Variety Roulette: Healing Camp

by girlfriday

Time for another Variety Roulette! This time we landed on a show that neither of us has ever seen: Healing Camp, which airs on Mondays on SBS. I hope for our sakes that it’s a good show…

SONG OF THE DAY

JYP – “날 떠나지마” (Don’t Leave Me) [ Download ]

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EPISODE 41. Broadcast on April 30, 2012.

javabeans: It’s a show I’ve heard about regularly, just from keeping up to date on the industry, and I know that it tends to feature stars and there’s crying. Which you can sort of pick up from the full title, which is Healing Camp: Are You Unhappy.

girlfriday: Yeah in my frame of reference (basically from entertainment news), this is The Crying Show.

javabeans: But I’m wondering, isn’t the premise kind of… obnoxious? You get these big stars to come on a show that is, by nature, all about how they’re so rich and famous and yet still unfulfilled. I’m not saying famous people have no right to be unhappy, but to create a variety show around the premise smacks of… for lack of a better way to put it, what I call the big Boo Fuckin’ Hoo.

girlfriday: They should rename the show. I think I’d tune into Big Boo Fuckin’ Hoo more often than Healing Camp.

javabeans: Ha. Like, if you’re going to do this concept, I think you have to put a twist on it and be a little self-aware, otherwise it comes off whiny. I say this without having watched the episode yet. So with that said…

girlfriday: We open on… Park Jin-young aka JYP. Oh, this should be interesting.

javabeans: What? Is he going to explain how he became an uber-producer and manager and mogul and choreographer and actor and feels sad about wanting more?

girlfriday: Maybe he’ll talk about the failure that was Dream High 2.

javabeans: Oh, yes please. I still want to smack him for that. I need to vent those frustrations somewhere.

girlfriday: But I do still love 90s pop icon JYP, not that he’s a different person from Dream-High-2 JYP.

javabeans: I like his ability to mock himself (which is that self-awareness I was just saying), in that he freely brings up his past, full of embarrassing parachute pants and clear vinyl suits and hangs a lantern on how silly that seems now.

girlfriday: Yeah I think it says a lot about his character that he can make fun of himself. He also seems adorably earnest, yunno, for a multi-millionaire pop mogul. So anyway, JYP’s standing around and the captions tell us this is his house. And then the three hosts of the show: Lee Kyung-kyu, Kim Jae-dong and Han Hye-jin ring his doorbell. Huh. So they just show up at his house?

javabeans: Is this a surprise? Or are we doing Cribs?

girlfriday: I think it’s Dr. Phil-meets-Cribs. I just don’t know if this is normal for the show, since this is the first time I’m watching. He greets them in the yard, and right away Kim Jae-dong makes fun of his outfit, like he’s dressed for kindergarten. Ha.

javabeans: It’s like 5-year-old prep school boy on the bottom… but fringe and stuff on top. Is this how he dresses in normal life? Or did he get dressed up pretty for the show? I’m confused.

girlfriday: I feel like either way I answer that question it’s bad for him.

javabeans: They ask why he decided to come out on the program, and he says he has come to his life’s final question. Okay, that’s a dire way to phrase that. The question: Who made this world and people, and why?

girlfriday: Pwahahaha. He’s totally serious, and Lee Kyung-kyu’s like, uh…. “That’s not really what we do…”

javabeans: So you came on Healing Camp to find out the meaning of life? He’s actually super adorable, because he’s got this little-boy enthusiasm about him, but it’s a totally weird answer. The way he says it, it sounds less like a spiritual search and more of an “Are there really aliens?” type of question.

girlfriday: Yes, like a child asking why rainbows only show up on certain days. The trio of MCs are actually taken aback, like they weren’t prepared for this guy. Maybe no one warned them?

javabeans: I can see how you have to be a little off your rocker to make it in this biz—you can’t be totally conscientious, reasonable, and safe to rise to his heights. It’s just that I expected JYP’s brand of crazy to be… different.

