porkman

That's a new one lol

Great points, though actually the real Hyeri wasn't a teen, she was an adult (university graduate) when she went missing. She just had the spirit and maturity of a teenager, which is actually not that uncommon among younger adults.

On the other hand, Eunho was a parental figure for Hyeri since she was a young child, she was mature beyond her years and seemed quite tired/fed up of her responsibilities and her sister clinging to her. The more childish and playful side of her only came out when she was with Hyeonoh -- the only person she could fully depend on. Her clingyness and rather obsessive behaviour towards him was a compensation for the childhood she lost. After the breakup, that side of her disappeared.

So I interpreted the Hyeri alter ego as the part of her that she "lost" or forgot about, and she wants it back. She had forgotten how it was like to have a young and carefree heart, so it makes perfect sense to me that her mannerisms and "happiness" seem rather odd or unnatural. For instance, since she so desperately wants to be happy, when she's "Hyeri", she repeatedly mumbles to herself that she's happy.

I believe you're right, next episode will be his narrative as hinted in the preview. Unfortunately I can't say I'm all that interested in his backstory with his grandmas. Honestly, the scenes without the FL range from less interesting to boring me to tears lmao. I don't know if I even care about the 2FL and her deal with the announcers/director. The most intriguing thing about this drama is still the DID and the personalities coexisting in one body. Hope the writers don't forget that.

This drama is definitely making some unusual choices. Episode 5 was almost entirely drawing parallels between the past and present relationship between EH and HO, completely doing away with the DID symptoms, signalling EH's emotional stability when she is with HO. The episode conveys a very simple message, you can't rekindle old love when you didn't resolve the problems you had in the first place.

Now, I really wonder what the end goal of this drama is. Is it about addressing toxic relationships, healing from past trauma, the personalities communicating with each other or elaborating on how mental illness hurts those around you? Because there's actually so much going on and instead of things starting to get resolved, we're still at the point where the problems are piling up one by one.

I believe his character was created to be somewhat of a reflection of Eunho. If you see beyond his calm demeanour, he is actually too emotionally reliant on Hyeri, just like Eunho was towards Hyunoh. I am expecting him to go into a full mental breakdown when he eventually grasps the fact that Hyeri doesn't exist. I predict that Eunho is also going to have a hard time dealing with the fact that she inadvertently hurt someone who's had very similar experiences as herself. Which will add on to her already overwhelming guilt, and worsen her symptoms.

So, the current episodes are actually the calm before the eventual emotional whirlwind that's going to happen.

Entertaining as the show is now, I feel like the upcoming romance will change things. I think I will prefer it to be a very small subplot.

100% agree on the happiness part. Basically, Hyeri is a manifestation of the idea, "If I live like how my sister would, will that make me happy?" or perhaps "If I created a new personality similar to my sister's, would that lessen my pain?" The actual impact of doing this on Eunho is much rather the opposite. Many scenes have shown, again and again, that Eunho is getting increasingly miserable as her DID symptoms worsen.

That would be a huge stretch and kinda defeats the purpose of the mental health premise. I would much rather see a story of Eun-ho truly coming to terms with her sister's (likely) death, and learning to live with the pain.

Yeah, he tends to look intimidating by default.

The elevator scene could have actually been effective if we saw him look concerned/sorry for her, or him unable to hide his feelings anymore, anything really. But he was really just a stone lmao. Coupled with SHS who is very expressive, there was a pretty big acting mismatch.

Unless they actively want us to dislike the ML, idt he should be portrayed as a seemingly heartless person. From a writer's perspective, we should have mixed feelings towards him at the start and grow to like him as we find out more. Disliking him from the start isn't very ideal lol.

Honestly, I feel like a lot of the dislike of Hyun-oh here stems from LJW's acting. Sure, the character isn't written to be as terribly likeable as Ju-yeon, but he isn't delivering much complexity, hidden love or even sympathy for Eun-ho. His eyes are blank half of the time. I just don't think he's fit as a romantic lead.

