The physical violence in ep 30 just sickened me. This has to stop. How is this appropriate viewing in a family context? I dreaded its possibility and when it sadly eventuated, just felt disgusted. Enough is enough.

Episodes 29 and 30 were frankly painful. Our villains are completely unchanged- and Jin-dan is about to throw everything away- but that will happen sometime in the next few episodes.

But mostly these episodes were about the reveal of Pil-seung's birth secret, which was handled with so much violence that it overshadowed the actual fact in question. I strongly disliked these episodes for that reason- anger certainly made dramatic sense but what about also being grownups? It seemed like the only mature conversation about this was the one between Mari and her mom by the river.

Has anybody noticed that Mari's wardrobe has changed? Also, a reduction of scenes with her in pigtails?

Where is Do-jun? I believe that the only time I saw him was for one family meal.

I am not enjoying how clueless and helpless they are making Ji Yeong after the DoRa revelation. I understand that she will be very confused, and not know who to trust, but they seem to have also made her loose a large portion of her brain cells, spunkiness and strength of character. They have turned her into an unappealing apologising doormat. Thumbs down. We've had enough of those kinds of FLs, please move away from this (hopefully very) temporary development asap. I mean, she could easily find out with a click of the mouse that DoRa was engaged to Jin Dan and Ji Yeong knows what kind of man Jin Dan is even without her memories. So why the hell would she not question her mum's version of the story? Even her brothers are now saying that her mum made DoRa miserable. Ji Yeong also knew what kind of horrible person CEO Baek is before the DoRa revelation. Shouldn't she be asking questions? Why have they suddenly made her so passive and clueless? I am hoping for a swift resolution! Please!

30: Both moms meeting again and again was hard to watch. Just stay apart and calm down people!

I’m hoping with the speed this drama is hitting plot points that the hair pulling doesn’t plight too many more episodes.🤞

I’m also hoping one of Do Ra/Ji Yeong’s brothers takes her aside and has a talk about her life before. At the moment she’s only got the memories of how her Grandmother cares for her and probably expects her Mum to be as warm.
And Wow! Jin Dan is really in denial about his actions towards Do Ra! Will his actions ever come to light?

We spent half of episode 31 with more wallowing in pain and anger (but not hair pulling) until Mari, always the moral compass of the show, finally showed up to ask Pilseung’s mom to forgive his birth mom and old friend. She was treated so shabbily that she leaves in tears and – unable to rise to her feet we finally see Do-jun who is there to literally pick her up and princess carry her to the car (Foreshadowing maybe?).

For the first time we actually saw Pilseung’s grandmother caring for someone- and it was Ma-ri. She even helps her family accept Ma-ri as Pilseung’s sister.

That must have been the most perfunctory Meeting of the Families ever. Jindan’s fiancé and her family cannot have been on the screen for more than a minute.

And, I am a broken record on this but I continue to miss Pilseung’s curly hair style. That was a loss which I can’t forget as it somehow humanised the character from the get go, softened the actor’s stark features and endeared him to me. Pity it got nixed.

Oof, and that new tenant. Who could that be? I have an idea but I hope they won’t go there.
Aaaand, like clockwork, the loan sharks are back. Groan. We can all see where this is going to go and it is boring as all get out but also horrible as the deal with the devil in order to pay the loan+interest will usher in another unpleasant viewing experience but hopefully for the last time in this disappointing weekender. Btw, I wonder how loan sharks really dress in SK as these outfits are too ludicrous to be believed.

Wish I could join in the conversation, but Ep 31 is still not out on Viki yet where live.

Did anyone else notice the woman in the pic in the wallet? There might be yet another birth secret!!

I, and many others, really hate idiotic separations, noble or not. Episode 32 commence with the stupidest one ever committed in a Kdrama: Rather than confess to her husband that Pil-seung is her son Mari’s mom just tells her husband that she is divorcing him- with absolutely no explanation at all. And, sure enough, it is Ma-ri who confronts her about how selfish her decision is (our moral compass is still pointing True North) and confronts her with the basic facts. Which Ma-ri follows with action that drives the truth of what she said home.

Question: When did Mari acquire that Little Black Dress for her trip to the nightclub? At least it was appropriate attire for the occasion.

