Persevere, Gu Hae-ra: Episode 9

by javabeans

It’s me again, filling in to recap an extra-meta-tastic episode of Persevere, Gu Hae-ra, which is chock-full of sly winks at dramaland and hilarious references to behind-the-scenes shenanigans. (If you follow the updates here on the crazy workings of drama productions, it should be extra-fun to recognize which shows they’re poking fun at.) It’s also an episode of payoffs (and paybacks), making for a nice catalogue of satisfying moments and laughs.

SONG OF THE DAY

Yoo Sung-eun, Ulala Session – “그랬나봐” (It must be) from the Persevere, Gu Hae-ra OST [ Download ]

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EPISODE 9: “Drama”

Ray kisses Hae-ra out on the balcony, which is seen by Se-jong on his walk home because he is destined to have the worst timing ever. His face hardens, and he keeps walking.

From the living room, Henry catches a glimpse of the kiss through the window. When Woo-ri starts to go looking for the kissing couple, Henry quickly prevents her, then grins knowingly when they rejoin the group. Jang Goon asks what they were doing, and Hae-ra hastily changes the subject.

There’s a whole spread laid out for Se-jong’s birthday, and they wonder what’s taking him so long. Just then, Hae-ra gets a text from him asking to see her outside, and when Ray asks about it, she tells him what it says. He sends her off with an easy smile.

Before Se-jong can say anything, Hae-ra says sympathetically that he must have been gone through a lot and apologizes for her part in it, since she imposed on him with her feelings. She promises not to do that anymore and asks if they can return to being good friends, and Se-jong repeats those words with chagrin: “Back to… good friends?” It’s a bitter pill, given that he’s only now decided to be honest about his feelings, and here she is, moving on.

She wishes him a happy birthday and holds out a hand to shake. He takes it and thanks her—but doesn’t let go. “I can’t agree to your request,” he says.

Despite his smiling face when Ray sent Hae-ra off, he looks fidgety as he waits out on the balcony. Henry’s with him, and starts to ask a question about his “friend” who sorta-maybe unintentionally kissed this girl, and now when he sees her lips, his heart races. He’s wondering whether he likes her or if he’s just confused, and Ray suggests doing it one more time to confirm how he feels.

Henry considers this, then asks if Ray and Hae-ra are officially dating. Ray answers that it’s still a secret because Hae-ra is still figuring things out, and that he intends to wait until she’s 100 percent sure. “Hae-ra needs time,” he says, “and I’m a person who can wait.”

He’s there when Hae-ra steps back inside, and Se-jong arrives a few moments later, though he heads into his room quietly. Hae-ra tells Ray that she just wished Se-jong a happy birthday, and while that sounds unlikely, Ray doesn’t press. He suggests a date tomorrow, and Hae-ra agrees.

She has trouble falling asleep, replaying her conversation with Se-jong in her mind, which we now see the rest of. He admits that he hasn’t been able to be honest with her, and that he thought that hurting on his own and refraining from going to her was the best he could do. “But now, I can’t do that anymore,” he says.

Hae-ra wrenches her hand free of his, and he apologizes for hurting her all this while. “I want to be honest now,” he adds. “Gu Hae-ra, I…”

She cuts him off, not wanting him to finish his sentence. But he blurts, “I like you. From the first day we met, and in this moment. It seems I’m too late, but I—”

“That’s right,” she hastily says. “You’re too late. There was a time I really wanted to hear those words. But not now. I’ve finally just managed to sort out my feelings—don’t confuse me anymore.”

He tries to protest, but she tells him she’s decided, and asks again to remain as good friends and colleagues.

Se-jong also has difficulty going to sleep. Ray checks that he’s still up, then flicks on the lights (having mastered the tennis ball toss) to first apologize for hitting him first earlier, and then to warn him not to approach Hae-ra anymore.

Se-jong apologizes as well, saying that he won’t hold back anymore—and even if he’s too late, he won’t turn back.

