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I was on my holiday's trip so I'm watching previous episodes now... gosh, it was so good but it turned out in totally chaos...

I hope Mi Rae is pregnant but I think it is another trap for us. Hmm... Lee So Ra? It's the most probability case.

HJ and YJ is still my fav couple. There is my top3 cutest couples in weekend's drama:
#1 - Yoon Jae Suk & Song Da Hee  (Once Again)
#2 - Kim Sang Min & Lee Yun Tae (Five Enough)
#3 - Lee Yoon Jae & Shim Hae Jun (It's Beautiful Now)

Ep 37 “I met my family”  (written 8/10)

Well that was not fun.  

Let’s get it over with:

The Reunion & its Aftermath
This went about as badly as possible.  At least no one jumped out the window or got hit by a truck on the way out of the building.  SooJung’s anger at her perceptions that her father abandoned her won’t let her think straight; he’s too dumbfounded to do much of anything, leaving poor MinHo to try to pick up the pieces amidst this surreal encounter.  The fallout of this percolates thru the rest of the episode, as the remainder of the families try to figure out why the principals are acting so unhappy.  We got to see a complete Lee family reunion too, which went unfulfilled as Grandpa wandered off to his room, lost in his thoughts of what just happened.  The irony of HJ describing SooJung as “very rational, who rarely gets swayed by just her emotions” to his Dad was yet another sobering reminder of what is REALLY going on. Her behavior this episode was anything BUT rational as she blurts out to MiRae to reconsider her wedding, and then snaps at her husband asking why HE should meet with her birth parents?  Their second meeting goes no better and they are getting nowhere fast.  Both of them have their emotions running wild.  MinHo on the other hand seems to be the only adult capable of calmly handling this situation and must bear the burden of having to deal with everyone regarding the stressful lack-of-relationship between father and daughter.  His reaching out to his Daughter-in-law was really touching and their meeting was handled very realistically given the topic they discussed.  We are now reminded there are 2 lawyers in the family, and we see MinHo & HaeJun connect for the first time and we see the trust he places with her.  

Meanwhile the MirAe/HJ journey to disaster continues to rumble on, with the couple completely unaware of calamity that awaits them.  We got to see them shopping for furniture to re-decorate HJ’s apartment.   To make matters worse, their runaway train picks up more speed as they then go shopping for wedding rings next (playing "This Love" in the background seemed unnecessarily cruel).  Team HyunMi must have really suffered thru this episode as it pulls no punches to show them speeding towards the hairpin curve ahead.  The icing on the cake of this depressing series of episodes is seeing her in her wedding dress.  The production team is really laying it on the audience now.  (And things get even worse in the next episode, as we see foreshadowing of this back in Ep 35 when she cuts short their evening in the park to be with her Mom (again)).  

YuNa Universe
YuNa continues to reassert her role in the series.  But SooJae’s memory hovers over them and we are reminded of her feelings for him (in her expressions).  JungHoo re-arranges the congratulations gifts to place his between SooJaes & YuNa’s.  Talk about lack of subtlety.  Here we saw her and her new boss go to dinner with JungHoo, and they clear their standing as friends, albeit awkwardly.  So is this relationship over before it started?

The Dolts
After the aborted welcome home party for Grandpa, where HaeJun tries to impress KA with her ability (or lack thereof) to wash dishes, the couple discussed HaeJun’s anxiety while visiting her in-laws home.  YJ offers her sage advice to just be herself so that the family can adjust to her, and to stop trying too hard.  She takes his advice and they have a sweet ending to this scene.  The next day is their visit to the Fertility Clinic for their assessment.  His sperm isn’t anything to write home about and she’s running out of eggs at her age.  The window of opportunity for them is narrow at-best, and closing rapidly.  The doctor’s words to her of “it wouldn’t be easy for you to conceive naturally”, echo throughout the episode, providing another crushing moment for the couple and she’s devastated, despite YJ’s attempts to comfort her.   IVF is offered as a possible solution, and it must be done ASAP.  Oddly, they don’t leap at the chance (yet).  YJ has been very supportive of her throughout this whole endeavor; he’s so impressed me with his growth from the nerdy geek just 30 episodes before.  

