Oh My Ghostess: Episode 8

by girlfriday

I’m such a fool for this show right now. It’s just found that pitch-perfect groove of story, performances, and heart, and I’ve gone from finding it sweet and fun to falling for it completely. The key is really in the relationship between ghost and host, and today we see the potential for what began as an antagonistic relationship to very well become the most heartfelt bond of all.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Han So-hyun, Jamie Park – “오 나의 귀신님” (Oh My Ghostess) for the Oh My Ghostess OST [ Download ]

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EPISODE 8 RECAP

Once it sinks in that Bong-sun has just given her permission to possess her, Soon-ae bounds over to give Bong-sun a giant bear hug, squealing in delight. Bong-sun stands there stiffly with her fists clenched, while Soon-ae lifts her up and calls her pretty, and declares that they should be friendly now: “Call me unni!”

Soon-ae shows her Dad’s restaurant from across the street and says that it might not look like much now, but used to have lines of cab drivers out the door every day. She sighs that if she’d known she’d die so young, she would’ve done more, had a boyfriend, lived like everyone else.

Bong-sun asks why she died, but Soon-ae doesn’t know since she has no memory of her death. Soon-ae asks in turn why she suddenly changed her mind, and Bong-sun admits that she used to be satisfied just watching Chef from far away, but now she wants more.

Soon-ae encourages her to keep wanting more from life, and to stop holding everything in: “Live like a person, Na Bong-sun!” She says that they’re one body now, and eggs Bong-sun on to be more assertive.

Bong-sun mimics her “Fighting” cheer, and soon they’re shouting, “Fightiiiiiing!” at the top of their lungs and skipping side by side down the street. I love that they’re friends now.

In the morning, it’s definitely Soon-ae inside Bong-sun’s body, because the first thing she does is sidle up to Sun-woo and ask, “I read this in a magazine somewhere—is it true that a man is most… vital between ten and eleven in the morning?”

Hahahaha, she actually looks right at his crotch while asking the question. He hurriedly crosses his legs, which just makes her convinced that it IS true.

So-hyung is mortified to remember her impulsive drunken kiss with Sun-woo as she heads to work, and Sun-woo picks up his phone to call her, but hesitates.

The restaurant will be closed for the next two days, and kitchen staff excitedly discusses their vacation plans. Sous chef Min-soo seems at a loss for what to do, not that he lets on—he keeps asking what the others are doing, wanting to tag along. Soon-ae is happy to learn that they have vacation days, and when she pushes Min-soo out of the way, the boys decide she’s back to being weird.

Mom brings the medium unni some porridge (since she lied that she was sick), and Unni eats ravenously. Mom just wants her to hurry up and get better because she has no other friends to hang out with, and Unni starts to feel a pang of guilt at avoiding her on top of everything.

Mom notices that Unni isn’t looking her in the eye, and Unni asks casually if her son is okay, and hasn’t suddenly passed out or anything. She insists that she was just asking, but is relieved to hear that Sun-woo is fine.

Min-soo calls his buddy and erupts in a whiny tantrum when his friend says he can’t get the next two days off to hang out. The others listen warily and agree to avoid Min-soo before he invites himself along on one of their vacations, and it works… until Min-soo goes straight to Chef to suggest a staff retreat.

The others are horrified at the thought of spending their precious days off with their boss but can’t voice their dissent now, and agree through gritted teeth. Soon-ae chirps that she thinks it’s a great idea, and at that, Sun-woo says they’ll go.

Soon-ae watches intently as Sun-woo answers a call from So-hyung. She says she’ll head over to his neighborhood for a chat, and when Sun-woo heads out to meet her, Soon-ae trails after him thinking she’s being stealthy (I don’t know how—she’s practically stepping on his feet).

He calls her out from behind a potted plant and tells her to go home, and she swears that she wasn’t following him, but going to the neighborhood restaurant to see her ajusshi friend. He makes her walk ahead of him then, and she grumbles.

So-hyung looks nervous as she starts to mention last night, but Sun-woo jumps in to say that she must’ve had so much to drink that she can’t remember a thing. She looks partly relieved to be let off the hook but mostly disappointed, and the air between them is soooooo awkward, I can barely watch.

Soon-ae brings popsicles over to Dad and ignores little bro Kyung-mo’s complaints about the last time that she pretended not to know them. She makes sure that Dad is still exercising and says she can’t go for the next few days because of her retreat.

Kyung-mo suddenly reacts like a jealous boyfriend, worried that she’ll be spending nights away with a bunch of guys, and tells her not to bare too much skin or put on lipstick, and to call him every night so that he doesn’t worry. Soon-ae just looks at him like he’s got a screw loose.

