When the Phone Rings / Ep. 83

Episode Transcript
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(00:19):
I'm Jessica and this is T about K Rambles.
We're a couple of friends reviewKorean dramas and we're back for
another season 6 episode. We're going to cover when the
phone rings and I got with me myfriend Carol from the K Drama
Musings podcast. Carol, what is up?
How are you? New year, what's going on?

(00:41):
Hi. Hi, everyone.
This is my first podcast recording of the year.
I'm very excited to be here. I'm doing OK.
I'm just getting off of a cold, so forgive my voice, but I'm
doing OK. I'm ready to talk about when the
phone rings. Listen, the show had me in a

(01:04):
chokehold until it didn't. And I'm trying to.
I was telling Jess, I'm trying to figure out, am I going to
like go hard and be in defense of the show or am I?
We'll see. We'll see, We'll see.
We'll stay tuned. So this episode came about
because we were set to record anepisode on Love Next Door, and

(01:29):
what ended up happening was I dropped that show and Carol, you
managed to finish it. And so we ended up getting
together for a debrief. Episode.
On just the Patreon feed and we had a lot of fun.
We talked a lot of shit and I I was like, well, we had to like
do something else because I really do love recording with
you. I I want to get something up on

(01:50):
the on the real feed for Tibock.And when the phone rings was
taken the Airways by storm. Everyone was watching when the
phone rings. You were really excited about it
and posting about it on social media.
And I was like, Carol, if I start when the phone rings, like
do you want to make that our replacement Love Next Door
episode on the Tibock feed? And you said, yeah, absolutely
for sure. Yeah.

(02:11):
I almost didn't even finish whenthe phone rings.
You were at. One point, like you got real
quiet about when the phone ringson your social and I was like,
this isn't looking good. And I messaged you and I was
like, Carol, are you still on for that?
Like, 'cause I can push through and like finish this show if you
want to do the episode. And you were like, we don't have

(02:32):
to like you were even like, we don't have to do anything.
And I was. Like.
Are you sure? Long story short.
We're here, we're going to do it.
We have gathered some thoughts together about this show, about
this experience, and we're readyto like do a mini deep dive.

(02:52):
I really don't expect us to be here for like a 2 hour shindig,
but like, here we go. But before we do all this,
before we unleash, if this is your first time listening, go
ahead and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
What an interesting episode to jump in on.
We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast and many
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(03:15):
such a long way for us to be discovered by other listeners
just like you. Come check us out on social
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Right now you could just find meon Instagram and Facebook, but
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Tabakpod is where you can find me.

(03:37):
DAEBAKPOD. You can always comment also on
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Lastly, if you're a fan, the best way to be a fan is to
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patreon.com/debakpod and here wego.
Shout out to our patrons Janet, Curtis, Bale, Cindy, CD, Alana,

(04:00):
Grace, Lorna, Sammy, Caitlin, Julia #110, me, Michelle,
Martel, Delfia, Maria, Sarah, and Julia #2 thank you guys.
Oh, I'm Pam. Pam, new patron, thank you so
much for being patrons. And thank you so much for all of
the free patrons as well. All right, we're gonna get into
this, Carol. OK.

(04:21):
OK. I have a disclaimer.
Yes, please. Please, any trigger warnings,
disclaimers, anything you wanna put at the front of this.
Two things #1 if you do follow me on social media, by now
you've seen the trend of me going so silent.
It just it just, you know, it could either mean I hate it, I'm

(04:43):
embarrassed, I don't want to talk about it anymore, or it
could be like just a personal experience for me, OK.
Yeah. #2 this was a fever dream and I stand on back when the
phone rings was a fever dream that I am here to defend.
So let's get into it all right. So the My Drama List synopsis

(05:08):
reads picks on. The youngest presidential
spokesman in Korea comes from a prestigious political family.
His background includes roles asa war correspondent, OK hostage
negotiator and news anchor. Three years ago, he married Hong
Hiju, a mute sign language interpreter and the adopted

(05:28):
second daughter of a newspaper proprietor.
Maybe you could say media mogul.I feel like that's a better way
to say what her family is and does.
Their marriage, based on convenience has been distant and
cold. However, when Hiju is kidnapped,
their lives and relationship arechanged.
This show is adapted from the web novel The Number You Have

(05:50):
Dialed by Con O Munyo. I hope I said that right.
It has taken us by storm in justa few months, November 2024
through January 2025, it was airing.
And I think it was delayed a fewtimes because of, I don't know,
the impeachment of the South Korean president.

(06:11):
And some other factors have pushed some episodes into 2025.
Because it's only 12 episodes long, there really should be no
reason why I was airing for three months.
But here we are. It's directed by Pak Sangu.
He's also directed The ForbiddenMarriage, Never Twice and My

(06:31):
Secret Terrius, which I really do want to watch My Secret
Terrius. I've heard really good things
about that one, and I personallyliked The Forbidden Marriage.
Have you seen this director's work before?
Yes, I've I've seen all of it and hit or miss, but generally I
like it. All right, this show is written

(06:51):
by or adapted you could say by Kim Jong Un.
She has written Melancholia, Doctor John, Hi, Juggle me and
Tong Dong Dong Alice. When I saw she had written Tong
Dong Dong Alice I was like what a throwback.
That is a 20/12/2013 show that Iremember vividly dropping.

(07:14):
Did you watch these shows? I did.
I did. I OK.
Chung Dung Dong Alice with Mungoin, I believe her name was.
Yeah, I watched it. I didn't drop it back then.
I didn't know how to drop a drama.
It just wasn't. Yeah, but hi, Jekyll and and me,

(07:38):
I watched it and I think I likedit at the time, but I tried to
watch it again recently and I was like, Oh no, no, OK, but I
haven't watched. I didn't watch Melancholia.
It's not my genre. This show stars you young suck

(07:58):
as Pixon. He's our male lead.
He is 40 years old. I just wanna say that 'cause I
feel like there's a movement online that's like, you can't
have age gaps, You can have people that are different ages.
And I'm the first one to cry about an inappropriate age gap.
He's 40 years old. No one said a word.

(08:19):
No one said shit about him being40.
Chase Subin is the female lead playing Hong Yi Jo.
She's 30. That's a 10 year double digit
age gap here. OK, 10 years.
Ten years. No one said anything about it
but like The thing is, it's the same people that are salivating
over this show with a 10 year age gap between the leads.

(08:42):
Yeah. That bitch about the four years
in 2521? Between those. 2 characters.
Well, if you think about 30 and 40, that's different from 20
something and whatever they wereand.
People were like, she's in high school.
He's a grown man. I'm like, it's four years, OK.

(09:06):
I don't want to get into 2521 'cause I feel like I did.
We did cover that aspect in the review for it, but oh, I wanted
to say we did cover Mr. Sunshinefrom 2018, which is a Yu Yun Suk
drama that is the best he's everlooked.
I I was going to say I agree but.

(09:27):
Where are you? Where are you drawing the line
here? I personally like him.
I like Yu Yun Suk in terms of the best.
You know that. I call it the mane of glory, the
little mustache that was sexy, that was sexy, that was really,
really hot. But in this drama, I don't know

(09:49):
whether it was just him wearing black.
Maybe it was the whole like, I don't know.
I don't know. It worked.
It worked for me. Yeah, it worked for me.
OK, that was a discussion that Iwas having in the DMS too,
because I was like, I don't really get.
I mean, he's a wonderful actor. I've seen him in Mr. Sunshine
Hospital Playlist, a werewolf boy movie from 2012 where he's

(10:15):
just awful, awful feeling character, the Royal Taylor, the
beauty inside, more, more of hismovie stuff.
I vividly remember watching Reply in 1994 and thinking this
guy's ugly, so we're here. We're here all these years
later, over 10 years later, and I'm now realizing that people

(10:35):
really think he's attractive. You know.
And that's why I was like, oh, that's a sword for me.
But I, I. Swear for me but that's OK, I'm
not going to yuck your Yum. But it's surprising especially
now because he's ever since hospital playlist I feel people
have been talking about him. He's he's around circulating on

(10:58):
the socials and that's fine. Great love to see it for him.
Love that for him. But personally, he is baseline,
not my cup of tea, OK? For me personally, please don't
come for me and be like, oh, howcan you think that way?
It's me. In my opinion, OK doesn't do it
for me, except for Mr. Sunshine.Oh my God, I was losing my shit

(11:21):
at Mr. Sunshine. He was fantastic.
Fantastic. He was, he was amazing.
Performance wise, looks wise. Just the the outfits he was
wearing and I think he is. I think a little bit more flesh
works for me. I feel that I'll just leave it

(11:41):
at. That I feel that, so I want to
put that at the top. Chesubin, What's your experience
with Chesubin, the female lead? Oh, I was.
I was going to come on really strong and I had.
To I thought you like check yourself.
What happened there? I remember it.
I got to be politically correct.She's not my favorite.
I do not like to watch her. In fact, I had no plans to watch

(12:05):
this drama, so I didn't know anything about the drama.
And when I hit episode one play,I was really watching for him
and I was like, you know what? Her expression is the same from
episode 1 to 12, but it works for her character, so let's move
on, OK? Let's just move on.

(12:26):
I really loved I'm Not a Robot, and that's the thing that I
remember her most from. Me too with the.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yui Sung Ho.
Uh huh. Yes.
Yes, that was good. That was good.
So what did you think about whenthe phone rings, Carol?

(12:47):
OK, with the mind that it was a fever dream, right?
OK, I thought it was really entertaining.
I will Episode 1 to like four. I was just like, OK, it took me
a while, but the endings always had me hooked to see what would

(13:09):
happen next. So I was like, OK, OK, I'll keep
watching. And then you rolled up.
It's just. The look on your face, the
furrow of the brows, You're justlooking and you're looking
around the room like where's thewhere's the camera?
And I was watching this and I was just like, I'm not even
using my brain. There is like so much drama in

(13:33):
my real life. This, this makes my drama look
like peanuts. So I'm enjoying it, right?
And then we get to like 5 and 6 and I'm like.
When the Nigerian comes out, I just, I love it.
Didn't this guy say he's really smart?

(13:55):
And what's going on? I don't know.
No. OK, Carol, just keep, just keep
trucking along. By like bring it in.
Really. Episode 6.
Wait wait wait wait. No spoilers.
Not spoilers, but you could say episode 6.
OK, episode 6 just the we woke up in episode 7 and it was just

(14:19):
like, Oh yeah, episode 6 happened.
I was just like, oh, you guys are taking me for fools.
Oh, oh, so I'm, I'm really sitting here.
You didn't even give me memory loss.
I would have preferred memory loss.
I would have loved a little bit of amnesia.

