Angry Mom: Episode 10

by girlfriday

There is so much awesome in this episode. And by awesome, I mean Bok-dong, who has totally earned his chance to shine. I’m considering it a nice reward since I’ve been holding my breath since the cliffhanger at the end of the last episode. Today we’re done dancing around the secrets and the confrontations, and people start to actively go looking for the answers that they need. If only we could protect them from the pain that inevitably comes with learning the truth.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Burstered – “나를 부르면” (If You Call Me) [ Download ]

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EPISODE 10 RECAP

Scary mofo Ahn Dong-chil stares gobsmacked at the sight in front of him: Kang-ja, hugging Ah-ran and telling her that everything’s okay because Mom is here now. He blinks like she might be a mirage, and stammers, “Kang-ja? H-how are you here?”

She actually has to say the words aloud for him to register fully: “Because… I’m Ah-ran’s mother.” Dong-chil just blink-blink-blinks at Ah-ran, until Kang-ja asks to send her out so that they can talk alone.

Noah, meanwhile, is begging his cab driver to hurry it up. We see that Bok-dong wrote down the address of Dong-chil’s warehouse and gave Noah the cryptic request to rush over there, before another Yi-kyung happens.

Ah-ran waits outside in the hallway, panicked and scared, and tries repeatedly to call someone who doesn’t answer. Inside, Dong-chil asks how Kang-ja became a mom and adds, “Who gave you permission to be a mother?”

Kang-ja tells him not to think any stray thoughts, because Ah-ran is her daughter and her daughter alone. She asks how Dong-chil could remain the same trash after all these years, because she had hoped that he’d clean up his life for Bum’s sake.

But at the mention of his little brother, Dong-chil’s eyes fill with rage. He screams at her not to say Bum’s name and looms closer. Thinking quickly, Kang-ja grabs the knife that was stuck into the desk and points it straight at Dong-chil’s throat.

He snarls: “You killed my brother.” Ah-ran listens intently from around the corner, as Kang-ja argues back that she wasn’t the one who killed Bum: “It wasn’t me. It was you.” He just screams it again, and this time he lunges and grabs the knife out of her hand.

Suddenly, Noah rushes him from behind and grabs his arm. Ack! Teach! You are so out of your depth here. Dong-chil knocks him to the ground with ease, so Kang-ja shouts for his attention to be back on her, giving her the chance to pin his arm behind him.

Still she’s no match for Dong-chil, who knocks her down and then comes at her, knife raised. She starts to back away, terrified… and that’s when Noah hurls himself at Dong-chil and then lets out a guttural noise. Oh noooo.

Dong-chil’s blade is lodged in his back, and Kang-ja runs over to him screaming his name. She cries for Dong-chil to call an ambulance, but the familiarity of this scene is too much for Dong-chil, and he seems to snap. He screams that he won’t die from it and slumps off, leaving them there. He pauses outside near Ah-ran, but can’t bring himself to look at her.

Gong-joo arrives and tells Kang-ja that calling emergency will just complicate things, so she takes over to make sure that Noah is okay. Ah-ran looks at Kang-ja differently, suddenly seeming a little terrified of her own mother.

Gong-joo’s minions call their usual under-the-table doctor to tend to Noah at the club, and Kang-ja tries to bring his fever down while he sleeps, suddenly seeing him differently.

Ah-ran is full of questions and doubts, and asks Gong-joo if her mother killed someone and if Dong-chil is her biological father. Gong-joo says no to both, albeit unconvincingly, and Ah-ran reels from the night’s potential revelations.

Noah stirs awake, and Kang-ja rushes over to him and starts in on an apology about how she shouldn’t have been involved in something like that, but asks him not to ask questions. Noah lets her finish, but the only thing he asks is, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Awww, you can just see her melt a little on the inside.

He tells her that this isn’t one of those things she can just gloss over—she could’ve died tonight. Kang-ja counters that he’s the one who’s afraid of needles but jumped in the way of a knife.

