Mary Stayed Out All Night

Episode 16 (Final)

Hurricane Mary, coming through! This drama goes out the same way it began…totally insane. But you know, by now it’d be even MORE schizophrenic if the drama did a total 180 and started to make sense. So it’s best we go out with as much crazy as we started with. It’s time to embrace the mental instability. Or at least start drinking heavily…

Mu-gyul gets his non-answer to his stupid Choose Me Now or Forever Hold Your Peace question and walks away without looking back. Mary immediately gets a call that Jung-in is awake. (So, if Mu-gyul had waited two minutes, you would’ve been able to answer? I guess that’s not the point, but…)

Mary rushes in and Jung-in looks up at her lovingly. While Mu-gyul goes home to clear his studio of Mary’s belongings and the curtain that divided their bed, Jung-in talks to his father about the wedding.

Jung-in: Father, does this wedding have to happen? I love Mary sincerely. So I want her to be happy. But if she marries me like this, she’ll never be happy.

Finally, some reason. Dad thinks after the wedding will be plenty of time for Mary to change her mind. Ha. Words are meaningless to you. Jung-in asks if Dad is trying to make him even less fortunate than himself. He calls Dad out for loving another woman for thirty years. Jung-in: “It must’ve been hard for you. But it was harder for me, and Mom, who stood by your side.” Oof. Heartbreaking.

And now it makes sense (?!) why Jung-in is so quick to let Mary go, despite loving her. Because he spent his whole life loving his father, and watching his mother love him, while he loved someone else. To live that all over again, in his own marriage, would be the height of cruelty. He asks his father to reconsider the wedding once more, to which his father turns a blind eye, because he is a heartless shell of a man. [Also a plot device. –javabeans]

Mu-gyul packs up the rest of Mary’s things with a heavy heart (which runs so counter to your actions earlier, schizo-boy, but whatever). But Mary comes running in, short of breath.

Mary: THIS is my answer, Stupid.

And, Quote of the Day goes to Mary! Mu-gyul sighs, utterly relieved, as he clutches her tight in a hug. He thanks her for coming, even now. Um, YOU were the one who put a time limit on her answer, dummy. It’s a sweet reunion, if only because the actors play it as such, but frankly, there’s no dramatic tension in it at all, and makes me even angrier about the hospital breakup scene…all that, for this?

Jung-seok ponders for a while, then decides to hurry the wedding. Oy. Even Mary’s dad wonders what’s gotten into him, as it seems rushed with Jung-in’s condition and Mary’s state of mind.

As soon as they’re reunited, Mu-gyul gets a call from Jung-in asking to see him concerning Mary. He heads over to the hospital, and Jung-in tells him that the wedding is still on. Mu-gyul points out that his words don’t match up, and Jung-in just says that he’s being honest, man-to-man.

Mu-gyul leaves and Jung-in says to himself that he’ll see in due time. Oh, jeez. I see where this is going, and it’s not totally out of character for Jung-in to go all Fairy Godmother on them, but it’s still crazy.

Mary gets called home to talk over wedding prep with Dad, and she goes along, too defeated to resist anymore. Dad calmly tells her that he’s not doing this because of Jung-in’s wealth, but because her mother married him for love, but ended up with such an unfortunate fate. He tells her that starting love is easy, but maintaining it, preserving it, is the hard part. Well, now, that makes a whole lot of sense, and is delivered in a non-hysterical fashion. Could you not have been this way from the beginning, dear Papa?

He tells her that all he cares about is her happiness. Well then maybe, just once, you should listen to what your twenty-four year old daughter is telling you, about what she wants for her own life. [Yeah, the "Daddy knows best" argument really doesn't hold any water when the premise of your argument is how your decisions turned out so badly. –jb]

Mary texts Mu-gyul that night, asking him to wait three more days for her to end things with Jung-in. Okay, now I’m starting to take Mu-gyul’s side with all this. Why do you keep extending things? Mu-gyul agrees and they plan to meet on the third day.

