Cinderella and the Four Knights: Episode 8

by CandidClown

All right folks, who’s ready for a vacation? Ha-won is determined to make these cousins bond, but she might end up having a little too much fun herself. It may be a mission, but this trip is packed with pouty princes, grumpy Cinderellas, and cuddly knights. Throw in a few trusty drama tropes and some rice wine, and anything is possible. What happens in dramaland stays in dramaland, right?

 
EPISODE 8 RECAP

Sleeping Beauty Hyun-min slowly blinks awake to find himself not only no longer in bed, but aboard a plane. Just as he starts to panic, a cheerful Ha-won calls to him from her seat, telling him to calm down.

This does not have the desired effect, and Hyun-min pops out of his seat, looking around to see Bodyguard Lee, Hye-ji, both his cousins, and Ha-won’s friend, Ja-young (who’s happily gazing at Seo-woo) also aboard. Hyun-min demands to know what’s going on, but no one seems particularly concerned over his plight.

As Hyun-min continues to freak out, two large male flight attendants literally pick him up and plop him back down in his seat. All Hyun-min can do is fuss and futilely toss his slipper at them while Ha-won cackles.

The group arrives at the Kang vacation home and Ha-won excitedly welcomes everyone, though both Seo-woo and Hyun-min are decidedly miffed, having both been tricked/kidnapped to get there.

They all start to go their separate ways when Ha-won yells at them to hold up. Bodyguard Lee joins the group and deposits a bag, from which Ha-won pulls out a black bomber jacket with her name monogrammed on the back. Hah, she got one for everybody and fully expects them to put them on.

Ignoring the eye rolls, Ha-won also whips out the schedules she’s drawn up for their stay, portioning out their entire vacation into half-hour blocks. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t go over well, and soon Ha-won is left standing by herself.

Bodyguard Lee checks in with Grandpa Kang, reporting Ha-won’s progress, but Grandpa just tells him that he doesn’t need to update him constantly. His words worry Lee and he asks after his health, but Grandpa just tells him to relax and enjoy himself, instructing him to treat this as a vacation for him, too.

Apparently Bodyguard Lee’s worries are not unfounded as it looks like Grandpa Kang has checked himself into a hospital. His new wife, Hwa-ja, admonishes him for being so secretive, but Grandpa just sighs that he’s not sure his grandsons would care about his health even if they knew.

After he hangs up with the chairman, Bodyguard Lee checks a text from his mother. In it, she agrees not to contact him anymore, but asks to eat one meal with him, just once.

It seems the change of scenery does nothing to diminish Hyun-min’s desire to sleep, as he finds his room and immediately falls into bed. Looking up at the ceiling, he notices some old glow-in-the-dark stickers. The sight clearly affects him and he murmurs, “Looks like this place hasn’t changed one bit.”

Undaunted by everyone’s lack of enthusiasm, Ha-won proceeds to tack up copies of her vacation schedule all over the house. She marches downstairs and eagerly calls for a house meeting, but you can practically hear the crickets.

Finding Seo-woo playing his guitar, Ha-won grouches that he’s by himself on a vacation with other people, but he insists he’s happy. He tells her that he doesn’t even get ten days of vacation time a year, so he’s having fun with his personal downtime. Ha-won can’t believe it and peevishly yanks his headphones out.

On a walk by herself, Hye-ji comes across a bench. She peers closer and smiles to see the words Hyun-min ♥ Hye-ji carved into the back of the seat.

Still trying to get everyone active, Ha-won pounces on Hyun-min who’s relocated to the pool deck. He’s still grumpy so she apologizes for kidnapping him, and “making him the laughing stock of the country.”

Hyun-min finally breaks out of his shell to ask what Ha-won meant about reflecting on his heart and all that, asking what would change if he truly liked her. Ha-won starts to answer that lots of things would change when two people really care for each other, but Hyun-min interrupts, saying that she’s someone who has old-fashioned dating standards.

Hyun-min scoffs that he must have been crazy to think he liked her and asserts that he’s not the type to be too serious. Ha-won is indignant that he called her old-fashioned, but Hyun-min just shoos her away, wanting to go back to sleep.

After Ha-won leaves, Hye-ji arrives at the pool to swim. The noise catches Hyun-min’s attention, and his face falls to see her. She climbs out of the water and asks if he remembers swimming together, but Hyun-min denies it and walks past.

Hearing a splash, Hyun-min turns and sees a struggling Hye-ji calling out to him from the water. Without hesitation, he leaps into the pool to rescue her.

