Witch Amusement: Episode 5

by javabeans

My love for this drama keeps growing. Episode 5 was the funniest and most enjoyable so far — and the series is only getting better, folks!

SONG OF THE DAY

(Jeon Hye) Bin – “달을 삼킨 밤” (Moonless Night)… Another Bin song, this time from her solo album. It matches the feel-good ambiance of Witch Amusement well, I thought. [ zShare download ]

EPISODE 5 SUMMARY

As many have guessed, the elevator kiss proves to be a mere figment of Yoo Hee’s wishful imagination.

The dinner proceeds between Yoo Hee, Mu-ryong, Joon Ha, and Sara. Sara introduces Mu-ryong as Yoo Hee’s boyfriend, and Joon Ha as her first love. Mu-ryong remembers him as the cold, unfriendly guy from the party and from when he swung the door into Mu-ryong’s face.

The proverbial dick-measuring contest begins with a handshake, neither side giving way until Mu-ryong asserts his dominance with an extra hand. Although I wonder if that’s cheating. Or just smart.

Sara laughs that she didn’t tell Yoo Hee that Joon Ha would be coming to dinner because she was afraid Yoo Hee wouldn’t come. After all, she embarrassed herself a bit at their prior meeting. Mu-ryong laughs, “A bit? It was totally humiliating.” As Yoo Hee poises her boot to dig into his foot, he continues: “But isn’t that our Yoo Hee’s charm? A tiny crack hidden amidst her perfection.” The boot retreats.

Mu-ryong plays the part of attentive boyfriend, cutting up Yoo Hee’s food for her, causing Joon Ha to look on in distaste. Sara notes that both men are doctors, and asks Mu-ryong which hospital he belongs to. That causes minor agitation, but Mu-ryong steps up and says he’s sorry, he lied before. He’s not currently employed, having recently quit the hospital. He didn’t tell Yoo Hee for fear she would dump him.

In Yoo Hee’s consternation at the announcement, she farts. Yep, you read that right. (If you haven’t noticed by now, Koreans tend to enjoy toilet humor. I don’t really get it myself, but I’ve seen it all my life, so just accept it as part of a culturally weird sense of humor.) Everyone hears (and smells) it, and it’s fairly clear from whom it originated. Yoo Hee shrinks in her seat, when Mu-ryong laughs and apologizes — in the stress from being let go from the hospital, he’s been having digestive issues (specifically constipation — again, too much information for many, but it’s not as squeamish an issue as it is in, say, American culture). Sara asks, “So it was you? I thought it was Yoo Hee!” Yoo Hee recovers from her wish to disappear into her seat, and Mu-ryong excuses himself.

Joon Ha sees Mu-ryong standing at the urinal, and notes, “You said it was constipation. You sure take care of that in an interesting way.” He goes on to ask what he likes about Yoo Hee, and Mu-ryong responds he just likes her because she’s her. She’s like a lobster — all hard and spiny on the outside, but tender on the inside.

Joon Ha: “Do you love her?”
Mu-ryong: “Well that… ” [thinks a moment] “I guess I do. Why do you ask?”
Joon Ha: “Just because. But something about the two of you feels wrong.”
Mu-ryong: “That’s a bit rude to say to a couple who’s been happily dating for a while.”
Joon Ha: “I only want Yoo Hee to be happy. She’s a good lady.”
Mu-ryong: “Of course she is. If I let her go, I’m sure I’d regret it terribly.”

On the way home, Mu-ryong notes that she must’ve really liked Joon Ha, but she should upgrade her standards for men. He’s not right for her — he thinks with his head instead of his heart.

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In an entirely irrelevant scene, Johnny/Dennis swims. And I mean, it’s utterly pointless. I almost want to refuse to screencap it because, come on SBS, what do you take us for? Have you no respect for our appreciation of story and character? Are we that manipulable, to be so cheaply bought with a display of manly skin and tight swim trunks??

