Descended From the Sun: Episode 9

by LollyPip

The confession cat’s out of the bag, and there’s no way Shi-jin is going to let Mo-yeon wiggle out of his grasp now. She’s stuck fighting her feelings and the force of her attraction to him, and losing spectacularly, not that she doesn’t put up a good fight. And she’s not the only one giving in to love — in the wake of the earthquake, many are realizing that life is short and precious, and you have to take your opportunities when they come.

EPISODE 9 RECAP

As Mo-yeon’s tearful cliffside confession accidentally plays over the loudspeakers to the entire base, she goes running back to Daniel to stop it, but it’s too late. Everyone, including Shi-jin, has heard it, and Shi-jin is there to meet her with an adorable “gotcha” smirk on his face.

Horrified, she just snatches her phone and runs right back out again. HAHAHA. And then Shi-jin jumps out the second-story window to catch her before she can get away. He’s waiting at the door when Mo-yeon gets there, and she defensively chastises him for using his Special Forces training for personal reasons.

There’s no way he’s letting her off the hook after her very public confession, and he just laughs when she yells that he shouldn’t have listened. He gets all up in her personal space, flustering her so badly that she even tries to claim it’s not her voice on the recording, and he tells her to stop dumping him all the time. He just wants to know if she meant what she said in that recording.

Mo-yeon calms down and promises to tell the truth, but the moment Shi-jin lets go of her arm, she’s off like a shot. I’d say that’s her confession, right there, and Shi-jin knows it.

Sang-hyun and Ja-ae go for a walk and talk about all the confessions happening in the aftermath of the earthquake, and Sang-hyun suggests they do the same. Ja-ae shuts that right down, but she tells him again to delete his porn folder. Someone seems a little jealous.

HA, the soldiers are paying off bets to each other over whether Mo-yeon liked Shi-jin or not. The loser, Staff Sergeant Choi, says that he doesn’t trust Mo-yeon — why would a pretty and smart doctor go out with a soldier? And even if she did, once she finds out what they really do, she’ll tell Shi-jin to transfer or even quit the army.

Mo-yeon can’t even get two minutes into a staff meeting before everyone is asking about her confession, and she tells them that as educated professionals, the least they can do is talk about her behind her back. Not that it works, and soon they’re arguing over whether today or tomorrow is the first day of her new relationship.

Min-jae glares while Chi-hoon gives him a checkup, and poor Chi-hoon can barely even look at his patient. Min-jae asks Sang-hyun for a different doctor, since this one left him to die, and anyway his hands are shaking. Sang-hyun says that a doctor isn’t a TV channel, and you can’t just change at whim. But he notices that Chi-hoon seems to have lost all his confidence.

Mo-yeon is nervous as a cat, jumping every time she sees a man in uniform, ha. Myung-joo catches her skulking around corners and asks if she’s hiding from embarrassment, so Mo-yeon asks her if it’s hard dating a soldier. Myung-joo admits that Shi-jin and Dae-young have dangerous jobs, but it’s not the job she worries about: She’s more scared of not being with the man she loves.

Shi-jin still has the stone he took from the secluded beach, and he sits tossing it and thinking. Myung-joo finds him and catches the stone, asking why he’s here alone, so he takes the opportunity to ask her a question. HA, it’s the same question Mo-yeon just asked her, which she tells Shi-jin, and complains that they should just talk to each other. That’s what I’m sayin’.

She teases him that she’s going to keep his stone, but backs up right into Dae-young. He stops her from escaping and asks if she’s still mad at him (for leaving when she invited him to do what he wanted with her), and she snaps that she is. Shi-jin smirks, assuming that she asked Dae-young for sex, but Myung-joo says she just wanted him to hold her hand. Yeah, right.

But Shi-jin agrees with her that Dae-young is an idjit, not taking advantage of his opportunities when they come. They both walk away, grumbling about how dense Dae-young is, leaving him unsure who to glare at. (And I love that Myung-joo manages to flounce, even in her army fatigues.)

Mo-yeon and the nurses are happy to see the men’s morning shirtless jogging routine is back to normal. Nurse Min-ji pretends that Shi-jin is coming just to yank Mo-yeon’s chain, and she panic-flails so hard she runs right into the jogging soldiers. Hee.

In her eagerness to run away from Shi-jin, Mo-yeon just runs right under the window where he’s watching her, amused. She yells at him as if it’s all his fault people are teasing her, and he stops her from escaping again.

He asks why she’s avoiding him ever since he confessed, even though he knows how she feels now. He tells her not to be embarrassed that he knows she likes him, because he still likes her more. He leans out the window, putting his face very close to hers, and saying that she looks pretty today. Mo-yeon can’t hide her pleased little smile.

Mo-yeon and Shi-jin drive back to base together after attending a UN meeting, and Mo-yeon notes that it was a lot more fun than she expected. When Shi-jin says that humor is necessary since they only meet during emergencies, she comments that he’s the same way.

