by: Raine

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Sorry for the long wait, guys. I’ve been going through some huge life changes and it prevents me from taking care of the Dichotomy! So here’s episode 10. It was a huge disappointment for me after the excitement of 9. What do you think?

episode 10 recap

We get a rather beautiful shot of the ghost with Doo-rim, telling her the truth of the matter and then Roo-mi stumbles upon her, wondering why she’s standing outside the shop like a fool.

Doo-rim takes off the necklace and heads inside. Yi-hyun is there to see her, which Roo-mi also sees. She almost calls Mommy Myung-hee, but realizes that Doo-rim is going to die if she marries Kang-joo – and she leaves. So Roo-mi is as foul as I thought her to be.

Yi-hyun is angry Doo-rim went to see Kang-joo. He tells her that Creepy Mom and Yi-kyung knew of the curse from the beginning and planned on sacrificing Doo-rim’s life. Doo-rim the naive can’t believe it, but Yi-hyun assures her they are planning to switch in Yi-kyung when Doo-rim bites the dust. He’s worried about her because only one woman can be his wife and his family won’t let it be Doo-rim.

Kang-joo listens to partitas and his father walks in. He admits he hated the partitas because Dad was a different person while listening to it, pining for his first love. Kang-joo doesn’t want to live his life the same way. He will have to make the same decision because he’ll regret losing her for the rest of his life. Dad smiles. I’m wondering how Dad can smile knowing the truth of everything.

Doo-rim stays up that night mulling over the ghost’s ultimatum. We hear Doo-rim’s choice: she will be his bride at the cost of her life. The ghost looks happy.

Doo-rim takes Granny out shopping the next day, and Granny will only get something new if Doo-rim does. They go out to eat and Doo-rim takes more pleasure in watching Granny eat than in eating the delicious food herself. Doo-rim apologizes for never being able to take her nice places until now. Granny wishes she could’ve done more for her, but Doo-rim sweetly says she raised her well. D’aw. All that’s left is to marry off Doo-rim.

Doo-rim suggests living unmarried with Granny for the rest of her life and the answer is an immediately “NO!” She assures Doo-rim her other half is near by. Doo-rim lies to Granny that she’s off the next day to find Bong-sook the thief and Granny buys it.

Roo-mi shows up in Kang-joo’s office to say she knows that she knows what he’s planning. (I.E. To run off and marry “Yi-kyung”.) She promises to stop liking him. She warns him things that never happened may happen from now on. She understands why he’s never trusted anyone, but that lack of trust has also hurt. So he should keep distrusting people, even himself. Roo-mi asks him to “tell his first bride ‘congratulations’.”

Wow, her character is horribly inconsistent.

Yi-kyung confronts Doo-rim to ask about her rushed decision. Doo-rim says that she will stick by her decision – she was told she should run away if she wants to live. That catches Yi-kyung’s attention, especially when Doo-rim assures her she’ll keep going down the same path to stay by his side. Yi-kyung asks if he’s that important that Doo-rim is willing to trade her life for him.

Well, duh, Captain Obvious.

Doo-rim smiles softly and says it was the first time someone someone considered her over himself. How could she let him go? YI-kyung looks distinctly disturbed by that…

Jin-joo confronts Doo-rim about where she’s going the next day. She knows it’s not back to Namhae. Doo-rim takes her hand an apologizes for choosing the difficult path over the easy one.

Kang-joo tells Dad about their elopement and receives Dad’s approval in the form of poetry. Mommy Myung-hee overhears and watches Kang-joo heads out. She thinks evilly that everything will fall into place tonight.

Doo-rim says goodbye to Granny and Jinjoo and as Doo-rim leaves, Psychic shows up and is caught by Granny. Granny is impressed by his skills. He had predicted Doo-rim was leaving on a trip. He reluctantly tells her that it’s not a physical trip he predicted, but a trip towards death. Granny chases him out with a broom and looks quite worried once he’s gone.

Doo-rim calls Yi-hyun out to say her last goodbyes and a last gift of food. He can sense something is wrong and asks if she’s okay. She lies that she’s going to Namhae and he tells her to go and leave her worries by the ocean. It’s a sweet and sad goodbye. She thanks him for everything he’s done and even hugs him. He better have a big flashing “WARNING” sign going off in his head.

Yi-hyun spots Creepy Mom driving off somewhere.

