Chris Wu in that purple sweater – could anyone concentrate because I sure couldn’t. Any scene with Chris as Terry continues to be so sublime and perfect it defies logic, especially since SETTV is pretty much resorting to repetition to fill time and not make any commitments right now as to how the ending while shake out. It’s doing so to keep the Terry shippers still hopeful and tuning in, but the filler in between with Lin Guan Jun make me gnash my teeth. Da Hua injured her foot in this episode 17 of King Flower and there was a quietly hilarious moment when Terry is tending to her injury and she shyly tries to pull her feet out of his hands. When he asks what the heck she’s doing, she whispers that no guy has ever touched her feet in her 28-years alive. That just confirms for me again that all the important things she’s experienced as a woman she’s done it with Terry. Some are as Liang Yen’s substitute, but mostly its always as Da Hua because Terry is keenly aware at all times that she’s Da Hua.

As the viewer this drama has been Terry’s journey and Da Hua’s journey, and its where the two of them dovetail that really lights up the magic that makes me tune in week after week. The plot makes as much sense as a grade school kid writing a story, but there was so much care that went into writing Terry that it convinces me his character must’ve just taken on a life of his own beyond what the writer initially intended. Writers will often admit that sometimes stories and characters evolve and morph beyond the original scope of the creation and a good writer goes with that flow because fictional beings come alive only because the evidence the same ability to grow with experience. Terry continues to grow while Guan Jun has pretty much been the biggest failure of a main character I have ever come across. There might be worse out there, I’m only glad I’ve never ever watched those dramas before.

Stage 17 recap:

Terry goes to see President Du and tenders his resignation letter as Managing Director of Sheng Da. It’s his way of atoning for his concealment of Liang Yen’s death. President Du doesn’t want him to since it’ll mean useless Johnson taking over, plus he’s come to terms with Liang Yen’s death being an accident. Terry says Sheng Da has plenty of good executives and if he leaves someone suitable can take over even if it’s not Johnson.

President Du knows Terry had his reasons for concealing Liang Yen’s death, and while he is truly angry and upset, he knows that Liang Yen won’t come back if he refuses to forgive Terry. While he lost a daughter, Terry lost a beloved wife. (In Taiwan, an engaged couple is pretty much married which is why others are constantly referring to Liang Yen as Terry’s wife rather than fiancee).

President Du tells Terry to take a month off and sit on the resignation, he won’t accept it now. He then asks about Da Hua and where she lives? Terry quickly says she is an innocent and knows nothing, President Du doesn’t need to find her. President Du realizes that Terry cares a lot about Da Hua, and can see that Da Hua is a very innocent good girl.

Johnson’s lackey breaks the news at Sheng Da about Du Liang Yen dying a few months ago and Managing Director Ouyang Tai found a girl to get plastic surgery and pretend to be his fiancee. She worked at Sheng Da these past few months and everyone was fooled.

President Du goes to find Da Hua at the store. He thanks her for the porridge and asks if she can make some more for him.

President Du sits down with Da Hua and Jin Mom and enjoy the porridge. He was quite touched to hear Da Hua’s story, how she lied about going to Australia to make money and instead found another way to pay off her father’s debt. His daughter Liang Yen’s death has nothing to do with Da Hua and instead she pretended to be his daughter and brought some happiness to his life.

Guan Jun is headed to work and stops to listen in to this conversation. President Du offers to make Da Hua his goddaughter, which makes Da Hua and Jin Mom stunned. He doesn’t push but asks Da Hua to think about it.

Da Hua asks about Terry and President Du says he’s forgiven him. He knows Terry loved Liang Yen very much and her death was just as hard on him. President Du then points out that Da Hua cares a lot about Terry, and he could also see that Terry cares a lot about Da Hua.

President Du gives his blessings if Terry and Da Hua started to date and even if they get married. Wow, this daddy gets over things really fast. Guan Jun hears this and looks upset.

