Episode 5 continues to ramp up the speed and silliness in Bride of the Century, and with it I keep getting more and more entertained. Who knew crazy could be so much fun? This is a drama where I love all the delightful scheming machinations as much as I watch for the romance. It’s really hard to write antagonists and villains in such broad bitchy strokes and have it work. Usually such baddies are just exhausting to watch because they keep getting away with their evil plots while the good guys suffer, and we need to wait until the drama is all over before the just desserts are dished out. Here that is totally not the case. We have two evil mothers, Kang Joo’s mom who wants a first bride sacrifice so her son can marry Roo Mi for real as his second bride, and Yi Kyung’s mother President Ma who both covets the Taeyang Group daughter-in-law role for her Yi Kyung but also wants to punish Kang Joo’s mom for daring to make her Yi Kyung into a sacrifice. It’s two moms who are protecting and fighting for what they believe is the best for their respective kid, but completely at odds with each other. I love it! Two equal and opposing forces make it so they are plotting against each other and not against Kang Joo or Doo Rim, leaving my darling OTP to mostly keep on falling in love unexpectedly.

I also love that the ghost and fortune teller know the back story even if we don’t, and the ghost is clearly on Doo Rim’s side. Doo Rim is in good hands and I’m not worried about either of the scheming moms doing something to really harm her. Roo Mi is like a younger and less patient version of Kang Joo’s mom, and what makes her laughable is that she can’t even hide what she’s doing. Everyone knows she’s been trying to back stab and undermine Doo Rim, and even Kang Joo’s mom has to tell her to back off. Hilariously, she’s only making it harder for Kang Joo’s mom to usher in the sacrificial first marriage and thereby pave the way for Roo Mi to get Kang Joo for good. Yi Kyung’s role is much bigger than I thought and she’s really grating on me with her cackling about making Kang Joo’s mom pay. Whatever, her and her mom are no better. In this nest of horrible representatives of the female gender, we have Doo Rim with her zest for life, hard working attitude, and capacity for huge amounts of empathy. Kang Joo did his usual jumping to conclusions thing and assuming people around him are all betrayers and untrustworthy, but I’m glad he quickly realized he was wrong and I hope he continues to grow around Doo Rim.

Episode 5 recap:

Doo Rim wipes cream off her lips and then licks it from her hand. It’s quite sexy and Kang Joo gives in rather than pretend that he’s unaffected, reaching over and pulling her in for a hard kiss. Turns out oppa Yi Hyun has come out looking for her and witnesses the kiss. He turns around abruptly and leaves.

Doo Rim pushes Kang Joo away and asks what he’s doing! Kang Joo claims he did this because she doesn’t see him as a man. Doo Rim huffs that he can’t do stuff like this without asking for permission but Kang Joo retorts that he totally can do stuff like this without asking for permission because their engagement grants him such rights. In fact, Doo Rim needs to try and make him happy, got it?

Doo Rim huffs and Kang Joo gets up to leave. He turns around to see her trying to put the rest of the cake away to take home and doesn’t understand why she doesn’t just throw it away. She finds that wasteful but it’s really cold as she tries to put it in the box. Kang Joo walks back and takes off his coat to put on her but tosses out that he’s not doing this because he cares but he think she’s embarrassing. He is simply incapable of saying a honest word about why he does things for her.

Roo Mi is driving and thinks back to going to confront Jin Joo about whether she put the information online about her receiving a flower hair piece from Kang In. Jin Joo denies it, and when Roo Mi asks if it was Yi Kyung, Jin Joo also says no.

Doo Rim goes home and thinks back to her kiss with Kang Joo as well as how he put the coat on her. She also remembers the girl she saved in the ocean giving her the bracelet and how it’s lucky in bringing love. She sudden snaps out of it and tosses his coat on the bed and can’t believe she’s thinking of Kang Joo this way. She punches the air a few times to practice on Kang Joo if he does it again.

Kang Joo has the housekeeper make him some sweet potatoes and asks to eat it with kimchee the way Doo Rim suggested. He takes a bite and smiles because it’s so tasty. His dad calls down for some water and Kang Joo brings it up to him along with a late night snack of sweet potato and kimchee. Kang Joo’s dad takes a bite and is truly moved to taste something that reminds him of the way food use to taste. He asks who thought of this idea and Kang Joo says it’s from someone who is as weird as an alien. Dad immediately realizes it’s Yi Kyung and the two men chuckle about it.

Yi Kyung goes to Taeyang Department store to drop off sandwich lunch boxes, walking straight into Kang Joo’s office to leave one with a note for him. After she leaves, Kang Joo’s secretary goes inside Kang Joo’s office to leave a ring box on the table for him. Doo Rim then heads to pass out sandwiches in the sales floor.

