Hometown Cha Cha Cha Ep 7 - Don't Go [Podcast]

Streaming Banshees
Podcast Transcript

Podcast Episode 8

Episode title: Don’t Go

Date Released: April 25, 2022

Show: Hometown Cha Cha Cha Ep 7

Beep: Welcome back to streaming Banshees. The home for your TV book club on the internet today's podcast is about Hometown Cha Cha Cha episode seven. Don't forget we are a rewatch podcast— so spoilers abound. We connect things from the beginning to the end and spoil the whole series. You can find us on our website at streamingbanshees.com.

You can also reach us on Twitter @TVBanshees. This is beat and you can find me on Twitter at @beepsplained. I am joined as always by the lovely CC.

Tina: Hey guys, you can find me @acapitalchick on Twitter. [00:01:00] Beep, I loved this episode on first watch because I found myself enjoying a love triangle. Like I maybe haven't in decades on TV.

Beep: I mean, I can't think of one.

Tina: Maybe Never Have I Ever is currently a love triangle, the show on Netflix that I'm like, you know what?

I love everybody and I'm rooting for everybody. And I hope everybody dates at some point. Shin Haeun is like, all right, we're now entering the love triangle phase of this drama.

But again, it's just a phase. 

Beep: Yeah, because I know who I want together ultimately, and yet I am so invested in the third party that I just want him to be so happy as well.

Tina: Right? They’re just, it's like, they're beautiful humans who all like each other. And I like them and I just enjoy watching them. But also I have to say even the first time around, there is a little bit of satisfaction of, oh, how the, as [00:02:00] Michael Scott would say in the office, how the turntables turn, because Mr.

Denial is all of a sudden, got a clock ticking on his feelings and Mr. I-friendzoned you and it was just a biological crisis, really starting to be uncomfortable and annoyed by everything that Hye-jin and Director Ji mean to each other. And it's so fun to watch that, you know, because especially because we've only gotten little windows into how he's feeling, we've seen much more of Hye-jin, like being sad about it.

And you know, like, you know, obviously kissing him and more overtly kind of crushing on him then vice-versa so it's really fun as the audience to kind of feel like we're balancing out feelings a little bit.

Beep: Well, sure. And with him up to this point, and, and even honestly, overall, this is more his character, but he doesn't talk about things. So we have to look for [00:03:00] his reactions or especially in private, by his physicality, his emotions, his facial expressions. That's where we get a lot of times what he's really thinking, which can be in stark contrast to what he's saying.

Tina: Oh, yeah, it is so fun and I feel a little bit guilty saying how much I enjoy watching Chief Hong be jealous.

Beep: Oh, yes.

Tina: I'm not normally like I love to watch a male lead to be jealous kind of, TV fan. But what I love about it is it's like watching an anthropological expedition because you have to meticulously observe. All of the little facial expressions that Kim Seon-ho is folding into his performance of constantly where his eyes going, like his body language, the way that he's registering things that are said and reacting to them, and the editing of course has [00:04:00] to preserve all of that, right? And mine it for all that it's worth. And so it's really fun to kind of go on that journey with him and, and start to kind of conclude how serious his feelings are because on the, on the, on the like most obvious level, this love triangle functions as love triangles are supposed to do, they. It pushes both Hye-jin and Chief Hong in different ways to realize fully what they're feeling. What I think hink is interesting is later on when Hye0jin, I think, I think it's episode 11 Hye-jin will be like, well, if you knew what was going on with Director Ji why didn't you like speak up and say something, if he was going to ask me out and he says, I didn't realize then how much I liked you. And I think it's really interesting to kind of tease out the next two to three episodes of this journey that Chief Hong is going [00:05:00] on because all of these interactions and watching Director Ji make a play for Hye-jin is what is going to push these feelings that he's been denying to the surface. But also, I think it's also key to Hye-jin’s emotional journey, because she's gonna sit down and hear his love confession, which is something that maybe she had been thinking about, right? Like as like a, that kind of crush from college, for like 10 years.

Right? Remember when she was kind of looking at the magazine and Mi-seon sounds like, oh, that's the guy that you were like, always crushing on. Right? And it's going to make her realize what she doesn't want versus what she actually wants. So it, it functions the way a love triangle, you know, traditionally does in a story and that it has the audience kind of on the edge of their seat about who they're going to pick.

Although I never really felt like the romance I was cheering [00:06:00] for was truly in jeopardy. But I felt like it, you know, an added tension and it brought all of these feelings to the surface, which we had just left off in the last episode in a total state of denial.

But the rewatch of this is what absolutely blows my mind because Shin Ha-eun is using this love triangle. In a very, very different and significant way. In addition to the way love triangles are traditionally used. And that is, it is putting all of the pieces into place for Chief Hong to have to reckon with his past.

Beep: Sure. And that's what any of these narratives should be about. Right? The love triangle of course adds in some element of drama, but I feel like any major plot point or any characters that you're going to invest in need to be a catalyst to move, not only the [00:07:00] story, but the characters forward. And this forces him in, in some ways, maybe that's not the best word, but you know, maybe it is, it forces him to reckon with everything behind what he's feeling about why he can't do it.

Tina: yeah. Yeah. And it's really interesting this episode. I was focused on all of the love, triangles and love stories, right? So the first, obviously being the one that we just talked about then, the love triangle with Cho-hee and Yeong-Guk and Hwa-jung, and then finally, and that sort of the B story, and then the C story is Mi-seon and Eun-chul and the rotisserie chicken and lottery ticket.

But when you rewatch it, now, the thing that absolutely blows my mind is that what Shin-haeun is doing with the a, B and C story in this episode, is there the three mysteries of Gongjin? [00:08:00] What happened to Chief Honk? why did they get divorced and who won the lottery? And she's basically like setting up her chessboard of how she's going to start moving all of these pieces to ultimately answer all of these mysteries by the end of the series.

And now when you rewatch it, the, sometimes the editing or certain lines made me gasp and like smack myself on the forehead to be like, oh my God, the writing is so intentional. And I can't wait until we get to all of those parts because, you know, when you rewatch something and it makes you want to like throw a pillow in a good way of being

Beep: Oh yeah!

Tina: It— 

Beep: It's all there. It's all right there. If only you knew what to look for.

Tina: Exactly. Exactly. So let's kick off with the way this at the episode begins with the way the last one ended. Bee-, have you ever thought about how Directos Ji and Hye-jin both saved Chief Hong from a total free fall off [00:09:00] this pier at the beginning of this episode, just like how in episode 15, they will be the two to stand by him when he is in a free fall about his past, because Hye-jin will be the one to sit with him and talk to him.

And Director Ji will be the one to kind of push back with a security guard and reach out to his cousin who is Chief Hong's best friend's widow and bring her to Gongjin. It is remarkable because this scene that is played for such comedy the first time around the symbolism of what these two characters are going to mean for Chief Hong's self-forgiveness, it's pretty amazing.

Beep: Well, I love all the, not only the physical representations, but obviously the emotional representation and support, but physically up to this point, we've already had Chief Hong catching Hye-jin fall, like trying to fall Chief Hong [00:10:00] catching Director's Ji about to fall. And now the both of them are catching him. is just, it shows the way that these people become interwoven in each other's lives and how their priority as people kind of trumps anything that might be going on in the background.

Tina: Yeah. And it's really mind blowing. When you think about the fact, when they say like lines saying, what are you doing here? Right. We have on the surface, this coincidence that the audience is aware of on first watch, right? That Director Ji is, is Hye-jin’s friends from college. And that at the same time, he has been cultivating this friendship just through a chance meeting with Chief, Hong and Chief Hong has been unwittingly helping this television show gets set up and Gongjin, right?

That's the surface coincidence that these people all know each other. Right. But then the [00:11:00] deeper coincidence is director. She was there at the hospital at the bedside of Chief Hong's best friend on the night of the car accident,

Beep: And yeah, that didn't have to be there. It didn't have to be there, but it adds so much to the.

Tina: Shin Haeun plays with coincidence and fate, like we were talking about in the flashbacks, so much in this show. And I think we focus a lot, you know, understandably on the epilogues with respect to Chief Hong and Hye-jin, but it really is remarkable that this is, you know, the woman who was there who bought him his first suit.

This is her cousin, you know, it's like, like Director Ji and Chief Hong have played with the same little boy, you know, I mean, Chief Hong held him as a baby and Director Ji is like [00:12:00] in touch with his cousin and asking about him. They have all of this and comments, so lines, like, what are you doing here? You realize that she is setting up all of these meetings.

And on the first time around, we thought it was just about this love triangle. And it's about way more than that. And it goes to the central mystery of the show. What happened to him? Like where was he for these years that nobody in the town knows. And now she is inserting both the wife's cousin and the security guard son.

Those are the two people that are going to literally hit him in the face, but also be there to help facilitate all of the forgiveness. That is what, you know, makes episode 15. So cathartic to watch.

Beep: Yeah. And what it takes ultimately for him to get forgive himself. And not to diminish anybody's anybody's problems, but that's the only kind of forgiveness that lets you move on with your life is self-forgiveness

Tina: Right. And [00:13:00] it's it's whether it's the snuggle tooth, whether it's the wisdom tooth pushing, you know, the deep pain that is the other tooth metaphor that Shin-haeun uses more towards the end of the series. You, you can't achieve that if you are keeping things buried or hiding from what happened.

Again, there's, there's small things that have multiple layers. The writer of the show comes up. She has her glasses on, you have this comedic, like the nineties, romantic comedy. She's all that where she has her glasses on. Right. And Chief Hong doesn't recognize her at all. You know, she takes her glasses

Beep: So utterly ridiculous.

Tina: It's like, what is the, not another teen movie made fun of this trope, like the glasses on glasses off, like, it's such a transformation,

Beep: Oh yeah.

Tina: but it does two things. First of all, makes Hye-jin realize that her [00:14:00] jealousy over the last couple of weeks over who Chief Hong was walking around with was completely ill founded because he doesn't even recognize her.

Right. It has a practical explanation. It was a job. And not only was it a job, he doesn't even realize it's the same person who was walking around with for two days. And you see this like relief on her face, that she can kind of let that go, which was bothering her all during the last episode. But also I love the idea.

You have these four people assembled, right? And the writer is who Directors Ji really has deeper feelings for. And, you know, we watch him eat his way through Gongjin, but what's going to make him lose his appetite is when he's going to lose this writer as a partner. And this whole idea of like, not being able to see something that's right in front of you.

I kinda love the way she takes like the glasses on and off because you have this, these four people standing [00:15:00] all around each other, and there's this thread that runs through the episode, like the person that you're the most comfortable with and you can be the most yourself with is the one who's your true partner, but not everybody can really see that right now.

Beep: Right. And including the two.

Tina: Right. So what, what, just to pick up what you were saying before. Beep, what I love about this is the way this love triangle is set up is that Director Ji is like a really worthy romantic adversary. And I hate even calling him that, but uh, I don't know, foils the right word, but, but he is a famous television director.

Everybody loves him, including Chief Hong has really liked hanging out with him. He has a past history with Hye-jin and he is really like affectionate and really admires her for really like the right reasons. Do you know what I mean? Like [00:16:00] he remembers how hard she worked and how kind she was to a point where we're like Chief Hong is going to be kind of like, wait, are we talking about the same person?

