Yong Pal Episode 8 - Yong Pal Gets A Case of the Mopes.

Episode 8 was all about tying up loose ends in regards to the first 1/3 of the drama.  Our OTP finally makes it out of the hospital of death.  Our hero saves his sister (at least in theory) and the new alliance of Greedy Ahjussi and Do Joon is in full bloom.  But now what?  That is the question that causes Yeo Jin to turn into the mega moper and about made me want to write her off.

But before we get to all the moping, lets chat about how cute Tae Hyun is when he is happy.  The episode opens with Nurse Ahjumma, Rebel Ahjumma, and Intern Cutie all haning out around his bedside.  Rebel Nurse tickles his nose with a piece of lavender to wake him up and teases him about the obvious romance going on with the coma girl.  Awww, the Yong Pal Gang is teasing Tae Hyun about his romancing technique.  That is so adorable.  And I love that he has his own group now to help him in his superheroing. 

Chae Young comes for a visit, promptly dispersing Team Yong Pal.  She of course is all smiles and flirting, saying "I saved your life so I am calling dibs..... on your body."  Oh wait.  That wasn't the dialogue?  Oops, must have been reading the subtext of the situation.

I knew those glass walls were going to be trouble.  Sure enough Yeo Jin saw all the flirting going on in the room next door and gets a tiny bit jealous.  Rebel nurse comes in and asks Tae Hyun if he did something to upset the ahjussi next door and Tae Hyun just is clueless.

I can understand that guilt can do odd things to a persons brain, but I notice that the writers want us to think that guilt creates audible and visual hallucinations as well.  For example, last episode Do Joon had that freakout thinking the mannequin was his dead sister.  This time it is Chief Lee who is having some twinges as he thinks he hears Yeo Jin's voice calling him a murderer and that he will die soon.

Now I am not saying that they shouldn't feel guilty, however, if you are evil enough to put a person into a coma for three years and then kill her, I highly doubt you will be having ethical problems now.  Maybe someone is pumping toxins into the air?  Or maybe they ate the same mushrooms at lunch and are on a really long acid trip?  Anyone up for some toad licking?  Oh wait, it is only a dream.  Guess no acid trip toad licking is going on.  Too bad, since that would be amusing.

You know you want to lick my belly!

Everyone's least favorite detective and least favorite jealous resident connect and discuss the possibility of Yong Pal being a real doctor related to the hospital.  ACK!  Between the two of them they know all the information that would out Tae Hyun's clandestine activities.  Before too much can be shared, the security guy (Who shot Tae Hyun ...... you are still on my hit list.) comes down with a bunch of security guards to escort the police off the premises.  It's nice that Tae Hyun has friends in high places now.  But now jealous intern knows Tae Hyun's secret which could cause problems in the future.

Who would have thought that I now wish Yeo Jin was back in a coma.  I guess she wasn't jealous but is instead pouting because she is officially dead and can't go back to her old life.  Uhm WOW.  Way to be an ungrateful snot.  Not to mention the mummy look makes it really hard to pull off sympathetic pouting even for the best actress **whispers....and our leading lady is not an amazing actress***

But Yeo Jin's moping has to take a back seat to her half brother's crazy.  Do Joon invites Chief Lee, Tae Hyun, Creepy Secretary, and his wife to dinner.  To say the dinner is odd is an understatement as the whole time he is either bribing people or passive agressively threatening them.  For example, when Tae Hyun thanks Do Joon for making sure he got treatment, Do Joon replies-- "I didn't take care of you that was my wife." Tae Hyun smoothly replied-- "Ah, but isn't that the same thing sir?"  Wonderful save Tae Hyun. You are really a fast learner at playing the game.  Do Joon must also think so since he orders Tae Hyun to send his sister to the US right away as a reward.  Tae Hyun think in his head "It's a bribe.", but it gets him what he wants so all is good.

Dinner goes on and Do Joon moves the conversation from being slightly awkward to a full blaze of what the fudge within one course.  First he tells Chief Lee to take over as director since the other director was stupid and got himself stabbed by Nurse Crazy.  Chief Lee says he is flattered, but not ready to take over such responsibility since the Director still is a very fit man.  Personally I couldn't tell if Do Joon was trying to trick Chief Lee or actually promote him.  It is really hard to read rich crazy.

Do Joon then turns the conversation towards Chae Young, who is in full ditz mode, and talks about how she didn't give him the time of day way back in the day.  Why?  Because his father wouldn't let him go to the US and study.  Because he was always stuck behind in Yeo Jin's shadow.  Because he was always a little bit imbalanced.  What?  That wasn't said either?  There goes my inner subtext writing away again.

Creepy Secretary tries to stop Do Joon's monologue, but his boss goes on saying that Yeo Jin is probably happy to be next to her dead boyfriend in heaven.  He then laughs to himself and says--"both of those rascals died by my hand."  Holy Fudge!  He did kill the boyfriend.  I had my suspicions from the get go.  Especially since that crash scene was shown so much.  But now we officially have confirmation that Do Hoon is the puppet master.  A crazy, kind of mediocre puppet master, but still.

Does anyone else keep glancing at all the crystal wine glasses while this rampage goes on?  Blah blah blah accomplices.  Blah blah blah cremate dead sister and put her in the ground next to Sung Hoon blah blah.  All I could do is look at all that scary glass just waiting to be shattered and used in nefarious ways.  But one thing did catch my attention.  Do Joon admits to having a scheme going on with Sung Hoon and Sung Hoon messed it up, hence the necessary murder. Hmmmm.

