You’re Beautiful: Episode 3

Another cute, funny episode. The characters are really growing on me, and we’re starting to see a little depth with them (some more than others). I don’t know how dramatic this drama will get, but I usually enjoy the level of comedy-versus-angst in a Hong sisters drama.

SONG OF THE DAY

You’re Beautiful OST – “약속” (Promise). This is the A.N.JELL version, with Jang Geun-seok on vocals. [ Download ]

EPISODE 3 RECAP

Tae-kyung confronts Mi-nyeo and plays his video recording of her admitting she’s a girl. He says almost triumphantly, “Go Mi-nam, you’re done for now,” and walks off smirking.

Mi-nyeo chases after him and begs him to listen. He doesn’t care to and dismisses her, heading to the elevator. As Mi-nyeo steps in front of the elevator doors, blocking his path, Jeremy catches a glimpse of the two and watches curiously. The scene sure has an odd vibe…

Tae-kyung tells her that he intends to hand the video over to Sung-chan and doesn’t want to see her again, calling her “Miss Go Mi-nam” pointedly.

Since he is unwilling to listen and about to leave, she looks at the phone/PDA in his hand, contemplating her move… and swipes it. She grabs it just as the elevator doors close, and dashes off.

Oh, no she di’n't. Tae-kyung chases her outside to a second-story landing, glowering all the while. He corners her and approaches menacingly (and good lordy does Jang Geun-seok have a frightening scowl), and grabs the camera/phone. He asks, “Do you think you won’t be found out without this? Are you an idiot?”

Those words get through to her, and Mi-nyeo realizes he’s right. She slackens her grip, energy sapping away. Sensing opportunity, Tae-kyung wrests the phone out of her grasp, but since she’s already weakened her grip, it goes flying… over the railing… and onto a truck below.

(Hehe. You can tell Tae-kyung is a proud guy who can’t admit his own mistakes, because he gripes, “How could you let go like that?” Mi-nyeo points out weakly, “You said to let go…”)

Tae-kyung orders Mi-nyeo to retrieve the phone and reluctantly gives her a boost up to the roof. Tae-kyung is solely concerned about the phone’s condition and grabs it back, worrying over new scratches, totally ignoring the fact that Mi-nyeo needs help down.

But soon, the truck starts moving…

Mi-nyeo attempts to call down to him, but her voice is weak and he’s preoccupied with his precious phone. When he finally turns to see the truck, he is so startled that he stares blankly as the truck pulls out of the parking lot.

Mi-nyeo tries her best to hang on, frightened and growing weaker. Just as she thinks she can’t hold on any longer, she hears Tae-kyung shouting after her — he’s running behind them, yelling at her to hang on tight.

But he’s no match for a vehicle, and can’t keep up. When the truck pauses at a red light, Tae-kyung yells at Mi-nyeo to get off quickly.

She staggers to her feet and musters her courage, jumping off as the light turns green. Tae-kyung races to try to catch her; she lands on her feet (owww), but he breaks her fall as she falls onto him.

As a result, both are a little bruised and battered as they limp home. Mi-nyeo follows a few paces behind, and although he glares at her, I think he’s actually more angry at himself for caring in the first place.

Mi-nyeo thanks him for running after her and catching her fall. Tae-kyung is so astounded by these events that he asks if this is a secret camera prank, and looks around for a crew. (It’s cute how he adjusts his attitude to appear less grouchy when there’s the possibility that he’s being taped.)

He calls her a public nuisance and decides, “Being around you is unlucky. Go Mi-nam, you’re dangerous.” He recalls all the messes she’s made, shuddering, and demands, “Take care of the messes you’ve made and disappear.”

Tearing up, she says, “I understand. I’ll quit in order to keep further problems from arising.”

Mi-nyeo reports to Hoon-yi and Stylist Wang that she has been exposed, and they’re dejected that the jig is up. However, Hoon-yi perks up to consider that Tae-kyung is the only one who knows. That means that if they could only get rid of him…

We wouldn’t have a Hong sisters drama without a collection of pop culture parodies, and the first comes as Hoon-yi imagines locking up Tae-kyung a la Oldboy. Naturally the two ladies reject that idea. Then what if they insist that he confused Mi-nam with someone else? They could pull an identity con like inWife’s Temptation…

If that fails, then they must beg! A Super Junior (“Sorry Sorry”) parody ensues. LOL.