Which I think is like, fascinating. I can't wait to get into that. but what is so interesting about this first kind of seeing where everybody's sitting around the table and chief Hong is having the same kind of moment in Ju-ri had where he's realizing that who he thought was kind of an imposter and telling stories was actually telling the truth.

And he's like, oh my God, this guy is like a really famous TV director and not just like a YouTuber about food. but he has to insert himself constantly. Did you notice that?

Beep: Oh, yes, he is so much the third wheel in this episode. And not in this, I feel like they integrate him. He does become part of it, but it's very much like, oh, you're going that way. I'm going that way. Oh, you're going to her house. I'm going to her house. I'll look, my house is right there. Everyone come in.

Like, it's just, he tries [00:17:00] to keep himself at the center of the action so that they can't have this time alone because he, I mean, he already sees it and he fears.

Tina: Yes. And it's something that I feel like slowly builds an intensity. The more he realizes that Director Ji is competition, the more overt his jealousy becomes over the next two episodes. So this one, it starts out with like Director Ji and, and Hye-jin, and are like talking about her dental clinic. And he has to be like, well, I found it.

I renovated it. It's like,

Beep: Like it's partially mine. Okay. This is we're in this together. And it's like, dude, you're trying way too hard.

Tina: and when Nam-sook, sits down and start stoking the idea that maybe there's something more between Directors Ji and Hye-jin, you just have to watch Chief Hong's face. And when she's like, look, look, he's walking her home. He immediately has to [00:18:00] get up and go follow them out. Like, that's actually crazy.

Beep: Like some sort of chaperone. That's what it reminds me of.

Tina: Exactly or like in college we had like, kind of, not a nice term for that. Like blocking someone like that is what he's doing. He's walking out a sensibly under the guise of, Hey, this guy gets lost a lot. Right. Which is true. But he is like, I'm not going to let you to be alone. He's going to do it the next, next episode.

Right. When they they're going to go to dinner to have the dumplings. Right. So like he can't let them be alone. And he's also going to block the possibility of Director Ji hanging out with Hye-jin at her house because he invites him over first and all of it on the surface is like, well, he gets lost.

And you said, you have to, you have to work tomorrow. Right. So you said you weren't gonna hang out with them anyway, but it's like this compulsive need to insert himself. And there's only one explanation for [00:19:00] that. And it's when he's denying.

Beep: Yeah, I love that Director Ji and any shows at all throughout this episode is just like the greatest guy. He's so good. He he's carefree and he's open and he doesn't sweat small stuff and he lives. I feel like so honestly, and outwardly he knows who he is, and he's fine with that. And not, not in an arrogant way, not in, you know, crazy confidence.

It's just, he settled into himself, which is something that that's a journey Chief Hong is going to go through. So it's an interesting contrast there, but it also shows just how much he's not there yet. 

Tina: Yeah. 

Beep: So insecure.

Tina: Yeah. I love the metaphor. He uses about a baseball pitcher knowing when to use his, his big stuff.

Beep: Oh yes. He doesn't just pitch as hard as he can the whole time. Like, it's all about timing.

Tina: Although the thing about Director [00:20:00] Ji that is his journey that I love that is also about his time in is he has been working so hard. He, he will later on, you know, be like, I didn't even, like, he didn't realize his work is so tied up with his feelings for his colleague that he's like, not even really aware of them. Didn't know everything that the security guard son was going through, caring for a father who was, you know, hospitalized he enjoys life through his work, through like tasting food, right.

And celebrating food. But. he obviously also has been working really, really hard. And there's a little bit about this time, I think in Gongjin that is also for him to kind of pick his head up and kind of realize, Hmm. Maybe there's a little bit more to life for me too.

Beep: Well, sure. And I actually think his thesis comes in this episode. He just doesn't realize how much he's not exercising it, which is when he tells Gam-ri, you know, I [00:21:00] just love people. And my favorite thing is for them to just be together and enjoy it.

Tina: Yeah. And he does a lot of that outside of just to show in this, in the series. So yeah, I mean, I just, uh, I just love everybody's journey and the fact that I don't think I have ever loved a rival love interest as much as I love Director Ji it's just so well done that these are three kind lovely people that I want to root for all of them to be happy.

And

Shin-haeun gives us, gives us that like, it's like a gift at the end of this series.

Beep: and I feel like he gives two, Hye-jin so much perspective on her life and sort of confidence in who she is now, because it's such a stark contrast to, you know, college, the way her boyfriend spoke to her. And so to see it from another side of like, oh no, I thought you were this hardworking, super kind, like amazing person.

[00:22:00] And I think she's able to embrace some of those traits that have always been part of her because she realizes that that's not off putting to so many people, you know, it doesn't make her less than he was actually extremely attracted to them.

Tina: Yeah. Yeah. And I want to pick up on that thread later when they, when they're talking about it over drinks. one of the things that struck me beep is that we spent so much time, the last podcast discussing all of the conflict and miscommunication between Hye-jin and Chief Hong. Yet, as soon as that reconciliation is behind them, their comfort with one another and body language and the way they are touching each other it's just like really careful direction and acting to be like, this is just how they are around each other,

Beep: Yeah, there is. It's [00:23:00] just an unconscious action. It makes me think. Whenever Director Ji kind of comes in towards the kitchen, I feel like he stumbled in on a private moment. And I also feel like maybe I should look.

Tina: Yes. Yeah. It's like palpable, palpable. There are many scenes in this episode where there is this physical comfort. I don't know the right way to put it other than like gravitational force where Hye-jin and Chief Hong are not a couple, they are squarely in bite, put by him in a friend zone. And yet their body language is not friends.

Beep: No. And every time they do it, it just really seems like they were the only two people who should be there.

Tina: Yes, constantly. Right. And also, I like, there's just, there's like these moments where it's like, almost played for humor where she's like, I, it makes when she was like, why did you want to be alone with him? [00:24:00] Like, where are you going to talk about me? Which is so sad when you think about her college experience, when she's used to men doing that.

Right. Talking about her in a negative way. Right?

Beep: When they think she's not able to hear them.

Tina: Yeah. But we, he says, you know, you got a real complex, you think everyone's interested in you like,

Beep: Oh,

burn 

Tina: is.

Beep: literally why you brought them here, dude.

Tina: So there is a lot in this episode that I think is interesting about the way Hye-jin acts around Chief Hong versus the way she acts around Director Ji— she is always herself with Chief Honk. If she's annoyed at him, it's going to come out. If she is like over the top, like lovey-dovey, oh my God, this is the first time I've been in love in my life.

She's going to act like that with him. But with Director Ji she's like constantly on her best behavior, right? Like overly friendly. Oh, come sit by me. Don't worry about that. Right? it's [00:25:00] different because one is like being your real self. And the other is like, feeling like you have to, you can only present your best version of yourself to somebody.

Beep: Well, there's also just an innocence there between them. I feel like just from having known each other a long time ago and they seemed, you know, relatively close as close as she might be to an, a two. Boy, she wasn't dating in college. And so I think there's a comfort level there. Cause I, I think even though me stone, you know, says, oh, that was kind of your crush.

Like she's not there anymore. So it's just kind of like, oh, this person's here. It's a link to my past in this small town that, you know, I'm not saying in anyway. So it it's, there's a comfort level there. I think that she's achieved with him, that she cannot keep up with Chief Hong because the two of them are just like on a collision course constantly and, you know, bumper cars bouncing off each other and she just, she can't do.

Tina: Yeah, it's just interesting the different sides of Hye-jin that they bring out. not only for it, like, as we're going to get into, not only for Chief Hong, but I [00:26:00] think for the audience, we learn a lot about Hye-jin through Director Ji and a, but I also think it's like, so painfully obvious, and as you watch Director Ji's face, she's trying to, you know, insert herself between the two of them be overly solicitous of Director Ji but the way that she's doing it is revealing how much time she spent at Chief Hong's house.

Like.

Beep: Yes. She's just wandering around. Like, she belongs there as if they already are a couple and they live there and she's just like, let me get your glass. Let me do it. I don't remember if she did that, but it's that same idea, you know of just, oh, that thing's over here. Hello, welcome. Here's some orders. I don't know, but

Tina: gosh, she's like the 

Beep: being a host is in her house that isn't hers.

Tina: and bragging about it, you know? And, and what's funny is like, she has been at that house before and Chief Hong did not feel the need to brag that he like [00:27:00] throw, made everything in there, but with Director Ji you bet, he does. He's like, I made everything in here and I picked it all out.

And so if you think it's awesome, it's because I'm awesome. So there's so much going on in terms of like Director Ji being like, uh, why do you know where the bathroom is? And did I just walk in on YouTube touching each other? Like what's what's 

Beep: Wait a minute. I can see, I have eyes. You guys.

Tina: Yeah. One thing that gives me, like gave me like made my heart pinch is when directors, she asks about the space on the shelf where the gin sang wine that they drank on the night of their biological crisis is that empty place.

that space is going to be filled by chief honk one day where he's going to kind of subconsciously. Plan for a future with Hye-jin because he's going to put something on there that can't be opened for a year that he makes for her. And it's just right now is kind [00:28:00] of like this empty space waiting to be filled.

And I love sort of the, the through line of the symbolism of that. You know what I mean? Like right now it's like, well, unwelcomed guest

Beep: was going to say, just say like, you know, someone just basically stumbled into my house and I ended up having to use it. Cause they're so rude. Like, you know, obviously my interpretation, but oh, he just burned her so bad.

Tina: Yep. So one of the things that I love about romantic comedy in particular, and this goes all the way back to my love for like Jane Austin is that comedy and romantic comedy, I think often gets the short end of the stick in terms of like appreciation out in the world with critics and awards and all kinds of things.

But I think this scene with the three of them sitting around a table, there are so many layers to it, both to the [00:29:00] writing and the acting and the way they edited it. And the first is, you know, when you feel left out. And so everything annoys you and then you start picking disagreements because you're annoyed and you can't even quite put your finger on why you're annoyed.

So that what you decide to channel that in is that Chief Hong, everything that Director Ji and Hye-jin agree about a noise Chief Hong, and he has to debate it. So whether it's Soju to beer ratio, whether it's what kind of wine is more full bodied and therefore superior to drink, whether certain kinds of food are delicious or overrated comic books and web tunes, he's sitting there like left out when they're like coming over this baby of their mutual friend.

It's just this building annoyance that is manifesting about all of [00:30:00] these random things, but really it's because he feels left out.

Beep: And it's, it's so fun to watch. And I, you can do this at any time. Truly you can, but he's like a 35. He was like, he's 12,

Tina: Yeah. I mean, he's, it's a key, can't put his finger on it yet, but we're watching him slowly realize why this annoys the hell out. And he has had Hye-jin basically to himself for this entire series so far and has felt, you know, I'm, I'm not, I, I mean, obviously he's dealing with much deeper things, but he, he, all of a sudden feels insecure because now it's like, I mean, the central theme of this episode at the end of what he says is don't go, well, now there's a threat that she actually might [00:31:00] in 

Beep: right? He's yeah. He's essentially had, uh, her entire attention up until now. So it gives them, him the opportunity to kind of have him around and not really make a commitment one way or another to how he feels. And then it's like, oops. Oh wait, she can make this decision. Hmm, wait a minute. That's not good.