The day arrives, which is of course Mary and Jung-in’s wedding day. Both she and Jung-in prepare with long faces, and she texts Mu-gyul to wait for her. He takes his guitar and plays a new song in the park, waiting for her to arrive.

Meanwhile, the wedding begins, and guests start streaming in. Seo-jun arrives and greets Jung-in, and then calls Leo to ask why they’re not here, as Mary’s friends. It’s news to everyone else that Mary’s going through with the wedding, so they rush over to find Mu-gyul and send him off to crash the wedding and get Mary back.

He runs like the wind, and arrives to find Mary and Jung-in standing at the altar. Although he ran there to stop it, he takes one look at Mary in her wedding dress, smiling at Jung-in, and tears well up. He turns away and leaves, just as their friends arrive on the scene.

So Mu-gyul leaves, and their friends arrive just in time to witness the real reason for the wedding: to stick it to their fathers. Jung-in announces that he’ll love Mary forever (aw) but he won’t marry her, as this wedding is something orchestrated by their families and they don’t intend on becoming husband and wife. Mary apologizes to her father, and says that they’ve chosen to preserve the love that they’ve chosen.

Well, finally a definitive statement from her. Why it required going through with the wedding to announce to their fathers that they have no intention of getting married doesn’t make much sense, but I suppose it’s been pretty well established that neither father will listen to reason, and well, the drama simply wanted to create the dramatic not-a-wedding scenario. Although it’s unclear why, as anyone could see this coming a mile away.

Their friends stand around and call Mary instead of Mu-gyul, telling her to go find him. Why didn’t anyone think he might need to know what went down at the wedding after he left? Do your job, friends!

Mary finds out that Mu-gyul was there, and rushes off to find him. Meanwhile, Mu-gyul comes home, crying over losing Mary. It’s sad for him, but lacks all dramatic tension because we know that it’s just a matter of time before he finds out the truth.

And to that end, Seo-jun comes by to tell a sulking Mu-gyul that he should’ve stuck around at the wedding, long enough to watch Mary and Jung-in run out, and even sign divorce papers to end it all. Mu-gyul immediately perks up, and rushes out.

Aaand, we’re back to running! Run, Mu-gyul, run! And why all of a sudden do lovers not have cell phones in moments like this? I mean, I agree that running in the snow is way more dramatic than texting, as far as the audience is concerned, but it’s also conveniently not an option when the drama decides it’s dramatic running time.

Over in the land of errant fathers, Jung-in apologizes to Dad for taking it that far, but tells him that it was the only way to stop him from forcing that marriage till the end. He adds that while he loves Mary, he can’t marry her in place of his father’s love for her mother.

Mary’s dad walks in and overhears their conversation, realizing for the first time why Jung-seok has been pushing this marriage. He declares it wrong (yes, so, so wrong), and leaves, disgusted with him. Thank goodness for that. [Okay, you get to go back to being Second Worst Dad Ever. –jb]

Mu-gyul runs and runs and arrives at the playground, to find Mary huddled and waiting for him. He runs over calling her name, and her eyes fill with tears as she asks what took him so long. Mary: “I ended things with Jung-in and came. But you weren’t here. I was so scared.”

Mu-gyul apologizes (oh thank god for the disappearance of pissy Mu-gyul) and hugs her, sorry for not trusting her, and himself.

Back at home, they’re back to being cute, and Mary fills him in on one important detail that she so conveniently left out: that she and Jung-in signed divorce papers while he was still in the hospital. [Thereby negating the need for that stupidly dramatic not-a-wedding, you mean? –jb] Mu-gyul smiles, instead of asking her if she’s lost her mind, and then gives her the kitty necklace he’s been carrying around since Christmas. She gives him a kiss on the cheek in delight. Mary: “It’s a kitty! Is it you?”

Jung-in gets disowned by his father, and kicked to the curb. He expected as much, and plans to head out on his own. Good for you. High time for you to be an adult now. He meets with Mary to finalize the divorce and part ways. She thanks him for everything, and he wonders how things might have been if they had met under more natural circumstances. She’s relieved that things can go back to the beginning, which they can’t for him, since he’s fallen in love with her. He watches her walk away, lingering for a moment.