Guan Jun goes to work and Xiao Fei and the lackeys come in with the juicy gossip about Da Hua getting plastic surgery and pretending to be Ouyang Tai’s dead fiancee. Xiao Fei’s shocked face is priceless. Xiao Fei points out that Da Hua and Ouyang Tai spent every day together for the past three months, what if they fell in love?

Da Hua comes to work bearing a homemade lunch for Guan Jun. Xiao Fei hilariously grabs Da Hua and checks her out – she compliments her on the natural plastic surgery but says with her usual sass that she’s still prettier. LOL, go for it, Xiao Fei. Be confident in yourself. At this point you’re prettier and smarter.

The lackeys stick up for their Xiao Fei and say is a natural born beauty and not someone man-made like Da Hua, but Da Hua doesn’t want to compete with Xiao Fei.

Guan Jun tells them to leave and Da Hua takes out the lunch for him and promises to bring him lunch everyday if he wants. Xiao Fei watches them and pouts.

The busty secretary comes to find Da Li and Ah Xi’s flower shop to talk about the scandal with Da Hua pretending to be Liang Yen. She thinks this makes Ouyang Tai Da Li’s brother-in-law and having such a rich brother in law means Da Li is set up for life if he wants to expand his delivery business. Ah Xi and the busty secretary bicker about whether women like rich guys. Afterwards Ah Xi is so annoyed at Da Li she bites his finger.

The Jin family is having dinner and discussing President Du’s offer to make Da Hua his goddaughter. Mom thinks their status isn’t good enough to be connect with President Du, plus she isn’t happy about Da Hua continuing to be involved with people from Sheng Da and Da Hua isn’t sure either. Dad calmly says its a good thing, it’s like winning the lottery so why turn it down.

Da Li is asked for his opinion and he’s all for it as well. He would be ecstatic if he had a rich godfather like President Du. Guan Jun comes home and sits down for dinner and is asked for his opinion. He says Da Hua should think carefully and make her own decision, whatever she decides will be right. Dad is impressed with how mature Guan Jun has become now.

Da Hua, Da Li, Guan Jun, and Ah Xi are out at a cafe. Oddly Da Hua does not sit next to Guan Jun, and here I thought they liked each other and are dating. Ah Xi notices Da Hua has been worried lately. She’s worried about folks at the company gossiping about Terry when he’s at work. Guan Jun is silent but raises his eyebrows.

Ah Xi says not to worry, Terry is a Managing Director and has dealt with lots of problems before. It’s better that the truth can come out so Da Hua doesn’t need to worry any more and can also go out with Guan Jun in public without being afraid of being seen. Da Hua nods but doesn’t look convinced.

Da Li says that Maserati (his nickname for Terry) is a good guy and what happened to him was really unfair. He knows that lots of women liked Terry at work. Ah Xi tells him to shut up, but then turns around and asks Da Hua if maybe she’s fallen for Ouyang Tai? Da Hua sputters and asks if Ah Xi is joking. Ah Xi says she’s joking, but what if Ouyang Tai has fallen for Da Hua?

Da Li asks Guan Jun what he will do if Maserati has fallen for his sister and pursues her? Guan Jun says it doesn’t matter, Da Hua doesn’t care about money and it won’t make her happy to be pursued by a rich handsome guy. Da Li decides they need to be candid today and asks his sister whether she secretly misses Maserati since he’s not been by her side these last few days?

Da Hua asks Da Li if he wants to be smacked! They stop talking about this and decide to go to the night market. Guan Jun is silent this whole time and gets up to pay the bill first.

Da Hua sits in the store the next morning staring and talking to her Terry goldfish. She asks the fish if Guan Jun is questioning her relationship with Terry? She suddenly remembers that she still hasn’t gotten Grey Bear back. She wants to call Terry but can’t press the button, feeling awkward as she remembers their parting kiss.

