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Like Flowers in Sand: Episodes 5-6
by missvictrix
As we reach our drama’s midpoint this week, we gain a little more insight on not only the undercover case, but whatever secret the town has been trying to forget. As ever, ssireum is at the center everything in this town, and our hero will have to decide just how much it means to him, too.
EPISODES 5-6
Our episode opens with Baek-du narrating all the life lessons he learned on manhood from his father — good things like addressing instead of avoiding challenges, and keeping your word. But Baek-du says he doesn’t listen well to his father… and then we see him up at the crack of dawn triumphantly announcing his return to his teammates in the gym.
Baek-du might not live by his father’s moral code, but it’s obvious he lives by his own, and in this week’s episodes we see it at play over and over again. Baek-du rejoins the team, but he shoulders a bunch of ridicule from now-coach Jin-su, and doesn’t push back at all. Then, Baek-du can’t bring himself to go to the team dinner because of the “stolen” $40, and it’s Jin-su’s mom that has to smack (literally) some sense into him and set his heart at ease.
Baek-du has always been this way, and even though Yoo-kyung scoffs and scolds him, it’s so clear that there’s no one quite as pure-hearted as Baek-du. In a flashback to their childhood, we see Baek-du always taking the hard road to either protect his friends or assure that they get what they want (like relinquishing the team captain role to Jin-su so many years ago).
Another plot point where this comes out this week is with IM DONG-SEOK (Kim Tae-jung), the wrestler who trained in Geosan and then jumped over to a new team. He’s also the one that defeated Baek-du in that “retirement” match after the call from the ref.
That particular match is now under much scrutiny, since Coach Yeon’s dealings in the past are coming to light. The ssireum team reluctantly admits, one by one, the money they once lent to him when he was desperate — and it’s such a sad yet laugh out loud moment when, of course, Baek-du lent him the hugest amount of all.
As everyone quickly acknowledges, heavy gambling debt is always linked to “that other thing”: match-fixing. And that becomes the focus of Baek-du and Dong-seok’s past match. Did Coach Yeon really instruct Dong-seok to throw the match? And did it all go awry after the ref’s call? Was his death a consequence of that? Rather than continue to speculate (sheesh guys), Yoo-kyung decides to travel to go ask Dong-seok himself — and who pops up on the bus to join her like an excited grade-schooler but Baek-du.
At this point, Baek-du does not have the self-awareness to realize how much he cares for Yoo-kyung (beyond their comfortable old bestie vibes). Even so, he tells her that he came back to the ssireum team because of her, which was received by her in as swoony a way as it sounds. But, when she asks if that means Baek-du likes her, Baek-du acts like he’s never heard anything so absurd. Silly boy.
The two meet with Dong-seok, and these scenes are among my favorite of the week. Dong-seok is being ostracized for the mere gossip of possibly engaging in throwing a match, and it’s clear he’s totally torn up. Dong-seok knows why they’re there, and has to give his testimony to the association tomorrow, but before he can explain, Baek-du out Baek-du’s himself.
Under the guise of checking on Dong-seok’s teeth after the match (I don’t know anything about this but I assume tooth damage is a common event in this sport of brute force and leverage), what Baek-du actually winds up doing is encouraging and comforting him. While Yoo-kyung was there for her case, Baek-du was just there to make his fellow athlete feel better.
This sequence of scenes turns into another of the meaningful and subtle moments that this drama is so good at: not a lot is going on on the surface, but in the midst of these conversations, there’s so much heart, so much characterization, and some damn good acting too.
With headway on Yoo-kyung’s investigation — and the surprise goldmine of Han-ra’s footage from the match — it looks like they’ll be able to identify more parties involved in the match-rigging before long. But before that can happen, there’s the next championship to worry about. And although the matches are already set, and Baek-du has been practicing hard, Jin-su decides to withdraw Baek-du from the entire championship. At first, Baek-du takes it — he’s surprised and disappointed but doesn’t fight it.
In contrast, this move pushes Yoo-kyung over the edge, and she confronts Jin-su over his decision, suggesting that what he sees as Baek-du’s weakness is actually his own intuitive strategy. It’s here that we get some insight on Jin-su, though (finally! I lerv him so much but he’s so hard to read). “Baek-du is the most talented wrestler I’ve ever seen,” he says. “That idiot just doesn’t know how to use his talent.”
It’s time for another heart-to-heart, and this is where the theme of Baek-du’s selfless behavior comes together from all our episodes thus far. Yoo-kyung tells Baek-du that he can’t always relinquish to other people and he has to stop putting others before himself. He’s not responsible for them; he’s responsible for himself. And so, something finally clicks for him. He runs all the way to meet Jin-su and not only tells him that he also wanted to be team captain so many years ago, but also insists that he compete in the championship.
You go, Baek-du! While I love his kind heart, and how he always puts others first, Baek-du needed this push to truly grab onto what he loves and to be able to fight for it. (And I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again — Jang Dong-yoon is just killing this role.)
While that takes care of our main storyline, in the background to this Hyun-wook has been wandering around doing some low profile investigating. I find his character very interesting, and just like he said of Baek-du, they have their intuition in common.
Hyun-wook knows that there’s something to the Doo-shik whispers he’s been hearing, and between what he gleans on his own and through Mi-ran, he finally confronts Yoo-kyung. “You’re Oh Doo-shik,” he tells her. His ability to suss this out says a lot about him as a character, and it also helps join our past and present storylines because the rumor is that something similar went down so many years ago, before Doo-shik left town, and only she, her dad, and her dad’s friend know the truth.
In addition to fun reveal moments like this one, and the really strong dialogue between our leading characters as they interact, the drama is still sprinkling in its unique humor, too — the mukbang conversation among the hyungs, Baek-du flustering Yoo-kyung trying to prove you can see your reflections in people’s eyeballs, and other such moments. Somehow, the drama moves so buoyantly it’s able to carry all these moving parts and keep itself from sinking too deeply into what could easily weigh it down. Major points for execution yet again.
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