by: the Madcap Duo, Raine and MadDino

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Raine: Ratings went up again to 12.0% for this episode, but the three Wednesday/Thursday dramas are really really close each week, so it’s really hard to tell what the final outcome will be.

MadDino and I, contrary to popular opinion, really like Se-na. She kinda rocks the bad guy role and makes this story interesting. Just enjoy the build up. When she falls, she’s going to fall…HARD.

“Wounds” –  Instrumental of song sung by Ali (from the Rooftop Prince OST)

episode 9 recap

Raine: Grams slaps Park Ha harder than I thought an old lady could muster because she thinks Park Ha is lying about knowing Tae-yong before she took him in. And then Park Ha gets called “Evil One”. Sorry Deeno.

Deeno: Why does Park Ha get all the good nicknames?

Raine: Do you want her other ones? Peppermint? Lotus? Pond Lily?

Deeno: Fine. I just want that one…

Raine: Grams storms out with Aunt Wang, fuming at the injustice as Se-na tries to contact “Tae-yong”. She gets him and then heads in to flaunt her “victory” in Park Ha’s face. There is to be a showdown at Grams’ house to tar and feather Park Ha and Se-na’s loving it. Note the smirk of vile satisfaction. Is it noted? Good, you’ll be seeing it quite often in this episode.

Deeno: Isn’t the smirk so pretty?

Raine: It gives me major willies. Like Free Willy sized willies.

Raine: At Grams’ mansion, Lee Gak tries to defend Park Ha, but Grams and Aunt Wang counter his every word. Finally, he says that he likes Park Ha, which shocks everyone. Because he liked her, he followed her to the rooftop.

Deeno: Wait does he like like her or is he just saying this?

Raine: He’s just saying it. Park Ha knows he’s just saying it to protect her, but she still reels from the admission while the ahjummas use the shock as fuel for indignation. Grams thought they weren’t in a relationship and kicks Park Ha out of the rooftop apartment and out of the company; then she kicks them both out of the mansion.

Raine: His pandaness is feeling the weight of Park Ha’s sacrifice – because of him she suffered. Her reasoning for keeping Lee Gak’s secret is that he risked his life to become Tae-yong.

The Panda Prince’s face hardens with resolve and he sends her home before kneeling on the grass in front of the mansion to beg for forgiveness in the humblest of fashions. The cherry blossom leaves fall around him. So pretty.

Deeno: Like cotton candy falling from the sky.

Raine: I love cotton candy. Pink cotton candy. It looks like clouds!

Deeno: My cloud castle is made of cotton candy.

Raine: Wait…the fluffy cloud castle?

Deeno: What other castle would I have?

Raine: This is where I turn things over to my answering machine.

Raine’s answering machine: …I don’t even want to go there. Put me back in the shed. No fluffiness for me. You deal with it yourself, Raine.

Raine: Unfaithful machine! *throws against wall*

Deeno’s kamikaze toaster: *shudders, sparks, flees to the bathroom*

Raine: Back at the rooftop apartment, the Tracksuit Trio tries to comfort Park Ha with tea and taking the blame. Well, Man-bo takes the blame, Yong-sul smacks the table and scares the crap out of Man-bo.

The prince waits all night as a cello solo spurs him on. ROCK ON CELLO SOLO! Even though Aunt Wang asks Grams to relent, the old bat won’t budge.

At least she doesn’t until the morning. She calls him in and he limps on over. After he apologizes, grams makes sure that he won’t marry Park Ha. But no, he has someone else he wants to marry.

This is where I sob as well as cheer. Why cheer? I said it before and I’m saying it again: I love how steadfast the prince is. Just wait ‘til he realizes Se-na is the devil incarnate and turns that attention on Park Ha!

Deeno: His loyalty is nice, but can’t he be loyal to Park Ha. Until she dies that is. Then he can go to the future to investigate her death. Lightsaber-wielding panda. O.O

Raine: Lightsabers are always more fun when you have a partner dressed like Princess Leia. Park Ha would rock that metal bikini. He can even have the collar on her.

Deeno: Pervert Unni’s getting kinky again.

