I just loved this shot. I actually notice how often he is below her image (or her real self) looking up, which is such a key to the dynamic. It’s especially interesting because normally he is head and shoulders taller than she is so it has more of an effect.
The thing I loved throughout the ep was that even as he couldn’t remember her outside her comic role, he was confused and bothered by her and just as the first time, she was the key to his self-awareness, she is the key this time as well - he became self-aware so far on this go around precisely because she was around, making him feel what his character is not supposed to feel, waking him up. He may be the only one able to change the story, but she is the only one who can wake him up so he’d do so. Talk about entwined. (Also, her little sad smile as she wants him not to remember her - my heart.)
Has anyone else been feeling that Haru has slowly been replacing Kyung within the narrative as well - it’s another example of story being bent due to the sheer force of will of the characters and trying to right itself somehow. Here, the classmates expect Kyung and get Haru, Haru now has girls swooning over him, he even throws the ball like Kyung.
The real Haru is beginning to leach through more and more as the episode progresses - even when he doesn’t remember her, opening bottles for her is far cry from “don’t touch my shirt when you talk” Haru of his first moments past mind wipe.
OK, it’s official - Squid Fairy knows the madam somehow; I wonder if she was in the past comic.
This bit, with the smirk, gave me chills. Ju Da is becoming self-aware and she is nowhere near as maudlin nice as her fictional counterpart. I love it.
Also, she clearly likes Do Hwa in the shadows - look at her watching him practice or sadly staring at his picture on her phone. I actually like what EY is trying to say here, same as with Haru v Kyung - outside of a dramatic fictional set-up, why would any sane woman prefer a jerk to someone who treats you very well and is overall a wonderfully nice person?
Guess who else is self-aware! Kyung’s brother. I love the concept of pretty much everyone becoming self-aware eventually and the world descending into chaos.
This was kind of insane. He doesn’t like her with Kyung though on a conscious level that makes no sense for the character - you can see the programming and the real basically fight each other (and so he grabs Kyung’s hand as if he’s jealous of Kyung as some sort of a weird programming compromise.)
Oh, Do Hwa. He is literally the nicest character in this drama - he cares for Dan Oh and Haru, he loves Ju Da expecting nothing in return, he even loves his oblivious programmed friend Nam Joo. He is a lesson in how to be selfless - but then so are Dan Oh and Haru as well - they put the happiness of the person they care about higher than their own. Meanwhile Kyung watches like an alien from another planet.
Yeah, you know that selfless gene? Kyung has whatever the opposite is. The scene where he had Haru bring flowers for him to give to Dan Oh - brutal. And some sort of perverse revenge for what - Dan Oh acting the way the author wanted her when she didn’t have control? Dan Oh not enlightening him (which why and how could she.) Awake Kyung is still a terrible person, even if more lowkey realistic one. It’s pretty clear he cares for Dan Oh insofar as he’s able to care for anyone, but he is incapable of a healthy, functional relationship or attitude. PS He’s also not that bright - doing all of that would make Haru self-aware faster.
Even memoryless, personality-changed Haru keeps this basic tenet of him because it’s at his core.
Haru mark 2 yells! And is emotional.He is much less quiet than his Haru mark 1 counterpart; probably because Haru mark 1 was almost mute and shellshocked by his experience and this one is not. I also love that he is confused and it bugs bugs bugs him to see Dan Oh treat him as a stranger and he has no idea why. And yes, he is self-aware now, in some record speed! Oh, and back to his staring up at her.
Oooof. This hit hard. It’s such an exploration of free will and reality and I cannot even imagine what a mind trip it would be to not even know if your basic memories, your basic sense of self and world is real - that even off stage you are made by memories and experiences that were not only controlled by another but that may not have existed at all. Real Kyung is still not fully so and can never be so because his personality has been shaped by events that never even happened, since I am sure there was no childhood portion in the manga. Does Do Hwa like Ju Da in the shadows because his character was made to like her on stage in the story and the feelings carry over and are a basic part of his personality now, even in reality?
This! This! Shivers. It reminds me of concepts like “how do I know this world is real and I am not just imagining it in my head; there is no way to prove it.” Or “how do we know the past actually happened and it’s not just a memory our brain made up and the whole world is just this moment; just in your head.” And, as I mentioned to @theseasasleep, while the drama didn’t intend it, it made me think of predestination in Calvinism and how that concept always freaked me out - most other religions or branches of them allow the concept of free will and your ultimate fate changing depending on what you do, but Calvinism is like the world of EY - everything is predestined and predetermined - your character and ultimate fate and so what you do doesn’t really matter. I always wondered how the followers did not descend into nihilism and chaos (yes, good earthly fortune was supposed to be a sign of God’s grace but it wasn’t really necessary; and in its extreme, you could murder five people every day and still go to heaven since it was predetermined before you were born.) And in another thought about how much free will people have - people in RL have choices but so many of their choices and their reactions to choices are predetermined for them - by their circumstances, their upbringing, their very DNA. It’s more free will than in EY, but how much more?
Final thought - EY is so smart and so good and gave me so much pleasure that I honestly don’t care if it sticks the landing; which is the same I felt with W and Queen In Hyun’s Man (I thought the latter stuck it perfectly, the former wobbled though I liked it anyway, in part because I just wanted Dong Chul to be happy after his hell of a life, and in part because I thought the concept was that once you became fully actualized and escaped authorial control, you were a real person and so moved to the real world.)
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