(14:42):
It would have felt like home, but you robbed me of a memory
loss. We're going to have to start
there in the spoiler section, but I'll jump in here and say I
started watching the show again.Didn't know any, never read the
webtoon, never read anything or knew anything about the drama.
I just knew it was popular and people were really enjoying it.

(15:05):
And you young suck as a panty dropper.
Oh news to me. OK, so I showed up episode 1 and
again, I bring it up because in episode 1 he comes in with a
flourish and he's the talk of this party.
But this isn't a spoiler, but people are going Oh my God, he's
so handsome. And you can hear it in the bad

(15:27):
English that they have circulating in this scene and in
the subtitles. They're also calling attention
to the fact that he's so good looking.
And I'm like, unfortunately that's not working on me.
Like to to gaslight me into thinking that he's good looking
but OK. The suits didn't work for you.

(15:48):
No. He looks great.
He looks sharp, he looks fresh when I stop him on the street
and be like, can I have your number?
No. OK, OK.
No, but the again personal thing.
So I was already kind of like thrown with the some of that
gaslighting too. It's the same thing that if an
obviously good looking person isplaying what's supposed to be an

(16:09):
ugly character and everyone in the show is saying, God, they're
so ugly, I'm like, what the fuckare you talking about?
That's how I felt. Yeah, true.
Oh, true beauty. Anyway, another episode you can
scroll back to and listen to because that was another crazy
one. But I'm already on my guard, on
guard here, like looking around.Where's the next thing that

(16:30):
they're going to try and make mebelieve?
And The thing is, I didn't have to wait too long.
This plot is preposterous. It's ludicrous.
This isn't a a spoiler, but like, she has selective mutism.
That's the story in episode 1. And I'm like, all right, all
right, it's a thing. It's real.
But already I'm like, this is going down a path that I don't

(16:52):
think I want to follow. But after episode 1, I was like,
you know what? Let me just shut my brain off.
Thank you. You critical thinking babes.
Yeah. I'm like, you know what?
Let me just shut it down. I'll watch this.
And I was coasting through each episode.
I did not think it was particularly amazing.
I did not think it was binge worthy.

(17:13):
I did not think that this was the best show in the planet.
I did not think their chemistry.I've never seen this kind of
chemistry before in my life. No, no, no.
I was just. That's true.
Chill. I was chill watching the show,
happy as a clam. Like it was a nothing show,
whatever. Then episode 6 happens and I was
like, if you guys aren't going to fucking take this seriously,

(17:35):
Like I almost, I almost shut offthe whole show.
I was like, you know what I remember?
You DM me and she's like Carol, explain yourself.
I'm like, what are you having? To explain.
Because we had already agreed that we were going to do this
episode review. And I was like, Carol, you need
to talk me through this because I'm struggling here.

(17:58):
I can't believe they did this thing.
It really didn't improve after that for me.
Then I stopped watching at episode 10 and I was like, OK,
I'll watch other things like Squid Game.
I'll watch finish watching No game no love.
I'll watch spice up our love. I'll I'll watch anything but
this until this thing finishes and I got some time on my hands

(18:20):
to finish out the show. Girl, when I saw the visceral
reaction to the final two episodes, I busted a gut from
laughing. I was so entertained by the
uproar, the backlash, so to speak, to the final two

(18:42):
episodes. And I was like, oh, now
everybody thinks it's a bad show.
And The thing is. I don't know if people have
necessarily watched Makjiang before.
You know, that's a fair comment,This.
Show was a crash course in Makjiang.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree.

(19:02):
By like episode 11, people had taken enough ibuprofen and they
were just like, hang on, now I'mI'm getting some clarity.
I'm. I'm gaining enlightenment here.
It's. Like what is going on?
A lot of questions, very few answers, plot holes that were

(19:25):
really plot chasms and a lot of people didn't seem to care about
it until the final episode. I was genuinely shocked and
enthused by the reaction. I will.
I will say I was one of those people who by the ending I was
absolutely pissed off. Not because I was just like,

(19:50):
where's the growth of this character?
Talk about it. Where is the sense with this
character? You're supposedly a really smart
go to person and then you pull aoh, I'm leaving to punish
myself? What?

(20:10):
I thought you said you wanted this person in your life and you
want to spend time with them andthen you just ghost them because
you feel so bad and you knew your wife knows and she still
chose you and you still dipped and then you're now dashing
people money in this economy left and right and you expect me

(20:33):
to be OK with like I I just, I didn't understand why he ghosted
her. I I can sort of I didn't like
the whole job. Let's.
Keep Let's keep non spoiler section so we'll talk about the
ending in depth and the spoilerslike.
My bad, my bad. I just got heated.
No, it's OK. It's OK.
We'll get real heated, I'm sure,in the spoiler section.

(20:55):
But I I agree with you in that there were plot holes.
I remember sitting in my couch and I was talking to myself and
I was talking to like, I had twopersonalities.
I was like, you know, I can excuse plot holes, but I draw
the line at incompetence police.And my other person is like, you

(21:18):
can excuse plot holes. Yeah.
What the heck? The cop incompetence police just
pissed me off and I and that's when I was finally like I'm not
really liking this show. I don't like incompetence
police, but somehow plot holes are fine so we move.
I have said this before and I will keep saying it.

(21:41):
I am a plot person. If the plot don't make no sense,
I just don't coast by on vibes and aura like that doesn't work
for me. Yeah, I get you.
And The thing is, I can get interesting vibes, sexy vibes,
whatever from a TikTok edit froma photo shoot that this couple

(22:01):
does, and I can get that high from that.
But if I'm sitting there to watch an hour long show and it
don't make no sense, you're telling me a story like you're
storytelling. That's that's what I'm here for.
And the story is not making no sense.
That's when I'm like, you know what?

(22:21):
No, and I've said this before too, I'm not a mock Jung person.
I got scared by the last Empress.
I got real scared. And.
This show gave Last Empress vibes.
It's real mock Jung and I. I don't think people were
prepared for it. I don't know if it was
necessarily marketed as such. I don't know.
I don't know what went wrong. But you know, from episode 1,

(22:44):
you could tell this was stupid. Like it was going to be
unbelievable. And yeah, you have to suspend
your disbelief, but up to what point?
Up to episode 6. Up to episode 6.
For me, it was Episode 6. I wasn't going, this is a
masterpiece. This is my favorite couple ever
and and that's what I was seeinglike everywhere.

(23:06):
I don't. I will never say they were my
favorite couple, but I will say that personally for me, when we
are talking about top dramas of 2024 in my list, it's up there
because it gave me something. Yeah, I think it gave you more

(23:28):
than it gave anything to me. Exactly.
Which is why I was excited to cover 'cause I was like, OK,
Carol loves it. Fantastic.
And. Then I went silent.
I just feel like last year did not give and to have that at the
end of the year, and I love a mahjong, I'm always seated for a
mahjong, but to have that at theend of the year felt very, it

(23:53):
had me like dissing people out loud in my own space.
It gave me a reaction, which is what I wanted versus the trunk,
which I didn't really react to it like on social media
especially, but that has been on.

(24:14):
I've seen it 6 Times Now, but that has like constantly been on
my mind where I'm thinking. So that was my plot, if you
will. I know that's controversial.
That is controversial, okay. But when the phone rings gave me
like crash out. It was.

(24:34):
That's what it is. It allowed me to crash out and
be like yes this is what I needed so.
There's a lot going on in this show and actually like, not that
much going on too. But what was your favorite
character like? Let's get some positives in
here. My favorite character, you know,

(24:57):
maybe he was so annoying, but hewas entertaining the guy in his
office who was like taking the couple pictures and giving him
advice for his wife. Right.
So that's Lim Chul SU is that actor, and he's been in so many
things, right? Yes.
Vincenzo. I remember him in that.

(25:18):
Yeah. I feel like he might have been
in Queen of Tears. As well, I think because of
Vincenzo and his character and that I really.
He got talk about it. He did, but, but I really
thought he would turn out to be a bad guy in this one.
Like that's where my mind was. So when by the end, when I was

(25:39):
like, oh, he's just, he's just just, I was like, well, that's
wasted potential. Right, like we're expecting a
subversion. Yeah, yeah.
Give me something. But yeah, I think I liked him
and I liked the male lead because, well.

(25:59):
Because, because Because. Like because he gives good
kissing scenes I will. Not take that from him.
No one's going to take that awayfrom.
I will not take that away from him.
He's a wonderful kisser. What was he doing?
He was like doing them open mouth kisses in this show and
just like eating her up. And yeah, that was great.

(26:20):
Love it. Not going to complain about
that. And she's got a good kiss as
well in I'm Not a Robot. That's a damn big kiss that she
has in that show, too. So it's not like she's far
behind you young suck. But yeah, I would say my
favorite character has to deal. Well, it's two.
It's the second male lead and the second female lead who ends

(26:44):
up being the second couple in the show because I was like,
let's stick with them. I think there's something there.
And I was expecting more exploration of their romance and
just flushing that out more. And we're on like the 10th
kidnapping, and these two are like, nowhere to be seen.
And I'm like, but they're so compelling.

(27:06):
And I don't know, there was something, yeah, interesting
about them. They don't get the time of day
in this show. That's true.
The second male lead, there was one moment where I felt like,
oh, is this my bad guy? Like this is what I mean by when
I was watching this show I wasn't watching with any kind of
sense because I wasn't like forward thinking.

(27:31):
I was going at the pace the showis telling me to go and trying
to figure out who the bad personor bad guy or girl is.
So there was a point where I thought the second male lead, he
tricked me. In my opinion, he was driving
her from that orphanage or that rich people house in the car and

(27:54):
the way man turned and looked ather, yeah, and said I know you
can speak or something like that.
That moment was very threateningfor foreboding to me.
So I was like, oh, is this? Is this my bad guy?
And that's how he's written, right?
He's presumably going to be the second male lead the love

(28:15):
triangle between you and suck character Chase Subin and then
this guy who's Ho Nam Jun that actor and he plays Sangu and
that would have been fine. That would have been perfectly
adequate. And then they changed it and
were like, is this second male lead actually the villain and in
on this plot and somehow pullingstrings and you don't know and

(28:38):
he sort of knows too much and what's going on here.
Why is he inserting himself in this investigation?
And I don't know. And maybe maybe the fact that
he's a YouTube, what was he, he was like a doctor YouTube who,
which have workout videos of himself, like shirtless and
working out in the gym. And I'm like, OK, this guy

(28:58):
exists. Like, first of all, second of
all, yeah, I can believe a YouTube is sketchy and yeah, you
know, has this double life or whatever, all of that taken
together. It it was a lot of misdirections
and red herrings. And he is a big red herring in
this show. I agree.
Did I hate it? Not really, because it was it

(29:21):
was almost like on the list of concerns, like he's wasted way
down here on the show. But once they kind of clear his
name, I'm like, give me more. Like I'm confused, he's fine as
shit, why am I here? That's true.
That's true. And honestly, even for the
reporter or the is she a reporter or like a?