Suddenly her phone rings and its Terry. Can we say kindred spirits? He is calling to return Grey Bear to her and they make plans to meet at lunch.

Terry and Da Hua meet and he hands her Grey Bear, pointing out that it’s very precious to her representing how important Guan Jun is in her heart.

Da Hua tells Terry to take care of himself and not to drink too much when he’s feeling down. Terry says he will. Da Hua walks away and Terry turns around to look at her departing back.

Terry calls out to Da Hua and asks if they can meet again in the future. Da Hua, who has been looking awkward this whole time, finally breaks into her comfortable smile and nods. Jesus, woman! Don’t make me go in there and beat some sense into your brain. How can you not love this man, who respects you and always asks what you want first?

Terry suddenly sees a car careening around the corner and rushes forward to pull Da Hua out of harm’s way. He grabs her by the waist and pulls her into his arms and both of fall down. Grey Bear goes flying out of her arms and across the street. Ha, I won’t fall for SETTV’s tricks if they want me to believe that stupid bear is out of the picture.

Terry yells at the driver for being so careless but Da Hua says she’s at fault for not paying attention. As Da Hua gets up, she realizes she’s sprained her ankle.

Terry offers to drive her to the hospital but Da Hua wants to go home and rub some medicine oil on it. Terry does not look happy to hear that. He helps Da Hua up and she remembers Grey Bear. He goes to pick up Grey Bear and then the two of them hobble off.

Terry and Da Hua are sitting in his living room and he has an ice compress on her ankle. She asks why he brought here to his house when she asked to go home.

He raises his eyebrow and points out that she refused to go to the hospital and wanted to go home to rub some medicine oil on. There was no way he was going to let her do that since it’s not taking care of her injury properly.

In a sprain, she needs to ice it get the swelling down, then the medicine needs to be gently massaged in. Rubbing it with medicine oil is exactly the wrong thing to do for this injury. He puts the ice pack away and takes out the medicine.

Terry starts to lightly rub it on her ankle and Da Hua looks very awkward. She starts to pull her leg back and Terry asks cluelessly what she’s doing? Da Hua mumbles that she’s never had a man touch her feet before and Terry tells her he’s just putting medicine on so she needs to relax.

Da Hua lets Terry massage the medicine on her ankle and looks very affected. Da Hua reveals President Du came to see her and offered to make her his goddaughter. She asks Terry what he thinks? Terry says it’s up to her, but it might be good for helping President Du get over his grief from losing Liang Yen. But the most important thing is what she wants.

After he’s done, Da Hua says she’s all good now and can go home. She stands up and Terry raises his eyebrow and then tells her to go right ahead. Da Hua takes two steps and topples over, landing right on top of Terry on the sofa.

In a redux of their bathroom encounter, Da Hua and Terry stare at each other as she is sprawled on top of him. Dude, kiss her again! She might be a moron but you’re not. Da Hua and Terry awkwardly get off each other and he offers to drive her home.

Da Hua makes Terry park further away and claims she can walk home. He allows her to get out of the car and start limping home, but can tell she’s in a lot of pain.

Terry quickly gets out of car and goes to help Da Hua. She’s hurting so much that it’s painful to walk even with his assistance.

Terry kneels before her and offers to piggyback her. Da Hua is reluctant so he just grabs her hand and pulls her on his back matter-of-factly. Oh god I love you, Terry. A man like you is just too wonderful for words.

Terry stands up with Da Hua on his back and starts walking. He turns back to look at her and she stares back at him.

Guan Jun walks out of the store and sees Terry piggybacking Da Hua home. He stops and wonders what is happening and does Da Hua like Ouyang Tai? He tells himself not to be suspicious and over think it, but then wonders if Da Hua maybe is happier with Ouyang Tai? Guan Jun walks away and doesn’t make his presence known.

