My favourite scene Jin-dal ex-husband spotting Ha-yul calling her mother and mistaking her for their daughter. " She is that tall. So, she must be 4 years old. Lol" And then father coming out with a real harpoon and getting the ex-husband to run for his life.

I was pretty much invested into the story but this week's episodes somehow felt dull. I don't know exactly what was missing,but I feel like dropping it. It seems like there's too much drama in a small island. However, there's some things I still like about this : '2 friends love the same girl' - they used this trope in a mature way ( I really liked their conversation on this)

And as expected, the breakup happened despite their will ( I won't say exactly 'noble idiocy ' as they were practically forced to do it ). So I guess I'll stick around 1 more week to see how their relationship plays out this time. Hope it doesn't fall into the medicore type.

FYI: 돌림자 [dollimja] or generation names (here the “dal” part of Jindal, Samdal and Haedal) are far less popular now in SK than before, according to what I’ve learnt.

There is some “com” but the “rom” part is largely unrealised as despite the feelings of both men for Samdal, there is hardly any romantic tension or chemistry afa I’m concerned. And, that’s a real pity as I like both SHS and JCW.

Aigoo...
We could've had a cute slice of life or romcom. Something simple, something easy.

We could've had a lot of good moments like that little talk Sam Dal and Sang Do had while walking around the neighborhood, the scene with Sam Dal and her mom in the bike, the conversation Jin Dal had with her ex-husband's secretary, or just Sasaeng Gyeong Tae being Sam Dal's #1 fan.
This show could've been just that. Little moments.

But nah, it's better to create unnecessary drama, trauma and guilt, right?

1. We didn't know what we were talking about in the past few weeks when we were calling the 30-something years old gang childish and what not. These kids are just a copy of their parents.

Apparently, the older the people of Sam Dal get the weirder their behavior becomes. There's some Benjamin Button syndrome in this island. The 9yo kid acts like an halmoni most of the time, while the adults act like kids or teenagers.

The actions of the parents this week were so ridiculous that I felt stupid for disliking Yong Pil all this time. Of course this is the best the kid can do, just look around.

1. I'm guessing the mom learned nothing from what happened 10 years ago, or maybe she's doing this on purpose because she feels guilty? But she's being so selfish.

Does she want to traumatize all her coworkers and her daughters? And does she want to take someone with her to the other side?
Not only she made then go into the sea with bad whether, she's sick. What if someone else gets hurt while trying to rescue her? What's her deal??? Is she planning to make her daughters lose the only mom they have? And Yong Pil lose the only mom he has left???? And maybe take someone else's mother with her????

2. My memory is bad, so maybe I'm wrong but didn't Yong Dal date for years? Yong Pil's mother died like when he was in high school. Yong Pil and Sam Dal started dating when they were in college, in Seoul...

What's with the dad making them break up after all those years? What's the point? And what's with him making everyone in that family feel like trash? They can't even go out of their own house in peace because of him.

I know the show is trying to make us think that Yong Dal's break up was because of an external force (so we can root for them getting back together), and I think we're supposed to feel the dad's sadness and anger, but I'm not feeling any of that.
I'm not feeling the break up or the reunion or the guilt or anything.

I rewatched Come And Hug Me this year, so this plot in Sam Dal feels like a really bad copy. I was more annoyed with the dad than the mom, and I don't understand why the kids broke up. This backstory is so freaking annoying.

Now I really don't want Sam Dal to get back with Yong Pil. LOL your plan really backfire, show.

Why is the dolphin guy and the kid more endearing and interesting to me than the main plot?! Probably cause they're the most direct characters.

I am confused why the kid said her mother was her aunt and her aunt was a mother. At first I thought maybe it was due to maybe her having a little crush or something but still, how does lying about her mother affect the crush? I also thought maybe she was embarrassed cause she saw her mother accidentally insulting the guy (or maybe she saw the aftermath of her apologizing)

I'm conflicted because I get that Yong Pil's dad is grieving but he also irritates me. I was especially irritated when he threw away Yong Pil's ball of yarn again. That was malicious and unnecessary to me. It was in Yong Pil's room behind a closed door, it's not like he was just passing by, saw it, and was filled with rage. He actively went for it and tried burying it under other trash to throw it away.

And again! It's probably a cultural thing but all the unneccesary secret keeping, pride, nosiness, and grudges against an entire family... it's just hard for me to sympathize with anyone.

Even if the mother didn't want to tell her neighbors, why not tell her daughters about her heart? Obviously they wouldn't go around gossiping about it. They probably would just be more obedient towards her (which she seemingly wants anyway).

