lmangla

Caught up on all the episodes. For once, I love the leads and find even the side characters interesting. No one is annoying me so far!!! Yay!
The music is so creepy -- worthy to be in a crime drama but then again, for a daily, this drama already seems quite dark!

Basically this is like the ML in Cinderella Game where everyone else was out acting him in every aspect that they took over the drama.

Na Young Hee did a great job in Cinderella game as chairwoman. She was complex with good and bad decisions and her journey felt believable even if you wanted to chew her out. Hope she wins an award!

See the preview and ending of today's episode. She sees photo of DoHee in Boram's photo album. So yea, she knows now. We see her with suitcase talking to Dr and it looked like she came back to the house. I was like WHAT???????????

I thought Hana in Cinderella Game was bad but JaeIn is seriously missing some brains. For all she knows at the moment is that Ms Choi killed DoHee. Have the decency and move out. Instead, she is essentially a leech and staying in that house where the daughter was killed by her mother. The gall!!!! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
I really hope the preview is misleading because it makes JaeIn look like an awful human being

Based on the ending of today's episode and preview, JaeIn finds out who DoHee is and instead of moving out, she is sitting in the room crying. I am sorry, what????? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

It really sounds like makjang drama come to life! And vodoo in the mix too. Wow!

Most likely, other people will end up doing all the hard work for revenge while she will take the credit like she actually did something.

wait, what?????????? your little sister slept your brother-in-law? and then what happened?

Sure, we can agree to disagree. :)

I think this drama is ultimately about hubris, resentment, entitlement and tons of secrets. I am enjoying the writer showing JaeIn as ineffective FL. It makes it more interesting. So far, I am not expecting much more JaeIn based on what is written.

I have seen tons of dailys over the years where the FL ends up not doing much and it is actually the side characters who actually solve the issue with the villains. That is why I find Aunt particularly interesting and I like the way her character is being written. This is a thinking woman even if you disagree with her decisions.

It is also possible that the writer has JaeIn actually grow and show leadership capabilities to defeat GiChan but as of now, I am doubting that.

Ultimately, this is a soap opera and I want to know what are the motivations behind Seri, GiChan,

I don't think this is just about greed or power or selfishness. Here, the motivations behind each character's decisions is far more complex and it is very often driven by resentment. Now, this is why I think there are secrets which might change the way we view some characters. Resentment cannot happen overnight but instead it looks like insidious weed and it is based on actions where someone did it intentionally or unintentionally.

Let's see. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this daily does not become like some of the others which start out strong and then limps into unbearable nonsense. So far the writing is good and I like the notes of real world logic that I can get behind.

SeungWoo made that decision on his own. He wasn't coerced. He has been plainly told by Ms Choi repeatedly that he is not her son and she will ensure that she pushes him out. He had hope but her words confirmed it. So far, JaeIn has done nothing to show that she can move independently outside her mother. So she is a puppet. It takes courage to make a decision when you are emotionally tied to that person. So yes, he does have a spine.

So when it comes to succession battles in the real world, it does have very soap opera elements and it is entertaining for me to see the writer borrow and inject these notes.

No placeholder CEO is ever a puppet because none of them have a personality for it. So it would not be possible to find a puppet CEO. By nature, it is the sharks who rise up the corporate ladder and any CEO has ambition in spades. It is very common that these placeholder CEOs will fight back against the family to keep their place because they want to build their own legacy and so on. It then boils down to shareholder profit and annual performance.

If the CEO can show they are great, they will keep running the company while the family only has presence at the board. However, if the CEO falters and makes decisions that affect the company's performance, the family will then take the opportunity to quietly oust the CEO through shareholders. In order for them to do that, they do need to retain control over profit distribution and leadership appointment.

If they have not retained those rights or sold off their shares, then the original family becomes more or less like a glorified investors but don't have pull to influence how the company is run. This is how it plays out in the real world of business soap operas. That is why I said it is brilliant that Aunt had enough foresight to ensure the company still retains control even if they have a placeholder CEO.

Unlike other dailys where the boardroom stuff is blah, I totally enjoyed this shareholder meeting shenanigans and Aunt's role in this. It was cool, calculated and like dominoes effect, Ms Choi continues to create havoc. So JaeIn has not demonstrated that she is capable of being an independent woman who can make decisions outside of Ms Choi. She continues to be Ms Choi's puppet and enmeshed toy.

This is why SeungWoo tips over when he hears how Ms Choi talks about him. His decision to vote against JaeIn is not just about protecting his interest but also asserting that he is a Kang (even if he is supposed to be illegitimate) and he has a right to sit at that table.

SeungWoo showed a lot of spine when he told JaeIn that he is capable of making independent decision that suits him. So he did. While he feels emotional, he also understands the power of his inheritance and he is not making rash moves.

I thought it was interesting that Aunt warned JaeIn not to take advantage of SeungWoo. Aunt is giving real life world lessons. It was JaeIn who decided to liquidate her assets and it is also her decision to keep the shares. So she needs to fend for herself. Also, given the way Aunt and SeungWoo voted, they cannot stay together anyway.

Aunt is making choices for the business as she asserts to JaeIn that chairman was first her brother before he came JaeIn's father. Her loyalty is to her brother and father who built the business and she wants to make sure the company does not collapse because of JaeIn's incompetence.

