I’ve been taking what seems to be an eternity to come out with the next few recaps (I’m almost done with Episode 11), so in the meantime, feel free to discuss whatever you want about the show here. If this thread is empty, whatever, but I thought it would be nice to give a space for people to talk about it, even if there’s only a few of us out there that actively follow it.
So have at it! 😀
Update: Let me know if you would like a new post thread, or if what is here is fine. Thanks! (BTW, Soompi has a great forum, but I think the direction here will be far more analytical than most other forums.)
A Splash of Inspiration 
i too feel confused and i read in subtitles but i was chatting with another very informative kdrama fan and he said that the writing is fantastic and really lost in translation. so perhaps, it is the actors who are letting us down by not conveying the depth of the writing and the subtleties of characterization. for eg. by keeping his deal with Dong Hui secret, TJ forces SY to commit a terrible sin against her brother and then he goads her about it — this is good writing since we know that SY makes TJ feel like he is the only one with dirty tactics — why are you looking at me like I am the only bad person here he asks her in an earlier episode so it is interesting that he forces her to betray her beloved Sung Jae right after SJ has proved his love and loyalty for SY. i am sure this will make her really mad when she finds out that he had already made the deal. I watched the episode twice and in my second viewing I realized that we had been well prepared for the twist when TJ says to SY that Dong Hui is an first born of a poor family whose has been disrespected, he is also setting up an implicit comparison between himself and Dong Hui. It is interesting, the drama has shown us throughout that TJ understands people, especially ordinary people and he respects their sentiments. That is why he can command such loyalty from Jo Do Pil, Chung Hoon, Seol Hee etc. SY is cut off from life and lives only in her head and in the past.
I still LOVE the show though the leads are letting me down…
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UGH. You basically summed up the greatest part of the show. In fact, you’ve actually found why TJ and SY must be; they, as much as I hate TJ sometimes (or all the time), complete each other where it matters most.
“It is interesting, the drama has shown us throughout that TJ understands people, especially ordinary people and he respects their sentiments. That is why he can command such loyalty from Jo Pil-doo, his best friend, Seol Hee etc. SY is cut off from life and lives only in her head and in the past.”
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I might (I know I am) be the only one NOT of the SY/SJ bandwagon. He has been her little brother since the age of 4-5 and now in adulthood having romantic feeling…..eeeww! I have a problem with that. Sure, I sympathize with SJ and SY using him against his mother but that is about it.
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Romantic relations between those two? No way.
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SY and Sj — that is seriously weird!
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I just saw 16 and I’m left more confused about the trajectory of all this.
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i just watched it too… i think SY and TJ relationship is beginning to cook. she wants to debase him, he wants her trust. they are both weakened by min jae. min jae has said that unlike before, he is now fighting with nothing to lose but TJ is in the fight for something. what is that thing? is it to avenge SH’s sacrifice and his own bloody hands? did you notice SY’s face when he told her about not judging people? Go Soo is really destroying this character with his ridiculous overacting! If he claps or slouches or guffaws or says aigoo one more time, I will scream. I have to say I like Lee Jo Won’s inscrutability. She is so impossible to read since she is so repressed. Will TJ melt the ice-queen? Will he survive this revenge? I do not know but I LOVE it.
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Ep 16 was a Business majors dream episode! Man, I had to deep out my books to revisit some of the terms used but talk about between a rock and a hard place?! SY had no choice! MJ definitely gave her an offer she could not refuse! Give the Group over to Step Mom to destroy or make MJ Chairman. So where do we go from here? The power struggle will continue; however, now it will be undercover and slow. With 8 ep to go, Not going to be a lot of love going on but I figured that out by ep 6 and I’m actually okay with it. I really like this type of dramas!
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I agree, Ep 16 had everything I liked best about the show–lots of business talk (your business background probably makes it even better), main character development, and as little of miscellaneous annoyance as possible minus TJ.
