Rsk_tree

Not defending her portrayal but I think she lost all the character growth she had in S2 once they went back to real world. If you would remember, Usagi wanted to continue living in Borderlands initially. She changed after she had all those experiences playing the brutal games. That memory and experience got taken away from her and she remained depressed. I do agree her not confiding to Arisu is a plothole. She kind of set the stage for Ryuji to manipulate her.

I think Arisu won the last game because it was designed by Joker (think queen of hearts + diamonds)

I was so frustrated I didn't want to set up spoiler alert, but last minute my conscience kicked in so I added the warning up top. Will make it spoiler as it definitely gives away a lot :)

This comment will have some SPOILERS on previous episodes (2-4) so please read at your own risk.
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The narration showed us why HO is a terrible choice for EH's healing from the very beginning, around the truck incident in earlier episode. That was a life threatening situation (literally) for her, primarily caused by neglect from HO's team - why because they saw her as an annoyance that made them drink, while at work. She get's rescued by HO who had to dash in like a hero or whatever but at no point does anybody in that team apologizes to EH. What was HO's response to her? He said he was embarrassed about her and is doing what he can so that he can feel better about being associated as her ex-boyfried. It screams ME ME ME. Why is HO's team so against her that they find it's okay to not apologize to her? Because their talented self sacrificing team lead is hell bent to give 'good stuff' to his mediocre EX. And they conveniently ignores that EH never asked for anything from them (of course nobody would say no when a good opportunity is presented before them and are not informed that their ex gave them that opportunity). In the events post that you see the build up to where EH is forced to apologize to her announcer colleagues because of the to field reporting incidents, one of which directly threatened her life. What was HO's reaction here? A constipated look. Didn't HO know that getting her involved in field work can get her in trouble? What was his intention? At no point here is she getting an apology that she actually deserves.

This incident happened at the very beginning of the show, setting stage to us audience as to why HO is a terrible influence in EH's life. And there are plenty of others to follow. At this point the whole story is hanging by thread of EH's choice that being with HO is her happiness while everything leading up to that screamed it wasn't.

Thank you for summarizing the key issue that most people are missing here. I am amazed at how such a poorly written script was directed so well with excellent cinematography and acting. They nailed the trauma part so well that it almost feels like they spent way too much time perfecting it and completely forgot about recovery/healing aspect (episodes 7-8 with such minute details of her mental breakdown was such an effective watch but now it feels wasted). To compensate, now they have to depend on plot devices such as time skip, motivational speech therapy by other male leads (and perhaps even the ultimate tool - white truck-kun) to patch up. Sadly it derailed the pacing, delivery and everything else that made the show a wonderful watch until episode 8.

Agree with your rationale about EH not choosing SML as she doesn't share the same sweet memories and affection that HR did. To EH, JY is somebody she feels apologetic to and thankful for. HY and EO had a codependent relationship, the dynamics of which are toxic. Those same dynamics led to him losing the 9 PM spot - because he unilaterally made that decision; EH would never agree to that. And if you go deeper as to why she almost got dropped, there were incidents leading upto that point which happened directly or indirectly due to his interference (except where she herself messed up by mispronouncing on live TV). So he goes through cycle of guilt and overcompensating and that's why he is more unhappy about his choice to give up 9 pm spot. About him not missing her for a month - typically he takes some action that affects EH and acts all affected/weird when EH gets into trouble (think about the apology incident); EH messed up big time and she got dropped from all her shows and then ended up missing for a month - this is something extremely important for her life and it happened right after the supposed wedding news. I find it concerning that he didn't have much of a response/concern to any of these things (not even as much as their manager). Now if you need a comparison, MJO, who is also experiencing some of the situations with HO such as grandma's cancer , was genuinely concerned about what happened to EH. It is an unusual behavior and nobody goes missing like that. This is why people are calling out HO's behavior as red flag and not because he is a man and he should be strong. After all that, when SML mentioned about her DID, HO 's focus was on why she was dating JY rather than her being sick. What it shows is that to HO, EH's dependency is a given - an anytime accessible 'item' and hence not a priority. He seems shocked that that relationship is now shared with somebody else (competition) - unbelievable. His growth/learning curve cannot be so simple as to be spoon fed through couple of dialogues from other leads.