That night, Tae-kyung feels bad to recall how Mi-nam had been limping after her jump from the truck. When that thought unsettles him, he brushes it aside, telling himself it’s a good thing he decided not to get involved.

On their way home, Jeremy eyes Mi-nam suspiciously, remembering the scene he overheard, and asks if she caused trouble for Tae-kyung again. Still feeling the sting of Tae-kyung’s words, she glumly confirms his accusations, referring to herself using Tae-kyung’s accusations — she’s a nuisance who’s always causing injury to others.

That triggers Jeremy’s overactive imagination, and he re-interprets the earlier scene at the elevator. This time, he sees Mi-nam as the (romantic) aggressor, and Tae-kyung as the victim. It’s hilarious.

While Jeremy has his freak-out, Shin-woo looks at her curiously and notices her fresh injuries. At the house, he calls her aside and attends to her cuts, commenting that this must be how Jeremy feels to take care of Jolie.

She’s saddened to be compared to a dog, but he didn’t mean it in a bad way: “You’re like a dog who has lost its way. I feel like I have to take care of you.”

To lift her spirits, he confides a story of how he was once rejected by a girl because of a dog. He had liked a girl from Seoul, and wanted to “correct” his speech from his rustic accent to the Seoul accent. When he had asked a question mixing his Seoul accent with a Southern colloquialism, the girl had misunderstood his question to mean “Does your family catch dogs?” and got offended.

As his Seoul accent is now perfect, nobody knows he’s from the South; he’s sharing this as a secret with her. He also tells her to call him hyung, and she’s not quite comfortable with that. Testing her reaction, he asks, “Then, do you want to call me oppa?” She obviously can’t do that, so she should call him Shin-woo hyung.

Little do they know, Jeremy has seen (but not heard) this exchange from the house, and is completely weirded out at the close vibe between Shin-woo and Mi-nam. Thus when Mi-nam comes upon him to hand back the apple he’d dropped, his imagination again kicks in and he interprets her simple actions in a suggestive light.

He warns himself, “There’s definitely something weird with that guy. I’d better be careful.”

That night, Mi-nyeo deals with the fact that she has to drop out of A.N.JELL, and apologizes to Mi-nam for ruining his dreams. Worst of all is the feeling that she’s useless, that she has no purpose as a person.

In the morning, she attempts to call Sung-chan to come clean, but he isn’t answering his phone. During the group’s ride to the agency, Tae-kyung calls Jeremy to find out whether Mi-nam has quit yet (although he doesn’t use those words). Hearing that nothing is amiss, he figures she hasn’t.

Mi-nam’s selfish aunt arrives outside the agency and is unable to get past security, who don’t buy that she’s Mi-nam’s aunt. Therefore she has to sit with all the other fans who are camped out to get a glimpse of the stars. But an ill-timed bathroom break means that she misses the arrival of the three A.N.JELL members, so she passes an envelope to a delivery man, asking him to make sure Mi-nam gets it.

Mi-nyeo heads for Sung-chan’s office first thing, only to find that he’s out. She waits in his office, which is when she is handed her aunt’s envelope. Inside is a sole photograph, a childhood image of Mi-nam, Mi-nyeo, and their father. No note accompanies the picture, but she knows immediately that somebody close to her must have sent it. Hearing that the source was a middle-aged lady wearing red who was just outside, Mi-nyeo races outside to find her.

On the way, she runs into Sung-chan, who is ready to hear what she has to say. Making a split-second decision, Mi-nyeo decides that the envelope lady is more important, and runs outside.

Arriving separately, Tae-kyung happens to glimpse Mi-nam running down the street, toward the subway station, and wonders what that’s all about.

She’s not far behind her aunt, but she doesn’t quite know who she’s looking for and misses her several times.

A few schoolgirls start to recognize Mi-nam as an A.N.JELL member, just as Tae-kyung arrives and flips up her hood to hide her face. She resists, saying she has someone to find, but he grabs her arm and pulls her away.

Mi-nyeo confides that it could have been her mother: “Even if she’s not my mother, I won’t be disappointed. If I could just hear news of her, I’d be happy with that.” She tries to comfort herself saying that if the woman came this far, she’ll probably try to contact her again.

Tae-kyung watches as she prays, intrigued and also annoyed with her reaction: “What would you do then? Even if she came, you won’t be here. Did you forget your promise to leave the group immediately?”

