Heirs ep 17 The Fall of the Mighty

Last week I had a bad case of the sniffles, so when I heard through the grapevine that this was a very sad episode, I made the decision that I would wait until I was feeling better before even attempting it.  Well, today was the day.  I figured that I probably shouldn't put it off anymore, that I should put on my big girl panties and finally watch it.  I'm glad I waited.

This episode was all about Kim Tan falling apart.  Eun Sang disappears in the night (we find out later that it was Secretary Yoon that came to her rescue moments before leaving the country and he managed to hide her away at the seashore instead of wherever Papa Jeguk was going to send her).  Young Do and Kim Tan immediately jump into action in order to find her and track down her whereabouts.  They are both men obsessed and use various means, many of a questionable nature, to track her down.  Both succeed eventually and make their way to where she is now living.  Life at the seashore looks rather tough on our mother and daughter duo, despite Eun Sang's brave face she puts on for mom.  She's landed a job working at a bookstore while mom is finding that securing employment without the ability to speak is proving to be rather difficult.  Yet they soldier on, both staying strong for the other.

Tan finds her first.  He sees her hanging her laundry.  Instead of running over to her though, he stands by and watches.  Later, when she is sitting on the beach, he goes to take a step towards her but hesitates and then in the end goes back home without facing her.  Young Do finds her next, but he's less shy in letting her know he's there.  They have a tense reunion between the two of them as both hearts break, even if for different reasons.

All of this saga builds into Tan realizing that his presence in her life has hurt her.  She's lost her home, her school, her friends, even her future.  She's literally hiding in some small village in order to get away from the drama that is his family.  It hits him hard how his love has destroyed her and so he vows, for her sake, to give her up.  He tells Kim Won that he'll do whatever big brother wants - leave the country, give up his shares, everything, if he will in turn just protect her.  He goes back to where Eun Sang is living in order to see her one final time.  She flips out when she sees him, he stands there an apologizes for ruining her life, and then he leaves.  She collapses in a fit of tears, and he begins in earnest his path of self-destruction.

The rest is painful to watch and relive through a recap.  He goes home, locks himself in his room, and destroys it.  He physically keeps injuring himself.  He is an empty shell roaming the halls of school and home.  He gets arrested.  He gets in drunken fights on the street.  In short, he is a big mess.  Meanwhile, Dad is being just as obstinate and mean as ever, going forward and pretending like all is well in his family and empire, when it clearly is not.  That scene at the company anniversary where he's standing there proclaiming how wonderful the company is doing all while his very messed up family sits on stage clearly painting a different picture was poignant for me.

The episode ends with Young Do coming across Kim Tan in self-destruct mode getting involved in a fight on the street.  YD comes to his rescue, the two boys then of course have to tussle in the streets, and it ends with a beaten body and soul Kim Tan admitting defeat and giving Young Do the green light to go for Eun Sang since he's determined not to be in her life anymore.

There were of course other things of note from this episode not having to do with Kim Tan's depressing downfall.  It would seem as if Young Do's dad's company is in trouble and facing an investigation.  Esther Lee breaks off their engagement.  Hyo Shin discovers that his crush, Teacher Hyun Joo was involved with Kim Won (she denies it, but he's no fool).  After that, there's an interesting moment between he and Retchel.  I wonder I wonder if those two "little" kisses they shared at the party may have just started a little somethin-somethin between the two of them unintentionally.  That would be fun to see.

And that's pretty much episode 17 in a nutshell.  Depressing and a big downer.  Love hurts I guess.  As does being rich and powerful.  I've heard ep 18 gets a little cheerier, so I think I'm going to go spend some time there now in order to cheer me up a bit.  Too much emo for a Monday and all, you know?