Jang Bori Is Here! - Episode 40 (KimJiCap)
I can't believe we're at episode 40?! What happened?! And when?! Where did my time go?! Why didn't I notice?! Ahhhhhh! >.< This episode is FULL of Kim Ji-hoon in a white shirt, which ... *fans herself*. Never has he looked better to me. Thank you!
JoAnne: He looks better shirtless in pajama bottoms, as I recall. I do love a man in pajama bottoms, slung low across the hips. Yes.
JoAnne: Oh yes, there was laughing. You kind of have to admire this girl's commitment to a cause, though.
BaDIL
looks genuinely disgusted as she spits out "you are worse than a bug"
(hmm, I like that) and wants to slap Min-jung, but nope - Min-jung is so
not done. Cause she knows where Shady Servant is - and she KNOWS
things. Yeah, shit, BaDIL. It's not exactly news, but I guess Shady
Servant is a most dangerous witness to have hidden away. A bit later,
Min-jung manages to blame BaDIL for "tricking" her into coming to Seoul
to get an education (hahahaa) and for just using her as a toy to lessen
the guilt over losing Eun-bi. That's a pretty accurate analysis, I'd
say, well done!
JoAnne: What fascinates me, kind of like looking at a bug under a microscope, is parsing out the ways MinJung actually buys her own stories.
But Min-jung really has BaDIL by her non-existent balls! As we know, she
recorded her conversation with Shady Servant about the hair pin.
JoAnne: True, true. She has BaDIL by the short hairs, that seems certain.
It's our new power couple ! They know where Bi-dan got off and they do a little "I will go - no I will go" game, until Jae-hwa finally agrees to go see Bori to tell her the news and Moony goes ahead to find the girl. Jae-hwa is smart enough to wonder why Moony is so engaged.
JoAnne: I'm glad that he found out Bori didn't actually give birth to Bi Dan before he finds out that Moony is the dad, because I didn't want to watch that particular jealousy/misunderstanding arc.
Would you look at that! Jae-hwa takes Bori to eat some Jjajangymeon - at that place their young selves went to so many years ago! The white-shirt-phase begins this very moment and I will have a hard time recapping proper. Those shoulders!!! Let's try to stay focused. He convinces Bori to eat (for Bi-dan's sake!) but she just cries - and so does he.
JoAnne: You know how he thinks Bori is awesome and Big Kang thinks Jung Ran is awesome? Much as I love Big Kang, I'd rather have Jae Hwa's brand of silly than Big Kang's. How about you?
Yeah... Big Kang is cute but quite like an imbecile.
It starts to pour outside all of a sudden and they run out (huh? why?!), where she frets that her child will get wet and he comforts her that this is just a local shower. Suddenly, Bori gets one of her headaches ... and she remembers the accident! Well, parts of it at least. Ah, so her head always hurts when it rains? That's not true (it has hurt without rain before and I think it has rained without her getting a headache), but let's not be narrow-minded.
JoAnne: I just spent time trying to remember when and where it rained and when she has had headaches and then I realized that I don't really care.
He is very worried and hugs her close, telling her Bi-dan told him to do that when it rains. She starts shivering and he takes his shirt off (!!!) to put it over her shoulders. And when he looks at her this time, he suddenly sees ... little Eun-bi! That's totally creepy-pervy, if you want to misunderstand, but we don't want that, right? He stares at her, very confused, but this young-older version of Bori/Eun-bi she just takes his hand and runs through the rain. I wanted him to stand sill and get soaked a little, but! Let's move on.
JoAnne: Because it wouldn't add to the creep factor at all for him to be wet and semi-nude and imagining young Eun Bi.
Oh.
There's a little bitchfight in front of the NorthCape headquarters, when Veggie soldiers there to reveal everything about her daughter to everyone. Min-jung prevents it, drags her mother to the car and goes on a little crazy-speed'n'suicide-trip. She also has a little nervous breakdown, which mellows her mother. We learn that Min-jung told Veggie to use Bori's credit card to buy the plane tickets (uhm ... she bought them at the airport? How does she have Bori's credit card and can pay with it at the airport?) and we also get reminded that ultimately, this is a drama about hanbokery and genius cross-stitching. Veggie, oh Veggie ... she tells Min-jung who has the genius pillow, which just means we will not get rid of Min-jung until the very end of this drama.
