East of Eden (Song Seung Hun, Lee Da Hae)

East of Eden bit off MiSa BIG BIG BIG TIME in this episode. Doomed lovers at the beach? Female heroine wearing baggy clothes? Tragic hero guy knowing that there's no escape from certain death? That piece of orchestral music that sounds a bit like the tango piece from MiSa? "Sarang ne ajusshii? SARANG NE AJUSSHI"

How dare you.

How dare you East of Eden.

Yeah . . . I loved this episode. I'm easy.

Sigh. I think what kills me is that Grace really did develop as a character, and their love seemed to evolve through the 20+ episodes. Because of the casting, you knew that it couldn't be. You feared that Grace would get killed accidentally. You thought that Lee Dong Chul would get castrated or lose an eye or at least a finger for loving the Don's daughter.

But, above all, what I liked was that, in a way, they for one episode got to start over. In the beginning. When she was a spunky, spoiled brat. And he was a Dickensian roamer improvising day. When he could see her as a just a woman, and not the daughter of his dangerous boss, not the unhappy puppet of her father, not the Gambino's take off Pandora's Box.

At least their relationship went full circle. It was always doomed, but they did develop and mature and evolve and that was satisfying,

I'm just glad Lee Dong Chul doesn't die. Dude, that was a big ass knife her dad was holding!

the preview in for ep 25 seems that DC visits YR again after such a painful goodbye so I guess it's not goodbye yet in ep 23 or 24

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the preview in for ep 25 seems that DC visits YR again after such a painful goodbye so I guess it's not goodbye yet in ep 23 or 24

Yeah, I think we're getting the closure scene too. This is a little like MiSa in that the female protoganist, apart from her lover, starts to lose her mind and her will. What I liked about EofE is that they set up this condition pretty early. President Guk is one of my favorite characters, and the Guk family is always fun to watch . . . but the jokes and snappy repartee eased that she was effectively a bird in his cage all her life, a well-kept bargaining chip for his means. It looks like the time jump (haven't seen Episode 24 yet) will be about another 2-3 years (placing the storyline now pretty close to the Seoul Olympics), and so in that time, it's reasonable to believe that Grace's mind and will are effectively gone. She's a lost soul (is she still married to Mike; he may be her caretaker), and him seeing her is his proper goodbye.

This seems inevitable to me, because the LDC-MHR storyline needs to start. I don't even think they know each other's name yet!

Aren't MHR and LDW informally together? Or, if not together, still close friends? Unlike LDC/YR, MHR and LDW built a healthy and close bond over many years. Once MHR and LDC start meeting each other regularly, one would assume that they will find out that he's LDW's brother and that's that. Off limits.

I think my problem with their storyline is that they've waited so, so long to set up their storyline. Up to episode 24, they didn't even know each other's names, and both have been involved with other people. Also, I like LDW a lot. Both brothers have suffered greatly, and after the truth comes out, LDW will be a lost soul. They both deserve to be happy.

I think it's kinda like, as the show progresses from 15-23, you really wonder out loud why LDC is even doing this. He's ostracized from his family; he's not really closer to avenging his father; she correctly recognizes that he is a tool for her father. Above all, he starts to get into beaten up episode after episode, staring down death. What good is it all for? And, you know, you can even see that in SSH's performance; as LDC, he too looks like he wants to leave this life.

That desire is articulated in his feelings for Grace. In turn, as she approaches her wedding, her bitterness and distance turns into anger and sadness . . .and finally through episode 18, you actually see that her feelings turn wistful and tender for him. The wedding is a kind of death for her; she must confront it, and she does, and given the overwhelming sadness she feels about not only losing him but saying goodbye to her real freedom, both parties start expressing the regret over each other.

In that way, it's not that I think they're a great couple. It's just that both people are truly sad, and that in their miserable lives (given the violence that surrounds her father, Grace's life seems distinctly more miserable) seem alleviated by their company. There's a weary fatalism too. Their relationship is doomed; and so, when they start accepting their feelings, it is a cathartic experience, a release demured with the acceptance that there is no future, no escape. All they have/had is now. SSH has a nice performance here; his LDC is painfully, fatalistically aware of the consequences.

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All of a sudden, Ji Hyun is so happy with her new family but everyone else is EXACTLY where they were before.

What's interesting is trying to understand how Ji Hyun feels about her husband, Mr. Rapist Psycho Nice Guy. At first, it feels very strange how friendly and cooperative they seem as a family unit. Then pieces of Ji Hyun's veil starts to unravel. Watching through episode 25, I think Han Ji Hye is NOW delivering the strongest performance among the 3 young female leads. She evokes a mix of bitterness and troubled conscience in her performance; peeled back, you start to see how she continues to reject Mr. Rapist Psycho Nice Guy.

One thing I liked about the LDC/YR storyline was how we were allowed to watch their relationship develop and change, and Grace develop and change through the years. It isn't so much that we watch their love develop, so much as we watch them both rise and fall. And now we see that Grace, the brat princess (hiding a bitter, lonely heart), has disintegrated into a shell of herself. Yet, from her destroyed will, she is able to love him as selflessly and deeply as she can. In episode 25, both aspects torment Dong Chul; the former, because he cannot believe what she has become, and the latter because he could not believe that their love had done this to her.

I think SSH has the strongest emotional connection to brotherly, nurturing emotions; when he depicts anguish, it seems against specifically those instincts. Here The way the episode depicts her mind locked up in her hallucinations and broken will, plays off a little bit of gothic melodrama. Against a dark, dark apparition-like backdrop, SSH really brings out the anguish of LDC's soul. Her state violates the fiber of his character's compassion and regard for others.

It's heartbreaking as she calls out for her father, for Mike. Here we see the barest of what we suspected, that her life was a dark, dark dollhouse.

For the first time, I wonder whether the writers intend to perhaps have LDC/YR be there at the end. It's pretty clear that we've seen now will continue to haunt him deeply. So much so that he would feel too guilty to love another woman.