The premise of this series is similar to the recently finished HIDE wherein the FL suddenly realizes that her family is corrupt, secretive and cruel. No Yeong-Won (Kim Hee-Seon) is taken in by the rich Choi family after her father’s suicide (caused by a false scandal that her FIL was a part.) She is taken into the Choi family as a teen and just like in HIDE, she is groomed to become the smart, respected and pillar of the family by marrying Choi’s son, Jae-Jin (Kim Nam-Hee). She becomes a successful psychologist and he becomes a successful doctor (who appears to struggle with blood/surgeries). He also appears to pattern is life after his dad in the affair department, cue colleague Dr. Oh. Her mother-in-law Hong Sa-Gang (Lee Hye-Young). is a writer of mystery books. She is a dark character bitter about her husband’s lifelong affairs and illusion of family bliss. When he is killed by a fortunate land slide, she becomes happy and giddy like a teenager.

But in the aftermath, No finds proof that her father was innocent of the alleged crimes that took his life. It sets up as a band of characters plotting No’s mental and physical breakdown as new patient, Lee Se-Ra (Yeon Woo), appears to be a home wrecker mistress. (This is a role that has typecast Yeon Woo). After her first session, No receives a dead bird and disturbing note about her family which suddenly puts her in path of doubt, anxiety and suspicion.

Again, current mystery shows seem to pack a ton of information in the first episode to overwhelm the viewer. Confusion of the FL is one thing; confusion of the viewer is another. As with this genre blueprint, everyone is a suspect with FL’s father death the trigger point for revenge.

Episode 2 puts Se-Ra as the point person on the destruction of the Choi family with the second target Jae-Jin who himself is possibly having an affair with Dr. Oh, Se-Ra or BF Tae-Oh. But No suspects her MIL for FIL death especially after their talk about keeping family secrets secret. Jae-Jin’s lies about a conference puts No into full investigation mode (as well as her MIL who calls upon her old cook friend who appears to have CIA style skills.) The cliffhanger around the diorama house that puts both No and MIL in same crime scene was more of a merging of investigative teams than actual suspicion in my mind. I suspect MIL is also getting direct threats to the family that she wants to stop.

Is Se-Ra the illegitimate daughter of late FIL who wants an inheritance? Is she the scorned lover of Jae-Jin seeking revenge (or take the place of No in family picture?) Is she a child of a patient that No failed to treat or died of suicide? Or is somehow related to Dr. Oh (as younger sister) who wants to erase her sister in order to gain her life? Or is she in partnership with No's greedy brother to wipe out the Choi family to gain the Choi fortune? Many questions with a lot of open answers.

In episode 3, we get some more motivation insight but it is still clouded in secrets and manipulation. MIL refuses to report Dr. Oh’s injury at the vacation home because she is apparently under the delusion of protecting her “innocent” son who is having an affair. Apparently Oh has had a crush Dr. Choi since childhood as a family sponsored orphan. No is upset with the callousness of MIL but she goes along with it by taking Oh to MIL’s friend’s hospital. MIL then instills layers of a cover-up which leads to attempted comedy of getting “caught” in Oh’s apartment by Oh’s Barney Fife constable BF. Park continues to be MIL’s black knight cleaner. But things turn sour at the end of Episode 3 when the PI hired by FIL comes to bear with No’s husband’s affair proof with the Whistling Witch, Se-Na, who allegedly killed three men for insurance money. Somehow, I don’t really trust the narrative of the PI (he could be working with Se-Na.) What is more disturbing is creepy Tae-O pushing himself into Do-Hyun’s life choices.

It now gets us to the point where MIL and No need to cooperate to save everyone’s reputation. I also start to question the show’s continuity since No said she was booked for months, but now she has taken several days off from her patients. Likewise, her husband’s successful practice cannot just shut it doors on a whim with patients already booked. And Jae-Jin running away like he is guilty as hell makes him a childish coward.