Do-jun was upset with her for not telling him about leaving home and they had a very significant conversation in the parking garage in which she promises to turn to him first when she is scared and devastated. Bit by bit their relationship continues to grow- which is imperative if they are going to be able to help our ML and FL.

Loan sharks again- and you just know how Do-ra’s mom will handle this. I am not looking forward to a repeat of her past follies.

I have suspicions as to the identity of the new tenant at Pilseung’s house but will wait and see more because I could be way off base.

I have been catching up with Beauty and after ep.30 I'm so frustrated that I'm not sure I will continue (and reading your comments from latest episodes don't encourage me either). I feel like we are back to square one... and I can't stand all that abuse again.
First horrible Pilseung's Pseudo Grandmother meddling whenever she could.... then Terrible Selfish Predator Mom using Dora whenever she can again!!, showing absolutely no remorse... and Oppa, you disappointed me hugely, I had thought you were on a different path now. Also, where is the Jiyeong who could defend herself well and would never ever go to a club?!
We also got that painful reveal of the birth secret and all that physical drama... this all is NOT why I watch weekenders. I want back some cuteness and proper stories of various couples (we are so often stagnant there). At this stage I may even prefer watching Hyoshim cooking curry... and Teamin brooding, in a suit, of course 😊.

I found Ep31-32 much better than last weekend. Country halmeoni turned up to give Pil Seung (and Do Ra) some time off (ironically, she is taking up time, but in doing so is giving him much needed time off his problems!). Isn't it interesting that the two characters who are kind, honest and really see (the important) things as they are are Ma Ri and country Halmeoni?

Do Jun! Hello! Yes, use those strong biceps.

There were some good scenes between Ma Ri, Pil Seung and their bio mum and watching how each of them deal with the reveal and fallout. It was also good to see that interfering halmeoni turns out to genuinely care for Ma Ri, even if she remains interfering and annoying. The purpose of the character is obviously to reveal all the secrets. Pil Seung's bio mum continues to wreck havoc by making wrong decisions again, which are only hurting her kind and loving husband and totally innocent Ma Ri.

Although it is looking like everything will go around in a circle again regarding Do Ra, I think (hope) it will be different this time around because of country halmeoni and Do Jun's presence (and also a somewhat reformed Do Shik). Ji Yeong is also now beginning to see for herself that Pil Seung is genuinely good man (has she fallen for him 5 times now? As a kid, before she realised he is Dae Chung, after she realises, after she became Ji Yeong and now seeing how kind and caring he is).

One three-day trip to Paris, and you're willing overthrow deep-seated tradition and make friends with just about anyone!!!! 😂

I felt that episodes 31-32 were the most "weekender-y" yet. It's easy to skip the scenes that you want to skip and it's fun when someone comes in and just says a fact that needs to be said at that moment.

Also, I'm growing very fond of Do-sik with his game attitude towards Country Granny...but Myeong-dong is starting to respect her own mother's wily nature (how?? 어떻게?) so I hope she either snaps out of it or Do-sik finds someone nicer.

Mija is incontrovertibly immoral and loathsome. They should just kill her off and release her poor children from the burden and stigma of her existence. She has blighted their lives. This character is irredeemable. They could and should have had a much more nuanced character who was capable of self-awareness and contrition but no. Instead, this is probably grist to the mill of korean misogynists who accuse women of causing male suicides by virtue of existing and surviving, and who must see these weekenders as factual and evidence based given their ignorance and hatred of women.

Hello Everyone! I'm almost caught up again.
to be honest, I struggled with Do-Ra's mum just being So Awful to her in the first 16 episodes. It was a struggle to get through them, and such a relief to have her as JYhappily trying to make her way in the big city... And now they have thrown me back into the terrible mother and clueless daughter! Arrrrrgh! I hope it does not last tooooo long...

Just finished watching episode 33 and had this interesting thought about the new character. What if he’s Jin Dan’s actual father?🤔
He is more of a contemporary to Ae Kyo and seems to have known her in the past. Certainly with all the birth secrets we’ve had so far it seems possible. It would also mean Jin Dan is not the heir to AAP.

It just seems very late to be adding a character unless they have a big effect on the plot.

