My Father Is Strange – ep 43 recap

Mi Young is surprised at the food Dad has prepared. “When did you make all these?” she asks. Dad has packed a lunch for her and Joong Hee to take to work. He wonders if the fight and threats to sue between Joong Hee and Director Ryu got straightened out. Mi Young explains that the company apologized and Joong Hee went late last night to clear things up. It seems all is well.

Mi Young waits for Joong Hee at the van and drives him to work. She tells him to nap on the way to the shoot which is about an hour away. But she is the one yawning as they drive, and Joong Hee tells her to pull over. He puts on a cap, runs into a coffee shop, and  brings her a large iced mocha with plenty of whipped cream. That does the trick and Mi Young perks up at the first sip.   

Mi Young unpacks lunch from Dad but Joong Hee says he’s not hungry. When Mi Young steps out Joong Hee thinks back at Dad’s words to please let him turn himself in – he cant bear to see Joong Hee so tortured. Joong Hee is conflicted; he is upset at Dad but also loves Dad’s constant and reliable silent attention. He reaches for a sandwich that Dad has loving made and takes a bite.

Jung Hwan notices that Hye Young is not her usual bubbly self. He asks what’s wrong, but she says she is preoccupied with a trial and leaves first for work. On her way out she runs into Landlady Oh who excitedly tells Hye Young that she followed the script and told Husband exactly what Hye Young told her to say. Hye Young stares, her eyes glazed over, and flatly tells m-i-l she’s done a good job. No one has seen Hye Young so down before.

On her ride to work, Hye Young looks like the weight of the world is on her shoulders as she compares a picture of her and Dad when she was little and the photo of the criminal Lee Yeon Sook that Ji Sang sent. It is the same person. She is deeply troubled. She can’t make sense of the information that is telling her something she doesn’t want to believe.

With the fight and misunderstanding smoothed over, it is time to continue shooting Oh My Boss. First thing on the agenda is a kissing scene between Joong Hee and the lead actress. Mi Young tries not to let it bother her, but she can’t ignore what is happening. Not only that, Joong Hee is too distracted with Mi Young standing there. He texts: Go to Incheon, get some spicy chicken. She text back, Okay. Joong Hee needs to get Mi Young out of his sight.

Mi Young is annoyed. Why does this drama need a kiss scene? It’s about a father and a son. Why are they kissing now? Won’t that ruin the tension? And why does he want chicken now? She talks like a crazy person to no one in particular.

She returns with the chicken to find them wrapping up the kissing scene. It’s gone well. “Great job!” the director calls out as the actors and staff head to the next location. She delivers the chicken to Joong Hee and stands back in disinterested manager mode. He tells her to eat, too, but she is stubborn and won’t join him. She rambles that the love scene took a long time, shouldn’t they just shoot it all at once? Joong Hee stares at her, realizing the kiss scene bothered her. Their relationship is in a sort of limbo at the moment–leaving them hanging in midair.

Mi Young goes outside and scolds herself for being so straightforward and upset and kicks the fence, still talking to herself. Shouldn’t he know that she likes him since she told him? “He should tell me something.” she sulks. Joong Hee overhears as she spills out her feelings. He feels sorry that he’s made her sad.

Husband eats half-cooked instant ramen with his good hand. He complains that his wife should at least cook for him, but when she walks up with a warm bowl of soup and overhears his coarse complaints, she backs away. While on the phone he suddenly gets a neck cramp and cries out. Landlady Oh puts a patch on the affected area. She has a word or two to say while she’s at it, “What if this happened when you were alone? It’s not like Chico can dial 911.” Ha! She can’t help but comment on how bad his hair smells. He admits he hasn’t been able to wash his hair with his hurt arm, so Landlady Oh ties a towel around his neck and scrubs his face and hair at the bathroom sink, dries him off, and applies face lotion. Husband says he feels great and thanks her for what she did today. Landlady Oh wonders if it isn’t time to play push and pull now that Husband has received some TLC.

