Witch Amusement: Episode 10

by javabeans

This series really is better the less you scrutinize closely. I suppose not all shows require deep analysis, which is fine once you’re able to let go of the tendency to look further than necessary. Which, as you can guess, is not my first impulse.

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Beige – “세상이 둥글지 않다면” (If the World Wasn’t Round). From the new kpop singer’s just-released first album. [ Download ]

EPISODE 10 SUMMARY

Yoo Hee arrives at the park amid the rain and meets the waiting Mu-ryong. Joon Ha, whom Yoo Hee’s left behind to make her rendezvous with Mu-ryong, sees the cell phone she’s left in his car. His flashback to his conversation with President Ma fills us in on the details of their discussion — the President still doesn’t much care for Joon Ha, but since Yoo Hee likes him, would he be interested in dating her properly?

On their way home, Yoo Hee gets a call from Johnny, who tells Mu-ryong that the other finalist in the cooking battle injured his hand, so he’s giving Mu-ryong another chance. Mu-ryong also takes the chance to suggest Yoo Hee try making dinner that night, in order to practice cooking for a boyfriend. So Mu-ryong guides Yoo Hee along, although she’s not exactly a promising student…

…cutting things haphazardly, burning dishes…

When they sit down to eat, Mu-ryong tastes the food first and gives it his approval, saying it’s good. But when Yoo Hee tastes it, she can barely eat it, making a face disgusted at her own handiwork. She asks why he lied and said it was good, and Mu-ryong replies: “You worked hard, and that’s enough. It’s wonderful.”

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Sara once again visits Johnny unexpectedly, for reasons unclear. And my love for Sara grows—

—especially when I see her so easily and dismissively pushing aside Mari. Hee.

Unfortunately, Mari interferes in order to jealously keep Johnny from meeting Sara — she tells Sara to meet him in a remote locale, while telling Johnny that Sara had to suddenly leave.

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As Yoo Hee and Mu-ryong sip wine, Yoo Hee thanks Mu-ryong (presumably for being gracious about dinner, and his coaching so far), and he thanks her for beng thankful. She wonders at his dating knowledge, and Mu-ryong admits that it’s not all from personal experience — he looked things up on the Internet and had to think of ideas when coaching her. In fact, he doesn’t have that much dating experience with Seung Mi: “Maybe it’s because we were friends for so long… She’s more like a friend than a girlfriend.” Yoo Hee asks if he managed to settle things well with her, and Mu-ryong admits that he hasn’t — things have gotten so complicated, it’s been difficult. Yoo Hee apologizes for causing him trouble, and he says that he’s the one who should be sorry.

Yoo Hee suggests dating for a bit longer, and Mu-ryong, thinking she’s being serious, awkwardly tries to refuse, saying he has Seung Mi. Yoo Hee clarifies that she meant they keep practice-dating, and Mu-ryong breathes in relief — although Yoo Hee seems a bit disappointed at his reaction.

They share a moment, and when Mu-ryong gets up to go, Yoo Hee stops him and gives him a light kiss before pulling away, surprised at her gesture. Mu-ryong thinks hard about how to respond, and he takes her arm and leans over to give her another kiss…

…and they awake in shock to find each other in the same bed, neither of them quite sure how they got there. They both tell themselves that they’re sure nothing happened — they just drank some wine, Mu-ryong helped drunk Yoo Hee into bed, then he fell asleep next to her. That must have been it.

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Before they can think about it further, though, a visitor arrives at Yoo Hee’s door — Joon Ha.

Yoo Hee meets him out in the hallway, preventing him from going in (and seeing Mu-ryong) by saying her apartment’s a mess. He returns the cell phone she bought, and asks her out to drink some tea.

Before she leaves, she gives Mu-ryong his new cell phone, and they bring up the awkwardness of the night before. Both decide that (seeing as neither are completely certain of the details) they’d both rather pretend nothing happened, and that’s that.

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Johnny puts Mari and Mu-ryong to the next phase of their cooking battle, where each contender makes a dish following a technique Johnny himself employs first (making what looks like — really — a bacon ball and a rolled-up potato chip. But then, I’m not a foodie).

Mu-ryong wins the round, and although I’m not going to criticize the plot too strongly anymore (in accordance with my new Witch Amusement terms of operation), I wonder at the whole point of this cooking battle, because isn’t the outcome kind of obvious? They’ve made it a point from the start to depict Mari as relatively clumsy and incompetent, while Mu-ryong’s the misunderstood one with the true talent. It takes the air out of these battles, because there’s no suspense…

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On Yoo Hee and Joon Ha’s date, Joon Ha tells her that he’s decided not to go abroad after all, and that he’s going to stay at the hospital. He also brings up the time Yoo Hee confessed her feelings for him, and he turned her down. He says he’s sorry, and gives her the classic “It’s not you, it’s me” line, saying he had some things going on in his life then. But he asks if her offer’s still valid, and if she’d like to go out with him now.

Mu-ryong doesn’t really approve of Joon Ha, but can’t object too much seeing as Yoo Hee likes him. He packs his stuff to leave Yoo Hee’s place, now that their agreement is over. Yoo Hee seems reluctant to let him go, but Mu-ryong knows it’s time to leave, and goes back to his parents’ restaurant. Unfortunately, there’s no space for him to stay, and he ends up having to sleep uncomfortably on restaurant chairs.

(I’ve been somewhat ignoring Manager Lee’s forays to Mu-ryong’s parents’ restaurant in these recaps because they seem irrelevant, but they keep bringing him back, so — very briefly —

Manager Lee loves the jjajangmyun. He gets most of it free. At first, Mu-ryong’s mother dotes on him because she thinks he’ll get Song Hwa a modeling job… But when the modeling auditions fall through, she gets annoyed and gives Manager Lee a hard time every time he comes back. Then, in Episode 9, she mentions it to Yoo Hee, who apologizes for not following through and assures them that they’ll have Song Hwa come in for a proper audition. The family has also utilized Manager Lee on occasion to make some deliveries when short-handed.

