It’s a funny thing Hyde, Jekyll, Me is doing, thoroughly building up one main character while there is almost zero growth and development from the other lead. Yet it still hooks me because Seo Jin is so entertaining to watch now, diametrically opposite the still dull as beans Ha Na. I would watch Seo Jin talking to a goat and find it more interesting than whatever Ha Na brings to the table. It’s not easy to write such a flat female lead and have that continue this long into the story, but the silver lining is that Seo Jin’s nuance makes up for Ha Na’s broad strokes attitude and shrieking. Episode 6 was a small step back from the hilarity of episode 5 but confidently continues to flesh Seo Jin out, his little beats of concern for Ha Na shows that he does have a heart and merely chooses not to engage it before.

Robin’s cracks conversely are starting to show, and I don’t mean whatever danger he poses to Seo Jin. Compared to Seo Jin, he’s like the less interesting twin now. Which kinda makes sense that someone as vapid as Woo Jung likes Robin, because his one-nice-size fits all attitude has been revealed to be vanilla cream slathered on a vanilla wafer. Where’s the complexity in him? It only comes out with Seo Jin which further confirms that the best parts of this drama are the two personalities smarting over how to outwit the other while reluctantly coexisting together. This episode did abruptly put an end (kinda) to the silly lurking assailant danger but poor Professor Kang is still MIA, leaving the mystery part of the story hanging limply while only Seo Jin’s growing attitude softening remains the shining beacon of color in this otherwise still mostly bland tale.

Episode 6 recap:

Still buzzed Ha Na confesses that she thinks Robin is a nice person and likes him. Too bad she doesn’t know she confessed to Seo Jin instead of Robin, but it doesn’t matter either way as she freaks out and runs off leaving Seo Jin sitting there stunned.

Ha Na runs to the barn and talks to the goat and puppy about what an impetuous thing she just did, confessing to a guy just like that. Seo Jin touches his rapidly beating heart and orders it to calm down immediately but he’s clearly affected by the confession.

Ha Na wakes up the next morning with a hangover and the memory of her embarrassing and forward confession last night. Jin Joo correctly guesses the reason for Ha Na’s consternation this morning while Eun Chang walks in to deliver Seo Jin’s departure note. Ha Na runs around the farm screaming her head off, and honestly please someone slap some grown up sense into her. Da hell is the overreaction going on with this chick.

Seo Jin changes into his usual buttoned up attire and glasses while Young Chan smirks from the driver’s seat. He gets a report that the police are investigating the car accident last night but Young Chan is more curious about whether Seo Jin pulled off the Robin ruse. Seo Jin claims all went well before coughing a few times from a wee cold. Ha Na is also sneezing in the van driving back to Seoul with the circus. Jin Joo thinks Seo Jin left early as a sign that he rejected Ha Na’s confession rather than facing her awkwardly the next morning. Ha Na howls some more about how embarrassed she is.

Seo Jin effectively leads a Wonder Circus management meeting and afterwards his dad stays behind to privately chat about what’s going on now. Dad raises his concern about Seo Jin letting Ha Na live with him but Seo Jin doesn’t budge with Ha Na’s importance in finding Professor Kang. Dad doesn’t agree with Seo Jin’s mom in thinking Seo Jin has changed, the way Dad sees it, Seo Jin is still a weak cowardly person and can’t be trusted to pull through.

Seo Jin isn’t cowed by Dad’s insults and points out he saved himself back then. Dad sighs while a brief flashback appears to show young Seo Jin being held by a captor in the dark. Seo Jin continues that he realized after that incident that he loves himself more than his dad does, which is why he will take care of himself and not worry about others or expect others to help him.

Tae Joo gets a call from Detective Lee about the owner of the truck that tried to run Robin and Ha Na off the road last time. Turns out assailant was stupid enough to drive his own registered vehicle. Tae Joo’s eyes light up and quickly looks over at his patient who is the assailant sitting there waiting for the session to start. Detective Lee informs Tae Joo that he’s on his way to arrest the guy now. Tae Joo ends the call and turns around to see the assailant standing right behind him. The assailant informs Tae Joo that things aren’t over yet. Even if that person doesn’t remember, he remembers everything and all he has left are his memories. Forgiveness? That’s impossible now.