Tina: Yeah. And also throw into relief. He thinks that he can, he, you know, he doesn't quote in the words of Shin Haeun dare hope for more with her, but, but he wants to keep her in his life as this friend and being able to cross lines with her. And yet now he's sitting here and he's the odd man out. He is the third wheel.

But what I think is so interesting is that even though on paper Director Ji seems to be everything that Hye0jin says that she would want, right? Like he's successful by society's standards or measurements of that, right? Like he's a famous television director, so he's financially successful. [00:32:00] He's famous, you know, he did what he set out to do.

Like he, went into journalism, he became an anchor and then he became this right. Went to college, followed a path, professional success acknowledged by the public, all of that. So on paper Director Ji is everything that Hye-jin says that she wants in a partner.

Right. Or expects, however, everything they have in common that they're talking about is really superficial

Beep: Oh, totally. It's all surface level like slash dislikes.

Tina: Right. Right. And whereas what she has in common with Chief Hung— Goes very deep about loss, right. And, and trauma and losing people that you love and growing up without a parent and having to struggle financially to go to school and all of the things that they actually read, the important things they really have in common, all of the things that she is cooing about with Director Ji to Chief Hong's great.

Annoyance is all about like food and drink and, you know, random friends they had in common in college.

Beep: Speaking of the success. It [00:33:00] makes me laugh every time this happens, even though I guess it was only twice, but it feels like constantly that when people say who they are on this show, and it seems like they're a big deal. Everyone's like, no, you're not with June. And then with, again with Director Ji, it's like, that's not who you are, whatever nobody cares.

Tina: And also like, this is a place where, you know, what's really lovely is that both Director Ji and June can like sit down at a table. Right. And just be people, it's it's as rewarding for them to be sort of away from everything that they've quote unquote achieved in society.

because this is a place where you can't just like, stand on that.

Beep: No, they just get to be normal. The status thing, which is what Hye-jin is always talking about. This idea of status. It just doesn't matter. Yeah.

Tina: Right. Okay. So one of the things that I. Love is we have been hearing a lot from [00:34:00] Chief Hong. And in he'll say it again later on about Hye-jin you you've changed, you haven't changed and what he is saying to her is, you know, when he first meets her, he thinks that she is snobbish, elitist, materialistic, judgmental.

Right? Somebody who has known her since college says to her, you haven't changed. And he means that in a positive way and Chief Hong’s face when Director Ji’s like, of course hse came to rural area and opened a dental clinic to help people.

That's who you are, you haven't changed. And she was like, wait, what are we talking about? The same person who said that she's just stopping here to like make a buck. And the thing is, is that Chief Hong is going to learn so much about Hye-jin through Director's Ji's eyes and the front row seat that he had to her in university when she was struggling and working her butt off, in a [00:35:00] really hard major while having to balance all of these jobs to pay for things.

But the thing is, is that he's actually. Right because she has always been a kind and generous person. I would love to hear sort of your thoughts about where the story begins with her and whether she may be kind of like lost her way in the city and chasing success a little bit. like they're both.

Right. Does that make sense?

Beep: Absolutely. They are. Yeah. I feel like she essentially came to a point like that was just who she was. Right. And she was just living and doing her bus. She had lost her mom. She was exhibiting her own traits in college. And then she has this boyfriend we see right. One scene essentially earlier where something, I mean, they were just talking terribly about her and she starts to adopt this persona.

That is [00:36:00] the opposite of what he's saying about. And I think some of it's real in the sense, you know, especially like the materialistic part. Not that she can't go do without it, but like she likes things. She likes shoes, like good for her, whatever. 

Tina: Yes. She likes, she says I like beautiful things, you know, and 

Beep: that's fine. It's totally fine. But I feel like she put on that exterior when she started to get the impression from someone who status, she considered very high because of his standing. She started to put on an exterior that would be acceptable to people like that.

Tina: Right. And her friends, right. Who will come back in a couple episodes, right? Like,

Beep: They're the word.

Tina: like clothes and status. And all of it is armor and having to prove yourself to people and Director Ji always saw her for who she really is. And so this, these two men and how they view her and how [00:37:00] chief Hong is always struggling with the way she acts on the surface and her words versus her actions.

Right. And when he, when he focuses on her actions like helping Gam-ri or helping jury, that's when he's like, I really like who this person is. And, but her words and some of her judgmental ness is a product of sort of the journey she has been on in university and working in Seoul and Director Ji knows her kind of back before all of that hardened her.

And so it's this really interesting, you've you have it changed. You've changed and they're both. but this journey that we watch Hye-jin go on, she has a person that ultimately is going to turn down a prestigious job in soul and stay because she's this town's dentist. And so even though it's played for comedy where Chief Hong is like, dude, are we talking about the same person here?

You know, director gees. Right. And he's [00:38:00] really important in filling in a lot of what Chief Hong doesn't know about her to dig a little bit deeper and go, oh, it does match with the actions that I've observed.

Beep: Well, and if we go back to the. That kind of crosses the entire series is if she's a hedgehog in college, she just didn't have a reason to have her spikes up. And now she mostly does. And it's only when they, you know, when they're put down a lot of times when she's just kind of not really paying attention, especially with him, it just kind of happens naturally.

But for the most part, she raised those spikes a long time ago. And that's just the way that she lives.

Tina: one thing I want to keep an eye on is I think that Hye-jin. Sh, you know, she, she still gets annoyed with Chief Hong, right. Especially when he's being like later on in a scene, very jealous and like really teasing her. She still gets annoyed with him. She's real with him, but she's not spiky with him again, [00:39:00] the way that she was earlier on in these episodes.

Beep: No, it's a more natural dynamic.

Tina: yeah. And well, and, and we'll get to why, and what she kind of remembers and keeps in her head and knowledge that she's collecting. Like, for example, oh, I don't have romantic competition. He wasn't gallivanting with this other woman after this kiss the way I thought he was. Right. That's sort of like her first data point and there's going to be another important data point later on in the episode.

How many ways can you say Siberian? Husky?

Beep: This killed me. There's a reason for this, right? I, I've never heard Yorkshire terrier, like more times in my life. And it, it took me out of it in such a strange way 

Tina: yeah, but both of these, like first of all, these drinking games are hilarious and way more complicated than the drinking games that I was playing in college.

I feel like kind of a basic college drinking game [00:40:00] person when these like, like the, the stakes and the level of skill it takes to like do these things while you're also drinking lots of alcohol, 

Beep: Yeah. Where's this like beer pong. Like, I don't even know what they're doing. It was ridiculous competitions. It feels like they're making them up on the spot, but I feel like they're not it's this, this is very well-known,

Tina: Yeah, it's really complicated. I feel like American college drinking games were like circle of death and beer pong and never have I ever. And those are all really basic compared to these like high stakes and high level skills. So one of the fun things that I did not realize sort of like on first watch, but then other fans, were really great and pointing out to American viewers that maybe weren't as familiar necessarily with Korean variety shows is that during the time of hometown cha-cha Kim Sanho was simultaneously on a really popular variety show called two days in one night.

And so there's this [00:41:00] whole metal layer, two Hometown Cha Cha of a variety show being filmed. And these drinking games in particular, because in real life, Kim Seon-ho is on a show similar to this and to both of the games that they play, the sand lance sauce, which I went down a rabbit hole— and for viewers that aren't familiar, it's similar to like the taste of anchovies, which I feel like just adds a whole other layer.

It's chugging that glass.

Beep: I mean, you could tell there were mortified by him drinking it. Like, yeah. I, all I could think in my head was like soy sauce. And even that gross me out, but yeah, you just spread a whole, but oh. Level of suck to it.

He's so committed to the bit though. He's just like, no, I'm here with.

Tina: Yeah. So that is a real game. The trying to distinguish between what is is black coffee versus sand lance sauce is a real game that Kim Seon-ho played with his castmates on two days in one night as is the quote unquote [00:42:00] perfect pitch syllable game. And in that, in that, in the real life show, he was doing Siberian Husky.

So we'll link both of those YouTube clips, just so people there it's pretty funny. And so people can kind of see what, what the real life with this is like metal all about, but, but like There's this level of, yes, these two men actually are in competition with one another because they're both going to be competing for Hye-jin affection, but they also really enjoy each other's company.

And so there's kind of this fun, like this whole competition is because Director Ji wants Chief Hong to come work on this show with him. And so even though it's competition and the two of them are quite fierce and how they compete with one another, it's also cooperative and they are enjoying the heck out of it, which I feel like is symbolic of their overall love triangle on the show.

And also, Hye-jin, is just [00:43:00] enjoying watching the two of them. And there's something to this feeling when there's two people who are important to you, whether how much you realize that on whatever level and you introduce them and then they hit it off. And you're just like, oh, this is so fun watching these two people that I really, really like also really, really like each other.

Beep: Oh, sure. And she also gets a version of Chief Hong. She hasn't seen because he really is having fun.

Tina: yeah. And they don't have a lot of people their age to hang out with in town. Right. Like, so, I mean, the grocery store owner said that at the very beginning, like there's not that many people in their thirties to like drink and hang out with. So she hasn't, she hasn't other than the two of them. And they're kind of like, love you, hate you dynamic when they were drinking.

She hasn't gotten to see the side of him. And I think it's actually kind of important that this successful by every measure in their society guy [00:44:00] is going this hard to try and get Chief Hong to work for him because he sees how valuable he is.

Beep: Right? Absolutely. He's not, nobody's playing games about this.

If that makes sense. He really, truly wants him around because he sees how talent.

Tina: Yeah. And, and they were like, he, you know, this is a guy who's like an expert on food and going all over the country and highlighting cuisine everywhere and very successful on television. He really respects what Chief Hong has to say about food. So it's kind of like this mutual respect that, you know, I mean, I think Hye-jin goes on a whole journey with having to grapple with what she thinks is important and what she values, it also shows what a good guy Direction Ji is because he doesn't, he doesn't care at all that Chief Hong just does odd jobs.

He thinks that he's smart and resourceful and would add a lot of value to a show.

Beep: Yes. I love that. He, while he's achieved, status does not care about it. And other people,

Tina: Right. [00:45:00] Absolutely. Yeah, okay. We're going to save what happens at the end of this night for the end. Beep, Hye-jin wakes up at Chief Hong's house the morning after hung over after passing out drunk again, but now it's with two men.

Beep: this is catnip. That means is so about this. You know, that, I mean, she's the town gossip, but let's be real. How much can she really get out of people? You know, it's a lot of it's pretty service, but I mean, this has to be. Holy crap. Next level.

Tina: She knows nothing happened, but still the optics Nam-sook is like losing her damn mind with the three of them all walk out of the house, 

Beep: Yes. [00:46:00] And especially when Chief Hong kind of asked directors, you like back in like, oh, do you want to stay?

Tina: which the ramen, the ramen I have learned is basically the American equivalent of do you want to come over and watch Netflix and chill? Like, it's like, it's like a hookup invitation, which is why now I'm stuck. It's like, dude, what is going on in this like, love triangle. but you know, Mi-seon as always with her leg dry, which is like another night at Chief Hong's agents.

Like, yes, but we just slept again.

Mi-seon is like, dude, I'm just going to get a bowl of popcorn out because my friend who said this boring ass love life, our whole lives, all of a sudden, Mi-seon is like the Greek chorus.

