Official Synopsis: Betrayed by his girlfriend Han Jae Hee (Park Si Yeon), Kang Ma Roo (Song Joong Ki) uses Seo Eun Gi (Moon Chae Won), an heiress who has lost her memory, to exact his revenge.
Ratings: As SBS‘s ‘To The Beautiful You‘ came to a close, ‘The Great Seer‘ (starring Ji Jin Hee, Ji Sung, and Kim So Yeon) aired its pilot episodes with a disappointing start of a 6.5% and a 7.0%. Although the drama has top stars and high quality filming, ‘The Great Seer’ seems to be still recovering from the low ratings of ‘To The Beautiful You’ as it competes against other popular dramas. Meanwhile, KBS‘s ‘Nice Guy‘ is retaining its first place position with successful ratings of 15.3% and 14.9%. MBC‘s ‘Arang and the Magistrate‘ (starring Lee Jun Ki and Shin Min Ah) received 12.6% and 11.4%.
Recap of Ep. 5-8: Although Eun Gi is able to save her mother’s resort from Jae Hee with Ma Roo’s help, Eun Gi’s father, the chairman, becomes furious with her and sends her out of the house without any money. Eun Gi agrees happily with the decision and goes to Ma Roo’s home. However, she is interrupted when Joon Ha (Lee Sang Yeob) sends a CCTV photo of Jae Hee and Min Young (Kim Tae Hoon) kissing, to bait her into trying to return to the company. After finding out the details from Joon Ha and also resolving a conflict between the workers and company, Eun Gi goes to Ma Roo’s house drunk. The next day, although Ma Roo warns Eun Gi that he’s not a nice guy, she kisses him on the lips. However, she soon learns of the relationship between Jae Hee and Ma Roo when a woman gives her a photo of them together.
Despite knowing that, she continues liking Ma Roo, although she puts up a tough act as she ‘breaks up’ with him. Meanwhile, Jae Hee sends thugs without the Chairman’s permission to beat up Ma Roo to get him away from Eun Gi. We close in on Ma Roo thoroughly beaten, while Eun Gi is locked in her room. However, Eun Gi gets the courage to escape her room as she confesses her love to Ma Roo in the rain, which Jae Hee watches from afar. Ma Roo takes her in and tends to her, but gets a sudden call from Jae Hee, who lies and says she was beaten up by her brother who was released from jail as she’s in a crisis with the Chairman discovering the photo of the kiss. Ma Roo discovers the real truth and leaves her there, while Jae Hee relieves the memory from the night when a man revealed secret documents about the Chairman and attempted to rape her when she derided him. Ma Roo finds Eun Gi at the beach, where she’s still trying to take in the fact that Ma Roo and Eun Gi were past lovers.
Recap of Ep. 9: While Ma Roo makes the revelation that his past lover was Jae Hee, Eun Gi admits she knows and asks if everything was calculated. He admits everything was calculated, making her furious as she yells at him for lying, demanding why he would put his life on the line to retrieve the doll at the cliff. Eun Gi clutches at him, but ultimately leaves him.
Meanwhile, Jae Hee blackmails the Chairman with the secret documents. As he undergoes a sudden seizure/heart attack, the medicine bottle falls out of his reach. Jae Hee keeps the bottle out of his reach, demanding that her son and Eun Gi each share the inheritance equally. However, the Chairman falls unconscious as he slowly dies. Jae Hee is alarmed and is about to call 911, Min Young stops her. Meanwhile, Joon Ha has been listening to the whole encounter through his cellphone as he had a phone conversation with the Chairman before.
Eun Gi receives the news from Joon Ha that her father passed away. She suddenly goes in the opposite traffic in the highway, crashing into Ma Roo as the screen fades to white. We later find out that Eun Gi is in critical condition, with her father dead. However, after one year passes, Eun Gi has disappeared while receiving treatment. This gives Jae Hee’s brother ideas. Meanwhile, Jae Hee has taken the roles of the chairman in place of Eun Gi.
We later cut to a suave and sophisticated Ma Roo, who saves a “teacher” from swindling all his money. Ma Roo offers money to have the man divulge his company secrets. However, the deal is cut short as Ma Roo runs to the bathroom, vomiting. Ma Roo returns home and finds an angry high school student with how Ma Roo swindled his father out of his retirement fund. Although Choco (Lee Yoo Bi) tries to deny it, Ma Roo coldly admits it and blames the student’s father for being the gullible idiot, leaving Choco and Jae Gil (Lee Kwang Soo) upset and shocked.
We see Eun Gi’s secretary and Eun Gi in Ma Roo’s neighborhood. Eun Gi is left alone and she takes a piece of chalk to write Ma Roo’s name. However, she fails as the kids make fun of her. Ma Roo hears his name and is shocked to see Eun Gi there. Eun Gi recognizes Ma Roo from her photos taken in Japan and asks if they were in love.