girlfriday: I’m thinking he’s got a lot more crazy to show us. He tells them that he’ll show them around the house, which he’s designed in the most efficient way to get through his day. He decides he’ll take them on JYP’s morning routine, which is hilariously just what I expect a Big Star to say.

javabeans: His routine is totally neurotic though well-intentioned. He literally walks them through the minutiae of “Here is where I sleep. The moment I open my eyes, I open this drawer. I take these vitamins. Then I open the next drawer. I eat almonds.” Whaaa?

girlfriday: Okay, he’s starting to show his OCD. He apparently COUNTS out his almonds. Six a day. Only six. Every day.

javabeans: You just know he read that somewhere, or did a mathematic calculation of the maximum health benefits in almonds, and decided on six. Then it’s on to the kitchen, at 8:05 am, since he’s on a clock here. “I don’t want to waste any time, so I start moving immediately.” Damn. That’s some mental discipline. I respect it, but I don’t understand it; while I agree with the principle entirely, the body just doesn’t comply.

girlfriday: Now I kind of get why he’s so successful, if he lives every single day like each minute is wasted if not spent efficiently. Damn. I mean, it’s crazy, but also admirable.

javabeans: He eats a whole bag of anchovies?? He walks them through his tried-and-true breakfast—every day for 17 years. Black beans, soy milk, nuts, anchovies. He’s asked why he doesn’t eat toast or fried egg for breakfast, and his answer is, “Breakfast has to be fast.”

girlfriday: Wut? He’s had the same breakfast, every day, for seventeen years? To maximize his time?

javabeans: Damn. It’s like he’s a human trying to be a robot, minimizing his human flaws.

girlfriday: His one weakness is dried persimmons, which he allows himself to eat, but only ONE a day, because otherwise he’ll gain weight. Dude.

javabeans: On to his morning calisthenics, with the automated voice counting down. It only takes two exercises for the hosts to gripe that that voice is aggravating.

girlfriday: It’s his own voice!

javabeans: Just… recorded.

girlfriday: That’s just crazy.

javabeans: I don’t know whether I should feel ashamed of my sloth or freed by it.

girlfriday: I’m impressed by the morning scales (on the piano) and the two-hour workout in the gym, but then he gets to his closet, and I’m back to thinking he’s nuts. He’s labeled his closet. Like it’s not enough to organize the closet according to your personal system, but it’s labeled, by color and type of clothing.

javabeans: Also, it’s one thing to do it to be neat. It’s another to do it “so I can always change in 5 minutes.” That’s obsessive. Omg, he’s invented his own acronym-song, to help him remember whether he’s remembered everything. It goes (in a singsongy tone), ji-jeon-jeon-jeon-rip-bi-myun-hyun-young-woon-chang. The hosts gape at him, wondering what the hell that means. It’s: wallet, phone, phone, phone (three phones?), lip balm, vitamins, did I shave, cash, receipts, workout gear, close the windows.

girlfriday: And he has another version for checking things before bed. Man, the sheer repetition of doing this routine for seventeen years… I don’t think I could do it for a week.

javabeans: Okay, I’m back to feeling shame, because when asked why he does it, he says that when he doesn’t, he feels sorry to his fans. As in, if he skips out on his routine, it affects his dancing and singing, and the freedom he feels onstage is beyond anything. So, in order to preserve that freedom, he’s willing and happy to give up the freedoms of daily living.

girlfriday: Aw, you can actually see that he’s super earnest about it–that because he’s not some genius, he only knows how to make up for it with effort.

javabeans: I totally think he’s a genius, although perhaps it’s more on the brain side of things—he’s a master businessman and producer.

girlfriday: But maybe he has some kind of inferiority complex because he’s not a genius songwriter, like in the actual chunjae sense. I think it’s nuts to have an inferiority complex over not being a genius, but everyone’s got their thing I guess.

