Queen of Divorce: Episodes 7-8

by Unit

Between dealing with a cult leader and putting up amateurish acting performances, our divorce team has their hands full this week. Our hero gets a break in his side investigation — although it eventually goes awry. And we get a twist in one of the ongoing murder cases.

 
EPISODES 7-8

We resume with last week’s kiss — which wasn’t an actual kiss, as it turns out. But it’s not the action, or in this case, the inaction that counts, it’s the intent behind it. Sara justifies herself with the fact that Ki-joon used her first, and she sticks to that conclusion despite his insistence that he didn’t come to Solution to be in proximity with Yool-seong.

The rest of the team notices the friction between Sara and Ki-joon — which is made worse when she makes him step down from a case — and Hee-jin updates Yool-seong. This is welcome news to Yool-seong, but his elation doesn’t last for long because Sara and Ki-joon eventually patch up their relationship, and agree to “use each other” to send Yool-seong to prison. Lol. There’s nothing like having a common enemy to unite two conflicting parties.

Since Yool-seong is packing enemies faster than his political career can take off, it’s no surprise that Solution’s next client is one of his antis: KIM YOUNG-AH — the party representative who stood against his nomination as assemblyman. Young-ah is also against the Chayul law school project, and Yool-seong now seeks to oust her from the party.

As for her private life, Young-ah’s husband asks for a divorce based on spiritual instructions from his pastor — who is actually a cult leader — but she doesn’t want to divorce him because she loves her step-children and she can’t leave them behind. You see, she didn’t legally adopt the children after marrying their father, and it’ll be difficult to get custody if the divorce pushes through.

Once again, Hee-jin informs Yool-seong about Young-ah’s case, and Yool-seong swings into action. He teams up with Pastor Psychic Power, and they leak footage where the pastor talks about being Young-ah’s mentor and consulting with her on elections. Young-ah’s public image takes a hit for associating with a cult, and she can deny it all she wants, but it’s true that her husband is deep in the cult. The only solution to redeem her image is to get her husband out of the cult.

Jang-mi and Ki-joon go undercover into the cult and manage to gather evidence of fake miracles before they’re busted by some of the cult workers for being scammers. How ironic! Unfortunately, Young-ah’s husband doesn’t believe in the evidence — and even worse, he throws out his sick son’s medication because it is “hindering the pastor’s prayers.” This is Solution’s last straw, and they switch from trying to stop the divorce to pushing for it. Thankfully, Young-ah now has a strong case for child custody since preventing minors from getting treated due to religious beliefs is child abuse.

Pastor Psychic Power’s plan to elevate his profile by associating himself with a political leader backfires spectacularly, as his “church” comes under fire for being a cult. To get the heat off his back, the pastor announces that Young-ah is not a member of his church, and that Yool-seong is using him to get back at her. Hehe. Young-ah also announces her divorce from her cult-believer husband, and the public tides turn in her favor.

But if the pastor thinks he can walk away scot-free because his testimony helped Young-ah, he is sorely mistaken. To properly wrap up the case, Solution exposes him as a fraud to his members. But while some of his flock withdraw their membership, Young-ah’s stunned husband still remains in the cult. Sigh. You really can’t save everyone.

Back to Ki-joon’s investigation into Professor Seo, he obtains Seo’s phone from his wife, and it turns out that Yool-seong was the last person the professor spoke with before his suicide attempt. From the call recording, Ki-joon and Sara learn that Seo requested the return of his million dollar investment into the Chayul law school project. When Yool-seong didn’t bulge, a panicked Seo threatened to expose the shady dealings of the five-membered committee to the prosecution, and in return, Yool-seong sent him a blackmail video. We don’t see the video, but whatever it was frightened the professor enough to jump off the building.

