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Queen of Tears: Episodes 13-14
by Unit
Our penultimate week comes with even more drama as everyone rallies to save our heroine’s life. Stakes are raised, resolutions are tested, we’re hit with emotional highs and lows — and just when we’re beginning to see the shore, our resident villains throw us back into the deep end. Sigh. Peace is really not an option around these parts.
EPISODES 13-14
We left off with the Hongs finding Grandpa’s panic room last week, and if you guessed that the room was empty, you get a gold star! Ms. Girlfriend already beat them to the punch and moved out all the cash. And as for kicking her out of Queensville, the Hongs would need a court order since she’s a legal resident of the house. Oops! I thought Grandpa left some evidence against his psycho girlfriend on Hae-in’s recording pen, but it was just: I regret the life I lived. I hope you live differently. I’m sorry, I love you. Blah blah blah. *Rolls eyes* RIP, Gramps, but you could have tried to be more helpful than this.
Anyhoo, dark jokes Hae-in strikes again when she uses Grandpa’s funeral as a rehearsal for what’ll happen at her own funeral — since the three months the doctor gave her has already passed and she’s practically living on borrowed time. But jokes aside, Hae-in doesn’t want to die, and fortune smiles on her when a German hospital contacts Hyun-woo with some much needed good news: there’s a surgery that can save Hae-in’s life! The downside is: memory loss is a side effect of this surgery. Ha! Knowing that Hae-in might refuse to undergo the surgery if she hears about the side effects, Daddies Hong and Baek tell Hyun-woo not to mention it to her. So, my man is forced to become a liar.
Blissfully unaware, Hae-in is overwhelmed and overjoyed at the thought of her upcoming life-saving surgery, and she goes on a trip with Hyun-woo. On the trip, she reveals that the MP3 is hers, and trust her to tease Hyun-woo with his “I don’t remember the owner of the MP3” statement two weeks ago. Get him again for me! Lol. Hyun-woo can’t believe that the Cinderella from high school ended up being his wife, and BaekHong marvels at their movie-like love story.
Since Hae-in now has a chance at a future together with Hyun-woo, she slips on the divorce withdrawal ring! As the CEO of a department store, Hae-in hates customers who return things and demand a refund, so she has no plans to return the ring back to Hyun-woo. The department store reference made me smile, but I teared up just as quickly watching Hyun-woo insist that Hae-in can’t take back her decision to withdraw the divorce — even if she forgets. Oh dear! Keeping the surgery’s side effects from Hae-in must be so hard on him.
Hae-in also dyes her nails with balsam leaves because of the legend that goes: if one’s nails are still colored by the first snow of the season, their first love will come true. First love aside, the dye signifies her anticipation for the first snow since she never thought she’d last until winter. But Hyun-woo is more concerned about the first love part of the legend. Not this man getting jealous of himself. Pfft.
As the Hongs prepare to return to Seoul, Beom-ja meets up with her Yongdu-ri crush because he claims to have something for her. But it’s not a love confession as she expected, it’s just condolence money for Grandpa. *Faints in second hand embarrassment* But his consolation over her loss is touching, and it’s quite sad when he tells her goodbye. Nooooo. Come back, Mr. Rat, Beom-ja needs her own happy ending! As for the independent-wannabe Soo-cheol, he plans to stay in Yongdu-ri with his family for the time being until they find a place of their own in Seoul. Mommy Hong hems and haws at this bombshell, but she’s more agreeable to Hae-in’s decision to move into Hyun-woo’s apartment rather than return to Queensville. Lol.
BaekHong returns to their newlywed era in Seoul, and when Hae-in says they need to start acting like it, I perch at the edge of my seat. Hyun-woo pulls Hae-in in, I stifle a naughty giggle… and we cut to: BaekHong in bed the next morning. *Flings pillows and upturns tables* What happened to kisses and you know, what comes after the kisses? Gosh. I feel so robbed! But we get early morning snuggles in his and hers pajamas, skinship over PPL breakfast, little kisses while doing dishes, and other domestic stuff. Cute. But I still feel robbed.
Hae-in goes shopping at Queens department store while Christmas decorations are being installed, and Hyun-woo arranges for artificial snow since his wife wants to see the first snow. Must be nice. Hyun-woo is so damn curious about the first love Hae-in met on a bus, and when she reveals that she followed his bus several times back in their dating era, he’s like, Why? Sigh. “How did you even get into SNU?” Hae-in asks, on behalf of the rest of us, as it takes more than a few seconds for it to click in Hyun-woo’s head that he’s the bus man a.k.a Hae-in’s first love. Lol.