This entire depressing episode was ended with the repercussions of the unsuccessful 2nd meeting (see above) as a tearful Grandpa admits to KA who his birth daughter is, and that daughter gets back home and breaks down at home in tears…this will be reprised in the Ep38 opener.  

At the end of this episode the following characters know of the secret:  SooJung, Grandpa, MinHo, HaeJun, and KA.  This list will explode in Ep 38.  

Buckle up viewers, its only going to get worse…..

Ep 39  “It’s driving me crazy”

COMPLAINT DEPT

Here we go again…another in the adoption melodrama that began with Ep37 (and this will continue to Ep40 at least).  What was once a romantic comedy filled with sweet moments has become a soap-opera worthy drama that has captured nearly the entire cast within its orbit.  All our favorite characters have become supporting cast to serve this storyline, and their lives are on hold.  With 10 episodes left after this weekend, why are we wasting so much time on this topic?

OK, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch.  I get it.  Let’s move onto the review

The Episode opens with the depressing coffee-shop dissolution of the HyunMi couple by MiRae.  “Couple” here is used lightly, as MiRae essentially orders its demise to the bewilderment of HJ, who will suffer for her unilateral decision in this and the next episode.  I guess someone forgot to tell MiRae that couples make decisions together.  MiRae has come under a lot of fire for this decision in the on-line world, and I have to admit, I’m not pleased either.  But she doesn’t know any better, given her upbringing by her Mom and their distorted relationship.  So I can’t get that mad at her.

Running parallel to this was Grandpa’s gambit to breakthrough to his daughter by invoking her mother’s memory and IT WORKED.   They traveled to a pastoral setting that only lacked Bambi walking out of the woods.  He finally managed to make her listen to the back-story of her early life to the point that she accepted that she was not abandoned and simply lost to him, and she left her anger behind.  If they take it slowly things should work out, but Grandpa does not seem too patient here... 

Meanwhile, HJ continues sleep-walking thru life, lost in the aftermath of his breakup.  Our normally on-point attorney is stumbling around in unfamiliar territory where he is not only not in control, but unsure of how to react other than to accept MiRae’s wishes.  (In his defense, this is a common male reaction to such shocking news:  first the ‘yes, dear’ phase where you accede to your partners wishes, then slowly realize that this is wrong….the latter phase won’t happen until the end of Ep 40).  HaeJun, his ‘big sister’ both by law (now) and by heart (for a long time), gets him to open up and try to help him understand MiRae’s reasons for her actions.  She will play a pivotal role here and next episode in trying to help both MiRae & HJ as she is seen as the Big Sister to both of them, including arranging for them to run into each other later in the episode and trying to comfort MiRae afterwards.  She is also professionally shocked at seeing her deputy partner’s uncharacteristically poor performance (forgetting meetings, messy office, etc) and struggling to concentrate on his work.  And MiRae also cries alone at her office, in one of the saddest moments of this episode, in a scene that was beautifully lit.

I would like to acknowledge the photography of Episodes 39 & 40.  The lighting and scene cuts in them were superb.  They were works of art in their own right.

 A really interesting scene followed where SooJung actually had a heartfelt (though brief) conversation with her MIL about the meeting with her father, where the circumstances of her going missing were revealed. 

When YJ comes to the law offices that afternoon, to take HaeJun to dinner, she fills him in on the latest news and instead arranges for the brothers to have dinner instead, to console HJ (Who is in his office and can’t even look at another brief.)  Again, HaeJun is fighting to help in any way she can. 

We are then treated to the sweetest scene in the Episode (and probably in the last few eps) when SoRa and the kids come to visit their Auntie at the law office for their field trip.  She stays to be with the kids who enjoy the ice cream their Aunt bought, but they end up dropping a cone on her clothes, much to the panic of SoRa and anxiety of SungSoo.  But she tells everyone to calm down, as her pants can be cleaned; while YJ & HJ return to her office to see this.  HJ is shocked to see her happily dealing with children, while the look on YJs face sums up this scene (and provides the reason for it’s inclusion in the episode):  He’s touched and knows he needs to give her a child of her own soon. 

We get another unusual scene where JungHoo goes to his sister’s room to check in on his older sister and see how she’s doing.  He seems to know his sister better than his parents at times and cuts to the chase on how she’s dealing with this.  MiRae opens up to him as well.  It’s really nice to see their characters interact, which is a trend we saw beginning with the arrival of the Evil Aunt. 

