That Dawn Before The Day Breaks
In the third episode of Green Mothers’ Club, Jin-Ha reels from the slap she received (and dished out) last episode. Something happened between these two in the past to lead Eun-Pyo to believe she’s being belittled. ..
Eun-Pyo’s flashback shows her friend giving her a CD but she starts crying in her room, pointing out that she’s the only one of her friends that doesn’t have a player. That divide between the two only grows over time, becoming the driving force for Eun-Pyo’s disdain. She clearly has an inferiority complex, and it’s not helped that she overshadows Eun-Pyo in every way.
Eun-Pyo’s painting is ruined when she splashes white paint all over it, frustrated by how much better Jin-Ha’s painting is compared to her own. When Jin-Ha drunkenly hugs Eun-Pyo some time later, our protagonist can only scoff in disgust.
Eun-Pyo asks Chun-Hui for help with her son’s education, but Chun-Hui refuses. She essentially tells Eun-Pyo it is her responsibility to educate her children. This whole dilemma is not helped by the fact that Dong-Seok is so disinterested and frustrated. This also causes problems with tutors in the area, who will only take kids who are ahead of schedule or “gifted.” ..
Eun-Pyo remains upbeat and positive with her son though, eventually heading out shopping to gather the ingredients to make bulgogi (with sausage!) back home. While gathering ingredients though, she overhears the mothers talking, badmouthing Eun-Pyo and pointing out that Dong-Seok has been blacklisted in class.
Eun-Pyo confronts the mothers and demands an explanation, pointing out how hurtful this can be to other parents.
Eun-Pyo contemplates whether to move Dong-Seok to a different school after learning of what happened. Given how hierarchical and cliquey the school she is currently attending is, this seems to be the only solution. News of what happened spreads, partly due to Eun-Pyo putting the house up for sale as they prepare to move schools. ..
Meanwhile, Jin-Ha learns the reason why Eun-Pyo doesn’t want to be friends with her. Her jealousy turned to bitterness in the wake of her complex. But we’re still not seeing everything from the past. After all, how does Luis Bunuel slot into this? ..
That night, Chun-hui and Eun-Pyo both found themselves outside together. However, Chun-hui received a message from a mysterious person, asking her if she can “make a delivery now.” Quite what that means remains a mystery. ..
Eun-Pyo has decided to move out of her apartment, after the women refused to stop talking in French. She’s not happy with the situation, given that it’s caused her to lose her job and make less money. She also asks Luis to pretend he doesn’t know her - and to stop talking in French as well.
Ju-Seok’s father meets Yoon-Joo’s husband Man-Su and they’re all happy and smiling. But as soon as they are apart, Ju-Seok starts to feel a bit uneasy. He can’t help but notice how Yoon-Joo seems to be favoring her husband more than she is herself.
Joon-Yoo is angry with her co-worker Ju-Seok for being pretentious and showing his face outside of work. She’s more interested in keeping her own popularity and place among the other mums.
Meanwhile, Eun-Pyo comes under fire from her mother-in-law, who’s not happy about her giving up the house after all this time. Eun-Pyo heads out for some air, with Jae-Ung encouraging her to cool off while she composes herself given he’s finished work early.
Interestingly, Chun-Hui takes a break from the tension in her household with the whole situation involving her husband. The pair share a beer and eventually decide to head out together, drinking wine (I say drinking, they’re basically downing it) at a restaurant. Drunk, Eun-Pyo admits that she was fired from her job.
On the way back, Chun-Hui phones her “guy friend” and manages to get them a lift home. Unfortunately, after dropping off Eun-Pyo, he locks the doors and calls Chun-Hui out for ignoring him. Unfortunately he drives off, prompting Eun-Pyo to throw a drink at the windscreen and cause all of them to head down to the police station together.
When they eventually head home, Chun-Hui and Eun-Pyo were drunkenly joking and messing around as they made it to the front door. Unfortunately, they did so right in view of Jin-Ha, who was in her car and started to feel jealous. ..
The night’s events have a knock-on effect on the morning, as tensions between Jin-Ha and Eun-Pyo are high.
Eun-Pyo eventually apologizes to Jin-Ha, pointing out her inferiority complex and how sorry she is of what happened between them. She wishes Jin-Ha luck with her exhibition and the pair almost mend the issues between them. However, Eun-Pyo is called away by a call coming through from someone who wants to look at her apartment.
Kim Young-Mi, the homeroom teacher’s assistant, receives some unpleasant news from Hwang Jung-Seok, the homeroom teacher. With Jul-Pin falling behind in her studies, he encourages her to study at home. Taking this personally, Young-Mi gathers all of the parents and decides that they should ditch the gifted students program completely and work together instead. ..
Jin-Ha disagrees with Chun-Hui, perhaps partly because of her own jealousy regarding seeing her with Eun-pyo that night.
Eun-Pyo is given an update from her teacher on Dong-Seok’s boredom in class. Dong-Seok’s boredom is actually not derived from his inability to do the multiple choice questions - he just finds them boring. In reality, he’s actually incredibly advanced for his age. He falls within the top 0.01% to be precise.
Dong-Seok, one of the most gifted students in the neighbourhood, could sway Eun-Pyo’s decision to stay in the neighbourhood after all. ..
The Episode Review
The finale of “Descendants of the Sun” has a surprising twist that changes the entire dynamic of the story. Early on, we see Eun-Pyo show her son pictures on her phone that show different perspectives of the same event. This small moment foreshadows a larger change that takes place later in the episode. Throughout the story, many other characters also reflect on their own perspectives and how they look at things differently. ..
Jae-Jun is a slob who is also a tentative husband at times; Chun-Hui is feeling the strain of expectation; Young-Mi is actually further behind than we were first led to believe.
It’s been interesting to see how the dynamics of the clique have changed since the show began. Chun-Hui and Eun-Pyo are now sharing a beer and wine together. It’s been an interesting development to watch.
The show has done well so far to really dive into the nitty gritty feel of classroom politics, while at the same time showing the bad blood between parents too. It’s certainly no Sky Castle but it is an intriguing drama nonetheless.
This is shaping up to be a decent little slice of life mid-week drama!