I understand that but misogyny is systemic/baked into the system in contrast to hatred of men which is personalised. I was also reacting to the horrific comments made by a Seoul Council member against women per se and was speculating on the views of the older demographic that watches these weekenders domestically.
On a different note, the actor playing Mija seems inconsistent to me in this thankless role. She seems to drop the ball in some scenes where her reactions are just on the nose. I am just tired of this kind of one note villain.

Sure enough. In episode 33 her mom has sold Do-ra again. But of our two villain’s Jin-dan is actually the very worst. Do-ra’s mom is desperate, Jin-dan is absolutely not.

OK, so when did Kdrama writers decide that DNA tests can be done instantaneously (rather than the minimum of three weeks)?

We had a couple of cute moments with Mari in Episode 33, serving to break up the heaviness. First some bonding time with her Oppa. Then when Do-jun backs off a man hitting on her by announcing that he is Mari’s boyfriend. Do-jun tells her that from now on she is to tell people she has a boyfriend. At the end of that vignette, she is asking “Do I have a boyfriend now, then?” Yes, Mari, you do- except he doesn't realize it yet.

And now Mari's dad has found out the big secret. Ma-ri will have her work cut out for her.

Episode 34 saw everything blow up for Mari’s mom when her dad was not willing to listen to her at all- he is in shock. The news of Pilseung’s birth has Jin-dan engaged in a truly paranoid fantasy thanks to his mom’s description of the situation. Yet Jin-dan has already fallen into a trap of his own making by insisting on dating Ji-young (Do-ra) while he is engaged to Tae-hee. His insane decision to destroy Pil-seung is yet another gigantic misstep because objectively Pil-seung being Ma-ri’s half-brother is irrelevant to Jin-dan’s position.

Actually Jin-dan's mom asked the question that makes Jin-dan's actions not just irrational but insane: If Ma-ri's parent's divorce what stops Mari's dad from marrying a young woman and having another child?

I am sporadically seeing episodes since my local KBS America channel is loose and fast in airing its dramas. The last one I saw ended with ML asking the family if he was "abandoned." In this episode, the term "foundling" was used . . . meaning, an abandoned child.

In pre-modern Korea, there was no such thing as a truly abandoned child as the bloodline was never legally severed even if the child was placed in an orphanage, a temple, a foster home, or put up for adoption. Prior to 2008, all Korean adoptions were simple adoptions, meaning that biological parental-child rights were not eliminated (which includes inheritance). There was always the possibility that a biological parent would come back to reclaim their child. In modern Korea, to counter the national guilt of decades of post-war human trafficking of infants to foreign adoptions, the government has set up an agency to reunite separated family members. In 2020, a US adoptee won a Korean court paternity test case to put herself on her Korean parents family registry, which would give her inheritance and citizenship rights.

This is why I found Sun-Young’s hysterical anger towards Soo-Yeon’s secret misplaced and over-the-top. SY found a baby and took him in as her own. She probably registered him on the family register because only recently it was changed to require birth certificates (to combat the “ghost baby” problem). Even if she attempted to “adopt” him, at that time, it would not have eliminated Soo-Yeon’s rights to her son (no lack of consent or terminational of parental rights).
Yes, the Go family spent decades supporting and raising Pil-Seung, and the moral outrage that a woman abandoning a newborn is heinous, but it was not rare or even frowned upon by Korean society. But from day one, Sun-Young and her husband knew or should have known that the birth mother could show up and reclaim her baby. Also, the idea that Go family was “used” and made fools for raising a friend’s child is also off-base because the simple fact was it was Sun-Young’s voluntary choice to do so since she could have taken the abandoned child to the authorities to be put into state care.

The Go family can yell, scream and claim the moral high ground on the situation, but legally it means very little. It does open the door for Pil-Seung to inherit half of Soo-Yeon’s wealth (which most likely include half of Gong Jin-Taek’s fortune if he predeceases her.)

Surely his handsome bio dad should have had curly hair?

Sigh. This started out as a fast paced drama with good chemistry between interesting leads. Now it's just the typical OTT draggy going-round-in-circles weekender plot with the chemistry (and character development) between the leads noticeably diminishing with each episode. What a waste of all the actors' talents. I'm not sure which is worse: the previous weekender nosediving for me with only two episodes to go, or this one with a third to go?

