Our Unwritten Seoul – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

7 hours ago

An Unconventional Whole
Episode 8 of Our Unwritten Seoul begins with a look at Ho-su's past. He was never fully happy with Bun-hong being part of their family, given he was always so close with his father.
After the death of his mother, the 'three eyes' in his family became two, and it upset the equilibrium of their group. When Bun-hong ended up as his step-mum, Ho-su wasn't particularly happy, wishing it could go back to 'two eyes' once again.
Ho-su and his father wind up in a car accident not long after, explaining Ho-su's injuries. He moved in to this house with Bun-hong, opposite the twins, and did his best to seem fine on the outside. He didn't want to seem like a burden to her and tried to sail through without causing drama.
Back in the present, Ho-su and Mi-ji are officially seeing each other but things are awkward between them. Mi-ji heads back to Seoul for the time being while Mi-rae stalls and learns from her mum that having one unemployed daughter 'is enough'. This doesn't help her case for quitting her job!
Mi-rae shows up at the strawberry farm and winds up with a big plan about helping his farm to thrive. In return, he offers to bring her out on a stargazing expedition that night. It's a nice moment and the pair certainly grow closer during this time.
Ro-sa is discharged and offered to enrol in the Adult Guardianship program. She doesn't know who else to ring so she calls Ho-su. Unfortunately, Chung-gu shows up and questions Ro-sa about Sang-wol.
He gives her an ultimatum to sell her restaurant to the company, promising to bring up Sang-wol again before stirring the pot further. He explains his ties to Ho-su, calling him one of his 'favourite junior colleagues'. Ro-sa, as a result, is frosty toward Ho-su.
Ok-hui's behaviour with the twins though is the complete opposite to Bun-hong and Ho-su. The pair over-indulge and go over the top with their affection, and it's clear there's an undercurrent of uncomfortableness that's never fully been addressed. Bun-hong tries to compensate for the void in their life, while Ho-su wants her to live freely without his 'burden'.
Further flashbacks do help to flesh out this awkwardness. On the anniversary of the ancestral rites for his mum and dad, Ho-su was hurt and saw this as performative. He called out Bun-hong for this and pushed her away, encouraging her to leave him alone. But then when she did leave the house one night, having got the wrong bus, he realized how alone he actually is.
As for Bun-hong, the reason for her delay was actually because she learned her mum was in hospital. Her sister, unfortunately, completely snubbed her and refused to help, leaving her in an unenviable position. Kicked out of one family and struggling to fit into another; Bun-hong ended up in an impossible position.
Interestingly, this is also the first time that a young Mi-ji wound up seeing how vulnerable Ho-su actually was.
Mi-ji and Ho-su's ties are very different now though and they awkwardly navigate their newfound romance. The pair hang out and while Ho-su is happy to call her his girlfriend, Mi-ji lies and pretends to be Mi-rae when a couple of Ho-su's old work friends show up.
Mi-ji explains after that she didn't want to be an embarrassment to him but this only feeds into what he said earlier about being a burden, so they cut their day short.
Mi-ji bemoans how she's ruined the day but things get worse at work when Mi-ji notices that a returning Park Sang-yeong looks exactly like her father.
This now puts Mi-rae's words before about their father into more perspective, and Mi-ji begins spiralling. After composing herself, she speaks to Park at lunch about the HQ project. He wants one of them to stop working on this (namely Sang-yeon himself) so it'll give people less reason to gossip. He promises to take care of the repercussions and do what he can to help her.
Mi-ji appreciates the sentiment but instead decides that she's going to drop out and wants him to make sure that she doesn't get penalized in any way. He also has a gift for her too, which happens to be a bookmark.
To make things even more awkward, this guy also has a daughter called Mi-rae too. Park Sang-yeong is in the pocket of senior management though, and they scheme between Mi-ji's back that night.
Park explains that she won't be a problem anymore now that she's dropped out (clearly using reverse psychology with her) and they contemplate moving her out to the Childal Branch 'before she causes trouble'. They suss that the identical twins may have switched and intend to test them later on in the episode.
That night, after all the awkwardness, Mi-ji rings her sister and questions her about Park. She demands to know her side of the story. Mi-rae has kept this a secret because she obviously misses their father so much, and Mi-ji feels the exact same way. They've both kept this pain from each other and they break down crying on the phone together.
At work, Tae-i is surprised that Mi-ji has dropped out of the HQ Project. Given she and Mi-rae are about to switch back again, she tells him to be nicer to her (ie. Mi-rae) in the future.
Ok-hui shows up to see Bun-hong and helps wash her hair. Midway through, Bun-hong admits that she's been trying to act like Ho-su's mum all this time and only realized what a bad impression she's done until now. Ok-hui is surprisingly encouraging to her, pointing out what a great family they have.
Meanwhile, Ho-su clears the air with Mi-ji and explains he just wanted them to have a normal date and it wound being really weird and awkward. He hands over a guidebook and instead of a handshake, the pair wind up hugging.
Mi-rae shows up to see Se-jin and they aren't quite on the same wavelength. The thing is, Se-jin was earlier visited by Director Yoon and apparently there are plans for someone taking over for him as he's not sure he'll be able to finish this year's farming.
Apparently he's thinking about leaving to go back to the States to work again. However, Mi-rae hears this through someone else so it's unclear if that's actually true or not.
That night, Tae-i shows up and confronts Mi-ji. He arrives outside her house and explains that he's Kim Su-yeon's brother. She's the Senior Specialist who left the company.
Back at work, things take a horrible turn when the senior management confront Mi-ji about her identity and encourage her to scan her fingerprint to enter the data processing room, leaving things on a tenuous cliffhanger.
The Episode Review
Our Unwritten Seoul closes out this weekend's double-bill with a big episode that ends things on a huge cliffhanger. It's unclear whether Mi-ji will be able to get out of this in one piece, and what the repercussions could be if she's outed as the wrong twin.
The situation at work is made that much more complicated by the revealed about Park Sang-yeong and the scheming between the upper-management too. It's clear he's not a nice person and very much forcing Mi-rae (when she was working there) to keep her head down and not make any trouble. Of course, Mi-ji is not that same twin, and she may have unintentionally caused trouble for her sister at work.
The ties between Ho-su and Mi-ji are at least a little better and cleared up somewhat by the end of the episode, while the drama involving Bun-hong and Ok-hui takes an unexpected turn when the latter is actually nice to her neighbour.
As for Mi-rae, we've got more misunderstandings when it comes to the strawberry farm and I can't help but feel this is just going to be resolved by Se-jin explaining it's only a temporary gig rather than a permanent position.
Either way though, the ending certainly leaves things on a big cliffhanger and we'll have to wait and see where this one goes next week.
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Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!