Jang Bori Is Here! - Episode 48 (KimJiCap)

We're almost at the end but not quite and this episode turns out to be a real treat. Long live a 50+ episode crazy drama I will never forget! PS: Both episodes (49 and 50) of Jangbori were preempted this weekend due to sport - which means this show will air its last episode (52) on October 12.
JoAnne: Which completely fucks up my mentally-prepared watching schedule for the shows on my list. You've seen the list. It's extensive. I may need an intervention.

Episode 48

Moooooony! Noooooooooo! Don't die! Bi-dan is waiting for you at the front door. She has drawn a picture of you, but when you are hit by the boxes and are crushed, the picture is caught be the wind, carried onto the street and is then driven over by a taxi. What a bad omen. Even Min-jung is shocked about what she has done by the way. Or is she shocked because there's absolutely no blood splatters?
JoAnne: TOTALLY thought he was dead with the tire tracks on the picture. My thoughts rushed to Trotwood, I tell you. She's not QUITE a Mary, but she loves her guy.
In front of Bi Sool Chae, Bi-dan cleans off the portrait when Bori comes out and a shouty Jae-hwa turns up in his car, tires screeching. They're going to see Moony, so they need to hurry! Do we know why they're going to see him and why it's so urgent? I seem to have forgotten.
JoAnne: I tried really hard to remember but it gets mixed up with the other 17 times they've had to rush off to meet Moony so nope... I got nuthin'. Which makes me feel bad, because if he's dead, this is the very.last.time. they can rush off to meet Moony and I feel like it should be commemorated, somehow.
At the warehouse, Jae-hee realizes what his wife has done and has a short freak out. He is quite easily discouraged from calling an ambulance by her though and hey, now you can just go to jail, you idiot. You left a probably dying man lying there? So low. Luckily for Moony, the workers return from lunch (wow, they must be speed eaters because they left about 2 minutes ago) and realize something could have happened to Moony. Jae-hee runs out, Min-jung after. But not before instructing one of the workers to do something. We don't know what, but I'm sure it's something very bad.
JoAnne: I am shaking my head and tut-tutting at Jae Hee. As for Min Jung, I sincerely doubt that a grown adult with a brain in his head would just blindly do whatever some random little overdressed troll princess tells him to do right after something bad ha...*whistles and walks away*
Jae-hwa hears from somebody on the phone that Moony is in hospital. I still don't remember why they're rushing to see Moony and also wonder where Jae-hee is?
JoAnne: I can tell you're busy because you are picking shots of Jae Hwa looking singularly unattractive.
In any case, he is currently staring at a river, shocked by how much of a monster his bedfellow is (Darling, you still don't know the whole story). He gets really vicious when she tells him he HAS to follow her lead because he is the one that said in front of everybody that he would kill Moony. He calls her a murderer and wants nothing to do with her ever again, but she shouts that HE is the murderer if he leaves her. Implying she will die? Willingly? Or rather that she will make him go down in flames, telling everybody he did it?
JoAnne: Jae Hee, sweetheart. Listen to me. Kill her. Wring her scrawny little neck right there by the river, then bash her brains in with one of those rocks on the beach, and just walk away. This is K-Drama, baby. She'll probably never even be found, but if she is it will be 20 years from now, and you're only gonna get 7 years anyway, Jae Hee. Especially because Bi Dan will be the prosecutor, and she'll somehow work to help you even though she'll find out in the course of the investigation that the dead bitch was her mother.
He leaves her standing at the riverside and drives off, after having lied to Little Kang about never seeing Moony at the warehouse. You're in deep shit, Jae-hee. When he is gone, Min-jung gets a phone call from the worker guy she instructed - he tells her that Moony is in a hospital. And Min-jung asks him to go pick up the unconscious Moony and move him to a different hospital. And indeed, when Jae-hwa and Bori get to the hospital, Moony's bed is empty. Nobody knows where he has disappeared to.
JoAnne: Should have listened to me. And right down there? That's at least the third picture of Jae Hwa looking kind of silly. And now, with bedhead.
Jae-hwa runs off to do some more searching and Bori finds a box of "soft facial tissues" next to the empty bed. Moony has written 사랑해 내딸(I love you, my daughter) on it (twice). (I was going to make a dirty joke and now I can't.) In the hospital corridor, Jae-hwa runs into Little Kang, who asks him what is wrong. (Better than running into Little Kei, ammiright? Now I feel better.) Here comes Jae-hee as well. Jae-hwa isn't pleased to see him - to say the least. He attacks his brother for sinking so very low. Jae-hee plays dumb, but when Jae-hwa almost pleads with him to tell him he isn't behind this, that he isn't trash like this, he looks quite sad. He says he didn't do it, but I'm still very angry with Jae-hee, probably forever. 
JoAnne: Jae Hee's main problem is that he is weak and petty. Sad. (And here's #4, for anyone counting.)
Bori comes running and tells Jae-hwa that Moony might have gone to Bi Sool Chae, since she found a note. Jae-hee orders Little Kang to follow. At Bi Sool Chae. Bi-dan is still waiting happily. A taxi stops and the driver asks her whether she is Bi-dan. He is to get a drawing from her. Bi-dan hands it over. As soon as the taxi has disappeared, Min-jung approaches in her car. She gets out and nastily demands to know what Bi-dan gave that taxi driver. Bi-dan just shrugs and doesn't answer a single question. Angrier by the second, Min-jung pushes her so forcefully that Bi-dan falls down. In the heated argument that follows, Min-jung says "if it weren't for me, in this world..." but she is interrupted by Bori and Jae-hwa, who have also arrived. Yes, there's a lot of arriving.
JoAnne: And not NEARLY enough beating of asses. Plus, someone buy that child an ice cream for Best Use of Rudeness With An Awful Adult.  
By the way, there's this very funny BTS video of this scene here (thanks, Alan!). Do you think Lee Yu-ri needs special bodyguards when she walks around?
JoAnne: I was not in Korea on that day. And you know what, I didn't see Trotwood anywhere around here.