Someone wake me up when she regains her memory. Zzzzzzzz.......

Episode 35 was the crazy aunt episode- Jin-teak’s aunt suggests that he should adopt his younger ‘illegitimate’ half-brother as his son. Somehow this would make him more attractive to Tae-hee’s family? It cements his succession to APP group? The first is not needed as he is already engaged to Tae-hee and the second one would make absolutely no difference whatsoever under current Korean Law as I understand it. With all due respect Auntie: WTF? Apparently, the author needed to do this in order to further raise the stakes for Jin-dan? Particularly idiotic was the suggestion that Ma-ri would be disinherited by this move.

Ma-ri’s parents getting divorced trigger’s Ma-ri’s PTSD from her childhood accident. Seeing Ma-ri hysterical was extremely unpleasant for me.

Jin-dan’s tantrums are different- He is an educated man in full health. There is no excuse for him- but really there never was. This artificial inflation of what he will supposedly lose when his folly comes to light was dramatically unnecessary.

Is Jin-dan’s mom now actively cavorting with Jin-dan’s true baby daddy? Wait until this blows up in our crazy aunt’s face.

Episode 36 was a discontinuous mess as the story progression and editing was all over the place. Having dragged out Dora’s amnesia, they suddenly decided to —— her —— without any further ado. It was jarring. And, the sped up fling Jindan’s mother is having with that dude brought forward what we all knew was coming. He will have a complete meltdown. For the zillionth time.
And, they suddenly must have remembered that Myeondong and Dooshik are still in a relationship after having ignored that recently.
What a structural mess and we had such moderate hopes for this at the beginning.
The only good things were seeing Mari’s unrealistic but welcome improvement and seeing the possibility if a reconciliation between her parents. I hope that they move out of that toxic den of a house and live together as a nuclear family which will throw open their door to Pilseung, Dora, halmeoni and Dojun. And, maybe Dooshik if he can keep growing his spine.

Episode 36 closes out yet another chapter in our story with another time-skip- not in the story but rather in real life as we will not get another episode for twenty days due to the Paris Olympics. This episode was a mess, yet it was clearly designed to set things up for when the story recommences. Jin-dan tried to ruin Pil-seung’s drama but his Oppa stepped in to save the show which is now a hit- so big a hit that board members at APP Group suggest that more resources be invested in Go Go Entertainment and that Pilseung be made the CEO. Jin-dan’s irrational behavior in this matter may be the reason why his Oppa has hesitated to adopt him. As the episode was ending Jin-dan hears mom’s ex-lover asking her if Jin-dan might actually be his son. Question: Will his sudden realization that his position is vulnerable cause him to change his ways? OK, we already know the answer to that.

Mari’s dad has also hesitated to divorce Mari’s mom because of Mari’s PTSD episode. One of the few positive notes in the last two episodes was when her dad actually called Pilseung to see Mari: He has essentially accepted that Mari actually has a brother in Pilseung. Pilseung may not be a member of his family, but he is genuinely a member of Mari’s family.

It was disheartening to me to see Mari rendered helpless in these last two episodes. Before that she actually had an amazing amount of agency: She did things rather than simply suffering events. I hope that this aberration in the story was simply a dramatic device preventing the permanent separation of her parents and that we get back to seeing her being this story’s moral compass and a primary force in moving the plot along. Hopefully in full partnership with Do-jun. who again was almost missing from these episodes.

At the end of this episode Dora magically recovers her memories. It was not very believable but there it is. Perhaps this was intended as the dramatic period at the end of the last sentence for this most dreary chapter in our story. It is time to turn the page and hopefully the next chapter will be much more enjoyable.

Act 2 started off with promise and then took a nosedive as Do-ra/Ji-yeong was manipulated by her mother once again. There’s nowhere for Act 3 to go but up. I just hope there aren’t forced redemption arcs for Mi-ja and Jin-dan because there couldn’t be two people less deserving.

I suspect the random clip at the end was inserted there just to keep us interested enough to tune back after the 3 week Paris Olympic break. Presumably they will tell us how she ended up there in Ep 37.