Again, she's caught between a rock and a hard place between Chief Hong and Director Ji. And while on the surface, Shin Haeun is going to, you know, get as much mileage as she can out of that. The [00:47:00] reason why I love this show is because that actually isn't true. I think Hye-jin is pretty clear and a straight line about what she wants, which is why this love triangle is not annoying,

Beep: Right,

Tina: You know, because when you play with a love triangle too much in really keeping the audience on the edge of their seat, sometimes it can undermine the way that it is eventually resolved.

If that makes sense, 

Beep: Oh, absolutely.

Tina: It can kind of undermine the feelings of the couple that in the end. And that's not to say that in real life, of course you have, can have feelings for multiple people, but from a storytelling perspective, if I think about other shows that stretch a love triangle on for too much and play too much with the person who has the decision to make about what they want, then you can kind of feel like it chipped away at what the end game was.

And Shanghai never does that here.

Beep: No, it can definitely get to a point where by the time anyone actually gets together, there's been [00:48:00] so much hurt, so much pain, so much that you're just kind of just like, I don't really care.

Tina: Right. You, you always know who you're supposed to root. You always know the end game that you're supposed to root for while also really loving the other character. And there's a lot of things that she does to make that happen. For example, having the two competing love interests meet and like each other before the love triangles ever introduced and obviously all of the conversations and continued friendship that they have.

But another important piece of that is while Hye-jin likes director, she and at first sort of is accepting his gestures. I never felt like her feelings about which one she actually preferred wherever in doubt.

Beep: No, not at all. None at all.

Tina: That brings us to a scene that didn't really make a huge impact on me on first watch. And then on [00:49:00] rewatch, my mouth dropped open stunned at how meticulously Shin Haeun constructed this mystery and how it's going to be resolved with Chief Hong. The television production crew shows up in Gongjin and the cousin of Chief Hong's best friend's widow introduces him to the son of the security guard and says, this is chief honk.

Beep: whose name this gentleman would not know in that forum.

Tina: And won't hear until the end of episode 14.

Beep: And boy, when he does

Tina: And what does he say? Beep? 

Beep: What a cool guy. 

Tina: I like him. Oh, it's like on the surface, you thought all of this was about just this love triangle and directors.[00:50:00] kicking off the next level of our romantic love story of people realizing their feelings and all of that is absolutely true.

But what is percolating all along, leading up to the end of episode 14, when this all blows up is that Shin Haeun is using this television show and this production crew to make Chief Hong have to confront his past. But in a way that I think is so interesting because to security guard son, the name Hong Du-sik, that is, that is the villain in the story of what happened to his father.

That, you know, that is who they place all the blame on because it is really difficult to do that with somebody who is an a coma and partially paralyzed. And so what they do is they take all of their anger and, sadness about what happened. And they put it all on this Hong Du-sik, because he must have been the one who [00:51:00] manipulated their father into making all of those risky choices that ended up being so catastrophic for their family.

But what he doesn't know is this person that he likes, who he is going to come to really like look up to and think is basically like the best human he's ever met, sold everything he had to pay for his students. Like he is the unknown and unseen benefactor in his life, trying to atone for what happened, which was, you know, honestly much more the father's fault than anything having to do with chief honk.

Beep: Yeah. He told him not to do it for sure. He told him not to.

Tina: Yeah.

Beep: but it's hard to not place blame elsewhere, even as the father, when you lose everything financially, because of a choice that you made. what's heartbreaking. And I know we get to this much later, but even along the way, Chief Hong learns about his father, obviously doesn't know who it [00:52:00] is and is making things to take to him because it might help ease his suffering.

I mean,

Tina: I know with no knowledge of who it is, but just as an act of kindness. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really, it's really, just the layers of this rewatch. All of these interactions are important and we never, we never could have realized it on first watch. And this is, you know, I mean, you and I spent a lot of time dissecting a time travel show where these kinds of layers happen.

This is a sensibly, a romantic comedy. This is meticulous writing because even the line of how he's introduced his Paris. Because that's what maintains the mystery until episode 14 and makes it such a bombshell at the end of that.

Beep: Yeah, because we've gotten to know both of these people, even, you know, even the sun we've gotten to know to some extent they've spent time together. So then [00:53:00] to see that immediate riff drawn between them, we have feelings about it instead of it just being a reveal about some random person that we didn't know to start.

Tina: Absolutely. And you know, the opportunity to get to know one another, without the perception and narratives existing about what happened, both for Director Ji and for the security guard son, all of the ways that they get to know Chief Hong and the kind of person he is then for both of them directors, you, admittedly more and the security guard needs to kind of come around to it.

But it's what facilitates the reconciliation because they've gotten to know him first. Then they realize that he's the person in this narrative that they have both heard from people in their lives. And then they have to grapple with that. What, what do I know from firsthand experience versus other people's versions of, of a story about him?[00:54:00] 

Beep: Right because he's been mythologized.

Tina: Yeah. Yeah,

Beep: he is, is a person in a store. I mean, he's not even a person, he's a figure in a story and you're getting to know a person. And when you have to try to reconcile those two things, I don't envy that son for having to go through that. That's a, that's a really rough situation.

Tina: no. Although, you know, ultimately I found, and I think it's realistic in terms of both the widow's conversation and the security guard son. I think the security guards son's ultimate reckoning with Chief Hong is far more satisfying and taking responsibility, than the best friend's widow. So it's really, it's just, this is such careful writing and a level of planning of knowing where you're going and how you're [00:55:00] going to weave all these people into each other's lives before and into the audiences, like right.

Expectations. It's just like you thought this was just about a love triangle and this variety show being filmed in the town that was a device for many other things. And it's way more than that. talk to me about the restaurant scene.

Beep: Okay. This reminds me so much of just kind of the high school variation of you. Can't sit with us even though, I mean, everybody is obviously sitting there, but it just feels so much like it's just so juvenile is knowing, going to say, Hey to me, like chill over there. Okay.

Tina: I enjoy petty Chief Hong so much. And so much of this by the way, is largely improvised,

Beep: I love that. He's such a child.[00:56:00] 

Tina: just sitting there stewing over the way Hye-jin and even Mi-seon. And this is just going to escalate in the next episode the way. So, I mean, there's, that there's a comedic level to it, but there's also, uh, in the next episode, uh, now we know a much kind of more poignant level to it. Chief Hong’s whole self worth is tied up in everything that he can do for people and what he means to this town.

Right. And so every time director. Takes over one of those roles, uh, fixing something or doing something for someone or people saying hi to him and not Chief Hong. It's like a tie. It's like thousands of tiny cuts for Chief Hong, which is ultimately good because the dude needs to live for himself. Right.

But he just sits there and he's watching like, think about the way Hye-jin always acts with Chief Hong. Like she's [00:57:00] annoyed, she's real. She doesn't bat her eyelashes and is all smiley and like, oh my God, you're here. Let's go get a meal together. Oh my God. Like, he's just sitting here. Like, are you kidding me? So what is great is that this scene shows how much Hye-jin is now a part of this community, because now she is explaining Chief Hong's minimum wage rule to the new person. Who's come to Gongjin.

Beep: But I love that Chief Hong insists that she do that almost as a way to indicate, oh, well, she already knows. Cause we're super close. Take that new guy.

Tina: Oh, my God. It's so funny. And I try not to go down a field's rabbit hole as I often do, because so much of this minimum wage, [00:58:00] like status quo of his life. And this philosophy is born of all of the past events that are tied up with Director Ji and security guard son. Right? So like, there's this layer of like, she's explaining it.

And she's like, ah, he's kind of a weirdo, right? Like there's this whole layer like comedic layer to it. And also showing that Hye-jin is now part of Gongjin. And she's not explaining this to the next outsider. Who's come along because now she knows this, right. She's already been on this journey, but there's a layer to it, of deeper meaning that we can possibly know once director, she leaves and Chief Hong imitates the way Hye-jin was talking and says, I thought you didn't let just anyone treat you.

Do you spend holding onto that moment the morning after for a long time? Hasn't he,

Beep: He holds on to everything she says, and he is ready at a moment's notice to [00:59:00] throw it back in her face.

Tina: I know seriously sucks to be dating a genius. He's going to remember everything you said.

Beep: Yeah. He definitely lives by, you know, your words don't match your actions. That is, I feel like his thesis with her throughout every time that happens or what he considers happens, he's going to point it right out to her.

Tina: Yeah, but he's so annoyed because this is just another thing being thrown in his face of, oh shoot. Maybe Director Ji is that guy. And I'm not like she's going to let him buy a meal for her. And she wouldn't let me the morning after she kissed me, shoot, you know, like I think it's it comes out as this petty teasing her, but he can't not say something because it's annoying him so much.

Beep: Oh, no, it's, it's very deep for him. But the interesting thing is she doesn't let him pay later and they don't go on it yet. But you know, Hye-jin and Direction Ji, [01:00:00] you have that conversation and she's like, no, I'll get it. He's not going to let she still doesn't let him take her.

Tina: yeah. Nah, that's such a good point. but one of the things that I love about the shift in, and it's Shin Min-a as acting is great because there is this thread that I mentioned before about. And I think it's tied up a little bit in, a later conversation that happens, with team gossip, girl about first loves and not getting over your first love, right? That always stays with you. And, and maybe perhaps the idealization that goes along with that. The people who are going to ultimately be romantic partners by the end of the show from Mi-seon to Eun Cheol through Chief Hong, and Hye-jin, or the people who are, you are at your most real in front of. So with Nissan and you [01:01:00] channel that can be like, who knows that you're having a bout of like irritable bowel syndrome or sees you without your makeup on, right.

Or for here, Asian is putting on this like cheerful, smiley. Oh my God, it's so good to see you like thing with Director Ji. And with Chief Hong, she immediately shows how annoyed she is and is like real with him. And that is like, that's, those are the relationships that ultimately are going to be the ones that that's the person you spend your life with.

The person you can be real in front of.

Beep: Right because she's not doing it. I feel like as, you know, potentially rudely as a lot of her dental friends do later, but then again, that's so normal and where it all is ingrained into is to try to like brag about our accomplishments, but she's definitely putting on her. Kindly still, but her status face in front of him in front of Directors Ji.

Tina: yeah. And. I think, watching Chief Hong [01:02:00] slowly feel insecure and annoyed, and he's like having a really grapple with like, this annoys me and yet he, and he will say things like it doesn't matter to me. Like in the next episode, I'll be like, I don't know how that guy could be interested in her.

Right? Like he's saying these things, like he's trying to convince himself, but he's just like sitting in a corner stewing that she didn't say hi to him. But she said hi to the other guy, you know, like, it's really basic. What's going on here. She falling that's, you're annoyed that she might like this other guy, that takes us to the romantic laundry scene.

Beep only Hometown Cha-Cha could make doing laundry, this joyful and romantic and beautiful to look up.

Beep: Okay. But I want to talk about the panties where,

Tina: Only the two of them could look that attractive and those outfits,

Beep: well, the reason I was saying it is because I kind of want them.[01:03:00] 

Tina: I would want a hundred percent buy those as lounge pants.

Beep: Absolutely. They're incredible. I love the colors of the clothing and just the ridiculousness of some of it make me so happy.

Tina: I know it's it's so it's so joyful. The music, the slow motion, the colors, the scenery, the playfulness, how much they're smiling. I mean, I think it's basically maybe the most, these two characters smile in the series. Right. It's just joyful. I was grinning ear to ear the first time that I watched this and I've probably watched it 30 times since, but, but it's, but it's also just, I don't know.

