Mask: Episode 13

by LollyPip

The web of lies is unraveling at a shocking rate of speed, and nobody will left untouched by the horrors of the truth. But even in the middle of chaos, Min-woo and Ji-sook are falling in love, and a declaration will be made that, should it be accepted, could change the whole game in their favor.

EPISODE 13: “A Proposal and a Divorce”

Mi-yeon witnesses Seok-hoon laying Eun-ha’s necklace on Ji-sook’s resting place, and realizes that Eun-ha did die, the day that she fell into the pool. Mi-yeon shakes in fear, as it hits her that she’s a murderer.

Ji-sook reads Eun-ha’s diary, focusing on the words, “Could I really kill Choi Min-woo?” It goes on to say, “If I don’t, Seok-hoon will eventually murder Choi Min-woo.” There’s a card for a lawyer stuck in the pages.

The day after the party, Min-woo remembers giving Ji-sook her new wedding ring, and whines to Chang-soo that he left something out of his presentation. He forgot to ask her to marry him! Chang-soo points out the obvious flaw in this thinking, that they’re already married, but Min-woo says that was a business deal. He wants to propose for real, “before it’s too late.” Less than three minutes in, and I’m already swooning.

Mi-yeon tells Seok-hoon that she went to the doctor, and it turns out she’s not pregnant. The fertility hormones she’s been taking caused a false positive on the home test. Seok-hoon makes the appropriate noises, that they can try again, but Mi-yeon says she doesn’t trust her doctor, and that she’ll just wait and go to the hospital when it’s time to give birth next time.

Seok-hoon tries to put away all the baby things that Mi-yeon bought, but she gets a bit frantic and forbids him to touch them. She takes out a tiny baby shirt and starts to cry that it’s her fault that “she” died, thinking of Eun-ha, and refusing to accept comfort from her husband when he thinks she means the baby.

Papa Choi is happy with Ji-sook these days, and offers her a job running the company’s coffee franchise. Min-woo points out that it loses money every year, not wanting to see her held responsible if she can’t turn it around. But Ji-sook happily agrees, promising to do her best.

Not to be outdone, Mi-yeon also asks for a promotion at her job. Papa Choi is surprised that she actually wants to work, so she admits she’s not actually pregnant. She tells her father that she wants to work to get her mind off of her loss. Everyone comforts her, but when Ji-sook steps forward, Mi-yeon snaps at her not to touch her.

In their room, Min-woo asks Ji-sook to forgive his sister for yelling, and tells her not to worry too much about the coffee franchise. She disagrees and says that she needs to do well, seeming pretty optimistic about this project. After she leaves, Min-woo finds a photo of Ji-sook with her family, and wonders if it’s her “nanny’s” family.

Seok-hoon would like for Mi-yeon to take the day off, but she’s determined to go to work. She coldly instructs him to look at a picture on her phone, and he freezes to see the photo of himself and Eun-ha in their apartment. Mi-yeon says that she’s been assuming Eun-ha (Ji-sook) really didn’t remember their relationship after her accident, and that’s how she’s been living here like nothing was wrong.

She repeats Seok-hoon’s words that she needs to believe his lies if she wants to win this game, but she refuses to believe them anymore. Now she knows that the person who believes them is actually the loser.

Ji-sook decides her new coffee franchise needs a near-complete overhaul, and that she’ll be in charge of marketing. She also decides to donate ten percent of profits to a charitable foundation they’ll establish, to help people pay for schooling and hospital bills.

Her plans get a lot of press, and Seok-hoon asks what she’ll do if her family sees her face in the papers. She doesn’t see the problem, since Byun Ji-sook is dead, and I see her point — they were doppelgangers before, so why should she pretend any different now? Nothing has changed just because one of them died.

Min-woo is so adorably proud when he sees Ji-sook in an online article, and plants copies in the copy machine for others to find. He’s all, “Whaaat, I had no idea!”… then Mi-yeon blabs that he made the copies, HAHA. She tells Min-woo that she’s holding a training session today, and invites him to come support Ji-sook.

Scar reports to Seok-hoon about the training session, and it’s sounding pretty fishy. Mi-yeon deliberately invited Ji-sook’s former coworkers, Min-woo, and Ji-sook herself. Seok-hoon recalls Mi-yeon yelling that he should support her no matter what, even if she kills a person. He mutters that this is a truth he never wanted to know, but orders Scar to investigate Mi-yeon.

