Well, this was freaking amazing, wasn't it? This drama owns my soul. The adult versions of the characters finally appear in this episode and blow me away. I think we have another candidate for Mousie Drama of the Year.
(Recap, caps and reactions on ep 5 of I Miss You)
Poor messed up little Hyung Joon begs her not to leave. As she is thinking of Jung Woo saying she only needs one friend (oh, I bet Hyung Joon will become that friend now).
Detective Kim takes Jung Woo to a hang out of former cops and asks for help locating Soo Yeon. Please don't die, Detective Kim! You are the only sane adult in this drama. Of course, I now ensured his death.
Meanwhile, Daddy Satan is excited (!!!) Jung Woo ran away from home because he is not a type of son he wants and he found that out early before he wasted more time raising him. His words! Please tell me a semi is going to run him over soon - I mean, this drama loves to kill off people, so go for Daddy Satan, writer!
Eun Joo shows up. This is just mentioned because she is awesome. She takes Jung Woo to her house to sleep. Awwwww. I know she is the secondary girl, but I love her. And he finds Soo Yeon's "I Miss You" scribble and his face!!! OMFG! Yeo Jin Gu is beyond amazing. Seriously crying with him here.
Su Yeon's Mom is beating him and screaming and he just takes it. Just as well as being a masochist will clearly come useful in this drama. But seriously, it kills me that he believes he is worthy of only this.
Late night conversations between Jung Woo and Detective Kim (who is totally making a progress in his investigation). I love how father-son they are, especially with Detective Kim being pretty much Jung Woo's sole adult source of how to live as a human being. And it's so wonderful to see poor Jung Woo smile.
Jung Woo fixing a lamp - here because he seems likely to get 2.5 seconds of happiness per ep and so every second should be treasured.
Detective Kim tracks and chases Soo Yeon, who is with evil Nurse and Hyung Joon. This being I Miss You and not, e.g., My Girl, this ends about as well as you can expect. If this drama had a puppy, it would probably dismember it.
Jung Woo promises to keep looking for Soo Yeon and it cuts to the grown up Jung Woo. RAWR!!!! Allow me to be shallow for a moment. Or 16 episodes.
Bwahahaha at Jung Woo in the karaoke room, singing badly enough to put even cats off. The karaoke guy, who was the non-rapist kidnapper, comes in trying to drag him out, telling him to go on a date instead. Jung Woo shoves him against the wall telling him "then go find my girlfriend" and you want to back off from the contained violence in his eyes. Oooooh. Groen up Jung Woo is seriously off-kilter and I love it.
We cut to him stuffing his face in a prison visiting room, as Soo Yeon's rapist and supposed killer is brought in by prison guards. Surface-amiable but God know what devils underneath. I seriously love the dichotomy and Yoochun is really rocking the role. The rapist taunts him saying his girlfriend was really pretty and Jung Woo pauses, face going still and declares "I am mad." He shoves the rapist's chair flying, stands up and tells rapist: "That is why I became a detective. So I can kill you legally." And shows him his gun. Holy FUCK! That totally makes him some sort of a rogue cop with dysfunction severe enough to need lifelong therapy, but I am cheering. Rapist clearly has a deathwish because he continues his taunting and says that Jung Woo is very different from the boy who abandoned his girlfriend and ran away. Rapist hits Jung Woo, gloating that since Jung Woo shoved him first and it's all on CCTV, it's self-defense so he is in the clear. Jung Woo, with that continuing frightening good cheer, points out that CCTV is 'eating a sundae' and we see the ice cream cone shoved in it. And then, as the rapist freaks out and tries to futily call for a guard, Jung Woo proceeds to do his best to beat the rapist to death in earnest. During it he tells him that he loves him because he stayed up nights thinking of him and even in the mornings he'd think of it, and if that's not love what is. The fact that he is saying that as he is doing his best to break every bone in the man's body, makes it even more disturbing, especially since you can tell even with all of these he is still containing his rage. Jung Woo is dark, violent, haunted, messed up and I LOVE IT.
He hears and sees Soo Yeon and pauses and we see that his bloody fists are trembling and oh my heart my heart my heart...
