The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract: Episodes 3-4 » Dramabeans MGG

The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract: Episodes 3-4

by DaebakGrits

Time traveling to the future and being at the mercy of total strangers is tough, but now our leading lady finds herself caught in the middle of a modern day palace coup. While her fake husband would prefer she stay out of sight and out of trouble, our leading lady has a hard time taking orders. But will her unique knowledge of Joseon prove useful when trying to outwit 21st century business rivals?

 
EPISODES 3-4

The days when Tae-ha would have inherited his grandfather’s company as the eldest male heir are long gone, and while Sang-mo certainly has a say in the matter, his recommendation doesn’t pull a lot of weight unless Tae-ha also proves himself to be a competent businessman. Thus, Tae-ha has been put in charge of the Hwajeopdo exhibit as a wedding gift from his grandfather — because nothing says “congratulations on your happy nuptials” quite like working on your honeymoon.

Hye-sook is particularly miffed that Tae-ha has been given this opportunity to outshine her, so she shows up on Tae-ha’s doorstep to rattle his cage and get the lowdown on his new wife. After being coolly dismissed by Tae-ha before she can get any dirt on him or Yeon-woo, Hye-sook immediately begins plotting with her henchman HWANG MYUNG-SOO (Lee Jun-hyuk) to ensure that the exhibit tanks.

Y’all, the audacity of this woman is killing me. I don’t fault her for her greed, but it’s the way she tries — and fails — to play the role of a doting step-mother behind closed doors that gets me. Everyone knows she’s gunning to be chairwoman, so why bother with the charade when board members aren’t around? It must be an intentional way of getting under Tae-ha’s skin and toying with him, but I hate that it’s working on me, too! Actress Jin Kyung is amazing at playing the role of evil b***h, and every time she’s on the screen I just want to slap her with a pork cutlet.

Meanwhile, poor Yeon-woo is desperate to return to Joseon. Even though the life she left behind wasn’t great — what with her being a recent widow and all — the future doesn’t have much to offer beyond milk and choco pies. Take away the snacks, and she’s stuck with a stoic copy of her dead husband and a step-mother who’s just as sus as her Joseon doppelgänger.

Getting home, however, is proving difficult. She thought she might have been able to reverse the process by jumping into the hotel pool while clutching the crepe myrtle branch — which is magically as fresh as it was when she broke it off the tree — but that didn’t work. Water? Check. Crepe myrtle? Check. Blood red moon? Ahhhhh… maybe that’s what’s missing.

With no immediate solution to her out-of-time experience, Yeon-woo makes a deal with Tae-ha. She will continue to play the role of his wife for one month in exchange for a place to stay, unlimited snacks, and his help with finding her way back home. She is, of course, referring to Joseon, but he’s assuming he will either help her recover her memories or find her long-lost modern family — who may actually exist, if the missing person photo (shown only to the audience) is any indication.

Unfortunately, there’s not much for Yeon-woo to do in the 21st century besides watch television and practice the sport of curling with her new bestie: the robot vacuum. The way she personifies and befriends an inanimate object is sweetly human, but it’s laced with an undercurrent of loneliness. Despite being some of the most laugh-out-loud scenes of this drama, Yeon-woo’s homesickness and isolation are palpable. Luckily, she’s growing on Tae-ha, and it won’t be much longer before she has some human friends.

After Yeon-woo spots a fake painting displayed in the Hwajeopdo exhibit and helps Tae-ha foil Hye-sook’s latest attempt to tarnish his reputation, he thanks her with a fancy dinner at a traditional style restaurant. He probes her, trying to figure out how she knew could accurately identify paintings by the Joseon artist, and she explains that she was the artist’s benefactor. Reminiscing about the past makes her a bit melancholy, and so she drinks. You can probably sense where this is going…

One piggyback ride later, Tae-ha does his best to corral the drunk Yeon-woo to bed, but her intoxication combined with her lack of knowledge around modern scientific advances (re: electricity) make her a danger to herself. After arguing with some electrical outlets — which, admittedly, do kind of look like faces — Yeon-woo tries to stab them with metal chopsticks.

Before she can electrocute herself, Tae-ha grabs her, and they fall to the floor. Yeon-woo is draped on top of him, and lost in memories of her deceased husband, she kisses an endearingly flustered Tae-ha, whose wide eyes blink almost as fast as his racing pulse. But when Tae-ha’s watch beeps that his heart rate is too high, he panics and accidentally headbutts Yeon-woo. And just like that, our android CEO is smitten — not that he’ll admit it to anyone or himself — but the signs are there.

For starters, he can’t stop thinking about the kiss — to the extent that his subordinates misinterpret his absentmindedness and frustration as displeasure over their work performance. He’s also more proactive about seeing that Yeon-woo has her head examined, and he personally takes her to the hospital rather than relying on Sung-pyo. Yeon-woo’s CT scan shows no abnormalities with her brain — there goes Tae-ha and Sung-pyo’s theory she’s an amnesiac art scholar — but Tae-ha’s doctor friend remains concerned about Tae-ha’s heart.

