What a great recap, @solstices! The awful supervisor Kim Kyung-Wook creeps me out so much that I ff a little through his scenes. I was so delighted to see the way Ji-Won managed to "flip" him. And now we have a partial answer to the cat mystery! Or all the cats in this drama gingers?

The work that Lee Yi-kyung is doing keeping Min-hwan a doofusy clown, one who is at the exact same time utterly despicable, is so on point 👏👏. I can't wait to see that guy go down, as it's gonna not only be totally satisfying but also hi-la-ri-ous.

I do wish our Su-min were given a chance to display this sort of complexity--maybe not with humor, but maybe instead with actual smarts or an actual goal in life or something?? As it is, she's simply a sorry, sad leech with, as @solstices says, "her wily seduction" as her own weapon that is aimed, basically, at anything that will make her feel better. Gah. My kingdom for a villain's actual motivation!!!

I love how fast faced the show is. We have time travel/rebirth (?) reveal and male leads feeling out in open in just episode 4.
I hope this is the last we saw of that awful manager Kim. Whenever he is on screen, I have strong urge to ff. I am not sure why hasn’t been any disciplinary action against till now. Why hasn’t Ji-hyuk sorted him out? Why he is not intervening for better, safe workplace environment? He does lose few points from me in this aspect. Apart from this issue I think Ji-Hyuk is almost perfect. He was totally playing house together with Ji-Won through cat.
In contrast to awful Mr. Kim, I love presence of our would-be cheating couple on the screen. I just love them being awful together with each other. They should be always be together so humanity could be saved. Just go and marry each other already, I am rooting for you guys.

At this point, if they continue to go back to the past, we will finish with them in their mother's womb...

I'm completely bored by the characters...

I would like to be interested in Ji-Won but I have issue to see her a real person and not as a character of the story. Her new style doesn't suit her type of office, she's standing out too much. Even Ji-Hyuks's sister who grew up as rich girl blends in better. And it doesn't suit her personality. I understand they wanted to give a new style to show her new stronger personality or her new confidence but they missed the target.

I think I will just watch this drama as entertainment.

Of course I love seeing Ji-won flip shameless people like so many pancakes, but what I love even more is the way she is now able to analyse every instance of Min-hwan and Soo-min’s spitefulness. This malice is also exceptionally well-observed. A lot of it is mundane but repetitive, aimed at controlling how JW sees and is seen by the world: e.g. MH calling her “dumb”, “crazy” or even “possessed” whenever she departs even slightly from his expectations of her; or SM using banal compliments and proclamations of devotion to disguise her put-downs of her “other half”.

Tbh I’m dreading the angst that will probably arise from JW and Ji-hyuk discovering each other’s secret. (I’m pretty sure JW will realise that JH has also died in 2023.) While it’s good that the show is moving briskly along, I hope it won’t let the angst overshadow its sharper, funnier aspects.

Sounds like the drama is giving more development to both Ji-hyeok and his original relationship with Ji-won (in the original timeline). IMO, both are welcome changes.

Yay! I’m loving this drama, and haven’t really understood the criticism. I don’t need perfect characters, not even perfect MLs, but I love seeing human characters, which these are, if a bit of an extreme selection (looking at you, Sumin—believable, but wow, sure hope there aren’t many of you in this world!).

As far as I’m concerned, it’s redeemed PMY in my eyes. I was so terribly disappointed by Love in Contract and became annoyed with all the actors, haha. But PMY is doing great. All the actors are strong in their characters.

I’ve totally watched the scene with Ji-hyuk flipping Min-hwan multiple times. I feel like the drama gives lots of background to make Ji-hyuk’s love for Ji-won authentic and deeper than a mere puppy love. And yes, so nice to have a quick resolution to misunderstandings!

Great start to the drama, and hoping it doesn’t suffer from the typical lagging middle and disappointing ending!

The first half of ep. 5 was so slow and draggy I started to fear I was in drop territory, between the endless drunken toddler-talk exposition (that scene took up 14 minutes), the judo display, and the kitten. I love kittens, but jeez, instead of doing carpentry, take the poor little thing indoors out of the snow! We did need the backstory but not slow-talked quite that much. It really got back up to speed after that, though - the slam-bang pace of this show is one of its strengths, as is the way every evil character is right at the edge of credibility. Ji-won’s boss is deliciously obnoxious. The BTS-based blunder seems like exactly how a time-slip revelation would happen if this were a real-life situation. Oops.

