Search Query: WWW: Episode 13

by LollyPip

Change is always hard, and the most difficult changes are the ones we must make in ourselves as we grow and mature. Some will accept that change as necessary to get what they want, some will grieve over the loss the changes represent, and some will embrace that change as the freedom they’ve always longed for.

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

Ta-mi sees Mo-gun at Da-in’s recital, and when it’s over, she watches as he gives Da-in flowers and congratulates her, expressing interest in working with her in the future. Ta-mi remembers that when Da-in invited her to the recital, she’d been nervous because her first love would be there.

Da-in even tells a friend that Mo-gun her first love, right in front of him, and he looks uncomfortable. Da-in suggests they talk now about working together, so they go to dinner. Mo-gun talks about the difficulty of finding the right musician for the “feel” of the music he wants to create, and he tells Da-in that her playing style is perfect.

Ta-mi calls Mo-gun and asks to see him. She says she was arrogant in thinking she knew everything, and asks Mo-gun how he thinks they’ll end up. He says they’ll end up loving each other, and explains that he hasn’t contacted Ta-mi (after their fight) because he was afraid of pressuring her.

He asks how she’s feeling, but she just tells him to buy her a pair of earrings to replace the ones she bought after their first night together, since someone lost them. Mo-gun also buys her the matching necklace, and he puts them on Ta-mi at her request.

When Mo-gun asks who lost her earrings, and Ta-mi just says it was her piano teacher. Feeling nervous, Mo-gun asks what she’s thinking, so Ta-mi asks if he would leave if she let him go. He asks if return if she wants to let him go, and Ta-mi admits that she wants to hold onto him.

Mo-gun snaps that she should just say that, but Ta-mi says that she feels like she’s blocking him from his dream when she knows why he badly wants a family. But Mo-gun says she’s wrong — he’s the one holding onto her, because he knows she’ll let go the moment he stops trying.

He admits that it hurts to know he’s the only one trying so hard, and that Ta-mi’s guilt keeps her from fully opening up to him. He says that since it’s so easy for her, then she should let him go, and stop making excuses for why she doesn’t love him.

Chairwoman Jang confronts Jin-woo with the settlement agreement he offered Ga-kyung’s parents. She gloats that they’re turning down his offer, because they prefer her power over his money. She smirks that children mean nothing to parents when it comes to fulfilling their desires.

Jin-woo replies that it goes both ways, surprising Chairwoman Jang. He tells his mother to just wait and see what his and Ga-kyung’s desires can accomplish without the support of their parents.

Ga-kyung has a video meeting with the CEO of Unicon’s head office, Emily, who approves of her press conference and the way she neutralized their competitor. Emily asks why why Ga-kyung was disciplined, but Ga-kyung just asks to meet with her to talk about the way Unicon is being managed.

When Ga-kyung takes the signed consent form granting access to Ta-mi’s email to In-kyung. In-kyung warns that she’ll sue Ga-kyung if the webdrama deal can’t be salvaged, but Ga-kyung just asks if In-kyung is sure she wants to get the law involved. In-kyung asks if Ga-kyung is really getting divorced, and all Ga-kyung will say is that whatever she does, it will be her decision.

Later, In-kyung goes into Ga-kyung’s office and starts looking through her files.

The head of the rankings department says to Ta-mi sarcastically that she must be proud of herself for the new rankings interface. He says he thought she was passionate and driven after Unicon’s hearings, but now he realizes that she must have sacrificed others to appear that way.

Barro is behind Unicon in shares by less than four percent, and Ta-mi knows that the new main page won’t be enough to push them over the top. She suggests they hold a special event on launch day, something to entice users to log on, and tells the team to present some ideas on Monday.

Hyun can tell that something is wrong with Ta-mi, and she guesses that Mo-gun broke up with her. She pats Ta-mi on the butt and tells her to cheer up, but Ta-mi is disappointed that her phone stays silent.

Awww, Ji-hwan keeps turning down rides home from his manager in favor of taking the subway so he can look at his mural. When he learns that he’s on Barro’s top ten keyword rankings, he calls Hyun to ask if she did it, but it’s just as much of a surprise to her.

Jenny does some digging and finds that vlogger Dong-joo has been mentioning Ji-hwan on her channel, which is how he got on the rankings. Hyun frowns as she watches Dong-joo live-vlogging from Ji-hwan’s mural, and she races to catch up to her.

