Dramatic Friday Review: Gentleman's Dignity ep 15

This week in flashback, we find our guys called in for a day of military duty.  Just a kind of refresher course, along with a few other dozen already served & released military men.  The only problem is that they are all of them less than thrilled to be there & not exactly hiding their antipathy towards the lower ranking serviceman that is ordering them about for the day.  Poor kid!  He had no idea when he woke up that day, what was truly in store for him did he?  They talk back, mouth off, mock, & ignore him.  Their flashback shifts to a little bit further in the future, still their past, as they are all sitting in Jeong Rok's cafe talking about the big wig lady who is coming to give Tae San & Do Jin's architectural firm a once over to determine if she wants them for the huge contract she has to offer.  Just after they explain how important this woman & her money can be for their firm, a young man walks in to the cafe.

The guys immediately recognize him as the same young guy that was in charge of them on their military recall day.  {{Yes, I know that isn't what it's actually called.  It's like the reserves but I don't care, that wasn't the important part...can I go on now?  Thanks lol}}  Anyway, both Yoon & Jeong Rok start hassling him again, while Do Jin & Tae San sit there, then just as Jeong Rok & Yoon are about to make the poor kid cry Tae San & Dong Gun discover that this sweet, scared kid is the son of the VIP woman that could make or break their firm.  Ooops.  They immediately step in & protect him from a very confused Yoon & Jeong Rok.

There has to be a better way to transition to the painful present in the current episodes of AGD.  Unfortunately, the laughter pretty much ended with that flashback.  There just wasn't much to laugh at this week.  That's right we've entered the "Drama Heavy" phase of KDrama.  From here on in, your hearts will be hurting for our favorite couples & for our favorite individuals.  You can't have the awesomely funny, the incredibly romantic & the darling sweet without the intensely painful episodes as well.  So grab your tissues, AddiKts.....here we go.

We begin with Do Jin sitting alone in a restaurant waiting for Eun Hui.  While he sits there, looking so incredibly sad & broken hearted I wanted to just hug him, he has his own little flashback of pain.  The day he'd had lunch w/ Yi Soo & they had met Jung Yong Hwa.  Their playfulness & flirting outside that very restaurant.  Including a moment when a guy sitting on a bench across from them starts singing a love song, out loud to his iPod, badly.

Then Eun Hui arrives & Do Jin explains that Yoon wants them to go into his law office asap.  We also find out that Eun Hui met Do Jin, & was about to tell Do Jin about his son, 8 years ago.  The year he started having the memory loss issues, prior to his recording his days via his handy little fountain pen.  But he never showed up for their scheduled meet time & that Collin spent 5 hours eating waffles waiting for his dad to show up.  He explains the situation to her & she understands.  It makes it really hard, for ME, to hate her for screwing up every one's lives, when she's so nice & understanding all the dang time.  Aish!

Which brings us back to where we ended that last episode.  Yi Soo, in the hall outside Yoon's office, when Do Jin & Eun Hui show up, as requested by Yoon himself, who is inside unaware of the turmoil just outside his office door.  After Do Jin introduces Yi Soo & Eun Hui, there is a moment where Eun Hui, does that decent thing again, by talking directly to Yi Soo as a really nice lady.  Yi Soo, also acting like the lady she is, is polite to Eun Hui but does correct Do Jin, when he said, "this is someone I lost."  She basically says, "Let's get something straight here dude, I'm not someone you 'lost' as in misplaced.  I'm still here, no, I'm the one you threw away.  Without giving me time to think or process or anything, giving me no choices at all."  Then she politely excuses herself & leaves w/ dignity of her own.  Around the corner, as Do Jin & Eun Hui are going into Yoon's office, we see Yi Soo  stopped in the hallway, trying to get her knees to not go out on her. That had to take some serious strength to get through & I was so proud of her for being so dignified & poised through an incredibly awkward & anger filled moment.

And here is where I acknowledge that my "hunch" from the previous episode was all for naught.  It turns out that Collin is Do Jin's son, at least according to that report.  I guess the only reason he needed to call them into his office was so that Do Jin & Yi Soo could have that awkward moment outside his office.  Personally, I hate plot devices like that.  What a waste.  He could have told Do Jin over the phone or just waited till they were together.  IMHO, there was no need to make it a big occasion & call them both into the office just to tell them what they already knew.

In the next scene we see Yi Soo at home, laying on the couch all forlorn & miserable & tells a sympathetic Se Ra that she met Eun Hui today, at which Se Ra asks her if she pulled her hair or got angry. Which made me like Se Ra & giggle at the same time.  One of my favorite best girl friend quotes says, "friends ask why you're crying.... best friends already have the shovel ready to help you bury the loser that made you cry."  One of my favorite quotes...Se Ra reminded me of this quote.

