allkpop TV Guide: ‘To the Beautiful You’ (Episode 14)

Official Synopsis:
This drama draws on Hisaya Nakajo‘s manga series “Hana Kimi“ that was published by Hakusensha from 1996 to 2004. The Korean interpretation centers on Goo Jae Hee (Sulli), a Korean girl who live in the States, but transfers to an all-boys school in Korea.

Jae Hee decides on the transfer after watching a track and field competition on TV, and becomes inspired by high-jump athlete, Kang Tae Joon (Minho). She begins to idolize the young athlete and eventually transfers to Korea to go to the same school after he experiences an injury that may potentially end his athletic career.

However, as Tae Joon attends an all-boys high school, Jae Hee must disguise herself as a boy to enter.

Ratings:
MBC‘s ‘Arang and the Magistrate‘ (starring Lee Jun Ki and Shin Min Ah) rose almost a full point in ratings, from 11.7% to 12.5%, coming in eighth for the night.

Meanwhile, KBS‘s ‘Nice Guy‘ (starring Song Joong Ki, Moon Chae Won, and Park Si Yeon) reached a personal high, rising two points from 14% to 16% and coming in third for the night.

SBS‘s ‘To the Beautiful You‘ (starring SHINee‘s Minho and f(x)‘s Sulli) rose slightly from 4.4% to 4.8%, but still remained in last place.

Recap of Ep. 14:

Episode 13 deals with some Kang family drama and the struggle to keep Jae Hee’s identity a secret comes to a head.

At the end of episode 12, Jae Hee informs Tae Joon that his father has collapsed. He says it has nothing to do with him, and even begs Jae Hee to stop bothering him about it, but she calls a taxi anyway and gets him to come along. At the hospital, she makes him go into his dad’s room alone. Mr. Kang says he just had a dizzy spell and he’s fine, while he roots around in search of the bed remote. Tae Joon finds it without even trying, props the bed up, turns on the humidifier, and starts to leave. Mr. Kang says that he realizes Tae Joon only knows these things because he had to do all the work for Mrs. Kang, but Tae Joon says his dad can’t possibly know, leaving with the promise that he won’t be back.

Jae Hee and Tae Joon walk back to the dorms, and Tae Joon takes her hand, saying that if he doesn’t hold on to someone, he feels like he’ll be lost forever.

At high jump practice, Hyeonjae is slowly improving, while Tae Joon is a mess. Tae Joon and Hyeonjae are being weirdly friendly, considering how Hyeonjae tried to kill him in the last episode. The coach wants to know why Tae Joon is suddenly a mess- is he dating? Did something happen? Tae Joon says nothing’s wrong.

Later that night, Jae Hee watches the soccer game that Eun Gyeol is missing with Eun Gyeol. She apologizes about his ankle, but he shurgs it off. He then launches into a monologue about how she’s his best friend, but he’s starting to harbor more and more greed for her, asking why they have to both be boys. She apologizes again and says that if she disappoints him in the future, she hopes he won’t hate her. He says that he’s there for her any time she wants him.

At practice, Hyeonjae and Tae Joon are failing jump after jump. Coach Byeon tells Hyeonjae to stick around for more practice, but tells Tae Joon that he’s working to hard and that he’s banned from practicing from the rest of the day. He tells Jae Hee to take Tae Joon out to do something fun, and if Tae Joon doesn’t have fun then he, Jae Hee, and Hyeonjae are all going to be treated to a hell-like practice.

Tae Joon and Jae Hee go on their outing, wandering around a bunch of little shops and stopping for a while in a florist’s shop, taking lots of pictures. Jae Hee surprises Tae Joon by bringing him to his elementary school. As they’re wandering around, Tae Joon has a flashback to his dad picking him up from school and giving him a big hug.