Raine: Hey! He’s always saying he’s going to punish her…I can’t be the ONLY one thinking he wants to do it himself…

Deeno: *crickets chirp*

Raine: *sob*

Anywho, Grams wonders whether Tae-yong is a player like his grandfather. Bwahahaha. Actually, Grams, his heart is a two-timing bastard but hasn’t let his brain in on the action. In any case, she decides to forget Park Ha’s banishment ever happened.

Not that easy, Grams.

Raine: After the ordeal, the Panda Prince limps  to the street and finds Park Ha waiting for him. She is shocked to hear he waited all night and immediately helps him walk when she notices he’s hurting.

In a park, she rubs stinky ointment on his ankle that stings his eyes when he sniffs it. He apologizes on his grandmother’s behalf. Although he promised her good memories when he held her back from going to America, she had to go through this bad experience and he is ashamed of it.

Park Ha tells him to forget it and he takes her hand. “I am sorry,” he says sincerely, which makes her tear up. To escape embarrassment, she pretends there’s something in her eye. But, as she is rather ditzy, she wipes her eye and gets the stinging ointment in it.

Deeno: Ha! Serves you right Park Ha…for stealing all those men. And hurting your wonderful sister.

Raine: I will defend Park Ha so she can have a torrid romance with his Pandaness! It’s not her fault that she has a harem following her around and protecting her.

Deeno: But…she should share…

Raine: Who says she doesn’t? She’s sharing Man-bo with that crazy webtoonist downstairs, Lady Mimi. Well, if he noticed her for longer than a second…

Deeno: He should…

Raine: Tae-mu finally gets a scene in this episode, so enjoy uri dongsaeng, because he shan’t be seen again until episode 10!

Glorious-looking Tae-mu brings Se-na breakfast and she isn’t happy about it.

Hold. The. Show.

Who isn’t happy about a tall, muscular, handsome, rich man bringing you breakfast and declaring his love for you on a daily basis? This girl is SERIOUSLY psycho. Forget sabotaging her sister. This is just plain offensive.

Deeno: I would love to eat breakfast with Tae Mu everyday. I’d serve up some panda steak with a smile on my face. I’m sure if I shrunk a foot and dyed my hair red I could kill Se Na take her place and no one would be the wiser.

Raine: I don’t think you’d look good as a redhead. Just kill Se-na. then you wouldn’t have to wear her 5” heels.

Deeno: I like five-inch heels.

Raine: For stabbing?

Deeno: To tower over my prey.

Raine: We little people nip at heels and rip Achilles’.

Raine: Tae-mu notices that Se-na is wearing the Hong Kong Chairman Jang’s ring. When Se-na mentions wanting to get to know Jang better, Tae-mu muses that Jang’s part of the company would go to the lost daughter if she were found. The shares must come to Tae-mu’s side, not Grams’. Of course, Se-na isn’t happy to hear this bit of information and has one more reason to make Park Ha miserable.

Deeno: So once Tae Mu finds out Park Ha is Jang’s daughter he can just marry her and dump Se Na. Yep that sounds like motive for murder right there!

Raine: Marry her, murder her, marry Se-na. I’m still wondering if he’s got a doppelganger in Joseon. It’s weird that the other three mains do, but he doesn’t.

Deeno: It’s odd that Tae Yong was murdered here, but the princess/Se Na was murdered in Joseon. If it’s Tae Yong’s relative now, then would it be the princess’ relative back then? Like her father?

Raine: I was thinking that Crown Princess/Hwa Yong/Se-na’s father had something to do with it since he was explaining the whole thing away. Too many excuses.

Deeno: But what could he gain from that? Or was he dealing with some blackmail?

Raine: Good question. I have no idea. You’re the detective. Haha. I’m along for the ride…in a car…on the back of a tow truck…

Deeno: Are you saying it was the tow truck driver? Gasp! You’re a genius! It all makes sense now!

Raine: YES! No need for a twentieth episode, people. It was the tow truck driver. He backed over the Crown Princess’ face and that’s why we never saw it. No one wants to see that.

Deeno: Then he hopped into his delorean and came back to the present after stealing a few of those persimmons.

Raine: Did Michael J. Fox come, too?

Deeno: Just his inside out pants.

Raine: Which Chi-san would totally covet and then wear with his sparkly gold shirt.

Raine: And back to Se-na. Have ya’ll noticed that she brought this ALL on herself. She is the queen of scapegoating. But I don’t care. She makes for damned good entertainment.