Then comes one of the key scenes of the show, where MiRae and her mother have yet another talk.  This time, MiRae tells her mother that she’ll be OK and couples break up all the time, in the most insincere talk she’s ever had with her Mom, who realizes it.  We have seen growth in SooJung here, where she is increasingly taking the Evil Aunt’s advice in letting her feelings out and speaking frankly with her family, yet she sees her old self stuck in MiRae who is still just an extension of her mother’s personality. 

And we finally see the scene that sets up HJ for the balance of this weekend’s episodes:  he’s too devastated to even clean his apartment, and leaves it in a mess.  Our neat-freak’s world is crumbling around him and he’s helpless to stop it.  Crying to his father over the phone was the exclamation point and this could have easily been the last scene of the show.  When his father visits his apartment the next morning, a mess of an HJ greets him, and he’s not the only messy thing there.  Dad is stunned to see the apartment is a shambles and he can see for himself that his son, who can barely hold it together, is in big trouble.  And Dad is suffering as well, seeing his favorite son in such pain that is being ignored by his own father as well.

Grandpa’s sister goes to visit SooJung on her own (amidst some weird Spanish-guitar background music) to try to explain what happened when she was lost, but comes back home to foreshadow what will happen in the future:  Why did SooJung’s foster parents simply take her and not try to reunite her with her parents? 

And we get yet another appearance by HaeJun’s family:  her brother wants an excessive discount on dental work and her SIL brings mostly unwanted advice to her, driving HaeJun nuts.  Ugh, go away you two! 

Finally, the episode ends, with an ecstatic grandpa getting a “thank you for the mandarins” text from his daughter oblivious to the suffering of  his son and grandson.  This brings us to the end, with MinHo offering to sever his legal ties with his dad to enable the wedding to occur.

YuNa’s world…

The one character untouched by all this drama is YuNa.  She’s wavering now with her attitude towards JungHoo and sending him mixed signals, after being so strident on keeping him just outside the Friend Zone.  Their future?  Unknown at this point, with SooJung out of her sight, and maybe her thoughts?  JungHoo looks to be ready to pop back into the Friend Zone, for sure.

Ep41  “The son you adore the most”

We are finally nearing the end of the adoption fallout/HyunMi marriage arc and can summarize this episode as follows:

• MiRae dumps HJ
• Grandpa realizes the mess HyunMi are in the middle of
• HJ rebounds and begins his plan to restore their relationship
• Financial reckoning for YJ as HaeJun knows things are rotten in Seoul
• Normalization of relationship between SooJun and grandpa

MiRae dumps HJ (again), confirming her desire to break up permanently, citing her ability to give up on things quickly, since he cannot.  Of course, they both pay for this in tears and grief.  She can’t console herself and he hits rock bottom returning to his trash-strewn apartment.  But finally, he’s had enough and rebounds with a plan to attack the problem head on, and take back his fiancée.

Grandpa finally wakes up to what his reunion to his daughter has done to the HyunMi marriage plans and its affect on his grand kids.  He listens in disbelief to MinHo’s description of what HJ has fallen into.  When told of MinHo’s fear HJ may never marry, you can see the light bulb go off over his head.  It may be dim, but it turns on.

By the time KA goes to visit her son the next morning, he’s already cleaned up the place and his demeanor has changed for the better.  But MiRae, pale and profusely sweating, is suffering from stomach cramps, frightening her parents.  Evidently this is something chronic for her, as they had a specific medicine on hand for this.  This would make sense for someone who internalizes all her stress to keep everyone else happy around her.    

Things take a turn for the worse for the Dolts, when a resourceful HaeJun discovers YJ’s latest investment disaster (KASE Bio, which seems to have replaced MeTechnic as the latest loser-of-choice) has lost 50% of its value and she panics, especially as he’s being cagey about how much he invested.  When she tells him to come home early to talk about it, YJ has the expression of a doomed man.  The minute he gets home, she jumps on him (figuratively) and demands to know how much he invested in Kase Bio.  She lays out a logical argument (as a lawyer would) to convince him to spill it.  And he then begins the Great Hide-Out:  first in the bathroom, then running to his folks the next day.  She’s having none of it, and goes after him, (the scenes that follow where she finds his “I’m at my parents for the day” note and her reaction were the funniest moments of an otherwise serious episode).  She eventually has to shield him from KA’s fury at the latest news of his dopey investments and reluctance to tell his wife what’s going on, and we find out that he took out a loan to buy the stock (OH GREAT).  The episode ends for them with her giving up on his financial status and telling him he’s on his own (to his discomfort).

