Mask: Episode 11

by LollyPip

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Seok-hoon spends this episode off-balance as he tries to re-establish the control he once had over Ji-sook, but she’s in no mood to be obedient any longer. And when Ji-sook fights back, she pulls no punches, though she needs to be careful not to push Seok-hoon too far. But she’s got an ace that gives her the upper hand, and a husband who is coming over to her side, and finally there’s hope that she can get out of this situation in one piece.

EPISODE 11: “Game of Lies”

Ji-sook shocks everyone, not least Min-woo himself, by walking into the middle of the shareholders’ voting session and introducing herself as Min-woo’s wife, Seo Eun-ha. She claims that the crushed sleeping pills found in his secret room were actually hers, and Seok-hoon looks as if he could chew nails.

She goes on to say that she’s not here as a wife, but as a shareholder herself, and that she’s concerned that if he’s dismissed her shares’ value will drop. Brilliant. Her confident air convinces the entire room — except for Min-woo, who drags her out to the hallway. He accuses her of pitying him, but she simply tells him that she did it because she’s his wife.

Mi-yeon watches Seok-hoon as he sits in the board room after the vote, remembering his triumphant expression when the crushed pills were found. She finally starts putting the clues together, that her husband probably had something to do with all this.

Ji-sook elaborates on her story in private with the family, claiming that she’s been treated for depression in the past and she hid her pills out of worry that she’d run out. Stepmom points out the flaw in her story, that Min-woo never lets anyone in that room, not even the maids, so how did she have access? Min-woo says that he accidentally left the door open, backing up Ji-sook.

Stepmom later talks with Mi-yeon and Seok-hoon, and they wonder when Min-woo and Ji-sook became so close. Unable to comprehend that they might actually care for each other, she decides that Min-woo and Ji-sook have some sort of deal. But Mi-yeon focuses on the pills hidden in the book, finding that the most strange detail.

Min-woo is dying to ask Ji-sook why she’s helping him so much and what her big secret is, and whether someone is threatening her, but he keeps their private conversation to trivial things. She sees right through him and answers his unspoken question that she did hide the pills in his secret room, so she was only telling the truth that they were hers.

She says he did nothing wrong and that’s why she defended him, and he asks if she would have done the same if he had done something wrong. Did she defend him because she’s his wife and it’s her duty, or because of something more like love? He’s so hopeful and vulnerable in this moment, it’s killing me.

Sadly, Ji-sook tells him gently that she can never love him, and apologizes. But she does promise to prove to people that he’s not a dangerous person, and though he can’t quite hide his disappointment, Min-woo accepts it.

Mi-yeon declines Seok-hoon’s offer of a drink, which prompts him to ask if she’s showing any signs of pregnancy. She admits to headaches and nausea lately, but she’s more interested in talking about lies. She wonders how often he tells lies, saying that it feels like they’re living in a game, and wonders if it’s the good liar or the bad liar who has the advantage.

Ji-sook watches Min-woo sleep that night, and reaches out to very gently touch his hair. She draws back and goes to bed, and Min-woo opens his eyes, having been aware she was there the whole time.

He barely speaks to her the next morning, but when she sees him take out his pills and remembers the doctor telling her to make sure he takes them, Ji-sook deliberately bumps Min-woo’s arm so that the pills all go flying. Oh darn, now they’re all dirty and have to be thrown out.

Ji-sook commits to her Eun-ha roleplay by fussing at a maid for breaking Stepmom’s favorite vase, but when she takes the maid aside to punish her, instead she tells her not to worry about it. Her kindness and understanding seem to affect the maid.

At the office, the Gossip Trio all crow that they knew Min-woo wouldn’t be fired, and swear to keep the secret that Ji-sook is his wife since they only know that because they eavesdropped. But they’re all deep-bows and overly solicitous to her, and she has to beg them not to treat her different.

Ji-sook asks for something more than just busy work, since she prefers to be useful. Min-woo puts her in charge of a new product, and takes her to the department store to do recon for advertising. Of course he claims he was totally going there anyway.

He turns on the radio, and it’s Awkward Time when a sexy song comes on, (though Ji-sook looks like she’d barely holding in laughter). He changes to a talk show, but a caller complaining of having a fight with her husband reminds them both of their little tiff this morning. Min-woo turns off the radio, but then grumpily says that of course it was all the husband’s fault. Again I ask, how are you so cute??

Ji-sook says the wife was obviously butting into the husband’s business, and they argue about it until Min-woo sucks his teeth at her back-talk, and tells her to text in to the show that it was the husband’s fault. Of course Ji-sook does the exact opposite, and with a smirk on her face. Hee.