Okay, yes, we’re shallow. You win.

I suppose it would be a shame to cast someone sheerly to bring the pretty (it surely isn’t the acting), force us to sit through the wooden performance and garbled speech (even if he is trying), and then not take advantage of prime opportunities to showcase that pretty. Okay, enough Dennis-bashing. Don’t send me hate mail. Just consider me one less fan with whom you’ll have to theoretically compete for Dennis O’s affections.

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Mu-ryong is introduced as a new employee at the restaurant. Mu-ryong takes a good look at Johnny, and contemplates him as a possible match for Yoo Hee. But it backfires when the female assistant (I think her name is Mari?) asks him if he’s gay, from the way he keeps checking Johnny out.

Meanwhile, Yoo Hee’s set up on another blind date, and does her best to recall Mu-ryong’s advice. For instance, men like seeing women eating well.

But! One must make sure not to confuse eating well with eating indiscriminately!

The date is going well, and Mu-ryong calls her to check in on her date. Yoo Hee glances over to see him watching from across the restaurant and IT IS RIDICULOUSLY CUTE.

“What? What are you up to?”
(I freaking love how Yoo Hee’s angry little face with its angry little shaking fists actually looks like her!)

“I was worried you might screw up again…”

“What are you doing?”

“SMILE~!”

“Are you playing around right now?”

Her date says some very pretty words, and takes Yoo Hee out for drinks afterward. Mu-ryong is initially glad for her, but then remembers seeing the guy before — he’s a notorious skeeze. He tells Yoo Hee not to see him anymore, but Yoo Hee dismisses his alarms. She asks if Mu-ryong’s jealous, to which he answers no, so Yoo Hee gladly sets another date for the following night, rubbing Mu-ryong’s nose in it.

The next day, Mu-ryong sees Yoo Hee on her date at his restaurant. I’ve gotta learn the name of the restaurant one of these days; I’m sure they’ll be saying it a lot. In any case, Mu-ryong overhears the guy on the phone bragging how he’s going to take Yoo Hee for drinks at a hotel, then up to the room he’s already booked in advance. He’s only dating Yoo Hee because her father requested it, but looks like he’ll be able to declare the game over soon anyway.

Mu-ryong applies to Johnny for help, saying that Yoo Hee’s on a date with an unsuitable guy. Johnny’s not sure he believes him, but finds himself worried and distracted. Mu-ryong tries to interfere, but gets stuck in the bathroom without toilet paper! (What did I say about toilet humor?) When he gets out (janitor to the very convenient rescue!), the couple has just left. He hurriedly tells Johnny, “We have to catch them quickly. It’s dangerous” before rushing out to fight the guy. Unfortunately, due to Jae Hee’s recent malnourishment, he isn’t holding his own against the guy until Johnny appears and takes over the ass-kicking.

Sorry, it was difficult to get decent caps of the fight itself, but suffice to say that this is how it ended:

And Johnny snarls, “Get out. Get out of my sight.” Mr. Skeeze may have been able to take on Mu-ryong, but he knows better than to mess with the guy probably twice his weight, so he bails.

Yoo Hee is understandably upset, but Mu-ryong tells her the guy was only dating her because the President (her father) told him to. She rushes off, pissed as hell. Driving home, she gets into a traffic tussle resulting in some road rage, but takes out her anger on the guy who dares to challenge her driving ineptitude.

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At home, Yoo Hee angrily rips up the contract and tells Mu-ryong to leave, just as Johnny arrives to see how she’s doing, comforting her. From the doorway, Mu-ryong observes the scene, happy to see them getting along well.

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In the morning, Yoo Hee’s still in a foul mood, and tells Mu-ryong again to leave. He calls her bluff with another bluff and pretends to walk out, only to find that she wasn’t bluffing. She really does want to end their contract.

She storms through her office, leaving a trail of icy frost in her wake.