Recap of Ep. 10: While Eun Gi asks if she and Ma Roo were past lovers, Eun Gi’s secretary finds her there with the aid of Jae Hee’s brother. Eun Gi’s secretary explains that that she took Eun Gi away from the hospital as Eun Gi lost all her memory and basic human skills and knowledge. As Eun Gi wanders around Ma Roo’s home identifying simple objects, Ma Roo rejects the offer to help with Eun Gi in regaining her memory. Taking Eun Gi by the wrist, he states, “You and I have no relationship with each other. We loved each other? Who? Us? Just because we took a photo together, does anyone become a couple?“. However, before he leaves, Jae Hee’s brother enters Ma Roo’s home. To protect Eun Gi, Ma Roo hugs her tightly facing away from Jae Hee’s brother, Jae Sik (Yang Ik Joon). Jae Sik gets a little suspicious but leaves the “lovebirds” alone.
As Eun Gi continues writing Ma Roo’s name, Jae Hee takes full control at the company, eliminating Eun Gi’s project. Ma Roo receives the company secrets from the “teacher” and ponders the existence of God and punishment/sin with the teacher. He gets called by his doctor friend who tells him of the urgent need for surgery for epidural hematoma (bleeding between inside of the skull). Ma Roo responds nonchalantly as he promises to undergo the surgery after tying a few loose strings.
Meanwhile, Jae Hee’s brother, Jae Sik makes a deal with Min Young of receiving an apartment in exchange of getting rid of Eun Gi. Jae Sik stays by Eun Gi’s home and after her secretary leaves, she goes to talk to Eun Gi. Lying that he is Ma Roo’s brother and Ma Roo wants to talk Eun Gi, she’s joyful as she changes her clothes. Jae Sik takes Eun Gi away to sell her for what seems to be the sex market, drugging her with a drink. Ma Roo is notified of Eun Gi’s disappearance as Eun Gi’s secretary wonders where she went. He pieces together that Jae Hee’s brother must be behind this and uses Eun Gi’s GPS track on her cellphone to track them.
Ma Roo just loses them at a rest stop but chases Jae Sik’s car furiously. He swerves right in front of Jae Sik’s car, stopping him as Eun Gi wakes up to see Ma Roo.
kdramacrazy’s Thoughts:
[ Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, not necessarily those of allkpop.]
The car accident and the following amnesia were erratic and absurd sources of conflict. Episodes five through eight was a little dry in its conflict pace as it was a ping pong game between Jae Hee being the queen of bitches, Ma Roo being subservient to Jae Hee, Ma Roo being so manipulative to Eun Gi, and Eun Gi being insecure with Ma Roo and Jae Hee. Although I loved the emotional development on Eun Gi’s part and the little opening of Ma Roo’s heart towards Eun Gi, it was admittedly slow and repetitive (as I was not interested in having more evil characters like Jae Hee’s brother come in or see Min Young come in). The car accident and the amnesia was such an abrupt plot twist that it just left me leave my jaw hanging. Yes, I knew that we were having amnesia and was wondering why so late in the game, but it came out of nowhere. Frankly, it was a cheap move. With Eun Gi finally breaking her relationship with Ma Roo and Jae Hee breaking her relationship with the Chairman, the cliche car accident was just an easy way to resolve the two plots and putting in the amnesia arc. There could have a little bit more development with Eun Gi’s emotional turmoil rather than having her attempt to kill herself a few minutes after breaking up with Ma Roo and finding out her father.
However, while the car accident was just out of nowhere and left me confused, dazed, angry, I loved the twist of Ma Roo and Eun Gi driving towards each other with their sad smiles. It leaves a lot to question the two characters, most especially Ma Roo who’s been so secretive the past episodes. Eun Gi, her two loves were her father and Ma Roo. Having to lose both at once drove her to craziness (though I wanted more build up for this). Ma Roo, though. Does he feel guilty about luring Eun Gi? Or are his love towards Eun Gi awakening and was this his twisted way to help her accept her decision? And yet again, I’m left questioning Ma Roo’s transformation during the one year break. As Jae Gil mentioned, why did Ma Roo turn even worse, more so than after losing Jae Hee?
While I’m just going to jump the logic and go along with the amnesia arc, I hope to see more of the dynamic between Ma Roo and Eun Gi (no need to see Jae Hee being more evil with her cronies).
Because this is when Ma Roo has the chance to develop as a character and choose the road between a good human being, a caretaker for Eun Gi, or the bad person, who again manipulates Eun Gi to attack Jae Hee?
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