Madame Antoine episode 3 recap

Episode Recap

In a private dining room, Hye Rim (Han Ye Seul) rejects the food and focuses on Soo Hyun (Sung Joon) and why he is making elaborate plans targeting her. Under scrutiny, Soo Hyun blurts out that he likes her. When she laughs at the thought, he cites the fact that he has not been terrible to her. Hye Rim concedes to this, but points out how apathetic his eyes appear, and how morbid his curiosity was about how she felt being stood up by him. Soo Hyun claims the psychologist side of him was responsible for that, but the human side of him likes her.

Hye Rim proposes that Soo Hyun write daily entries in a diary that will be checked by her to prove his feelings. Soo Hyun is initially resistant, but agrees to it after Hye Rim threatens to contact the police. Unfortunately, Soo Hyun’s first few diary entries prove to be robotic and childish. Hye Rim flings the diary in frustration.

Soo Hyun’s student, Ji Ho (Lee Joo Hyung) watches men pinning women to the wall on TV, and asks if it is an effective means of seduction. Soo Hyun scoffs at the idea, but quickly reverses his opinion. When Ji Ho proposes using this method on Hye Rim, Soo Hyun barks at him not to.

Soo Hyun is presented with a new patient: Ju Ni, a popular K-pop star. She suffers from histrionic personality disorder that has brought about binge-eating, respiratory problems, and fainting to John Denver music.

When Ju Ni arrives at the center, she is eager to get her hands on Ji Ho and Soo Hyun’s younger brother, Seung Chan (Jinwoon), but both men beat a hasty retreat. When Hye Rim asks for an autograph for her daughter, Ju Ni brushes past her.

As Ju Ni flirts with Soo Hyun, Hye Rim watches behind a one-way mirror with Soo Hyun’s mentor, Mi Ran (Jang Mi Hee). Mi Ran explains that Ju Ni’s exaggerated flirting is a symptom of her disorder, because she cannot stand rejection by even a single person. Mi Ran notes how flustered Soo Hyun is, because he is a man, and this gives Hye Rim pause.

Seung Chan interrupts to call Hye Rim out of the observation room, and Mi Ran looks disappointed. When Ju Ni exits the treatment room, she is offended by the sight of Hye Rim laughing with Seung Chan and Ji Ho.

Hye Rim comes back from shopping to find Ju Ni sitting in the middle of her café, having chased away all her customers. Ju Ni attempts to bully Hye Rim and when Hye Rim ignores her then speaks in her usual French gibberish, she resorts to pulling Hye Rim’s hair. No one in Ju Ni’s entourage intervenes, but Ju Ni throws herself back when Seung Chan and Ji Ho come to see what the commotion is about. Ju Ni quickly starts playing the victim, and though the two younger men believe Hye Rim, Soo Hyun appears to take Ju Ni’s side.

Hye Rim is enraged and complains to Ji Ho afterwards. She asks if Soo Hyun has fallen for Ju Ni, but Ji Ho claims that it is impossible, because Soo Hyun lives by the idea that a psychologist does not know love. In fact, he claims to have never liked anyone in 35 years. Hye Rim becomes incensed that Soo Hyun lied about his feelings for her.

Hye Rim immediately confronts Soo Hyun, demanding to know why he lied to her. Soo Hyun reads Hye Rim’s face, and sees her need to be convinced, and to be loved. He suddenly resorts to the wall pinning strategy before asking Hye Rim what she wants. Hye Rim stutters about a date, and Soo Hyun agrees to meet at 1pm the next day.

Hye Rim’s younger sister, Yoo Rim (Hwang Seung Eon) runs into Ji Ho at the library, and asks if he does anything other than study. He retorts by asking if she has ever dated, because her advice has been ineffective with Hye Rim. Ji Ho suddenly kisses Yoo Rim on the cheek, and asks if that will work on her sister. Yoo Rim gets flustered, and tells him it will only works on girls who already like him.

At 1pm the next day, Hye Rim is waiting expectantly for Soo Hyun, who almost walks right by her without a glance. Soo Hyun nonchalantly asks if she’s coming, which enrages Hye Rim, yet does not deter her from going with him anyway.