(29:43):
Yeah, she was like a news. Anchor, anchor even for her.
They could have turned up the Mack Jong with her like really
going after him in front of her face and she doesn't know she's
the wife. And I expected a, I guess I
expected a richer reveal, like she's the wife.

(30:05):
And yeah, they could have done. It was just like a little with
the second couple, like everything about them.
Was. Was just a little lackluster for
Dung Cutie that that's the actress who plays Judy, the news
anchor. I just thought she was so nice

(30:27):
and precious and refreshing because I thought from episode
one that she was going to be in this mean girl role because she
could have easily been the mean girl to hate.
You. And that just didn't happen.
She was a lot more layered. And I like this, this character
a lot. And again, and she's just
shortchanged in this show. I feel shortchanged with them

(30:51):
too. You know what the show feels
like and I want to shout out Marissa from the K3 'cause I
visited her and she had this book of Korean, all the Korean
actors, and it was sort of like a portfolio to sell them to
Hollywood. This really like from beginning

(31:13):
to end it felt like a promo video for you Yun suck to go on
to bigger things, it really did.100 percent, 100% because I'm
not going to fault the show for having a pretty good male weed
who can act his way through a shitty script.
Like I'm sorry to tell you like that happens all the time.

(31:36):
Anywhere you go, Hollywood and obviously K drama land.
You can have a great actors spinning a bad script into gold,
but to me it always it's very telling that they're just doing
the best they can off of a crap script.
Yeah, with what they've got. With what they got like he can
give 110% and he's. Like.

(31:59):
Doing something stupid, ridiculous, and that's the whole
show. It's just a lot of ridiculous
and they're doing the best they can.
That's why I can't completely hate it, because they worked
really hard and you can. I don't think I've seen.

(32:20):
That I don't fault the actors. True, that's a story.
They don't have anything to do with the scripts.
They don't write it. They didn't write the web novel.
They have really nothing to do with the issues that we're
talking about because they're unless they were acting shit.
They did their job right. Like I'm not mad at Yu Yun Sok,

(32:40):
Chesubin Ho, Nam Jun or Dung Cutie.
They showed up to work like it'sa paycheck for them and they did
what they were supposed. To.
They did Pak. Jayun who plays.
The kidnapper. He showed up and did what he.
Was supposed to do. He played crazy, he was chewing
up seeing her, he had these facial ticks and shit.
And I'm like OK, I hope that check.

(33:01):
Cleared. Because he's doing it, he's
doing it. He's showing up it.
It looks crazy, as it should, that whole storyline.
Well, ridiculous. I don't know if we.
Can get into it right now, but did you have a least favorite
character? Least favorite?
Character. Oh, I don't know, Actually,

(33:25):
maybe No, I don't. Grandpa.
The grandpa who died, OK. Yeah, that's Jung Dong Huang.
He plays Pick Jungle. He's the patriarch who has giant
portraits of himself and all of the properties the family owns.
That guy, I knew he was. Oh God, I knew he was villain

(33:48):
from jump because he was the dadin the airs.
Yeah, that's. Right.
Yes, He's never gotten. Off my shit list ever since the
airs. I don't care that the airs is a
bad show. Like I consider it a bad show.
It's not good. But he again did his job.
He was terrible. Bile made everybody miserable,

(34:09):
and I'm like, he's going to keepdoing that.
Honestly. Him and Hiju's mom, I feel like
they deserve each other. They do.
Also the sister. The sister I did.
Like what she did was shitty. Yes, we're gonna have to talk
about. Her little and she was useless.
Useless, useless. Character like her like.

(34:32):
The sister and Hiju's dad. I'm just like what are you 2
people doing here? The story you just taking up
space. Exactly.
It can't go on without. You like the sister coming back
made no sense to me 'cause I feel like the story would have
progressed at the pace it would have even if she weren't there.

(34:55):
The dad who's in the facility, Hong E Ju's dad, yes, another
completely. Like I feel like a lot of
characters, side characters. Are just conduits.
To push this ridiculous plot forward and they have like one
line and then they do one thing and then they're they're written
off like basically written off the show because they've served

(35:15):
their purpose. And that's not how I view
characters and so many characters right.
We just actually like 4 characters that do one shitty
thing and it like makes everything fall apart or.
Or they don't do a shitty. Thing, but they express some
craziness or have a line that serves some function in this

(35:36):
plot and I don't think that makes a good character, no.
I don't think so too. Kind of like the secretary.
The secretary of yeah, the like minion guy.
Peck sounds. Dad he had the most useless
conversation that has ever happened in the history of K

(35:57):
drama because I was just like hechoose leaving.
Can I get into it? OK, you know what?
Let's just rate the show out of five soldier bottles and then
we're going to get into the spoiler section and all bets are
off. OK, I thought we went for the
jugular in the non spoiler section, but oh, buckle up.
So. What did What would you rate the
show? Out of five soldier bottles, I'd

(36:19):
rate it a four. Over 5 no.
I can't believe. It so you would still rate it
high? I'm still rating it high.
I'm still rating it high becausejust for the experience.
Yeah, what? About you, I would well.
I would rate it to OK what? Would you rate Queen of Tears?

(36:43):
Well, I haven't watched Queen of.
Tears number one. OK, then that's the.
End. OK, that's it.
I'm not gonna say. But I have several people in my
DMS who I don't know quarterly tell me to watch Queen of Tears.
I'm here to set the record straight.
I don't think I ever will watch Queen of Tears if you think

(37:04):
that. What I'm?
Saying on when the phone rings is harsh.
I don't think you want me watching Queen of Tears.
OK, I don't. And again, I am not here to to
have a bad time watch AK drama that I didn't like.
I tend to choose dramas based onif I will like them or not.
And so I rarely drop dramas nowadays.

(37:25):
I don't have high numbers of drops every year because I am
choosy. I am curating what I watch.
You really taught. Me to drop dramas, I'm so glad.
I'm so glad. So at this point I'm not about
hate watching. I someone brought up alchemy
souls in my DMS too. They were like, I haven't felt

(37:47):
this way since Alchemy souls andI was like, I don't want to talk
about alchemy souls. That might have been my.
Last hate watch I. That was two years ago.
I don't like to do that OK to myself or to others now that I
have a platform. I don't like to hate watch.
This wasn't necessarily a full on hate watch because it was so

(38:08):
crazy. I was like, you know what fuck
it like but yeah, it wasn't good.
I did not have a good time. Generally 2 soldier bottles I I
pretty much disliked it. OK, but I.
Found some. Merit.
In it, there was something to latch onto and it wasn't the
worst drama I've watched. It was not the.

(38:30):
Worst. Drama I've watched but.
It's it's. Pretty bad for like the current
year, right? Like the current 2024-2025.
But that's where I want. To push back though, because
2024 was a shitty year for K dramas.
So I'm just. Like Nah, this was for 2024

(38:51):
standard. This was a really good show.
OK, I. I see where you're coming from.
That's the bar is low. It's oh.
The bat was in hell. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. OK.
OK. Enough.
Enough. We're going to get it to
spoilers when the phone rings right after this.

(39:14):
Excuse me, I can't tell. I can't.
Tell you know I have no. Jingles.
Oh, sorry. Swear, discussing shit.
What? All right, we're on the other
side. Of spoilers, Carol, I'm just
going to set you loose. Really.
Like, what do you want to talk about?

(39:35):
OK, OK. First of all, back to the
useless conversation that I mentioned with the secretary.
So we see Hiju leaving and so she came to her in laws to say
find my man. Yeah.
And then she's like, do something.
And they're like, we'll take it into consideration.
It's like, wild, wild. Yeah.

(39:56):
And at this point, she doesn't know that he's not other
biological son. Exactly.
So secretary comes out, he follows her and he's like, what
else does he know about the kidnapper?
And, you know, when he came intothis house, he had surgery and
his eye, like, they fixed up hiseye and he doesn't remember.

(40:19):
And I was just like, now hold on.
Are you telling me that he's thetwin of the kidnapper?
Like, what is the point of that conversation?
You just confused, babe. So, you know, when I watched
that, I was like, you know what,Carol?
Just hold your horses. Maybe next episode they'll do,
like, a flashback of the conversation and give it

(40:41):
context. No, context, never.
Context was not in the room withus.
Yeah, that was a Rd. Closed type of clue that they
dropped there. It was like, oh, I drove to the
end of this, where's the rest? Where's the rest?
And who were you talking about? Because Mr. Kidnapper still has

(41:02):
mismatched eyes, eye colours. So I was just like, oh, you
wasted my time for free. OK, OK, let's move on to the
next clue. Yeah, yeah.
It was he because he made a point of stopping her.
Yeah, the eye. He had his.
Surgery to change his eye. Who had this?

(41:24):
OK. Thanks.
Yes. No.
Make no sense. I.
Yeah, I was. Really pissed off with that.
And I know like, in the grand scheme of things and you know,
the number of plot holes, it's really nothing.
But I just, you wanted to talk about it.

(41:44):
That one I wanted to talk. About because you wasted my
goddamn time. I wanted to say this.
Quote from Time magazine when I saw this.
Article I was like. Time magazine is writing about
when the phone rings, so here iswhat.
It says. The story of two people

(42:06):
overcoming issues of communication to be together.
This may be highly relatable, but the story elements are
intentionally taken to the mock Jung extreme than they have in
parentheses. The descriptor mokjang is
applied to a Korean drama that stretches its depiction of
reality, putting its characters in increasingly extreme
situations that heighten the stakes and emotions, and

(42:27):
populating its world with toxic characters who often act
contrary to any known system of logic.
I spit up my water when I saw they're just defying logic.
That is what a mokjang is. They go on to say.
When the Phone Rings is one of the best Mokjang dramas we've
gotten in a few years, with a plot driven by kidnapping,

(42:51):
murder, contract marriages, arson, fake deaths, assumed
identities and political intrigue.
No. No, it's not OK.
OK. I don't want to shade anybody,
but of late, these writers, these reporters, Yeah, writing

(43:12):
out of thin air. I'm just like me and you.
We watch that show. What you're saying is not what
was in the show, and I'll leave it at that.
This show, I think a lot of people class it as a guilty
pleasure. It is a guilty pleasure.
I'd say that too. I think I started all right,
like. Episode 1 is crazy.

