Dare to Love Me: Episodes 11-12

7 June 19, 2024June 19, 2024

Dare to Love Me: Episodes 11-12

by starrygazer

Finally, things are starting to move along! Our leading couple are there for each other this week, taking steps in the right direction, while our older gen ex-lovers are getting over their hurt feelings and resentment towards each other. And our mystery subplot is starting to pick up pace – hooray.

EPISODES 11-12
Dare to Love Me: Episodes 11-12

Even with her head injury, our heroine has decided to go straight back to work. But overhearing Camille and Frankie talk about her and insist that she go home has left Hong-do feeling dejected. On her way home she runs into Yoon-bok and they head up to her apartment. Hong-do then overhears Yoon-bok telling Hong-hak he has to quit. He has something important he needs to focus on. This makes her feel ten times worse. Little does she know he wants to catch Gamjjok to protect her.

Deciding to head out, Hong-do finds herself at Hyang-ki’s coffee shop. Hyang-ki is throwing out a very sorry-looking plant that isn’t worth saving, which strikes a cord with Hong-do. She starts yelling about how the plant shouldn’t be abandoned. She scoops it up, vowing she will revive it, obviously seeing this plant as a metaphor for herself.

Hong-do has turned absolutely feral at this point. She has been spending her time watching videos on how to save the plant, and scaring Hong-hak with her appearance and lack of hygiene. To Hong-do’s horror, Yoon-bok stops by and witnesses her drinking two cans of beer through a straw in a comatose state on her bed next to this dying plant.

Yoon-bok takes her for a meal to cheer her up, saying protein will help her heal. (He’s as thoughtful as ever.) Hong-do starts crying, saying she couldn’t save the plant or the pop-up event, that she ruined Camille’s image, and she couldn’t even protect Yoon-bok’s dream. She’s even killing the mood now. Bless her. Yoon-bok, as always, knows exactly what to say. He tells Hong-do she saved him, and let him come out into the world and live when he had been discouraged for a long time. She is very capable of saving everything. Awww.

Things start to look up for Hong-do when Camille shows up at her door with champagne, celebrating getting the yes votes from the village. They can have their fashion show! Hong-do tells Camille she isn’t sure she can work on the fashion show since she destroyed Camille’s image and ruined everything. Camille takes the picture of herself off Hong-do’s inspiration board and tells her life is full of endless setbacks. It’s up to you if you stay down or get up fighting. She has until the day after tomorrow to get this picture back — or decide if she will stay defeated.

Our hero swoops in to support Hong-do, as she has decided to go back to work. He gives her a lift and the way he drives with her in the car is reminiscent of an overprotective parent, which I found comical. At work Camille loves Hong-do’s designs (after many failed attempts) and tells her to start making samples, hiring two assistants to help her. When Hong-do gets home she is thrilled because the plant is flourishing (which is made all the sweeter when you see Yoon-bok had swapped the plant out to make her feel better).

Dare to Love Me: Episodes 11-12

Hold onto your hats, folks! Things are going to start taking a bit of a dark turn from here. Hong-do is tasked with finding a caterer for the fashion show and she thinks Seongsan Hall would be a good fit. Hong-do goes over to Joon-oh’s house to ask if they will do it. While she is there he leaves her alone to take a call and Hong-do notices all of these designer clothes hanging up. This leads to her accidentally finding a secret door at the back of the closet which leads to Joon-ho’s lair, where he forges the artifacts. Luckily, our heroine escapes the room before she is discovered. But Joon-ho notices the secret door is ajar…

Following Hong-do out, he insists on driving her home. As he is trying to find out what Hong-do saw, she gets a call from Yoon-bok, who happened to pass their car and knows who she is with. This gives Hong-do the opportunity to get out with Joon-oh promising to see her very soon. (I think my skin is crawling.)

Yoon-bok is unwilling to leave Hong-do alone as Hong-hak isn’t home and Joon-ho could be a threat. So he asks if he can stay the night. Needless to say, Hong-do has no problem with this at all haha. But our leading couple is having trouble sleeping that night, and eventually end up falling asleep together on the sofa. The following morning when he returns, Hong-hak literally passes out when he sees them hahaha.

Dare to Love Me: Episodes 11-12

Directly after, we see Hong-do explaining to Camille and Frankie what has happened with Joon-ho. She suggests that they ask Seongsan Village for help with the catering instead. After asking Grandad Shin for help with this he tells Hong-do not to get too attached to Yoon-bok, as he will eventually return to the village. Hong-do is all kinds of brilliant when she asks him to please let Yoon-bok decide — whatever he wants she will honor as long as he is happy. *High five.*

It is nice to see Grandad Shin in a different light when he decides to visit Se-ryeong’s father (Nobleman Lee) and tell him he is withdrawing the marriage proposal. He has been reflecting on what Yoon-bok and Hong-do have said to him and has decided to stop interfering. This enrages Nobleman Lee and he enlists Joon-ho to help him dethrone Grandad Shin so he can take over Seongsan Village. Joon-oh gives Nobleman Lee pictures of Grandad Shin and Camille in Paris (in the 1970s might I add) to use against him.

Grandad Shin is confronted by the elders of the village, outraged that he had a previous relationship with Camille and he is using that to sell out their tradition and turn a profit. This distresses Grandad Shin and he ends up passing out, which sends Yoon-bok racing to be by his side. Camille and co. turn up the following morning, demanding to know why they are canceling the fashion show.

Grandad Shin apologizes to her and promises to fix it. Yoon-bok overhears Grandad Shin confronting Nobleman Lee and mentioning rescinding the marriage proposal. Yoon-bok is surprised this is the reason Nobleman Lee is trying to oust grandpa, so he decides to go and face Se-ryeong and let her down gently to avoid further hurt.

