Mask: Episode 9

by LollyPip

Ji-sook and Min-woo grow ever closer in spite of themselves, and in spite of Seok-hoon’s attempts to control Ji-sook. But she’s less willing to take orders these days, and is ready to take charge of her own life regardless of what Seok-hoon plans for her. Unfortunately, as her family’s situation becomes more desperate, Ji-sook may have to make a difficult choice — her increasingly-loving husband, or her family?

EPISODE 9: “My Own Reflection”

After being stopped for speeding, Ji-sook is taken to the station and asked to submit to fingerprinting. She struggles, and Min-woo arrives to find her surrounded by several cops. He confirms that she’s his wife, and takes her with him. Outside the station, he offers her the keys to the car, only asking that she let him know where she’s going when she feels comfortable doing so.

Meanwhile Ji-hyuk enters Jung-tae’s apartment to find him there unconscious, and approaches him with the syringe that Director Shim gave him. Ji-sook rushes to get there before he can do something he can’t take back, but her car runs out of gas and she’s forced to get out and run. She stops again when she nearly runs right into Director Shim outside the building.

Inside, Ji-hyuk raises the syringe, but his eyes land on photos of Jung-tae with his parents and he has second thoughts, and leaves. Ohthankgoodness. But Ji-sook overhears Shim talking on the phone about disposing of a body, and is horrified to discover they’re talking about Ji-hyuk. It’s not clear who ordered him killed — Shim says he just does what he’s paid to do.

When Ji-hyuk comes outside he’s surprised to see Director Shim there, but he tells Shim that he couldn’t do it. He goes with Shim but before they can get in the car, Ji-sook comes out of hiding to scream at her brother, “You can’t Ji-hyuk! Run away from them! Right now!”

All three men freeze at the shock of seeing her, but thankfully Ji-hyuk recovers first and gives the two thugs a shove, and runs for his life. He and Ji-sook escape together, and Ji-sook can’t hide the fact that she’s alive any longer. Both of them burst into tears, and Ji-sook hugs her little brother and apologizes.

At the Choi house, Min-woo asks his sister if she wants to break up his marriage. He knows she’s against it since it allows him to take over the company with Eun-ha’s family’s support, but Mi-yeon denies that she cares about the company. He asks why she gave him the pen if it wasn’t to break them apart, and she asks if he trusts his wife.

Min-woo says that he can tell she’s trustworthy when he looks in her eyes, and his sister laughs at his naivete. She says she truly doesn’t care about his marriage — what she cares about is Seo Eun-ha affecting her marriage. She points out that he knows his wife and Seok-hoon are more than in-laws, so why can he trust them?

Instead of answering, Min-woo says that he believes that if you look into a person’s eyes, you can see yourself, but only if they don’t avoid your eyes. He asks if she’s seen her reflection in Seok-hoon’s eyes, and says that he has seen his in Ji-sook’s eyes, and that’s why he trusts her.

Ji-sook gives Ji-hyuk a giant pile of cash and tells him to take it and hide, and that there’s more money coming. Ji-hyuk throws it in the air and demands that she stop playing games and come home. But she can’t, and bends to pick up the money. She yells at him to help pick it up: “This is money! This is what I’ve come this far for.”

At bedtime that night, Mi-yeon tries to see herself in Seok-hoon’s eyes. He avoids her gaze and gives her a halfhearted “I love you,” and goes to bed alone.

Ji-sook goes to Eun-ha’s old apartment, remembering the words written in her high school yearbook: “If you wear a mask, you can’t ever be happy.” Words that once gave her so much hope. Now she sees the spectre of Eun-ha glaring at her, and hears different words: “If you don’t wear a mask, you can never survive.”

Min-woo is waiting up when she gets home, and asks if she handled everything. He notices scratches on her arm and she insists she’s fine, but she stumbles and he catches her. He reminds her that she was the one who said they should help each other, but now Ji-sook’s voice sounds dead as she says that he can’t help her.

The next day, Ji-sook confronts Seok-hoon about whether he knew of her mother’s illness, and he admits that he also knows everything that’s going on with Ji-hyuk. He says that she’s in quicksand and needs to call for help, but makes a point to say she could ask him, not Min-woo.

Ji-sook just retorts that nothing had better happen to her brother, though Seok-hoon says that’s up to her. She asks what he wants and is surprised when he says that he wants Min-woo destroyed. Help him do that, and he’ll guarantee her brother’s safety.

