Orange Marmalade Episode 4 - What the Fudge?

So........  This episode happened.  I will be honest, I am not one who feels that the original work that a story is based on (in this case a webtoon) has to be followed 100%, but somewhere in the same ballpark would be nice.  Things are speeding by so fast plot wise, that I am getting whiplash. And really if you were only going to have the very bare minimum of the story in your drama anyway, why bother even relating the two?  I am feeling a tad bit cheated right now.  A perfectly pleasant vampire teenage musical romance has been turned into a mesh of rioting concepts.


So since I am still playing catch up from my vacation a week ago, we are just going to jump in and speed through the main plot points.  I am just hoping that somehow episode 5 (which is being subbed as I type) will somehow save the situation for me.

Take a good look people.  This is the extent of happy OTP that we get before things turn to crap.

Yup 20 seconds of smiling before things go south.  Kind of makes you wonder if the director just really wants to film as many scenes of Yoo Jin Goo crying as possible. For that matter, we could turn this into a drinking game.  Every time Jae Min looks sad or angry take a shot.  By the end of this episode you might be so sloshed you won't wonder at the sudden crazy Sageuk plot.

Jae Min is in such a good mood that he goes to his mother's house, and while he doesn't enter, just being nearby is progress.  It is just unfortunate timing that he overhears that Shi Hoo is a vampire. Shi Hoo is in the middle of an identity crisis when he overhears his uncle and Jae Min's mother discussing the fact that he is the reason his parents were arrested.  Remember how little vampire kids can go into bloodlust before they talk?  I guess little Shi Hoo was in such a situation and his parents used their super vampire powers to save him.  Hence their trackers were triggered and they were taken away by the vampire government agency.  Shi Hoo and his uncle are yelling at each other in the front yard, hence Jae Min learning the truth.

Of course there is a fight between the two boys since Jae Min still really really hates vampires.  Shi Hoo just continues to look traumatized with just a tad bit of crazy.  Jae Min continues to hit Shi Hoo and then warns him to stay away from Ma Ri.  This was obviously not the night to go agonizing Shi Hoo since he laughs at Jae Min.  But rather than telling the hothead the truth, he simply smirks and says that might be hard since Ma Ri's blood looks especially tasty.

Shi Hoo goes off to brood, but rushes back the next day when he hears Ma Ri yelling for help.  Jae Min was saving a little kid who had gone up a crane and in the process got caught up in some rope and is hanging by his leg passed out.  The rope is slowly breaking and Ma Ri tries to activate her vampire powers in order to save him.  Shi Hoo arrives to stop her, and uses his own powers to save both Ma Ri and Jae Min.  But as a result, Shi Hoo's vamp tracker goes off and he runs away.

Ma Ri discovers that she still yearns to suck Jae Min's blood and is caught in her vamp state by the annoying 2nd lead girl (have not bothered to learn her name since she bores me).  In a super dramatic demonstration of knowledge, 2nd lead pours Ma Ri's blood stash on the hospital floor, and Ma Ri leaves before Jae Min awakes.  Would just like to note that the poor scene transitions are driving me batty by this point.

Jae Min goes back to the festival and finds that Ma Ri has left.  He also finds out from a random student (Really? You couldn't have even been told by annoying 2nd lead girl?) that Ma Ri is a vampire.  He understandably goes crazy looking for her to confirm the rumor.

Shi Hoo is sitting on a cliff as the sun slowly rises above the horizon.  He stares at a locket containing photos of his parents and sadly utters "I shouldn't have ever existed".  Tears slip down his face.

He then commits freaking SUICIDE via sun.  WHAT WHAT WHAT????  Why would you do that to us?  Surprisingly, I was more involved in his storyline than the leads (especially once they started going at warp speed through the plot).  Color me devastated right now.

It has been two weeks.  Jae Min's pretty face has healed and he mopes around in despair because Ma Ri disappeared.  Personally I don't care since I am still crying over pretty Shi Hoo and how no one seems to care that he is gone.  How can they not miss that pretty pretty boy?

Jae Min eventually gets a phone call from Ma Ri's mother.  Ma Ri is missing and had left her phone.  Does Jae Min know where she might be?  And in true nonsense fashion, Jae Min takes the bus (in the middle of a freaking Typhoon warning) back to the lighthouse where they had their first kiss.  Amid thunder and lightning he finds her staring out to sea.  SIGH... this makes no sense whatsoever.

They have a heart wrenching conversation which pretty much is as follows:

Jae Min - "Say it is not so"

Ma Ri - sob sob sob "Sorry I wanted to be normal"

Jae Min - "Nooooooo" - looking handsome while sobbing uncontrollably.

Ma Ri - "Yes I am a vampire" - Crying and backing up for no apparent reason.

It is at this point that Ma Ri stumbles, Jae Min grabs her away from the edge of the fence and falls over himself.  Jae Min clings to the fence links which are struck by lightning, he passes out (I have to assume from the electric shock) and falls into the storm ridden ocean. ............AND SCENE.......

Sorry... still stuck on Shi Hoo (please tell me he is not dead and just sucked into an alternate universe or something).  

We get a beautiful drowning scene where Jae Min's voice talks over the video of him sinking through the ocean.  He wishes he could have told her that it did not matter that she was a vampire, and that there is only Ma Ri for him.  Ma Ri comes swimming to his rescue and she carries him in her arms to safety.

Jae Min wakes up on shore a concerned Ma Ri hovering over him..  Jae Min coughs, looks confused, and asks the question.... "Who are you?"
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UHM  WHAT?  We are throwing amnesia into the pile of confusion that is episode 4?  OK, maybe that works since they obviously had amnesia where Shi Hoo is concerned.

Epilogue.... 2 mths have passed and Jae Min is on the train to school.  Ma Ri sits next to him and asks if he is in her class?  Jae Min looks over and his mind flashes the same girl in a hanbok???? 

 I am so confused right now.  We are left on a scene of Jae Min and Ma Ri in historical clothing smiling at each other next to a river.

I just have two lingering questions about this.....When did Orange Marmalade turn into a Sageuk and is Shi Hoo alive in this version?

Thoughts:
As much as I sarcastically mock a lot of the plot, I have to admit they are being pretty accurate when it comes to portraying teenagers and their angst.  For our 3 leads everything is all about them.  Their emotions are so heightened that they are unable to think past their relationships, their sorrow, their loneliness, to see a picture beyond that moment.

So kudos to the writers for that little bit of realism.  Now stop drinking your Red Bull Energy Drinks, and bring things back a notch.  I need a bit more substance to our OTP's relationship.  We get a whole lot of sexy neck nibbling and then suddenly we are wham bam thank you ma'amming the rest of the development.  I want to see the cute moments, the glances, the mutual acceptance of each other in relation to their unique viewpoints of life.  Instead I feel like we are looking at snapshots of their relationship with no context to connect me to the events I am watching. 

Except for Shi Hoon's death of course.....Darn you writers, he better not really be dead.

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