Jung Hwan works with his team on the concept for his new show about marriage internship. They come up with an idea of marriage school for newlyweds and decide to expand it to all ages and generations. With that on the table, they divide the work and writing. Things are moving along for the pilot.

Ra Young gets her first paycheck and buys gifts for her family with her employee discount. While waiting for a taxi, Cheol Soo pulls up and drives her home with such a large stack to carry.

Mom finds Dad sitting half asleep at the Snackshack. He’s been to the hospital for medicine for his gastric ulcer that has flared up. Mom is worried that it will be worse than the last time as he isn’t eating or sleeping well. Dad looks worn out and is concerned that no one has come to buy the restaurant. They are both distraught. On their way upstairs, they run into Ra Young and her boyfriend in the hallway and invite him in for a meal.

Cheol Soo is nervous and stiff. Mom apologizes that she didn’t’ prepare anything special, but Cheol Soo compliments the food. Mom and Dad have questions – they hear he is a soccer coach? What position did he play? His answers are formal and brief, like military responses. They tease him and tell him to relax.

Ra Young passes out the gifts to her pleased family members. Mom fusses and says that Ra Young shouldn’t have, she won’t have anything left for the month, but Ra Young puts her finger to her lips, silently asking Mom not to bring up stuff like that with Cheol Soo there and all. They thank her for treating everyone. Cheol Soo isn’t used to such family gatherings, especially being the first boyfriend Ra Young has ever brought home, and nervously wipes sweat off his forehead. Poor guy.

Mi Young and Joong Hee come home after work and part ways awkwardly in the hallway; he goes to his rooftop room and she goes inside. It’s another one of those we-live-together-we-work-together entanglements.

Ra Young and Cheol Soo join Jun Young and Yoo Joo on the rooftop. They don’t like the anti-fan comments saying Ahn Joong Hee isn’t fashionable. Yoo Joo enters a comment: Joong Hee’s face and physique are perfect. The online comments continue. When Cheol Soo asks if they are Actor Ahn fans they all laugh. Just then, Joong Hee walks through the door and Cheol Soo points and exclaims with wide eyes, “Actor Ahn Joong Hee!” Jun Young invites Joong Hee to sit down. Ra Young calls Mi Young to join them, too. Clearly Cheol Soo is starstruck and can’t stop staring at actor Ahn. They tease, make beer toasts, and have a good time writing comments.

Mi Young laughs at their not-so-subtle usernames: Kind Civil Servant, Sales Angel, and My Joo, really? Mi Young boldly replies to accusations that they are paid trolls: Give me proof that we’re paid trolls.  Ra Young comments that she sounds like Hye Young! Joong Hee watches smiling, as he observes the happy interaction between the siblings.

He thinks back on some of the moments when he joined the family – many of them happy and fun memories.

Waiting in line for the bathroom; Hye Young’s wedding

 his first birthday party with family

watching episode one of his drama with everyone; his sisters calling him ‘Oppa.’

Sitting there on the rooftop with everyone, he ponders the situation. Cheol Soo writes his first Actor Ahn fan comments online and they cheer him on.

Later, Jun Young carries a passed out Cheol Soo to the living room. Mom makes a bed for him and the siblings fuss to make him comfortable. When Dad walks in, Joong Hee goes upstairs to his room. He can’t help but think back on moments with Dad.

 The awkward first meal together, happy encounters, Dad feeding him bimbap

learning about each other, shared outings and meals

 Dad waiting up for him. And then finding out the hurtful truth. What is he to do with this mixed bag of feelings? How is he supposed to sort out what’s happened? Dad comes upstairs and asks to talk at the Snackshack. Dad tells Joong Hee that he wants to turn himself in. But Joong Hee asks, “What about the children?” He can’t let Dad do that to his children who don’t know anything.

He tells Dad to keep living under his father’s name, like he’s been doing all these years. It’s not like he forgives him, maybe he can’t ever completely forgive him and not have resentment toward him. But he knows now that the way Dad treated him was from the bottom of his heart. He was happy in their household. He felt for the first time what family was like. He even had siblings. Sure, he was angry when he found out the truth, he was angry at being deceived, and angry that he is without a family again. That makes him sad.