Ki-joon gives the recording to a prosecutor colleague as evidence that Yool-seong was involved in Seo’s attempted suicide. Unfortunately, Ki-joon’s colleague has a gambling problem, and Chayul has him in their pockets. Chayul gets rid of the evidence, and Ki-joon’s place is raided for spare copies. Ki-joon tries to warn Sara that she’s the next target, but it wouldn’t be a K-drama if he succeeded in reaching her on the phone. He heads to Sara’s place, but unluckily walks in on the raid, and his concern is rewarded with a bottle smashed over his head. Ouch! Ki-joon will never stop throwing himself into harm’s way for Sara’s sake, will he? Thankfully, Sara arrives home in time to rush him to the hospital and nurse him back to health.

In the midst of this, Chairwoman Cha finds out that Sara is in contact with her son’s nanny, and she makes good on her threat to teach Sara a lesson for messing with Yool-seong. Cha tells her grandson that his mom abandoned him to be with another man — and she makes sure that Sara watches this over a video call. How heartless! Fortunately, the Yool-seong Ex-wives Association is still going strong, and Ji-in comes through with a direct line for Sara to communicate with — and clear her name to — her son. Phew!

With Young-ah’s case and now with Sara’s son, the drama raises the question on what family is all about. Chairwoman Cha and Yool-seong have no problem lying to an innocent child — their own flesh and blood — and using him as a bargaining chip against his mother. Young-ah, on the other hand, fought to be with her step-children — to the point of almost losing her political career. As Ki-joon notes, a family is not just about blood ties, it is something you can create even if you’re not born into it. And this familial sentiment plays into his relationship with Sara.

Ki-joon has been upfront about wanting to get back together with her, but Sara has been having cold feet — even more so this week with Cha’s lie that she abandoned her son for another man. But Ki-joon is nothing if not patient. He has waited nine years, and he can wait longer for her to sort out her thoughts and feelings. You just know he’ll be right there to welcome her — and her son — with open arms when she eventually returns to him.

Ki-joon and Sara request a reinvestigation into Yool-seong’s mistress’s death, but the police are reluctant to reopen the case. They try to pressure the police using the media, but Yool-seong threatens to sue for defamation if they follow through with the media play. To prove his innocence, Yool-seong shows them a chain of text messages he received from his secretary the night the mistress jumped out of the taxi.

From the tone of the messages, Yool-seong and his secretary clearly believe that the mistress committed suicide — which is impossible if they were actually behind her death. Ki-joon is of the opinion that the texts are a false alibi, but Sara believes that Yool-seong is telling the truth. Call it an ex-wife’s intuition if you will. So who ordered the mistress’s death? Because it sure as hell wasn’t a suicide.

Anyway, with the Chayul law school project on the line, Yool-seong desperately needs to be in Young-ah’s good books now that her standing in the party is stronger than ever. He apologizes for his role in the Pastor Psychic Power saga, and while I know the apology is not genuine, it’s a tad satisfying to see him on his knees. He might be arrogant, but at least he knows how to swallow his pride to get what he wants — which is quite shameless when you think about it.

Yool-seong asks for a chance to assist in Young-ah’s campaign, but Young-ah already offered Sara the chairperson position on her campaign team and there’s no way in hell that Sara would work with her ex-husband. But giving up is not in Yool-seong’s vocabulary, so he comes up with a “brilliant idea” to counter his mother’s arrangements for his wife #3 position. Yes, Chairwoman Cha really sourced for yet another daughter-in-law. You’d think a wife is an iPhone that needs to be upgraded to the newest new model or something. But why get a new wife when Yool-seong can always use his son as bait to get back together with his ex-wife? Tsk.

Yool-seong must be high on some expired bananas if he really thinks his “we are a family” plan will work on Sara. No, really, I need him to locate where shame is being sold, so he can place a wholesale order. Has he forgotten that he instigated her mom’s death? Or will the show pull a twist on that case too? I honestly don’t see why we need a third party involvement in the mistress’s case — or in any of the ongoing cases — this late in the show. I think it would be more satisfying to pin all the crimes on Yool-seong and bring him to justice at once instead of using the remaining two weeks to chase after ghosts. But then, what do I know?

 
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