I genuinely only liked the dolphin guy and the kid and they were only featured for like 10 minutes or less between both episodes.

Jin Dal's ex is so goofy, it's becoming even weirder that he *actually* managed to not only win her over but to marry her.

I wonder if it will ever be explained how that even happened because no matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem like they would've gotten the green light from his family.

It was kinda cute how he instantly thought he was the father even though the kid certainly doesn't look 4 years old haha (and once again I'm left to wonder how a significant other doesn't know about their partner's immediate family. The kid was born when they got married! But I guess it can be chalked up to him being frazzled and he obviously didn't have the greatest memory about her hometown/home life in the first place)

Hum...

I'm not specially interested in the characters except the leads...

I don't really like Ha-Yul, I'm tired by this trope of kids who act like they were adult. In this case, her mum looks like a good one, so it's not like she had to compensate for it. The story between the mother and Dolphin guy is obvious and I should be excited for it, but neither of those scenes made me really enjoying them.

We always can trust Yang Kyung-Won to be funny. But again, I think these characters look more like clichés than real characters.

For Yong-Pil's father, isn't he angry against Sam-dal's mother? I think for him, she has a part of responsability in his wife's death.

I didn't really understand the scene between him and Yong-Pil 8 years ago.

I'm curious about Sam-dal being a photograph again because I really liked her when she was working.

My heart shattered when Haeyul called her mom "auntie"...I'm really looking forward to Haedal's romance, but more importantly seeing her relationship with her daughter. As for the mom, I hope she survives, because this family cannot seem to catch a break.

We came for a calming and relaxed drama and what we got instead was trauma po*n. A drama isn't healing, when you have 10 / 16 episodes dealing with the trauma part of it, and if we are lucky, we'll get 6 episodes focused on the healing part of it. (I am saying 10, because we all know that 9 is going to be focused on mom's drowning, so if the healing starts at all, it won't be until late episode 10)

I absolutely hate hate hate when parents hide their illnesses from children. It is not being considerate; it is plain stupidity. I lost my dad almost a decade back quite suddenly when I was living on the other side of the world. I later came to know that several adult relatives thought that something was wrong with him, but no one cared to communicate that to me or my sibling (who was living on the other side of the world too). His death wasn't because he hid something about his health, but I can't help but wonder (even after almost a decade) if things would be different if we had known about the gravity of the situation. Even now when we are still thousands of miles away from our families, some elders in the family avoid telling us about their health. A little bit of empathy on their part, to how we will feel if something serious happens to them, will go a long way.

I honestly don’t know why I am watching this drama at this point. I think it is more because many of the dramas I was watching have come to an end and I don’t want to feel the emptiness.

I still find the characters largely unlikeable, loud, and childish. I can’t believe the way the parents treat the children even though they’re 37 years old. No wonder the 37-year-olds behave like teenagers, their parents behave like teenagers too. So Yong Pil’s dad will rather have Yong Pil suffer all his life and even move far away from him, than be happily married to his soul mate. How ridiculous!

Sorry for the long rant, I am just so disappointed with this drama overall. I did have some moments that I liked.

1) I liked eps 5 and 6 better than these 2, otherwise I would have dropped this drama already
2) I like the dolphin guy a lot, I am interested in seeing that sister’s story without the child acting like a 70-year-old. I find this sister to be the most normal.
3) I like the chaebol guy, he’s very sweet, but find the first sister a bully, so I am not sure about their storyline either.
4) I liked Sam Dal’s reasoning about her behaviour (during her talk with Sang Do). We got a rare insight into the mature and kind Sam Dal we keep hearing about.

I was confused by Sam Dal's mom saying they shouldn't go in because she felt the weather was off then fast forward they're in the water. It seemed like she was the final word of the diving stuff so why did she decide to go in the water against her better judgement?

I'm assuming Yong Pil's father has a grudge against the entire family because his wife drowned during a dive and since Sam Dal's mom is the leader, maybe she had said it was okay to go in and the incident happened. Maybe they couldn't find her because of the bouy not standing out.

Regardless, the dad can't stand any of them because they remind him of the mom's death and he couldn't take the daughter of the woman he feels is responsible for his wife's death being with his son.

See, this is why I'm conflicted about him because he is grieving but then he's also being a jerk over an accident. It feels mean to call him a jerk but seriously, he's trying to force and manipulate Yong Pil, a grown man with automony, to do something he doesn't want to do. He forced the end of the Yong Pil's relationship with Sam Dal. He makes everyone else feel like they have to cater to his feelings and feel awkward & tense.

