Hyde, Jekyll, Me: Episode 15

by girlfriday

It’s time to face the music, as the boys’ dueling memories are forced to answer once and for all, whose account of the past is true and whose memory has been reconstructed. Both Seo-jin and Tae-joo discover things about themselves and their loved ones that they weren’t expecting, and the clash is both more traumatic and more cathartic than either of them planned for.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Taeyoon – “기억” (Memory) [ Download ]

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EPISODE 15 RECAP

Seo-jin finally manages to invite Hana down to have dinner with him, only to have Tae-joo crash the party before they can even start eating. He sneaked into the house by hitching a ride in Secretary Kwon’s trunk, and thankfully Secretary Kwon stirs awake, disoriented but fine.

He remembers someone attacking him from behind and hurriedly calls Seo-jin, but Tae-joo answers very casually, and even encourages Secretary Kwon to call the police. Hana and Seo-jin are tied up in their chairs at the dining table, and Tae-joo orders the cops to keep their distance or something bad will happen to Seo-jin.

With his hostage standoff on the books, Tae-joo saunters over to the table and catches Hana’s death-glare. He merely points out that this is what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you trusted, and that it’s a good lesson to learn sooner rather than later.

Seo-jin asks him to let Hana go since this is between them, but Tae-joo clearly has a reason for pulling her into this. As Tae-joo wanders through the giant house to lock it up and locate all the security cameras, Seo-jin tells Hana to run at the first chance she gets, and to run far away from him for good.

He regrets blaming her for pulling him into danger when it was really the reverse from the start—she was always in danger because of him. He won’t stand for it anymore and tells her to leave him, but she just sternly tells him not to start blaming himself yet, to keep him from tumbling down another guilt-ridden spiral.

Chairman Dad is informed of the situation as the cops arrive outside, and Detective Na is shocked to hear how many CCTV cameras there are at the house (they can only be controlled from within the house, meaning that the cops can’t storm the castle undetected).

Tae-joo is discovering the same thing as he wanders through the house, and sighs that he’d guessed Seo-jin’s house would be this way, but is still amazed at the extent of it. As he opens up a few laptops, Seo-jin asks if he confirmed the truth about his father, guessing that it’s the reason why he’s here.

Tae-joo snaps at him to be patient because he’s endured much more for much longer to get here, and Seo-jin counters that he IS being patient with all his strength right now. Tae-joo acknowledges that if he weren’t, Robin or someone else would be here by now.

Dr. Kang calls, and Tae-joo eggs Seo-jin on to answer the phone and secure another shield for himself. But Seo-jin refuses to get her involved, and admits that he might be a coward who’s lived his whole life by hiding behind shields, then adds, “But I don’t want to be, not right now.”

He says that he wants to face Tae-joo with nothing else standing in the way, and again requests Hana’s release. Tae-joo accuses him of just wanting to avoid the guilt he’d carry if something happened to her, and Seo-jin argues that this isn’t about him—it’s about her. He wants her to live and not be plagued with traumatic memories like they are, and pleads with Tae-joo, to no avail.

Tae-joo says that it’s her own life, and Hana interjects to say that he’s right—it’s her life and her choice, and she’s chosen to stay.

Once Tae-joo sets up his computers, he gets Chairman Dad on the phone and then gets them all in on a video conference call, along with the kidnapper who’s currently tied up in the warehouse where Tae-joo left him.

Everyone remains anxiously silent while Tae-joo says that they’re all here to talk about why, when he was the blameless one in all this, he was the one to suffer. Chairman Dad admits that he did the wrong thing when they were kidnapped as children, and that he’s only ever seen Tae-joo as the son of the man at fault, not a blameless child.

Chairman Dad says that he’s thinking about Tae-joo’s life and what he must’ve suffered for the first time, and that seems to be the right thing to say. Suddenly Tae-joo perks up and encourages him to continue. But then Chairman Dad sticks his foot in his mouth by offering to repay him with money, and even Seo-jin rolls his eyes a little.

