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Like Flowers in Sand: Episode 11
by missvictrix
Both the romance and the ssireum take a backseat this week, because as our investigative team grows, they gain some new intel and turn the village gossip in their favor. But between red herrings and fuzzy memories, will they be able to solve the case?
EPISODE 11
Beanies, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that Like Flowers in Sand isn’t over after all — yay, we get to stay in this story for a little while longer. The bad news is that ENA’s announcement of the Episode 12 delay was vague and if I’m honest, points to a re-edit — but let’s hope the delay was merely technical and we get our final episode forthwith.
We pick up in Episode 11 where we left off — the newly unveiled Doo-shik (and we’ll just call her that from now on since everyone else is anyway) shares the details of the case with the growing crew, and Seok-hee is hilariously self-gratified. Well, he’s right that he knew something was up with the reservoir case from the start. When Doo-shik mentions the phone that was briefly turned on, Seok-hee’s the first to speak up again. It was him — he found the phone in the reservoir thanks to the endless annoyance of runaway Snowball. I love how the drama snuck this in, and took what started as a silly side gag (bored cops with nothing to do but chase a naughty dog) and turned it into a long-running hint. And maybe even the clincher of the entire case? Because who keeps letting Snowball out to dig in the reservoir anyway?
Running out of time, the team decides to turn the town gossip mill in their favor. They all know how powerful of a mechanism it is, and what will happen if Mi-ran’s true identity gets out. And add in the rumor that she’s got some incriminating evidence about her father’s death? Well, as expected, the news spreads like wildfire, and soon the ajusshis are gathered at Ran’s Coffe and shocked at whose daughter she is.
All signs point to town ajusshi PARK PIL-DU (Woo Hyun) as our culprit, since he was: a) the person who witnessed Doo-shik’s dad going to “talk” to Mi-ran’s dad before he died; b) seen lingering around Snowball’s doghouse late at night; c) the only ajusshi missing from the gathering at Mi-ran’s cafe.
However, Baek-du spends a lot of his time walking around muttering aloud to himself about this. He is sure that Pil-du is a good person, and if I’ve learned anything from this drama it’s that Baek-du’s intuition to worth betting on. It’s also worth noting that Doo-shik also takes this approach as an investigator: you can’t just assume someone is guilty when the circumstances point that way, she says. That’s how her dad was blamed for murder 20 years ago. And I dare say, Doo-shik’s willingness to look beyond the inertia of what “seems” correct is what makes her good at her job. (Sure enough, Pil-du and Baek-du’s dad have a heart-to-heart, and we learn that Pil-du is innocent and has always felt guilty about the weight his off-handed statement had in the case.)
Now that all the childhood friends know who Doo-shik is, they’ve fallen into their old rapport with her. Hilariously, Baek-du is all bent out of shape to hear the banmal between her and Jin-su. And he’s even more upset when Jin-su says flatly that Doo-shik grew up pretty (aigoo!). But I don’t think that Baek-du has any competition from Jin-su on the Doo-shik front: Jin-su has been charged with keeping an eye on Mi-ran now that the truth is out, and he does this adorably. It also reminds me how much we saw them hanging out at the beginning of the show. (Could Mi-ran be the reason he was so anxious to head back to Geosan as coach?)
Either way, Mi-ran couldn’t be less concerned about the ajusshis, so she sends Jin-su on his urgent work errand. Annnnnnd that’s when Very Sinister Ajusshi shows up at the cafe, shutting doors and turning off lights while Mi-ran stands there, frozen. It’s all so slow and subtle that it’s positively terrifying. We only see Mi-ran’s perspective here, so we’ve no idea who he is. And that, my friends, is one serious cliffhanger. Especially a cliffhanger that’s hanging on a missing finale episode.
Like Flowers in Sand has been a delight straight through, so let’s all make an offering to the drama gods that this little blip in our drama’s schedule doesn’t make any unwanted waves. And in the meantime, let’s take a moment to enjoy the beautiful, rich writing that has brought this world to life.
While the past/present cases are what drove the plot, and brought our childhood characters back together, the drama has done a nice job of not forsaking those characters in the name of the investigation. It’s felt firmly rooted to who our characters are, and who they became, from the start. That being said, I very nearly wish we were looking at a 16-episode drama where the case could have been stretched thinner and given less precedence, and where we had a little more time to watch our crew interact with each other some more. Two episodes isn’t enough of seeing Baek-du, Jin-su, Seok-hee, Doo-shik, and Mi-ran back together again as adults. There’s so much simple joy in watching these characters interact with each other, in the past and the present, that I could watch them all day.
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