Jon x Sansa // Jago x Anne

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THE GLORY - 1 x04

until Truck-nim shows up to ruin everything.

Spoilers ahead for RR episode 10

I start all of these posts going 'this time I won't go into too much detail' and then I do anyway.

Jo Hanchul killed it in this episode. Absolutely murdered. Every single moment he was on screen he /stole/ attention, right down to the way he slowly broke down as Song Joong Ki showed up to deliver Jin Do Jun's (incredibly sexy) death blow.

Episode 10 brings us Dong Ki's rise and fall, while starting off with Hwa Young's sealed fate, which left Young Ki. Knowing what we heard in episode 1 (Seong Jun referring to the 'accident') I'm ready to say Young Ki is the one who called for the accident in the OG timeline as well as the current one.

Now, that brings us to a genuine problem for me: if 4-2 was always around in the OG timeline, are you telling me Yoon Hyeon Woo was too and NOBODY NOTICED THEY LOOKED THE SAME?

Are you telling me in the current timeline, given the number of times JDJ showed up in Hyeon Woo's neighbourhood, NOBODY commented that he looked the SAME?

It's a weird plothole for a show that's so far been so steady in the writing and I don't get it, but maybe the next six episodes will explain?

From a family perspective, we're seeing a lot of moves being played by Mo Hyeon Min in the background, using her invisibility as the newest DIL to gain information and ingratiate herself to people like her mother in law. The scene with Yoo Ji-Na was masterfully done, as was her and JDJ's tense moment. Her "the elders are waiting" dialogue was her serving supreme cunt and I love that. Ever since the marriage, she keeps distancing herself by condescending down to him ('young master'? love that) but shows just enough of herself for JDJ to know that she's there, pulling strings.

Meanwhile, Seo Min Young finally is a whole character, with actual hopes and dreams, struggles, and entire things to do outside of Jin Do Joon. And while her actively being disappointed in herself and having to constantly reckon with her own feelings (once more: it would have hit much more if we'd been allowed to see her actually sink in more in the early episodes about her privilege instead of it happening off-screen) makes her a lot more LIKEABLE and real as a character, the romance between her and JDJ is falling flat as fuck.

I think the writer and director just cannot do romance, because the romantic dialogue in the cafe was clunky and expository. The way it abruptly goes from talking about finance to him trying to play at being a knowing boyfriend was just painful to see. And I think it's time we accept that Shin Hyun Been is just not good at selling her emotions the way it's needed. That moment when she was at Miracle to raid it should have been fraught with tension - for reference of what I mean, see the way every single moment between Jo Hanchul and SJK this episode was CRACKLING with tension. THAT is the sign of a well-delivered moment. And that kiss? God, SJK was literally curving around her and her lips didn't even move. I'm going to get hate from a lot of SHB fans, but guys, come on. SJK knows how to kiss and the director unfortunately was not smart enough to avoid showing us that this kiss was simply empty. We got long lingering shots of one person trying really hard, and one who stood straight as a stick for most of it.

I fervently hope they cool it on the SMY/JDJ romance going forward and just let us enjoy SMY as a prosecutor because she's a lot more interesting when she's fighting being the diversity hire and building herself into someone with a moral code she can stand by. It makes her far more real, and the romance detracts from it.

In other news, this episode made me go 'HA!' and cackle at so many stages, mostly as Dong Ki and Do Jun traded their attacks back and forth, up to the reveal that JDJ wasn't defeated... he was pulling his investments out of the US because of 9/11.

I like that JDJ's realised there are fixed points in time that he can't change no matter what, but I think this was another moment where he's losing more and more of Yoon Hyeon Woo: JDJ's main goal is just to win, and he's trying to rationalise to his own conscious that he can't change death and can pay victims' families.

The end of the episode finally gives us some of the show's lore about this time travel thing, but like I pointed out earlier, it's... odd. I'm hoping episode 11 explains the loophole about 4-2 looking the same as Yoon Hyeon Woo. But that aside, I love the cliffhanger, and what's obviously going to happen here is that 4-2 isn't going to die, but Yang Cheol is... but while they've traded who dies in this particular accident, we know that death is a fixed point so YC may die now, but 4-2 is definitely supposed to die at some point. Is the show going to have him beat death and live happily ever after with Seo Min Young? I highly doubt it.

Yang Cheol, I'm going to guess, also didn't tell anyone he was giving Do Jun Soonyang Financial Holding, so Young Ki's going to take over.

It's going to be fun seeing how this plays out, but god am I dreading the cliffhanger they're going to deliver at the end of episode 11.

Stray thoughts:

"What am I to do to make you care for me?" This breakdown is a painful, horrible thing to watch. And all Yang Cheol can think of is how Dong Ki isn't right for the job.

There's a repeated pattern here about employees and their loyalty to this family: Yoon Hyeon Woo, Director Im, the driver, the many secretaries/right-hand men around. And we keep learning the same story, one that Yang Cheol (disgustingly - again, don't forget this man is awful) makes in this episode: they're all expendable. The Jin family is important, and everyone else is collateral damage.

Babes, Do Jun, you're making the entire family your enemy and they're going to come together to work against you sooner or later. Especially now that Yang Cheol's going to die (I may be wrong but I don't think I am).

WHERE IS DONG KI AND JI NA'S DAUGHTER?! We're getting barbs about how they don't have a son but we KNOW from the OG timeline that she's around and dastardly bitch, so where is she?!?!?!?

I loved that moment when we see the core Miracle team just eating donuts and plotting financial domination. Rachel continues to be the cutest of the trio, by the way, and Do Jun needs to ask her to teach him how to dress.

No, seriously, he's out of law school now, guys. Allow him to wear fitting clothes. I am begging.

That line from Yang Cheol about his chest xray... was great, but it's foreshadowing. We know JDJ's going to take that advice and get more and more tunnel-visioned. Already his motivations are flimsy: at this point, the man isn't specific about what he wants, he just wants to ruin everyone else. And he's learning from Yang Cheol how to do it.