Oh My Ghostess eps 3 and 4: Wanted - A Man of Vitality

Welcome back to week two of Oh My Ghostess spirited fun! I don't know about you, but I am having a banging good time with this drama so far. The pace is good, the chemistry is heating up, and our heroine is rocking it! It's an utter delight and I look forward to each new episode already.

*editor's note* Writing about a ghost possessed girl has its challenges, especially when it comes to "just what name am I supposed to use for this character?". So, for our purposes here. when Soon Ae has possessed Bong Sun, I will call her BS Soon Ae. Bong Sun not possessed will be Bong Sun and Soon Ae in ghost-only form will be Soon Ae. Hope that helps clear up any confusion. 

When we last left BS Soon Ae, she had just realized who she was and who her father and brother were. Memories of her pre-death life are starting to come back to her and she is saddened by the current state of her father's restaurant now that she is gone. Her brother is a loser and poor dad is just floundering without someone to hold his hand and guide him through life. So BS Soon Ae starts to try to help out. Starting with brand new rubber gloves to replace the ones he has with holes, she brings Dad things from work. Gloves, ingredients, whatever she can pilfer from her fancy restaurant. Eventually, it becomes obvious that someone has been taking things from the kitchen. Chef calls everyone in to try to get to the bottom of who has been thieving. Sous Chef starts in on how he as a leader should be held responsible and how Chef should let it go because of team spirit and solidarity, yadda yadda yadda. Chef then points to him as the culprit. He admits to using some leftover caviar to cook for and woo a lady friend, but insists that he is not guilty of the rest of it. They argue, BS Soon Ae finally catches on to what the problem is and sort of tries to fess up for her part in it but is ignored, and in the end, the Sous Chef quits and storms out.

When little brother brings back a box of all the things BS Soon Ae had brought their father, Chef finally catches on to the whole truth. Dinner service goes terribly without the Sous Chef there, no replacements can be found (no one wants to work with Chef Grumpypants), so Chef goes crawling back to his Sous Chef, who's working at a family member's gas station/car wash and not succeeding too well in his new career path, and brings him back to the kitchen without any fight.

I'm not afraid to admit that I was a little distracted here by Sun Woo's head thrown back all shmexy-like

I know I ragged on him pretty hard last time (because he deserved and earned it), but I have to give it to him that he was much improved in these episodes and I no longer hate him. He's not my favorite yet, but he does have some redeeming qualities and I have to give him credit for them. It was pretty funny though that no one in the kitchen staff, besides BS Soon Ae, was happy he returned to the kitchen. See? They're all tired of his attitude and antics and bullying too.

We confirm for sure that Chef Sun Woo was indeed the loser angle of a love triangle. We get a flashback to college (?) days when there was this girl he was crushing on in his study group. He was garnering up the courage to ask her out when his best buddy came to him and asked him for his help in asking out a girl. Well, as luck would have it, and in a twist no one could see coming (ha), they were both into the same girl. Sun Woo doesn't say anything to his friend or the girl and just quietly fades into the third wheel position without a fight.

Now that guy is dead and gone, but Sun Woo still can't manage to drag his sorry butt out of the friendzone with this girl. Which of course I'm fine with because I don't want to see him with her anyway.

They dance around it and awkwardly flirt, but neither makes an actual move towards the other. And that's fine by me. Stay awkward my friends.

Now for the fun part. Having been kicked out of the tiny cupboard she called home, BS Soon Ae is looking for a place to stay. She ends up at the restaurant with all of her belongings, including this crazy long spear-sword thing strapped to her back (that she tells people she won from a claw game, hahahaha!), and plans to stay there. When the clock strikes midnight, however, plans change rapidly when an evil house spirit shows up, fights with her, makes a ruckus, and Sun Woo catches her and kicks her out.

I loved her whiny objections and attempts at a guilt trip, telling him how she is going to have to sleep at the subway station because that's her only option. My favorite was when he suggested a motel and she exclaimed almost in disgust that she couldn't go to a place like that without a lover in tow. I adored how taken aback he was by her blatant candor. Let's just say that it is safe to assume old Bong Soo wouldn't have said something like that. She ends up at the spa, which opened up a whole new entertaining outlet for her amorous advances, like when she snuggled up to a guy that turned out to be married, something she didn't mind so much but the dude's wife wasn't thrilled with.

