Recap "Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) – Season 3" Episode 9

Episode 9 of Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Season 3 starts with Pi-Young making herself a coffee while Dong-Ma is in bed. Hey, that looks like my coffee machine! If anyone’s curious, it’s absolutely worth the money and will bring far more satisfaction than wondering what the heck the writers have been smoking this season.

Pi-Young brings the coffee for Dong-Ma but instead he takes the ring box and the pair exchange rings instead. Pi-Young promises that he’s not just a one night stand as Dong-Ma decides to prepare the wedding, speeding it up to 10 days after Si-Eun’s.

Pi-Young wants to talk to Ji-A first but Ji-A is too preoccupied with her own shock. In the morning, she finds Dong-Mi’s hair all over the floor, with her grandmother claiming she feels lighter and more liberated now. Yu-Shin isn’t sure, pointing out that he preferred her with longer hair.

Back on the skiing trip, Seo-Ban is rudely interrupted by his father showing up out the blue. He’s starting to soften up on the idea of marriage and eventually gives their relationship the greenlight.

With Pi-Young checking in on the kids while they’re on their skiing trip, she’s free to spend more time with Dong-Ma, who discuss their own relationship and marriage plans. Of course, with Dong-Ma looking to speed things up and race through everything, there’s an air of uneasiness and distrust toward him growing – why is he rushing everything?

Meanwhile, Ga-Bin heads off to meet Song Won’s baby, promising to be there for him. After her break-up, she’s still suffering and having trouble moving on. She’s also unable to drink coffee given it reminds her of Dong-Ma. So instead, she contemplates whether to have a baby of her own, using a sperm donor.

Moon-ho and Ye-Jung try to talk her around, eventually letting her leave and focusing on Sa-Hyun, who is still going through the motions. In fact, he hasn’t really done anything but be unhappy this season. What is his arc? Anyway, they talk to their son about Ga-Bin and how caring she’s been toward his son.

Meanwhile, Hae-Ryun rings Yu-Shin while he’s out skiing and asks about Si-Eun. He feeds back about the engineer she’s dating and goes on to mention how he’s a decent guy; good looking and 180cm in height. Anyway, the conversation eventually leads to Hae-Ryun racing out in his car to Si-Eun’s.

With the ski trip ending and everyone back home, Hae-Ryun comes bundling in and questions the kids over Si-Eun’s marriage. Rightly so she calls him out for hypocrisy of cheating on her. Eventually though Hae-Ryun puts his foot down, claiming that he doesn’t approve.

Given it’s been a year since he moved out, the kids hold their own and point out that Ban is not a bad man. Hyang-Ki tells him to stop standing in the way of Si-Eun’s happiness but he scoffs at that, claiming the kids have been brainwashed by their mother.

After updating Seo-Ban on what’s happening, Si-Eun starts trying on dresses ready for her wedding. She’s also as shocked as we are about her ties with Dong-Ma and worries that this could come crashing down. Racing in, Si-Eun is shocked that Pi-Young is going to be her sister-in-law. Of course, when Hye-Ryung finds out, she’s shocked and calls them both out for being minxes. Of course, this also causes a lot of friction when they have dinner together.

That night, Pi-Young speaks to Ji-A and broaches the subject of Dong-Ma and her new partner. She’s as surprised as we are and flat out refuses to acknowledge this. When she finds out it’s Ban’s brother, Ji-A at least seems to perk up a little. This would also mean that she and U-Ram would end up being siblings-in-law.

Still, this partnership is a shock to Si-Eun and to Ban too. The latter meets Pi-Young and admits he’s confused and worried: “Do you have faith in Dong-Ma?” He asks. Pi-Young in reply *checks notes* tells him “He acts in a way that makes you trust and believe him.” Ah yes, because stalking, harassing, forcing oneself on another and rushing through to marriage are all swoon worthy traits.

Eventually though Ji-A comes around to the idea and tells her mum that she’ll meet Dong-Ma after all. While there’s jubilation there, Seo-Ban’s father rings his son and admits, with tears stinging his cheeks, that he’s disappointed by Seo-Ban’s choice. He wanted to have his own grandchild and marrying Si-Eun makes that far less of a possibility now given their ages.

However, he does agree to meet Si-Eun’s children, who show up and greet their father-in-law warmly in person. Si-Eun is also meeting him for the first time too and they address one another formally over brunch. It seems to go well, especially when Si-Eun gently suggests he speak casually to the family. As they talk, U-Ram seems interested in the old man’s fitness regime, pointing out he doesn’t like walking but doesn’t get much time for sports either.

Meanwhile, Dong-Ma greets Ji-A and Pi-Young over at his place, where he cooks barbecue for them. Dong-Ma is so engrossed that he misses most of the time he’s supposed to be spending with Ji-A. Ji-A eventually encourages him to head inside where he just carries on cooking for the pair.

We then skip across to see Hye-Ryung over at Sa-Hyun’s place. She sneaks in to see the baby and thinks to herself what an angel he is. However, as Hye-Ryung turns around she sees Song-Won in front of her, who possesses Hye-Ryung and turns to face the child.

The Episode Review

So it seems like Song Won isn’t through yet and she possesses Hye-Ryung right at the end, setting up an interesting second half to this drama. So far this has felt like an algorithm has written most of this season, with strange character ties, bizarre twists and turns, and a very creepy romance in Dong-Ma and Pi-Young together.

I probably shouldn’t but I couldn’t help but laugh when Pi-Young claimed that Dong-Ma has acted in a way to make her trust him. Maybe I’m just not accustomed to Korean culture but there have been other dramas out of Korea that have shown this persistent behaviour but tackled it as creepy and harassing.

Either way though, Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) just continues to… exist. I’ve joked before that this show is a front for a massive money laundering scheme and while I’m not about to actually get behind that idea properly, the writers have been absolutely crazy this year with some of the plotlines.

The trouble with all this craziness is that no two scenes are given the time to breathe because we’re constantly skipping between random characters and not allowed the time to actually get invested in what’s happening.

Still, if you’ve made it this far you’re bound to tune in next week to find out what these crazy people are up to next!