Ji-sook only asks what’s in it for her, and says that she wants to live her life as Seo Eun-ha, including requesting that he reactivate Eun-ha’s bank account. Seok-hoon gets this evil grin, knowing he’s finally getting what he wants, and laughs in her face to take off the mask.

Min-woo isn’t even trying to pay attention at work the next day, too preoccupied with his thoughts of Ji-sook. Ji-sook herself isn’t any more focused, and actually gets lectured by her coworker to stop daydreaming and flirting with her married boss. HA.

Mi-yeon thinks this is hilarious, and pipes up that the boss’s wife is no joke, and very experienced with men. But Min-woo calls Ji-sook out to talk, which rescues her for the moment but reinforces her coworkers’ idea that there’s something going on between them.

Min-woo takes her to lunch to ask what’s wrong with her lately, admitting that he can’t stop thinking about it. Aww, he takes her for her favorite soup, though he calls her self-centered when she points it out. They go for a walk, and Min-woo waxes a little poetic about the beautiful surroundings, and says he wonders sometimes if he’s happy and lucky to be born a chaebol, or miserable that he has to fight for his position in his family.

Ji-sook asks what kind of person he thinks he is, and Min-woo admits that he just wants to live a normal life with the woman he loves. He asks her the same question, and in answer she reaches up to flick a leaf off his lapel, and leaves her hand curled over his heart. She says that someday she’ll tell him, and if he still feels the same way then, maybe they can be together happily.

They get back to their car to find Director Shim and his minion waiting, having scratched the paint while parking. Min-woo tells him he doesn’t need to pay for the damage, but Shim pointedly says that he ALWAYS pays his debts. He leaves his card with Min-woo, and makes a big deal over how much Ji-sook looks like a dead woman he knows.

Ji-sook goes to a restroom to call Shim, and he pops up right behind her. Ugh, he’s so slimy, reminding her that he wants his money right away, and she promises to pay it by the end of the month. It’s not good enough, and Shim demands three hundred million won (about $270,000) by midnight, in cash, in return for Ji-hyuk’s life.

Ji-sook goes straight to the bank, but her account has been closed for withdrawals. She tries selling all of Eun-ha’s designer bags, but it’s nowhere near enough money. She almost calls Seok-hoon, but instead she goes to Min-woo for the money, claiming the share she was supposed to get in the marriage. Even though she can’t tell him what it’s for, Min-woo agrees to give her the money. She thanks him for trusting her, and promises to pay him back one day.

But even Min-woo has trouble getting his hands on that much cash, and asks poor Chang-soo if he’s got any money. Chang-soo pouts, but agrees to empty his savings for his boss. I love these two guys together, so cute.

They meet Ji-sook to hand off the money and find her getting the third degree from her chatty coworker, but before anyone can say anything, Min-woo is detained by the district prosecutor who’s investigating Jung-tae’s death. Aw damn, someone either got to Jung-tae after Ji-hyuk left, or he was already dead. They see the bag of money Min-woo’s carrying, which just looks bad, but Ji-sook offers to testify that the money was for a loan to her.

The cops think the cash was bribe money from Jung-tae, though at this point it’s assumed that he killed himself. Min-woo starts to act strangely while he’s being questioned, zoning out and seeming oddly sleepy, until finally Seok-hoon arrives as his lawyer.

Seok-hoon gets Min-woo out of there on a technicality, and he just wants to go home, saying he’ll talk to Ji-sook later. Seok-hoon hands her the bag of money, saying she should have just asked him for help, and offers her a ride to deliver it to Director Shim.

She asks if he killed Jung-tae, but he non-answers that he heard it was a drug overdose. Otherwise, he points out, it could have been that Ji-hyuk murdered him, and he brandishes the syringe with Ji-hyuk’s fingerprints on it. He tells her to decide what he should do with it — throw it away, or hand it over to the police?

Later Seok-hoon tells the family about being questioned regarding Jung-tae’s possible bribes to Min-woo, and Dad orders Min-woo to explain about the cash he was carrying. Ji-sook speaks up that the money was for her, and Min-woo confirms that it was his personal money from his accounts.

