Escapism Vs Realism Korean Drama

Secret Garden, You From Another Star, Moonlight Drawn By Clouds, Legend of the Blue Sea, etc were my gateway drug, and dramas became my sweet escape. I loved the epic scale of the romance because it was so far away from the world I knew. A 400-year-old alien gives up everything to be with the glamorous Hallyu star who lives next door? Yes, please. A comic book character steps outside of the world he knows to be with the daughter of the man who drew him? Sign me up! A gorgeous prince is willing to risk his throne and his life to date the girl he thinks is actually a male eunuch? *jumps around excitedly* Or even a perfectly normal thug who happens to sacrifice himself to protect the identity of his mermaid? *Ohemgee*

You’re seeing the painfully obvious pattern here, right? The dramas I was falling for all involved heroes who were willing to give up what was most important to them in life, for the sake of love. It was that intense level of sacrifice that drew me in, because it stood in such stark contrast to my dating life. That’s what made me realize that the men I had been seeing weren’t making any compromises for my sake. I was always trying to fit in around the edges of the lives they wanted for themselves, and that wasn’t enough.

It was a huge wakeup call—these flights of fantasy brought me crashing down to earth in a very real way. It wasn’t that I needed a man who would give up his country, or his family, or his creativity for me. He didn’t need to be as handsome as Kim Soo Hyun, Hyun Bin, Park Bo Gum, or even Lee Min Ho. I just wanted someone to try and make me happy as much as I tried to make him happy. Like how Kang Min Hyuk portrays his character in Hospital Ship a.k.a Dr. Kwak Hyun. Dramas helped me understand that it’s okay to ask for more, to believe you are worth more.

Suzy and Lee Min Ho 2nd Anniversary Party

Lee Min Ho and Suzy reportedly celebrated their 2 year anniversary in an extra special way!

According to an exclusive report by TV Report, last month, the celebrity couple invited several of their closest friends and threw a party in celebration of their 2 years together. 

The couple revealed their relationship to the public in March of 2015. Several months later in September and in August of 2016, they were swept up in breakup rumors, however, both sides strongly denied it. It's reported that Lee Min Ho and Suzy are not able to meet often due to their hectic schedules but are still going strong with much love.

I do wonder what will happen to this lovebirds when Lee Min Ho entered military? Will their relationship might still going strong? They are like the best looking couple of all celebrity dating in real life. 

Legend of The Blue Sea - Episode 20 Finale Summary

Joon Jae (played by Lee Min Ho) asks Chung (played by Jun Ji Hyun) not to erase his memory before she leaves, reminding her that it’s better to remember love even if it hurts than to remember nothing. She doesn’t want him to suffer in case she can never return, but he assures her that even if she couldn’t, his love would outlast his life and go into the next one. Ultimately, he leaves the choice with her, and after she decides, she kisses him.

A short while later as Chung leaves the house, she runs into Nam Doo, Tae Oh, and Joon Jae’s mother at the front gate. She says she’ll just be going somewhere for a short while, but her goodbyes have an air of finality to them as she thanks them for everything.

Chung visits Jin Joo and Shi Ah’s house just as the two sisters-in-law are arguing over whose coat was more cruel to the animal sacrificed for it (mink versus duck). Shi Ah gets in a dig about Chung not only being Joon Jae’s girlfriend but also the object of Tae Oh’s affections, saying that his phone was full of her pictures. Chung tells Shi Ah to delete them, and Shi Ah retorts that she already did.

Then Chung explains that she’s going somewhere for a while and wanted to say goodbye, extending a hand to the surprised family. Next on her list is little Yoo Na, and as they sit in a convenience store window drinking yogurt, she tells her that she’ll miss everything she ate here. She offers a handshake to her too, and then gets up to go. Yoo Na asks why she’s leaving so soon, and Chung is surprised that she still remembers her—ah, she’s been using her mermaid memory-loss handshake on everybody.

Chung wonders why Yoo Na’s different, and why she could hear her thoughts. Yoo Na explains seeing Chung in a dream, and we flash back to Joseon, when a freshly caught Sae Wa had sent out a call for help as the children heckled her. Yoo Na had heard her then, and she explains now that in her dream, unni was a mermaid—and so was she, as the daughter of a fisherman father and mermaid mother.

