Missing You Episode 5 Recap

I was all set to recap only my beloved Hyung Joon-Soo Yeon scenes from Missing You and then habit kicked in and before I realized it I recapped all of episode 5. Oopsie. I wish I only watched the scenes I wanted because watching everything else continues to highlight for me how utterly hackneyed the writing is. The moment the adults show up the gratuitous pain level is pulled back significantly, but in the first half of the episode the only sane adult character literally drives off a cliff and dies. I’m shaking my head and going “what the fuck?”, but then Yoo Seung Ho and Yoon Eun Hye showed up and their collective pretty and insane fursploding chemistry made me not care anymore about the insipid script. Watching MY is a exercise in my patience because the presentation is lovely to behold but the director just marinates his shots in symbolism and bathes it in repetitive compulsion.

The adult portions has turned the corner a little bit but not enough to revive this soggy story into something more than “boy let girl down, boy wallows in guilt, money does bad things, everyone lives in painful memories.” Seeing the stills earlier this week of adult Hyung Joon and Soo Yeon did revive my interest in this drama and I am genuinely enjoying all their scenes. I like the fiercely protective side of Hyung Joon I glimpse beneath his exterior though I know the drama will inevitably turn him all evil just to make it easier to validate why Soo Yeon should be with Jung Woo. But if Warrior Baek Dong Soo has proved, it’s that my baby boy doesn’t shy away from taking complicated characters who are different shades of grey rather than black and white. With Nice Guy done, the ratings for today’s episode continues its slight upward trend which makes me happy. I want desperately for this drama to do well in ratings solely because I’m tired of Eun Hye getting any flack for picking drama turkeys.

Episode 5 recap:

Soo Yeon is further emotionally destroyed to learn that the world thinks she’s dead and even Jung Woo has abandoned her. Hyung Joon is also crying for his mom. These two totally abandoned and broken kids at least have each other. Watching Soo Yeon wrapped like a mummy and Hyung Joon with his gimpy leg and forcibly separated from his mom, this drama reminds me of how torture horror was a spin-off of traditional horror in the early 2000s, taking what is already scary and heaping on the pain and demented torture until the point we become desensitized as viewers. The good kids in this drama already have a shitty life, but the writer just wants to pile on and on and on, because she can.

Detective Kim keeps searching for Soo Yeon. Jung Woo keeps feeling guilty and sad. Jung Woo tags along with Detective Kim to find Soo Yeon, refusing to give up. Jung Woo is so gorgeous we all need to take a moment here and appreciate his fine cheekbones and manly pout.

He goes to her neighborhood and sees that she’s scribbled “Missing You” on the wall. He touches her scribble and cries. Yeo Jin Gu, this boy’s future acting career is limitless. Just don’t pick crap like this anymore, m’kay? Soo Yeon’s mom screams at him to leave since she holds him responsible for Soo Yeon’s death by him running away.

Nurse Hye Mi illicitly buys passports for her group and Detective Kim follows her after getting a tip from the passport maker. Evil greedbag Han Tae Joon and his lackeys get close to tracking down Nurse Hye Mi and Hyung Joon. He sees chalk drawing on the wall and remembers that Hyung Joon drew something similar before. Or else he is just a super smart sleuth. Nevertheless, by the time he goes to that hiding place, it’s empty.

Because only Hyung Joon can get the money on his 18th birthday, he convinces Nurse Hye Mi to take the two kids with her as she makes her escape. Tae Joon calls Nurse Hye Mi and says he’s thisclose to finding her. Hyung Joon grabs the phone and knows his older cacklingly evil half-brother is almost on them. He tells the group they need to leave NOW.

Detective Kim also makes his way to where Nurse Hye Mi is hiding out with Hyung Joon and Soo Yeon. Hyung Joon sees Detective Kim’s shadow outside the window, but since he doesn’t know who he is, he thinks he’s Tae Joon’s lackey. Detective Kim calls Jung Woo and says he might’ve found Soo Yeon. Hyung Joon uses a distraction and shoves his coke can under Detective Kim’s brake pedal to keep him from pursuing them.

Jung Woo goes to the broken street and repairs it happily as he waits for news of finding Soo Yeon.

Detective Kim drives off in pursuit of Nurse Hye Mi’s car and during the car chase he can’t stop his car and his car drives off a cliff. Seriously. I did not make this shit up. Hyung Joon makes his getaway with Soo Yeon still wrapped up like a mummy. Soo Yeon turns around while Hyung Joon rests his head on her shoulder, relieved that they’ve gotten away.

