Pinocchio ep 14: It's Like Karma is Lost and Really Has it Out for this Kid and His Friends

It's like the writers had it in for me this week. Two of my favorite relationships I was all gushy about after last week's episodes were this week tarnished and/or threatened. Haha writernims, very funny. I see what you did there. Now fix it. Put it all back together and we'll pretend that none of this happened. I think our bromance is safe, but not so sure on the Mommy Dearest action between our Chairwoman and her Momma's Boy. That one may be harder to recover if things pan out the way they are looking like they may pan out. I should have known it was too good to be true - a Kdrama chaebol mom that was awesome even if a bit "eccentric". So yes, with episode 14, I was a bit pouty that some of my side characters were messed with, but all in all, I know it is for the best as far as our story goes, so I suppose I'll just have to suck it up and trust the writers with this one. So far they haven't let me down, so I'm going to put my faith in them and see where this crazy ride will take us.



1. Much Ado About Nothing a Bag
You know, some news stories are just more newsworthy than others. A pricey bag being sold at a department store just doesn't rank all that high in my book, but I guess for our young reporters-in-training, it's a big story and one worth fighting over. It all starts with a very sad looking department store Santa that steals one of these bags for his son since the poor child is being tormented at school for not having this particular backpack. Reminds me of an old classmate. We'll call her Miss A. Back in my day and my school, the "it" bag to carry was, well, I'm not going to tell you because that will totally date me. I'll just say that there was one particular brand that was big and that anyone who was anyone had one. Miss A was a kid, who, like me, you could tell came from a family with limited means. She was an unpopular girl and desperate for positive attention from her classmates. One day, she started not only carrying this "it" backpack, but was decked out head to toe in this popular brand. And guess what? It made no difference in how she was treated. The kids still ignored her. She didn't suddenly become accepted, because, guess what? It really doesn't matter. What does this have to do with Pinocchio? Not much. It was just a story I had about a must-have backpack that I could relate to. And about as thrilling of a news item as this particular "breaking story" in my opinion. Anyway, the backpack thieving Santa opens up an investigation by our stalwart news crew into the outrageous pricing of this luxury item. And opens up a whole mess between not only our fledgling bromance, but our too-good-to-be-true lovey-dovey mother/son relationship.  There's a lot of fighting between Dal Po and Bum Jo and some investigation that goes on. The end result of the investigation is that Bum Jo's mom specifically targeted this Santa, choosing to prosecute him to the full extent of the law instead of going easy on him like the police and everyone else wanted to, in order to get some press attention. She embraced the whole idea that "any press is good press" and ordered a large order of these bags just in time for the story to come out on the news. Sure enough, the story comes out and the store is flooded with new customers. After defending his mother so intensely, Bum Jo is devastated to learn the truth about his mother.

Poor baby, I know he's kind of devastated here, but dang, he looks kinda hot when he's doused in harsh reality

See? Devastated is a good look for him. Not that I want him to keep it long term, I'm just going to enjoy this particular silver lining while I can

2. Bros Bonding

One good thing to come from poor sweet Bum Jo's dose of reality is a bonding between him and Dal Po. A sad and dejected Bum Jo asks Dal Po if this is kind of what it felt like to learn that his brother was a murderer. Sure....totally the same thing. Mom being a shrewd business woman and not the altruistic angel you have pictured in this convoluted totally-not-co-dependent-at-all relationship is completely the same thing as finding out that your brother killed 3 men in revenge for the death of your parents. Yup. Hey, I'm just glad to see that our bromance is back on. I was nervous there for a bit.

3. Something's Rotten in the state of Denmark
Speaking of Bum Jo's mom, there is something very fishy going on between her and In Ha's mom. Ice Mom can deny it all she wants, but it's obvious that she has some sort of something going on there. Mysterious visits 13 years ago that continue still today. And, In Ha doesn't know this part yet, but we do, a lot of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" talk going on between the two of them. Momma Bum Jo has, on multiple occasions, called In Ha's mom "her person", stating that she always takes care of "her people". Looks like Momma Jo may have herself a handy-dandy reporter in her back pocket. And it is starting to look like that the two of them are somehow both involved in "the incident" 13 years ago. This drama just took a very interesting turn.

Important dates to point out here: Oct 22nd was the day Dal Po's mother died. The next day, Oct 23rd was the date that In Ha's mom visited Bum Jo's mom and left her cell phone there. It was also the day she got a promotion. Looks like the two events are linked somehow.

4. Visiting Chan Soo
Chan Soo transfers to a different police station, and, feeling bored and alone, calls up his reporter friends and asks them to come visit him. It's a hilarious change of pace, as before, they could never ply any info out of him, now he's begging them to come and offering them all sorts of tips. When they get there, he's got a list all right, a list of tips that turn out to be duds and totally mundane. Sure, they just spent a bunch of energy pursing a story about an over-priced backpack, it's true, but these are even more dull in nature if you can believe it. Some start out as promising, like the explosion he was called out to, but that turns out to be just a personal butane canister of someone making some ramen.