Park Ha is a chaebolette in disguise if her mommy is Chairman Jang! (Let’s conveniently forget that Se-na is the other abandoned child.)

Raine: Tae-mu changes the subject to Park Ha and scares Se-na for a moment before he asks if Park Ha was really fired.

They arrive at work to see Park Ha walking in with Tae-yong, laughing like old chums. Well, if you count reincarnation, they are really, really, really old chums

Since the queen of the episode is Se-na, she now meets with Aunt Wang and finds out that Tae-yong knelt outside all night to ask forgiveness for the woman he likes, Park Ha.

More fodder for jealousy driven vengeance. This woman really knows how to play every field to her advantage.

Deeno: Bamboo fields?

Raine: You can beat someone silly with bamboo. It’d be a good field to play. Or she could make a reed flute and Pied Piper them into certain death.

Aunt Wang wants Se-na with Tae-yong, but she doesn’t have to worry. Se-na will try to manipulate the situation to make it go her way.

Raine: Song Jae-hee makes another cameo as Park Ha’s match date come to deliver a present: a cake. Aw! I want a man to come to my office to give me a present. Who wants to volunteer?

Deeno: I’ll deliver you a “present.” Would you like it frozen or still beating?

Raine: Frozen lasts longer. Just wrap it well. I don’t want it smelling up my freezer.

Deeno: But that’s where I hid the rest of the body.

Raine: Is there room left for my icecream. You know how I get about my icecream.

Deeno: I tossed it out. It’s now a puddle in the dumpster. The one with feet sticking out from underneath.

Raine: I KEEEEEEL YOU! DON’T TOUCH MY ICECREAM! RAWR!

Deeno: It wasn’t me. It was Dorothy. And that little dog, too.

Raine: Well, I’d want a cake bearing hot man if I didn’t have a protective Tracksuit Trio of an oppa and dongsaengs intimidating the poor guy into leaving. While Yong-sul threatens to break his legs, they discover that it’s Park Ha’s birthday the next day. Chi-san wrestles the cake from match date who quickly books it.

Deeno: Blue Ajussi you can come up with a better threat than that.

Raine: The thing is, when most people say it, it means nothing. When Yong-sul says it, it’s something he’s already done once or twice in his life.

Deeno: That makes me so happy…

Raine: That makes me a little queasy…

Raine: It’s now time to see more of Se-na’s cleverness. Tae-mu’s father asks her quite rudely to leave the company and to leave his kid alone. But Se-na does not take kindly to these words and pulls out a zinger: There are a few choice documents missing from company that could put him in a sticky situation if they were to come. And they would, if she left. She just thought he should know.

W.O.W. This woman will really do anything. That nagging conscience that crops of every once and a while must’ve died somewhere along the line, after being smothered to death.

Deeno: She’s so awesome!

Raine: You can’t smother Jiminy. He’s too cute. And he has an umbrella!

Raine: Now that the trio has procured the cake, they have to find a way to get rid of it. Pyo Taek-soo happens by and they play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to give it to him.

Chi-san is the lucky eunuch who delivers the cake. It expresses feelings that he couldn’t convey before. Taek-soo is stoked and thinks Chi-san is cute until he reads the card.

‬The first time I met you, I was fascinated by you. Every morning I open my eyes and I want to see you.

Taek-soo looks up and Chi-san clutches his heart dramatically and walks away.

Bwahahaha! Poor Taek-soo is more than a little creeped out. Now I want to see Chi-san dress as a chick again. That was kinda awesome.

Deeno: No cross-dressing please. I’m kinda getting sick of that trope. Curse you, Ti Amo!

Raine: But Chi-san’s a spy when he cross-dresses! And so cute decked out as a gisaeng.

Raine: Se-na happens to see Park Ha delivering a catalogue to Tae-mu’s father and scowls. She’s probably imagining all the nasty things that Park Ha could be planning against her.

Se-na, sweetheart, that’s only you. You’re paranoid.

Deeno: But Park Ha is plotting against her. She actually remembers Tae Mu and is seducing Panda to get Se Na to drop the bone she already has. Then Park Ha can share Tae Mu with me! Till I kill her.

Raine: You just want an easy target.

