I hope our first impression post got you excited for this series! What’s more fun than watching two people who dislike each other fall in love? Is it me or does that theme occur a lot in dramaland? Anyway, off to the recap!

Estelle’s Recap

SPOILER ALERT: Do not proceed if you do not want to know what has happened so far.

The first scene we get occurs in none other than a prison. (Isn’t this supposed to be about a writer and a psychiatrist??) We find a wildly popular guy named Jang Jae Beom is being released. On his way out he stops by different cells to high five and fist bump others. He then proceeds to take off his shirt and do a little dance.

Soon after we jump to a hopping pool party and we get our first glimpse of the male lead, Jang Jae Yul. Some of his friends bring out a cake – it is apparently his birthday. While he is basking in the cheers of his adoring fans, Jae Beom appears in the corner and snatches a silver fork. Just as Jae Yul kisses his presumed girlfriend per the request of said fans, Jae Beom comes up and stabs him with the fork. Jae Yul immediately starts to bleed and the party guests are all screaming in panic. Some people rush up and try to restrain Jae Beom while Jae Yul lie in the arms of his girlfriend semi unconscious. Before Jae Yul goes under he witnesses Jae Beom struggling and calls out “hyung”.

Now we get introduced to our female lead, Ji Hae Soo, who enters a house with a bunch of luggage in tow. She acts like she is quite familiar with the house and sits down to chomp on an apple while watching TV. The news on TV reports that Jae Beom is being sent back to jail despite Jae Yul’s plea for special consideration. Hae Soo seems to be disenchanted with Jae Yul and promptly turns off the TV. She then grumbles that Jae Yul does not care for his readers since he is postponing the release of his new book and she has been waiting for a while already. Ah, so that’s why she’s upset!

We see her first roommate, Jo Dong Min who steals her apple and lectures her about making a mess/a lot of noise. She ignores him and goes upstairs to find her second roommate, Park Soo Kwang despite Dong Min’s warning that he just got dumped by his girlfriend. Soo Kwang is surrounded by a bunch of used tissue, and is quietly sleeping. Disgusted, Hae Soo leaves the room, but Dong Min climbs onto Soo Kwang’s bed to talk to him.

Annnd suddenly it is 26 months later. Talk about a speedy episode! Jae Yul wakes up in a fancy highrise. After a quick wash up he pulls shut the curtains to his bathtub and locks his bathroom door – a digital password lock BTW. Who does that???

His girlfriend obviously is not in a good mood and Jae Yul tries to cheer her up by giving her a back hug. Can I just make a brief comment on how tall he is? The top of her head barely reaches his shoulder. He basically swallowed her up in that hug. He leaves after telling her he needs to go to a talk show, and she calls someone to ask about the progress of HER book. I sense some scheming going down.

In the hospital, Hae Soo is faced with a transgender patient, Yang Soo Min, who is being mistreated by her family. Hae Soo coolly declares to the patient’s family member that the patient needs treatment and walks away. She tells her coworkers to treat the patient’s physical injuries and register for psychiatric help because the patient is suffering from depression. She then phones Dong Min, apparently her sunbae, that she will not be attending the talk show in place of him. Dong Min explains that he is finally reunited with his wife who he hasn’t seen in two years before she returns to the States. Har Soo hangs up and sees her patient being dragged away by her mother. She loses the patient, but gets a call from her PD boyfriend requesting that she shows up for the talk show. Meanwhile Soo Kwang walks in on Dong Min’s sexy time, and starts to have tics – turns out he has Tourette’s syndrome.

At the talk show site, we are introduced to Hae Soo’s boyfriend, PD Choi, who is having an affair with his assistant, also Hae Soo’s friend. While the two are having a small trist, Jae Yul walks in on them, claiming he got lost. Jae Yul sneakily walks away but is clearly excited by the juicy revelation.

Hae Soo arrives on scene and gets introduced to Jae Yul. He is nice and polite to her and even flatters her beauty. When Hae Soo leaves though she discovers he has been staring at the make up artists chest in the mirror this entire time. Strike one.

At the backstage Jae Yul tries to impart some tips on combating stage fright, which she dispels. Strike two.

Just as she is about to take center stage, Hae Soo trips and it is all caught on camera. She blames this on Jae Yul of course. Strike three.

The debate starts and the two send sharp remarks at one another. Hae Soon is a firm believer in the goodness in men, and encourages the audience to seek psychiatric help when needed. Jae Yul uses the opportunity to sell his book and states that his stories are just exploring the other side of nature. At the end, Hae Soo brings up a hypothetical situation in which a POW is given two slips of papers by his captor. Both of the papers actually say that he will die, but he does something in order to live. Hae Soo asks Jae Yul if he knows what that is, and he asks instead if he can call her when he figures it out. Cute.