JoAnne: Yes, she bought them at the airport. Why she was able to with a credit card she couldn't show ID for, I do not know. How Bori even has a credit card, I do not know. Oh! Did Min Jung take out a credit card in Bori's name?
Oh, and that wedding we're all waiting for? Not happening. Why? Because Min-jung shows Bad Dad proof that Bori planned it all (just to get her hands on Jae-hwa): the credit card payment made with Bori's card!
JoAnne: Sure until Mom gets to the Bad Dad leg of The Tour to Tell All Truths.
Bong2 in da house! He has come to tell Bad Dad some good news: he has found his daughter. However, due to somebody's mean interference, he didn't recognize her for far too long. Daggereyes at Min-jung. Oh, and there will be a party in Eun-bi's honor for everybody soon. Hehehee.
JoAnne: I do love how they rub their happiness in Min Jung's face but come ON Bong2 why didn't you tell him Bori was Eun Bi?
kakashi: He wants this to be gooooooood. I.e. invite everybody over and then, the door opens, and in comes ... Bori!
Bi-dan is alone, cold, dirty, sad, hungry etc. somewhere in the countryside, when some guards find her. But she pretends she cannot speak and cannot hear (awww, child...) and also quickly removes Jae-hwa's phone-number bracelet from her foot. They give her something to drink and feed her and then hand her over to the police.
JoAnne: Poor little silly baby girl.
Quite near: Moony. More and more desperate. He starts running around the countryside, soon covered in sweat. All seems lost when suddenly, a police car pulls up and Moony hears that a little girl was found. Jae-hwa is also on his way, but it's Moony that gets there first and ... *creying*. I don't think Jae-hwa can pay any attention, but it's SO CLEAR that Moony's heart beats for this little girl. Ah, there's certainly a lot of crying lately, on and off screen, isn't there?
JoAnne: *sniff* what?
Awww, Jae-hwa scolds her, but he cannot stop crying and she bawls too. Is this finally the end of her stupid ideas?! Yes - but only after Jae-hwa promises to get permission from his family to marry Bori. Come on, little one - your "dad" will marry your "mom" even if she loses all legs and arms before that.
JoAnne: Just had this really disturbing image of a Bori torso hopping down the aisle. She's all pop-eyed and happy with her hair flying..
At Bi Sool Chae, everybody is super happy to get the news that the little girl has been found. And they start praising Jae-hwa like he is some sort of hero - which he totally is. And still: nobody thinks of TELLING HIM that Eun-bi has been found and that Eun-bi is Bori??! Seriously, people!!!! He will be invited to Bi Sool Chae soon though (good, at least there's a remote chance he will find out before episode 45 now) and Min-jung will be kicked out of the family (gooooood)!
JoAnne: Hey it could be here in the US - he wouldn't find out until next season. (Although with 50 episodes, we are well into season 2 if not season 3.)
Two policemen in civilian clothes (does that make them criminal
police?) come looking for Veggie. Uh-oh... they're there to investigate
Veggie because of Bi-dan's disappearance. The person who filed the
report: Jae-hwa. Hehe.
JoAnne: They're detectives. Only patrol cops wear uniforms - same here. The rest of the time uniforms are for official events. Well, I think the cops assigned to the front desk and stuff wear uniforms all the time too but generally they are patrol cops they're just assigned a different duty.
Veggie is done lying - she will not implicate Bori in this. But before she makes a statement, she gets Dumb Mom to come to the police station and tells her about a second daughter. She begs her to accept her as her daughter-in-law. Of course, Dumb Mom thinks she means a wife for Jae-hwa and leaves in anger, but Veggie only wanted to place this request with Dumb Mom, so that she would remember later, when Min-jung's cover is shredded apart.
JoAnne: Or, you know, you could have told her now.
Min-jung is at the PPL store when Jae-hwa calls: He heard something strange from his brother ... that Bori was the one that sent Bi-dan away? She confirms it: she even has proof! The credit card! Ahh, goes our sexy prosecutor in his white shirt, but there's a slight problem: Bori doesn't even have a credit card. Oh, and Veggie is at the police station. They are looking into who made that card. Oupsie. Plan backfire much?
JoAnne: Dumb as dirt, that one.
Bori learns that BaDIL knows from Veggie who Min-jung really is - and she implores her mother to tell her what Min-jung has against her. But BaDIL has come up with the perfect solution: ship Bori off to the States to study! Yeah, that's always a good idea, KDramaland.
