“Fated to Love You” Episode 3 recap

Keep laughing, Gun. Keep laughing.

Side dish: The specialty of the fictional island which is home to Mi Young’s family is anchovy rice wraps. Since I’m a big fan of anchovies, here’s a recipe from Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino for spaghetti alla puttanesca, which also uses anchovies, and is delicious. And yes, puttanesca means what you think it means.

Episode Recap

The breakneck pace doesn’t let up in this episode, as we dive right back into the story. Lee Gun’s (Jang Hyuk) position as chaebol family heir is under fire, since he no longer looks on track to produce an heir, and his half-brother is brought in as a backup. The coincidences pile on as Gun discovers that his law firm is the employer of the evil Lawyer Min. After laughing himself silly at Lawyer Min’s predicament, Lee Gun rescues Kim Mi Young (Jang Nara) from him again, and has him fired. But, Mi Young has already discovered her pregnancy, and with a nudge from Daniel (Choi Jin Hyuk), she takes off to her hometown island to break the news to her family.

In New York, an apologetic Se Ra (Wang Ji Won) can’t get through to Gun, who is either too angry or too ashamed to talk to her. The saboteurs from Macau blackmail Gun with the video of their morning after. Snooping around, Gun’s sneaky half-brother finds the video, and makes a copy. Unbeknownst to Mi Young, Gun also makes a trip to Mi Young’s hometown island, to settle things with the islanders so he can get his soap factory back on track. While he’s there, Mi Young’s pregnancy is discovered, and Mi Young’s saboteur brother-in-law reveals that Gun is the father. Mi Young’s mother attacks a bewildered Gun, and then insists he tell his family and bring them over.

In the meantime, Gun’s half-brother plays the morning-after video for Gun’s grandmother (and Daniel, who turns out to be friends with her), just as Gun phones to explain what happened. Unexpectedly, Gun’s grandmother is overjoyed to discover that a baby is on the way. Unfortunately, she can’t come to the island, and Gun can’t leave, because the last boat has left for the day. That night, Mi Young’s mother shoves a horrified Gun and an apologetic Mi Young into a storeroom to sleep together. Will hijinks ensue? We’ll have to wait for the next episode to find out.

Comments

Only 만: JK is on vacation this week, so please welcome our guest, gosia101 who will be discussing this week’s episodes of “Fated to Love You”. Welcome, gosia101, you lucky person, you.

gosia101: I have not watched any Korean dramas since “The First Shop of Coffee Prince” (swoon), and “Fated to Love You” has me just as hooked as Coffee Prince. The pacing’s terrific, the leads and secondary characters adorable, and whoever is doing the cinematography really knows how to make it all look very pretty. I’m so happy you got me hooked on this one.

만: Hey, I share with you all that is good.

gosia101: OK, so let’s talk about the opening scenes. When Lee Gun arrives at the law firm, I admit I rolled my eyes a little bit – a little too contrived but I guess he had to run into Kim Mi Young somehow.

만: Well, it is called “Fated to Love You”, not “We Got Together like Normal People”.

gosia101: That’s fair. I got over it quickly when he was sitting in the managing partner’s office and Lawyer Min walked in. And I liked it that the woman who brought in the coffee turned out to be the other Mi Young.

만: I enjoyed his insane laughter more than usual when it was directed at Lawyer Min’s shocked face.

gosia101: The evil Cruella deVil laughter was totally warranted. How did you feel about the scene in the cafeteria when Lawyer Min tries to blackmail Mi Young into helping him get in good with Gun?

만: I hate one-dimensional villains, and Lawyer Min is well on his way to becoming one. My only relief is that I know that he won’t be around for long. But seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved that a K-drama heroine was rescued by the lead male, which is not usually one of my favourite tropes.

gosia101: She didn’t want to lose her job, so I get why Mi Young was hesitating in kicking him in the ankle (or higher). I cheered when Gun walked in to rescue her. It was so suave and sexy. And I cheered when he held out his hand, smiled, and said “Ms. Kim Mi Young, please come with me.”