The training session gets underway, and Min-woo is called on the carpet for not practicing his best customer service smile. Ji-sook aegyos him into a half-assed smirk, and again I’m dead from the cute.

During a break Mi-yeon asks to speak privately with Ji-sook, and she asks how she’s so good at faking everything, even smiling. She didn’t used to be able to do that. She asks if her smile for Min-woo was also fake, since she originally said she would go through with the marriage for the money. Mi-yeon tells Ji-sook to smile while she can — she may not be able to forever.

Ji-sook agrees that she originally married for money, but that she feels guilty now. She says she wants to be happy with Min-woo, and graces Mi-yeon with one of those smiles that she can’t quite tell is sincere or not.

The store employees exclaim over how much Ji-sook looks like, well, herself, since they think she’s Eun-ha. Min-woo overhears and asks what they’re talking about — who does his wife look like? They easily spill the beans, but are interrupted when Ji-sook and Mi-yeon return. I do NOT like that sneer on Mi-yeon’s face one bit.

Ji-sook stops to talk to her old friends on her way out, to reinforce her Eun-ha persona with them, and she thoroughly charms them. She’s convincing enough that they switch from being fixated on how similar the two women looked, to accepting that she is Eun-ha, and Ji-sook is gone.

But a seed of doubt has been planted in Min-woo’s mind, and he can’t shake his employees’ comments about his wife resembling their deceased friend. He tries to tell himself it’s not important, and offers Maid Yeon-soo a bonus to be Ji-sook’s assistant and help her open the coffee shop.

Ji-sook tells Min-woo that she wants to create exclusive coffee recipes for the shop, and he offers to take her somewhere for inspiration. He’s not nearly as smooth as he’d like to think, and she’s totally onto him, hee. She tweaks his nose a little by suggesting they all go, and he can’t oppose it since he did suggest it as work-related.

Mi-yeon finds the employee who altered the CCTV clip of Eun-ha’s death to ask if it can be restored, but he swears he deleted everything, and it’s not possible. She gives him a fat envelope, and reminds him that he’ll be in serious trouble if anyone finds out about this.

But on her way out, Scar takes photos of her and the employee leaving the restaurant together. In turn, he’s being watched by Director Shim, who wonders what Seok-hoon is up to now. Scar reports back to Seok-hoon about the employee, who was a security guard in charge of the pool but suddenly quit working for the family a month ago.

Ji-sook’s family visit her new coffee shop, which somehow now belongs to them. Apparently they were paid a lavish amount for their tiny shop, and now own this one — possibly they bought a franchise store. Ji-hyuk tells Mom not to worry about anything but getting healthy, and let them worry about the business.

Myung-hwa, Ji-sook’s old coworker, comes to congratulate them, and Mom says that Ji-hyuk’s been complaining that she doesn’t visit enough, making Ji-hyuk stammer and blush, hee. Ji-sook watches from a nearby hiding place, happy to see her loved ones taken care of.

Later she meets with Ji-hyuk, who updates her on the family goings-on. He downplays Mom’s illness, and gives her a gift of a new watch, since she’s always had worn-out ones. He also brought her a cute little bento lunch that Mom made, and Ji-sook nearly cries over the tastes of her mother’s cooking.

Min-woo goes clothing shopping for Ji-sook, for the business trip. Chang-soo holds up all the outfits to himself, as Min-woo tries to picture Ji-sook wearing them, ha. Min-woo complains about every outfit, but then decides, “It will look good on her, though.” Oh man, he is SO in love.

Scar intercepts the former security guard, Young-tae, for a talk, and the man panics and runs. Director Shim, who’s been following Scar, tells his lackey to follow the guard… but he accidentally hits Young-tae with his car. They flee the scene, and Scar follows Young-tae to the hospital.

Scar calls Seok-hoon to tell him that Young-tae is still unconscious, and Seok-hoon doesn’t look one bit happy. He looks at his and Mi-yeon’s wedding photo for a long moment, then smashes it. In his desk he’s got a picture of himself and Eun-ha at his graduation, and remembers a conversation where she’d begged him to let go of his need for revenge.

Seok-hoon also has photos of Ji-sook, and one of her and Min-woo on their wedding day. In his mind’s eye it changes into a picture of himself and Eun-ha on a wedding day that had never occurred, and tears fill his eyes.