Over to the boring business stuff, anxiety over Beom-seok’s (grandpa’s exiled son) rumored return to the company results in Eun-scared using the secret funds to buy up more stocks — falling right into Hyun-woo’s trap. Hyun-woo plans to gather evidence and charge him for embezzlement and violating foreign exchange transaction laws. It’s a solid plan but for one little detail: Land Scammer has been murdered — presumably on Eun-seong’s orders.
In the midst of this, BaekHong departs for Germany, and Eun-seong follows them — after having all traces of Hyun-woo removed from Queensville. Eun-seong already cornered the information about the surgery from Grace, and the psycho is excited at the thought of Hae-in losing her memories. Waitaminute. This guy is really not planning to do what I think he’s going to do, right? Right?? Sigh. Delulu is really not the Eun-solulu here.
Eun-seong’s Germany trip means that he’ll miss the upcoming stockholders meeting, and Ms. Girlfriend is pissed. But Mr. Mommy Issues claims that he wouldn’t have been curious about the Hongs or jealous of Hae-in — and eventually fallen in love with her — if Ms. Girlfriend didn’t abandon him to enter their family in the first place. Sure, let’s blame it all on your mommy.
In Germany, Hyun-woo comes clean about the surgery’s side effects to Hae-in, but she doesn’t take kindly to being made to pick between memory loss and death, so she decides to forgo the surgery. Oh boy! Hyun-woo begs Hae-in to choose life, but “Being alive means I cherish my memories and draw strength from them.” Hae-in’s memories define her life, and losing them means she’ll no longer be herself.
The Hongs and the Baeks come up with different strategies to persuade Hae-in into getting the surgery, but her mind is made up. I wish I could say “it’s just memories,” but what is life without the memories of who you are and the people you love? It’s an emotional conversation on both sides, and I’m partially sobbing, partially laughing at the Hongs and Baeks turning off the video function and assuming they ended the call completely.
Hae-in wishes to cherish the memories of loving others and being loved in return until her last breath, and in a crushing and tearful embrace, she begs Hyun-woo not to make her want to live. “I won’t be able to recognize you. I’ll become a stranger,” she cries. But Hyun-woo promises to be the first person she sees after the surgery, and then they can love again. Even if she doesn’t fall in love with him when she wakes up, he has no plans of letting her go because together forever is the goal. Neither side wants to give in, and while I have watched a number of emotional BaekHong scenes, this one is on a whole new level. I want to move on, but at the same time I want to stay in this moment to relish the pain. Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won understood the assignment here, and they delivered like their rent was due.
I go from crying to laughing when Hae-in’s jealousy is activated on seeing other ladies ogling at her man. I mean, can you blame them? Hyun-woo rubs it in by intentionally courting the ladies’ attention because he plans to make it unbearable for Hae-in to leave him behind — a marvelous plan by the way, because I’ll personally snatch him up if Hae-in still chooses to die after all this. But we cannot have one minute of a happy and relaxed BaekHong without creepy Eun-shadow trailing after them with his evil eyes. Mtchewww.
To make good on her threat to clear all obstacles on her son’s path, Ms. Girlfriend arranges for a meet and greet between BaekHong’s rental car and the Truck of Doom. After wrestling with her conscience, Grace calls to warn Hyun-woo, but it’s too late. Hyun-woo watches in horror as the truck rams into the car — where his wife is supposed to be waiting for him! Damning the rising flames, Hyun-woo punches at the glass until it breaks (and I definitely won’t be trying this at home), but Hae-in is not in the car as she stepped out to buy a lucky four clover leaf moments before the accident. Phew!! I was so scared. Guys, I cannot sing Kim Soo-hyun’s praises enough for this scene. Man went through a whole range of emotions: panic, desperation, anguish, disbelief and relief, in less than two minutes!
Ms. Girlfriend might have planned to get rid of Hae-in with this accident, but all she does is provide Hae-in with a first-hand view of the utter wreck that her husband will be if she dies. Hyun-woo wasn’t kidding with his “If you die before I do, I’m going to live one more day and follow you,” statement during their honeymoon. Although Hae-in is terrified of losing her memories, she doesn’t want to lose Hyun-woo, so she decides to undergo the surgery. Yasss!