It looks like Jae-hwa and Bori want to beat Min-jung up. Haha. Doesn't everybody? Min-jung says she had every right to hit the little brat and Bi-dan explains that she didn't answer Teng-Teng-Teng because she really doesn't like her. Bori asks whether Moony came by and Bi-dan says yes, he did, and she gave something to him. No, he didn't! shouts Min-jung, he's couldn't have, because he is at the hospital. That makes our prosecutor reeeeaaally suspicious and he demands to know how she knows that Moony is at the hospital. From Jae-hee, of course, says Min-jung. Jae-hwa tells her that she's in BIG trouble if she put his little brother into a difficult situation.
JoAnne: #5. With a random floating triangle.
Awwww. Jae-hwa cares about Jae-hee. Awwwwwwww. He is ready to bring down the law's wrath on this woman in defense of him. Awwwwwwww. So they're going for jail? Not a gruesome death and a descent into the depths of hell?
JoAnne: They are a civilized nation, you know.

Bori gets Jae-hwa away from Min-jung and they go inside, leaving Min-jung out there on the streets, fretting about the possibility that Moony really came by. She had him moved to a different hospital though! It's not possible!
JoAnne: Of course she's surprised! It would be the first time ever that a plan didn't work out the way she wanted it to! Right?
Inside Bi Sool Chae, Bi-dan tells her parents (what's with Kim Ji-hoon's hair all of a sudden? Did he take a shower and we didn't get to see it?!) (those rat BASTARDS) about the taxi. She is then sent to Halmoni's room, but lingers at the door and hears that Moony was in another accident. She runs away. Bori and Jae-hwa continue discussing things and Jae-hwa vows that he'll find out whether Min-jung and Jae-hee are behind the incident or only one of them.
JoAnne: Maybe he can argue Stockholm Syndrome or something for his brother. I see you backed off the 'let's get Jae Hwa every time he makes a face' plan.
And here it comes! Better late than never ... Jae-hwa tells Bori he has no grudge against Jae-hee. At least not anymore. He turned his back on him when he thought he had spilled his darkest secret, it being the fact that he was responsible for his mother's death. But now when he thinks about it, his little brother burned his hand when saving his mother's clothes from the fire. Awwww, Jae-hwa thinks he's been a bad brother ... he almost cries.
JoAnne: Bad man! Take off your shirt so we can punish you. We will punish you long time!
Bori says that he can make it up to him then for the rest of his life. But Jae-hwa fears it's too late: to win against him, he even got together with a woman like Min-jung. If you look at it like that ... yeah, you've been a VERY bad brother! And I am also not sure there's a possibility for Jae-hee to return from the dark side.
JoAnne: As punishment, when he goes to jail they make him wear that little blonde braid from when he was a kid. 
In the meantime, Bi-dan is frantically trying to reach Moony, who doesn't answer the phone. BaDIL comes in and sees Bi-dan's urgency. She even give her her cellphone to text with. And when she reads the text afterwards, seeing just how close Bi-dan and Moony are, she starts thinking along some dreaded lines.
JoAnne: Could someone please demonstrate some healthy deductive reasoning sprinkled with a soupcon of imagination and FIGURE.THIS.SHIT.OUT?