Deeno: But I made my version of Park Ha more cunning. More of a challenge. It will be more exciting when her warm blood cools on my face. Ooooo.  Goosebumps…of joy!

Raine: Is it good for your pores?

Deeno: It’s a good monthly regiment to add to your beauty routine. I do it a bit more often because I love the feel of it.

Raine: Do they make a facial scrub?

Deeno: Well if you grind up the bones…

Raine: I’m sticking to Cetaphil…

Raine: I hate that I’m saying this, but the next scene is so cute. The prince is practicing squash and Se-na comes to teach him, getting all handsy. It’s so heartbreaking how Lee Gak just melts and stares at her so lovingly. And I hate how she KNOWS how he feels and totally plays him. But the writer in me loves the creation of this character.

Deeno: You love the shark/guppy combination.

Raine: I’d rather be the shark at that particular moment. Handsy with my panda.

Deeno: How do you manage to make everything sound so dirty? Do I even want to know?

Raine: Let’s just say it’s a special skill and leave it at that. 😉

Deeno: Can you have a normal skill? Like being good at checkers?

Raine: Checkers…where you check out pandas? Or strip checkers where you get bonus points for being crowned…

Deeno: Bad Unni!

Raine: They have a grand old time playing and then have some drinks while cooling off. She laughs at how he sounds like a man from ancient times when he speaks…

…that’s kinda like that line that writers pull in EVERY drama. “This isn’t a drama, y’know.”

Anyway, Se-na’s sweating like a pig and the prince offers her a hankie. But not just ANY hankie. The hankie that Bu Yong embroidered and Hwa Yong claimed credit for. The hankie with the butterfly of destiny on it!

Deeno: We already have a mystical time travelling panda. Can’t we get rid of the butterfly already?

Raine: Go do “it”. You know what “it” is. I give you permission…you can pluck its wings.

Deeno: Can I feed it to a monkey?

Raine: Panda Prince makes monkey noises, does he count?

Deeno: I want to see him make an “ick” face after eating it.

Raine: That would actually be SOOOOO cute!

Raine: Se-na thinks the hankie is pretty and the prince pushes her to see if anything about it is familiar. Nope, but she knows how to use it to daintily mop up her sweat.

She drives him home and asks to come in for some water. Or to be evil. But being evil is tiring business so maybe she is actually thirsty.

Deeno: Blood thirsty.

Raine: True dat.

Park Ha is doing laundry and is stopped unpleasantly, mid-chore, by the sight of her personal tormenter. The prince insensitively orders her to get water for Se-na and to clean his hankie. She tossing it haphazardly at the laundry basket, telling him to wash it himself, and it lands on the corner of the donated clothing box instead. Then she leaves to dump the donated clothing.

Ruh roh.

On the way out, she hears them flirting and scoffs. She also drops the hankie onto the front deck without noticing.

Raine: The Trio heads to a cake shop where they can make their own cake. They want to make a huge cake for Park Ha. They’re so cute!

Se-na ices the prince’s muscles for him and he falls more in love with her and she knows it. She’s playing him so bad that dirty, dirty…it’s not kosher to say what I want to say.

Deeno: Waffle?

Raine: Not quite, but I’ll give you a cookie for trying.

Deeno: Do you know what you call a dirty waffle?

Raine: A…dirty waffle?

Deeno: A sandy Eggo (San Diego) Bwhahahahahaha! Sorry! It’s my only joke.

Raine: If I say I’m laughing, you’d never know that I wasn’t. That’s the beauty of the internet. Unless you’re creepy and have your satellites watching me not laughing.

Deeno: I know everything you do. I know when you sleep. I know when you eat. I know when you’re leaving comments instead of writing.

Raine: You gave me that link to peruse! You caused the problem in the first place!

Deeno: Can you prove that? Can you prove that I left you in the back of the truck with only a carton of milk? I don’t think so!

Raine: Hahahaha! Nice!

I have to say (again) that I love how faithful Lee Gak is to his wife, and to Park Ha. He didn’t let her get hurt and I know some people are going to say he’s leading her on, but its not purposeful. They’re just naturally matched and it’s not an emotion he thinks about. In his mind, he’s there to find his wife, not his DESTINY (i.e. Park Ha!!!!…at least I hope…) BUT HE WILL LEARN! He’s still in love with his wife. If he dated Park Ha now, it wouldn’t be him.