Yoo Na explains how in her dream, she could communicate with the mermaids in the sea and warned the fishermen not to go out to sea when bad weather was on the way. Chung asks what happened next, and Yoo Na just says that in her dreams everything seemed happy and good, and that whenever she wakes from that dream, she feels happy all day.

Chung says she’s glad: “It must not have been just a folktale. It must have really happened.”

A bit later, Chung stands on the beach, looking out at the waves. “He said that memory is the road back,” she thinks. “Our story that only I know… So that it doesn’t turn sad, that it doesn’t disappear, I will protect it. I’ll cherish it. And I’ll return.”

With that, she goes back into the sea.

Joon Jae wakes with a start, and finds one lone pearl on his nightstand. He picks it up curiously and stares at it for a while. 

Three years later.

Everybody’s still living in Joon Jae’s house, and Mom calls the boys to the table for breakfast. There’s good-natured bickering about when the others will finally move out, although Mom tells them all affectionately to stay until they get married. Nam Doo and Tae Oh both say they enjoy having someone to call Mom for the first time, and Joon Jae gets mock-jealous when Mom hands over his favorite egg dish to Tae Oh instead.

Nam Doo wonders why they’ve fallen into the pattern of keeping one seat open, as though someone belongs there. He calls it strange, and Joon Jae’s face clouds over as he replies, “There are a lot of strange things.”

Joon Jae pulls up at the prosecutor’s office looking sharp, scanning the lobby much like the last time, when he cased the joint to scam a target. Today he scans a badge and arrives at an office, where he knocks on the door and enters.

He introduces himself to the prosecutors inside, using his real name—he’s a law student who’s been assigned to this office as a trainee.

Jin Joo enjoys bragging on Mom’s behalf about Joon Jae to their social circle, telling them all about how he went back to school to complete his degree and is now aiming to be a prosecutor. Moreover, Mom has donated half her company holdings to set up social welfare programs and alternative schools for runaway youths.

Jin Joo praises Mom to the high heavens, especially grateful to have finally found a place to invest her funds, thanks to Mom’s help. She says that she and Mom must have been sisters in a past life, which is hilarious since we know she was her servant. And then Jin Joo jumps up to bring Mom more coffee and snacks, happy to serve her.

At lunchtime, one prosecutor invites Joon Jae to eat with him, while the other remains behind. Joon Jae wonders why they don’t all go together, and the prosecutor asks what the most important thing is for a prosecutor.

“A sense of justice?” Joon Jae asks. “That’s important,” the prosecutor informs him, “but there’s something that’s more important. Never leave the office empty.”

He confesses that their office was infiltrated by con artists three years ago during lunch break, and Joon Jae feigns ignorance as the prosecutor gripes about the scammers who dared to sit in his own seat and pass themselves off as prosecutors. Moreover, they deleted the security footage and messed with the traffic lights to cover their tracks. Acting affronted, Joon Jae denounces those scam artists and vows to catch bad guys like them.

Later, Joon Jae sits with the main prosecutor as they question a businessman who’s under investigation for fraud. The man confidently asserts his innocence, stating that everything he’s been charged with is just a normal part of doing business.

Joon Jae notices that the company address and all its subsidiaries are listed as the man’s home, and that their finances were in shabby condition. Then he looks over the casefile and list of transactions and pokes holes in the man’s defenses, one by one, getting to the heart of the man’s fraud at one swift glance.

It’s clear that the businessman didn’t anticipate anyone seeing through his various cover tactics and false fronts, but Joon Jae sees exactly how he constructed his fraudulent business practices. The man starts to fidget in his seat, and Joon Jae even recognizes one of the names involved as a money launderer and says he’s well aware of his current activities and how deep this operation runs.

The businessman is shocked that Joon Jae sees everything so easily—and so is the main prosecutor, for that matter, who asks later on their way out if Joon Jae really knows people connected to the case. Joon Jae says that he just picked up the information here and there, but the prosecutor eyes him shrewdly, not buying it.

Just then, Joon Jae spots Detective Hong waiting for him in the lobby and excuses himself. He runs up to join the detective like an excited little boy, and the two of them awkwardly scuttle through the revolving door. 

