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: KBS ‘Nice Guy‘ was able to snatch the first place position from MBC‘s ‘Arang and the Magistrate‘ as it achieved a rating of 13.3%, while ‘Arang and the Magistrate’ still followed closely behind with a 13.1% rating. With intense competition between the two, it’ll be interesting to see who will continue being the winner of the ratings game. Meanwhile, SBS ‘To the Beautiful You‘ was able to increase in its ratings slightly with a 4.6%.
Recap of Ep. 4: Jae Hee is exercising at the gym, deep in thought about last night’s encounter with Eun Gi and Ma Roo. Eun Gi interrupts her as she makes snide remarks to Jae Hee. Jae Hee questions Eun Gi on Ma Roo and asks if she knows his ulterior motive, getting impassioned with Eun Gi’s nonchalant attitude. Jae Hee warns Eun Gi that she’s the one who’ll end up hurt, stopping Eun Gi in her tracks.
And because we couldn’t just not have “Gangnam Style” in the show, we cut to Choco (Lee Yoo Bi) auditioning for singing. However, shaking from stage fright, her voice falters as she attempts to sing IU‘s “Good Day“. But as she whines about in the bathroom, we see that she has talent for singing as she begins singing in front of Jae Gil’s photo on her cellphone.
Eun Gi and Jae Hee enter the building for work, when Ma Roo intercepts their path. Greeting Jae Hee as a stranger, he notes he was a former fan of her as an anchor. The chairman, Eun Gi’s father, sees the three talking and invites Ma Roo for brunch as Eun Gi introduces him as her new boyfriend. The chairman begins interrogating Ma Roo, stopping short when Ma Roo tells the chairman he dropped out of college. While Jae Hee is trembling with fear, the chairman turns to Eun Gi and is furious when she can’t tell him why he dropped out. Eun Gi replies smartly with, “That kind of thing isn’t important to me. What I want to know is the present that we’re together in and the future we’ll make. The past that I was not a part of isn’t important“, and made snide remarks towards Jae Hee’s past. The chairman becomes furious and throws water in Eun Gi’s face, leaving Jae Hee and Ma Roo alone.
Jae Hee furiously asks if Ma Roo is doing this for money, to which Ma Roo glares at her and tells her, “Noona is crazy, that’s why I’m thinking of finding noona (you)…If noona can’t come down [from the social ladder], I’ll go up.” Ma Roo leaves Jae Hee and fins Eun Gi in the hallway. Eun Gi smiles sadly as she extends her hand, bidding farewell and breaking up with Ma Roo, telling him, “Even though it’s only been twelve hours [since I said we should date], it felt like twelve months. It’s embarrassing, but I’ve fallen for you.” Although Ma Roo is about to accept the breakup, he asks for a goodbye kiss when she’s ready to call him.
The next day, Eun Gi receives a rude awakening when she realizes the chairman had cut her off from the meetings and projects. Furious, she begins banging on the door to enter the meeting, only to be let in with the Chairman’s permission. To help stimulate the business, Lawyer Ahn suggests liquidating the resort in Japan. Ignoring Eun Gi’s protests that the place is the only reminder of her mother, the chairman hands the project to Jae Hee to take care of.
As Ma Roo is about to leave the house after his sister fended off another “girlfriend”, he receives a call from Eun Gi. Eun Gi asks Ma Roo to list ten people who’ve given up royalty status for love, to which Ma Roo does so with references to ‘Shrek‘ and ‘Boys Over Flower‘. The conversation is interrupted though by a satisfied Jae Hee, who warns Eun Gi to not get in her way as she has a certain goal she wants to reach and she won’t forgive anyone who gets in the way. Ma Roo listens from the other line as his face hardens with each word Jae Hee spits to Eun Gi.
Eun Gi spends the night crunching numbers and looking through files to search another alternative to stimulate business rather than liquidating the resort. Exhausted and frustrated, she lays outside and falls asleep. As morning comes, she abruptly wakes up as someone throws her into a lake. Gaping for air and shocked, she looks up and finds Ma Roo, who tells her, grinning, “Hurry up and get ready so we can kill them all.”
kdramacrazy’s Thoughts:
[ Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, not necessarily those of allkpop.]
Let me just make sure everyone knows. I’m a ‘Eun Gi-Ma Roo’ shipper all the way through. So if you’re a ‘Jae Hee-Ma Roo’ shipper or the ‘Eun Gi-Lawyer Park Joon Ha” (yes, he likes her. The guy who saw Eun Gi in a towel), I want you to be warned that there are biased comments when discussing the episode. I love every second, every glance, every movement in every scene of any Eun Gi and Ma Roo interaction. The chemistry between Moon Chae Won and Song Joong Ki are only making this scene like heavenly cake, because each word is layered with so many emotions. Take the scene with Eun Gi and Ma Roo in the hallway exchanging or trying to exchange a farewell. When Ma Roo wipes the water from Eun Gi, Eun Gi looks at him apologetically, sympathetically, and with a little bit of admiration. Their interactions are so poignant with pain and relief. Although, unfortunately, Ma Roo hasn’t fallen in love with Eun Gi as he’s still attached to that bitch Jae Hee, he still cares for her and is also interested in her painful past and present, rather than just looking at her as a tool. Meanwhile, Eun Gi has fallen in love with Ma Roo because he offers her freedom from the restricted and painful present and is a person who she can empathize and connect with. In addition, I also love how they put the “would you give up your royalty status for love” and have the characters ponder it rather than just jumping for love like most Korean dramas do. The question also offers a contrast with Eun Gi and Jae Hee as Eun Gi is considering giving up her rich status for love, while Jae Hee gave up love to attain the rich status.
Not only were my prayers answered with Eun Gi and Ma Roo, but also about Ma Roo’s revenge. The brunch scene between Ma Roo and Jae Hee not only showed how evil Jae Hee is getting, but how complex Ma Roo’s plan for revenge is. Sadly for us Eun Gi-Ma Roo shippers, he still has a trace of love and care for Jae Hee, which is why he’s going through this much effort to drag her down because he’s afraid of losing her to the darkness and craziness, the ‘evil side’. It was so interesting to listen to the conversation exchange between Jae Hee and Ma Roo because Ma Roo’s reasoning for revenge was so unique from the cliche melodrama plots. Ma Roo doesn’t have a quite ironed out reason and mission to deface Jae Hee, but he’s building it throughout the drama. And the quick pace of the drama is one of the highlights. Who knew we were already getting at Jae Hee’s takeover the company and the deterioration of Eun Gi. Each episodes brings something fresh to both the plot movement and character development, which sadly most dramas can’t say the same.
