by: Raine

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We get some cute and a lot of stupid. I’m starting to weary of the plot, but I’m in it for PSH. Was there ever a doubt?

“Stop Hurting” – Melody Day (from the Cheongdam-dong Alice OST)

episode 10 recap

While Psycho-jo waits in the frigid December air, Se-kyung is kicks Tommy Hong’s ass.

“I’m no longer afraid. If you want to block my path, find another way,” Se-kyung tells Tommy Hong. He smirks and tells her she won’t be able to tell Psycho-jo the truth, but she throws it back at him. Tommy is the one who won’t be able to tell or he’ll be finished forever. She may lose Psycho-jo if she tells the truth and what she’s worked so hard for, Tommy warns, to which she replies that she’ll be able to give him up then. He tries to knock her down again, “You’ll probably leave to trudge down a long and tedious road with nothing at the end.” Again,  her answer wipes that annoying smirk from his face, “That’s me from the start, anyway.” Ha! Besides, she’s learned not to just sign any kind of contract because it becomes a debt, which then becomes a loan. No contract for him!

She storms out, leaving him fuming. Outside she gathers her composure and then answers a call from Ah-jung telling her that Psycho-jo is still waiting outside for her. She runs to him thinking that the idiot could’ve waited for her inside. Aw, cute, you’re calling him names already.

Team Mad Rabbit watches Psycho-jo the stubborn wait in the cold and finally they introduce each other. Haha. I love how they’re Team  Mad Rabbit and don’t even know each other’s names.

Se-kyung shows up and they watch in anticipation. She hesitates before going to him, hearing Tommy tell her she may not get what she wants if she tells Psycho-jo the truth. Psycho-jo turns and sees her, greeting her with a gorgeous smile. He nervously asks her if she’s accepting him. She wants to tell him something, as does he, and adorably keeps asking if she’ll have him all while freezing from waiting outside for too long.

She nods and he picks her ups, spinning her around, receiving a cheer from warm Team Mad Rabbit in Psycho-jo’s car. Psycho-jo thanks her, joking that he thought he’d freeze. Team Mad Rabbit joins them, taking pictures. They ask if they should set up the projector, flashing a jump drive, but Psycho-jo forbids it.

They go into a pojangmacha. (Why not somewhere that’s really inside?) Se-kyung fusses over him, giving him her scarf and putting her hand and a warm drink against his cheeks. He grins that they really seem like a couple now and adorably directly the warm drink to different locations on his face. She smiles indulgently and I *squee*

In her massive wardrobe, Coach Tick remembers seeing Psycho-jo and then receives a call from Ho-min. He wonders what’s been going on because she’s been hard to get a hold of but she tells him that nothing is wrong and hangs up.

Liar!

Tommy is impressed by how shrewd Se-kyung is. Ugly love is still love and if Tommy reveals the truth to Psycho-jo, Tommy won’t have contact with him again, which ruins his chances of arranging the marriage and getting the Olympic sponsorship. But Se-kyung can’t easily tell the truth either, Tommy deduces and has someone named Hae-joon put on her tail.

Se-kyung walks her new boyfriend home and tells him to take a warm shower. He sends her off first and adorably stops her twice to tell her to return safely and that he’ll see her tomorrow.

Inside, he almost trips because he’s so happy and buries his face in her scarf. He surfaces with a serious face and his eyes begin to water. Then he smiles, a man in love.

Se-kyung receives a text from him with a picture of the happy bunny asking where she wants to meet. She says that anywhere is fine and ends with “^^,” which greatly pleases him. He tells her to leave tomorrow to him to which she replies, “Okay. ^^” He excitedly hugs the bunny as she promises herself that she will tell him everything tomorrow.

And we can pretty much assume nothing goes right, right?

Ah-jung and Se-jin tell the parents about the new couple. Mom is unreservedly happy while dad warns the women to keep their mouths shut until Se-kyung shows up.

The next morning, Psycho-jo waits outside GN Fashion for Se-kyung, practicing his “ahnyong” and even practicing an informal greeting. SO. Cute. Then he practices tacking on the more formal “yo” and she shows up with a nervous smile. He says they’re going to Paris and he’s serious!

They arrive at an airport. She wonders about packing, vacation time, passports, tickets, but he has a solution for all. And that her passport is in her bag – Ah-jung was supposed to have put it in. But it turns out Se-kyung doesn’t have one. He is really disappointed. He reserved all of her the places they talked about. She is impressed he has the means just pick up and go whenever he likes and he worries that it was too much. But she thanks him for thinking of her, pinky swears to go to Paris with him one day, and tells herself again that she has to confess today.