At the “MBS” office, the Hwangje idols meet with the writer and director of Scarlet’s new drama. In addition to Scarlet, the cast also features Ki-joon and a third idol-actor, Robin (ha, a cameo by Baro).

Writer Uhm is annoyed with the idols’ attitudes, sniffing that Scarlet got the gig through her connections and is a terrible actress. The writer’s also unhappy that the ratings aren’t rising and wants to use Scarlet’s real-life scandal to bolster interest, and one look at Se-jong’s picture online has her nodding approvingly—she’ll write him in as Scarlet’s boyfriend. Ki-joon bursts out that she can’t, and then Baro suggests a hyung he knows (namedropping Sandeul, his B1A4 teammate), and also works in a Hyde reference by quipping that he’s “the Robin who’s better-looking than Hyun Bin!” The writer marvels at the rudeness of these idols who don’t know their place.

Manager Pyun tries to dissuade her from using Se-jong, but the writer envisions all the publicity that would generate from the real-life ex-couple reuniting in a drama.

The writer steps out to talk with the director, and the idols all burst out into complaints about the writer behind her back. Manager Pyun has to drag them out of the room to shut them up—the writer planted a recording device in the room. Apparently this is her M.O., and every actor who was killed off in her last drama (heh, Husband’s Temptation) had been someone who badmouthed her.

In the Team Persevere studio, Henry performs a jazzy rendition of Sistar’s Loving You, and the lyrics coincide with thoughts of Woo-ri: Hey, it’s really strange, I’ve never felt this before / Whenever I see you my heart pounds…

Then he imagines Woo-ri next to him as he sings, and he finally realizes, “Maybe I’m in love with you…”

He recalls Ray’s suggestion to confirm how he feels and looks up tips online for how to maneuver a kiss situation naturally. Say, for instance, you’re watching the world cup, and you kiss everyone on the cheek in excitement, including your girl. Or say you ease it into the context of a story. Ha, his fantasy encounters have Henry trying out his moves on Henry-in-Drag, which is hilarious.

Ray and Hae-ra go on their date, and he presents her with a gift: two identical pairs of sneakers, given her habit of losing one side. She teases him about the proverb about giving a lover a gift (because they’ll run away), and Ray replies, “Don’t run away from me, run away to me.” Whenever she’s feeling down or struggling, she can come to him. She nods okay.

He takes her to an amusement park, and she insists on paying for everything today, so they can go home only after her wallet is empty. She doesn’t have a ton of cash and Ray worries that the date will be short, but she’s got a free coupon, so off they start at the ice rink, where she teaches him to skate. It’s sweet that he opts for saving as much money as possible, wanting the day to stretch out for a long while.

Se-jong rejects the drama offer right away and repeatedly, despite the director’s urging. Just then, he sees Ray and Hae-ra coming home from their date, and also recalls Hae-ra saying that she hopes they’ll get chances to go on air and promote their group, and he agrees to the drama.

He remains subdued when Tae-poong excitedly announces to the group that they’re finally getting their shot at a television appearance—they’ve scored cameos in Scarlet’s drama. (Henry tries to kiss Tae-poong in glee to initiate his kiss-go-round plan, but is rebuffed and sighs, “Mission failed.”) Se-jong has been cast as Scarlet’s ex-boyfriend, who is the leader of a band—Team Persevere will play the band, and will even get a song on the OST. The whole Scarlet connection mutes the excitement a bit, and Tae-poong pulls Se-jong aside to talk.

Ki-joon tries to win Scarlet over again, asking why she’s in love with a guy who doesn’t love her back. He adds that he knows her secret but will protect her, and moves in for a kiss. She shoves him back… and then he clutches his heart, bleeding from the nose. Oh ha, this is their drama, isn’t it? Ki-joon slumps to the ground and says he’s ill, and his last words before going limp are “I loved you a lot.”