Over dinner, Detective Hong asks about his studies and says that he’s glad Joon Jae found his path, admitting that he got scared for him during his rough patch when he’d started saying weird things and disappearing for spells. “What you suffered wasn’t something that could be mentally handled by ordinary standards,” he reminds him.

Joon Jae says he doesn’t remember “it” very well anymore, not even if he tries. (I presume they’re talking about the whole stepmom-killed-my-dad ordeal, though they don’t name it specifically.) Then Detective Hong asks what Nam Doo’s up to these days…

…and we find Nam Doo giving a lecture about navigating that gray zone of life between fully legal activities and evasion of the law. Today’s lecture is on taxes, and he does so glibly and entertainingly to a room of appreciative ajummas.

Nam Doo joins the other two at dinner, and assures the detective that he’s not scamming anyone these days. He reminds him that he’d be crazy to, knowing he’d get caught by Joon Jae when he becomes a prosecutor, then recalls how surprised he was when Joon Jae suddenly decided on this path. Detective Hong says it must have been after Joon Jae met him and was inspired by what a good person he was, though Joon Jae drily assures him that wasn’t the case.

Nam Doo asks what did spur his decision, and Joon Jae tries to think of the exact reason. He’s unable to pinpoint it, saying only that it feels like there was a particular reason, but he can’t recall it.

The guys continue drinking at home, where Detective Hong nags Tae Oh to make sure he’s also living clean. Nam Doo assures him that Tae Oh works on the right side of the law now, hacking into companies legally to find bugs and strengthen security.

When Nam Doo looks around for his cell phone and Tae Oh produces it, the boys sigh that “it” has started again. Everyone reaches into his pockets to ensure nothing’s missing, and reveals that Tae Oh swiped the detective’s handcuffs without him noticing. 

Then when Detective Hong stands up, Joon Jae drunkenly grabs his hand and tells him not to leave, slurring, “Tonight, nobody goes home!” He slings an arm around his neck and refuses to let him go. Man, I love drunk Joon Jae.

Annnnd then drunk Tae Oh tries to stuff a coffee mug in his trouser pocket. Meanwhile, Nam Doo tipsily chats up a lady on the phone, only to realize she’s married.

All of a sudden, Joon Jae’s mood plummets and he starts to cry, repeating over and over, “I miss you.” Nam Doo notes that this crying habit is new, and that he won’t even remember when asked later. He asks who Joon Jae’s always so sad about missing whenever he gets drunk, but Joon Jae just keeps crying to himself.

Far away in the ocean, Chung curls up to herself among a bed of coral, wiping away tears that roll away as pearls.

Joon Jae opens a locked safe in his closet and pulls out a journal, while outside, Nam Doo notes that it was after “that incident” that Joon Jae became strange. He started driving to the sea all the time, but when asked why, he’d reply that he doesn’t know. We see Joon Jae driving out to the seashore and looking out at the water, which his friends puzzle over.

Legend of The Blue Sea - Episode 19 Summary

Chi Hyun knocks down a cop and steals his gun, pointing it at Joon Jae. Chung sees what’s happening a split-second before Joon Jae does, and leaps in front of him just as Chi Hyun pulls the trigger. The gun fires, and the bullet lands in Chung’s back.  

The cops wrestle Chi Hyun to the ground. Joon Jae stands there in horror, holding Chung in his arms, and his mind flashes back to Dam Ryung’s sacrifice to save Sae Wa. He sees blood staining Chung’s back, and then her body grows heavy as she loses strength. She pulls back to look him in the eye, thinking, I was afraid you’d protect me again on your own, but I’m happy—the ending changed. This time, I protected you.

Her eyes close, and Joon Jae cries out in disbelief that it can’t be. Her thoughts continue: Now it’s time that you knew. That even if I’m not with you, I’ll keep loving you. Chung keeps repeating his words back to him, assuring him to live even if she’s gone. Joon Jae calls out to her desperately as she continues thinking, So you have live happily without me, smiling a lot, loving, like ordinary people do. Comfortably, for a long, long time. An ambulance arrives, and medics carry Chung to it. She adds: I don’t want to become a source of pain for you, or a frightening dream.

Joon Jae sits with her in the ambulance, begging her not to leave him. She thinks, I love you, and he says those words aloud to her.