When Se-na finally leaves, she spots the hankie outside and takes it for her own evil purposes.

Deeno: After Se Na departs with the handkerchief she visits her mother. Things get a bit awkward when Park Ha shows up to her own birthday party. Se Na tells their mom that Park Ha disowned her after making up some crazy stuff about Se Na abandoning her as a child. Then she storms out like she’s the queen of the house.

Raine: She’s queen of psycho land.

Deeno: Not my psycho land. The other one.

Raine: She just may beat you out for the Springtime Psycho Queen crown.

Deeno: Go, Se Na, you tell that uppity Park Ha’s what’s up. Don’t let her worm her way into your mother’s heart. Protect your territory! Be evil! Make evil Tae Mu babies! Kill Park Ha! Let your beautiful grin be improved by her blood splattered on your cheeks. Mwhahahaha!

Raine: Leave my Park Ha alone! She would actually laugh at your waffle joke!

Deeno: I tell that joke every time someone steals my blood. Put the nurse at ease. That I won’t kill her for being so rude as to take my blood.

Deeno: The tracksuit trio prepare Park Ha the biggest cake possible. Then they stuff it in their fridge and it seriously just barely fits. Panda Prince complains about the cake being too large, but Blue Ajussi jumps in and tells him that was the only available size. A lie about the cake or is the cake a lie?

Raine: I’m stuck on cake. I’m so hungry for cake. I want cake. And icecream. You owe me icecream.

Deeno: Why would I owe you ice cream? It wasn’t me. Remember?

Raine: Hi Dorothy. Have you heard about what I did to my answering machine?

Dorothy: It’s not in Kansas anymore?

Deeno: Panda Prince is satisfied that the cake will be enough for a party, but the boys don’t listen and consult Becky and Mimi. They are taught that they must sing to her and they try to mimic Mimi’s happy birthday song, but they do it all wrong. But they do it was snazzy hand motions so it’s all good right?

Raine: I am way too amused by the three stooge routines they pull, but its soooooo funny! I bet they NG’d that one like crazy!

Deeno: Park Ha searches frantically for the handkerchief while being yelled at by a panda. I don’t know about you, but panda screams only motivate me when they are dying. Then I cheer for their death! Screams about a handkerchief being more important than Park Ha’s life make me happy, too.

Raine: Again, I dig that he’s so invested in his wife. However, when pandas yell at my poor Park Ha, they might get hurt before I nurse them back to health.

Deeno: Panda! Panda! Panda!

Deeno: The boys pick up other items for Park Ha’s birthday, hats and fireworks. Blue Ajussi tries to help but instead of hats, he brings a bag of chips, and instead of fireworks, bean porridge. Poor Blue Ajussi can’t get things right in order to please his love.

Raine: He got the words for chips and hats confused and the words for fireworks and bean porridge confused. He’s a little slow on the uptake, but so adorable. *pinch da cheeks*

Deeno: Park Ha goes to the clothes donation site, thinking the handkerchief is there, among the mounds and mounds of clothing. She has to search all of them by the morning or the clothes will be shipped off. While she searches, Se Na smiles at the butterfly while Panda Prince awaits Park Ha’s return.

Raine: Please check the bottom of this post for a special edition of “Where’s Waldo?” But this time it is, “Where’s Park Ha?”

Deeno: Face down in a pond?

Raine: How many times do I have to say it? Leave my Park Ha alone! My Peppermint! My Lotus!

Deeno: Your corpsey poo?

Raine: Corpses poo? Ew…

Deeno: She returns the next day, worn and defeated. Panda Prince tells her that she tried hard enough. She barks back her surprise that he didn’t yell at her this time and goes to bed.

Raine: Now that’s real friendship right there. He may have been pissed but he knows how to forgive. Wait…is that some semblance of maturity I see?

Deeno: Panda Prince may have calmed down, but he gets upset again when he finds the tracksuit trio drinking water instead of eating. He asks how Park Ha can be so lazy and is shut up when Green Ajussi tells him that Park Ha got a fever.

Raine: No! Poor little peppermint!

