Episodes 5-6 » Dramabeans Kdrama MGG

A Good Day to Be a Dog: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

It’s a good day to dive into our hero’s past, and it’s not pretty. But if there’s one thing this drama does well, it’s infusing its light-hearted tone into seemingly dark scenarios. With the many hijinks we got this week, you’ll almost forget that our heroine is trying to break a curse. Unfortunately, our resident tiger spirit will not allow us to disregard the curse so easily.

 
EPISODES 5-6

Nothing says welcome back from yet another break like opening the week with Seo-won’s brooding shower scene, and getting back-to-back episodes. I can almost forgive MBC for last week’s preemption. Almost.

Moving on, the school is chosen by the Office of Education as a school violence-free school, and the vice principal is mighty proud that this happened during his tenure. This feat is partly due to the school’s video production club and their award winning school violence prevention video. But here’s the irony: their school is not violence-free, and the bullying is perpetrated right in the video production club.

The ringleader of the bullies, JAE-HEE, doubles as a popular teen actress. And her victim, JI-WON, became a scapegoat after some comments lauded her acting in one of the videos as better than Jae-hee’s. Seo-won stumbles on one of their bullying sessions, and Jae-hee claims it’s a rehearsal for a video. (It’s a devilishly smart plan when you think about it, because for alibi’s sake, Jae-hee actually records her antics and edits the clips to make the anti-school violence videos.) Seo-won is concerned, but Ji-won corroborates the rehearsal claim. Still, he insists on further investigation, and the vice principal rebukes him for getting ahead of himself. Why am I not surprised?

The other teachers are just as passive, and without clear evidence, it’s difficult to prove that bullying actually happened. Even when Ji-won admits that she was bullied, the vice principal’s bright idea is for her to leave the club. After all, all will be fine if they just separate the perpetuator from the victim. But Seo-won isn’t having any of that crap. He calls out the vice principal on his pathetic attempt to maintain the school’s image at the expense of Ji-won’s emotional scars, and then he storms out.

This case hits home for Seo-won because he was also bullied in high school (bully guest appearance by Kim Min-seok). Seo-won sees his younger self in Ji-won, and he knows that’s just because a person says they’re okay doesn’t mean they’re really okay. As always, Hae-na is on ground for comforting duties as he relieves his painful memories. “When you want to cry, it’s okay to cry a little,” she says to him. And cry, he does.

With a newfound determination, Hae-na dons the best spy disguise: her dog form! And I just about died of laughter when she ran up to snatch Jae-hee’s phone! She secures the video evidence to prove that the bullying wasn’t a rehearsal, and Jae-hee ends up being axed from all her filming schedules. Serves her right!

But Jae-hee is nothing if not persistently evil, so she formulates a revenge plan to create a scandal between herself and Seo-won. Sigh. Luckily, Hae-na overhears the plot, and this calls for more spy hijinks. This time, she ropes Yoo-ra and Woo-taek into the Dogvengers mission, and they attach a camera to her cute little doggo hat. Hae-na becomes a moving CCTV, and I just can’t deal with her running after Jae-hee’s minions with a carton over her little body! (By the way, it’s kinda scary how normalized it is for these high schoolers to be out way past midnight.)

Hae-na gets the deets of how the scandalous plan will go down, and Yoo-ra calls Seo-won to warn him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t pick up as Jae-hee already called him out to have “one last conversation before she drops out of school.” So it’s time for the second phase of Operation Save Seo-won From His Unhinged Students: admit Yul into the Dogvengers!

The Dogvengers arrive at the crime scene, and Hae-na barks to disperse the minions — who are hiding with a camera to film the scandalous scene. Phew! Seo-won goes after the minions, and Jae-hee goes after Hae-na — who scurries to find a totally not obvious hiding spot. Lol. Bo-gyeom shows up out of the blue, and Jae-hee is startled to see her nice history teacher. But the look in his eyes tells a different story and he scares the hell out of Jae-hee, giving her a taste of the terror her victims felt. This is one after-school lesson she will never forget!

Yul tells his uncle that he showed up at the crime scene because Jae-hee’s scandalous plotting was caught on camera by his friend’s dog, COCOA. And Seo-won totally buys the “pet owners sometimes attach a camera on their dogs to get a dog-eyed view whenever they go on walks” excuse. Cocoa is actually a dog in an online pet-simulation game, but Seo-won doesn’t need to know that. Heh.

