Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 4

by odilettante

It’s Christmas, and what better way to celebrate than by giving birth? Okay, I could think of a few ways that might be better. Or a few hundred.

As Do-hee struggles through the pains of the labor, Ho-gu also struggles to figure out how he fits in her life, if he even fits at all. But he’s such a squishy puppy there’s got to be a way to make him fit, especially when he comes bearing the only real gift that matters: friendship.

Fourth Fool’s Errand: Let’s spend Christmas with family

After Do-hee’s water breaks, Ho-gu rushes out into the street grab a taxi. Ho-gu yells for the taxi driver to go faster, and both he and the driver begin to panic that Do-hee is going to have the baby right there in the car. But Do-hee is the only one who keeps her head, asking Ho-gu to get her pregnancy book so she can figure out how urgent her contractions are. Even so, she screams at the driver to gooooooo when the light finally turns green.

Once they reach the hospital, she thanks him for helping her get settled into her room. Ho-gu worriedly starts to leave, asking when her husband will be there, and she says he’ll be there soon. As Ho-gu dazedly walks down the hospital hallway, the nurse assumes he’s Do-hee’s guardian, but he tells her that Do-hee’s husband will be coming instead.

The nurse is confused by that, since Do-hee had told her that her husband was abroad, and that she was a Korean expat and only in the country for a short period of time. The nurse adds that “the patient” reminds her of “that swimmer,” and Ho-gu slowly begins to realize something’s amiss. As the nurse finishes hooking Do-hee up to the machines to monitor her vitals, Do-hee confirms that her husband won’t be coming — in fact, no one will. She’ll be doing this all on her own. Ho-gu peers around the corner and notices that the name on her bed is “Elise Do.”

He’s pondering what that means when he gets an urgent call from Tae-hee. He hurries to meet his buddies where they’re trying to convince their editor to not cancel their webtoon, but Ho-gu is too distracted by the oddities in Do-hee’s story. Tae-hee tries to get him to focus, since this is an important meeting (adding that if Ho-kyung knew he was having a “some” relationship with a pregnant woman, she’d kill him. Hee).

As he watches and half-listens to Chung-jae and Tae-hee beg their editor for another chance, Ho-gu realizes that even if he’s foolish, he can’t behave in a foolish manner — it’s none of his business whether Do-hee has her child alone or if her husband will be there. He echoes the words of the editor as he says it must be fate telling him not to get involved with Do-hee, and he’s no longer going to give in.

The stressed-out editor pulls out a pack of cigarettes, and Ho-gu remembers how drunken Do-hee had begged him on the beach to smoke since it might harm “this thing” inside her. Tae-hee and Chung-jae get down on their knees, pleading for their Christmas wish — which only reminds Ho-gu of Do-hee’s desperate eyelash wish to “take this thing away.”

No longer able to endure it, he stands up and rushes out of the coffee shop, running all the way to the hospital. “My name is Ho-gu. Kang Ho-gu.”

He shows off all the stuff he bought for Do-hee’s labor kit per the list in her book, and she asks why he’s there. Hesitating, he admits that he overheard that she was going to have the baby alone. He wants to ask why she’s using a fake name and wearing strange glasses, and if she’s really married, and how she got into this state, and—

Do-hee interrupts him, yelling that he has no right to ask her such questions, and he quietly admits that he won’t. Instead, he’ll just stay by her side until the baby comes. “Isn’t it scary? If you’re alone?”

But Do-hee wants to know why he’ll bother sticking around for her when it doesn’t concern him, and tries to shoo him out by ordering he return the stuff he bought her. Ho-gu instead answers her question: “You said we were friends.” As a friend, can’t he stay by her side when she’s having a baby?

The nurse arrives, happily greeting “the friend” who came back and impressed by the labor kit he put together. She offers to get him a blanket since, as the guardian, he’ll be staying through the night. He politely declines, but Do-hee turns her head away, and without looking at him, tells the nurse to get two blankets, because her friend gets cold easily. Awwww.

Ho-gu returns from buying maternity pads as well as some snacks, but when the nurse tells him that Do-hee needs to fast until the baby is born, he offers the snacks to the nurse instead, much to her delight. She thinks he must be a really close friend of Do-hee’s, but Ho-gu sheepishly admits that in high school Do-hee was popular, but he was just the snack errand boy.

Flashback to high school, and his arms are full of treats for the bully Young-bae and his cronies. Aw, he’s momentarily wonderstruck when he passes Do-hee, but she completely ignores him. He shrugs it off and whistles his way back to the class room. Young-bae pulls him over to tell him about a sexy dream he had about Do-hee, and forcefully commissions Ho-gu to draw him a comic based on that dream. Clearly uncomfortable about drawing Do-hee naked, he stays late, staring down at a blank piece of paper.

