what i loved best about this episode were the quiet moments of intimacy strewn throughout the scenes despite the obvious tension of the plot. heejoo and sa-eon are finally communicating — bridging the borders between their bodies and minds that three years of misunderstandings had erstwhile created.
film-director céline sciamma famously had one of her characters ask her partner: "do all lovers feel as though they're inventing something?" and the truth is they do — they all do. the gentle touches, the lingering looks — the scene in which sa-eon signs the words he wants to say most to heejoo in a crowded elevator (yet as a viewer all we seem to see is the two of them) are all evidence of a private language which only two people in love can speak. lovers invent their own language — their own particular promises of comfort — of care. of "it's you and i against the world."
i saw this whole episode as a metaphor on identity and invention: sa-eon's ability to accept heejoo in all the murky depths of her secrecy as 406 enabled her to offer him that same absolution — that same blind loyalty to whomsoever he is at heart. paik sa-eon's entire life has always been a veneer — he has always been surrounded by pretense on all sides. he's created so many personas — the powerful son, the polished spokesperson, the media-savvy mogul. but it's the identity that heejoo was able to bring to life in him — an ordinary man who loves his wife: that he cherishes most.
this is what it means to love someone to the point of invention: where only the person they can create in you matters. where only the identity formed from your devotion to them remains after everything else is stripped away.
"the only sa-eon that i want to keep is the paik sa-eon that belongs to you, heejoo." 🤍
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