(43:33):
The writing is on the wall on episode 1, but it starts out
kind of intriguing. Like this whole thing is
masquerading as an enemies to lovers because at the end of the
episode you find out she can freaking talk.
She has the ability to speak andshe's speaking.
In a kidnapping scenario, she is.
Mad as shit. She's angry with him, with what

(43:54):
you overheard on the phone because he said like, bring me a
body or something. Like I can't even remember what
the line is. She loathes him and she starts
with her blackmail shit, which was.
Which was half baked at. Best it was home, girl was in
over her head. How are you taking pictures?
Of your thigh, Are you saying you're cheating?

(44:15):
Like what was up? What was up with that?
It was really. One of the worst plans I've ever
seen. She didn't take 2 seconds to
think it through. Of course, the phone.
Is. Tracked everything she does on
it is being recorded like I was confused like she just thought
oh I'll pick up this phone and continue this and get out of

(44:36):
this merit. I was literally like, all right,
let's turn up, I guess go off sis, like, OK, which was so.
Wild to. Me.
Because I said, wait, is he not the one who said she's so clumsy
and he can? See right.
Through her, maybe he has selective vision, but he did not

(44:59):
catch on at any point, even at the point where she's on the
roof talking into the phone. No, honestly, I was just like.
Now. Hold on, that was me the whole
show. Like wait.
Because wait, what? The other major?

(45:20):
Gripe I had was I remember a conversation and I don't read, I
don't know what episode it was, but I remember Pixon talking to
Hiju and saying, oh, the sister must have seen younger Pixon and
that's why there was a hit on the brother.

(45:42):
And so I swear that conversationhappened.
So at the end when he asked, oh,does Heju know?
And he disappears? I was like, no, but you already
knew Heju knew, so where did yougo?
Like what happened to that wholeconversation you had with her?

(46:02):
And yeah, it was miscommunication.
Even after they learned how to communicate 100%.
What is that the? Only thing they know how to
communicate. On is to kiss each other.
And you know, I felt like this show overcompensated with with
that. Because.
It felt very much OK. The audience is getting pissed

(46:24):
off that this doesn't make sense.
Throw in a kiss. Oh yeah, let's just have a.
Dream of a. Kiss Yeah, I dream of what
could. Be if.
They were communicating from dayone.
I swear. Joseph did.
Not have that many dreams in theBible like I was just like OK
another dream and another dream like no it's.

(46:47):
Embarrassing really. It's embarrassing.
The like montages and things. And it could have been 8.
Episodes. What a tease.
Like this whole show? Is just a tease.
It is a tease. It is.
A tease and then. Like he did it and the whole
miscommunication thing. He married her and this was a
whole reveal. Like that wasn't really a

(47:08):
reveal. You obviously knew he had the
hots. For her he.
Loves her, likes her, definitelyknew about who he was asking for
right when he swapped sisters inthe contract marriage it was no.
Surprise, I was like. I'm not surprised here.
Yeah, he. Just didn't get to.
Know her at all during the threeyears of their marriage.

(47:32):
Because why? He didn't want to pressure her
into a relationship that he thought she felt trapped in?
Which, yeah, of course you'd feel trapped if you're not
telling me what's going on. Shit.
Like you know so. It was just a prison of his own
making. True, but.
We've also The show also established that Pexon had no

(47:54):
relationship experience, like hewas clueless when it came to
relationships. And The thing is.
I'm. Looking at their professions as
well, yeah, he is. A.
Erstwhile war correspondent, maybe a foreign operative, I

(48:15):
don't fucking know. Like they they just like threw
everything at the wall that he could do.
He was basically Jason Bourne bythe end of this whole thing.
And currently he's a a spokesperson for the
presidential office. Great.
That means he's dealing with people all day long, fielding
questions, taking interviews, talking to the press.
And his whole thing is communicating.

(48:38):
That's his whole job is to communicate a message and do it
in in a proper way, in a way that makes sense to the Korean
public. So I'm like, OK, he is
communicating all day long and he has no other problems with
even other family members like his fake, you know, father and
mother. He's telling it like it is.

(49:00):
He's constantly butting heads with them and communicating that
he's not going to just go along with their plans.
And when it comes to Heju, he can't seem to get any word in
edgewise. Well, and I'm.
Confounded. By the fact that it took first
of all, they grew up together, they were basically neighbours.

(49:23):
Never says anything when they'remarried and living in the same
house again never says anything.I feel like it's just the toxic
nature of how he got her into the marriage in the first place.
I'm just like, let me just trap her.
I'm doing it out of the best of intentions.
I think she's got a terrible home life.
She's about to be married off tosome skeeze ball who's going to

(49:44):
treat her badly. I'll just marry her, fine, fine,
and keep the good intentions. But after he's got her in the
house and he's setting up all ofthese boundaries and putting up
walls and things between them. OK, beast, like, let's talk
about it. I This is very Beauty and the

(50:05):
Beast, true And I. Also believe that he really
couldn't see past what he felt he was supposed to be doing,
which is I do think I'd characterize him as a very
narcissistic person because he'sjust so consumed with himself.

(50:28):
And this whole thing of you werenot part of my plan like Mana's
tunnel vision focused on. I don't at this point, I can't
even remember what the revenge was.
I was confused about his revenge.
Plan too. Was it just like I'm not going?
To. Be part of your presidential
ticket ticket candidacy and involved in any way and speak

(50:51):
good of you. Was that his the end all be all
of his revenge just to not let the father become the president
and use his clout? Oh it.
Couldn't have been just that. That would be maybe it was had
to. Do with just like bringing the
whole family down and revealing his identity especially.
With the the. The ring that he put back on his

(51:16):
dying grandpa. At that point, he thought he
was. The grandpa and he was like, I
need some dirt. I want to know what the hell is
going on. I want to know who I am.
Maybe I can get something out ofit if I insert a camera into
this signet ring and put it backon this man wheezing in the ICU.
That maybe that had something todo with the revenge.
But again, it's never really laid out A to B to C.

(51:39):
It's always just like, I can't. I guess I have to infer here how
he wants to raze this thing to the ground.
But Even so, I didn't feel like he was particularly gung ho on
any sort of revenge, no. And also, I feel like by the
time he was putting the ring on grandpa, he knew that was his
dad, not his. It's so.

(52:00):
Ambiguous. It's not like he had a moment
where he was like, I know I'm your son, I'm going to put this
ring back on you because I thinkshe's going to go down or I'm
going to get something else out of you.
No word about that, really. No clues there.
I don't like this. Feeling of making me question

(52:20):
why I read that it's a four out of five.
The thing is, they had a lot. OK, so the good stuff about this
show is basically whenever thesetwo, the female lead and the
male lead, are trapped in a roomtogether, sparks fly, I guess.
And that was at one point he, like, tried to pull up her skirt
to see her. Oh yeah.

(52:42):
Mole or. Something.
That she had. The.
Birthmark. And she was like, oh, stop.
Like it was very like, OK, it's very kind of icky because she
obviously doesn't want him touching her.
She doesn't want him to. Pull up her.
Skirt it's very sexual assaulty,a little whiff of sexual assault

(53:02):
in here and people were salivating over the scene.
They were like, Oh my God, he's so sexy.
He just got done getting roastedin this weird fire that the
kidnapper found his location andit exploded his secret office.
See. But like.
I, I did not like that scene, but in that scene I would have

(53:26):
been asking hard questions because you have a bodyguard
with this woman. You know her schedule, when does
she have the time to go have an affair and take a picture of her
thigh and post it up? And just even the POV, like I
just felt like critical thinkingwasn't part of the characters

(53:46):
what critical skill set there was.
Not even thinking at. All anyway he was looking.
Trying. To look up her skirt and see the
birthmark, or if there was a birthmark, to basically Fact
Check the kidnapper on the phone.
Yeah. And then she's shocked.
That he's doing it and I'm just like, why would you be shocked?

(54:07):
Why are you? Shocked you sent.
Him the photo, it was such a stupid thing.
Like to send her like he said she sent him like a.
Boudoir. Photo and expected him to just
take it and not like do any further investigating because he
obviously at this point he's clueless doesn't know that's his

(54:27):
wife on the phone. So he's like, Oh my God, does
the kidnapper really have but the angle?
Everything. About the photo that makes zero
sense and her. Retrying and.
Retrying and retrying to take the photo.
I'm like bitch, give it up. Like, yeah.
Even the. Mom who gave.

(54:48):
Her the lingerie, she wasn't even committed.
Quit. I was just like, what's what's
your angle? What's your point?
Because I guess she was like. Oh, I have two rabbits stuck in
a cage together. I have to get them to breed.
Yeah. Otherwise this whole charade is
null and void. So she is the.

(55:10):
Real mom of Hiju, Yeah. And she got.
With. Dad and she dumped Dad and I
guess she, this is me making up the story.
I guess she moved into the Houseof the chairman.
Oh, it was very the heirs. Coated.
Yeah, it was very. Heirs coated, she, he.
We had a mistress living. In the house, I don't know.

(55:32):
Yeah, did where they actually. Married.
And she? Was the official stepmom to to
biological. Kids.
No, I was thinking. More she came in and the older
Hayan's mother died and then she's sort of like a caretaker
who has her daughter living in the house just like airs.

(55:54):
And then it turns into somethingmore and she becomes sort of
like a step mom to Hayan and he drew as her daughter.
I just couldn't quite. Wrap.
My head around the fact that thedad, he just step dad, left her
in the house knowing everything,that she had been coercing her

(56:17):
biological daughter Hiju to pretend to be mute, have
selective mutism to maintain herposition in this house.
It didn't make sense and the dadknew the whole thing the whole
time and he didn't. Say shit like that.
Family does not care about Hiju no no.
Nobody in the family cared aboutHiju.