I think I am up to Episode 32.
Even for an average weekender, the plot and most of the characters are annoying or trivial/immaterial.

But it is rare for a 4th tier actor like Mari to try to carry the show on her own accord. It shows how off-track the writer and director have become with the degenerating ML-FL saga after the amnesia, the blown a part BFF relationship between the "moms," and the unwatchable Baek screen time.

Still behind but some random thoughts so far:

This show is a clear cut example of live-shoot script re-writes/changes where some supporting characters (like Mari and country Grandma) suddenly shift into more screen time. I really wonder if the amnesia trope was a shift because of Dora/PS story hit a dead end. I really gave up on Dora's brothers for continuing the family lies to country Grandma instead of doing the right thing in finding her family and sending her home.

County Grandma in the city story is clearly unnecessary filler. In one respect it kept Jiyeoung/Dora as a country bumpkin too long in character regression. (I wish the real granddaughter would show up and rescue her grandmother from the Park family lies, which now includes Dora herself for identity fraud.)

The beating the dead horse cycle of Baek pimping out her daughter to Jindan for money shows a real lack of creative writing. Jiyeoung/Dora-PS chemistry evaporated a long time ago so this repeat of toxic abuse is a bad default.

I find Soo-Yeon just as self-absorbed and selfish as Baek. Her justifications for her actions and the pain she causes to others maddening as both lack an ounce of empathy. Both do not deserve a redemptive arc.

The idea Chairman Gong was away two years so Soo-Yeon had PS without his knowledge is another far-fetched notion. No one in the Gong household looked after Gong's new wife? (Note: this will not be incorporated into the story but since PS was born during Gong's marriage, under Korean family law he would be the presumptive father.)

The foreshadowing of Jindan's birth secret would seem like a non-scream fest considering the circumstances (an affair) of his birth would have been throughly vetted before he was accepted into the Gong family as DNA tests are a dime a dozen in this show. The show has enough "deception is bad" story lines but now it is like throwing mud on the wall to see what sticks with viewers.

The only two likable and realistic characters in the series have been Mari and Chairman Gong, who just got the short-end-of-the-stick from Soo-Yeon’s (in)actions. One would think the writer would have made Dora and PS the most likable people but their characters are just adrift in a morass of boring deceptions of their own choosing.

I finally caught up due to the Olympic break. The last two episodes were not very good.

The idea of the Chairman adopting his half-brother is one of the dumbest things proposed in a weekender. Such an adoption would not change succession in any way because a) it is a public corporation and not an inheritance right; b) his status is already set by being a blood relative (until yet another new support character is introduced); c) by consequence, it eliminates mother-mistress from the family since she has to give consent to adoption (as well as Jindan , but Korean adult adoptions are ridiculously easy to accomplish since all that is required is to prove that adopter is older than adoptee adult, getting adoptee's mother’s approval and adoptee not being adopter's biological child. Once the paperwork was submitted to district office, the adoption process takes about 24 hours with no court approval necessary.)

The hair-pulling about suspending the TV drama was ridiculous (including its ping-pong resolution). In live action shoots, schedules and scenes are re-worked and cut all the time, with notes/changes from producers and networks. (Ironically, B&MR is full of such obvious changes.) Vindictive cancellation of PS was corporate stupidity since the standard penalty clause is 3x contract value.

The Dora country bumpkin arc was boring and repetitive. Amnesia stopped any character growth to just pile on second helping of toxic abuse. To me, any Dora-PS connection died when she jumped into the water. (It occurred to me that it would have been better if Dora had died then haunted each of the other main characters to see if any of them could change, redeem themselves or live better lives or be punished for their sins.)

Was the ending a "flash forward?" I remember when LOST used sudden story pivots with flash forwards and flash sideways plots that did more to confuse than explain as final season was filled with deus ex machina to provide an artificial or contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty (often using rain as the shift marker.)

I have no investment in any of Dora’s family members or the Gong household. Mari was a wasted opportunity to give the show at least one person with common sense and our viewpoint into the endless screeching crisis’. All the alleged love lines are like a basket of fallen and broken eggs in a dirty alley. Dora 2.0 should do the obvious: run away from everybody in the show, including PS, and finally live her own life.