Mary goes to see Dad, who was initially under protest, but finally caved to reason, once he saw just how crazy Jung-seok really was. He doesn’t tell Mary about Jung-in’s dad being in love with her mom, but he does tell her that he kicked Jung-in to the curb.

Mary calls Mu-gyul and worries that Jung-in has run into trouble again because of her. Mu-gyul laughs good-naturedly and teases her for worrying about her first husband in front of him. Ha. And why couldn’t you have been this understanding before, I want to ask.

Jung-in tries to sleep on the couch in his office, which really wouldn’t be that uncomfortable, save his really long legs. He tosses and turns, and finally gives up. His solution?

…He walks into Mu-gyul’s studio and drops his bags down. Omo! This drama got REALLY good all of a sudden. [FIFTEEN EPISODES LATE. –jb]

Jung-in announces that he’ll be staying here for a while, and also announces that he wants to put out a single for Mu-gyul’s song. Mu-gyul just looks at him like he’s crazy, and can’t help but laugh at his declaration that he’ll be living here.

Mu-gyul gives him a blanket to sleep on the couch, but Jung-in insists that he can only sleep in a bed. Mu-gyul: “There’s only one bed…”

O.M.G.

Jung-in decides that they can just put up a curtain and share the bed. Mu-gyul grabs him by the arm (with love?) and tells him to follow his rules in his house (the same words Jung-in used when he made Mu-gyul sleep on the couch in his house). Jung-in recognizes the words, and goes to the couch sheepishly.

And thus begins the real relationship that we’ve been waiting sixteen episodes for. Jung-in and Mu-gyul settle into a bickering courtship of their very own, like an old married couple. It’s officially the best thing this drama has ever done. [For, like, 2 whole minutes. Yeah, I'm bitter. –jb]

They ride around in Mu-gyul’s bus, as Jung-in personally escorts him to every media appearance, and on their way home one night, Mu-gyul falls asleep…on Jung-in’s shoulder. Jung-in is startled for a second, and then smiles (Eee!), totally enjoying the moment. Mu-gyul wakes up and ruins it, making for some awkward tension. Ha.

It’s almost even more upsetting for the drama to give us a taste of what could’ve been… [Bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter... –jb]

They arrive home to Mary, who’s waiting with dinner. She finds out that Jung-in is staying there, and Mu-gyul eyes him with great displeasure, as Mary treats him kindly. Can these three just live together like this, forever? Please?

Mary sees Mu-gyul on tv and decides that he’s gotten too skinny. Mary: “That’s it. I’m gonna have to catch a chicken.” She makes chicken soup for their cozy little threesome, and Jung-in gets jealous over Mu-gyul’s extra chicken leg, to which Mu-gyul offers him a date. No…not that kind of date, although…don’t I wish.

Jung-in gets a call that Wonderful Day finally secured all its funding. Cue smiles all around, and a handshake between the two boys.

Mary and Jung-in finalize their divorce…again. Didn’t we already have this scene? At home, the crew prepares a surprise party, in honor of the divorce. Ha. I do love this group’s reasons for throwing parties. Mary and Jung-in arrive home and blow out the candles on their Happy Divorce cake.

One year later, Mary has become a budding drama writer, and Jung-in comes to see her. He’s back to greet his father, who has returned, and things seem settled between their families. While they talk, a guy runs up to her, calling her noona and sunbae, asking who the guy is. She introduces him as her first husband with a smile, and the guy balks, but decides he doesn’t care, because he’s written a song for her. She laughs that she’s got a lot of those, and Jung-in notes that she tends to attract musicians.

She goes to see Mu-gyul, playing in the park as usual. In voiceover, she says that she and Mu-gyul are the same. They broke up twelve times, and are dating for the thirteenth time. Heh. That’s cute.

At home, she complains that the studio is too warm now (successful musician = running the heat as much as he wants). She says this place was better when it was cold; they used to keep each other warm. Mu-gyul smiles and comes over for a snuggle.

Seo-jun is her usual self, and continues on her path as an actress.

