My Secret Hotel ep 2: Where Ex Meets Oh!

Helllloooooo!!!!  I am so very excited to be here with you.  It has been several (okay, like 8ish) months since I have picked up my recap pen and graced you with my opinion on a drama. Work, life, and all have been all nutty and crazy and severely interfering with my drama-watching time, let alone my talking about drama time. I’ve become a slightly better juggler though after these past few months, and with the great motivator that was KCON behind me, I’m ready to give this a shot once more! And what a fun drama to jump back in with! KMuse and I will be recapping and chatting with you all about My Secret Hotel together. This will be a slightly different format than we have ever tried before, but she’ll take one episode per week and I’ll do the other. Should be fun! I’m looking forward to it and hope you are too!

Okay, so, let’s talk drama drama drama, shall we?

Imagine your ex planning your wedding. Not your wedding with her/him, but your wedding with your new fiancé. Can we say “awkward”? Awkward to say the least. There are obviously some unresolved issues and feelings here, but more on that later. Or now. Now works too. Episode two starts out where we left off on one (obviously). Ex is about to cancel the venue, realizing that there are too many feels involved here to go through with it. That is, until he overhears the gossip going around the hotel that she is marrying the hotel director. This upsets him (hey, jealousy!) and he turns around and rips up the cancelation document, instead declaring that the wedding is back on and they aren’t going anywhere. This brings up a point that I’m sure will keep coming up as we continue, so I may as well address it now and get it over with. If these first two episodes are any indication, it looks like this will be one of those dramas where, at least on the romance side of things, things will be steered in wrong directions by misunderstandings and severe lack of communication. Assumptions, rumors and misunderstandings are obviously main issues going on between our two leads here and causing all sorts of interferences and unnecessary complications. These are two crazy kids that need to have a sit down and hash things out. Quickly. Before I lose my mind. And yes, it’s all about me here. ;)

Alright, so… what is up with that serious creeper guy?  You know who I’m talking about, right? The employee that’s never there, yet when he does show up, he’s wiping off his trusty ice pick. Yes, ice pick. That looks suspiciously like it is covered in blood.  Ice. Pick.  Creep. E.  At one point we get to see a little of what he does with said ice pick. Because apparently it is an accessory that he always has with him, including while playing a little poker. Lose at poker? No big deal, so long as you have your trusty ice pick. He literally stabs the hand of the winner as the winner is collecting his winnings. While winner is pinned down, Mr Picky goes right on ahead and collects all the winnings for himself. Bloody bills and all.  Uh…. Ew.  It’s as if the writers want to make sure that we understand that this guy is seriously twisted and going to be the “bad guy” of the story. Message read loud and clear, dear writers.  However, the message is also communicated that he is not alone in his “bad guy” status. No, it appears that there is some sort of conspiracy and that some high up guy at the company is part of it as well.  I’m thinking some sort of mob kind of stuff. But maybe that’s just me. What do you think? We don’t get a lot of info yet, just that there is a relationship and a conspiracy between these two men. A conspiracy that involves some sort of break in at the Director’s office. We don’t know yet what was taken, if anything, except for maybe a picture? of whatever he was looking for and consequently found. It is safe to say that we will get more on all of this side story as we go along, but for now, the seeds of discovery are being planted. One last thing of interest that I want to point out with Mr Mobster Ice Picky guy is that he has figured out that our leads were once married thanks to a little eavesdropping. Not only that, but he offers to create some sort of distraction in order to stop the wedding. Yeah, totally not a mobster.  Pffft. He may as well be reading out of the How to be a Mobster handbook.

Speaking of conspiracies…  something is up with the Director and the history of his father’s death. We learn from him that his father passed away 30 years ago when he was only 5 years old. He has no memories of his father as he was so young. But his dad worked for this hotel which is why he himself is there now, in essence, following in his father’s footsteps. At the end of the episode though, he gets a mysterious note delivered to him that claims that his father was murdered. Looks like our Secret Hotel holds many secrets indeed.

Okay, so that’s the murder mystery side of our murder mystery rom com (fabulous combo by the way, don’t you think?). How about we spend a little more time with the rom com that was in this episode? There was some good stuff here. How about the part where the soon-to-be-weds are touring the honeymoon suite and the groom is obviously distracted and not as excited and filled with eager anticipation on his wedding night as his bride? One might even argue that his “disinterest” could be better described as “disgust”.  But maybe that’s just me projecting my own feels about this girl he is about to marry. *shrug*  I about died when she pinned him down on the bed (woo! How often do we see such behavior in dramas?!) and he literally threw her to the floor when his ex calls him. If that’s not telling as to where both women stand in his heart, then I don’t know what is.

And then there was the wedding rehearsal. Whoa. Feels exploding all over the place! We get a flashback to their wedding and we see the contrast between the two. One was wild and free and filled with emotion, the other picture-perfect but lifeless. But again, probably just my projections again. I tend to do that. That whole entire scene though had me breathless and desperate for these two ex-love birds to work it all out and for the obnoxious fiancé to go bye-bye. Suddenly a falling dead body on the wedding aisle seems like a pretty cool thing. Not that I would condone something like that. I’d rather they just sit down for some coffee and a little heart-to-heart. But if a dead body is what it’s going to take to stop this stupid façade of a wedding from happening, then I’ll take it. I’m getting ahead of myself though. This is the rehearsal and is dead body free. Just torturous angst-filled instead as man and woman with unresolved feelings of desire stand in a room and relive their own memories while the man prepares to wed another. Agh! The looks and emotions and just the everything about it all was crazy intense. Our lead gal thought so too as she went running from the room to have a good cry in the ladies’ room.

There were also those occasions in this episode where he went running after or back for her. Like after he left her standing there on the road (you know, after she decked him hard on the chin haha!). He’s upset and mad, but then he gets worried and before we know it, he’s making a U-turn and searching all over for her. There’s his inner monologue at that point convincing himself that there is no way she would have waited for him, after all, she didn’t wait for him 7 years ago either. Aha! A clue! A clue as to what happened in their past that killed their marriage in its infancy. Then there is the scene where he goes running to the hotel to find her late one night, only to discover she is outside laughing with the Director. Misunderstanding what is going on there (shocker), he gives up and walks off. Ugh. Stahp already. Yes, I know we’re only in ep 2 and have a loooong way to go yet, but I am so impatient when it comes to this misunderstanding stuff. Seriously, if this continues to be such a big and long-lasting issue between these two, I may just not make it through this drama. There’s only so much I can handle before I just lose it. Talk, people!!! TALK!!!!  It’s easy.  “Hey, so… I still love you”.  “Hey, that’s cool cuz I still love you too”.  “How about I not get married?” “Sounds good. You shouldn’t. She’s annoying anyway”.  “Yeah, she really is. And she’s a poor substitute for you.” “Aww, baby, that’s so sweet!” *kiss kiss kiss* *fade to black* Simple as that. I should totally write these scripts.

Okay, okay. So, what did I miss from this episode? Did I cover your favorite parts? Did I miss anything important plot-wise? What do you think of this drama so far in its debut week? Like it? Love it? On the fence about it? Ready to smack a couple of knuckle-headed lovesick kids around with me? Let's do this!

Hey guys, thanks for reading. No, really, thank you. I have missed this so very much and if it weren't for your encouragement, I may have not been able to make it happen again. Kamsahamnida!

Also, shhh...I'm posting this while at work, you know, like at my real job, so the pictures will have to come later when I am home with them and can sift through the 600 or so screenshots that I took. I just am too impatient to wait and want to get this up now. 8 months of waiting and I'm done ;)

~Dongsaeng~