Poor Collin, his "uncles", our guys have decided as he is Do Jin's son it is time they give him their gifts as his uncles.  And spend some quality time with him.  They arrange to meet him, in an obviously juvenile store & give him sound advice.

 He looks absolutely thrilled doesn't he?  

No guys this is a store for children, not quasi-men.  

Then once again Eun Hui proves she is a good person & not the villain we all want her to be, so we can hate her happily.  She & Yi Soo meet.  I believe her sole purpose was to try to put Yi Soo's mind at ease about her relationship w/ Do Jin, past & present.  She explains they were young, in love & she got pregnant.  Then she became terrified of the future & was seriously confused about what to do next, so she ran away.  And that she is now very happily married & loves her husband.  That she, in short, has moved on.  She thinks that Do Jin is suffering because of his guilt of the past mistakes that they both made & she wants Yi Soo to be with him happily.  But Yi Soo doesn't really get a choice in the matter with Do Jin calling the shots.  Plus, she is still confused herself.  How is she supposed to act with the man she loves when he has a child from a previous relationship show up.  It's an Ethics quandary.  She knows what she wants but can she get past her ethics & move on w/ Do Jin & Collin or will she never be able to forget Do Jin has a son?

Do Jin is all alone.  Yi Soo is all alone.  Both lost in their memories & thoughts of each other.  

The other guys are determined to help Do Jin & teacher Soo through this though.  They know that Do Jin is not sleeping or eating well & they suspect the same for Yi Soo.  So they decide a little meddling is in order.  Only they really suck at it.  Bless them for trying though.  They arrange for Yi Soo, via Tae San, to "run in" to Do Jin at Jeong Rok's cafe.  Unfortunately it backfires.  Excusing herself for another appointment she leaves Do Jin sitting there alone.  Where is her appointment?  Well, remember she & her student are being sued by the well to do mother of the kid who kept doing his math homework in Yi Soo's ethics class.  So they head to her house to beg for her forgiveness, ask for her to apologize as well & straighten the whole mess out.

However, this woman refuses to even come down from her fancy apartment & so Yi Soo & her student stand outside talking to her through the intercom.  But eventually even that doesn't make a difference.  But they are not there alone.  Park Min Sook, Jeong Rok's wife is there too?  Apparently, the lady suing lives in the same exquisite apartment for the fabulously rich as PMS.  And PMS owes Yi Soo, for that time that she accused Yi Soo of having an affair w/ JR in the residence hotel.  So she steps in & forces the woman to apologize using her considerable influence as the richest, most influential woman around.  Yay PMS!!!  I have got to get me a PMS to keep in my corner for when I need her.  She even inspires Kim Dong Hyub, the student, to go back to school by showing him how the real world works.  She's actually really sweet in these scenes.  After Kim Dong Hyub leaves PMS & our Yi Soo have a sit down.  PMS explains that Yi Soo must be suffering & in pain but that she knows Do Jin is too.

There are a lot of scenes showing both Yi Soo & Do Jin lost in thought as the song comes on that the guy at the beginning of the episode was singing so badly.  Both of our fabulous leads are in pain & suffering.  And while we have seen Do Jin pensive & sad this is the first time we see him break.  And I have to say AddiKts, I cried along with him here.  There is just something that happens to my heart when a strong, silent type of man, finally allows the emotion out & he actually cries that I get all weak in the knees for him.  And that is precisely what happened to me when Do Jin had tears streaming down his face & he cried.

From one couple to the next.  Well they're sort of a couple.  In her head they're a couple.  In MY head they're a couple.  And even if he refuses to admit it out loud or act on it even Yoon knows they are a couple. It's the next day & Maehri arrives at Yoon's office.  She has something to give him & after making sure he won't throw her out or tell her he's too busy or getting ready to leave she gives him his present.  A beaded bracelet.  She just happened to see it in one of those road side stands & thought it was nice & that she should give it to him.  He grabs her wrist & pulls back her to sleeve to reveal that she is wearing a white version of the exact same bracelet.  I love her response...

 Of course Yoon sees through her subterfuge.  And demands she take it back.  After he points out, again, that he is too old for her to be buying him couple bracelets, rings or otherwise.

 She gets mad at him & throws the bracelet in the bin next to his desk.

 Of course after she leaves, he pulls it back out of the garbage & puts it on.  Oh Yoon.  There is a picture of your face next to the definition of "Stubborn" in Websters you know that, right?  All this reality puts Maehri over the top & she heads to a Noraebang to sing away her blues.  I love how they go to Noraebang's when they get broken hearts.  Everyone should sing when they are sad.  Music makes everything better.  I agree.  Even if there is no way you would ever get me to sing in a public place.  In the church choir?  Sure.  In the car by myself?  Why not, no one can hear me in there.  Even in the shower, occasionally.  But in public?  Uh-huh!  Never!  No way!  Make all the chicken jokes you want.  I am a chicken, freely admitted.

