Unfortunately, dear readers numbering in the ones, this is the part of the series where we dive into That Plot. That I hate. But what can I do about it but just dive in?
In the last episode, Secretary Kim finally gets more information about the time when she was kidnapped. She was kidnapped alongside one of the Castillo boys when she was younger, but we have no idea which one of them. Well, if you’re one of the people who watched the Korean original, you already know who it is. And if you’re like me, you probably hate that whole part of the story as well.
Imagine me heaving a deep sigh as secretary Kim, her dad, and her newspaper reporter friend argue about whether to dig even deeper into what actually happened all those years ago. There must be a reason why the richies didn’t want the incident on the news, and I just want to say what was the reason for this plot other than unnecessary drama. I’m saying this to the Korean original as well! I know it was in the original webcomic and all but come on.
BMC is also trying to erase the past via pharmaceuticals, but the doctor says that it’s just a stopgap measure. BMC just wants to kiss the girl he likes! And honestly there could have been better roadblocks other than this storyline which, if any of you haven’t noticed yet, I absolutely hate.
What I do love and live for is freaking ridiculous product placements YAS.
Secretary Kim tries to awkwardly dig around for more information at the office because he’s sure that BMC was the kid she was kidnapped with but no such luck. BMC’s best friend is tightlipped about it but does point her towards BMC himself. Why not ask him directly?
But before we get any resolution on that we have to fly all the way back to the Castillo household where we get Jake Cuenca’s tits and nips right in front of our face. I’d take a screenshot but honestly and no shade, he’s had better shirtless scenes and shots before? This is not him at his best. And that scene literally was just a tits and nips showcase because NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED.
Because she’s got it in her mind that BMC was the guy she trauma bonded with, Secretary Kim is giving him the old googly eyes and really this cute and charming stuff is like child’s play for Kim Chiu. She can do this in her sleep no problem.
Also the hilarity of calling sinigang na salmon as fresh salmon in real tamarin soup is making me giggle, alongside the ever present product placement. Get that Rebisco money! ALSO, that line from Angeline Quinto about testimonials was funny and also made me brittle bones ache. ALSO BMC APOLOGIST? At least you know the writers are on trend.
ALSO ALSO I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SCREEN RECORD BUT DID SOMEBODY FART IN THE SCENE? YOU HEAR IT IN 14:23 TO 14:25 I SWEAR. I’m sorry I know that this is supposed to be kilig and all but I just can’t get over that fart sound. SERIOUSLY. I’M NOT CRAZY RIGHT IT’S THERE?
ANYWAYS. Kim’s big plan to jog BMC’s memory doesn’t work and her ate gives her a reality check and says maybe she’s trying to superimpose memories of Ninja Boy onto BMC because BMC is the one that she likes now. Which is a valid point! And it looks like her sister may be right because when BMC gets told by his best friend that Kim is asking about the kidnapping, BMC realizes that maybe the reason why she’s been giving him the googly eyes is because she thinks he’s the one that she trauma bonded with.
The next episode stars with BMC and Secretary Kim on an awkward drive to the Castillo family estate but that gate seriously looks like the ones you find at those high-end cemeteries which may be a Filipino thing? I don’t know I haven’t been to a lot of countries!
Meanwhile, Cyrus is being A Man Who Writes Romance because apparently just because one is writing a romance you can forget about reality. Sure, there are romances like that but that’s hardly all there is to romance. Which he’d know if he read a wide variety of it.
In the office, we get to see Secretary Kim 2.0 bantering with Roni the Filipino Chansung but I gotta say it’s not as snappy as the Korean originals? Maybe because the actors are newbies and you can really see it. It’s not that they’re bad…it’s just that they’re not as good as the Korean ones.
Meanwhile, Secretary Kim 1.0 is over at BMC’s house photocopying files because BMC is also going paperless and she chances upon her resume as well as the resumes of all the other people who applied for her position and I have to point out the LIES and FABRICATIONS. UP-Manila doesn’t offer a course in international relations? Also an Ateneo graduate would definitely put in the whole Ateneo de Manila University and not just Ateneo University. ALSO, do you honestly think that the cum laudes and the summa cum laudes of the country’s Big Four universities would apply for a clerical job? Let’s be for fucking real here.
Over at the Castillo family home Cyrus is looking over an essay from when he was in fourth grade about how he was kidnapped and dude this is why you were in fourth grade at the same time as your younger brother because what was that essay. His mom asks him why he still has a copy of this and I agree this should have been deleted. In fact, this Plot should have been deleted.
BMC catches Kim looking at the old resumes and Kim finally asks why she as picked over the applicants. Well Kim, it may have something to do with LIES and the FALLACIES and FABRICATIONS in those other resumes. And that really would have been a better answer than BMC saying that she got picked because she was the least qualified and the one who had the most to prove.
In a last ditch attempt to get to the truth Kim finally blurts out everything and when BMC tells him that she’s wrong about him Kim — the actress, not the secretary — also shows that yes she had her start playing cute but she can also do the crying gig. The restraint? That solitary tear falling down her eye when Troy calls and confirms that it was Cyrus that got kidnapped along with her and not Brandon? Chef’s kiss.
Troy’s evidence, by the way? That essay from the fourth grade. If I were Kim and I read that thing I would be dry as a desert. Nobody would be touching my no-no place because it would arid. Like 50 years into global warming dry. Dry like a bone.
Truly, this adaptation has stayed as faithful as it can to the original because I’m still going to have to sit through This Plot in a language I do not need subtitles for. This Plot is Not It. I just feel like there’s so many other things that could have connected the male and female leads as children but this is really the thing we’re going with.
While BMC is reminiscing back to the times when he pulled the strings to get Kim the job — the flashbacks are cute and kilig to be fair — Kim is over with Cyrus, asking him if he wrote that essay. Which I personally would have denied but that’s me. Anyway he says that he did write it but from the body language, he definitely is not Ninja Boy. And Kim, deep down, knows that too.
Ron Does Stuff 
Leave a comment