It's like one of those scenes that at least you and I, as having consumed mostly Western television up until recently, like, it's just such a gift, [01:04:00] you know, you can just sit back and be like, life can be beautiful doing ordinary things.

Beep: Right. Especially when like it or not. It's with somebody you care about

Tina: Yeah. I mean, listen, the person who makes doing laundry fund is absolutely who you should marry

Beep: 100%, you should propose on the spot. If you find that situation come into your life.

Tina: Yeah, laundry sucks. And it particularly will suck if you have a family. So if you can find somebody who makes that, that beautiful, that is who you should stick with. all right. So there's a lot to unpack about this scene and what initially starts. It is this guy who has been slowly stewing and annoyed at this prospect of somebody else who's going to on many levels, he's taking away his time.

[01:05:00] And, and most importantly Hye-jin’s attention, right? Because whether it was sitting around at the initial table with everybody from Gongjin or when the three of them were at his house or at the fish restaurant, it's about Director Ji is the one who is getting Hye-jin’s attention and he is not. And so what he does is it's like the moment when it was raining on the beach, he acts on impulse, right?

So before he grabbed her hand and he ran here, he like grabs the strap of her purse. It is a like physical. If we go to the end of this episode, don't go stay with me in this moment. if you go back to it, shin Hutton was saying overall about his journey. Every time he takes a leap, like this of acting on what he's feeling, it's a step of courage.

He wants her to be in this moment with him and just like [01:06:00] play with her, you know? Like it reminds me of when they were on the beach and he was like, let's play. And you know, he's a little diabolical because he knows like, she's, she's stuck now doing it with him because they're in front of Gam-ri. So she like, can't turn them down.

Right. And he's like delighting and how annoyed she is and the clothing. But, grabbing her purse strap is, a wordless. Don't go.

Beep: Sure. And because of what you just said about her, cause she can't really say no, it's it definitely mitigates the risk. He's in a good position right now to know that if he does this, he will get time.

Tina: after we watched him be in his head so much, the last episode, it's like, he's, he's acting on impulse. And when Chief Hong acts on his feelings, things work out much better. Right. So instead of being up in his head and second guessing, or as Gam-ri often says, like unnecessary thoughts, right?

[01:07:00] Like he gets stuck in his head a lot when he acts on how he's feeling instead of sitting around and stewing and questioning what he deserves or like what's possible. It's like, that's what creates moments like this.

Beep: But cause that's who he really is. It's I mean, that's what shines through is when he can't hold it in any more, what he releases is not something ridiculous. He releases himself

Tina: yeah,

Beep: and then you can see that and it just radiates at that point. You're just like, wow, this guy, you know, he's romantic and he's thoughtful and he's fun.

And he's a knowing and he jokes and just all the parts of him that just come out naturally. Once he can't hold it in.

Tina: this scene is so them because they are. Bickering and like caught this constant, like the magnets that we talked about so many, few podcasts ago, right. They're like a bickering over the right way to do it. And whose feet are more dirty and do you know this song and [01:08:00] stepping on each other's feet.

Right. But then it's just this like joyful playfulness that is just the two of them enjoying each other and having fun then in a way that they are not like with anybody else.

Beep: Right. And back to your point on, you know, if you get somebody who will do laundry with you, then marry them. I'm not sure you should do that. If they really truly enjoy it, you should only do it. If it's like this, when everyone is bickering and it's a shit show and it's super fun.

Tina: Yeah. So this, the show plays with this imagery of playing with water in unexpected ways and maybe ways that kind of break the rules. So, you know, obviously the one from the previous episode and later on, when they, right after they're engaged of running in the ocean with your clothes on, but you know, at least for many people and particularly for Hye-jin washing clothes with your feet [01:09:00] is a very unique experience for her.

And she's like, why are we doing it this way? Right. Like, and turning it into like, you know, they're basically like dancing with each other in a bucket of water with their clothes on. And like

Beep: sounds like one of a Ooh songs exercising, the mood light, dancing in a buggy with your clothes on, you know, it's all the same.

Tina: exactly, or like later on, Chief Hong’s dream of, being happy and playing with her is, spraying each other with a hose with her clothes on, right. There's something playful and breaking the rules and in water, that is the constant imagery that like is the thread that runs through the show of when they are joyful with one another.

And you know, Chief Hong is at his best when he's like playful like this, right. He's playful with her family, which brings out a side of her father and her stepmother and her together in a way that they never would be like [01:10:00] on their own and the way that he's like willing to do all these bucket list activities with her later on, even though some of them are like absurd, but he's just willing to like, get into it and be playful with her.

And that brings out a side of Hye-jin that we don't see basically with anybody else. there is a really fun, and I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional, but just to quick throw footnote, that is pretty hilarious, with this scene and that is, Sort of a realist and particularly feminist critique of Henry David Thoreau is that while Thoreau was like talking this big game and Walden about all of the things that he was doing on his own and living, you know, only by his two hands, his mom and his sister were still doing all his laundry.

Beep: Okay. Mortifying to me. I just want to walk to that cabin while he's writing his little book and just slap him with another book, just Jack him upside the head and be like, are you kidding me? Stop [01:11:00] writing, go wash your clothes. You can do this later. You're ridiculous.

Tina: Self-reliance does not survive a 21st century feminist critique on that one. 

Beep: I bet Tolstoy did his own laundry.

Tina: Oh, no way. Count Leo Tolstoy did his own laundry either. But what I love is whether it's intentional or not a 21st century throw with a surfboard written by a woman. He not only does his own laundry, he does laundry for his grandmother to.

Beep: Yes. The women are not doing it for him. He is being helpful because he is a servant and not a butthole.

Tina: I honestly, only Chief Hong could look this adorable in aqua flowered, grandma pants, like hitting his head on when they're spinning the laundry. And it's like, so they're like having so much fun. And then he accidentally hits himself in the head. Like there's so much about this. That [01:12:00] is deconstructing the way a romantic male lead is normally portrayed.

He's going to do it later when he's holding like a chip in an alley, the way a male lead would hold a cigarette, being contemplative. But it's just so like, yeah, this guy's like your dream, your romantic lead. And he's in grandma's pants doing laundry.

Beep: Yeah. And it's also when it's the purity of it is so gorgeous with, Gam-ri just looking on, like I see you guys

Tina: Oh, she's so happy. Right.

Beep: that he's happy,

Tina: she gets it. And she sees what it is for what it is before either of them do. And you know what she does, she goes and gets more blankets to keep it going

Beep: tricky, tricky lady.

Tina: the trap within the trap. Right. Chief Hogk thought that he was the clever one, trapping Hye-jin into doing this and Gam-ri [01:13:00]in the end was like, why would he keep it going?

Beep: And I'm going to get my blankets loss.

Tina: Yeah.

Beep: Gam-ri is gangster.

Tina: All right. So let's, let's unpack the moment that happens in the middle of this scene. And what I love about it is it is the inverse of the whole thing that happened with the kiss. So now Chief Hong is the one who got within needed. Obviously in both cases, they were both drunk, but Chief Hong is the one who went out on an emotional limb with Hye-jin.

He cries in front of her. He asks her not to go. He puts his head on her shoulder. Now she remembers, and he doesn't. And she also chooses not to say something about it and put him on the spot about it. But I feel [01:14:00] like it's coming from a very different place. It's not coming from a place of denial. I feel like it's almost coming from a place of empathy 

Beep: It's mercy. 

Tina: yes,

Beep: Yeah, it's mercy.

She knows it will embarrass him. She knows that this is, you know, it's not a good time. I feel like she knows that they're not, you know, in not being drunk, they're not in that place. And she doesn't want to, you know, make him feel less.

Tina: yeah, I love that's a beautiful way to put it. And the other thing is unlike chief Hong, who. Withdrew emotionally, once that sort of came to the surface, she leans in like physically her head goes to his chest. She remembers it. She doesn't bring it up, but then she really enjoys being with him.

Beep: I will say in her [01:15:00] defense versus the last time she wasn't asked like three or four times, if anyone remembered what

Tina: yeah. But she doesn't, she just says I remembered something weird and we know later on she remembers all of it because when she's walking in the rain, she remembers what they show us is like playing in her head is she remembers that. He said, don't go. So, you know, we can, based on what the narrative showed us, conclude that Hye-jin not only remember some crying on her shoulder, but what he said.

And you know, I, I don't think it's a coincidence the way she kind of like softens how she acts towards him. Like this is yet another data point for her to tuck away in her own journey about what her feelings are for him. Um,

Beep: that it was on it. They've spent a lot of time recently, either talking past each other or just totally bickering. And she knows in that moment when he was at [01:16:00] his lowest, in a way that he was honest and he cried. But like, I, for sure, didn't

Tina: yeah.

Beep: not even a little bit

Tina: Yes, she did.

Beep: cut up. You don't know me.

Tina: we're going to have to put her big girl pants on when we get to the end of this episode. Like once again, we were talking about sort of like, the very careful directing and performance choices. there's kind of an evolution, which is, I think symbolic of Chief Hong's the way he physically reacts to her being close, that evolves.

And here she, he lets her rest her head on his chest and his arms kind of stay still to his side. Then he pushes her away and has to diffuse it immediately with a joke. Right. Like it's default is immediately like, okay, that was weird. What are people gonna think? You're like a wooly mammoth, her rhinoceros or whatever, large animal I can think of immediately [01:17:00] to like diffuse this.

Beep: Right. 

she doesn't want people to consider them a payer. I mean, he's coming from a lot of different angles right now. I feel like,

Tina: yeah. But he doesn't immediately push her away.

Beep: well, of course not.

Tina: Right. But then later on the next time she runs, there's like this evolution, the next time she runs towards him with the flashlight. She's going to get one arm, but it's going to take until they're dating at the end of episode, like 11, where we're going to get like a full two arm hug, you know?

So it's just this like carefully calibrated, physically, how he responds to her is indicative of emotionally how open he is and where he is like on his journey. if we can move to one of the moments in this episode that hit me, like a ton of bricks that I never noticed until we were getting ready for this.

So they sit down after it and they've had [01:18:00] like, it's been like a really good afternoon. Right. And Chief Hong says labor is a good thing. It makes a person nice and simple. Yeah. Tell me your thoughts about that.

Beep: I feel like in a way there there's, it's twofold because I feel like when you're doing something with your hands and you're working, you're able to get out of your thoughts. And so you're accomplishing something instead of being paralyzed. And yet there's. Very specific element to that for him. That's because it's wrapped in tragedy.

So he understands the simplicity of here is a project. And I shall now finish that project versus having to think about anything and get existential or it, you know, [01:19:00] it's just, this is in front of me. I get to create, I get to make, I get to fix, instead of being the mess of human being that I really am inside, that I can't face right now.

Tina: Yeah. Like if you think about all of the certificates that he's pursued and all of the jobs, right? all of it is too, because when he's alone with his thoughts, either at home or when he's sleeping, it like tortures him, but it's also a direct response to the way he was living in Seoul, which was not labor, not working with your hands.

It was sitting at a desk and playing with other people's money.

Beep: Right. And, and what this type of labor does versus that is he's creating things to put back into the world instead of those experiences where he feels like he took things out of the world that were not his.