In episode 4, MIL and No first manipulate others to get information on missing Jae Jin. Park’s nephew’s admission of secret video suspect was odd filler. Nosebleed cop becomes useful in reviewing a mountain of CCTV. MIL pieces some nostalgia of her son’s childhood to get them confirmed in the right direction. MIL admits she knew about the affair with Se-Na but she paid her off and thought it was over. There is a question in her mind that the affair has lasted 18 months so maybe it is not about the insurance money (which requires 2 year suicide exemption to expire). They join forces to head south and assemble their rag-tag team of Park and No’s useless brother. They ferry to an island where MIL learns she does not know her picky eating gourmet son is a mukbang pig. If the writer is telling us Jae Jin’s family really does not know him, well, that is obvious. It has been almost a week since he abandoned his family and medical practice. Likewise, No is about to do the same by canceling all her appointments to chase after her husband. Word of a suicide in the harbor has the family rush to the dock. The cliffhanger ending to shock us was when the retrieved rental car’s door opens and water and a black shape falls to the ground (it is an editing trick to make your mind fill-in an image of a body). There was an earlier moment that it appeared Jae Jin and Se-Na drove past them when they arrived at the island . . . but was that a mirage or wishful thinking? Perhaps, Jae Jin and Se-Na are truly running away from their lives and family. They may not be on the island anymore. The wild goose chase continues next week.

In episode 5, we see flashbacks of No and her future husband, the prank engagement event, and their cute romantic moments. Again, the theme is not knowing a person’s real secrets. No finds out that her husband was an OR wreck, unable to cope with surgeries. Oh covered for him. No finds out that her husband drained their investment account to run away with Se-Na before faking his suicide. No receives a video from Se-Na confirming that her husband will finally be happy by faking his death. She comes to terms with his decision: he is now dead to her which makes her doting MIL mad. MIL cleverly defuses the media but the damage to No’s practice is large. MIL will continue the investigation, but it is clear that Se-Na has the perfect set up for killing off Choi - - he faked his death and disappeared so no one will be looking for his corpse. There was also a foreboding scene where son Do-Hyun races up to talk to student So-Yi who turns back to No in a sinister expression like Se-Na. Yikes, how many people are Se-Na’s crew to take down the Choi family?

Episode 6 fills in the portrait of Se-Na’s life. It is hard to take everything she says as truth because it appears she fixate on putting herself in the place of others. We have the story of a neglected second child with violent, narcissistic tendencies. She claims her entire family died when she was young. Her fixation on the idea of a perfect family has drawn her into No’s family. There was the investigation of the death of one of her husbands (by camp fire) and her reason was that he ate her birthday cake without her blowing out the candle.

She is a quick witted liar who injured Oh to say to Choi that Oh was stalking and trying to kill her. And he dumbly believed her. Se-Na easily seduced Choi because of his own insecurities and suffocation by his family’s demands. No and MIL are only partially working together which is a bad thing. No has only focus on her son, who like his dad, is hiding secrets. The presence of Tutor Moon in son’s after school life (now including his girl crush) is screaming red flag for Do-Hyun’s future safety. When Moon is entering the family home as his own, it is creepy. Just as creepy as Oh trying on No’s clothes. It appears both those secondary characters want to take over the life of the Choi family. MIL used Oh to cover for her son’s fear-of-blood phobia to make him a successful doctor, but when Oh suggests divorce, MIL dismisses her from the clinic and her life. Add Oh as another scorned person to the suspect list.

When Se-Na baptizes Choi in the swimming pool, was it an attempt to kills disrupted by other pool guests or a prank to convince Choi that he can break away from his family? But then again, winding up back at the home late at night to burn family photos and dance around the fire with a goblin shadow, Se-Na has perfectly set up Choi for his own downfall as No suddenly drives at Choi with a manslaughter intent. Bingo! Se-Na gets the money and Choi is killed by his jealous wife . . . but how good is the PPL car brakes?

Ok. I’m watching this. But I am on episode four. Squinting as I write this so I don’t accidentally see any spoilers.

I started this drama to see the beautiful and talented Jeong Geon Ju. Oh and I guess that description works for Kim Hee Seon as well.

The first two episodes seemed largely like déjà vu all over again. (Yeon-oo, girlfriend, how many times will you play this exact same role? It’s confusing me.)

However, Episode 3 was genuinely funny. And when kdrama-land’s perpetual villain Jung Woong In stepped out of the shadows in a deer-stalker hat, well, my cat does not appreciate squeals of laughter and vacated the couch. I hardly noticed as everything from that moment on was hilarious and delightful.

Now that I have committed to this, I will be paying far more attention to our leads fabulous wardrobes. Looking forward to it.

While the show did not completely lose its playfulness, episodes 5-6 were not as funny as 3-4. About as serious a midsomer mystery. 