(I’m not a romance loving girl either, so I think I would have liked none of it way more than this peudo-romance thing we do have that keeps turning its ugly head.)
I disagree that with these turn of events the romance will go on the wayside. I actually think it will be the opposite. Why? Not only is SY stuck between a rock and a hard place, so is TJ. The two of them were so excited to get to their final fight that they made zero room for error. In fact, MJ did the same thing SY did back when she married TJ that I’m surprised that she didn’t even consider the possibility of MJ staying with JH. Because of their over-confidence, they’re now more stuck together than ever before.
So what does this mean? The only way TJ and SY are getting out of this mess is together, and with full faith in each other. The only way I can think of accomplishing that is if they are in love with each other, or at least, I think that’s the setup. SY has been cracking ever since she realized how well-read and rather insightful TJ is, thinking back to his words constantly and doubting her perceptions of him. TJ is apparently still running around SH (thank you b-day cake), but he’s still going to maliciously seduce SY, so it just might backfire.
As much as I’d like to ignore this pesky aspect of the show, it’s the only means of getting SY out alive. She has no-one but TJ.
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that is interesting that she has no one but TJ. i think i agree that the show will have them get closer but i am really at a loss to predict the next steps. stepmom still has the dope on min jae so in order to get that dope, a deal has to struck with her. will SY ever strike that deal? never, right? so will TJ approach stepmom to bring down min jae? i am so puzzled…
also, all this talk of heirs on episode 15 made me wonder what if SY and TJ get together (they are married after all) and an heir get made thus completely altering all equations? perhaps TJ will leave for the phillipines before he knows he has a child by SY and then what?
just kidding but waiting till next week is firing up my imagination.
my one wish, PD-nim takes Go Soo shi aside and tells him to ratchet it down several, several notches. HE IS REALLY REALLY ANNOYING…..
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Lol. That scene with Min-jae and Jung-hee made me totally uncomfortable, especially since he brought up the fact that SY wasn’t going to have kids.
Dad’s plan was to have Myung-hoon be the real heir, so SY was the sort of transition person, and the possibility of her having children was just kind of ignored. There’s still thirteen years to cover, so I have no idea what’s going to happen. There’s a smidgen of chance that she’ll have to… Oh god, I hope this doesn’t go that direction, PKS is better than that.
What I do know is that this writer doesn’t drop bombs like that for no reason, and it looks like this heir business may actually come into play. As for how he’ll do that in eight episodes is going to be fascinating.
My Reaction: T__T
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i am in total agreement with you about the whole kid thing being too unlikely for this drama… i was just kidding. do you think this will come up to the present? i was thinking maybe it is a period drama. in any case, i have been watching chaser by the same writer, it is TOO GOOD.
and while i am also not in to romance, especially here, i was thinking if TJ starts romancing SY at least Go Soo will be able to do something he is reasonably good at acting-wise … looking soulfully with his eyes.
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“i was thinking if TJ starts romancing SY at least Go Soo will be able to do something he is reasonably good at acting-wise … looking soulfully with his eyes.”
HECK YES. That is the only thing he seems to be able to do on this show.
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OMG….just found out that EOG jumps 8 years in the future. What is going on??? Please somebody give me a good reason for this plot point. Does that mean we miss any kind of relationship development between SY & TJ? Does this mean SH gets out of jail already and I have to watch her be by TJ’s side every minute with that “smile” face on? Does this mean that for 8 years they have been living in the same house with the same family eating all their meals hating each other?
Oh No…..I can’t believe this. I hope somebody can convince me to jump back on the EOG bandwagon because I am seriously thinking of jumping ship.
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The jump is only 6 years (at least by my calculations (9 yrs MJ marriage-3 yrs of MJ/TJ)–Edit: hmm, idk if Piljoo mentioning that two world cups have gone by indicate 8 years. It only means that at least 5 have gone by…but it could be eight) and the number is chosen because it is precisely when SH gets out of jail.(She’s not in Ep. 17 though.)
