The Third Charm: Episode 8

by SailorJumun

If there’s one thing that this show stands by, it’s that there is no right or wrong side. There is only his side and her side, our side and their side, and so on. However, these characters are so stuck in their own worlds that they fail to think how the people around them are feeling. Whether it be with our lead couple, the family or the friends, everyone gets a chance to view the other side this episode. The consequences are necessary, but they’re certainly not pretty.

 
EPISODE 8 RECAP

Officer Jung and Officer Lee discover that the perpetrator in the recent hit-and-run case is actually an underling to Snakehead, a wanted man for assault and many other crimes.

They try to tell their other teammates, but Joon-young is busy talking to Young-jae on the phone and Officer Gong is busy trying to woo Se-eun with chocolates. Jung sighs that cops obsessed with their girlfriends were only supposed to exist in dramas, lol. He yells at them to focus on the matter at hand.

They interrogate the underling for information, but he’s hesitant to speak. Sensing that the guy is loyal to his boss, Joon-young goes for mind games instead. He tells the underling to really consider what would be best for his boss in this situation.

Officer Gong later complains that Joon-young is playing it too nice when they should be more threatening. Either way, considering how scared the underling was, it seems like Snakehead’s case will be a lot to handle.

Afterwards, Joon-young meets up with Young-jae to eat one of her favorite foods, spicy chicken feet. She’s happy to finally be able to do this with him, and he’s happy to oblige, though he still has to rinse the spice off. They spend the rest of their time chatting and holding hands like the good ol’ days.

Sang-hyun hangs out with a different woman, and when they drive back, they’re stopped by his last girlfriend Soo-ah. He reluctantly gets out to talk to her and learns that she’s upset that he hasn’t been answering her calls.

In that charming tone of his, Sang-hyun says that she’s too sincere when it comes to dating. He then says that she’s a great girl who’s sure to find a great guy, but he’s not that guy. So he returns to his car and drives off with his new girlfriend, leaving Soo-ah crying in the street.

The magazine issue with Young-jae’s interview comes out, and everyone at the salon admires her modelling skills. However, when Joon-young gets ahold of the issue, he’s overcome with shock. His teammates snatch the magazine from him and, to his horror, gawk at his girlfriend’s sexy photos.

Joon-young calls Young-jae right away, asking how she could go along with that kind of concept. She thinks he’s just being his usual sensitive self, making him blurt out that it might as well have been a porn shoot. Ack! Not good, sir.

He slaps a hand over his mouth, realizing what he said, but it’s too late. Young-jae hangs up, annoyed.

To cool off, she goes to her favorite ddeokbokki place. She notices Ho-chul sitting inside, smiling at his phone, and she peeks over his shoulder to see the pictures from her photoshoot. “What are you doing?” she asks, making him jump.

Young-jae reveals that Joon-young thought the pictures were too racy, and Ho-chul assures her that she totally killed it. Beaming, she buys him coffee for making her day. She also thanks him for the talk about regretting opportunities; if it weren’t for him, she might’ve never done the shoot.

While working on his script, Soo-jae hears someone at the door. It takes him a while to answer, so he misses the delivery person who’d left a sack of rice. He struggles to get the sack onto his lap, but persists until he’s able to bring it inside. Young-jae then calls to let him know about the delivery, and when he tells her he already got it, she chides him for straining himself.

She ends the call, and Soo-jae just sits there as he tries to hold his tears back. He wheels himself into the bathroom to wash off, showing more emotional strain than physical this time.

Joo-ran is still seeing Pretty Boy (whose name is Chul-nam) and readies for their date at her apartment. She greets him happily when he arrives, though her enthusiasm sinks when she sees that he’s brought his pup Princess.

After they have dinner, Joo-ran and Chul-nam get comfy on the couch and start making out. Naturally, Princess starts getting upset, so Joo-ran rushes Chul-nam to the bedroom (but not without sticking her tongue out at the dog).

To drown out Princess’s cries, Joo-ran blasts loud hip-hop music, which Chul-nam strangely likes. They continue kissing as Princess whines on the other side of the door. This has to be the weirdest love triangle ever, but I’m kind of digging it.

Joon-young comes home to find Dad lying on the couch, and he seeks Mom to figure out what happened. She tells him that Dad got jealous when she sang karaoke with another teacher.

Joon-young pouts and says that Dad’s feelings were just hurt and the reason behind that isn’t something she can decide. She looks at him incredulously and replies, “Please stop taking after your dad.” Hahaha.