Doo Rim sees Jin Joo and gives her a box as well and Roo Mi sees it. She walks over to glare at Doo Rim and then walks away. Doo Rim walks over and hears from Roo Mi that Jin Joo is a Kang In fanclub anti and she posted the rumor that Kang In has something going on with Roo Mi. She suspected Doo Rim at first but tracked the IP to Jin Joo. Roo Mi declares that she could have nothing going on with Kang In since she likes Kang Joo. Doo Rim can’t believe Roo Mi would suspect her since she’s not like Roo Mi who posted her cake eating video online to embarrass her as a rival.

Suddenly an employee runs up to reveal that an important valuable ring needed for tomorrow’s showcase is missing. Roo Mi and Doo Rim run to Kang Joo’s office where he is interrogating the secretary who put the ring box on his desk. The secretary claims he didn’t steal it and it was in the box when he took it from the security and walked it up here. Kang Joo knows this secretary has a family to feed but the the secretary says he is telling the truth so why is Kang Joo refusing to trust him.

Kang Joo says the closer one gets to him, the less trustworthy they appear to be. Kang Joo slaps him hard and then has the security deliver him to the cops. Doo Rim asks why Kang Joo is like this to someone so close to him, and that is exactly why Kang Joo can’t forgive a betrayal from someone he trusted.

Doo Rim accompanies Secretary Kim to the police station where he gives a statement. Doo Rim asks him to hang in there and he’ll be cleared after an investigation. She asks him to not be angry at Kang Joo and Secretary Kim isn’t angry since it was his fault that he wasn’t more careful. Doo Rim senses he knows something and Secretary Kim reveals that after he picked up the ring from security, as he was walking through the parking lot, he bumped into Jin Joo carrying boxes. He set the ring down to help her pick things up and that was the only time the box was not in his immediately possession. After Secretary Kim reveals this to Doo Rim, he assures her that he is over thinking it and Jin Joo is not that kind of person.

Doo Rim tries to call Jin Joo but gets no answer so she heads back to the department store. She hears an altercation and turns to see the two debt collectors pushing Jin Joo off to the corner to harass her for to repay the debt. Jin Joo hands over the priceless ring she swiped and asks the debt collectors to take it as repayment. Doo Rim confronts the two debt collectors who don’t recognize her at first until she grabs the arm of one guy. They immediately wise up when Doo Rim asks if they want to go lay in a coffin right there? They leave but glare at Jin Joo that it’s not over between them.

Roo Mi is in the security office going through CCTV footage to look for the lost ring. She sees Doo Rim pulling Jin Joo off to talk.

Doo Rim asks how Jin Joo could do something like this, and of course Jin Joo did steal the ring when Secretary Kim set it down to help her pick things up. She was just too scared the debt collectors would keep coming to harass her and all she could think about was escaping from them. Doo Rim reveals that Secretary Kim is sitting in the police station now and he never revealed her involvement, believing that she couldn’t have stole it. Doo Rim asks how she became like this? Jin Joo thought by working hard she could have nice purses and eat at fancy restaurants, but she works all the time without rest and she still scraps by. She borrowed money to pay the deposit on her current rental and that is how she got into the mess.

Jin Joo wants to take responsibility and tell Kang Joo the truth even if she’ll get fired. Jin Joo apologizes for disappointing Doo Rim but asks if she will still remain her friend. More than losing her job, she’s afraid of losing Doo Rim as a friend. Doo Rim offers to put the ring back in its original box without anyone notices. She can enter Kang Joo’s office without anyone suspecting and she plans to do it.

Doo Rim goes to Kang Joo’s office and puts the ring back in the box. Too bad she doesn’t notice a secret camera recording her from behind the shelf. Damn that Roo Mi! Doo Rim walks past Jin Joo and nods that it’s been done. She then texts Jin Joo that they have to keep on working hard and living in this life even if it’s not what they expected.

Doo Rim hears that Secretary Kim has been released and she compliments herself on doing well today. Kang Joo is at his desk and finally reads the note Doo Rim left with the sandwich she dropped off in the morning. He then realizes that Doo Rim came into his office today. Roo Mi walks in and holds up her cell phone saying she has something to show him.

Doo Rim gets a call from Kang Joo that he’s waiting for her outside the house right now. She goes out to see him and he drags her off to confront her with the video of her putting the ring back. He asks her to explain what this is? How come she keeps asking him to accept her strange behavior all the time? She asks why he can’t let her explain. Kang Joo dives right into his explanation which is that she stole the ring. She must’ve have seen it when she dropped off the sandwich and put it on because it was pretty and might’ve walked out wearing it without remembering to put it back. How could be she so lacking in sense all the time! How can she keep asking him to clean up after her all the time! If she is like this, then he needs to reconsider their marriage and asks her not to contact him for the time being because he needs to think things through.

