[Drama Review] 'Uncontrollably Fond' - Episode 19

AKP STAFF

UNCONTROLLABLY FOND -- EPISODE 19

*singing* "We wear our sunglasses at night..."

Everybody cries this episode.

Well, okay, a few people don't -- notably Choi's wife, Ji Tae, and Jung Eun, but everyone else sports red eyes and tear-streaked faces. But beyond all that, this episode is about redemption.

The central storyline seems to be about Choi. Choi sees what a monster his wife is when she tells him she arranged for Ji Tae's "accident." Ji Tae is still alive, having just been released from the ICU. Choi snatches Noh Eul from Assemblyman Yoon's clutches, and she gives him the original footage incriminating Jung Eun. Choi, of course, doesn't understand why, until she explains it's because he's Joon Young's dad. Young Ok, Noh Eul, and Joon Young believe he can be a good man. And they all remind him of this. Slowly, over the course of the episode, he finds out that's he's become so corrupt that's he's lost everything. He cries, because he knows that he's pretty far gone, that there's no time to make things good with his biological son, Joon Young. He sees echoes of the man that he could be. This was spread throughout the episode, but each scene hit him -- and me -- like a punch to the gut. I was really impressed, with both the acting and the episode.

If you have to cry, use a diving mask.

Joon Young wakes up, his memory intact. He tells Noh Eul to air the incriminating footage they shot. Noh Eul tells him that she gets it, she doesn't blame him for her accident, because it was all accidental. And he cries. This is what I usually balk at in dramas. They always blame themselves, like it's somehow more noble to suffer. That never fails to get up my nose. But at least there was some redemption in this dark tale. Choi's was the first, this was the second.

Everyone else has their day too. Na Ri can't stop crying, but she gets Jik to tell Joon Young that she was responsible for their breakup. She cheated and didn't realize what she lost until it was too late. It's really too late now! But the episode is hammering home, one by one, the fact that people need to be forgiven. This one felt a little tacked on, though. However, it does let Jik say that he used to look up to Joon Young, and wants him to find a way to live because only lazy people die. Heh.

"Don't get cocky -- we're not married yet."

Ji Tae has reached this weird point of grace. It may be the fact that his whole body's busted up, it may be the drugs, but the first thing he does when he wakes up is ask about Joon Young. Jung Eun visits the hospital and tells Ji Tae she's heading to the U.S., and he'll be hit with embezzlement charges after he recovers. He replies he's sorry he hadn't been a better friend, to get her to admit to the hit and run. He has this calm, graceful air about him. He's not mad, he's not shocked or outraged by either of these two ogresses. To me, that was extremely weird.

If there's two people who deserve to be punished they're Ji Tae's mom and Jung Eun. Those two are irredeemable, which I think this episode was also trying to show us. They don't feel sorry for their actions -- they just continue to throw sin after sin onto the pile, and then dive in. Because this is a drama, they are blind to the fact there should be a reckoning, somehow. I'm hoping that it hits them next episode and hits them hard.

"Does it stretch like Silly Putty? I don't know, I've...uh...lost my memory. Yeah. That's it."

Noh Eul suddenly getting sick too was excessive. Was I supposed to feel anything other than it was contrived? I hope not, because I mostly rolled my eyes. Was this necessary? Is this likely to lead to some strange happy ending where they both die in each other's arms? So she doesn't get a happily ever after either? I'm not sure I like where that is going.

So this episode was actually extremely focused. There was still a lot to take in, but it all fit together nicely. Maybe the crying was a bit much, but not a lot of people knew about Joon Young's illness, so there is that. I can see his staff busting up crying over the news. We're near the finale. Who thinks this is going to end up a big mess? If it continues like this episode, then it won't. But based on the track record of this show, I'm not so sure.