If You Wish Upon Me: Episodes 5-6

by quirkycase

We get more wish granting, bonding, and warmth this week. As our lovable volunteer settles into his new role, he starts grumbling less and smiling more. But he begins to wonder if all is as it seems after witnessing some suspicious behavior from his hospice mentor.

 
EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

After the standoff between Dr. Yang and Gyeo-re, Tae-shik takes his opportunity to wear Dr. Yang down. He shares that his cancer has relapsed, and he doesn’t plan to treat it, so he’s got limited time. And his wish is to grant others’ final wishes. (I should’ve seen the terminal illness coming.)

Dr. Yang can’t turn that down, so he agrees to let Se-hee perform. Now, I get Dr. Yang’s perspective to a point and understand his frustration with Team Genie. But his holier-than-thou attitude is getting on my nerves. He’s at his worst with Gyeo-re, likely due to jealousy, but it reads pretty classist with the doctor treating the ex-convict like he’s beneath him. Not cool.

Anyhow, the play is back on, and Se-hee shines on stage before her loved ones, fellow patients, and staff. Things get more emotional when her boyfriend, a fellow theater actor who had to give up his dreams due to vocal issues, shows up and performs alongside her. The famous actor kindly steps aside to give them their stage moment.

After the play, Se-hee announces she’s going home to live out her final days. She passes with her loved ones at her side.

Seon-joo comforts Gyeo-re who struggles to deal with all the death at the hospice. The two of them continue to grow closer; they even shared their first kiss, although it was technically for the play. Gyeo-re begins to open up, and he tells her about being an orphan and having no home.

And it’s not just Seon-joo he’s opening up to. Gyeo-re is fully integrated now – he’s got his own cup in the breakroom and everything. He even cooks dinner for everyone and invites Jin-gu who can’t get over how smiley Gyeo-re is now. I love Gyeo-re’s evolution from refusing to eat at the same table to cooking family dinner.

Amidst Gyeo-re’s transformation, Seon-joo is fully in the throes of a crush, and it’s refreshing how straightforward she is about it. There’s no denial or coyness. She realizes she likes him and then makes her feelings known.

She asks Gyeo-re if he has a dream or has ever truly been happy. When it’s a no on both counts, she suggests making being happy once in his life his dream. If he tries out being happy with Team Genie, she might just be able to give him what he’s hoping for. Pfft. When that’s not forward enough, Seon-joo straight up confesses her feelings, telling him she wants to find ways to make him smile because it’s a beautiful sight.

Since everything is going so well, naturally, something’s gotta give. Unbeknownst to Gyeo-re, his ex Joon-kyung gets out of prison, and she’s A LOT. Joon-kyung comes off as reckless with this simmering anger, and I can totally see how she could’ve tried to set them both on fire.

Meanwhile, the trust between Gyeo-re and Tae-shik is tested when Gyeo-re witnesses some suspicious behavior. First, he sees Tae-shik take an envelope of money from Se-hee’s family, which he then places in his secret box full of GOLD. Then, he happens upon a confrontation where this gangster-looking dude accuses Tae-shik of killing someone. Making matters worse, Tae-shik is standing and walking just fine without his crutches.

Gyeo-re is too honest of a person to beat around the bush, so he pops out from around the corner and demands the truth. He’s clearly hurt and feeling betrayed, which bothers Tae-shik, but not enough for him to freaking communicate. So he stays silent, causing a rift between the two of them. Even so, Gyeo-re isn’t mad enough to cut Tae-shik off – he just pouts and gets extra grumbly.

Before long they have a new case to distract them, and it involves an SUV of Doom. This time, it’s teenaged Team Genie member YOO SEO-JIN (Jeon Chae-eun) who brings in the request. While talking on the phone to her boyfriend, he’s hit by a car and put in critical condition. The driver has powerful connections and won’t own up to his drunk driving.

Tae-shik refuses Seo-jin’s revenge request, which she claims her boyfriend asked of her when he briefly gained consciousness. But Gyeo-re has a harder time turning Seo-jin down. He learns that she’s ostracized at school because her parents run a noraebang and once employed an escort. Gyeo-re can relate to being stereotyped, shamed, and abused for your home life, so he ends up helping the kids.

Seo-jin decides to go after the driver’s weak spot: his young daughter. She was in the car during the hit and run and is understandably traumatized. Seo-jin sneaks into the girl’s school, while Gyeo-re sneaks into her father’s fancy hospital suite. (I love how this is Gyeo-re’s third time switching clothes with someone as a means of infiltration; it’s like a hobby for him at this point.)

Revenge turns out to be a strong word for her plan. Seo-jin just wants accountability and an apology from the driver. She manages to get both by video calling from the little girl’s classroom, terrifying him. She reminds him that he’s inflicted life-long trauma on his daughter by refusing to be a responsible adult.

The poor, sweet little girl apologizes to Seo-jin on her father’s behalf, promising she’ll tell the truth instead. The two girls hug while sobbing out their hurt over adults’ failures.

Gyeo-re now faces a dilemma. His volunteer hours are almost up, but he’s clearly loath to leave Team Genie. They’re truly like family now, and he’s even written up a will bequeathing all his (likely stolen) money to them in exchange for caring for Son. He hides the money in the trunk of the car he drives for the hospice.

To make Gyeo-re stay, Tae-shik wonders to Seo-jin if he should tell Gyeo-re that he recognized him from the start and brought him to the hospice as his last wish. (Yes, please, communicate for once.) While he considers fessing up, Gyeo-re sees someone leaving the mysterious locked room. We end with a glimpse of a patient lying on the bed.

Could that be the person Tae-shik was accused of killing, maybe? I’m guessing the man who’s gone missing is the one Tae-shik’s homeless friends mentioned, relieved that he hadn’t come around recently. Regardless of who it is, why is a hospice being so secretive about a patient? That locked door and all the secrecy is like yelling, “Nothing to see here!” It’d be so much less suspicious if they just admitted a patient was in there and acted normal.

There’s no way Gyeo-re is going to leave the hospice fully now, given how attached he’s getting. I wasn’t sure how he’d react to finding out Tae-shik lied to him and is being all sketchy, but the fact that Gyeo-re didn’t cut him off is telling.

And then there’s his burgeoning relationship with Seon-joo, which I fully expect to get a bit more complicated when Gyeo-re’s frightening ex undoubtedly shows up. I just hope things don’t get too dramatic, and we stay focused on the healing. That’s what I’m here for. That and Ji Chang-wook in an ajumma hat.

 
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