Knowing right away that Hye-ji’s leg cramped, Hyun-min automatically starts massaging it. He even remembers exactly where on her calf she used to cramp up. Hye-ji starts to thank him, but Hyun-min cuts her off with an “Anyone else would have done the same thing.” He strides off, but stops for a moment to look back with longing in eyes.

Ji-woon walks through the house, laughing at Ha-won’s multiple schedules. Arriving outside Ha-won’s door, Ja-young emerges from the room. She asks if Ji-woon’s looking for Ha-won, but he answers with a “No, of course not! Did she, uh, go somewhere?” Smooth.

Stepmom and Stepsis are busy planning a way to get Ha-won away from Sky House (and out of their lives for good) by finding her biological father. A text comes in with the location of Ha-won’s real dad and they cackle as Stepmom swears she’ll “screw over that girl we’re not related to,” and get back all the money she wasted on raising her.

Ha-won sits by herself, feeding a herd of goats and lamenting that they’re the only ones that want to hang out with her. She wistfully remembers a happy time with her mother and father. The three had gone on a picnic and father and daughter were so cute together that it makes his present day treatment of her even more heartbreaking.

Back in the present, Ha-won resolves that even if no one else wants to follow her schedule, she’s going to have fun on her own. Gumption restored, she heads off to the horses.

Not far behind, Ji-woon is also on his way to the barn, following Ha-won’s schedule in spite of himself.

Ji-woon finds Ha-won feeding the horses and waves the schedule in her face, asking if this is what she means by horseback riding. Ji-woon moves to open the horse’s stall, but Ha-won pushes the door shut, admitting that she’s never ridden before and is scared. He asks all innocently how she can go against the schedule she made, but when Ha-won pretty much begs for mercy, he just smiles wickedly at her.

Soon they’re both astride the same horse, Ji-woon gripping the reigns and Ha-won holding onto the saddle with a death grip. After some slow walking, Ji-woon asks if she wants to go faster, telling her to trust him when she worries. Before long, the two are cantering along the countryside.

Meanwhile, Seo-woo gets a call from his manager and finds out about the pictures of him in a schoolgirl outfit. His manager sends him the photos and he gasps in horror.

Seo-woo wastes no time in confronting Ja-young, shoving his phone in her face and asking if this was her doing. Ja-young does a literal spit take all over him, and it’s cute how he’s being all serious and Ja-young is totally unrepentant, happily admitting that she gave the pictures to Ha-won.

Bodyguard Lee shows up with a bag of charcoal and drops it in Seo-woo’s arms, instructing him to start the grill. At Seo-woo’s confusion, Lee just point to Ha-won’s schedule which calls for a barbeque that night.

Finished with their ride, Ha-won and Ji-woon are walking back from the horses when she realizes that her necklace (the one from her mother) fell off during the ride. She tells Ji-woon to go ahead and tears off back towards the field. Ji-woon mutters that she keeps making him worry, then follows after her. Hee.

As Ha-won combs the field, Ji-woon asks if it’s really that important. She tells him that the necklace belonged to her mother, and Ji-woon asks her what she’ll do for him if he finds first. At her look, he says that if he finds it, she’ll have to grant him a wish, then stoops down to help her look. Awww, he’s getting nicer by the minute.

Ja-young and Seo-woo prepare skewers for the grill and Seo-woo uses the opportunity to ask about Ha-won’s home life, wondering if it’s really that bad. Ja-young easily reveals how Ha-won’s family never gives her any money and forces her to sleep out on a balcony. Seo-woo gets adorably riled up and both are startled at his fervency when he slams down a skewer.

Hesitantly, Seo-woo asks if Ha-won has ever dated and what her type is. He grins to hear she’s naïve in the area and thus has no type, though he quickly feigns indifferences when Ja-young gets suspicious.

Ha-won and Ji-woon are still busy looking for her necklace when Ji-woon happens to spy it in the grass. He surreptitiously picks it up and asks her again about what kind of wish she’s planning to grant him if he finds it. First proposing laundry and cleaning his room, Ha-won quickly amends it when he starts to walk away, saying she’ll do whatever he asks.

Crouching down in front of her, Ji-woon holds out his hand… and lets the necklace dangle down in front of her. Ha-won grabs it with a happy squeal and hug-tackles Ji-woon, knocking them both to the ground.

Cue the angelic choir as Ha-won and Ji-woon realize that they’ve landed in each other’s arms. They both freeze for a moment, then suddenly spring up and away from one another, trying to act like nothing happened. Hehe, why so cute, you two?

