I know, I know, it’s been more than a month since I last posted about My Lovely Liar and all of you are probably done watching it already. But my life got in the way and since I need to feed myself and pay bills before I can even do this for fun, I had to take a step back and earn some money.
I also had to think about whether I wanted to continue recapping this show or Drag Race Philippines but since Drag Race Philippines trended and the winner was already on news reports I thought it would be a waste of time to recap it so I just watched that on its own.
ANYWAY. All that rambling to say that I’m getting back to watching and recapping this show!
So when we last left off weeks ago, Kang Min and Seung Ju were kissing passionately after Kang Min saved Seung Ju from Eom Ho. Or at least that’s how I remember it.
Anyways, we get a flashback to before Kang Min jumps in to save Seung Ju’s ass. He’s looking at all the news reports online about the Hakcheon Beach case, with a case happening in the “present”, right in front of him, that sorta mirrors what happened all those years ago. Of course, he’s suspicious of Seung Ju and tails him when he catches him leaving his apartment and that’s how he ends up saving his ass.
And what Seung Ju does is end up saving Eom Ho’s ass, because he stops Kang Min from apprehending Eom Ho and allows him to escape. He does this by wrapping Kang Min in an embrace so really they practically made out is what I’m saying.
Kang Min, being your typical upright South Korean policeman who upholds the law and does not bend for anyone no sir, is frustrated with Seung Ju for letting Eom Ho escape and also accuses him of letting it happen because he’s afraid of people finding out that the genius composer Do Ha and Seung Ju are one and the same.
Kang Min also asks if Sol Hee knows that Do Ha and Seung Ju are one and the same, and as we know from the previous episode, she does know and she’s fine with it. She even went on ahead and had a not-chaste-by-K-drama-standards kisses!
Kang Min then does the second lead thing and says that if anything happens to Sol Hee he’ll king Seung Ju himself. Okay dude if you say so. But maybe consider kissing him instead rather than killing him? Just a thought?
Kang Min tells Seung Ju to not tell Sol Hee about everything that’s happened and Seung Ju says he can’t do that because he can’t lie to Sol Hee and Kang Min asks if this is about her ability to tell if someone is lying or not and Seung Ju is quick with a zinger, saying that Kang Min probably doesn’t believe her. This is why you’re the second lead Kang Min! You’ll never get the girl!
Eom Ho, on the other hand, is having an existential crisis. After all, he’s built his whole life around the mission to kill Seung Ju, and now Seung Ju has just allowed him to escape the law and continue that mission, even if it means possible harm to him. Surely Seung Ju can’t be all that bad?
Then we get a flashback to Eom Ho and Eom Ji’s past and we find out that they had an alcoholic father who ran off with the money Eom Ji had been saving up for college. And then we see Eom Ho telling his sister that she doesn’t need to go to college when Seung Ju is there to take her out of her miserable life. This is what happens when you don’t empower women!
Meanwhile, Syaon is still shook after being kidnapped by Eom Ho and thankfully has learned something about herself — she’d rather have him be happy with another woman than have him be a dead guy. Character development! She’s better off with Chi Hoon anyway!
The next day, Sol Hee visits Do Ha’s place because she wants some of that and really WHO CAN BLAME HER?
However, Do Ha is having second thought on whether he wants her to know about what happened to him the night before. THANKFULLY, he doesn’t try to hide anything from her — like he told Kang Min — and let’s him see his wounds. He tells her everything and oh my god how refreshing is it to not have miscommunication be the cause of conflict between the two leads? I’m loving it!
The next day Kang Min walks into Sol Hee’s tarot cafe and Sol Hee takes it as an opportunity to explain why she broke up with him all those years ago — it’s because she could tell he was lying. She tells him that she’s not going to be giving up Do Ha anytime soon and that he should get used to it. Or at least that’s how I head it.
Deuk Chan, on the other hand, has just now learned about everything that transpired between Eom Ho, Syaon, and Do Ha and is understandably stressed about it. He heads on over to Do Ha’s place to check on him and in the course of their conversation Do Ha suggests no longer working with Deuk Chan since him being found out as Seung Ju would negatively impact the company. Deuk Chan is shook about this, especially when Do Ha says he just needs to be around Sol Hee, and I couldn’t help but wonder…is Deuk Chan a homosexual???
Deuk Chan and Sol Hee run into each other as Deuk Chan is leaving Do Ha’s place and Deuk Chan continues acting fishy. And when he congratulates Sol Hee for being in a relationship it turns out to be a lie. THIS MAN IS A HOMOSEXUAL YOUR HONOR.