Trying to comfort Grandad Shin, Camille takes him some ginseng and apologizes for being the cause of this debacle. Grandad Shin assures her she doesn’t need to because he was happy to see her — he had thought about her from time to time and always felt bad. Camille tells him not to feel bad, as she understands he didn’t have a choice. It’s nice to see these two putting their differences aside and start to reminisce fondly about their time together. Camille is staying in the village to try and help iron all of this out and notices Nobleman Lee is bribing the villagers. She decides to approach him offering a massive sum of money to do the fashion show, which he agrees to. Inadvertently he starts to let his guard down and lets slip who gave him the pictures. I really hope Camille is secretly on Grandad Shin’s side here.

Amongst all of the drama and worry is Joon-ho and his smug smile. He really does put me in mind of a pantomime villain sometimes. Yoon-bok has no qualms about letting Joon-ho know he suspects him, which is forcing Joon-ho out from his little hidey hole and right into the thick of things. However, he considers himself pretty clever and has an idea Yoon-bok is watching him. Pretending to be getting rid of evidence, he lures Yoon-bok out so someone else can take the real evidence and plant it in the car of the culprit he caught last week.

Deciding to try a different tactic, Yoon-bok and Yoon-ah decide to go looking for the buyers, last seen in Chinatown. After catching one of them they set up a sting operation to catch Joon-oh, but they fail. In our ending cliffhanger scene for the week, Joon-oh ends up hiding out at his benefactor’s house (we still don’t know who this is), instructed to open the safe and retrieve the key to Seongsan Village’s storage room. As he enters the room we see it’s a trap, as Yoon-bok is there waiting for him. Fan-bloody-tastic!

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1 DancingEmma

June 19, 2024 at 1:27 PM

It is all kinds of wrong but predictable that in this bizarre and dubious story about a community cosplaying as a repressive, slave-owning, classist and misogynistic Joseon village would make the mistreated and exiled son of a servant the criminal.

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Linarrick

June 22, 2024 at 12:58 AM

Exactly the reason I dropped it *sigh*
Why did I waste my time on this drama…

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2 HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞

June 19, 2024 at 2:42 PM

Thank you for your recap @starrygazer! I'm still really enjoying this. It's very old school, very simple, and very relaxing. I love how respectful Yoon-bok and Hong-do are to each other in their relationship. Tbh, I fast-forward most of the scenes with grandpa/Camille and younger brother/bodyguard. Joon-ho is definitely the most complex and interesting character in this drama... I was wishing he weren't truly the culprit, but it also makes sense based on everything he had to endure growing up. So I'm torn between wanting him to succeed in whatever his end game is, and wanting him brought to justice because he literally bludgeoned our FL. Also, I'm wondering if there's another backer behind him somewhere... Regardless of what's going on with the character, this actor is doing an excellent job. Not really apropos of any plot points, but I love L's voice, and it's so nice to hear it for a couple of hours every week.

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3 Miss_elly

June 20, 2024 at 2:17 PM

I like this drama a lot . Our male lead is a walking green flag. I will say I find the juxtaposition of these people essentially living in a reenactment village, pulling out cell phones and having modern lamps etc, funny. Like I’m sure the younger generation had to go to school to learn the gov curriculum. That’s probly why they are more savvy with tech

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4 🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸

June 20, 2024 at 5:13 PM

Thank you for the recap.
I like how uri OTP are interacting together. After that awesome first date (minus ferry ride) we have these sweet moments of support and just being together. How often have we seen that. I loved Yoon-bok offering Hong-do ginseng and then a lollipop to chase away the bitterness. My reaction was 💯 like Frankie!! 🤣 I half expected Camille to offer Harabeoji a lollipop too, after the ginseng. And maybe she still might do so, by exposing the machinations of Nobleman Lee. Harabeoji seems to be getting quite a redemption arc. What really surprises me is Camille - what a gracious and graceful lady, suprisingly full of wisdom and good old fashioned pragmatism.

Well the cat is out of the bag for Joon-ho. I liked his cat and mouse game of one-upmanship with Yoon-bok. No guesses on who's side I'm on and I like that we have him cornered. But the bigger mystery and perhaps the main antagonist is Joon-ho's (as yet) secret benefactor. Apparently not Nobleman Lee, so are we having a new character being introduced last minute. Also the mystery about Yoon-bok's father and the fire is not going to resolve itself on its own.

I liked how Hong-do's "kidnapping" was resolved. Yoon-bok has been nothing but an extremely capable young man. I'm looking forward for him to get to the bottom of all mysteries and spend a nice like drawing webtoons and going on sweet / salty dates with Hong-do. 😊🥰❤👌

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5 🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸

June 20, 2024 at 5:25 PM

Oh! those two interns seemed totally useless and one ("you didn't say when you needed it") was outright disrespectful. Hopefully the coffee date with Frankie will calm them down and make them form a supportive team with Hong-do.

There don't seem to be any out-and-out villains in the drama and so I'm hoping we get a redemption arc for Joon-ho. I'm not sure if I'm shipping him with Yi-bok but she did seem rather broken up about his "revelation" as a baddie, which seemed to have hit a raw nerve.

We are supposed to get a lost and found meet-up of the Kim siblings with their father.

Basically we have a lot of story for the next two weeks. I like how the drama is scattering breadcrumbs and then faithfully following the trail and resolving the mysteries one by one.

Can we have a return of the fan fighting Yoon-boki please. He's cool!! 😎 🪭