Hyde, Jekyll and I episode 18: I Heard This One Was Good

It's true. I did hear that this episode was good before I had had the opportunity to watch it. That of course was something I had to see for myself. And? Well, we'll have to just wait and see what my opinion was until after the recap ;)

So, episode 18 was kind of Robin's Coming Out Party. Cat is (sorta) out of the bag. It is known to the general public now that Seo Jin and Robin are one in the same, only as chaebol company man/moonlighting webtoon author, not as a split personality. This pretty much makes Ha Na a genius for coming up with a solution in which both personalities can be free-ish to be themselves and where Robin no longer must hide in the shadows. *slow clap* for her and her genius band-aid on the whole situation.



Now that they are supposed to be one person, Seo Jin and Robin bone up on each other's lives. This is the first time in the 15 years that they have been "together" that they have bothered to really explore the other personality. This has an interesting side effect later on when the scales tip opposite of the way that they had been tipping. For a while we had Robin emerging as the dominant personality, slowing starting to take over Seo Jin's side. Seo Jin had been in danger of disappearing. Now it looks as if Seo Jin is absorbing Robin. Will we finally be rid of the whiny man child???  Not if Robin has anything to do with it. Guy just doesn't know when to let go. He's clinging on with all that he has to this unique and odd existence of his. Of course, it should be pointed out that Robin is not alone in hanging on. Seo Jin isn't ready to let Robin go either. He's afraid that losing Robin will cost him the girl. Poor Seo Jin, playing third wheel to a symptom of his own personal mental illness. I have to applaud him though for constantly arguing with and pointing out to pig-headed/oblivious Ha Na that she loves him too and not just Robin. At least he's not taking it all lying down. He's still fighting for the girl in his own patient way.

Fighting. And winning. You know, once she gets over her idiot phase.

We get a pretty hot kiss scene in this episode. Granted, it's with the wrong personality, but at least it isn't as annoyingly bland as the earlier one however many thousands of episodes ago. Robin boy's got some moves, I'll give him that. He's not so bad I guess, so long as his whiny baby mouth is busy doing more productive things than whining about the unfairness of his "life" and trash-talking his benevolent host.

Things are going good in our favorite D.I.D guy's world. The company and public is lapping up the whole idea of famed webtoon artist being the big company heir-apparent. Daddy is appeased - for now. Robin gets to go to his award show essentially as himself. Ha Na gets to be the girlfriend in public. Robin even gets to participate in a radio show as some sort of relationship expert (huh?). No really, huh??? How does being a "secret" renowned webtoon author earn him relationship guru status? Whatever. Magical rope swings, rampaging gorillas, mass-hypnotized police squad and so many other things have preceeded this, so should I really start questioning it now? Nope. Just accept it and roll with it. We're too far into this mess now to start picking silly things like man-child-doodler-alternate-personality becoming a sudden overnight expert in matters of the heart apart.

Things are progressing along in a tenuous but happy little bubble of resolution. But, like any tenuous resolution bubble eventually must do, the walls start to weaken and popping is imminent. It starts when Seo Jin wakes up with Robin's memories. And not "sharing' the memories, but actually having his memories, as in Robin has no recollection of what happened while it was his time. Both go to pay Dr Kang a visit about this strange new event, and, true to her role in all of this, she opens her big mouth and screws things up. She tells Robin that it means that they are being cured and that Robin and Seo Jin are becoming one. Idiot. Does she not realize how Robin will take this "good" news that Seo Jin's brain is being put back together? This threatens his very existence and sends him spiraling into a depressed pity party for one. He withdraws, avoiding Ha Na, and broods in his annoying whiny baby way.

Wah. Wah. Wah. So over you, Robin.

Yeah, this is a healthy relationship (she said, sarcastically)

Then he disappears. Seo Jin wakes up as himself, not Robin. Being the awesome guy that he is, Seo Jin goes about pretending to be Robin, fooling everyone, even Ha Na. Not only fooling them, but totally rocking it.

I think I can safely say that we're kind of all collectively thinking the same thing about this drama right about now.

He goes and does the radio show, where there is a special birthday surprise in the works for Ha Na that Robin (?) had arranged.

In the middle of all of this, Robin returns, confused and lost. And no one can tell the difference.

Again, we can all imagine how he takes this new twist. (Not well). The biggest blow of all is when he realizes that not even his lady love could tell he was gone.

He has no choice but to see that his biggest fear is coming true - he is being fazed out and merging back into Seo Jin's personality. The way I see it, he could go two ways with this - either graciously accepting it as health and the proper order of things being restored and quietly fading away or go fighting and screaming while digging his claws in deeper in a desperate attempt to maintain his delusion of being a real boy (do I forsee some more from this mysterious third personality coming into play?)

Now, want to know my final take on the episode as a whole? While having its redeeming qualities, I'm going to have to go with "too little too late" on this one. It was definitely an improvement over the disaster of the past however many craptastic episodes though. Had they been able to bring this level of game-play earlier on, we may have had a better chance of keeping this poor drama alive. For the sake of Hyun Bin, I hope it is enough so that they can pull it out of the ratings slump for the finale. We'll just have to wait and see. This drama's biggest downfall (besides the incredibly stupid idea of airing it against the superior Kill Me, Heal Me which I think doomed it from the beginning) was simply the length of it. Not enough story to fill 20 long episodes. Had it been shorter from the onset, I think it would have fared better. Just my opinion of course. The opinion of someone that just so very desperately wanted to love it. But what do you think? What, if anything, could have salvaged it? Or maybe you're happy with it and thinking that no salvaging is necessary. Maybe you are in the camp that there was just no saving it no matter what, that it was just too great of a train wreck with no redeeming qualities. Let us know!

Okay, so that's all I've got this time around. I'm so happy that we have finally reached the end and get to celebrate a finale this coming week. Join us as we take on 19 and 20, and until then, back hugs and fish kisses to you all!

~Dongsaeng