Sun-woo calls his brother-in-law Sung-jae out for a drink, and sighs that he wished Eun-hee would join them on the retreat. He wanted to insist she come along, but she didn’t want to be a burden. Sun-woo remembers how much she used to love going on trips, and asks if it’s too late to hope for any progress on her hit-and-run case.

Sung-jae says too much time has passed for that, but assures Sun-woo that Eun-hee has him now, so it’s okay. Sun-woo is appeased by that, and Sung-jae lets his smile fade for a split-second when Sun-woo isn’t looking.

Soon-ae steps out of Bong-sun’s body that night so that she can update her on what’s going on, and Bong-sun is a little shocked at Soon-ae’s plan to seduce Chef at the retreat, but quickly starts throwing out ideas for how to get it done.

Bong-sun says he’ll have to get a separate room and she’ll go buy a new slip to wear, and Soon-ae stares at her in shock. They high-five, giddy with excitement.

The Sun staff arrives at the lakeside pension, where the owners greet them warmly. Their young daughter joins them and points over at Bong-sun and asks, “Why is there another unni inside that unni?” Ruh-roh. Soon-ae plays dumb, and the parents hurry the girl away.

They start to unload the cars, and Min-soo stacks so many boxes in Soon-ae’s arms that she can’t even see over the top of them. Joon takes them from her and complains that Min-soo is treating her badly.

Min-soo gets mad at Joon for daring to talk back, and asks if he’s Bong-sun’s boyfriend or something. Joon: “What, are boyfriends the only ones allowed to talk back? Fine, I’ll be her boyfriend then!” What? Aaah, why so cute?!

Soon-ae gasps and skips off after him, calling him “Boyfriend,” and playfully declaring that today is the first day of their relationship. Sun-woo pretends like it doesn’t affect him, but he suddenly looks so glum.

They grill out by the lake, and Sun-woo suggests a survival cooking game where the winner gets to put a dish on next month’s menu and gets two days off. They all make a mad dash for ingredients and start creating their dishes, and when Soon-ae gets praised for her knife skills, Sun-woo puffs up to hear her say she has a really great teacher.

Sun-woo announces that the finalists are Joon and Min-soo, and the others clearly favor Joon’s dish because they recognize that Min-soo’s is almost identical to something they serve at their restaurant.

They drumroll as they wait for Sun-woo’s verdict. The outcome seems obvious, except when Sun-woo sees Soon-ae chanting Joon’s name and cheering for him so affectionately, he calls out Min-soo’s name instead. Pffft, I love that he’s THAT petty.

Everyone except Min-soo is confused, and even Sun-woo knows he’s talking out of his ass when he explains why Min-soo’s dish was better.

The mood is lively after many rounds of drinks, and Sun-woo heads out to go buy more liquor when they run out. Soon-ae sneaks off to join him, and says she’s here to protect him from virgin ghosts. Sun-woo: “Who’s protecting whom? You’re the most dangerous thing here.”

He’s confused when she insists on taking a bicycle, and the ghost-seeing girl watches them from around the corner with a mischievous look in her eye. It’s doubly confusing when Soon-ae gets so frustrated at his slowness that she takes over, suddenly riding a bike like it’s no big deal. Him riding in the back makes for a funny visual too.

It’s dark by the time they’re heading back, and Soon-ae says that it used to be her dream to move to the country and open up a tiny restaurant. Sun-woo says she could still do that, but she says it’s too late, refusing to elaborate on why.

She notices that his shoelace is untied, so she stoops down to retie it using her special knot that never comes undone. He gets all quiet and awkward while she does it, and agrees that it won’t come undone easily.

She links her arm through his and declares their sneakers couple shoes now, and refuses to let go knowing that he has his hands occupied walking the bike. He tells her to stop crawling up on him, so she actually starts climbing him like a tree, which is when So-hyung suddenly calls out to them. What? Okay, you are officially a killjoy now.

So-hyung says she was in the area on a location scout and thought she’d drop by, and Soon-ae makes no effort to hide her distaste for her, muttering loudly that companies sure are lax on their employees these days.

The guys are happy to see So-hyung and welcome her eagerly, much to Soon-ae’s annoyance. It turns out that Drunk Joon is like the Cookie Monster but for liquor, and has to be put to bed before he embarrasses himself further.

Back in town, Eun-hee and Sung-jae get dressed up to meet her friends at a reunion dinner, and Mom tells them to have a good time. Medium Unni arrives to hang out with Mom and meets Sung-jae for the first time, and something about him makes her face pale. As they leave, she mutters to herself that she’s never seen a ki that strong before.

Eun-hee catches up with her friends, who all sigh that she was the one with the brightest future of all of them. They ask if she still hasn’t caught the hit-and-run culprit, and one of the girls says that whoever it is deserves to be ripped apart until they die.