He drags her to a photobooth to take a passport picture, but at the last minute climbs in and takes adorable pictures together with her. Then they feed each other disgustingly sweet cake (at a Parisian style bakery) and take disgustingly sweet selcas. It’s all ridiculously cute.

(Side note: she’s calling him Seung-jo ssi now! *squee*)

Then he takes her to an art gallery for tea where a painting he did hangs. He painted it while penniless in Paris and it changed his life. He admits that he didn’t only break from his father in Paris – he met a woman. Of course, his father didn’t like her because Psycho-jo doesn’t do things his father likes. Both men fought each other and when Psycho-jo let go of his father, his father let go of him by disinheriting him. Psycho-jo had to give up everything and finally realized what it was to be poor.

Se-kyung asks if he misses his father to which he replies that they occasionally see each other and bicker immaturely. And after he parted with his father, he parted with the woman. It was at that point, poor and alone, that he painted the work in the gallery. It was sold at the 2008 Paris Patronage Auction for 30,000 euros. It shocked him and then more people wanted his work, especially the rich. The Artemis president was one of his clients. He also doesn’t know who bought his first painting and donated it.

How much do you want to bet his dad bought the painting?

He is thankful to that person who brought him this far. Se-kyung things she has to tell all now, too. He interrupts her thoughts to tell her that he went into Artemis to do something and pulls out the flash drive. At the last moment, he chickens out and can’t give it to her ‘cause she’ll hate him.

What is it?! TELL ME!

She says there is a chance he’ll hate her if she tells him what she has to say. She starts to confess but he cuts her off because he’s scared that her secret will make him scared to tell his. He won’t let her tell him until he reveals his flashdrive secrets.

He really is such a wuss, but I guess it works to stop the big reveal on her part. This plot is really starting to go nowhere.

We see a man watching their conversation.

Then they drive home and she asks about his father, about how he’s always aware of him – is he proud? Psycho-jo thinks he’s probably jealous and mad that Psycho-jo didn’t crawl back after his failure. Se-kyung doubts it. She thinks his father is just unsure of how to approach him, like her father was. Even when she won things, her father would never compliment or congratulate her, but he collected everything about her success.

Now I’m even more positive it’s his father who bought the painting.

Psycho-jo doubts it, which makes her sad for him. He walks her to her door and I want another kiss. Instead I get Coach Tick watching from her car. Psycho-jo asks her how today was and she replies that it was scary. He scolds himself and says even Dong-wook told him Paris was crazy. It wasn’t that though. It was that she enjoyed it so much. He wonders why that is something scary and she promises not to make their time like that anymore.

It’s because you got baggage, woman.

She tells him to quickly leave so they can meet tomorrow and he grins happily. He drives away and Coach Tick acts like she’s going to approach Se-kyung but doesn’t.

Se-kyung mopes on her bed next to her own giant rabbit and hopes that he’ll quickly reveal his secret so she can get hers out of the way.

In his snazzy apartment, Psycho-jo slips the flashdrive into an envelope. Please tell me the truth of that thing comes out soon. I want Se-kyung’s junk in the open because I need a new conflict. This one is just nasty.

Tommy Hong’s private detective says that Se-kyung seemed to almost reveal the truth, but didn’t. And also that there was some woman standing in front of Se-kyung’s house watching them. Then In-hwa shows up on her way to meet Psycho-jo. Tommy advises her to take things slowly with him to make sure all goes well.

Yeah, yeah. Just tell her the truth you lying, smirking, retarded man.

In-hwa wants Tommy to mention something to Daddy Cha about a bid for an outlet mall that Royal Group lost. They wiggle their eyebrows and I pretend to know what they’re wiggling about. I think they’re trying to slip into some kind of business opportunity to further cement the relationship.

Secretary Moon delivers an invite from Min-hyuk to a bazaar that Royal Group is holding that GN is also working on. Tommy meets with Daddy Cha and we see what all the eyebrow wiggling was for. Artemis is working on a merger and acquisition with Loehmann’s. If the M&A goes through and Daddy Cha brings Loehmann’s into his store, then Psycho-jo would be connected to him and GN Fashion.

Isn’t that…obvious? If Psycho-jo is as savvy a businessman as this show makes him out to be, won’t he see that coming since all of the business dealings in the show so far seem to be fairly well known among all the people in this line of business?

Daddy Cha needs some time to think about tricking his estranged son.

Psycho-jo and In-hwa walk around the Bazaar. She explains that she likes simplistic design and he counters that he thinks her designs are more moderate. Um, okay?  Fail?

She takes a call and leaves. Daddy Cha stares down his son at the bazaar and approaches him looking tense and nervous. Then he demands when his work day is going to end. He tries to ask him if he wants to eat and ends up growling “bap” (food) a few times before he barks out the question.

Aw, cute dad. Cute.