It's the darkest night and an even darker (and masked) figure enters the warehouse. He briefly looks at the remote control for that huge bag that was used to topple the boxes and then goes to a little van that's parked in the back. There's a "smart black box" in there ... with video capability. Oups. Min-jung? I think you're a little busted.
JoAnne: Don't worry, Min Jung. Just as they go to hit 'play' a seagull will swoop down and snatch it away. That will be your 958th 'save', but have you noticed that each one's protective spell lasts just a little bit less time?
Min-jung goes to check on Moony who is in intensive care. Alright, he's still where she transferred him too! Unconscious. In a coma even? She thinks that she'll make up for the wrong she did him today if they were to meet in hell. Haha, what a great promise. She leaves hurriedly when a nurse comes and looks at her strangely and we learn that Moony was fully conscious after being buried underneath those boxes and heard it all: the whole conversation between Jae-hee and Min-jung. And that Min-jung asked a worker to "steal" him from the hospital.
JoAnne: Lying under those boxes, bloody and bruised, Moony has time to think back. He stares at the wall, waiting for someone to come rescue him, and thinks, 'You know what, that bitch wasn't even that good. I must have lost my mind back then.'
And then, Moony opens his eyes! Wide! And sits up. He is alright! And the nurse is in on things and promises to continue lying to Min-jung that he is still unconscious. He looks at Bi-dan's drawing of him and cries a little. Never has he looked better!
JoAnne: In the hospital bed shot he looks kind of like Jo In Sung's imaginary friend. ooh...I just had an awesome idea for a crossover between two dramas. First, you need two dramas that run on consecutive nights. In the first drama, you have a central character, either the male or female lead. Whatever they are - rich, poor, cool, dorky, whatever, it's fine - but they ALSO have to have narcolepsy. In the second drama, you have the same actor playing the same kind of character, and they even have the same name. But in THIS drama, they're the second lead. So basically, in the first drama, the character wins at life without really trying, but they have narcolepsy and fall asleep randomly. And what happens is, every time they fall asleep, they wake up in the second drama, where everything about them is exactly the same and they aren't even aware it's a different drama, but THIS time, they're the second lead so nothing works for them even though it should.
Jae-hee gets home and gets a verbal beating from his father about what kind of terrible person he is. So his father believes he attempted to kill Moony as well? Jae-hee asks bitterly. It must be true then! But the people who made him that way are his father and his brother, forcing him to become fiercer and fiercer, hitting back at them with ever more force and cunning. Bullshit, Jae-hee, but whatever.
JoAnne: Weak. Peevish. A follower. Probably has a tiiiiiiiiiiiny tiny penis.
Bad Dad says nonsense (we seem to agree a lot lately) and tells him once again to separate from that awful woman right away. Ah, here comes the devil herself. Jae-hee looks at her with disdain and flees upstairs while his mother starts ripping Min-jung's hair and Bad Dad just stares into the empty air. But only until Min-jung says fine, she'll divorce Jae-hee ... but she cannot stay quiet about him trying to kill a person - and of course, she has ample proof that he did it. Brilliant, you vixen! You really manage to blackmail each and every person in this drama, don't you?
JoAnne: Proof she sold her soul to the devil. Even after all that ruckus, look at her hair.
Oh, but BRAVO Bad Dad! He tells her to shut the fuck up: does she thinks she can threaten him? If Jae-hee did something wrong, Jae-hee has to face the consequences. And anyway - he will never forgive her for abandoning her own mother and pretending to be an orphan (yeah, because everything else she did was nothing in comparison to this?). The divorce will happen, if through a lawsuit, and Dumb Mom and Jae-hee can expect to pay for their stupidity too. BRAVO, Bad Dad!
JoAnne: Oh, you ain't seen NOTHING yet. Wait til he finds out she's his beloved Bi Dan's mother.