In the car, Hye Rim asks where they are going for their date. Hye Rim is disappointed to learn that Soo Hyun is taking her on a hunt for information about Ju Ni. After speaking with numerous acquaintances, Soo Hyun theorizes that Ju Ni did not get enough motherly attention, and had to fight with two siblings for her father’s attention. Her disorder stems from the need to be loved.

Hye Rim points out that Soo Hyun has cut himself off from love. Soo Hyun is about to respond when a drop of his melting ice cream lands on his hand, and this prompts a memory of crying on the merry-go-round. When Soo Hyun recoils, Hye Rim thinks he has been stung by a bee, but he distracts her by offering French dinner options. She requests blood sausage soup, but they end up at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant for escargot. The wining and dining works on Hye Rim.

As Hye Rim notices all the older couples dining around them, she wonders if their love will last forever. Soo Hyun claims love results from hormones and only lasts three years, then relationships coast on affection. Hye Rim admits she is scared to love someone again, but wants to try anyway. She wants proof that Soo Hyun does like her, but if this relationship doesn’t work out, it will destroy her. Soo Hyun appears troubled by this admission, and offers to cut her food for her. Hye Rim suddenly asks why he is doing the experiment on her. He is so surprised by the question that he flicks food onto her face. She forgets the subject, and he chooses not to remind her.

While trying to navigate a dark car park, Hye Rim almost stumbles. Soo Hyun offers his hand, and she takes it. Soo Hyun records this execution of skinship in his research diary. Hye Rim’s warning about her emotional vulnerability echoes in his mind, and Soo Hyun staves off guilt by reminding himself that this is the most important scientific experiment of his life.

Hye Rim can’t stop thinking of her contact with Soo Hyun’s hand. She is so distracted that she does not even notice Seung Chan right in front of her. Soo Hyun comes in, and he and Hye Rim regard each other awkwardly. Seung Chan is perplexed.

Seung Chan calls Hye Rim aside just as Mi Ran passes right by. He proposes doing something baseball related, and she agrees to meet up with him after dinner at 7pm. Mi Ran walks by again, and is wracked with uncertainty on whether to strike up a conversation with Seung Chan. Mi Ran finds the courage to speak with Seung Chan, but ends up reprimanding him for being aimless. In her mind, Mi Ran cringes at acting like his mother.

Seung Chan takes Hye Rim to a baseball stadium and has all the lights turned on. They play two player baseball until they collapse on home base. She asks why he’s sighing all the time, and he admits that he is haunted by Mi Ran’s words. Hye Rim tells him not to force things, and Seung Chan calls her cool while tucking her hair behind her ear. The tension is suddenly cut by a call from the Chairman (Byun Hee Bong).

On the prompting of the Chairman, Hye Rim attempts to find out more about Soo Hyun’s actual experiment. Hye Rim finds a folder named “Cuckoo Bird” on Seung Chan’s computer, and is about to open it when Seung Chan swoops in. He claims it is porn, then when Hye Rim is agreeable to watching it, he insists that it is really nasty and he’ll share the high quality stuff later. She is suspicious, and has good reason to be, because the folder contained documents pertaining to the experiment.

Seung Chan raises his reservations about tricking Hye Rim, but Soo Hyun tells him that there will be a heavy financial penalty for leaving the experiment. As a parting shot, Seung Chan claims that he enjoyed himself with Hye Rim last night, but won’t reveal what they did.

Soo Hyun goes to find out from Hye Rim what she and Seung Chan did. Before she can answer, a man enters the café, and Hye Rim is horrified that her ex-husband found her. She angrily orders him to meet her at another café, then leaves Soo Hyun without explanation.

Accompanied by Yoo Rim, Hye Rim meets with her ex-husband, and finds out that their daughter, Do Kyung has been secretly visiting him and his new wife in the US. Now, Do Kyung wants permission to live with her father until the end of high school even though Hye Rim had ordered him never to see Do Kyung. After being presented with a letter from her daughter, Hye Rim rushes out, asking to be alone. Hye Rim cries after her daughter’s letter reveals that she feels held back, and burdened by having to cater to her mother’s hatred of her father.

Hye Rim manages to compose herself and call Do Kyung. She cheerfully claims that the letter was unnecessary, because she would have permitted Do Kyung to live with her father. She apologizes for placing Do Kyung in a difficult situation. After hanging up, Hye Rim reassures herself that she did the right thing.