(56:38):
At all, because otherwise the dad.
Would be like. Hey, I know we're sleeping
together every night. I think you can let your
daughters talk now. Right.
I'm not going to kick you out. Like again, where is what does
it cost for some people to open their mouths and communicate

(56:59):
because I really don't understand why the secrets why
would he keep that secret? I'm sure I can understand the
stepmom. He just mom keeping it up for 20
years. But what's with the dad?
So the dad hates he do. Is he getting a?
Kick out of seeing. Them squirm and try and no

(57:22):
tiptoe. Around him with this.
Lie. I don't.
I don't get that at all. I fell flat.
Yeah, so many things. But yeah, like people were just
gravitating, I guess toward the skinship in the in the show,
100% the. I think it's episode. 2 where
this is post the first kidnapping and she has some

(57:43):
bruising on her neck and like a cut and stuff.
He brags her into some dark roomand pins are up against the wall
and it's like inspecting her neck and stuff that shit.
It is K drama crack it is. At this point in episode 2, it
was. It worked, right?

(58:03):
It did, yeah. It's book.
Talk. Magic.
Like that's what exactly I'm. Not going to fault the show for
that, but like the whip of sexual assault on the latter one
that we were having talking about about the mole inspection.
Yeah. I don't know if I would
necessarily classify that as sexy.
Sure, he looks good, but you cansee me disassociating like

(58:27):
further into the more deeper into the show I get.
I remember after like. Episode 2 calling him a green
flag. No, you didn't.
I did. I did.
Was it episode 2 or maybe on a later episode?
Because like you said, immediately you knew he loved
her. Yeah, he cared for her for sure.

(58:48):
Yeah, he cared for her. And I just think I really, there
was 1 scene that I appreciated which he didn't really even go
all the way when they were lyingin bed at one point.
And he's like, just forget everything that you heard and
that was said or something like that.

(59:11):
I think I thought that was the beginning of an apology.
He could have definitely gone all the way with an apology or
an explanation, but it goes backto that lack of communication
between them. But even with that, she seemed
content with that explanation. And I was like, OK, if it works

(59:34):
for you, girl, it will work for me.
Whatever, but I. Just found.
There were moments of sheer panic from him at the thought of
danger coming to her. Yeah, that's good stuff.
Those those were the moments I. Really enjoyed because I just

(59:54):
felt like his face. He was very expressive.
You could see fear, you could see anger.
I was like, OK. OK, Ian, suck.
Do something here. You can give it some go off, go
off. Yeah, but.
Yeah, so I I liked those scenes,but I did.
That's not bad stuff at all, no.I'm not complaining about that

(01:00:15):
stuff. It's, it's plot related stuff.
And the show functions best whenI guess you're watching it as
it's airing because you do get that break where you can come up
with theories. Yeah, about the show, where it's
headed, who's who. And that's what's fun with the
groupthink aspect of social media is you read a theory and

(01:00:38):
you're like, Oh my God, I agree,or no, I don't agree.
Or, you know, something actuallybeing right.
Like you, you make a theory and it's right.
It turns out to be right. That's the fun, I guess, of
watching this unhinged show. I don't watch shows when they're
airing, so I'm completely removed from this.
I don't really get a thrill necessarily out of making

(01:01:02):
theories about the show. I don't necessarily thrive off
of the. Theories and I feel like people
were really excited to come and talk about the show and like
who's the killer and who's the you know who owns the phone and
suck a male lead. He's shady and all this stuff.
I get it. I get it.
I don't subscribe to that. I asked on Instagram for people

(01:01:25):
to give me their thoughts, concerns, topics they wanted us
to cover on this podcast. Some people said great couple.
He looks great in a black shirt.Perfect.
Yeah, that, yeah. Fine, fine, sure.
Argon plotline, super weird. Last two episodes look
ridiculous and weird. It seems like mock young easy to

(01:01:48):
watch actually. What's bothering me?
How is the kidnapper so smart tocontrol the female lead's car?
Unless I miss something, I stopped trying to find logic and
just enjoy the story without paying attention to some
details. Truly messy show.
I think they pulled off being compelling and sensational at
the beginning, but the writing relied so heavily on being
sensational instead of writing their characters to be logical.

(01:02:09):
Maybe this is just the mock Jongway.
Someone else said cheese fest. All of these things are true,
someone said. So much waste of potential plot
holes galore in an absurd ending.
Yeah, you're right. You're right.
So what's this was so funny. I love when people read a lot
into it, as in like, they're squeezing milk out of an almond.

(01:02:34):
You know what I'm saying? To get almond milk.
And this person said Pixelmon isa man of his words.
Heju is a woman of her actions. They were talking about the
journey that he do goes on, which is, you know, she was
faking being. Her.
Own kidnapper and blackmailing her husband to give her a
divorce then she goes to transitions to trusting and

(01:02:56):
loving him unconditionally and protecting him at all costs,
even with a knife at. Her throat at.
The, I don't know, 10th kidnapping, so on and so forth.
And that's fine. Like, yeah, that sure.
That's a journey. Did I care?
No, no, that's my. Point.
It's like. For me personally, man, I didn't

(01:03:17):
give a shit. I feel you.
Are there any other? Complaints that you had about
the show before we go into the last two episodes.
Well, let's talk about the sister, OK?
This girl comes. Back from.
Overseas, she was Mia, they didn't know where she was for
three years, fucked off on her wedding, leaving Heju to clean

(01:03:39):
up the mess and be the substitute.
Fine, we now know that Pixone orchestrated this whole thing,
was in cahoots with the sister, and like, requested he choose to
be his bride. Fine, fine, fine.
She comes back. Yeah, I did not like this
character. I didn't like how they
miraculously found some surgicalcure to fix her vocal cords or

(01:04:04):
whatever damage was done during the accident.
As a child she never learned howto use sign language in all of
the, I don't know, 20 years thatshe was mute?
No, she wasn't mute. She.
Was hard of hearing oh. Was it hard of hearing?
Oh. Man, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. Well, she would.
Be mute because. She can't hear.

(01:04:25):
Was she mute? No, no, no, I, I think it.
Was hard of hearing. She lost her hearing.
You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my bad, my
bad. But anyway, surgical cure to fix
her ears and her hearing and shenever learned sign language in
all those years. Nope.
And I'm like. How?
Much. Of a selfish, self pitying bitch

(01:04:46):
you. Have to be.
To not only not refuse to learn that you're silencing yourself.
At that point you had 20 years to learn how to sign.
She doesn't. And instead she's holding out
hope that she can just miraculously get cured.
And she does. They give it to her that she

(01:05:07):
does get cured. And then when she comes back and
talks to Heju, she's like T he'ssorry.
I knew that you could speak all of these years and you made
yourself be silent just to keep me company in my miserable state
because I needed to bring somebody down here with me.

(01:05:28):
That was trash. And.
It's experienced this. Calamity, even though you didn't
need to, whether out of guilt orsome misguided idea that you're
getting a kicked out if you're whole Let's be friends that that
was the whole. Speech at the aquarium.
Yep, that was her. Arc actually she didn't even say
sorry. She.

(01:05:48):
Was just like I knew that you could speak.
But now I can speak. So.
All is well, all is forgiven. Let's pick up where we left off
and I'm like fuck you, bitch. What the fuck do you mean?
No, she was a. Horrible person, just so
selfish. She was very selfish.
And I actually felt bad for her because she has a look of I'm

(01:06:15):
going to be a bitch in the show.And so you're always
anticipating her to do somethingshady, something that will harm
Hiju, etcetera. And then she's just like, no,
no, I'm endearing. I just want to be friends.
I love myself. I've always wanted a sister.

(01:06:35):
I just don't like her mom. It it's just fell flat for me
because, you know, I don't faulther too much for being a kid and
pretending because she wanted someone to go through the pain
with her. I I really don't fault her for
that because at her big age though, at.

(01:06:56):
Her big age though, How old was she she?
Was older than. He do No, no when when?
They had the accident. They were kids.
Oh yeah, When they had the. Accident.
They were kids, yeah, but as they.
Grew up. That's what I'm saying is like
at her. Big age, that's true.
She should have fixed it a long time.

(01:07:16):
Where's the apology like you went to?
College like you, your frontal lobe is fully developed that's
true where's. The.
Come to Jesus moment which to metells.
Me that she isn't a good person.No.
If you were a kid, let's say youwere like up to 14.
She was like a preteen. The older sister was when she

(01:07:38):
lost her hearing. Oh, she's not a good.
Person, we can't defend her in any way I can see maybe.
Keeping it up until you're, I don't know, in high school,
Yeah, yeah. I can't.
There's just no. Empathy.
Coming from honing that character and I couldn't get

(01:07:58):
behind her character, couldn't get behind anything she did.
Even the apology at the end of the show, I was like 11th hour,
yeah. No, I.
Agree so I felt like she shouldn't have come back and he
I heed you is such. A old school female lead, right?
Yes. Being gaslit by everyone, even

(01:08:21):
to the point of shouting stop gaslighting me I'm like bitch
you knew they've been gaslighting.
Like she's. Stupid and naive and very warm
hearted. Innocent at heart and did
everything just to be loved. And ain't no love coming from

(01:08:43):
anybody in that family. Just got bamboozled and
hoodwinked into shutting up for 20 years.
Yeah, that. Type of female.
Lead. That's very 2006, yeah.
Yeah, I agree 2024 we're. Getting this lead and everyone's
like, Oh my God, poor Heeju, poor this.

(01:09:04):
I'm like, this is very old school of a characterization.
And something else about Heeju is that when she was signing,
she was very animated, she was very feisty, she had a lot of
gumption and. She was serving.
Attitude and and you know, getting angry and things at

(01:09:24):
people when she's signing at them, when she stopped signing,
it's almost like all of those qualities go away and that's why
a man said. He enjoys, that's why he said he
enjoys the heju that was on the phone with him.
Matter of fact, they had to address.
It in the final episode, in the final two minutes of the show,

(01:09:46):
they had to address this crazy character switch that happened
when she stopped signing. She lost a whole bunch of
personality traits and she had to come and tell her like, hey.
I want you to get angry with me.I want you to tell me what's
going on and communicate. I want you to nag me and I'm
like, does that fix? It I.
Don't think so, but OK, great onyou for putting this the

(01:10:10):
stipulation here in your marriage for her to open up a
bit more because she was pissed when she was.
Signing. She was she.
Was and, you know, you know, I hadn't even thought of that.
I think I was just focused on when she could speak, she was

(01:10:31):
letting him have it. And she definitely met made him
nervous or made him pay attention.
But when she didn't speak, it was just like, oh, this is the
chaser, Ben. I know.
Yeah, this is. Why I don't?
Watch her but surprisingly and like press tours and whatnot,

(01:10:53):
she's very spunky like Chase had.
Been the. Actress.
So I was just like sis. Why are you?
Always so dull. Yes, it's just just.
So dull. Every time she.
Wasn't on the phone and she wasn't signing.
Was like she was a non playable character.
Like she just like, where'd she go?