Upstairs (Min-jung has changed once again - beautiful gown!), Min-jung tells Jae-hee that she just knows he is still in love with her (god beware!) and he answers that he is very much disgusted with her instead. She is also disgusted with herself. But he promised to stick with her until after the competition. He has nothing he can use against her to prove who tried to kill Moony - cause the CCTV at the warehouse is broken. They're totally fine. And she laughs like a complete lunatic.
JoAnne: I wonder if they're going to go down that road. Because she is LOSING it on a regular basis lately.
Moony calls Jae-hwa! He reports that he was saved by Bi-dan's text in the warehouse, which made him stop at a spot where the impact of the boxes wasn't as great (yeah, whatever). Bi-dan saved him. But he also knows who tried to kill him: Min-jung. He has the evidence. And then, he talks to his daughter ... awwww. He lies that he went to see his daughter, who is already sleeping. Bi-dan delivers a message to give to her: that Moony loves her a lot. She's seen the box of tissues. Her dad (=Jae-hwa) cannot write it as well (which prompts said dad to start writing it on a piece of paper right away). Moony says he loves Bi-dan as much as he loves his own daughter and everybody cries. And then, Bi-dan says she, too, loves him as much as her own father.
JoAnne: About 5 minutes ago, one of my ovaries just up and left the building, muttering something about overwork and unfair labor conditions and broken promises, wasted fertility, crap like that.
But she loves Jae-hwa a biiiit more, she assures him. And Jae-hwa just smiles ... his heart is far too big to be troubles by this.
JoAnne: Thanks to WGM and the never-ending source of joy that is Song Jae Rim, we know that there is a DEVICE they use in South Korea to TRAIN THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH TO TILT UP LIKE THAT. He will let you put his in your mouth, if you want. (ha, I just read that to myself and...)
Halmoni brings GooDIL mugwort (that's cheeeeaaating!) and asks her if she can do this by herself. Yes, GooDIL can. And she has also knotted a few nice apricot knots. They cry together. And then, Veggie comes. Fie! Bong2 arrives too. Halmoni asks GooDIL why she is still living with this horrible person  (=Veggie), but GooDIL wants to win the competition before returning to Bi Sool Chae, her honor and dignity restored, her husband resting in peace (I guess because winning the competition means exposing BaDIL and taking "revenge")
JoAnne: And then she and Halmeoni can ride off into that big Hanbok Studio in the sky, where they will be reunited with Bong2. And every time there's a rainbow, it will mean they're working in the dye yard.
From Veggie, Min-jung hears that Halmoni brought GooDIL mugwort. Min-jung calls Shady Servant right away, to find out how much of this and that she'll need to dye the fabrics herself. He cannot just tell her on the phone, though, he has to touch the fabrics in person. But no no no! He cannot be seen by anyone! So they agree he will send her some info.
JoAnne: Not being particularly computer savvy, Shady sends Min Jung a snapchat of the process - which she watches once, and then it disappears. Bori then makes a vine of Min Jung losing her shit that goes viral, and we all get to watch her go from evil troll princess to drooling idiot on an endless 6-second loop.

When she gets upstairs, the bedroom is locked. Hehehe. Jae-hee has locked her out. She goes and sleeps in the kitchen, head on the table. That's how Veggie finds her. And then, I stop laughing altogether because Min-jung suddenly starts retching when she smells the seadfood that Veggie has bought. Oh no. Oh nononononooooo.
JoAnne: FUCK A DUCK.
Okay, I'm laughing again when Min-jung runs to the fridge to smell its contents to test for morning sickness. Alright. Everything makes her almost vomit. She is foooking pregnant is what she is. I'm enjoying this far too much, people! Min-jung is smirking like a devil and everybody around her goes "FUCK THIS, NOOOOOO!" She even apologizes to Bori for becoming pregnant before her. Hahahaaa. Also love how Dumb Mom almost dies from shock at the hospital, after the pregnancy is confirmed by the ultrasound ("are you sure this tiny thing is a baby and not a disease?")
JoAnne: Tumor baby! Yes!
But Jae-hwa kind of saves the moment by telling Jae-hee that he spoke with Moony last night (yes, Jae-hwa is super relieved that his brother isn't a man who would try to kill people) and he has the evidence to prove who tried to kill him. Hehe. No more smirks on Min-jung's pretty face.
JoAnne: Kim Ji Hoon is just not having a pretty day.
Min-jung isn't done though, no, FAR from it. She tells Jae-hee on the phone to act and remove Moony from the company for good now that he is absent. She also believes Jae-hwa is bluffing: there is no evidence. Broken CCTV and all. Moony unconscious and such. Oh woman ....
JoAnne: I give her credit for always giving 110% though, you know?

