Superdaddy Yeol: Episode 13

by purplecow

Now that Yeol knows the whole truth, it’s up to him to figure out how to respond to Mi-rae’s attempts to keep everyone she loves at arm’s length. With Sa-rang finally trusting him and looking up to him as a father, there’s a lot at stake. It’s true that Yeol is a different man now, one who doesn’t run from his responsibilities or from his heart. But what Mi-rae needs now is more than a good man, or even a good family—she needs a miracle. Will Yeol be able to deliver?

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

The prologue begins with Mi-rae alone in a field, reading a book and listening to music. A child who looks exactly like Sa-rang walks up to her with an apple, though Mi-rae doesn’t seem to recognize her. They smile at each other, and Mi-rae takes a bite of the apple.

Mi-rae wakes suddenly, in the hospital after the car accident that nearly ended her life. Thankfully she is in better condition now, and—surprise!—the baby is fine too. Yikes… What a way to find out you’re five weeks pregnant!

Mysteriously, only one object in Mi-rae’s bag survived the car crash intact: it is a shiny red apple, just like the one Mi-rae received in her dream. She muses in voiceover that it seemed like her fate changed with that one apple, as if congratulating her on becoming a mother.

Back in the present, Yeol arrives at the apartment to invite Mi-rae on a family trip. She tries to decline, but Yeol won’t take no for an answer. It’s something Sa-rang wants to do, so they should cooperate for her sake.

Outside the apartment, Yeol sees Woo-hyuk and calls out to him. Woo-hyuk’s first instinct is to throw up his fists in self-defense, but Yeol only wants to know why Woo-hyuk didn’t say anything when he knew about Mi-rae’s sickness all this time.

Later that night, Mi-rae struggles with terrible pain and side effects of her disease. Yeol’s requests—not only to go on a trip, but also to take Sa-rang to school from now on—weigh heavily on her mind. She doesn’t want to show this side of herself to Sa-rang, in case that’s all Sa-rang will remember of her after she passes away. “It’s all for Sa-rang’s sake,” Mi-rae whispers, drawing strength from within. She will be confident and calm in front of her daughter, no matter what.

Yeol talks with Woo-hyuk at a restaurant nearby, asking for details about Mi-rae’s sickness. He wants to know everything, although he will respect Mi-rae’s wishes by pretending he doesn’t know the truth.

Meanwhile, Sa-rang goes through a box of photographs, crying as she remembers happier times with her mother. She finds the letter Mi-rae wrote to Yeol, passing along loving instructions on how to take care of Sa-rang.

In a lovely and heartbreaking scene, Mi-rae’s voice reads the letter as Sa-rang runs along the sidewalk, tears falling on the pavement. Mi-rae warns Yeol to pay attention to Sa-rang even when she smiles and says she’s okay, because she will try to hide her own pain. Sa-rang reaches the bus stop, hands shaking helplessly. As she is about to board the bus, Yeol appears and grabs her hand.

Yeol sits with Sa-rang on the bench at the bus stop, and explains why he wants to play along with Mi-rae’s deception. He hopes to show Mi-rae that she can depend on them, so that she comes to have faith that she can recover. Yeol reminds Sa-rang how she showed the two adults that miracles exist; now they only have to create such a miracle for Mi-rae.

The next morning, Mi-rae leaves her apartment only to find Sa-rang waiting for her. Sa-rang is all smiles, showing no sign of her inner grief, and chirps that Yeol said Mi-rae would take her to school from now on.

Mi-rae continues to be plagued by ‘unwelcome’ visitors—her last patient at the hospital is none other than Han Yeol, who complains of a stomachache from the stress of being a single dad. He invites Mi-rae out for noodles, and when she tries to refuse he reminds her that he still hasn’t forgiven her for tossing him aside, so she should grant his request.

Yeol leads a bewildered Mi-rae out of the hospital, holding her hand. Woo-hyuk watches them leave. He is joined by a chipper Ji-hye, who wonders if Yeol and Mi-rae are back together. Woo-hyuk sighs that it would be nice if they were—then his mind could be at ease.