javabeans: He’s Salieri? I totally feel like I’m learning things in this episode, but I’m not sure if they’re good things.

girlfriday: Like how to be more OCD? I don’t think you need that lesson.

javabeans: But he’s saying his stuff and it’s like a light bulb is going off over my head. Ohhhh, I’m thinking. That makes sense. Maybe it’s for my own good that I lack the discipline.

girlfriday: And MY good. Don’t forget my good. Some of us like being lazy, yunno!

javabeans: I do too, but my OCD side guilts my lazy side so I can’t ever enjoy it 100%. The hosts ask how he handles problems. JYP uses drinking as an example, of how getting really drunk is something all celebs have to avoid, so after getting drunk one time he decided no more hard liquor. Following that rule he went six months without getting drunk, but then one night at a birthday party he got drunk off beer. So then he instated another rule about leaving at a certain hour, went another six months without incident, then got drunk at a film crew party. He decided to self-impose the punishment you’d get for drunk driving (100 day suspension), and went 100 days entirely dry.

girlfriday: He says it ended yesterday, so then Kim Jae-dong asks what happens if he were to get drunk today. He immediately says “Then 200 days.” Not that I’m surprised, but he is hardcore with the rules. I’d be scared to be one of his idols. I mean, can you imagine the rules in that company?

javabeans: I wonder if it’s easier or harder that he seems to have this gentle, friendly approach, but that inflexibility with discipline. If he can do it, they can do it. It seems so completely worth it to him that I wonder if he has little patience for somebody who isn’t as committed. But normal people just can’t be that committed. It’s not… normal.

girlfriday: I can imagine he doesn’t handle it well. Plus, if you break one of his rules, the punishment is immediately to DOUBLE the previous punishment.

javabeans: JYP says that music makes him so happy that he doesn’t need anything else, like drugs, which spins into this story about how he used to be suspected of being a junkie in his rookie days, ‘cause he looked like he was on drugs, he was so into his performances. And how one day he found his mom in his room, crying, “Do you… do drugs?” Hahaha.

girlfriday: Hee. It’s adorable how he talks about music though, with such genuine excitement. They ask if he doesn’t find his lifestyle restrictive, but he says with such conviction that he’s so happy because he gets to make music, and that he’s not in his right mind, he loves music so much.

javabeans: It makes sense how he says that you have to maintain a healthy body for your mind to follow. He says he can’t understand when other creative types say that they have to live freely because of their art, because if you don’t take care of yourself, the ideas can’t flow. Although, I have this recent study about alcohol helping creativity I’d like to show him…

girlfriday: I’d like to see that study, because what he’s saying is starting to make sense and I want to nip that in the bud.

javabeans: Right? His philosophy has this strange cult-leader attraction.

girlfriday: Yeah I’d totally be drinking the kool-aid if his routine wasn’t so damn hard.

javabeans: Conversation moves to the competition/reality show K-Pop Star, where JYP earned something of a Simon Cowell reputation for ripping bad performances apart. He explains that he really meant to be encouraging and warm, but that he’d get so caught up in the music that he’d forget himself—that it was the frustration of being withheld the performance he could almost see. He wanted to go there with the singer, but the singer wouldn’t go, and that made him mad.

girlfriday: I like his explanation–he uses the analogy of being shown a delicious plate of food and then having it taken away. Ha. He says that with his own singers, he’s known to be this way in recording sessions, so he knew this about himself, and was hesitant to be on the show in the first place.

javabeans: He tells the story of how he was talked into participating in the program by Mr. YG himself, Yang Hyun-seok (“I have a witness, Psy was there!”). Hyun-seok, whom JYP describes as stern and scary, essentially told him he’d play bad cop and let JYP play good cop, since he gets along with the youngsters so well. But then as soon as the program started, Yang totally shocked him by being warm and approachable.

