Nice Guy Episode 9 Recap

Oh wow. That was interesting. Not sure if I can go about making heads or tails of what episode 9 of Nice Guy did to the drama narrative as a whole, but it definitely took a great leap forward. Whether that leap is in the right direction only time can tell, but I wouldn’t write off what happened as crazy plot developments or upending the story to generate new angst. Episode 9 unfolded marvelously in execution and took the drama where the originally released plot synopsis laid out that it would. I find NG is a drama that always challenges my impressions of it, whether it’s from a character or narrative perspective. So far the tropes are oft-used ones, such a revenge, ambition, rebellion, or the newly arrived amnesia. But the drama doesn’t present it in a linear way, instead infusing the story with shades of gray and subtle touches that enrich the viewing experience. So much is presented visually that the looks and camera angles become yet another layer of the story.

The entire drama is an unreliable narrator, and I confidently predict that there are still lots of unrevealed material facts that will impact how we feel about what’s happening. Every episode of NG gives me new nuggets of information both past and present, and new snapshot feasts for the eyes that make me want to frame a particular camera angle or scene cut. I love the shot above of Eun Gi and Maru, a very heavy handed juxtaposition of his darkness in all-black, the half who still remembers every moment between them, and her rebirth in all-white, the half that has a clean slate who wants to start with the search for love. The way his name is chalked on the wall like a child would write, showing us that regardless of why and how they connection was formed between them, it really can be so simple. Eun Gi was always searching for the most human and inherently childish need of love, while Maru had suppressed his inherent goodness to preserve his will to live.

Episode 9 recap:

Maru tells Eun Gi that he wanted to come to this beach with the woman he loved, Han Jae Hee. Eun Gi doesn’t look surprised so Maru asks how long she’s known about him and Jae Hee? Eun Gi asks why that even matters? Maru wonders why she didn’t just expose him? Eun Gi’s reason is that she didn’t want to lose him. Her candor appears to take Maru back and he reminds her that he approached her with ulterior motives.

She knows why Maru approached her but that doesn’t matter to her, what matters is how she feels about him. What’s important to her is getting what she wants. Eun Gi asks why he’s never came clean with her? Maru coldly tells her that the woman he wanted was Han Jae Hee and not Seo Eun Gi. If she really insist that she won’t give him up, and thinks they can have a future together, he can give it a try. Faced with the heart of Seo Eun Gi, who was willing to give everything away for a man like him and is the heir to Tae San Group. He is willing to seriously consider her from now on.

Eun Gi asks if he was calculating from the very beginning, including from retrieving her doll? Maru says yes but Eun Gi yells at him, asking if he’s a crazy moron? One wrong move and he would be dead and never get Jae Hee back. The Maru she met on the cliff is not the one standing before her, and he’s the one she was willing to throw everything away to be with.

Eun Gi hugs Maru and asks him to run away with her, somewhere no one knows them and they can be together. She’ll go anywhere with him. Maru pulls her off him and rejects her, saying that she won’t do. A woman like her who throws everything away for a man is not what he wants. To get Jae Hee back, he would have done anything, implying that he even risked death for Jae Hee, which we all know is still him lying to her.

Eun Gi turns around and walks away dejectedly. We see Maru turn his head away from her and he swallows hard and looks conflicted. Way to play the noble jackass, Maru.

The Chairman is sitting as his desk in the office and on the phone with Joon Ha, who confirms he’s done what the Chairman asked him to do. Whoever did the Chairman’s make up needs an award, because the man looks realistically like he’s on the brink of death. Joon Ha asks the Chairman to reconsider, noting that tomorrow is Eun Gi’s birthday. Jae Hee tucks her son in bed and then goes to see the Chairman. The Chairman asks where she went and why she looks so tense?

Jae Hee hands him the evidence she retrieved from the lock box and the Chairman is shocked that she has it. Jae Hee says she kept it this entire time, since to protect the Chairman because of this she sacrificed the life of the man she loved the most. This is her trump card much like the Chairman keeps tabs on Jae Hee and never trusts her.

Jae Hee asks if this was all done because of Eun Gi’s mother and the scar she left on him? Jae Hee knows that the Chairman has only ever loved Eun Gi’s mother, and she doesn’t care about that because even now she also loves another man. No, you love yourself, Jae Hee, but let’s not quibble with her grand sense of delusion.

The Chairman has a heart attack and reaches for pills. The bottle falls on the ground and Jae Hee picks it up and them holds it behind her back. Oh no you didn’t, bitch! She uses it as leverage, begging him to make Eun Seok an heir as well. She asks him to please give Eun Seok the same inheritance as Eun Gi, then she will leave this house. She begs the Chairman, pleading that Eun Seok is also his son. The Chairman struggles to breath and then collapses on the ground.

We then see that the Chairman didn’t end his call with Joon Ha, who has been listening in on this exchange and recorded it. Cut to Maru still sitting at the beach.

Jae Hee tries to call for help but lawyer Ahn hangs up her call, and then covers her mouth when she tries to summon the housekeeper. Jae Hee demands to know what he’s doing? Lawyer Ahn says the Chairman was going to die anyway so this was merely speeding it up. It would be so unfair for both him and Jae Hee to leave with nothing, so this is their only choice. He just wants her to focus on the only person she needs to protect, Eun Seok, while the only person he is focusing on is her.

Eun is driving back to Seoul when she gets a text from Joon Ha that the Chairman has died, causing her to almost get into an accident. She pulls over and composes herself. She starts driving again before suddenly making a U-turn and driving back towards the beach.

Maru is driving back to Seoul and he enters a tunnel. Eun Gi enters the tunnel from the other direction, and we see their cars driving towards each other on opposite lanes. Maru sees Eun Gi first and then she registers his car.

She stares at him, and then purposely swerves her car into his lane. There is still some distance between them and Maru’s eyes open when he sees this. But he doesn’t move out of that lane nor does he avert his eyes.

