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Hwi-roo and Seok-moo explore the divorcee life as Hwi-roo becomes more affiliated with Shi-ho. However, the two are still reminded that as much as they enjoy the separation and much-needed time to themselves, they still have to relay the news to their family members which they clearly aren’t prepared for.

Matrimonial Chaos: Episode 4 Recap

After sharing with Hwi-roo and Seok-moo her relationship issues with Seok-moo back in college, Yoo-young and Jang-hyun head back home. However, it’s clear the issue still bothers Yoo-young so she requests that she and Jang-hyun travel so that she can clear her mind. Meanwhile, listening to Yoo-young finally makes Seok-moo more aware of his actions and the impact it has on others. He checks in with Hwi-roo and is curious as to why she wanted to file for divorce with him. However, Hwi-roo doesn’t give him an answer. He doesn’t know and he doesn’t need to know the reason why.

The next morning, Hwi-roo receives an invitation from Shi-ho to go to the movies with him. Seok-moo’s strange behavior at work causes his supervisor to grow concerned. Dong-koo blames everyone at the company for Seok-moo’s strange behavior and ask that everyone treat him more nicely. Meanwhile, Ma-roo and Soo-kyung have a talk about Ma-roo’s relationship. Ma-roo explains that she didn’t love Chan-jin and started to love him less over time. She’s clearly trying to sort out her feelings, but she’s not quite so sure how to express these feelings herself.

Yoo-young and Hwi-roo come across each other at the grocery store. They eventually decide to just eat out together so they head to the local restaurant Hwi-roo frequents. There they have a brief conversation about Seok-moo. Just like the meaning of his name, Seok-moo tends to act differently and do hurtful things to others without him knowing. However, that’s just how he is and you have to learn to live with that.

Seok-moo reflects on his actions and listens to Yoo-young’s favorite song from college while reflecting. He indirectly apologizes to Yoo-young from outside her apartment. Though he doesn’t remember the exact moment Yoo-young was referring to, he feels apologetic and begs for Yoo-young’s forgiveness. Hwi-roo and Shi-ho spend some time together with a movie date. Similar to the times Hwi-roo would go on movie dates with Seok-moo, Shi-ho is late to the movies. Now she knows how Seok-moo felt all those times she was late to the movies.

After the movies, Shi-ho and Hwi-roo head to a restaurant. On the way there, she can’t seem to stop thinking about Seok-moo and makes several references about him unconsciously. Shi-ho senses that Hwi-roo has someone in her mind and the two talk it out over some drinks. Hwi-roo explains that she hates Seok-moo and can’t stand him, but she also worries about him. Speaking of Seok-moo, he spends some time alone at a park near the Han River. He’s soon joined by Yoo-young who seats herself right next to him on the set of stairs.

She apologizes for the harsh words she said about him. She also apologizes for the other time when she made hurtful comments about him while they were having dinner at her apartment. Yoo-young is embarrassed and ashamed when people talk to her about her husband; it’s a topic she constantly avoids and ignores. As for Seok-moo, he comments about how everything seems so difficult for him.

Shi-ho makes another acknowledgement about Hwi-roo’s feelings for Seok-moo. On the night he performed at the club with his band, he saw her crying while she was watching his performance. The song and the lyrics must have reminded her of Seok-moo and brought her to tears. This was what prompted Shi-ho to approach Hwi-roo though. He confidently states that he can use her to forget about Seok-moo if she wants and that it would be even better if she does forget about Seok-moo because of him.

Jang-hyun returns home after spending another night with Eun-joo. Yoo-young pretends to be asleep when he gets home and awakens a few seconds later after he enters the bedroom. He shows her a flyer of a camping tour that he and Yoo-young can embark on. Yoo-young is grateful for the opportunity and thanks her husband.

Hwi-roo finds herself in an unfamiliar room the next morning. It turns out she slept over at Shi-ho’s place after a night of drinking. She’s introduced to his two half-siblings who aren’t so happy to meet her. To break the awkward silence, Hwi-roo comments that she didn’t do anything with Shi-ho the night before. Hahaha.

Seok-moo grows upset when he finds that Hwi-roo was gone overnight. However, he has something else he should be more worried about: his hair loss. He panics upon seeing all his fallen hair on his hair brush and checks to see how big the size of the bald spot is. When Hwi-roo returns home, she also checks out his head to see what the fuss is all about. Although Seok-moo is curious where Hwi-roo was overnight, she’s more occupied with his head.

Grandma gifts Ma-roo and Soo-kyung with two tickets to an amusement park. They deserve a break after all their hard work and support at the cafe. Seok-moo will help Grandma run the cafe while they’re gone. Meanwhile, Hwi-roo receives feedback by a publishing company about the draft to her children’s book. Though the company likes the story, they ultimately reject Hwi-roo’s proposal. Hwi-roo needs to write books that tend to parental preferences and should also be more straight-forward with her messages. However, Hwi-roo argues that people should have faith in children more and also learn from them as much as they learn from adults. Good one Hwi-roo, good one.

