Marry My Husband Ep 12 (A SqueeCap)
SHUK: This episode was a rollercoaster of emotions, including both squee and disgust. Still, we soldier on to our (hopefully) happy ending.
Trotwood: I'm not going to lie, I'm not sure that I would have continued with this show until all the epsiodes were out if I hadn't already read the webcomic and hoped for a good resolution. I kept saying to myself over and over "they can't change the ending, right?"
EPISODE 12
We begin this episode with a Ji-won flashback, where she always, even as a kid, worried about her father and the hard work he would do just to keep the two of them with a roof over her head. Yet despite this, Ji-won was still subject to village gossip about her mother. One day after school, she followed him, only to find him following his wife as she cavorted with another man. Poor Ji-won!
Poor dad, too. He seems like such a kind man. I'm not saying that the mom should have stayed married to him just because he was kind, but it seems like she didn't bother to work on any closure for any of them and just decided to walk away to her happier life.
She ended up crying on a jetty, accepting that her mother didn’t love her and that her life was unlucky. We finally see how she met Soo-min long ago; she helped her when she was buying snacks from a gossipy unkind ahjumma.
I'm wondering about them showing this scene now because though Ji-won is so relieved that she shows up with the wallet she thought she had lost, I'm suspicious. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Soo-min had stolen the wallet just so she could be the hero here. Hmph. Don't trust her or her perfect teeth.
We go through several familiar scenes of high school and college with the SleazePair, as the voiceover ruefully admits she would have accepted any scum as friend when she was so desperate for companions. (so sad) But now, in this second life, Ji-won will fight for her own happiness with her Boss Tree lucky charm. I thought he is officially Snuggle Tree now.
We slip back into the final scene of Episode 11, meeting Yoo-ra for the first time. Yoo-ra is cool and collected, putting JiJi Couple on the spot with her interruption. She casually mentions her need to see Boss, and since her ex-fiancé is dodging her, she tracked him down.
Is anyone else bothered by her lips? I'm not into this new lipstick styling that makes people's lips look like they just dipped them into Vaseline. It's so 80s, and there are things I don't want to remember from that time.
Ji-won lets go of Boss Tree’s hand, in shock, while the Ex gives a calculating smile.
Once Ji-won is home, she walks in a daze, wondering if she actually picked up an unlucky charm. Then the axe falls again; Sunny calls her in tears and tells her of Yang Mom’s cancer diagnosis.
And she blames herself. I would, too. It's like this universe is saying that some things can't change. they may not happen to her, but they're going to happen to somebody. And the last person who should be getting cancer here is Yang Mom. She has the least amount of resources and her husband is a selfish lowlife. We all know the study that men are six times more likely to leave their wives after a cancer diagnosis than wives are to leave their husbands. At least her parents are great. Her dad would probably kill that man if he left. Although we, as viewers, just want him to go.
At Grandpa’s House of Indifference, he is happily chatting with the Ex, who is clearly comfortable inside the family mansion. We are shown that she is a dog in the manger, looking at clandestine photos of JiJi Couple (did Henchman send them to her??) and deciding that, even though she dumped him before, she can just pick him up again now. And she plans to get Grandpa to help facilitate it. Ji-won is driving Yang Mom to the hospital for more tests. Yang Mom seems fatalist; there is a long waitlist for an oncologist appointment, but perhaps medications will help in this. But it turns out, she just feels weak in front of Ji-won. The younger woman pulls to the side and lets Yang Mom cry on her shoulder, apologizing in her heart for passing her cancer ‘curse’ on the older woman.
This was a lovely scene. It's not just the guilt here though, but her memory of how she wished someone had been there for her when she got her diagnosis. She tells Yang Mom that she can cry in front of her with no shame, and knowing Yang Mom, she's been trying to stay stoic for her parents and her child.
Things are not going well at WeaselHouse either. Snakey is bored, glaring at Weasel who is playing games. (I would call him a child, but that would be an insult to children) This is a super dull honeymoon. She tries to make the best of it. After all, he is now the head of the household. But Weasel snaps back that Ji-won never had this sort of ambition. Yikes! I bet comparing the two will eventually bring him a world of hurt. He deserves it, though. Also, I love how he doesn't want to be the head of the house, but we know it's because he doesn't want any of the responsibility. All this time, Snakey was jealous of the "care" Ji-won was getting from him when really it was the other way round.