girlfriday: Hahahahaha. This is hilarious. He’s like, Hyun-seok hyung is so scary!

javabeans: I love how he says he got so into the performances that he’d forget himself and let loose this tirade, and Yang would whisper to him, “Good job, everything you said is right.” But then Yang would keep his nice face on to the cameras and JYP would look like the bad guy.

girlfriday: He swears that Yang Hyun-seok is such a cold distant boss, but suddenly after that show, everyone’s saying that YG is so warm and they want to go there, and JYP is so harsh! Hahaha. He seems so peeved about that misconception, it’s hysterical.

javabeans: He actually gets worked up, especially when he recounts a previous encounter (“That wasn’t the first time Hyun-seok hyung did that to me!”). He tells the story of how, in the early days of The Internet, illegal mp3 filesharing was rampant and there was to be a live televised debate about it. He agreed to go on the show, and found himself inundated with calls from other producers and executives, all telling him not to forget to say this, and to mention that. Yang Hyun-seok gave him a whole monster list of things to say (“You know my image, I can’t go out and say things, but YOU, you’re known to shoot your mouth so it’s okay”) and even texted him in the middle of the live broadcast to remind him, “Say this point now! Now this one!” Haha. And after the show ended JYP had amassed a league of anti-fans.

girlfriday: So far this interview is making YG look really good. Ha.

javabeans: You mean, really smart?

girlfriday: Yeah like evil mastermind smart. In a good way, but you can see how JYP would be frustrated.

javabeans: Han Hye-jin says he seems really worked up, and JYP literally has to remind himself to breathe.

girlfriday: Suddenly a phone rings in the middle of the interview and they’re like, who’s that rude guy? But then JYP realizes that it’s his alarm to take his vitamins, so he gets up in the middle of the interview to take them! Pfft.

javabeans: That leads to the explanation of why he’s so stressed out right now (he’s taking that vitamin for his vocal cords), because he somehow was insane enough to agree to debut his comeback single on live television, on K-Pop Star, in front of the very people he’s been judging so harshly all this time.

girlfriday: Omg. So much pressure. How can that possibly go well?

javabeans: I know, right? It’s like the movie critic suddenly has to go and make a movie now. They’re not just waiting for him to fail, they’re probably licking their chops just hoping for a chance to tear him a new one.

girlfriday: At least Hyun-seok hyung is guaranteed to say something nice to him in front of the cameras. Talk turns to what kind of boss JYP is, and it’s pretty much what I expected–he’s super involved in his singers’ lives, but strict and very thorough, in terms of all the things he expects of them.

javabeans: I think it’s interesting how he says he picks not based on talent but on personality. I’m sure there’s a baseline requirement for talent, but his big criteria is for his idols to be “good kids.” He likes natural personalities with tender hearts: “My kids may be lacking in some areas but they’re never unnatural.”

girlfriday: It makes sense, since he seems like the kind of person who goes with his gut, despite his rigid rules.

javabeans: And that’s the kind of person he seems to be, at the core. He wants to nurture those dreams. He makes the point that a lot of singers have to face a bitter reality when they either don’t make it or fall out of popularity. While actors can take smaller roles and keep acting, singers can’t become supporting singers. It’s all or nothing.

girlfriday: Lee Kyung-kyu puts on his sage advice hat and says it’s like he’s teaching them how to fish rather than giving them fish, and gets a glare from his co-host Han Hye-jin, because apparently he’s been over-doing the sage advice lately. Ha. JYP quips that this show’s MC dynamic is so strange that they’ll either fight now and break up, or last for a really long time. Is this show that new?

javabeans: Huh. My file says this is Episode 41, which is almost a year. But I guess compared to others, it’s a newbie.

girlfriday: They ask how he deals with Idol Rebellion (suddenly I think that should be the name of a band) and he says that just like life, there’s an adolescent stage in being a celebrity too.