Tae-joo flares up at the idea that his suffering can be reduced to a sum of money, and Seo-jin readily agrees that his father has got it all wrong and tells Tae-joo to just disconnect the call. Thanks for nothing, Pops.

I’m pretty sure Tae-joo’s expectations were low for Chairman Dad, but he argues that Seo-jin is no different—he conveniently recalled the damning memory about Tae-joo’s father just as he remembered his own wrongdoing. But at that, Seo-jin decides that if he’s really so weak as to have made up that memory to protect himself, then he really does deserve whatever punishment Tae-joo sees fit. He offers to give up everything—his inheritance, his status, whatever Tae-joo asks.

That surprises Tae-joo a little, but he wonders if Seo-jin is trying to avoid facing the truth entirely. Seo-jin promises to face things head-on, but requests to hear the truth in the manner he chooses.

Tae-joo makes a call, and as they wait, Seo-jin says that if the kidnapper’s story doesn’t change when he’s safe and not scared for his life, he’ll acknowledge whatever he says as truth. Seo-jin insists that this is because he doesn’t trust himself, but asks that if the kidnapper changes his story, Tae-joo will grant one request.

They agree, and Tae-joo orders the police to bring the kidnapper here. While they wait, Detective Na hatches a plan to escort the kidnapper into the house himself, in an effort to distract Tae-joo long enough for a tactical team to sneak inside from the back.

Seo-jin remains calm and tells Hana that it’ll be over soon, and she asks if he can handle this, whichever way the truth goes. All Seo-jin knows right now is that if he doesn’t face it, this is as much as his life will ever amount to, and he wants to get over this wall.

Hana looks into his eyes and says that she trusts him, no matter which way it goes—she wants to trust him and wants to get over that wall together, even if he’s wrong. She drops down to banmal: “That’s what I want.”

Outside, Dr. Kang worries about which way the kidnapper should answer—if he says that Tae-joo’s father wasn’t an accomplice, Seo-jin might crack, and in the reverse, Tae-joo might snap and become dangerous. They argue back and forth, but Detective Na puts his foot down that what matters right now isn’t the truth, but everyone’s safety. For that reason, he’s going to have the kidnapper say that Tae-joo’s father was innocent.

When the kidnapper arrives, Tae-joo refuses to let Detective Na into the house, so they set up another video call from inside the police van. The kidnapper says that he did know Tae-joo’s father, who gave him the information about Seo-jin and his rich parents because he worked as their chauffeur.

He hesitates, but says that Tae-joo’s father had nothing to do with the kidnapping whatsoever. Tae-joo smirks, relieved, while Seo-jin stares in disbelief. Seo-jin replays the memory over and over in his head, and the knowledge that he constructed it starts to send him into a panic attack. Tae-joo only eggs him on, calling his illness more of a habit than anything—a habit of lying, reconstructing memories.

Seo-jin squeezes his eyes shut as he struggles to breathe, and Hana tells him to keep it together and not to hide. She reminds him that he promised to endure with her, and pleads with him not to run away, threatening to run away from him if he hides right now.

Her eyes fill with tears as she cries, “I swear I will run away from you! So open your eyes. Open your eyes! Open your eyes, Gu Seo-jin!” She screams it at the top of her lungs, and her lips quiver as she watches him try to slow his breathing. Finally he forces his eyes open, and Hana lets out a breath, tears spilling out at the same time.

Seo-jin gasps that he sincerely wants to kneel in apology in front of Tae-joo. He means it, and that seems to appease Tae-joo. He walks around to Seo-jin’s chair, but that’s when he notices the kidnapper leaning on his hand on the computer screen, revealing the tattoo on his wrist.

The tattoo seems to trigger a headache, and Tae-joo claps a hand on his head as flashes of their childhood kidnapping come rushing back to him. Suddenly he remembers grabbing onto the kidnapper’s leg as he carried Little Seo-jin away. And then in another memory, the kidnapper tells Tae-joo that his father got the money another way, and to go meet him and say that he got away.