At the end of the talk show, Hae Soo slips away while Jae Yul is signing autographs. Her boyfriend catches up to her and reminds her that their 300th day-versary is coming up. He tells her she won’t be able to escape on that day because he has reserved a hotel room. Oh boy. I sincerely hope Jae Yul and Hae Soo become close enough in the next half of the episode so he can tell her what a cheater her boyfriend really is! I also will never understand the need to celebrate these random milestones.

PD Choi watches as Hae Soo leaves in a taxi, and Jae Yul comes out to get Hae Soo’s number. Choi tells Jae Yul that Hae Soo has a boyfriend (wow), but Jae Yul insists that Hae Soo does not because she has not released any love hormone. How can he tell???

Anyway, Jae Yul encounters his #1 fan, Han Kang Woo in the restroom. It turns out Kang Woo is an aspiring writer who is trying to get Jae Yul to read his manuscript (he refuses). This is clearly not the first time they have met and they have a brief chat about Kang Woo’s family situation (Kang Woo’s dad beats him), and it ends with Jae Yul agreeing to give the manuscript a final read.

Hae Soo and Dong Min attend a school reunion, where Dong Min gets heavily teased by a former classmate. Things escalate when the former classmate points out to everyone that doctor Lee Young Jin is Dong Min’s ex-wife and Dong Min throws his drink in the classmate’s face. The classmate leaves and someone tells Dong Min that the classmate has stomach cancer. Dong Min walks out to talk to the classmate in private, and the two share a moment together.

Hae Soo, fed up with the reunion, goes to a nightclub to let out some steam. And who happens to be there but Jae Yul. As he pops a piece of cheese into his mouth he suddenly figures out the puzzle she gave him. Just then he also happens to notice her presence. He dances over to her and offers a drink which she declines. He runs after her to tell her his answer. Suddenly a deranged man runs up the stairs and jump kicks Hae Soo. Jae Yul quickly reacts and stops the man from beating Hae Soo up with a trashcan. Instead of being thankful, she picks up a vase and whams it on Jae Yul’s head, leaving him bleeding in the club as she runs after the attacker.

Outside the club, the attacker and Hae Soo run across incoming traffic as Jae Yul tails behind. Hae Soo identifies the man as her former patient, Beom Seok who suffers from schizophrenia. Jae Yul borrows a car from some guy who recognizes him in perfectly opportune time because Beom Seok has stolen a taxi and drove away. Hae Soo gets in the car and the two proceed on an epic chase through the city. On the way Hae Soo makes calls to the police, the hospital and Beom Seok’s girlfriend. What a busy woman, and so calm and collected to boot!

It is getting brighter as the two cars drive toward a cliff. Jae Yul decides they must cut Beom Seok off before it is too late. He takes a big risk and successfully deters Beom Seok’s car from riding off the cliff. Jae Yul and Hae Soo also barely stops before falling over.

The ambulance arrives and the nurse has trouble injecting Beom Seok with the tranquilizer because she can’t find the veins on his tattoo covered arm. Hae Soo asks for the patient to be flipped over and calmly injects the shot in Beom Seok’s bum. Jae Yul looks on, obviously impressed. BUT no matter how impressive she is to him, he can’t help the fact that they are out of gas. Hae Soo, again, very calmly picks up the phone and calls for an ambulance. He teases her about lying, and she asks him to close his eyes. While he declares he is mildly interested in her, she takes off a tank top and quickly redresses, much to his disappointment. She tends to his head injury with much difficulty and for the first time he realizes he is actually hurt. Jae Yul also notices that Hae Soo cannot use her left arm, and it is indeed broken. Just then, she faints and he catches her (and also buttons up her shirt. Awww).

With Hae Soo in his arms, Jae Yul is walking through a cornflower (daisy?) field mumbling to himself about how tough she is and how cute she. Soon after he laments on how late the ambulance is, how lost he is and how he surprisingly does not mind keep going like this, he blacks out as well.

Afterthoughts

What an interesting episode! I mean how much stuff just happened? We got an interesting Jang brother, an already closely intertwined main cast, a cheating boyfriend, a backstabbing friend, an ex-wife and a scheming girlfriend. Oh boy! I can’t wait for the story to unfold. What I forgot to mention in the actual recap is that Jae Yul’s gf published a book entirely plagiarized from Jae Yul’s new novel. I’m sure this will come up in the next episode, so we will expand on that then. I’m also interested in how the drama will go about introducing psychiatric cases. I hope they will be just and objective instead of using these conditions as novelty to propel the story. I don’t mind it being a theme, but I don’t like the idea of writing cases in just for entertainment, and without helping people to recognize these conditions in a positive way.

Anyway, I’m glad Hae Soo is so strong and independent, unlike the many weepy female leads we have come to know (and love). Jae Yul is also quite peculiar, and I look forward to finding out more about him. Of course, I’m also really glad I get to see Sung Dong Il in a new drama as well as Lee Kwang Soo in something other than Running Man!

What did you think? Was it worth your time? Sound off below!