We're back 🥳 hope you guys have had a great couple of weeks!

These DNA tests...

These two episodes feel like the writer's pen is on fire, trying to give the audience and Ji-young all the emotional catharsis we've been demanding, while still stubbornly pushing ahead w/ the hair-pulling and hidden family members. Episode 37 was honestly hilarious. Grandma hitting Mi-ja with the spoon, Do-jun coming out of nowhere with a fist through the glass - it was very serious, and it was so satisfying to see Mi-ja get beat up, but I was dying. This show is so strange, but I'm always entertained 😂

Ji-young finally stands up to Jin-dan and Mi-ja, her brothers finally back her up, everything that we've been shouting at Mi-ja is finally expressed. And Ji-young getting her memory back, albeit out of order, does what I was hoping it would, which was to give her more agency and remove her childish deference to Pil-seung. I personally think that Do-ra did nothing wrong taking up shady, possibly sex-adjacent work. She was desperate, w/ virtually no other means of income. She didn't betray Pil-seung, and I'm happy he got to feel the heat a little for what he said to her, even though it was brief. This show is very conservative, so ofc she goes back to blaming herself, but at least Ji-young finally feels like an adult woman, which is literally all I want 😭

I've missed this show 😂🫶

I missed these characters so much too, @worldsmitten !! I was thinking that I am a sucker and should get a more interesting life and/or hobby, but for reasons--unrelated to the sad state of my life and/or hobbies--I went back to skim the first few episodes of this weekender.

It was so good back then! The kids and then the early Do-ra days. Jin-dan in a hot tub, his mom with long hair...the characters seemed like real characters and not ever-changing shadows of people without motivation for doing any given thing except stomp on teddy bears.

It was a good drama for a very long while.

Maybe it'll end strong, in a stark contrast to most other regular-length dramas.

At the very least, they should stop reminding us of Pil-seung's curly mop of hair, because all it does is make me miss that character even more.

The Olympic break was used to re-boot this show, which had been getting way off track in its last chapter. Episodes 37 and 38 were a bit disjointed but perhaps that is to be expected. Among the major changes is the inclusion of a legally valid reason why Jin-dan’s mom would want him to be adopted by his oppa: Jin-dan has a different baby daddy than everyone had thought (and said bio-dad is now present in the country). So much for the previous insane nonsense that never had even the faintest resemblance to either the legal or the business needs of his situation.

The overwrought reaction of Ma-ri’s dad to her mom also being the bio-mom of Pilseung (whose real baby daddy is long since dead) has ended. He had every right to be upset about what his wife had concealed but IMHO seeking a divorce over it was completely out of character for him from what we had seen before: This man is nothing short of a solid Rock of Reason. Instead, by the end of episode 38 he is hinting that maybe he would rather adopt Pilseung than Jin-dan now that he has fully accepted Plseung as Ma-ri’s older brother. Pilseung’s actual adoptive father is already sensing something like that coming and is on record as saying NO even before the matter is broached.

What practical reason would Pilseung have to object to this? One that might really matter to Ma-ri’s father? How about Ma-ri herself? If Pilseung wants to marry Do-ra then there is a Korean taboo against Ma-ri marrying Do-ra’s brother Do-jun. It is not against the law- this is simply a custom related to the importance of expanding ties between multiple families which probably pre-dates Joseon or even Goryeo.

This explains the significance of Ma-ri’s re-emergence as an active agent in this tale: She loved being princess carried before by Do-jun when she hurt her ankle and proceeds to fake such an injury again- right after she has her epiphany on the badminton court. I am not sure how far our handsome young man carried her, but he was definitely sweating- and later confronts her about her lie. The result is that Ma-ri confesses her feelings to him. Do-jun is stunned, of course, but the truth is that he has really come to care for her. I had thought that the writer had maybe decided to back away from a potential romance which poses some real ethical issues but the set-up I have described with both Pilseung and Ma-ri seem to indicate that we may really be going there. I frankly like the idea of addressing those issues- including the rights of less abled people to live their fullest possible lives.

As awkward as these episodes were, there is reason to believe that a major train wreck has been averted. The course corrections are pointing in the right directions at least.