Gu Family Book: Episode 13

by girlfriday

There’s so much cuteness today. Plotwise, the episode itself is almost filler, because it’s a lot of fallout from the last one with a bit of setup for what’s to come. But the adorable moments just come one right after another, and after all the emotional wreckage last week, I suppose we all deserve it.

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Sang-gon – “Love Hurts” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 13 RECAP

Kang-chi narrates, “He asked me,” as we go back to Lee Soon-shin asking Kang-chi what he wants to live as. “And I asked her…”–flashback to Yeo-wool taking his hand in front of her father—”how is it that you’re so good to me?”

She had said: “Because I just want to do anything for you. That’s how I feel right now.” Kang-chi closes the opening flashback in voiceover: “So I want to become a person. I want to be a person again.”

We backtrack a little to find that Master Dam was firmly against Yeo-wool’s idea of training Kang-chi herself, and assigned Gon to do it instead. She does her best to sweet-talk him, but it’s no use.

But to her utter surprise, Gon steps in to say that she should help, agreeing that he and Kang-chi come to blows when left alone, and Kang-chi won’t do as he’s told unless she’s around. Yeo-wool beams, Dad frowns, and Gon rolls his eyes. Heh. So that’s how Yeo-wool and Gon ended up on Tame the Gumiho Squad, complete with useless bean-counting exercises for an exasperated Kang-chi.

Master Dam worries about the pain it’ll cause both Kang-chi and Yeo-wool when they find out he was the one who killed his father. Lee Soon-shin muses that a heart that’s already flowing can’t be stopped.

He says that nervous thoughts make for a nervous future, so all they can do is try to pave the right path for the youth to follow. True, but also, easy for you to be zen about it all, since it’s not your daughter. Just sayin’.

As Kang-chi counts beans, Yeo-wool asks about his birth parents, and if he isn’t the least bit curious about tracking down his mother’s family to see if he has living relatives. He shuts her down, saying that he doesn’t care at all about people who tossed him away in a river.

And then we finally catch up to the events that closed the last episode: A mysterious woman arrives at the Hundred Year Inn. Wol-ryung (aka Daddy Gumiho) wakes up with ominously red eyes.

Down below, Kang-chi feels something and darts up, shaking. Yeo-wool asks what’s wrong, and he doesn’t know. “I just feel… afraid.”

They go see Teacher Gong, who does a follow-my-finger test and decides that Kang-chi’s ki is in disarray, and feeds him some medicine. They’re skeptical, but making medicine seems to be a hobby he’s cultivating, and he says that someday when his successor is found at the school, he’ll be a traveling apothecary.

Yeo-wool asks if he has a successor in mind, and he smiles, “I do have someone in mind, but he’s got such a temper.” Aw, is it Kang-chi? Adorable. Yeo-wool gapes in disbelief, while Kang-chi hilariously advises him that a guy with a temper can’t be dealt with in words. “You want me to slap him around for you?” Hahaha.

Kitchen Fogey whaps him in the head with the broom, and they both leave him standing there pouting and confused.

He stops to greet his fellow classmates on his way out, but they all either run away scared, or treat him like a leper. Aw, poor puppy’s an outcast now.

Tae-seo gets called in and Master Dam gives him something his father left behind—his identification as one of the Men of Honor—to be passed on to Tae-seo in case he died. They explain that if he accepts it, he will carry on in his father’s place.

He doesn’t hesitate, and asks what needs to be done. The room goes silent, and Master Dam finally speaks: “Become one of Jo Gwan-woong’s men.” What? But we just got him back! With the tears, and the hugs, and the bromance that needs mending! Urg.

Kang-chi goes back to counting his beans, and smiles to see Yeo-wool nodding off to sleep beside him. She starts to fall over, so he catches her with two fingers to her head, and then looks around before letting her rest on his shoulder.

As she sleeps, he says aloud, “Honestly I am curious, about who my parents were, why they threw me away in a river. But if I keep thinking about those things, I’m afraid I’ll hate them, resent them… that’s why.”

She opens her eyes, which he doesn’t see. He continues, “But thanks for asking, Yeo-wool-ah.” She closes her eyes again with a smile. Kang-chi looks out toward the mountains and wonders to himself what it was he felt earlier.

Later that night, by the light of the full moon, Wol-ryung rises and returns to the Moonlight Garden.

Kang-chi comes looking for Tae-seo while he’s still trying to figure out what to do, and the boys sit side by side for a chat, without even trying to kill each other. Now that’s progress.