Maru locks eyes with Eun Gi as she steps on the acceleration to speed up. As her headlights shine directly on his face, there is unshed tears in his eyes and he finally breaks into a tiny smile, as if he’s at peace. Eun Gi starts to cry as she gets closer to Maru’s car. The scene cuts to darkness.

Jae Hee’s brother is eating at a restaurant and sees on TV a news report about the death of the Chairman of Tae San Group and how his daughter and primary heir got in a car accident in a freeway tunnel. We see news reports at the accident site, with a car with shattered glass. The reporter says that it was a violent two car accident, and both drivers Seo Eun Gi and Kang Maru are severely injured.

It’s been 12 months later and folks are discussing how Eun Gi is missing and she disappeared during her treatment at the hospital. They wonder who will inherit Tae San Group if Eun Gi never returns, and perhaps she’s already dead. Jae Hee’s brother holds a flyer for Eun Gi as everyone is searching for her. Jae Gil stands before a grave and it turns out to be his dead dad. Jae Gil won’t back to work for his dad’s handbag company because he claims his dad exploited the workers.

Flashback to the night of the Chairman’s death, and Joon Ha is about to call the cops when lawyer Ahn calls him. Lawyer Ahn tells him to go ahead and call the cops, but then he has information to give the cop, too. He has evidence that Joon Ha’s dad was involved in the not-so-accidental death of Eun Gi’s mom in a car accident. What the what Lawyer Ahn claims that Joon Ha’s dad blackmailed Eun Gi’s mom to engage her to Joon Ha. Joon Ha has no choice but to stay silent. Noooooooo, don’t turn into an unwilling accomplice, Joon Ha!

Jae Hee, sporting a fancy new bob, runs into the wife of another company president. Madam Jo acts like she doesn’t recognize Jae Hee, who explains she’s on the Board of Tae San Group. The two ladies greet each other. Madam Jo asks if Jae Hee recently applied for VVIP membership of her club?

Madam Jo gloats that she rejected the membership because she doesn’t want a low-class woman entering the club. Is Jae Hee here to beg her to reconsider? She tells Jae Hee to just lay low and hold the fort until the rightful owner of Tae San Group, Seo Eun Gi, returns. That is what Jae Hee is suitable to do. Madam Jo reveals that she was the best friend of Eun Gi’s dead mother and she will never accept Jae Hee’s place as the Chairman’s second wife. Hahaha, first time ever I’m rooting for the even richer, even snottier bitch to give it to Jae Hee.

A man is playing a gambling game on the street and is losing profusely. Maru walks up and stops the game, catching the proprietor cheating red-handed and helping the losing man get his money back.

Maru asks the man to dinner and turns out he’s doing the guy a favor to ask him for other information. The man explains why he was gambling the money he borrowed from loan sharks to pay for increasing medical costs. Maru knows the man’s name and tells him to do whatever Maru asks. The man is a product development engineering at a company. The man doesn’t want to work with Maru, but he knows how sick the man’s wife is and points out he will need even more money going forward. Maru tells him to hand over the secret development notes for the Active Matrix LED. The man asks Maru how much he’ll make if he helps.

Maru says a lot and takes a drink of water but he almost throws up. After dinner, Maru heaves in the restroom and it appears he’s not in perfect health and he knows it.

When Maru goes home, a young man is waiting for him. The man accused Maru of swindling his dad, and before Maru got home, Choco has been defending her brother to the man as not that type of person. The young man says Maru swindled his dad’s entire retirement pension.

Maru tells the guy that his father is the idiot for trusting Maru when he knew nothing about him. If he feels aggrieved, then he needs to get stronger and come after Maru and take him down. It feels like Maru is talking to his old innocent self. Choco is stunned that her brother has gone from a gigolo to a financial swindler. Aren’t we all?

Jae Gil goes to find Maru inside the darkened house. He asks Maru what happened since the accident? Both he and Choco feel like another person’s soul has entered into Maru’s body. Jae Gil asked if Maru was so scared because he almost died. Does he want to quickly die now. He has a death wish now, and wants to quickly earn money for all of Choco’s medical fees for the rest of her life so he can die without any worry?

Maru is like a thing without any will to live. Jae Gil points out that Maru was not even as bad as this when he lost Jae Hee and he got over it. Jae Gil says he’s really scared he’ll lose Maru. Jae Gil knows how hard it is for Maru, but he sobs and Maru to please not be like this.

Jae Hee goes home and finds her brother waiting outside. She’s not afraid of him anymore, telling him to hit her if he dares. She’s already given him money and if he’s gambled it all away, then its not her business anymore. She walks inside.

Jae Hee goes inside and orders the housekeeper to immediately turn Eun Gi’s room into a play room for Eun Seok, remember how Madam Jo derided her as nothing but a placeholder for Eun Gi to come back. The housekeeper hesitates and Jae Hee screams that Eun Gi isn’t coming back after a year where they have searched high and low for her.

Maru sits in his dark room and stares at a flyer with Eun Gi’s face on it. He remembers her rain confession, that her only wish is to see him everyday and say I love you to him and hear him say I love you to her. To have kids and a family with him, to grow together with him. Is that even possible? He then remembers what she said on the beach, calling out his lies that he did everything with her because of Jae Hee. Eun GI knows that the person standing in front of her is not the Maru she fell in love with, that Maru is why she threw everything away like a crazy person to be with him.

Maru crumples up the flyer and leans back with a sigh.