Psycho-jo is confused and Daddy Cha quickly rescinds his offer, but his son takes it. They sit down to a Japanese meal and the air is tense. Dad tries to ask about work and love and then backs off to try a different tactic. Welcoming someone into a family isn’t easy.

Ah, I see where you’re going with this.

Daddy Cha explains JK Group failed because they accepted the wrong daughter-in-law who wasn’t from the right family. His son counters that some matches with elite women ended in divorce. Daddy shuts him up, telling him to just acknowledge the advice and Psycho-jo thinks he’s old-fashioned. That’s why Royal Group won’t rise higher than fifth in the industry.

Oooooh, them’s fightin’ words!

Daddy Cha yells at him to just eat and takes out his anger on the wait staff.

It’s dinner at Min-hyuk’s house. He asks if Tommy relayed the information about the outlet and she replies that he did – as a business venture and an opportunity to see his son more often. She also shares the news that father and son had a meal together.

Coach Tick thinks that things won’t be so easy and that the meal is because of Se-kyung. Things won’t proceed as the family wishes, she thinks with a smirk.

As Maroon 5 plays in the background, Psycho-jo tells Dong-wook about eating with his father. Dong-wook says the power of love is powerful has made Psycho-jo do what he’s been trying to get him to do for…forever. Also, Psycho-jo still hasn’t sent the flash drive of truth. If she accepts he’ll bulldoze forward, but he’s scared she’ll reject him.

So Dong-wook runs away with the envelope to send it. Hee.

Se-kyung gets a call from Coach Tick who is drunk. She wants to know how Se-kyung is doing. Se-kyung has decided to do things her own way and confess. Coach Tick scolds her – she can’t confess and get into Cheongdam-dong. Did she forget? “If you’re going to be black, make sure you’re black all the way.” Confessions don’t fit into that.

Coach Tick hangs up on her pupil and breaks down, knocking her wine glass over. She thinks that the only way she can live is if Se-kyung is that way so the marriage is blocked. Min-hyuk comes in and frets over her recent behavior. He seems genuinely concerned and I kind of wish she could just be happy with him.

Se-kyung peruses a letter of confession she wrote to Psycho-jo when her sister brings a package: it’s the flashdrive! She knows that it’s his confession.

Please don’t be corrupted!

Psycho-jo waits nervously and when the doorbell rings he is confused. It’s too soon for her to be there. When he goes outside he sees Coach Tick. She says he committed more wrongs against her, that he used her, that she ended things with her. He is totally confused by her behavior and catches her when she physically wavers. She throws his hand off and tells him that he didn’t give everything up for her, but to show up and win over his father.

I knew she was a smart little blood sucker!

So in effect, didn’t he use her?

Meanwhile, Se-kyung is watching the video on the flash drive. It’s a recording of his altercation with his father in the first episode of the show.

Coach Tick reminds Psycho-jo that his father said that if a woman says she loves him that she’ll use him. Therefore, Psycho-jo didn’t believe in her from the beginning. He was testing her, whether or not she’d still love him if he gave up everything.

The video shows video Psycho-jo admitting that he is getting revenge on his father as real-life Psycho-jo admits that he looked for Coach Tick everywhere after she left him. He wanted to verify if a woman like her really existed, that the woman who loved him most made him doubt her sincerity.

They both are tearing up. She knows he searched for her and she read all of his letters. She knew the only thing he could do was exact revenge on her.

Se-kyung listens to Psycho-jo’s first meeting with Coach Tick where he tells her of his revenge plans, the ones that fueled him to this point.

The real Psycho-jo isn’t sure if he was getting revenge because he hated her and his father or to save himself. He knows one thing for sure now: they never had a proper goodbye because she just disappeared. So he says, “Seo Yoon-joo, sorry I couldn’t protect you, for not trusting you. I’m sorry for all of it. Now you should live well.”

Coach Tick cries and he puts his hands on her arms to comfort her.

It’s a pretty gorgeous scene and one of the most mature things that has happened all show long.

Se-kyung finally gets to the part of the video where he addresses her directly. She must be surprised at what he’s done. He’s written scripts of revenge and recorded the revenge and watched and rewatched it.

But that isn’t all. We see when he signed over his inheritance six years ago. He hands over his wallet and his father “graciously” gives him his i.d. back. Psycho-jo rises to leave, but Daddy Cha makes him leave the watch he’s wearing.

Psycho-jo admits in the video that he thought he could bear being disinherited and parted from his father if he had the watch, which was expensive. He was embarrassed at being caught by his father and is embarrassed to reveal his pettiness to her. He’s also given her his username that will reveal every comment that he’s made in an internet search. He spent a lot of time being mean and cruel; he is this type of man. But does she think she can accept him when she seemed so happy with him as she was. He believes embracing each other and revealing everything to each other is love. So will she accept him, when he’s like this?