At the store, Ji-sook sees an employee massaging her sore legs, and remembers when she did the same from being on her feet all day. Seok-hoon pops up to quote Napoleon that the uniform makes the man, saying that she must not like the uniform he picked out for her. He’s very unhappy that she’s not going along with his plans, and asks how she intends to fix this.

Ji-sook snaps that a person shouldn’t wear clothes that don’t fit, and Seok-hoon fires back that you don’t always get to choose what you wear. He repeats that she’ll wear what he chooses for her, but she says that from now on she’ll choose for herself.

She says he should be curious to see how she’ll clean up her mess, just like she’s curious how he’ll clean up his. She gives Seok-hoon a USB and tells him to watch the video on it, and think over whether he wants to reactivate Eun-ha’s bank accounts.

Mi-yeon shows up to work sick as a dog, so when Min-woo talks to her privately about her suspicion of the people around her, she’s barely paying attention. She asks if he’s not also curious about Seok-hoon and Eun-ha/Ji-sook’s relationship, and tells him that they’re what he thinks they are.

She means lovers, but Min-woo asks if Ji-sook is indebted to Seok-hon in some way, or if possibly Seok-hoon has something on her. Mi-yeon agrees they should look into her husband, and see if he’s embezzling or planning to buy extra shares in the company.

The video on the USB turns out to be CCTV footage of Seok-hoon administering the injection to Jung-tae and telling him he’ll be dead soon. Seok-hoon looks gratifyingly horrified, and he’s too shocked to form words for a moment when Min-woo lets himself into his office.

He gathers his wits and sits to talk with Min-woo, only to find himself on the defensive when Min-woo says that he knows the drugs planted in his room, coinciding with the shareholders’ vote to remove him, weren’t a coincidence. He asks who would want to do that to him, and Seok-hoon boldly says that he would.

He’s not admitting fault, only that he understands why Min-woo would suspect him, and asks what he can do to make Min-woo trust him. Min-woo says that he can’t, and he’ll continue to doubt Seok-hoon, then reminds him that whatever happened in the past, Ji-sook is his wife now.

After Min-woo leaves, Seok-hoon smashes the USB in a fit of anger, and is caught in the act when Min-woo comes back in to get the cell phone that he left behind. Min-woo glances at the crushed USB and without changing his expression, just says that he’s not a fool. When he leaves again, Seok-hoon makes a call and reactivates Eun-ha’s accounts.

Ji-sook’s mother is still reluctant to spend money on treatments, but Ji-hyuk and Dad remind her that she promised, and ignore her eyerolling while they happily plan menus that include healthy foods. Director Shim breaks up their fun, but he’s not there to demand money today. He woefully announces that he won’t be asking them for money ever again, because he’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He’s turning over a new leaf, and apologizes for everything.

Of course, his whole contrite speech was a script given to him by Ji-sook, and she’d even ordered him to get on his knees in front of her family. He tries to threaten her but she said she won’t give him any more money if he doesn’t, and his greed wins out. But once they leave, Director Shim brainstorms ways to use Ji-sook’s new situation to get more money out of her.

New massage chairs are delivered to the department store lounge for the employees, and the food in the cafeteria is suddenly much higher quality. Ji-sook’s friends remember that day when they all pretended to be chaebols and she’d fantasized about taking charge of the cafeteria.

It turns out that Ji-sook knew there would probably be a recording of Jung-tae’s death, because he had a habit in high school of bringing girls to his place and secretly filming them. She’d gone to his home that night to look for a camera, and had found a watch oddly placed in a flower arrangement. The watch had a secret camera inside, and she’d found the recording of Seok-hoon killing him.

Mi-yeon suffers Ji-sook’s new status as the golden girl of the office, but not without a lot of glares and eyerolling, especially when she sees Ji-sook’s phone light up with a call from Seok-hoon. Ji-sook steps out with a work-related excuse, but Mi-yeon knows better.

Min-woo still hasn’t looked at the results of the fingerprint analysis, and Chang-soo is optimistic that they’ll prove Ji-sook didn’t open his safe. Min-woo tells him to get rid of the results without looking, but then Mi-yeon tells him that Ji-sook is about to meet with Seok-hoon. Min-woo refuses to go check out what’s happening, simply stating that Ji-sook is his wife (implying that he trusts her).

Mi-yeon follows Ji-sook to Seok-hoon’s building, where Director Shim is also hanging out looking for information on her. Shim records Ji-sook and Seok-hoon’s meeting, where Seok-hoon says that if that video comes out, he’ll take her down with him.