Yi Hyun overhears this conversation and tries to tell Kang Joo there has to be a misunderstanding but he just storms off. Yi Hyun walks over and Doo Rim says she didn’t it do it. Yi Hyun believes her and takes her hand with a reassuring squeeze.

Doo Rim is getting chewed out by President Ma for the stolen ring accusation and hears Doo Rim is being misunderstood because she helped out her friend. President Ma wants to see this friend right now because this is not a minor matter if Yi Kyung is accused of being a thief. Doo Rim promises to handle it but President Ma knows the only way to resolve it is to have Jin Joo admit she stole it. Doo Rim is confident Jin Joo will do it. Yi Hyun brings up how Kang Joo got a video of her putting it back and Doo Rim knows it has to be Roo Mi. President Ma gets a headache thinking that Roo Mi is finally doing something to break up the engagement.

The Taeyang employees are gossiping about how the ring thief turned out to be the fiancee of their director. Jin Joo hears this and looks very distraught. Kang Joo is out drinking his frustrations away and ignores repeated calls to his phone. He stumbles home and his mom is waiting for him outside. She heard from Roo Mi that Yi Kyung stole a ring but she doesn’t believe it.

President Ma’s is on the phone with Yi Kyung and her earlier worry is gone and now she’s back to being her confident scheming self. She assures Yi Kyung that the engagement isn’t over, if the other side wanted to end it, they would have done so when she missed Kang Joo’s work ceremony. Kang Joo’s mom’s goal is for Yi Kyung to marry into the family, not for a broken engagement. The first bride is just a dead bride anyway.

Secretary Kim has been released from the police station and as he’s leaving, Jin Joo calls out to him and then kneels to admit that she stole the ring. She keeps apologizing to him and he processes it before kneeling down to take her hand and tell her that it’s okay. He says that he stole the ring first, because the first time he saw it he wanted to steal it. If he got the ring he could pay for months of his mother’s hospital bills and his siblings schooling. So in his heart he’s already stole it so he has no right to blame Jin Joo. She continues to apologize to him but he patiently comforts her. Doo Rim watches this from outside the police station but doesn’t go in.

The next morning, Kang Joo arrives at work and Secretary Kim is there to greet him. Before Kang Joo can apologize, Secretary Kim takes yesterday’s misunderstanding as his fault for not paying more attention. He then tells Kang Joo that someone is inside to see him. Kang Joo walks in to find Jin Joo waiting for him.

Kang Joo’s mom goes to meet with the family fortune teller and reminds him that nothing about the family can leak to outsiders. He assures her that he has a bit of talent and won’t be betraying the family trust. After she walks away, he totally grimaces and mutters about how painful it is that he can’t tell her the truth. Now he’s like a double spy! He then finds it odd that the engagement has continued because he totally thought it would have ended after he told President Ma about the dead first bride legend.

The two moms meet to discuss the upcoming wedding plans. Kang Joo’s mom pushes for it as soon as possible especially with so many things going on. She’s consulted the good dates with the fortune teller and hands it over for President Ma can give her input. They take their tea and President Ma thinks to herself that she knows why Kang Joo’s mom is pushing for the wedding soon. But vows that Kang Joo’s mom will not get what she wants.

Flashback to when Doo Rim was still herself and working at the restaurant. President Ma took Yi Kyung to scope her out and it’s President Ma who suggests using Doo Rim as a substitute bride. President Ma is furious that Kang Joo’s mom selected Yi Kyung as Kang Joo’s sacrificial bride but she is determined to make Yi Kyung the Taeyang Group daughter-in-law. To do that, she is willing to sacrifice a person as well, and that person is Doo Rim. Yi Kyung refuses to play along with it because it’s too scary. President Ma is angry to be so mistreated by Kang Joo’s mom and if they run now they will always be defeated by those with more power. So they need to stay and grab the opportunity for more power.

President Ma shows Yi Kyung the potential wedding dates and Yi Kyung confirms that Kang Joo’s mom is anxious to get the first bride dead as soon as possible. Yi Kyung won’t forgive Kang Joo’s mom for making her the sacrifice. President Ma is confident that she can get Yi Kyung in the daughter-in-law position for real, and that will be the biggest way to pay back Kang Joo’s mom. All they need to do is get Doo Rim to agree to marry Kang Joo as Yi Kyung. Now Yi Kyung is totally game to this plan and vows to become the daughter-in-law to Taeyang Group and punish Kang Joo’s mom and Roo Mi who looks down on her. She’ll return the insult multiple fold at such time. President Ma pats her on the head for being her daughter, i.e. a cold heartless bitch.