Stepmom follows the lead on Ha-won’s bio dad, tracking him down at a construction site. Confronting him, she immediately dives in, telling the man that she’s been raising his daughter for him. The baffled man has no idea what she’s talking about and denies having a daughter, until she mentions Ha-won’s mother’s name.

The man obviously knows her and looks shocked to hear the name, but he still maintains that he doesn’t have a daughter. Stepmom just talks right over him and soon they’re both shouting at each other, the man yelling that she’s not his child, and Stepmom screaming at him to take her out of Sky House. The mention of Haneul Group gives him pause, and Stepmom tells him to take his daughter and go.

Stepmom stalks off, bellyaching about how she’d wanted to get money out of the man. After she leaves, he receives a phone call and promises someone to deliver the money by the end of the month. I really don’t like the pensive look he gets.

Now that she’s found her necklace, Ji-woon asks what was so special about it. Ha-won says it’s actually a ring, pulling the covering off to reveal a silver ring. He asks if it was her mother’s wedding ring, but Ha-won doesn’t think so since her dad doesn’t have one. All she knows is that her mother was holding it when she died.

Ji-woon remarks that his mother didn’t leave anything, but Ha-won corrects him: She left him behind. Ji-woon just smiles, teasing her for the corny line. Ha-won grimaces and leaves first, but Ji-woon petulantly calls, “Let’s go together,” following after her. I love Cute Ji-woon.

At the house, Hye-ji find’s Hyun-min’s wet pajamas and muses that he probably doesn’t have any spare clothes (not being able to pack a suitcase, what with the kidnapping and all). Hyun-min emerges from his room wearing a robe and grabs his clothes from Hye-ji’s hands.

Hyun-min turns away, but Hye-ji calls out that she came on this trip because of him. She asks if he feels anything, being in this place with her. She says she went back to the wooden bench and the words are still there, but even though they’re both here together, he’s still the same. Hyun-min answers that he won’t change, so she should stop trying already.

Happily walking side by side, Ha-won and Ji-woon come across Hye-ji on their way back. Clocking the looks the two share, Ha-won awkwardly flees, leaving Ji-woon and Hye-ji alone. Ji-woon asks her what’s wrong, and Hye-ji says that she had high hopes for this trip, but things aren’t working out. Ji-woon tells her to just be herself, and that’s good enough.

In the hospital, Grandpa Kang meets with his company lawyer, Lawyer Kim, so he can have his will rewritten. Hwa-ja listens eagerly just outside the door as Grandpa says he’ll have to choose a successor soon.

Stepmom has some new chaebol customers at the spa. The ladies gossip and one of the women shares some juicy news: Hwa-ja had been married once before, so she was not the blushing bride she pretended to be for Grandpa Kang. Stepmom files away the info.

Bodyguard Lee and Ja-young unpack the food for tonight’s barbeque. The vacation home’s housekeeper gives them two bottles for the fridge, one milk and one rice wine; the two jugs look identical apart from their yellow and red caps.

Ji-woon splashes water on his faces, trying to break his mind from thinking about the “hug” he and Ha-won shared. Hyun-min comes into the bathroom and both boys realize the lock on the door must be broken. Ji-woon leaves, forgetting his phone in the bathroom. Soon after, Ha-won enters that same bathroom with the broken lock to take a shower. Oh dear.s

Stark naked in the shower, Ha-won panics when she hears Ji-woon enter the bathroom. He came back looking for his phone and assumes Hyun-min is the one in the shower. Freaking out, Ha-won stays silent and backs into a corner. Ji-woon calls out to who he thinks is his cousin, but when there’s no answer, Ji-woon notices “Hyun-min’s” feet in the corner of the stall.

Asking if “Hyun-min” is ok, Ji-woon pokes his head through the shower door… and a desperate Ha-won chucks a bar of soap right between his eyes before he can see anything. (Good shot!) Stumbling back, Ji-woon yells at the door, but freezes when Ha-won calls, “Sorry, but could you get out?” In total shock, Ji-woon barely ekes out a quick sorry, and makes a hasty exit as Ha-won cringes in embarrassment.

Ji-woon sprints out of the bathroom and paces outside the door, still stunned. Minutes later, Ha-won emerges (fully dressed) and Ji-woon stutters out that he was standing guard because of the broken lock. The two walk together for the most awkward six steps ever, then share a brief “You go first,” “No, you go first,” before Ji-woon flees.