Still confused on how Sam Dal feels she was the one who was dumped. Something seems to be missing here.
I'm still considering the possibilty that the dad texted her the breakup message but ah, it still seems weird. Cause if dad sent the break up message leading them crying in & out the house, they still didn't seem to actually accept it until after Sam Dal was guilt tripped into breaking up with Yong Pil.

Another possiblity is Sam Dal's break up happened first but Yong Pil got her to reconsider and then dad got to him which led to the break up text and their official end. That would lead into why Sam Dal *does* seem like the one who was broken up with (such as saying she should've dated someone better than Yong Pil or her reaction to hearing she's considered the heartbreaker in their break up)

Funny enough, I just watched a video where the actors were commenting on the first 2 episodes and JCW also expressed confusion over how Sam Dal was claiming to be the dumped one.

It is funny every one seems to think Ha Yul is making space for her mom, but I think she has a crush on Dolphin guy. I think she doesn't want the guy to pity her, but maybe that is just me. The mom is terrible for not telling her daughters about her heart condition, why lie? I can't be mad at Yong Pil for lying because it isn't his secret to tell. SMH, a mess all around.

I think one of the reasons I have continued watching this show is because of it’s location. The breathtaking visuals make me wish I was in Jeju. Such a beautiful land.
I keep waiting for the FL to do something, anything about her professional situation. In vain. I guess that’s not what this is about.
“You’ve already told me 18 times that you love her“ LOLOLOL
It was so real and funny when they made fun of Sam Dal for going on the Jeju Olle trail to find herself.
So Yong Pil’s father broke them up? At least the one time? The disjointed flashbacks are confusing the crap out of me.
The epilogue of episode 8 was heartbreaking.

Episode 7 gave me a bad taste. The writing clearly shows the Alcoholic Sisters, with their strong personalities, are only drawn to weak, dumb men. And, apparently, dumb guys are drawn to them because they need their strength in personality to overcome their issues. That is a terrible message for relationship dynamics. Even little Haa-Yul knows this when she lies about being her mom’s niece in front of the Dolphin Chaser.

I also dislike the aspect of Samdal “having to find herself.” She found herself in her Seoul career and success based upon her passion that she developed in Jeju. Why does she need to be punished for the small-minded cancel culture behavior of strangers? One moment she is a strong and resourceful woman but the next moment she is a crouched, scared abandoned kitten. In Jeju, she needs to take the photography contest as a means of continuing her artistic career.

Yong-pil’s dad was the reason for their break-up. It is probably because of Yong Pil’s mother’s death which Sang-Tae blames Mi-ja. Sang-Tae has never got over the anger grieving stage of mourning - - it is like he is trying to erase and ostracize Ko’s family. I blame Ko for not helping her best friend’s husband overcome this tragedy and how it adversely affects their children.

It is an untenable situation which Samdal and Yong-Pil should not add gasoline to the fire. For 8 years he refused to get over her; many would call him a fool. For 8 years, she moved on and had many boyfriends and great success; to reverse course and give up now to return to him would be foolish.

But the overreaching story is that a vicious cycle repeats itself. Twenty one years later, the sea takes another Haenyeo. The entire village seems stubborn, stoic and blinded by the past. Diver Ko, who continued to work with a heart condition because she was the leader, made a stubborn choice lacking good common sense. This personality trait is inherited by her daughters who also seem to be stuck in a stubborn rut, unable to see change as a positive. Now, real life makes the Seoul “scandal” meaningless.

Why am I not worried that they'll drag out this particular tragedy? I take all y'all's points, but still...

I bet this older tragic situation will be resolved next week...and then the week after that will center on the fight over dolphin dude between daughter and mother Greek-tragedy-style as @kafiyah-bello predicts...and then the week after will be the triumphant vision of Jin-dal rising to become the head of the AS corporation and taking over the world like a queen (also Greek-tragedy-style??)...leaving the final week for the "healing."

I'm down.