Jae Hee goes to meet Madam Jo who is getting a facial. Madam Jo tries to call for security for letting a dog into this club. Jae Hee shows Madam Jo a picture showing Jae Hee flirting and dining with Madam Jo’s husband. Madam Jo tries to slap Jae Hee for being a skank but she grabs her hand. Jae Hee admits she’s a skank and there isn’t a man she can’t seduce. She managed to seduce Chairman Seo, who has ten times the will power of Madam Jo’s husband. Madam Jo asks what Jae Hee wants to keep away from her husband. Jae Hee wants the rights to allow Tae San to buy a company first, then stop blackballing Tae San, and finally to get down on her knees and beg Jae Hee’s forgiveness for insulting her.

Choco is at work and being sad when she thinks about how kind and wonderful her Maru oppa used to be. Jae Gil waves at her from outside the window and writes messages on a notebook trying to cheer her up. Jae Gil’s father died but still he’s got a smile on his face and is soldiering on. He tells her that if they stick by Maru, they can bring the old Maru back. Jae Gil goes inside and gives Choco a reassuring hug.

Maru gets a call and prepares to leave the house. Jae Hee’s brother is in the neighborhood and has a stomach ache and is looking for an outdoor toilet stall. We see two women walking up the neighborhood steps. One is dressed all in white and is holding the other woman’s hand. The other woman, who is Eun Gi’s secretary from an earlier episode, tells the woman in white to hold on and runs down to get something. The woman in white nods and we see its Eun Gi.

Jae Hee’s brother bangs on the door and runs into the bathroom, and his interaction with the kid inside makes Eun Gi smile broadly. Eun Gi then joins two kids who are drawing on the wall with chalk. Eun Gi draws the picture of a man and writes that this is Kang Maru. The kids laugh at her for writing the name incorrectly in hangul, they call her an idiot for not knowing how to write hangul correctly despite being an adult. Eun Gi repeats Kang Maru and tries to write it correctly. Maru is walking past Eun Gi and stops in his tracks when he hears his name being said aloud.

Maru turns around and stares at Eun Gi drawing on the wall. He then hears the kids making fun of her and he walks up to write his own name correctly. Eun Gi smiles to see it written correctly. The kids are called home to dinner leaving Maru and Eun Gi alone.

Eun Gi finally looks at Maru and recognizes him. She asks if he recognizes her? Eun Gi explains that she’s lost her memory in an accident but it will come back slowly. Right now she doesn’t remember anything other than her name is Seo Eun Gi, which took her a long time to even remember. Maru just stares at her without saying a word.

Eun Gi takes out her camera and shows him a picture of her and Maru taken in Aomori. She says that the unni taking care of her told her that man’s name is Kang Maru and he lives in this neighborhood. She doesn’t remember who Kang Maru is, but seeing his face she remembers him.

Eun Gi asks if they were in madly in love with each other before, right? Maru’s eyes become a tad moist as he hears Eun Gi ask him that question and he swallows hard and stares back at her.

Maru then flashes back to Aomori and what happened at the street festival after the hug. Eun Gi is happy and takes out her camera and snaps pictures of Maru, who doesn’t want to take pictures. But she persists and he allows her to take a selca of the two of them.

Thoughts of Mine:

I think trying to dissect NG as it airs is a faulty proposition. One can try, and perhaps prematurely reach conclusions about this drama’s overarching narrative or grand scheme, but that both defeats the experience of watching and there isn’t enough evidence to formulate a credible hypothesis. I shant even try, and instead shall savor and digest each episode as it comes, and try to connect some dots along the way while understanding that there is so much more I am not yet aware of. I do think the revenge plot has turned out to be a red herring and likely serves no purpose going forward. It was merely to give Maru an excuse to take action against Jae Hee, and now that Maru has finally worked through his Jae Hee issues, its moot. Perhaps Eun Gi has a reason to take revenge against Jae Hee once she regains her memory and learns she (and lawyer Ahn) let her dad die rather then summoning help. But wrapped up in that are so many more layers of rights and wrongs that I wonder if Eun Gi will ever find the need to deal with Jae Hee herself or Jae Hee will end up getting her comeuppance in due course.

The beach talk was a moment of absolutely clarity for me where I finally understand Eun Gi’s feelings for Maru. That life and death moment on the cliff when she almost fell to her death and he saved her, then he descended to get her precious doll and almost die, that was an intense experience for both of them. That moment is seared in her memory and this man entered her mind and heart just like that, impossible to explain with logic but it was so heart pumping that it shook her world. She saw in him a genuine concern for her well being, the pulling her up to safety was real, the getting her doll was because he saw how much it meant to her and he acted for her sake rather than to advance his agenda. She saw all of that, and everything subsequently was her trying to reach out for this man. I love that Maru knows she sees through his excuses and bullshit, but he’s too scarred and feels too guilty towards Eun Gi to accept that she still wants him despite it all. So he pushes her away. But in that tunnel, when Eun Gi drives towards him, he doesn’t avert her eyes or her car, not because he thinks he owes it to her to die. But because for that moment he is at peace thinking that he can leave this painful world with her, and perhaps everything that cannot be in this life can allow them to start over if there is an afterlife.

As for Eun Gi trying to kill herself and Maru, I find her desire for an out in her shitty life totally in line with her personality. She’s always got a death wish and barrels towards anything without reservation. In learning that her dad died and Maru so cruelly pushed her away, in her own limited world she’s just lost the only two things that anchors her. Tae San was never a dream, it was always an obligation. She’s an emotionally stunted young woman who lacked positive emotional feedback when she was growing up so now she only knows extreme ways of going about confronting life’s challenges. En Gi’s intense attitude mirrors how Jae Hee’s poverty stricken childhood makes her seek security at all costs. But unlike Jae Hee, Eun Gi doesn’t step on others to climb on top, she appears to step on herself and assume all the risk. Now that she gets a clean slate to start over, while everyone else around her remembers, I’m fascinated with how her journey will continue to unfold. And finally, Maru clearly has feelings for her. He had it pre-accident when he pushed her away, and it is likely the reason he’s living on the edge now as a form of self-flagellation. I hope he realizes that he’s getting another chance with Eun Gi and not to let it slip through his fingers. Though the spectre of a rocks fall down ending still hovers strongly over everything, I remain ever hopeful that happiness, however short-lived, can be found by Maru and Eun Gi with each other. And that Jae Hee will infected with a flesh eating bacteria when she goes skinny dipping to seduce yet another chairman type guy to advance her own agenda.