Shi-jin asks Mo-yeon how many boyfriends she’s had, but before she can answer, one of their tires rolls over a land mine and they run off the road. Shi-jin stays in the truck, throwing rocks until he detonates another mine, and he guesses that they’re in the middle of a mine field.

Of course her phone and his walkie-talkie are also out of service, so Shi-jin decides they’ll have to walk out of the area. He tells Mo-yeon to step exactly where he steps, promising he won’t let her die.

Carefully probing the ground before each steps, Shi-jin tells Mo-yeon that the movies are wrong — if you step on a land mine, it explodes, there’s no way to avoid it. He finds one mine and marks it with a flag, and continues that they just have to go slow. He tells her to relax, and invites her to enjoy the sexy view, since he’s bent over looking for mines.

Mo-yeon does just that, and says that this must be that time when joking gives him courage (Shi-jin: “The joke was me telling you to relax, the rest is fact.” HAHA). They move their way slowly through the mine field, until finally they get out and Mo-yeon collapses in relief.

She complains that it feels like her life is always in danger, and she’s even ruined two cars now. Shi-jin agrees, joking that he wants their relationship to be a melodrama but it always ends up an action film. “You’ve ruined two cars, so now let’s ruin your lipstick.” WHOA NOW.

But dammit, he just wants it to make a sign warning people about the mine field. After he puts the sign up, Mo-yeon draws a quick skull and crossbones for anyone who can’t read English, and ha, takes the opportunity to freshen her lipstick while she’s at it.

They start to walk back to base, which Shi-jin figures will take all night. He offers to walk holding hands if Mo-yeon is bored, but she’s still pretending that confession recording wasn’t her, and Shi-jin whines that she’s totally different after a crisis than during one.

Mo-yeon asks Shi-jin to tell the truth — he’s dated a lot, right? He says women always ask that, and there’s no good way to answer. If he says yes, they get mad, and if he says no they think he’s lying. Mo-yeon wants to know exactly who gets mad, and Shi-jin is all Oh look a truck!

They hitch a ride in the back of a farmer’s truck, where Mo-yeon thanks Shi-jin for saving her life yet again. He replies sincerely that he felt safer with her watching his back, which, awww.

He tells Mo-yeon that he heard about her asking Myung-joo if her boyfriend’s job bothered her — he still wants to know what the answer was. Mo-yeon tells the truth, that Myung-joo said being apart from him was worse, and Shi-jin asks, “What about us? Will we part soon?”

You can see the worry on his face when he asks if Mo-yeon plans to go back to Korea the next day, but she says she’s not. He asks why, since it can’t be because of him, but Mo-yeon surprises him: “It is. I’m staying because of you. I want to spend more time with you.”

Mo-yeon has a little fun while Shi-jin is shocked silent, and says that she thinks she just confessed. “Should I apologize?” Shi-jin asks what she thinks his answer is, but he doesn’t give her a chance to answer, just yanks her forward to kiss her. This time she kisses him back, and when Shi-jin pulls away to look for her reaction, it’s Mo-yeon who goes in for a second kiss.

They kiss the whole ride back to base then go adorably awkward when they arrive, Shi-jin weirdly saluting Mo-yeon with both of them covered in hay. HAHA. Sang-hyun and Ja-ae see them and Sang-hyun grins, aware of exactly what they were up to in the back of that truck.

Late that night, Young-soo tries to sneak out of the power plant ruins, but he’s joined by Argus and his men. He tells Argus that the diamonds are in his backpack, though it doesn’t make them happy that the lock on his safe is broken and he had to bring the whole thing.

Argus points out that he’s still twenty-seven hours late, and when Young-soo claims it’s only because of the earthquake, Argus is prepared to shoot him anyway. Young-soo begs for his life, and Argus growls at him, “Just do what I tell you.” Young-soo agrees, but Argus is furious when they get back to their hideout and find that the safe is empty.

Young-soo shows up at the Medicube complaining of neck pain, and insists on being put on the plane to Seoul for an MRI. He’s trying to escape Argus and I don’t blame him, but his imperious demanding attitude doesn’t win him any favors with Myung-joo or Ja-ae.

He works himself into a lather, so Dae-young grabs him by the collar and yanks him outside for a chat. When Young-soo bows up at him too, Dae-young asks exactly how hurt he’d like to be, if he wants to be a patient that badly. Young-soo backs right down and actually apologizes.

He turns to see Chi-hoon behind Dae-young, and Chi-hoon asks in a timid voice if he really wants to go back to Korea. So the next day when the people returning get on the bus to the airport, Young-soo is with them, having accepted Chi-hoon’s offer of his own seat.