Tae-hee is busy cleaning the classroom, and worries that if Ho-gu doesn’t draw the comic, Young-bae will kill them both. If it were just him, Ho-gu contemplates “just dying,” but for his friend, he begins to draw the comic. Like a scene out of medical drama, Tae-hee hands him pencils as though they were scalpels, and Ho-gu’s hand flies across the paper.

When he delivers the completed comic to Young-bae, all the boys gather around to ogle, jaws agape, and Young-bae cries tears of joy. In an epic slow-motion chase through the school that evoke scenes from classical paintings, the boys fight over the comic…

…until it’s caught by the wind and lands at Do-hee’s feet. Whoops. Everyone scatters when she shows up at the classroom, demanding to know who drew the comic. Poor Ho-gu tries to avoid her gaze, but it’s obvious he’s the artist.

Angry, she asks if he’s responsible, and then she slams it down on his desk. If he’s going to draw her, at least do it right — she’s not an A-cup! She threateningly crushes a soda can, warning him what will happen if he dares to draw her breasts that small again. HAHAHA!

In the present day, Ho-gu reads through the pregnancy book, remembering that Do-hee was always arrogant, strong, elegant, and impressive — she never wavered in any situation. Just then, Do-hee screams in agony, and a startled Ho-gu is hustled out so the nurse can attend to her patient, cheerfully telling her that Do-hee’s cervix still needs to dilate a little more, asking her to calm down a little. Do-hee grips the nurse, demanding to have a C-section instead.

Ho-gu hurries after the nurse, asking if Do-hee will be getting a surgery, but the nurse just smiles and says that Do-hee’s already dilated. She sends him off to try and calm Do-hee down, and all his efforts are in vain as Do-hee cries in agony. He tries to figure out how much it hurts, but his guesses are wayyyyy off (“Like being stabbed with a knife? Menstrual cramps? The urge to poop?”), and Do-hee only screams at him.

Cut to a guy strapped to a labor-pain device, screaming in his own agony as he writhes in a chair. Ho-kyung tells the crowd watching that he was only experiencing the pain of a severed finger or toe, and childbirth is at least three pain levels higher than that. The point of this presentation is to warn about unwanted pregnancy, and Ho-kyung reveals that they’re actually there to give out free condoms. Ha, when she asks if any other guy wants to try the labor-pain device, all the ladies volunteer their boyfriends.

Ho-kyung’s professor is impressed with the way she’s handling the project, and when she gives Ho-kyung her fee, she casually asks if Ho-kyung is dating anyone. In a fantasy sequence, she literally defends herself from the professor’s probing questions like a kung fu student-turned-master (with the weapon of choice being sugar cubes and a tea pot), and finally the professor gets to the point: she wants Ho-kyung to date her son.

The professor is worried that her son is too preoccupied with work, and his social skills are lacking. She wants Ho-kyung’s professional expertise with “some” types of relationships to help him out. But when she hands over his business card, it’s none other than Byun Kang-chul.

Ho-kyung calls Gong-mi to confirm that the crazy lawyer Gong-mi is always talking about is really Byun Kang-chul. Even though Gong-mi tries to discretely confirm that it is, she gets frustrated and starts yelling that her crazy lawyer is Kang-chul — just as he walks back into the office. Pfffft. Confirmation complete, Ho-kyung cackles in delight. This does not bode well for Kang-chul.

Using his newfound knowledge from Do-hee’s pregnancy book, Ho-gu attempts the Lamaze technique to help calm her. He tries to get her to think of the peaceful ocean, with the waves going back and forth and the seagulls flying by. As he flutters his hands like a bird, Do-hee intertwines her fingers with his — only to twist his fingers back as another contraction hits. This time it’s Ho-gu who screams out in pain, begging the nurse to quickly come and give Do-hee an epidural.

After Kang-chul parks his fancy car, he sets up a financial magazine on the bumper and awkwardly leans across the hood for another selfie. But no amount of wriggling will get the right angle, and after checking to make sure no one is around, he pulls out a selfie-stick from his brief case in order to get the perfect pic. OMG hilarious.

His apartment is meticulously organized, and he spends a few minutes adjusting picture frames and other knickknacks a millimeter or two until he’s satisfied. After he pulls a bottle of water from his super organized fridge, he does a literal spit-take when he sees his mother standing in his kitchen. It seems like family visits aren’t very common, but she’s determined that they at least have Christmas dinner together.