She arrives as Dong-joo is finishing her vlog post, and she asks why Dong-joo’s suddenly all over Ji-hwan. Hyun says that she liked him first, and Dong-joo accuses her of being territorial and insecure (uh, she’s not wrong?). She says they’re both just Ji-hwan’s fans, but Hyun searches for something else to yell about and lands on, “Why do you keep liking the men I like first??” LOL.

Dong-joo says that Hyun has no right to tell her not to like Ji-hwan… unless, perhaps, they’re dating? Hyun snaps that she’s just a fan, and Dong-joo says that if that’s true, she should be happy he’s getting popular. Before Hyun formulates a response, Dong-joo shrieks — Ji-hwan is standing right behind her.

Bless him, he looks so confused, and he’s much more interested in why Hyun is here than Dong-joo’s gushing over him. Dong-joo figures out that they do know each other, and she chastises Ji-hwan for getting too close to a fan. She tells him that she’s responsible for getting him on the rankings, and he thanks her by name, which makes Hyun whirl around and storm off angry.

Ji-hwan follows her out of the subway station, and she admits she’s angry, but she doesn’t know why, or why she yelled at Dong-joo. But she says that Dong-joo is right — she’s just a fan. She tells Ji-hwan that he shouldn’t follow her to see if she’s angry, or call when he has good news, or buy her thank-you gifts.

She doesn’t let Ji-hwan get a word in, and she turns to walk away. Defeated, he also turns away, so when Hyun turns back to say something (maybe to take it back?) she just sees his back.

Ga-kyung gets her chance to sit down with CEO Emily, and she shows her evidence that two newly-hired Unicon department heads were engaged in illegal practices in their previous jobs. She says that one of them was hired because he went to the same college as In-kyung, and the other is a national assemblyman’s nephew.

She calls In-kyung’s professionalism into question, and suggests they consider a new leader for Unicon Korea. Emily brings up Ga-kyung’s connection to KU Group, which is also a conflict of interest.

CEO Emily tells Ga-kyung that the head office no longer wants Unicon Korea and KU Group to be associated with each other. Ga-kyung asks if that’s the only thing disqualifying her from being promoted to CEO of the Korea branch, because she’s getting a divorce and will no longer be connected to KU Group.

Mo-gun’s team gets excited when their new game is ranked in the top ten most popular games, but Mo-gun can’t get excited. Ta-mi checks out the game, but she gets frustrated and calls Brian to ask him to hang out. He’s still staying with his fishing buddy, but he invites her to join them.

Hyun takes herself to a shaman, and tells him all about Ji-hwan and her conflict over whether she’s crossing too many boundaries and getting in the way of his career. She says that every guy she’s ever dated has ended up a gold-digger or a cheater, but the shaman says that this new guy has a pure soul.

Then he goes into a sudden trance and says in a deep voice that Ji-hwan is a good man, and he has feelings for Hyun, but he’ll be leaving soon. We see Ji-hwan looking upset, holding a letter –oh no, it’s for his army duty, isn’t it?

When Ta-mi arrives to see Brian, he introduces her to his friend In-taek, who used to own a game company. In-taek says he invited a hoobae of his to join them, and sure enough, it’s Mo-gun. Ta-mi tells In-taek that she and Mo-gun are dating, which gives Mo-gun a coughing fit. Brian says blandly that he already knew, since they kept holding hands under the table when he first met Mo-gun, HAHA.

After dinner, Ta-mi tells Brian that she’s still waiting to hear what Kevin and In-kyung met with Chairwoman Jang to discuss. Brian asks if her informant changed their mind, but Ta-mi is confident Ga-kyung will come through since they made a deal.

Brian asks if Ta-mi and Mo-gun had a fight, and she says that it was more like they hurt each other. She asks Brian for advice, but he says that he’s going to pretend he doesn’t know about the fight like he pretended not to know they held hands. (Have I mentioned that I love him?)

When Ga-kyung returns from her meeting with CEO Emily, she’s surprised to see Jin-woo at the airport waiting to drive her home. He acts annoyed that Ga-kyung left the country and made him look everywhere for her in the middle of the night, but she smiles a little at his admission. Jin-woo says that he thought she’d disappeared, so Ga-kyung promises to let him know before that happens.

After sunset, Brian plays guitar and sings a love song, and Mo-gun stares at Ta-mi sadly. They’re invited to spend the night, but Mo-gun can’t sleep, so he goes out for some fresh air. He runs across Ta-mi, who’s also out walking, and they find a place to sit and talk.