Terry piggybacks Da Hua into the store and puts her on a chair. Jin Mom comes out and pours him a glass of water and sits down to talk. Mom is so surprised that a Managing Director of a big company like Terry would take care of Da Hua’s sprain himself and piggyback her back home.

Terry takes this opportunity to apologize directly to Jin Mom for what he did to Da Hua. Jin Mom says he saved their family when they were in debt and there is nothing to apologize for. Wow, everyone is putting this whole substitute princess business behind them just like that. Not complaining here.

Guan Jun walks to work and goes to see Da Li at the delivery company. Da Li offers to drive Guan Jun to work.

During the drive, Da Li can tell Guan Jun has things on his mind. Guan Jun reveals he just saw Ouyang Tai piggybacking Da Hua back to the store. Even though Da Hua was hurt, he’s angry at Ouyang Tai for taking advantage of the situation. And this makes him realize that he’s become so small-minded lately. LATELY? LOL, right.

Da Li says that Maserati looks like he really has fallen for Da Hua. What will Guan Jun do? Guan Jun says it doesn’t matter since Da Hua doesn’t like him back. Da Li asks what if Da Hua likes him back? Guan Jun says that will never happen. Da Li says he will always support Guan Jun, but confesses that sometimes he also can’t see where the future lies for Da Hua with Guan Jun. Right now Guan Jun has his job because Xiao Fei likes him, but if he ends up with Da Hua, he’ll quickly lose the job. What will happen to him and Da Hua then? I dunno, he can keep blackmailing Terry for money, he’s good at that.

Guan Jun thinks back to Terry telling him back in episode 12 that a man like him isn’t good enough for Da Hua, and hypothetically he can give Da Hua so much more. Guan Jun asks Da Li if he really gives them no confidence in him? Da Li says he was just talking about loud. Guan Jun says the world is constantly changing. If his sister is happier with Ouyang Tai, then who knows? Maybe he will change as well? I hope Guan Jun changes into a troll and moves under a bridge. That would be ever so lovely.

Terry goes home to his dark mansion and turns on the lights. He sits down and suddenly hears Da Hua calling his name (its pretty cute, but Da Hua calls his name “Telly” while Liang Yen pronounced it perfectly as “Terry” so we can always tell which girl is which just by the way she calls out his name).

Terry gets up and walks to the kitchen where Da Hua comes out with his favorite dish, and dinner on the table. She asks if he’s happy she made the little squid shaped hot dogs and he nods. But then the mirage disappears and he’s alone with no dinner and no Da Hua.

Terry goes out to the swimming pool with a glass of wine when suddenly a pair of arms wraps itself around his waist. He turns out and sees Da Hua hugging him.

She takes his wine and chides him for drinking again. She takes a sip and says this red wine is so good.

Terry and Da Hua smile at each other and simultaneously say the memorized spiel Da Hua gave when he took her out to dinner and she tried the red wine. Awwwww. Seriously, awwwwww……..to infinity. Even Terry’s fantasy sequences are so sweet and romantic, and he remembers everything she said when they were together. *___*

Terry touches Da Hua’s hair gently and then her image disappears. I realize now that I can only stomach Jin Da Hua’s character when she’s with Terry. That’s when she has Liang Yen’s spirit of adventure plus her own brand of pluckiness.

Terry goes to the piano and remembers offering to teach Da Hua to play. He then imagines Da Hua sitting next to him and playing the piano with him.

Once her image disappears, he remembers a conversation with her in the past when he asked why she carried a useless one-sided love for Lin Guan Jun. That is such an idiotic thing to do. Back then Da Hua said it didn’t matter, as long as she loved him and was happy. Terry asks himself now why he’s so silly, loving someone who couldn’t possibly love him back. He then smiles ruefully and says being an idiot must be contagious because he’s caught the bug now as well.