Scarlet wails onscreen (her “acting” noticeably terrible), while in real life she watches with President Hwang, who hasn’t heard the details and wonders why Ki-joon’s dying when he worked hard to package all the idols into the show. Scarlet says that Writer Uhm’s “curse” has begun (a clear reference to Writer Im of Aurora Princess and the currently airing Apgujeong Baek-ya). She worries that she’s next, while Dad assures her that the lead actress can’t die. Ha. You’d think.

Manager Pyun fills President Hwang in on the full story, including the part where Team Persevere has scored themselves an appearance. President Hwang flips his lid, ordering Manager Pyun to stop it—and once again, he slips and says they have to stop Hae-ra, before correcting to say they have to stop the group.

Hae-ra happens upon Se-jong studying his script in the studio, and he asks for her help running lines. In the scene, he’s pushing her away while she’s asking if he can give up so easily. It is, of course, an echo of their own situation and he says, “I can’t go to you easily—do you even understand how I feel?”

It’s a charged moment for him, but Hae-ra breaks it by calling it cheesy, though she compliments his acting. Then she reads the last scene direction, which has him kissing “Bo-ri” (Scarlet). She excuses herself, and a spa coupon falls out of the script. He gives it to her, saying that as a friend, she has no reason to refuse, and he can’t make the appointment anyway.

Operation: Kiss Woo-ri is still in the works, and Henry tries the funny story option. Woo-ri interrupts before he gets to the kiss punchline, and he has to sigh in defeat.

Hae-ra goes to the spa to claim the massage, and while she’s shown in, the spa manager makes a call to tell someone that she just got here. HA, then Scarlet makes her appearance in the room, and both ladies look mighty sour to see each other. But Scarlet prevents Hae-ra’s departure, because they’re both public figures now and they can’t have it known that they’re on bad terms.

So Hae-ra submits herself to a painful massage, though Scarlet is hasty to request a room change when Hae-ra sneezes—she can’t catch a cold before her big kiss scene. She lowers the temperature in Hae-ra’s room a few degrees just to be extra petty.

In a scene for the drama, “Bo-ri” finds out that her father isn’t her bio-dad, and a woman looking identical her (but for the extra mole on her face—ha, another Wife’s Temptation reference) shows up at the bar and announces, “That’s right! I am your s—” and then the episode ends. Tune in next time!

Watching at home, the moms grumble at the terrible makjang story (while watching every episode, no doubt), but they change their tune immediately when Tae-poong informs them that the kids are going to be in that very show. He credits Se-jong for securing the opportunity, while Hae-ra’s mother worries that she’s coming down with something.

The cold seems worse when the kids arrive at the set on shooting day. Ha, then Baro (er, “Robin”) comes by and lights up to see his hyung while Ray looks blankly at him. Robin mistakes him for the leader of “the totally hot idol group B3A4” and Ray has to correct him.

Se-jong checks on Hae-ra in concern, but she shrugs off his arm and tells him he doesn’t have to look after her anymore. She lets Ray take her aside, and he worries about the slight fever. She tells him it’s not that bad, and he quickly kisses her on the lips: “I just took away your cold.” He heads off to buy some medicine, and finds Se-jong standing around the corner with medicine in his hand.

It’s only now that Se-jong realizes that Ray is officially Hae-ra’s boyfriend, and he asks when that happened. Ray tells him this is what he meant when he’d warned Se-jong off, then heads inside to start the shoot.

The scene takes place in a bar, where Se-jong’s character (“Min-hyuk”) drinks broodingly while Team Persevere performs (a moodier version of Cool’s sunny Aloha“).

Bo-ri confronts Min-hyuk, and the drama-within-the-drama story is that they’re ex-lovers, but now she’s engaged to his older brother. (Scarlet’s acting is hilariously bad, especially since we saw Hae-ra doing a much better job just a few minutes ago.) Se-jong keeps his eye on Hae-ra while delivering his lines, and Hae-ra understands that he’s speaking to her when he says that he kept silent about loving her “because the words were too difficult to say. I love you.” Then he grabs her for a kiss, and Hae-ra looks away.