javabeans: And now I’m super curious to know if he’s talking about Rain. I’m sure it could be a number of people, but Rain is his most famous protegé-gone-free, so it’s the natural assumption.

girlfriday: And his most one-on-one pupil.

javabeans: JYP says how in this period of celeb adolescence, the star starts thinking they know enough now, that they don’t have to follow the boss in everything, and tries to assert their own opinions. JYP says that he’s learned in hindsight that he has to shut up in those moments, because anything he says will be taken as nagging, and that will just cause a rift between them.

girlfriday: It’s totally like raising a kid. Yeesh.

javabeans: Han Hye-jin asks why he always puts some form of “JYP” into the intros of his idols’ songs, which gets a laugh. I always assumed it was a super shrewd branding technique, which I think was one of his more simple-genius inventions. I tend to think all of his songs have a trademark style anyway, but then you hear that “JYP” and you’re like, “Yup, thought so.” He says sheepishly that at first it was a way to reach out to his fans once he wasn’t singing to them directly anymore, and then it just got good responses so he kept it up.

girlfriday: In this case, he should just be like, yeah I’m the genius who did that. It’s not like he invented it (he most likely learned it from hip hop artists in the States), but it’s such a trademark of his now.

javabeans: They joke that you don’t hear other songs with a whispered, “SM….” or “YG….” haha.

girlfriday: Haha, it’s funny, though technically, you hear “YG” on most of the artists’ hit tracks.

javabeans: Do you really? That’s something that must have slipped by me entirely.

girlfriday: It’s not like JYP’s standard signature. It’s like a rap lyric or something.

javabeans: Aw, I actually feel a little bit sorry for JYP when he says that all his best songs get “stolen” by his idols, when he wrote them intending to sing himself. It must be hard to be a better songwriter than singer, and in the end he usually rationalizes that if, for instance, 2PM sings that song instead, it’ll be a much bigger hit than if he did it himself. But after a while he’s learned to stop letting people hear his songs ahead of time, because they all want to sing them themselves. Like the song he wrote that went to Se7en, “Even If I Couldn’t Sing”—JYP could have totally sung that. It might even fit him better.

girlfriday: Aw, it’s cute that he’s got that constant singer-CEO war going on. Like maybe he knows what the shrewder business decision is, but he has to fight his instincts as an artist.

javabeans: I can’t do that. My heart gets too involved and then I’m like, screw business. JYP gets in front of a whiteboard and starts to chart out how he achieves his ultimate goal, freedom. Okay, get that kool-aid ready again, because everything he says in terms of personal philosophy hits that sweet spot of sounding wise, but not too wildly existential. It’s like common sense, but told to you by someone who’s smarter. Example: In pursuing freedom, he’d always do his homework first, then play. Lee Kyung-kyu says the freer thing to do would be to just play, but he says, “But then you give up the ensuing freedom.”

girlfriday: See, I’m in total agreement there. Not that I always practice this in my own life, but that shit catches up with you. Do your homework first, then you get to do whatever you want.

javabeans: Yes. In a total anarchy, no, you could just be free and do whatever you wanted. But inasmuch as we all do have to live our lives plugged into the system to some extent, you can’t flout the rules entirely and then escape the consequences. Rules of the grid, yo.

girlfriday: Right. If you don’t want to do the homework, then go live in a society where you don’t need a diploma. So he draws this ladder with a point system attached, and at the top is “Freedom.” That’s what he says his goal always is. Even when he was a kid and did his homework first, total freedom to do whatever he wanted was always the goal. At the first level, a third of the way up is “Money.” He says in college he decided that his first goal was to make a crapload of money, because he figured then he’d have the freedom to do what he wanted. So he set a goal of 2 billion won and get this… he reached it by the time he was 26. WTF?