Joon-young goes out to join Dad, luring him off the couch with some ramen. He asks Dad if seeing Mom with other men still bothers him, to which Dad replies that it does. At that, Joon-young wonders why he had to take after Dad so much.

At Young-jae’s, she’s patching up Soo-jae’s sore shoulders as he looks through her magazine issue. She’s surprised when big bro has the same reaction as Joon-young; it makes her reconsider Joon-young’s point of view.

The following day, Young-jae gets ready to deliver lunch to Joon-young, though Joo-ran doesn’t understand why she still puts up with him. Young-jae insists that his jealous and nitpicky ways are his charm.

She surprises Joon-young at the station with pizza, but he and his team are already on their way out with a lead on their case. Still, they’re more than happy to accept the food. Young-jae cutely tells Joon-young that she missed him, and he kisses her hand in return.

Joon-young’s team visit a delivery girl who’s attended to Snakehead and his gang at a pool hall. However, the team won’t be able to sneak in since they’re recognizable. With no other choice, they recruit Se-eun to pose as a delivery girl and confirm Snakehead’s identity.

Later, the officers surround the pool hall to cover Se-eun. Before the operation begins, Joon-young calls Young-jae and admits that he’s a little nervous. To calm him down, she brings up something she’d never told him: her lost sketchbook.

She’d known that only he could’ve mailed it to her. And considering how he’d returned that along with her backpack and hairstyling products years ago, he’s always finding the precious things she’s lost. “So don’t get hurt,” she concludes. “If I lose something again, you have to find it for me.” Joon-young smiles ear-to-ear and says that he loves her before hanging up.

Joon-young then explains the plan to Se-eun, giving her pepper spray and a pair of handcuffs just in case. Since she’s still a newbie, Joon-young takes her hand and shows her how to use the cuffs. Officer Gong takes her other hand and swears that he’ll sacrifice his life for her if the situation calls for it. Knowing the officers have her back, Se-eun cautiously enters the pool hall.

Once inside, Se-eun is greeted by an underling, who then guides her to a back room so she can deliver coffee to the boss. She starts shaking as she realizes that it is indeed Snakehead.

She quickly serves his coffee and excuses herself to the bathroom. Hiding out in a stall, she calls Joon-young and confirms that they have the right guy. He tells her to stay where she is until his team make the arrest.

Taking a deep breath, Se-eun hangs up and exits the stall. Someone slams the door shut behind her and she whirls around to face a very annoyed Snakehead. He corners her, saying the bitter coffee gave away that she was a cop.

The other police officers burst into the pool hall, demanding to know where the boss is. They push past a few underlings until the struggle turns into a full on brawl.

Snakehead is still in the bathroom, threatening Se-eun with a broken toothbrush, when he hears the commotion outside. He then drags her out of there and heads for the exit.

Joon-young sees Snakehead trying to escape with Se-eun and chases after them. He stops them on the staircase and seeing the sharp tool by Se-eun’s neck, he tries to reason with Snakehead.

It gives Se-eun enough time to reach into her purse, whip out her pepper spray and get Snakehead right in the eyes. He lurches back, releasing her and making her lose her footing.

Joon-young passes Snakehead escaping out the back door to grab Se-eun. They go tumbling down the stairs, Joon-young taking most of the blow. Se-eun then panics to see that he’s bleeding and unconscious.

They’re taken to a hospital, Joon-young with a concussion and Se-eun with a hurt ankle. Joon-young ends up getting more visitors than he could care for, his teammates and parents showering him with food.

Everyone eventually leaves, and he thinks it’s finally safe to rest until Sang-hyun and Ri-won make an entrance. He lies in his bed, growing more and more irritated as Ri-won makes snarky comments and Sang-hyun flirts with his nurse. He has to walk them out to make them leave.

At home, Young-jae is reviewing Soo-jae’s screenplay when she gets a call from Ho-chul. She hesitates but answers anyway, agreeing to meet with him. As she makes her way outside, she recalls all the times Ho-chul hinted at his crush on her and wonders how she should approach rejecting him. “I should end this now,” she thinks.

She finds Ho-chul outside sitting behind a mike and asks what he’s doing. Seeing her, he clears his throat and eases into the song “Come What May.” A crowd gathers around Young-jae, but Ho-chul only has eyes for her. She watches him sing the entire song, looking conflicted.