Now let’s talk about the possibility of Deuk Chan being a homosexual on a K-drama. I will be the first to admit that I am not a K-drama connoisseur and don’t really have in-depth knowledge of how gay people have been represented there. I do know Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and its dated representation of a femme gay as well as the neither here nor there queerness of Coffee Prince.
To have Deuk Chan be a conniving straight-passing homosexual is…sorta okay with me? He’s an important character! And if he truly is the main villain in all of this, it’s because he’s been hiding his own truth from the world. I think it works well with the story that My Lovely Liar is trying to tell!
ANYWAY. Back to the episode! After that tense standoff in the hallway, we get some cutesy stuff from Sol Hee and Do Ha, mainly Do Ha making this cute face at her. There’s also more of that almond product placement but I didn’t want to take a screenshot of that.
While all of that cutesy stuff is happening Deuk Chan is at a convenience store buying headache medication and wouldn’t you know it one of the members of his agency’s boyband is there as well. Deuk Chan doesn’t notice him but the boyband member does and he wonders out loud what the CEO would be doing in that neighborhood. The convenience store cashier — the guy’s friend — says it’s because Kim Do Ha lives there. Or, someone named Kim Do Ha does. The boyband member says a song from Do Ha would catapult his group to fame and I have to say as someone who’s been following fourth gen K-pop groups a good songwriter isn’t necessarily a ticket to success!
Anyways, that’s a subplot we’ll have to get back to later on as we know find out the aftermath of episode seven‘s bakery cockroach incident. Since the realtor is now disgraced, the baker has been named as the new head of the shop owners’ association. But since most of the buildings are owned by the realtor’s family, the stores side with them and sabotage the baker’s first time as association head. I don’t know how this will play out in the bigger scheme of things! There’s also a bit about Deuk Chan’s brother but I hate him so I don’t really care.
Now we get back to the main couple and Sol Hee is trying to sell Do Ha on the idea of getting a bodyguard, but he’s not really into it. But then we finally find out what the baker subplot is for as Sol Hee’s colleagues convince her that participating in the neighborhood festival being helmed by the baker would be a great way to lift up Do Ha’s spirits. And Chi Hoon is going to be there to look out for him!
Then we get back to Sol Hee’s mom and as I’ve said in previous posts I do not like her subplot. Sol Hee’s mom stumbles upon her husband in the forest — I know this was revealed in a previous episode but I’m too lazy to look for which one — and she is floored.
But we’ll get back to that later on because we’re back to Sol Hee and Do Ha! They head out to the convenience store for some drinks and snacks and Do Ha conveniently gets to see the music that the convenience store cashier is working on. He wants to hear it since he says it sounds interesting, and this perfectly dovetails with Sol Hee’s own plan to corral him into helping her participate in the festival.
Of course, after that we are shepherded into another subplot that I hate — Do Ha’s mom’s political career. I get the sexism that you have working against you girl but just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you’re automatically the better choice! Do Ha had a good point when he said you’re only using your femininity for political gain! Which I wouldn’t mind if this was a different type of show!
Meanwhile, Kang Min is still digging into Do Ha’s past and he’s uncovered CCTV footage that Do Ha submitted as evidence to prove his innocence. He found it on a news program by the way! If all of this was available why didn’t Eom Ho just ask for a retrial or something? Of course I don’t know about the Korean justice system but this is something maybe the writer should have thought of.
Anyways we’re at the festival and we get another KOPIKO product placement my golly do that many people eat and drink those things? The placements pretty in your face too like the logo’s on the whole screen almost. After the product placement we get a festival montage! And then we get a frankly ridiculous shot of Do Ha drinking down sikhye with a throat focus and everything the production really knows their audience.
You could see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down and everything!
From the festival we go back to Hakcheon where we get a product placement for what I assume is a health product and then Kang Min digging even deeper into Do Ha’s case. We also get Deuk Chan slyly mentioning that Do Ha has a girlfriend and this homosexual is wily he does us proud.
Back to the festival, Sol Hee convinces Do Ha to help out the convenience store cashier with his performance since his pianist was unable to come to the performance. However, because it’s such a public stage, one lady recognizes him and you can already tell that she’s gonna expose him as Seung Ju the possible girlfriend murderer.
The festival ends with the convenience store cashier winning the grand prize and Do Ha buying a football “autographed” by Wayne Rooney for Sol Hee. Sol Hee knows that the seller is lying about the autograph’s authenticity but she decides not to tell Do Ha about it. As the two of them enjoy the festival fireworks, the scene shifts to three workers digging somewhere…and they discover remains.
Cliffhanger!
Ron Does Stuff 
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