That doesn’t scare Ji-sook, since then at least all the lying will be over. Seok-hoon asks what she wants, and she tells him to leave her family alone. He’s also to stop his attempts to put Min-woo in a mental hospital. She doesn’t care if he wants to take over SJ Group, she just forbids him to use this tactic.

She shows Seok-hoon the watch with the hidden camera. He asks how he knows there’s not another copy, and she asks how she knows he’ll leave her family alone. He agrees to trust each other even though they both know it’s lies, but reminds her that the moment that video gets out, her lie will be revealed as well.

When Ji-sook leaves the building, Shim’s lackey pulls the fire alarm and Shim snatches the watch right out of Seok-hoon’s hand. Shim doesn’t get far, as Scar intercepts him outside and bodyslams him to the ground, causing the watch to go flying. Nobody sees Mi-yeon pick it up amongst all the confusion.

Papa Choi calls in the maid who claimed to have seen Min-woo crushing his pills, the same one who broke the vase earlier, and she repeats her story. It doesn’t line up with Ji-sook’s claim that the pills are hers, and he asks the maid if Ji-sook is lying, or if she is. Remembering Ji-sook’s kindness, the maid looks as though she may crack, though we don’t see her response.

At dinner that night, Mi-yeon is flaunting a new watch, and says she picked it up when a stupid person dropped it. She says she’s planning to return it, but she’s not ready yet. Besides, she’s not entirely sure who the true owner is.

Min-woo is the only one who doesn’t know the significance of the watch — but he’s not stupid, and he asks Mi-yeon if this has anything to do with her following Ji-sook and Seok-hoon today. She tells him that his wife gave it to her husband, so it must belong to him.

At the same time, Ji-sook is calling Seok-hoon stupid for losing the watch, and tells him to fix the situation as she’s too busy to worry about it. She shows her contempt for Seok-hoon, saying that he seemed so frightening when she met him, but now he seems small. Oh OUCH.

Ji-sook meets with the staff and tells them that from now on, they will be eating the same quality of food that the family eats. She’ll even pay for it if it costs more. She gets a sudden call and drags Min-woo out of the house, telling him that he’ll know where they’re going when they get there.

Stepmom complains about Ji-sook’s changes to the household to Papa Choi, and determines to undermine them. She doesn’t want Ji-sook to gain too much control in the household.

Mi-yeon examines the watch right in front of Seok-hoon, wondering what’s so special about it. Seok-hoon looks like he wants to bite something, especially when Mi-yeon says she feels powerful wearing the watch. He asks how long she plans to play this game with him, and she says until he explains things to her.

He claims the watch is his and Ji-sook was only returning it, but Mi-yeon ain’t buying that. He strides over to take it by force, but Mi-yeon refuses again, and she suddenly notices the camera lens in the face.

Min-woo is so adorable in the car, as he tries to get Ji-sook to tell him where they’re going by intimidation (hahahaNOPE), then begging, then he’s all, whiny: “Just give me a clue!” She takes him to a nice hotel, and as they walk in she asks him, “You never know what happens in life, right?” She says cryptically that at any moment, something could happen and she’d never see him again.

Before that happens, she says, there’s something they need to do. Uh, they’re in a hotel, is it RAWR time? Apparently not, dammit, since she rings the doorbell to a suite and the door is answered by an older man who calls her by name.

Ji-sook introduces Min-woo to one of the top neuropsychiatrists in the world — he’s a friend of Eun-ha’s, and Ji-sook had called him to meet with Min-woo. He starts to get upset, assuming this means she thinks he’s crazy, but she assures him it’s the exact opposite. She knows he’s not crazy, and this man can prove it.

Mi-yeon hooks the watch to her laptop and looks up at Seok-hoon with sad eyes, as he reaches into his pocket and advances toward her. He tells her that she’ll destroy the watch herself without watching the video, and believe his lies, because that’s what they always do. Life is a game of lies, and he knows what lies will help them get ahead.

The doctor has already had Min-woo’s pills analyzed, and though it looks like a common sedative, it’s actually a hallucinogenic drug. Min-woo thinks of all the hallucinations and nightmares he’s suffered, thinking they were proof he was insane, and how he’d taken even more of the pills at those times.

Further, the doctor is certain that Min-woo’s “memories” that he recovered during hypnosis were actually planted, and false. Min-woo’s mind races and his hands shake, and Ji-sook gently reaches over and takes his hand. She softly says that Min-woo would never hurt anyone, but he’s overwhelmed and he pulls away.

Late that night, Mi-yeon pulls up the video again, which Seok-hoon had led her to believe was of him and Eun-ha. He claims the video was taken before he met Mi-yeon, and that he was only getting it back from Eun-ha today so he could destroy it. He urges her again to delete it without watching it.

