Weird Dreams and Dropped Bombs: "Valid Love" Episodes 17 and 18

How far did you want to go?

“Why can’t you just leave Jang Hee Tae?” Kim Joon (Lee Soo Hyuk) asks Il Ri (Lee Shi Young). I was wondering the same thing.

Yikes, these two episodes of “Valid Love” were a miserable mess, with folks wising up – and some taking matters into their own hands.

We start where we left off – with Miss Go, aka Hee Tae’s dementia-stricken mother, who keeps mistaking Kim Joon for her husband, as she grabs him early in the morning for a proper breakfast. Meanwhile, her family’s looking for her since she’s gone MIA again.

It’s Partially (or Mostly) Il Ri’s Fault

No matter how many times she’s told to move along, Il Ri keeps on coming back – like a toxic ex. Jang Hee Tae (Uhm Tae Woong) keeps telling her to go home, but she insists on moving in for a few days, pissing off her own mother and younger sister.

It’s getting to be a bit much, Il Ri’s devotion to her almost-divorced husband’s family. I’m starting to think she’s using her sick mother-in-law as an excuse to desperately hold on to this family, or, at the very least, her identity as part of it. How far was she planning on going?

Yet she can’t do all that and still expect to keep her boyfriend, Kim Joon, waiting on the side. But, indeed, waiting is what he does.

Kim Joon Wants To DTR

Kim Joon waits for Il Ri all day while she tends to her mother-in-law’s needs. He catches her dancing with Hee Tae.

He hits the alcohol hard and shows up drunk at the house of those in-laws – because Il Ri’s there, again. He crashes on Ki Tae’s bed, an intoxicated slump. “I want to live in this house, too,” he foolishly declares.

He wants Il Ri to never go back to that house. Me too, Kim Joon, me too.

The carpenter’s a peculiar sight in that house, where a family lives with love and anguish and all: and it’s something that he doesn’t have.

“What am I then? What am I to you?” he asks Il Ri. Finally, he wants to DTR: define the relationship. Thank goodness somebody asked.

“Would I be here if you were nothing to me?” Il Ri answers, yet not quite an answer at all.

Hee Tae Has A Weird Dream

Hee Tae dreams that he lives with Il Ri and Kim Joon in some strange, polygamous relationship. One in which Il Ri cooks breakfast, the three sit down to eat together, and Il Ri sees them off with packed lunches, smiles all around.

Ki Tae And Yi Ri’s Flirting Resumes

In other news, Jang Ki Tae’s (Park Jung Min) perpetual will-they-won’t-they quest with Yi Ri continues. The latest? Ki Tae decides to show up at the cafe where Yi Ri works, at the same time, every day, and order a white hot chocolate. Yi Ri, knowing all too well about his family, has no interest in getting involved.

The Bomb Drops: Ma Tries To Kill Hee Soo

I was shocked – Hee Tae’s heartbroken mother stood over Hee Soo (Choi Yeo Jin), ready to smother away her life before taking her own.

Miss Go had gone missing that day, yet again. Sidenote: how many times can this family lose their own mother, knowing her condition?

Hee Tae’s mother had been feeling a bit of clarity; she doesn’t want to be a burden, and she remembers the promise she made to her bedridden daughter. If she was going to leave this world, they were gonna leave it together. Il Ri, Hee Tae, and Kim Joon arrive just in time – horrified – and barely save Hee Soo’s life. And, witnessing this, something in Kim Joon turns the corner.

The Other Bomb: Kim Joon Wants To Elope

Kim Joon reveals that he wants to have a family – with Il Ri. She’s skeptical that he even understands what that really means. Kim Joon’s tense disposition bursts and he drives off, with Il Ri sitting on the passenger side. He wants to take Il Ri away from Hee Tae and his family, with some half-baked idea to start a new life at a house far away where he used to live with his grandfather. This was creepy for a minute, as Il Ri was captive (that broken passenger door), and Kim Joon’s explosion of anger – well, I don’t think anyone saw it coming, not like this.

And The Last Bomb: Kim Joon Breaks Up With Il Ri

After nearly getting them into a car crash, Kim Joon drops Il Ri off at home, and ends their relationship; he is done. There’s no way he can compete with Hee Tae and the in-laws, especially when it’s really Il Ri that will continue to choose them over him. She’ll never make Kim Joon a priority, and he finally gets the picture.

“Was it fun…playing with me?” Aw, Kim Joon. All’s not fair in love and war.

And while the bruises are still fresh, Il Ri finds out that a research boat caught on fire – one that Hee Tae was working on. She drops, and hyperventilates.  Eek, hasn’t there been enough tragedy for one family already?

[tv]Watch Valid Love on SoompiTV![/tv]