At the spa she runs into another ghost who passes on the news that things are bleak for ghosts these days searching for ancestral rights/food. Looks like the living are getting lazy in their ghost care. Tsk tsk tsk. They talk about how close Soon Ae is to becoming an evil spirit and how she needs to solve her "virginity grudge" so that she can ascend and no longer be stuck on Earth. In order to do that, she needs a so-called "man of vitality", or, in other words, a man that can handle being with a ghost. Physically. Most men would be too overcome by the chill of ghosteyness to endure the lovins, but, a man of vitality? He's a strong man full of warmth great enough to endure and overcome the challenges of physical contact with the undead. Sadly for our Soon Ae, these men of vitality are incredibly rare.

So we have a sad dead girl trapped in a body that needs a safe place to sleep at night and not a whole lot of options available to her. Our homeless ghostess isn't without a hope though. Thanks to a little blackmail, she soon secures a place to stay. BS Soon Ae and Chef Sun Woo are called back to the studio to film a few little parts that needed tweaking. While sitting with The One that Got Away, one of her seniors, Sir Sleazy Senior I'll call him, comes in and starts putting the moves on The One that Got Away.

This makes Sun Woo all shades of crazy jealous (which the ever observant BS Soon Ae picks up on)

so when Sir Sleazy leaves and drops his car keys, the very mature Sun Woo does what any mature man would do - he sneaks the key into his pocket (a move that was also caught by our keen-eyed ghost). So later on, when Sir Sleazy comes running, desperately searching for his key, our clever girl sees this as a perfect bargaining chip. Using the key and his crush as leverage, she successfully secures herself a temporary spot at the restaurant to call home. Clever, clever girl!

Things turn interesting when Sun Woo gets sick. He's in bed, miserable, when The One Who Got Away calls him up. She quickly picks up on the fact that he's sick, yet makes no real effort to be there for him. This is lousy of her, and speaks volumes, especially when you consider how he ran to her aid the moment she called him after a minor fender-bender while he was out at a company dinner with his staff the other night.

When she needs him, he's there.

When he needs her, she's no where to be found.

He drops everything for her, but she can't be bothered to do the same for him. Dude, seriously, wake up. You are so solidly in the friend-zone here and she's taking advantage of your devotion and not reciprocating like at all. Not a good place to be. Old habits die hard though. When BS Soon Ae comes to his room to bring him porridge, the delirious Sun Woo mistakes her for The One that Got Away and finally makes his move. He pulls a shocked BS Soon Ae into him and kisses her. Deeply. Passionately. Wonderfully.

What a kiss! Wow!!! Lips moving and face repositioning and all! *fans self*

Well, this is just bananas for our lusty little ghostey! Instead of pulling away in disgust, she does what probably any actually sane person would do (despite what most kdramas would have us believe), and goes along for the ride. After all of these years of remaining the silent whipping boy of his crush sitting in the corner just waiting for her to notice him, the poor man finally makes his move, only his efforts hit the wrong target. Poor poor Sun Woo. And thank you Fate for intervening. This "mistake" of his is way more worthy of his attentions, and that kiss, than the intended recipient. The magic of the kiss is broken when the dog outside starts barking and wakes the delirious man up enough to realize just what lips his are actually locked with. Boo. I was enjoying that. Dumb dog.

spell breaking... :(

After the kiss, it eventually dawns on BS Soon Ae that something else just happened here. Sun Woo is surprisingly just fine after making out with a spirit.

Well, lookie here! It would seem as if we finally found our elusive and rare Man of Vitality! The boy's got what it takes to lie with the dead! Woohoo! That sounds weirder than it should, but who cares?! We found him! Soon Ae can finally settle her virgin grudge and move on to her ghostly paradise.

She just has to convince the guy first. Which begins the part that entertained me most in these two entertaining episodes - BS Soon Ae propositioning Sun Woo. Repeatedly. And desperately. She follows him everywhere, begging him to please just sleep with her one time. One time is all she needs, and she needs it bad!