It's an entertaining scene though, and at the end of it, we get to meet Mrs Chan Soo and two of their 3 children. His former classmates are shocked to find out that he even has kids, let alone 3 of them. They are also surprised to find out who his wife is - a former classmate of theirs. Honestly, I don't remember her, though I suppose we are probably meant to. Sorry random lady character from 13 episodes ago, it's nothing personal, just, you know, 13 episodes ago.

5. Hottie Hyung Gets a Visitor

As if we needed any more help in loving Gramps, he ups his awesomeness even further in this episode when he goes to visit Hottie Hyung Jae Myung in prison. On the visitor slip, he even goes as far as to indicate that he is family to HH. Awe!!!!! Isn't that so sweet?! Dal Po is surprised to learn, when he goes to visit his hyung later on that day, that hyung has already had his allotted visitors for the day. He tries to figure out who in the world it would have been, imagining himself to be the only one that would bother, but comes up empty. The boy shouldn't be so quick to disregard the awesomeness of his adoptive family.

6. Explosion

Okay, now things are starting to really pick up as our plot thickens! Not that it wasn't already clipping along at a fabulous pace and plenty thick to begin with, but you know what I mean. There is an explosion at a factory. The scene is oddly reminiscent of the one from 13 years ago, and the similarities only continue to increase. Everyone is scrambling trying to get the scoop on the story. We have a lot of casualties with this one. It's grim and not pretty. And incredibly fishy. Facts start trickling out and stacking up as the investigation continues. Facts that lead us to drawing the conclusion that this fire is awfully similar to the one 13 years ago. Both In Ha and Dal Po have been assigned to research previous events such as this, and both come to the conclusion that there are a whole lot of similarities between these two events. Moms start to play a role in them both.... Looks as if there is something nefarious behind what happened 13 years ago and that the fire that destroyed the Ki family wasn't just some random thing.


7. Scapegoat

One of the many similarities between the new fire and the one 13 years ago is the aspect of a scapegoat. In both cases, when the story first breaks, everyone scrambles to find the "why" behind it. Then, in both cases, something spontaneously switches, and the focus shifts to creating a scapegoat - someone to blame as a distraction to divert attention away from the cause of the fire itself. 13 years ago it was Fireman Ki. This time it is our Chan Soo. Why Chan Soo? Because, as luck would have it, that butane tank explosion that he was called out to investigate the day before was at the factory that has now exploded and killed many people.

Remember how the fire 13 years ago was also started by a single-burner cook top? Coincidence? I think not. And the one leading the charge against the scapegoat? None other than Ice Mom. I was starting to feel sorry for her last week, but this week? Not so much. She's involved in something pretty nasty I think. Crush her I say. Crush her and make sure she is never on the "right" side of the newscast again. Turn her into the news story as she is shackled and carted off to jail along with Bum Jo's mom. I know the two of them are behind all this. I didn't see it coming, but it is all starting to unfold and they seem to be the most likely candidates at this point for masterminding these tragedies. I just can't believe it is poor Chan Soo! Chan Soo with the wife and three kids. Chan Soo who is just minding his own business, working quietly at his job when suddenly he becomes the target of public shame and expected to take the blame for all these deaths. This has an already revenge-driven Dal Po/Ha Myung really annoyed....

My theories are almost always wrong, so I don't know why I keep documenting them, thus forever preserving my inadequacy at such predictions, but document them I do. My theory in this case is that Bum Jo's mom was storing something that she shouldn't have been at the factory, both then and now. Something that would cause an explosion. Or, more nefarious yet, something that would be illegal enough to cover up and dispose of with a deliberate explosion. A cover-up of some sort that Ice Mom is well aware of and acts as Bum Jo's mom's puppet in the media to steer the public attention away from the actual issue. Of course, right now the pieces we are being given are about some senator being tied to the construction of the building, and maybe that's it, but that seems awfully weak. I like my theory better ;), but I suppose I can't ignore the clues we're being given.

Why poor Dal Po and his family/acquaintances keep getting caught in the crossfire is a mystery. It would really seem as if karma has it out for this poor kid. There's bad luck and then there's Dal Po level of luck. Whatever it is, I sure hope that karma finds its way to the ones actually deserving of her "attentions".



Before I sign off for this week, I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the change in broadcast schedule of this drama this week. Due to conflicting programming taking place on Wednesday, it has been reported that both episodes 15 and 16 will be aired on Thursday. Of course this is always subject to change, but last I heard, that was the plan. And hey, what a wonderful way to start out the new year! Two brand new, fresh episodes at once to reward our patience.

I wish you all a very special and safe New Year's celebration this week and we will be back soon with the next installment of our recaps on all the drama fun to come! Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again in 2015!

Did you catch the "bonus" scenes at the end of the episode during the credits? It wasn't the normal preview for the next episode but more like deleted scenes. I think that they were meant as a Christmas present for us all. Like this one that looks like a glimpse of the future maybe and confirmation that In Ha really was there when Dal Po was sick and it wasn't just a dream he was having.