Trust
Episode 9 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 3 starts with Pi-Young making herself a coffee while Dong-Ma is in bed. Hey, that looks like my coffee machine! If anyone’s curious, it’s absolutely worth the money and will bring far more satisfaction than wondering what the heck the writers have been smoking this season. ..
Pi-Young brings coffee for Dong-Ma, but instead he takes the ring box and the pair exchange rings. Pi-Young promises that he’s not just a one night stand, and Dong-Ma decides to prepare the wedding, speeding it up to 10 days after Si-Eun’s. ..
Ji-A is too preoccupied with her own shock to talk to Pi-Young. In the morning, she finds Dong-Mi’s hair all over the floor, with her grandmother claiming she feels lighter and more liberated now. Yu-Shin isn’t sure, pointing out that he preferred her with longer hair.
Ban’s father interrupts their skiing trip to tell them he has found a new love and wants to get married. Ban is hesitant at first, but eventually agrees.
Pi-Young is spending time with her kids while they’re on a skiing trip, so she can spend more time with her husband, Dong-Ma. Dong-Ma is looking to speed things up and move forward with their relationship, but Pi-Young has growing uneasiness and distrust toward him because of this. ..
Meanwhile, Song Won’s baby is being cared for by Ga-Bin. After her break-up, she’s still suffering and having trouble moving on. She’s also unable to drink coffee given it reminds her of Dong-Ma. So she contemplates whether to have a baby of her own, using a sperm donor.
Moon-ho and Ye-Jung try to talk her around, eventually letting her leave and focusing on Sa-Hyun, who is still going through the motions. In fact, he hasn’t really done anything but be unhappy this season. What is his arc? Anyway, they talk to their son about Ga-Bin and how caring she’s been toward his son.
Meanwhile, Yu-Shin is out skiing and asks about Si-Eun. He feeds back about the engineer she’s dating and goes on to mention how he’s a decent guy; good looking and 180cm in height. Anyway, the conversation eventually leads to Hae-Ryun racing out in his car to Si-Eun’s.
With the ski trip ending and everyone back home, Hae-Ryun comes bundling in and questions the kids over Si-Eun’s marriage. Rightly so she calls him out for hypocrisy of cheating on her. Eventually though Hae-Ryun puts his foot down, claiming that he doesn’t approve.
Ban Ki-moon has been living in a new house for a year and the kids hold their own. Hyang-Ki tells him to stop standing in the way of Si-Eun’s happiness, but Ban scoffs at that, claiming the kids have been brainwashed by their mother.
After updating Seo-Ban on what’s happening, Si-Eun starts trying on dresses ready for her wedding. She’s also as shocked as we are about her ties with Dong-Ma and worries that this could come crashing down. Racing in, Si-Eun is shocked that Pi-Young is going to be her sister-in-law. Of course, when Hye-Ryung finds out, she’s shocked and calls them both out for being minxes. Of course, this also causes a lot of friction when they have dinner together.
That night, Pi-Young speaks to Ji-A and broaches the subject of Dong-Ma and her new partner. She’s as surprised as we are and flat out refuses to acknowledge this. When she finds out it’s Ban’s brother, Ji-A at least seems to perk up a little. This would also mean that she and U-Ram would end up being siblings-in-law.
Ban and Si-Eun are surprised by the sudden change in Dong-Ma’s behavior. Dong-Ma has been acting strange lately, and they’re not sure what’s going on. Ban asks Pi-Young if he trusts Dong-Ma, and Pi-Young tells Ban that he does. Ban then asks Si-Eun if she trusts Dong-Ma, and she tells him she does too. Finally, it’s clear that the two men do not trust Dong-Ma as much as they thought they did.
Eventually, Ji-A comes around to the idea and tells her mother that she’ll meet Dong-Ma after all. While there is jubilation there, Seo-Ban’s father rings his son and admits, with tears stinging his cheeks, that he’s disappointed by Seo-Ban’s choice. He wanted to have his own grandchild and marrying Si-Eun makes that far less of a possibility now given their ages. ..
The old man agrees to meet Si-Eun’s children, who show up and greet their father-in-law warmly in person. Si-Eun is also meeting him for the first time too and they address one another formally over brunch. It seems to go well, especially when Si-Eun gently suggests he speak casually to the family. As they talk, U-Ram seems interested in the old man’s fitness regime, pointing out he doesn’t like walking but doesn’t get much time for sports either.
Meanwhile, Dong-Ma greets Ji-A and Pi-Young at his place, where he cooks barbecue for them. Dong-Ma is so engrossed that he misses most of the time he’s supposed to be spending with Ji-A. Ji-A eventually encourages him to head inside where he just carries on cooking for the pair. ..
We then jump to see Hye-Ryung sneaking into Sa-Hyun’s house to see the baby and thinking to herself what an angel he is. However, as she turns around she sees Song-Won in front of her, who possesses her and turns to face the child.
The Episode Review
It seems like Song Won isn’t through yet and she possesses Hye-Ryung right at the end, setting up an interesting second half to this drama. So far this has felt like an algorithm has written most of this season, with strange character ties, bizarre twists and turns, and a very creepy romance in Dong-Ma and Pi-Young together.
Dong-Ma has been known to make advances to women in order to win their trust, and it seems that Pi-Young is not immune to the same tactic. Maybe I’m just not used to Korean culture, but there have been other dramas out of Korea that have shown this persistent behaviour but tackled it as creepy and harassing.
Love continues to exist, whether it’s a money laundering scheme or not. This year’s writers have been crazy with some of the plotlines. ..
The problem with all this craziness is that we’re constantly jumping between different characters and not given the time to really get invested in what’s happening. ..
This week’s episode of the show is all about what the people in the audience will be able to find out next.