We see in flashback that Young-soo knows exactly where the missing diamonds are — he swallowed them, then closed the safe and smashed the lock. But what’s worse is that nobody can find Chi-hoon, and they recall that he’s been acting strange for the last few days.

Sang-hyun eventually finds Chi-hoon in a storage room, and he asks why Chi-hoon decided to stay. He jokingly asks if it’s because his fiancee gained weight, but it fails to lift Chi-hoon from his funk.

Sang-hyun grows serious and asks what happened between Chi-hoon and Min-jae, knowing that this is the real issue. Chi-hoon says he’ll tell him later, that asking for help makes him feel like he’s running away from his problems even more. He insists he can take care of himself, but he looks as if he’s about to break.

Young-soo spots some of Argus’s guys at the airport looking for him and hides, missing his plane in the process. They report back that he didn’t make his plane, so they’ve set some traps with the police chief.

Argus swears he’ll take Young-soo apart when he sees him next, then instructs them to send the red rose that he prepared to someone named Colonel Amang. Frighteningly, the “red rose” appears to be a young girl.

Focusing through his gun’s telescope with impressive fierceness, Shi-jin watches… Mo-yeon washing up. That would be cute if he weren’t aiming a gun at her face. Thankfully Dae-young points out this fact, and Shi-jin seems embarrassed to have been caught peeping.

Myung-joo’s father, Lieutenant General Yoon, plans to visit the base the next afternoon, putting everyone on the alert. Shi-jin swears they won’t do anything special for his arrival, just scrub the base to a brilliant shine — you know, like they always do.

But the commander’s plans are altered at the last minute and his trip to the base is canceled. Instead, Shi-jin and Mo-yeon are called to Command Central, along with Dae-young and Myung-joo. Uh oh, that sounds ominous.

The soldiers greet Lieutenant General Yoon formally, then he asks for an office for a short personal reason. He calls in Dae-young, Myung-joo, Shi-jin and Mo-yeon, and it’s cute how Mo-yeon is the odd one out, not being a soldier and having no clue how to act around the commander.

He commends her for her actions during the Abu Dhabi prince’s medical emergency, and Shi-jin looks adorably proud when the commander also comments on Mo-yeon’s beauty. She excuses herself, leaving the other three in the office.

Lieutenant General Yoon also commends them for their efforts during the earthquake rescue, asking if they were hurt, then says that he’ll now speak as Myung-joo’s father. Dropping all formality, he asks Shi-jin if he’s his ally or his enemy — is he really not interested in his daughter?

Shi-jin says truthfully that Myung-joo is only a highly-respected friend, and though he’s disappointed, the commander accepts his answer. That leaves the commander alone with Dae-young and Myung-joo, and he asks his daughter if she still cares for Dae-young. She readily admits that she does, so he asks Dae-young the same question. Myung-joo tries to intervene but Dae-young quickly says, “Yes, sir,” and she’s struck speechless.

The commander says to Dae-young that he though he was going to back down on this, but this time Myung-joo does interrupt. She tells her father that she doesn’t care what Dae-young says, she won’t give up on him. Dae-young gently removes her hand from his arm, but then he twines his fingers in hers, and says to her father, “I will hold onto this hand.”

Lieutenant General Yoon asks if he thinks he’s capable of doing that, and Dae-young responds that even if he’s transferred, he won’t let go. Her father sends her out of the room, and though she’s reluctant to go, Dae-young whispers to her not to worry.

Once they’re alone, Myung-joo’s father says that he’s only had two goals in his military career: to become an honorable commander, and to earn the respect of his daughter, who’s also a soldier. But now he feels as though he’s failed both goals. His command to Dae-young to stay away from Myung-joo was an abuse of his power, so his daughter no longer respects him.

He gives Dae-young permission to date Myung-joo, but he won’t have a simple sergeant major as a son-in-law, so if he wants to be with Myung-joo, Dae-young should quit the army and go work for her mother’s company. He’ll be expecting Dae-young’s decision when they return to Korea.

On the trip back to base, Mo-yeon she asks Shi-jin why he and Myung-joo never dated. Shi-jin asks if she’s jealous and calls her over to pump the gas, which frees him up to plant a surprise kiss on her. He challenges her to talk again so he can shut her up again the same way, so of course she does, and he does.

Shi-jin heads inside to pay and catches a tiny thief leaving the store with several boxes of medicine. Mo-yeon realizes that he’s sick with measles, which is highly infectious.

Dae-young tells Myung-joo of her father’s decision, and he offers her a chance to back out now. Myung-joo does a happy dance right there in the sand, which makes Dae-young smile. He reports to her as his senior officer that he’s been ordered to date her, throwing her a salute and a goofy grin.

She runs off to call her dad and Dae-young happily watches her go, but the way his smile falters when she’s out of sight worries me. He didn’t tell her the part where he has to quit the army, did he?