Ji-hye has come to visit because her clinic and Woo-hyuk’s hospital will be collaborating, but she takes the opportunity to invite him to watch a movie. Of course it’s not a date, she insists, although she snarks that he’d probably propose after two movies.

Woo-hyuk coolly declines the movie, but invites Ji-hye out for a drink instead. The two of them leave the hospital, looking mighty chummy.

Yeol brings Mi-rae to a restaurant with noodles that look amazing. He says that since Mi-rae fooled him for ten years, he’s going to stick around and annoy her to get his revenge… then he urges her to eat before the noodles get bloated, the big softy.

Mi-rae takes a bite, winces at the spiciness, and retaliates by loading his bowl with dangerous amounts of spicy mustard and vinegar. For a moment, they seem to fall back into their bickering, yet playful camaraderie.

After their meal, Yeol flags down a taxi for Mi-rae. She informs him that this is the last time, and he’s all like “Yeah, sure” before cautioning the driver to stick to the speed limit and to use his turn signals. He smiles and waves as the taxi departs.

Yeol thinks back over the last few months, realizing what Mi-rae’s motives must have been. He knows everything now, thanks to Woo-hyuk, including the fact that Mi-rae doesn’t want to get treatment. He screams his frustration, causing passersby to give him the side-eye.

In the taxi, Mi-rae glances at Yeol’s number in her phone, and appears to come to a decision. She asks the driver to turn around. When Yeol gets back to his apartment that night, Mi-rae is waiting for him.

She has her own theory about why Yeol keeps searching for her: Looking after Sa-rang alone must be hard for him, since Sa-rang probably misses her mother. “But that’s your homework now,” she says. “I can’t help you or give you answers.” Mi-rae refuses to go on a trip with them, but she can’t refuse when Yeol asks instead for her to spend one night at the apartment with Sa-rang.

Mi-rae snuggles into bed with Sa-rang. Still asleep, Sa-rang leans into Mi-rae’s embrace. “My child,” Mi-rae whispers. “My treasure.” Out in the living room, Yeol remembers what Woo-hyuk said about Mi-rae’s wish—to spend her final days together with her family.

The next morning, Mi-rae wakes up to mayhem in the kitchen; Yeol and Sa-rang have made breakfast, and are now chuckling fiendishly over the blender. Yeol scurries off, saying that he has to leave first so Mi-rae should take Sa-rang to school.

Mi-rae has no defense against Sa-rang’s big smile and guileless wide eyes, so she drinks some of, uh… whatever was in the blender, and assures Sa-rang that of course, it’s delicious! Sa-rang hustles Mi-rae into a chair, so they can eat and get to school on time.

At the hospital, Dr. Choi meets with Mi-rae and Woo-hyuk to bring them up to speed on the collaboration with the sports clinic. They are going to have a company dinner to celebrate working together, so the boss expects everyone to be there. Woo-hyuk chuckles at Mi-rae’s obvious discomfort at having to see Yeol again.

Yeol takes a call from Woo-hyuk at practice, updating him on Operation Protect Mi-rae. He rushes off on an errand, asking Sang-hae to cover for him at practice. Sang-hae tries to pull rank, only to back off when Yeol points a threatening finger.

Yeol’s errand turns out to be meeting with a cancer specialist and an expert in alternative medicine to talk about Mi-rae’s condition. The only medical options are highly risky without much chance of being effective, and the most alternative medicine can do is relieve her symptoms for a while. That’s not enough for Yeol—he hopes for a miracle.

Everyone gathers for the company dinner to celebrate the rehab clinic working with the hospital. Dr. Choi immediately begins squabbling with Director Hwang over which side of the collaboration is more powerful, though the director gives as good as she gets.

Dr. Choi presses Mi-rae to drink, but thankfully Yeol shows up just in time to act as her Black Knight (someone who drinks in place of another). He says that as a former relief pitcher, he knows the art of the after-party like nobody else.

This time it is Yeol instead of Mi-rae who leads the doctors and rehab specialists in singing and making merry. He mixes soju and beer and keeps everyone singing, all the while fending off Dr. Choi’s attempts to get Mi-rae to drink. Mi-rae watches Yeol’s antics, and in spite of herself a broad smile stretches across her face.