Ta-mi asks Mo-gun if he meant it when he said she doesn’t love him. He says he meant it a little, but he also wanted to hurt her, though he quickly regretted it. Ta-mi says she’s been holding back from expressing her feelings, and has even stopped herself from saying she loves him because she didn’t want to hold him back.

Mo-gun says he’s not mature enough to let go of the way he feels, and that he’s not sure what will happen in the future, he only wants to know that they’ll be together. He also tells Ta-mi not to hold back from saying how she feels anymore.

Quietly, Ta-mi says, “I love you. I’m always going to be a complicated person. I’ll end up worrying about our problem again and feel nervous about it. But I won’t hold back right now. I won’t suppress myself. I’m sorry.” Mo-gun looks at her in wonder, then pulls her into his arms.

The next day, Ah-ra and Bong-ki take the bus together to a weekend meeting. Ah-ra sighs that she can’t think of anything for tomorrow’s meeting about the new main page event. They see an ad on the back of the bus seat in front of them, and Ah-ra makes her own “ad” that says, “Brian, come back to Barro now.”

Bong-ki writes his own “ad” that says “The pain is momentary, but the freedom lasts long — Brazilian waxing.” HA, he did it! Ah-ra asks in shock if it hurt, and shakes her head when Bong-ki points like he’s asking if she’s ever done it herself. They laugh, then Ah-ra suddenly gets an idea.

In the morning, she pitches the idea that they create an ad section just for users — people can use the space for anything from asking someone out to promoting their business (Hyun: “Or a fan could promote their favorite celebrity.” HA, one-track mind). Everyone loves her idea, and when she tries to give Bong-ki partial credit, he says it was all Ah-ra.

Ta-mi finally hears from Ga-kyung about the meeting between the leaders of KU Group, Unicon, and Barro. Ga-kyung meets with Brian to tell him about it, and when he jokes that she put him out of a job, she says that if it helps, she was suspended for the press conference.

She tells Brian that in exchange for providing power to the web portals at the lower industrial rate, President Seo wants a new regulation that allows the government to request alterations to the keyword rankings. The previous administration tried to implement this rule, but Brian stopped it, and Ga-kyung asks for his help this time, too.

Brian realizes that his resignation gave Chairwoman Jang and the president a window of opportunity. Ga-kyung acknowledges that it will be difficult for Brian to go back on his word, but she tells him that this is his chance to save Barro. He says that Ta-mi isn’t sure which side Ga-kyung is on, and Ga-kyung says she’s on Unicon’s side.

Ji-hwan calls Hyun despite her telling him not to call fans, because he wants to apologize. He says he got the wrong idea and that he’s sorry for confusing her, promising it won’t happen again. Hyun explains that she was mad at herself, not Ji-hwan.

He says goodbye, because once his drama ends next month, he’s starting his army duty. He thanks Hyun for showing him what it’s like to have a fan, adding that out of all the amazing things that happened to him this year, he’ll still think of it as the year he met her.

He asks Hyun to keep supporting him after he returns, because it will help to know that she’s out there cheering him on. He holds out a hand, which she shakes, but they both look so sad, and Hyun lets go first.

Da-in tells Ta-mi excitedly that her first love asked her to work with him. She’s looking forward to seeing him frequently and asks Ta-mi what kind of woman makes a man want to get married. Ta-mi warns Da-in against getting ahead of herself, but Da-in says that the guy said that he wants to get married.

Ta-mi tells Da-in that she’s too busy with work to continue her piano lessons. She goes home to find Mo-gun changing out her lightbulbs, and when she says she can do that herself, Mo-gun says she can, but she won’t. She asks Mo-gun to stay the night, but he says regretfully that he needs to get back to work.

The following day, Ta-mi takes Ah-ra’s idea to Kevin, who barely even glances at it before approving it and turning his attention to his phone. At her surprise, he says it’s give-and-take for the shopping accounts she’s brought in.

The colleague who previously insulted Ta-mi follows her into the restroom — he’s unsettled because Kevin told him to secretly rewrite their keyword rules, but he doesn’t feel comfortable about the change. Hyun emerges from a stall and demands to know what change Kevin wants, so the colleague shows them Kevin’s emails.

He says that he submitted the change just to stop Kevin’s harassment, and it will go into effect as soon as Kevin gets to work in the morning and approves it. Ta-mi reveals that she heard about this from Ga-kyung, which shocks Hyun.