My reason for being (here, in this drama hangout) got a smidgen more screen time. Deliciously mysterious, our Geon Ju. After shave stronger than ever.

I am getting the sense that we may have an unreliable narrator. However, I am not one that likes to guess where a story is going. Just not my particular bag.

So far this is one of Chansung's more natural performances. He is always so engaging and personable in 2pm interviews. I feel like this has yet to be utilised in his acting roles. 7th grade civil servant was the closest but it was such a forgettable drama.

I get grumpy when the powers that be seem to feel that their visually blessed actors require face filters, but it is particularly galling when it is used on actresses hardly 30.  Really? Really? It's weird on instagram, weirder here.

And darling Ms Hong, I would also be unable to sleep in that slippery shiny red toga attire.  I haven't the energy to comment on all the clothes but that little number demanded attention.

Episode 7: Generational hatred for one’s family is now the tornado aftermath in the main characters lives. Se-Na is a master manipulator who even got Hong family employee Yo Sub to plant video cameras in the home. And she probably is manipulating Tutor Tae-Oh to plant bad idea seeds into No’s mind and to set up Do-Hyun for a fall. Jae-Jin is still under the delusion that he has to bury his family in their own shame and immorality in order to set himself free. He sets out a feast of his favorite foods but his appetite is to destroy his loved ones. Afterward, he thinks he is free of his “fake life” as he dashes to the airport to leave to Hawaii with Se-Na but she is a no-show. He may finally realize that he is a fool with no place to go. He may get so confused and depressed that he may have dark thoughts.

Se-Na’s back story is as terrifying as her game with the Hong family. Her family burned to death in a house fire after she displayed psychopathic behavior such as killing a cat. She was adopted in Norway (which may mean her new family also perished in a plane crash). She returns to Korea with the apparent single goal of destroying No, who may have been her doctor after her family perished in the fire. Was it some advice on what “family” meant that got twisted in child Se-Na’s head? When she goes to an orphanage to bring presents to the children, she gives 7-year old May, who is waiting for her mother to return, a life goal to seek revenge on her parents who abandoned her. It is like she spent her life gathering a gang of disgruntled, vulnerable people to join her twisted cause of punishing people that hurt you. But the end of episode 7, the table may be turning as No is staring back with a Cheshire cat smile at Se-Na’s secret camera. Game on.

Episode 8 really starts the chess pieces flying off the board. But as “smart” as No and MIL think they are, they let their emotions override objective holes in the story. For a mystery writer, MIL clearly misses the means, motive and opportunity of So Yi’s family to “fake” a pregnancy so So Yi can study overseas with her “real” boyfriend, not Do-Hyun. Do-Hyun is as weak and malleable as his father. It was clear in my mind that So Yi was an easy recruit for Se-Na’s game. Throughout So Yi was cold to Do-Hyun. When she met No, it was with the air of a rehearsed business deal.

But the wild card outside the main game is Dr. Oh. Her obsession and possessiveness of Dr. Choi is being ramped up by Tae-Oh. Her interaction with Choi at the clinic was creepy. MIL pushes her off as untrustworthy but not a threat. Another tactical error by MIL. Oh is the wild card because she wants to replace No in Dr.. Choi’s life which means eliminating No from the picture.

No finding the retired detective uncovers the big secret: Se-Na’s abnormal obsession of her sister by eliminating the things that upset hurt led to their parents death and her sister’s disappearance. The police never corrected the story that her sister died in the fire. The video of No interviewing Se-Na’s sister may have been from her past show archive, or a fake video to get Se-Na to the studio to re-connect with her sister. But No tells her that it was all a lie: her sister was dead. Se-Na cannot accept it. But the line was crossed: is the bigger lie the truth?

Was No’s countermove merely to get Se-Na angry enough to attack her at the studio? The studio light did go on which shows at least one other person was present. The studio had plenty of cameras to film the encounter - - - evidence to lock up Se-Na for assault and battery. But that would not solve the problem as her minions are still messing with No’s family. And it still does not clearly answer the question why Se-Na wants to destroy No and her family.

We have 4 episodes to the finish line. The idea of MIL and No working together to solve the family’s problems out of mutual “maternal love” was quickly thrown out the window. Their stubborn opinions and decades of butting heads can not be overcome. MIL’s deep secret is tied to her own overprotective nature to her son. It seems the writer is making the point that a mother’s unconditional love for their child resides in a murky swamp of contradictions and moral quandaries that can be exploited, even by their loved ones.