Later during the festivities Mi-rae begins to feel unwell, and has to excuse herself to the bathroom. Yeol stands guard outside, pretending to believe that Mi-rae was sneaking drinks to explain her vomiting.

It’s obvious that he wants nothing more than to comfort her, but he still remembers Woo-hyuk’s warning: Mi-rae knows how much the guardians of her previous patients suffered, and she doesn’t want the people she loves to worry about her.

Yeol finds a taxi and they leave the after-party, though Mi-rae still isn’t sure what to make of Yeol being so nice to her. “It’s uncomfortable,” she says, but Yeol retorts that this is how he intends to get revenge on her. Mi-rae feels ill again, and has to leave the taxi to throw up by the side of the road.

Yeol tries to keep Mi-rae from suspecting the truth by saying callously that she’s gotten weak, and she shouldn’t drink like a twenty-something any more. Still, his obvious concern doesn’t escape her, and she gets visibly frustrated as she yells that it’s normal for them not to see each other, so he should leave her alone like before.

Mi-rae tries to stalk angrily away, but Yeol follows at a distance. Every time she turns around he stops and looks away, as if to say, “Me? Following you? Nonsense!” It’s pretty cute, actually. Mi-rae isn’t appeased; she flags a taxi and speeds off.

Yeol gets a call from one of the specialists he consulted: “There’s a way?!” Yeol cries. In her taxi, Mi-rae seems like she’s begun to connect the dots—not only does Yeol’s sudden solicitousness seem odd, but there was also Sa-rang’s insistence on making her juice supposed to improve her health. Mi-rae covers her face with her hands.

Ji-hye lends Woo-hyuk a helping hand after the party lets out, walking him back to his apartment. He is three sheets to the wind, staggering all over the place and even falling down. Before they get to the apartment, Mi-rae walks up to them and demands to speak with Woo-hyuk. Ji-hye recognizes the glint in Mi-rae’s eyes and abandons Woo-hyuk, recognizing discretion as the better part of valor.

Mi-rae backs Woo-hyuk against the wall and demands the truth: Do Sa-rang and Yeol know about her disease? He tries to bluff, but Mi-rae sees his hands shaking and forces the truth out of him. Woo-hyuk confesses that Sa-rang overheard them talking, and then told Yeol.

As she walks back home, Mi-rae has to face the fact that all of her efforts have been wasted. All she wanted was to protect Sa-rang from the truth, so why did she have to find out? Mi-rae sinks down on her heels and cries.

Yeol is busy researching a new treatment option that the specialist recommended, when he gets a call from Mi-rae. He meets her outside the apartment, where she greets him unexpectedly with a big smile. “Let’s go on a trip,” she says. “You, me and Sa-rang.”

Later that night, Mi-rae looks into the mirror and reflects on her new resolve. She sees a picture of herself and Sa-rang, and sighs that it’s time to buy her last ticket.

At Yeol’s apartment, he and Sa-rang are packing for their trip with Mi-rae. They’re adorably excited, with Sa-rang already wearing sunglasses and wondering if it’s warm enough to pack a swimsuit.

Mi-rae goes to the hospital on the day of the trip. She has a resignation letter with her, but as she’s about to get on the elevator she sees a patient getting rushed to the emergency room. There are no other neurology specialists on call, and when Mi-rae learns that the patient is a pregnant woman, she hurries to change into scrubs.

Yeol and Sa-rang wait at the station for Mi-rae, watching television and eating snacks. As Mi-rae preps for surgery, she thinks back to the accident that almost killed her ten years ago. If there’s anything she can do to save this woman, whose situation is so close to Mi-rae’s, she will do it.

Mi-rae’s hand trembles, but she calms herself and tries to focus. There’s no one else. She begins to operate. At the station, Sa-rang urges Yeol to wait a while longer. Mi-rae is someone who always keeps her promises, even if it takes a little while.

