Can We Love? - Episode 18 (Recap)

We're getting into the wrap-up phase of this drama and it seems everybody will get a nice little ribbon tied neatly around their respective stories. Well, if you can call a really messy and vengeful divorce case neat... Oh, and Ex-husband is back again, and there's potentially more Tae-geuk trouble... Sigh ... Come on, drama, we've had enough now. I liked you for being a drama about real people and their real problems, but recently, you have become all too melo for me.
Episode 18

We're back to potato soup and reminiscence about potato soups in the past. Face it, love, Oh-boy has moved on. Well, it seems to really sink in now, because Yoon-ah bursts into tears and runs to the couch to cry. It's good to see she isn't trying any funny things or anything, she is just really sad and emotionally drained. But she also admits that she took the project because she hoped to get back together with him. He moves to comfort her and at this moment, Jung-wan walks in. Yoon-ah is super embarrassed about it and Kyung-soo follows Jung-wan out, trying to explain things. Of course, Jung-wan is quite upset, about a variety of things, including him not telling her that Yoon-ah was at his house. Jung-wan leaves in a huff.
There are several attempts by Oh-boy to talk, but she never wants to. Haven't you learned something from the past, Jung-wan? He is a talker. He talks about everything, all the time. You need to also talk or things don't turn out alright! 

Kyung-soo is still trying to sort out the CEO Kim vs. Park thing, but the first attempt ends badly ... for him. Because he gets in the middle, he gets hit in the face by CEO Kim (later, the matter is resolved by Oh-boy helping CEO Kim to meet potential Chinese investors). When he waits for Jung-wan in front of the mart (yes, that always worked), she sees that he is hurt and he says it's because he punished himself for making her upset. Hahaaaaa. He explains to her why it is him that gets so involved in the whole thing: it is his movie and it is about loyalty to someone he once liked. That, Jung-wan doesn't like to hear (of course) and she wants to know why they broke up. Strangely enough, he says he did something wrong, but not more. Hmm ... what happened?
Jung-wan is jealous and probably gets more jealous by the minute. At the good-luck ceremony, things are a bit awkward. Afterwards, the team goes for drinks, but Yoon-ah asks Jung-wan for a private talk. They go somewhere else, without telling the others, and start a drinking game of their own. Each woman can ask the other questions. After answering truthfully, the one that gave the answer drinks one shot. If she doesn't want to answer, she has to drink two. Who invented something as silly as that?! Seriously.
Jung-wan wants to know when they dated: 7 years ago, for 3 years. And, a bit later, why did they break up? But Yoon-ah is not answering and has two drinks. That irks Jung-wan, a lot! But only one question later (Yoon-ah asked how much Jung-wan is in love with Oh Kyung-soo and Jung-wan said that he is a person that she believes can teach her to love again - and she is fine with not knowing why they broke up), we finally get to hear the whole story. Quite simply, Yoon-ah cheated on Kyung-soo when he was in London, filming for six months. He cam back to surprise her, even though he had no time, and caught them in their house. Everything ended because of her, but he is so noble he tells people it's because of him - such an amazing man.
A bit later, after she already fondled his hand in the car, Jung-wan comes to Oh-boy's house ... the shooting is starting! She has come to tell him how very cool and great he is for what he did for Yoon-ah. We are what the past makes us, and thanks to his experience with Yoon-ah, he has become a better man. He liked Yoon-ah a lot, he says - and when they broke up, he was sorry he wasn't nicer to her. So he promised himself to give his next woman - that is Jung-wan - his everything. Awwwwwwww .... and there's also time for some makeup sex. Well done! 
--> 
The other amazing man in the show is Puppy (I think he does deserve the label man?), who keeps getting close to Sun-mi. Of course, he now thinks he can't go to Paris and he is quite resolved not to go. Sun-mi on the other hand keeps telling him that this is a lifetime opportunity and he shouldn't pass it by. In private, she tells Jung-wan that she fells bad about the things she has done to him - and she really, really cannot keep him back. A bit later, Puppy and Sun-mi have a moment (he was so nice to her and helping her with repainting a kitchen) and she then finally tells him why he must go. When she made the decision to employ him, he was third on the list and the least qualified. But when he walked out, she saw him pick up some trash, and she realized that he was a very nice person. Because she was having a bad time, she wanted a kind person around her. When she got to know him better, she became scared of his sincerity ... and she just knew she was going to hurt him. But she also wants to become the strong woman again he fell in love with. That is why he should go to Paris. If he stayed because of her, it would make her feel sad and pathetic.
He gets it. After wrapping up the Moon storyline (she almost goes under but thanks to a lecture from Sun-mi, she is trying hard to get out of it - and she grudgingly admits that Sun-mi is kinda cool, and she gets her, now that she's a boss herself), Puppy goes to see Sun-mi at the office. He positions her at the top of the stairs and says she's up there, he is down here. There is a big gap between them. He goes up to where she is and adds: But if he goes to Paris and comes back, he'll be able to see eye to eye with her. He will go to Pairs. If he really wants to hold on to her, he needs to go. But can she please wait for him? Awwwwwwwwww ......
And now for the less awwwww-bits. Gyu-shik is a total monster now who goes all out with the help of his monster mother. It saddens me a bit that the writer turned him into this. He doesn't deserve it. He breaks into the Do-young apartment (I always wonder at those scene in KDrama ... can you just get a locksmith and break into ANY apartment you want?!) and throws brownies, plants, and books when he sees the friendly note she left for Do-young. They get "witnesses", i.e. the housekeeper, to lie about Ji-hyun - that she never prepared a meal for them and is already living with Ahn. Seriously. Also, as we learned in episode 17, he wants to take the restaurant away from her brother and he (or rather the MILDragon) takes her children away. Seriously. Is that possible in Korea??!
Love the bit where Ji-hyun smashes MILDragon's highly cherished vase into a million pieces. More of that! But it doesn't look good for Ji-hyun at all ... her lawyer suddenly refuses to represent her (because the MILDragon got involved). She ends up telling her two friends everything and asks them to be her witnesses. Her embarrassment, her explanation that all she had was her pride and that she didn't want to look bad in front of her friends, and her friends' shock when they finally find out what happened to her so many years ago when she just "disappeared" to have a baby was quite touching. I hope this will turn out alright for her. I really do.
Finally, we have Ex-husband and Snotty, meeting again, doing some kissing ... Ex-husband is wavering (because of the kissing and because he feels sorry for Snotty), but Snotty is the one who has decided to move on now: she will finally tell her parents that she is not getting married and will go on Blind Dates. Whatever. Just tell this Mister to finally get his act together and stop the bullshit with Tae-geuk.

Comments

It feels like a time-jump might be coming, but maybe not right away. Will we see the divorce case? Or will they be able to settle this quietly? I definitely want to see the wedding, because seriously, haven't we been waiting for ages?! I also want to see the MILDragon go to jail (I'm sure there's some tax evasion or whatever there and this is very much like Goddess of Marriage already, so just add a nice little scene where it's raining and MILDragon is dragged to prison, will you? Gyu-shik should go with her, he is just emotionally unstable and clearly dangerous).

Ex-husband and Snotty should also get married, come on, you loser, she is cute and you have nothing to lose. Stop moving, start living.