Until this week I was constantly going back and forth between deciding to drop it or not. However these two episodes made me love it. Ji-hyuk was such an unclear and unlikable character before, but now we exactly know what's his relationship with our FL is. Their first encounter at 2005 and their conversation was a deep and beautiful one.
Min-hwan is still spiteful and Su-min is becoming an understandable spiteful.

I don’t know why but I’m invested in this show and really looking forward to next episodes. The show spends a long time on one scene/setting/conflict, like with the high school reunion episode and at the same time moves the plot along briskly. I find Sumin so annoying with her cute act so props to Song Ha Yoon I guess for a good job.

The whole proposal stealing wasn't okay to see play out, even though we had gotten its premonition since episode 2.

I think it is a huge realism on the drama's part that we see Ji-won falter at times in the moments why Soo-min starts or ups her chameleon love. Last week we had Ji-won returning the favor. This week, we do not see much of that happening. In a way, it tells me that Ji-won is still on the path to extricating herself from the shackles Soo-min and Min-hwan have warped her into. And that sometimes, we might see her faltering a bit but never should it be inferred as her not moving. Her faltering means she's a human who's working through her healing.

I love the cat. And I hope I never get drunk to the point where I do not hear my glasses fall off my face(screech) or that I stepped on and broke it(triple screech).

I was wondering what Ji-won was up to with pursuing the proposal to the end and then letting it all crash and burn. While I wasn't satisfied with the whole playout - I don't know how it exactly puts theifing Kim in his place, I am glad that Ji-won went about it her own way cause that's definitely not how I'll conclude the matter if I were in her shoes.

But...I guess she(Ji-won) must have a new proposal up her sleeve if she was determined to ruin this one to hurt the thieves (now that's something I'll do anyday anytime, without thinking twice).

Pair up Eun-ho and Hui-yeon. Chef x Foodie is a combo both individuals will find very mutual to their beings - a wife who's stimulated and in love with food and a husband who's willing to specially prepare the meals of his important persons. And when you're his wife, I don't need to say more.

I'm so into this show right now. It manages to give viewers plenty of payoff without ever slowing down the momentum of the plot or sacrificing the dramatic tension.

One thing that struck me while watching is the very delicate dance the writing is doing when it comes to Mi-hwan. He goes from being a truly frightening, arm-grabbing abuser at the park to an utter goofball tripping over his own feet in a slapstick moment in the alley a few moments later. This really shouldn't work, and yet it does. Again, this is probably just Lee Yi-kyung's particular genius, but I can't imagine most other shows being able to pull off the mix of horror and absurdity that it takes to have me go from scared and horrified to giggling in the span of a few minutes.

It has struck me, though, that although the moments of Min-hwan's physical violence against Ji-won are clearly treated by most of the characters and the writing as an obvious ethical and moral transgression, a lot of his equally abusive words about how dumb or unlovable Ji-won is go unchecked. I'm guessing that's because Ji-won recognizes his physical aggressiveness as domestic violence because she knows it will eventually lead to her death, and so it makes sense--yet is no less troubling--that she doesn't seem to see his words as part of the same pattern of abuse. It's not clear to me yet if the show is ultimately going to show her having that realization, but I'd like to see that.

Mr. Kim is awful, and although I appreciate what the show is setting up there, my god is it a particular kind of hell to see him bloviate, chew, and bully through every scene.

On the other hand, Soo-min is an equally awful human being, but there's something very satisfyingly squirmy about watching her manipulate everyone around her. Her ability to avoid comeuppance comes largely from the fact that she constitutionally incapable of feeling shame. (Reminds me of a certain American politician.) That makes it hard for me to imagine how she might ever truly be punished for her behavior.

As for the romance, I like the way it's slowly building, and that Ji-won is so focused on personal and professional redemption that she doesn't even have time to think about love. At the same time, you can see how Ji-hyuk is managing to slowly make her more aware of him as the real partner she deserves.

Every time I see Min Hwan / Su Min together in a scene I hear 'prepare for trouble, make it double, ... Jessie, James....'
PS I’m totally onboard for a Eun-ho - Hee-yeon hook-up. With an OTT food related meet cute to boot! And then they'd engineer some hilarious food related antics to assist our lead duo in dealing to our evil duo. Team Judo and Team Foodo to take down evil Team Rocket ... muhahaha

Even though I don't watch this, I continue to like the changes to the adaptation and @solstices ' interpretation of what's happening.