Mary and Mu-gyul walk along together, sharing tunes, and happily in love.

Mary (in voiceover): In the face of many crossroads, in the youth of our twenties, we chose another path.

GIRLFRIDAY’S COMMENTS

Well at least we got a nice last half of a finale, with somewhat open-ended, but well-wishing farewells for our characters. There wasn’t anything revelatory, but we at least got some Jung-in/Mu-gyul hijinks, which amused me. And I do enjoy the ending for Mary and Mu-gyul, that they very realistically broke up a dozen times and continue to grow up together, without easy solutions to everything.

As for the first half, don’t even get me started on the not-a-wedding. Mary refusing to tell Mu-gyul, just to “fool” (pffft) the audience….blech. Of all the things I hate, it’s manufactured conflict that really makes me sigh. I feel nothing when events in a drama unfold in a way that is solely in service of creating dramatic tension, because for me, it has the opposite effect. If characters don’t act organically, then the scenes lose all tension because I know that these are just machinations to make them breakup/makeup back and forth, simply because it’s the finale. And that’s lame.

So overall, the finale is exactly what the drama was, on a whole: bipolar. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the two ends of this drama, somehow existing in the same space. It’s both I-am-youthful-free-and-indie, and drama-tropes-on-hyperdrive. Watching this drama was a lot like Mary, yo-yo-ing back and forth between her two guys: trying to do right by both, which eventually just leads to being confused. I wish Show had done a lot of things, but choosing one tone and one path would have done a lot to buoy all the crazy.

Mostly I wish for better things for the three leading actors, because I really love them all, despite nobody getting the chance to do anything here. It hurts me to think of what this drama could have been, if they had been written as characters, and not as caricatures.

JAVABEANS’ COMMENTS

Even though I’d long given up on Mary being a good drama, the finale was even more disappointing than I was bracing myself for, because while it was a mess of non-logic, it wasn’t even the FUN kind of crazy. And for all but the last ten minutes, it was strangely morose and lethargic. The characters were sad and resigned, like they’d given upon themselves just as the drama had given up on them.

I have the same gripes about the lame wedding fake-out as girlfriday — and since the drama wasn’t very clever about the misdirect and probably tipped a lot of us off right away about being a fakeout anyway, it didn’t even have that surprise-twist factor to justify such a cheap shot. For one brief moment, I was ready to grudgingly accept the wedding scene because I thought they were going for the bookend effect, using it to parallel the drama’s opening sequence — Mary’s Tim Burton nightmare about being married off to the wrong groom — and then they DIDN’T EVEN DO IT.

Now, as for the last ten minutes — they reminded me about all that I’d previously enjoyed about this drama, which is a bittersweet thing since it came so late and was so fleeting. I’d actually forgotten the sweetness of these people, because their recent moping/sulking/brattiness has been so unpleasant to witness, on top of being jarringly out of character. But seeing the dryly funny moments between the two boys? Hilarious. Now this is the kind of stuff I was hoping for when we first heard the words “two contract marriages” — wacky hijinks between the three that gives rise to hilarious scenarios. Gah, it kills me that the writers didn’t think to bring Jung-in into the studio household earlier, which by the way would’ve contributed a better side conflict as well if they paired it with Jung-in losing funding and needing to save the drama while crashing with his wife and her boyfriend. I mean — how great would that have been? Remember all the awesome bedtime jostling scenes of Sungkyunkwan Scandal? To think we could have had that here. Arghhhhalskdjf;ajdf;akjds;fs. Bitter sad bitter.

More than anything, I feel sorry for these actors, because they’re not just good-looking fresh faces capable of cute-ing it up — they’re also some of the bright shining talents of their generation, and were utterly wasted. I’ve learned long ago that a drama with a great cast isn’t enough — that directing and writing are even more crucial — but somehow, I always fall for it every time, getting excited and then facing that crushing disappointment as you watch the cast gamely doing their best despite the sinking ship. Kudos to them, and hopefully we’ll see them soon, in something much more worthy of them.

by girlfriday | December 28, 2010 |

Mary Stayed Out All Night:

Episode 15

This episode is all Mu-gyul. Unfortunately, it’s all Mu-gyul being petulant and mopey, which tends to put a damper on things.

