Recap Korean Drama "Love Is for Suckers (2022)" Episode 11-12

The drama totally went there! I didn’t think it had the guts but Chef John and our webtoon artist Ji-wan are hitting it off big time and reigniting the feels that we know this show is good for. Back at Week 1, who would have imagined that we would be rooting for The Ramen Chef? The redemption arc is underway and I’m totally sold, and also soothed. There is something healing in the interactions between Ji-wan and Chef John (or “Joon” as we learn) as they open up to each other and become fully realized human beings on screen. I hate to say it, but they’re upstaging our leads.

Remember when we hated John Jang? He was an arrogant player not smart enough to turn off his mic before talking bad about his boss — who he was also dating. But now he’s coming to realize all these things about himself too. This week, he apologizes to Yeo-reum for how he treated her in the past. He sees she’s responsible and considerate and he’s now learning that these might be valuable traits — it’s not all about looks.

 

The changes we see in Chef John are thanks to interactions he’s had on set with other cast members. The woman he thought he liked — for her looks and social status — turned out to be vapid and unable to eat the food he prepared for her. In turn, Ji-wan not only eats what he makes, she’s intelligent enough to converse about it. We see his attention start to slip from the superficial weather forecaster to the kind-hearted webtoon artist, especially as the latter begins to have some trouble on set.

This week, Ji-wan’s story of childhood sexual abuse gets aired when new footage of the story is filmed. Ji-wan had initially revealed her story to a cast member who turns out to be a seasoned manipulator. This fraudster brings up Ji-wan’s trauma again on camera, knowing it will be aired, and hoping to gain attention for himself through her. Ji-wan gains the sympathy of the rest of the cast, and Chef John in particular.

 

When our chef gets a call that his mother was in a minor car accident, Ji-wan sees him leaving and asks if she can ride along, not knowing where he’s going. She feels trapped in the house and wants to get out for a while. They go together to his mother’s restaurant in a small beach town, where the three sit down around a table of his mother’s food. Ji-wan lights up with everything she tries and Chef John lights up just watching her eat.

Outside the restaurant, the two are alone again and John reveals that his real name is Joon. He changed it to sound well off. As they walk along the water, he wonders why she’s not surprised by this reveal, since everyone thinks he’s from a wealthy family in Gangnam. The truth is he was raised in a fishing village by a single mother, and all he ever wanted was to succeed.

Ji-wan says he doesn’t look like a country boy — his face is too pretty. More compliments come as she tells him he takes after his mom in being a good cook, and he responds that she always says the prettiest things. She says she has to speak prettily since she doesn’t have a pretty face. He looks at her and says, “You do have a pretty face.” She’s surprised because no one has ever said that to her before. He continues looking at her and says that what happened to her as a child was not her fault. He wants her to know that. She tears up (my heart completely breaks) and he tries to lighten the mood by asking if she goes to school to learn how to speak so prettily.

This scene is just beautiful. It’s shot beautifully, with the sun behind them and the water reflecting, and it’s written and acted beautifully, as they slowly say what needs to be said with their faces full of pain. Last week I smiled all the way through their scene at the table when she eats his cooking. This week their interactions are really hitting me in the chest. Over just a couple of episodes, these two have become my favorites and my reason to watch.

I suppose I should get around to discussing our leads now that I have that out of my system. When we left last week, it wasn’t clear if the rescue scene was real. Well, it was. Jae-hoon goes back to find Yeo-reum in the rain and carries her across a flooded area with knee-high water. To do this, he must leave Ji-yeon behind and break the red thread that physically connects them for their Kingdom of Love activities. Ji-yeon cries when he leaves, and continues to cry thereafter.

Jae-hoon learns that in online comments Ji-yeon is being ridiculed because she likes him more than he likes her. (Were they reading the comments in my weecaps?!) They’ve earned the nicknames “superior Jae-hoon” and “inferior Ji-yeon.” When the two go out on a date where the cameras are rolling and people are recognizing them, they hear themselves being called these names in real life.