But when he went to go meet his father, he’d already died in a car crash. Dad was an accomplice after all, and had even told him to call Seo-jin to the haunted house that day, though he’d never known why until it was too late.

Back in the present, Tae-joo collapses to the floor, the weight of the truth coming down on him all at once. He bursts into tears, and Seo-jin just watches silently, wondering what just happened.

Detective Na says that the tactical team is in place. Inside, Tae-joo has stopped crying and finally admits that he remembers every last thing about that day. He remembers that Seo-jin had wanted to go on a different ride and called him a scaredy cat, so Tae-joo had countered with a challenge to go to the haunted house.

He says it over and over, as if trying on the truth: “I said we should go there. I said that.” Then he gets up and says in a resigned voice that Seo-jin won. He guesses that they want to leave and unties them, but Seo-jin surprises him by saying that they should let Hana go, and he’ll remain by Tae-joo’s side.

Tae-joo tells him to quit trying to play the nice guy, but Seo-jin says he can’t heal if Tae-joo doesn’t heal. He turns to Hana and promises her that this isn’t him asking her to run away for good—he just wants some time alone with Tae-joo.

So Hana comes out escorted by officers, and asks Detective Na to give them some time before storming in there. Seo-jin and Tae-joo stand face-to-face in the dark house, and Seo-jin tells him that the kidnapping was easier to get over because there was someone to blame. But his father, his friend—facing that pain was too much, so he erased those memories in order to live.

He points out how they both fought that hard to try and live, “So let’s live, Soo-hyun-ah. Let’s live.” Everyone waits outside with bated breath, until finally Tae-joo and Seo-jin come walking out together.

Tae-joo doesn’t say a word as Detective Na has him escorted into a police car. Secretary Kwon has been beside himself the whole time, and runs over as soon as he sees Seo-jin. But he gets ignored for Hana, who comes up and just wraps her arms around Seo-jin in a hug.

Dr. Kang offers to go to the station with Tae-joo, and Seo-jin and Hana watch as he gets driven away. Hana tells him that it’s all over now, and Seo-jin ignores Secretary Kwon again to go wander off on his own. Hana follows a few steps behind him as he just walks aimlessly for a while, then joins him on a bench by the water.

She says that Seo-jin must be a good person by nature, because most people just find someone to blame and hate that person, but he took on all of that pain as a child because he refused to believe that his best friend could have wronged him.

He thanks her for interpreting it in a positive light, but she says normal people are quick to hate others, and that it’s an easy healthy way to deal with things. She admits to doing her fair share of swearing and cursing at people who wrong her, and he guesses that he must’ve been on the receiving end of that more than a few times. Well, you’re not wrong about that. She points out that she’s also quick to forget too, which is the important part.

She asks if he’s feeling empty now that it’s all over, and he seems grateful that she put a name to what he’s feeling right now. He says it’s the first time he’s ever had someone to understand him, interpret his emotions, comfort and praise him.

He says that up until now, his father always brushed it off like he was weak for not being able to deal with things. That’s why Seo-jin spent his whole life trying to become like his father, so that he could become stronger than him. Hana says he’s got it all wrong because he has the potential to be an even greater man than his father.

Seo-jin looks like he wants to kiss her, and the air turns awkward between them. Hana is the first to break the gaze, and asks if he isn’t hungry.

Everyone else is still tense as they wait for word on whether Seo-jin and Hana are okay, and once Eun-chang hears that Hana is safe, he makes sure to call Woo-jung right away.

She and her father have been up all night watching the news, but she’s notably worried about Eun-chang having been up all night too, and offers to bring him coffee. Aw, she’s finally noticing the cute boy with a crush on her.

Seo-jin stares down warily at the ddukboki and other snack foods on the table that Hana purchased with the only money she had in her pocket. Of course the chaebol carries no cash. He doesn’t seem happy about it but says he’ll eat.