Kang Joo’s mom calls Roo Mi out to meet and wants to know about the missing ring situation. She asks Roo Mi why it needed to be escalated? She knows why Roo Mi did it but even if she does so nothing will change. Kang Joo is marrying Yi Kyung no matter what. She holds out her hand and Roo Mi takes it. Kang Joo’s mom is very comforted to have Roo Mi beside Kang Joo and asks that she continue to assist him going forward. Roo Mi cries that she can’t let him go and if she doesn’t try to get him back she feels like she’s suffocating.

Kang Joo’s mom puts a cake fork next to the coffee cup and asks if she thinks it goes there. It doesn’t because everyone has their place just like items have it’s place. She tells Roo Mi again that this wedding will happen no matter what so Roo Mi needs to wait and everything will work out best for everyone, including Roo Mi and Kang Joo. As she’s leaving, she thinks to herself that Roo Mi needs to be patient and endure the pain now, then she’ll get everything she wanted. Just like Kang Joo’s mom thirty years ago. Ooooh.

Kang Joo’s dad answers his cell phone and its once again no voice on the other line.

President Ma walks down of the place Yi Kyung is hiding and happens to run into Yi Hyun who asks why she is here? She makes the excuse about meeting friends here and Yi Hyun can tell she’s anxious and teases her if she’s meeting a handsome male friend. She laughs and then heads off while Yi Hyun glances up at the building.

Yi Hyun goes out shopping with Doo Rim and hears that Kang Joo hasn’t contacted him in days likely because he doesn’t know how to apologize for his wrong accusations of her stealing the ring. Yi Hyun tells her to be patient since Kang Joo has never needed to apologize before since he always gets his way. Doo Rim sees some mandoo samples and goes to try some and feeds a bite to Yi Hyun. The sales lady compliments them on being a very lovely pair of newlyweds but Doo Rim clarifies that this is her oppa.

As they are heading home, Doo Rim passes by a movie theater and stops to look. Yi Hyun asks if she likes movies and Doo Rim does. He offers to take her and she picks a horror movie. Yi Hyun gets a call from Kang Joo who can’t reach Doo Rim. Yi Hyun hands her popcorn and a drink and tells her to go in first because he needs to make a call. She goes in and wonders why he’s not there yet. She looks for her phone to call him and then realizes she left it at home. The lights dim as the movie starts and a person sits down next to Doo Rim. She asks what took him so long to come in and we see that it’s Kang Joo while Yi Hyun remains outside.

Doo Rim is so into the movie that she doesn’t even notice it’s not Yi Hyun and talks to him and shares popcorn very comfortably. When a scary scene hits, the rest of the theater screams including Kang Joo except for her as she watches with a smile on her face.

After the lights come on, she turns to ask if oppa liked the movie and hilariously screams when she realizes it’s Kang Joo and not Yi Hyun. He reveals that he switched with Kang Joo and insults her for not knowing the difference between her fiancee and her oppa. Doo Rim sneers and thinks to herself that the idiot is Kang Joo for not knowing his fiancee got switched out. Ahahaha, touche. Kang Joo gets up and asks to go elsewhere to talk.

Doo Rim has an angry face on and nothing to say to Kang Joo. He clears his throat and apologizes. He’s sorry for not listening to her or letting her explain. She asks if one sorry is enough for how he treated her? Doo Rim then asks what happened to Jin Joo but Kang Joo wonders why she is worried about Jin Joo and why she keeps helping Jin Joo. Sometimes he thinks she’s not from his world but from a very distant very foreign world. She asks if he doesn’t like it and he doesn’t because it makes him uncomfortable. He believes he apologized so this issue is now behind him, especially since this is the first time in his life he’s apologized.

Kang Joo’s dad calls his butler in to ask him to investigate something quietly.

Doo Rim comes home to find President Ma sitting alone at the table. She hears that Kang Joo met with Doo Rim to apologize today. President Ma reveals that Kang Joo’s mom set the wedding date already which makes her feel like she is in over her head. Doo Rim tells her not to worry, she’ll help for as long as she can. That’s exactly what President Ma wants to hear and she sips her wine with a smile.

Yi Hyun’s private investigator finds out that the picture of Yi Kyung elsewhere was actually posted from a Cheongdamdong internet address and he recalls seeing President Ma in Cheongdamdong the other day.