Comments

Nice Guy Episode 9 Recap — 61 Comments

  1. I’m excited to see where the story will go narratively.

    But i’m curious… Are we really lead to believe that Eun Gi knew it was Maru’s car in the tunnel? In such a dark place with headlights shining its IMPOSSIBLE to see through the windshield and thus see the driver’s face. If that’s the case, then did Eun Gi just decide to crash the car in a random suicide attempt? And Maru decided to let himself die too? That makes very little sense, escpecially since Eun Gi turned around to go back to the beach. But why would she try to crash into him if its concluded she was aiming to hit HIS car???

    Also, I’m worried that Maru might be really sick. Aching head and throwing up are common signs of a tumor (or bad migraines). I really hope neither of the OTP dies at the end of this. I want them to be happy, live to be old and make beautiful babies. Plus, I don’t think I can watch an ending like 49 Days again. Great drama, ridiculously sad ending.

    • Woah hey, other Sarah! lol

      I do think we are supposed to believe that Eun Gi meant to crash into Maru’s car. After his rejection and learning about her father’s death, in her recklessness and anger she turned around to seek Maru with full intention to hurt him. When she recognized his car and him at the tunnel she took no time to swerve onto the opposite lane and accelerate head on to Maru. The looks they gave each other as this all happened let’s the viewer know that they knew they were running into.

    • I think Eun Gi didn’t know it’s his car. Same with Maru, I don’t think he recognized Eun Gi’s car. Both of them were suicidal and their headlights were in high beam so I agree that it’s impossible for them to recognize each other’s car. I also fear that Maru gets really sick and die. Waaah! I don’t want to happen.

      • I was asking myself the same thing. How come they can tell each other’s car in a dark tunnel?

        But after having watch that scene more than three times, I see little details that tell me they knew.

        For example: Ma Ru leaves the beach after hours of being there, perhaps he was expecting Eun Gi to come back. Lets make a break here; Im basing this theory on the fact that Ma Ru went to the beach to break it of with Eun Gi for once and for all. Seeing as it was always Eun Gi who tried breaking it off with him at first. But as she also was the one to come back to him, now I will assume Ma Ru was expecting this to happen again and possibly wanted it. Because he is at the beach, still after hours, thinking of how messed up things got. He is playing with the sand in a very depressing way.
        Then he gets on his car and drives off…
        Enter Eun Gi: If she wanted to kill herself against another car, any car, she would have done it on the way to her father’s house. It doesn’t matter which car is it right? But she turned around because she wanted to confront Ma Ru.
        At the tunnel, Ma Ru looks at her car and sort of smiles after a few seconds, still staring at her car. This tells me he knows is Eun Gi, and that he is glad to be proved right, that perhaps he was expecting her to come back and seeing that is her driving back to the beach he is happy.
        If you watch the scene again, right before Eun Gi spots Ma Ru’s car, you can see Ma Ru is almost smiling, very subtly.

        Eun Gi then sees Ma Ru’s car, and decides to hell with this!! The drive towards each other, and both smile in a bittersweet way, while both are crying. Come on! The look on their face says it clearly. Both know. In fact, here is the first time you can tell Ma Ru has accepted Eun Gi’s love. He wants to die, and he is letting her be the one to take him, not Jae Hee.

        Furthermore. I think that Eun Gi pulled away at the last minute. She was the one who had an accident, not Ma Ru. No one mentioned he had an accident. She pulled away and crashed against the tunnel… or! Ma Ru pulled away crashed against the tunnel but nothing apparently serious happened to him (he is clearly suffering from something, maybe from the accident?) and Eun Gi drove off, uncontrollably to either the tunnel, or another car that might have been coming… these two are my possible scenarios.

  2. Your analysis is pretty much spot on, Koala. Agreed with every thing stated here. The most heart wrenching moment for me was when Maru and Eun Gi were hurtling towards each other in the tunnel. Moon Chae Won and Song Joong Ki were absolutely perfect in that pivotal moment, you only needed to see the expressions on their faces when they were about to face death to understand pretty much the crux of their relationship at that point. I’m so happy that Maru has finally reciprocated Eun Gi’s feelings. I am tied to the mast of this ship and I stay tied to it even if it goes down in flames.

  3. I stopped watching after episode seven. I don’t know, everyone is taken by Maru and Eun-gi, but to me it’s just a relationship that’s superficial, especially on the side of Eun-gi, who’s fallen for him so hard without much substance–even after the revelation and then her ‘test’ of Maru with the break up.

    Anyway, I’m keeping up with it for Joon-ha. Beautiful Joon-ha. I hope his feelings for Eun-gi/sexual preference remain ambiguous because I do not want to see him hurt and lose out at the end.

    Thank you for the quick recap. 🙂

    • From the beginning of this drama, i hope that eun gi and joon ha would stick together. Let ma ru with other girl. I don’t like maru. He plays eun gi’s heart. How can eun gie so crazy in love..

      • From the beginning, I was hoping like hope that Joon-ha would at least remain ambiguous or only hinted at because we know dramas mostly go the predictable route and pairings. And I didn’t want him to be the on the losing end of an outright quadrangle, triangle or what not.

        Eun-gi has gone crazy in love/infatuation. Her confession at the end of seven said it all to me. It is not a love with actual substance but more due to how much she’s caught up in it all. Maru, well, I don’t think anything needs to be said about that. That’s pretty self explanatory.