(01:11:15):
Yeah, like a Sims. Character.
Just stuck and waiting for waiting for him to save her
because. I can't lost count of how many
times and she was kidnapped. Waiting to be saved.
I mean, you fucking name it likethey did it to this girl.
Let's talk about episode 6 because we mentioned.
Episode 6. Before the break, so.

(01:11:38):
What had happened was. They went hiking as a group
activity in the presidential spokesperson's office.
This turned into an office romance.
I do not like office romances, Ihave to say.
So when it turned out that she was starting to work with him
alongside him, interpreting for him, I was like another thing

(01:11:59):
that I can't just rubs me the wrong way.
They go hiking with the rest of the group.
And the guy that you mentioned, Nin Chilsu, who plays like the
office manager or something. Yes, OK.
So that guy he's in there for? Comedic relief.
But he was climbing that mountain and he was huffing and

(01:12:20):
puffing. He had two walking sticks.
People were like, wow, this is really hard to climb up the
mountain. This is my train of thought.
I was like, I feel seen because I fucking hate hiking.
And I'm always that person who is 50 steps behind, always
falling behind. I almost died in the the Canyon

(01:12:42):
in Las Vegas doing like a fun little hike.
Yeah, the fuck not. Hills and shit and rock
scrambling. No, no, you're going to get a
different Jessica. It's a mess.
I am a sight to behold. And when I saw that character,
the office manager, I was like, Oh my God, you'd never see this
in the K dramas where someone's actually struggling to do one of

(01:13:04):
these mountain hikes. That's true.
I hate. Hiking I hate hiking and.
Then they come to the lookout point.
He gets inundated with fans trying to take selfies.
He gets her shit rock. She gets pushed off of this
lookout point. It's a sheer drop.

(01:13:24):
She falls off a mountain. It's a basically a Cliff and
I'm. Like, Oh my God.
She died. Like I was like, there's no.
Way. There's no way she survived that
fall. Not only did she survive, she
thrived. She had no broken bones near a
scratch. She was fine Babe.

(01:13:47):
People break ankles. Just missing.
A step on the stairs. It was hard on.
Me. This is the point where I said,
you know what? I don't have to finish this
show. They're not.
Taking this seriously? This is insulting that.
They would even think. That I would suspend my

(01:14:08):
disbelief that this girl would survive a severe fall.
They were so serious when he's trying to find her, calling her
and getting of her to call him on the kidnappers phone and
where are you and of this roundabout thing and him like

(01:14:29):
traversing the mountain at nightby himself.
It was done sincerely. It really was.
And I'm like get. The fuck out of here.
Listen, he was like just beside.Himself wanting to save her,
couldn't get to her. You've got to be joking.

(01:14:49):
I you. Listen, I loved seeing him in
pain, seeing him in anguish, seeing him desperate.
I loved that. But I.
Also understand what you're saying.
Oh my God. When episode.
Six happened. I shook my head.

(01:15:10):
I was like, no, we can't keep going.
They have all this great hospital like time and he's
taking care of her and he never left her side and I'm like, she
should be dead. She should.
Be in a body bag. I was beside myself.
So then episode 6 happened. I check out, I checked out.

(01:15:32):
I was like, there's nothing theycan do that's going to be like
worse than this because we've reached a big low here.
Oh my God, the unraveling the spaghetti in the last 6 episodes
to figure. Out.
Who the real kidnapper was and how Pakhtoje, who was his right

(01:15:54):
hand man, was like a. Kidnapper.
And hacker extraordinaire and that he was a twin at the
orphanage school who lost his twin back in the day, presumably
from the murders that happened. And I mean, it escalates from

(01:16:15):
there. Yeah.
I was messaging. You going?
How the fuck did? Pacto.
J the right hand man fall ass backward into enlisting the real
murderer AKA the real Pakhseon into being his puppet and

(01:16:38):
exacting this revenge and kidnapping ploy.
That was not it. And then he was, I was like, how
did? Even Pakthoje get all of this
information about the murderers because that was under lock and
key. That family LED none of that
slip of who was the real culpritand there was no police

(01:16:59):
investigation. I'm like did he sniff the
leaves? Like I'm did he put his ear to
the ground and just the earth told him?
Like I'm confused about how eventhat dude got his Intel.
Because. No one.
Gave it to him. No one gave it to him.
He was. He just divine it, just figured
it out. But how?

(01:17:20):
Maybe his brother who? Had died, visited him in a dream
and told him and you know that the show could have gone with
that and we'd have to believe but.
That didn't make. Sense and then the whole and
they tried to explain why he gottogether with the real pyxeon

(01:17:41):
and I was just like, this is so lazy.
Like what are we? What are we?
Doing so that. Was they let that guy?
Go like the real pixon slash kidnapper.
They let that guy go, I don't know, half dozen times he
escapes after kidnapping people and clobbering them over the

(01:18:01):
head. And lots of attempted murder
here. I don't understand why the real
kidnapper was mad at the fake pixon like that.
Seems a little misguided becauseobviously that's not the guy who
that's. Not the guy you should be.
Exacting your avenger. Like I don't know why he chose

(01:18:23):
Pixon Yu Yun Suk's character as his target because that kid had
nothing to do with the switcheroo that.
Happened. And you almost dying.
I think he really. Thought Park Dolce Really
thought Pexon killed his brother.
Yeah, but I'm like, how'd you get?
That name? No contacts.

(01:18:45):
No contacts. No.
Nothing there. They're just like, he's just
like, I thought it was you and you were my main suspect.
Then I had to figure out if it was you.
And so I hatched this kidnappingplan with the real guy.
They'd like tried to explain it.They were like, oh, he was
coming out of the office building talking crazy,

(01:19:09):
threatening Pixel. And he's like, OK, perfect blunt
instrument to use this stupid plan.
I was just floored. Yeah, I agree with.
You, it was very much the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I think that's what they were trying to go for.
Absolutely. And.
I feel. Like man was on a fool's errand,

(01:19:32):
like his whole life was a joke and I just felt so bad for him.
I feel like if he had partnered with Doctor Slash YouTube, oh
that would make more sense because Mr. YouTube had
something to work off. He had incomplete files.

(01:19:54):
But at least he had a memory to go off of.
And he was like, oh, I saw this kid and I played with him.
Yeah. And the kid was near.
Yeah. But the whole the other part is
why couldn't young pixel on be outside?
And why was it such a huge secret like someone had seen him
because he had sociopathic. Tendencies.

(01:20:16):
And they were like, oh, he's killing the squirrels, we need
to lock him. Away.
And then the locking key was nothing to this little murderer
because he went out to the localorphanage and was really having
a ball. Like he I think he took out like
4 kids, yes. And they knew about it.
Because they were consistently getting rid of the bodies.

(01:20:37):
It's wild. So I.
Was like wow. Wow, wow, wow.
Like what else? What else?
And I think the the. Thing that drove me nuts a
little bit. One of the very few things that
drove to nuts. Is you know when you.
Watch that show with Ijungi where he takes the place of the

(01:21:00):
murderer. It's that flower of evil, right?
Flower of Evil. Oh, it is.
Yeah, it is Flower of Evil. So in Flower of Evil he is very
much like you see the parents actively covering their kids
tracks and and whatnot. But in this show, the parents
don't really cover his tracks. They're not invested.

(01:21:23):
It was grandpa who was invested in covering everything and they
were just hating on grandpa. So even the real Pex Allen's
parents weren't as invested in their son.
And it just made it feel like you're such a lazy villain.
I don't even understand because they didn't even know that

(01:21:48):
Hiju's dad had a deal with grandpa.
Like they were just in the show.Like we were watching Clueless.
Oh. But you know going into.
The final two episodes that mom lost her shit.
She did that, mom. Lost her ever loving.
Shit. And she crashed out.

(01:22:09):
I was. Not following.
Her line of logic, and maybe you're not supposed to.
She was just mad. She was mad at the old man.
The grandpa. Yeah.
That he hoodwinked her into raising his own child.
Because that's who Yu Yun Suk's character is.
Nice. We don't know who his mom is,

(01:22:30):
but his daddy is the grandpa character.
Yo, I was waiting. For the show, because she hated
and that was the theory too, that people.
Had you had this theory too? Yes, I was.
Waiting for the show to tell me that maybe grandpa sexually
assaulted her and the fake pixelon is actually her son.

(01:22:52):
That's why she loathed the old. Man, yeah.
So I was just she was spitting on his portrait.
And shit and just, yo, she was she.
Was ready to host. Yeah, she.
Killed him. So I just felt like OK to even
be mad. After years later that you've he
stuck a pillow in his face and he died at your hands, she still

(01:23:16):
don't feel. Like he's.
Gotten the what? He deserves punishment.
Yeah. What he deserves.
Yeah, she's still spitting. On.
Him and kidnapping some innocentgirl here, you know she kidnaps
Heeju. It's all to fuck with Pixel and
Yuyun Suk's character, the fake Pixel, and I'm just.

(01:23:37):
Like why? What what was the her long con
was literally I'm going to keep this girl hidden for 20 years,
same as my son was missing for 20 years whom I thought was dead
and I'm going to make. Sure, Yuyun Suk.
Is in pain. He's suffering.

(01:23:57):
He thinks his beloved is dead. And then I'm going to pull the
rabbit out of the hat and here she is.
You've lost. 20. Years of time together again.
This doesn't seem it's very muchthe same as he do.
Calling you gonna suck every night half baked.

(01:24:17):
Intriguing. Plot.
Intriguing thought lady, but 20 years?
You think you could keep this upfor 20 years?
Yeah, No. It didn't.
It didn't. Home girl.
Yeah. So who would you say?
Which character made sense on the show?
Which character made sense? I would say the dad like.