I’ve already lost my mind trying to follow the wacky logic of this drama, and the last episode pushed girlfriday over the edge. Which means… now it’s time for Mu-gyul to lose his hold on sanity. I love ya, Jang Geun-seok, but I spent all episode dying to wrangle some sense into you. Alas, it seems you can wrangle sense out of lots of things (like this drama), but not into. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation for that.

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After being caught in that backhug with Jung-in, Mary chases Mu-gyul out of the house, trying to explain that she was only here in order to end the fake marriage for good. Mu-gyul retorts that her hug sure didn’t look like it was “ending” anything, and walks off in a snit.

And so, Mary returns to the empty studio, where her sad little birthday party for Mu-gyul sits, unfulfilled. The girls call to invite her to join the posse for a Christmas party, but Mary’s not in the mood, and barely holds her composure together as she declines. The friends notice her teary voice, but figure the couple has just had a minor lovers’ quarrel.

Mu-gyul broods his way through the bus ride home, ignoring the obvious interest from the other passengers who recognize him from his recent performances and sneak phone-photos of him.

When he arrives at the studio, to Mary’s relieved apprehension, he barely engages with her, ignoring her attempts to lighten the mood.

Mu-gyul tells her that the hardest thing for him was “changing myself suddenly” — but it was because of Mary that he could endure the embarrassment of changing his music style and standing up there onstage. OH REALLY NOW. That makes sense, since Mary held a gun to your head and told you to change everything about yourself for her sake and declared your old self unworthy… OH WAIT. That’s just the revisionist version in your martyr fantasy.

He wants her honest answer about what Jung-in means to her; shaking his head in disgust, he calls the Mary he saw today “a stranger.” Unwilling or unable to hash out their issues tonight — he’d prefer to let it fester — he asks for alone time, and Mary trudges off heartbroken.

After seeing Mary’s father working on a stack of wedding invitations, Mu-gyul’s mother hurries to the studio to express her dissatisfaction about Mary to Mu-gyul, who doesn’t want to hear it. Even in his funk, Mu-gyul sighs that Mary’s not that kind of girl, so Mom produces the invitation to prove her point, saying that a wedding can’t happen without the bride’s permission. You’d think that, wouldn’t you? Maybe you’d like to have a word with a certain drama writer…

Mu-gyul tells his mother to move out of Mary’s father’s place, since he returned the ring and she is no longer beholden. Mom happily phones Mr. Wee to tell him good riddance, and berates him for selling off his daughter to a rich family. Wait, but two minutes ago you were expressing how disappointing you found Mary’s character for agreeing to marry another man… Oh, that would be Logic talking, who has no place in this drama and is therefore speaking at a frequency inaudible to our characters. I bet the dogs and cats agree with her, though.

Kicked out of the studio for the time being, Mary comes home to Dad’s. Trying to keep the mood light, she merely explains her presence by saying she missed him, but when Dad asks about Jung-in, she admits that she asked for a divorce. He’s alarmed (at his meal ticket running away), and pressures her to beg for forgiveness. (“Forgiveness” — agh! That is just the most bass-ackwards way of looking at this scenario, like she’s somehow empirically wrong for not accepting his affections, that she needs to beg to be allowed his grace again. You are just the worst dad ever.)

Figuring this Mary’s gloom is all about that playboy rocker, Dad reaches for his phone to give Mu-gyul a piece of his mind (which would be a woefully small piece, I’m thinking), but Mary bursts out in protest. Fighting tears, she says it isn’t about him — today’s been a really crap day, and she doesn’t have it in her to fight with Dad like this.

As for the drama: In the wake of Mu-gyul’s hit performance at the showcase, it’s smooth sailing again for the production team of Wonderful Day. Jung-in suggests a company workshop in a scenic spot, and wouldn’t you know, the drama has coincidentally received a sponsorship offer by such a place.