Yoo Hee goes to face off against her father, who knows she’s upset about the date. But Yoo Hee finally digs up something deeper that’s festering in their relationship, which is the issue of her mother. “When you separated from Mom, you said it was for her sake. But do you know what she wanted from you? Just one warm word. But you cast her out like that, and even took her child away from her!” She tells him not to interfere in her life anymore either.

That triggers something in the President, who is greatly offended at this and angrily slaps Yoo Hee. Those who have read up on the character backgrounds won’t be surprised, because (SPOILER? to follow) it’s stated that Yoo Hee’s mother, whom Yoo Hee idolized, cheated on her father, resulting in Paran’s birth. Meanwhile, Yoo Hee doesn’t know of her mother’s infidelity and has blamed everything on her father. In any case, Yoo Hee tells her father that they’ve cleanly ended their relationship here, and stalks out.

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On a delivery run, Mu-ryong’s brother runs into Paran, and brings him back to the restaurant for jjajangmyun. Mu-ryong’s father dotes on Paran like a proud father, and even his mother thinks he’s adorable until she hears he’s the brother of that woman Mu-ryong’s housekeeping for.

Mu-ryong takes Paran to Yoo Hee’s place, and she in turn drops him off at home. Although she tries to leave quickly to avoid their father, Paran clings to her and asks her to come in with him. She resists, and Paran keeps trying to convince her to stay. Just then, their father arrives, and Yoo Hee makes a quick getaway.

It’s sad to see Paran so starved for affection, and his sister’s in particular. His father isn’t the warm type, and he’s lacked a mother figure all his life. It’s heart-warming to see him get a measure of attention and care from Mu-ryong’s family, but he needs it most from Yoo Hee. And in her blind devotion to the memory of her long-absent mother, Yoo Hee fails to see that she’s doing to Paran the same thing her mother did to her.

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Yoo Hee arrives home to see Mu-ryong still there, despite having insisted repeatedly he leave. He’s asleep on the couch with empty bottles of soju, so she decides to leave him alone for the moment (I think we’re to believe he’s faking the drunkenness so Yoo Hee won’t wake him).

In her room, she finds an assortment of marshmallows with a note: “Let’s not break our contract!” Next to it is their contract, taped back together.

Yoo Hee comes back out to have a drink with Mu-ryong. You’ll notice that after Mu-ryong pours a glass of wine for Yoo Hee, he holds out his own glass expectantly. That’s because he’s expecting her to pour his drink — in Korea, it’s part courtesy and part friendliness to pour for one another. Sometimes a person will pour their own drink, but it’s a social exchange to pour for one another and not for oneself.

Mu-ryong also asks what her ideal type is, so he can better find someone to match her with. She doesn’t answer, so he guesses it’s her first love guy. Seeing her reaction, he says, “Right? I’m right.”

(This is another pun, because he says, “I’m right, aren’t I?” or “Majeo!” And Yoo Hee answers, “You’re the one who needs to be hit (majeo)!” where one majeo means “to be correct” and the other “to be hit.”)

Mu-ryong continues to ask about the guy she likes, and she says he’s a specialist. He asks her to narrow it down, and she says he’s a knife specialist.

A thug?

While Yoo Hee thinks of Joon Ha, Mu-ryong envisions Johnny instead.

A surgeon’s knife versus a chef’s knife.

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So when Johnny asks Mu-ryong if he knows a good kalbi-jjim (beef shortribs) restaurant, he takes the chance to invite Johnny over — he’ll cook. He asks Yoo Hee if she has any requests, and she says, “Hmm… kalbi-jjim?” Mu-ryong takes this as a sign that they are a match made in heaven.

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At the office, Sara drops by to inform Yoo Hee that Joon Ha has broken off his engagement. From his cold dismissal of his fiancee, I’m assuming he did the breaking.

