Maestra – Strings of Truth: Episodes 9-10

by mistyisles

Our heroine’s worst fears appear to be coming true at last, and she takes a step away from everything to ponder how to move forward. Or, at least, that’s what she tries to do — but certain other people have their own ideas about what’s best for her and insist on getting in her way, even after she expressly tells them to get lost.

 
EPISODES 9-10

Following Se-eum’s collapse onstage, she’s rushed to the hospital. For now, doctors find nothing serious wrong with her, so the next day she insists on going home to her father’s house (Jung-jae, of course, insists on driving her there, and he sits out in the car watching until her light turns off that night). Meanwhile, detectives question Pil about Se-eum’s whereabouts on the night of Bong-ju’s death. Still playing the part of concerned husband, he earnestly confirms that she was drunk and acting strangely that night.

The next day, Se-eum resigns from the orchestra and goes off-grid to process things alone. She can no longer deny that she’s experiencing the same early symptoms her mother did, and she stands by a lake for hours, thinking back to when she’d heard about her mother’s diagnosis and tried to drown herself.

Pil, Jung-jae, and Ru-na all panic when they can’t contact her. Both Pil and Jung-jae try to gain entry to her (now vacated) hotel suite, and when Jung-jae succeeds because of his connections, Pil remarks bitterly that money grants access that Se-eum’s own husband isn’t afforded. I hate agreeing with anything Pil says, but he’s got a point here — even the story itself allows Jung-jae to force his way into Se-eum’s life, no matter how many times she tells him to leave her alone.

Case in point: Jung-jae tracks Se-eum down and tells her not to ask him to leave because he’ll refuse. They spend the day together going for walks and cable car rides, until Jung-jae finds her discarded attempts at a suicide note in the trash and realizes she only went along with his suggestions as a means of saying goodbye. He angrily confronts her and calls her selfish (because she’s ignoring how hard he’s trying), and Se-eum’s strong front cracks. She wants to live, but she can’t bear to put her father or anyone else through watching Remington’s do to her what it did to her mother. Jung-jae promises to make sure she gets to do whatever she wants — as long as she does it with him.

Se-eum doesn’t give him an answer right away. She meets with Pil and their respective lawyers to arrange a settlement for their divorce. She’s happy to let Pil have whatever he wants as long as it speeds the proceedings along. Pil, however, only wants the marriage to remain intact. But when he tries to threaten her with hints about Remington’s and her being a murder suspect, she shuts him down. From now on, he’s only to speak to her lawyer.

Ru-na, meanwhile, feels abandoned by Se-eum, which in turn reminds her of how her own mother abandoned her when she was young. Her confidant is Se-eum’s personal assistant, KIM TAE-HO (Minkyu) — the two have been inching towards a potential romance for a while now, and after he assures her she’s done nothing to deserve being repeatedly abandoned, they spend the night together. There’s just one problem: Tae-ho is Jung-jae’s cousin, and he’s been spying on Se-eum and reporting her every move. Having previously overheard Tae-ho talking to Jung-jae on the phone, Ru-na now confirms her suspicions by slipping out of bed while Tae-ho sleeps and snooping through his phone.

As soon as Tae-ho lets slip that Se-eum is 1) back and 2) planning to leave again with Jung-jae, Ru-na rushes over to beg Se-eum to stay. Thus, she’s there when Se-eum gets the news that her symptoms might not be Remington’s at all — she’s been poisoned. Ru-na produces screenshots of Tae-ho informing Jung-jae he left snacks in Se-eum’s office, effectively breaking the tentative trust Se-eum had been extending to Jung-jae over the past few days.

Jung-jae seems genuinely confused when Se-eum confronts him, and to be fair, plenty of people have given her various food or drinks recently. So she tosses the contents of her fridge and officially moves back to Dad’s place for the time being. She also returns to the orchestra — after Ru-na organizes the other musicians to persuade her just as she persuaded them — but only for one last concert.

Several things happen during this time. Pil tries to apply for guardianship of Se-eum so he can imprison admit her to the hospital. Ah-jin admits to the orchestra that she’s pregnant, and Pil threatens to sue for custody if she won’t quietly leave town. She vows to protect her unborn child by any means necessary. Se-eum breaks the news about the divorce, with such impeccable timing that it undercuts Pil’s “loving husband” act during an interview. And, finally, Se-eum discovers that she wasn’t poisoned through food or drinks, but through her perfume… which Pil gave her, before she caught him cheating.

The detectives that have been investigating Se-eum change their tune once they learn about the poison. The blood on the murder weapon doesn’t match hers (though it does match Ah-jin’s blood type), so now they want Se-eum’s help uncovering the truth behind all these incidents. Se-eum tells them she suspects her husband poisoned her, which Jung-jae overhears (because he’s eavesdropping, because he still refuses to take leave me alone for an answer). Not long after, someone waylays Pil after dark and sticks a needle in his neck.

Is it bad that I almost wished Jung-jae had been the one who poisoned Se-eum, just so it would be clear he’s not being painted as sympathetic and misunderstood? Many (not all) of the things he said to her when she ran away might be sweet if they had come from her best friend or her father — but not from an ex who keeps trying to pressure her into taking him back and letting him make decisions for her.

Which is why I appreciated that Se-eum made it clear that the issue wasn’t just that she briefly thought Jung-jae had tried to kill her, but also that he assigned Tae-ho to spy on her. Even when he claims to be abiding by her wishes, he still watches her house, eavesdrops on her private conversations, and goes behind her back to gather personal information about her without consent (something he and Pil have in common, but only Pil is condemned for it). While I question Ru-na’s motives for advising Se-eum not to go to the police about the poison, I can’t argue with her reasoning that if Jung-jae were responsible, he’d easily evade punishment.

But, Jung-jae aside, my biggest hope for this whole poisoning businesses is that it will mean Se-eum hasn’t inherited Remington’s after all. And that she can start over post-divorce, in the company of people who actually care about her and not just what she can do for them, and finally free from anyone’s attempts to control her life.

 
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