Had this show with the exact plot, direction, artist etc. got released in early 2000s or early 2010s this would have been a 10/10 perfect drama but unfortunately we as audience are also 10 years post that era. We have had our fair share of k-dramas with FLs not having any agency in their life and also choosing red flag MLs. Unlike all of those Dear Hyeri through it's early episodes made EH become a close friend to all of us. We were made to relate to her trauma, pain, loneliness and fear of abandonment over a span of 8 episodes , with each one increasing the level of it. Whether team single EH, team HO or team JY , we all collectively want EH to heal ('Heal' being the promised keyword here.)
The major polarizing factor here is ML/HO just had it too easy compared to EH's pain we experienced along with her. The protagonist halo had both second and third MLs spoon feeding emotional maturity to HO to realize what a terrible partner he is to EH (mind you he is 37 years old). Things happen so conveniently that now I wish they had this happen earlier (may be ep 7-8) and spared EH and us from the extra trauma.
If you closely analyze each character with some screen time in this show, we can find parallels to EHs life from them, showing how her life could have been different if she had a support system as friends or slightly more supportive colleagues as bare minimum or even an improved self esteem.
Let's start with `Ju Yeon - He also lost his closest sibling, got consistently blamed by his mom for that, gave up his own dreams to follow his brother's dreams to be an announcer - and excelled in it thanks to his confidence, skills etc.
Hye Yoon is also not well liked at work, she also gets into troubles that are not her fault and was blamed on by her peers and seniors but she has this immense self confidence and grit that really allowed her to overcome those challenges (and with much sass too). Her boss is quite supportive of her and she owns up to her actions not caring to impress other people. She is probably what EH would want to be.
Jae Yeong - We can all agree that he is someone who even EH thinks is more mediocre than herself. But with support from his supervisor, he was able to continue and even clinch the primary spot that he didn't deserve, where as EH consistently got demeaned and even had to apologize to her colleagues with nobody standing up for her (including JO and HO).

Instead of a support system, what she is left with is an ex who broke up with her in just a matter of seconds with no explanation whatsoever, and kept meddling with her life and a bunch of people who directly or indirectly bullied her and pushed her more and more into the depths of trauma. Sometimes silence can also make you an accomplice. So any quick fix approach to resolving EH and HO's relationship would leave us in a bad taste. Perhaps this show could end with a notion of EH's recovery being a work in progress rather than her being magically cured all of a sudden just because she got back with HO and he said yes.
Finally to all people who argue that this is how broken people act in real life - I agree and that's why we the audience, the third party here, experience the frustration - just like how we would for our friends when they go through a similar situation.

I posted a long rant on this drama, indeed it is a conversation starter lol! I am not sure if I agree with guilt tripping the ML but 100% agree that he shouldn't take on the burden of healing her. Somehow I think a lot of the early flashback scenes are posted from EH's perspective, giving her constant self doubt as well as doubt in their relationship. From JO's POV you can see that EH was quite cheerful and kind of life of party when she was dating HO and the EH post break up is regressing both mentally and at work. The problem is the way they portrayed his character post break up shows that he is still interested in her and meddling with her life (assigning her tasks that eventually cause trouble at work, messing up her date with JO and acting concerned every now and then) when he clearly knows and sees how she hasn't moved on. At that point it's him putting himself through the guilt and overcompensating. If it were a situation where he tries to move on and she interferes with his life - I could associate that more with a guilt tripping scenario. Even the scenes where Eunho brings up their break up are preceded by him doing something that affects her work/life.