Noah starts to say that he doesn’t know how long he’ll be a teacher, and Kang-ja cuts him off to argue that he can’t say things like that: “You’re the best teacher at this school.” He says soberly that he isn’t a good teacher at all, and the thing that scares him is losing another one of his students. Noah: “That I might lose you too, because I don’t know anything—that scares me the most.”

He asks sincerely for her to tell him what’s going on so that he can help, and Kang-ja asks for just a little more time so that she can tell him everything. She urges him to stay at the school, because teachers like him make it so that students can survive. He sheds a tear and thanks her for her words.

It’s a good thing Noah is trusting, because Kang-ja doesn’t really have a good explanation for why she brought him to her mother’s nightclub instead of a hospital. He remembers one of them calling Kang-ja “noonim,” and she quickly lies that he must’ve dreamt it.

After sending him home in the princessmobile, Gong-joo comes home and reports that Ah-ran has lots of questions about Dong-chil being her father. She’s wondering that very thing herself and asks Kang-ja if he really isn’t the father, and whether that means that Bum is… but Kang-ja just ignores the question and talks about the school construction project being the key to this whole scheme.

Gong-joo sighs that this school is like a bottomless bog—no matter how much you dig, you just sink deeper. Kang-ja says that Ah-ran is in that bog, and she vows to save her and all the other kids trapped there.

Noah’s father is waiting for him when he comes home, but Noah rebuffs his attempts to talk or see his wounded shoulder. Dad apologizes and says it’s all his fault, but Noah says it’s his fault for making Dad this way. He thanks Dad for protecting him and letting him trust in others and see the best in people. But he declares that from now on, he’s going to leave the safety of his sheltered world, because his students are out in the cold with no one to protect them. Look who’s growing up!

The next morning, Kang-ja tries to smooth things over with Ah-ran, but she isn’t ready to listen to Mom and stalks off. Hubby Jin-sang grabs Kang-ja by the wrist and drags her off in a huff, and Bok-dong growls from a distance.

Jin-sang demands to know if she was out all night, but she says he was already asleep when she came in last night. He threatens to tell the school everything, and she in turn threatens to go report him to the police for stealing her ID. She warns him that she’s watching, and reminds him not to act like he knows her at school.

Once she’s gone, Bok-dong swoops in and grabs Jin-sang by the throat to do some threatening of his own: “Ajusshi, don’t live your life that way.” Kyaaa, could you be any cuter? His sense of honor is so misplaced but SO. ADORABLE.

He’s still under the impression that Jin-sang is her adoptive brother, and pops him in the face as he growls at him not to take advantage of her: “She’s only eighteen!” I’m dying. Bok-dong gives one last warning that if he catches Jin-sang hovering around one more time, he won’t let it go like this.

Ah-ran runs into Dong-chil at school, and though neither of them says a thing, the moment is fraught with unspoken questions and doubts. She overhears Jung-woo ask him why Ah-ran is still walking around at this school, and Dong-chil promises that he spoke to the mother and they’ll be moving abroad soon.

Noah gets caught in a fight between Jung-hee and her friends (ex-friends?) in the hall, and screams in pain when they pull his shoulder. Kang-ja rushes to his side in concern, and Bok-dong takes note with a sour look on his face. Hee, is he going to invent a love triangle in his head?

Kang-ja takes Noah to the infirmary to re-bandage his shoulder, and she worries about the state of his unwashed hair and all the things he can’t manage while living on his own with a bum arm. He says that his father helps him and she shouldn’t worry, but she argues that this happened to him because of her, so how could she not worry?

And then of course, Bok-dong happens to peek into the infirmary at just the wrong moment and angle, where it looks like Kang-ja has her arms around a shirtless Noah. Oh no, poor Bok-dong. You are just having the shittiest day. I don’t mean to laugh at your pain, but it’s too hilarious not to.