The whole thing hits the news quickly, with Stepmom and Chi Hyun arrested for murder and attempted murder. In shock, Mom watches the report on TV alongside Jin-joo and her husband, worried for Joon Jae and Chung. Chi Hyun’s attitude becomes defeated as he’s driven off in the back of a police car, and a flashback shows that he’d offered Nam Doo two vials of poison with which to kill Joon Jae—one to do the deed, the other as a spare. Nam Doo had assured him he’d only need the one, leaving Chi Hyun with the backup. So now, he requests a bathroom stop, and sits in a stall choking back fearful sobs. He pulls out that vial, and moments later when he exits the bathroom, he’s swaying a little on his feet.

Chung is wheeled in for immediate surgery, and Joon Jae runs alongside the doctors, telling her encouraging things until he’s forced to stay outside the operating room.

Chi Hyun is silent and unresponsive during his interrogation—his thoughts are fixated on Dae Young, and a conversation they’d had while Dae Young was hiding in their basement. Dae Young had described how he lived feeling chased and in constant punishment, and had told Chi Hyun he didn’t want him to live like that. “I don’t know who you are, but strangely, that’s what thought comes to mind,” Dae Young said. The poison has been taking gradual effect, until Chi Hyun slumps to the ground in pain.

In the next interrogation room, Stepmom argues with Detective Hong that he set her up and demands her lawyers. He informs her that she no longer has any fancy lawyers, and that she’ll have to find new ones or use a public defender. Just then, his partner interrupts to inform him of Chi Hyun’s condition. Stepmom tears out of the room to Chi Hyun’s next door, and screams his name when she sees him lying on the ground.

Stepmom cradles his head in her arms, while Chi Hyun gasps that there’s no use calling doctors. With his last breaths, he fights back tears and tells her, “Mother… the fact that you are my mother… is like a curse.” 

He falls back gurgling and goes prone. Stepmom bursts into wails, screaming that it can’t happen.

Joon Jae and his boys wait for hours outside Chung’s operating room. At a certain point, Nam Doo hears the news that Chi Hyun died and informs Joon Jae. Explaining about the two vials, Nam Doo speculates that Chi Hyun drank the second one. It’s hardly happy news for Joon Jae, who mutters that Chi Hyun was irresponsible through the end.

Chung makes it out of surgery, and the doctor describes it as a miraculously successful operation. The bullet had gone through the left atrium of her heart and she’d lost a lot of blood, and he’d never seen anybody survive something like that. Every explanation begins with “Normally what happens is [this terrible thing],” and ends with “But she recovered quite readily.”

Still, the doctors states that it could take Chung a while to wake up, and that if her blood supply to the brain had dropped enough, she could lose some brain functions. Still perplexed about her unusual case, the doctor asks whether Chung usually ate any strange foods, and Nam Doo replies that she just ate strangely large amounts of them.

While napping on the couch, Shi Ah has a strange dream from Joseon: Dam-ryung sits with his young bride on their wedding night, and finally gets up and leaves to go to Sae Wa. Shi Ah cries out in her sleep, “How can you leave like that? What chick are you going to?” It doesn’t look like the same actress, but no doubt Shi Ah identifies with that abandoned bride. Shi Ah wakes up puzzled, and scoffs at the random dream.

Over breakfast, Jin Joo asks her husband if he could get hit by a bullet for her, and he replies that he could at least get hit by a rock. Lol, at least he’s honest? She’s grumpy at the response, but when he asks her the same thing, she points out, “I have to take care of the kids. If I got shot, who would raise the children?” Shi Ah joins them and wonders at the gun talk, and Jin Joo fills her in.

Mom joins Joon Jae in keeping watch over Chung, and worries at her not waking up. She wonders if this is why Chung said “that” before, and a flashback takes us to a short while ago, when Mom had cooked a meal for a despondent Chung.

Chung had asked about the story of the Little Mermaid, who’d had to make the choice between stabbing her prince to live, or not stabbing him and disappearing into bubbles. She’d asked what Mom would have done, and said that she thought it was right for the mermaid to disappear—everything happened because she’d been greedy in coming to land.

Mom had thought differently, telling her a different story of a mermaid who’d saved a young fisherman when his boat overturned. They’d married and had children and lived happily, and some of their children returned to the sea while others remained on land and became like guardians to the villagers, communicating with mermaids to warn them of oncoming storms.