Sung-jae says he’ll wait outside as if giving Eun-hee time alone with her friends, but heads out to the parking lot where he locates that girl’s car and keys it, looking completely placid as he does it.

Both Soon-ae and So-hyung get caught in a drinking game and offer up their shots to Sun-woo to drink for them, and instead of choosing, he downs both shots and calls it a night. Soon-ae makes sure that Sun-woo gets his own room, and interrupts So-hyung while she’s in the middle of asking if Sun-woo wants to go for a walk.

The girls have to share a room after all that, making for a very tense night. Soon-ae wonders passive-aggressively why So-hyung came all this way just to join in on someone else’s work retreat, and So-hyung counters that she can’t understand why Bong-sun lives in that storage room in the restaurant.

Soon-ae: “Why are you so interested in where I sleep?” So-hyung: “Why are you so bothered by my being here?” They lie down in a huff, then spend the bulk of the night making sure the other one doesn’t sneak out, and trying to stay awake and outlast the other.

The night wears on, and So-hyung finally falls asleep first, giving Soon-ae the chance to sneak into Sun-woo’s room. She goes straight for his bed and snuggles up in his arms, and though she startles him awake, it’s not like he makes a move to un-snuggle her or anything.

She makes the excuse that So-hyung snores so loudly that she can’t sleep in her room, and Sun-woo just stares at her for a while before asking if she’s taken her meds. He wrestles her free and drags her out of the room, and she flings them down on the couch so that he lands on top of her.

When he drags her up again, she asks loudly if he has some kind of prejudice against sex, and he clamps a hand over her mouth and wonders if he needs to take her to the hospital again.

They head outside when they hear the pension owners calling out for their daughter, who’s gone missing. The mother says that she’s not right in the head and worries that she’ll cause trouble again. Sun-woo and Soon-ae help search for her, and Soon-ae finds her in the woods, talking to someone (an invisible someone) about finding the kids. Well that’s creepy.

She takes off in a run and Soon-ae chases her all the way to a cold storage warehouse, where the little girl locks her inside because she’s a ghost. She skips off back to her parents, and then Sun-woo goes off in search of Bong-sun.

Soon-ae decides that they can’t just sit here and freeze, so she ejects herself from Bong-sun and tells her that she’ll figure something out. She passes through the wall and tries to focus all her energy on lifting the lock, but can’t manage it because it’s so heavy. But then she notices the firecracker and lighter that she dropped on the way in, and succeeds in picking up the lighter.

By now two hours have passed, and Sun-woo gets everyone else up to help look for Bong-sun. Min-soo complains about being dragged out in the middle of the night, and Sun-woo snaps at him that one of their family is missing.

He’s at his wit’s end, when suddenly the firecracker goes off in the distance. Sun-woo knows right away that it’s Bong-sun and takes off in a mad dash. He finds the lit firecracker but no one around, and Soon-ae dashes back into the warehouse to get back in Bong-sun’s body and call out for help.

He pries the door open and grabs her in a fierce hug, awash in relief. D’aw. She’s startled and says she’s okay, and the other boys all dash in behind him. Sun-woo suddenly barks at her, all of his worry coming out in one long angry rant: “Are you crazy?! Were you thinking at all? What are you doing in here? Why would you come in here? I told you not to be so careless! Why don’t you listen to me?!”

She starts to make excuses, but he tells her there’s no way she’s okay after being trapped in here for two hours, and takes off his sweater to put around her shoulders. Joon suggests getting her out of here and offers to piggyback her, but Sun-woo stoops down to put her on his back first, and carries her out.

He mutters that her body is too cold for her to be fine, and the rest of the guys trudge along behind them, wondering how that firecracker went off by itself and why Chef is so mad. Min-soo speculates that he must’ve been upset about the possible hospital bill, while Joon looks over at Sun-woo and Bong-sun with a knowing look. Poor Joonie.

So-hyung paces outside waiting for news, but when Sun-woo returns, he just walks right past her. They pack up and say their goodbyes in the morning, and the little girl waves goodbye to the unni-inside-the-unni, and Soon-ae tells her not to cause any more trouble. So-hyung asks Sun-woo for a ride to the broadcast station, and finally gets some time alone with him.

At the police station, Sung-jae’s colleague asks when his birthday is, because he might have a really great present for him. He announces that he found a top-notch technician to take another stab at fixing the broken CCTV from the time of Eun-hee’s hit-and-run, and Sung-jae looks taken aback. He stops the other cop from calling Sun-woo and says he’ll call directly, and the friend heads out to go pick up the hard drive. Uh-oh…

Sun-woo drops So-hyung off at work, and she finally asks if he isn’t curious why she came all the way to his retreat. She guesses that he is curious but just afraid to ask, because he already knows what she’s going to say. She asks if the reason he’s drawing a line between them has anything to do with Bong-sun, and when he hesitates to answer, she takes it back, regretting having asked.

