Jang Bori Is Here! - Episode 11 (KimJiCap)
Would you believe it? Somebody in the extended Hanboker family finally manages to meet GooDIL! That can only mean one thing: we are moving forward! In about 30 episodes, the birth secret will be revealed and all the evil characters will be punished. Or is this wishful thinking?
JoAnne: I've decided to mark the decades by how looooooooooooong this story is.
Episode 11
So... Bori really wants to enter the Hanbok competition (hanboking is her life!), but Teacher is quite without courage. She will only help her on the side; Bori is on her own (Evil Min-jung on the other hand is so NOT on her own - in fact, it's BaDIL that will enter the competition. Min-jung is just the little helper). During their conversation, Teacher hears that the hated prosecutor's name is Jae-hwa ... Lee Jae-hwa. Can it be? Is this unmyeong?!
JoAnne: She lives in Korea, she has to know the rules. Of course it's fate.
Jae-hwa is staring intently at the shoe that has appeared in his apartment all of a sudden (this, by the way, is 16 minutes into this episode. Hello!! This is not okay!! I want more of him!!) Also, how long has he been staring? Hours? Days?
JoAnne: He looks like he's trying to make it levitate.
He is wondering aloud where the shoe has come from. Just by looking at
it, he surmises that the owner of the shoe is dirty, does hard work and
... he sniffs the shoe! And drops it in horror. Why. Did. You. Sniff.
It??! But now that he has dropped it, the name written on its sole
becomes clearly visible: Do Bo-ri. Oups. The cat is out of the bag.
JoAnne: *best CSI impression coming up* You might say.... (whips off sunglasses) ...the shoe has dropped.
In the meantime, the culprit is at the rice restaurant and gets a new pair of plastic shoes from her mother. That evil one has missed her NotDaughter it seems - but only because she had to do everything herself and the customers kept asking for cheerful Bori. Because she doesn't know any better, Bori keeps loving this evil person, even hugging her, crying because she really, really wants to make hanbok but knows it displeases her "Mother". Finally, Veggie Ahjumma allows her to make them: but only if Min-jung NEVER finds out. Because if Bori makes hanbok that means she is hindering Min-jung's future. I am sure that this makes sense in some alternate universe.
JoAnne: Well of course. One Hanbok to Rule Them All, and all that kind of thing. 'NotDaughter' got me thinking: if you look at it from Bori's perspective (and I shall), we can say that her UnniNotUnni is pregnant with a baby by OppaNotOppa but is hiding it from her EommaNotEomma.
At the Prosecutor's office, Jae-hwa is discussing a case with some colleagues when Bori comes in with an "urgent delivery". Lunch time! He tells her to put it on the table and she ... hahaha, has a flashback to NAKED Hotness of a Prosecutor. Oh yeah, THAT image must be "disturbing" ... Also there on the table: her shoe. Wrapped in an evidence bag. Jae-hwa watches her warily, noticing her shocked expression.
She is in a hurry to get out but he tells her to slow down a bit and wait until they're done so that she can take the dishes with her. Still wanting out asap, she blows on his soup to cool it down, but of course, it's not at all cool when he takes a spoonful! He burns his mouth and she laughs at him, but that just makes him angry - and he proceeds to confront her about the shoe. Only ... it really doesn't turn out in his favor, this confrontation.
JoAnne: Forget Hanbokery. She needs to be a lawyer.
His colleagues start whispering to each other immediately when he mentions her trespassing in his room at night. Bori lies that the shoe was stolen from her last week, by what she thinks is a pervert. And in case he is interested: she has an alibi for last night! So why has he stolen her shoe? Is he the pervert?! He immediately turns to his colleagues to convince them he was not the one that stole it, but they obviously don't believe him. Bori claims it happened when he was drunk. He is sure that isn't true, and anyway, he slept at Young-sook's that night! That wasn't exactly information to whitewash him and now he is just exposed as a total womanizer. Jae-hwa: you lose! Again.