@welh640 @margo I feel glad to have you watching the drama as well. Though I sometimes put off watching, I catch up before new episodes are out. I don't find the drama so predictable but let's say it isn't as twisty as it should have been and a multi layered antagonist and more layered leading ladies would have been better too. I don't root specifically for anyone but I hope the FL can make it through without losing her mind. The drama has potential but it doesn't seem to use it right.

I am very confused by Lee SeRa's hair. It's short, it's long, it's short, it's long, it's short, it's long.

Also why doesn't she have a criminal record? We've seen her assault a police officier in an interview room among other things. The focus of the show in 8&9 was trying to trap Lee SeRa. That then made me focus on the unbelieveability of her character, more like a series of fetishes than real traits so far. And, even worse, not funny.

I am now caught up to episode 10. Only Kim Hee-son's secret is left.

While all the other secrets seemed to tear the family apart, Do-hyun's secret seems to have brought the family together.

With the whole lets jail Lee SeRa debacle over, Episode 10 was a fun watch again. Although ep 8 & 9 were helpful in hammering home the similarities between SeRa and Ms Hong's behaviour. Lee Hye-Young is clearly the star of this show.

I had my doubts about the teen pregnancy (no verification) and the thought that it was So Yi’s plan was to go to the US to be with her boyfriend, Juno. The unexpected twist that it was Do-Hyun’s own sexuality (still a taboo subject in Korean society). It leads to an odd love teen triangle. There is also a dark overtone between Tutor Tae-Oh and Jae-Jin . . . which indicates Tae-Oh may be a predator or groomer. Another stinging revelation was Jae-Jin telling his mother about his birth secret.

I also said last week whether the bigger lie would become the Truth. No’s trap to get Se-Na to the TV set was all a lie (a fake sister interview) which led to an assault. But Barney Fife BF policeman could not obtain enough evidence to hold Se-Na after Driver An refuses to implicate Se-Na in illegal privacy violations. No and MIL again are too clever to be smart: they have not sought legal counsel to determine the type of evidence required to arrest or convict Se-Na. They continue to come across the crime scenes but cannot connect them to Se-Na. Se-Na has gaslit people to do her bidding; her manipulative and planning skills are superior to the family members. Even Dr. Oh and Jae-Jin won’t testify about the battery at the vacation house; and Se-Na quipped that Jae-Jin cannot be a trustworthy witness to the event because of his fear of blood psychosis. Episode 9 ends with No and Hong set up as prime suspects in murder which is bound to ruin the reputations of both of them. The writer and director have thrown so much dirty family laundry at us it is hard to see how any of them come out clean. Is this going to be a series where the villain actually wins?

Why are there so many spoiler ep summaries in this hangout? I am interested in watching it later and wanted to come to the hangout but the detailed spoilers have put me off. Could we please not do this in future hangouts?
Thank you.

Episode 10 clearly showed the writer’s talent for a well-planned out plot line. We had an idea on how creepy Tae-Oh was but we now have confirmation that he had been Se-Na’s Knight for a long time. She curated him for his revenge against Dr. No “breaking up” his family. He intentionally met Dr. Choi with his own (fake) blood phobia in order to infiltrate the family. Once inside, he was a spy and manipulator. Se-Na’s master plan took years of planning and execution. But it also had built-in discard events to eliminate her chess pieces. Tae-Oh sets up the police with Dr. Oh as a witness, and she was coached into putting more motive on Hong as murder suspect. Oh’s reward was getting Mother out of the house in order to take Dr,. Choi as her prize. My continuing pet peeve was that the family when it retained legal counsel did not use his resources to gather evidence on their own. Through a series of lucky breaks, No finds out that Tae-Oh is a fake, an older twin from a broken home who knew Se-Na from the orphanage. Once exposed, Tae-Oh is baited to return to the family home to be grilled by No. But it is Se-Na who will eliminate Tae-Oh by calling the cops to “find” the real killer’s murder weapon and incriminating documents in Tae-Oh’s apartment. (I did find one odd point, the police investigator at the vacation house crime scene clearly saw Se-Na at the property but did nothing about it. Is he the last piece on her chess board?)