The assailant gets on his motorcycle and rides out of Tae Joo’s parking garage. Tae Joo gets up with a bloody forehead wound and manages to call Detective Lee who has just arrived and sees the assailant riding away on his motorcycle. The cops give chase but can’t stop him. Detective Lee calls Young Chan to report that the assailant is currently being pursued and riding towards Wonder Land. Seo Jin hears the update and has Young Chan try to call Ha Na but she can’t be reached. Young Chan reaches Jin Joo and hears that Ha Na is at the circus preparing for a performance.

Seo Jin runs off to find Ha Na and keeps trying to call her but she doesn’t pick up her cellphone. The assailant arrives outside Wonder Circus and runs in with the police in pursuit. Ha Na is standing in the circus practice a bubble performance, oblivious to the commotion outside.

Seo Jin reaches Ha Na first and angrily asks why she’s not answering the phone. He informs Ha Na that the assailant is being chased right now so she’s not safe. Seo Jin takes Ha Na back to his house and orders her to stay home until the assailant is captured. Ha Na agrees and also tells Seo Jin that if the assailant is captured she’ll move out first thing tomorrow morning.

Ha Na goes back to her room and goes to stare wistfully at Robin’s sketches on her desk. She tells herself that this is for the best, leaving soon rather than risk running into Robin. Ha Na goes to grab her suitcase from the top of the bookshelf and can’t reach it. Seo Jin goes back to his room and sees Robin’s coat on his chair. He then hears a noise and runs over to Ha Na’s room to find her laying on the ground having fallen when trying to climb the shelf to grab her suitcase. Seo Jin easily takes it down for her and gets an awkward thanks from Ha Na.

Seo Jin goes to open the window to let out some dust which cause Robin’s sketches to go flying in a strong gust of wind. That gets him yelled at by Ha Na before she runs outside to retrieve all the strewn pages. She wonders if Robin won’t be their circus storyboard designer anymore? Seo Jin comes out and wonders why the pages are such a big deal to Ha Na. He hears it’s sketches for the circus performances and once lost can’t be replaced. Seo Jin doesn’t see any problem but Ha Na points out that may be true for him but for her there are always obstacles that she can’t overcome easily.

Seo Jin doesn’t say anything back, watching Ha Na slowly picking up the pages and bends down to help her.

Seo Jin hands the pages back to Ha Na and asks what the story is about? The pages he saw was about someone following another, is that a suitable story for kids to watch? Ha Na explains that the story is about a boy who comes to the bridge every night, standing there about to jump but always going back. Seo Jin asks if Robin told Ha Na this story but she doesn’t want to talk about Robin anymore, isn’t that also what Seo Jin demanded from her?

Seo Jin thinks back to Ha Na’s confession to him and writing the departure note for her that he left already. Seo Jin concurs that Ha Na’s decision is correct before leaving her room. Seo Jin gets a call from Young Chan that the assailant has been captured. WHUT? That happened off-screen LOL?He checks with Detective Lee and hears the assailant revealed Professor Kang is alive and also where she’s being held. Seo Jin is relieved thinking about the last words Professor Kang said to him which was that she found a forever cure for his condition and he would be free soon.

Ha Na takes out Seo Jin’s departure note and reads it one more time. She then takes out her phone and sends a series of text messages to Robin. Seo Jin is in bed and sees Robin’s phone ringing with multiple texts from Ha Na. Instead of ignoring it, he adorably tries to guess Robin’s password to get into his phone. He even uses tape to lift fingerprints unsuccessfully before going to the lair and watching surveillance footage to try and catch Robin typing in his password.

Seo Jin successfully sees what Robin’s phone password is and unlocks his phone to read Ha Na’s texts. Ha Na asks if Robin got back safely and blames both the alcohol and Robin for her confession. It’s his fault for being so nice to her to the point that she got confused and confessed to him. Ha Na asks Robin to forget the confession so the next time they see each other they can just go back to being friends. Ha Na notices that her messages have been read while Seo Jin stands there reading those messages before deleting them from Robin’s phone.

Woo Jung checks out Wonder Circus online to learn more about the place that that her Oppa Robin is working as a storyboard designer. Seo Jin’s cousin Seung Yun devises a plan to track down Woo Jung by posting her picture online and claiming that Wonder Land is looking for a girl who saved a woman who fell off the stage.