javabeans: Damn. Okay, so he had one hit early on (“Don’t Leave Me”) with a teeny label, because he was rejected everywhere. That label went under, but the silver lining is that he was able to set up his own 1-man operation. So then when he hit it big with two follow-up songs, he made the cash to buy a building that now houses JYPE. He clarifies the belief that he’s super-rich by saying that in order to run his company, he’s got to be the primary shareholder, which means that he’s also got to chase investments and loans to keep his stake in the business steady. So yes, he’s rich, but a lot of his assets are tied up. Lee Kyung-kyu comments, “Huh, so not such an envious life after all.”

girlfriday: Ha. Difference between a guy WORTH a lot, and a guy who’s got a lot to spend.

javabeans: Next he moves on to the next step on his ladder, saying that once he’d amassed that money, he realized that he’d miscalcluated: Merely having money doesn’t mean you suddenly have the freedom to do what you want. So he switched his goal to reputation/honor—as in, be the best in his field. So that’s when he started producing, as he was developing G.O.D.

girlfriday: Man, just the string of idols on this guy’s resume is crazy.

javabeans: He explains that this is when he came up with the idea that the American breakthrough would be the pinnacle of achieving that honor (which I think is misguided, but okay). And that to him, achieving honor doesn’t mean you have to hit #1, but that you pave a new way for others to follow.

girlfriday: See, I think he’s accomplished plenty in that trailblazing sense that he doesn’t need the American overseas venture to be the thing.

javabeans: I can see how intellectual curiosity would drive him to say, I want to see if I can get Americans to buy my songs. But I wouldn’t call that the ultimate goal. America isn’t an extension of his success at home; it’s a different game altogether. It was a hard sell to his shareholders, who told him that they’d back his American efforts IF he could chart an album on Billboard in the Top Ten. I wonder if they were doing that thing parents do to humor kids, expecting the kid to go off and get out of their hair. But of course JYP is all, “Okay!”

girlfriday: It is impressive how he sees everything as a challenge meant to be conquered.

javabeans: And then, in month 11, he got his Top Ten albums (Mase, followed by Will Smith and Cassie) and made his mark as the first Asian producer to do so. And yet, he had another epiphany around that point, where he realized honor was also a misguided goal. He looked back at his achievements and for the first time thought they might have been a bit ambitious. YOU THINK? That made him wonder seriously how he’d achieved what he’d achieved, and he concluded: “I was blessed with incredible luck.”

girlfriday: And then he apparently wrote them all down, and still carries them around every day. Things like being born to his parents or living in the States as a child for a few years, right down to “not dying yet.” HA.

javabeans: I’m sort of amazed at what he sees as luck, which others wouldn’t even bother to consider as something outside themselves. Like being born in the analog/digital era.

girlfriday: But that’s the only thing I see on that list that makes me go “Ahhhh,” because it’s true that those of us who were born on the cusp of the digital age have a certain… I don’t know what you call it… best of both worlds situation?

javabeans: I think it’s being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the Wild West scenario—in that regard, it’s also his luck in being alive when the Internet took off, but not so young it had already established itself.

girlfriday: Exactly. It’s what they say about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, that yes, they were genius kids, but they were born in the right era.

javabeans: Oh right, it’s like Malcolm Gladwell’s whole theory behind Outliers. That there are circumstances behind every extraordinary person that propelled them to their success, that set them apart from every other genius who hadn’t had the same luck.

girlfriday: Yes, yes. The outliers, and the generational patterns behind the movers and the shakers. Like the recipe isn’t just genius in and of itself, but the time and place, and opportunity.

javabeans: So JYP concludes that it all led him to question how he made his own success, when the omission of any item on his luck list would have impeded his path. That gave him a sort of existential/religious moment: “So there IS someone up there. There’s a reason.” That led to gratefulness, which then made him imagine “God or Buddha or aliens or energy” asking, “You’re just going to be grateful? What are you going to do with it?” That made him realize that helping others was the key, and he changed his life goal from honor to charity, “And I was happy. But…” The hosts shoot him this look of, “What on earth NOW?”

