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It’s amazing just how much power food has. It allows our characters to bond and get to know each other better while it allows our siblings to spend some quality time with one another every evening. You can never go wrong with food and our characters experience that first hand.

Dae Jang-geum is Watching Episode 4: You Are So (Cow) Beautiful

It’s halloween so our characters dress up for work.. except it’s just Seung-ah who’s dressed up. On her way to work, she encounters Won Bin and San-hae in their regular suits. Once they enter the elevator, Seung-ah finds herself right in front of San-hae’s face as an increasing amount of people also enter. She’s reminded of their kiss once again and can’t help but fall in love with San-hae as he hovers over her to protect her. She gushes over his face (and so do I).

In the office, Seung-ah still finds herself the only one dressed up. Manager Lee acknowledges her costume when she arrives in the office, but she’s more concerned with Won Bin’s batman costume that she had originally bought for San-hae. Lol. She returns to her office in excitement for her meeting with San-hae. Meanwhile, Seung-ah passes out some cookies she made thanks to Jung-sik’s live stream and heads to the kitchen afterwards to make her co-workers some coffee.

The paper cups are located on the top of a cupboard and is too high for Seung-ah to reach. She struggles to grab the box of paper cups, but thankfully San-hae arrives just in time to help her. He even reminds Seung-ah of the coffee orders just in case she forgot them. Before leaving, San-hae fixes Seung-ah’s costume for her, causing her heart to beat even faster and her cheeks to grow brighter. San-hae also reminds her about his jacket that she had borrowed. Hehe.

Manager Lee manages to persuade San-hae into getting lunch with her. They’ll talk about work while eating some luxurious beef at a restaurant during lunchtime. San-hae can’t deny the offer since the restaurant’s on his bucket list so he hesitantly accepts it. After the brief meeting, he heads back to his desk and finds Seung-ah struggling to print some copies. He assists her with the printer causing Seung-ah to fall in love with him even more.

Back at home, Jung-sik prepares to cook with the ingredients Mom has sent him: beef. Meanwhile, it’s finally lunch time so San-hae heads to the restaurant first. Manager Lee follows, but faints in her catwoman costume that’s a little too tight on her. She finds it difficult to breathe and falls over on the floor in her office. Won Bin finds Manager Lee in her office so he takes her to the hospital.

San-hae contacts Seung-ah to bring him his document that he was originally going to go over with Manager Lee at the restaurant. However, he’s informed by Won Bin about Manager Lee’s situation so he invites Seung-ah to have lunch with him instead when she arrives. The two eat some beef which alarms Seung-ah. Earlier that day, San-hae had warned her to never accept beef with anyone because that means there will be strings attached. What does this mean for Seung-ah and San-hae?

The two employees grill the meet and eat individually from their own grill. Seung-ah compares the taste of the beef to falling unexpectedly with a guy and suddenly finding yourself at the wedding venue with him which confuses San-hae. However, he adds that he too is falling in love, but it’s unsure whether he’s talking about the meat or about Seung-ah. It doesn’t matter though because the comments excites Seung-ah and she resumes in falling for him. Ooh, seems like Manager Lee has some competition. Haha.

San-hae describes the taste of the dish as usual and notices its extreme and delicious flavor. However, he also notices Seung-ah and recalls the moment he discovered her crying on the phone to her mother about work. He’s glad that Seung-ah seems to be much more cheerful now while eating. As for Seung-ah, she’s glad she’s getting to eat some tasty food with San-hae. All the dishes she’s eaten with him have been fulfilling and refreshing. The two continually steal looks at each other while eating. Once lunch is over, the two leave without paying since Manager Lee had already reserved and pre-paid ahead of time. Of course, Seung-ah misunderstands and assumes San-hae had paid for her.

At the convenience store, Jin-mi is visited by a trainee also preparing for her debut. Rumors that Jin-mi was kicked out of the company and is now working part-time at the convenience store was spreading so the trainee wanted to confirm for herself. Jin-mi snaps back at the girl and suggests she stop smoking since she’s going to debut. The girl leaves quickly afterwards while Jin-mi ponders about the rumors.

Jung-sik’s main ingredient for the day is beef. He prepares to make some bulgogi stew with the beef that his mom has sent him. Jung-sik teaches viewers how to cook the dish step by step and eventually finishes cooking. He shares the dish with his two siblings that evening once they return from work. Jung-sik assumes Mom sent them the beef to celebrate Jin-mi’s acceptance into a new entertainment agency. Jin-mi remains silent though and doesn’t say anything. She just resumes to eating with her two brothers.

Jin-mi then receives a notice that she failed her latest auditions. She exits the house to take a walk and to catch some fresh air. While she’s gone, San-hae warns Jung-sik to stop criticizing Jin-mi and putting her down. Meanwhile, Seung-ah continues to daydream about San-hae and all their moments together (she reminds me of when I fangirl over my idols lol).