JoAnne: He's kind of dumb. And aging backwards, which doesn't bode well for future mental efforts.
Later, Bori and Young-sook are at the prosecutor's apartment. Snooping around, Young-sook sees the blue handkerchief with his unfinished name on, wondering what it is. She imagines how pleased he will be if she finishes it for him (very, very funny) - so she begs Bori to do it for her. But when Jae-hwa gets the "new" handkerchief, it's not at ALL like poor stupid Young-sook imagined it ... He is furious, of course! Young-sook, the coward, says it was all Bori's idea and Jae-hwa wants to see her right away! So Young-sook goes and begs Bori to go and cover for her.
JoAnne: I find Young-Sook really irritating but if she just shuts up and stands still, she's a pretty girl. One of these days, though, I'm going to knock some 'sense-eu' into her with a 2X4.
Jae-hwa is still furious when Bori has appeared... oh, it's Tae-wook all over again! Ah, I never thought I would say this, but there are moments when I miss Goddess of Marriage! He orders her to return it to its exact state before she meddled with it. She is quite intimidated ... but she also realizes that he has a deep attachment to this item and that it has something to do with his mother.
JoAnne: Bori, listen: if he's male and Korean, it ALWAYS has something to do with his mother. And if it isn't his mother, then it's probably his long lost sister slash first love.
Right then, his brother calls - they're in front of the house! Bad Father got somewhat worried about Jae-hwa's well-being ... or is he
worried about his women-stories? Probably both. Anyway, he forced Jae-hee to come
and visit Jae-hwa with him, which caused Jae-hee to have a rage fit. He thinks
Daddy likes Jae-hwa better. I hate to break it to you, drama, but if you
were going for this rivalry between brothers, why did you show us the
boys all sweet and chummy?! Anyway, when Jae-hee calls to say they're in front of the house, Jae-hwa panics and hides Bori in the bathroom. If his father sees her, he will get violent!
JoAnne: I'm with you. Those boys bonded fast and then fell out over something silly when they could easily have made up and based on what we saw of them, WOULD have made up. So instead they got stuck in this rut, but why? We saw none of that.
kakashi: Well, we did see them go wild over EggsNotEggs. So maybe it's just that. Eggs.
Jae-hwa is quite flustered about the surprise visit, acting all kinds of weird ... and Bori, who hears how obedient he is in front of his father, fantasizes about busting out, pretending to be his girlfriend, and making his father hit him. But she doesn't ... because she is a good person.
JoAnne: Who is irritatingly loud and over-acted even in her own imagination.
Jae-hwa's father wants him to go on blind dates (duh), and Jae-hee finds the note from Young-sook. Jae-hwa lies that this is not at all from his girlfriend but a thank you note from somebody in prison. The two brothers also immediately start fighting again (in fact, Jae-hwa warns his brother to keep doing business by the law or else). When his father wants to go to the bathroom, Jae-hwa quickly steers them out and sends them to the rice restaurant. When Bori comes out of the bathroom right after, she makes fun of the situation, quite to Jae-hwa's chagrin. Well, sometimes, family is no fun. His definitely isn't any.
JoAnne: She's too dumb to realize hers isn't, either.
At the rice restaurant, Bad Daddy runs right into his sister-in-law. Wow! Finally! Somebody actually meets her! She now has clarity that the prosecutor is her nephew, but she really wants to stay hidden and begs him to help her live a quiet life in that quiet town. He honors her wishes but also says he will come visit her from time to time. Jae-hee's ears grow huge when he hears that his father is taking care of a huge sum of money for her.
JoAnne: Because he doesn't have enough? Don't disappoint me, boy.
In preparation for the Hanbok competition, Bori does research on the actress (Chae Yoo-ra) she is going to make the hanbok for and works night after night - but Min-jung is also learning fast. And does research. It seems Chae Yoo-ra is pregnant and trying to hide it. Hence the hanbok! In addition, Min-jung brown noses her way into the Hanboker's hearts, it's quite disgusting.