LOL, Romantic development is nada, and instead we get Tae-joo being a slightly calmer jerk than before. Honestly, it seems like nothing even changed in those six years because TJ and SY are at an emotional standstill. It’s honestly unbelievable that six years led to next to no relationship development that I can observe watching it raw (and I’m not even talking about romance), though SY does convey a sense of camaraderie with TJ that is definitely not reciprocated. But you should have seen TJ’s face when he finds out SH is coming out…it’s like six years never happened. Btw, Go Soo is still an embarrassment, and Lee Yo-won has managed to contort her face into a few more expressions.
As for whether to jump ship, if SYXTJ (I don’t care anymore, at all) is your goal, jump. If you like watching SY’s development, stay, because she continues to be wonderfully fascinating.
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I thought he also showed some semblance of camaraderie but maybe it was Go Soo that is not displaying it well.
I think Lee Yo Won’s doing a fine job, SY is outwardly a very cold person, so her protrayal is just right. We need to see SY break down to really judge her character.
***SPOILER***
With Ep 18 out of the way now and TJ and SY back on opposing sides, I’m looking forward to Ep 19 and see how they fair again as enemies.
HJH is still a pain and needs to die.
Won Jae was actually nice to his wife without motivation, which is a welcome sight and Min Jae may just finally realized he has become the man he hated most, Dong Sung, when he allowed his father to go to jail for him.
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I agree about Go Soo, though I admit he was far better in 17 than he’s been since the first episodes. Lee Yo-won I can’t really commend totally because the hardness of Seo-yoon is actually not the representation I imagined from the dialogue. She’s not intended to be emotionless, just restrained and cautious. She’s not supposed to show coldness, but thoughtfulness and sophistication for her place in society. LYW also doesn’t convey moments of genius, nor does she evoke a sense of wit when she banters with TJ–in fact, that stuff is really powerful for character development, but neither actor reaches the right visual tone to convey that intensity. The nuanced acting is quite lacking; compare them to SHJ, who visually shows his character’s depth in even the most simple expressions.
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i absolutely LOVED this episode but I am not that interested in the relationship which in my opinion has grown. why did TJ not do anything this whole time? he wanted to be with SY as her pet. he did guys. that is the bragging they are discussing. it is SH return that pushes him to remember his promise. the moment in TJ’s house was very revealing. i read it in subtitles so i miss a lot of nuances and i think the relationship has grown. and changed. they can hurt each other more effectively and that is a form of intimacy. when SY asks TJ why he cannot look at his father, it was clear that she know KNEW him and what demons he had. in an intimate way as opposed to her earlier threat of sending him back to the slums. there was a subtle shift in the way they were fighting.
i think GO SOO did a bit better don’t you and he is looking might fine with his new hair!
Can’t wait for episode 18.
This drama just keep surprising me. it ROCKS.
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Absolutely. It goes to show that knowing what they’re saying is incredibly important in EoG. TJ’s “Why am I telling you this?” and conversation with MJ about wives (his words are double edged) was really telling–as is MJ’s conversation with SY about trust. There’s a hesitant but appreciable friendship between them that probably got ransacked by SH’s return. TJ is still a first-class jerk, but at least he has depth and some semblance of care. SY is delusional about her father, yet TJ still bothers to try to knock some reality into her 8? years later. I kind of like their dysfunctional camaraderie.
I don’t know if it is growth in their relationship though, because it only seems to reflect comfort with each other.
They do however, need to stop counting chickens before they hatch. Every time TJ does that, his plans fail.
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have you seen 18? i just did. a stunning episode. so intense. i would love to hear your thots when you do?
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For the first time, TJ; what an a$$!! I wanted to slap him a couple of times and then he sends PD to tell his wife he is unavailable? And she has to find out from her second-hand guy that it’s because SH is out?!! That was beyond rude!! I feel if that was his intentions, he should have told her from the beginning. And then getting in cahoots with evil Step Mom to boot?!! But besides that, why does poor, innocent SJ always have to suffer?!!
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