In fact, he grabs her hand and talks down to her. She is ignorant about marriages, so he will explain. Each party has a role to play. Complaining about the wedding planning, complaining about the honeymoon, she is clearly self-centered and needs to learn to be (the low end) part of the Weasel family. After all, he calmly accepted her rowdy friends at the ceremony. Snakey mentions his phone-throwing tantrum then, so he yells into another tantrum and storms out of the hotel room.
Snakey, alone in the room, remembers when Ji-won admitted that Weasel was thrown-away garbage, but she is still convinced she got the better end of the deal. 
Outside, Weasel calls his friend, who confirms that their place has been sublet. Weasel plans to tell his mom he was scammed so they can move back into WeaselHouse, and he can pocket the sublet rent. And if Snakey complains about it, who cares; it’s not her money anyway. He receives over $250,000 USD deposit into his account. Um, didn’t his mom just set up a rental for them, or did she actually buy a place? I’m a bit confused.
For sure though, Snakey isn’t confused. She realizes he just pulled their marriage house out from under them and pocketed the money.
Meanwhile, back at U&K, there is a problem with the meal kit project. Ex-Kim takes this as a perfect time to lambast everyone and head out for a smoke with the new intern. As he heads for the elevator, he bumps into Ji-won. He proceeds to pick on her, too (for coming in late), but she snaps back (because she's late after taking her friend for cancer treatments; he's lucky she didn't his head off). How nice when the tiger is away, the monkey crowns himself king. In other words, he should stop with the lazy smoke breaks and work on the project with the rest of the team. He blows her off with an evil grin, stating that soon no one will need to worry about it.
Ji-won finds out that the chefs that previously agreed to be their representatives have all backed out, and that smirking nicotine-smelling ex-manager probably had something to do with it. But with Yang Mom having medical issues, our intrepid women need to solve the issue, and fast.
In the midst of this, Boss Tree shows up and whisks Ji-won away. In a meeting room, he’s upset that she has been avoiding him. And that she forced him to bring this up at work. He wants her to hear him out, but she wants to think about the reality of this second chance.
He asks if she ever heard he was married in PastLife; she wouldn’t because he didn’t. He decided he couldn’t marry the Ex without feelings, which were clear after her funeral. Ji-won tears up, but thinks it all sounds like an excuse in CurrentLife.I was mad at her here. This was actually one of the best and most reasonable ex-fiance explanations I have heard in dramas. they never married even without her in his life. That should mean something to her. In fact, it should have meant something when she thought it through the previous night. I was excusing her because she also got the news of Yang mom's cancer at the time she could have been thinking this all through.
Boss Tree counters that when she drunkenly asked for a warm family, he decided that he wanted to give her that in CurrentLife, no matter what. Ji-won cries, knowing that when one side of a relationship leaves for love, the other side gets hurt. She’s clearly projecting her mom’s past behavior onto Boss Tree. So no relationship should end one-sidedly. But isn’t she doing the same thing? Yup. Pot meet kettle.
She decides to leave the meeting room. Boss Tree stops her, not to plead his case again, but to hand her a contact card. He had already contacted the top US Doctor that specializes in cancers of the stomach six months ago to arrange things. Ooof.
Before she has a chance to really think about things, she gets a call from The Ex. They meet at some fancy blood-red walled place. Ji-won admits that she is backing away from Ji-hyuk, but bitchy Ex doesn’t want just this. She runs roughshod over Ji-won’s feelings, needling her about her seven years with Weasel. Ex arrogantly calls her a self-righteous nobody, who became a gold digger going after the successor.
Ji-won has had enough. She also hates people like The Ex, who only look at people with eyes that calculate their worth. Ji-won never cared that Ji-hyuk would inherit the company; she forged her own path. With that, she walked out like a queen.
Yes!!! I wanted her to slap her, too, and then I realized that all that lip gloss The Ex's face would probably stain her outfit.