Dad, who wants to turn himself in and tell his children, cries at Joong Hee’s words of compassion and undeserved understanding. Joong Hee has a soft heart; he doesn’t want Dad’s children to go through what he has gone through. He’s lost his dad twice, now, but he doesn’t want Dad’s children to lose their father. They don’t deserve that.

“My punishment to you is that you will live your life feeling guilty about me. Be good to the kids. Tell them later that I’m not your son but your friend’s son.” Joong Hee’s words are powerful, kind, unexpectedly self-sacrificing, generously touching, and Dad is blown away. (Lee Joon is a master at monologues.)

Joong Hee packs his things and returns to his studio apartment. It’s back to being just him and Al.

Dad finds Joong Hee’s room empty. He lays his head on the bed and sobs.

Yoo Joo screams when she sees a body on the kitchen table. Poor Cheol Soo has made the table his bed after a rousing night. Yoo Joo makes breakfast but can’t guarantee how good it is. Ra Young complains that she shouldn’t have experimented with a guest. Jun Young asks Cheol Soo if he can cook. When Cheol Soo replies no, Jun Young says it’s too bad, because now he can’t join the family where the men all cook. Cheol Soo takes him seriously and vows to learn how to cook. They all seem to enjoy teasing the newest and youngest family-member-to-be.

Aunt stares at the ultrasound, uncertain of how to tell the family. Grandma hollers from the kitchen that something is burning and scolds Aunt for being absentminded. She asks if there is something wrong. With Grandma and Uncle siting at the table Aunt tells them the news: she’s pregnant. Uncle asks, “How?” which brings looks and sharp comments, “What do you mean, how?” That’s not the shocking part, however, and she adds that it’s twins.

Yoo Joo meets her mother and tells her that she lost the baby. Her mother asks what happened. Yoo Joo has some sorrowful thoughts that she shares with her mother. She isn’t proud of how she acted in the past, taking out her insecurities on someone else. She hated that her mother abandoned her and her father didn’t care to raise her. But, it is a hard realization that she is just like her mother: she is selfish and mean like her. “That’s why I think the baby left me. It didn’t want to have a mom like me.” Yoo Joo has prepared an envelope of money and gives it to her mother. She had saved for the baby, but now she’ll give it to her mother one last time, she tells her.

Well, never mind, her mother says. Her daughter’s handsome husband who can keep a secret already gave her a loan. Yoo Joo is very upset that her mother sneaked behind her back and met her husband. She is angry that she used Jun Young and even angrier that her mother doesn’t get it and is only out for herself. Her mother casually responds that she’ll pay it back, but Yoo Joo threatens that if she ever sees Jun Young again she will leave him. She does not want her mother to burden her husband or his family. For once, will she please just leave her alone now? Yoo Joo’s mother hasn’t once thought of how her daughter feels or what pain her thoughtless actions cause her.

Mi Young wants to get a hold of Joong Hee but she wonders if he is purposefully avoiding her calls. When the director has a change of schedule, she is happy to have an excuse to track him down.

Hye Young is distracted at work. She asks her secretary to cancel her appointments and court appearances. With accumulated pieces of information in front of her, she tries to piece together the story of Dad. She dictates her thoughts: I began this investigation to answer two questions: One: When did Mom and Dad meet? And two: is Byun Jun Young Dad’s son? She reviews the facts: official records show that Byun Han Soo went to States at age 15 until 1982. Mom and Dad couldn’t have met before 1982 when Mom went to the States. They would have had to meet in April 1982 in order for Jun Young to be born in January 1983. But that is impossible. Lee Yeon Seok is a criminal. He is the same man in the photo of her and Dad when she was three. Byun Han Soo in the high school photo is not her Dad. She asks herself: Am I Byun Hye Young or Lee Hye Young? Hye Young is solemn, troubled, and shocked.

