Mask: Episode 4

by LollyPip

Our little frog is thrown into the big pond, and luckily Ji-sook has enough pluck and smarts to know it’s time to get serious. Her new husband doesn’t seem interested in working with her so she’s left on her own, at least for now. But a crisis could open the doors of communication between them, and I can’t wait to see them learn to work together.

 
EPISODE 4: “Heaven Made by the Devil”

Ji-sook asks Seok-hoon what he wants her to do after she marries Min-woo, and he tells her to get Min-woo to trust her. He clarifies that he means for her to make Min-woo want her physically, since he’s so touch-averse that if he wants to touch her, it will be the sign that he trusts her.

In one year Min-woo will be made heir of SJ Group, and Seok-hoon means to make sure that never happens. He waxes poetic and muses that when you have power, you sing, but when you have nothing, you only scream. ~shiver~

After the wedding, Min-woo and Ji-sook arrive at the family home, and Min-woo cocks an eyebrow at the way she gapes at the opulence and the virtual army of servants. He heads to the shower leaving Ji-sook alone in their room, where she tries to turn on the television but grabs the wrong remote, and hilariously ends up opening the curtains and shutting off the lights by accident, hee.

She’s in front of the bathroom door when he comes out, wet and rumpled, and she falls on the bed bracing herself for his husbandly intentions. Ha, he’s just reaching for some water, and tells her to get up. He calls for new sheets (what, like she soiled the ones on the bed just by touching them?) and orders Ji-sook to go take a shower when he sees a cherry blossom caught in her collar.

She pushes back, saying she’ll shower when she feels like it thankyouverymuch, so he settles for telling her to wash her face at least. He leans very close to mutter a sarcastic, “Please,” which is when the maid and butler enter with the sheets. They snicker at what looked like the start of a very sexy wedding night. I love these two.

Alone, Ji-sook thinks on Seok-hoon’s advice to make Min-woo lust after her, and Min-woo’s reminder that he’ll kill her if they marry. When she finally comes out, Min-woo points her to her new bed — the couch. Dang, that’s cold.

He tells her there are only three rules in his room: don’t touch his things, don’t make noise, and never, ever go into the locked room on the second floor. He gives her permission to see the man she said she loves, so long as she’s discreet. As long as the world thinks this was a love match, he doesn’t care what she does.

Ji-sook is a bit shocked, but when she stands to say they don’t need to go to such extremes, she drops her purse. This triggers the false memory of Min-woo strangling Eun-ha, and he snarls and throws it in anger. He gasps that this is a business marriage only, telling Ji-sook to stop pretending to be nice. If he kills her, it will be her fault for provoking him.

The next day at breakfast, Ji-sook tells the curious family that she’s feeling much better after her “accident.” She and Min-woo play the comfortable couple well enough to satisfy Min-woo’s dad, while Seok-hoon smirks. Dad gives Min-woo instructions on handling some business contracts, and tells him that if the new mall deal goes through, he’ll transfer him to headquarters.

He instructs Ji-sook to start working in the gallery, which Mi-yeon and Mom object to since that’s their territory. But Dad says he wants her out meeting people in order to recover faster, and Stepmom goes along with it, even suggesting a party.

Seok-hoon pulls Ji-sook aside to tell her what’s really going on: the chairman wants his family members keeping an eye on her. He suggests she use the opportunity to find out their secrets, but Ji-sook is more interested in Seok-hoon paying off her family’s debts. He says he’ll do it slowly so as not to draw suspicion, but warns her not to ask again and make him angry.

Ji-sook innocently asks why he didn’t tell her that Eun-ha was in love with someone, but before Seok-hoon can blow his top, Min-woo comes looking for Ji-sook. They sign the marriage certificate, but for one frightening moment Ji-sook starts to sign it with her real name. Luckily she catches it in time to scratch it out and sign “Seo Eun-ha.”

At the exact same time, her father is signing Ji-sook’s death certificate. He breaks down sobbing in the office, not caring about the stares he’s drawn. Later he goes through some of Ji-sook’s things with her mom and friend from work, and Mom is brought to tears by a watch that Ji-sook got as a graduation present.

Ji-hyuk follows a lead on a job opportunity, which turns out to be collecting money for the very loan sharks that are after his family. He gets the money, but not without getting beat up himself in the process. He takes the money to Director Shim, reminding him that fifteen percent of it goes towards his own debt.

Interesting… on his way out, Ji-hyuk runs into Scar on his way to see Director Shim. Scar offers to buy some of the debts that Shim holds (including, I assume, Ji-sook’s family’s), but Shim plays hardball and asks for more money.