The two sides converge soon as Woo Jung is pushing her college cheerleading squad to practice extra hard so they can get hired to perform with Wonder Circus. She needs to join the circus where her Oppa’s girl works. Woo Jung is informed that her name and picture is now online so she calls Seung Yun who asks to meet.

Seung Yun brings food for the entire cheer leading squad and I swear he’s so sleazy as to be bordering on a farce. Seung Yun shows Woo Jung her picture with Robin and asks if the guy is her boyfriend? Woo Jung confirms that the guy is her boyfriend Robin and she’s been with him for ten years. Seung Yun takes Seo Jin as using a fake name Robin to play with more girls which is something he hasn’t tried doing before.

Robin wakes up and his last memory is of the truck running into the farm. He calls Young Chan to check on Ha Na and instead hears that Seo Jin had to pretend to be him during the rest of the retreat. Robin laughs uproariously at the thought of Seo Jin pretending to be him and isn’t even worried since with Seo Jin’s personality he would never let anyone find out. Robin goes to lair to check for new messages but doesn’t find any from Seo Jin which confirms for him that nothing happened.

Ha Na keeps checking her phone for Robin’s reply and tries to console herself to take this rejection in stride. She gets a text and quickly runs out to join Robin in the garage as he’s fixing up the car. She tries to calm herself down but can’t help getting her hopes up.

Clueless Robin welcomes Ha Na with a smile while she remains a bit tentative around him. He wraps a scarf around her which reminds her of when Seo Jin shared his blanket with her in front of the fire. Robin pulls Ha Na to sit by the fire he’s built in the garage to warm her and explains that the other car is wrecked but there is another car that Seo Jin doesn’t drive so Robin wants to fix it up.

Robin tentatively gets to the main topic when he asks Ha Na if he did anything strange last night? Ha Na asks if he doesn’t remember while thinking about why Robin didn’t respond to her texts. Robin asks Ha Na to just let last night go and Ha Na wonders if he’s asking to forget about her confession. He smiles and aegyos Ha Na to forgive him so she nods her head. The radio has a love song about rejection playing so Robin starts to sing along with it while smiling at Ha Na which she takes as a definitive sign that Robin rejected her confession.

The next morning Seo Jin is in a rush to know if the police found Professor Kang and hear that the assailant may have mental problems. Ha Na is called down to join them headed to the police station to identify the assailant. She coughs in the car and Young Chan hands her a box filled with all sorts of medicines. Ha Na tries to read each bottle so Seo Jin asks what her symptoms are before picking out the correct bottles and handing it to her. Ha Na declines taking medicine for now in case it makes her sleepy.

Ha Na stands behind the one-way mirror while the assailant is being questioned in the other room. Ha Na looks at his face and her memory from the night comes back, confirming that he was the one who dropped the strobe light on her in the circus. Detective Lee orders his colleague to end the investigation which is when the assailant pounds on the one-way mirror demanding “Come out!”

Ha Na screams in fear and Tae Joo covers her eyes to calm her down. Seo Jin is about to ask if she’s fine and raises his hand to touch her but Tae Joo whisks her out of the room.

Seo Jin demands Detective Lee quickly find Professor Kang but instead gets yelled at for not being nicer to Ha Na since she’s an eyewitness who went through a trauma and should be treated well. Seo Jin stares at Tae Joo talking with Ha Na and snipes about why they are talking so long. Tae Joo offers Ha Na further counseling when she needs someone to talk to, aside from identifying the assailant she is also the victim of an attack.

Cousin Seung Yun finds Detective Lee and tries to find out information about Professor Kang and what she was treating Seo Jin for. Detective Lee refuses divulge anything but shares that all of the files have been handed to Professor Kang’s protégé Tae Joo.

Seo Jin orders Young Chan to find Ha Na a new therapist, anyone other than Tae Joo. Heh. He tells Ha Na to go to counseling and he’ll pay for the treatment. He also insists Ha Na stay at his place since this situation isn’t over yet, it’s not over until Professor Kang is found. Ha Na thinks to herself that the twins are brothers indeed with the way they toy with her.