Woo-hyuk arrives soon after the operation begins, ready to help Mi-rae the moment she needs it. It’s a tricky procedure, but Mi-rae manages to bring it off to the point where she can hand over the scalpel to Woo-hyuk, saying she has somewhere she needs to go. But as she walks away, she grows faint and falls to the operating room floor.

After waiting at the station for hours, Yeol tears up the tickets and starts to lead Sa-rang away. His phone rings, however, before they get outside. Meanwhile, we see Mi-rae’s memory of what happened after she recovered from her accident, when she realized she was pregnant with Yeol’s child. She went to see him at his mother’s funeral, her arm still in a cast as she clutched the ultrasound, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth. “How would things have turned out,” she wonders, “if I had gathered my courage back then?”

On the hospital floor, Mi-rae clutches her stomach and writhes in pain. In voiceover, she apologizes to Yeol for not honoring the promise she made. “Thank you,” she adds, “for keeping your promise to the end.”

 
COMMENTS

This episode made me smile frequently in the beginning, which was nice. There is something about Yeol knowing the truth and reacting like such a stand-up guy that made me happy, enough to overlook some smaller things that kind of got on my nerves.

Specifically (okay, this isn’t exactly ‘overlooking’), the sound effects. I know they’ve had them throughout the entire show, to emphasize blinking and reactions and the like, but this episode in particular I found them really overpowering. The facial expressions from the actors were perfectly adequate to set the mood—in fact, I think all of the actors have been doing an excellent job.

It’s not their fault that parts of this show have been off-putting or, at times, outright bizarre. But this is just my opinion, and I’m sure some viewers feel differently. For those of you still watching this drama, what did you think? Do the sound effects work for you, or are they too distracting?

I was preparing to rage near the very end, when Yeol seemed about to give up on Mi-rae after she didn’t appear at the train station. First, the fact that Mi-rae couldn’t manage a simple text message to Yeol or Sa-rang to inform them of the emergency made me livid. It takes literally thirty seconds to text “Emergency procedure. Will be late.”

Second, the fact that Mi-rae doesn’t show up shouldn’t make Yeol tear up the tickets—not at this stage, not given what he knows. Mi-rae has Stage 4 cancer, for heaven’s sake, and if she doesn’t keep an appointment I would think his first response should be to call Woo-hyuk and then the hospital. It would be a much more natural, rational reaction to think “Something must be wrong,” rather than “Oh that heartless woman, letting me down again.”

So shame on Yeol and Mi-rae , but I think it’s really shame on the writers for manufacturing unnecessary angst. This story already has so much to be sad about, so much pathos inherent to the setup, that there is no need to go mining for more so close to the finale. I apologize for coming out so strongly negatively when I actually did enjoy most of this episode; it’s just that nothing raises my blood pressure like a Totally Avoidable Misunderstanding. I’m grateful for that phone call, which I think guarantees that there won’t be any wasted time next episode clearing up false assumptions.

One thing I loved about this episode was the realization that Sa-rang doesn’t actually need her mother’s protection. We’ve always known that Sa-rang is fairly mature for her age, but the way she held up under the knowledge of Mi-rae’s sickness was astonishing.

Mi-rae doesn’t want Sa-rang’s only memories of her mother to be when she was sick, but there doesn’t seem to be any fear of that. How can we see someone as brave as Sa-rang, someone who can put on a smile for her mother’s sake even though she’s crying inside, and think that the best thing to do is separate her from Mi-rae during her final days? She’s stronger than that.

It seems to me the real triumph would be for Mi-rae to recognize her daughter’s strength of spirit, and lean on her for comfort from her instead of keeping her in the dark. Of course, we all deal with tragedy in our own way, and Mi-rae is no exception. I just hope she’s done pushing Yeol and Sa-rang away.

Finally, what do you all think about the mysterious miracle drug that surfaced this episode? I’ve been wondering on and off since the first few episodes what I thought would happen—would the writers really kill off Mi-rae? And if they decided to save her, how would it happen? Personally, I rather like the idea of a miracle, given how it was introduced before in connection with Sa-rang. I’ll be hoping for two miracles: One for Mi-rae to recover, and one for a finale week that exhibits all of this show’s strengths without the weaknesses. Superdaddy, fighting!

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