REPLY 1988 - EPISODE 8
A fight with mom ends in a black eye for dad
Jung Hwan's brother needs heart surgery. He has a pacemaker now, put in 10 years ago. Jung Bong tries to pass it off to his family and friends as routine surgery, maybe taking an hour or so. Except, as the hour approaches, he begins making plans for his death; boxing up his prized possessions, crying, and willing them to Jung Hwan. Meanwhile, Jung Hwan jeers at all this hype for a routine procedure. Hyung makes it through okay at the end of the episode, but not before everyone is in tears with worry. Even Jung Hwan softens his tone when he visits his hyung.
Bora finds out that her boyfriend cheated on her with one of her friends, and ejects both cheaters from her life. Bumping into her boyfriend sometime later, they fight and he blames his cheating on her, claiming she's frigid. Sun Woo happens upon her alone, crying, and tells her that she's actually a warm person. A flashback to the day Sun Woo's father died shows Bora comforting him. He buys her a cup of coffee, she fusses over a scrape on his hand, and he gives her a peck on the cheek and runs off.
Sun Woo kisses Bora
Deok Seon's mom and dad are again fighting about some purchase he made. She gets mad and starts throwing things, and finally beans him with a decorative rock, leaving a nice, red shiner. They talk, and decide that if they talk to each other in formal language, they won't fight anymore.
Deok Seon's brother, No Eul, tries to break up with his girlfriend, Soo Kyung, who bullies him into silence with her friends. Deok Seon happens along the scene with her own friends, and goes berserk, attacking the girls when she finds No Eul is crying. At the police station, they find that No Eul's girlfriend's parents are dead, and Mom invites her into her home for dinner. Dad overreacts when he arrives at the station, and mom snaps at him in banmal. At Deok Seon's home, we find out she likes No Eul because he got her to quit smoking, and didn't treat her like a pariah after her parents' death.
Jung Doe(?), Deok Seon, and No Eul now.
Flash forward to 2015: No Eul visits Deok Seon and her hubby, and she fusses over his foot, injured while playing baseball. When he complains and says he's not a kid anymore, she says he'll always be a kid to her. Awww...
It's nice to see Jung Hwan has a soft side toward his family, as we don't get to see that side of him that often. He does nice things for Deok Seon, who's nearly a sister to him, but he's mostly stand-offish to his actual flesh and blood. He gets a bloody nose a lot in this episode, and everyone acts like it's no big deal. It kind of surprised me, except I know that it can be a reaction to stress -- the kind of stress you might feel if a family member's life were in danger?
A berserk Deok Seon
This episode didn't quite have the pacing that the others did. I'm not sure if they were reaching with some of the edits, or what, but for some reason there were times where you wanted a window into the other characters' lives, and you didn't get that a lot here. Maybe it's because we get into the lives of the siblings more than the main group, No Eul, Bora, Jung Bong, each has their own subplot which casts more light on what's going on with these often minor characters.
Deok Seon's husband at the present seems like he's pretty sarcastic. He mocks this and that thing, seemingly off-hand, and no one even calls him out on it much, so they're used to it. I'm still betting it's Jung Hwan, but right now hubby's still a "Jung Doe," if you will. As much as Jung Hwan makes gestures to her which she seems almost to take for granted (or wonder what the heck he's doing), I think that he may be the one. It's not like Sun Woo seems to have much of a chance with Bora, either, but he still pursues it, bit by bit. I think this adds a lot of sweetness to the show -- the love that these characters have for each other, and the tenderness they show toward their crushes.
Jung Hwan checking on hyung.
I knew there was something between Sun Woo and Bora. Can I call it or what? You can't just have a one-sided relationship and just let it linger. Well, you can, but that's not fair to the viewers or the characters. Now we see that Bora hasn't always been the queen of mean, and her tears show us that she's not just made of ice, as her ex maintains. They made her a sympathetic character this episode, and -- as I said -- I'm hoping for a relationship to develop here. And Sun Woo seems like a great guy, who would take care of her and never make her cry.
Apparently, this episode snagged the highest viewership of any episode in the entire Reply franchise. That's pretty impressive, and so far the show is living up to the hype. That's hard to do, and not as successful as it could be in all cases. 'Reply 1988' is wildly popular, and deservedly so. Now it twists me up inside, as I have to wait another week for an episode. :)
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