The first thing I did when I accessed ep 10 was to check the ending and once again, I was disappointed. Using the reveal as a bait for 3-4 episodes straight now is tiresome. There are many other things to worry about that I fear won't be fleshed out enough if the revealed is delayed much more than this. I don't want a choked penultimate and finale week.

That aside, it was sugar watching Secretary Jung place 'ducks head' in a chokehold, and teach Tae-joo a lesson or two. He has the gangster vibes, and I'm curious to see what managed to suppress that vibe...well unless he has to unleash the dragon in him, and the feeling of guilt and responsibility. I am not surprised but I was a bit taken aback when he offered to end the charade.
And while I understand Jae-hoon and Yoon-hee deciding to give Guem-seon the very best familial love ever with any luck available, I worry. Just as Jung-sook said 'Honest confession or a feeling of betrayal'. Timing is of the essence. I fear their chance at a honest confession has just been thrown in the dustbin. And, I worry more for Secretary Jung than Jae-hoon and Yoon-hee cause Jung has more consequences to navigate than our faux duo. I don't think even with his rough persona that he will sail through in half of one piece.

The real Ri arrives then is put into dry dock for two episodes while the family learns the Truth but does not know how to deal with it. It is quite cowardly on their part considering the stakes. My presumption about Secretary Jeong was wrong: he was not the little boy saved in the water but he is former detective/thug who used violence against his former partner while previously loathed the real Ri’s horrible reputation. We actually meet the real saved kid who is still grateful to Grandma but she is as proud of him as much as her own son.But the foreshadowing was clear in that brief conversation: children never turn out as you expect them to.

The guilt of the fake couple is at the breaking point, but instead of confessing their deception they try to think of a soft landing for themselves. Everyone is concerned that the truth will kill Grandma but everyone forgets how tough she is: she survived the war, the Korean separation and built a business empire with her own two hands. Mr. Jeong continues to accept full blame but that is not his call. Se-yeon’s diversion story of marriage really was a sore spot, especially to Jae-Heon but any romantic feelings towards her should be dead in the water since she knows he deceived her. We still don’t know the reason she left Dong-je at the alter, but to face a life of misery for the sake of keeping the hotel needs to be addressed immediately. She cannot trust Jae-Heon more than Dong-je unless she is out of her mind.

Yoon-Hee continues to be the most analytical and caring character. She has befriended the family well because she listens to their concerns and gives sound advice. She was the first to feel the unease about the deception but was later convinced that it had a noble purpose of comforting Grandma. She is the one that can solve the situation if given a chance.

The real Moon-Seong finally meeting Grandma while she was in an introspective place is the right way to tell Grandma about the past.... with the truth. There are two results that I would find unacceptable: Moon-Seong does not tell or if he does, she has a heart attack and is unable to find out the truth about her son’s life.

Hell is paved with good intentions

Secretary Jung had good intentions, he wanted Grandma to die in peace knowing she could spend time with her grandson.

But at the end, he did more wrong than good.

He took Moon-sung's last chance to see his grandma and vice versa. He made Se-yeon loosing the battle against her brother too...

I feel like I'm an outlier, but I find the pace and tone of this drama to be very satisfying. These two episodes were excellent, imo. This isn't makjang where it's all about shocks, twists, and surprises; this is a clearly a character-driven drama where the point is to get to know these people and then watch as each one reacts in a human and nuanced way to the unraveling of the world they thought they knew. That greatly appeals to me.

The central theme seems to be that when it comes to family, as Se-joon puts it, we both want to protect and resent them for standing in our way. And when it comes to truth, there are times when a lie is much kinder. So it made perfect sense to me that after toying with his "cousin" a bit, Se-joon couldn't bring himself to actually spill the beans about the fraud. Instead, he acted in a way consistent with his character: he worked behind the scenes to help ensure an outcome he wants (no more hotel) while leaving it to his sister to ultimately decide how this story should unfold. For her part, Se-yeon is also acting exactly as I anticipated; she's hurt, angry, and a little embarrassed that she trusted in her "cousin" so completely but at the same time, she doesn't want to hurt her grandmother. She's trying hard to act as she did before, but as she's not an actress, and is feeling very emotional over the whole thing, all she can do is avoid Jae-heon. But faced with him maintaining the farce and strong arming her away from the reporter, I also understood why she couldn't take it anymore and let him know that she is fully aware of the fraud.

The only thing I struggled with in these episodes was Secretary Jung being so cruel to the real Moon-sung. He's essentially telling him that he's a worthless human being and because of the cultural and geographical divide between them and their experiences, it almost smacked of a kind of racism, where he deemed Moon-sung as too much of a thug to be worthy of meeting his own grandmother.

I also don't understand Se-joon's relationship with his wife. I suspect the writers don't have the capacity to develop that relationship so it's hard to know what I'm supposed to see there. It appears that he's the most indifferent of spouses, and it was very hard to watch him delight his wife with mention of her taste at the breakfast table (and so sad to see her light up like "Finally! He paid attention to me!") when we all know he was just saying those things to mess with Jae-heon. In general, I find that kdramas don't seem to know how to depict married couples who are not either a) parents of adult children who relate to each other more as siblings than lovers or b) crazy, cheating spouses. But I find myself wondering why they even bothered making Se-joon a married man if all he ever says to his wife is "Go rest."

I've wondered if Grandma might actually know at some level that the actor grandson is a fake. I would think that the kinder direction would be to actually give her time with her true grandson. He might be able to tell her more about her own son and her first husband. He would be able to tell her about the village she came from. Treating her as someone too old and sick to handle the truth takes away her agency. The pace has been slow, but these two episodes moved much better for me. I really enjoy the actor playing the true grandson, he has a kind of commanding presence. I've been thinking that they are saving all the good stuff for that last few episodes with more then the first half of the drama being just a set up.

I thought it was only me who was disappointed in the show's slow pace. The scenes between the characters feel too repetitive, especially the verbal sparring between Se-yeon and Se-joon without taking any actual actions in their fight. I thought the second half will be different after the cat got out of the bag but that wasn't the case. I started this drama with great expectations but got disappointed instead. There are many ways the drama could have been better. Getting more to know about the characters than just surface level. We could have gotten more insight into why Se-joon hates the hotel, Se-yeon and Dong-jae's past relationship, and Se-gyu who has little screen time. We could get more of the side characters like Mrs. Yoon and her special relationship with Se-joon, or Ji-hyun who has barely any role in the family. I hope we get more excitement in the last three weeks, making up for this slow ride.

Secretary Jung had no right to decide Moon Sung isn't good enough for his own grandmother. I absolutely hate his line of thinking, though I do understand why he wanted a soft lie for her. But he had no right to deny both of them the opportunity to know each other.

I like it when the show refers to elements of drama and acting methods/techniques. A good connection to Jae Heon and Yoon Hee's acting. Made me chuckle when he talked about character inconsistency!

Secretary Jung was surprising when he become physical. He has some moves. O: