Shopping King Louis: Episode 4

by LollyPip

Both Bok-shil and Louis are beginning to discover who they are, both literally and figuratively. As they each focus on their individual problems, their friendship grows stronger by the day. They begin to rely on each other, not just because they have nobody else, but because they truly care for one another.

A note: MBC has announced that Wednesday’s Episode 5 will be pre-empted next week for a music festival, so there will likely only be one episode aired on Thursday night.

 
EPISODE 4: “Memory”

Little Louis plays in his bedroom, listening to a music box with a penguin on top. He writes the word “koboshi” on the bottom of the toy, then takes it to a small attic room, and stashes it in a hidden spot under the floor. Grown-up Louis narrates that there are secrets hidden in memories that have disappeared.

Bok-shil sits up late at night, stroking her missing brother’s tracksuit — the only thing she has of his. Louis watches her grieve, then shuts the curtain to give her privacy.

Back in the present, Bok-shil finds Louis out in the street, sounding as if he’s calling her name. She approaches him, wordlessly furious, and he looks at her, thinking that he wants his memory back.

Louis points out the stray dog, and tells Bok-shil that he keeps remembering it, and that its name is Koboshi. But the dog’s owner shows up, and croons “my precious!” to the dog. That sounds familiar to Louis too, and he asks the dog’s owner if she knows him. She doesn’t, of course, and his face falls.

Bok-shil confronts Louis about getting scammed out of the rest of their money, and he explains that he thought the guy had his ID. He says he really wants to find out who he is and get his memory back, so he can help her find Bok-nam. He tells Bok-shil that he keeps having memory flashes, and that he feels he used to be someone who could spend that kind of money without even blinking.

Bok-shil listens then stomps off, and Louis calls after her that he’s hungry. Aww, he’s so pitiful that Bok-shil relents and takes him home. She’s extremely angry, but Louis is so hungry he follows her inside.

Bok-shil slams into the bathroom, and Louis gets himself some food, trying not to make a peep. Bok-shil comes out while his mouth is full and glares at him, and the poor guy looks like a whipped puppy. She sees the pile of things Louis has ordered, and glares again as he ekes out a tiny, “I thought I needed them…”

Everything he bought was just for him — a shirt, an electric razor, a watch — and Louis seems to shrink with each newly opened box. By the time Bok-shil opens a set of fancy headphones, he’s out of reasonable excuses, and he wisely runs outside where it’s safe. He nearly bursts into tears when he realizes he left his shoes inside, hee.

He takes refuge downstairs with In-sung, who feeds him dinner. In-sung says his mother used to be nice like Bok-shil, and that his dad was just like Louis, which made his mother the grouch she is today. HAHAHAwhoops.

His mom goes up to talk to Bok-shil, and says that she thinks Louis is lying about his memory loss. She’s worried because he doesn’t seem to know the value of money and takes advantage of Bok-shil, but Bok-shil defends him. In-sung’s mom asks what Bok-shil will do if Louis never gets his memory back, which leads Bok-shil to a hilarious daydream.

Old and wrinkled, Louis is still lying around doing nothing, surrounded by boxes of stuff while Bok-shil does all the work. He sees a luxury apartment on TV and wants to buy it, then whines that he’s hungry. Bok-shil shudders, then reassures herself that his memory will come back soon.

Downstairs, In-sung asks Louis what he’ll do if Bok-shil leaves him, and tells him again how his mom used to be nice like Bok-shil. Louis has his own daydream, of an older Bok-shil nagging at him for never working or helping around the house.

In-sung turns on the TV to an interview of Director Baek of Gold Group. Louis thinks he looks familiar, and In-sung says that he’s Bok-shil’s boss, and that he’ll be inheriting the company since the true heir died. Louis can’t get over how familiar he looks, and wants to go to Gold Department Store tomorrow to see if anything there jogs his memory.

Bok-shil meets with her detective friend (whose name is Nam Joo-hyuk, har), and he tells her that getting her money back from a voice phishing scam is nearly impossible. Detective Nam says that he’s worried about how innocent of the world both she and Louis are.