Oddly enough, so far Sun Woo is resisting her advances. What a gentleman he is. I wonder how long he can hold out?

I sort of skipped over the part about the cop. Guess I should tackle that now. Boo. Talking about him is going to deflate my propositioning horny ghost high. Something is seriously off with that guy, I'm telling you. Let's back up a bit though and go through what we know so far. Soon Ae back when she was alive had a thing for him. Now she is back in contact with him and starts off thrilled, assuming that she'll be able to pick up where she left off in pursuing him.

Then she discovers he is married and is devastated. Being married doesn't stop him from eating ramen with BS Soon Ae outside of a convenience store. He tells her that his wife doesn't like him eating ramen, so he does it on the sly like this. It is almost enough to wonder if "ramen" could also be used as code for something a little less noodle-y and a little more canoodle-y, if you catch my drift.

I had to laugh though later when BS Soon Ae launches into the wife about how ramen isn't so bad and she needs to chill, leaving wifey in a bit of confusion.

Something about this guy seriously does not pass the smell test. What was up with that mysterious dog crying part at the domestic violence call the police went on? Creepy and disturbing. Or when sahbingo (or whatever Ghost Wrangler Ahjumma is called) is reading the fortune of our young married couple and their baby prospects and says that the guy has no business even being married.

Kind of ominous, don't you think? I really believe he has something to do with Soon Ae's death, whether intentionally or not.

Speaking of her death, we know that it was a drowning. That's all we know at this point, but at least we know that. Actually, I guess we know that when she first hit the water, she was unconscious and then woke and struggled to swim to the surface to no avail. Last we saw, she was floating downward to the bottom of whatever body of water she was in. What happened? We just don't know, but I'm saying that the cop was definitely involved. It may even have something to do with his wife's paralysis. Who are we kidding? This is a kdrama - of course the two incidents - Soon Ae's death and wife's paralysis - are related and the man that ties them both together (the cop, not Sun Woo, let's be clear) is somehow involved. And guilty as sin.

The episode ends with a funny bit of magic. BS Soon Ae has, by way of hot, hot kiss, caught Sun Woo's cold. She is fevered and not doing well physically. At the same time, Sun Woo's phone cord is mysteriously stuck in his phone. He yanks and pulls furtively at the cord while BS Soon Ae struggles with her fever symptoms. Suddenly she's laying there on the bench and starts flickering in and out, going between Soon Ae and Bong Sun. Just as the cord finally pops out, so does the ghost girl. Soon Ae stands there looking over Bong Sun's sick body on the floor as Sun Woo runs into the room to see her.

That's what she said. (sorry, couldn't resist)

 Oh yeah, this will be fun! The last time he saw this girl, she was desperately begging to sleep with him. Now she's going to wake up as timid Bong Sun and we can only imagine how well that is going to go with regards to him. A lot has happened while she's been possessed. One would only hope that there has been a part of her consciousness that has been watching everything unfold while being possessed, but you know that's not the case. Where would the fun be in that? Poor girl. I feel for her. Should be loads of laughs, right? Riiiight. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what comes next for our Someday OTP.

I will end this here for now. I hope I caught at least some of your favorite parts or most memorable or important. I did skip a few, so here's a little sample of odds and ends to finish us off with for today. Then I'll see you all back here for next week's installment! :)

Until then -
Back hugs and fish kisses for all,
Dongsaeng

Sun Woo kept stripping for us in these two episodes. I don't hear anyone complaining though. Especially not BS Soon Ae.

I loved how this was filmed - both alone in the rain feeling rejected. Both ready to find each other, right?

One of two revelations relating to Eun Hee - before her accident, she was a dancer. And pines away for those times despite her brave, cool-with-having-no-useful-legs front.

Second revelation, she also desperately wants to have a baby. Married three years and no physical reason she can't have children, yet barren in the womb. Probably because she married a snake and not a man. When the true nature of her snake husband is revealed and she leaves him, we'll have to find her a good man. She's a sweetie and deserves happiness.