Jae-hoon wants to stop Ji-yeon from looking pitiful in the eyes of the public. With the camera on, he says he doesn’t like these nicknames and, from now on, he will be the one that likes her more. He’s made two bracelets out of the red thread that he broke, and puts one on each of their wrists. Off camera, Ji-yeon asks why he did it because it’s not true to how he feels. Jae-hoon says he doesn’t like people thinking she’s inferior because she’s not. He doesn’t want her to have to hear those things — which seems to make her swoon and reinforces her liking him.

While all this goes on, Yeo-reum mopes around the set watching Jae-hoon and Ji-yeon. We see her edit footage of the two of them laughing and getting to know each other, with a longing look on her face. The footage gives us a little more perspective on how Ji-yeon can still be pursuing Jae-hoon, though, because there are intimate moments we’re not seeing.

 

When Yeo-reum finally sits down with Jae-hoon it seems they are going to have a heart to heart. He tells her he’ll listen if something is upsetting her, just like he always has. He talks to her about her career, saying he knows this isn’t the kind of show she wanted to make. (She does not, however, try to make amends in the same way and still has not mentioned what she learned about his father’s death last week.) Their conversation is cut short when Ji-yeon arrives.

In another moment, Jae-hoon tells Yeo-reum that her old apartment downstairs from his is still empty. She moved out when she was going to marry In-woo, but Jae-hoon got the lease, so she can move back in if she wants. Yeo-reum goes to look at the apartment and starts remembering all her times there with Jae-hoon. While she’s there, Jae-hoon comes to check on the place and finds her there, crying.

 

She wants to know why he’s always so nice to her. He asks if she really needs him to answer that — why is she always confusing him about how she feels? She says she’s going crazy because her heart doesn’t listen to her mind. Her feelings are all over the place. She can’t figure out why she wants to date and fall in love again. Her heart is breaking because of him. Jae-hoon asks why she’s saying all this right now. And Yeo-reum answers that she wants to be with him.

At that, he crosses the room and hugs her. They kiss (and kiss and kiss) and then wind up in bed. It’s kind of steamy but also sweet because the familiarity between them is obvious. The scene delivers everything I would have wanted about four episodes ago, but for some reason I just can’t feel what I want to feel here. The only explanation we get from Yeo-reum about how she’s been acting is that her mind says no but her heart says yes. But I’m not totally clear why her mind says no.

After such a successful setup, the show has taken us in some disappointing directions with the main characters. Ji-yeon, who was so likable early on — sweet but with a backbone — has become impossible to root for. Jae-hoon, who gave the swooniest confession I’ve heard this year, was then unable to handle the offer he made. In both cases, though, their juvenile behaviors are identifiable responses to rejection.

Then there’s Yeo-reum. I loved her at the outset because she was a little bit of a mess but she was relatable and just seemed like a good person who’d been through some bad times. Now she’s gone from very accessible late-30s problems to what seem like made-up obstacles. I was waiting for the moment when Yeo-reum’s mom reappeared because their scenes together always got to me. But this time I was dry-eyed as Yeo-reum cried to her mother because I no longer understand what she’s crying about.

As a setup for next time, I should mention that there’s an extended and somewhat unnecessary scene this week where a guy with a knife comes onto the Kingdom of Love residential complex and causes some mayhem. While I think it went on for too long, it serves a couple of purposes. First, the cast member who’s been manipulating Ji-wan is outed as a true con artist. The knife guy is there to try to kill the con man because he swindled him out of all his money and ruined his life.

Second, we find out that Chae-ri knew the guy was a fraud and that’s precisely why she cast him: to stir up trouble. The knife incident is big and terrifying — Sang-woo gets slashed across the arm and Chae-ri shows signs of a possible violent trauma in her past, given her reaction to the event. Afterward, the higher-ups order the show to end early — meaning all the cast members will have to make their final picks for who they want to date by next week.

Now that Jae-hoon and Yeo-reum are apparently together, we’ll have to see how Ji-yeon handles the news, and I’m not looking forward to it. What I do want to see is Chef John make his pick for Ji-wan to the surprise of everybody.