Mi-yeon corners Ji-sook at the gallery, determined to find out the truth of what “Eun-ha” remembers. She prods into her personal life, asking about the men in her past and the one she’s supposedly still seeing. When Ji-sook doesn’t remember, Mi-yeon snidely offers to remind her, but they’re interrupted by Stepmom with the wife of a business contact. The woman is going shopping at their department store, and Stepmom suggests that Ji-sook go with her.

Seok-hoon is furious when Ji-sook calls to tell him where they’re going, but he can’t stop it from happening. Min-woo makes rounds of the store, ordering Ji-sook’s old department to clean up, and her coworker says they’re still upset over a friend’s death.

Ji-sook’s friend whines, but they work hard to put all the pink merchandise out like Min-woo ordered. Of course when he comes back by, he says he liked it better the other way and tells them to put it back. The boss smiles agreeably to his face but growls when he walks away. Can’t blame her — he’s an exquisite ass to his employees.

Ji-sook arrives at the department store armed with giant sunglasses and a large floppy hat to hide her face. She sees her former coworkers and can’t make herself walk past them. A memory surfaces of her telling Seok-hoon that she feels like she’ll go to hell for pretending to be someone else, and he’d said that lying isn’t always a bad thing. He’d told her to wear her mask and the world would be on her side. In the store, ji-sook does her best to wear that mask, and makes it past her old friends.

As she shops with the lady, her former coworkers nudge each other over her resemblance to their dead friend — but since they saw Eun-ha before her accident, they only think it’s Ji-sook’s doppelganger. Seok-hoon rushes to the store, but stays at a distance when he sees that Ji-sook seems to be pulling this off. He notices that she’s wearing the necklace he gave Eun-ha, and he’s caught with an unguarded look on his face when Ji-sook spots him.

On the drive home, Min-woo seems pleased with his new wife, asking if she’s always that good with people. He tells her that she’s wrong about not being happy if you always wear a mask — sometimes wearing that mask allows you to pretend to be happy. He smiles to have found a proper business partner.

Dad is happy too, as he talks to his acquaintance whose wife went shopping with Eun-ha, and hears that the two women had a good time. He compliments Ji-sook on being good with people, and asks Min-woo to talk in private.

Stepmom comments that Ji-sook sure did take a lot of merchandise without paying, then chuckles that they’re really family now. Everything she says is hard to pin down, because it all sounds like compliments and feels like insults. Mi-yeon isn’t happy and says she still doesn’t trust Ji-sook, wondering what will happen if her father doesn’t run for president as her family expects.

Dad is thrilled that Ji-sook made his colleague’s wife so happy, and Min-woo admits that she seems to be genuine. Dad laughs and tells him to make sure he knows whether she’s genuine, if he wants to keep doing business with her.

Min-woo barks at Ji-sook for sitting on his bed, so she pout-stomps her way to her couch. She catches him looking at her with questioning eyes, but he changes the subject to tell her that she’ll be offered a chance at one percent of SJ Group at a business meeting tomorrow. He mentions that if she was just helping him, she doesn’t have to take it — ah, it’s a test. Ji-sook says she’ll take the one percent, reminding Min-woo that they got married for business reasons.

Ji-sook checks her brother’s social media account and is reminded that today is their mother’s birthday. She leaves, watched by Seok-hoon, who is in turn watched by Mi-yeon. She goes to her family’s restaurant, and remembers seeing her mother once refuse to buy more hand cream when there was still a few drops in the bottle. She’d promised to buy her mother a new bottle of cream soon.

As Ji-sook watches her father, Seok-hoon catches up and grabs her by the wrist. He growls that love is the most useless emotion in the world, asking if she wants her parents to live a luxurious life. She nods, so he tells her that in order for that to happen, she has to forget them.

Ji-sook asks for a promise in return — will Seok-hoon take care of her family for the rest of their lives? He says that’s up to her, challenging her to play her part well enough to make him promise that.

They’re distracted by Ji-hyuk’s voice asking a neighbor ajumma if she’s seen his mother, who’s apparently been gone all day. Ji-sook turns her face away, but Ji-hyuk is curious and steps closer. To put him off the scent, Seok-hoon pulls Ji-sook in close, making their presence look like a romantic tryst.

Ji-sook shoves Seok-hoon off her as soon as Ji-hyuk moves away, and they listen in as her father calls people asking if they’ve seen his wife. Ji-sook starts to panic, since her mother always tells someone when she goes anywhere. She looks to Seok-hoon for help, and he agrees to find her. But he hardens again and reminds her that it’s her choice — she can make him do the things she wants.