News of the substitute princess deception spreads to the rest of the world and the media descends on the store and Jin Mom walks out to find reporters throwing questions to her about Da Hua getting plastic surgery and pretending to be Ouyang Tai’s dead fiancee Du Liang Yen. Da Hua comes home and the reporters ask what her relationship is with Ouyang Tai, and are they in love or was it all about the money?

Guan Jun comes down and the reporters turn to him, asking what his relationship is with Da Hua? Guan Jun pauses and thinks back to seeing Da Hua happy when she was masquerading as Liang Yen and spending time with Ouyang Tai. And also Da Li asking him what he can do for Da Hua, and he thinks to himself that he has nothing to offer her.

He says siblings, he and Jin Da Hua are just brother and sister. Da Hua’s typical gormless expression goes away and she looks stunned.

Thoughts of Mine:

Jesus drama lords *&^%$@&*^…….what the hell is this and what is going on in the minds of the non-brain trusts over at SETTV. I have never felt as much like the viewers of a drama are humans residing on planet Earth while the producers/writers of KF are aliens from another planet. I swear lately when I watch any scene involving the Jin family, sometimes Da Hua included, they open their mouths and I think I’m hearing gibberish. Guan Jun leads the way, but Jin Mom’s attitude is no better. Sometimes Jin Dad or Da Li questions the status quo and being a stickler for something that makes no sense, like turning down President Du’s offer to make Da Hua a goddaughter because they don’t want to “reach too high.” I feel like this drama has humanized the rich folks in Terry, Liang Yen, and President Du (caricature villains like Johnson aside) while conversely making the poor folks seem like brainless buffoons. What a giant failure of epic irony. I’ve stopped looking at Terry as the “rich handsome guy” and all I see is “the good, decent, mature, and intelligent guy”. Guan Jun isn’t a douchebag because he’s poor or because he’s aimless and shiftless, he can potentially one day grow some balls and go out and be a man to earn a living. He’s a douchebag because he’s insecure and self-absorbed, and in this episode it remains All About Guan Jun. Can he compare to Ouyang Tai? Grow up, dude. Either acknowledge Da Hua might like Terry, and be perceptive enough to see that it’s NOT because Terry is rich and can offer her more, but because he’s considerate and treats her right. Or be confident that Da Hua likes you. I can’t even wrap my mind around him breaking up with Da Hua and using poor innocent Xiao Fei as a shield just because his pride took a beating around Terry. God, if I could beat a fictional character, Lin Guan Jun would be in a hospital right now in a full body cast.

It’s astounding that this production team managed to write a character like Terry, though to be honest Terry really wasn’t all that on paper. It was Chris Wu’s acting that made him come alive, and the writers did go with it and continue to write scenes with him and allow his character to take on a life of its own. If I count screentime Terry has way more than Guan Jun, and if I could important plot trajectory then it’s 99% Terry to 1% Guan Jun. Why write guy 2 with the storyline and personality of guy 1 and then expect the viewers to be okay that he gets shafted big time? Da Hua’s stubbornness coupled with her general cluelessness rankled me so bad here. She seems to sit back and just take her mom’s stupid advice without thinking through what she realty wants. How telling that it has been Terry all along, even in this episode, who keeps telling her to think about what she really wants. He encourages her to learn, to grow, to figure out her feelings and her future, he talks to her like an adult with potential and possibilities. Guan Jun and her Mom just want her to be “the Jin Da Hua she always was.” Does anyone think that is a good lesson to be learned? *tears my hair out* If there was ever a drama that has gotten out of the hands of the producers this would be it, and I am praying that the decision makers at SETTV allow it to run its logical and emotional course and let Da Hua and Guan Jun grow up. She needs to live a life outside of that store and fangirling Guan Jun, and he needs to be the man of the family and taken on his own life’s responsibilities. And they both need to love someone else, because together they are more annoying and pathetic than a pair of drowned wet rats, but apart at least they have a chance to mature, develop a better personality and interests, and finally live a more fulfilling live outside of their limited little world.