Can’t Live Without You: Episodes 81-84

Sigh.  This drama is really… sad.  Not “I cry when I watch this drama” but “I want to turn off the TV when I watch this drama.”  Seriously.  The rest of the Korean people, though, seem to be a bit more interested these days: ratings hit 13.4% in Seoul and the surrounding areas.  There wasn’t enough substance to merit bullet points this week, so I’ll go back to character updates instead.

 

Hyun-tae + In-hye

I’ve loved this couple from the beginning, but I’m starting to grow weary.  And it saddens me that Hyun-tae’s declaration of love this week had so little impact.  He actually said the words, “I love you,” which isn’t all that common in Korean culture.  People usually couch the sentiment in other less direct phrases, but he actually said “I love you.”  And then they hugged.  And he later proposed to her.  And… I felt nothing.  Sigh.  One interesting revelation: Long ago, when Hyun-tae, In-hye, and Scumbag were new friends, they went hiking up in the mountains (the picture of the three of them was taken then).  In-hye got lost, and Hyun-tae found her (and her bracelet), but he twisted his ankle so Scumbag took In-hye to the hostpial.  When she woke up at the hospital, Scumbag was beside her, so she thought he rescued her.  Thus began their romance…  Which just proves that Scumbag was a jerkface even back then.  If In-hye had known the truth, I wonder if we would have had a completely different drama: Married couple finds out they’re actually siblings… but not.  Anyhoo, nothing else too important here.  Well, Madame and President Kang announced that CrazyEx and Hyun-tae are getting back together, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen, so yep.  Nothing important going on.  Oh, one more thing: Hyun-tae found out at the end of Episode 84 that Madame is looking for her daughter.  Okay, the end for reals.

 

Mama Kim

This story is too sad for me to talk about, so I’ll keep it short.  Mama Kim’s illness is progressing rapidly, to the consternation of the entire family.  Papa Kim is trying his best to care for her, but she gets angry that they’re already treating her like a child when she’s fine.  He gave her a gold bracelet (Episode 84), and she was so happy that he gave her a gift – obviously something he rarely did, if ever.  But the gift was more like the identification bracelets little kids wear: it had her name and phone number on it.  Sad panda.  She’s taking her meds several times a day (she’s only supposed to take them once), and when Papa Kim tries to stop her, she yells that he’s just trying to save money.  Saaaad panda.

 

Madame and the Daughter Sweepstakes

Madame found out that the dead girl is not her daughter and is restarting her investigation from the start.  She looked through the company’s CCTV footage around the time that the hair samples were sent to the lab, but CrazyEx deleted all the important videos.  They didn’t show whether or not the security team told her about the deleted footage (or if they even recognized that footage was missing), but as of now, she doesn’t seem to think anything’s amiss in that respect.  She was looking at In-hye’s file and saw Sister Angela’s name, who turned out to be the same Angela she knows.  At the end of Episode 84, Madame was making plans to meet Sister Angela.

 

Min-do + Ji-soo

These two prolly had the most forward movement this week, and it wasn’t much, which says a lot about the rest of the show.  Anyhoo, Episode 81: The Doctor told Ji-soo that she needs to get treatment, but she’s firmly set against it.  He grabbed her hand and rolled up her sleeve, and she’s already starting to bruise (a symptom commonly seen in leukemia patients, because there aren’t enough platelets).  Sob.  Min-do walked in just then, and Ji-soo quickly yanked her arm out of The Doctor’s grasp, but it definitely looked fishy.  Min-do asked her what was going on, and she naturally avoided the question, which made him even more suspicious (he remembers seeing The Doctor in front of Ji-soo’s house), and they ended up fighting.  That, of course, led to another argument about the Mama Kim issue, and she reminded him of the lengths she went to in order to marry him.  Couldn’t he ask her just once what was wrong?  He refused to listen and told her that they’ll live separately and that he was gonna quit his movie.

Episode 82: Ji-soo moved into the Kim residence, much to everyone’s delight, and it was for seriously the best part of this past week’s episodes.  Min-do was elated to see her, and they finally were back to their old selves.  He promised to be good to her the rest of their days, ’til she was an ooold granny, and she told him, “Let’s live happily together until we’re an old grandpa and grandma… until I’m an old grandma.”  Sob.

Episode 83: Mama Kim gave the couple the baby clothing she had made, and Min-do happily promised to have lots and lots of kids.  Later that evening, Mama Kim had another spell, and Ji-soo told Min-do that Mama Kim’s illness is progressing rapidly. T_T

Episode 84: Ji-soo prepared a lavish breakfast spread for the family, and Min-do tried to hug her in gratitude.  She had just seen all the new bruises on her arms, though, and she (roughly) pushed him away.  (She would prolly get more bruises, no matter how softly he hugged her.)  At work, the annoying actress told Min-do about the 3 fatal signs of cheating: (1) suddenly doing nice things for you; (2) suddenly becoming busy; and (3) avoiding your gaze.  That set off warning bells in his head, though he tried to dismiss them.  He went to visit her at the hospital, and he overheard the tail end of Ji-soo’s conversation with The Doctor.  Before Min-do arrived, Ji-soo was thanking The Doctor for caring about her (he’s the only one right now).  She never imagined that she would get this kind of disease, or that she would turn to him like this.  When Min-do opened the door, Ji-soo and The Doctor were laughing together and Ji-soo said, “Yeah, I like you too, Dr. Jang.  I never thought I’d share these feelings with you, showing you this condition my body is in.”  The Doctor answers that their relationship is nothing new – it’s been several years.  “I pursued you for years, but you never even gave me a chance.  Do you finally see the good aspects of someone like me, now that you’re married to a young guy?”  She jokes back in the same manner as him, “Yeah.  Now that I’m exhausted by a young husband, I like someone like you so much.  Happy?  You have to keep the secret.  Don’t threaten to call my husband, okay?”  Ay carumba, it did sound pretty bad, and Min-do cried in the dark hospital corridor…

 

Thoughts

I’m seriously exhausted by this show like never before.  But I’m not here to whine and complain, so I’ll keep it short.  For those who were confused, MBC didn’t air CLWY on Monday, so we only had 4 episodes this past week.  I’m not sure exactly how many episodes they planned to have, but the standard is 100, so I’m gonna guess this show has 16 episodes left.  (16 episodes would fall in just right with the end of the month, as well.)  It seems like they’re saving everything up for a big bang of a finish, so we may have to endure another week or so of this plodding mess.  Sigh.  I’m sorry to those of you who love this, but I’m really starting to check out.  You lovely CLWY family members are the only reason I’m hanging on at this point.

On a side note: The real world calls, thus I won’t be able to watch or recap CLWY the next two weeks.  Sorry to make y’all wait, but perhaps there will be lots of good things to talk about by the time I come back.  I will continue to check in at the Patch, so please still leave your thoughts and comments! 😀  And once I get back, I’ll answer any requests made while I was out of commission. 😀  Happy watching without meee!! ^^

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