Bok-shil takes Louis some ice cream, and he promises to buy more for her later when he makes lots of money. She just smiles at him, and tells him not to fall for another scam. Ouchie. Louis scoots back to his side of the room and closes the curtain, and offers Bok-shil a muffled, embarrassed apology.

Ma-ri’s mother has organized some of Ma-ri’s old clothes, intending to throw them away. But it gives Ma-ri an idea, and she says she’ll take care of them herself.

Joong-won finds Bok-shil contemplating the Gold Group logo outside the building, and tells her it’s a gold coin. She says she’s getting more comfortable with the technology, but Joong-won says that’s not why he hired her. His team needs to come up with a new product for the fall, and he tells her to work on the project as well.

Ma-ri gives Bok-shil the bag of her old clothes, making sure to do it in front of the whole team for maximum effect. Bok-shil asks Ma-ri for help coming up with an idea for a product, and Ma-ri offers to answer any questions Bok-shil may have.

One team member, Hye-joo, mentions that someone’s been posting on their website under the name “Shopping King Louis.” He’s been posting negative comments, and they assume it’s a kid playing pranks. Joong-won overhears and checks the site, and all the comments are on items that Louis has bought.

Louis and In-sung go to the Gold Shopping Mall, where Louis says he feels right at home. He finds the store of the company that made his underwear, and sits down like he owns the place. He asks the saleswoman if they can track where an item was shipped, pulling down his pants to show her, and the saleswoman shrieks and shoves him away. They call security, refusing to listen to Louis’s explanation, and he slinks out.

He mopes around the mall (to the tune of Memory from the musical Cats, ha), bereft that the one possible clue to his identity won’t be able to help him. He ends up pouting at a store window, until a scream shocks him out of his funk. It’s Jae-sook, Ma-ri’s mother, and she recognizes Louis right away.

She screams over and over, sure she’s seen a dead man come back to life, and In-sung finds Louis and ushers him out of the mall. He yells at Louis for scaring that woman, and leaves Louis to finish passing out the Bok-nam flyers by himself.

At midday, Louis makes his way to the Gold Group building, and texts Bok-shil to meet him outside for lunch. She runs out, and the team wonders if she has a boyfriend. Joong-won overhears that, and follows her out.

He sees Louis sitting on the steps and immediately recognizes him from the time he chased him out of the bathroom and through the building. Louis remembers Joong-won as well, who asks him again which department he works in.

Jae-sook calls her husband, Director Baek, and tells him in a dazed voice that she just saw Louis. He doesn’t believe her, but his car drives past the front of the building again, and he sees Louis talking to Joong-won. He orders the driver to stop the car, but Louis runs from Joong-won again, and Director Baek barely misses him. He asks Joong-won breathlessly who he was talking to, But Joong-won says he doesn’t know him.

Director Baek meets secretly with his head lackey, who was in charge of getting rid of Louis the day he got to South Korea. Lackey assures Director Baek that Louis died, but the director wonders if Joong-won sensed something wrong and switched Louis with someone else.

We see that Joong-won had been outside Director Baek’s office when he ordered the hit, and that he’d looked nervous when Director Baek saw him there. But he’d acted like nothing was wrong, and Director Baek had sent him on to Louis’s welcome party alone while he went to the airport.

Baek’s lackey thinks that Joong-won is on the director’s side, but Baek says that he’s also on Grandma’s side. He says that Joong-won saw Louis up close today, but he pretended not to know who he was. Director Baek orders his lackey to learn everything he can about Joong-won, and report back. He also sends Jae-sook to Busan to see Grandma, and tells her to let him know if she sees anything strange.

Louis finds an old chair on the curb outside their apartment, and he somehow recognizes it. He lugs it up to his porch and makes himself comfortable, convinced that sitting in the chair will help him recall some more memories. He goes over his few recovered memories — the scary boys, the music box, Koboshi, the fire hydrant, and even this chair.