Shi-jin and Mo-yeon take a detour to the sick boy’s village, and Shi-jin radios in for the soldiers to check his GPS coordinates. Their communication is cut off, but the soldiers tell Dae-young that something is off — there’s no town in that area.

They find that quite a few children in the village are ill, but none of the people will answer Shi-jin when he tries to speak to them. Finally one girl speaks in English — it’s the “red rose,” and she tells Mo-yeon that they don’t get food for three days if they speak to strangers. But she doesn’t care anymore, so Mo-yeon asks if they can bring all the sick children here.

Rose tells them that dying is better than living here — the boys are forced to join a gang, and the girls sold to a pimp. Today, it’s her turn. She offers to help them, in return for their help getting her out of here.

Back at the base, Daniel tells Dae-young that the village is called the Haunted Village. It’s populated by war orphans and controlled by the local gangs. The village moves often, and the children are sold to sex-traffickers.

Dae-young calls Shi-jin to tell him what they found out, and Shi-jin sees Argus driving towards the town. He tells Dae-young to hurry there, but Argus has already seen their car. Mo-yeon approaches him to ask if he’s the children’s guardian, and asks if she can take the sick children to the Medicube.

Shi-jin skids to a stop between them, shielding Mo-yeon from Argus, refusing his offer to shake hands. Mo-yeon asks who this is, and Shi-jin answers, “It’s Private Ryan.”

Argus sizes up the situation and concludes that he has the advantage, but suddenly a shot rings out and Argus goes down, shot in the side. It’s Rose, who’s stolen a gun, and she runs to Shi-jin’s side and hands her gun to him, saying that they have to leave now.

Argus’s man has his own gun aimed at Shi-jin, and tells Mo-yeon to help Argus. Rose cries to just kill him while Argus reminds Mo-yeon that she took an oath as a doctor, but she’s frozen with indecision.

But when Argus tries to shoot Rose himself, Mo-yeon decides that she won’t help him live. Saving his life could cause the deaths of more people in the long run. But Shi-jin disagrees and tells her to help him — she’s a doctor, and it’s her job to save lives.

“If we have to kill someone, I will do my job.”

COMMENTS

That’s a pretty good cliffhanger to leave us on, as it circles back around to the one thing that Shi-jin and Mo-yeon disagree on – when to save a life, and when to take one. It’s interesting to see Mo-yeon’s values adjust to her surroundings, as now she’s the one who thinks it’s better to let one man die if it would save the lives of those he may (will) kill later on. Now that she’s seen exactly why Shi-jin is willing to sometimes kill, I’ll bet if they had the conversation now that they had in Episode 2, Mo-yeon would be singing a different tune. And I also love that Shi-jin is the one telling her to save Argus’s life, unwilling to let her relax her moral stance, and letting her know that if killing needs to be done, as usual, it’s his job.

But mostly I’m just thrilled that Mo-yeon couldn’t protest her feelings for Shi-jin anymore. Even without the super-public confession, everyone could tell how she felt anyway, including Shi-jin (I don’t believe he would have continued to press her if he thought she genuinely didn’t like him, he’s too respectful of her wishes for that. The times she’s really meant what she said, he gave her the space she wanted). I absolutely understand her hesitation in letting herself fall for him, because she nearly did back in Korea and she got hurt, after only two dates.

So I was glad when Mo-yeon finally got around to asking Myung-joo what it’s like dating a military man, because I’ve been thinking for several weeks that those two ladies need to talk. What Myung-joo said, that she’s more afraid of not being with the man she loves than of his job, was exactly what Mo-yeon needed to hear. Yes, Shi-jin could die at any time, but then so could any of us. There’s no guarantee that having a safer job means he’ll live longer. So I wanted Mo-yeon to realize that finding a strong love, even if it only lasts a short time, it better than no love at all. I think we were all ready for her to stop running from Shi-jin and start running towards him.

Lastly, I’m very worried about Chi-hoon, because he really feels as though he’s hanging onto sanity by a fingernail at this point. He’s just wracked with guilt over leaving Min-jae when the building threatened to collapse, and it doesn’t help that Min-jae needles him every chance he gets. I’m not surprised that Chi-hoon gave up his seat on the plane back home – he can barely face his fellow doctors here in Uruk, much less his family and the entire hospital back in Korea. I just hope he’s not thinking of doing something drastic to himself. (And again it’s worth mentioning, Onew is just really amazing in this role. I’m so impressed.)

But holy moley guys, how about that truck-bed kiss?? I think that may rank right up there with my favorite drama kisses of all time. It was so perfect – the scenery, the sunset, Mo-yeon’s confession and her enthusiastic participation, Shi-jin’s expression like every wish he ever had just came true. There just aren’t words to say how giddy that kiss made me, but who needs words? It was perfection.

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• Descended From the Sun: Episode 5
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• Descended From the Sun: Episode 2
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