Young Jung Woo stands in front of the cliff and mourns decent upstanding Detective Kim. Soo Yeon’s mom and Detective Kim’s now-orphaned daughter is also there crying. So I am, but only because the sole normal human adult in this entire drama has been killed off.

Time jump of 14 years coming up! Here’s where the story is in a nutshell. Jung Woo is now a detective and has a reputation for being a crazy motherfucker who will wipe a criminal’s ass all over the floor if he catches one. He’s left his dysfunctional family and now lives with Soo Yeon’s mom and Detective Kim’s orphaned daughter Eun Joo. They are one happy and sad family – happy together with their little semblance of a family, sad because of the loved ones they lost.

Jung Woo goes to prison and sees the scumbag who raped Soo Yeon and warns the man that when he’s released shortly, Jung Woo will make find any reason to kill him. He also covers the CCTV and beats the man up.

Jung Woo goes to the wall and cries about how much he misses Soo Yeon.

A woman dives into a huge indoor swimming pool and then for NO DISCERNABLE REASON WHATSOEVER starts to flail around and then drown. In what is clearly just 5 foot deep water. Seriously. Not making this shit up either. Everyone also seems to be dropping like flies in this drama. Jung Woo is called to the scene to deal with the death. Accidental drowning or nefarious muuuuuurrrrder?

Ah Reum tries to call her brother Jung Woo and her mom grabs the phone and tells her not to since her dad will be pissed. They are in Jeju at a fancy hotel.

Adult Soo Yeon, now a fashion designer named Zoe, runs through the backstage of her upcoming fashion show being held at that hotel. A model is throwing a hissy fit and Soo Yeon walks right up and slaps her once, and then again for good measure. Soo Yeon tells her this show is important.

Soo Yeon hears the sound of a cane striking the floor, over and over, and she immediately perks up like a dog sniffing a bacon bone. She looks around and then gets on the floor to crawl around. She spies a pair of male legs with a cane next to it and she scurries over and grabs the leg saying “I found you!”

Turns out its some White dude and not her man. She asks where the owner of that cane is? Adult Hyung Joon, now known as Harry, walks over from the other side and greets her. He reaches out his hand and Soo Yeon plays coy. He asks if she wants him to walk over (without his cane)? He beckons again in the meltiest voice in the world and of course Soo Yeon is putty in his hands and she runs into his arms.

They hug and then it’s off!

Soo Yeon and Hyung Joon walk through the lobby of the hotel. Soo Yeon walks backwards while Hyung Joon faces her. He says he just came from Las Vegas and it was really for work, which causes Soo Yeon to shake her head at him with a smile indicating she doesn’t believe him. They banter and flirt with each other, as he ribs her about slapping that chick due to her fiery temper, which Soo Yeon blames on lack on sleep since she can’t sleep on the plane. Hyung Joon says that makes sense, since the woman he loves deeply isn’t one to slap another willy nilly.

Hyung Joon points out that the slapped chick looked scary, what if she calls the cops? Soo Yeon isn’t scared, because the man she loves will just hire her a very expensive lawyer. Suddenly Soo Yeon stops walking because Hyung Joon gets really close to her and she grows flustered. He leans in and then bumps his head on hers adorably.

They smile and walk away, with Soo Yeon grabbing Hyung Joon’s arm. I know this happiness won’t last so imma savoring every second of it while I can. Stepmother and Ah Reum watch them and Stepmother recognizes Soo Yeon as the up-and-coming fashion designer. She heard Zoe has a sponsor but doesn’t think Hyung Joon looks like the guy. She thinks Zoe is cheating on her sponser with a boy like Hyung Joon and wants to use that to scout Zoe.

The dead woman is Nurse Hye Mi and Jung Woo goes through the house looking for clues. He sees a locked door and tries to break it down but is stopped by his partner.

They go into the study where there is a huge gorgeous framed picture of Hyung Joon hugging Soo Yeon hanging on the wall. Jung Woo stares at Soo Yeon and reaches out to touch her face, clearly sensing something familiar.

Hyung Joon and Soo Yeon drive through the Jeju countryside. He asks about her unwillingness to come back to Korea but she says she was chosen so she has to come. He worries about her but she assures him that she’s fine being back in Korea and she’s thrown away all those bad memories. Soo Yeon says all her good memories were made with Hyung Joon.