While walking with Seo Jin, Ha Na gets a call from Seung Yun to go see him at Wonder Hotel to discuss a circus performance there. Ha Na goes to see Seung Yun who immediately asks if she was the eyewitness in Professor Kang’s disappearance. He feigns family concern for Seo Jin and thanks Ha Na for helping his cousin. Seung Yun asks if Ha Na knows Robin but recently spurned Ha Na claims not to know the guy.

Ha Na turns the talk back to the circus performance and is told to prepare a presentation. Seo Jin storms in as they are walking out and pointedly stares at Seung Yun’s hand poised right above Ha Na’s shoulder. Seo Jin asks why Seung Yun is talking to “my person” and explains Wonder Circus has been part of Wonder Land since inception so any talk should go through him.

Seo Jin drags Ha Na out leaving Seung Yun trying to figure out what’s going on. He thinks Ha Na definitely knows Robin and Seo Jin likes Ha Na. He asks his secretary to schedule a meeting with Yoon Tae Joo. Ha Na shakes Seo Jin’s hand off and tells him not to butt in and approve the circus performing at the hotel. Seo Jin claims she’s just being used but Ha Na insists she’s an adult and knows what’s best. Seo Jin tells her to do whatever then and deal with the consequences. Ha Na grouses at the family problems Seo Jin has, first with his twin brother and now with his cousin.

Woo Jung leads her cheerleading squad to audition in front of circus troupe for a part time performance gig. The cheer routine is well received but she’s asked if there are any further skills? Woo Jung borrows Eun Chang and floors him with a wrestling move which gets cheers from the judges.

Ha Na comes back to the circus and finds Woo Jung in the office after being hired part time. Woo Jung wants to know where her Oppa is and worries that Robin has disappeared again. Woo Jung tries to discourage Ha Na from liking Robin since he’s a natural protector who helps and saves people so she shouldn’t take it to heart. He’s the kind of man that makes women hung up on him. Woo Jung leaves Ha Na thinking that she’s succeeded in her plan. She lurks outside the office and eavesdrops on Ha Na taking out her frustration on Jin Joo’s animal costume head. She hears that Ha Na confessed to Robin and was rejected which makes her thrilled.

Seo Jin is sitting in his office remember how scared Ha Na was in the police station when the assailant tried to go after her. He mutters that she should have said something if she was that scared. Poor Young Chan has no clue what’s bothering Seo Jin.

Seung Yun sits down with Tae Joo and describes himself with the negative personality traits that are used to describe Seo Jin, and then says there are people who claim he’s warm and saves people. He wants to know why he could be like this? Tae Joo doesn’t see anything wrong but Seung Yun pushes to find out a reason why for doing things he normally wouldn’t do? Tae Joo asks if Seung Yun remembers doing those things? If he does then he has borderline personality disorder and if not he has dissociative identity disorder. Seung Yun asks what could trigger it and hears it could come from a childhood trauma.

Seung Yun remembers Seo Jin was kidnapped when he was young. Tae Joo hears about a childhood kidnapping and explains a person could create another identity in order to overcome the debilitating emotional trauma.

Robin is woken up by a call from Woo Jung who is in a super good mood thinking she’s the only girl in his life. Woo Jung stupidly makes Robin aware of Ha Na’s confession in her excitement to gloat over how she’s his one and only girl. Robin rushes to see Woo Jung to ask about what she means when he said Ha Na confessed to him and he rejected her?

Robin makes Woo Jung sit down and tell him every detail. Woo Jung explains Ha Na reportedly confessed to Robin but he rejected her with just a note and leaving. Woo Jung takes it as confirmation that Robin only likes her but her face falls when it’s clear Robin is upset about what he just learned. Robin thinks to himself and realizes why Ha Na was acting weird last night in the garage and quickly rushes out.

Robin tentatively knocks on Ha Na’s door and gets no answer. He tries calling but can’t reach her either in Seo Jin’s house or at the circus office. Robin runs around and finally sees Ha Na sitting outside. Her expression is cold when she spots him and stands up to leave.

Robin stops her and says he remembers now before apologizing. He knows he sounds like a lunatic but he really didn’t remember her confession so will she please forgive him. Ha Na wants to believe him because she fell for him after he did so much to support her. But it was just her misunderstanding all along that she thought their hearts were on the same page.