Park Ji-eun writer-nim really said: “You want a bed scene? Fine! You can have one. In the hospital.” Because why is Hyun-woo sharing Hae-in’s bed when he’s not a patient? Lol. Hae-in prods Hyun-woo to come clean about the things he has been keeping from her because she’s gonna forget them after the surgery anyway. And on the list of things he couldn’t say to her before, is the “I love you,” we have all been waiting for. B-but that’s not something you’d want her to forget, silly! I was already sniffing at Hyun-woo’s “Stay by my side for a long time. Let’s do ordinary things and grow old together,” and a tear or two dropped when Hae-in gave him a diary containing notes about herself, for him to hold on to, and give her after the surgery.
I could barely see through my tears as Hae-in was wheeled in for surgery, and I totally lost it watching Hyun-woo crumble alone after pretending to be strong in front of her. Some nerve-wracking hours later, the surgery is over, and we are all relieved. But before Hyun-woo can fulfil his promise of being the first person Hae-in sees when she wakes up, Interpol comes to arrest him for the murder of Land Scammer. You have got to be kidding me! From where to where?? I’m still trying to make sense of everything when Eun-slimy-bastard steps out of the elevator to announce himself as Hae-in’s guardian, and I’ll be damned.
Eun-seong deserves to have all his teeth knocked out for calling Hae-in “his woman,” but that’s not the main issue here. Doesn’t this hospital have records? Patient protection programs? Anything? How is it possible that a random idiot shows up claiming to be a patient’s guardian, and nobody flags it? To make matters worse, Eun-seong sends the prosecution to Daddy Hong on some embezzlement charges to prevent him from leaving Korea, so Hae-in is left at the mercy of that psychopath. OMG! Hong Hae-in, wake up and fight back!
We get a heartbreaking montage of Hae-in’s memories going up in flames one after the other, and then it’s all white. The first thing she wakes up to is that bastard smiling at her, but her first words are: “Baek Hyun-woo?” Ha! Get him again for me! Hae-in has zero memories, but Eun-seong is still not an option. Still, Eun-stubborn refuses to back down. He fills Hae-in’s head with lies about how much they love each other, and he tells her that Baek Hyun-woo is her ex-husband and stalker. Oh! I have never been this riled up in a long time. I want to enter my screen to fight!
The week ends with the first snow of the season, and BaekHong watches the snowfall from the detention center and hospital room, respectively. Hae-in feels like something is missing on her fingers — her ring — and she clutches at her chest in pain as the sight of her colored pinky catches her eyes. Her first love had better come true as the legend says.
We get the most heartbreaking set of epilogues yet, with a pre-Germany Hyun-woo recording a video message for Hae-in where he introduced himself as her husband in the event that she loses her memory. I didn’t think I had tears left to cry after watching that video message, then we got a pre-surgery Hae-in repeatedly mumbling Hyun-woo’s name and touching her colored pinky while being put under anesthesia — because repeatedly mumbling things you don’t want to forget is Hyun-woo’s secret to memorizing things. And now I’m broken all over again.
I was a complete mess this week, and it’s all thanks to the combo of emotional scenes and the BaekHong masterclasses in acting. They had so many rent-due scenes, I can’t even choose which one broke me the most. BaekHong is the egg wash holding this makjang pie of a drama together — I mean, we have entered makjang territory and the show is not even doing anything to hide it. In that case, can we have more of Hyun-woo and Hae-in and less of everyone else?
I get the idea of raising the stakes, but I’m tired of the villains still winning at the eleventh hour. Actually, I’m tired of all the non-BaekHong arcs. I don’t care that Da-hye tried to run away again because Ms. Girlfriend used Geon-woo to threaten her to give up a USB containing some incriminating information. I also don’t care for her “You’re making it harder for me to leave,” sob story when Soo-cheol begged her to stay. I’m sorry to Kwak Dong-yeon, but this is already stale, and the drama needs to pack it up.
We’ve got two episodes left and Baby 1031’s story hasn’t been addressed; neither have we had a full episode of pure bliss and fluff. Come on, this is supposed to be a rom-com! And I know my priorities are kinda skewed here, but we also haven’t had a good kiss scene since Episode 5! For the love of a married couple’s romance, BaekHong deserves another kiss scene. We viewers deserve it. And now that death has been removed from the equation, the drama better deliver on a happy ending next week.
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