JoAnne: Whatever, they're idiots.
And then, it's competition time! Well, a pre-round at least. Pre-finals? And look who's there! The last two contestants are BaDIL (+Min-jung) and Bori. Everybody is about to enter the building. But will they meet? Wanna bet?
JoAnne: No but I'll pay someone to fast forward this to the good part, where Bo Ri has been identified and given Bi Seul Chae and Min Jung has been reduced to selling potatos in the street. And then we find out the kids were switched at birth and Bo Ri really IS Veggie Ahjumma's kid and MinJung the Troll really IS BaDIL's kid, but BoRi is a good girl and continues to visit her father, committed to an insane asylum years before.
The Rest
Min-jung Stuff: Min-jung frantically hides her bloody bedsheets right before BaDIL steps in. Motherly instincts activated, she notices that Min-jung isn't feeling well. No hospital yet, though. Later though, when Min-jung is trying to get rid of the blood stains on the sheets. BaDIL catches her. And there is new blood on her legs, so to the hospital it is! There, Min-jung begs the doctor to keep her secret a secret in front of her "mother". Apparently, her uterus is in bad shape and she would need urgent bed rest. She can't have that because hanbok. The official version: it's just a cyst.
JoAnne: And despite urgently needing bed rest and randomly bleeding all over everything, she continues on not getting bed rest and potentially staining a lot of material. While looking pretty spritely, the bitch.
AppaNotOppa: He is still hanging around in front of Bi Sool Chae and he almost tells BaDIL why he is so worried about Min-jung. Also, Jae-hee sees him there because he wants to see Min-jung. I am sure this will matter at a later stage.
JoAnne: I can't imagine caring less about MinJung's love life.
BaDIL: BaDIL and her helper become aware that Bong2 has become very suspicious. So she stages a scene with the servant who suddenly remembers that he saw GooDIL taking Eun-bi before going on that fated car ride. Suuuuuuuuuuuuure. So: The bad person is clearly GooDIL. She took Eun-bi and made her disappear. Or whatever. Hahaha, really. Bong2 collapses in grief. Haha. He believes this shit? He does! Later, he starts removing all of GooDIL's stuff from the house.
JoAnne: He's had one too many sniffs of that dye pot, I think.
The Matron: Matron hears about BaDIL making nontraditional clothes for the actress
under her own name. Of course, she confronts BaDIL about it (cannot have that!), but BaDIL isn't very much impressed. She vows to go her own way and make hanbok
that people want, not hanbok that ends up at the museum. It's quasi a hanbok schism.
JoAnne: In which, surprisingly, I do NOT land on the side of tradition. I think BaDIL made sense.
Gangster Love: Jung-ran and her Gangster's love progresses well. She still thinks he is a doctor, he still thinks she knows exactly what he is doing - and is okay with it. When they meet, other gangsters take note. Uh-oh.
JoAnne: I love the Gangster. I love him. This side plot makes me happy.
Ga-eul: She continues to do badly at everything. She is also quite annoying. And I don't like Little Kang, he is so boring. The end.
JoAnne: I think Little Kang is amusing, and I expect more from him.
Comments
Min-jung is vile, vile, vile, oh my goodness, what a terrible person. Seeing her punished will be very gratifying. I guess it'll take about 40 more episodes though. Veggie Ahjumma continues to be terrible as well; I keep trying to understand her (yes, I do understand that you can love one child, your own, more than the one that isn't, but she isn't even remotely trying to be fair to Bori! Who really does everything for her) but I fail. She deserves severe punishment as well. Yikes.
JoAnne: Perhaps when BoRi makes it big and has a big Hanbok Show, the long-estranged Veggie Ahjumma will come to watch from the sidelines, wearing rags and chewing a cold potato. She will try to hide behind a hanbok display but trip and falls, choking to death on a ribbon tie on her way down.
kakashi: I approve.