Mu-gyul barges into Jung-in’s office wearing a glare and accuses Jung-in of planning this all from the beginning — that he’d intended, all along, to force Mary into marriage. Gah, now Mu-gyul’s making as much sense as Dad, which is to say, not any.

Maintaining his composure, Jung-in tells him not to misunderstand yesterday’s events, since Mary came at his request. Then he exercises some massively poor timing by handing over Mu-gyul’s schedule for the upcoming week. Yeah, good luck getting him to cooperate with your business plans. Unsurprisingly, Mu-gyul declares that he’s through working with him.

Mary asks her father if he really wants her to marry Jung-in. Dad assures her that there’s no father who wouldn’t want to see his daughter well-married to a rich man who is eager to marry her, and declares that “I want nothing but your happiness.” Also, “Love and reality are very different things.” I think he’s confusing “different” with “mutually exclusive.”

Mary seeks solace in the bookstore, and who should come by but Jung-in. Rather than making his presence known, he takes a seat one bookshelf over and waits for her to notice him.

She catches a glimpse of him just as he gets a worried call about Mu-gyul being a no-show for a TV appearance — mention of that name gets Mary’s attention. Figuring that he can’t have gone far, Jung-in heads off in search of his errant rockstar.

Mu-gyul is at the moment busy proving how rock he truly is, playing noisily on his guitar while his friends cover their ears and worry about his mental state. They know better than to mess with him when he’s in a dark mood like this, but Jung-in comes right in and unplugs the guitar cord from the amp. (Eee, might this be sign of impending romance in the air? Oh right. Wrong drama.)

Mu-gyul glares and starts to leave. Jung-in asks if he has always been this irresponsible (hello? Have you even seen the beginning of this drama, Jung-in?), and asks if he really wants to say goodbye to his career like this.

Mu-gyul reasserts that he won’t work with Jung-in. So Jung-in reverse-psychologies him, saying, “Neglecting your promises and doing whatever you please must be what rockers do. How cool. If the man Mary liked only ever amounted to this, then I guess I still have a shot.”

Jung-in adds that he can’t let Mary go to a guy like Mu-gyul, causing the latter to bristle — who is Fancypants to decide whether to “let go” of Mary or not? Jung-in replies that if Mu-gyul wants to make him give up his pursuit, he’ll have to take care and watch how he behaves.

I actually like this tactic — provided that Jung-in is doing this, as I suspect, as a way of jolting Mu-gyul out of this nonsensical self-destructive spiral, and not as a genuine challenge for Mary’s love.

The posse tries their hand at stepping in to spur the couple toward reconciliation. The boys call Mu-gyul to call him over with a fake reason, saying that one of the bandmates has decided to give up on music and get a thoroughly unrockerly job. Shudders!

Likewise, the girls call Mary: So-ra fakes sobs while Ji-hye explains that she’s just been through a tough breakup.

The false pretenses succeed in getting them to the same place, and Mu-gyul is first to arrive where the crew has set up heart-shaped candles and romantic music. He turns right around to leave, running into Mary, who’s much happier to see him than he is to see her.

Still in his pissy mood, he takes a deliberately obtuse approach, as though he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He takes off, ignoring the calls of his friends, who emerge from hiding and try to urge him back.

He goes back home, still peeved, and receives a call from Seo-jun, whom he meets for drinks. She’s done Mu-gyul the favor of stepping in for his absence today, and senses that something went down between him and Jung-in. She tells him not to be too much of an ass with Jung-in, because that’s no way to repay the man who helped him make a proper debut.

He balks at her description, not wanting to admit to Jung-in’s help. Seo-jun is unimpressed, tsk-tsking, “How petty of you, Kang Mu-gyul.” She makes sense, actually, which is messing with my head. Is she back to being cool now? How is it that the self-absorbed Seo-jun became the mature voice of reason here? Did Mu-gyul’s lost sanity leach its way into those around him instead? Now, if his mom starts acting like a reasonable parent all of a sudden, my brain will be paralyzed with its inability to process.

Preparations for the wedding proceed, under President Jung’s pleased and watchful eye, while Jung-in gets the drama workshop organized.

