Wonderful World: Episodes 5-6

by solstices

Wounded by a devastating secret, our heroine struggles to reconcile the harsh reality with the lies she’d been living. Her resilience may allow her to regain her bearings, but the pursuit of the truth comes at a price — and she’s not the only one with skeletons in her closet.

 
EPISODES 5-6

Confronted with her husband’s infidelity before her very eyes, Soo-hyun sends Soo-ho an ominous text that she knows who he’s with, but she doesn’t elaborate further. We see that no hanky-panky seems to have occurred, but Soo-hyun remains unaware of what exactly went on behind those closed doors.

That night, Soo-hyun immediately pays Hye-geum a visit — and I love that she first checks to make sure that Hye-geum’s son is asleep — to confront her about the affair. Hye-geum admits that she’d given in to impulse, wanting to comfort Soo-ho in his grief, and that it’d only happened once during Soo-hyun and Soo-ho’s separation. The hotel meeting was only to confirm that she wasn’t the photo sender, Hye-geum claims, but Soo-hyun remains adamant that she never wants to see her again.

A distraught Soo-hyun spends the night at her mother’s house, where she resolutely rips up Mom’s copy of the affair photo. Still, she can’t get it off her mind. When she pieces it back together, she notices printed text on the back that hadn’t been on the first copy. It’s a website url that leads to a news article about a hit-and-run, and she contacts the reporter, who gives her the name of the accident victim.

With help from Soo-jin’s tracing of Min-hyuk’s criminal records, Seon-yul finds the elusive boy at an illegal gambling den. A timely police crackdown gets Min-hyuk away from the owner’s fisticuffs, but in the process of escaping, Min-hyuk gets impaled by a rusty nail. It goes right through his abdomen, and Seon-yul winds up driving him to the hospital.

That hospital is the exact one Soo-hyun has tracked the accident victim to, and when she enters the ward, she’s distraught to recognize her as the wife of the driver that killed Geon-woo. Before she can recover from her shock, she’s greeted with an unexpected visitor — Seon-yul. Then the patient suddenly flatlines, and Seon-yul’s anguished panic reveals far more than he intends to let on.

Elsewhere, Soo-ho apologizes fervently to Mom, tears of guilt and regret spilling from his eyes. He should have been the one behind the wheel and the one who went to prison, not Soo-hyun. Yet, when faced with nothing but an empty house, the grief and loneliness had made him lose his mind. Overhearing Soo-ho’s heartfelt spiel from just around the corner, Soo-hyun finally comes to a decision.

The next day, she returns to her stunned spouse. Having pulled herself together, Soo-hyun candidly admits that what hurt her most hadn’t been the affair itself, but Soo-ho’s deceit. She won’t be able to erase this betrayal easily, but she’s decided that she wants to try moving past it. Touched, and deeply grateful, Soo-ho welcomes her back home.

As for our other protagonist, there isn’t a moment’s respite for him. Thugs have tracked down the debt-ridden Min-hyuk, Seon-yul bursts into the hospital ward just in time to stop them from forging a physical rights waiver form with the unconscious Min-hyuk’s thumbprint. Needless to say, a fight ensues, and once again, Soo-hyun witnesses it. When she concernedly chastises him to take better care of himself, Seon-yul snaps that she ought to mind her own business. “What right do you have to give me advice?” Seon-yul snarls. “You’re a murderer.”

The next day, Soo-hyun visits him at the junkyard with a container of homemade kimchi as an apology. Having had some time to cool off, Seon-yul reciprocates, expressing remorse for his harsh words. When Soo-hyun asks about his distraught reaction to the accident victim, he explains that the patient’s son had also been in the hospital that day, and he hadn’t wanted to let a kindred spirit lose his mother too.

Seon-yul may not be particularly eloquent or expressive, but his sincerity shows in his actions; before Soo-hyun can leave, he offers to inflate her limp car tire. Later, as Soo-hyun gazes at the starry sky, Seon-yul recounts the story of the Pisces constellation’s mother and son. Wistfully musing that she’d like to reunite with her son too, Soo-hyun reiterates that she’s made a commitment to watch over Seon-yul, and that she’s not going anywhere.

The next day, Soo-ho takes Soo-hyun out for a dinner date at a teppanyaki restaurant, where the open flames stir a memory from the junkyard. All this while, she’d believed that Seon-yul was the survivor of the house fire Hyung-ja had caused, but she hadn’t seen a single burn scar on Seon-yul’s body. In the hospital, we see Seon-yul visit the accident victim again, and as he takes her hand with a conflicted expression, he calls her “Mom.”

All the hints have finally lined up, and the truth of Seon-yul’s parentage is out. When Min-hyuk was brought to the A&E, Seon-yul’s knowledge of medical terminology seemed to hint at an educated past that his current blue-collar lifestyle belies. It makes more sense for him to be the dead driver’s son, with the resources of a congressman at his disposal to sustain him through medical school. That would also explain why Soo-ho’s hospital resident little brother finds Seon-yul oddly familiar.

Now that an unseen hand has guided Soo-hyun to the driver’s wife, she’ll have to confront the ugly consequences of her actions. Her anger had been justified, but it’s wrought more pain in its wake, and it hasn’t brought her even a modicum of vindication or comfort. She may have punished the perpetrator, but she’s failed to account for the collateral damage.

There are still several questions left unanswered, such as Seon-yul’s relation to Min-hyuk. Seon-yul clearly knows more than he lets on, but how far back does his plan stretch? As for Min-hyuk, if he’s truly the arson orphan, why does he harbor such a deep grudge against Soo-hyun? His surname seems to suggest he may have been adopted by the driver, but if so, why was he so estranged that Seon-yul had difficulty searching for him?

The show seems to be drawing out this theme of things not being what they seem under the facade, especially with how Soo-ho and Hye-geum’s story feels a little too pat. Soo-hyun’s also feeling the pressure to keep up appearances, especially from her passive-aggressive mother-in-law, which makes me lament the rift between her and Seon-yul. Their bond is one of an innate understanding and deep empathy, about how their emotional scars overshadow the pain of their physical injuries, and it highlights the irony of her being the cause behind his pain.

 
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