Yoo Rim returns to Hye Rim’s café looking for her, and Soo Hyun asks what happened. Yoo Rim is reluctant to reveal Hye Rim’s personal life, but finally tells him how Hye Rim lost her husband to another woman, and now, has lost her daughter to the ex-husband she hates.

Soo Hyun goes to find Hye Rim, offering Italian food options this time. Just as he is about to leave, Hye Rim comes out of her apartment, and asks him to accompany her to see her ex-husband off at the airport. His current wife will be present, and she does not want to show up alone. Soo Hyun agrees and says he’ll dress up. Hye Rim wonders if she is terrible for being superficial. Soo Hyun tells himself that he is doing this for the experiment in order to get her to fall for him.

When they arrive at the airport, Hye Rim suddenly asks to meet with her husband alone, because bringing Soo Hyun along feels cowardly. Soo Hyun is exasperated, and points out that her resentment, jealousy and anger is written all over her face. He offers to keep watch at a distance.

Hye Rim is poker faced and won’t meet her ex-husband’s gaze as she makes it clear that she doesn’t like him, but is seeing him off, since her daughter will be living with him. Her ex-husband gestures towards his current wife at a table behind him. The wife looks anxious and gives a courteous bow. Hye Rim approaches her after reassuring her ex-husband that she will not resort to physical violence.

Hye Rim appears on the verge of breaking down as she provides a list of instructions on how to look after Do Kyung. She takes the wife’s hands and entreats her to take good care of her daughter.

Hye Rim walks away from the meeting in a haze with Soo Hyun trailing several steps behind her. He watches her eat a burger alone, then noodles alone, but he finally sits down at the table as she finishes off a bowl of bibimbap. He offers to grant her a wish, but regrets it when she asks him to reenact her favourite movies with her. Since Soo Hyun looks horrified at the having to fulfill her wish, Hye Rim simply thanks him and leaves.

After watching one of her favourite movies, Love Actually, Hye Rim goes downstairs to make herself a coffee. She finds Soo Hyun’s diary with a post-it note on it directing her to come outside. Soo Hyun is waiting outside (how long has he been waiting?!), and has set up an outdoor theatre for two.

Hye Rim’s internal monologue indicates that she is getting over her grief about her daughter, and thinks she might have met a good person. She is so happy lately, because of all the attention showered on her by the men around her.

Hye Rim goes skating with Seung Chan and Ji Ho, and they return to the office late. Soo Hyun directs Hye Rim to wash the floor, saying that it is the least she can do since she does not do any work. Hye Rim is infuriated by Soo Hyun’s manic switch from nice guy to asshole.

Seung Chan asks Soo Hyun why he is so relaxed, suspicious of what he has planned. Soo Hyun is using a sporadic reward system to thrill Hye Rim. Hence, the appeal of bad boys. because their behaviour is so unpredictable.

It is time for Hye Rim to have her brain activity monitored by a fMRI so as to determine which of the three men she likes most. Soo Hyun cheats a little by adjusting Hye Rim’s hospital gown right before the testing.

After using Benedict Cumberbatch as a base line, Soo Hyun, Seung Chan and Ji Ho wait apprehensively to see Hye Rim’s heart.

Comments

I can’t say I am convinced that any woman in her right mind would fall for Soo Hyun’s robotic seduction strategies. Hye Rim faltering and giving Soo Hyun a chance to win her over just does not make sense considering how duplicitous she has already determined him to be.

Unexpectedly, the most convincing part of this episode was Hye Rim’s struggle to put aside her personal grudge against her ex-husband for the sake of her daughter, Do Kyung. Kudos to Han Ye Seul for so convincingly conveying Hye Rim’s resentment and pain, which is barely contained while she is on the phone with Do Kyung. It was heartbreaking to watch Hye Rim swallow her pride and entreat the woman her husband left her for, to look after her daughter, and fortunately, the writers did not try to turn the moment melodramatic by making her ex-husband or his wife despicable.

On a lighter note, I got more heat off of Hye Rim with Seung Chan while they were lying beside each other on home base, than any moment Hye Rim had with Soo Hyun in this episode. Regardless, it would seem that Soo Hyun is already succeeding in convincing Hye Rim of his feelings. Let’s hope the writers make an effort to convince viewers, too.

Madame Antoine (마담 앙트완)

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