Modern Farmer: Episode 18

by LollyPip

There’s hope yet for the boys as they determine to make an album no matter what it takes, but the mechanism for getting their dream may carry a price bigger than they’re willing to pay. What are they willing to do for their dream, and what will they be willing to give up? Especially when one of them has already decided that hope is too costly, and is ready to throw everything away to avoid the pain of losing the dream yet again.

EPISODE 18 RECAP

Min-ki strides into Hyun-suk’s dressing room and decks him, yelling, “I’m Yoon-hee’s brother and Min-ho’s uncle, you bastard!” when asked who he is. He gets in another good punch before Hyun-suk’s manager gets between them.

Back home in Hadurok-ri, Han-chul accidentally lets slip that Min-ho’s father was in town, fueling questions by Aunt and Uncle that Yoon-hee doesn’t want to answer. She’s saved from further inquiry by a phone call telling her that Min-ki was arrested in Seoul, and she runs out to get him. Hyuk tries to go with her but this time she tells him she needs to go alone.

When she gets to the police station Min-ki isn’t in a mood to talk, though Hyun-suk is there and pulls Yoon-hee aside. She apologizes for Min-ki, and Hyuk says he was going to let it go but his manager called the police.

Hyun-suk has the nerve to ask if Yoon-hee thought about what he offered earlier, and Yoon-hee’s contrite attitude changes to anger as she reminds him that she wants nothing from him. Hurt, she asks if he’s not even curious about his son since he’s never asked about Min-ho. At least the jerk has the grace to look embarrassed.

Yoon-hee rounds on Min-ki outside the station, demanding to know why he took matters into his own hands. He says he overheard their conversation, and he’s angry right back at her for doing nothing after what Hyun-suk said. Yoon-hee reminds him again not to worry about her and Min-ho, and Min-ki yells that he tried but he can’t help himself.

Yoon-hee tells him that she can’t stand his pity and warns him one last time to stop, and starts to walk away. Min-ki grabs her hand and says it’s not sympathy or pity. He admits that he doesn’t understand his feelings either, but he knows that’s not it.

They both feel a little weird on the drive home, and Min-ki finally breaks the silence to ask Yoon-hee to stop for food. Watching him eat, she admits that she does feel better now, since she’d been regretting that she hadn’t slapped Hyun-suk herself. Ha. She reminds him he was still wrong, but the tension is broken.

When they get home, Yoo-na asks Min-ki to speak privately. He starts to apologize for worrying her, but that’s not what she wants to talk about, and she asks him to go back to Seoul with her. Her scandal has quieted, and his farming is done, and she wants to go back.

Min-ki says that he’s not finished with why he came here — he still intends to make an album. He says he’d rather die than live without hopes or dreams, and tells her to go alone if she wants to go.

Yoon-hee gets ready for bed, and she can’t keep Min-ki’s words that he doesn’t know what he’s feeling from her mind. Meanwhile Min-ki lies in bed with Hyuk and Han-chul, and Hyuk starts to talk about something, but stops himself.

Man-gu asks Soon-boon if she’s heard from little sister Yi-ji, and she tells him she hasn’t heard anything. He overreacts when his mom wonders why he wants to know, because he totally doesn’t care how she is, not even a little. Yeah right.

Sang-deuk and Mi-young meet secretly in her car, and she’s shocked to see the state he’s in after hiding a few days from his mother. She tells him again to go home and he refuses, but he hugs her and asks her to hang in there and he’ll convince his mom. He’s startled by a face outside the window — it’s Eun-woo, who’s just seen her mom hugging that weird ajusshi.

Mom and daughter talk back home, and the pint-sized tyrant forbids her mother to marry that guy, saying she hates him. She’s adamant and doesn’t want to listen to reason, kicking her mom out of her room. Sang-deuk tells Mi-young to go on to work and he’ll stay here and bring Eun-woo around. His first attempt gets him a stuffed animal to the face before he steps a single foot into her room, ha.

The guys try again to sell cabbages from the truck, with no more luck than before. Han-chul asks Min-ki why he reacted that way to Min-ho’s dad and asks if he likes Yoon-hee, then laughs like a loon at his own “joke,” oblivious to the fact that Min-ki and Hyuk aren’t laughing with him.

Ki-joon is back home, miserable as he delivers jokbal for his family’s restaurant. His mom orders him to get back to studying for the civil service exam again, because she doesn’t want him working at the restaurant anymore. Ki-joon looks torn — he doesn’t want to be in civil service, but it’s sweet of his mom to want something better for him.