Seok-hoon stops Ji-sook and Min-woo on their way in that night, but he seems unable to speak, and Mi-yeon grabs her brother for a talk, too. She asks about the rumors of a woman who supposedly looked just like his wife, wanting to know if his wife knows about this woman — but Min-woo wants to talk about the photo he found in his room, wondering if Mi-yeon left it there. He says he’s happy with Ji-sook, and asks Mi-yeon not to ruin it.

Seok-hoon angrily reminds Ji-sook of who she is, though he seems to need more convincing that she isn’t Eun-ha than she does. He calls her a fake and says she’ll never be as good as Eun-ha, and that she doesn’t deserve to live a happy life. Ji-sook just gives him a Mona Lisa smile, and says that she is the real Eun-ha.

Later Ji-sook tries on one of the dresses Min-woo bought, and laughs at his cheesy line about whether the flower is the dress, or her. She scratches his back (to get rid of the shivers from his corny line) and hits a ticklish spot, and his loud whoop of laughter startles them both, HA.

Min-woo gathers his composure and says they may need to change the contract they made when they got married, and Ji-sook readily agrees. The first thing they take out is the line forbidding skinship (hooray!), and move on to the rule about not interfering in each other’s personal lives. Min-woo sneaks in a clause that they both will sleep in the bed — and what do you know, it’s bedtime. Double hooray! Min-woo practically dives into the bed, and I swear he all but leers at Ji-sook. ~giggle~

Seok-hoon also lays in bed looking at his wife, but his thoughts center on her words from the day of Eun-ha’s accident, that he should be on her side even if she killed a person. Mi-yeon’s thoughts race too, remembering Seok-hoon crying at Eun-ha’s resting place.

The team goes on their working vacation, and Min-woo sternly reminds everyone this is work, not fun. He and Ji-sook cutely tease each other for their amount of luggage — since this is work they shouldn’t need nice clothes. Min-woo runs to Chang-soo and kicks him in the butt, literally, to get him to leave with everyone else so he and Ji-sook are “forced” to drive alone together.

He makes a stop to get Ji-sook a new pair of sunglasses, and though she complains that she has plenty, he counters that she doesn’t have any that he picked out for her. In the car he puts on his own, and HAHAHA, they’re a matching pair to the ones he bought Ji-sook. Min-woo bought couple sunglasses. I’m dying.

Young-tae, the former security guard, is finally awake and Seok-hoon visits him in the hospital. Young-tae kneels in supplication as he admits that he does in fact still have the original tape, falling all over himself to apologize for blackmailing Mi-yeon. Seok-hoon demands to know where the tape is now.

The team arrives at a cute little country bungalow, and Min-woo finds himself the target of four identical pouts when she calls an immediate meeting. Ji-sook suggests a meal first, and even tells Min-woo to cook for them. He makes a big show out of it, and Ji-sook even takes pictures. Min-woo is so proud of himself, nobody has the heart to tell him the food is awful.

Mi-yeon confronts Young-tae next, and asks why he didn’t tell her there was still a tape of that day. She’s curious if his accident was really an accident, but he can’t say for sure that someone didn’t hit him on purpose. Mi-yeon calls Seok-hoon and frantically begs him not to watch the tape, but it’s too late. He’s already seen her let Eun-ha drown.

In a daze, Seok-hoon walks by the pool and remembers his part in the events of that day, when he’d pulled Eun-ha’s body out of the pool and tried to revive her, with no luck. He breaks down and sobs on his knees, as memories of their happier times flood his mind.

Mi-yeon arrives home in time to witness Seok-hoon’s breakdown, and on his desk she finds a photo of Ji-sook in his wallet. It’s the photo of her in her department store uniform, name tag clearly visible, and Mi-yeon tears it up in fury.

Min-woo somehow convinces his employees to air their grievances against him, and Ji-sook’s big complaint is that he’s too tall and hogs all the attention from strangers when they’re together. He promises to do his best to shrink for her, hee. In turn, he says he’s got a problem with her smile — it makes him lose his mind. Which is fine for him, but he doesn’t like it’s affect on others.

Min-woo gets a call from a furious Mi-yeon, who announces that she needs to tell him something about the woman he’s with. Thank goodness, he hangs up on her, and he and Ji-sook go out while everyone else is busy drinking.