Sang-hyun is admiring another woman at the bar, and Ri-won warns him that he’s going to get himself hurt one day. And, like clockwork, a burly man comes into the bar demanding for Sang-hyun. The man punches him to the ground, confusing the heck out of him. He’s struggling to get away from the guy when Soo-ah runs in and tells her brother to stop.

Soo-ah sits Sang-hyun down and apologizes. She admits that the day he dumped her, she was stressed and took a bunch of sleeping pills. Her brother took it the wrong way and decided to take his anger out here. Sang-hyun is shocked as she promises to compensate for the damages and leaves.

Sang-hyun doesn’t understand why Soo-ah was so heartbroken; all his other breakups went smoothly. Ri-won stops her cleaning and demands for his phone, calling several of his exes so they can take a listen. They’re either raging mad or terribly depressed, which Sang-hyun didn’t expect at all.

“We can get compensated for what can be compensated,” Ri-won states. “But a person’s heart isn’t like that. Once it’s ruined, it’s hard to recover from.” She thinks Sang-hyun is totally in the wrong, but this is just the way he is. She stops talking when she realizes that he’s crying, and she pats him on the shoulder in comfort.

After Ho-chul’s surprise performance, Young-jae congratulates him for being able to sing the song for himself. However, he tells her that he had practiced really hard to sing it for her. She doesn’t get the chance to answer because her phone rings. Ho-chul knowingly leaves her alone to take the call.

Joon-young reveals that he’s been hospitalized and though he insists that he’s not badly hurt, Young-jae is filled with worry. She gets into a cab to see him, and she suddenly remembers every sweet thing Joon-young has said and done for her.

At the hospital, someone walks into Joon-young’s room as he’s dozing off. He smiles, assuming it’s Young-jae, only to sit up when he sees that it’s Se-eun on crutches. She wants to apologize for getting him injured, but he, of course, doesn’t blame her.

The two go up to the rooftop to share some peaches, and they agree that white peaches are better than the yellow ones. They also discover that they have many other similar traits like their hatred for spicy food.

Young-jae reaches the hospital but finds Joon-young’s bed empty. She goes through the halls looking for him, finally locating him on the roof. She stops by the entrance, taken aback by seeing him with another woman.

Joon-young and Se-eun get up to leave, but Se-eun’s foot gives out. Joon-young kneels down to examine it, Young-jae watching from afar the whole time.

 
COMMENTS

This could get real repetitive real fast. The way I see it, the reversal at the end can go one of two ways: it could backtrack to episode 4 and get us on that roller coaster of jealousy again, or it could initiate what I think could be potential character growth. I sense (or at least hope) that it will be the latter since it looked like Young-jae was in the middle of a breakthrough. It’s possible that she’s gotten so used to Joon-young and the way he cares for her that she’s been desensitized to it all. If she loses something, it’s natural for him to find it. If she has a hard day, it’s natural for him to make it better. And it’s only now occurring to her much of an imbalance that puts on their relationship.

At the same time, Joon-young got to take a good hard look on what his future with Young-jae could be. His parents are pretty much the older versions of him and Young-jae, and though they’re in a committed marriage, they still exhibit problems that younger couples endure. Basically, Mom is queen and Dad is seriously whipped. If things haven’t changed for them, things may never change for our lead couple. The thought did scare him a bit, as it should, but he also recognizes that his parents are still together for a reason.

It could be tempting to have two other suitors that match them perfectly, but Young-jae and Joon-young have shown nothing but disinterest so far. They’re more interested in Ho-chul and Se-eun as friends, as equals that they can occasionally relate to. Now that I think about it, they could really use a Ho-chul and a Se-eun in their lives. They shouldn’t have to think that their significant other is the only one they can do things with. In fact, that’s what friends are for—to do the things and say the things that significant others may not be able to. This would be great if Ho-chul and Se-eun didn’t have obvious feelings involved.

The other storylines are shaping up nicely as well. Joo-ran’s husband hunt was juvenile and, frankly, pitiful to watch for a while, but the addition of Chul-nam and his other half Princess is actually pretty hilarious. I’d like to see the more dramatic side of this, though, since it’s been solely comedic up until now. She’s said before that she’s desperate for a husband because she wants to have a baby, which tells me that she’s dealing with a lot of loneliness. Then there’s Sang-hyun, another person dealing with loneliness in a completely different way. He’d been annoying me lately (he was so sweet in the college flashbacks), so I’m glad that Ri-won gave him a big wakeup call. I think Sang-hyun and a number of other characters need to realize that carrying someone’s feelings in their hands also means protecting them.

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