go back to her family.  I did understand him not being able to get Jenny to understand anything in Japan, and being surrounded with the criminal organization, and having to check DNA etc.  But once he was in SK, and he was engage to Jenny and on holiday with the her and Ms. Ji and Songah, he really should have said then. 

 

Then again, MS's plan was to marry Jenny and get her back to her birth family at that time or something, what with Shady Mom and her criminal organization being not too far behind him.  I dunno, MS's been walking a tightrope.

[Lmangla]

2 hours ago, nohamahamoud2002 said:

Jenny needed therapy to regain her memory back, that was the best way, that's why I think MS wanted shady mom to tell her the truth herself. He was worried about the shock that Jenny will get.

 

In my opinion, he should have told Mrs Ji only, and I think she would have wisely solved the problem. But I think he didn't tell Mrs Ji, because he was more loyal to shady mom, he kept giving her a chance to reveal the truth herself. Only when shady mom attempted to kill him, he decided to say the truth.

 

It was MS's favoring his mom over Mrs Ji that made him act like that. I don't know if it is right or wrong, since he did feel something towards his mother. It is complicated

yea it is hard for me to hate him because I think he was in a tough spot. jenny had no memory and was a total idiot while in japan. so basically no way to tell her. could he have said to mrs ji or song ah, "here's the truth but please wait till jenny is a bit more emotionally stable?" it is not something they would have been able to accept and jenny might have rejected them .. to top it off, there's shady mom who would have kidnapped jenny and moved elsewhere and jenny would have gone along willingly... so like you said, it is complicated. he hates and loves shady mom but wanted the truth to come out as well. so even if it is late, will still say that it takes courage for him to face mrs ji and tell her the truth himself rather than let it come out elsewhere.

 

57 minutes ago, tulip06 said:

Ms. Ji had a point.  I thought MS was dragging it out with making Shady Mom, who he knew was too narcissistic to admit to her wrongs, tell Jenny to go back to her family.  I did understand him not being able to get Jenny to understand anything in Japan, and being surrounded with the criminal organization, and having to check DNA etc.  But once he was in SK, and he was engage to Jenny and on holiday with the her and Ms. Ji and Songah, he really should have said then. 

 

Then again, MS's plan was to marry Jenny and get her back to her birth family at that time or something, what with Shady Mom and her criminal organization being not too far behind him.  I dunno, MS's been walking a tightrope.

he certainly has been walking a tightrope but I liked that he accepted that there were missed opportunities for him to tell mrs ji and he is sorry about that. so rather than blame someone else, he took full responsibilities for his actions. normally a character like man soo would annoy me but considering how stupid jenny has been for most of the series, it makes sense to me that he had to be extra careful on how he dealt with the issue and not be rash. so him missing these opportunities to tell earlier was given as he had no one to give him advice or discuss. 

[tulip06]

@LmanglaMS had no one to discuss his situation with, except, maybe, his adoptive grandfather, who was sickly and perhaps unable to say anything beyond what we saw, which was, sort your business out and get things clear.  Which was nice and supportive and loving, but not enough to help MS get clarity.  In light of what you wrote, I think he did pretty well.  It's unfortunate he is the bad guy in all this, considering he did the best he could and only got nearly killed horribly twice for his efforts, but perhaps it was the perfectionist in him, wanting to do things step by step, very carefully, not getting himself in jail like ES got himself in jail etc. 

[Lmangla]

23 minutes ago, tulip06 said:

perhaps it was the perfectionist in him, wanting to do things step by step, very carefully, not getting himself in jail like ES got himself in jail etc. 

thats the reason why I appreciated his efforts. normally in other dramas, they don't reveal the secret because they don't want to hurt the person or they are selfish or something. here, he has been planning this in stages for quite a while. shady mom on her own would have never moved to korea from japan.so he had to force that through business and make it happen. he purposely chose J group so that jenny would come in contact with song ah and also because of eun seok. as her fiance, he encouraged jenny to maintain those ties with mrs ji and song ah by taking them on a trip and going for lunch. so he wanted jenny to get to know them and feel comfortable and vice versa. he knows that when shady mom's past will come out, jenny will be in financial trouble and so he transfers the deed to her name and also put aside money for her. this way, it is her money and not shady mom and cannot be touched legally by prosecution. so lots of meticulous planning like that. it sounds awful that he kept the truth for so long but he didn't have any sounding board to tell him that his method is a bit off. he was trying his best to find a solution that would be best for everyone considered.

[msmy]

Jenny now has another psychological mountain to climb by feeling betrayed by MS, although his intentions were sincere.  The problem with his plan was the un-cooperativeness of shady Mom who never was going to be honest about Jenny.  MS was naive, and in the meantime, Jenny suffered physically and emotionally.  MS had good intentions, but that doesn't sell to the victims who have been suffering for 25 years.

 

It looks like Jenny is going to have a miscarriage as she vents on MS.  One more traumatic episode for her to deal with.  I said before that I hope she moves on from the Oh family, and Mrs. Ji would not want her to be associated with them anyway.  Mrs. Ji and aunt have an ugly past that shouldn't be repeated.

[nohamahamoud2002]

@Lmangla remember when Jenny and shady mom were going away? Things could have gone worse if it wasn't for MS' accident and the police going after shady mom. Also the divorce of Jenny and ES, if MS told ES that Jenny wasn't Shady mom's daughter, they would not have divorced. Things are not totally good, as I see. MS kept confronting shady mom for many episodes, in vain. I was really saying, come on, hurry up.