(01:24:39):
The presidential hopeful dad OK 'cause he.
Was pretty. Not easy to read, but I would
just say he made sense. He made sense.
He was focused on being the presidential candidate, on
winning that. He's highly regulated.
Everything about him is a regulated, can't control his

(01:24:59):
emotions, he's violent, he's hasoutbursts.
And I was like, yeah, I get thatguy.
I think I got him. And I got Hanum June, yes, the
second male. Lead.
Yeah, the second male lead. Those are the only two people I
got. He's just dad.
I did not. No, I didn't get that.

(01:25:19):
That step dad like. Hated her.
I'm convinced the condone SIL. He condoned it basically for 20
years. Yeah, and then has a.
Oh, she can talk. Oh God, so.
And I have my notes because I went ape shit taking notes on
episodes 11 and 12. None of the other episodes I
have notes for but 11:00 and 12:00.

(01:25:40):
I was like let me sit down here and watch this and write some
notes down I have here. Is she out of her fucking mind?
If something happens. To her, these were her
instructions, right? The mom's instructions where if
something happens to her, she has the secretary.
Such bodyguard. I can't even say save my

(01:26:04):
murderous son and kill he do. No sense whatsoever, No.
Sense No. Sense at all She was like, I'm
still going to go for the revenge and I'm still going to
be behind my son who's literallymurdered like four or five
innocent children, a couple of people, I think fully grown
adults, I think during the crossof the show, just completely

(01:26:26):
unhinged, cannot redeem him or just medicate away this
sociopathic murderous tendency. Yeah, let him out.
Let him free and kill this innocent girl.
I just don't understand like thebeef that she had was so deep
and for what? Nada, Just.

(01:26:49):
Yeah, the fucking underground. Chamber with the two bank
vaults. Oh my gosh.
And the the assistant. This I'm sorry.
The secretary opens it with a key that slots into the lock on
the old man's portrait and the lock was his signet ring.
I have in my notes. What in the parasite in all

(01:27:10):
caps? I was.
I was. Expecting I don't know why I was
expecting that too, but the way the secretary was going hard for
mom, I thought he was gonna be the father of oh the real pixon
and maybe they had an affair like that's there's so many ways

(01:27:33):
and The thing is what's sad is you're.
Coming up with better mock John.That's what's sad is.
That. Probably both of us can sit here
and spitball a better show that's even more outrageous, but
it works better than what we got.
That's true. That's true, but maybe that's

(01:27:53):
what was sustaining me because my active imagination was just
running wild with this could have and this could happen and
and then I just get disappointedlike and then you're just like,
oh. Oh.
I got mad when the. Secretary, let's heed you out.

(01:28:14):
Yeah, which I felt like was verySnow White, Right, Snow White
and the Huntsman type of deal where like the huntsman's like,
she's after your heart run away and very much Snow White coated.
So she gets out and I'm like, OK, so she's been starving
herself for four days. She has energy.
And her hair looks perfectly. Clean.

(01:28:36):
Her skin is moisturized and it just wasn't computing.
If I don't get out of bed for a day, I look like shit.
She was locked in. A bank vault basically for four
days. Was not eating, barely drinking.
She looks like she came out of the salon.

(01:28:57):
She did crash her car. And then was taken.
Yeah, she crashed into the. Fucking barrier.
So where's the neck brace? Like I'm, I was just like, Oh my
God, this show just. Don't understand?
Why? The cop was like, I'm going to
follow closely behind you. I was like, OK.

(01:29:17):
Great, great. Great, Got it.
Noted that cop was 15 minutes behind them.
Yeah, yeah. He was.
I mean, what protection? What Police protection?
That's what I. Mean by incompetent police I
cannot do it and then. This fucking.
Guy you young sucks character. Once the real pixon comes up

(01:29:38):
with a shotgun or a rifle and istaunting them from outside the
vehicle, I'm like OK, perfect. Yu Yun Suk is.
Going to step. On the gas and run this guy
over. That was in my mind.
I was like, OK, this is what's going to happen next.
No, no, no, that's not what happens.
Yu Yun Suk. Gets.
Out of the car and I was like just run him the fuck over.

(01:30:02):
You have a one like a 1 1/2 ton vehicle.
He's not going to brace himself and make it OK.
It was baffling, baffling. That choice for him to get out
of the car and face off against him one-on-one.
Enough time for the cops to comeand surround him.
And then we see this nightmare scenario that happens in Heju's

(01:30:24):
head, where kids get shot by thekiller, by the real.
Just stop. Just.
Stop with it these terrible edits.
Oh my gosh. And then the real pixel.
On just says a word to him and his whole world crumbles.
What Listen to? Me.

(01:30:47):
Hiju has never spoken about the stepbrother, has never shown
interest in the stepbrother. We don't have a scene of her
going to the mausoleum or the grave of this little boy and
paying her respects and feeling so sorry and missing him and all
that shit. We don't have any sort of
relationship. That's a word.

(01:31:08):
For her SO. What?
Why does you Yunsuk think? Oh my God, I need to fuck off
across the world to Argon and Ghoster.
You know what I thought? I.
Really thought he was going to say or it was going to be
revealed. It was actually grandpa who was

(01:31:29):
killing the kids and framed the real Pixar on and got rid of him
so he'd feel like, Oh my gosh, it was my dad.
That's what I thought too. I thought.
Oh, maybe that killer is just crazy because he was almost
drowned to death by exactly a grandfather.
So that's. What where all the ticks and all

(01:31:52):
of his mania comes from? But no, it's not what what you
said, which was had this workingtheory that the old man was the
real killer of all the orphanagekids.
Yeah. And he was blaming it on PIXA
and or just. Killing his grandchild because
he's. Murderer, which would to me
would also make sense with. Doctors Hutchins like

(01:32:14):
investigation and who has seen this ring?
And there used to be rich peoplewho used to live here and the
orphanage like that would have made sense to me.
But all you came to tell me was,oh, it was.
He caught the hit on What's the.Yeah, no, it was stupid.
It was stupid. I would have preferred that.

(01:32:36):
He whispered in in his ear and said, hey, your dad is the real
killer of all of these kids. I've never killed anybody in my
life. I'm innocent.
You are the son of a murderer. That would have been in five
times that would have been. Way better of a gotcha.
Moment in that scene where you young sucks character is just

(01:33:00):
crumbles yeah his world is shaken and he.
Just. Fucks off for six months to.
Do penance in. This form of self flatulation,
yeah, because of the sins of thefather thing that a lot of K
dramas like to do. Again, it's very old school.
Yeah, very old school. But I would have taken that, but

(01:33:22):
I would have. Taken it.
I would have taken that way over.
Hey, you killed this little. Boy, your dad killed this little
boy, so not enough. Not enough.
And it just reduced. I thought it was a character
assassination. You know, all this growth and if
you can call it all this growth over the course of the show of

(01:33:43):
him and her getting to know eachother and communicating and
really expressing their wants and needs and falling deeper and
deeper in love. He just like doesn't think, oh,
she's going to hear about this. She's going to find out if she
doesn't already. And she's not going to forgive
me. She's not going to be with me,
baby, She ran her motherfucking car off a Cliff for you.

(01:34:06):
Of course she's going to listen to what you got to say, and
she's going to. Forgive you, She's a.
Rider die literally ride or die like that bitch is crazy for
you. Which is so wild because she
wanted a divorce and. You know, I don't know man, I
got mad even in episode 11 with the.
Vignette of what could have been.

(01:34:27):
And it's like this whole Christmas thing.
I got mad because sure. They had a.
Christmas make out scene and it was sexy.
It was hot. Sure, sure, sure.
They were cooking steak in a toaster oven and I got offended.
I was just getting mad at like any little thing in.
This show. By the end of it, you just be

(01:34:49):
triggered because you're triggered by.
Every fucking thing. I was like.
Is that a fucking steak? Are they cooking 2 steaks in the
toast oven and he burned it? It could have been an air fryer.
It was no air fryer. It wasn't no air fryer.
I was like, did they? Just put it in there to broil
it, like after cooking it in a pan.
And I had all these questions about the stupid steak in this

(01:35:11):
Christmas vignette. Even her nightmare just didn't
make no sense either. The nightmare of the police
surrounding them, the police just letting the killer shoot.
Union suck. What I was like, wait, wait.
Wait, what? World.
Yeah, the gratuitous shot of thereal pixon.

(01:35:34):
They show him on television, on the news.
His hand, his dead arm flops outfrom underneath the sheet.
Never. That would never happen on
television. Never happened on television.
I even got mad at the mom who lost her shit, Pixon's mom,
because they show her crying in prison over the flop, the arm

(01:35:55):
flopping out and she's like, Oh no, my son is dead.
She starts crying. I got mad at her Botox and
filler face. I was like, she can't even cry.
Then they go oh. She appealed to get the death.
Penalty because life in prison wasn't enough for her she want
to be reunited with her dead sonwho's literally the worst

(01:36:17):
problem and I'm like yeah, do itdo it I don't care I don't give
a shit and. Then.
The male lead disappeared, gave all his assets away to charity.
I was like, why? Why?
You can live in luxury. There was no corruption to be

(01:36:38):
like this is dirty money, why did you?
Need Why give the money? Away.
I'm confused. I'm like we.
Can go to Bora Bora when? You're back, Hun.
Why are you giving all the moneyaway?
I was getting mad at everything.Everything.
I was getting pissed at everything.
I got mad at her Christmas tree.She had this dollar store
Christmas tree and it just looked horrible.

(01:36:58):
Horrible for a fake tree. I've seen Dillard's have better
artificial trees. I was mad.
I was big mad in the last two episodes because it just
culminated right? Like I was already frustrated.
I was already picking this shit apart.
But this is just me writing downnotes at this point.
I was mad at the six O 4 area code.
Because he was. Calling her on a new number from

(01:37:19):
Oregon that was four O 6 and shewas putting 22 together 4O66O
four. I was like babe fuck off, fuck
off. Then they come and say, oh, he
was a war. Correspondent back in the day.
That was a if. I looked away for a second in
episode one or two and didn't see when they said offhand,

(01:37:39):
yeah, he was a war correspondent.
No, no, just bringing that back in the final episode.
I heard so many people bitching online saying oh this was all in
the book, This was how the web. Tune was written.
Argon was in there. He fucked up Argon.
It's all in there. I'm like babes, I don't give a
fuck. I don't give a fuck.
Let me tell you right now what'swrong.