        Truth be told I think Maru and Eun gi is just as unhealthy as Maru and Jae Hee

    • KMR, who as we know as a lot of experience with women as a gigolo, probably knows EG is not well in the head. He tried placating her with suggesting hero worship on her part and her heightened self-confidence as reasons for falling for him. Goodness.

      Two halves do not make a whole if they are from different substances.

  4. Thank you! Hmm Don’t know where it is going but i sort of like how it turns out. Nice Guy please keep on surprise me in a good way of course 🙂

  5. I want to cry and protect EG, I want slap, punch Maru and I want JH to die of a very slow painful death. Her son you ask? I’m pretty sure his sister will take care of him.

  6. i am speechless the moment i saw the cut video (and a subbed one too) of the ending part for the latest episode. It spoke a lot of how the two feel for each other and it kills me that LOVE transcends even with her loss memory.

    reading your recap just does it for me today. Thank you so much for continuing this and for your words of wisdom but this lined absolutely lashed through my heart..

    “Eun Gi was always searching for the most human and inherently childish need of love, while Maru had suppressed his inherent goodness to preserve his will to live.”

    oh so true w/ these two!

  7. aww.. I think this will end with Maru dying. I hope not, I really want to see this two broken person live happily ever after.

    • Like you I think this might end with Ma Ru dying. Possibly, a pregnant Eun Gi forgiving him for ever playing her heart, and a dying Ma Ru accepting death at peace……………… scratch that! If that is the end of this drama I cannot express right now how wrong it will be. How terribly wrong in terms of ANYTHING.
      First: With such a dark story, and such complicated characters, death would be a bliss. In this case, an easy escape, a cowardly move from the writer.
      Death does not always mean deep ending, and clearly is not a happy one in any way. While for some characters death is a good ending, for Ma Ru is not.
      Second: I don’t think living happily ever after with Eun Gi is the right ending either. But still, it might not be so bad as him dying. Although I wanted the ending for Ma Ru to be him realizing his wrongs against Eun Gi and living repenting over it for the rest of his life without her. Now the drama has taken a different course and we clearly see that Ma Ru loves Eun Gi. Whether because he feels responsible of breaking her heart or because in his messed up dependable mind he needs one person to enter in order to let go of another. He has forgotten Jae Hee, but now the memory of having lost Eun Gi to stupidity has made him into an even more pathetic person. I love Ma Ru, don’t get me wrong. But he is messed up, very messed up.
      This is not only because of Jae Hee. He was already messed up from the beginning. One you depend on love so much as he depended on his love for Jae Hee from the start, you must know it is not a healthy feeling.
      Love is not being dependent of another person, love is sharing your feelings and giving them without expecting anything in return, but ultimately you have to love yourself and know when to draw the line. Clearly Ma Ru has problem drawing the line.
      But if not for his obsessive character, we wouldn’t have this awesome drama to watch, cry, and hurt over. T T

      • Oh! Bonkers!!

        I didn’t mean I was disagreeing with you… just got a little carried away with my own feelings for this drama. 😉

  8. thanks for the recap. This is my first time commenting even thought i’ve been reading your kdrama recaps since last year. Just wanted to let you know that i love your recaps.

  9. EG is a certifiable nut-job. OMO

    She only cares about “her” feelings and desires. She could care less about MR’s at this point and explicitly says so, repeatedly throughout her confessions. Viki’s subs seem to be spot on.

    In today’s episode, we see that EG was willing to crash her vehicle into another person’s vehicle without regard for that unknown person’s life. Drive your damn vehicle off a cliff and leave innocent drivers alone. Selfish bitch!

    And, no MR does not (cannot) love that woman but it does seem like he feels responsible for dragging her into his and JH’s shit. At least JH did not try to “possess” MR like this psycho. MR does not want to be her “everything” and I really cannot see him falling in love with her. She’s too controlling…and a nut. She’s undoubtedly like her father.

    • Are you a worm in Maru’s stomach that you can tell exactly what he feels/wants and what he does not feels/whats? we also do not know what exactly had happened in the tunnel.

      • I’m merely asking you based on what you write about Maru because you seems to know what he feels and what he wants very well.

    • You are entitled to your own opinion, of course. But I say why don’t you reserve judgement on Eun Gi after we see the entire picture of how the crash happened? I’m positive that they will reveal it in the next few episodes.

      And I’m not sure how you come up with “controlling” and wanting to “possess” Maru. I don’t equate being forthright about one’s feelings as wanting to control someone, if anything Eun Gi was repeatedly putting herself in a very vulnerable position to lay it all out their and be rejected. And she even said at the end of her rain confession, “is this possible?” — meaning she was giving Maru a choice to either take her love or not. I don’t see how that can be actions of someone who is controlling, AT ALL.

      But like I said, to each his own.

      • Don’t you notice from mskololia’s comments that she is always against EG? she is entitle to her opinions. But it is getting a bit too tiring to read when one focusing too much on one character’s flaws all the time while ignoring the flaws of others.

      • The only person that needs to chill as you say is the person referring to another poster as anything than human. You responded to me with an insulting and ridiculous question as if….

        Word of advice, if you prefer the herd mentality, you need not read my posts. No further response or time will be given you.

      • The only person that needs to chill is the person referring to another poster as anything than human. You responded to me with an insulting and ridiculous question as if….

        Word of advice, if you prefer the herd mentality, you need not read my posts. No further response or thought will be given to you.

  10. Awwww, the more I think about this episode, the more it works for me. It takes Eun Gi to the brink and then brings her back to square one in her life. If she had a chance to do it all over again, the first thing she seeks is love. Every character is selfish in this drama, even Joon Ha at the end seeks to cover up his father’s wrongdoing and allows the Chairman’s murderers to get away with it. But Eun Gi is the only character that taps into her id, everyone else has calculating needs to satisfy. Whereas for Eun Gi its the basic need for love and connection, like a baby seeking warmth the moment it leaves the womb. It hurts that Maru won’t even dare to allow himself to love her back because of the immense guilt he carries towards her, despite knowing SHE DOES NOT CARE. She takes him exactly as he is, warts and all. Jae Hee got the best version of Maru and she threw him away, Eun Gi saw the worst version of Maru and that is one she loves. That’s so telling between the two women.

    I was LOLing at whatever craptastic law school lawyer Ahn must’ve graduated from, from him to espout sheer legal nonsense when it comes to homicide. Doesn’t matter that the Chairman was terminal and was going to die tomorrow and everyone knew it. He died earlier because of what Jae Hee did, in keeping his pills away, and what lawyer Ahn and Jae Hee did, in not summoning help. His cause of death was something she did, not his terminal illness. That’s manslaughter folks, and the fact that they did it for his money means they have a compelling motive. It would be murder 2 if I were the DA charging them. I was numb at Jae Hee by the time she pulled the withholding medicine trick, because honestly this woman will do anything to advance her own selfish interests. For Eun Seok? Give me a break. It’s for Jae Hee, Eun Seok is merely her only card to use with the Chairman.

    I loved how Eun Gi tried so hard to get Maru to be honest with himself, but took his rejection and walked away. I loved how Maru sat on that beach for such a long time afterwards. I thought Maru’s not swerving away when Eun Gi gave him plenty of time to stop his car, get out, turn into the other lane, anything to get away from her oncoming car, a telling sign that he wants to die. He’s probably wanted to die for a long time, since losing his future and losing Jae Hee. What was lovely was that he chose to go with Eun Gi, and he chose it with his eyes wide open and a smile. I was crying inside for them, such broken people, choosing such dysfunctional and wrong ways to end their pain. T___T But what was the most awesomest thing was that throughout the entire episode, Maru didn’t think of Jae Hee once! Even when he was down and brooding, it was all about Eun Gi. It’s like all that pain he went through was so that he could finally move from from the wicked witch of the East and find someone worthy of his love.

    • I could only tolerate JH’s machinations as long as she did not intentionally cause the death of another human being. By deliberately withholding the chairman’s medication, it looked like murder in the 2nd degree. He was probably dead by the time he hit the floor. She’s going to prison. LOL

      She’s on my unlikeable character list….

      MR was the only character I was rooting for anyways. I liked him as a gigolo and not this swindler guy, but I guess it will come in handy later on….

    • @Koala, I’ve said this on soompi that the thing that really struck me after re-watching certain eps was how lonely and empty Maru’s life is. He doesn’t have friends aside from Jae Gil or Choco, he doesn’t have a future, and the girl he placed on a pedestal and gave up his career for turned out to be a scheming and manipulative bitch. That scene where he was looking out of the city and clutching a can of beer right after Eun Gi “broke up” with him is so telling, he just seems so alone.

      And Maru has no concept of self-love whatsoever, he only gets his validation from “saving” and taking care of others, so even if it was clearly heading towards a downward spiral, he at least wanted to try to bring back the “old Jae Hee”, not necessarily because he loves her but more so because he felt that he can still “rescue” her. So in that scene in ep 9 when he finally saw Jae Hee for what she really is and he finally put an end to his feelings, I also saw it as a resignation and loss of purpose in life. He built his entire future on Jae Hee so when that ended, what’s there to live for?

      Ah, my poor broken Maru. I just want to give a big hug. It’s funny because I never liked his character and was mostly enraged at his destructive obsession for Jae Hee but not I feel like I’m beginning to understand him. He needs to love himself a little more and realize that despite his stupid decisions in the past, there is so much goodness inside him and he deserves another shot at happiness.

      • I agree that Maru has lost his will to live after cutting off all ties with JH, but I think that is because MR deep down he is someone who has a deep need to take care of people. He thrives on that, we all saw how much he cared of JH and how he willingly did anything to take care of her. But now that it is officially over with her, he has nothing left in his mind. He is just a broken man with a ton of baggage, which mixed with his guilt is why he pushed her away back on the beach. He doesn’t deserve to have someone love him so purely and completely.
        But EG’s love left a mark on him, enough that he seems to have not forgotten her. But I feel that MR recklessness is going to start to come to an end soon. As JH killed him, EG is going to revive him and give him a reason to live. EG’s amnesia is going to give him a reason to take care of her, something he needs even though he won’t admit it.
        I can see him becoming EG’s champion and returning what rightfully belongs to her. But it is going to take sometime before he gets to the point where he concedes to his better nature. But EG’s selfless love for him is going to be a big factor for his redemption. His expression at the end of this episode when he heard EG declaration that she looked for him because she loved him said to me that he couldn’t believe that despite amnesia and all of the crap he pulled the one thing she remembered and cared for was her love for him.
        Who wouldn’t be moved by that?
        Either way I look forward to their development together, and pray that the resolution of the story ends with them together happy and with their souls healed. And JH better watch out, as they say Karma is a B-#@*#%$!

    • The pd electing not to have traffic in the tunnel made the scene more isolationists depicting the characters state of being. I thought of EG’s request about going off and being alone just the two of them hiding away from the world. I guess this is another way of getting way from the world with him.

      I felt sadness for the KMR character because as @yeisha stated, it looked like resignation on MR’s part.

    • “for Eun Gi its the basic need for love and connection, like a baby seeking warmth the moment it leaves the womb. It hurts that Maru won’t even dare to allow himself to love her back because of the immense guilt he carries towards her, despite knowing SHE DOES NOT CARE.”

      I really love this.
      I love the way MCW is playing this character, too. It would be really easy for the audience to bail on her if it were all sweet smiles and forgiveness coming off EG. Instead we get this layered portrayal of a very confused individual, who seems to be only sure of one thing: KMR.
      Not because she has a hero worship thing going on, even though he did save her twice (three times if you count the doll as her). But remember waaaaay back in the episode where he went to save Choco from her step-father?
      That is where EG saw the real MR who is willing to take a hit for someone he cherishes. EG wants that guy, and she believes he is in there somewhere.

      PS Thanks for the recap. Forgot to say that!

  11. This drama is gonna end very badly for our OTP! The migraine is a sure sign of future doom and perhaps the amnesia as well, something wrong with EG’s brain? Plus she already had issues to begin with! Then JH and Lawyer Ahn, need their comeuppance for the whole chairman death issue…i could go on and on but just like its predecessor Gaksital, i foresee bodies dropping all over the place towards the end of this drama (plus apparently the writer has a ‘track record’ of tragic endings…eep!)

  12. I totally aggre w/ u Ms.Koala that maru have genuine feelings to eungi and never think abt jaehee anymore.
    but we still don’t know what will happen to the remaining half of story.
    I need happy ending. both maru and eungi will life happily after all the problems go away.
    ….
    I always wait for your post abt NG.
    Great job Ms.Koala 🙂

  13. Nice episode. I was very wary of the amnesia bit, but I like how they seem to even give EG developmental issues and not just randomly amnesia with everything else perfectly fine. Why do I see this drama ending with Maru learning to love and wanting to live again with EG, but then dying from mysterious Korean drama illness. I hope not, but I don’t see good end for anyone but EG.

    The revenge things seems like it’s mostly done now. Hopefully Maru and EG work together to get back what is hers and screw over Jae Hee though.

    The only part of this episode that didn’t work for me was Joon Ha randomly being blackmailed to keep the secret. Seems out of nowhere but this show isn’t big on hiding secrets so I think it’ll get out sooner rather than later.

  14. hello koala sis, thanks so much for the recaps. this tides me over till i am able to watch the vid. 🙂

    first off… dayum, Maru is absolutely smokin’ hot! And Eun Gi is so beautifully adorable in that longer wavy hair.

    Next off… aigoo! they’re already staging Maru’s death in this drama. him throwing up after drinking water only shows that he’s gonna die in the ending and due to sickness. tho, i really wish not. despite the reputation of LKH, i earnestly wish a happy ending for our OTP.

    *sigh* please some moment of cuddly and kisses would be nice in between this selfishness, anger, betrayal and bad.

    what i really wish for this drama to show me is how Maru love EG, can i have my wish on 10?

    • I am voting for psychological trauma causing a physical illness rather than a physiological one.

      He has been doing all these horrible things to folks for a year or so. If he really were a sociopath, he would remained unscathed.
      But I think he is really really scathed, and we are seeing symptoms of his conscience right at the scene of the crime.

      • I agree! It wouldn’t be too far off to think that Maru’s physical illness has a mental component driving it, a psychosomatic disorder. It’s the all the repressed guilt and enormous strain to his conscience that’s being expressed in his physical body. All the more reason he needs to be saved from this self-destructive path just as much as Eun Gi needs it from her current state.

  15. Also @koala, i remember maru mentioning earlier to lawyer Ahn that if he were to be at the end of the cliff , he would be happy to die with someone else because he would get a partner as he travels to after-life. I suppose here he gave a smile because finally he had found a partner for this journey ..and that wasnt jae hee but eun-gi

  16. I was really wanting a clear explanation of why would Eun-gi crash her car to Maru’s but after seeing your review it explains everything now..Thank you!
    The part that I was really moved was when Jae Gil was explaining the difference of old Maru to the present Maru. It seems that Maru’s attitude is still tolerable when he was going through Jae Hee stage but when he really lost Eun-gi he became the worst person they could have imagined. This shows the impact of Eun-gi to Maru’s life.
    Also, the plot states that Maru is going to use her amnesia to take revenge so I don’t think revenge plots of Maru to Jae Hee ends with epi 8 but maybe he has a different reason now. I still believe that it would end happily between those two with regards to Maru and Eun-gi’s scary health condition T_T

  17. Thanks so much for the recap and fascinating discussion.

    I am very curious … viki translates EG as asking Maru – shall we sleep together? Where did that come from? But that is a minor curiosity…this coupled with her admission in an earlier episode that her kiss with Maru was her first really took be aback. Also how he kept her in with the promise of a goodbye kiss. How he threw her into the water. Her attachment to him (let us recall he is a gigolo) is intensely physical and I cannot help but notice that while JH uses her sexual attractiveness freely and Maru uses his physical appeal freely too, EG is very repressed — her body, the clothes she wears, the way she holds herself etc etc. We know she has Daddy issues. We know she is still a child in many ways. Maru’s intense physicality unlocks her passion and her obsession. Now onto Maru — as a young boy he forms an obsessive attachment to a noona — the prettiest noona in the neighborhood who knows how to get him back every time — and I feel there is a repressed sexual dimension to that relationship too. I find this aspect of the show interesting. I feel the show is also about how to convert such passionate attachment formed by the greater sexual power one character has over other into a more equal form of love.

    • “EG as asking Maru – shall we sleep together?”

      I see this as EG testing MR’s heartlessness. How far is he willing to go with her to get what he wants? She is asking if he ever cared for her at all.
      If he agrees to literally screw her, she knows he is willing to figuratively screw her over. If he declines, she knows he doesn’t want to hurt her anymore.

      That’s how she knows he is full of baloney when he replies that he only wants to do that with JH. Is there anyone in the world he could have named that could wound her more? JH – her arch nemesis?

      I love the expression “People don’t remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel.” He hasn’t told her that many lies, in fact he has been brutally honest from the beginning. For him to tell her this whopper now can only mean one thing, and that he is afraid that he WILL care if he stays with her. He is afraid she will end up collateral damage in the war JH is waging against him.