Compared to the casual and festive Kang family Christmas dinner of homemade kimchi pancakes and makgeolli (yum!), Kang-chul’s formal family dinner is so awkward it’s painful. Mom tries to make small talk, but Kang-chul’s father is more preoccupied with the game on his phone, and Kang-chul is busy seeing how many likes his selfies get.

Mom tells Kang-chul that she wants to set him up with one of her students (and Dad is more concerned about whether or not she’s pretty), but practical Kang-chul doesn’t think it’s the right time for him to think about getting married. However, his father treats it like a business deal, and promises a hefty sum (approximately $100,000) if Kang-chul gets married next year. Kang-chul changes his tune and agrees to try.

Back at the hospital, Do-hee is still screaming for an epidural, and when Ho-gu tries to do Lamaze breathing again, she yanks the book from his hands and chucks it at him. The ever-cheerful nurse stops by for a check-up and Ho-gu steps outside to answer his phone.

It’s Dad warning him about the dream he had, and to tell him to be careful not to touch any kinds of strings, but Ho-gu interrupts him to first ask how he managed to soothe his wife when she gave birth to Ho-gu and Ho-kyung. Dad tells him that are two times when a woman turns into an wild animal and cannot be soothed — when a man cheats on her, and when she gives birth.

Instead, he encourages Ho-gu to find something that will appeal to the woman’s instinct. In his case, he offered to do the one thing for the rest of his life that his wife hated doing — the dishes. Awww. As Ho-gu watches Do-hee thrash about in pain, he tries to think of what he could transform her pain into.

Flashback to high school, and a sad Ho-gu feeling guilty for not apologizing to Do-hee for the comic. He follows her to the sports center, and silently watches as she swims lap after lap. That day he realized that a person could fight without a sound — he couldn’t tell if her opponent was the water or the air, but when she was swimming, Do-hee was definitely fighting someone. She’s mildly annoyed to see him standing there and tries to ignore him, but he stops her by asking what she thinks about when she’s swimming.

Back in the present, Ho-gu tells Do-hee that a C-section is dangerous, and she can’t have another epidural. In tears, she tells him that every few minutes, it feels like a glass explodes in her stomach, and those shards of glass are ripping up her insides. What is she supposed to do?

Ho-gu: “Don’t do anything and just endure it.” He reminds her that she once said that swimming is something she endures, and now she needs to pretend that she’s at the Olympics. Instead of a silver medal — he pulls the one she gave him out of his pocket — she can now get gold. But if she doesn’t hold it in, then she’ll only ever end up with silver.

Do-hee turns her head away, but she’s quiet now. Ho-gu smiles to himself: “Success.” As she’s wheeled to the delivery room, she asks Ho-gu for her goggles. If she’s going to be swimming, she needs her goggles, right? She quietly adds that if she dies, she wants Ho-gu to have her silver medal.

Flashback to the pool, and Do-hee tells him that she doesn’t think of anything when she’s swimming. She stares at the pool floor for seven hours a day — swimming isn’t something she does, it’s something she endures. She does it for the gold medal, and if she doesn’t get a gold medal, then she’d rather die.

In the present day, Ho-gu waits outside the delivery room, Do-hee’s silver medal in his hand. As he looks down the hallway, he imagines a swimming pool lane, realizing that this is Do-hee’s world — it’s either first place or no place. You either succeed or you fail. No in-between. The goggles fall from Do-hee’s grasp, and the nurse calls for Ho-gu to enter the room.

At home, Dad explains his dream in detail: Ho-gu was climbing a big tree and grabbed onto a long elastic rope that snapped in two. Then dream Ho-gu fell down in a shower of peppers. Ho-kyung wonders if that means there’s something off about his sexuality (because the word for pepper is the same as penis). But supposedly a rope represents life, so…

A worried Ho-gu (in full hospital gown) steps into the delivery room, gently calling Do-hee’s name. She’s passed out on the delivery table, but her eyes slowly open and she whispers: “I have a gold medal.” The sound of a baby’s cry catches his attention, and Ho-gu hesitates when the midwife hands him the scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Snip! Well, I think we can guess what long stretchy rope was broken in Dad’s dream.

After being handed her baby, Do-hee exhaustedly smiles, relieved that the baby has all his fingers and toes. She tells Ho-gu to greet the baby, too, and when the baby’s tiny fingers wrap themselves around Ho-gu’s finger, he breaks down, weeping. Pffft, the nurses just assume he must be super emotional — and super religious — since it’s Christmas.

Kang-chul sends a message to Ho-kyung, informing her that his mother wants to introduce them. She’s literally kicking and screaming her delight, but the way she calls him a tactless bastard makes you think he’s going to pay for some past wrong.