He storms in like he’s caught two guilty teenagers, and assumes the worst of Noah. They both swear that this is a misunderstanding, but Bok-dong is so far gone in his own little drama that he starts to lecture Kang-ja (while oh-so-menacingly calling her by the nickname Bang-wool/Cherry Tomato, I might add) about throwing herself at all these men, which leads to all her problems.

He drags her out and warns Noah that he’s watching, and Noah is so innocent by comparison that he just sits there wondering what Bok-dong meant.

Outside, Kang-ja insists that Bok-dong misread the situation, but he just screams that it’s because she’s so innocent that she keeps getting taken advantage of. He starts to say, “She was being used just like you, and then…” but trails off.

Kang-ja realizes that he means Yi-kyung, and guesses that he’s been having a hard time because he wasn’t able to protect her. He denies it, of course, and tells her that the innocent and trusting are the first to get eaten in this world, so don’t trust anyone.

Dong-chil finds Jin-sang at the construction site and asks point-blank if Ah-ran is his biological daughter. Jin-sang says no, Ah-ran is Kang-ja’s niece (a lie, but that’s the cover story she told her husband and mother-in-law). Dong-chil scoffs, knowing full well that Kang-ja never had a sister. He tells Jin-sang to send Kang-ja and Ah-ran away to study abroad, and that he’ll make all the arrangements. He doesn’t even let Jin-sang ask why, and just orders him to do it.

Someone follows Kang-ja out of school that night, and lurks in the shadows as she makes her way to Gong-joo’s club. The minions greet her as she enters, and Gong-joo updates her on the school construction project, which she’s discovered is a way to launder money for the foundation.

Suddenly, one princess minion busts into the room looking bedraggled, as he says that they’ve been infiltrated. Gong-joo and Kang-ja run out to the hallway, where Bok-dong is fighting four minions at once, like a big ol’ hero. This is so great.

When they lift his hat off, Kang-ja finally sees his face and gawks, “Go Bok-dong?!” He screams at Kang-ja to hurry up and run to him, like he’s rescuing her from a life of underage bar hostessing or something. My heart, it bleeds for this kid.

Kang-ja sighs, and Gong-joo practically squeals at the grand gesture, greeting him with open arms: “You’re THE Go Bok-dong? My daughter’s deskmate? Welcome to Bang-wool’s house!” Bok-dong gapes, “Daughter?”

Kang-ja bandages his cuts and chides him for busting in here, while Gong-joo fawns over the cute brave boy and sighs that she’d love to have him for a son-in-law. Kang-ja’s eyes widen at that, and the girls have a silent conversation with looks behind Bok-dong’s back.

He asks if Gong-joo is the birth mother who gave Kang-ja up, and then lays into her for not taking responsibility for her child when she’s living with a senile grandma and a skeevy adoptive brother. Kang-ja tries to stop him, but he’s on a roll and cries that her lack of maternal love is the reason she isn’t properly loved.

He’s so sincere that it kills me, and then it’s clear that he’s identifying with her personally as he adds, “Kids who don’t have parents get treated like trash that can be used and thrown away like nothing!”

Kang-ja stills at that, suddenly realizing why it is that he identifies with her so much. She smiles as Gong-joo apologizes and stuffs him full of food.

She walks him home and asks questions about his parents who passed away and his hyung in prison, but Bok-dong remains tight-lipped about his family. She sees through his tough-guy act completely now, and when he barks at her to go home, she jumps up to throw an arm around his neck and asks if he wants noona to buy him some food.

He shakes her off, annoyed at her insistence that she’s the noona (since she was held back a year). To prove that he’s no little kid, he does his best imitation of an aggressive drama hero and pushes her up against a wall, only he misses when he tries to slam his hand next to her head, and has to readjust his position.

He regains his composure and manages to ask, “Do you like me?” Her whatchoo-talkin-bout-Willis face is priceless, and she cracks up in response. But then he starts to say, “I like… I li—” She freezes, but he can’t spit it out at the last second, and chickens out.