Kang-joo and Doo-rim arrive at a church. “Ave Maria” plays as Doo-rim heads down the aisle. The camera is very conspicuous about focusing on the bracelet of doom. There is no priest or officiant at the end of the aisle, but he does slip a ring on her finger and recite his vows. He swears his devotion to her and she silently says her real name during hers, while outwardly speaking Yi-kyung’s name. She promises to stay by his side forever and ever.

They kiss and lights start coming out of her head. I know it’s supposed to be mysterious and romantic, but it made me laugh.

They run out and Doo-rim spins around happily, feeling the like the bright shiny day is helping them celebrate. She tells Kang-joo he’s the shiniest and they hug while some creeper takes pictures of them.

In the car, Doo-rim gives him coupons she made herself of cute couple activities. He doesn’t look thrilled about it, but its still cute. They begin with wearing couple clothing, which he loathes (But looks absolutely adorable in.) He also disdains ddeokbeokki and soondae until she feeds him. She makes him smile with her antics. The kid sitting next to them says Kang-joo is too good for her and he promises to buy her food with a smile. Next thing we know, Doo-rim is sitting between them. He keeps smiling at the young girl and telling her to eat a lot to make Doo-rim more jealous.

Yi-hyun does paperwork and pauses to pull out the food Doo-rim made for him. Inside the bag is a note, which causes him to look stricken. It’s blank save for the salutations.

Jump to Doo-rim cooking for Kang-joo and making me all hungry. Except she’s making him work. He complains about peeling onions. Aw, he never changes.

She feeds him the fish she made, disappointed that it burnt and he sweetly compares it to a top restaurant in London. Aw, he’s cute when he’s like this. Doo-rim asks what he’d do if someone lied to him even if they didn’t have a choice. Says he hates deceiving people and lying more. He probably wouldn’t look at them. Then he asks if she’s hiding something from him…like a crazy past relationship. She denies it and feeds him to distract him.

That night they have wine by the fire. She asks when she made his heart race for the first time. He doesn’t remember, but she does. The time he picked her up to put her in the wheelchair. She wants to know and tries to guess. He teases that she boasts of no attractive memories: the cake eating contest, scaling walls. She wonders if it was the backhug at the hospital, but he says it’s not. She demands to know when. He promises to tell her later…tomorrow. Her voice cracks as she repeats the word.

Jin-joo decides to inform Yi-hyun of Doo-rim’s real plans and he immediately begins the search for her. He marches into Yi-kyung’s room who plays like she doesn’t know anything. He confronts her with proof of the fact that she hid for all that time and knows what it means. Yi-kyung defends that it was Doo-rim’s choice to sacrifice herself. Yi-hyun points out that Doo-rim could tell Kang-joo the truth and ruin their plan. It’s dangerous for everyone – it needs to stop.

How could a person do this? he asks his evil sister and she replied that it is precisely because she is human that she can. He counter that he could go to Kang-joo’s place now because he is a jealous human. That is the first time she seems to consider her evils. Then Yi-hyun drives to save her while Yi-kyung reports to Creepy Mom. Her solution to the problem? Promising her daughter that they have to silence Doo-rim forever. It will all be over in the morning.

Not Creepy Mom. Purely evil mom. Guh.

Mommy Myung-hee reads Dad’s first wife’s diary. She wrote that the best night of her life was her wedding night with Dad. Their first and last night. She is not scared of losing her life, but of the pain Dad will feel when she’s gone. There is a page missing out of the diary and Myung-hee’s mom holds as she collapses.

Doo-rim drops a wine glass and says that she’s tired. Outside and eery fog blows in and puts Creepy Mom and her driver to sleep.

In bed, Doo-rim touches Kang-joo while committing him to memory. She silently promises her feelings are real. He silently promises never to live without her or let her go alone. Wherever she goes, he’ll go. Wait, are we going to Romeo and Juliet?

Anyway, they kiss as the lights fade and they spend their first night together. Or so I assume. (At first I chose not to say they woke up fully clothed out of hope that they actually slept together without clothing or jewelry on….) Outside the ghost waits in the blowing wind and eerie fog. We jump to a woman running through the forest in traditional wedding clothes. When she turns, it’s Doo-rim.

Granny wakes up from the dream, worried about how ominous it was. She pulls out a wrapped traditional slipper and shakes. Wait…what?

That morning, Kang-joo is having dreams. Beside him lies not Doo-rim, but the bracelet of doom. He dreams of the ghost coming to him as a child and sees Doo-rim walking towards a cliff. He wakes with a start, finds the bracelet and runs out in search of her.

She is slowing walking toward the edge of a cliff in a serious daze looking ripe to jump. Kang-joo continues his frantic search and only pauses to have a meaningful staring contest with the evil bracelet.