JoAnne: I don't know if they actually have any GED programs that take students as boarders, LOL.
Moony goes crazy buying clothes for Bi-dan (awww), it's making me sad. Sure, he can be with Bi-dan from time to time ... but not as her father. When driving the kid home, Jae-hwa calls his family to tell them that Bi-dan is found - and to tell his father that Bori certainly had nothing to do with the child's disappearance. No: the culprit is in their house right now. Hahaha, I love his satisfied laugh right there.
JoAnne: Stupid ass Dumb Mom and Ga Eul.
And then, Bi-dan is home!!!
The next day, Jae-hwa and Bori are at the police station, reading Veggie's statement. It's a lie, says Jae-hwa, she did not do everything by herself - and he has proof for it. Out he pulls the voice recording from the staircase - Min-jung: BUSTED!
JoAnne: Please let me wake up tomorrow and have it be next week so I can watch this again.
JoAnne: He picked a berry up off the pavement and ate it. (Actually, I was hoping it would be Dumb Mom who displayed some kind of unexpected and intense fighting skills, LOL)
At the Lee house, everybody is ready to go to work - when Moony comes
in. And he has something to say and bring: the lost evidence. This time,
he is going to give it to the President personally. - Min-jung: BUSTED!
JoAnne: I bet you anything not.
kakashi: Oh come ON!
JoAnne: But I still don't think we'll like her.
Veggie might have to go to prison, and I guess she deserves that. But only if Min-jung is at the same prison, life-long, and in solitary confinement. I keep wondering how they will punish her in the end. If. Because her life, as we have said, is in itself already a huge punishment.
JoAnne: Didn't Jae Hwa say she needed to go to jail? Please let it be so. But for Veggie at least I'll feel a little bit bad because her motives were all mixed up.
I liked that Jae-hwa started to recognize Bori as Eun-bi herself (though it was unintentionally pedo-style) because this show has really made this point an important one: who recognizes her as her former self and who doesn't? He is almost there. And there's only a little more thinking he needs to do to figure out who Moony could be. It couldn't be more obvious, in fact.
JoAnne: Right but it wouldn't occur to anyone in real life either, I bet. Well he wouldn't have that kind of access though... oh I don't know.
10 more episodes to go and am already sad it's soon going to be over.
JoAnne: We'll have Bad Guys to see us through.
JoAnne: He looks better shirtless in pajama bottoms, as I recall. I do love a man in pajama bottoms, slung low across the hips. Yes.
Episode 40
So maybe BaDIL hasn't heard everything, which is a shame - but she does learn that Veggie is Min-jung's birth mother (yes, there's even DNA proof!), which does tell her a lot about her "daughter". Hahahaaa, who laughed when Min-jung ripped apart the DNA test, trying to make it disappear or something? I certainly did!JoAnne: Oh yes, there was laughing. You kind of have to admire this girl's commitment to a cause, though.
JoAnne: What fascinates me, kind of like looking at a bug under a microscope, is parsing out the ways MinJung actually buys her own stories.
But Min-jung really has BaDIL by her non-existent balls! As we know, she
recorded her conversation with Shady Servant about the hair pin.JoAnne: True, true. She has BaDIL by the short hairs, that seems certain.
It's our new power couple ! They know where Bi-dan got off and they do a little "I will go - no I will go" game, until Jae-hwa finally agrees to go see Bori to tell her the news and Moony goes ahead to find the girl. Jae-hwa is smart enough to wonder why Moony is so engaged.
JoAnne: I'm glad that he found out Bori didn't actually give birth to Bi Dan before he finds out that Moony is the dad, because I didn't want to watch that particular jealousy/misunderstanding arc.
Would you look at that! Jae-hwa takes Bori to eat some Jjajangymeon - at that place their young selves went to so many years ago! The white-shirt-phase begins this very moment and I will have a hard time recapping proper. Those shoulders!!! Let's try to stay focused. He convinces Bori to eat (for Bi-dan's sake!) but she just cries - and so does he.
JoAnne: You know how he thinks Bori is awesome and Big Kang thinks Jung Ran is awesome? Much as I love Big Kang, I'd rather have Jae Hwa's brand of silly than Big Kang's. How about you?
Yeah... Big Kang is cute but quite like an imbecile.