Chairman Dad is tired of waiting to hear from Seo-jin and makes Secretary Kwon call Hana. She hand the phone over and Seo-jin tenses when he hears his father’s gruff complaints, but this time Seo-jin tells him curtly that Dad should say what he feels and say he’s worried if he was worried.

He’s about to hang up, but Dad stops him and awkwardly hems and haws before saying, “I’m sorry, Seo-jin-ah.” He even manages to admit that he’s worried about him. Seo-jin hangs up and stuffs his face with food, looking like he’ll burst into tears if he stops eating.

Seo-jin and Hana come home and tell each other to get some rest, and Hana checks in with her friend Jin-ju. She says she’ll probably move back in with her now that she has no reason to live here, and Jin-ju tells her to take some medicine before going to bed so that she doesn’t get sick again.

But when Hana goes downstairs, Seo-jin already has a tray prepared for her, remembering how sick she got the last time. She asks why he isn’t taking any medication, and he just says that today his father said something he’s never said once in his entire life—I’m sorry.

Seo-jin: “I want to say something that I’ve never said before too… Is it okay if I love you?” Humona. Closing caption: A speechless experience where I am you and you are me.

 
COMMENTS

I just love Seo-jin’s approach with Hana, even if he is moving at a snail’s pace. There’s something so sincere in his over-thought, deliberate, honest approach that’s unusual for most drama heroes. He says exactly what he means, which at first was just abrasive and rude, but now that he’s in love, it’s so refreshingly direct. He knows what a crazy situation this is and how Hana feels about Robin, so he never presses the issue, but it’s important to me that they share a real connection and that she doesn’t just lump them into one guy. I know that ideally we’re all rooting for some kind of melding of Robin and Seo-jin, but I want her to feel more conflicted between them before we get there.

Today’s episode was a big step towards Seo-jin gaining some ground in the love triangle, and I was happy to see that Hana cares for Seo-jin more than she might even realize. She fought for Seo-jin to hold on instead of letting Robin take over, and repeatedly assured him that she was in this for the long haul and would stand by his side even if he were in the wrong. It’s sad that her unconditional trust is so foreign a concept to Seo-jin that he’s so moved by it, but we’ve seen time and again that the simplest things are what made him fall in love with her in the first place. I guess when your father sets the bar THAT low for love, a simple “I trust you” or “I’m sorry” is earth-shattering.

Part of me thinks that we can’t possibly be done with Tae-joo’s mind games, but maybe the remaining story time will be spent on Seo-jin and Robin fighting for dominance, which would be a nice change. I like Tae-joo as a character, but I’m pretty sure his repeated kidnappings had run their course a while back. If he managed to get away with it one more time, I’d have to call the cops on these cops. I’m just glad they actually got to have their moment of truth, and that Seo-jin finally got his chance to save Tae-joo from himself, even just a little. Honestly, I wish their story had more complexity, or that Tae-joo didn’t swing so wildly from maniacal mastermind to lost little kid, but I like that their healing is mutual and codependent, much like Dr. Kang had proposed at the start (without realizing how abrupt her timing had been). And I guess I can believe that because he had built his identity upon the idea that he was the wronged party, discovering that he and Seo-jin were the same was enough to defuse the ticking revenge bomb.

While the kidnapping was pretty anticlimactic in that way, Seo-jin’s romantic declaration made up for it by the end. I feel like Hana and Seo-jin made some big strides in their relationship, even if a lot of their connection is wrapped up in saving each other all the time (they do tend to cross big emotional milestones whenever Tae-joo kidnaps them, so maybe he shouldn’t go to jail?). But their concern for each other feels genuine, and I’m finally starting to see equal emotional fierceness in Hana when it comes to Robin or Seo-jin in danger. It’s just nice when your hero tries to be a noble idiot by telling a woman to run away from him, and she tells him to shove it because she’s staying and she’s going to take responsibility for her own choice. Is it any wonder that he loves her? Just don’t crush Seo-jinnie’s heart, okay?

 
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