But then Tae San shows up & she gets another lecture about the inappropriateness of her & Yoon together. At this point I am ready to just kick Tae San in the nads & tell him to get over it & himself.  I am just sick of him interfering.  It's her life, not his.  She's the one who loves Yoon, not him.  It might be awkward at first for him to have his BFF & his little sister hook up but it's not like it would be a one night stand, we're talking long time commitment.  He needs to just get over himself.  Whose with me on this?

After Yi Soo has had a lot of time to think things through she decides she & Do Jin need to have a "Come to Jesus" talk.  She confronts him & tells him it is unfair what he asked of her.  To just end it like that without warning.  He promised to love her for one month, at least.  He promised to not let her go until she wanted to be let go.  So that, by George, is what is going to happen.  For one month he HAS to be at her beck & call. Keep his phone with him & whenever & wherever she wants to see him he WILL be there & do what she wants.  And he agrees.  He's not there to have a relationship with her though.  No she just wants to see him.  So this is how it works.  Wherever she goes when she feels like seeing him she calls him & he shows up.  Whether standing in the rain & just staring at each other across the street.

 or Do Jin standing there watching her, creepily I might add, at the book store while she browses the books.

or in the movie theater where neither one of them is laughing at the show. 

After which she gets accidentally & slightly knocked out of the way by another theater patron & when Do Jin grabs her to keep from falling or being hurt she shakes off his hands & with her back to him says coldly, "Let go.  You pushed me a lot harder than that."

Then I got confused.  I'll admit it.  I couldn't tell if she was just daydreaming this next part or if he was or if it was really happening but they threw flashbacks in to the middle of it all & so I was confused.  But it sounded or looked like he was apologizing to her for all the mean things he said & did to her over the last 15 episodes.  For his cruelty when he told her not to flirt with him if she wasn't going to sleep with him, for insulting her about the shoes & making her walk away from his apartment alone.  He tells her he should have just told her how much he loved her, missed her & been with her & not allowed his pride to lead him to cruelty.  But like I said I wasn't sure what was real in that scene & what was imaginary.

Speaking of pride?  Se Ra is about to get hers served to her on a platter.  She is leaving the bank & talking on the phone to her sponsor.  They're dropping her.  When all of a sudden her car pulls up in front of her & Maehri gets out of it.  Apparently, Maehri decided she was going to use the car, even though Tae San told her not to, course if had explained to her what was going on I am sure she would never have dreamed of taking out Se Ra's car.  But if she hadn't how would Se Ra have found out that Tae San found out about her debt, paid it off to PMS & took the car as collateral himself.  Which lead to a confrontation with PMS, who was less than thrilled to be attacked by Se Ra after doing her best to stay out of it.  She didn't tell Tae San anything but he seemed to know it all & that she was stuck between the pride of both Tae San & Se Ra.  Not fair.

Eun Hui meets with Do Jin again.  To tell him that she is going home because she misses her husband & he tells her to leave Collin with him, that it's time he got to know his son.  And we get one more scene with Yi Soo bossing around Do Jin.

 Until she gets a phone call from Mommy Dearest.  When Do Jin sees the look of angst written clearly on her face he asks her about it, which leads her to be a real, well she's not very nice to him.

 Even though she is being less than gracious he loves her, is worried about her & so stops her.

 He wants to know who it was & so she tells him, "My mother."  And then adds more spite & anger...

 And then asks him if he would like to meet her???  When he doesn't answer her she tells him, if you aren't going to come with me let me go. And the look on his face is our last screen shot.  That's right.  It ends here.

Sigh.  To break it down.  Do Jin & Yi Soo are in pain.  Yi Soo is also very angry.  Justifiably so, I agree to an extent, but she is also being extraordinarily mean.  She needs to deal with her anger.  Not just be evil to him.  Ultimately, it won't make her happy, being cruel never makes anyone happy, not when they aren't naturally cruel.  It's damaging her & him more.  It was hard to watch this episode people.  The next one was better but not by much.

And I have an announcement, if you haven't heard already.  SBS is considering the postponement of episodes 19 & 20, yes the last 2 episodes in the series, until after the London Olympics.  So this weekend, we'll still get to see episodes 17 & 18 but they haven't made an official announcement yay or nay that I know of, so we just get to wait.  I will withhold my screaming & ranting until after they tell us what they are doing.  ;)

Hope you guys have had a great week & I'll see you in the episode 16 review coming up soon.

Saranghamnida,