Tae-ha insists he’s fine and doesn’t need a full examination, but almost immediately thereafter a distressed patient grabs him in the hospital hallway and causes Tae-ha to have a panic attack. Turns out, our stoic CEO has PTSD from a traumatic childhood experience. (Anyone else fill up their K-drama bingo card yet?)

Yeon-woo holds him and gently coaxes him through the attack, but she’s reminded of her husband’s death and can’t fully shake her concern that Tae-ha will meet the same fate as her husband even though they aren’t the same person. Husband or not, Yeon-woo is protective of Tae-ha, so when Hye-sook comes sniffing at their doorstep again, Yeon-woo blocks her entrance and tries not to show she’s intimidated by Hye-sook’s threatening words.

The next day, Tae-ha is back to being an android, and he and Sung-pyo begin teaching Yeon-woo the ways of the 21st century — and the ways of the Kang family. All of this is in preparation for Sang-mo’s upcoming birthday party, where Tae-ha expects Yeon-woo to be on her best fake-wifey behavior.

When they arrive at the party, Yeon-woo is off to a great start, but it’s 100% due to her natural charisma and not her training. First she charms the socks of Sang-mo by answering his old-fashioned riddles, and then she finds a surprise ally in Tae-ha’s young cousin, the young boy who helped Yeon-woo her first day in 2023. And finally, Yeon-woo is reunited with Sa Wol, who latched onto Tae-ha’s aunt, KANG HAE-RYUNG (Sohn So-mang), after she hit Sa Wol with her car.

To be honest, Yeon-woo and Sa Wol’s reunion is my first major gripe with this drama. I was expecting something more emotional given the closeness of their friendship. Not to mention, the relief they both should have been feeling now that they are no longer alone in a strange time and place. While there were a few tears, I overall found their behavior and ability to hide their connection from the Kang family far too rational in the moment.

Then again, when Hye-sook is plotting something behind the scenes, maybe it’s best to be cautious. You see, Hye-sook found out that Tae-ha’s marriage to Yeon-woo is fake and — more importantly — that the bride was originally supposed to be someone else. So, of course, through any means necessary (e.g. bribery, kidnapping, etc.), Hye-sook plots for Fake Bride #1 to show up at the birthday and expose Tae-ha’s contract marriage scheme. Surprisingly, things don’t go according to Hye-sook’s plan because Tae-min, of all people, steps up and pretends Fake Bride #1 is his girlfriend.

Yeah, I don’t know what to make of Tae-min, the self-proclaimed “weed.” At this point, he claims to have no alliances — not even with his mother — which is understandable, seeing Hye-sook is about as motherly as a rock thrown at your head. Given his mommy issues, it’s probable that Tae-min might join hands with Tae-ha after he’s shown a little compassion and caring. Personally, I find him kind of obnoxious, though, and I’d rather see him go full tilt into villain- hood than suffer through his redemption arc.

With the party behind them and Fake Bride #1 on her way to the U.S., Tae-ha breathes a sigh of relief… until Yeon-woo does what any dutiful granddaughter-in-law would do and asks to stay the night — not realizing that a sleepover with the in-laws would come with the expectation that she’d share a (tackily decorated) honeymoon-style suite with her husband. Interestingly, Tae-ha only seems mildly put out by this unexpected arrangement, and grabs his pair of matching pajamas with a resigned sigh.

Before he can put on his couple PJs, though, Sung-pyo calls Tae-ha out for a private meeting. As Tae-ha requested, Sung-pyo searched history records for the man Yeon-woo claims is her father, and sure enough, he existed. Tae-ha is surprised that the details in the record Sung-pyo dug up are an eerie match to the things Yeon-woo has been saying. It’s enough to make Tae-ha want to hear more of what she has to say, but when he returns to their room, she’s missing.

Although Yeon-woo was initially just going to meet up with Sa Wol in secret, she’s lured into the woods by the same mysterious green-eyed woman she met in Joseon. Yeon-woo follows the woman deeper into the woods until she comes across a grave. A man dressed in black sneaks up behind her, but before he can cause Yeon-woo harm, Tae-ha calls out her name. As she turns to face him, the ground gives way beneath her feet, and she starts to fall down a cliff. Tae-ha, who raced to save her, falls with her.

Overall, another pair of solid episodes, and I don’t have many complaints — other than the aforementioned reunion between Yeon-woo and Sa Wol and my aversion to Tae-min’s characterization. For me, those things aren’t enough to detract from the fun of an otherwise enjoyable story. I laughed out loud repeatedly during these episodes, and the scenes of Yeon-woo and her pet Roomba now live rent free in my mind.

This week, my hysterical cackling has been accompanied by a fair amount of squeeing, too. One of my favorite guilty pleasure tropes is the stoic CEO who softens when he learns how to love, and Bae In-hyuk is nailing Tae-ha’s denial as he slowly starts to fall for Yeon-woo. That first kiss/head butt really did a number on him, and I love that the drama went meta and poked fun at his inability to sleep and focus over something as simple as an accidental first kiss. A large part of why this drama hasn’t sunk under the weight of all its tropes is because it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and if it can maintain this tone, I think we have another potential hit on our hands.

 
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