Hyun says that Ga-kyung must want to stop this if she told Ta-mi about it, but since she’s still suspended, Ta-mi says there’s nothing Ga-kyung can do. She says they have no time to plan anything since this is happening tomorrow, so they need to just do what they can.

Jin-woo stops by Ga-kyung’s place to tell her that he made some editing changes to his movie that she suggested, and to invite her to the premiere. But she’s still in contact with CEO Emily, and she says she thinks she’ll be busy. She warns him that she might even end up on TV, which he interprets to mean that they need to sign the divorce papers ASAP.

He gives Ga-kyung the documents, which he’s already stamped — all she has to do is sign and it’s done. She hesitates, wondering sadly if a better ending was always impossible for them, then stamps beside her name. She bursts into tears, and WJ apologizes as he holds her.

At Unicon, In-kyung holds a board meeting and learns that Ta-mi did, in fact, discuss the webdrama contact terms over email. Rather than be happy that the situation can be salvaged, she’s still angry that the drama will be pushed back a wee, and she wants to extend Ga-kyung’s probation as punishment for not keeping on top of the situation.

But the meeting is interrupted by the arrival of CEO Emily, who announces that In-kyung is removed as CEO of the Korea branch, effective immediately. In-kyung claims not to have known of the new hires’ previous illegal behavior, but CEO Emily says that ignorance is no excuse. She announces that Ga-kyung is now CEO of Unicon Korea.

Meanwhile, Ta-mi and Hyun stop Kevin in the Barro lobby and say he can’t come to work today, intent on stopping him from signing off on the rule change. Ta-mi says that they may only be able to stop him today, but they can at least stop him today. Ta-mi and Hyun links hands, and face down the guards when they try to intimidate them.

But another voice says that Kevin can’t come to work today — it’s Brian! He informs Kevin that he’s being reinstated as CEO of Barro, so he’ll be making all the decisions now. He heads upstairs to get some work done, followed closely by Ta-mi and Hyun, as across town, Ga-kyung begins her first day as CEO of Unicon.

 
COMMENTS

YES, Brian is back! Have I mentioned that I love him? He knows how to let his employees have the freedom to be creative and innovative, he knows when to step up and take responsibility, and he knows when it’s time to set aside his pride and do the right thing for the greater good. The steel in his eyes when he faced down Kevin was amazing — he didn’t come to play, and he’s not going to let the integrity of his company or his country fail, not on his watch.

I do feel bad for Brian, being forced to choose between two separate set of beliefs. He resigned from Barro because he felt it was the right thing to do after making a mistake that harmed an innocent person, and he was right. But he had to go back, because his country is in danger of suffering from the corruption that will result if the government gains control over the people’s access to information. It’s a very short step from controlling the keyword rankings to outright censorship, and Brian is the only person with the experience and authority to stop it from happening.

I’m even happy that Ga-kyung is back, and fully in charge of Unicon. She’s shown that she’s changing, and she’s no longer under Chairwoman Jang’s thumb, and I have a feeling she’s about to show everyone exactly what she’s capable of on her own. I’m definitely coming around to Ga-kyung as she shows more vulnerability, and especially now that she’s actually helping Barro. I think that Ga-kyung just didn’t know, or care, about being a better person when she was feeling controlled and manipulated — easier to let someone else take the reins than to fight back and get hurt. I feel like she’d previously have been willing to let Unicon be harmed if saving it meant also saving Barro. Now she’s not only showing that she can be reasonable, but she’s actually taking steps that could put her own career in danger if Chairwoman Jang finds out she’s working with Brian.

I haven’t spoken much about Ga-kyung and Jin-woo as a couple, and i have to say that I do love Jin-woo’s way of loving Ga-kyung. Just like she didn’t know she could fight until she got a little freedom, he didn’t know he loved Ga-kyung until he faced losing her. Now the best way he knows how to love her is to let her go, which is really just about the purest form of love there is. Ga-kyung needs to be fully freed from KU Group and Chairwoman Jang in order to prove to herself that she’s not the person she’s been in the past, that she’s better than that. And I think that the grief that Ga-kyung felt so keenly when she finally signed the divorce papers was a mixture of feeling like a failure, and relief from so many years of oppression. But I also think that, now that they don’t have Chairwoman Jang and KU Group hanging over their heads, they can, if they want, explore whether there’s enough love underneath the years of repression to start over again.

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