Ray notices, and once the director calls cut and praises Se-jong effusively, she immediately leaves the set. Ray follows, and Se-jong tries to as well. Hae-ra apologizes to Ray, but he recognizes that he rushed her before her feelings were ready, and promises to try hard and love her while he waits.

The director is so pleased with Se-jong that he refuses to keep this to a cameo, which has President Hwang in a fit. He bellows at Manager Pyun to do whatever it takes to stop it.

Lunch break. Tae-poong adorably buys his kids lunch rather than eat from Scarlet’s food truck (“You’d probably get indigestion”) and cheers them on. Then he gets the call that a last-minute rewrite calls for the next scene to use only the guys, and they head off right away. Hae-ra coughs again, and both Ray and Se-jong remove their jackets for her, though Ray’s quicker. Then Henry clocks the scene, takes his jacket off, and puts it on Woo-ri’s shoulders, to her bemusement.

Manager Pyun resorts to sabotage, slipping someone cash and a drink bottle. The woman introduces herself as the floor director and insists on taking Hae-ra to the hospital, giving her the drink. Hae-ra tries calling Ray, then tells Woo-ri that she’s on her way to the hospital with the FD.

The drink makes Hae-ra sleepy as the supposed FD drives her away. When the boys finish their next shoot (singing another song while Bo-ri dances a sexy Latin number), Ray sees her text and calls back, but she’s asleep by then. The FD shuts the phone off.

Se-jong overhears Ray checking in with Woo-ri. Meanwhile, the FD pulls up to a location and wakes Hae-ra, saying that the shoot got moved up. She tells Hae-ra to head inside while she parks… and then just ditches her at the side of the road.

The team is in a panic when they realize that the story doesn’t match up, and they can’t get a hold of Hae-ra. Woo-ri racks her memory for the name Hae-ra gave her, and they confirm that it’s not on the staff roster. None of the crew knows who she is, either.

Cold, sick, and stranded, Hae-ra wanders half-dazed, her attempts to flag down help going ignored. She finds a pay phone, and when a phone buzzes, everyone on the team reaches for their phones. It’s Se-jong who answers—aw, I knew holding on to those old cell phone numbers would play out someday. Crying, she gives him the address on the phone booth.

Se-jong tears out of there with Tae-poong’s car keys, and Ray chases after him trying to get a cab. It’s Baro/Robin who stops and offers him his car, since he reminds him of the hyung he’s so fond of.

Both boys drive furiously, and this time it’s Ray who gets caught one step (or stoplight) behind Se-jong.

Se-jong arrives at the phone booth just as the van sputters to a stop. He runs out to find Hae-ra crouched in the dark booth and carries her on his back, urging her to hang in there while he tries to flag down a passing car. She mumbles that she could only remember his number, and he cries that he’s sorry and begs her to stay awake.

Ray finds them and pulls over, and escorts her into the car. Se-jong can only stand there as Ray drives off.

She gets taken to the hospital, and while the kidnapper was apprehended, she isn’t saying a word. Tae-poong suspects a tie to Hwangje Entertainment, however, since she once worked for a subsidiary, and that name has Hae-ra’s mother bolting up in a fury: “Messing with my husband wasn’t enough, and now you’re going after my daughter? I won’t let you get away with it, you bastard piece of trash Hwang Je-guk!”

Ray sits by Hae-ra’s bedside as she sleeps, reliving the moment when Se-jong’s phone rang and his didn’t. Se-jong, on the other hand, can only watch from outside the door and then leave, alone.

Hae-ra finally wakes, to Ray’s relief, and looks for her mother. But Mom’s not around, because she goes storming in to the Hwangje office threatening to sue if President Hwang doesn’t meet with her, and gives her husband’s name.