JoAnne: I just spent time trying to remember when and where it rained and when she has had headaches and then I realized that I don't really care.
JoAnne: Because it wouldn't add to the creep factor at all for him to be wet and semi-nude and imagining young Eun Bi.
Oh.
JoAnne: Yes, she bought them at the airport. Why she was able to with a credit card she couldn't show ID for, I do not know. How Bori even has a credit card, I do not know. Oh! Did Min Jung take out a credit card in Bori's name?
JoAnne: Sure until Mom gets to the Bad Dad leg of The Tour to Tell All Truths.
JoAnne: I do love how they rub their happiness in Min Jung's face but come ON Bong2 why didn't you tell him Bori was Eun Bi?
kakashi: He wants this to be gooooooood. I.e. invite everybody over and then, the door opens, and in comes ... Bori!
Bi-dan is alone, cold, dirty, sad, hungry etc. somewhere in the countryside, when some guards find her. But she pretends she cannot speak and cannot hear (awww, child...) and also quickly removes Jae-hwa's phone-number bracelet from her foot. They give her something to drink and feed her and then hand her over to the police.
JoAnne: Poor little silly baby girl.
JoAnne: *sniff* what?
JoAnne: Just had this really disturbing image of a Bori torso hopping down the aisle. She's all pop-eyed and happy with her hair flying..
JoAnne: Hey it could be here in the US - he wouldn't find out until next season. (Although with 50 episodes, we are well into season 2 if not season 3.)
JoAnne: They're detectives. Only patrol cops wear uniforms - same here. The rest of the time uniforms are for official events. Well, I think the cops assigned to the front desk and stuff wear uniforms all the time too but generally they are patrol cops they're just assigned a different duty.
Veggie is done lying - she will not implicate Bori in this. But before she makes a statement, she gets Dumb Mom to come to the police station and tells her about a second daughter. She begs her to accept her as her daughter-in-law. Of course, Dumb Mom thinks she means a wife for Jae-hwa and leaves in anger, but Veggie only wanted to place this request with Dumb Mom, so that she would remember later, when Min-jung's cover is shredded apart.
JoAnne: Or, you know, you could have told her now.
JoAnne: Dumb as dirt, that one.
JoAnne: I don't know if they actually have any GED programs that take students as boarders, LOL.
JoAnne: Stupid ass Dumb Mom and Ga Eul.
And then, Bi-dan is home!!!JoAnne: Please let me wake up tomorrow and have it be next week so I can watch this again.
The Rest
Dumb Mom and equally if not Dumber Daughter keep annoying me greatly, but when they go drink beer and Ga-eul sprays hers all over a group of gangsters, things get quite entertaining. Dumb Mom has many faults, but being a chicken is not one of them! And then, Big Kang arrives and FIGHTS, all awesome and stuff (not quite Joongi style, but still good!). The result: two new fans. Stand in line, you!JoAnne: He picked a berry up off the pavement and ate it. (Actually, I was hoping it would be Dumb Mom who displayed some kind of unexpected and intense fighting skills, LOL)
JoAnne: I bet you anything not.
kakashi: Oh come ON!
Comments
In this race towards the end, Min-jung will use every bit of dirt she has on anybody to save her neck. Ultimately, as JoAnne has already pointed out, it seems clear that BaDIL will sacrifice herself for her daughter - or rather, she will admit to her crimes so that Bori can stay at her rightful place in peace. But that will take a few more episodes, of course.JoAnne: But I still don't think we'll like her.
Veggie might have to go to prison, and I guess she deserves that. But only if Min-jung is at the same prison, life-long, and in solitary confinement. I keep wondering how they will punish her in the end. If. Because her life, as we have said, is in itself already a huge punishment.
JoAnne: Didn't Jae Hwa say she needed to go to jail? Please let it be so. But for Veggie at least I'll feel a little bit bad because her motives were all mixed up.
I liked that Jae-hwa started to recognize Bori as Eun-bi herself (though it was unintentionally pedo-style) because this show has really made this point an important one: who recognizes her as her former self and who doesn't? He is almost there. And there's only a little more thinking he needs to do to figure out who Moony could be. It couldn't be more obvious, in fact.JoAnne: Right but it wouldn't occur to anyone in real life either, I bet. Well he wouldn't have that kind of access though... oh I don't know.
10 more episodes to go and am already sad it's soon going to be over.
JoAnne: We'll have Bad Guys to see us through.