Episodes 5-6 » Dramabeans Kdrama MGG

Perfect Marriage Revenge: Episodes 5-6

by missvictrix

With the drama hitting its halfway mark already, our heroine realizes the “marriage” part of her plan, but the “perfect revenge” not so much. For every step forward she takes, our antagonists up the ante with bigger machinations and bolder moves. But at least our heroine has a sexy husband that adores her now?

 
EPISODES 5-6

For some reason, the full-on soapiness of this drama didn’t fully hit me until this week. Is it all the wild plot reveals? The scheming? The fan-servicey romantic relationships? Either way, we have tons of plot happenings this week, and to top that off, some steamy moments between our leads.

We open up in with our unconscious hero dragged to the ER and Yi-joo losing her mind when Do-gook disappears from his hospital bed. But don’t worry, he’s fine, and he grab-saves her in the hospital hallway. This is skinship #1 of about 431 instances this week, but it might be my favorite because they’re still so tentative around each other, and all this week’s episodes we see Do-gook trying to (somewhat respectfully) plow his way past Yi-joo’s immaculately constructed walls of self-protection. I love this dynamic; it’s making the show for me.

Yi-joo can’t hide her concern for Do-gook even when she tries, but he tells her that there isn’t a doctor in the ER who can help him. We learn (thanks to a bizarro intruding psychiatrist) that Do-gook’s been under treatment for his panic disorder and is doing loads better. Let’s just focus on getting married, he urges Yi-joo.

Well, get married they do! Do-gook’s mom Yeon-hwa — swiftly becoming my favorite character and possibly my favorite samonim ever — makes it happen. Before you know it, invitations are sent, the hall is reserved, and Yi-joo tries on dresses again (cameo by Hong Seok-chun). At this point I’m honestly perplexed why Yi-joo looks so miserable. She’s in a gorgeous dress with Do-gook staring at her all gaga, her wedding is coming up, and the miserable Se-hyuk is on-site to embarrass himself and get put in his place. Do-gook gently but firmly pushes him away from Yi-joo (Counter: 1).

Yi-joo is even more miserable when she meets up with Jung-wook — despite Do-gook earnestly asking her to stay away from him — and this scene is a giant mess. Do-gook gently but firmly pushes his hyung away from Yi-joo (Counter: 2). Then he punches his brother to the floor after Jung-wook mercilessly taunts him. Oh boy, these two.

Afterwards, our OTP has words as well, with Yi-joo saying she was only trying to help, and Do-gook kind of half-destroyed by the desire to protect her and the knowledge that she obviously cares about him. But, he says if he tells her the backstory of his hyung’s accident, they’ll be crossing the line (her line), and he can’t do that. So instead he offers the swoony, “Don’t touch me if you can’t handle it. I’m already holding back enough.”

As we near the end of the episode, though, our first round of reveals come into play. Yi-joo and the chairwoman (now “Halmeoni” by request, aww) visit a shaman and a whole wealth of old secrets come out around Yi-joo’s grandfather. Back in his loan shark days he was responsible for the suicide of a pregnant woman and he’s always felt haunted by that; Yi-joo was adopted as a sort of atonement. But it only gets weirder when Yi-joo and Grandpa’s tea (literal and figurative) is interrupted by Mom. Grandpa hides Yi-joo in the closet (poorly) and she hears a host of shocking things — viz., that Grandpa should never admit that Yi-joo is the true daughter of her adoptive father.

This shocking scene cuts off abruptly, and the next thing we know Do-gook’s own shocking moment is interrupted by a call about Yi-joo. She’s at the police station, shell-shocked and missing her shoes. Her feet are all cut up, and our hero carefully washes them at home, tucks her into bed, and comforts her, not asking for her to explain. Now, was this just a case of terrible post-prod editing, or are we going to circle back to what happened in that time gap? We haven’t yet, and I find that super bizarre. As for the near panic attack that Do-gook was called away from? He’d picked up Yi-joo’s sketch book and was paging through drawings of her fatal car accident. The driver in the car she hits looks an awful lot like him…

No matter, it’s time for their nuptials! But while Do-gook is on cloud nine, Yi-joo is ready to have a breakdown, presumably because of what she’s previously learned about her parentage. Mom comes in and harasses her yet again; this woman has a talent for cruelty. Just when Yi-joo has had too much and is about to attack her with a vase of wedding flowers (really?), Do-gook steps in to prevent the assault. He quiets Yi-joo. He tells her she needs to be happy and make everyone jealous. That’s the plan, right?

Their walk down the aisle is positively epic, and I love the time the drama lingered on nailing this moment. We see Yi-joo finally turn the corner from misery chick to determined and slightly wicked heroine. She is actually able to bow to her mother after the ceremony, and hand it right back when Mom taunts her for her dad not being there.

Our couple arrives home, and Do-gook’s ready to bond over some wine. Yi-joo, not so much. Into her cave she goes. And tomorrow? Off on the honeymoon by herself lol. We’re rewarded for our patience, though, and so is Do-gook!

He turns up on the beach in a classy white shirt and looks every bit the hero. They bond. He tells her about the childhood accident that birthed his trauma. He makes skinship at every possible opportunity. She makes him walk barefoot in the water as some kind of exposure therapy (not thrilled with that one). And every night back at their accommodations, he’s relentless in his pursuit of sharing a bed with her. And if he can’t do that, he’ll just tease her mercilessly, like he does with the extended scene of the glassed-in bathroom and who’s going to watch first when who showers. LOL.

But behind all the flirting and innuendo, Do-gook is there for Yi-joo, almost to a fault. She finally opens up to him and tells him that she’s just learned her father is actually her biological father and everyone hid it from her; Do-gook lets her cry and cry. Yi-joo doesn’t have any details about her past yet, but for now she’s too exhausted to even think about it anymore. And that’s where Do-gook can help.

After a romantic speech about letting her use him in any way she can, he offers what he can in the moment: I’ll make it so you can’t think about anything for a while. *Fans self* They start making out, and when Do-gook pins her arms back on the bed (excuse me, sir!) we get our next ginormous plot twist: Do-gook has the death date on his wrist too. BOOM!

Meanwhile, there’s other sex being had by way of Yoo-ra and Se-hyuk — the former who is most assuredly using the latter, and it’s kinda sad. But really, Yoo-ra has her sights set on Jung-wook now. Never mind the sexy cane and history of blackmailing boards and unions to do his bidding — he’s the man she needs to get one over on Yi-joo. And he seems pretty easy to convince, because when Do-gook and Yi-joo return from their honeymoon for a family meal, Jung-wok shows up with a very-much-gloating Yoo-ra on his arm. This is super fun because it’s a) ridiculous and b) pits both sets of siblings against each other in a way that will hopefully bring our OTP even closer.

In addition to all this plot, there’s also quite a bit more going on in the background — Yoo-ra and Mom have it out, and we see Mom starting to lose her iron grip a bit. Mom’s also been involved with selling Yi-joo’s original paintings. Imagine waking up and finding out you’re a famous anonymous artist in the New York art scene. This blows up beautifully in favor of Yi-joo, and she effectively takes the Hanwool gallery away from Yoo-ra. Yi-joo also learns more about her parentage, and how her adoption into the family was actually a coincidence — no one discovered till later that she was the true daughter.

Well, with all the lineage questions, love affairs, and siblings wars at hand, this is getting quite messy! Good thing the entire Taeja Group family is so bloody fun. Whether it’s Jae-ho weeping at the wedding, Yeon-hwa being glorious and taking Yi-joo under her wing, or Halmoeni and her kickass earring cuffs — they are are making this ride even more riotous.

 
RELATED POSTS