In this episode, he brings his staff over to treat them to lunch, when the restaurant finds itself short-staffed once again… and looks to Manager Lee to fulfill the deliveries. I don’t understand the point, but it’s mildly amusing.)

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Paran is picked up from school by his father’s driver, and complains about not wanting to go to after-school academy classes. The driver’s just following the President’s instructions, though, and forces Paran into the car. Passing by on a delivery, Song Hwa sees Paran resisting, and assumes he’s being kidnapped. He punches the driver and runs off with Paran.

When the guardians for both parties arrive — Yoo Hee and Mu-ryong — to straighten out the mess at the police station, the four of them walk out together as Paran suggests they all go do something fun as a group. Yoo Hee declines because of work, and Mu-ryong and Song Hwa offer to take Paran out instead, but the plot device — er, I mean Paran — insists that Yoo Hee must come along too.

So the four go to an amusement park, which looks like it may be Everland, one of the largest amusement parks in the world, judging from the looks of the zoo within the park. One of the bears approaches the tour bus, causing Yoo Hee to reflexively turn to Mu-ryong in fright — and although it’s a plot contrivance, in this instance I totally buy it because I’ve thought before that it’s really freaky to have the animals wander right up to the side of the bus, which is encased almost entirely in windows. It’s cool, but just a little alarming to have lions (and tigers and bears, oh my!) sidling right up to you with a mere, puny piece of plexiglass separating you.

Yoo Hee suggests to Mu-ryong that he come back to live with her, and Mu-ryong happily accepts, thinking of the discomfort of living at his parents’ place.

In the midst of all the fun, Yoo Hee even forgets that she’d made a date to go to the movies with Joon Ha. When he calls her, she makes up the story that she’s caught up at a work-related photo shoot, and can’t make it out. Mu-ryong tells her to go ahead, though — he’ll take Paran home.

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So Yoo Hee goes on her date, but instead of enjoying the movie, is more distracted with her food. Thinking back to Mu-ryong dropping cutesy notes into her snacks, Yoo Hee digs around in her popcorn and is disappointed to see nothing but actual popcorn there.

Back at the apartment, Yoo Hee and Joon Ha unexpectedly run into Mu-ryong, who’s come back and is busy fulfilling his housekeeper-ly duties. Joon Ha is surprisingly okay with hearing about the situation, and tells Yoo Hee not to worry — he’s fine with it.

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Mu-ryong leaves the apartment so the couple can be alone, but with nowhere to go, he can only wander the streets and sit out in the cold. Meanwhile, Yoo Hee and Joon Ha watch Wimbledon, and Joon Ha kisses Yoo Hee…

(And I can just say to Jae Hee’s coordi — really? Hi-tops? And unlaced hi-tops at that — really? I know I may have owned an unfortunate pair of LA Gears and/or BK Knights back in the day, but in my defense I was 10 and didn’t truly understand what ugly was. Hi-tops are best known as a thing of the past and should never, ever make a comeback, except on “I Love the 80s” reruns on VH1, and even then only as a source of mockery.)

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Having spent nearly the entire night out in the cold, Mu-ryong’s not in fighting shape for the next portion of the cooking competition, which is a taste contest whereby each person must name the ingredients in a dish while tasting them blindfolded.

This time, Mari wins, and Mu-ryong would probably feel worse about losing if he weren’t feeling so bad physically. Yoo Hee arrives home, presumably ready to take care of Mu-ryong in his illness, but sees Seung Mi tending to him. Her conflicting emotions cause her to leave silently and throw away whatever get-well offering she’d bought intending to give Mu-ryong.

Meanwhile, Seung Mi is still upset at Mu-ryong, although they’re still tenuously hanging on to their relationship. She tells him she’s losing patience and doesn’t know how far she can just put up with it.

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Joon Ha meets with the President, who wonders how things are going with Yoo Hee. The President tells Joon Ha he’ll talk things over with the hospital director and straighten things out. As long as he does well with Yoo Hee, he’ll make sure of it. At first I thought Joon Ha had lingering feelings for Yoo Hee, and was dating her because he liked her and was taking advantage of the President’s approval. But now, it seems he’s more concerned with looking out for Number 1, i.e. himself. Joon Ha may have some affection for Yoo Hee, but he’s very probably doing this to get back his job at the hospital… which is in keeping with his cold, opportunistic personality, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

But his meeting with the President does bother him, because it causes Joon Ha to once again drown his sorrows in alcohol. And we all know how well that worked last time.

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Yoo Hee seems to feel down at having seen Mu-ryong and Seung Mi together, and goes forward with plans to go on an overnight trip to Yang Pyeong with Joon Ha. Learning of her trip, Mu-ryong’s bothered, but can’t really say anything on the matter.

However, the next day, a problem with the restaurant causes them to shut down for the day. Johnny tells him to go home since they can’t work, and Mu-ryong takes the opportunity to ask Johnny if he wants to go to Yang Pyeong. Yoo Hee’s there on an overnight trip with a guy…

(On one hand, it’s cute because friendly/bonding scenes between Johnny and Mu-ryong are always fun, and this seems more like something overprotective brothers would do, interfering to protect their baby sister. On the other hand, both guys were/are potential love interests for Yoo Hee, so perhaps it’s better not to extend that metaphor any further.)

In any case, unaware of all this is Yoo Hee, who’s oblivious as she drives off with Joon Ha…..

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