He doesn’t want to hear her wallowing in self-pity, and even when she pleads to stay just until the woman returns, he answers coolly, “No. Go Mi-nam, you’re out. Nothing’s changed.”

Mommy issues are never that simple, though, as we see when Tae-kyung returns to his hotel and again crosses paths with his mother. She’s perfectly cool, and points out that he stayed even knowing she was staying here — “Wasn’t that because you were hoping you might run into me?”

Although Tae-kyung’s response is cold, it’s clear he’s much angrier than he’d like to be. Anger suggests hurt, and he flashes back to a childhood memory of being home alone, seeing his mother onscreen because she was never around in person. The memories disgust him, and he mutters to himself, “What are you hoping for from the woman who abandoned you? Pathetic.”

When Mi-nam sits down to talk with Sung-chan, she mulls over the latest developments, and has a hard time getting her words out. But she changes her mind at the last minute, and says with determination, “I cannot leave. I absolutely cannot leave. I will stay here as Go Mi-nam. Until now, I have felt that I was dragged here forcefully, but not anymore. I have a reason to stay here. I will stick it out no matter what.”

(Sung-chan is a little confused, but he rolls with it.)

Next, Mi-nyeo confronts Tae-kyung outside his hotel. To explain how important it is to reunite with her mother (and therefore stay with A.N.JELL), she hands him a ring. There were two rings given to her and Mi-nam, symbolic of their parents. This is her most prized possession, and now she entrusts it to Tae-kyung as a symbol of her commitment: “Hold onto this and have faith in me.”

He isn’t moved: “Do you think you can find your mother if you stick around?” She answers, “If I search for her earnestly, I believe I can.”

He’s unimpressed with her fervor, saying, “Shall we see if earnestness will find her for you?” With that, he throws the ring over the railing, into the stream below.

Mi-nyeo can’t believe it, and glares at him in shock. He tells her, “Once you’ve been abandoned, it’s over. Your mother left you behind so that’s the end of that, and that’s the end of your ring, too. So end this insistence on being Go Mi-nam.”

She walks to him angrily and shoves him: “I told you that was precious to me!” He retorts, “See, you’re getting angry because you think you can’t find it.”

When she insists she will find it, he throws down the gauntlet: “If you do, I’ll believe you and accept you for real.”

So she steps into the water to feel around for the ring, stubbornly wading from one end to the other. Tae-kyung thinks he’s teaching her a lesson — that things that are lost don’t come back to you — but she refuses to give up. By nighttime, she’s shivering and sniffling, and Tae-kyung watches incredulously: “Is she stupid? Does she really think she can find it?”

As I suspected, it’s in his hand — he’s had the ring the entire time. He feels a twinge of guilt, but sneers, “You won’t ever find it. Give up.”

He has trouble falling asleep that night but convinces himself that she’s probably given up. In the morning, he’s satisfied (and relieved) to see that she’s gone.

Until she moves from behind a boulder, that is. Now he feels both guilty and impressed, and tells her to give it up. Mi-nyeo just shoots him a resentful look and persists: “I’m going to find it.”

Realizing she means it, he concedes, “You don’t have to find it. Come out now,” and shows her the ring.

Registering this, Mi-nyeo gets out of the water and approaches with an angry look in her eyes. Tae-kyung can’t really argue with that, and he says, “Fine, you’re strong and you’re great. That’s enough now.”

He seems nervous for her reaction, and automatically assumes that she’ll hate him, as most people would do. (He certainly deserves it.) But she surprises him by grabbing his hand and saying with relief, “I found it.”

He thinks she’s going to hit him, but she grabs him in a bear hug and says tearfully, “Thank you, Hwang Tae-kyung.” She also points out that she did in fact “find” the ring (which means she won this challenge).

Completely thrown off-guard, he tries to push her off, but she holds on tight. Uncomfortably, he endures the hug.

Afterward, her good spirits are completely restored, and she thanks Tae-kyung for not ratting her out. He clarifies that he won’t tell on her, but he also isn’t going to help her. He will, however, be moving back to the A.N.JELL house.

A photo shoot has the group posing in a swimming pool, which is a concept that thoroughly amuses Tae-kyung because he knows a swimsuit shoot would expose Mi-nam. (Therefore, he’s the one left sulking when it turns out the shoot will have them posing fully clothed and Mi-nam is off the hook.)