  18. I really love Kang Mar Ru’s character. Though he is flawed, (primarily due to all of the excessive baggage that resulted due to poor choices he made) and he puts on all these facades of being mean, we still get to see undeniable glimpses of a gentle, caring, and sensitive soul. He perplexes me. He is a person who is uncomfortably honest at times when he warns others of his intentions, yet chooses to lie when it matters. (as in when he shouldn’t) His sense of worth comes from helping those who he can.

    It is my oppinion that even though his initial intent was to use EG, he slowly started falling for her. Like a candle flame flickering, every time he saw the infiltered emotional moments of EG’s brokeness, he slowly starting caring for her, but was fought by his internal warfare-self preserveration against being hurt again, lack of self esteem, and his desire for revenge. Though his behavior was absolutely despicable when he used EG, I do not doubt that her love for him was breaking through the fortress he had built up in his heart, and he was starting to fall in love with her. It might have started with just his need to care for her, but gradually became affection towards her. This seemed to bother and borderline on tormenting him because he did not want to allow himself to love her, and be loved in return. I find it very telling during the beach scene when EG mentioned to him whether they should sleep together, and that he had plenty of opportunities, but has not done so. The reason I found this incredibly moving was because that meant that she is someone he values. Tremendously. As a gigolo, he would be prone to know how to get a woman in bed quickly, but he chose not to, because EG is special. He knows she is vulnerable, and unexperienced in relationships, but he is keenly aware and slighlty caught off guard that she can see through his b.s. When he so callously tried to say things to hurt her at the beach, she saw through it all. She *knows* him, and loves him. As Koala noted, she loves him “…the worst version of him…warts and all” (loved that btw, Koala!) But a girl can only take so much hurt even if it is a smoke screen. Him reflecting on everything in front of the ocean shows that he was deeply impacted by everything-including realizing who JH was, EG’s love for him, his purpose, but mainly hurting the person he reall cares about, EG.

    Just as the theme if good versus evil was symbolized in the closing shots ( that whole scene at the chalk wall had my eyes brimming with tears) the scene in the rain where he was all beaten up, and here was this broken winged little angel girl pleading with him to have a future together-one that would complete them and bring them healing-With each future projection she was speaking, she was pulling on his heart strings, and slowly removing the hardened shell, one word at a time. And I truly believe he wanted what she was saying, even if it seemed like some far off magical place to him.

    My hope is that good wins over evil. For both Kang Ma Ru and EunGi.

    P.s. Thanks so much for the recaps Koala!

    • This is lovely, Love.B:

      “the scene in the rain where he was all beaten up, and here was this broken winged little angel girl pleading with him to have a future together-one that would complete them and bring them healing-With each future projection she was speaking, she was pulling on his heart strings, and slowly removing the hardened shell, one word at a time. And I truly believe he wanted what she was saying, even if it seemed like some far off magical place to him.”

  19. I had a similar reaction to this episode as you, K.

    It was when MR showed up at the shell game, looking dark(er) than ever, and hotter than ever, with that steely? hardened? sharp? aura coming off of him.
    There was a “reset” moment in my brain, and I thought/decided, “OK, now we begin.”
    It was like a cold wind blew in, and we have to be prepared for a harsh winter to follow.

    With these new cons, MR has crossed the line into sociopath territory. Being a gigolo and taking advantage of the women was bad, yes. To some extent, by sleeping with them and being with them in public, there was a quid pro quo in effect. The ladies wanted to believe that this gorgeous, sexy charming man loved him, so he pretended to. It made them happy, even for a short time. Their pride may have been hurt by him, but they kept coming back to him! Even after they knew the truth, he still represented something worth holding on to. I actually believe I would have done the same thing.

    Now that he is conning the men, the violation of trust is more pronounced. MR is using their worst fears to get the money, not their secret hopes. He is taking desperate people and leaving them worse off than they were. He has buried his conscience so deep that even meeting the son doesn’t make him back down. Of course we can’t read his thoughts so maybe he felt bad. But I don’t think he felt bad enough to go back to the father and fix things.

    I shudder when I watch him, but I do it with glee. What will follow will be horrible, painful and SJK will be bad, and I can’t wait to see it.

    • “MR is using their worst fears to get the money, not their secret hopes. He is taking desperate people and leaving them worse off than they were. He has buried his conscience so deep…”

      You are spot on, and as you wrote, it looks like we are in for a harsh winter indeed.

  20. ughhh I hate Eun Gi in this episode
    and I saw the scene JH and chairman more tolerable…. EK is intend to kill Ma Ru. How is not an attempted murder on ek’s part when Jaee Hee is the opposite??? Fuckkkk I hate EK with all my heart. I believe JH never intend to kill the chairman. If u ask me who is fault at the scene, it,s chairman. I really do thing JH is sincere when she ask inheritance for Eun Seuk. She planning to with MR and let ES be with EK’s family.
    A Selfish bitch is eun ki…. Never admit her wrong doing… All she does is blaming someone else for her miserable life. I really want her to grow up, but, NO.. She never felt guilty for tragedy in the tunne… she not drunk or something…. Ugghh! Sorryy
    I just can’t understand her

  21. in my eyes… What JH has done in the scene with chairman is more tolerable IMO. the different is JH is not intetional to kill Chairman while EK is clearly the opposite. She is the one who turn her car to MR first. I still remember her eyes speak he really want to kill a driver in front of her. just because MR is also taking apart for this whole mess doesn’t mean EK is not at fault and didn’t include for attempted murder. God she is psycho. I disagree she gave plenty of time to make MR choose. She speed up her car when she is in the same tunnel with eun ki, for god sake! . How can i can root for this kind of pairing? Ughhhh very bad messages writers… This is the scene I dislike the most!

  22. Hi, Miss Koala. It’s my first time leaving a comment on your site but have been a quiet fan for a while now, reading different takes on dramas.

    I just finished my marathon on this series and having read your insight here on how Maru felt before the collision, it was on point in the end. That’s exactly what he thought and then some, which is awesome.

    Just want to put it out here. Cool! 🙂

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