Mi-yeon asks if this is true, and Seok-hoon says no, it’s not — he told her he would lie to her. He says to believe the lies, in order to win the game with him. She thinks about it for a long minute, torn over whether to delete it and believe him, but we’re not shown what she decides.

Min-woo is still emotional when he arrives home, and he smashes all of his pill bottles. He gives in and sobs, dropping to his knees, and Ji-sook joins him on the floor. She gathers him gently into her arms, comforting him as he cries his sorrow and betrayal.

She tells him that you can either believe that you are nothing, or that the world was crated just for you. She says the world was created for him, and not to be scared.

Min-woo starts to keen in her arms, and Ji-sook just holds him tight.

COMMENTS

It’s about time that Min-woo and Ji-sook started supporting and defending each other, and it makes me so happy to see. they’d begun doing it when the opportunity arose, but now they’re going out of their way to support and defend each other. They’re both proving that they’re willing to go out on a limb, and they’re even opening up with each other about how they feel. They’ve each assured the other that they’re there for them, and they see the other as worthy of their trust and defense. This is such a positive step for both of them, especially Min-woo, considering that he still thinks Ji-sook is Eun-ha and he’s got every reason to be wary of her. But not only is he putting his trust in her, he’s telling everyone else so too, such as in his office when he told Mi-yeon simply, “She’s my wife.” She doesn’t need to do anything to earn his trust, he just gives it. And in return he’s wanting to prove himself trustworthy to her, and is also showing that he’s starting to have feelings for her.

When Min-woo asked if Ji-sook couple possibly love him, I nearly died. That as such a brave thing of him to ask at this point in their relationship, and he looked so hopeful and vulnerable, and I have a feeling that one word from her would have him professing his love right back. And you could tell from her expression that Ji-sook didn’t enjoy telling him that she could never love him. She’s much harder to read than Min-woo, but I have a feeling she’s trying to keep things platonic in order to protect herself. She’s living in such a frightening environment, and she can’t afford to let down her guard even with Min-woo.

Ji-sook has a lot to lose if she lets herself fall in love and gives Seok-hoon an opening to hook his claw into and get to her. Until she establishes herself as his equal in this game they’re playing, she can’t let herself have a soft spot he can exploit to control her. I’m a bit worried that she’s going to go too far, what with calling him stupid and small, and make him angry. I’m guessing she feels safe that he won’t kill her, because Eun-ha already had one (as far as the family knows) near-death accident in this household, and another one would cause suspicion. But an angry Seok-hoon makes mistakes, as we’re starting to see, and I would hate for her to count on him not going batshit in a fit of rage, and be wrong.

But I love that she’s not just using her Eun-ha persona to get a leg up on Seok-hoon — she’s also using it to establish herself in the household. Like when the maid broke the vase and Ji-sook cut off Stepmom from ripping her a new one, and instead assured her that everyone makes mistakes. Even making sure the staff will eat better is a great way to gain their loyalty. It’s part of Ji-sook’s nature to want to improve people’s lives, but it will also come in handy. I have a feeling that in a house with that many servants, getting them on her side could be extremely advantageous for Ji-sook.

It’s gratifying to see that Min-woo is astute enough to start cluing in that Seok-hoon is most likely out to get him, and brave enough to let him know. I feel that Min-woo, being a gentle soul, would almost always choose the peaceful path when possible — but you mess with someone he cares about, and he’ll fight back with a vengeance. I appreciated when he told Seok-hoon that she’s his wife now, because to me it sounded as if he were telling Seok-hoon, “Whatever happened in the past is done, but she’s mine now, and I will protect what is mine.” And he’s not stupid enough to think that Seok-hoon and Ji-sook’s supposed affair is all there is to their secretive meetings, and he’ll deal with that as it comes, but he’s not going to get into it over the past.

Seok-hoon is starting to make mistakes, and I get the feeling it’s because he’s not used to being challenged. Now he’s got Ji-sook on one side, resisting his efforts to control her, and Min-woo on the other side warning him not to mess with Ji-sook. Seok-hoon almost certainly wasn’t expecting either of those things, and you can see his mind racing furiously to figure out how to gain his control back. This is exactly what I was hoping to see… Ji-sook and Min-woo becoming a united front, and pushing back against Seok-hoon’s plans to bring them down. And now that Ji-sook is actively doing what she can to help Min-woo prove to himself that he’s not crazy, and it’s time to figure out what’s really happening and do something about it, I’m ready to see them team up and whoop some serious butt.

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