Miss Ripley: Episode 7

by girlfriday

Miri’s house of cards rises another level, and she swiftly feels the tension coming in from all sides. Both men start to get serious about their feelings, pushing Hee-joo to finally face her own, which is probably the best and worst part of the episode, because it just pains me to watch her adorable hopes rise and fall. Somebody hug her, please.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

Chul-jin finds Hee-joo off on her own (after Miri’s arrival to Jeju) and guesses pretty swiftly that she likes Yoo-hyun. He’s a really good friend, very gently trying to tell her that his buddy’s heart is elsewhere… but she already knows, and where at that. Nothing like a roommate love triangle to make life hell.

He doesn’t want her to get hurt, but she says she can’t control her heart, just the way Yoo-hyun can’t control his. Oh, honey. That way lies pain. She knows it, but she’s a plucky little bird, and doesn’t want to be talked out of her crush. Aw.

Myung-hoon shows up at Miri’s door, completely unannounced and about to catch her red-handed with Yoo-hyun…

Her face shows her shock, but Myung-hoon thinks it’s in reaction to his surprise visit. Thankfully, Yoo-hyun chose the perfect time to go to the bathroom, so she’s safe for now. She quickly hugs Myung-hoon and leads him out, insisting that she wants to see the ocean at night.

Yoo-hyun comes out looking for Miri (I really wish you would leave your idol jeans at home, puppy) but finds the room empty. He doesn’t have much time to feel ditched though, because his father has collapsed.

He leaves a note and heads back to Seoul on his own.

Meanwhile Miri leads Myung-hoon outside, and pretends to be happy to see him here, confessing to having hoped he’d show. He falls for it, of course, because he’s hopelessly in love with her, and totally vulnerable to boot.

He tells her that at work the power dynamic is in his favor, but in their relationship it’s the opposite. Well ain’t that the truth. At least you know it, rather than being duped… well duped completely in every sense.

He wonders if he’s let Miri too deep into his heart. Myung-hoon: “Sometimes I feel like a fool.” She looks up at him, a flicker of genuine emotion in her eyes. She hugs him, saying, “I love you.” That part’s purely for his benefit, and it puts him at ease.

He has to fly right back so she sees him off at the hotel’s entrance, only to have Yoo-hyun show up two seconds later, just missing their goodbye hug by a hair. Aaaack. She is cutting it way too close with these two.

Hee-joo comes running out and informs Miri that Yoo-hyun’s father has collapsed. So both men fly back to Seoul, though thankfully Yoo-hyun goes by private jet to save them from some very awkward plane talk about how they’re sharing a girlfriend.

At work the next day, Miri hears the kitchen and service staff freak out about how no one wants to deliver food to Yoo-hyun’s father, fearing the responsibility (he’s sick because of some bad food the first time). She smells an opportunity to ingratiate herself and volunteers.

She misses Yoo-hyun and his stepmother, but has the chance to bring the president his favorite dish, and even crack open the crab for him to eat, impressing him.

Miri’s birthday comes around and Yoo-hyun prepares a surprise birthday dinner for her, with Hee-joo’s help. Oh, it’s killing me, the way she looks at him, being the perfect guy… to someone else. I just want to drag her out of there – she’s HELPING him woo her friend, knowing full well that it’s going to break her heart.

But Myung-hoon gets to her first before she can get home, and he takes her to a church. He tells her to go inside, and when she opens the door, she finds the chapel decorated with flowers and a cake, as a children’s choir sings to her. Aw.

She’s struck immediately, tears welling up in her eyes. It probably reminds her of her own childhood at the orphanage. She walks down the aisle slowly, and as a little girl comes up to give her flowers, she cries. Now it kind of kills me that she might have actually come to love this man, had it not been for her ambition.

Her tears, her reaction, they’re real, though I wonder how much of it is guilt because she doesn’t feel that she deserves something so genuine, so frightfully earnest.

He then gives her his mother’s ring and proposes: “I’ve made up my mind. I’ve always hoped that the person I loved would wear my mother’s ring and be by my side for a long time. I was always regretful that I couldn’t do that. I would like it if you’d wear this ring.”

Awwww. It’s such a sweet and simple proposal.

She hesitates of course, trying to figure out what to say, and he asks if it’s too burdensome. She tells him that she fears what people will think of her, and him—a concern that is legitimate, even if she weren’t buying time to actually cheat on him.

She asks for more time, so that she can establish herself in the company and stand on her own merit, so that when the time comes to announce their relationship they needn’t worry about what others think.

It’s what she’s so good at—turning the situation around to make it seem like she’s more worried about HIM, and what it’ll do to his position at work. She tells him that she wants to get married with people’s blessings, which is something that he can’t argue with. It’s also genius in that it makes him feel guilty, like his recent divorce is what keeps them from being so easily accepted, which isn’t something she says, but it’s what he’ll think.