Ki-joon sits outside and looks at the photo of himself and Bul-ja, when suddenly he’s joined by Min-ki, Han-chul, and Hyuk. They engage in the time-honored male apology tradition of thumping him repeatedly, and everything is forgiven. It’s sweet that they respect his decision and don’t ask him to come back (but I want him to come back!).

When the guys get home they’re exhausted, but without much to show for their attempts to sell the cabbage. Han-chul sighs that his life is coming to a pathetic end, but Hyuk and Min-ki just assume he’s being overly-dramatic.

Sang-eun comes screeching into the room with a great idea, inspired by her viral “fish slap” video. She offers to record a music video for the band, and next thing you know they’re dressed like country bumpkins and surrounded by cabbages. HA, the “I hate my life” look on Hyuk’s face just kills me. And aww, they even drew a face on one cabbage as a stand-in for Ki-joon.

They record themselves singing “When Love Comes,” and Sang-eun promises they’ll be stars once this video goes online. She says they should change the band name to match their country concept, and the guys agree just to pacify her. She suggests the name “Farmer” and Hyuk says it’s too old-fashioned, grumbling that they should sound more modern… and “Modern Farmer” is born.

Hee, the way Min-ki pronounces “Modern Farmer” is kind of adorable. The guys aren’t that hopeful but Sang-eun swears they’ll be overnight hits. Han-chul wishes a gold nugget would just fall from the sky and solve all their problems.

That night, a gold nugget falls from the sky. No really.

In the morning a local farmer finds a hole in one of his greenhouses, and a large meteor in the greenhouse itself. The guys see the farmer, holding the meteor and being interviewed by the press. A meteor expert is also interviewed, and he says that a meteor this size can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the finder.

You can practically see the dollar signs in the guys’ eyes to hear that the experts think there may be other fallen meteors in the area. They run home just long enough to gasp out the news about the meteor and their plan to find another one to fund their album, and run back out again.

After they leave, Yoon-hee tells her aunt her idea to make kimchi from the cabbage the boys grew and sell that, determined to help them figure out a way to salvage the cabbage crop and recover their investment. Yoo-na gets a strange look in her eye, and leaves the room to call her sleazy CEO. She tells him that she’ll come back, on one condition, but we don’t get to hear the deal she makes with the devil.

Hadurok-ri is soon overrun with meteor hunters, causing Soo-yeon and Mi-ja to panic that someone might find the money they’ve been searching for. They decide to abandon the mural pretense, and find the money before anyone else can get at it.

At Mi-young’s house Sang-deuk has apparently been trying to cajole Eun-woo for quite some time, and he’s resorted to offering to do all her homework and even agreeing to get plastic surgery since she hates his face. The little sass just scoffs at his offers, even when he swears to give up drinking. She orders him out, reinforcing it with another stuffed animal upside the face.

Man-gu goes to see Yi-ji at the coffee shop and demands to know when she’ll come home. She says she’ll come home when she’s earned enough to buy a coffee shop, and he tells her she’ll never save that much working part time. He throws an envelope down in front of her, and she opens it to find the papers for the coffee shop he’s bought her. Aww, the big softie.

In-ki takes Soon-boon to a temple on their date, getting his flirt on right away and impressing her. When they go to bow, Soon-boon lets out a tiny fart, and she’s horrified to think that In-ki may have heard it. Oh, he heard it, and he hears the second one she lets loose, too. But he’s a gentleman and doesn’t mention it, even managing a little toot of his own to make her feel better. It shouldn’t be, but that’s so cute.

Hyuk tests all the rocks they find with a magnet, since a true meteor will be made of iron and very heavy. Han-chul hauls over a large pitted rock and tests it… and the magnet sticks. They found one!

A photo to an expert pretty much confirms it, and they drive down the road with Min-ki cradling the meteor like a baby. Hyuk points out that they should be careful since this is the point at which something usually goes wrong and the roads are icy today. So of course Han-chul punches the gas, hits some ice, and runs them off the road.

They end up with the nose of the truck hanging half over the icy river, carefully balanced by their weight in the cab and the cabbages in the truck bed. Hyuk has them slowly lean back to stabilize them, and Min-ki calls the police but he doesn’t know where they are.