Tina: Yeah. And I mean, you know, even when he talked about his career, the [01:20:00] only reason he was reticent to be even gone down that path. And the only reason why he did is because his friend said, well, that's how you can, that's how you can help working people save for their retirement. Right. It was that like rationalization.

So even when he reluctantly went down that path, it was always tied to this idea of, of, of work and the dignity and worth of working with your two hands, which is something that Hometown Cha Cha Cha. I mean, we talked about sort of that montage of the fishermen, right? There's, there's a lot that kind of ties into the thorough Tolstoy, the wisdom and dignity, and honor in working with your hands, which is in contrast to what the city often represents, which is the opposite.

or looking down on that, right. As like lesser than, cause it's not like a white collar job or inherited money or, you know, however that condescension [01:21:00] manifests. are you ready? I feel like we just, we just need to take a minute. This is the part that absolutely kills me. Gam-ri brings the two of them, a bowl of.

Beep: No, she doesn't. No, she doesn't because if that happened and the other stuff happens and it just doesn't,

Tina: Oh,

Beep: such a sweet darling.

Tina: I, I never picked up on that detail that this afternoon, which is really the first time that they have enjoyed being with one another under her like loving gaze, since that whole mess happened between the two of them, that she offered them this bowl of corn, that this is part of this memory of dislike, beautiful afternoon that they [01:22:00] spent with one another at her house.

And at the end of this story, Gam-ri is going to bring him that bowl of corn to tea to try and feed him, to check on him, to make sure he's okay. When he is holding himself up with his guilt and his trauma and shutting everybody out. And he is the one who's going to bring that bowl into his house. It's going to spur him finally opening.

And then after Gam-ri gone, finding her letter in that bowl is what is going to finally bring the catharsis of grief that harmed you Du-sik has never had in his entire life

Beep: I can't. I'm sorry.

Tina: so

Beep: I just can't, it's gorgeous. [01:23:00] And, uh, and also that. You know, at the funeral when Hye-jin, when they're honoring in the food and she just like wants the biggest bowl of food possible for a recipe, she claimed she didn't even care much about and didn't want later, but because it's Gam-ri and honoring her, I mean, she's just like pilot on let's go.

Tina: Yeah. I mean, there's so much, and we're about to get into this beautiful scene of this unlikely community around a table, but Gam-ri and her food brings people together, even when she's gone. And this idea of what directors you says, eating and talking and laughing together around a table. That is what life is about.

That there's, it's just really, you know, I feel like we're almost at a loss for words at how gorgeous the symbolism is. Something as simple as. The [01:24:00] sweet corn in a bowl and how that brings people together and brings people back into community and opening themselves up to others and all of these beautiful and healthy ways in joyful ways.

You know, right now it's, it's joyful community with one another. They're on, it's a beautiful day. They're with people they care about their recent conflict is behind them. And then later on community in, in feeling sadness with one another and grieving and openly, and letting that as Hye-jin’s flow through you in a healthy, cathartic way.

And all of it comes back to this symbolism of galleries food and how it brings people together to do that.

Beep: And even though this, this scene is not the direct correlation to it. I just love that. It informs the reason that she makes her decision to allow them to use the home because her family's not coming in her granddaughter won't come to visit, you know, and she, I think she realizes one. That's not [01:25:00] the only family you have.

And. Your home, which is perfect for these types of things and bringing these people together in this community that you're also always invested in and want your grandson to have, well, your home is perfect for that. And what are you using it for? If not that,

Tina: Yeah. There's this, you know, there's there's, there was a lot of humor to sort of Director Ji wooing Gam-ri and the way she makes him work for it,

Beep: oh, it was delightful. And she's like, he, well, he gave up too soon. Like she was going to say,

Tina: Yes. But there is that shot of her at her house, standing, leaning against the wall and looking out on the road that is, makes my chest hurt because it's so like poignantly the way that the elderly are often lonely, you know, she's at the [01:26:00] entrance to her house, hoping that somebody comes by.

Beep: yeah, she's waiting for him. She goes, she's become used to, to their interaction. It's not just what he's doing for her. It's it is an extension of keeping that loneliness at bay because he seems to, and I think truly does not only want to do the things that he's there to do, but he cares about. And he gives her the opportunity on the other hand to take care of somebody and to provide that food in that thing that she is so happy to do for other people in the way that she contributes.

Not because it's the only way or not, because she feels like she has to, but because she truly enjoys it,

Tina: Yeah. The other beautiful thing is that Director Ji’s television show is going to air after Gam-ri is gone and we'll honor her legacy in the way that the television show, the, she always watches on VHS about her father's legacy.[01:27:00] it will do the same. So, you know, it's not only this joyful community and company and, and you know, the fact that he's filming at our house will mean that even though it will annoy her friends, sometimes she'll be living with her friends for the last months of her life instead of alone, right.

In a house, you know, the fact that she calls her granddaughter and, you know, it's another painful kind of like the interaction that she had with her son, you know, her, and that's not to say, you know, there's different stages in people's lives. And when you're a teenager and in high school and college, it's very much about you and your friends and that's just a stage of life,

Beep: Oh yeah. This is a much more normal phone call. Just like, yeah. That's, what's going to happen.

Sorry. Especially with her being so far away in the

Tina: Yeah. Are you coming home to Gongjin so that I can cook for you? And it's like, no, I'm going to California on spring break with my friends like that. That is what any 20 year old would probably say, right? Mo most 20 year olds would say to their [01:28:00] grandmother. Now the sad footnote to that is that her granddaughter will never come home to see her because Gam-ri will be gone.

and so.

Beep: nor her son

Tina: Nor her son and her son will lament all of these opportunities that he let slide by and didn't come home and didn't enjoy her cooking. And yet we have this found family, this found community that are not her blood ties, but are around her table. And when she says, I can't remember the last time I had to take out so many spoons, it's like such beautiful writing.

I think about my grandmother after she became a widow, talking about how there's like, you know, you would go to her house and it would be like just one coffee mug in the drying rack, right? One spoon, one bowl, going to a tea, going to a [01:29:00] restaurant and having to sit at a table for one

Beep: Yup.

Tina: it's symbolic of loneliness,

Beep: But there's also a bit though, I think on the flip side, which is kind of cool, is she, she's a hopeful character because she had those spoons to.

Tina: Yeah. And the Shin Haeun uses this symbolism of objects, right. Because she's going to come back to it with Du-sik’s proposal when he's like two pairs of shoes, two aprons, right. That this idea of the objects that you take out in your house and who you're sharing your life with, it's really simple and straightforward and yet, so much to like unpack from it in terms of meaning.

there's a lot of layers of comedy to the scene too, right? Like Hye-jin has a total fan girl freak out when June walks up. She's like, do you remember me? And he remembers everybody and he remembers [01:30:00] her. And then he's completely has her fellow fan girls back and asks if Juri could come and have dinner with her freaking hero.

And he remembers her name and age. 

Beep: June is just the most adorable little cinnamon roll. I love him. I know that he doesn't get a lot of, you know, necessarily development or anything in the show, but he's, he's such a gorgeous little muted character. That's just, he's so normal. And again, it speaks to that status he's received, you know, or, or achieved a level of status that is most people never do in their life.

I mean, it's such a small percentage of people who would be that well-known and he's just when he gets the chance. He's just this like normal shy little guy,

Tina: Yeah. Who, you know, as sad. Totally. Right. I think there are some layers of critique here about the pressures of fame and 

Beep: because he has an eating disorder.

Tina: yeah. I mean, he [01:31:00] hasn't. Yeah. Not only, I mean, there's a lot that, that in terms of having a home cooked meal, right. Like if you remember Hye-jin has been ordering takeout, right.

That was the status of her life. When she was living in Seoul, he is so busy. He's like, can't remember the last time that he had a home cooked meal, but also he's been living on salad because there's a lot of pressure about his weight, because that is part of unfortunately fame and being in the public eye, when you have a job like that, whether it's actor or music or you name it.

so it's like, everyone is Hye-jin is like, I love how, like, she's like unconsciously hitting Chief Hong and her fan girl freak out. Like he's making her, she's like smacking his shoulder, like, oh my God. She's like internally screaming about meeting like her hero or Juri has the hiccups so badly that June is like, oh my God, please have my glass of water.

Beep: Which just makes it worse.[01:32:00] 

Tina: I mean, there's just, you have all the layers of comedy, but I mean, this, this show takes the time to just show the kind of, I mean, it's similar to the laundry scene. The every day beauty in this unlikely group of people sitting around a table and sharing food with one another and how beautiful and like restorative that is from everyone from the famous pop star to the lonely elderly woman who was waiting for somebody to just come by and see her.

It's really taking the time to find that beauty in ordinary day lives. And I think that's something that the show does overall with its story and its filmmaking. But eyou know, this scene is definitely representative of that. 

Beep: what's interesting about that in the way you just brought it up. Made me think of this. There you have two groups here that I feel like at least in the states [01:33:00] are kind of alone and wanting to be cared for or acknowledged. And that is the elderly and the older millennials. there's there's a lot who, you know, are, are single and alone.

And there's that same idea of between that and the elderly and both are just looking for that companionship and wanting to be loved and having these groups in their life.

Tina: I think that's beautiful. I mean, there's a lot, these are also people from the city and the urban and the rural, all sitting around a table with one another, which is also, something that is beautiful to see. I mean, also just to bring back what we were talking about before, in terms of direction and the subtle acting, and when Emma had been on the podcast, she had said, this was one of her favorite scenes.

This scene is like a play in that. What [01:34:00] everybody's doing matters all the time around the table. And just because the camera is not on the person who's delivering the dialogue's face, what is going on body language between people is important. So there is space between everyone around the table, except for two people Hye-jin and Chief Hong are sitting.

Glued to one another they're like backs are touching. They're like lounging around the table. She's almost like leaning on him. There's like zero concept of personal space between the two of them. And again, it's like this storytelling device of look what, look how these two people are feeling about one another and their comfort with one another when they're not up in their heads.

Beep: Something, they're not able to [01:35:00] express outwardly through words, but just look at them. They're constantly drawn to.

Tina: Yeah. Now again, all of the little breadcrumbs that Chief Hong picks up and packs away and acts on later is that director. She mentions that Hye-jin was in a car accident when she was in high school and she has a, her, she know she had a herniated disc in her back. Chief Hong's face is like, it's very carefully, like carefully edited.

He like hears that. And they're in, they're going to pay that off later because that, between that, and seeing her with the finger on her neck and the next episode is he's going to act on that and prepare that T for her, because the way that he at first, both of them can express how they feel about one another is like taking care of one another with these like acts of service. But it also shows Director Ji remembers [01:36:00] all kinds of things, right. He remembers the last four digits of her phone number in college, which is 10 years ago. He remembers that she was in a car accident. I think it's no coincidence that that makes Chief Hong stop and listen. Right. He also is a survivor of a car accident.

so it's just, there's so many layers going on to the scene. any, any thoughts on this delightful little nugget of Chief Hong delivering milk to Gam-ri? I mean,

Beep: I just laughed so hard when she asked if he could bring chocolate and it rolls right back around to teeth. Of course.

Tina: I think if I'm having a bad day, I'm just going to watch CHong delivering milk to Gam-ri and the two of them. I know,

Beep: He just holds up his little boxes. Like it's time. We're going to spend some time together. Cause he doesn't just drop it. He stays with her and it's gorgeous.