Roo Mi meets with the two Kang In fangirls who met Doo Rim before and witnessed her beating up the louts who bought coffee from her but didn’t pay up. They actually video taped it and posted online at a Monster fansite. Roo Mi asks where the girls took the video and hears that it’s at the beach. They ask why Roo Mi is interested and she reveals that the girl in the video looks like her friend. The two girls ask if the similar friend is Choi Kang Joo’s fiancee? They once saw her as well and thought the two girls looked alike but they are very different in style and temperament.

Doo Rim accompanies Kang Joo’s mom to an orphanage to do volunteer work. Jin Joo has of course been fired and she’s leaving Taeyang and all the girls are saying goodbye. She wonders where Roo Mi so she can say goodbye and hears she went with Kang Joo’s mom to do volunteer work and is planning a surprise performance.

Roo Mi has called Kang In to perform for the kids and he assures her that if she called him he would do anything for her so this is nothing. Jin Joo continues to be a good friend and calls Doo Rim to tell her about a surprise performance.

Yi Hyun goes down to the parking garage where Yi Kyung is hiding and just barely misses seeing her. He gets a call from Doo Rim about the surprise performance, and Doo Rim also calls President Ma to reveal that Roo Mi has been trying to get her to play the piano. Last time Jin Joo extricated her from the bind but she’ll not let it slide again.

Roo Mi hands Doo Rim an outfit for her to play the piano onstage and it also will be put online as great media exposure for the department store. Doo Rim tries to beg off and have Kang In be the center of attention but Roo Mi says Kang In wanted to perform with Doo Rim. She reveals Kang Joo is coming shortly so Doo Rim needs to prepare. After she leaves, Doo Rim gets a call from Yi Hyun who has just arrived. Roo Mi pokes her head back in to ask who she is talking to on the phone and whether she needs help changing. Doo Rim says she’s fine and after Roo Mi closes the door, Doo Rim gets back on the phone with Yi Hyun begging him to come save her.

Kang Joo arrives and sits down next to his mom in the audience. She compliments Roo Mi on doing everything well including planning this special performance. Roo Mi walks onstage and introduces Monster’s Kang In who will be performing with Jang Yi Kyung. We see Yi Hyun running to the power course to try and disable it so there is no electricity in the auditorium.

Kang In gets on stage and introduces Jang Yi Kyung who will be playing the piano today. He has to call a few times before Doo Rim finally comes out. We see Yi Hyun unable to disable the power source and he grabs a fire extinguisher and tries to physically break it.

Doo Rim looks a bit tentative and looks out into the audience before sitting down in front of the piano. She takes a few deep breaths and there is a long pause that gets the audience wondering why she’s not playing yet. Kang In has to call her “noona” a few times to get her attention, and then Doo Rim puts her hand on the piano, looks towards the audience again, takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, and then she suddenly starts playing beautifully.

Thoughts of Mine:

Clearly that is Yi Kyung playing the piano, right? Since Doo Rim called President Ma about her bind, it’s not hard for her to summon Yi Kyung and quickly swap the girls back. This does beg the question how President Ma will get Doo Rim to marry Kang Joo in Yi Kyung’s place if Doo Rim knows the real Yi Kyung is around. Until now, President Ma has been manipulating Yi Hyun and Doo Rim, and Yi Hyun has almost figured things out while Doo Rim may be nice and trusting but she’s not stupid. She gives people the benefit of the doubt and offers her own assistance time and again, but she’s not going to be party to a con game that is spiraling out of control. Watching everyone run around and tripping over one another is supremely satisfying, and we’re only getting started so I can’t wait for Kang Joo’s dad and Kang Joo to figure things out and step up to put an end to things. I loved the OTP interactions in this episode with its equal parts mutual missing each other as well as genuine conflict stemming from their vastly different personalities.

Kang Joo was being rather adorable in the last two episodes that it took his awful slap of Secretary Kim to remind me that the boy has major issues and is a giant ass when he wants to be. I get he feels aggrieved and thinks he can’t trust anyone, but dude needs to stop being so self-absorbed and look around to see that he’s got no friends other than Roo Mi who wants to get in his pants. Part of what makes him fascinated by Doo Rim is because she hangs out with him completely devoid of any worry about who he is. She’s supposed to remember he’s rich and Yi Kyung’s fiancee, but mostly she just does what she wants and tolerates him until Yi Kyung can come back. Of course she’s also slowly falling for him, and I’m glad she’s looking at her lucky bracelet and wondering if it really does being romance. I’m loving the pacing of the entire drama and it doles out information at such a steady pace to tide me over with new tidbits while keeping me curious about the stuff that’s still a mystery. Nicely done, BotC.

Click here to watch Bride of the Century.