Yoo-hyun and Hee-joo break open a bottle of champagne while waiting for Miri, and to cut the awkwardness, she asks what he likes about Miri. He says she’s honest and in most ways the opposite of him, so that’s why he felt drawn to her.

Hee-joo admits that Miri is attractive, even from her point of view. Yoo-hyun is quick to say that Hee-joo has plenty of attractive qualities too—she’s warm, she’s kind… oh this is leading to a painful place…

He tells her that’s why he thinks of her as a really good friend. AUGH. Stab. Heart. Pain.

God, you might as well just punch her in the gut. It’d be less painful than this, you being all nice and sweet and totally breaking her heart at the same time. Gah.

She actually has to turn away to keep her tears in, and then runs to the bathroom to silently cry. Ack, I wish you’d just cry out loud.

Miri apologizes to Myung-hoon that she couldn’t give him an answer right away, but he feels bad for not thinking of her more. He asks her to put together a portfolio so that he can look into getting her a new job, to ease the strain of working together while dating.

She’s giddy at the thought and immediately thanks him, since this’ll only benefit her in the long run, and it’ll make juggling both men easier.

Hee-joo comes out of the bathroom pretending to be fine, but Yoo-hyun can tell she’s been crying. He asks what’s wrong and because she keeps covering her face and averting his eyes, it makes him more curious and he playfully tries to get her to show her face…

…And this is the scene that Miri comes home to, which makes her light up in anger and jealousy. She straight-up accuses them of using her birthday as an excuse to eat together and drink together, and dismisses Yoo-hyun coldly.

Damn. That’s just going to make him try even harder to win her over, and she sure as hell knows it.

But Yoo-hyun isn’t her main concern right now. He leaves and Hee-joo tries to explain that she’s misunderstood the whole situation. But Miri, despite overreacting, is no fool. She might be abrasive and cutthroat, but she can read people down to their insides. It’s one thing that I definitely admire about her, despite her using it mostly for evil. She cuts the bullshit and calls it like it is.

Hee-joo makes excuses, which are all true, but Miri cuts her off: “I don’t need any of it. With that face like you alone do all the good in the world, not knowing how much you hurt others. That’s you. You know how I feel about that person.”

Hee-joo asks why she’s so nervous (damn, are you fighting back?) and adds that she’s prettier, and more honest… and then finally admits that she does have feelings for Yoo-hyun. Miri: “See? That’s the truth. I don’t want to hear any more from someone whose front and back don’t match.”

Takes one to know one. You’re not wrong about Hee-joo (it’s bad to repress your own desires trying to be nice to everyone) but you’re the master of mis-matched fronts and backs. Just ask your boyfriendssssss.

What I love is that Hee-joo does actually make her nervous—she’s not putting up a front about that. I like that someone’s challenging her, making her feel like not everyone is in the palm of her hand. But she’s also overplaying her reaction, possibly to force Hee-joo’s hand, expecting her to do her trademark nice-girl thing and just let her have Yoo-hyun free and clear. I hope she does the opposite.

In the morning Miri finds a note on the breakfast table. Hee-joo tells her that she’s going to visit their old orphanage to clear her head and figure out what’s going on between them, to try and leave it all behind.

Proving herself to really be an angel, Hee-joo prays while Miri finds birthday soup and an apology for last night. She eats, tears falling. Is it somehow possible that Hee-joo will get through to Miri by being good to her like this? I feel like she’s too far gone, but the stirrings of their childhood friendship that come up once in a while give a glimmer of hope.

But then, as if to answer my question and kill all hope, Miri finds Hee-joo’s sketches and ideas… and promptly steals them for her portfolio. Damn.

And just like that, with a new resume and portfolio, Myung-hoon goes to his sunbae to find her a new job. His hyung asks what their relationship is, cheering him on and wanting Myung-hoon to be happy.

He admits that she finds working together uncomfortable, and the sunbae suggests they get her out of the industry altogether, and get her a job at a university instead. Oh, they really ARE going to go the Shin Jeong-ah route, eh? Iiiiiinteresting.

He gives her the good news that she’ll be starting out as a guest lecturer, and she’s overjoyed. (It’s ludicrous to think that someone could get an academic position with such little formality, but I suppose we’re to see it for what it is—a backdoor deal, trading favors between powerful men.)

He’s happy to see her so pleased but sad at the thought that she won’t be around, and she promises to come see him often. She pulls his hand up to her face and thanks him, all sweetness and charm, and they get caught mid-flirt by Director Kang.

She warns Myung-hoon about what people are saying, but he refuses to let her speak about Miri in any negative light, so she just asks him to at least be careful at the office.