Seok-moo visits Grandma’s cafe that evening to help her with the cafe. Jang-hyun and Grandma find his black cap suspicious so Grandma gives Seok-moo a new hat to substitute the black cap. Lol. After serving some coffee, Seok-moo has a conversation with Jang-hyun about his secret affairs. He should be more worried about Yoo-young and less occupied with other women, but Jang-hyun has a difficult time understanding what Seok-moo is inferring. Seok-moo himself is divorced, why did Seok-moo give up on his marriage? At that moment, Yoo-young enters the cafe so the two guys stop talking about their respective marriages.

When Hwi-roo returns home, she receives a sudden phone call from a real estate agency about interested customers who want to stop by to visit the apartment. Hwi-roo purposely ruins the apartment and makes it dirty so that it looks unappealing to the customers. When Seok-moo returns home from the cafe, he finds Hwi-roo sitting frozen in the living room. When he breaks her from her trance, he grows upset at the mess and tells her to not help him clean. He’ll just clean the mess up himself. Hwi-roo is apologetic and heads to her bedroom afterwards in tears.

Meanwhile, Ma-roo and Soo-kyung have some fun at the amusement park. There, they end up encountering Chan-jin so the two run as fast as they can to escape from him. After they successfully escape, the two roommates sit down in front of a fountain and make travel plans together for the future.

The day has finally come. Hwi-roo heads out for another game of curling with Grandma with the intentions of telling her about the divorce afterwards. However, Hwi-roo and Grandma end up attending a wedding together instead and they have dinner later on that evening with Seok-moo. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo try to find the right timing to reveal the bombshell to Grandma, but they struggle to even give her any hints. As the night grows darker and longer, the opportunities to tell Grandma about the divorce vanishes. Eventually, the two decide that they’ll just tell Grandma another time.

Hwi-roo heads back home first while Seok-moo stays behind with Grandma. Before she tucks herself into bed, Grandma shares with Seok-moo photos that she took at the wedding earlier that day. Grandma adds that Hwi-roo seemed so happy at the wedding and truly had a great time there.

Seok-moo feels guilty and apologetic for never having a wedding with Hwi-roo himself; that could explain for Hwi-roo’s happy behavior at the wedding she and Grandma attended. Just as Seok-moo is about to reveal to Grandma about the divorce, Grandma interrupts Seok-moo and comments that she’s glad Seok-moo has Hwi-roo in his life. Now Grandma’s not the only one taking care of him.

As Hwi-roo heads back to the apartment, she comes across a shop selling aloe vera plants. While Seok-moo originally stayed behind to tuck Grandma in to bed, he ends up being the one who falls asleep and is taken care of by Grandma instead. Aww.

Hwi-roo hands Seok-moo the aloe vera plant the next morning so he can treat his bald spot. The gift is shocking for Seok-moo and he’s quite unsure how to react to Hwi-roo’s thoughtfulness. She giggles and adds that all he has to do is just thank her for her kindness. At work, Yoo-young is visited by Eun-joo, the woman Jang-hyun is having an affair with. She asks for information about wedding dresses since her wedding is approaching in 3 months. Eun-joo also takes a look at some designs and notes that the model is none other than Jang-hyun himself who she learns is also Yoo-young’s husband.

Seok-moo passes by a music shop which triggers memories of back when he was in college and still pursing music. There was one moment in particular when he was performing with his band members and was struggling to sing because he was close to crying. Meanwhile, Hwi-roo meets Shi-ho again after finishing work. They head out for some pasta when Hwi-roo shares with Shi-ho about her divorce. Shi-ho does’t judge Hwi-roo for her decision though; marriage or divorce, the objective is all the same: happiness.

Hwi-roo decides to celebrate Shi-ho’s younger sister’s birthday with him. She visits the grocery store to buy some ingredients for the dish she’ll make for the birthday party and stops by her house to grab something. Seok-moo is curious as to where Hwi-roo is going, but she doesn’t explain much. Seok-moo is left alone at home again.

Jang-hyun listens to some music while reviewing the drawings of wedding dresses that he’s drafted. When approached by Yoo-young, he asks her if she would want a wedding. He thinks she’ll look beautiful in a wedding dress. Back at the birthday party, Hwi-roo finishes making some dishes for Shi-ho’s siblings to eat. The two quickly warm up to Hwi-roo and change their impression of her.

Hwi-roo arrives home in a good mood, but Seok-moo clearly is upset. She attempts to cheer him up by showing him some food she’s cooked and the teddy bear that Shi-ho’s sister gave her. However, Seok-moo isn’t impressed and he firmly states that he doesn’t want to eat any of the food she’s cooked at another man’s house. Though he pretends to act like he doesn’t care about Hwi-roo or where she was at, it’s obvious that he’s bothered by the fact that she was at another man’s house.