Glassware weapons everywhere!

After getting the 411 on Sung Hoon, Yeo Jin's temper tantrum attempted suicide, and her father's act of keeping her in a coma until he died, Tae Hyun returns to the hospital.  Then promptly drugs Yeo Jin and takes her out of the hospital.  Hahaha. She awakes to being driven down the road of her accident (que the directors favorite car chase scene ........... again) and has flashbacks to that horrible night three years previous. Yeo Jin breaks down and cries, but those tears change to anger after they arrive at the church she had planned on eloping too.  You know, the one that she attended Sung Hoon's funeral before she jumped out of the hospital window.  

Tae Hyun wheels her down the isle and tells Yeo Jin that she needs to come to where her memories stopped so that she can grieve and get past it.  She needs to regain her strength and go back to being a strong fighter in the real world and not mope around defeated. Tae Hyun then tells Yeo Jin that she has become a burden on him and that he can't jeopardize his own life to help her.  Handing Yeo Jin the cell phone he tells her to call President Go or the bank in Switzerland and fix her own problems.  Yong Pal is out.

Yeo Jin mopingly asks why Tae Hyun is doing this to which he answers-- "I forgot that you live in a different world than I do.  Also I don't want to be jealous of a dead man."  WHAT?  WOW that was out of left field. I think it took Yeo Jin by surprise too, which just causes her to mope some more as Tae Hyun leaves the chapel.

Yeo Jin decides to take her moping outside and cries as she realizes that she is all alone again.  Thankfully a priest and nun walk behind her, chatting about a guy just sitting in a car out in the parking lot.  Awww, he couldn't leave her.  Yeo Jin promptly uses the cell phone to call Tae Hyun, who is indeed, sitting out in the parking lot.

Yeo Jin demands that he come running to her within 30 seconds or she is never talking to him again.  Sadly, Tae Hyun complies (way to play hard to get Yong Pal) and they kiss and make up (without the kissing) and then seek sanctuary in the chapel grounds. 

A woman is using a payphone late at night, at first i think it might be Yeo Jin, but as she twists around I see that no.  It is everyone's Crazy Nurse. She obviously has not heard of Yeo Jin's sad passing since she calls Creepy Secretary to blackmail him if she is not put back with her obsession charge.  Mid sentence we see a light appear behind her, and sure enough she is hit by a dump truck driven by President Go's hitman.  BWAHAHAHA  Sorry.  That was just funny.  And why do I get the feeling she might pop up again just like a bad horror film?

Awww,  I like how the director keeps putting our OTP near each other, just separated by a wall, or a bed, or a glass partition.  It is a cute recurrence.  I especially like how cute Tae Hyun looks as he knocks on the wall, and Yeo Jin when she does her answering knock.  It's very sweet and almost has a childlike feel when they connect.

Sadly, the wall knocking was much better than their meet and mingle in the chapel.  Tae Hyun tells Yeo Jin that she has to make her decision soon since her brother is planning on having a funeral for her.  Not to mention the police that are looking for Yong Pal.  Yeo Jin teases our Hero about waiting for her phone call and how long he was going to wait for her to man up?  She then answers seriously that her first call will always be to him.  Que romantic music, deep meaningful staring, and of course, kissing.  

Now technically there is nothing wrong with the kiss.  It was beautifully filmed and I would even say that the emotions were there on both sides.  But there were two big glaring issues.  The first being the ghost of her ex-boyfriend.  Yeo Jin had just stated that she was not over the whole boyfriend dead incident and needed time to come to grips and than Tae Hyun was smooching her.

Second: The church where Yeo Jin was going to marry the supposed love of her life, and then traumatized by his death and funeral, is not the most romantic of settings.  I have to imagine if God was watching this drama he himself would be saying "Dude........really?"

My Thoughts:
Surprisingly this was kind of a slow episode.  Not one piece of crystal ware died for my entertainment. I was very thankful that Tae Hyun is well aware of everyone's standing and even benefited by having his secret kept from the cops as well as his sister is finally on the way to recovery (I will not miss the various "cry at little sis's bedside" scenes that were in every episode.) we can get on to the good stuff.  I also find it interesting that he is more or less planning on going down supporting Yeo Jin.  Those same people keeping him safe from the police are going to be turning him in, the second he chooses his side, and I think he knows it.

As for the romance.  Is it just me, or did things get serious really fast?  I understand Tae Hyun was on his way to falling for Yeo Jin, but it felt like it suddenly sped up.  Some people were joking that it is because SBS always has the kiss happen on episode 8, which was amusing, but possibly true.  It is as good a guess as any since the romance, while not horrible, felt very forced.  But I still enjoy the drama and am happy to go along for the ride.   Just going to have to chalk it up to yet another thing I should not question to closely if I am going to enjoy this show.

And finally, I just have to say that I am so thankful that Yeo Jin's moping is over.  I was not at all amused by her blaming Tae Hyun for her loss of position.  Especially when he risked everything, including his life, for her.  What a spoiled brat.  Maybe a better actress could have put some depth to the moping.  Unfortunately, Kim Tae Hee is not that actress.  Lets just stick to what everyone is good at and leave the angst to Joo Won.

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