He complains about the sun and asks In-sung to hold an umbrella for him. In-sung complains that he’s not a servant, and that Louis treats Bok-shil like a maid. Louis just smiles and teases, and In-sung grumpily agrees to hold the umbrella if it will help Louis recall something about his past. Dang, these two are adorable.

Louis is fast asleep in the chair when Bok-shil comes home after dark, and she sighs when she sees the house is a mess. Louis comes inside to find Bok-shil cleaning up, and she barks at him for laying around while she works hard to earn money.

Louis deflates, and he plucks at Bok-shil’s sleeve and apologizes. He gives her his very saddest puppy eyes, and Bok-shil lets it go this time, but only because he’s so handsome. Then she snaps at him for smiling, and he just smiles even bigger.

She teaches Louis how to do dishes, and though he says he doesn’t think he’s ever done this before, he really applies himself to learning. When he’s done he flops on the floor in exhaustion, and Bok-shil hands over a coin for his hard work. She offers to put ointment on his mosquito bite, then smacks him when he yanks up his shirt right in her face, hee.

At the house in Busan, Jae-sook looks around Louis’s childhood room. She finds the watch that was found at the accident site, still crusted in blood, then a box containing his baby teeth. She takes one of the teeth, then throws the box back on the shelf when she hears Butler Kim coming upstairs.

She says she’s taking the watch to be fixed, but Butler Kim’s eagle eye notices that the tooth box is on the wrong shelf. Meanwhile Director Baek’s lackey keeps an eye on Joong-won’s parents, taking secret photos of them entering their son’s house.

Joong-won’s mother spots a shoe box on the table, and finds the cute little pink heels inside. She assumes the shoes are for herself, but they don’t fit, and Dad wonders if Joong-won could be seeing someone.

Bok-shil takes over umbrella-holding duties, while Louis tries to recall more memories. Bok-shil gets a call from a spammer offering her a loan, and suddenly Louis is the scam expert, warning her not to fall for it. He immediately regrets lecturing her, and hangs his head.

In-sung delivers a couple of huge bags full of garlic — Bok-shil has found a way for Louis to help make some money, hee. He whines that he doesn’t know how to peel garlic, but Bok-shil says he’ll figure it out.

Louis tries his hand at garlic-peeling, though he’s hilariously prissy about it. He gets garlic in his eye and shrieks in pain, then tries again while wearing a ski mask. By the time Bok-shil gets home, he’s fast asleep, surrounded by piles of half-peeled garlic.

She’s furious, because he spent several times what he earned buying the mask and a massager for his sore neck. He doesn’t seem to understand that that’s defeating the purpose, and Bok-shil tells him to think first before buying something. No matter how lavishly he lived before, he has to think of how he’s living now.

Poor Louis just shrinks under Bok-shil’s anger, and she takes pity on him and makes him dinner. He tries to make her feel better by saying he got a discount on the massager by reviewing it, but HA, Bok-shil just levels a death glare at him.

Later over coffee, Louis says again that he thinks he used to be rich, because he just doesn’t worry about money no matter how much he spends. Bok-shil says dryly that they’ll see how he feels after peeling a hundred kilos of garlic, PFFT.

Louis asks how her job is going, and Bok-shil frowns, saying that she keeps getting scolded. Louis offers to teach her boss a lesson, and Bok-shil grins at him, glad to have someone on her side. Louis suggests bottles for her project, explaining how companies make signature bottles every year that become collector’s items.

Bok-shil runs the idea past Ma-ri, suggesting a clear bottle with the Gold Line name embossed on it, and the cap made to look like the gold coin logo. They could even create a myth that drinking from their bottles brings the consumer luck with money. Ma-ri’s reaction is lukewarm, but I have a bad feeling.

When it’s time for the team to present their ideas, Joong-won shoots down every single suggestion. When it’s Ma-ri’s turn, she pulls out a bag, and presents a prototype of the exact bottle Bok-shil designed. She even uses Bok-shil’s idea of spreading the myth. I knew it.