The Lee family stuff ... well. I like that Bad Dad knows where GooDIL is and I like that she knows who Jae-hwa is. The big question is: how will everybody find out that Bori is Eun-bi? I guess it is impossible for them to piece stuff together - it will be her that needs to remember.
JoAnne: No one ever figures it out, but on the day that her mother and father and the matron are dying of food poisoning totally by accident, they see BoRi flying a kite in the dye yard and realize who she is.
kakashi: I approve.
As for the OTP: I like what we are seeing. I like that it's not instant crazy love. I like that they don't like each other, but slowly get to see facets of the other that makes them reconsider their dislike. And I absolutely love silly Jae-hwa as a character. It helps that he has Kim Ji-hoon's face of course.
JoAnne: Ji-Hoon's face makes up for a lot, but I am ready for him to get some sense-eu and stop acting like an idiot.
kakashi: Don't forget, that's just his cover identity. It's how he deals with the bad, bad world.
JoAnne: I've decided to mark the decades by how looooooooooooong this story is.
Episode 11
So... Bori really wants to enter the Hanbok competition (hanboking is her life!), but Teacher is quite without courage. She will only help her on the side; Bori is on her own (Evil Min-jung on the other hand is so NOT on her own - in fact, it's BaDIL that will enter the competition. Min-jung is just the little helper). During their conversation, Teacher hears that the hated prosecutor's name is Jae-hwa ... Lee Jae-hwa. Can it be? Is this unmyeong?!
JoAnne: She lives in Korea, she has to know the rules. Of course it's fate.
JoAnne: He looks like he's trying to make it levitate.
JoAnne: *best CSI impression coming up* You might say.... (whips off sunglasses) ...the shoe has dropped.
JoAnne: Well of course. One Hanbok to Rule Them All, and all that kind of thing. 'NotDaughter' got me thinking: if you look at it from Bori's perspective (and I shall), we can say that her UnniNotUnni is pregnant with a baby by OppaNotOppa but is hiding it from her EommaNotEomma.
JoAnne: Forget Hanbokery. She needs to be a lawyer.
His colleagues start whispering to each other immediately when he mentions her trespassing in his room at night. Bori lies that the shoe was stolen from her last week, by what she thinks is a pervert. And in case he is interested: she has an alibi for last night! So why has he stolen her shoe? Is he the pervert?! He immediately turns to his colleagues to convince them he was not the one that stole it, but they obviously don't believe him. Bori claims it happened when he was drunk. He is sure that isn't true, and anyway, he slept at Young-sook's that night! That wasn't exactly information to whitewash him and now he is just exposed as a total womanizer. Jae-hwa: you lose! Again.
JoAnne: He's kind of dumb. And aging backwards, which doesn't bode well for future mental efforts.
JoAnne: I find Young-Sook really irritating but if she just shuts up and stands still, she's a pretty girl. One of these days, though, I'm going to knock some 'sense-eu' into her with a 2X4.
JoAnne: Bori, listen: if he's male and Korean, it ALWAYS has something to do with his mother. And if it isn't his mother, then it's probably his long lost sister slash first love.
JoAnne: I'm with you. Those boys bonded fast and then fell out over something silly when they could easily have made up and based on what we saw of them, WOULD have made up. So instead they got stuck in this rut, but why? We saw none of that.
kakashi: Well, we did see them go wild over EggsNotEggs. So maybe it's just that. Eggs.
JoAnne: Who is irritatingly loud and over-acted even in her own imagination.
JoAnne: She's too dumb to realize hers isn't, either.
At the rice restaurant, Bad Daddy runs right into his sister-in-law. Wow! Finally! Somebody actually meets her! She now has clarity that the prosecutor is her nephew, but she really wants to stay hidden and begs him to help her live a quiet life in that quiet town. He honors her wishes but also says he will come visit her from time to time. Jae-hee's ears grow huge when he hears that his father is taking care of a huge sum of money for her.