Seok-hoon even pipes up to say that Jung-tae’s death is still under investigation and may have been suicide, and for some reason Min-woo doesn’t defend himself when Dad asks if he had anything to do with this. Later Ji-sook asks Seok-hoon if this is how he plans to bring Min-woo down, and Seok-hoon says this is only the start.

According to his plan, Ji-sook will be the one to destroy him. He wants her to plant a certain book in Min-woo’s secret room, saying that it’s a special book that can save her brother. It’s her choice — Min-woo, or Ji-hyuk.

Ji-sook sits in her room that night, thinking over her options, and she notices Min-woo standing by the pool also looking deep in thought. She joins him, and he asks if someone really died because of him. She says that it was her fault, and he asks if she knows something but she doesn’t answer, and he says that usually secrets and pain go together.

He offers her one of his secrets, and says that he doesn’t remember what she said before she fell in the pool and was hospitalized that day. But he does remember trying to strangle her. Ji-sook remembers seeing Eun-ha’s lifeless body but doesn’t speak, and Min-woo asks her to stop staring at him and leave.

We see a flashback to a time soon after Min-woo came to live in the Choi home, and he cries and begs his father not to make him go in the pool. Dad yells that it’s just water, and calls him a loser. Adult Min-woo thinks to himself over and over, “I’m not weak. I’m not weak,” and steps into the pool fully clothed.

He instantly panics, and starts to go under. Back in her room, Ji-sook sees him floating unconscious and jumps in to pull his head out of the water, and he’s still unconscious when the EMTs take him inside.

Min-woo dreams of his childhood with his mother, and of that one happy day he spent with Ji-sook at the market. He sees them waltzing as if all alone, and sleeping unclothed in the car the night they were stranded. Last, he remembers kissing her, and imagines waking to see her smiling face by his bed.

He reaches up to pinch her cheek, and she says that this isn’t a dream. He lets go of her face and she instantly fusses at him for scaring her to death. He asks who changed his clothes, and we see that she did it, though she tells him it was the nurses. Hee.

It’s Ji-sook’s turn to bring Min-woo porridge, and she echoes his exact words from when she was sick, offering to blow on it if it’s too hot, or even feed him. Then she whacks him and tells him never to do that again, because what would she do without him? This is the best thing ever.

HAHAHA, he pretends that her smack made him soooo weak, and he can barely hold the spoon, and takes her up on her offer to feed him. Then he whines that she spit on his food when she blows on it, and they adorably bicker forever over whether or not she spit.

Unfortunately Seok-hoon intrudes on this mutual explosion of cuteness, and tells Ji-sook to go to work. Min-woo tries to let her off the hook but she agrees that she should go, and Seok-hoon gives her an envelope that supposedly contains concert tickets and tells her to take her “nanny.” She opens it outside the room to find a check for one hundred million won.

Once alone, Seok-hoon tells Min-woo that the family thinks he slipped and fell into the pool. He says that he thinks Min-woo was responsible when Eun-ha “fell” in the pool, which is why he’s worried now. He’s afraid other family members could be in danger, and urges Min-woo to get treatment. Min-woo laughs dryly that Seok-hoon just wants him committed.

The rumors are flying at the office, since Gossip Girl saw Min-woo taken away with a bag of money, and Mi-yeon actually takes Min-woo’s side — why would he need bribes when he’s already so rich? Another employee snickers that she just doesn’t understand rich people.

Ji-sook stands to say that their boss isn’t like that, and storms out of the room. The other employees cluck over her obvious crush on him, and Mi-yeon watches her curiously. Aside from the fact that they don’t know Ji-sook is already married to him, I’d say they’re not far off about her feelings.

It turns out that Seok-hoon had planted a seed in Ji-sook’s head earlier, that Min-woo belongs in a mental hospital, attempting to convince her that “bringing him down” would actually be helping him. She thinks about her mother’s illness, and takes the check from Seok-hoon to Ji-hyuk.

He gives the money to his parents, and Mom is furious that he won’t say where the money is from. Dad just asks her to get the treatment and worry about the source of the money later, and Ji-hyuk swears he didn’t get it as a loan or steal it. Stuck, he promises to tell them where the money is from if Mom will use it to get treatment. Mom agrees, and he drops the bomb that it came from Ji-sook.

Ji-sook stays late at the office and when she’s alone, she opens the safe in Min-woo’s office to find a wedding photo of the two of them, and a key to Min-woo’s secret room. Ji-sook goes home and climbs the stairs nervously, remembering Seok-hoon telling her that this is for the best, since Min-woo belongs in a hospital before he kills someone else and maybe even himself.