On the day of the workshop — really a bonding retreat more than anything — Mary arrives as employees are boarding the bus. Two employees give Mary a coy greeting, having received the wedding invitations — courtesy of President Jung, who sent them to the entire office — and say they thought she was dating Mu-gyul.

Uncomfortable with the truth being thus revealed, Mary excuses herself, deciding not to go after all. However, she’s prodded along by her friends, who arrive to join in the fun, having been invited by Jung-in. But… they were just playing Cupid for her and Mu-gyul last night… and now they’re playing along with the Jung-in romance angle? Fickle friends.

The employees push Jung-in into the seat next to his supposed future wife Mary, and the two sit there trying not to let the awkwardness get to them.

But during the ride, Jung-in nods off, his head coming to rest on Mary’s shoulder. She gently pushes his head back onto its own seat, but he nods off again and snuggles closer this time.

Mu-gyul sits at home in a sulk when Seo-jun calls to urge him to join them for the workshop. She tells him that Mary went too, hinting that you never know what’ll happen on a trip… He doesn’t rise to the bait, though, and declines in his surly way.

At the mountain retreat, Jung-in leads the group in a toast to their success. Mary separates herself from the group, and Seo-jun clocks her glumness and approaches.

Given her sudden bout of maturity earlier this episode, I fully expected her to share some words of encouragement, but no, instead she rips Mary a new one about her upcoming marriage with Jung-in.

Seo-jun scathingly accuses Mary of hurting Mu-gyul, saying that she has brought Mu-gyul more struggle and unhappiness than good stuff. That even despite love, there are things you can’t force with sheer will. And that it’s time for Mary to step back and leave Mu-gyul’s life.

Okay, I’m revoking your cool card, Seo-jun. Even more presumptuously, Seo-jun declares that it seems to her that Mary actually loves neither man. Oh, thanks for telling me how I feel, bitch… is what I’d dearly love to tell her.

Miserably, Mary goes for a walk in the forest, thinking back to her relationship with Mu-gyul in a series of flashbacks that culminate with his adorable public love declaration onstage.

Meanwhile, Mu-gyul sits at home and looks over the cat necklace he’d bought as Mary’s Christmas present.

As she approaches the top of a hill, Mary finds herself in a vast field of reeds. She shouts off into the distance, “Kang Mu-gyul! I’m sorry! I just gave you trouble — the marriage and living together was all my fault. But I wanted to live happily with you. That must’ve just been my greed. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry for putting you through that.”

Her words start to choke her up and she starts sobbing, which is the pose she’s in when Jung-in finds her and helps her stand.

Mu-gyul is still at home sulking when Seo-jun calls in a panic to say that Mary and Jung-in have both disappeared. They’d headed up into the mountains together hours ago, but are nowhere to be found. Now she feels guilty for her harsh words earlier, and worries about what may have become of them.

At least that pulls Mu-gyul out of his self-pity party, and he hurries to the retreat site, where the rest of the attendees have formed a search party. They scour the woods for the missing pair, but with everyone tiring, they decide to retreat to the house and wait for emergency services.

As it happens, Mary and Jung-in are perfectly fine, just lost, as they try to find their way back. That is, they’re fine until Mary trips over a fallen log — Jung-in grabs her and shields her as they roll down a hill.

His face is riddled with scratches by the time they come to a rest, and he lands hard (possibly hitting his head). Mary frets and tries to revive him, but he’s out cold. The best she can do is lean over his prone body and try to keep his blood moving to keep him warm.

Mu-gyul arrives to bad news — still no sign of the missing twosome — and decides to go looking for them alone. He declares that if he doesn’t, he’ll regret it forever, and heads into the woods with a flashlight. He finds Mary huddled over Jung-in’s prone body, crying and worried… and we’re not really going to play this supposedly dire situation for jealousy, are we? Oh, I guess we are. Because they couldn’t ruin Mu-gyul’s character enough already.

And then… cut to hospital.

Jung-in is in his third day of unconsciousness, and Mary keeps vigilant watch at his bedside, both concerned and feeling guilty for being the reason for his injury.