And he stops with enormous effort and says that the rapist will be released in three days and not to die before that because he, Jung Woo, must kill him himself. Ohhhhh :( Is it wrong that I just want to hug someone who is making threats of premeditated murder?
He is getting hell from his boss and it's oddly endearing.
But not as endearing as his interactions with Soo Yeon's Mom. He is clearly a surrogate son and I am so happy he found someone to love him. But then comes the bit with the clothespin - I love how it's this little bit of sadness in an otherwise surface every day interaction.
And how surface that attempt at normalcy is is showcased in the very next scene where Jung Woo is etching Soo Yeon's graffitti "I Miss You" from a long time ago. He must do it every day, to keep that one last bit of her. Don't cry, Jung Woo! :(
Oooh, is that JW's halfsister? I kinda love her already and want to ship her with Hyung Joon only wouldn't that be incest?
And we see the grown up Soo Yeon, now called Zoe, a hotshot designer and ethereally beautiful (yes, I am a Yoon Eun Hye fangirl. Seeing Yoochun and YEH opposite each other is pretty much a dream come true. Sue me). And putting a literal smackdown on a rival hissy-fit designer (ooooh, she and Jung Woo will be a violent couple :P).
And then she hears the smack of the cane on the floor and her whole being perks up (because it's Hyung Joon). They really must be symbiotic to each other. I wonder how Jung Woo can compete with this devotion. She totally shines when she sees him. And they interact with the ease of long time companions (lovers? who knows? The do refer to each other as man/woman I love. Hmmm.) I could seriously ship that.
Jung Woo (in the middle of a possible murder investigation) is in Hyung Joon's apartment and sees the picture of Soo Yeon and Hyung Joon hugging and I love how he is transfixed by Soo Yeon, without knowing it is her. Love it. Of course, now he is the outsider and they are the unbreakable unit.
They are in the car together but, invisibly, Jung Woo is there too - she is making the patented Jung Woo gesture of taking bad memories away. And speak of the devil - Jung Woo calls, as part of the homicide investigation, to tell Hyung Joon that a woman living in his house (his dependent of some sort) has died. I love how during that whole conversation, JW keeps looking at Soo Yeon's portrait (interesting, also, that their roles are reversed - Soo Yeon is the rich one now, even though both are equally off-kilter, even if Soo Yeon hides it better).
It is made even clearer how dependent, emotionally, Soo Yeon is on Hyung Joon when she thinks he left and ditches her own designer event to look for him, and when she finds him, it looks as if her whole body releases tension, as if she can finally breathe.
And then this. Seriously, in another drama, I'd ship the hell out of them. Even here I am tempted. I mean, the way he looks at her could melt solid steel and the way she takes care of him and needs to be around him...sigh.
Aha! The person who died was the nurse. And I just bet she was killed. Bet bet bet. Or not, I don't really care about the witch. And finally, Jung Woo and Hyung Joon meet, without knowing who the other really is, of course, only as detective and next of kin.
Soo Yeon's fragility is blatant when we see her alone without Hyung Joon and in Korea (where she went to follow HJ). She looks slightly shell-shocked...and throughout it she keeps clutching the phone with its picture of herself and Hyung Joon as a life line.
Not that Hyung Joon is having a much better day, seeing the Nurse's corpse.
Jung Woo sticks his hand out in the rain, as a reminder of Soo Yeon. He's never been free of the past, has he? It kills me. And I love how it's intercut with Soo Yeon finding some peace of her own in the rain.
The amazing final scene, where he hears her counting game and is frozen for a second but then desperation and longing and disbelief overwhelm it...His face totally made me cry.
Overall, this was an amazing episode with a TON of stuff, that didn't feel rushed despite the fact that it crammed in 5 episodes' worth of plot. I liked the kids but as soon as the adults appeared, my love kicked into overdrive. They all stepped effortlessly into the roles and I cannot wait to see how their tangled relationships are going to work out, seeing that all three of them are walking wounded (with Jung Woo probably the most screwed up) but also because Soo Yeon clearly loves Hyung Joon very much now and is utterly dependent on him emotionally. Now Jung Woo is the interloper.