Going into the finale, we have not seen much No and MIL working together to save their family. MIL is now in prison martyr mode. No thinks she has the upper hand but I think not.

Finale observations:

Episode 11 should have been the stand-alone finale as Episode 12 drifted into big brush strokes about what the series was trying to convey to its viewers.

Clearly, Yeonwoo as Se-Na was the star of the show. She showed the widest range of emotive evil in a villain in quite a long time. The trauma of childhood abandonment is real as well as transference of blame to others. Se-Na trapped her guilt in an obsessive mind game. She could give the camera a creepy stare then in an instant smile while moving her chess pieces around the plot line like a grandmaster. Despite her connections to people who wanted to help her, she had no one who could be considered traditional “family” to ground her feelings in socially acceptable reality.

Even Dr. Oh, who I felt could have become Se-Na’s raging surrogate in the finale, got the MIL hug that she was missing her entire life that magically transformed her back into a plastic surgeon with a doting boyfriend. No harm, no foul.

The writer tried to reconstruct the definition of “family” as the underlying motivation for the characters. Family is easily defined as a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household or a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage. It can also mean a person or people related to one and so to be treated with a special loyalty or intimacy.
A more modern twist is a “family” can be a group of people united in criminal activity. Se-Na was unaware she created her own “family” by manipulating An, Tae-Oh and even Jae Jin, to do her bidding with no questions asked (much like MIL to her family..) She never wanted to create one, but destroy other families by revealing their secrets. Though not logical, it was consistent throughout the series.

One of the figurative daggers in the show was that a person can be right but still be wrong. Dr. No’s advice may be clinically correct but wrong in how it plays out between troubled individuals. I did not find No’s prison counseling as repentant behavior but the reality of having to shut down her practice and her celebrity because of the avalanche public criticism of her family’s scandals.

The same is true with MIL announcing she would abdicate the head of the household thereby freeing everyone from her control. It was taken as a means of freeing every member to live their own lives without her interference. But in reality, it was a selfish move to hide away and write an apparent best seller about her family ordeals.

The cat-and-mouse game was well written. But it did get sloppy in the end, especially the quick resolution of Do-Hyun’s kidnapping. No and MIL were not as smart as they thought they were in dealing with Se-Na.

Episode 12 placed the family in lesser but independent roles with less contact and more alone time. Loneliness was the fuel for the rage in Se-Na, Tae Oh and Dr. Oh. Ironically, separation can be the means of keeping families together. Did the family...

From the beginning this drama reminded me of 1950s-60s Hitchcock, particularly his TV series - the violence more stylized than gorey, the who-do-you-trust storytelling, the flirtation with psychology and psychopaths, the fun with camerawork, the bit of vaudeville in the melodrama, and, of course, the glamorous and mysterious women!

None more embodied the Hitchcock aesthetic than our VL (villain lead) of the incomprehensible hair, tantalizing the male gaze with a mix of vulnerable baby girl and beguiling mastermind. Save Me, Obey Me. A witch dancing by her fire. A Marnie without the need for celibacy or Sean Connery. All she is looking for is family and love while casually rejecting and discarding both.

Providing the structure for the series is Dr. Noh, our earnest yet flawed Joseph Cotton type character.

But, ultimately the character and performance that owned this show nods more to Barbara Stanwyck than Hitchcock, and that was the crone of our coven: writer Hong played by the stunning Lee Hye-Young. A brilliant watch every frame. Original and delicious. Her No No No will stick with me even as the rest of the show gets mushy in my memory. Indeed I think a lot of it already has.

The drama was more a fun watch than a profound watch. It wears its themes lightly. The plot more a breezy kaftan than a corseted waist. Captivating but not tight. Inconsistencies in pacing were more pronounced in the last episodes, and, therefore, more memorable. An unfortunate bit of slip showing. Episode 7 remains a favourite for its flowing choreography so wonderfully coordinated with the needs of the story. Pretty and satisfying.

The director loved his actors here, and provided each with sparkling moments. Actors, doing their thing, so fun. And what a hoot to see Jung Woong-In outside his normal villain role. Bravo!

I can see why they changed the name of this drama from Gaslighting to Our House. It is less about who’s zooming who (indeed, the density of our seemingly brilliant characters can be eye rolling, nay, even remote throwing at times) but about what we accept and what we reject, what we do with the evils in our own house.