With the bullying arc done, it’s time to face the school’s upcoming overnight trip. *Inserts Hae-na’s transformational panic* Yul begs Seo-won to allow Cocoa — going forward, this is our official name for Hae-na in dog form — to stay over for a few nights, and Seo-won agrees on the condition that Cocoa remains in Yul’s room throughout. Hae-na’s plan is for Yul to put Cocoa in Seo-won’s room when he’s half asleep around, say, 3:00 am. But Yul loses the battle with sleep, and the plan fails.

Yul sleeps off again on the night before the school trip, and Cocoa decides to take the bull by the horns — only for her to meet Seo-won wide awake on the couch. Hae-na already suggested that Seo-won could try getting familiar with “the dog that saved him from danger,” and Seo-won steels himself on seeing Cocoa. He slowly reaches out to pat her head, and Cocoa holds her breath. Just a few inches more, and she can kiss him and be free from the curse… but that’s when the front door unlocks, and Bo-gyeom strolls in for a sleepover. Aish! He totally came over on purpose, didn’t he?

Since everyone and their mothers now know Seo-won’s passcode and they can waltz in anytime they like, Yoo-ra sneaks in to pick up Cocoa before dawn. She claims to be the owner when Bo-gyeom accosts her for trying to steal the dog, and he says to be careful not to lose her dog, and to make sure the time they have left together is meaningful. Yunno, since no dog can outlive a person. *Shudders* Why so scary, sir?

Yul feels bad for sleeping off, so he sets up a mini tent and other necessities for Cocoa to use at midnight during the school trip. He’s so sweet! While Yul is on worried mom mode on the trip, his uncle oscillates between swoony mode (standing behind a dozing Hae-na to shield her from the sun) and jealous mode (stabbing the stream with his paddle when they go canoeing and everyone eggs on the Bo-gyeom × Hae-na pairing). Lol.

At night, Seo-won and Hae-na have to search for some students who sneaked out, and she lies about needing to do “number 2” as an excuse to dip before her nightly transformation. Seo-won begins to look for Hae-na after finding their students, and he sights Cocoa from afar as she’s snatched up by a granny — who mistakes Cocoa for her similar-looking missing dog. “Help! I’m being dog-napped,” Cocoa barks at him. Unfortunately, Seo-won doesn’t speak woof.

Cocoa ends up tied to a pole at Granny’s house, and she watches in horror as Granny stirs a broth and whips up a sauce. “It can’t be what I think it is, right?” Cocoa whimpers, and I’m sorry, but this is just too funny! Granny approaches with a knife (that has kimchi juices dripping from it like blood!) and… slices off some greens beside the pole. Phew! But this is the last straw, and Cocoa hurriedly chews herself out of the leash. LMAO! Okay, how sharp are her teeth or how weak was the leash?

Cocoa runs away, but her escape plan hits a pause when she falls off a bridge and lands in a ditch. Yikes! Yul finds her, but he can’t get her out. Thankfully, he drops off her clothes so she has something to wear when she’s back to human form. The next morning, Seo-won finds Hae-na and gets her out, and it looks like he’d been searching for her all night. Awww. He piggy backs her to their lodgings since she hurt her feet, and on their way, she clarifies that she no longer has feelings for Bo-gyeom. Is that a green light for Seo-won?

After finding and returning Granny’s dog, Hae-na and Seo-won go on a date head to the night market to retrieve one of the student’s wallets. A sketchy guy spots Hae-na, and he’s revealed to be Yoo-ra’s ex (the one who attempted to film her transformation). He definitely has a thing for hidden cameras, because he takes a few pictures of Hae-na as she enjoys her night out with Seo-won. “I wonder if he knows his girlfriend is a monster,” the guy mutters with a suspicious gleam in his eyes, and we wrap up for the week.

Just great! Now Hae-na has another dude on her back aside from Bo-gyeom — who remains characteristically himself, with his usual doublespeak and the air of foreboding that surrounds him. At this point, he’s not even trying to hide it anymore after putting the fear of God into the bully and letting us in on his plan to pull our OTP away from each other after they’ve gotten closer.

But where’s the fun in the show if Bo-gyeom is the only spirit running amok among humans? We’ve got a new student, MIN JI-AH (Kim Yi-kyung), who doubles as a shaman. And from the look of things, she was also involved in whatever happened between our main trio in their Joseon past lives — although she doesn’t seem to recognize any of them in the present.

Notwithstanding, Ji-ah sees things like a puppy in Hae-na, and that Yul is entangled with “a certain dog that has a story.” What makes me the most anxious, though, is her premonition of danger for Yul. “You’ll be summoned to some uncomfortable place soon. Be careful. It’s not real. Getting too involved will only lead you to trouble.” No way! Not my Yul. Someone please save him. Dogvengers? Plot armor? Anyone… ?

 
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