As for Sara, I must say I LOVE this girl! She’s so wonderfully dingbatty, it’s hysterical to watch. I know everyone’s looking for a reason to hate her, since she’s Hyun Bin’s girlfriend, but I think she’s beautiful AND funny. Her name’s Hwang Ji Hyun, and she vaguely reminds me of Hyun Young, both in looks and in their offbeat comedic timing.

Armed with this news, Yoo Hee visits Joon Ha at the hospital… Unfortunately, he’s got an appointment, but if she doesn’t mind waiting a bit, he’ll be out soon. So Yoo Hee backs out of dinner, leaving Mu-ryong to entertain Johnny, who’s brought Seung Mi along.

In any case, Joon Ha goes into surgery at the last minute, and Yoo Hee’s out one dinner date. So she comes back home to see Mu-ryong and Seung Mi together, and scolds Mu-ryong for bringing a girl home. Is this his house? Is he at liberty to do whatever he wants?!

Yoo Hee’s chastened when Johnny explains he brought Seung Mi as his guest. In any case, the four of them have drinks, and Yoo Hee kills the otherwise friendly mood with her antisocial attitude.

We learn that Yoo Hee and Johnny met in 2002, when Yoo Hee acted as his guide for the World Cup. As for Seung Mi and Mu-ryong, they’ve known each other since elementary school and began dating a year ago. Mu-ryong says they’re an example of best friends turning into romance.

Mu-ryong and Seung Mi try to slip out to leave the other two together, making the excuse that they’re going out to their “second round” afterward, but they’re foiled in their plan when Yoo Hee and Johnny accompany them.

So they end up going to the steamrooms.

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As much as I criticize Dennis, he is adorable here, checking out his strange towel-ears. Mu-ryong breaks an egg on Yoo Hee’s head, and when she’s annoyed, he offers his head in exchange. But oops, what to do? They’re all out of eggs.

So Yoo Hee comes back with her retaliation.

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In the end, the two couples end up separating anyway, because Mu-ryong’s friend Min Sung is opening his brand-new bar. Min Sung offers Mu-ryong the position as his head chef at the bar, and although Mu-ryong declines, he tells him to think about it.

Mu-ryong worries about how Yoo Hee’s doing. Seung Mi is kind of a really awesome girlfriend, because she’s told Mu-ryong that it seems he might be paying too much attention to Yoo Hee and not enough to her, and yet, at the end of the day, she’s still a trusting, good-hearted woman. Mu-ryong tells her that he’s just worried because she needs his coaching; it feels like he’s leaving a baby by the waterside.

(In this episode, Mu-ryong and Seung Mi are really cute together, and I think I’d even be fine with the two of them ending up together, much as I know that’s not going to happen. They work really well and I like their trusting dynamic.)

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Anyway, Yoo Hee and Johnny have come back to her place, but Yoo Hee’s dozing off with her wineglass in her hand. Johnny attempts to take it from her before she drops it, but she comes awake with a start and spills it all over him.

He tells her it’s okay as they accidentally hold hands… and it looks like something’s happening between them as we FREEZE FRAME and anxiously await tomorrow!

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Some additional thoughts:

Like I mentioned, I’m actually happily surprised to like the current pairings as they are. Johnny seems like a caring, attentive guy who would treat Yoo Hee as she deserves, and Mu-ryong and Seung Mi have a very cute relationship. It’s a testament to everyone making this drama that they’ve done so well in making the alternate possibilities very plausible, and even likable. I’m going to enjoy seeing the relationships change, although I really hope nobody goes evil.

At the end of this episode, it’s just my personal opinion that I think Johnny’s the one who’s come to this newfound revelation that he has feelings for Yoo Hee. She’s still engrossed in her old feelings for Joon Ha, but in this episode, Johnny starts to feel the need to protect her when she is at the hands of Mr. Skeeze. He is surprisingly violent with the guy, and then comforts her afterward. In the ending scene, I think it’s no coincidence that we end frame on his face, rather than Yoo Hee’s, because it’s his realization — as opposed to hers — that will take us into Episode 6.