[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Woman who Married Three Times" Episode 28

We get a much needed dose of levity here as the drama takes a moment to focus on Eun-soo's problems. In a less depressing drama there might actually be serious conflict about this development. The thing is, however we cut it, Gwang-mo's mom is a lot more reasonable than any other in-law on this drama. Yeah she's mean and hostile but at least the woman has the courtesy to clearly telegraph her intentions ahead of time.

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The positive movement this episode overall is actually pretty good relatively speaking. Chae Rin finally speaks her mind. Not in exactly the best circumstances. Still, the important part is to just get somebody to listen to her, and she finally succeeds on that point. A fact which surprises me- everything that goes on in that household seems to be designed specifically to crush Chae Rin's spirits. It's about time we got some kind of hope sot here.

Eun-soo isn't so lucky. That storyline continues to move on the same discouraging trajectory as usual. Joon-goo means well but continues to fail to understand on a base level what he needs to do to get rid of Da-mi- cut her out completely. Stop trying to negotiate with her. She wants attention, and even if it's just telling her to stop, Joon-goo validates Da-mi's designs every time he dignifies the woman with a response.

Fortunately these more discouraging parts are of low emphasis here. Even a hospital visit comes off as fairly routine and not particularly worthy of alarm. For the most part this episode consists of honest conversations where people agree to listen to each other for a change. The way Hyeon-soo's storylines compares to everything else is pretty noteworthy. Nothing is clearly solved or decided here, yet the tone is pretty clearly one of optimism. This is because Hyeon-soo's attitude, while obviously mean and cynical, is still open to the idea that a happy ending might be possible.

It's a major contrast to the other characters, who for the most part don't accept that a happy ending is possible or else they wouldn't be going to such desperate efforts to prevent anything from actually happening to change the status quo. The preview in particular is a harsh demonstration that these people are once more heading into disaster. At least for now we have those pretty photos. It's cute stuff- as is the goodnight kiss.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Woman who Married Three Times" is directed by Son Jeong-hyeon and written by Kim Su-hyun and features Lee Ji-ah, Uhm Ji-won, Song Chang-eui and Ha Seok-jin.