“A mermaid coming to land isn’t doing it out of greed,” Mom had said, “but love.” Chung had said that it would be nice for all stories to have happy endings, but that not all of them do.

Joon Jae asks his mother if that’s a real story, and Mom reminds him that she used to tell it to him when he was a child, and he used to love it.

Mom sends Joon Jae up to visit Manager Nam’s wife, and he heads over with Nam Doo in tow, introducing him as a close hyung. It’s the first time Nam Doo is meeting Ajusshi, but he furrows his brow, thinking he looks familiar somehow.

Flashing back to Joseon, Nam Doo’s doppelganger pursues Ajusshi with the hidden scroll. Ajusshi freezes in fear when he’s discovered in his hiding spot… but then Nam Doo directs him to an escape route and hands him a string of coins, telling him to use his horse to ride to the capital.

Nam Doo adds that Ajusshi should complete that task that Dam-ryung had given him. Aww, you were totally faking us out with Joseon Nam Doo! I’d been hoping for something like this, and it’s nicely satisfying. Ajusshi asks why he’s helping, and Nam Doo replies that he’s repaying an old favor—and an old enemy.

And then, just like that, present-day Ajusshi opens his eyes and sees Nam Doo’s face—and even calls him by his Joseon name. Joon Jae hovers excitedly at the bedside, and Ajusshi first calls him Dam Ryung. Then he collects himself and says, “Joon Jae-ya, I dreamed a long dream.” Joon Jae takes his hand and says, “Then and now, thank you for being my friend.”

Legend of The Blue Sea - Episode 18 Summary

Chi Hyun rushes home to check on Dad, fearing his life is at risk, and hears Dad in the middle of leaving his voicemail message to Joon Jae. It hurts to hear him expressing his regrets for leaving his former family and telling Joon Jae (played by Lee Min Ho) that he loves him.

Then Dad’s hand goes slack, and Chi Hyun rushes to his side, holding a finger to Dad’s nose to check his breath. He recoils when there’s no sign of life, then spots the glass of tainted water on the nightstand and dumps out the liquid, washing the glass compulsively before calling for an ambulance. When the authorities arrive, a regular glass of water is on the nightstand and Chi Hyun plays the part of grieving son. He answers police officers’ questions about Dad’s medical history and Mom’s whereabouts.

Joon Jae rushes to the house as the body is being carried out and falls to his knees in grief. He spots Chi Hyun stepping out with the officer and launches himself at him, decking him in the face, accusing him and his mother of being the reason for Dad’s death. Joon Jae swears to kill them both, while Chi Hyun puts on his most victimized face as he lets Joon Jae rage away.

The officer shoves him aside, demanding to know who he is. Joon Jae identifies himself as the chairman’s son, but balks when Chi Hyun calls him his brother and punches him again. It takes a whole team of cops to pull Joon Jae off him, but then Detective Hong races in to order them to back off Joon Jae.

Detective Hong gets Joon Jae to calm down, and all that anger turns to self-recrimination as Joon Jae cries that he should have prevented Dad’s death. The detective tells him that it’s all the more reason for him to pull himself together and get to the bottom of this.

At home, Chung (played by Jun Ji Hyun) paces by the pool, which seems like a terrible idea to me, given how Nam Doo seeks her out here. He asks how she knew Dae Young had lost his memory, venturing a guess: “Did you by any chance do that to him?” He leans in closer and says that she’s quite a mystery, and that he’s curious to know what skills she possesses. “Who are you?” he asks.

“I’m your friend,” Chung tells him. Nam Doo says that in his line of work, he frequently makes friends with people and then backstabs them. She replies that she dislikes that about him, “But when I make friends with someone, that’s it for me. Whether you backstab or not, that’s your choice. I’ll think about what I’ll do if you do backstab me. Until then, you’re my friend.” That’s when Tae Oh bursts in with news, and the three of them head to the hospital to join Joon Jae for his father’s funeral. They find him sitting on the ground in the hallway, and the boys step aside to give him and Chung some privacy.

She kneels by him and cradles him to her, and he cries in her arms. He asks Chung to erase his memories of his father, saying, “Good memories hurt because they’re good, and bad memories hurt because they’re bad. All of my memories of my father hurt so much.”

