Official Synopsis: 18-year-old Kang Kyung Joon's (Shin Won-Ho) spirit suddenly becomes transplanted into the body of 30-year-old Seo Yoon Jae (Gong Yoo). Seo Yon Jae is a successful doctor who is engaged to high school teacher Gil Da Ran (Lee Min Jung). Gil Da Ran just so happens to be the teacher of 18-year-old Kang Gyung Joon. More problems ensue when 30-year-old Seo Yoon Jae falls in love with another woman (miss A's Suzy).

Ratings: Ratings for KBS's 'Big' were better than last week with an increase of .5% to a 7.9% rating, nearing closer to SBS's 'THE CHASER', which experienced an increase of ratings to 9.8%. Meanwhile, MBC's 'Light and Shadow' achieved a 21.3% rating, holding onto the crown. With 'Big' establishing its ground this week, let's see if its ratings steadily improve and capture the hearts of viewers.



Recap of Ep. 2: Da Ran tries to rush Kyung Joon, stuck in Yoon Jae's body, to the hospital to switch their souls. Kyung Joon calmly explains that the only conclusion a hospital visit would be Kyung Joon, Kyung Joon's body, and Da Ran being locked in a mental hospital. After Kyung Joon explains the soul-switching situation with robots and cups, Da Ran appeals to Kyung Joon to keep Yoon Jae's body safe and healthy, replacing Kyung Joon's junk food with healthy food. However, Kyung Joon ignores her request and resorts to eating pizza. The aftermath: Kyung Joon running manically to Da Ran who's at school and showing off his chest/back to peeping teachers as he suffers from hives due to an allergic reaction.

After Kyung Joon is treated by the school nurse, Da Ran begins crying at the broken reputation of her fiance within the school. Feeling a bit bad, Kyung Joon goes to the hospital to visit his body, but encounters the hospital patients, staff, and even Da Ran's father, who greet him warmly to his confusion. While Kyung Joon realizes Yoon Jae was a doctor at the hospital, Da Ran rushes to the hospital after his father confusedly wonders why "Yoon Jae" hadn't responded to his greeting. After Kyung Joon and Da Ran finally meet up, Kyung Joon is about to grab Da Ran's hand when he remembers latching onto Yoon Jae's hand during the accident. Kyung Joon grabs his body's hand in hopes to have their souls switched, but to the disappointment of both Kyung Joon and Da Ran, nothing occurs.



Before Kyung Joon can leave the hospital room, he meets his uncle and aunt, who frantically ask whether "Kyung Joon" would wake up. Crushed after hearing his family hoping that the Kyung Joon who's in a coma doesn't become a burden, Kyung Joon brushes off Da Ran's sympathy. When he arrives home, he notices a bag of dumplings and his old belongings, including his wallet with the photo of the cupids in it that Da Ran had left behind.

As Da Ran tries to explain why "Yoon Jae" had seemed to not recognize her father and brother, Da Ran's mother quickly invites Yoon Jae for dinner. Although the dinner does go smoothly, with a few bumps in between, Da Ran's parents are a bit perturbed by "Yoon Jae's" unusual behavior.

Da Ran brings Kyung Joon over to Yoon Jae's house to pack some clothes for him. Kyung Joon marvels at Yoon Jae's chocolate abs (while us female viewers marvel along with him), making Da Ran feel a little doubtful that Yoon Jae had the time to make those abs when he was supposedly unable to meet up with her.

Se Young, Yoon Jae's female colleague, (Jang Hee Jin) calls and asks to meet up with him. Kyung Joon heads out alone, and to his surprise, Se Young runs up and hugs him. While Kyung Joon tries to fend her off, Se Young confesses "I love you," and Da Ran comes out of the apartment. Kyung Joon puts two and two together, muttering, "Seo Yoon Jae, that bastard." (Took the words out of my mouth.)

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kdramacrazy's Thoughts:

[Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of allkpop.]

I love how the Hong sisters are interweaving the emotional parts with their trademark hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments (and our shared love for chocolate abs), despite the uneven tonal shifts. 'Big' has a more distinctive tone as many of their previous works have focused on the transformation of the selfish, conceited person to a kind, caring human (e.g. Cha Dae Woong in 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho' and Dok Go Jin in 'The Greatest Love'). Although I enjoyed their characters and all the hijinks that came with their transformations, I love the more subtle and emotional transformation that Kyung Joon will face. Although Kyung Joon is already quite mature for his age, he needs to learn the special meaning of human relationships, both in the family setting and romantically, the true stage of 'growing up'. And I could already see that coming with Da Ran's care and kindness as well as her family (emphasized with the metaphor of the collection of rocks).

What detracted from my enjoyment was Da Ran. I'm worried about our rocky relationship, which might consist of me wanting to shake Da Ran's shoulders to crush her innocent love and thoughts about Yoon Jae. With Da Ran's emotional dependency on Yoon Jae, her dismissals of Yoon Jae not loving her, I'm afraid it'll take her too long and too much of an effort to drag her out to face the harsh image of Yoon Jae. Although I love her optimistic and energetic personality, a nice chemistry balance with Kyung Joon's cool image, I hope she isn't as naive as she proved to be in the last portion of the episode.

And Gong Yoo, welcome back with your chocolate abs and wonderful acting. He truly heightened the chemistry between Kyung Joon and Da Ran, and his portrayal of Kyung Joon, a teenager acting mature and in control, is spot on. His acting talent truly spoke out when he switched characters so easily and told Da Ran "I love you" as Yoon Jae. Although the character switching between Yoon Jae and Kyung Joon confused me a bit in the beginning, I'm quite interested in how it will develop the romantic relationship between Kyung Joon and Da Ran with the melding of characters/emotions.

While we wait for the new episode (and miss A fans wait for Suzy's first appearance), enjoy the eye candy.