만: His suaveness here contrasted nicely with his total meltdown on the island when he was attacked by Mi Young’s mother.

gosia101: I love that woman. That giant half-burnt spoon that she uses to whack people is my new favourite prop in the series.

만: Better than the rice cake pounding sticks?

gosia101: Good point. I laughed so hard when I figured out what that symbolizes. Gun’s memory flashback of the cartoon showing the rice cake pounding was a nice touch.

만: Agreed. That was priceless.

gosia101: How do you feel about the step-son and his wife? They seem like useless characters, I don’t know what they will do as the series goes on.

만: Wife? That’s his mom!

gosia101: YOU’RE KIDDING. No, really???

만: Nope. About 30 years between them on top of it.

gosia101: Wow. Well, they seem like boring characters, so let’s move on to my latest K-drama crush – the guy who plays Daniel.

만: Choi Jin Hyuk’s epic cuteness is undeniable. He doesn’t photograph well, but on video he’s pretty dreamy. The fact that Daniel seems to be the nicest guy ever certainly doesn’t hurt; he’s even willing to help out some random woman who mistakes him for a priest.

gosia101: I think that was a nice touch. Who do you think is the long-lost sister that he’s looking for? I would definitely fall off the couch laughing if it turned out to be Se Ra. Now that I think about it, it could happen.

만: I think we’re supposed to believe that it could be Mi Young, but since there’s no hint of her being adopted, I’m not really inclined to buy it. If it’s Se Ra, that would be more likely. But then, it’s not like this show is short on zany coincidences.

gosia101: I like Se Ra. She’s a well-developed character, more than anyone else in this show right now. Her voicemail for Gun about how much she misses him was very genuine. And again, we see some nice cinematography – Gun is shown in shadow taking off his boxing gear while we hear Se Ra’s message in voiceover.

만: She’s a great character so far. I agreed with her decision in the last episode, and in this one, I have to question Gun’s reaction. How come it’s either him or ballet? Why can’t she have both?

gosia101: She doesn’t want to be a dancer in Korea – she wants to be a dancer in New York City. Who can blame her? I think Gun’s reaction is believable – he had such inflated expectations for the marriage proposal, the fact that she didn’t even come to Macau must have been murder on his ego. He’s nursing his wounds.

만: Is he poor? Can he not get himself to New York on a fairly regular basis? Come on, Gun. Learn to compromise! I mean, he will. Just not for Se Ra.

gosia101: He waited all this time or her and she wouldn’t even hear his marriage proposal. I say he’s entitled to be a little bitchy towards her. And find himself a nice temp from a law firm to carry his child – oh, wait, he did. Bye bye, Se Ra. Don’t let the jumbo jet door hit you on your way out.

만: So harsh. I just didn’t get why the choice all along was either him or ballet. Is there no third way of doing things? But leaving that aside, what was your favourite moment from this episode?

gosia101: Hmmm. There were so many.

만: If you had to pick one.

gosia101: The cafeteria scene. I have a soft spot for scenes where the hero swoops in to rescue the heroine. Makes me all sappy.

만: I would pick the boxing scene. Speaking of soft spots, I think I’m developing one for the ridiculous secretary.

gosia101: Oooh, that’s a good one too. I liked that Gun got his lights punched out by the other boxer – we can see he’s not the big Alpha, which makes him more likeable. By the way, can I say something about the subtitles on Viki? Sometimes the translation is a little strange (for example, when Daniel follows Mi Young out of the confessional and tells her to “cheer up”) but I’m really enjoying the explanations of some of the slang (magic time!) or where there is a play on words. It makes the show even better.

만: Are you looking forward to the next episode?

gosia101: Yes!! I want to see if Gun marries Mi Young (if he doesn’t he’ll get whacked with the burnt spoon for sure) or if they will come up with a twist of some sort.

만: I want to see Mi Young’s mom beat that haircut off of him.

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Fated to Love You (운명처럼 널 사랑해)

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