Joong-won likes the idea and compliments Ma-ri, though he does seem to notice that Bok-shil looks upset. He watches closely as Bok-shil freezes when it’s her turn, and Ma-ri comes to her “rescue,” saying that Bok-shil helped her with her proposal.

Bok-shil is quiet that evening when the team goes out for drinks, recalling how Ma-ri had confronted her in the ladies’ room. She’d acted like stealing Bok-shil’s idea was no big deal, since she did thank her, after all. Ma-ri had said that the bottle would never be made if it were Bok-shil’s idea, so really, Bok-shil should be thanking her. You utter bitch.

Bok-shil excuses herself from the celebration, saying she has to catch the bus. The team talks smack about her after she leaves, calling her names and saying she’ll be fired soon enough. Ma-ri asks them not to talk about Bok-shil behind her back, and they all say she’s too nice.

Joong-won arrives at the bar, and the first thing he does is ask after Bok-shil. He insists on paying for the evening when he hears that Ma-ri planned to pay the bill, seeming almost offended at her offer. Ma-ri takes a good long look at Joong-won, seeming to size him up.

It begins to rain as Bok-shil rides home, and when she gets off at her stop, she resigns herself to walking home in the downpour. Just as she sets out, an umbrella shields her from the rain, and she looks up to see Louis beside her, smiling that dimpled smile.

He asks how her day went, and something in Bok-shil snaps. Her face crumples and Louis starts to panic, but she says through her tears, “I’m so happy.” Louis laughs and teases that she’s confessing to him, but Bok-shil says she’s just glad to have someone on her side.

Louis smiles again, then wraps Bok-shil in a big, warm hug. He says that he’s happy too, and grateful to have her on his side.

They walk home, Louis’s arm wrapped protectively around Bok-shil’s shoulders. But the spell is broken when she sees that all the designer clothes from Ma-ri got left out in the rain, smacking Louis even when he says he only forgot about them because he was worried about her.

They bicker so loudly that it disturbs In-sung downstairs, and he yells at them to stop the lover’s quarrel, hee. Finally In-sung’s mom screams, and that turns Louis and Bok-shil’s arguing into giggles.

Louis is already up when Bok-shil wakes the next morning, and she finds him in the bathroom drying her shoes with a hair dryer. Awww.

When she gets to work, Bok-shil finds the pink heels on her desk, and her teammates assume they’re another gift from Ma-ri. Bok-shil packs them back up and leaves the office with them, and Joong-won follows her out.

He stops her before she throws them away, and she says (still thinking the shoes are from Ma-ri) that accepting them could lead to more trouble. We see that Joong-won saw Bok-shil sleeping on her desk one night, with her plans for the Gold Line bottle sitting out — he’s known all along that the idea was Bok-shil’s.

Now he tells her that not everyone is nice just so they can stab her in the back, that some people are genuinely rooting for her. He says the shoes are from him, so she should wear them and work hard.

She does wear the shoes, and the designer clothes from Ma-ri. The Gold Line bottle is a big hit, and as time goes by, Bok-shil grows more confident and competent in her job. Joong-won keeps his eye on her, but maintains his distance, letting her grow on her own.

One night, Director Baek decides to buy a neck massager, and he goes on the company website to check reviews. He sees a review by someone calling themselves “Shopping King Louis,” and grows worried.

That same night, Louis realizes that Bok-shil is sick and he runs to the pharmacy for medicine, and sits up late into the night putting cool cloths on Bok-shil’s forehead. Eventually he falls asleep, curled up on the floor next to her bed. In-sung brings some porridge from his mother up the next morning, but Bok-shil is gone.

Director Baek’s lackey had taken the bloody watch and Louis’s baby tooth for DNA testing, and he finally gets the results. Strangely, the blood and the tooth are not a match.

Louis goes to the Gold Group building looking for Bok-shil, just as Director Baek discovers that whoever died in that car crash, it wasn’t Louis. He looks up from his call to see his worst nightmare — Louis, alive and well and standing right in front of him.