Mu-gyul does drop by the hospital but chooses to remain in the background, not announcing his presence to Mary.

Mom asks Mu-gyul if he really loved Mary (speaking in the past tense), and advises him to date a stunningly pretty girl next, to show her. Mu-gyul’s moping is accompanied by that universal trendy drama sign that we’re approaching the end: the flashback clip reel.

Having made a decision, Mu-gyul arrives at the production company offices, where Seo-jun has stepped up to pick up some of the slack in Jung-in’s absence. She fields a call from the director, who wants to switch production companies, and cites loyalty as her reason for sticking with it — Jung-in may be her boss, but he’s also her friend. Her words are successful in convincing the director not to jump ship.

Seeing how well Seo-jun is managing this interim role as producer, Mu-gyul offers a rueful apology as he hands over an envelope — he’s requesting a dissolution of his contract.

She calls him cowardly, reminding him of their own breakup, saying he’s always been this way. What made her angry was that he didn’t come to her and confirm his suspicions — that she was sneaking around with a sponsor — and instead decided things on his own. So now, she makes one request of him — don’t do that to Mary. While they might be able to chalk up his past behavior to immaturity, it won’t fly this time.

Aw man, she’s being cool again and now I’m confused again. Constant character inconsistencies = head hurty.

According to Jung-in’s doctors, there’s no good medical reason for why Jung-in won’t wake up, and therefore the only thing they can suggest is for Mary to encourage him to wake up.

Jung-in’s father comes by to relieve her of her watch, urging her to go home to get some rest. Reluctantly, she agrees and heads out — which is where Mu-gyul finds her and pulls her aside for a talk.

The conversation starts out uncomfortably as Mu-gyul asks why Mary’s here. She answers that it’s her fault that Jung-in’s in this situation in the first place — she can’t ignore the fact that he was protecting her when he got hurt.

Mu-gyul tells her that she’s done enough, and that nobody could accuse her otherwise. But if he doesn’t step in, she won’t be able to leave Jung-in — and they need to make this decision now. Mu-gyul first apologizes for giving her the cold shoulder and avoiding her, but declares that it’s time for her to answer his question.

Knowing what’s coming, Mary asks if he can just wait until Jung-in wakes up. After then, she can — no, she will — go to him freely.

But apparently his love has a time limit, because he says, “If you can’t answer now, you won’t be able to later, either.” (Whaaa? And why not?) He asks, “Is it me, or him?”

Mary can’t answer, and Mu-gyul accepts that as a rejection, leaving her behind as he stalks off.

COMMENTS

I’m amazed that an episode could be so angsty, and yet also so boring. I am also exhausted by Mary Stayed Out All Night, which is trying so hard to inject some last-minute drama into the drama. If only it didn’t feel so much like kicking a moaning, wounded horse on the ground, substituting straight-up pain for dramatic conflict.

Okay, to play devil’s advocate, I CAN actually understand a bit of where Mu-gyul was coming from in this episode. He sees Mary in a clinch with his rival and assumes the worst — and his reaction, while overblown, isn’t without precedent. As Seo-jun points out, he did the same with her in assuming the worst, then cutting things off swiftly. One would assume that being in love would afford a girl some consideration, but Mu-gyul seems determined to make himself into the martyr here in refusing to even hear Mary out or accept that there might be another explanation.

But okay, let’s even accept that as plausible, given his turbulent history with his mother, which has made him skittish with women and love. I get it. (One wishes the drama actually did anything with that thread, though, to make this point actually resonate, rather than seeming so haphazardly constructed.)

Alas, all that reasoning doesn’t keep him from being an utter self-absorbed prat about it. Why does he have to put a time limit on Mary’s decision? Sure, he doesn’t like seeing her loyalty keep her by another man’s side — even if he does cite loyalty as Mary’s best feature — but this isn’t a normal circumstance. The dude is unconscious and seriously injured — can’t you wait a day or two? No, you can’t? I guess it makes sense, since everything IS about you, Mr. Pouty Rocker Man!

by javabeans | December 27, 2010 |