Maestra – Strings of Truth: Episodes 5-6

by mistyisles

Our tenacious conductor engages in a battle of wits on multiple fronts, with no one to turn to except herself — and with the threat of a terrible fate hanging over her, she can’t even fully trust herself all of the time. But those who dare try to come between her and her music soon find her a force to be reckoned with.

EPISODES 5-6

Now that people are starting to learn more about Remington’s disease, the condition that Se-eum’s mother (played by Yeh Soo-jung) has, we learn more about what it’s capable of. Along with memory loss and gradual paralysis, it also causes hallucinations and violent outbursts — hence, Se-eum’s mother attacked her years ago, believing in the moment that Se-eum was a monster. Both women were devastated by the incident, and their relationship has never recovered.

There’s no known cure or prevention for Remington’s, so — as Se-eum explains to Jung-jae — the longer she goes not knowing whether she’s inherited it, the longer she has hope to hold onto. Jung-jae isn’t pleased (not that it’s any of his business), but he delights in dangling her secret over her head to coerce breakfast dates and pressure her to ride to work with him. Only after multiple third parties comment on his behavior does he seem to register that he’s making things difficult for Se-eum, and he’s so stunned by the realization that he goes about in a daze for an entire day or two.

One of those parties is his ex-wife, GO YU-RA (Choi Yoon-so), a broadcast station director, who cooks up an idea for a documentary about Se-eum and Pil’s marriage and professional partnership. Pil, having decided he wants Se-eum (and her creative genius) back, happily agrees. Se-eum, not so much. After her well-meaning father invites the couple out for dinner, their argument comes to a head — and Pil turns downright ugly. He’s known about the Remington’s for a while, and now he claims he only kept quiet because he was her husband. In other words, her options are: 1) go back to pretending everything is fine with their marriage or 2) he spills her secret to the world.

He thinks he’s got her trapped, but Se-eum one-ups him. She asks Jung-jae for photo evidence of Pil’s affair and uses the photos to get Pil fired from his professorship. “If you wanted forgiveness, you shouldn’t have crossed a line,” she tells him, like the boss she is.

While dealing with all this, Se-eum has also been suffering nightmares in which she starts showing early signs of Remington’s — including hallucinations — in front of the entire orchestra. So when she feels water droplets on her face in the middle of rehearsal, she freezes in terror. The other musicians don’t seem to see the droplets… until the fire sprinklers suddenly turn on in full force. Everyone scrambles to save the instruments while Se-eum breathes a huge sigh of relief.

There’s no fire, but the instruments and practice room sustain significant water damage. And Pil chooses that moment of chaos to wheel Se-eum’s mother into the hallway. Se-eum has no chance to flee or hide, but her mother zeroes in on Ru-na and her dripping wet violin instead. Distressed, Mom grabs the violin, which ultimately clatters to the floor in pieces. Mom then proceeds to wail, resist Se-eum’s attempts to relocate her, and faint. Pil tries to look considerate and take Se-eum’s place for the ambulance ride back to the nursing facility, but Se-eum jumps in before he can.

Again, Jung-jae is there to pick her up later that night. In all fairness, he presents a somewhat legitimate reason this time (it’s too late at night for taxis), but he still corners her into accepting the ride. When he asks how she’d like him to “take care of” Pil, she wearily asks him not to do anything — she’ll handle it. She notifies Pil that if he won’t sign the papers, she’ll take him to court, and then fills her father and best friend in on the impending divorce.

The musicians who complained about Ru-na being appointed concertmaster now ridicule her for using a rental instrument instead of getting a brand new replacement. Ru-na can’t afford a new violin, and can’t bring herself to ask for a loan from her soon-to-be-married older sister, so she tries her best to let the insults roll off her back. Then Se-eum gifts Ru-na her own violin — made specifically for her by her father — and she might as well have given Ru-na the moon itself. If Ru-na wasn’t already Se-eum’s biggest fan, she sure is now.

Then, out of the blue, news breaks about Se-eum’s possibility of inheriting Remington’s. Pil insists he didn’t leak it, but Se-eum knows that already… because she did. She’s used Pil’s trump card herself, robbing him of leverage. Plus, she gets to explain on her own terms that her health will by no means interfere with the orchestra’s success — if she starts showing symptoms, she’ll step down.

As the next concert draws near, Ru-na gives Se-eum a pen she found in the violin case. It belonged to Se-eum’s mother, who gave it to her in a moment of clarity following the hallucination-induced attack. The onslaught of memories finally emboldens Se-eum to visit her mother and confess that she was afraid of seeing her like this. Mom is in her right mind for once, and they have a sweet, tearful moment of reconciliation before Mom relapses into screaming about monsters and gasping for breath. She begs Se-eum not to call the nurse and to let her die instead. Though we don’t see how long Se-eum hesitates, nurses eventually rush in to attempt resuscitation, and Se-eum proceeds to the concert. As the final notes fade, so does her mother’s life.

You know Pil is awful when he’s starting to look even more manipulative and controlling than Jung-jae. Or, at least, he seems to want to appear that powerful. But the ease with which Se-eum repeatedly takes the wind out of his sails proves otherwise. And the same goes for Ah-jin, who keeps trying to intimidate Se-eum, only for Se-eum to nonchalantly poke holes in her threats. It would almost be comical if dealing with the two of them weren’t causing Se-eum so much emotional strain on top of her preexisting trauma.

As for Jung-jae himself, I’d like to think he’s heading for a redemption arc where he learns to listen to what Se-eum wants instead of bulldozing through with what he thinks is best for her. Realizing he’s bothering Se-eum was the first step, and acknowledging that she did have things handled with Pil was another step forward. But he’s still got a long way to go. So for now, I just want Se-eum to get far away from both men and freely live her own life, Remington’s or no Remington’s.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Maestra: Strings of Truth
• The orchestra must go on for Maestra Lee Young-ae
• Symphonies and secrets in Maestra: Strings of Truth
• News bites: November 14, 2023
• Lee Young-ae takes the stage as Maestra: Strings of Truth
• News bites: November 8, 2023
• News bites: November 4, 2023
• Mysterious motivations in script reading for Maestra
• Lee Young-ae becomes a Maestra in upcoming tvN thriller
• Lee Young-ae
• Lee Moo-saeng
• Kim Young-jae
• Hwang Boreumbyul