After SooJun/JunEun finally reads her father’s letters and sees the photograph of her mother, she gets the emotional release she finally needs to move beyond whatever resentment she had for her father, while forgiving (or denying?) her foster parents for what now seems certainly like the abduction of a 4-year-old girl off the streets of Seoul.  She invites him to tea, and finally calls him “Dad”.  In a very touching series of flashbacks, we see them talking and driving back from tea, while she reads and cries over his letters over the years. 

On what appears to be a Friday, HJ’s plans to resurrect things first bring him to MiRae’s home to meet with her parents and Grandma.  In one of the most somber scenes of the whole adoption fallout arc, he pleads with them to keep an open mind as he tries everything to save their relationship.  This makes his would-be in-laws very uncomfortable as they know their responsibility in making their children’s lives so miserable.  He tells them he’ll be persistent (that’s our HJ) in coming back to see them.  Her father sends him home, telling him to relax, but as he heads out the door SooJung holds his hand (something unthinkable 10 episodes previously) and apologizes.  Although it seems like this effort was a failure, it was NOT.  For this scene has 3 consequences:

• His Dad visits him shortly after he gets back home to see that his son has indeed rebounded, to his relief. 
• MiRae returns home and cries in her mothers arms when told of HJ’s visit and determination to maintain their relationship.
• The next day (Saturday) SooJung meets with Grandpa at the columbarium, in a touching scene where he thanks her foster parents for raising his child, and shows her the matching tattoo on his foot.  He can’t understand why they didn’t try to return her to him, and boy, is this touchy subject.  Eventually  she tells him of her desire to maintain their relationship as it is (and not register it) to protect the kids and enable them to marry. 

HJ’s next step in his plan is to call his Grandpa, who goes to meet HJ at his office on the way home from the columbarium (this is his first visit to the Law Firm). HJ tells him in a heartfelt manner, of his desire to be with MiRae. This was the final straw for Grandpa, who knows that something must be done.

And finally, in a continuation of the story that goes nowhere:  YuNa hears from her Mom again, and she will send her money to help her hire staff for the diner as she can’t visit to help.  For SJ, he continues to impress his boss and customers, and decides (in an impulsive and  DUMB move) to see YuNa at the bake shop.  When he gets there, he sees  her close up the shop for the night and leave with JungHoo (still firmly in the Friend Zone); a move so similar to when he would wait for her every night at the Gimbap place to take her home.  SJ feels almost stalker-ish here and this is NOT a good look for him.  What if she saw him lurking behind the light pole?  Either let her go, buddy, or fight for her love. 

This episode ends with Grandpa summoning MiRae to his house to meet with him, MinHo, KA and (surprise) HJ.  Our star-crossed lovers see each other again for the first time since the beginning of this episode and the result of this meeting will be the opener to episode 42.

One more episode, folks, and this roller-coaster will end, and the series can finally move on.

Ep 43, “What is this feeling?”

Now that the merry-go-round of drama has ended, it was a relief to be able to laugh with the characters this episode and simply enjoy the series as it was before Ep. 37.

In this episode, the following subplots were highlighted:

• SJ and JungHoo engage in a budding friendship as cousins, in-laws, and would-be rivals for YuNa’s attention, if not her affection.
• The newlyweds go on their own abbreviated honeymoon and adjust to life as a married couple (HJ discovers this is easier said than done)….
• …while her parents adjust to an emptier nest
• YuNa’s family is thrown into disarray while being threatened with a lawsuit
• HaeJae and HyunMi couples struggle to deal with each other in their new reality.

