Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 72-75

I think the “character updates” format is gonna be the usual from now on, unless there’s a REALLY good episode I wanna fully recap.  Or, of course, there’s an episode any of you want fully recapped!  I mean, I love writing and I love dramas, so this blog is a place for me to rant and rave – but it’s just as much for y’all ’cuz the journey ain’t half as fun without you wonderful people. 😀  So please share your thoughts and musings and news and updates and requests and whatever you like – it’s what makes this whole journey worthwhile.  The soompi thread has been kinda… quiet… so perhaps we can get conversations going here instead!  Anyone who is visiting, please introduce yourselves so we can share in our CLWY fanlovecraziness!!  A belated welcome to luv and watchumlots to the CLWY family! 😀 😀 😀

 

Episodes 72-75

Mama Kim: I gotta start with Mama Kim, because she is hands down the bestest part – and the heart – of CLWY.  As Xancy shared in the Eps 61-71 comments, Mama Kim blew away Episode 73.  I’ve always loved Kim Hae-sook, and I can’t ever recall her not being anything but magnificent.  Mama Kim was written for her, and I just cannot imagine anyone else playing her.

The hints have been getting stronger and stronger every week, and it’s been getting more and more painful watching Mama Kim and knowing the diagnosis is not too long in coming.  Well, it finally came this week, and can I just say that the doctor was an absolute jerkface?!  He just UGH I wanted to smash in his face so badly.  Med schools these days are all about educating compassionate physicians – this dude needs to go back to school and learn how to interact with patients.  Scumbag and Witch attempted to have their stupid ‘wedding’ and Mama Kim had a spell, which led to her attacking Witch and shocking everyone with her uncharacteristic behavior.  It was tantamount to confirming Papa Kim’s worst fears, and it alerted everyone else, too, to the possibility that Mama Kim was not her usual self.  She, (un)fortunately, couldn’t remember what happened.  But that night she wet herself while sleeping, and it was all the proof she needed that things were not right.  Man, that scene was just… oh my gawsh, I was crying buckets.  The shock, the disbelief, the dawning realization, the desperation, the fear, the pain… just EVERYTHING was so perfectly captured by Kim Hae-sook.

The next morning she went to see a doctor, and though the jerkface said a more comprehensive test needed to be done, he believed she was in the first stage of Alzheimer’s disease.  Baaawwwlllll.  Waaaaaiiilllll.  Papa Kim followed her to the hospital and tried to comfort her, but he just…  All the resentment she’s harbored against him throughout the years are gonna be pouring out, so he needs to be prepared to take it all.  She needs some time and space at this point, and I hope Papa Kim can guide her through what is sure to be a difficult time.

 

Scumbag + Witch: I hate these two with a passion.  You know what, actually?  They aren’t even deserving of the energy required to hate them.  I just don’t care.  Their mockery of a wedding crashed and burned, for which I’m eternally grateful.  The sanctity of marriage shouldn’t be dirtied by these two crazies.  Scumbag is worried now that he knows Mama Kim isn’t doing well, but Witch refuses to care about her mother-in-law.  Just more fodder for their endless shouting matches and annoyingness.  Yuck, go away.  You’re polluting the CLWY world.

 

Mom Min: I loved Mom Min’s reaction to Mama Kim’s wedding incident (and I just love Yoon Mi-ra in general).  These two have been bickering girlfriends, always pushing each other’s buttons and trying to one-up each other.  But underneath it all is a friendship and love that can’t be denied.  There’s a term in Korean called “jeong” (정) that’s used a LOT but veeeery difficult to define or translate.  It’s part love, part affection, part attachment, part… I don’t even know.  But anyhoo, I bring it up because there’s a saying called “hateful jeong, lovely jeong” – in other words, you form a sort of attachment/affection even for people you hate if you spend long enough with them.  It’s a given for someone you like, of course.  But anyhoo, Mom Min and Mama Kim definitely have jeong for one another, if not straight up love, and it was wonderful to see it this week.  I loved how Mom Min defended Mama Kim, saying that her friend was strong – she is not one to succumb to such an ailment.  You could see the difference between someone who truly understands you and someone who doesn’t, when Mom Min shot down Auntie’s suggestion to visit the Kim home (it would hurt Mama Kim’s pride).  I hope their friendship becomes even stronger through this devastating development.