Jin-mi goes for a walk around the neighborhood and passes by the building of the entertainment agency that had rejected her. She’s about to walk past the building when a crowd of fangirls approach two popular trainees outside of the building. Jin-mi discovers that one of them is none other than her convenience store boyfriend, Ui-jeom. The two eventually meet up at a park near the building and have a friendly conversation. Ui-jeom officially introduces himself as Min-hyuk to Jin-mi and requests to have her cook him some food. So with that, the two head to the convenience store so Jin-mi can feed Min-hyuk another small snack.

While eating Jin-mi’s special snack, Min-hyuk reveals that he’s one of the older trainees at his agency. The two eventually find out that they’re the same age so Jin-mi suggests they speak comfortably and informally to each other. Min-hyuk agrees.

Seung-ah searches for a dry cleaning store to clean San-hae’s jacket before giving it back to him. While wandering around, she comes across two drunk guys who attempts to talk to her. The three pull back and forth on the jacket as Seung-ah tries to get away from them. Jung-sik watches the scene unfold not too far away and interrupts the situation using his warm warm hands. He fights the two guys, but they’re not easy to defeat.

It ends up being Seung-ah who has to protect Jung-sik. Thanks to her athletic skills, she throws some of Jung-sik’s ingredients from the store at the two guys before running away with Jung-sik. When the two successfully escape, Jung-sik notices how they’re holding hand and grows suspicious. How is it that Seung-ah isn’t in pain even though she had held his hands while running away? Did she not feel his hand burn?

As Jung-sik takes a good look at Seung-ah’s hand, the ending statement for the episode recites:

Hand in hand, we overcome walls to make the world we live in a better place. Hand in hand, we overcome fire to become a heart that loves.  As we catch cows and moo..

My Thoughts:

Ohhhh boy. OHHHHHH BOY. I hope the drama isn’t setting us up and taking us in the direction that I’m thinking it is. When I said I wanted more of Jung-sik, I didn’t mean for a possible love line with his brother’s love interest. This is gonna get messy.

This episode was still fun, but it wasn’t as good as the last episode for me. Last episode had it all: love, tears, cooking, struggles, concerns and fears, and much more. That’s not to say that this episode didn’t have any of that, but I wished the drama gave us more on Seung-ah’s struggle with work. This episode was much more focused on the overall theme of love and relationships; there was romantic development for two (and possibly three) relationships in this drama: San-hae with Seung-ah, Jin-mi with Min-hyuk, and Jung-sik with Seung-ah (their relationships with food will always be there and mutual). I didn’t mind all the scenes of Seung-ah daydreaming and blushing over San-hae or the brief interactions between Jin-mi and Min-hyuk. I actually enjoyed it and thought it was widely adorable. However, there wasn’t much going on other than this so it was a bit shameful.

I still liked that we focused on Jin-mi and her never-ending dreams to become a celebrity. It’s something she’s always dreamed of doing and trained endlessly for. It’s unfortunate that she failed her auditions, but I also like that this gave her an opportunity to do something different and new. Working at a part-time job at the convenience store might not be the most prestigious job (especially when you were a former trainee in hopes of becoming a huge star), but it’ll be a good learning opportunity for Jin-mi. Maybe with her connections to Min-hyuk she can receive another chance at debuting with a new entertainment agency.

I really hope that Jung-sik and Seung-ah doesn’t develop a love line. I already enjoy Seung-ah’s crush towards San-hae and all the moments she gushes over him for the smallest things he does for her. Adding in Jung-sik would mess that up, but it would make things even worse because he’s San-hae’s brother. Of course, Seung-ah isn’t aware that they’re brothers and Jung-sik doesn’t know that Seung-ah and San-hae work together so Seung-ah and Jung-sik’s relationship right now is just merely that of familiar strangers. They’ve seen each other a few times before and recognize the other, but that’s pretty much all for now. I’m totally okay with them getting to know each other a little bit more and maybe it’d be cute if they became friends so that Seung-ah could go to Jung-sik for help on anything related to San-hae. However, a love triangle between the two brothers and Seung-ah wouldn’t sound so nice and that’s what I’m the most afraid of at this point in the drama.

As usual, everything else with the drama is coming along just fine. The drama has firmly established its routine and pacing: elements of San-hae and Seung-ah at work, Jung-sik’s cooking, Jin-mi at the convenience store, and lots and lots of food. While this routine could get boring over time, I’m enjoying how things are developing at this rate. A little change-up would be nice, but I wouldn’t mind this kind of pacing a few more episodes.

Bonus: Extra screenshots from this episode 🙂

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