Deeno: And it’s all Panda’s fault! Mwhahaha! Don’t you go around saying lives are less important than handkerchiefs again or she may really die. Actually, perhaps you should say that.

Raine: It’ll take more than a time-traveling hankie to beat down my Pond Lily!

Deeno: Tae Mu, I miss you! Come here. I’m tired of this Park Lily Candy nonsense!

Raine: You have to wait until next episode, my bloody friend.

Deeno: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Deeno: Panda Prince checks on Park Ha. He takes her pulse and when she asks what’s wrong with her, he tells her that her disease consists of her talking too much. He writes some herbs down and tells Yellow Ajussi to find them.

Raine: Funny story about talking too much. I had surgery when I was ten and I was babbling at the surgeon. I asked him when he knew I was asleep and he told me, “When you finally stop talking.”

Deeno: Ha ha.

Deeno: Tae Mu’s father bullies Tae Mu’s assistant into telling him where Tae Mu and Se Na’s apartment is. Se Na’s mother happens to be visiting and when she can’t get in because the passcode has changed. She borrows a pen from Tae Mu’s father. When she leaves he reads the note and finds out her identity.

Raine: FINALLY someone has some kinda leverage against Se-na. She’s as slippery as an eel.

Deeno: The shrieking kind?

Deeno: Panda Prince makes Park Ha medicine and talks to her as she falls asleep. He notices the postcard in her room and wonders what happened to Tae Young between the time that he sent the card and the time he was supposed to meet Park Ha. One guess, Panda with the handkerchief at the pond.

Raine: Tae Mu with a lightsaber in an asylum.

Deeno: *drools* That may just make up for his disappearance in the last half of this episode.

Deeno: Tae Mu’s father tells Se Na that he found out about her mother. With this piece of knowledge, he can spin any lie about her that she wants and no one will believe her. Se Na remembers Park Ha talking to Tae Mu’s father and suspects that Park Ha revealed the truth. She goes to the rooftop house to kill her sister.

Unfortunately, before killing her sister, Se Na gets distracted by a sticky note. It asks Park Ha to meet Panda Prince at the Han River at 7. Don’t do it. It’s the river of tears it will make you cry.

Raine: So I really want her to go meet him and have her relationship with Lee Gak doomed. And, she has no consideration of personal space. Seriously, if someone barged into my room like that, I’d take a cello endpin to them.

Deeno: I’d pull my AK-47 out from under the bed.

Raine: So not creative…

Deeno: I can see your jealousy…how many people do know who own AK-47s.

Raine: I used to date a Marine…

Deeno: Did he have an AK-47?

Raine: His roommate and a few people in his barracks did…His roommate was…strange…

Deeno: Good strange or bad strange?

Raine: Creepy bad strange.

Deeno: But people with AK-47s are cool.

Deeno: Se Na confesses that she likes Panda Prince right after he admits that he would marry her if she said she liked him. Yeah, that’s not sketchy at all. She also returns the handkerchief claiming she spent all night looking for it.

Deeno: Right as Park Ha arrives, she hugs Panda Prince.

Raine: That glare she gives is soooo creepy. I wanna watch episode 10 now, but I have to finish up this post…

Deeno: I’m going to start it while you’re typing up those comments. Ha!

Raine: *sob*

 Comments:

Raine: Let’s get shallow…er, shallower. I love alllll of Lee Gak’s jackets. They’re so cute. I want to buy them and wear them even though I’m a chick.

Deeno: I have that problem too. I always envy the guys clothes more often. And their haircuts.

Raine: And what the hell is this BS about marriage? MARRIAGE?! You want to tie yourself to THAT?! Maybe ‘cause you noticed she hasn’t taken the bracelet off yet? Or maybe ‘cause you haven’t noticed she’s always making Park Ha cry.

One thing I don’t want is a dramatically stalled wedding ceremony. No jilting. Please. So lame.

Deeno: But Se Na looks to pretty as a bride…and Tae Mu makes an awesome groom. Since Tae Mu was missing I’ll go watch that aniGIF a million times to make me happy.

Raine: I also hope Park Ha doesn’t just leave the scene of the hug and makes a liar out of Se-na, but you know she will.

(Instead of “Where’s Waldo?”, let’s play, “Where’s Park Ha?”)

Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Character introductions.

Rooftop Prince Episode 9 Screencaps.