Mi-nyeo struggles with the concept, and she ends up shooting and reshooting while the other guys rest.

Shin-woo shares some words of consolation, assuring her that all first shoots are like this. For instance, he relates the story of his own first shoot, which required him to hold a glass of wine and look cool. When the director called for “one shot” — in camera terms — he misinterpreted and downed the wine in one shot.

Jeremy again overhears the exchange and misunderstands. He tries to tell himself it’s nothing: “Shin-woo hyung is just being nice!” He hits himself for thinking bad thoughts, feeling guilty for doubting his hyung’s intentions.

Jeremy’s horror grows when he then catches Tae-kyung talking to Mi-nam. Tae-kyung sarcastically says that it’s too bad there weren’t any topless shots, because Mi-nam would’ve rocked those. He then disparages her meager bustline by saying there’s probably not too much to see anyway.

Misconstruing the conversation, Jeremy tells himself, “Tae-kyung hyung is only like that because they’re getting along now! It’s a good thing to be friendly with teammates!”

But Jeremy can’t shake his thoughts. When Shin-woo asks around for Mi-nam after the shoot warps, Jeremy confronts him, asking what his deal is with Mi-nam.

Meanwhile, Mi-nyeo has to figure out how to change into dry clothing without exposing herself in the men’s locker room. (Tae-kyung enjoys poking at her insecurities, and says in reference to the aforementioned bustline, “There may be nothing worth seeing, but I’ll look forward to it. Try manning up and go to the locker room.”)

Instead, she sneaks back toward the now-empty pool area, which has been closed by the crew. However, a crew member has left behind a piece of equipment, so in the midst of her clothing change, the lights flick back on, and staffers come back to search for it.

Tae-kyung overhears the crew talking and guesses that Mi-nyeo is going to be in trouble — and sure enough, she finds herself cornered. Without a better option, she jumps into the pool to avoid discovery. (Let’s ignore the fact that the guys totally missed seeing a body splash into the water a few feet away!)

Tae-kyung looks around and knows she’s here somewhere, finally spotting bubbles rising from the pool. She can’t come up yet because the staffers are still looking around the perimeter, and Mi-nyeo tells herself to hang on.

Worried now, Tae-kyung checks his watch — she’s passed the 1-minute mark… She starts to lose consciousness…

Mi-nyeo prays to the Mother Superior for help, and just then, Tae-kyung splashes into the pool and swims toward her. She makes out his blurry form and wonders, “Mother Superior, someone has come to get me. Is he an angel?”

COMMENTS

I’m going to consider it a good thing about this drama that a lot of comments in the last recap pointed out things I’d left out. I hadn’t forgotten those unmentioned hilarious moments (like the balls glowing in the dark, or Sung-chan accidentally sending Tae-kyung a somewhat scandalous email from his secret actress girlfriend) — it’s just that I can’t feasibly include every moment in a recap. It would be too long! I make some decisions to cut out certain details depending on length, relevance, flow of the recap, etc. So I think it speaks well of the drama that even after all that, there’s material left over that people think deserves more discussion.

Tae-kyung’s uncomfortable expression to Mi-nyeo’s teary hug (above) is one of my favorite moments in this episode. I think Jang Geun-seok is taking the sneer a little too far in some cases, but the subtler moments of confusion are gems. As I mentioned, I really think Tae-kyung is upset with the very fact that he cares about Mi-nyeo (just like he’s upset that he cares about his mother). Tae-kyung aims to maintain that cold exterior but he’s actually pretty bad at it. Therefore, he takes out that self-loathing on Mi-nyeo because he’d rather not confront the alternative — the suggestion that he’s actually a warm guy with feelings. That would just mean he’s capable of being hurt. (Aw, poor damaged kdrama heroes. Aren’t we all just suckers for them?)

I think guilt is a great emotion to introduce into their dynamic, because that’s something he can’t ignore. I mean, he can try to, but it’s much easier being angry at someone than feeling sorry that you’ve wronged them. It’s even worse when she thanks him for returning her ring and doesn’t hold a grudge. I love that moment when Tae-kyung recoils, expecting her to hit him for what he did — and I’m pretty sure he would have preferred that she did hit him. Brute force he can handle. Fuzzy emotions, not so much.

(It’s also a clever way of getting Mi-nyeo to “win” their wager and force him to let her stay.)

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