(01:38:01):
Is that people don't look at if you read.
The book, any book that something is based on, you're
going to have all the context. You're going to have everything
in mind already. And to me, movie adaptation or
AK drama adaptation in this case, should stand on its own.
Yeah, it's a separate thing, separate entity, separate piece

(01:38:22):
of art. I agree.
You can't come and tell me. Oh, it's all in the literature.
I'm like, babe, no, the lit thatI saw is right in front of me.
And it really doesn't track that.
He was a spy, basically, and could survive six months in a
Hut in Oregon. OK.
He was wearing tailored suits the entire time we saw him, and

(01:38:42):
now he's up here in tactical vests, and yeah, he looks good.
He looks good. Great.
I guess that's the only reason to put this in here is because
he's rocking it. Yeah, but that doesn't work.
Doesn't work. Doesn't compute.
She gets kidnapped another time when she goes to Oregon and
trying to find him. Maybe this is the one kidnapped.

(01:39:05):
What is she going? What was she thinking?
I oh, I was so mad at her. Even her.
Outfit to go traipsing. Along in the woods, I was like,
I'm mad at that. Are you wearing slacks in the
jungle? I was mad all around.
Yeah. He basically just exiled himself
because he felt guilty for ruining her life.
He didn't do shit like he's the victim.

(01:39:27):
And then he comes back. Where's the therapy like I need?
Therapy just as. Much as these characters, after
watching all this bullshit, she was fine.
She heard what he had to. Say about.
His dad ordering the hit and shewas like, I'm here, I'm in front
of you. There's nobody to punish.

(01:39:48):
You're only punishing me. Come back to me.
I have this direct quote. I needed to punish myself.
I needed an excuse. Oh my God, what happened to
Don't let? Anyone tell you they don't want
you twice or show you they don'twant you twice?
I don't think she got that memo.Because the way oh you left

(01:40:10):
after all this shit we've been through, we're done, we're done.
Yep, the only thing she didn't do was catch a grenade for.
Him. She did.
Everything else, yeah, it went too far.
And then you get this steamy sexscene in the self.
Flatulent shack in Oregon with some crazy open mouth kissing

(01:40:30):
and I'm like, I skipped too little too late yeah I was so
pissed off I. Just.
Skipped that. Whole scene and I was super
pissed. I remember being super pissed
off with the background because I'm like, why does the
background look like a life action cartoon that's not a real
background? Like why does it look like an

(01:40:53):
episode of the Survivor cartoon?Like I was, oh, I was pissed
off. And then I turned it off and I
was like, OK, let's go on to love Scout.
Just let's move on. Because.
He. I.
Was shocked. That he even went so far as to
say, oh, I came to Oregon because the sunsets.

(01:41:16):
I love sunsets, and the sunsets reminded me there's.
Sunsets everywhere. All around the.
World Why you got to go to Oregon in this active war zone
or whatever the fuck. Go to Guatemala, go to Fiji.
Go to Canada. Go to Japan like you can go

(01:41:36):
anywhere and see sunsets and make yourself feel bad.
I think they just wanted to givethe.
Folks who have read the book Like a token.
He never showed an interest in sunsets before.
Well, he. Did he did.
There was his phone background was a sunset and sorry I'm.

(01:42:03):
Rolling my eyes. Can't see that, but I am and.
I think he. It was because of.
Her like he was watching her through one of like her windows
or something like that. And he turns around and he takes
a picture of the sunset. Something like that.
He found a way to link sunsets to her.

(01:42:27):
OK, you sound very skeptical. Well, I am.
I am. It's the same.
Thing as the the war. Correspondence and Oregon and
all these things that are mentioned just once in passing.
Yeah. I don't feel like the sunsets
were necessarily a token that I should have held onto.
So no, that's true. That's true.
They wear it and the show. That much for us to feel like,

(01:42:49):
oh, that's unimportant. That's the sky that he took a
picture of when he saw Heju for the first, it didn't have any
significance. I mean he should have just went
to China where they manufacture phones.
Since their relationship really started on the phone and they
should have continued on the phone.

(01:43:12):
Oh God, a lot of like. Just overtly.
Sickeningly romantic things likehe changes his name to Yuyang,
meaning you and love. I thought that was silly because
he would have had a name. While he lived with the fishing
guy, what was his name? Then what was his name?
Second couple babies get engaged.

(01:43:33):
We didn't see any of their romance or courtship.
They're just engaged. It's a shame the mom
reconciliation that again, I don't believe for a second, I
don't think it was enough. It was just not addressed that
the mom was so toxic and cruel to heed you throughout the show.
And then at the end she's just like, Oh my God, my baby, she's

(01:43:56):
missing. And then at the end she's all of
a sudden just devastated. We don't get closure with dad
then 11. Final shove to push us over the
Cliff. Is the controversial, what is it
war-torn Ismail? Oh no.
And some other country. I can't remember the other
country. Which is.

(01:44:17):
A conflict all too familiar to us today.
It's just a stuff actively for. Israel.
And the struggles in Gaza with Hamas, that really pissed me off
and. Yeah, there was just no need.
It was so controversial. It's such.

(01:44:40):
A hot topic, and no matter whereyou stand on the issue, for the
creators to include this was just too controversial as to be
stupid. It was really unnecessary.
So unnecessary. That knocked it down another.
Peg for me, so I'd give. It 3/3 social models.

(01:45:02):
Yeah, three social. Models.
Somebody told me that the. 2nd. Female lead that actress.
Was getting a lot of hate on hersocial media pages for
delivering the lines about why blame her.
I'm like why blame her? She didn't write it.
Yeah, she didn't write it. That's.
Ridiculous. Get smart, people.
It was just too bold and stupid to have him.

(01:45:25):
And then the whole thing was he was going to negotiate some
hostage situation over there andpresumably the Middle East.
As an international audience especially, I think we're
reeling. We're just like, wow, what?
Yeah. I remember turning off my TV
when I saw that. I was like.
You just of everything, you justhad to destroy it, make it go

(01:45:47):
all the way to the bottom for me.
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like that.
I thought it was. It really cheapened it.
Yeah. And the conflict is.
Not. Something you just say by the
wayside and think it's OK and move on.
No, you're getting me serious. But let's just say I did not

(01:46:08):
appreciate it. And I was very disappointed, but
not surprised. They have a way of fucking
things up at the end. It was just very insensitive.
Yeah, that's the. Word.
They could have made-up anything.
I agree they could have. North Korea is right there.
Not even North Korea, if they. Wanted a fictional place they.

(01:46:29):
Could have gone to that place indescendants of the sun.
They could have revived that andit's it's all in the same
universe. It would be a.
You know, a multiverse of because the way they've set him.
Up at the end it feels like he could actually be in a new show

(01:46:49):
of Vagabond and it wouldn't makesense.
So I just feel like they could have done just a Vagabond tie in
universe. No, Yeah.
And I. Saw some people saying.
This felt like descendants of the sun.
Ending babe Descendants of the Sun ending did it better and it
actually sort of made sense because he was a soldier and

(01:47:11):
then he gets captured. He's kind of like this prisoner
of war thing with the second male lead of the second couple.
He like by some miracle makes itback.
OK, fine, I'll take it. It makes sense.
Like why he would even be over there, why he would even be
gone. And lest we forget, I think the
final scene in Descendants of the Sun is they get an SOS call.

(01:47:32):
There's an emergency. There's a volcano erupting in
Canada. Don't get me started.
And that's where we. Where do we end in the Senate?
It's I mean, that's super out ofleft field, but Nah, you just
reminded because I was so. Pissed off.
They were like, we're in Vancouver.

(01:47:53):
I think they were supposed to bein Vancouver and they showed the
Seattle skyline and I got pissedoff.
I was like, what the hell, like.Stop it.
Also we've covered. Descendants of the Sun on the
Tabak feed. So if you want to go.
Back you can listen to our full thoughts and hear me and Rico
just go into it go into it so. That's it.

(01:48:17):
Like that's. The show a pappy ending.
Yeah, I love how you said I don't expect this to.
Be a long episode I did. I did say that.
And here we are, two hours later.
But we had some shit to talk about.
We did I, I think I got it all off my chest.
Did you have anything? Else you wanted to add about

(01:48:39):
this show, it was a ride for 20/24 and.
That's it. I can't.
I tried to rewatch it to talk about this and all of a sudden
my brain was like absolutely notblocked What you needed from
that. Time.
You got. Oh, you don't need it right now.

(01:49:02):
There was a season for this showand that.
Season is gone. That season is gone.
Yeah, you've benefited. As much as you could.
From this show and now you're just going to set it down, leave
by the wayside. Yeah, the last thing I'll say,
and this comes from Time magazine and I was like, oh,
great point that same Time magazine thing thing that said
this was the mock Jiang of the year.

(01:49:22):
They said it's worth noting that, like the ending of other
drama Lovely Runner, when the Phone Rings falls into the
Magical Cure, or throwing off the disability trope, which
links a happy ending to a character no longer having a
disability. Oh, it goes doubly because the
sister got. Miraculously cured.

(01:49:44):
And Heju also can speak barely using sign language.
And then she decides at the end of the show I'm going to go back
to interpreting. Yeah.
And really, like, she doesn't have lasting consequences.
She's not really disabled. Yeah.
It's hard when, like a lot of K dramas, fall into this pitfall.
Of. You know, you got somebody in a

(01:50:05):
wheelchair, you got somebody who's deaf, somebody who's mute.
Somebody with amnesia. Somebody with whatever they did
this in Good Bad Mother as well from 2023.
And that really bothered me really bothered me in that show.
And it's a blight another blighton the show too, as they put it
in Time magazine. This trope can reinforce the
idea that disabled people are unable to live fulfilling lives

(01:50:28):
without being cured of their disability.
And that's just not not a good message.
It's not. It keeps the marginalized on
the. Fringes of society.
And I don't think not. I don't think it's not a good
message to send out with that. We're going to put a, put a stop
on this. We're just not.
We're not. Going to return to it.

(01:50:50):
I, I'm sure that Carol would love to hear from you guys.
Carol, where can they find you online to talk about when the
phone rings? Well, with the landscape of
social media right now. I am on Instagram as K Dramas
musings and and on Blue Sky as KDrama Musings and you can find

(01:51:14):
me on those two platforms now. Nice, nice.
You can talk to me or Carol. About when the phone rings, but
that's a wrap. That's been our show.
Thank you, Carol, for coming on and doing this extensive dress
down when the phone rings. Thank you for having me.
I had fun. I'm glad I have the show.

(01:51:36):
Out of my system and we move on to the next.
On to the next big one. That's our show.
I'm Jessica and this has been the TEBA.
Kia Rambles Podcast.

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