Chung replies, “But I can’t erase them. No matter how much they hurt, you loved your father. Memories of love should be carried with you even if they’re painful.”

Joon Jae blames himself for not arriving quickly enough to save his father, for not hating him a little less, and for not answering that last call to tell Dad he forgave him and loved him. And now he can’t say the words, no matter how badly he wants to.

Chung tells him consolingly, “Some things can be understood without saying the words. He will have known.”

A short while later, Chi Hyun leads his mother toward the mortuary, and Joon Jae stiffens at the sight of them. Stepmom collapses in tears and acts like the classic grief-stricken widow, wailing that she won’t be able to live without her husband. Chung holds Joon Jae’s hand throughout Stepmom’s display, which ends in her fainting in shock.

Joon Jae sits with his mother later, and she sighs that as she ages, the old memories stay with her longer than the newer ones. She adds as an afterthought, “Although it didn’t seem that way for your father,” and Joon Jae asks if she met Dad recently.

She explains that she’d run into him at the hospital and he’d ignored her even after making eye contact, like he’d forgotten her. She chalks it up to him being mean, but Joon Jae tells her of his near-blindness, and then holds his mother as she cries in his arms.

From a hospital bed, Stepmom calls her lawyer to arrange all the inheritance and legal details with cool efficiency. Chi Hyun makes sure nobody’s watching, then asks his mother in a low voice whether she was behind it: “You must tell me. I have to know in order to help you.” Stepmom confirms it, but adds that if something were to happen, he knows nothing about anything.

Chi Hyun runs into Nam Doo in the hallway and calls out to him. Not far away in his hospital bed, comatose Manager Nam continues dreaming of his Joseon past:

Joseon Nam Doo trains as one of Lord Yang’s many henchmen, the newest arrival who’s known for his fighting skills. Lord Yang assigns him to attend to his son—Joseon Chi Hyun. The two men size each other up…

…just like they do in the present, in the corridor. Chi Hyun asks to talk, and starts by explaining that he knows about Nam Doo because he’d looked into Joon Jae’s activities out of concern. Chi Hyun notes that Joon Jae only goes after ill-gotten gains like slush funds, but Nam Doo has not been so discriminating. Nam Doo readily agrees, and wonders at Chi Hyun’s interest.

Chi Hyun drops to banmal and says coldly, “It means I can put you behind bars tomorrow, or even today. What do you wanna do—do as I say, or rot?”

Nam Doo just smiles and tells Chi Hyun that he’s always on the side of the ones with money. If Chi Hyun stands to inherit everything from his stepfather, Nam Doo has plenty of reason to stand with him, even without blackmail.

Chi Hyun says he intends to get rid of Joon Jae. Nam Doo doesn’t bat an eyelash, and says that there’s something he really wants, and having Joon Jae out of the picture would make it easier for him to take it. He admits to feeling some attachment to Joon Jae, but is perfectly willing to make a deal with Chi Hyun.

Everyone gathers around to hear Dad’s cause of death, which the doctor announces as a sudden but natural death as a result of acute renal failure—not the result of poisoning, which would have caused signs that Dad’s body didn’t have. Joon Jae argues that the use of naturally occurring poisons (say, those in toxic flowers) wouldn’t have produced those signs, and demands an autopsy.

Stepmom protests that he’d be “killing your father twice” by dragging this out, as though he’s a petulant teenager who can’t get over the past. But Joon Jae vows to uncover the true cause of death, and her role in it. Mom acts outraged, suggesting that he’s only interested in his father after years of ignoring him because of the money. She sobs that she’ll give him all the money if he’ll just let his father rest in peace—but Joon Jae is unmoved, warning that her acting won’t work anymore.

Chi Hyun steps in and asserts himself as the only son Chairman Dad acknowledged, stating that Joon Jae only popped up recently when inheritance issues surfaced. He says that neither he nor Stepmom want the autopsy, and the chairman wouldn’t have wanted it, either.

But the next thing we know, a team of police officers and forensic specialists descend upon Dad’s house, led by Detective Hong with his search and seizure warrant. Stepmom seems quite unworried that the search will turn up any evidence (and force an autopsy), until Detective Hong brings up the name Kang Ji-hyun.