Min Hwan really is an example of just the worst and oh, how satisfying it will be once he officially gets together with Su Min. Truly, I can't think of a pair that deserves each other more.

Aww, BTS being the reason they discovered the time travel haha

It's interesting with the trailers/promos, I thought Park Min Young's looks were really distracting but she seems to look good in the show proper.

@solstices, thanks for the recap !
The manager and the guy on the plane were testing my tolerance.
Thanks to BTS singles release dates, our couple both know they are on the 2nd time around.
I kind of like the chef guy , hopefully there isn’t any Eternal Live Triangle.
Will continue to tune in.

The BTS slip-up was the highlight of these episodes for me. One of the things that frustrated me slightly about both Twinkling Watermelon and Perfect Marriage Revenge were the lack of these moments, or rather, the lack of acknowledgement of these moments. Pop culture changes rapidly and so do our frames of reference to such things. I can somewhat justify PMR as Yi-joo being too sheltered and traumatized to know about the wider cultural world, but in what world would our two musically-inclined, very Gen Z time-travellers in Twinkling Watermelon blend in seamlessly into the 1990s? It would be nigh-on impossible. I know, for myself, that I'd pay meticulous attention to the smallest period-accurate details - only to immediately get busted because of some very odd reference to distinctly 2020s things (probably a SEVENTEEN tune instead of BTS lmao).

The use of BTS's discography to execute the big reveal was really creative. Props to the writing team for pulling that, I had a whale of a time watching the scene unfold!!!

This moment of slight hesistation when Ji Hyuk thought if he need to sign up the preposition tell everything about it. NGL I am huge fan of green flag MLs and I never find them boring. The show did very well to fleshbout Ji Hyuk in 5-6th eps. His support for Ji Won is everything.
Ji Won steps up her game and nailed it. She calculated this narcissist bastard so well! Kudos for her.

Everyone's already said everything I wanted to say! Love DB comments for the diverse thoughts and perspectives. <3

My only other thought is: I didn't really like Na In-woo in the first few episodes, but he's such a great guy in these episodes that I can't help but like Ji-hyuk SO MUCH now. I'm shallow so maybe the transformation helped? But I also think Ji-hyuk really showed in these episodes how great a guy he is + Na In-woo seems freer and less bland now as he settles into the role.

The actor portraying PMY's boyfriend/husband is doing a stellar job here. He really stands out amongst the cast with his acting.

i am in the middle of the 2nd episode and i have to mention that i'm currently listening to audiobooks by Toshikazu Kawaguchi -- a series set at a coffee shop wherein one can go back in time, BUT...

the outcome will not change...

i didn't expect to want to watch this drama, but now i think i might be hooked. giving it 9 stars to begin with. let's see how we end up...

Thanks for the recap! I am still enjoying this one a lot. It's like the first shows I saw with Park Min-young, where I can believe she is an older or younger version of the same character, or I can believe in her emotions, especially surprise. This is coming after at least two shows where I did not believe her when she tried to do those feats of acting. Who knows what is going better here, but it's way more fun.

It cracks me up how many Korean stories involve someone showing how kind they are by taking care of stray cats!

during the flashback scene in ep 5 where they get drunk and fall asleep in the park, does anybody know the song playing in the background?? i have tried to shazam it but can't find the song at all! PLEASE I AM BEGGING

On Twitter, someone wrote than Ms Yang was “in” on Ji-won’s plan regarding tanking the proposal. I didn’t see that at all. Obviously, she wouldn’t understand why Ji-won was doing it and she liked the idea when Ji-won proposed it. Second, she has a child to raise and while all this may seem wrong, she probably does need that promotion. Finally, she is being accepting of Soo-min because Mrs Yang is a nice woman!

I think the writers are using her as an example of what Ji-won could have been like in her first life.

Anyway - did I miss something? Or is this in the source material but not stated in the drama?

I love learning about our little time traveling heroine and her not so little time traveling love interest

Boarding the Eun Ho - Hee Yeon ship.
Love how our lead is finally asserting herself. Wish she was more open to receiving help from good males, I understand her husband was abusive, but her friend was also abusive and she is not as weary of women.