Tae-seo asks if Dad knew about Kang-chi’s gumiho half, but neither of them knows the answer. He asks what it feels like when he changes, and Kang-chi says it’s hazy, but he can hear and feel everything at once, and his whole body feels like it’s burning up, and he becomes sensitive to everything. “And I get really hungry.” Heh.

Tae-seo asks if he still knows that he’s Kang-chi when he’s in that state, and he says he didn’t at first, but eventually learned to remember who he was, and even control his emotions. “Yeo-wool was a big help to me. She saw me that way and wasn’t disgusted or afraid, and just kept calling me Choi Kang-chi, reminding me.”

He says it’s strange, but being around her (he still talks about her like a him, which is funny) puts him at ease—his pain, and even his anger dissipates. Tae-seo: “You love her.” Kang-chi nods yes without even thinking. Omo.

He quickly comes to his senses and denies it with gusto, all, Who, ME? With that guy? Tae-seo laughs and says it’s perfectly natural to be in love with a girl like Yeo-wool. Spoken from experience?

Kang-chi gets all flustered with the denials (but can’t actually get the words out, ha) but Tae-seo interrupts to say that if it’s because of Chung-jo, he shouldn’t let that stop him. He thinks back to seeing her the morning after Jo Gwan-woong raped her, and just tells Kang-chi that she’s someone in his past now.

If that’s because of her life choices, then fine. But if this is a virginity thing, then you suck as a brother, and also as a human being. Kang-chi refuses to let Tae-seo or Chung-jo be people in his past, and reminds him that they’re his only family.

But Tae-seo says the moment Father died, their fates diverged, and they can’t turn back time. Kang-chi argues that they might not be able to go back, but they can retrieve it—their family, the Hundred Year Inn. He promises to get it all back.

Tae-seo says that’s his job, and puts a hand on Kang-chi’s shoulder: “It’s not your fault that Father died.” Aw, okay, you suck a little less now. He tells Kang-chi to stop getting stuck saving him and Chung-jo over and over (amen to that), and says he’s already more grateful than he can ever repay for what he’s done. “But it’s time you lived your life now.”

Yeo-wool goes looking for Kang-chi in his room, but he isn’t there. On her way out, she overhears the other students having a secret powwow about him, and how they can’t just wait around till Kang-chi goes nuclear and kills them all. They agree to get rid of him first.

Meanwhile, Kang-chi goes looking for Gon, and gets a sword poised at his throat. Is that for interrupting your meditation, or is that just your basic hello?

And deep in the woods, a lone traveler hears a rustling behind him. He runs, and out pops Wol-ryung. He grabs the man with one hand and then… sucks the life force out of him, and absorbs it, leaving nothing but a desiccated body behind. Wut.

Well that answers that question about whether or not he came back evil. Yeesh. He’s a ki-sucker now?

Soo-ryun trains Chung-jo to play the drums, and Wol-sun and the other girls have a fit about being passed over for the new girl. But Soo-ryun doesn’t budge, and when Wol-sun slaps Chung-jo, she just slaps her right back this time. Nice.

Chung-jo leans in close and dares her to touch her face again, and goes right back to practicing the drums. Soo-ryun’s assistant wonders what happened to Chung-jo to make her so different, but Soo-ryun tells her not to ask any questions. “Don’t you hear it? That child is crying so sorrowfully right now.”

Yeo-wool sneaks up on Kang-chi, who’s nodding off to sleep mid-bean-count. She checks to make sure he’s out and goes to poke his eyeballs, when he lurches awake and throws her down. “Was it you?”

And the reason you’re still lying on top of her to have this conversation is? She tries to wriggle free but he just teases that with a teacher so weak, it’s no wonder the students are so terrible. At that, she bites his hand to get free. “I was going to kick you someplace more painful, so you should be grateful.” Heh.

She asks where he’s been sneaking off to the last two nights, and he doesn’t say, but admits that he knows the other students are wary of him. She says they just need time to accept him, and he suddenly leans in close: “Did you know… that you’re nagging me an awful lot lately?”

She apologizes, and he scootches even closer, till he’s right up in her face: “Did you also know… you’re a little bit like a girl right now?” She blink-blinks in shock, and he waits for a reaction… and then asks why there’s not a fist flying at his face right now. Oh, you cheeky.

Yeo-wool: “Are you messing with me?” He laughs, and her fist goes up belatedly. But a student comes running up with bad news. Bodies have been found in the woods—three of them, in fact, and they died so strangely that it couldn’t have been by natural human causes.