After their outing, they take Sangchu for a walk. Tae Joon asks Jae Hee if she ever regrets coming to Genie, she says that seeing him jump is enough. He asks if she’ll leave once he can jump like before, and she says yes. She mentions she’s cold, and Tae Joon puts his jacket around her shoulders, leaning in to kiss her. She freezes, but then jumps back, asking if there was alcohol in the chocolate he ate earlier (it was established a long time ago that he gets drunk on even a tiny amount of alcohol, and when he’s drunk he’ll kiss anyone). He stammers yes, he thinks he’s a little drunk, faking a hiccup for effect. Jae Hee runs off to talk it over with Dr. Jang, who warns her that there are some things you just can’t hide. He says he won’t interfere, she can decide how to handle this herself.

Jae Hee decides there’s something she had to do before she seriously thinks about leaving- she needs to make sure Tae Joon and his dad reconcile. She tricks Tae Joon into having dinner with his dad, where Mr. Kang finally tells him the truth- Mrs. Kang had liver cancer, but she kept it hidden from both Mr. Kang and Tae Joon until she was far too sick to save. Once Mr. Kang knew, he decided it would be better if Tae Joon resented his father than his mother, so Mr. Kang never told him. After dinner, Tae Joon takes some time to cry over it alone.

Later, he tells Jae Hee that he and his dad are working on their relationship. He also drops this bomb:

“Don’t you know? I’m telling you now that I like you.”

Then he ruffles her hair and walks out. Out in the hall, he drops his cool exterior, collapsing against the wall and collecting himself. In the dorm, Jae Hee decides she’s going to come clean to him. She goes to take a shower.

Eun Gyeol’s been blocked out of his own bathroom by Hyeonjae, so he dashes down the hall to Tae Joon and Jae Hee’s room. Thinking the dorm is empty, he bursts into the restroom to find Jae Hee disrobing.

“You’re a girl?!”

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contagion’s Thoughts:

[ Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, not necessarily those of allkpop ]

I spent half of this episode literally shaking my head. First, there was the fact that Jae Hee is suddenly too weak to do a sit-up- did we forget that she’s a top athlete? Then, Jae Hee wonders out loud whether Tae Joon is gay with Tae Joon in the room, and he doesn’t seem to notice. Eun Gyeol somehow realizes that Jae Hee’s a girl by getting a glimpse of her shoulder and the corner of her bandages. But those were just little things. There are much bigger offenses in this episode.

There was no good reason for Mrs. Kang to keep her cancer a secret from the family. It was still treatable when she first found out. Their family could clearly afford treatment, so I don’t understand why she didn’t just get treatment- why delay it until it’s too late?

Last year, one of my best friends went through a similar situation. Her mom developed breast cancer, but she couldn’t afford treatment, so she kept it a secret from the family. Her daughters found suspicous stuff in her internet search history and confronted her about it, which is when she confessed, but by that point the cancer had metastacized. She died a few weeks later. Seeing a character turn down treatment when she could afford it and there’s no good reason to turn it down makes me so angry- they used a very real and painful situation that many people face just to give Tae Joon a reason to hate his father- an issue that is resolved in under five minutes in a flashback.

Ultimately, the whole point of the family drama is to drive Tae Joon and Jae Hee closer, and that is just not okay. I haven’t been this mad at a drama since… well, since earlier in the season when the show used an attempted rape to drive Jae Hee and Tae Joon together, with Jae Hee walking away completely unaffected and the rapist getting away.

It’s clear now that this show has no point except to get Tae Joon and Jae Hee together. We’ve already established that Jae Hee has no character traits except devotion to Tae Joon. Tae Joon’s only character traits are his hatred of his dad (which is now gone), his love for his mom (he still loves her, but that trait was mostly fuel for his hatred of his dad), and his jumping- which he only has at this point because of Jae Hee. He has his photography, too, but that’s mostly used so we can get some nice close-ups of sponsored products. Tae Joon and Jae Hee literally do not exist as characters without each other, and the show will use any means necessary- no matter how offensive= to drive the two together.

I’m pretty positive this show is officially beyond salvation. At least there are only two more episodes.

Credits: http://www.allkpop.com/2012/10/allkpop-tv-guide-to-the-beautiful-you-episode-14