Boss Tree tiredly reaches his apartment only to find the Fabulous Necklace left at his door. She should have at least put it inside if only to protect it and say goodbye to CheeseKitty.
At her place, she tries to give herself a pep talk and writes down the recent events in her book.
Yang Mom is lead out of a restaurant, where she seemed to have collapsed. Dirtbag Dad takes her home, while the parents take Tiny Cute home with them so she can rest. In the same parking lot, Henchman is watching the family vignette. Is he stalking her? (I like that he wonders that about himself. He doesn't understand why she bothers him so much).He notices the driver and realizes he’s the cheating a-hole he saw at the restaurant. Henchman sighs and wonders what he will do now; he sees them drive away. He also sees that a woman who was with Yang Mom’s parents is Dirtbag Dad’s affair partner.
Ji-won is at the office, trying to figure out how Fate is going to boomerang next. She receives a text from Yang Mom. Her treatment has swiftly started, and a great US Doctor just happened to have a slot open to perform surgery. After reading the text, Ji-won remembers Boss Tree’s efforts with the cancer doctor.
At WeaselHouse, WMom is ready to kill the scamming real estate agent. I guess she actually did buy the place, and Weasel weaseled his mom’s money by selling it. WMom beats him for a bit, but then turns around and blames Snakey for his bad judgement. Ji-won voiceovers that Snakey isn’t nearly as timid as PastLife Ji-won was. As much as I hate Snakey, I was can't abide WMom and her complete obliviousness to how terrible her son is or that she takes no responsibility for how terrible he is.
Sure enough, Snakey stands up and dusts off her skirt; after all, WMom picked the house and gave Weasel the money. It’s not her fault; she didn’t get upset even when they were planning to rent instead of buy. WMom gets all apoplexic and starts yelling. Snakey throws Weasel under the bus (where he belongs), and he returns the favor by admitting she didn’t have the same sterling background as Ji-won. Also, she has a lot of her own money, and even allowed her mother-in-law to control the wedding. Weasel tries to hush her. Snakey sighs and asks WMom to stop beating her husband and the father of their growing child.
Later, in their bedroom, Weasel celebrates Snakey’s snakiness, at least until she admits that she isn’t pregnant “anymore”. About that time, WMom walks in. She demands Snakey cleans the house then stomps away to head out.
Snakey calmly states she lost the baby when Weasel threw his cell phone at her, and he cries over the lost non-existent child. When she sees him, she strokes the fake sonograms and puts them away in a drawer. His first sentence, though: “You insisted on eating beef during our honeymoon to strengthen our child, but you weren’t pregnant then?” That’s our POS Weasel, always looking at things from a money POV. Snakey calmly bats the question back: “Didn’t you say you had a house when you didn’t?” This pair is a match made in hell heaven.
They really do deserve each other.
Ji-won is working late in an empty office. PPL coffee candy wrappers show her effort, yet she still yawns a bit.
ShukNote: A Kopiko coffee candy contains about 25 mg caffeine in each piece. An average 8 oz cup of coffee in the USA contains 80 ~ 100 mg of caffeine. Since Ji-won at this time has consumed nine of these, about 225 mg of caffeine is circulating in her system right now!
TrotNote: I went to visit my daughter in Indonesia in February after this show came out, and there were billboards with this coffee candy. I had never heard of it in the US. So to look up from a taxi and see a huge billboard made me squee in an international KDrama real life moment. 😁
Suddenly Sunny shows up, with PPL dried fish crackers and beer, which hits the snacking spot. The younger woman admits that her brother bought the snacks and told her to deliver them to Ji-won; he is hesitant to interact with her.
Sunny wonders if it’s because of Yoo-ra, whom he got engaged to because of his sister and wanting to give her a stable family life. Anyway, Sunny is happy they are no longer engaged, since nowadays he is now less of an automaton and more human.
Our Boss Tree meets up with Grandpa happily talking to The Ex. When it’s just the two of them, Yoo-ra chirps about her fondness for his elder relative. Boss Tree counteracts this; she has visited his grandfather more times in this one week than she had their entire 5 year engagement period.