Completely mortified, Ha-won is blushing hard when she runs into Ja-young. Ja-young helpfully suggests having some cool milk, saying there’s some in the fridge. Thankful for the excuse, Ha-won dashes off too quickly and misses Ja-young saying that it’s the bottle with the yellow cap.

Ha-won runs to the fridge and, of course, grabs the red-capped bottle and starts chugging the rice wine.

Seo-woo and Bodyguard Lee are having fun at the grill when a very tipsy Ha-won – wearing her monogrammed bomber jacket – bounds up, grinning and finger-gunning at Lee. She immediately launches into a pouty lecture about how he never uses banmal with her.

Everyone else arrives on the deck to see Ha-won trying to coax Bodyguard Lee into calling her Ha-won-ah. Poor guy, it looks physically painful for him to try and drop his speech. The whole group is grinning while Ha-won waves her empty bottle front of Lee’s nose. Smelling the alcohol, Lee grabs it and says she drank the rice wine, making everyone snort.

The group laughs while Ha-won adorably gripes at Seo-woo for having his “personal down-time” and not wanting to hang out with everyone else. She grumps about how she never went on a retreat with her classmates and always wanted to wear matching jackets with her friends.

Cut to everyone outside, all sitting around a buffet and wearing their monogrammed jackets. Awww.

Ha-won starts a drinking game, and while no one is interested at first, soon Ja-young and Seo-woo join in. Ji-woon and Hyun-min hilariously join in at the same time, only to get each other out by saying the same number. HAHAHA, Ji-woon actually pouts at Hyun-min.

Eventually, they’re all well and truly plastered, including Bodyguard Lee, who yells out Ha-won’s name (in banmal!) only to collapse backwards. Is Seo-woo playing air guitar with Lee’s leg?! That’s amazing.

Seo-woon starts playing “I love you.” (Korean drinking game where you go in a circle telling the person next to you that you love them — they have to either pass it on the next person, or respond with “Get lost,” at which point they reverse the order and go the other way. The goal is to say it with a straight face.)

They go around the circle until Ji-woon says “I love you” to Ha-won, and she answers with a “Get lost.” Omo, Ji-woon’s face! I can’t even.

Ji-woon says it back to Hyun-min, but his goofy smile gives Hyun-min the chills and he moves to sit next to Ha-won, calling her his girlfriend again.

Ha-won takes issue at the title, saying that they were never engaged, which is when Seo-woo learns that for the first time.

Suddenly, Bodyguard Lee starts gagging, and then he projectile vomits all over the place! PWAHAHA! Ha-won screams, Hyun-min flees for his life, Ji-woon looks like he might throw up himself, and I’m pretty sure a good bit of it got on Seo-woo and Ja-young. I can’t breathe. Laughing too hard.

Post-vomit, Ja-young goes looking for Seo-woo in his room. She snoops a bit and finds a folded page in his notebook with partial lyrics. The words give her pause, and when Seo-woo emerges from the bathroom (presumably after washing Bodyguard Lee’s upchuck from his hair), she asks him if he likes somebody.

She recognizes that the tone of this song is different, having been his fan since before he was a big star. Ja-young tells Seo-woo that he has a huge fan base who all love him, so he can’t get a girlfriend and disappoint everyone. She leaves in a huff and Seo-woo unfolds the page to reveal he’d written, “To Eun Ha-won.” He dedicated the song to her! Oh, sweetie, you’re too cute. Can I keep you?

Hye-ji goes for a walk to the bench again, but this time she finds Hyun-min sitting on it. She sits as well and starts reminiscing about when they used to visit this place as children. She talks about her brother, and this finally gets a smile out of Hyun-min. Hye-ji says she keeps thinking about the old days, wanting to go back to them, but Hyun-min retorts that he doesn’t.

Grabbing Hyun-min’s hand, Hye-ji pulls out a pen and draws a smiley face on it. Hyun-min stares at her, flashing to a memory of when they were little and Hyun-min had drawn that face on her hand, then swooped in and kissed her. Clearly remembering the same thing, Hye-ji leans in close to Hyun-min, her face right next to his.

Hyun-min slowly turns his head and Hye-ji presses her lips to his in a… kiss? Hyun-min’s eyes drift closed and his hand tightens in hers, but then he springs up. At his rejection, Hye-ji guesses that he doesn’t remember after all. She asks if it’s ok then for her to date other people, like Ji-woon, for example. Low blow, girl.

