Mourning in the Morning
Episode 12 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 3 begins with Pi-Young bringing flowers to Dong-Ma’s father. He’s still reeling over Seo-Ban deliberating over moving in, which certainly causes some friction in the household. Seo-Ban discusses this with Si-Eun and the family, with Hyang-Ki deciding it’ll be a good thing. After what’s happened with COVID, Hyang-Ki believes they should cling to family. Elsewhere, Dong-Ma promises to be devoted to Pi-Young, claiming she’s all he has. Pi-Young tells the director to stay strong. Little Ji-A is all for moving in too, excitedly talking to her dog. Pi-Young warns that Dong-Ma’s father is in mourning and encourages her to settle down a little and reign in her enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Moon-ho starts to sense that Hye-Ryung is not acting herself. He points out with Ye-Jung that she sounds a lot like Song-Won. And just like that, the pair get goosebumps when mentioning this. They’re not the only ones though, as Ga-Bin talks with A-Mi and discusses how she cried at the wedding. She also pays reference to how Hye-Ryung’s face “overlapped” with Song-Won’s. Moon-Ho and Ye-Jung both test Hye-Ryung (Song-Won) the next day regarding food and realize they’re right – she is being possessed. Moon-ho clings to this idea, believing they should bring a shaman over to perform some sort of exorcism. Ye-Jung is not so sure and believes they should give it some time. The next day, Dong-Ma tells his father than Seo-Ban is going to move in after all. The pair have breakfast (lunch?) together, including a bowl of Pi-Young’s pistachio ice cream. While everyone prepares to move into his house, an enraged Yu-Shin barges into his old house and questions Pi-Young about her upcoming marriage. Yu-Shin demands to know about the “punk” she’s marrying and promises that he’ll never let Dong-Ma raise Ji-A, not if he has anything to do with it anyway. He ends up heading back home and sulking, lying on the sofa and ignoring both Dong-Mi and A-mi. Meanwhile, Dong-Ma’s father is in mourning and blames himself for what’s happened. Given he mentioned that his mother would have a heart attack if he was to get married, he sees this as an ill omen come true. Yu-Shin is not giving up and eventually rings Dong-Ma, asking to meet at the Class Hotel at 7pm. He’s going to confront the man head-on. Yu-Shin is taken aback when he learns this 37 year old is an executive director of his own company. Dong-ma immediately brings up Yu-Shin challenging Pi-Young about custody of Ji-A. He’s having none of it and calmly tells Yu-Shin to let him do this. He’s accepted Ji-A as his daughter and believes this is best. Ji-A is staying with them. However, he decides to test that theory and suggests they let Ji-A decide this. The pair continue to verbally spar over their point of views, and they both have a solid case. However, the evening eventually ends with the pair going their separate ways and no closer to a civil agreement. Dong-Ma heads back to Pi-Young and Ji-A. Yu-Shin meanwhile, is called back home thanks to Dong-Mi acting scared and wanting to sleep on the sofa. Early in the morning, she up and leaves, heading over to see Pi-Young, warning her about a bad dream she had. She urges her not to let Ji-A leave the house, reminding Pi-Young that her dreams always come true. Pi-Young has an excuse to stick around though as Dong-Ma’s father invites himself over to theirs for breakfast. Pi-Young is definitely up for it, while Dong-Mi starts happily cooking. As she does, she starts laughing maniacally.
The Episode Review
A character just randomly bursting out laughing is probably the best metaphor for Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) at this point. The show is incredibly unpredictable – and not in a good way. The series just seems to throw random plot points in around this slice of life drama and while there are some enticing ideas, it’s buried under overwhelming mediocrity. Some of the characters this year have been absolutely butchered. Dong-Mi has had barely anything to do, Hye-Ryung is hardly in this now (given it’s actually Song-Won) while the whole Ki-Rim/ghost thing is just dragging on without any sort of coherent plot or end-goal around it. Unfortunately, this is not a season to remember and somehow this year has been worse than the previous two. Hopefully the next episode can pick things up but given we only have 4 more episodes left of this season, it’s fair to say this is not a show t remember this year!