She keeps her calm, telling him to talk to her lawyer about anything further, and Detective Hong tells her pointedly that she’ll have a lot to say to the lawyer, since that’s her twin. Then he produces an old photo of Stepmom as a child, standing with her twin sister.

Stepmom doesn’t betray her nervousness and pretends she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Detective Hong asks where younger sister Kang Ji Hyun is, then guesses, “Or is that you?” 

The search doesn’t turn up any evidence, and a forensic expert asks if Detective Hong jumped the gun. But Detective Hong is certain that whatever evidence they’re looking for is still in the house—Stepmom couldn’t have removed it without their noticing. He looks around the basement, and the camera lingers on a wooden panel. 

Jin Joo hears about the chairman’s death, and it introduces a new wave of worries for her and her husband. They’d assumed that the chairman’s will would eventually get revised to include his biological son, but now that he’s dead, the current will stands—and that means they’ve made an enemy of the winner and stood with the loser.

Even so, Jin Joo ends up accompanying Mom to the mortuary. Stepmom hisses that her presence is unseemly, but Mom says that she’s here to draw attention and make things uncomfortable for her. Mom then pays her respects to Dad, asking if he can see her as she makes her last goodbye.

Stepmom confronts Mom in the bathroom, sneering at her for showing up out of the blue, just like her son did. She insinuates that Mom is sniffing around for money, and Mom delivers a satisfying slap. She tells Stepmom in a steely voice that she’s the one who came sniffing at the scent of money, and that she should have been satisfied with mooching off of others: “Is the thief trying to act like the owner now? You’re being greedy.”

Stepmom raises a hand to slap Mom back, but finds her hand suddenly caught in a firm grasp. It’s Chung, who asks, “So you’re going to hit her? You’re not in a position to be hitting anybody.” Stepmom curls her lip to realize that Chung is on Mom’s side, and tries to break her grasp. But Chung easily keeps hold, and says she’s curious to know something. She shoves Stepom back against the wall, still holding her hand, then closes her eyes to concentrate.

Memories flash through their connected minds: Stepmom swapping out the chairman’s pills, boiling water with poisonous wolfsbane, serving that to the chairman. She then steps into the basement and opens a hidden door, revealing the room where she’s keeping the flowers, evidence, and Dae Young.

Stepmom seems dazed when Chung lets go of her, and asks what she just did. Chung replies, “I could have done anything, but I didn’t do anything. I don’t think you should forget all the bad things you’ve done. You should remember them through the end. You’ll have to remember all those things you felt greedy about, for you to feel more pain at not having them.”

Outside, Jin Joo spots the other society moms who’d once been on her side, who are now busy sucking up to Stepmom to weasel their way back into her graces. It only makes her feel worse about her own position, and she simultaneously scoffs at them while looking a bit envious.

Nam Doo joins Joon Jae and asks if he really has to pursue the autopsy, arguing that an autopsy won’t bring back his father. He suggests that it may be best to not stir the pot further and just focus on getting his share of the inheritance. Joon Jae gets angry at the suggestion, while Nam Doo just tells him to consider it.

Chung joins Joon Jae next, telling him of her vision. As they drive over to Dad’s house, Joon Jae says it makes him sad to know that through him, she’s seen a lot of bad things that have become her memories. Chung counters that she’s happy to have something with which to protect him.

The idea of her protecting him surprises him a little, but Chung boasts that as a mermaid, she was really quite adept, evading notice from humans and not getting eaten by sharks. She even adds confidently, “Even if I fought with a shark, I’d win.”

Joon Jae praises her and pats her head, and she’s happy to have made him smile. “I’ll make you smile from now on,” she promises.

Joon Jae replies that such words (protecting someone, promising to make them smile) are the kind of thing men say, and Chung just replies, “I’ll protect you. I’ll make you smile.” Joon Jae takes her hand in his, and she kisses his.

Arriving at Dad’s house, the hear from Detective Hong that nothing’s been found. Recalling Stepmom’s memory, Chung follows those visions to the basement, even though Detective Hong says that they already searched the room.

Chung, however, knows which panel to push to reveal the hidden room inside. Inside is a wealth of evidence, including the bins of wolfsbane and a drawing of a mermaid on the wall, which Chung says is Dae Young’s work—he’s been here.