Speaking of, Ji-woon and Ha-won are the only two still left on the deck, Ha-won nursing a glass of wine and Ji-woon pouting at her, both well and truly wasted.

Hah, Ji-woon keeps trying to complete the “I love you” game, but Ha-won responds with a “Get lost” every time. He follows each attempt with a tiny heart, then a bigger heart, and finally a giant heart. Oh. My. God. His pouts are epic!

Ha-won finally responds to the last one by asking, “Really?” Ji-woon stares for a moment, before they snigger together, totally out of it. But then, Ji-woon abruptly leans in and plants a solid kiss on her. (AHHH!)

They both laugh and Ji-woon takes the wine glass out of Ha-won’s hand. He drains it (spilling most of it down the front of his shirt), then grasps Ha-won’s face and brings her in for a deep kiss. He pulls back and asks if she just kissed him, but Ha-won giggles and points out that he kissed her.

Ji-woon answers, “Alright, let’s do that one more time.” Then he leans in and kisses her again.

 
COMMENTS

I don’t… like, what… how do I respond to that? I’m not even sure I can stop laughing, swooning, or cringing long enough to type! GAH!

Seriously, that was the best thing ever. I could very happily just watch another eight straight episodes of this group getting drunk together. Who knew what a cuddle bear Ji-woon turned out to be when you get a little booze in him? One thing’s for certain, I think Jung Il-woo had a great time filming this episode, and not just for the drunken antics. There were a bunch of little moments where he really shined through, like when he mimicked Ja-young’s “I dunno,” or the awkward “You go, no I’ll go” with Ha-won after the shower incident. They all felt more ad libbed than scripted and I love it. It was like, until now, the story hadn’t been giving the actor anything to work with, then this week they said, “Go, have some fun,” and he totally went with it! There’s finally chemistry flowing between Ji-woon and Ha-won (in spite of the well-timed angel choir), and I’m no longer flinching every time he’s in a scene.

Sadly, in contrast, it looks like the show is now pushing Hyun-min into that same box they just let Ji-woon out of. The moping and tragic Hyun-min from the last episode was hilarious, but Episode 8 slipped into sullen territory.

I do appreciate — strictly from a storyline point of view – how Hyun-min and Hye-ji’s characters complete each other: Hye-ji is stuck in the past and Hyun-min keeps pretending the past never happened. It was a really good setup in that Ha-won would come along, get Hyun-min to open up emotionally, then Hye-ji would swoop in and together they could heal the scars of their past and move on, potentially together. The problem is, the two of them lack the phenomenal chemistry that made Hyun-min and Ha-won so great to watch. Instead of the powerful angst that I should be feeling, the most I get is deep sadness from Hyun-min, and a bland emptiness from Hye-ji. The show really needs to reveal the backstory between these two. If I had the history then I could understand them better and maybe feel more, but without any context, all I have to go on is the actors’ expressions, and they’re not giving me much.

The other mixed signal I’m getting is from Stepmom and Stepsis. Are they evil? Are they hilarious? Why do they keep reminding me of a pair of fussy kittens? It’s weird because the two of them say such nasty and cruel things, but they’re so crazily cute with each other that it makes you forget that they’re plotting the demise of an innocent girl. They have such a great mother-daughter relationship that I find myself rooting along with them, only to stop and think, “Wait, what did they just say?” It’s like I want to strangle them, but then they laugh, and I want to be friends again.

The crazy goofiness of this episode almost makes you forget that we actually learned a lot about our characters. Seo-woo has finally well and truly fallen for Ha-won, only to be told point-blank that his fame prevents him from getting the girl. Poor thing ran into heartbreak before he even got a chance to start his romance. Stepmom may have found Ha-won’s real dad, or she may have just yelled at a total stranger for a while and given him a really bad idea of where he could get some quick cash. We also even got a little window into Bodyguard Lee’s closely guarded private life, in the form of a text from his mother (who may or may not be Hwa-ja). Personally, while his backstory is intriguing, I’d be content to just watch him get drunk some more, because that was comedy gold right there. Maybe next time we can position Stepmom and Stepsis in front of him when he spews? Two birds, one stone.

I do have to say that this episode was a real turning point in the show for me, since before now, I’d been waiting for some kind of deep and meaningful plot that took a unique view of a classic tale and gave us something to think about while looking at all the pretty. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen. But, while I don’t believe this will become a great show, it’s still a solidly good show. It may not be the most original, but we can definitely expect some laughs, a few heart tugs, and a whole lot of cute. Plus projectile vomiting, and who doesn’t love that?

 
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