girlfriday: Omg he totally derails the interview. He launches into this explanation about his search for answers about God and the meaning of life, and the mystery of how complicated the human body is and how it functions without a manual (HA) and you can just see the hosts’ eyes glaze over.

javabeans: I love the looks on their faces. He has the curiosity of a 2-year-old, with the brain of an intelligent adult, and endless resources and energy. He says he’s not interested in religion, per se—he just wants to know things. Like how they work and stuff. “I want to meet who made us and receive that manual.”

girlfriday: He’s not even kidding. He has the innocence of a kid.

javabeans: It’s the fascinating dichotomy of JYP: Just when you think he’s totally off the rails, he comes back with one pithy thought that makes a lot of sense. He explains that it’s because he’s been so blessed that he’s embarrassed of the excess. Other people tell him to just give to the needy, then, like that solves the problem, “But I’ve done that! How can I stop myself from wanting to know?”

girlfriday: This all sounds perfectly normal. It’s just the way he explains it that sounds a bit nuts. But the philosophical issue is one that everyone has grappled with, throughout the history of the friggin’ universe. I just think it’s funny that he thinks maybe he’s discovered this problem.

javabeans: Like it’s new? That’s how he concluded that charity wasn’t the answer, either, although it takes you to 99%. (Money and honor each take you 33%.) Even if he gave away everything he had, he would still be left with that 1%, wanting to know who made them and why. Maybe the answer is: “Humans aren’t meant to be 100% happy.” There. Mystery solved.

girlfriday: Right? Like maybe the answer is, if you were already at 100, would you have accomplished any of the things that you have? Not likely. Maybe the search is the point. But he seems convinced there’s an answer.

javabeans: Maybe the meaning of life is that you need to search for a meaning. Otherwise you’re that wise lonely man on the mountaintop at perfect peace, doin’ nuthin’.

girlfriday: But you’re teaching kung-fu, right?

javabeans: But that’s like, once every thirty years when some hero makes the climb. You can’t make it easy for them, you know. Omg, I love the moment when Han Hye-jin leans forward and offers, “I think life is a gift from the one above,” and Lee Kyung-kyu bursts out, “Not you too!”

girlfriday: Hahahaha. He’s got a convert!

javabeans: But that’s totally how I feel, like I’m right there, agreeing. Kim Jae-dong’s all, “I knew something was up a while ago, when she was sitting there nodding along!” At this point Lee Kyung-kyu’s just wanting to wrap things up, and when Kim Jae-dong starts to argue a point, he barks at him, “Just do as he says! Otherwise there’s no end to his talk!”

girlfriday: Pffft, I love that he’s like, “This show usually ends with catharsis of some kind, but this time…” and then he bows in apology to the viewers. So you mean a lecture on the meaning of life is not how this show usually ends?

javabeans: Lol. JYP brings it back to earth, though, by saying that he’ll be able to sleep well tonight—because as long as you’ve done the best you could today, no worries. Even with his album plug, he says that he’d previously have really worried about its success, but now he figures the result is out of his hand. He did his best, that’s enough. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.

girlfriday: And then they give him a present, which I guess they normally do at the end — an ice tub full of beers, which makes him so happy. They say there’s a second present, but he’s like, I have no interest in that one, and opens a beer. Ha. Han Hye-jin says they heard that he doesn’t own a camera, so they give him a polaroid, to document the good moments from now on. He says it’s the first camera he’s ever owned in his entire life, and when they ask why, he says, “I was too busy…” Why does that make me want to cry?

javabeans: I love that it’s the little things that make him so giddy. Aw, and now he’s about to cry. I don’t know if the show gave him the healing it’s meant to, but I sure feel like I’ve learned a lot. Mostly about how lazy I am.

girlfriday: And how much I want a beer. I love that it ends with him downing his first beer in a hundred days, and looking at it so lovingly. It really is the little things.

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