She doesn’t deny this and arrogantly admits she doesn’t like any old woman touching her property. We get a flashback where Ex literally assaults and injures any woman who seems to get anywhere near Ji-hyuk. Oh great, we get rid of one psycho woman only to get another. Sigh.
And this was one of the things that made viewers so angry. Not that this was not a part of the original characterization in the web comic, but that it was also completely unnecessary to the plot. There was no need nor a lot of time to add needless plot layers.
Back in the office, Ji-won admits that Sunny’s brother is a pretty terrific guy, but she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Sunny drops the (un)surprising knowledge that they are half-siblings. He was hurt by his stepmother’s actions and so would never cheat on his relationship. This give Ji-won some pause.
Boss Tree arrives back at Grandpa’s house; the old guy is ready to sing The Ex’s praises. I’m thinking there’s no way his personal surveillance team wouldn’t have picked up on her previous jealous violent tendencies. Is this creature really his choice for his grandson??
Indeed, he does. He likes that she has an agenda and is personally ambitious enough to want to be the First Lady of U&K and is also jealous enough to protect what’s hers.
I suppose having a psycho protecting your and your company is an option.
Ji-hyuk decides to have a frank discussion. When Grandpa met his grandson's future stepmother, did he also admire her greed and aggressiveness over his own daughter-in-law? Ji-hyuk admits to liking her as a young teen (he clearly was a lonely boy looking for a mother figure), before he realized that his sister was only 5 years younger than him, and she had been his father’s mistress for many years. The old coot says nothing, but he sips his tea.
He does have the grace to look a bit uncomfortable but not enough to change his mind.
 |
| Hmm, I don't see that he cares for his own grandson [shrug] |
Ji-hyuk always felt bad for his half-sister being stuck in this situation, and so he tried to work it out with Yoo-ra and not be like his cheating father. But it’s too difficult, especially knowing the end. He begins to tear up with his emotions. I don’t know if his lousy relative even cares.
Meanwhile, the Ex is strategizing. She finds out that SleazePair have no idea who Boss Tree really is.
And at WeaselHouse, it looks like a bomb exploded in the house: dirty dishes, dirty clothes, old food everywhere. WMom orders Snakey to clean up everything, since she has a Lady’s Meeting to go to. She flips on more classical music and chirps that Snakey should feel so lucky at WHouse. She pats Snakey’s abdomen to say goodbye to NonExistantGrandchild and leaves.
It seems that Snakey at least tries a little, but clearly housework isn’t her thing. Her bitter tirade is halted by a delivery. In the envelope is everything spelling out Yu Ji-hyuk as the soon-to-be CEO of the entire company. I smell The Ex’s pointy fingernails all over this. Nevertheless, Snakey has an absolute hissy-fit meltdown tantrum when she realizes that Ji-won does have it better than her.
I'm glad Snakey finds out. I want her to wallow and burn with jealousy. Still, there is no need for Vaseline Lips to have to be the one who sends her this. But oh well. We are stuck with her, so I promise I will stop complaining about the needless additions to her character.
When Weasel comes home, she shares the envelope’s contents, which pisses him off. He’s jealous of Boss Tree’s golden parachute and is convinced he is just as good a businessman if he only had a little support.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! He is so delusional. I wish I had that kind of confidence.
Both finally see the true face of the other, but they are now trapped in their nightmare marriage. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer couple. Snakey thinks she deserves compensation from Ji-won for her poor choices. Victimhood, anyone? Snakey makes a phone call.
At Ji-won’s apartment, she is napping on the couch, but she’s beset with all kinds of thoughts of Snakey’s previous bizarre behavior. She sees a text. It’s from her long-lost mother? What does that old crone want?
Ji-won meets her for coffee the next day. Mom admits she didn’t like her husband much and thought that life dragged her down. Oh! Except for her darling daughter of course! Ji-won is stone faced; if she really cared about her daughter, why didn’t ever contact Ji-won through high school, college, or any time up to now. Mom claims Dad blocked her, and she could only visit after he passed, and she had time to gather her courage.
Shameful lies.