He settles down to sleep (in a gold lamé sleep mask, of course) but immediately springs back up when his phone dings with an anonymous text message: “Shouldn’t you be spending Christmas with family? A new member of your family should have been born about now.”

As Do-hee tries to comfort both her crying newborn and the sobbing Ho-gu, we hear the familiar catchphrase: “My name is Ho-gu. Kang Ho-gu.”

COMMENTS

This show continues to delight me with the way it so deftly handles absurd humor with serious, heart-warming (or heart-wrenching) drama.

I’m such a sucker for fantasy sequences, as well as all the ridiculous winks to other shows (the plan for the webtoon’s second season set in Jordan made me literally LOL and I may or may not have re-imagined the final twenty minutes of Misaeng). I love the flights of fancy that keep the show lighthearted and hilarious, those little moments that make a simple scene so much more than it really ought to be. It doesn’t seem like it should work, but there’s a delicate and perfect mix of low-brow and high-brow that keeps it from turning totally slapstick (such as the boys fighting over a crude comic while mimicking the poses of classical paintings, set to the soundtrack of “Ave Maria.” Yes, I may have watched that scene more than once).

More than anything, I really appreciate that there’s a core center of something real grounding the entire drama. Everyone seems to exist juuuust on the edge of total make-believe, but then within a few sentences or by a look, I’m reminded that these characters are more than what they appear — they’re not just comedic fodder on a page (or screen). They feel human and react in ways that are relatable.

I’ve been head-over-heels for Ho-gu since the first few minutes of the first episode, but with each episode I’m growing more and more fond of Do-hee to the point where I feel like I’m also somehow her friend and want to defend her from the rest of the world. Even though so much about her is still a mystery (considering all this talk of family, where is hers? Does she have a mother? A father? Who makes her kimchi pancakes for Christmas?), I love that we get to go deeper and deeper into her personality each week.

She’s “arrogant, strong, elegant, and impressive” — but she’s also human. She doesn’t act in the way we expect a drama heroine to act, and I love it. The show almost seems to take quiet pleasure in subverting not just our expectations after years and years of drama clichés, but also subverting gender roles and stereotypes. Ho-gu’s parents are the most obvious example, but I see it in Ho-gu and Do-hee, too. (And Ho-kyung, of course.)

So often Dramaland gives us a male lead who’s a “jerk with a heart of gold” (even though it may take a few episodes to convince us there is, indeed, a heart at all) and a female lead who enters his life, turns it upside down with the sheer force of her presence and personality, and they somehow live happily ever after. This time, it’s the female lead who comes across just as brusque, demanding, and flawed as a standard male lead, and it’s the male lead who willingly chooses to become the emotional support and bearer of hope.

Which means I’m 100% onboard with this pairing, even though I don’t necessarily even need it to become romantic (although I assume it will, because, hey, it is Dramaland). I’m genuinely content with where they are right now — as friends. Ho-gu is the kind of guy who would stay by a friend and expect nothing in return, and I want to see him stay that way. At least for a little while longer. Considering how much Do-hee tries to push people out of her life (if she even lets them in to begin with), the most important relationship she needs is friendship. True friendship.

And family.

While I have wild-but-totally-realistic hopes that she’ll be adopted into the Kang family, I do have to momentarily address that little “new family” text received by Kang-chul at the end of the episode. Except, nope, don’t wanna. Even though I know “who’s the daddy?” is a huge question, it’s actually not that important to me, surprisingly enough. I don’t really care who the daddy is so long as Ho-gu is there to help Do-hee raise the baby.

Besides, I’m just assuming Kang-chul is a red-herring, anyway. Or at least I hope he is, because I’m already cackling like Ho-kyung at the thought of their pairing. Plus, my heart and mind are so sold on Ho-gu that there’s no space for Kang-chul to even make me entertain my usual second lead syndrome, and as of right now, it would take a heckava lot to convince me he’d be the right guy for Do-hee.

Although it would be fun to think about what he would do if suddenly a baby moved into his immaculate apartment. Probably have a complete mental break-down. Okay, red herring or not, that might be worth it for at least an episode or two.

RELATED POSTS

• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 3
• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 2
• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 1
• Couple hearts and thumbs-up for Ho-gu’s Love press conference
• Swearing goddesses and bashful fools for Ho-gu’s Love
• Ho-gu’s foolish love takes off
• News bites: January 17, 2015
• Ho-gu’s Love (and also his tiger, sword, and dupe)
• Im Seulong challenges for UEE’s affections in Ho-gu’s Love
• UEE, Choi Woo-shik headline tvN romance drama Ho-gu’s Love