But in reality, this episode was about the women and their battles:

• HaeJun fights her hormones
• SooJung fights her unease with her new in-laws and loss of MiRae
• YuNa fights for her family in trouble, and her feelings for SJ
• KA fights her insecurity with how she’s treated by her family and feelings of inferiority compared to SooJung

With the post-vows dinner with their families done, the newlyweds head off for their own short “honeymoon” at a rental home, courtesy of HaeJun, who paid for everything in full.  They (especially HJ) try to adjust to finally being married, but it’s a bumpy road ahead.  When MiRae brings over clothes to the law firm for HaeJun, HJ gets wind of it, and again, (and this time in front of YJ) chides her for “making” MiRae deliver things to her.  This starts an ugly exchange between the 3 of them (as MiRae watches in horror) that was reminiscent of the beginning of the “Beach Double Date”.  MiRae breaks it up by literally dragging HJ away and back to his office.  HaeJun, offended by HJs words and at the mercy of her hormones, stops eating long enough to lose control and she uncontrollably sobs until YJ can bribe her with a cookie to make her stop.  The Dolts continue to hide the pregnancy, while YJ goes on a shopping spree for books to read to the baby and even buys an audio system to play classical music for the baby to listen to, much to HaeJun’s bemusement and slight annoyance as she’s not a classical music aficionado.   (NOTE – The set dresser changed the portrait on the wall of their dining room:  Originally it was the wedding picture of the couple with his parents and her brother & SIL; currently it’s the couple with his brothers)  Later on, we see the beginning of a growing rivalry between HaeJun and MiRae for KA’s attention.

MiRae is determined to try to bring her two mothers together, with what was the most awkward and uncomfortable scene in the entire series:  Watching her and her mothers get a massage at a day spa.  This scene was difficult to watch, as it was high on the creepiness scale.  This unease continued after they left the spa as both mothers admitted to their husbands how uncomfortable they are around each other.

YuNa is blindsided when she goes to visit her Mom only to discover that her younger brother has been accused of dating a married woman and is under threat of continued harassment by the husband unless they settle for $100K (isn’t this extortion?).  He’s due to go into the army soon and with no legal counsel, she must scramble to find a solution.  (NOTE- Here’s another continuity error in the series.  In the beginning episodes, YuNa’s brother was ALREADY in the military, and her Mom wanted her to send money to him).  After a frustrating interview with an attorney, her boss tells SJ what’s going on, since she remembers his brother (HJ) was an attorney.  SJ gets the ball rolling with HJ and in their first meaningful scene together since the breakup (complete with their theme music in the background, which we haven’t heard in ages), YuNa accepts SJ’s offer of HJ’s help, which will come in Ep 44.  It was nice to see YuNa as the elder sibling too, a side of her character we have not seen.

And for the 2 mothers, SooJung must adjust to life without MiRae, which is eased by the kids sleep-over their first night back in Seoul.  But SooJung, who is increasingly at ease with her father and MinHo, does not feel that comfortable yet around her new sister-in-law, and the feeling is mutual.  And KA is having even more trouble, as her mental state, which had stabilized following YJ’s marriage, begins to deteriorate again.  And given how she’s been left out of her husband’s and father-in-law’s attention, she has a point.  She sees the attention in her family being paid to SooJung (including expressing her discomfort about this to a bewildered MinHo), while she gets feeling that she’s become more of a cook to the family.  This will get even worse in the following episode as things continue to spin out of control for her.

The episode ends with the 2 couples eating dinner at the Lee’s and an under-the-table foot fight between the 2 brothers, in an extension of the argument back at the law office.  And once again, poor MiRae is left in the middle to try to figure out what is going on.

Although, by reading this review, the episode sounds very serious, it contains many funny moments and was a relief to watch.  It was nice to see YuNa and SJ together again, to see the expectant father YJ fuss over his wife and their unborn child, to see the HyunMi couple try to figure out married life when they both are very different people, and SJ & JungHoo try to figure out how to deal with each other.  More to come for this bromance!

the most competitive one is haejun. she doesn't know how to share affection.
mirae already have a loving mom and a loving family, she will probably be very pleased to have someone more to love.

Ep 44 “You’re one smooth talker”

In this episode, we get to see

• The competition between the newly married couples continues, temporarily stressing the relationship between HaeJun & HJ;
• Kyung Ae’s behavior and attitude continue to decline; 
• HJ helps YuNa’s family in their legal issues;
• The bromance between SJ & JungHoo continue.