 

I like the complexity in MS' character lol, but he is not straightforward, I admit. His character is interesting, in my opinion, not the usual type in dailies

[Lmangla]

16 minutes ago, nohamahamoud2002 said:

I like the complexity in MS' character lol, but he is not straightforward, I admit. His character is interesting, in my opinion, not the usual type in dailies

yea, the actor did total justice to his character by bringing out lots of angles to his character. so it makes it interesting. like you had described it, the situation is complicated and there's no straight forward answer. it was not like he had decided to hide the truth. instead, it was basically about timing and deciding when to push forward. so would it have been better if he had said it earlier? possibly but it all comes down to jenny's character for me.

 

she was way too attached to shady mom that even when she knew shady mom is being over the top, jenny excused shady mom's actions. instead of telling shady mom off, she agreed to stay in the same house after marriage. even when eun seok was being pushed around, she just sighed instead of getting angry that her husband is being treated like a servant. so it is hard to tell someone that loyal in a toxic relationship. would she have actually listened if he had told the truth? my answer is no. only now, jenny has grown a spine and finally saying no to shady mom's nonsense. even when finding out shady mom is the black rose, she was reluctant to abandon shady mom and instead kept trying to convince her to go to authorities. in a similar way, man soo was also doing the same and failing.

 

18 minutes ago, msmy said:

MS had good intentions, but that doesn't sell to the victims who have been suffering for 25 years.

true. unfortunately, he is the bearer of bad news and so regardless of when he had disclosed the information, he would have still been received badly. if they had disclosed it earlier, the drama wouldn't have been so slow in the middle but I guess the writer did that because they didn't want to redeem shady mom. instead, shady mom remains bad till the end.

[nohamahamoud2002]

22 minutes ago, Lmangla said:

if they had disclosed it earlier, the drama wouldn't have been so slow in the middle but I guess the writer did that because they didn't want to redeem shady mom. instead, shady mom remains bad till the end.

 

if things were disclosed earlier, how will the drama be 123 episodes?

[rolisrntex]

I decided to watch the last week and it appears I didn't miss much from my hiatus from this drama. Every thing gets revealed and wrapped up this week.

 

I have to say the emotional scene with Ji Wa and Man Soo was golden. The actress playing Ji Wa was really good in that scene. So Ji Wa finally gets reunited with her lost daughter Kyung Ah,

 

I can see her having a battle royal with the Oh family over their treatment of both of her daughters before this is over with. I hope it happens. Although I kind of like the Grandpa, he deserves much of the blame himself should not be exempt from the retribution.

[liyahsbutterfly]

1 hour ago, rolisrntex said:

Although I kind of like the Grandpa, he deserves much of the blame himself should not be exempt from the retribution

 

Why the grandpa?

[msmy]

Episode 120 is another must see episode.  Mrs. Ji shows Jenny the photos and DNA test.  She becomes as outraged as Mrs. Ji, and they go back and confront MS.  They really let him have it.

 

Shady mom pickpockets a lady who just came out of the bank and went into a pastry shop.  As she runs and hides and counts the money, 2 thugs come along and accost her and steal the money.    It was pretty funny;  I think they thought she was a man.  She's dressed like a man and runs like a duck.  

 

Then she calls Jenny and asks for money.  DJ and ES have spied her, and watch her make the phone call from a phone booth.  Jenny and MS take the money to a spot where the motorbike guy comes racing past and grabs it.  I don't know how MS has a GPS that tracks her, but they go to a restaurant where she is.  DJ makes the call to police and tells where she is, MS and Jenny go in to the restaurant.  Preview shows shady Mom cornered on the roof and threatening to jump, but then, she's never short of bad tricks.

[rolisrntex]

2 hours ago, chococarmela said:

 

Why the grandpa?

 

He sat idly by while his daughter mistreated them. He should have at some point put her in check,. He didn’t even blink much when she embezzled company funds. He is guilty for being passive about everything.

[Lmangla]

9 hours ago, nohamahamoud2002 said:

 

if things were disclosed earlier, how will the drama be 123 episodes?

was expecting things to go down a route similar to "I am also mother" where the villain got caught and confessed and went to jail around ep 80 or 90. then the rest of the episodes were actually really interesting because it was about her journey post jail and finding herself, apologizing to the people she hurt and trying to make amends. the last arc actually made the drama more interesting for me because it had a very bittersweet vibe to it.

 

so this drama could have also done something like that. they could have dealt with the fall out of the truth and had jenny been horrified and unable to accept the truth. they could have shown the struggle in reconnecting with mrs ji and song ah. so stuff like that. any number of possibilities.

 

but my guess is the writer didn't feel like redeeming shady mom and wanted her to remain villain. it makes for a nice change also. sometimes we are so annoyed that villains all of a sudden seem to get redeemed and second chance.

[liyahsbutterfly]

25 minutes ago, rolisrntex said:

He didn’t even blink much when she embezzled company funds. He is guilty for being passive about everything.

 

Yeah, I hate those k-drama parents who don't care about anything and try to "protect" their child.

[rolisrntex]

32 minutes ago, Lmangla said:

was expecting things to go down a route similar to "I am also mother" where the villain got caught and confessed and went to jail around ep 80 or 90.

 That was some good script writing at the end of that one. They pulled that off nicely.

[liyahsbutterfly]

I'm gonna be blunt and say that MS deserves everything that's coming to him. No way to justify betrayal.

[Bejaffled]

I'm going to agree with you @chococarmela. I'd also like to see ES get some kind of happiness. He's basically alone now. His family treat him like trash. Jenny has her mum and sister, and seems to have more empathy for MS than the father of her child, who also suffered at the hands of Shady (& MS when he framed him and sent him to jail). He's a decent guy who never hurt anyone, so it would be disheartening to see him end up alone, especially if MS gets forgiven.