She asks if he lives here with Dong-chil, and tells him to get out. She plans to ask Teach about finding him someplace else to live, but he counters that she’s one to talk, nightclub and all that. He pulls her close by the back of the head to say, “Goodnight, Cherry Tomato,” and shoots her a smile before walking away.

Dong-chil drinks himself into a stupor, and he’s so plagued by thoughts of his little brother that he sees Bum standing there looking back at him for a good long while, before he finally realizes that it’s Bok-dong.

Bok-dong gets yelled at and broods out in the hallway, but practically jumps out of his skin when the elevator doors open and Ah-ran steps out. She’s just as shocked to see him, not having known that he lives with Dong-chil. He asks what she’s doing here like she has a death wish, but she’s determined to ask Dong-chil some questions, and calls Bok-dong a coward until he finally agrees to get her inside.

Ae-yeon arrives first, so they eavesdrop on the conversation, in which Ae-yeon and Dong-chil both admit that they’ve had contact with Kang-ja. Ae-yeon says that they have to get Kang-ja out of school before she digs any deeper, and the school part is news to Dong-chil.

Ah-ran gasps knowing that they’re talking about Mom, and thank goodness Bok-dong is there to hide her when she’s loud enough to raise their suspicions. They get out of there safely, and Bok-dong asks who Kang-ja is. Ah-ran lies that she doesn’t know, but continues asking about Dong-chil and what kind of person he is, and if he killed Yi-kyung.

Bok-dong warns her that the scariest thing in this world is the truth, and that she’s already too close to becoming like Yi-kyung. He says that Dong-chil is someone who takes orders from above and he’s the same too, but she argues that Yi-kyung was killed because she did as told. She tells Bok-dong not to follow orders blindly anymore.

At home, Jin-sang asks Kang-ja what she did to get caught by his boss, and tells her about Dong-chil’s order to send her and Ah-ran abroad. That shocks her more than anything since she was prepared for far worse, and later when she tells Gong-joo about it, Gong-joo assumes that even Dong-chil feels something for his bloodline and doesn’t plan to harm them.

They’re out at the market, where Kang-ja happens to run into an ajumma friend who calls her Rannie’s mom. A teacher from the school happens by and asks what that was about, and Gong-joo comes up with the lie that Rannie is their lost cat. She drags the teacher away for a friendly drink to keep her distracted.

Noah starts a list of all the things he wants to accomplish before quitting his job, and at the top of the list are Kang-ja, Bok-dong, and Sang-tae, all with family/parent concerns. He goes to answer the doorbell, and Kang-ja busts in with bags full of groceries. How sweet.

Noah protests, but she’s in pushy ajumma mode, and just gets her way by nagging. She forces him to let her wash his hair, cook some food, and even do his laundry. He follows her around the whole time, arguing that she’s going overboard, but she simply says that he started it by butting into her life, so she’s doing the same.

She asks why he doesn’t have a girlfriend, and how old he is exactly. He says huffily that he’s a whole eight years older than her, and she just chides him for not having made a girlfriend in all that time, heh. He tries to yell at her for going overboard and coming to his house, but she gets a call from “Mom” and runs out just as suddenly as she came, leaving Noah spun around.

She gets down the street, where she runs into Noah’s father, only she knows him as Judge Park without the Noah connection. He recognizes Kang-ja right away, but the school uniform confuses him, and he worries that she’s working a shady job of some sort. She assures him that she isn’t, and runs off with a promise to contact him later.

Judge Park hears from Noah that his student came by to make the food that they’re eating, and he briefly wonders if it might’ve been Kang-ja. But he shakes the thought out of his head, realizing how crazy that sounds.

