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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Woman who Married Three Times" Episode 31

The dam breaks. We appear to have finally gotten to the point where the marriages which make up the dramatic thrust of "The Woman who Married Three Times" have fully disintegrated. There's no degree of apology that can make up for the mistakes Joon-goo and Chae Rin have committed at this point. They just continuously fail to learn from their errors, however many second chances they get. So with that, enough is enough.

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Part of what makes the situation so frustrating to watch is that at any point in the last several episodes, indeed, even in this one, Joon-goo and Chae Rin could have made amends and reintegrated into the family unit. The problem is they just don't have the slightest clue what the problem is, and are failing to realize that at every level it's their attitude which has created the toxic personal dynamic. Joon-goo and Chae Rin continue to treat everything like a business negotiation, and that's no way to salvage a marriage.

The entire scene where Joon-goo and Eun-soo go out for coffee is emblematic of how they've gotten to this point. Joon-goo does not offer any kind of meaningful apology for his behavior to date, doesn't resolve to do better, doesn't beg for forgiveness. All he does is state out logical reasons for the marriage to continue which, while true, are of absolutely no emotional comfort to Eun-soo and offer no compelling reason for her to go back.

Unfortunately, the basic logic of his argument still holds. If Eun-soo were not pregnant this would absolutely be the time to sever. But given the consistent emotional mess she's been in all this time, I have almost no confidence in Eun-soo's ability to raise a child on her own. Dealing with her first set of divorced in laws has been a complete nightmare for Eun-soo. I simply can't see how she could cope with another set of relatives, who may well win a child custody suit just as easily as Tae-won's did.

Still, in the immediate sense, she is better off separated, which I suppose we need to take as a grain of optimism right now. Neither this episode nor the preview offers any indication of a timeskip, so it looks like for all the finality of the severed ties here, we're still living in the present and characters who have not yet acted in regards to the current crisis situations may yet raise their heads. Whether it's for better or worse is difficult to say, but let's be honest. When has "The Woman who Married Three Times" ever offered us any direction except down when it comes to these two marriages?

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.

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