 

Ji-soo + Min-do: Sigh.  Min-do is really driving me up the wall.  Props to Park Yoo-hwan for making me hate the character, not the writer – there’s a fine difference, and right now, the character is believably frustratingly dense.  It’s a biiit of a sharp turnaround from doting hubby to anger-filled stupidbutt, but it’s totes believable with respect to Mama Kim.  The stupidity with the actress/film problems was just plain dumb.  But a couple can definitely have major arguments when it comes to family matters.  I’m not saying Min-do is right or even justified, but that’s how people are.  “You say that because it’s not your parents/family” they often spit out.  And that line doesn’t change whether you’re newlyweds or celebrating your thirtieth anniversary.  But this couple is more disagreement-prone because they’ve only been together for so short a time.  Min-do feels overwhelmed and lost and scared because his mom – who’s always been the strong one, the anchor in his life – is going to become a helpless, child-like stranger.  His tears of pain, anguish, and remorse (when he saw Mama Kim washing her soiled clothing and blankets) were hard to watch.  He has finally grown up (I can’t believe he used to be such a punk only a few months ago!) and now it’s his turn to care for the mom who endured all his shenanigans and loved him all the same.  As for Ji-soo, oh my goodness I don’t know what she’s gonna do.  She still hasn’t told Min-do about her leukemia, and with his hostile attitude right now, it’s gonna be hard to break the news.  She needs to make a decision soon, and I think we’ll be getting it this week…

 

Madame President: So, I guess she wasn’t a completely horrible person… kinda?  Turns out she was madly in love in her youth and ran away to live with the wholly unacceptable man her stuck-up chaebol parents couldn’t possibly accept as their son-in-law.  It’s not quite clear, but it appears the man died, and Madame President gave birth to a daughter named So-hyeon.  She gave So-hyeon up for adoption, but the adoptive parents were killed (in an accident), and thus So-hyeon ended up at an orphanage with no memory of her name or anything.  All she had was the beaded bracelet her birth mother had given her (Madame Min has a matching one).  The nun at the orphanage reversed her own name and gave it to So-hyeon, so that’s how the young girl ended up with the name In-hye.  Btw, my Pinkblossom Radar has been pretty darned good.  I predicted In-hye would end up working for H.Farm (which she is, albeit in a more personal position than I envisioned), and I knew she would be Madame President’s daughter.  Yay for Pinkblossom Radar accuracy!

Madame President is still looking for her daughter, and she asked her investigator-all-around-handyman to look into In-hye.  Yeee!  Though the big reveal is sure to take a whiiiile, no thanks to CrazyEx.  In-hye saw Madame President at the orphanage and her file was included in the Daughter Sweepstakes, so things are starting to click.  Anyone wanna make predictions for how many episodes it’ll take for the big revelation?  Let’s start a contest – please leave your best guess below in the comments section!  I’m serious!! 😀

 

In-hye + Hyun-tae + CrazyEx: Hyun-tae is just killing me with his “sunflower love” aka he only looks at her and just longs for her to look back at him.  Koreans use the term because sunflowers, as you know, follow the sun – it’s kinda cheesy but kinda cute, too.  Anyhoo, OHMYGAWSH I was squeaaaaling like a fat pig at the end of Episode 75 when he put his arms on her shoulders.  Seriously, he didn’t even hug her or back-hug her (which I was chanting over and over for him to do) or anything close to serious skinship, but I was still squeeing like no other.  How much sweeter was it that CrazyEx saw it?!  Speaking of which, oh my goodness, what is UP with her?!?!  I used to like So Yoo-jin a lot, but the roles she’s been picking lately have been ugh.  And this one just takes the prize for absolutely non-understandable craziness.  Her obsession and inability to let go of Hyun-tae, I could deal with.  Pretty common in the Kdrama world.  But for her to keep tabs even on Madame President, and then to actively snoop through her stuff to “get rid of her daughter”?!?!  I can’t believe it.  I can give her credit for being quick on the uptake, at least, but dang she’s all kinds of crazies.  Btw, the bracelet in Hyun-tae’s room totes didn’t even cross my mind as being the one In-hye lost and Madame President gave, ’til CrazyEx made the connection.  It doesn’t look the same (the one Hyun-tae has is colorful, while Madame’s is a plain dark brown/black), but the bracelet In-hye’s wearing in Hyun-tae’s picture does seem to match Madame’s.  Anyhoo, I guess we’ll see what happens with that one.

 

All in all, a good week for CLWY, if you can call dementia and lost children and crazy-exes good.  It’s hard to believe we’ve already seen 75(!!) episodes…  In terms of ratings, we’ve finally broken the two-digit barrier and have consistently been in the low teens.  Things are finally picking up story-wise, so I’m hoping, for CLWY’s sake, that ratings do so as well.  What did you think of last week’s episodes?  Please discuss away below!  And don’t forget to leave your best guess for how long it’ll take for Madame President to learn In-hye is her daughter. 😀

 

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• Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 57-60
• Can’t Live Without You: Episode 56
• Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 51-55
• Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 46-50
• Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 43-45
• My Daily Fix: Can’t Live Without You
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