Recap "Forecasting Love and Weather" Episode 13 with Park Min Young, Song Kang

Episode 13 of Forecasting Love and Weather picks up with the typhoon inbound. The office is in uproar, with workers running to and fro, poring over the data and wondering how bad things are going to get.

Rain lashes down outside, waves crash on the shore and gale-force wind causes all sorts of damage. However, we don’t stick with that though, and as night turns to day we fast forward to the aftermath of the typhoon as the KMA try to play damage control. Interestingly, so too is Ha-Kyung who remains in limbo over Si-Woo and her own feelings. So she decides to stay at the typhoon center for the time being.

Back at the office, rumours are abound for Si-Woo and Ha-Kyung’s relationship, with the trio in question unaware that the pair have broken up over the marriage situation. It turns out all the workers have had their suspicions that they’ve been dating in secret, stemming back to the spring sneezing and the moments they were spotted in the car together.

For now, Seok-Ho, Myung-Joo and Su-Jin decide to keep quiet about what’s going on. Um overhears the trio talking though and he’s actually oblivious to what they’re talking about. Instead, he believes they’re on about his divorce.

Ha-Kyung is shocked to find out the Director of the Typhoon center is indifferent about Si-Woo’s injury. It turns out this is a regular occurrence though, with many of the workers there sporting some form of injury. Si-Woo’s is no exception. Then again, Si-Woo rocks up at work absolutely fine, having recovered quickly and with no eye-patch either. Well, that’s that then. So much for his dramatic injury.

Back at the head office, the typhoon report is uploaded but the file uploaded happens to be a giant penguin gif that Tae-Kyung sent Seok-Ho just prior to this on the work computer. Flustered, Seok-ho apologizes but it’s Um who gets the brunt of Ha-Kyung’s wrath, given he’s the senior in charge.  Myung-Joo speaks up and points out that Um is about to get divorced so his frame of mind is frazzled.

Ha-Kyung stands up for her workers in the face of adversity, pointing out that everyone is going through a lot of problems. She tells Director Sung to stop picking sides and be more empathetic. And after staring at one another, Sung gets back to work.

Ki-Jun heads out to visit Yu-Rim at her house. He meets her mother and younger brother, but Yu-Jin isn’t exactly thrilled to see him. Still, Ki-Jun doesn’t want to break up and he drops to his knees, apologizing and pointing out that all of this is his fault. He wants her to head back to Seoul with him.

Um heads home and speaks to his ex wife, asking for a grace period of three weeks. He wants to show how much he cares and how he can acknowledge the family and his dedication. She rightly points out that 3 weeks won’t change much. So instead, she gives him 2 months to show whether he’s really changed.

Elsewhere, Ki-Jun and Yu-Jin discuss their marriage and try to hash out their problems. Ki-Jun points out that married couples all go through rocky moments, but for Ki-Jun he’s struggling to look past the fact Ha-Kyung is his ex and Si-Woo is Yu-Jin’s. It’s hard to sympathize with them to be honest, and after, an utterly bizarre tonal shift when Yu-Jin’s father jumps in to reprimand Ku-Jin.

Eventually the pair go to bed without resolving their problems. The pair do head home together in the morning, but in doing so we get a shot of Yu-Jin’s bin where iron supplements happen to be. It looks like she may be pregnant!

Ha-Kyung volunteers herself to launch a weather balloon from the water. With the typhoon closing in and the office’s need to get accurate data, she volunteers herSelf for this job. Si-Woo refuses to let her go alone though and joins her on the boat.

The data seems to hint that the typhoon will cause damage along the southern coast so Ha-Kyung feeds this back to HQ and takes full responsibility for the differing press release, which is erring on the side of caution.

While Tae-Kyung and Seok-Ho grow closer together in this season’s better subplots, Myung-Joo is crushed to learn her husband is not sticking to his regime. He’s down at the batting cages, messing about with his friends. That’s obviously awful, given how hard Myung-Joo has been working. So she gives him three scenarios – either divorce, go back to work or study like hell to make it. Him slacking off and ripping their family apart like this is not part of the plan and she won’t stand for it.

After the weather incident, Ha-Kyung comes around to the idea of breaking up and believes this is what’s best for them. While they agree on this, the KMA comes under fire again for an incorrect analysis, with the hurricane missing the mainland and not actually causing much damage after all.

Meanwhile, Um sits with Si-Woo in the work cafeteria and shouts out unprofessionally in front of everyone that he and Ha-Kyung are dating. As everyone turns heads, Si-Woo bolts out and back to see Ha-Kyung, warning that everyone now knows they were dating. Oh no! And if that wasn’t enough, Ha-Kyung’s mum is there too with an incriminating photo of the two from the past locking lips.

The Episode Review

So that blindness plot with Si-Woo went absolutely nowhere. What a waste of time that was. And unfortunately that’s been a theme for a lot of the drama this season. The whole issue involving Ku-Jin and Yu-Jin – the two cheaters who had an affair – is being made into a redemptive arc and chews up a lot of the screen-time that could have been served better to actually flesh out the characters.

The whole Si-Woo and Ha-Kyung situation feels done now. Like, completely done. Ha-Kyung wants to get married and Si-Woo doesn’t, so the pair aren’t compatible and shouldn’t be together. So why all the drama at the end with her mum getting involved? If it ends up with the pair back together, all this will feel superficial and cause more harm than good. With less than a handful of episodes left, this one looks like it’s onboard for a hasty resolution.

And what is up for the boat sequence? They need someone to deploy a weather balloon so in the middle of this potential typhoon they send Ha-Kyung – a respected senior at work – and Si-Woo, who has been sent over to the typhoon center – to do this together? Wouldn’t they get experts in to help them? Given how empty that boat was, I was waiting for something untoward to happen and force more drama between them.

The subplots are okay and while some are quite well written, it’s the Seok-Ho and Tae-Kyung story that’s the biggest surprise. These two are so cute together and the comedic levity from seeing that giant penguin up on screen was just right for breaking up what’s otherwise been a very melodramatic series.

I’m not quite what’s happened to the writing in this one but these later episodes have been a far cry from the early romcom vibes. The whole Ki-Jun and Yu-Jin story drags and the bizarre moments of comedy thrown in haphazardly (did we need the dad dragging him out in the middle of that very serious chat?) just reinforce the tonal confliction this show has.

For now though, Forecasting Love and Weather looks like it’s on-course for some more stormy weather ahead.