Robin grabs her arm and says she’s not mistaken before apologizing again. Ha Na pushes his hand away and asks about the text messages. What about the text messages? He could have not remembered the confession but why didn’t he reply to her texts? If he did then she wouldn’t be this mad now. Robin is thoroughly confused and takes out his phone to show Ha Na that he doesn’t have any texts from her. Ha Na asks if he deleted the texts? She really doesn’t know which side of Robin is real but doesn’t care anymore. She’s fixed her emotions now and apologizes for making things complicated for him. Ha Na walks off leaving Robin staring dejectedly at her while growing angrier and angrier.

Robin storms to the lair and records a furious diatribe at Seo Jin. He admits doing things in the past that made life more difficult for Seo Jin but why did Seo Jin delete the text messages? Did he do it to make things difficult for Robin? Seo Jin watches the video and is thoroughly enjoying having the upper hand on Robin for once. Robin tells Seo Jin to be grateful that they share the same body otherwise Seo Jin would be dead now!

Robin asks Seo Jin to apologize RIGHT NOW so Seo Jin repeats those words with a giant shit-eating smirk: Apologize. Right. Now. Booyah! The ball’s in your court now, Robin.

Thoughts of Mine:

I’m still enjoying Hyde, Jekyll, Me for all things Hyun Bin, but this drama is really veering into the comically inept in all areas not Hyun Bin related. The quick resolution of the assailant danger was a total “huh?” moment, from his truck being registered to his name to quickly ID the guy like a convenient plot device. The whole thing was dumbly executed from beginning to end and leaves the big open hole of where Professor Kang is while shooing the assailant off. The writer just loves scenes that are supposed to be pretty and romantic but can’t write context worth a crap. Every episode has scenes where one wonders how it logically slots into the greater storytelling fluidity, and in truth it doesn’t so pulls me out of the flow. ALL THE TIME. Like Ha Na randomly doing bubbles on stage just for a pretty visual while Seo Jin goes to find her and whisk her away to safely. She’s better off sticking with dorky things like Seo Jin getting scared squatting on the toilet in the outhouse and needing Ha Na to sing to him.

I’m firmly on Team Seo Jin in every way, even in the way he got back at Robin in this episode. It’s clear he deleted Ha Na’s text for two reasons, to spite Robin and to keep Robin from accepting Ha Na’s confession. He kept the fire confession from Robin hence he needs to delete the follow up text confession. Compared to the stuff Robin has pulled to annoy and inconvenience Seo Jin, I think the two are equal at riling up the other and I’m not going to call out Seo Jin for the underhanded maneuver. I also think the whole thing was handled sooooooo annoyingly by Ha Na. Hello? Are you twelve? What’s with the complete overreaction after the confession, and then later the text message follow up without any direct mention of it when she saw Robin later in the garage. I get that his seemingly hot-and-cold confuses her but I can’t stand her approach. To get annoyed and stew inside rather than hashing it with Robin like two adults. Even worse is her feelings are just the stirrings of like, hardly anything to get worked up over. She’s just a step better than Woo Jung, who I want to bitch slap every time her open-mouthed face shows up on screen all “Oppa this, Oppa that.” If I could, I would schlep both female characters out of the drama and turns it into a sitcom of Seo Jin-Robin annoying each other antics.

Robin also annoys me a bit because he’s starting to come across as really smug. Anyone else get that feeling? Seo Jin is flawed, his sharp tongue and cowardice and general surly attitude hardly makes for an ideal man, but his flaws make him seem real since he’s dealing with a serious mental health condition. Robin just seems like a “lalalala, I’m such a nice guy!” bozo living in his own delulu world where he can live 12 hours of the day just being cheery. He only started getting back in my good graces when he lost his lid and blew up at Seo Jin at the end. Too bad it was over Ha Na, thinking of the two guys fighting over someone as irritating and self-absorbed as her makes me sigh. I don’t know why Ha Na couldn’t have assumed something else is keeping Robin from accepting her confession, rather than feeling all hurt inside. He’s been nothing but good to her, can’t she cut him some slack rather than hold a petty hurt heart grudge the first time he doesn’t follow through on something with her? I find my gripes don’t amount to enough to make me dislike this drama but collectively it does make me wish poor Binnie was given way more to do than act out Seo Jin and Robin perfectly in a vacuous narrative bubble.

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