In her mind, Ji-won realizes that her childhood traumas fed right into her need to belong and subsequent poor choices in PastLife.
After coffee, Ji-won invites her mother to go shopping the next day. When she picks her up bright and early, Mom is ready to flatter her successful daughter. They photobooth some pics; shop for bags and jewelry; and finally have dinner at the end of the day.
Ji-won asks if her mother had a good time. The older woman gleefully says yes, and how nice it is to have a rich boyfriend…oops. The cat is out of the bag.
This surprises no one.
Ji-won is completely unsurprised that her mom showed up thinking her daughter snagged a chaebol. She ruefully chuckles that she knew her mom was a fraud. After all, she never showed up for any of her graduations or when she started her employment at a big nationally known company. There had to be a reason for this sudden arrival, but it really didn’t matter since she had already broken up with her “rich boyfriend”.
True color revealed as Mom’s face goes through multiple emotions. We get a flashback of Snakey’s phone call to Mom explaining Ji-won’s unexpected windfall of boyfriend with money. Mom wonders out loud if Ji-won knew why she contacted her daughter, why did they spend the day together?
Ji-won readily admits that she wanted to experience a mother-daughter day once in her life; now that she has, Godspeed to old relatives. Mom isn’t ready to give up and offers to leave forever if Ji-won will give her money.
But Ji-won has had enough. She has no money, and no mother. Since the older woman chose to live as an affair mistress and not a mother, she should stay that way for the rest of her life. With that, Ji-won leaves, head held high and smiling.
In a fancy schmancy hotel room, The Ex learns of Snakey and Ji-Mom’s failures, she decides to get her hands dirty instead of puppeteering others.
But this is the plot hole I don't understand. Why would they think that Ji-Mom would have any influence or want to have any when Ji-won already broke up with Snuggle Tree? Does the Ex not believe Ji-won broke it off with her so-called property?
These creatures have no concept of familial love or ties, so naturally they think everyone is as vacuous and shallow as they are. So Mommy Issues must be stronger than, yunno, real emotions.
Weasel is sneaking out of WHouse, whining to his friend to meet for drinks. A dark fancy schmancy car parks and a fancy schmancy crazy woman steps out. Yoo-ra has a proposal for Ji-won’s ex-fiancé.
At Chicken Guy Dojo, Ji-won sneaks up and peeks in the window. Boss Tree and Delivery Guy are sparring on the mats. As usual, Boss Tree is upright, at least until he senses his beloved nearby. They make quick eye contact, and his distraction is enough for Delivery Guy to finally throw him after long years of effort.
He is soooo happy. I hope Boss Tree/Snuggle tree never tells him the truth. Let him have this moment.
When the sun is on the horizon, Ji-won visits her dad’s memorial tree. I see the year of his passing is 2005, which means that schmuck of a mother hadn’t contacted Ji-won in over 17 years. No wonder she was suspicious! She looks over the pics of JiJi Couple and cries. She tells her dad that she wanted to live her SecondLife well, but fate just conspires to make things hard. She doesn’t know what to do anymore and feels like a fool.
Later, she dries her eyes and heads home. Unbeknownst, she’s being followed by a dark sedan. And a dark Truck of Doom waits for a phone call that finally comes.
Already rolling my eyes.
At an intersection she is waiting at a red light when a dump truck suddenly flips on its headlights and barrels towards her. She is like a deer in the headlights and is unable to move and it gets closer to her front grille.
Suddenly out of the corner, a big black SUV drives in between Doom and Ji-won. It’s Ji-hyuk! He stares at her in a steadfast manner as the dump truck slams into his passenger side and pushes the stricken vehicle down the road.
FINAL THOUGHTS
How can we have any final thoughts about this ending besides screams into a pillow? What the what?
I admit a lot of this episode seems a bit.. farfetched? I mean, I for one would never to share a molecule of air with the DNA donor, never mind a full day of spending money on thatThere is no one else on that road between her and that dump truck, and there is so much time. Time enough for Snuggle Tree/Boss Tree/Demolition Derby Tree to come out of nowhere from behind and get in between them.
True Love and a V8 conquers all.Sigh.