Ji-sook arrives home to a dark room and Min-woo in bed already. He’s actually awake, but he pretends to be asleep as Ji-sook sits alone with her thoughts.

Seok-hoon wears his friendly expression with Mi-yeon, saying that something came up at work. She pretends concern over the seriousness of the problem if he had to attend to it himself, and he makes something up about a clause on the agreements they’ll be signing tomorrow. He slaps down a card for SJ Group’s law office to call if she doesn’t trust him. He goes to shower, but instead listens at the door as Mi-yeon makes the call. They corroborate his story, and Mi-yeon rips up the card in fury as Seok-hoon grins nastily behind the bathroom door.

Min-woo wakes from a nightmare of strangling Eun-ha, and he sees Ji-sook asleep on the couch, still fully dressed. He goes to cover her, but stops to watch her sleep, and ends up leaving her as she is. In the morning he fusses at her for coming in so late, and tells her to get ready for their big meeting today. After he leaves, she sees his monogrammed handkerchief on the table, knowing it wasn’t there when she went to sleep the night before.

The investment luncheon is being held on the lawn, and Ji-sook makes the butler tear up when he tries to talk to her about the menu and she walks away when she sees Seok-hoon. Mi-yeon overhears Ji-sook ask if Seok-hoon has found “her,” and he lies that it’s someone she loves like a mother.

He tells Mi-yeon that he found the woman, but when he pulls Ji-sook aside, he instructs her to make sure this investment agreement fails. She’s to mention to the mayor that Congressman Seo knows of his corruption scandal, which will scare him off investing in the family’s new mall.

He says that her mother was at a friend’s house and returned home late last night, and that she can check for herself when the luncheon is over. Then he reaches out and rips Eun-ha’s necklace off her neck, saying that she owns everything in the house… except this.

Of course Seok-hoon is lying about Ji-sook’s mother, because her father and brother are getting downright frantic to find her. None of her friends or relatives have seen her, but suddenly Ji-hyuk seems to have an idea of where she could be.

Ji-sook calls her father, just to hear his voice, but hangs up quickly when he asks if it’s his wife calling. She knows Seok-hoon lied, and she walks straight to where he’s talking with the servants and slaps him hard across the face. Good girl!

She orders him in a shaking voice never to make a promise to her again — she wont trust him anymore. She storms to her car, only pausing for a moment to speak to Min-woo when he stops her. He reminds her of this luncheon’s importance and her receiving a percent of the business, but she says she doesn’t need it and drives away with Seok-hoon pounding on her car window. Min-woo’s father asks why she left like that, and both Min-woo and Seok-hoon go after her.

It’s a race to see who can get to Ji-sook first, and Seok-hoon even gets Scar in on the pursuit. He tells Scar to stop Min-woo, and he’ll get to Ji-sook. Scar swerves in front of Min-woo’s car every time he tries to get close to Ji-sook’s, making Min-woo slam the wheel in frustration.

He calls someone and activates a tracker on Ji-sook’s car, but by now Seok-hoon has caught up with her. He calls her and tells her it’s not too late to go home, but she yells that this situation is all his fault and she shouldn’t have trusted him. He asks what she’ll do when she finds her mother, reminding her that she’s a murderer.

When Ji-sook says she’s going to find her mother and he can figure out what to do after that, he warns that if she does this, he may kill her. But she’s beyond caring, and invites him to do whatever he wants. Done with playing nice, Seok-hoon hits the gas and slams his car into hers.

Ji-sook tries to shake him by swerving through traffic, but he keeps up for a while, until he nearly hits a semi truck and goes off the road into a ditch. Ji-sook can’t leave him there and climbs into the ditch to pull him out of the car, and he seems to be pretty badly hurt.

Still, Seok-hoon actually gloats as he lies bleeding that even though he could kill her, she could never kill him. She counters that she’s fully capable of it, but she uses his phone to call for an ambulance. She leaves, but not before reminding him that if anything happens to her mother, she won’t let it go.

She finds the family restaurant deserted, and goes into her old room. The watch her mother cried over is on her dresser, and Ji-sook cries that this is all her fault. She runs through the neighborhood calling for her mother, not caring about hiding her face — but at the same moment that she sees Min-woo looking for her, Scar turns the corner and guns right for her.