Tina: know. And like the fact that he's, the [01:37:00] parent is like no chocolate milk will rot your teeth.

Beep: I know. But everything into this show is about dentistry somehow.

Tina: Yeah, battery's just always thinking about the town dentist.

Beep: Oh,

Tina: All right. So before we get to the culmination in this episode of the launch of the love triangle and kind of revealing, what's been going on internally with Chief Hong, we've got another love triangle, which is the second mystery of Gongjin. And we get filled in a lot of the coffee shop with team gossip, girl, Sarah on the table.

And they say this really interesting thing, guys never forget their first love. first of all, as this episode proves with Cho-he you know, neither do women,

Beep: Well of course.

Tina: of course not. And there's this in an Hye-jin and, and Director Ji will have this future kind of [01:38:00] beautiful moment about that.

That even if it's not the person that you're going to end up with means something. And I think it, I think the reason why you don't forget it is because it's the first time you discover those feelings exist. Does that make sense? Like, 

Beep: Yes. Yes. It's

tied up in so much more than the person

Tina: yeah. Idealism and discovery and the possibility before disappointment.

Of all kinds of things, you know? there's a lot of people that are fixated on their first love. So it's, it's young cook. It's Cho-hee it's Director Ji little bit Hye-jin right. She hasn't seen Director Ji in 10 years nor have the two of them picked up the phone or emailed each other to get together.

Right. But they're happy to see one another, not only because they were like, you know, friends in college and stuff, but because there's this like nostalgia

Beep: yes, it is so easy to look back on any [01:39:00] time of your life, especially when you're, when you're in a difficult one. And I know that HaHye-jin is doing well, but her whole world has been up-ended right. She's going through a difficult time just with all the change. And it's so easy to look back on the people you knew or the person you were, the circumstances around that.

And just over romanticize what it was.

Tina: yeah. And over romanticize that person. Yeah.

Beep: Yes, absolutely. Like all of a sudden forget everything about them. That just annoyed the ever-loving crap out of you.

Tina: I mean, his first love was never, not only not interested in him is not interested in men. So that's how little he knew her.

Beep: Oh yeah. He's, he's clueless in this sense. And I get the impression, even with all their interactions that they didn't really have that much interaction. I feel like what he thinks his love was all very surface

with her. She's super [01:40:00] attractive, like okay. Yeah. But what do you, what kind of relationship do you actually have?

Tina: Yeah. I mean, from a writing perspective, this scene is great because now I'm stuck explains the whole backstory. Right. And then the grocery store owner is like, is that all it was no, absolutely not. That is not all that the story is, it is not, he liked her. She moved away. Then he married Hong Jong. That is not the whole story.

And so it's like, Shin Haeun is being so playful in being like, no, no, no, no, no. There's way more to this story, both about who felt what, and for whom, and that, that all is tied in with the second mystery of Gongjin, which is like why they got a divorce. And perhaps, I don't know if I'm like extrapolating too much here, but perhaps part of it was tied up with Hwa-jung’s perspective that he settled for her because Cho-hee moved away.

do you, do [01:41:00] you think that's it and, and I there's, there's so much to pack about what has young is feeling given the reveal at the end of the series, that she was always aware of how Cho-hee felt. But then it's complicated by this asymmetrical aspect to this? Well, I mean, it's a triangle, but she thinks her husband put, show he up on this pedestal.

And so she was settled for meanwhile show. He has Hwa-jung hung up on a pedestal, not only because it's presumably her first love, but also we'll learn that this time that she spent with them and to gin was a time of peace and acceptance for her. And what sounds is, was like a really miserable and judgmental home life.

Particularly with this older brother that was threatening to send her to an institution just because she's [01:42:00] LGBTQ.

Beep: Yep. Yeah. And in a way I feel like, cause we didn't know, right until basically the very end that hush young was aware of towhees feelings. And I think in some ways it made that portion of the love triangle, even harder for Hwa-jung because she sees Young-guk just fawning after this woman. And it's not even like, I mean, there was just no chance ever of it happening.

And yet he can't see, you know, what's in front of his face for her having feelings for him. And yet of course, she's also not going to tell him because that's not her place to do. So I think there was also kind of a weird pressure on her from all sides of seeing more of what was going on. And young book is looking like a fool, just fawning over Cho-hee.

Whereas, you know, young is like, can you guys all wake up and see what's actually happening here?

Tina: Yeah. And this is also [01:43:00] not the date night he ordered.

Beep: Yeah.

Tina: I mean, it starts out that it's going to be with his ex-wife. Then he falls in the shower and is found naked on the floor by his ex-wife and his first love who he's trying to like reconnect with. And it has to be carried by them naked to bed. I mean, it's a freaking nightmare.

It is so excruciating to watch it also lets us know a lot of things. Like for example, they may be divorced and nobody knows why, but Hwa-jung reacts to the situation of him not showing up by going to check on him by being resourceful and being like, okay, we're going to help you.

And this is what we're going to do. And all of that, despite the bitterness between them that is expressed by words, her actions are taking care of.

Beep: Yeah, it's [01:44:00] definitely a theme throughout many people in the show.

Tina: Yeah. And then it lets us know show he indirectly talking to her first love says your son is just like you smart, thoughtful and helps friends a lot. And I just it's, my heart hurts for her.

Beep: It's a safe way to compliment the crap out of her.

Tina: right. I remember it. Clearly, those were the happiest days of my life.

Beep: Yup. Before she was forced into, you know, doing all kinds of stuff, she didn't want to because of just.

Tina: And there's an important signal here. That show he is offering, even though it's not something you can, I think ultimately they get there, but you can't really go about it as papering over because she says, I [01:45:00] want to go back to the three of us the way we were and that's signaling a lot of things. Right. I think she's trying to signal, I'm not interested in your ex-husband,

Beep: Oh, for sure.

Tina: you know, but you also can't even back then, there were all of these things buried that were not said, and the show is going to, I think so interestingly off.

Editing wise, go from Chief Hong to Cho-hee, Chief Hong to Cho-hee about two people who have feelings and things in their past that cannot stay buried like a wisdom tooth need to come out because it's going to continue to put pressure on and cause pain in the present if you don't. Now, looking back on it, it's clear in this episode, that first loves are being [01:46:00] paralleled here. Right? So whether it's Young-guk’s feelings for Cho-hee or Cho-hee feelings for Hwa-jung or Director Ji and Hye-jin that idealized first love as compared to the very real, and sometimes, you know, not people not always seeing you at your best, those are the relationships that are the future.

If that makes sense, looking back versus the future, that takes us to the third mystery of Gongjin. And we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the adorable, awkward me sown and neutral. He is such a good dude, 

Beep: These two, 

Tina: So hard to date. Oh my God.

Beep: because he's such a good dude. It's like, dude, you're you're too good.

Tina: Sorry. I don't [01:47:00] go out after 6:00 PM. I was like, oh dude, you're killing me. But me sod is right when she was like, I can't believe I discovered you with my own eyes. Right. She really is found a diamond in the rough here. And it's really painful to watch him. Like basically me son is sending like every signal, right?

I mean, she critiques Hye-jin of being like, dude, you are so out of the dating game that you are not picking up on. The fact that Director Ji sent you brunch from soul, like on a Saturday morning, like read the signs. Meanwhile Mi-seon is trying to like show her interest in somebody who is blind to every sign that there is.

Beep: I don't think she's used to being around men. Who are that kind, I

think she's looking for. Yeah. I think she's looking for the signs that she's likely used to, [01:48:00] which, like you said, is games and back and forth and hard to get and just playing around with your feelings. Whereas he, he's not extremely forward, but his actions indicate in every which way I care for.

Tina: Yeah. And she was dating somebody who was like, uh, cheating on her and lying to her and the person he was cheating on her with. Right. And, and meanwhile, you troll is so painfully honest in every way. Like, I mean, the dude is like, I don't go out after 6:00 PM. Oh my God. Somebody put up a flyer where they're not supposed to, like, I need to deal with this now.

You're just like,

Beep: What in the world on one hand, that's adorable. And on the other hand, I'm like, you need to just go have a seat for a little while.

Tina: Well, I love also the first shadowing is the whole rotisserie chicken thing is because she sees the food truck, like the food staffers to shoot [01:49:00] tickets and many episodes from now rotisserie chicken guy is going to be the audience insert and be like, dude, get your stuff together. She likes you, what are you doing?

Beep: Oh,

Tina: But at

Beep: is there, is there not something? I, I mean, I don't, I guess I don't know what you would bring somebody except just like take out or whatever, but the fact that it's just like all whole rotisserie chicken. I laughed so hard when he came out to her, I was like, I brought you a chicken. Like, what is this?

Tina: I think this show is telling us that we need to rethink romance 

and the dude who brings your rotisserie chicken or the dude who brings you bitter tea, that tastes terrible, 

Beep: with you outside as a joke. Like, I mean,

these were the 

guys 

Tina: ladies, this is [01:50:00] who you should be dating ladies, it's not the guy in the fancy clothes, right? Like occasions flashback. That's like the cool dude on campus, right? It's not that guy. That's not the guy. You should be dating. It's a guy who wears grandma's pants. And does laundry with you or brings your rotisserie chicken in a bag that cost the equivalent of $6.

Beep: chicken. I can't

Tina: There's something about it being the whole chicken.

Beep: write. It's like, she's supposed to invite them over or this is, here's a chicken. Like, I don't know. It just kills me. I love it so much.

Tina: So, there was this third mystery of Gongjin about who won the lottery. I don't know about you. Beep it only crossed my mind. Once, but then I fell for Shin Haeun’s trap because when he was buying her all of the luxury goods, I was like, wait, maybe he did. But then I kind of like, she like successfully kind of like circumvented that and seemed to close that path off because he was selling a bunch of stuff online and which I [01:51:00] totally fell for that.

And I was like, well, maybe Chief Hong did. Maybe that's why he only accepts a minimum wage. Right. She's playing with the audience. But when you rewatch this me song goes into the grocery store. You doesn't realize that she's asking about her future husband as to tell me more about this mystery, about who won the lottery.

the grocery store owner mentioned typhoons, which is great on rewatch. Cause you realize she's going to have to deliver a baby in the middle of one. And then me son, the next person she bumps into is human soul. And she gives him a lottery ticket and they make you think that this is just part of his awkwardness of not being able to read signs or the fact that he's like such a, you know, determinately, decent police officer, that you could never accept a lottery ticket, but he's uncomfortable with accepting a lottery ticket because he's already won the lottery and is trying to keep it a secret from.

Beep: He has so much money and [01:52:00] he's just like, Hmm, you keep that

Tina: And then he wins again. You have this mystery of Gongjin. And in this episode, episode seven, he wins the lottery. And what does he do with the winnings? He buys something for me song, which is what is going to happen later. And now when you rewatch it, I just feel like Shin Haeun was just having so much fun with us. Like you dummies.

He's the one who won the lottery.

Beep: I mean, it's just never told anybody such as sweet baby angel.

Tina: all right. Are you ready to put your big girl pants on, Beep?

Beep: No, I still want those pants from the laundry.

Tina: those could be your big girl pants.

Beep: Okay. I want my grandma pants.

