Sons of Sol Pharmacy, Episode 53

Only two episodes left...and the writers fool us! Episode 52 closed with Daepoong kissing Bokshil, and I was sure this meant that Episode 53 would be a wedding episode. No, instead Episode 53 starts with Daepoong leaving the Director's house, tripping and falling as soon as he leaves the gate to go to Jaejudo where he has to give the Director's talk (since the Director is in the hospital with his heart condition).

Daepoong calls his father from the airport to apologize, to say that it didn't work out. His father says he's pretty much a loser. Daepoong replies that he and Bokshil were able to tell each other they loved each other but that Bokshil will be leaving on the 3 o'clock flight to the U.S.

Next scene is back in the Song household where the mother and Soojin are washing dishes with Soojin eyeing the mother. Finally, the mother says, "Why do you keep looking at me?" Soojin says she isn't.

The mother replies: I know you want to go to your brother's to take your niece and nephew to kindergarten. You should live your life the way you want to and not worry about me. Otherwise, everyone will think I am a bad mother-in-law.

In the midst of this, Jinpoong comes in the kitchen and asks if there's a problem. Soojin says no, but the mother replies, Yes, yes there is a problem. And then she says that she's scolding Soojin and is Jinpoong going to get in the middle of it. Jinpoong says no, but can't she scold Soojin gently gently gently...and the mother says "Gently! Do you want a scolding too?"

Soo Jin and Jinpoong go off to Brutus' house where Brutus is suffering from a flu.

In the meantime, back at the Song household, the father finally tells the mother that he had sent Daepoong to "hold onto" Bokshil but Daepoong has failed at that too (it's quite funny because the father says to the mother "Why else do you think I sent my cute son away?") The mother replies that it's not a matter of "holding on" but of fate. And then she tells the father her exchange with Soojin and how much stress she feels because of Soojin and her brother, that when she sees Brutus he's so shabby and pitiful as a widower.

At the airport, Bokshil shows up to meet Hyunwoo, but without her luggage...with this enticing bit we are moved quickly to the next scene at the hospital where the Director has gotten through his heart surgery successfully.

Mipoong meets Yongcheol at the bus station; Yongcheol has taken a furlough upon getting a call from Mipoong that Soohee left with Hana. Yongcheol looks for Soohee at all the places Mipoong has already looked, and realizing it's futile, they end up at a pochangmacha and drink soju. Yongcheol regretfully says that he should never have burdened Mipoong with Soohee and Hana and then....His voice dies down and Mipoong yells, and what, and then what! Mipoong tells Yongcheol that he's not even as mature as Hana, to think that he and Soohee would use the situation to date. He asks Yongcheol if he even knows what it is to be a dad, to put Soohee and Hana in a house with strangers where they aren't comfortable and then accuse Soohee of such wrongdoing that she was forced to leave. Yongcheol apologizes and tries to call Soohee.

Brutus' flu is quite bad so Soojin and Jinpoong plan to spend the night taking care of Brutus and the children. Soojin calls the Song household to let the mother know, and even the mother says it's okay, she snaps at her husband.

Bokshil returns to the hospital and the Director wakes up when Bokshil caresses his face. He asks what woman would be touching the face of an old man? Bokshil replies, It's me. Bokshil tells her father that she didn't fly to America because he told her that she should cherish the things that are important to her. He tells Bokshil that she's a better person than him. Then, he says, "This weekend, should we eat the Bolognese pasta you like so much?"

There's a brief glimpse of Daepoong on the back of a truck, riding with a glum look on his face. Then we see the Song father walking in the neigborhood with a soliloquoy on autumn, on Bokshil flying off into the autumn sky and Daepoong taking a cross-country trip across the countryside to mend his broken heart. The father goes on further to say how the mother says it was okay for Soojin and Jinpoong to say at Brutus but she's upset and how life is hard and tiring.

At the Sol Pharmacy, the Director walks in and asks about the pediatric clinic. Jinpoong says, "Well, yes there was one, but my brother ran into the ground...anyways, it doesn't exist anymore and he works for a large hospital." At this point, Jinpoong's father enters the pharmacy because of a problem with his eye. As soon as he sees the Director, the music switches to a Western duel sort of theme. Jinpoong's father asks the Director why he's loitering at the pharmacy. The Director replies that he's having his drink. Jinpoong's father mutters "Unlucky fellow." Jinpoong returns with the medicine for his father's eye at which point his father farts, right in the Director's direction. Then the father murmurs to himself "He really is an unlucky fellow. I had bean paste soup for lunch."

Chased out by the smell, the Director leaves the shop and is walking back to his car when he runs into Eunji's father. It turns out that the two of them went to college together, that the Director is a past alumni association president while Eunji's father is the current alumni association president. Eunji's father invites the Director for drinks and grilled meat at a neigborhood place, and saying there's a friend he would like the Director to meet: the Song father, of course! After a few drinks, the Director asks his chauffeur to bring a special drink, the best whiskey from France: Marie Antoinette.

All this makes the Song father even more suspicious. Walking back with Eunji's father, he says he even dislikes the Director's "bathhouse" voice (it is a very pronounced baritone). The Director, in the meantime, is laughing in his car. He asks his chauffeur what he thinks of Daepoong. When the chauffeur says he thinks Daepoong is a nice young man, the Director laughingly says that Daepoong takes after his father.

At Eunji's house, a piercing scream interrupts Sunpoong and his mother-in-law painting away happily: Eunji is pregnant and very very upset!

The Song grandfather convinces Brutus and Miran to meet him at a restaurant, unbeknownst to each other in an attempt to set them up. Eyeing each other, the two have simultaneous thoughts through their respective minds: "Can it be?" "No" "Oh no" "Oh my god, Jesus Christ!"

Returning home, Miran cries to her aunt that the grandfather set her up with a widower. Brutus returns home to find Soojin and Jinpoong helping the children with their homework and is too abashed to say anything to them. However, when Soojin returns to the Song household she sees Miran in the kitchen who blurts out everything about being set up on a blind date with Soojin's brother who is a widower and has two children. Soojin goes to cry in her room.

The mother asks her husband and the grandfather if they should let Soojin and Jinpoong live with Brutus. She tells her husband and the grandfather that she feels confused and conflicted, that she feels badly for Soojin and for Brutus.

While stepping out into the courtyard after this conversation, the door opens: it's Bokshil.

Next frame, we are shown Daepoong returning home after his long cross-country trip to forget Bokshil. Except that Bokshil has taken up residence in his home. Great mirroring of plot!