They’re still too heavy in front, so Hyuk tells everyone to take off a layer of clothes and throw them out the window to reduce weight. The truck shifts again and they frantically take off another layer, but when they’re still too heavy, Hyuk is the first to realize they need to throw out the meteor, as it’s the heaviest thing left in the cab.

Han-chul and Min-ki fight it, but they’re forced to give up the meteor — as much as it’s worth, it’s not worth their life. They all sob as they watch the meteor tumble into the water below, seeing their dream of making an album tumble into the icy river.

Man-gu brings Yi-ji home, feeling better with one less thing to worry about. They spot a couple walking hand-in-hand, and realize with horror that it’s their mother and In-ki. They holler at them, and Soon-boon and In-ki make a run for it.

Mi-young appeals to Sang-deuk’s mother herself, who’s still taken to her bed. She tells her how much she loves him and promises to take good care of him, and Sang-deuk’s mom throws off the covers and sits up with a smile. But she’s still unconvinced, as she grabs her club and goes after Mi-young this time.

The boys are rescued and back home, depressed to think of their meteor in that deep, freezing water. Hyuk remembers the video that Sang-eun was to upload for them, and they brighten to think of all the views they must have. But they’re disappointed to see they only have three views. Oh ouch.

They’re given hope again almost immediately when Yoo-na comes to tell them her CEO has been wanting to manage a band, and has offered them an audition. Oh, so this was the deal she made to go back to Seoul. She assures Min-ki that the CEO has forgotten about the past, though Hyuk looks skeptical.

He follows Yoo-na outside to ask what her intention is for all this, but she plays innocent and says she doesn’t have any intention — the CEO really does just want to manage a band. Hyuk doesn’t believe her (and neither do I) but she coldly cuts him off and goes inside.

Min-ki and Han-chul excitedly tell Yoon-hee about their audition, and she’s genuinely happy for them. Min-ki has even called Ki-joon, but he’s apparently not answering, so he says if it goes well he’ll call him again afterward. Yoon-hee looks at the information she’s been gathering to sell their cabbages as kimchi, but she’s not upset they may have found another way.

The guys go for their audition, and the CEO tells them they’re still good and that he’ll call them soon with his decision. Min-ki and Han-chul can barely contain their excitement, but Hyuk is sullen to the point of being disrespectful. After they leave, the CEO calls Yoo-na and tells her he’ll make them an album as he promised, and orders her back to Seoul.

Exhausted, Soo-yeon and Mi-ja despair that they’ll never find the hidden money with all the meteor hunter around and more coming all the time. But they’re about to have a bigger problem, because the man who told Soo-yeon about the money is back in town for his stolen stash.

He finds the spot in Min-ki’s field where he hid the money, but it’s been covered by a huge stack of cabbages. He runs (literally) into Mi-ja, and Soo-yeon recognizes him. He immediately figures out that she came to find his money while he was unconscious, but she stands up to him and yells that it’s not his money either, because he stole it first. This girl has major cojones, because she even goes so far as to threaten to tell the assemblyman where to find him if he doesn’t tell her where the money is.

That night Min-ki sits outside and looks at the stars, looking rather sad, and Yoon-hee joins him and asks if he spoke to Ki-joon. He has, but Ki-joon doesn’t want to rejoin the band and Min-ki can’t get him to change his mind.

Min-ki says he’s excited to go back to Seoul, but he can’t stop thinking about cabbages, and the villagers. Yoon-hee tells him Min-ho will miss him a lot when he goes, and he asks if she’ll miss him too. She teases that she’ll be relieved when he’s gone, but Min-ki soberly says that he’ll miss her, joking sadly that he’ll have nobody to fight with without her.

Ki-joon goes out with friends from his civil service exam study class, but he spends more time staring at his phone than socializing. He thinks about the call from Min-ki, when he’d been momentarily excited to hear about the album, but had told Min-ki that a dream is just a dream and he doesn’t want to torment himself with hope anymore. That’s so sad.

Ki-joon’s friends drag him to a noraebang, but he can’t stop the thoughts in his head and soon decides to leave. In the hallway he sees a drunk customer manhandling one of the employees but he turns to go — but when she speaks up to protest, he recognizes her voice. Ohmygosh, it’s Bul-ja!

The drunk grabs her again to drag her into the room, and Ki-joon yells at him to let her go and punches him. He leads Bul-ja outside and rounds on her for working in such a skeevy place, but she says she has no choice because of her mother’s hospital bill. Ki-joon is furious, but Bul-ja cries that this is the only job she can get and she hates it too, and it deflates his anger.