Tina: You take Aqua and I'll take Navy, all right now, [01:53:00] and get to both the end of the episode and the epilogue, which is the Chief Hong mask slipping. And we, the audience have seen how Directors Hi has sent this elaborate basket —probably a top restaurant in Seoul, the baskets full to the brim with food.

Right. It is everything that Hye-jin should like and like covet, if that makes sense,

Beep: Yeah, but okay. But the one thing we didn't the one thing that we did not bring up at the time was those sausages. And I love that she loves them and I love that he loves them and I love that. He knows that she loves them

Tina: Yes.

Beep: and they're, they're totally just not, you know, the fancy food or whatever.

It's just like, eh, and here's these weird sausages that.

Tina: yes. Now, right now, you know, and that's because they had a real connection. Right? So everything that is one of the [01:54:00] things that is wonderful about this love triangle is it's not that Director Ji is not a wonderful person and it's not that they didn't have a connection. That means a lot to both of them and always will.

It's just both timing and he's ultimately not the one. and everything about sort of his gift. It's it's, it's a little bit over the top. It is symbolic of the city. It's something that she can't get and right. She can't get brunch items made with butter. Right. They're gonna have a whole conversation about it in the next episode.

It's all the things that she can't get. And it should be something that she's like thrilled about. And yet the next episode is going to pointedly show us that she is spending a lot more time thinking about this bitter tea than she is that brunch basket.

Beep: yeah. And you know, if this guy, if Director Ji’s was not as kind and as honest and true as he [01:55:00] is that kind of stuff, cause he spins pretty extravagantly would be super annoying.

It would, it would seem like he were using that to flaunt and to, you know, buy people off. Almost his personality is completely contrary to that.

And so it's different, but I feel like it almost might remind her of the boyfriend.

Tina: yeah. I mean, it's, it's, she has a really interesting reaction when he, says on the phone with her, you, I always worried about you and like worried, like where you still, as busy as you were in college, there's so much to like, pack about that. and you know, I just think it's, it's interesting because, you know, in the next episode is going to be like, dude, these signals are clear, right.

And it's not like occasion is. Rejecting them, but she's not, she's definitely not spending as much time thinking about them. The way that she is about everything, about Chief Hong, you know, what [01:56:00] he does for her. Is he okay when he walks away in the rain, he sick, right? It is. Even though we have this like, love triangle and full play again, because of all of these details, I, I feel like this is more of a realization that Hye-jin is going on this journey of realizing what he used to mean to her and what he means now versus what Chief Hong means to her.

Beep: Right. And how those two things are different.

Tina: Yes. And that brings us to Director's Ji negotiated the contract with Chief Hong, and then he asks him so as Hye-jin anyone, I don't know, dude. I thought you guys were just friends. What's the 

Beep: Yeah. 

Yeah. I feel like he in a weird way, I feel like he could have chosen a different answer here if he's so

two, if he so

wanted.

Tina: it's such a [01:57:00] record scratch moment for him. And. You know, they play with it in two different ways because we watched the scene twice. So we're eventually going to see the next episode. He's like, dude, why are you asking me? No. Ah, and he's like so awkward and flustered. And he walks away like a little bit pissed and it's absolutely going to kick off his much more, just being straightforward.

And petulantly jealous like that. He's literally stealing food from director. She will continue to do so in escalating ways for the rest of the show until he finally steals food back. But, here I believe it's the first time we hear the song from the soundtrack that now is like instant waterworks for me.

and it is the way they edit the scene with his face. It is like an emotional bomb. That Director Ji is basically like she [01:58:00] dating anyone. Cause I kind of, I'm gonna ask her out and he, he is wrecked over it and yet he denies it because that's what he does. The doorkeeper is deny his love and he denies it.

this is a sign and, and people . Went nuts But the song that they use is so mournful, because it's like the problem is he stuck and he stuck about far deeper things than we ever could have realized. And that is why he says no, he's like closing himself off from it even while he can't deal with it as it unfolds in the next episode.

Beep: Right. He doesn't admit that, you know, even though they're not dating that he's interested in her,

he just lets it play out in front.

Tina: yeah, except that he can't let himself be a bystander, even if he can't say it out loud. he's just going to have to channel everything about the way he's feeling through making the tea for her, [01:59:00] looking for her when she doesn't show up to the filming late at night, Right. coming to her house and stepping in front of it. Like all of it is going to be, because he can't the last thing on his journey is being able to like, say it out loud. it cuts directly from him denying that anything is going on between the two of them to the don't go seen 

Beep: He looks like a little kicked puppy, just sitting there by himself. It's devastating.

Tina: we've definitely gotten hints with his nightmares and how kind of sad he is looking at this photograph, but this is devastating, how upset he is. And, alcohol brings people's inhibitions down. And so for Hye0jin that meant she was acting on her feelings. It means the same for him.

It just manifests a different way. And he perhaps is more drunk than he was the first time because of these drinking games. Right. He was more subdued and they're kind of night together [02:00:00] than he normally is. But this being said, dude has now he sitting alone in the dark, on the verge of tears.

she's on her way home, she sees some alone. She's not going to leave him out there. I think it's really interesting that when she's drunk, she calls him do chic in this like friendly way instead of Chief Hong. It's the only time other than when she's like, I don't think I can actually call you that at the end of the show, but it's like, right.

It's, it's his name and not his title and status in town. So she sits down the last podcast. We talked about the way she refers to his facial paralysis. The line that really strikes me as meaningful, particularly when we put it together with a scene in the finale, she says your face will get all twisted.

when she [02:01:00] brings out that bowl of corn in episode 16, she says to him, essentially, if you don't let your grief out, then it flows through your body and that's not healthy for you. And it's. Idea of somebody who helps him carry his baggage, who encourages him? What Hwa-jung says is he always had to be so mature and hold himself back because he basically was raising himself from being a teenager on that.

He's never like that. Hye-jin is somebody who in his life who is constantly telling him, you have to let your feelings out. And so this idea that we talked about last time, about a mask, the idea that like your face will get twisted, that it's bad for you to wear a mask and to hold things in. And then she says to him, hold on, I know that look in your eyes.

It means you want to cry.[02:02:00] 

Beep: and specifically in his. Does it say, you look like you're going to cry, you know? Cause a lot of people get the same kind of look and you can tell, but she's been paying attention.

Tina: Yeah.

Beep: I know that. Look in your eyes.

Tina: And it's the reciprocal of when he saw her on the beach and he recognized that. And that loneliness in her. And this is, you know, this is the reason why I love this romantic story so much, because it's about so much more than two people just seeing across the room and being like, oh my God, you're so dreamy.

They recognize each other's pain they're drawn to each other because of that. And this moment Hye-jin is seeing a side of Chief Hong that nobody else sees, like not, I don't even think [02:03:00] Gam-ri sees this side of Chief Hong.

Beep: Oh and I doubt they ever have.

Tina: And so, you know, even though he is denying and holding himself back and all of these things, when his inhibitions are down, the person he shows this side too, is her.

And he is more real with her than he is with anybody else outside of his psychiatrist.

Beep: Right. And that, and that is a different kind of release. They so long as you trust the therapist, the idea is to get everything out. But when that translates to having to allow someone that you care about in your life to look at you through that same lens, by giving them that fact, all those facts and feelings, I mean, that is a risk that clearly in most ways he hasn't taken yet and is not prepared to take.

Tina: Yeah. There's a lot to like, you know, she jokes around like I'm, I'm [02:04:00] saving your life, right? Like leaving you out here in the cold in many ways Hye-jin has, and does, like, there was a time on the bridge where she called for help for him. And I think she saves him. And I don't mean that in kind of like a, they clearly make choices for themselves, but she is there and stands by him no matter what.

And I don't know if Hong Du-sik would have ever opened up emotionally to people if she hadn't come into his life

Beep: No, I would agree with that entirely, which is not to say, like you said, it's not strictly because of her, but he just, he found something in her that made him want to live his.

Tina: and he's comforted, right. even before he makes these conscious decisions, he fell asleep next to her. After a nightmare, his had goes on her shoulder and he cries and he says, don't go, [02:05:00] don't leave me behind so much to unpack about that.

Beep: Yeah. And that's the first time it's actually expressed deliberately. And.

Tina: Yeah, there coming off of this fight where she was almost asserting that she was going to be out of his life entirely immediately. This guy from the past is all of a sudden here has a whole history with her. She clearly like, you know, on some level likes him acts differently around him that she does her own hand.

He's felt left out and then obviously drinking then brings up all of these deeper traumas and things that are at the center of all of the tragedies that have happened in his life. And that everybody, he cares about dies and he blames himself for that. but I think it's a really big deal that when he, because of alcohol is [02:06:00] not up in his head stopping himself, he puts his head on her shoulder and cries.

 her reaction. That is, real right. Again, everybody's inhibitions are down is I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry, Chief Hong. And the thing is, she doesn't. Is never going to leave him behind. She's not going to that night. She's not going to when he's sick. She, even when she wants to know more about his past, and he's not going to open up to her, she's the one that comes back to him and says, I will wait.

She's going to come inside his house and sit with him when he is hiding from everybody else. And when she gets the job offer to go back to soul, she is going to stay with him. It is a promise that even though it's made in this state is absolutely going to be what Hye-jin is for him. She's never going to go anywhere.

Beep: And even that wording indicates that that it's a more long-term [02:07:00] thing. You know, she doesn't just say, I'll stay here until you get sorted out or whatever. I'm not going anywhere. Is it? It's a, it's a heavy statement, whether she realizes it.

Tina: Yeah. And it's beautiful because this final shot of her sitting next to him and his head on her shoulder and her arms around him is exactly the way they stage when he finally opens up to her. And in episode 15, she's like, you can cry with me. It's exactly the same positioning. And I really love that it is the woman who is that emotional support so that the man can open himself up and cry.

Beep: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And he probably doesn't remember much about this, especially like the state, you know, that he would be in, but she does. And what [02:08:00] I like about, you know, you can cry with me later is he's not.

Tina: Right. Yeah, it's really, uh, it absolutely wrecked me the first time around, but, and just realizing, wow, there's so much more going on here under the surface than this guy. Just can't admit his feelings, but it's just this, like from the depths of him, this plea don't go it's then now we watch it manifest in all of the like petty and small ways and really big ways that he is going to have the courage to hold onto her.

no matter how hard it is in terms of reconciling with things in the past, you know, whether it's the flashback with his grandfather or what was absolutely going through Gam-ri’s head when they were together doing the laundry is please don't let him be alone. Let [02:09:00] him have somebody. And that's who Hye-jin is. and she's not going anywhere, including the final, image of them in the show or final scene between them and this show is her being like, and I'll be in that boat with you. come what may helping you steer it.

Beep: All right. So we did it. That is episode seven, a reminder, you can reach us on our website, streamingbanshees.com or on Twitter @TVBanshees. Please, this time, send us some of your thoughts because we want to do another Twitter space soon. So we'll keep you guys updated on that, but we'd love to get some of your input on things you would like us to talk about 

Tina: Yeah. Any questions or thoughts you have sort of about character journeys or things you've observed thus far? We'd love to do another Twitter live now that we've sort of we're steadily approaching a halfway point with Hometown Cha-Cha so DM those to us, or you can email us on our website.

Beep: And until next time, go grab yourself [02:10:00] some grandma pants and enjoy the simple things in life. We'll see you soon.