Then we see ghosty in white who tells Doo-rim she won’t die. This whole thing was a test to find true love so strong that it was not hindered by anything.

I’m sighing terribly right now. Really show?

Ghost says Doo-rim passed the test. But now what comes is more dangerous because there are people who want her dead. She may have to suffer pain and blood, and the loss of the trust and love of the one she trusts and loves most. He may even leave her. Does she still want to go down this path?

Ah, did the other wives choose death over rejection? Or was it just Doo-rim who gets to live?

The ghost doesn’t know the future either. Doo-rim wants to know why the ghost chose her, but ghosty says she has to figure it out herself. Then she reaches out and Doo-rim takes her hand. Ghosty disappears and Doo-rim is once again alone on the cliff. Kang-joo finds her with tears running down her cheeks. They hug tightly and Doo-rim says “I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.” The person who gave her the bracelet said that they create their own futures. She hugs him again.

I’m feeling so….let down. That was it for the curse? Now she gets to fight her lies and Creepy Mom?

Creepy Mom wakes up the next morning and orders her driver to check out the situation. Yi-hyun arrives and goes into the house. He sees a messy bed, a burning fire, but no people. He heads out in a frantic search for Doo-rim and sees her walking back arm-in-arm with Kang-joo. He breathes a sigh of relief only to be knocked out by Creepy Mom’s lackey.

Doo-rim spots Creepy Mom and her smile fades. Kang-joo heads down, nonethewiser, to greet who he believes is his furious mother-in-law. He takes the blame and Creepy Mom wants to go back to Seoul first.

Kang-joo kisses her forehead and promises to take all the shots. Doo-rim stops him before he goes, wondering if he can trust her no matter what she says? Forgive her no matter what? He promises her he can take any trouble she makes by now.

Doo-rim tries to tell him she’s not the person he thinks she is. But before she can come out with it, the phone rings with the news that Myung-hee’s mom had a heart attack. She’s asking for “Yi-kyung”.

Outside they tell Creepy Mom about the visit and Creepy Mom decides to take “Yi-kyung” and make her presentable to n elder. Kang-joo leaves. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

And then Yi-hyun wakes up with a woodpile for a pillow. Ruh-roh.

Creepy Mom deadpans that the heavens must be on her side and asks her to get in the car to talk about unfinished business. Yi-hyun catches up to them just as the car drives off. He enlists Jin-joo’s help in finding Doo-rim.

Creepy Mom takes Doo-rim to a hospital and says that her work is done. Shifty bitch. Yi-hyun drives up just in time to see Creepy Mom’s lackey climb in the back to trap her and another climb into the driver’s seat. Creepy Mom shows her true colors: she never intended to let Doo-rim take Yi-kyung’s place at Kang-joo’s side. She threatens Doo-rim with the lives of her Granny and Jin-joo. Creepy Mom leaves the car and it drives off with Doo-rim in it. Then she makes a march of smirky glory to meet an equally smirky Yi-kyung at the hospital.

Yi-kyung meets Kang-joo who smiles sweetly at her.

 Comments:

Okay, I really was enjoying the ghost mystery and now that it has been cleared away, I’m feeling a bit empty. It was more interesting than the power struggles between all the evil women in this show. I know there are those of you who guessed the ghost was good, but I wish that hadn’t been revealed so…unspectacularly. A test of love? Seriously? No reason? Did others fail? Why all the deaths? I suppose there is more to the ghost mystery. I’m just feeling disappointed. Maybe ghosty should come back and help out after that lame reveal.

I have to point out that Yang Jin-sung does a wonderful job distinguishing between Yi-kyung and Doo-rim. However, I wish she’d make her vocal performance as distinct as her facial and body performances. She makes very little variation in their voices and I find that Yi-kyung’s voice is incongruous with her behavior.

I’m finding that Kang-joo and Doo-rim’s chemistry is cute, but not the electrifying, intense passion I expected in these life and death circumstances. I do like that he wants to shield her from Creepy Mom, and that she tried to tell him the truth, but we’re in for a long, annoying, political ride between all the people vying for marriage (and money) rights.

Also, is anyone else finding Yi-hyun a waste of space? He’s so unnecessary right now and his character is blah. The acting is blah. Or maybe I’m just feeling let down by the episode in general. At least the cheesy marraige/honey moonish scenes were cute. Hopefully the show deals with the political fallout of Doo-rim NOT dying better than it dealt with this reveal.

Recaps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Character Introductions