BaDIL is already mugworting - and she lets Bori know she knows who Bi-dan's real mother is. She also thinks Bori needs to tell everyone, so that they all know what kind of person Min-jung really is. But Bori doesn't want that - she doesn't want Bi-dan to be sad every time she sees her real mother. And now that Min-jung is pregnant, that secret cannot be even less revealed.
JoAnne: *Stares at that last sentence for a really long time.*
kakashi: hahaha, yeah, fine. I'll leave it like that
Shady has given Min-jung some written instructions about the mugwort. But Min-jung knows that GooDIL is dying the fabric herself now, so they don't have a real advantage when it comes to this task - but they also have the yongbo. And whoever has the yongbo will surely win. Which basically means the competition doesn't even have to happen, right?
JoAnne: Exactly. Just whip out the yongbo, yo.
Moony in da house! Him and Bi-dan discuss children living with kind mothers who are not their own, and Bi-dan says she hopes his daughter lives with a mother just as nice as Bori, who took in a child not even her own, when BaDIL comes out and hears it all. Uh-oh. And a much bigger uh-oh when she sees a face-off by Min-jung and Bi-dan and sees ... well, I guess she sees a certain resemblance.
JoAnne: Bi Dan does it better.
Shady goes to the place that sells mugwort and look who's there as well? Halmoni. He wants to run, but he is cut off by Bori and Jae-hwa (he looks the best in this suit! Wear it often!). Caught!
JoAnne: Yes, he does look better. But he looks really tired. And they aren't even trying to do Bori's hair anymore. Damn.
BaDIL follows Moony home and then asks him with great urgency to tell her the truth: so Min-jung had his child, right? There is no DNA anymore, but she suspects very much that that child is a child she knows. It's Bi-dan, isn't it?!
JoAnne: How many secrets are left, again?

The Rest

Completely Useless Couple eats PPL pizza. They talk a bit about Ga-eul and Little Kang and decide to marry Little Kang off ... to someone else. Snort.
JoAnne: Whatever. They no longer really amuse me, but it's mostly her that's annoying. Not Big Kang.

Comments

Wow. what happened?! My Jangbori fatigue is definitely gone, this was a really good episode! Action-packed, with plot-development AND character-development! Finally, we get to the two brothers and their issues (solve them! Yes!) and then, the show actually surprised me by throwing in one of those very very old makjang tropes: pregnancy. I mean ... not that we never discussed this possibility, but I was NOT expecting this at this point in time! Yay for extensions, maybe?
JoAnne: That was what I thought, exactly - wow, we talked about this, but it never happened... and at this point it came as a surprise!

We took a few big steps forward in this episode it seems? Shady has been smoked out of that hole Min-jung put him in, the Bi-dan secret is about to blow up, too, and everybody knows who lied about Min-jung's real mother and that those that lied must be blackmailed by MJ.
JoAnne: At this point, I just want to know what they do about MinJung's baby. The new one.

Overall, this drama is no longer really about Bori, both her and Jae-hwa are complete (cute) side-characters. This drama is much more about Min-jung, Moon, and Bi-dan and also a little bit about Jae-hee, who might be able to redeem himself in the four episodes that are left if he only does the right thing. The right thing being: being honest about things and stop being a complete dick.
JoAnne: Which is where Bori and Jae Hwa come back into focus, because they are the upright and outstanding people who will influence others to do good, most notably, Bi Dan. Think about it - there really is not ONE other person who's just GOOD besides Bori, Jae Hwa, and Bi Dan.
kakashi: Long live Bori, Jae-hwa and Bi-dan! And no, Kim Ji-hoon doesn't look bad AT ALL. You did pick really great shots of him for this montage.