Se-kyung is crying and runs out the door to accept him. She sends him a text, “Are you home? I’m taking a taxi to your place.” He doesn’t receive it ‘cause he’s staring out the window. So Coach Tick, who is brooding outside his apartment, seeing her running to him and remembers that Se-kyung is going to confess.

Coach Tick runs up four flights of stairs to catch her and drags her back outside just as he gets the texts and heads out to meet her, barely missing them. He runs passed them outside, excited to see her.

Coach Tick wants to know if she’s going to confess and tells her it’s better not to. Se-kyung wants to know why she’s there. Coach Tick is insistent that Se-kyung doesn’t confess, but Se-kyung wants to be as honest with him as he was with her. The Tick is adamant that it’s the wrong thing to do. Men are different and he won’t take it well.

What does the Tick know about him anyway? Se-kyung demands and turns away. Coach Tick quickly admits that she is Yoon Joo Cha who lived with him in France. He is the one she left after doing business with him. Psycho-jo almost died at that time from PTSD. Since he was born he’d only loved two women in his life, both of whom came into contact with him solely for money. If she confesses, Psycho-jo will die.

No he won’t. He may be weak, but he won’t die.

Confession is for nice ones like Se-kyung, Coach Tick says. It’s selfish and hurtful to the one receiving the confession. What will happen to both of them when she confesses? It’s Se-kyung’s job to save him. And silently Coach Tick thinks that Se-kyung needs to save her, too.

Se-kyung reels with this news as Psycho-jo waits in the cold for her.

I seriously think she should just confess. Lies beget lies and secrets more secrets. But it’s only episode 10…

Anyway, Se-kyung finds Psycho-jo who is worried about her late arrival. He blows warm air onto her hands while she looks like her face is going to melt off. He nervously asks if she watched it and if she can still accept him. She says that she can accept him, but she looks like she’s accepting her execution. He asks why she looks so worried and guesses she’s nervous to confess to him.

She is although I think she is no longer going to confess. Why are you listening to the woman who broke him in the first place?

Anyway, he hugs her and thanks her. She sadly accepts his embrace and he tells her that she has to go with him somewhere tomorrow. She agrees weakly and worries him again. Then with a half-hearted smile, she says she’ll see him tomorrow.

Se-kyung trudges home and puts everything she’s learned together about Coach Tick and Psycho-jo. She receives a text from him telling her to meet him at the Cheongdam-dong Convention Center at 5. She replies without the “^^,” but he’s still happy. He plucks out the grumpy looking rabbit from the pack; yes, it’s probably supposed to be her.

The next day, Min-hyuk, In-hwa, their mother, Daddy Cha and Tommy Hong are at the Royal Group bazaar. Some ladies ask about the arranged marriage of In-hwa and Psycho-jo.

I smell trouble.

Psycho-jo calls to make sure that Se-kyung is coming and they go to the bazaar together. Uh-oh…

In-hwa sees him coming in and then double back for someone, pulling her out by the hand: Se-kyung. The entire waiting group, including two other women, stares incredulously. Psycho-jo smirks at daddy’s expression.

He introduces Se-kyung as his girlfriend and Tommy looks like he wants to crawl into a hole and rot. In-hwa looks furious and Min-hyuk and his mom look plain ol’ confused.

Then Psycho-jo tells Se-kyung to introduce herself to Daddy Cha: his father. Whoa, a double public relationship reveal? Psycho-jo is hardcore. Daddy Cha is shocked, but not more than when Psycho-jo announces,

“Father, we are going to be married.”

 Comments:

Sorry it took so long guys. I promise to catch up before the finale this weekend! Please don’t give away what’s happened in your comments ’cause I haven’t watched 11 to 14 yet!

Okay, liking the relationship between Psycho-jo and Daddy Cha. I’d really like to see that go somewhere.

I’m kind of done with insecurity being the plot motivator. I’m almost hankering for some parental interference. Coach Tick’s warning to Se-kyung was really annoying. I mean, I’m glad that truth came out, but I’m tired of this secret. It’s just…run its course.

Psycho-jo hasn’t really learned, has he? He’s showing off Se-kyung to his daddy like he showed of Coach Tick. It was a public demonstration of defiance even though his emotions for Se-kyung are real. I want him to learn to separate his need for parental love from his romances. But at least it’s a new conflict aside from Se-kyung’s betrayal.

I liked the French-style accordian music scattered throughout the episode, that was fun!

I want more from this show. Park Shi-hoo is carrying it on his sexy shoulders. The writers need to step up and write something worthy of the rest of the cast.

Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (final)

Character introductions.

Cheongdam-dong Alice Episode 10 Screencaps.