After the foot-fight at the Lee’s house, HJ & MiRae head to her parents house to pack her things.  Of course, her family is delighted to have her back (Mom had to go for almost a full day without her, you know).  This takes longer than they planned; they have a late dinner and spend the night at her parents, much to her delight at spending the night in her bed (HJ must have been trying to figure out how to fit that thing in his apartment).  HJ joins his mother-in-law in the morning to help make breakfast for the whole family before heading off to work.  KA gets wind of this and his willingness to help cook breakfast (when never having done so for his own mother) sets her on edge, again.

The Dolts do their own post-mortem on the foot-fight and HaeJun continues to stew over HJ’s attitude towards her and his older brother (YJ).  She’s long resented HJ’s lack of respect to his older sibling, but YJ has calmed her down explaining that he’s fine with it since he doesn’t want the responsibility that comes with being the eldest. But her anger over their fight at the law firm last Friday (where he told MiRae that HaeJun will take advantage of her willingness to deliver clothes) lingers over the weekend while she waits for HJ to apologize.  That didn’t happen during the foot-fight and come Monday, back at the law firm she can’t even bring herself to talk directly to HJ, and they use Sung Soo as an intermediary, driving him nuts.  He tells HJ to apologize as he can’t take it anymore.  HJ (who can’t understand why she’s taking this so personally, when they’ve treated each other this way for years) goes into her office and begs forgiveness and they talk it out, to everyone’s relief.  When HaeJun goes to the Lee’s to give KA money to buy some new clothes, she is upstaged when MiRae arrives and gives KA a new dress.  This scene was funny to simply watch HaeJun’s facial expressions (once again, SDM nails the character).  Afterwards, a crestfallen HaeJun goes to YJ’s office to have lunch with him and talk about her disappointment, and when she returns to the office, she commiserates with HJ on how married life has changed everything about their relationships, including hers with MiRae, her closest friend. 

The SJ/JungHoo bromance continues and they hang out at another bar and realize they are not only in-laws but cousins as well.  Much to Jung Hoo’s chagrin, it turns out SJ is the eldest, thus making him the senior, so he gets the “honor” of buying drinks.  So, like a good couple, when they get drunk together, they do the responsible thing and have a sleep-over at the Lee’s in SJs room.  A semi-reluctant Jung Hoo would be even more mortified if he wasn’t so blitzed.  And the next morning, he can’t even sneak out, with the entire household already awake and waiting for them to emerge from SJ’s room.  (One interesting missing fact was that he never let his folks know where he spent the night…yet his mother was OK with that?  Well, I guess so, since she was mostly embarrassed to learn he showed up at his grandfather’s house drunk)

YuNa & her family go to the law firm to consult with HJ on their case.  He determines that since the woman misrepresented herself, the brother was not at fault and he can get this settled quickly, and even ask for damages incurred to clean up the diner.  But YuNa’s mom just wants it taken care of quietly and its “case closed” much to the relief of the Na’s.  Afterwards, HJ meets briefly with YuNa alone to “finally” meet the woman who changed SJ’s life so much for the better.  She’s embarrassed and says little while he talks.  (I guess they forgot that they met each other at the Gimbap place when MiRae took him there some time earlier).  Later that night, she meets SJ at their old hangout in the park and she thanks him for his help…while their theme music plays in the background.  She promises to buy him dinner to thank her.  Things seem to be slowly (think “glacially”) better for them until his cleaning cart rolls downhill and hits her while she shoves him out of the way.  She gets a nasty cut on her leg just above the ankle and SJ takes her to the ER. 

But throughout the episode, KA’s attitude, as far as her anger and jealousy with everyone’s attention to SooJung, her discomfort to suddenly have to deal with in-laws, and MinHo’s lack of understanding continue to grind her down.  Her frustration at seeming to be the house cook continues to drive her crazy.  That night, a disastrous dinner with her in-laws results in SooJung having an allergic reaction to her cooking and having to leave early.  KA feels responsible for this and gets no comfort from her husband or Grandpa.  This tips the scale for her and she finally tells off MinHo AND Grandpa and leaves the house to wander the streets, refusing to take her husband’s calls.  MinHo admits to Grandpa that this is not new and something has been bugging her before the marriages.  (Remember, he had mentioned to Grandpa during YJ’s courtship of HaeJun, that KA had “become increasingly aggressive in the last few years”).  At the end of the episode, she winds up at YJ’s place and in a scene reminiscent of when HJ surprised HaeJun while YJ was visiting her, they hurriedly hide all the baby stuff before they let KA in.  And this time, instead of YJ falling on HaeJun, he falls on his mother, while trying to hide an errant baby shoe and keep their pregnancy secret.