Seok-hoon goes to visit Min-woo in the hospital to make sure he doesn’t catch Ji-sook planting the book, but Min-woo isn’t there. Inside the secret room, Ji-sook is faced with what probably looks like the inside of Min-woo’s mind — newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, and photos of his mother everywhere. There’s even a board with a “list of suspects”, with his father and stepmother right at the top.

She stops to look through the book she’s supposed to plant, and finds an envelope between the pages. Inside is a contract hiring Jung-tae’s construction company, and a big fat check. Well, that could look bad.

Ji-sook hears someone coming into the room downstairs, and quickly shoves the envelope contents into her pocket and runs out of the secret room. She sees Min-woo standing in the doorway downstairs, having seen her just come out of the room he told her never to enter. “What were you doing in there?” he asks, looking up at her guilty face. “Answer me. What were you doing in there?!”

COMMENTS

I’m glad to see Ji-sook finally waking up from her funk, and taking charge of her life. It was good to see her standing up to Seok-hoon again, and telling him what she wants out of this whole fiasco (and I also notice that she didn’t actually agree to help take down Min-woo, she just let him think she agreed to it). I understand why her response to everything was to shut down for a while, because she was dealing with a lot of emotional upheaval – in her life, in her family’s life, and it seems like she can’t cut a break. It must have felt easier to just bow her head and try not to make waves. But now it feels like she’s realizing that if she wants to come out of this alive and intact, not to mention help her family pay their debt and get Mom the treatment she needs, she’s going to have to be more proactive. And that includes standing up to Seok-hoon, and opening up to Min-woo.

I think it was telling that, when Ji-sook needed money right away (and not a full day after Seok-hoon warned her NOT to go to her husband for help), the first person she asked to help her was Min-woo. That was a risk, because he’s her best chance for a supportive partner in this crazy family, and it could so easily have backfired on her. But instead Min-woo chose to trust her, and that says a lot about how he feels about her now. I think, on some level, he knows this isn’t the Eun-ha he used to know – though he doesn’t know how very literal that will turn out to be – and he knows she’s worthy of his trust. The fact that he gives it before she’s earned it, is his way of telling her that he’s trustworthy, too.

And Ji-sook’s attitude towards Min-woo is changing too, to his face and behind his back. She seems on the verge of truly opening up to him, and we’re finally seeing that glimmer that she cares for him that I’ve been wanting to see. I melted when she put her hand over his heart and said that maybe someday they can be happy together. And when she stood up for him in front of his employees, I wanted to cheer. She’s finally seeing him for the good person he is, even AFTER he told her that he believes he choked her/Eun-ha, and she’s not afraid to defend his honor.

On the other hand, Seok-hoon is sinking deeper into his madness, becoming even more controlling of Ji-sook. I’m still not sure why he’s so intent on destroying Min-woo, because it honestly doesn’t seem personal — he’s never shown Min-woo any hostility on a personal level, and he’s never stated any hatred towards Min-woo himself (other than the fact that he was marrying the woman Seok-hoon loved). I suspect that Min-woo is just another obstacle to Seok-hoon’s achieving his goal of becoming successful and powerful, which he’s convinced himself will be his way to making a better world for the poor and weak. I think it’s pretty batcrap crazy to think that he can help the poor and the weak by becoming a murderer who crushes anyone who gets in his way. Especially since you’d think, if that’s his goal, he’d be already doing things like donating or volunteering, since he already is a powerful lawyer with access to gobs of money. And he already has a wife who would love him if he would just let her, and a family who seems to respect him quite a lot based on some things that Min-woo’s father has said to him. Ironically, if he would just pay attention, Seok-hoon already has the things he so desperately wants.

But like I said, I don’t think Seok-hoon is entirely sane any longer. He’s twisted things up in his mind so thoroughly, that actual logic no longer enters into it. I think he’s so focused on the “becoming rich and powerful” part of his plans, that the “helping others” part has become nothing more than the excuse he uses to justify his actions. The money and power have ceased to be the means he thinks will allow him to change the world, and have become his actual goal. And once he’s lost sight of the noble ideals he once had, there’s nothing to stop him from justifying any horrific action in the pursuit of power.

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