He feigns ignorance while Hae-ra’s mother faces him in a fury, and declares that she’ll claim her revenge now, fifteen years after her husband died wrongfully. President Hwang scoffs that Mom’s partially responsible, urging her to think hard about that night: “Does your precious daughter know? She won’t, because you couldn’t tell her.” The reminder shuts Mom up, replacing her anger with worry.

Writer Uhm is in a fit over the chop job the director did to her script. The director protests that it was all President Hwang’s doing, and he was forced to make the edits.

In the end, it’s President Hwang who sits back in satisfaction, assuring Scarlet that she doesn’t have to worry about those kids, and that she got the OST song. She’s thrilled, and Dad says he bought a new machine to take care of the little problem with her inability to sing.

We hear the melodious ballad being sung as Scarlet’s voice is processed through the machine… then hear her on her side of the recording glass, wailing like a drowned cat. Okay, if you can make a machine that magical, all of music is doomed to our autotune robot overlords.

Hae-ra’s much better by the time she joins her friends at the bar for broadcast night of their episode. Oh noes, this can’t end well. They’re excited as the episode begins… but confused when the song they recorded, with their voices, is “sung” by Bo-ri instead. It’s completely nonsensical, because Bo-ri’s singing all the different parts, and everyone (Hwang included) stares agape at the screen—this has to be a broadcast accident. And when they try to contact the producers, they get radio silence. Muahaha! Please tell me this is their planned revenge!

That puts Scarlet at the top of the search engine results… paired with words like “lip synching” and “foot acting.” Furthermore, Team Persevere lands a spot on the list since it’s still their song—not a complete victory, but not a complete setback either.

Then Se-jong’s kiss scene comes on, and Hae-ra slumps and walks away.

In another scene, Jang Goon and Woo-ri are clearly scene in the background as they sing a song… from the neck down. They try to console themselves with hearing their voices, but the screen glitches, cutting to the full shot of their faces. Aw, it really is a lovely triumphant moment, and the search engines light up.

Thrilled, Henry grabs Woo-ri for a smack on the lips. He says he just got excited, but totally smiles to himself. Woo-ri looks stunned, though more confused than unhappy about things. (Yay!)

Jang Goon notes the netizen comments comparing Woo-ri’s voice to Scarlet. Woo-ri looks a little shifty at this, but surely the secret’s going to come out soon enough.

Se-jong walks alone down the street, having declined to join the group for the broadcast viewing. Hae-ra walks as well, with Ray following at a bit of a distance. But he’s too far to follow her onto a bus, and he loses track of her.

Hae-ra and Se-jong come face to face in the street just as it starts to rain, and they duck under a roof overhang. Se-jong offers her his jacket, but she pushes it back at him and starts to leave.

He grabs her arm. She tells him to stop acting like this with her, because she went through a lot of pain because of him. He tells her that he did too, and while we know that’s true, it’s news to her when finally confesses the full truth.

“I was first. I liked you before Se-chan did. And I couldn’t tell you that I was caught up in a fake scandal with Scarlet, who I feel nothing for. The car accident wasn’t me, either. I came to you with more difficulty than you know.”

Hae-ra is genuinely stunned to hear all this. He continues, “Because I wanted to return to you, because I wanted to make Se-chan’s bucket list come true, I said that I did it.” He tells her of the secret contract he signed and the orders he had to follow. She starts to cry, asking why he’s saying this only now, and he adds, “Having someone else next to you—I can’t watch it anymore. Because I’ve decided to be honest to you.”

Slowly, he takes her face in his hands. “I love you,” he tells her. And then he kisses her.

 
EPILOGUE

President Hwang flicks through channels on his television, and Team Persevere is everywhere. Manager Pyun stammers that the netizens have compiled comparisons between Woo-ri’s and Scarlet’s voices, while Persevere is taking an upswing on the charts, and furthermore, even though he had Writer Uhm fired, now the drama ratings have tanked. Ah, this is so satisfying.