JoAnne: Because he doesn't have enough? Don't disappoint me, boy.
In preparation for the Hanbok competition, Bori does research on the actress (Chae Yoo-ra) she is going to make the hanbok for and works night after night - but Min-jung is also learning fast. And does research. It seems Chae Yoo-ra is pregnant and trying to hide it. Hence the hanbok! In addition, Min-jung brown noses her way into the Hanboker's hearts, it's quite disgusting.
JoAnne: Whatever, they're idiots.
JoAnne: No but I'll pay someone to fast forward this to the good part, where Bo Ri has been identified and given Bi Seul Chae and Min Jung has been reduced to selling potatos in the street. And then we find out the kids were switched at birth and Bo Ri really IS Veggie Ahjumma's kid and MinJung the Troll really IS BaDIL's kid, but BoRi is a good girl and continues to visit her father, committed to an insane asylum years before.
The Rest
Min-jung Stuff: Min-jung frantically hides her bloody bedsheets right before BaDIL steps in. Motherly instincts activated, she notices that Min-jung isn't feeling well. No hospital yet, though. Later though, when Min-jung is trying to get rid of the blood stains on the sheets. BaDIL catches her. And there is new blood on her legs, so to the hospital it is! There, Min-jung begs the doctor to keep her secret a secret in front of her "mother". Apparently, her uterus is in bad shape and she would need urgent bed rest. She can't have that because hanbok. The official version: it's just a cyst.
JoAnne: And despite urgently needing bed rest and randomly bleeding all over everything, she continues on not getting bed rest and potentially staining a lot of material. While looking pretty spritely, the bitch.
JoAnne: I can't imagine caring less about MinJung's love life.
JoAnne: He's had one too many sniffs of that dye pot, I think.
JoAnne: In which, surprisingly, I do NOT land on the side of tradition. I think BaDIL made sense.
Gangster Love: Jung-ran and her Gangster's love progresses well. She still thinks he is a doctor, he still thinks she knows exactly what he is doing - and is okay with it. When they meet, other gangsters take note. Uh-oh.
JoAnne: I love the Gangster. I love him. This side plot makes me happy.
JoAnne: I think Little Kang is amusing, and I expect more from him.
Comments
Min-jung is vile, vile, vile, oh my goodness, what a terrible person. Seeing her punished will be very gratifying. I guess it'll take about 40 more episodes though. Veggie Ahjumma continues to be terrible as well; I keep trying to understand her (yes, I do understand that you can love one child, your own, more than the one that isn't, but she isn't even remotely trying to be fair to Bori! Who really does everything for her) but I fail. She deserves severe punishment as well. Yikes.
JoAnne: Perhaps when BoRi makes it big and has a big Hanbok Show, the long-estranged Veggie Ahjumma will come to watch from the sidelines, wearing rags and chewing a cold potato. She will try to hide behind a hanbok display but trip and falls, choking to death on a ribbon tie on her way down.
kakashi: I approve.
The Lee family stuff ... well. I like that Bad Dad knows where GooDIL is and I like that she knows who Jae-hwa is. The big question is: how will everybody find out that Bori is Eun-bi? I guess it is impossible for them to piece stuff together - it will be her that needs to remember.
JoAnne: No one ever figures it out, but on the day that her mother and father and the matron are dying of food poisoning totally by accident, they see BoRi flying a kite in the dye yard and realize who she is.
kakashi: I approve.
As for the OTP: I like what we are seeing. I like that it's not instant crazy love. I like that they don't like each other, but slowly get to see facets of the other that makes them reconsider their dislike. And I absolutely love silly Jae-hwa as a character. It helps that he has Kim Ji-hoon's face of course.
JoAnne: Ji-Hoon's face makes up for a lot, but I am ready for him to get some sense-eu and stop acting like an idiot.
kakashi: Don't forget, that's just his cover identity. It's how he deals with the bad, bad world.