Your english is fine btw, no worries.

That's a lot of symbolism going on lol. But your theories actually make perfect sense. I'm convinced that you're on the same page as the writer about the ocean representing the mind. That could mean that the "drowning" she was referring to, meant her "losing" her original self. Then it might really mean that she was aware of her Hyeri personality within herself throughout the years. And she was constantly asking him that question, in hopes that he will notice her DID and that he would save her from succumbing to it if the time came.

The ep 3 preview shows Eunho telling him after he comes to save her from the truck, "even if I die, don't come". I wonder if she actually means: "Even if the real me disappears, don't come looking for me." It's almost like she's contemplating... a sxxcide of her actual personality. That's some dark territory there.

Unfortunately, idk much about psychology to have a proper discussion but logically yes, the Hyeri personality is still a part of Eunho. Everything that the Hyeri alter says and does, comes from Eunho's mind. Her sense of identity and memories can be fabricated or designed, but she technically has nothing to do with the real Hyeri. At most, she's an imitation of her.

I don't know if Hyeri was dormant or dead inside Eunho (if we follow the logic that Eunho developed DID at the age of 9), or if the Hyeri alter was a recent thing. I'm leaning towards it's recent because I think it's the breakup that triggered the Hyeri personality to start manifesting. During their relationship, Eunho keeps asking her boyfriend if he will save her from the sea, even though she can swim. I am sure this is some kind of foreshadowing. She has the ability to save herself, but it's too painful. In a way, living in an alternate personality is a sort of escapism from reality.

Anyway, it's nice to discuss some insights with you here.

These characters are making me barf. Where's Justitia when you need her?

After some reading, DID patients' alters that are based on real people in their lives are known as introjections. It's quite interesting. The patient might have found characteristic(s) of the person to be of value in getting them through their situation, and creates an "interpretation" of the person. The introjection may or may not have memories of the real person (obtained from the patient). However, the Hyeri alter is not aware of Eunho as a person - which means she does not have the real Hyeri's memories, or she only has some of them. She thinks she has a scar on her arm, but it is not clear if she remembers how she got it.

The real Hyeri probably had similar traits to her alter - I suspect, possibly being on the autism spectrum. She might have been socially awkward and introverted, making her reliant on Eunho as a guardian. That's why Eunho especially blames herself for her disappearance.

It's not completely accurate. It gets some things about it right, but there's at least one detail that is wrong. Though at least it doesn't paint DID in a bad light like many movies/shows, and has a "neutral" stance about it.

"I wonder where my dad is."
"In the cemetery, of course."
Girl 😂

"Hey Miyeon, unfortunately I'm locked in the freezer truck and you have to open the door for me", "What's that, you ask? That's right, it's a dead body." Then proceeds to rant to herself about how the ten minute appearance of her photo on TV was not worth it. Priorities! 😂

I like your analysis. I didn't think much about the flickering light, but now I think it might develop into some sort of trigger for the switch, if her condition worsens in the future (which I believe it already is). I wonder if what's being shown to us is actually missing some events, or is partially false. Eunho and Hyeri may not be very reliable narrators, and this story is largely being told from their POV.

Based on the information so far, I think Hyeri might be a projection of what Eunho perceives to be a happy life. She feels guilty and indebted to the real Hyeri who disappeared, and the DID may be a coping mechanism that gives Eunho some (false) reassurance that her sister is living happily wherever she is. Eunho definitely knows of her condition, which explains why she visited the therapist months ago. Eunho is also aware of when she will switch personalities, so she deliberately lives on 2 separate floors of the apartment, hers on the upper floor and Hyeri's on the lower one. She enters Hyeri's floor for her to wake up as Hyeri, and seems to want to hide herself from Hyeri. She's condoning the existence of her Hyeri personality because it's making life more tolerable for her, but it's a very unsustainable way of living and her mind's gonna go haywire sooner or later. The point where Hyeri finds out that she's Eunho, is the starting point of this.

It's quite unrealistic, but I like this premise.