Louis walks up to Director Baek, and gives him a small bow. “Hello.”

COMMENTS

Again, I’m surprised with how quickly events are moving in this show, though I’m glad because it means we have a lot of content to cover. I wasn’t expecting Louis to be found so soon, though I’m guessing Director Baek will fight tooth and nail to keep Louis from discovering who he really is.

I’m so confused when it comes to In-sung (his name makes me giggle every time) because while he’s definitely a gold-digger hoping that Louis will get his memory back and send some money his way, he’s also not really a bad guy. He may be lazy and looking for a handout, but he’s also been a real help to Louis and Bok-shil, giving them good advice and guidance. If he keeps this up I won’t even mind if Louis does make it rain on In-sung a little when he gets his memory back, because ultimately that’s everyone’s goal, if for different reasons. And if In-sung keeps being a friend to them like he has been, then who’s to say he doesn’t deserve a little monetary thanks when Louis is back to his old self?

I haven’t been very complimentary in regards to Joong-won’s character, so I was pleased when he was allowed to step forward more in this episode and started to be relevant in Bok-shil’s life. What I particularly like about Joong-won is that he’s doing what he can to help Bok-shil better her situation, without just stepping in and doing it for her. He’s giving her opportunities, but allowing her to sink or swim on her own, and in the process Bok-shil is gaining confidence and capability without being rescued like a damsel in distress. Romantically, Joong-won doesn’t have a ghost of a chance up against Louis, but what he’s doing for Bok-shil, in helping her gain marketable skills and knowledge, is immensely valuable.

What I’m mostly curious about is how Joong-won fits into Director Baek’s schemes. He seems to be Baek’s man as far as business goes, but how much does he know about the plan to get rid of Louis? Did he overhear Director Baek ordering Louis’s death? How close is he to Grandma, and has he met Louis before? If so, why has he pretended not to know him? Joong-won definitely gets a strange look on his face whenever Louis is mentioned, and I’m anxious to learn how much he knows.

It’s so interesting to watch Louis’s original personality come forward the more he remembers his past — he hasn’t changed that much, but he lost a lot of confidence and self-possession when he lost his memory. But when he’s in his element, like when he was in the department store, he just seemed to stand straighter, to carry himself more confidently, and you can see the old Louis in his body language (and Seo In-gook’s performance as Louis is so on-point, I had to see it happen a couple of times before I realized why he seemed more “Louis” in certain scenes. His body language in particular is incredibly nuanced and really just projects what the character is experiencing perfectly). He may not remember, but he feels that this sort of place is where he belongs, and he knows instinctively that he came from money. He’s even defaulting to treating people like servants, though he doesn’t mean it as insulting or demeaning, it’s just the only way he knows how to be.

But it’s obvious that when he screws up and spends too much, that he really does feel terrible about it. He’s really trying to get a sense of what it means to value money, and seeing him trying to do better, asking Bok-shil to help him learn to help out, just tugs at my heartstrings. It’s really not Louis’s fault that nobody’s ever let him lift a finger (in fact, he even complained that nobody ever let him do anything for himself, not even drive) so we can’t really expect him to know how to cook and clean. But just the fact that it upsets Bok-shil is such a strong motivator for Louis, I can see him quickly doing everything around the house while she works to bring home the money, once he learns how. I really love the gender role reversal in the show, and can’t wait to see Louis as a competent little house-husband.

RELATED POSTS

• Shopping King Louis: Episode 3
• Shopping King Louis: Episode 2
• Shopping King Louis: Episode 1
• Noonas give Seo In-gook pity coins in Shopping King Louis teaser
• Fairytale-like posters and teaser featuring disheveled leads for Shopping King Louis
• Seo In-gook is hungry in new Shopping King Louis teaser
• Seo In-gook transforms into Shopping King Louis
• Ahn So-hee offered leading role in MBC’s Shopping King Louis
• Seo In-gook up for MBC rom-com Shopping King Louis