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Welcome to Samdal-ri: Episodes 11-12
by Unit
This week, romance blooms between our leads, and the other sisters take friendly steps towards their respective love interests. In the midst of the romance, our heroine comes to acknowledge the importance of community, and we learn what protection means to different people.
EPISODES 11-12
After recalling the confession and her kiss with Yong-pil, Sam-dal needs time to collect her thoughts. She’s not confident about getting back together because when it comes to exes, they’d never forget the reason they broke up initially. But Yong-pil is confident that they can overcome the breakup because the memories of their love are stronger than the reason for their breakup.
We get another kiss, and our childhood sweethearts become official once again. We may not have gotten choice angles for either of their kisses, but at least we get blushing cute moments, snuggles in the hideout (witnessed by Mi-ja and Gyeong-tae’s mom), post-snuggle clarity, and the walk of shame back home. Heh.
As usual, the neighborhood is in Yong-pil and Sam-dal’s business. This time, it’s Sang-do’s parents who bring up the will-they-won’t-they conversation, and Sang-do insists that Yong-pil and Sam-dal are NOT a couple. Then his parents tell him to play cupid, and Sang-do explodes. “Why do I have to help if he likes her? Why do I always have to give up what I want?” I don’t know, maybe because the person you want doesn’t want you. Sam-dal gets a whiff of the tension between Yong-pil and Sang-do, but the situation between the guys decelerates into childish bickering about who gave up more for the other during their many years of friendship.
Moving on to Dae-young and his theme park, Mi-ja is not having it when she learns that Dae-young plans to relocate the park to Samdal-ri. Sam-dal’s dad is upset with Dae-young, but more than the divorce itself, he’s more upset that Dae-young didn’t keep in touch after the divorce. Over drinks, Dae-young cries that Jin-dal was the one who left him because she said he couldn’t live without money. He assures Dad that he can live without money, and that he even went as far as trying to get disowned by his family… but the family register system had been abolished when he went to the district office.
The men end up drunk in the living room. And over breakfast the next morning, we get another episode of Dae-young’s sensitive palate. It looks like that was a problem during his marriage — which led to his mom’s instructions to trash the side dishes his mother-in-law (Mi-ja) sent over to their chaebol home. Ouch!
Before Dae-young can embarrass himself over the side dishes served for breakfast, Jin-dal drags him outside. She scolds him for upending the Namdal-ri deal to defend her honor — but underneath all that reprimand lies her worry that Dae-young will get into trouble at home if he screws up the theme park business.
The theme park relocation leads to a face-off between the Namdal-ri haenyeo squad and the Samdal-ri haenyeo squad. It’s a free for all battle between the haenyeos, with everyone throwing hands, pulling each other’s hair and taking names. And in the midst of the drama, Mi-ja notices how Yong-pil shields Sam-dal from incoming attacks. Sam-dal already asked her mom if it was okay to like Yong-pil, and while Mom doesn’t object, this scene highlights her need to settle scores with Sang-tae for her daughter’s happiness.
The haenyo face-off also reinforces Jin-dal’s anti-theme park stance, but she wavers when Dae-young tells her that he’s bringing the theme park to Samdal-ri to stop her mom from diving. Jin-dal is surprised to hear that Dae-young knows about her mom’s arrhythmia, and it dawns on her that he was the one who paid Mi-ja’s hospital bill. Since Jin-dal also wants her mom to stop diving, she grudgingly becomes pro-theme park behind her mom’s back. And now Jin-dal and Dae-young have a solid reason to interact going forward.
Hae-dal learns more about Ji-chan after she joins — or rather, is dragged by Ha-yul to — a Protect the Dolphins protest. Ji-chan became Dolphin Namchun’s “dad” because no one would have protected Namchun if he didn’t. Apparently, he worked part-time at the aquarium that housed a pregnant Namchun back then, and he noticed that Namchun attempted to kill herself because she’d rather die with her baby than live in captivity. Ji-chan spearheaded Namchun’s release back into the sea, and Hae-dal can relate with the protective sentiment because her parents wanted to raise Ha-yul after her husband died.
Hae-dal refused to give Ha-yul up because no one in this world can protect her daughter like she can. And still in the protective spirit, she learns that Ha-yul hid Mi-ja’s diving suit because she was afraid that no one would protect her mom if something happened to her grandmother. “I’m still a kid so I can’t protect you,” Ha-yul cries. But her mom tells not to worry about such things. “Even if there’s no one to protect me, I’m stronger than anyone else,” Hae-dal assures her daughter.
Back in Seoul, Sam-dal’s backstabbing assistant, Eun-joo, is losing jobs due to her horrible photography and people skills. Eun-joo gets a gig in Jeju, and since she’s too dumb to come up with her own concept, she comes to Samdal-ri for a shoot because Sam-dal once boasted about her picturesque town. It’s the obsession for me. But before then, Eun-joo released a video of her mom accosting and hitting Sam-dal, to reignite the dying flames of Sam-dal’s abuse of power scandal.
On watching the video, the neighborhood is upset with Sam-dal’s ill-treatment, and they band together against Eun-joo when she shows up. Sam-dal’s folks are more upset that she kept the abuse all to herself, and Mi-ja repays the favor by dumping a bucket of vinegar on Eun-joo. Go mom! Mi-ja takes Sam-dal by the hand and pulls her away to emphasize that her daughter also has a mother, and it felt good to see Eun-joo humiliated on Sam-dal’s turf. But this is not enough for me. I need to see Eun-joo crumble.
For Sam-dal, it is enough to know that she has people on her side, and she replies in the negative when Yong-pil asks if she would return to the industry. Sam-dal decides to let go of her old goal to “find Jo Sam-dal,” for a new goal of achieving things as Jo Sam-dal. Yong-pil then reveals his treasured red wool from the scarf she crocheted for him, and Sam-dal is touched to see that he kept the memento for this long.
The week ends with Sang-tae hearing that his son was disciplined for leaving work without authorization during Mi-ja’s accident, and that he’s helping Sam-dal out with the photography gig. Sang-tae storms to the hideout to confront Sam-dal, and Yong-pil unwittingly learns that his dad was the root cause of The Breakup. Oops! More drama from daddy dearest.
If Sang-tae thinks that Sam-dal got between him and his son, I’ll need him to think again because his actions are the sole cause of any rift between him and Yong-pil. Yong-pil’s mom chose to accompany Mi-ja to the sea, and I’m almost sure she wouldn’t approve of her husband’s blame game. Sure, he’s human and he’s allowed to feel hurt, but whatever his ill feelings towards Mi-ja are, he shouldn’t bring the children into it. Just as his son is important to him, Sang-tae needs to accept that Sam-dal is equally important to Yong-pil, and she shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for loving him.
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