Ju Yeon as an announcer and EH as Hye Ri are parallels as both of them are trying to fulfill aspirations of their lost siblings. Most of their conversations involved things they wished somebody told them - It's good to be alive or being happy and so on. Perhaps learning about JHR's story through online article made JY realize and relate to EH's pain of losing a sibling and made him accept HR as part of EH. This is the key piece Hyon Oh is missing as of now. He might know about the missing sibling part (if not that's a failure of 8 years of living together) but the not the extent of trauma it brought upon Eun Ho. In addition, HO not wanting his wife to suffer is appreciable but him not discussing that with EH tells me he doesn't find any of his relationships deeply personal. Everything is more of a responsibility to be done and taken care of - both his relationships with the grandmas and EH.

I can't believe I made an account just to comment on this drama!!
Watched episode 9 and 10. Took almost 2hrs to process and reflect on what exactly is going on.

Ji On is truly us audience in the drama lol. He sees Eun Ho's challenges and struggles from a non-involved 3rd party perspective just like us (perhaps not to the extreme extent we do but still) and asks questions we as audience wants to ask. Perhaps he is placed there for us to get our perspectives said aloud as clearly the leads aren't going to do that.
Hyon Oh is a frustrating and contradictory character. Is he toxic? I don't think so but is the relationship Eun Ho has with him toxic? 100 to power of 100 yes!!!
This show made me realize how it would feel as a friend to watch our dearest friend get into a toxic relationship ,gets hurt but still keeps clinging on to that as it is what makes her feel 'happy' - more like an addiction. And as her friend you cannot get to her and try to make changes because she is not in a place to listen to you, Did the writers intend to make us feel that? Then yes they did it so well.
Who is the real bad guy in the show? It is whoever decided to make this drama 12 episodes and gave no room for character growth for anybody. The artistic conception and direction is done so well that number of episodes doesn't do justice to the narration. All that trauma we witnessed in ep 5-8 to the point were her pain and suffering was etched bit by bit on to the audience only to get a path of healing in one month (and 2 episodes?) And this threw in many inconsistencies with the the whole narration. In the beginning we see that Hyeri is childish but stubborn character, to the point she was able to write down that she found happiness and it shouldn't be taken away only to 'reveal' later that EH, stuck in a cabin in the very forest she lost her sister and trying to be her - can't find happiness as Hyeri. So was it really DID or just depression with her coping mechanism? I can't digest that 4 years worth of trauma can be unpacked by being alone and vulnerable in just one month. If they were doing a time skip, they could have done it for a little longer, the least.

Did HO really love EH or it was just an emotional dependence because of the whole necklace scene. I am confused now to consider whether the flashbacks of their relationship where EH consistently tries to affirm whether HO really loved her, will he save her etc. really happened or was it her interpretation /POV of their conversations. Because in all of that he doesn't seem to be fully emotionally available to her. And he also unilaterally makes
decisions for her not giving her choices. He seems to acquiesce the comments and bullying she received at work about her incompetency and how she was not the perfect fit for him (he just watched it happen for 4 years and got her involved in activities that made her more troubled at work). And the fact that he didn't notice her making big mistakes post the wedding reveal is the biggest inconsistency given his 'savior good guy' mentality. Even her manager showed her more empathy asking whether she was sick at that point. And worst of all, he didn't consider her absence in the office concerning at all - that is such an inconsistent behavior from EH who accepted all the bullying, and even apologized just to continue working there. Whether or not he loved her, he couldn't bring out the level of curiosity that MJO did. That to me is the most frustrating aspect of episodes 9 and 10 and I primarily blame it on the number of episodes being low.

Atleast MJO, JY and the doctor asked the questions I was screaming at him - was he concerned about her being sick or her being sick because of the breakup. This is a fundamental question he needs to answer as it will showcase whether everything he does (including caring for his 5 grandmas) is done out of duty/savior complex or love. I hope he can at least be honest to himself despite whatever choices he make.

EH is very clear about who JY is to her. Somebody she feels deeply apologetic to and somebody who accepted her and came to her. This unfortunately also brings out another inconsistency where in the early episodes both HR and EH are clear that they need somebody who is 'rude to everyone else but just loves me' and JHO to her is clearly NOT that person. So the last couple of episodes where she 'realizing that being with HO is her happiness' feels like a bandaid at most and not the promised healing.