They walk to a pretty little creek with stepping stones, and Min-woo admits that in ten years, this is the first time he’s done something like this with his employees. He says he actually planned this because he wanted to talk to her about something he’s never been able to tell anyone.

Min-woo turns serious, and says that his mother died because of him. In flashback we see them running from someone, and he’d stopped to pick up the necklace his mother had dropped. He’d fallen and landed in the river, and his mother had jumped in to save him, losing her life in the process.

His voice quivers as he says that someday, the water will swallow him, too. Until then, it follows him, and he’ll never be able to cross to the other side.

Ji-sook smiles and steps out onto the stepping stones, saying that she’s not sure if she can cross to the other side, either. She invites him to take just one step — because who cares if they can’t cross all the way, or if it takes a long time? What matters is that they cross together.

She holds her hand out to Min-woo, and with a sigh, he takes her hand. She urges him to just try to take another step, and not to be scared, because she’s with him. He takes a few halting steps, and next she tells him to take the lead and she’ll follow. Together they cross the water, growing more confident as they learn to lean on each other.

Later they thank each other for giving them someone to trust, Ji-sook adding that if it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have made it this far. Min-woo takes their marriage contract out of his jacket, and says he wants to change it again — none of the clauses are valid any longer. He rips it up and throws the pieces, and asks, “Will you be my real wife, Seo Eun-ha?”

But before she can answer, Mi-yeon arrives, having driven all the way here determined to have her say. She ignores a call from Seok-hoon, who’s found the photo of Ji-sook that she tore to shreds, and strides towards Min-woo and Ji-sook with angry purpose.

COMMENTS

Have I mentioned lately how much I lovelovelove this show??? No, it’s not perfect, and yes it’s a bit overly dramatic, but I don’t care — it’s wonderful and addictive and just plain FUN. The generous amount of funny and/or heartfelt scenes within the dramatic plot keep things from becoming too mired in gloom and doom, and I loved that this episode was mostly funny and heartfelt. We needed that after the drama of the last few weeks, and I have a feeling we’re about to be back to gloom and doom very soon, so it was nice to take a little break and watch Ji-sook and Min-woo falling in love.

I feel like this recap got a little squeeful in places, but I mean, how cute are these two?? I love that, unlike how some dramas give their characters a complete personality makeover once they fall in love, Ji-sook and Min-woo haven’t really changed all that much. She’s still warm and generous, he’s still grumpy and stuffy. But they’re softening and opening up with each other, even in front of others, and I’m loving every second of it. Min-woo is even making jokes! And he’s actually funny! I love the dry wit he’s turning out to possess, and I adore that Ji-sook plays right along with him. They’re so perfect together.

But the secrets have gotten so big they can’t be kept anymore, especially not when someone as hurt and angry as Mi-yeon is now onto Ji-sook. I feel as though part of her determination to out Ji-sook as an impostor is pure and simple jealousy — why should Ji-sook have a happy marriage when Mi-yeon can’t? Especially when she’s not even the person she’s supposed to be. I had hoped, for one brief moment, that Mi-yeon would be happy to discover that Ji-sook wasn’t really Eun-ha and possibly even be a friend to her, but the realization that Mi-yeon killed Eun-ha, intended or not, put a plug in that. Mi-yeon has gone past the point of having a healthy relationship with anyone now, and while I hate to see it happen, I’m afraid she’ll only turn more bitter and angry as time goes on.

And she’s not even the one I’m most worried about — Seok-hoon is about to blow sky high. He was already becoming unstable as his control over Ji-sook, and the entire situation by extension, started to unravel. Ji-sook isn’t even intimidated by him anymore, much less scared and malleable as she used to be, and he’s realizing that he’s not going to get what he wants this way. He’s not the kind of man to let a loose end go unattended, and he’s shown a willingness to kill through his plan to kill Min-woo, and his actual murder of Jung-tae. And now that he’s lost control of Ji-sook and learned that Mi-yeon is responsible for Eun-ha’s death, I’m frankly terrified for both women. He seems dangerously close to going off the rails completely, and while I don’t think he’s confusing Ji-sook with Eun-ha yet, I’m afraid he will soon. When he was calling her a fake, it seemed more as though he were trying to remember that for himself, not for her. My only hope is that his rage and grief will cause him to make mistakes, and they’ll be able to use those mistakes to get the better of him.

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