Hyung Joon gets a call from Jung Woo informing him of the passing of Nurse Hye Mi and introducing himself as Detective Han Jung Woo. It appears Hyung Joon remembers the name and makes the connection on who Jung Woo is. He pulls over to talk and Soo Yeon asks what is going on. Jung Woo hears her voice through the telephone and he finds it familiar.

Soo Yeon is prepping for the fashion show and she sees Hyung Joon standing there smiling at her which visibly relaxes her. But later when she turns around and he’s gone, she becomes agitated and runs around looking for him. Stepmother accosts Soo Yeon and shoves her business card to her but Soo Yeon brushes her off.

The show goes off without a hitch but Soo Yeon is nowhere to be found for the designer stage bow. Soo Yeon runs back to their hotel room and finds Hyung Joon sleeping on the chair with his head phones on. She tells the sleeping Hyung Joon that she was planning to get mad about his no-show but now she can’t. She stares at him and then takes the head phones off and covers him with a blanket.

Soo Yeon stares at Hyung Joon as he sleeps, and then when she falls asleep, he wakes up and stares at her. OMO, my heart, be still.

Soo Yeon is awakened by a call from Hyung Joon who is on his way back to Seoul because of Nurse Hye Mi’s death. Soo Yeon is shaken to hear that Nurse Hye Mi died in what appears to be a drunk swimming incident. Oookay. She asks if she should go with him but he tells her to go back to France and he’ll meet her there as soon as he’s done here.

Hyung Joon arrives at the house and shakes hands with Jung Woo, introducing himself as Harry.

He’s taken to the morgue and when he sees Nurse Hye Mi’s dead body, Hyung Joon is visibly shaken and Jung Woo needs to steady him.

Soo Yeon ends up going to Seoul as well but she walks through the airport scared and wanting to be inconspicuous, putting her hoodie over her head and avoiding eye contact. She’s still so scared it’s sad to see. She tries calling Hyung Joon, who appears to be her only contact in her phone, but his is turned off.

Soo Yeon gets into a cab and its raining outside she opens the window a sliver to let the drops fall on her face. Jung Woo drives Hyung Joon back and he also opens the window and puts his hand out.

After Jung Woo drops Hyung Joon off, as he’s driving out of the compound he stops to open the gate. He sees Soo Yeon standing outside and she’s mumbling the rain chant and shuffling her feet the same way. Jung Woo freaks out and tells her to stop but she doesn’t see or hear him so she runs off to get out of the rain. Though why she was standing in the pouring rain in the first place eludes me. He tries to climb over the gate tor reach her but fails hilariously. The episode ends awkwardly here with Jung Woo hopping around the gate.

Thoughts of Mine:

I think all the adults are doing great but so far Yoochun really captured his childhood counterpart’s overall vibe the best. But then again, Yoon Eun Hye is playing a Soo Yeon that is radically transformed from her teenage self, while Yoo Seung Ho’s Hyung Joon really wasn’t terribly developed to begin with as the childhood portions were devoted to Jung Woo and Soo Yeon. I do think Hyung Joon is a fascinating character because, unlike Jung Woo’s flight-or-flee instinct during the rape aftermath when he ran away, everything Hyung Joon does is calculated because he’s forced to. From the moment his half-brother Jung Woo’s dad released the hounds to attack him in the house and he managed to escape, he’s been fleeing with his life and future on the line. He’s now taken Soo Yeon’s life and future under his arms, but he’s not without his own ulterior motives. To Hyung Joon, Soo Yeon represents the one good thing in his life when it all went to hell. When he saw her life also destroyed, he made a decision to save both of them.

Yoo Seung Ho has said in interviews that he wants to play a bad guy, which prompted him to turn down the lead in Warrior Baek Dong Soo and take on the antagonist role in that sageuk. It’s also one reason he wanted to do MY, because his character is willing to do anything to protect himself and the woman he loves and isn’t above doing something dangerous or wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised that the writer turns him evil per Yoo Seung Ho’s desire, though the fan love for his character could also turn the tide and have him pull a Park Shi Hoo. I’m so bummed Detective Kim died because Hyung Joon thought he was one of Han Tae Joon’s lackey’s and tried and stall him with the coke can and ended up sending the man tumbling down a cliff. That is such crappy writing, to kill off Detective Kim to add more angst to all the characters and strengthen Jung Woo’s resolve to be a detective and fight crime as his life’s calling. Oh well, it is what it is. Have some puuurfect Hyung Joon-Soo Yeon gifs to savor.