Sung-jae’s cop friend picks up the repaired hard drive, and then finds that his car suddenly won’t start. He gets out to look under the hood, when someone attacks him from behind, knocking him unconscious (or dead?), and smashes the hard drive underfoot. Curiously, we never see the attacker’s face.

Soon-ae paces nervously, wondering if Sun-woo is taking so long to get back because So-hyung is up to no good. She’s relieved when he returns, though less excited when he wants to go right back to the kitchen for more cooking lessons.

She complies for a while, but when she starts to complain about not feeling well, Sun-woo is worried enough to stop their lesson. He tells her to clean up, and she brightens up immediately. She stops to ask him why he got so mad last night, and he tenses up to be asked so openly.

She asks again but he can’t say anything in response, and he finally blurts that he didn’t want her causing accidents at the pension too. He snaps at her to clean up and stop asking questions, looking rattled at his own feelings.

Soon-ae comes back with the hose but loses her grip on it when more water shoots out than she expected, and they both get doused before Sun-woo runs out to turn the water off. It’s not the most inventive trope, but now I see why Mom warned him to stay away from water.

He grabs towels and tells her to come closer so he can dry her off. With his arms around her and almost no space between them, the air shifts, and Soon-ae actually gets a little shy and backs away.

Sun-woo stares at her intently for a long moment before yanking on the towel around her back, and pulls her in for a kiss. Holy swoon, Batman.

He kisses her again and again, and then suddenly… Soon-ae takes a step back, out of Bong-sun’s body. Omo. Bong-sun’s eyes widen to find herself mid-kiss with Sun-woo, as Soon-ae backs away from them.

 
COMMENTS

I love everything about that last scene. Okay, the kiss is great, obviously, but it’s Soon-ae’s sudden decision to back off that gave me chills. For all of Soon-ae’s big talk about getting laid and jumping Chef’s bones, when it comes down to it, she’s still a virgin who has no real experience with love or relationships. She’s possessed other women and put guys in the hospital trying to get past second base, but no one’s ever kissed her that way before—sincerely, lovingly.

And obviously we could find out next week that something else drove her to eject herself from the situation, but I felt like Sun-woo’s sincerity moved her, to the point that she realized that this was Bong-sun’s moment, her relationship, her first real kiss with him. It’s what I hope anyway, because the other alternative is that she might be falling for him in return, which is definitely stickier. Maybe his sincerity rattled her, or maybe she felt wrong taking it from Bong-sun, but the fact that she removes herself willingly makes me think that she’s come a long way and actually might see Bong-sun as a person and a friend, and not just a convenient vessel.

Now that Bong-sun and Soon-ae are in cahoots and beginning to influence each other, it finally feels like the show is doing everything I wanted it to. The fact that the romance is hitting that first moment of realization at the same time is just gravy, because it proves how little Bong-sun actually needs Soon-ae to make Chef fall in love with her. He’s doing that just fine all by himself, but we gain an adorable friendship between the girls anyway. Soon-ae brings Bong-sun out of her shell and encourages her to be fearless, and Soon-ae is finally starting to look beyond herself and consider Bong-sun’s feelings.

I’m so delighted at the synergy between these two women, and how much they’ve already begun to adopt the other’s traits without realizing it. This was the kind of character growth I’ve been dying to see, and it was so worth the wait. Now it feels like Soon-ae is Bong-sun’s cheerleader and big sister, and I love that Bong-sun seems less alone in the world.

I like that Joon is asserting himself a little more, though I still feel like he’s underused in this drama. But now his one-sided feelings for Bong-sun seem pretty clear, at long last. The second leads in this drama sure do take their sweet time figuring out their feelings. It took long enough that there’s no hope for So-hyung or Joon to actually wedge their way between Sun-woo and Bong-sun now, but today they served a crucial purpose in making them jealous enough to do something about it, which you can’t help but appreciate.

Mostly it was Sun-woo’s worried outburst that made everything click for him, not that he was even in a whole lot of denial about his feelings to begin with. He went from chasing her away to worrying about her, to actively finding excuses to be together all the time. Once he was the one inventing reasons to have her stick to him like glue, he was already a goner, really. The question is, now that real feelings are involved, will Soon-ae find it difficult to just borrow Bong-sun’s body and do the deed? Maybe it won’t, but it seems like making Sun-woo want her has actually made the situation more complicated for all of them. Did love just put the brakes on sex? How ironic.

 
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