Meanwhile Miri has taken to researching a special kind of tea for Yoo-hyun’s father, and has it brewed and delivered to him. He’s impressed yet again, but his wife can sense that it’s too perfect—can’t out-fox a fox.

Yoo-hyun invites Miri out to lunch and apologizes for the big misunderstanding, and tells her that he’s sincere about his feelings and his intentions. Aw, he’s so old-fashioned and upright. Well, minus the part where he’s a prince playing a pauper.

She takes him up on the offer to date officially, and totally LIES through her teeth that it’s the first time anyone’s ever celebrated her birthday or officially asked to be her boyfriend. Gaaaaaaaah. Pants on fire!

He even asks her to meet his parents, even though he’s still lying about who they are. I dunno how he plans to get away with that. Anyhow, he knows it’s too soon for all that, but his father is ill, so he’s been asking to meet her for a while now. She agrees, and now I’m back to biting my nails, because this is going to get complicated, real quick.

She gets a call from Myung-hoon who’s put together a meeting to land her the university job, so she runs from one date to the other. Myung-hoon’s sunbaes literally drop their jaws at the sight of her, which makes me laugh. It really is her greatest asset—her beauty—and damn, does she know it.

She sits down but then notices someone staring at her from another table. She glances, and there’s Hirayama, casually having a drink while dogging her every move.

Yoo-hyun decides to go see Hee-joo, telling her that he wanted to see her and found himself coming all the way here. Gah. You’re sending her mixed messages. He follows that up with a happy announcement that he’s going to take Miri to see his parents in a few days, making her heart sink.

She muses that he must really like Miri a lot. He says he does, and then tells Hee-joo that he’s got her to thank for all of it. Oh, NO. Don’t say that. That’s worse than insisting she’s a great pal.

He says that he feels like he and Miri were fated, listing all the coincidences, including school. Hee-joo asks if he likes her because she went to their school, poor birdie just grasping at straws to find some way for it to not be true.

She can’t bring herself to tell him the truth, but asks again what he finds so good about Miri, adding that she thinks he doesn’t really know her. He’s a little taken aback, and tells her that this isn’t like her. Hee-joo: “And what’s like me? Always saying it’s okay, holding it in, being patient? When I like…”

And then he keeps asking her what’s wrong, like a total dummy who can’t see what’s right in front of his face. Gaaaaaaah, why are you so stupid when it comes to love?

She runs away again before she gives herself away, and hides in the church. She steals a look at him as he searches for her, breaking my heart. Once he’s gone, she prays, crying:

Hee-joo: Lord, my feelings for that person are growing. So my promises as a friend, my friendships, are all becoming weaker. The more I think I shouldn’t, because of my growing feelings, I feel terrible. God help me, so that I don’t become weaker, so that I’m not shaken anymore. God, please help me.

I certainly hope you don’t stop loving him, because someone has got to save him from himself.

Back at the bar, Hirayama finally grows impatient and gestures for Miri to meet him in the back. He grabs her into the restroom and starts to threaten her again, so she angrily agrees to meet the boss, desperate for him to just shut up and not get her caught.

Myung-hoon gets up to go to the restroom just behind her, and in passing the ladies’ room he hears a man’s voice. He pauses, thinking it’s weird, but doesn’t hear anything else, so he keeps going.

He sees Miri walk out… and then a second later, he sees Hirayama walk out of the ladies’ room, just behind her.

Oooh, worlds colliding.

 
COMMENTS

I like this turn in the story, in continually rising Miri’s stock, as it were. Her house of cards is rising quickly, almost too fast for her to handle, which keeps everything just teetering on the brink of total collapse. That edge is keeping us on our toes too, as we watch how fast she turns from one path to the other, almost carried along by her ambition—wanting to steer it but being swept up by it instead.

The career change also makes her even more indebted to Myung-hoon and makes it necessary for her to continue dating both men (since if it’s just hotelier-to-hotelier, Yoo-hyun wins so she’d have less reason to double up on the boyfriends).

But now with both relationships taking an upturn towards serious territory, it’s going to be increasingly harder to keep them both going, on top of which it’s going to be undeniable that she’s completely playing them, when it all comes tumbling down.

I’m excited at the prospect of Hirayama actually interfering more directly, because so far his presence has been just peripheral. Now that Myung-hoon knows something shady is going on, I want to see some of these wires get crossed.

I really like the dynamic between Hee-joo and Miri, and the very complex way that they see each other and themselves differently. The up-and-down friendship, jealousy, the distrust, their sisterly bond—it all makes for a rich relationship that informs both characters. It’s like night and day, how one struggles to become a better person, while the other struggles to lose all semblance of a conscience to rise to the top.

Is it wrong if I want Hee-joo to stoop, just a little, to give Miri the smackdown she deserves?

 
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