He tells Noah that he ran into a former student outside, and surprisingly Noah knows all about Kang-ja’s case just at the mention of her name. He remembers that Dad had sent her presents for a long time, and it reminds him of how much Dad used to run around to check on kids and meet with parents when he was younger. He puts a side dish on Dad’s spoon in silent acknowledgment.

Kang-ja rushes over to a club where Gong-joo has tracked down the middleman who works under the education minister. For no logical reason, this leads to Operation: Cabaret, wherein Kang-ja dresses up as a lounge singer to try and seduce the middleman. Her stage act is hilariously bad, complete with tripping and embarrassing dance moves.

Luckily all the smarmy man cares about is that she’s pretty, and it lands her a private table with him. He’s so intent on impressing her that she gets him to spill all of his secrets, like the fact that he’s a kingmaker who gets presidents elected. It takes her a while before she gets to the juicy stuff, like how there’s a rumor going around that the education minister has an illegitimate son, though no one knows of his identity.

That’s Gong-joo’s cue to interrupt and take over the date, and later the girls reach the conclusion that Jung-woo might be that illegitimate son. (I love the little aside where Kang-ja chides Gong-joo for hitting her princess minions and they call Kang-ja an angel.)

At school the next day, Kang-ja asks Jung-hee what she knows about Jung-woo’s parents, and Dong-chil catches her red-handed—digging around about Jung-woo, and posing as a high school student.

Ah-ran hears what’s going on and runs out, with Bok-dong close behind. Dong-chil grabs Kang-ja by the throat, not caring that they’re in plain sight of the school. Ah-ran is about to run to them when Bok-dong appears by her side, and he warns her not to get involved.

Then he stalks over to them and puts a hand on Dong-chil’s arm. Omo. Dong-chil lets go of Kang-ja because he’s so shocked, and Bok-dong can barely contain his fear as he stammers, “S-she’s my friend, hyungnim.”

Dong-chil turns to him and asks if Bok-dong knows what he’s doing right now, and Bok-dong quivers a yes, and a confirmation that he won’t regret his choice. Dong-chil slaps him hard and fast, and Bok-dong’s head whips to the side. Oh crap.

Dong-chil barks at Bok-dong to follow him, and when Kang-ja tries to stop them, Dong-chil makes a move to hit her. Ah-ran screams, “Mom!” (no one seems to notice) and runs into Kang-ja’s arms, and Dong-chil stares for a moment before deciding to drag Bok-dong away for an ass-kicking. Bok-dong actually turns back to give Kang-ja a brave little smile, perhaps to reassure her, or just happy that he was able to step in.

Chairman Hong meets with the education minister in preparation for the election, and gives Ae-yeon one last chance to choose his side. He tells her to find out what it is that Jung-woo’s mother gave him on her deathbed, and warns her that she has until the end of the “washing machine” cycle to make her choice between him and Jung-woo.

When Bok-dong doesn’t show up at school the next day, Kang-ja leaves to go check on him, and Noah asks the vice principal for permission to go do the same. When he’s denied, Noah decides that he’s going to ditch school for the first time ever, which is clearly evident by the pep talk he has to give himself to hop the fence.

He stares down at the massive drop below and tells himself aloud, “You can do this! Bang-wool did this, so why can’t you? I’m a teacher! And a man! And an adult!” With a fist pound to his chest he goes for it… and shimmies down the wall like the fraidy cat that he is. Still, he seems pretty pleased with his first attempt at playing hooky.

Kang-ja arrives at Bok-dong’s door and tries calling when there’s no answer. She can hear his phone ringing inside, so she calls the lock company to get in. Bok-dong is buried under a blanket and unresponsive, so she thinks he’s just sleeping, until she lifts the covers and finds him covered in sweat and cuts and bruises.

She panics and rouses him to go to a hospital, but then he panics at the sight of her here, where Dong-chil could get to her. They sit there arguing for the other to get out, and I’m screaming at the both of them to get out together, but it’s too late.

