Dong-Seok and Seon-A 1
After yesterday’s excellent chapter, episode 6 of Our Blues begins with Hyeon trying to comfort Yeong-Ju outside the hospital. Hyeon is not ready to be a father but does suggest they raise their child together. Hearing the baby’s heartbeat has changed his mind and he’s convinced that they’d make good parents. Hyeon hands over a baby scan photo, which Yeong-Ju puts in her pocket. She tells him she’s going to get the bus, get an abortion and then go to Seoul. Silently, Hyeon follows. On the bus, a fire extinguisher gets set off while Yeong-Ju starts to panic, clutching her stomach and struggling. As she screams out that she’s pregnant, the driver pulls over. Yeong-Ju begins coughing by the side of the road. However, Choi Seon-Mi (a student at school) happens to be on the bus too, sitting at the back. As she hears them shout out that they’re pregnant, she’s shocked. Hyeon and Yeong-Ju walk together though, as the pair agree to raise their baby after all, determined to do right by their choice. The only trouble is now, how to broach the subject to their fathers. The focus for the rest of the episode changes over to Seon-A who seems to be doing better from her crippling depression we saw several episode ago. Seon-A makes a big effort to clean the house up, vacuuming and clearing up all the toys. It’s been six months since she’s been divorced to her partner, during those heartwrenching moments we saw a few episodes back. If that wasn’t enough, Seon-A has been embroiled in a custody battle for Yeol since then, and everything has been stacked against her. The case worker shows up to snap photos of the apartment and while she’s looking around the house, Seon-A offers her some tea. As the investigator sits down, she warns that Seon-A needs to ask some awkward questions. While Seon-A claims they disagreed over their personalities, he’s not so sure. It turns out that Yeol lived with her for several months after the divorce but a car accident – brought on partly thanks to a change in Seon-A’s medication – caused her to lose custody. Both parents love Yeol in their own way but it’s interesting to see how the answers differ between Seon-A and Tae-Hoon. When it comes to finding out what Yeol thinks, we don’t actually see his reaction to Seon-A until right at the end of the episode, as the video is paused and we cut across to Jeju Island. Specifically, we center on the ferry as Seon-A deliberates over what her son has said. This is going to affect the court’s ruling but right now, it’s unclear what way. Funnily enough, Seon-A’s car happens to be right next to Dong-Seok’s truck. As they make it onto Jeju Island, Seon-A tries to call for help with her car, given it’s broken down by the side of the road. Dong-Seok eventually stops and helps her out, although he’s cold and standoffish with her. These two have a lot of history, which built up naturally over time, something we see through flashbacks. What begins as a pleasant meeting and a good date soon escalates as hotheaded Dong-Seok gets into a fight with Seon-A’s ex boyfriend out in the street. This catches us up to those moments out on the beach, as Dong-Seok drives her around in doughnuts. And, of course, it leads to the pair ending up in an awkward encounter where he kisses her and she doesn’t reciprocate. In fact, on the way back she leaves his car and decides to call another taxi, not even wanting to talk to Dong-Seok about what happened. Funnily enough, as Dong-Seok looks set to drive away, his car breaks down, just up the road from Seon-A. In the present, Yeong-Ju is questioned at school over her pregnancy. Seon-Mi realizes she’s also wearing a slimming belt. This pregnancy isn’t going to stay a secret for long, as she and Hyeon contemplate just how they’re going to tell their fathers. This is something that’s made all the more difficult given both fathers don’t like each other. Seon-A heads in to the restaurant that night, where Eun-Hui greets her. She’s staying in the bed and breakfast down the road but as she sits with a drink, Don-Seok heads in, sees her, exclaims “come on” and walks back out. It’s only temporary though, as he eventually does stay to have a drink. Seon-A decides to leave instead. Everyone else is dumbfounded by what they’ve seen. Seon-A happens to be standing on the end of the dock, watching the waves as day breaks. She thinks back over her time with Yeol, as the devastating reveal of what he actually said about her is laid out in its heartbreaking clarity. “She’s sick. That’s why I can’t play with her.” Hearing this, Seon-A jumps in the water. The alarms wail down by the dock, as Captain Jun’s boat arrives on the scene. They head in to try and recover Seon-A, as Dong-Seok watches from afar.
The Episode Review
Poor Seon-A has been through hell and despite all of her improvements and getting help for her condition, she’s on the verge of losing her son. The whole incident is so poignant and hard to watch, and it’s something made all the tougher by the fact she’s up against the odds every which way she turns. Dong-Seok is a bit of a different situation and his anger has been pent up for a while so it’ll be interesting to see exactly whether it really is just the situation involving his mum or whether there’s more to it than that. Seeing how Seon-A rejected Dong-Seok was pretty brutal to watch, although it’s fair to say she just waned a friend at that point. Although to be fair you can understand why Dong-Seok misread those signals. Beyond that, Our Blues is just starting to dance between all these different couples now with a consistent rhythm, while still maintaining a focus on one couple each chapter. If you watched the preview for next week’s episode, it actually looks like it’s going to be incredibly dramatic. For now though, this week’s double bill bows out on a high, leaving many (myself included!) counting down the days until the next episode.