- I'm really liking the subplots with Hae-dal and Jin-dal getting their own romances. As I assumed, it sounds like Jin-dal loved her husband but couldn't stand his passivity around his family.
- Yong-pil's dad SUCKS. He clearly isn't gonna marry anyone else, so you'd rather he just be single and miserable for the rest of life?
- I'm confused about how Yong-pil and Sam-dal think each broke up with the other if the dad convinced Sam-dal to break up with him. Isn't that pretty straight forward? But it sounds like the dad also made Yong-pil break up with her? Idk
- I like how Hae-dal's daughter is getting really into dolphins. Super cute.
- Sorry, but WHAT in the 1990s was Hae-dal wearing in that scene the second time she met the dolphin guy? A slip dress with jeans? Ohhh no. Btw, this is no slam to the actress, who is gorgeous in anything she wears (and I'm pretty sure my husband has a crush on her, he keeps talking about how pretty she is everytime she's on screen).
- I'm so, so, SO tired of the 2ML. Does he need to exist? I really don't think he does.
- The Choi family needs to communicate better. Or, rather, communicate at ALL.
- I was confused about the sequence of events leading to Sam-dal's mom going missing. Didn't they cancel diving for the day because of the weather? The mom said "Let's just rest for today," and then next I saw they were in the water. Did I miss or misunderstand something?
-

This is such a weird drama. I like it, but it doesn't seem to match what it was advertised to be. It's just a lot more melancholy than I expected. Not bad. But different. Instead of "Welcome to Samdal-ri - where you will find warmth and healing and romance!", it's more like "Welcome to Samdal-ri - it's complicated here." It's not so much a rom-com as a slice of life. It's got warmth and emotion, but it also feels cold sometimes because life in the village and in Jeju is not that great. The haenyeo tradition/profession is going away. The haenyeos are in their 60s. The fruits of their labor lends the village its matriarchal feel too. That could change within a generation. And nearby Namdal-ri is courting the AS group to build a theme park. It will create jobs so that people may want to stay, but having all the jobs be in the hands of one company that may not even take care of the environment...is depressing.

The episodes go by super-fast and there aren't many scenes where I go "ugh, this lady again! let me get something from the fridge while the scene plays out". Not more Eun-joo clogging up screentime.

I was totally holding my breath through a lot of moments through the ominous episode 8. Even though Yong-pil's dad's resentment frustrates me, he still rushed out when he heard Samdal's mom was lost. I got goosebumps to see the community rushing to diving spot and their shared pain and worry, and the parallels to when Yong-pil's mom was taken away too.

I'm glad Samdal is not giving up on photography. I wonder if the landscape of Jeju was what inspired her to take pictures in the first place.

Ha-yul calling Hae-dal mom was such a punch in the gut. I'm glad that Ha-yul has found something she likes in Jeju and looking for the dolphins is probably the first kid-like thing she has done. She and Hae-dal may end up staying in Jeju by the end of the series.

Da-young imagining how Jin-dal saved him from his mean cousins was hilarious. But it also made me realize that Jin-dal must have been tired of fighting his battles for him, and it's unlikely he ever fought for her.

Thanks for the weecap @quirkycase.

I really hope this accident is not going to result in a death but I don’t understand how it won’t as having a heart attack does not give you options like remembering to hold your breath and she was clearly seen sinking so unless she managed to swim back up and is floating somewhere it’s not looking good. The preview also seemed to suggest flashbacks rather than current events so it is going to be a long wait until this week’s episodes for the outcome.

It did make me wonder if Hayul reaction was because she has been worried about her mum being lonely and finally thinks there is a decent option so didn’t want to make it fail before it even started, which she may have experienced before. We know how hard it is for some families to accept women who have been divorced so a widow with a child may also be a big problem.

I am confused how Jindal and her husband got together as he didn’t seem to be offering her anything. She would have known about how he was placed in the family very early on as they don’t hide their contempt for him and being treated like that all his life would have caused a huge dent in his self confidence so how did he even attempt to approach her?

Just need to say Sang do’s brother’s behaviour in front of the customers was outrageous.

I still like this drama even if the drinking and showing the after effects in front of the child is still not being called out by ANY adult in that house.

Beginning of episode 7, Sam-dal was shown throwing away things of Yong-pil, his toothbrush, perfume, photos…this means they were more than just dating in the past. They had probably cohabited as a couple while they were in Seoul. We still have to wait and see what had led to their breakup and Yong-pil leaving Seoul…

I understand Yong Pil a little bit more now. During Sam-Dal's visit, she read on the wall the reason why Yong Pil worked there- to protect the people he loves. This is one of the reasons why he didn't want to be transferred to HQ. At work he can monitor the haenyeos through the screens. And now I get why he insisted on putting the multicolored fabric over Mi-Ja's buoy- to make her stand out.

Aside from keeping the heart condition from the daughters, I also don't I understand why the husband and Yong Pil let Mi Ja continue to dive in spite of her condition.