Then President Hwang gets another unpleasant call: Under pressure over the ratings, the broadcast station has had to rehire Writer Uhm. At least they got her not to kill off Scarlet, so they can rest easy on that front.

Cut to: The hospital, where Bo-ri lies cross-eyed and half-conscious. The camera focuses on her foot as the writer approves, for once, of Scarlet’s “foot acting.” Omg. She’s awesome.

Additional bonus scene: At the end of the NG sections, we see a cut scene where Baro/Robin is enjoying a sexy dance from Bo-ri, only to have a sudden nosebleed. “I’m actually… dead Ki-joon’s… half-brother,” he says. He has the same disease, and keels over dead.

 
COMMENTS

I love this episode’s sense of fun, because it was having a great time not taking its meta trappings too seriously, while keeping the core emotional line sincere—it knows when to crack a joke, and when to pull back and let the feelings sustain a moment. We see it often in the Team Persevere interactions; Henry’s always a great source of comic relief, popping up to undercut a moment with a laugh, as well as Tae-poong.

It’s important to keep the balance in check, because I feel like it’s when the angst takes over that the show is in danger of becoming ordinary. I’ve never felt it’s done that, but I can see that the core love triangle is super-familiar, as is the guilty no-I-can’t-be-with-you conflict (and all the better that the show can shine that light on themselves by making light of those dramatic turns in its drama-within-the-drama). What gives Gu Hae-ra its magic, for me, is the chemistry of entire group together—it’s not just a Love Triangle Plus Sidekicks show, or it shouldn’t be, because Woo-ri, Jang Goon, and Henry are people with their own set of struggles and dilemmas. And it’s when everybody’s together that I feel the characters, and the show, is at their/its strongest.

It helps that Se-jong is finally taking proactive steps rather than remaining silent in his suffering. And I’m not even that concerned over whether he’s going to get the girl in the end (although he’s totally going to get the girl)—it’s that the trajectory for Se-jong is in becoming more honest with his own heart. Because his streak of noble idiocy is not a recent development spurred by Hae-ra or Se-chan; it’s been his story since birth, and it’s about time he saw the light and realized that his way isn’t the only way of doing things. That even though he thought his way was the best he could do, now he’s willing to seek out other options.

So for Se-jong, it’s not about getting what he wants, but in expressing himself and opening his heart. It’s why, if you’ve done everything you can and put yourself out there, at the end of the day even if you don’t get what you want, you can’t reproach yourself. Whereas, holding it all in is frustrating for all of us because you could just do something already.

Even so, I appreciate that Hae-ra doesn’t make it easy for him, just accepting that he changed his mind and so she will, too. He hurt her, and the obvious consequence of that is that she’ll learn to protect herself and close herself off from him, too. So he has to work at this, and there’s a satisfaction in watching him struggle through it. It’s not a sadistic feeling where I want him to be in pain, but a sense that he earned this suffering—and to reward him by just giving him what he wants would be the lamest message ever.

It’s too bad for Ray, because he’s shown himself to be sweet and understanding, and Hae-ra has done really done her best to accept his feelings. I was pleasantly surprised that she gave him a fair shot and pushed back against Se-jong because it would’ve felt too sad for Ray otherwise, and I also appreciated that he acknowledged his own misstep in rushing Hae-ra. Usually, this is about the time in a drama where the perfect second lead tends to piss me off, because they so often seem to expect that by doing all these things for the girl, they’ve earned her love. But really, love is a gift, and you can’t win it by racking up points or doing good deeds.

Now that Team Persevere has started to turn around its string of bad luck, I really hope it’s mostly an upward trajectory for them. I know their name is all about bouncing back from setbacks, but surely we’ve gotten the point now about the hardships, right? It’s time to let them enjoy the bounce-back a little, and hey, if that gives us more time to rub it in Hwangje’s face, all the better.

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