This was a pleasant episode, with lots of wholesome family moments that were quite funny as well.  It’s difficult to find fault with KA, as her feelings are understandable, and we are left sympathizing with what she’s had to deal with in a few short weeks.  She does deserve better treatment from her family.  And this episode does a good job of showing us how a marriage can affect long-standing relationships. 

Ep 46 “I can’t tell which one of you is pregnant”

In this episode, we saw:

• Everyone knows both daughters-in-law are pregnant
• YJ & MiRae battle morning sickness
• YuNa & SJ continue their hesitant approach to reconciliation

The episode begins with the continuation of HaeJun’s revelation that she is pregnant as well, to the delight of the Lees and a shocked HyunMi couple.  But, typically, the fun is short as YJ begins to exhibit signs of sympathy morning sickness, which will carry thru the next few episodes.  It is at this point, when KA expresses fear that sadness may follow how happy they are now, that HaeJun delivers the meaning of the name of this series, when she tells KA to live in the moment, and enjoy the happiness (In other words, “the present is beautiful”).  YJ finally discovers that he can eat Cherry Tomatoes, (to the accomplishment of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus) and his parents come over to the Dolt’s apartment the following night to visit them and see how he’s doing.  This includes a touching scene where YJ tells KA how much he appreciates what she had to go thru during her pregnancy.  YJ has come a long way in being able to communicate with his mother.  And MinHo & KA are very comfortable in dealing with their elder children as a couple.  MiRae comes to visit the law firm and she shares lunch with her big sister while HJ joins them to visit.  HaeJun tells them of YJ’s morning sickness, and HJ has to see it to believe it.  They visit the Dolt’s apartment and do see for themselves, over dinner that BOTH YJ & HaeJun come down with morning sickness at the same time….and the race is on to the bathroom!

As for MiRae, she also has morning sickness, of a much milder strain, and in a touching scene HJ decides to give their baby the nickname “Little Athlete”.  He reaches out to both mothers for help on how to deal with her illness.  Both mothers bring food to their apartment in a chance meeting, resulting in another awkward encounter, courtesy of MiRae’s providing the door pass-code to both ladies, much to HJ’s dismay.  He gently reminds her why he never provided it to his own mother and gets her agreement to not do that in the future.  (One of the episode’s funniest scenes is where KA gets the pass-code from MiRae and immediately calls HJ to chew him out for not giving it to his own mom…leaving HJ dumbfounded as to what is going on). 

YuNa & SJ continue to carefully try to get comfortable around each other as he cares for her while she recuperates from her cleaning-cart injury.  She tries, half-heartedly, to keep him at arms-length, but he won’t have it as he still feels responsible for her.  In the meantime, he’s sure something happened between YN & KA but his mom keeps dodging his questions and YN won’t talk.  He continues to bring her food from home, much to her boss’s bemusement; Syet makes no secret that she wants them to reconcile.  JungHoo, in the meantime is increasingly on the outside looking in, as he can’t escape the Friend Zone, to his frustration and disappointment.  Yet he and his homie cousin hang out and grab fried chicken and beer while commiserating on their inability to get close to YuNa. JH at least gets to take her to the doctor the following morning and to grocery shopping afterwards, where they are spotted in the supermarket by a shocked KA who flees before they see her.  She fears a love-triangle is forming until SJ tells her the situation with them and he knew they’d be together that day.   She doesn’t quite know what to do with that info, and is surprisingly offended that YN gave up on her son so fast.  This reaction puzzles SJ who knew she wanted them to be apart in the first place.

At the end, in a foreshadowing of the misery to come, MiRae’s mom and dad finally go for their medical checkups.  In a juxtaposition between parents and children, Mom & Dad discover she has liver cancer, while HJ & MiRae hear their baby’s heartbeat for the first time. 

Up until that last scene, we were treated, as we were with Ep 45, to how enjoyable this series used to be, before the producers made the show about MiRae’s mom for whatever reason, instead of the 3 couples trying to find love.   The next two episodes are all about MiRae’s mom and I’m reluctant to write a review of them, as seeing it once was enough for me.  Frankly, the series could have ended here and I’d be just as happy.