Min-woo grabs Ji-sook and twirls her out of the way, and they both land on the pavement, breathless but unhurt. Min-woo leaps up and tears off his coat, disgusted by the dirt, but Ji-sook lies there in a shower of cherry blossom petals with a blissful expression on her face. Ji-sook says she knows where her mother is, and jumps up to beg Min-woo’s help. He agrees, but mostly to get her to stop hanging off his pants leg.

Ji-hyuk and Dad are also close to figuring out where Mom is, but though they know the general wooded area they’re looking for, it’s been so long since they were here that it’s all grown over. Ji-hyuk wants to call the police, but Dad says they’re too busy helping someone important.

That “someone important” is Ji-sook and Min-woo, and an out-of-breath Min-woo reminds Ji-sook that she said she’d do anything for him if he called in this favor. A cop finds one of Mom’s shoes, triggering a memory of a young Ji-sook who’d fallen near this place, and Mom had helped her up.

Dad had been planting a tree for each child, adding a third, “Ji-eun’s tree.” Mom tells little Ji-sook that her unni died and is now in their hearts. The family take a picture,and promise to come here every year on Mom’s birthday. And they had done it, which we see as Ji-hyuk looks through the photos they took every year, watching Ji-eun’s tree grow.

Ji-sook gets to the place first, and sees her mother lying prone beside Ji-sook’s tree. Ji-sook sinks to her knees and embraces her mother, crying and begging her to wake up. Mom opens her eyes weakly to see her daughter, and Ji-sook cries even harder in relief.

Min-woo climbs the hill and sees Ji-sook protectively curled around a strange woman, crying and saying she’s sorry. As he watches, a soft look comes over his face.

 
COMMENTS

Well, now what?! I’m guessing that Ji-sook will be dragged from her mother, and her appearance deemed a hallucination on Mom’s part, but I’m glad that Ji-sook got to see that her mother was safe, at least. I think she’ll be a lot more likely to commit to getting involved with her new family if she’s not so consumed with worrying about her old one. In that, Seok-hoon has an excellent point. If only he would use his powers of logic for good instead of evil. And despite that this turn in Ji-sook’s life is a horrific one, there’s need for her strength elsewhere, too. Min-woo needs someone on his side against his family, to help him break free of their drugging and gaslighting, so he can find freedom.

I’m liking Ji-sook as a character more and more as the story unfolds, because she’s not the halting, shy flower she first appeared. She’s soft and she knows when to keep her head down, but when it matters, she speaks up. It’s most evident with Seok-hoon, that even though he obviously intimidates her, he doesn’t seem to actually scare her — at least not in a debilitating way. She lets him call the shots, but she doesn’t let him win when he throws his weight around a bit too hard for her liking. I loved how she insisted he take Scar with him her first night as Eun-ha, and when he confronted her outside her family’s restaurant, she didn’t let him make the rules. She asked for something in return for her complicity in his plans: her family’s financial security. And when she actually slapped Seok-hoon for lying about finding her mother, I saw a glimpse of the Ji-sook to come — the strong, steel-spined woman she will be when she gets her feet under her in this nest of vipers she now calls family. They’re not going to know what hit them.

Speaking of Seok-hoon, is it just me or is he getting more and more intriguing? He’s such a contradiction, the way he’s determined to manipulate events in the family, yet seems weak to Ji-sook in unguarded moments. In particular, Seok-hoon’s repeated “make me” challenges to Ji-sook are so telling, in more ways than one. On the surface he’s reminding her: do what I want, and I’ll do what you want. It’s up to you, and you can make me do whatever you want me to do. In a way, he’s giving her all the power. And maybe I’m imagining it, but underneath his anger and force I hear a note of longing, that he’s subconsciously asking her to be on his side. I think he’s struggling with Eun-ha’s loss more than he lets on, based on how he looks at Ji-sook when she’s not paying attention. He’s asking her to be Eun-ha, to be his partner, and in return he’ll give her everything she wants. Yes, he’s got an agenda, but I can see his emotions clashing as he tries to stay harsh with her. His own mask is already slipping.

As one last thought: I guess the show is going with the “missing twin” angle after all, in regards to Ji-sook and Eun-ha’s resemblance. Ji-sook had a sister named Ji-eun, and the names (Ji-eun/Eun-ha), when paired with their identical looks, seems to be too much for coincidence. I’m curious now, if Eun-ha is Ji-sook’s “dead” twin, why she was thought dead and how she ended up the congressman’s daughter. I suppose we’ll see soon enough, though I confess I found the doppelganger explanation more interesting. But if the two women do turn out to be lost twins, there’s a lot of melodramatic goodness to be mined, and I’m pretty much open for whatever the show wants to throw at us.

 
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