Dong-chil walks in behind her as Kang-ja tells him that Dong-chil is no hyung to him. Bok-dong freezes in terror, and Dong-chil recites a familiar line: “Get away from my little brother.” Crap, it totally makes it worse that history’s repeating itself here.

Kang-ja turns to face him and her gaze holds steady: “Which brother? Bum, the brother you killed with your hands, or Bok-dong, the one you covered in bruises?”

And then, to complicate matters even further, Noah arrives. Kang-ja continues and says that Dong-chil has never once sincerely loved his little brothers, otherwise he couldn’t hit them or force them to do anything: “You’re just a gangster, down to your bones.”

Dong-chil just asks calmly, “Are you done with your speech, Jo Kang-ja?” Aaaaaaaah! He said her name!

That’s enough to trigger Noah’s memory of the girl he was just talking about with his father, and he steps into the room with a stunned expression: “Jo Bang-wool… are you Jo Kang-ja?” Bok-dong stops to register the name and looks up at her in confusion.

 
COMMENTS

Everybody knows! I’m actually a little shocked that it happened all at once like that, and already I’m slightly disappointed that it means no more of Bok-dong’s adorably flawed love confessions. But it’s nice to have the story pick up so quickly once we got past the long buildup of setbacks and muted victories. Not that this isn’t a setback for Kang-ja—it is—but it’s a huge step in the story for Noah and Bok-dong to know who she really is, and what’s at stake for her. I can’t say that the mistaken identity misunderstandings aren’t my favorite part of the show, but I also know that there’s a lot to gain from Kang-ja forming lasting relationships with these people as herself, so I look forward to that too. I really think Mom should stop for a minute and give Ah-ran some answers about her parentage before she goes visiting Dong-chil again, but I’m sure that’ll come in time.

What’s nice about the way everyone’s separate storylines have been crafted is that now they all have a personal stake in the same battle. Bok-dong is standing up to Dong-chil for the first time, and that felt so good to see him take his first steps toward independence, even if the cost was terrible. But the fact that he dared to step out of line for Kang-ja says a lot about how far he’s come since the start of the show, and even the start of the episode. Now he’s willing to stand up against his boss for what he believes is right, and he’s putting someone else’s welfare before his own even though knows how frightening these people are better than anyone, since he’s seen the worst of it. I just love love love that he’s Kang-ja’s own little hero, busting into nightclubs and trying to save her when HE’S the one who really needs saving. Part of his charm is that he doesn’t know that, and part of his pathos is that he doesn’t think enough of himself to dream of a better life.

Bok-dong’s tearful speech to Gong-joo tore me up—well first, it gave me stomachache from laughing so hard, but then his sincerity really knocked me over when he was clearly talking about himself and how easily kids like him could be used because no one loved them. Kang-ja sees through that and understands his world more than a teacher like Noah could, and that makes her the perfect person to save him. I like that he’s being set up to be the second Bum for both Kang-ja and Dong-chil, so that she gets her second chance to rescue the little brother this time. Dong-chil already confuses Bok-dong for his dead brother, though I’m with Kang-ja on this one—his idea of love is so warped that it’s not really love.

Noah is steadily growing as well, and it’s fun to see Kang-ja rubbing off on him in little ways, and sometimes his moments like ditching school for the first make him seem just as much a lost teenager as his students. He made huge strides today with his father, and it was the first time I was really impressed with him. He stopped feeling sorry for himself and began to make plans for the difference he wanted to make in his students’ lives, which included growing up so that he could meet them halfway. The reversals in this show are what make the characters so refreshing. Noah is the teacher but he’s the most childlike of them all; Bok-dong is tough as nails and has seen it all but can’t confess his feelings for a girl. They could not be more different if they tried. But in their fierce protectiveness over Kang-ja they’re on the same page, and this episode was the best of that. It makes me a little terrified of losing that amazing dynamic—so damn funny, and heartwarming too—but I trust that they’ll step up in new ways that’ll warm my heart just the same.

 
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