Oh. No. Please tell me you have an alibi for where you’ve been going every night, Kang-chi. In the woods, the bodies are all found in the same condition—sucked dry, like they’ve been mummified.

So-jung comes upon the scene and stops cold. Please tell me that look of horror on your face is one of knowing horror. Jo Gwan-woong is happy to hear that Kang-chi has started a murder spree, and tells his minion they’ll wait for the rumors to spread, until fear takes hold of everyone.

It’s already come to nasty accusations at the school, where Kang-chi’s classmates confront him for an explanation. Yeo-wool asks her father to intervene, but he tells her that this is something Kang-chi has to conquer on his own if he wants to survive here.

The students ask where he’s been going at night and Kang-chi refuses to answer, saying that he’s been treated this way since he was a child, and has no interest in offering excuses to people who have already decided that he must be guilty.

They outright treat him like a monster pretending to be human, and Kang-chi doesn’t back down, spitting back that he’s just as aggravated to see people like them. They’re about two seconds from coming to blows, when Teacher Gong shows up to yell at everyone.

The other students make their case for why Kang-chi shouldn’t be one of them, and Teacher Gong just tells them to prove it—if they can offer proof that Kang-chi being here is bad for them in some way, or if they can prove he killed those people in the woods, he’ll kick Kang-chi out himself.

He adds as a caveat that if they’re wrong, they’ll have to kneel in front of Kang-chi and apologize. “In a bet, both sides have to put something on the line.” Ha.

Kang-chi follows him into the kitchen to complain about making the bet without asking him, and Teacher Gong asks if that means he’s guilty of something. Kang-chi still refuses to tell him where he’s been going at night, and the old fogey just says, “If you want to stay here with Yeo-wool for a long time, then learn how to get along with the others first.” The old man has a way of getting right to the point.

Gon is lurking outside, and wonders why Kang-chi doesn’t just tell everyone the truth. He says absolutely not, and makes sure he didn’t rat him out to Yeo-wool. He makes Gon promise not to tell her. Whatever you two have been doing, I hope it’s embarrassing.

As soon as he leaves, Yeo-wool steps out from around the corner and demands that Gon tell her the secret. He’s a terrible liar, but it’s funny to watch him try and deny that there’s a secret to tell.

Jo Gwan-woong tells Soo-ryun that he’s hosting a celebration in honor of his guests, and they’ve requested her to play the drums. She hasn’t played in ten years, but he doesn’t leave her much room to say no—apparently this was a personal request from Mystery Woman.

There’s a moment when Jo Gwan-woong notes the ornamental sash Soo-ryun always wears, which we’ve always seen but never heard mention of. She tucks it away at his comment, so we’re left to wonder for now. Innnteresting.

That night, Kang-chi sneaks out of his room, and one of the students follows him all the way into the woods. Kang-chi feels someone following him and darts away, leaving the other guy all alone…

…just in time for Wol-ryung to creep up. At the sight of the shadowy figure with glowing red eyes, the guy runs screaming, but Wol-ryung is faster and comes up behind him. Oh phew, it’s Kang-chi.

He motions at the guy to stay quiet, and then gets in front of him to confront the monster. Wol-ryung growls and steps closer… but one glow from Kang-chi’s bracelet sends him running in the other direction.

Once the danger passes, Gon and Yeo-wool arrive, and she explains to the guy that Kang-chi and Gon have been coming out here every night looking for the beast because he could sense something weird about it.

Kang-chi just sighs at Gon for being such a blabbermouth, and it’s cute that Gon gets defensive, insisting he’s not a secret-leaker. Yeo-wool says she’s just a good detective. I’d argue both are true.

At least now the bigoted classmate feels like a moron, which is satisfying for us. Yeo-wool warns him to keep the secret for now though, until they know what they’re dealing with.

So-jung feels shift in the wind that scares him, and he goes down to his library. He doesn’t see anything even though he seems terrified, and finally someone comes out from the dark. It’s Wol-ryung, looking like his old self. So-jung gasps, and Wol-ryung smiles, “It’s me.” Aw, I know you came back evil, but this still makes me happy.

The next day, Kang-chi goes to the dining room to find his lone table cast aside and everyone sitting as far away as possible. Cafeteria politics man, it’s brutal no matter what century you’re from.

One of the guys even walks out, refusing to eat in the same room as Kang-chi, but then the guy he saved yesterday in the woods grabs his table and sits across from Kang-chi without a word. Aw.

Teacher Gong sits and smiles, narrating what must’ve been the point of the bean-counting lesson: that though it seems like they’re thousands at first, in the end you discover they’re one.