It is actually a brilliant move on her part to negotiate with GiChan about profit distribution and right to nominate leadership. She then becomes a very powerful shareholder as well as board member -- she will get to control things and rein in decisions if things get well out of hand. Her goal is to protect the company and she is keeping the keys to do that.

For those wondering why I say it is brilliant, this is typical move by business families to keep the keys while they hire a management CEO to lead as a placeholder. So I appreciate the writer taking cues from real world and keeping the drama onboard.

The only thing I disliked in this episode is Dr taking JaeIn to his house. The man needs to decide whether he hates her or likes her. This kind of waffling is strange. It will be very problematic when they all find out it is JaeIn and everyone is going to be upset. If Dr had some sense, he would openly say who she is to his family.

So in business families, it is always easier to kick out the outsider -- the CEO appointed by management than the family member who has gotten the seat due to bloodline. There are always issues with shares and people making decisions out of emotional loyalty and successions can get very messy.

So often in many companies, they will put in a placeholder where they hire someone like a banker or some industry insider to lead and the person is not expected to lead the company for decades.

Instead, their job is to hold the fort till someone from the family can take over. In most instances, the outsider will get a golden handshake and move on to another company. Even if they want to stay, the family will close ranks around the shareholders and the outsider CEO will get ousted. That is the kind of thinking Aunt is coming with here.

hahahha... actually train wrecks can be very fun to watch with the right crowd. :)

That said, the progress I want to see most with JaeIn is to have a healthy, independent mind and relationship that is away from her mother. She is completely enmeshed and their relationship is toxic to the point that it has impacted every area of her life.

Ms Choi will pretty much hate anyone JaeIn gets with and will always try to spoil that relationship. Instead of putting boundaries, JaeIn passively watched it happen in her first marriage and then was shocked to find that GiChan actually hates her.

However, as Dr pointed out, if GiChan was willing to hospitalize JaeIn, then the feelings left long ago. Instead, there was resentment and more. So unless JaeIn learns how to put boundaries and really observe how folks are doing, she will not grow.

Her reading people needs to come from a place of humility and not entitlement or spite. Then only she will have truly grown -- hopefully we will see that in this drama. There are some dailys where the FLs never actually learn from their mistakes and continue to be idiots till the end.

That is how guardianship works though -- hospitals will not entertain every relative who shows up and asks about the patient. Instead, they will only report the prognosis to the guardian. In many instances, only one person is allowed into ICU for visitation and they don't allow anyone else to visit. So relatives not being allowed to visit does happen in hospital settings. It is actually quite common.

In the real world, extended relatives will not have access to doctors and due to patient-doctor confidentiality laws, in many countries, doctors won't tell anyone else other than the guardian about the prognosis. So it isn't a stretch from a drama's perspective that Aunt just took GiChan at his word. She had no reason to override his guardianship.

"I think there ARE kind people without any friends. It just so happens :)" -- that is a really interesting comment and one has to ask why that happens. I see lots of online posts from young people who are struggling to make friends and they say that they are good but people don't seem to like them or even resent them. So it would be an interesting question to ponder on as we watch the drama and see if the writer has ideas towards why and how that happens.

If people are convincing with how the answers are given, people will tend to hold their concerns because they don't want to interfere into another person's private matter. It happens all the time in the real world where you are not aware of all the details and you feel something is off, you ask questions and everything seems okay and they retreat. Only later, they come to know that their intuition was right after the crime happened and hit the news.

It depends on the hospitalization but in some severe mental health cases, only the guardian would have access to the patient and none of the other relatives are even allowed to visit or consult. I was reading a Reddit post where wife was not allowed to even visit the husband because the doctor deemed the husband too volatile and self-harm tendencies. Instead, only his parents were allowed access because he would react violently at the sight of wife. So these kind of issues do happen and in that sense, it is not surprising that Aunt did not check up on JaeIn personally. Instead, she relied on GiChan because he was the husband.

JaeIn becoming homeless is essentially a result of her own actions. Who sells a house without making sure you have a place to move into? Did she ask what would happen to SeungWoo or Aunt if she sells the house? JaeIn is not thinking.

So if everyone is going their own way and making decisions for themselves, then JaeIn needs to do it alone because she certainly isn't thinking of others and how her actions effect them.

As for aunt's relationship with GiChan, she is cautious. She is consistently asking questions and he is giving her well-thought logical practical answers. So while she may not agree 100%, she is not like Ms Choi who is going to poke her nose in unnecessarily. She respects people's spaces. Ultimately, she is the true business woman and she should be leading the company and not JaeIn.

His actions will lead him to losing what he gained. But at this point, he has proven himself at work. JaeIn does not have a leg to stand on other than her being a Kang.

However, this is a publicly traded company that has gone through turmoil with recent events. GiChan was the one leading as temporary chairman during this time. So he has proved himself as well as through the years before.

So shareholders are going to vote for who can lead the company, make money and protect their investment. JaeIn is woefully unprepared for that. It would be fine if she could admit it but like Ms Choi, she thinks she is entitled to that position just because of her bloodline. That is a problem when she does not have enough experience or track record or frankly any common sense or ability to read people or make clear decisions with any foresight. She does not have the qualities needed to be chairman and lead a company where so many employees depend for their livelihood.

So from a business perspective, she needed that knock on her head.