The drunk follows them out with a burly friend, and tries to push Bul-ja back into the building. Ki-joon goes after him, but he’s the one who gets punched this time. Bul-ja tries to calm the customer and he pushes her down, which causes Ki-joon to completely lose control.

The police are close and break up the fight, and say they’re taking everyone to the station to find out what happened. Bul-ja gets that hunted look in her eye again, knowing she’ll be deported if they find she’s here illegally. The policeman asks to see her ID and for the third time since they met, Ki-joon distracts the authorities and yells at her to run for it.

Bul-ja runs, but this time she only goes a few steps before she stops and turns back. Ki-joon screams at her to go, but she hesitates, unwilling to leave Ki-joon behind again.

COMMENTS

Augh, this is so hard to watch play out yet again, with the stakes higher than they’ve been the last two times this happened. It seems like Ki-joon is always saving Bul-ja, but I can understand why she’s reluctant to go this time. She loses him no matter what she does — either she runs and they may never see each other again, or she stays and gets deported and they may never see each other again. These two are my favorite couple in the show, and I just want them to be bouncy and happy and adorable together again, but I just don’t see how they’re going to get out of it this time. Especially since losing Bul-ja is what caused Ki-joon to lose hope in pursuing his music dream, because it hurts too much to want something and lose it over and over, and I just ache for him. He’s consistently been the one of the group who was always positive and happy, which I realize now I took for granted, so to see him give up hope so completely is that much more heartbreaking because I just assumed he’d always bounce back.

On the other hand, I’m proud of Min-ki for deciding that no matter what happens, he will realize his dream, no matter what it takes. That’s what makes him such a good person and strong leader, that resilience and ability to rally no matter what happens. But I’m worried what will happen when he finds out the offer to make an album isn’t something they earned on their own merit, but a shady deal made between Yoo-na and the CEO. I can understand what Yoo-na was trying to do, but I don’t think it came from a place of wanting to help a friend — she’s doing it to get Min-ki back to Seoul with her and away from Yoon-hee. And I have no doubt that once she’s back herself, the CEO will find a way to screw the guys over on their album now that he has what he wants.

The fallout when Min-ki discovers what Yoo-na’s done is going to be ugly, and I’m not looking forward to seeing him feel that hurt and betrayal. Even though he’s made it clear that Yoo-na is no longer his priority, it’s still going to be painful for him. I’m worried about Hyuk too, thought not on as deep a level as I’ve been in the past. He was very sulky and quiet through this whole episode, being the only one who knows the whole story about what happened in the past with their first failed debut. We’re seeing that darker, selfish side of Yoo-na now, and I’m finding myself more concerned about her part in what happened back then and how it’s going to affect Min-ki when he finds out the truth. He’s going to feel betrayed not just by Yoo-na, but by Hyuk too, when he finds out that Hyuk’s kept a secret from him all these years.

So far I’ve assumed that Yoo-na was mostly innocent in whatever went down, that whatever-it-was happened to her and not because of her, but now I’m not so sure. I’m scared she may have been involved in something shady then too, either by choice or by force, and that Hyuk found out and has been keeping her secret not for her sake (as he obviously despises her) but to save his friend’s feelings. Of course this is all guesswork on my part, because we still haven’t gotten any clues apart from Hyuk’s contempt for Yoo-na, but I bet I’m not too far off. I’m frustrated that the show is apparently going to make us wait until the very end for the answers to all our questions, but I have to tip my hat to the show for giving us some great storytelling, because it’s kept me interested and eager to find out all of the hidden truths. Whatever happened back then, I just hope it’s good and juicy to make up for the long, looong wait!

RELATED POSTS

• Modern Farmer: Episode 17
• Modern Farmer: Episode 16
• Modern Farmer: Episode 15
• Modern Farmer: Episode 14
• Modern Farmer: Episode 13
• Modern Farmer: Episode 12
• Modern Farmer: Episode 11
• Modern Farmer: Episode 10
• Modern Farmer: Episode 9
• Modern Farmer: Episode 8
• Modern Farmer: Episode 7
• Modern Farmer: Episode 6
• Modern Farmer: Episode 5
• Modern Farmer: Episode 4
• Modern Farmer: Episode 3
• Modern Farmer: Episode 2
• Modern Farmer: Episode 1