Too bad Kang-chi hasn’t learned it, because he’s back to counting them all over again. Yeo-wool gets a delivery—a beautiful flowery hanbok she’s been waiting for—and runs to ask Kang-chi if he’ll meet her in town later tonight for the lights festival, so she can light up a wish.

He agrees to go with her, but wonders why they can’t go together, and she makes up an excuse about having errands to run. Aw, you want to surprise him with your pretty new dress. That’s so cute.

Kang-chi goes back to bean-counting, when Chung-jo’s maidservant comes by to tell him that Chung-jo is being inducted as a full-fledged gisaeng today, and that’s she’s headed to the Hundred Year Inn.

Chung-jo gets made up with her first headdress and bows before Soo-ryun. She writes her new name in the record book, changing the hanja so that her gisaeng name sounds the same, but means something different—nicely symbolic of the fact that she might look the same but is no longer the same girl.

Kang-chi goes running into town, and arrives to see Chung-jo paraded down the street as the chosen Flower Gisaeng (much to the ire of Wol-sun and the other girls). She stops at the entrance to the Hundred Year Inn, and Soo-ryun can see her weakening. She reminds her to never show emotion, and hide everything behind her smile.

She swallows back her tears and gets ready to go inside, when Kang-chi’s voice calls out behind her, “Chung-jo-ya.” She turns back and scans the crowd, and sees him standing there.

Oof, you can practically feel the lump in her throat, but she turns around to hide her face. He comes closer and calls out to her again, and she tamps down her emotions. When she turns back to face him, she’s steely and cold, and asks what he wants.

He’s taken aback, and before he can say anything else, she tells him to come to the gisaeng house if he has anything to say, and walks away without another glance. That was great.

He’s so floored that he just sits there outside the inn, lost in thought, completely forgetting about his date with Yeo-wool. You dolt.

She’s all made up, and waits and waits as the festival goes on around her, growing grumpier by the minute, until she finally erupts and kicks the nearest object into the crowd. Heh. No dress is gonna change that about her.

Kang-chi finally sees some kids passing by with lanterns and gets a clue (thank goodness) and goes running through the crowd. Yeo-wool sees him coming and lights up, only to have him brush right past her in a big ol’ hurry. Ha.

He even stops, turns around, and faces her to apologize, and still doesn’t know it’s her. He keeps going, until finally Yeo-wool calls out, “Kang-chi-ya!”

He freezes, and turns around again. Omg the look on his face. She just stands there and smiles, as he takes it all in and just gapes, totally smitten with the pretty. It’s priceless.

The thing Lee Soon-shin told Master Dam earlier gets repeated in voiceover: “How can a heart that’s begun flowing be stopped? How can a wind that’s already blowing be stopped?”

 
COMMENTS

Love it. That moment was so worth the wait. I just adore Yeo-wool’s character—she chooses not to be bound by social norms, and doesn’t let any one thing define her, which is so refreshing. What I really love about her makeover is her agency in it—there’s no fairy godmother boyfriend with a no-limit credit card like in every other drama. She has no problems dressing like a boy until Kang-chi teases her about seeing her as a woman, when she realizes for the first time that maybe she does want him to see her that way. So she orders up a pretty dress and makes a date. How awesome is that? Plus, Kang-chi’s eat-your-words reaction is just so satisfying.

I’m loving Chung-jo’s transformation as well, because she’s so much more interesting now that she has that duality to play. It’s so great to see her being strong, and her hiding her emotions under a steely exterior is actually far more moving than watching her break down in tears every episode. Now that she’s choosing to be strong to survive, her story is rich in conflict and something I look forward to seeing play out, instead of always dreading what tragedy might befall her next.

Kang-chi’s conflict with his classmates felt a little like the After School Special problem of the week (subtle isn’t this show’s strong suit), but in general I do like that we’re exploring his status as an outsider, which is important for his overall journey in figuring out what it means to be human.

Of course what we’re all really waiting for is Kang-chi’s fateful reunion with his father. I’m glad that Wol-ryung can control his beastie side enough to appear like his old self if he wants to, even though I guess, yunno, from a whole evil perspective this is a bad thing for the good guys. I just didn’t want Kang-chi’s only interaction with his dad to be with Red Eyes the Lifesucker, because that would be a really short conversation. But now that he has a support system in Yeo-wool and Tae-seo, the kitchen fogey, and even Gon (I know! Squee) I think he’s ready for his Skywalker moment. Or as ready as anyone can ever be, for that kind of thing.

 
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