When Mi Young arrives home she calls out but no one answers. She goes up to Joong Hee’s room and discovers that it is empty. “Did he move out?” she says, scurrying around opening empty closets in a panic. She calls but he won’t answer.

She rushes to his studio and rings the doorbell over and over. More calls to his phone. No answer. She slumps in the hallway, kicks the door, and crumples over with tears over how it smarts and how sad she feels. As she leaves, she runs into Joong Hee outside his apartment building.

She is embarrassed and tells him that she knows that she put him on the spot with her confession. She didn’t mean to make him feel awkward and uncomfortable and she won’t do it again. But she is his manager and they have to last the week. Can he do that? She will get over her feelings.

As she walks past, he grabs her wrist and confesses, “I like you too.”

Finally! You two! Love is in the air! Yay!

Hye Young texts Jung Hwan that she’ll be late. She places a file of papers in her briefcase and takes a taxi to Father’s Snackshack. Hye Young has a pile of questions she needs to ask Dad.

Comments:

• I think the one who might take the news about Dad’s identity the hardest is Hye Young. She’s found out a ton of information but it’s not everything, and now she’s come to the wrong conclusion. But it is really no worse that the real truth that she is about to  find out. Mom is in on it too and I think that will really hit Hye Young hard.
• Okay, yay for the double confession! Joong Hee asked for some time, but that won’t be an issue for Mi Young who is one of the most considerate people around and already knows the struggle Joong Hee is having about Dad not being his dad. Which, of course, makes their romance possible. But things aren’t sorted out, yet. She’ll wait.
• Now I’m thinking that Dad may end up in the hospital with his ulcer – why else would that be thrown into the story this episode? I can’t believe Dad – and Mom for that matter – haven’t collapsed under the pressure of Joong Hee finding out and the impending day that Dad will have to turn himself in. The fact that they can get up every morning and carry on as if nothing is wrong, seems wrong.
• What a moocher Yoo Joo’s mother has turned out to be. And selfish and mean, as Yoo Joo described her. I can’t stand that she so casually told Yoo Joo that she went to Jun Young behind her back for a “loan.” That really puts Yoo Joo in a bad spot, worrying that her louse of a mother will take advantage of them and maybe Jun Young’s family and embarrass her to death. I hope we don’t have to see her again in this drama. It makes me root for Yoo Joo who has reflected on her faults and is working to be a better person. Jun Young has redeemed himself as well, taking his new job and status as a married man in stride. Grandma is right – people bloom at different times and some just take longer. Uncle and Jun Young are alike in that way.
• I also can’t believe how I am in Landlady Oh’s corner with this marriage graduation thing. I am guessing that Jung Hwan’s pilot with marriage school will somehow involve his parents on the show. Could be interesting.
• Lee Joon is the master when it comes to monologues. His delivery, expression, and cadence are moving and engaging. I love his voice! My heart was moved as he (well, Joong Hee) sat on the rooftop enjoying the siblings together. He had to set aside his own hurt and desire for revenge (remember, that’s why he initially moved in with the Byuns) to come to the conclusion that he doesn’t want the truth of Dad’s identity to harm the family. That’s big. I love Joong Hee! But, I am angry at Dad for being a coward all these years and at Mom for letting  Joong Hee suffer from the very beginning by lying that Dad was his father. Another guess in that Dad will take Joong Hee to his real father’s grave at some point which will be a huge tear-jerker!
• I agree with Yoo Joo’s fan comment that Actor Ahn’s face and physique are perfect! I have never seen a bad shot of Lee Joon, ever. He is handsome, full of emotion, has a charming voice, the cutest smile, and is very romantic. He is one of my most favorite actors and he is killing it in the role of Joong Hee.
• Cheol Soo continues to be rather wooden, but I do like Ra Young’s reliable, self-aware personality and love that Chairman doesn’t make her flinch in the least.
• Yep, right now I am worried about Hye Young’s meeting with her parents.

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