Hwi-roo has to remind Seok-moo that they could date freely. Plus, if he doesn’t care that she cooked the food at another man’s house then he could just eat the food right? However, Seok-moo disagrees with Hwi-roo and the two get into another argument. Hwi-roo grows upset at how she always has to spell everything out to Seok-moo in order for him to understand how she feels.

Seok-moo finally gives in and agrees to eat the food. Would that make Hwi-roo happy? But it doesn’t and she only grows angrier. After throwing the food to the ground, Hwi-roo admits that she was thinking about Seok-moo while cooking the food. She saved him some on purpose so that they could eat it together. Hwi-roo can’t seem to comprehend why she was so attracted to Seok-moo. She retraces the moments leading up to their relationship and all the times she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She was immediately drawn to him and wanted to share all good moments with him.

But of course, she was just being delusional and naive. That was when they were dating. Now that they’re married, things are obviously different. She just simply wanted to have a normal and happy marriage with him and to start a family with him. However, Seok-moo didn’t want to have children and never wanted to have that family with Hwi-roo like she wanted. She continued to create excuses for him though in hopes that he would change. But Seok-moo never did.

Hwi-roo admits that she’s a foolish person who’s always constantly worried about Seok-moo. She’s the only one in the marriage putting forth all the effort. Seok-moo should just admit that he doesn’t love Hwi-roo like she loves him. Seok-moo himself too is foolish and comments that he and Hwi-roo can have kids. They can finally have that family that Hwi-roo’s always wanted. But Seok-moo is naive; having kids won’t solve anything.

Hwi-roo slams all the books on the kitchen shelf to the ground before storming into her bedroom. Seok-moo stands alone in the kitchen in shock and disbelief, uncertain as to how to process everything he just saw and heard.

My Thoughts:

So no epilogue, but that’s totally fine because the ending to this episode was amazing. It was breath-taking and left me as speechless as Seok-moo was by the end of it all. Alongside the content itself and all the things the ending scene signified, I really just have to commend Bae Doo-na’s acting with that ending scene. She’s been portraying Hwi-roo effortlessly so far (and I mean it when I say effortlessly) and there are no hints or signs of weaknesses with her acting. She’s doing an amazing job as Hwi-roo and the ending scene in this episode would definitely not have been as impactful if it wasn’t for Bae Doo-na. Bae Doo-na is so charming as Hwi-roo and she really does bring the character to life.

You’re rooting for Hwi-roo and Seok-moo to get back together because you think that the two still love each other, but are just in need of a break from each other. You still want the two together because as frustrated and irritated as they are of each other, you recognize that they still have feelings for each other stemming from three years of marriage. However, we received more context and insight on why they filed for divorce in the first place. We understand a little bit more why Hwi-roo gave up on Seok-moo after trying to make things work out with him for so long.

Hwi-roo was always thinking of Seok-moo and always put his needs first before hers. The entire marriage was established around him and his wants, demands, and needs. That’s why Seok-moo lacked self-awareness and couldn’t understand the impact his actions and decisions had on their marriage. Watching that ending scene was so heart-breaking and bittersweet because Hwi-roo put up with Seok-moo for so long. She was hanging onto that last thread of hope that maybe he would change and maybe things would get better. Hwi-roo continually made excuses for him to comfort herself. That’s why it just screamed ridiculous when Seok-moo simply claimed that they could just have kids as if that was going to fix anything. It would only make things worse. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo can barely sort out their marriage issues and problems amongst themselves (they can’t even tell their families about their divorce), how can they expect to start a family where their children’s lives would be involved? Seok-moo fails to realize and recognize what the root cause of their marriage is and denies any of his mistakes or faults in their marriage. Yet, Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s marriage is failing primarily because of him.

It’s sad because you could see just how hard Hwi-roo was working to keep their marriage afloat. Small things like the aloe vera or bringing home food for him or purposely ruining the apartment so that they wouldn’t have to give it away were signs that she was still trying (also Seok-moo’s reaction to the aloe vera plant was heart-breaking because it was a sign that he was finally gaining more awareness about the role he plays in his marriage). However, Seok-moo picked out the things about Hwi-roo that he disliked instead of thanking Hwi-roo and thinking about things from her perspective. Sure, maybe she cooked the food at another man’s house, but she ultimately wanted to eat it and spend the rest of the night with Seok-moo. Seok-moo didn’t think about the situation from that perspective though and instead nitpicked at other details. He wanted the divorce with Hwi-roo and even established rules with her then got angry when she followed those rules and practiced some sense of independence. It seems like Seok-moo himself doesn’t really know what he wants even though he acts like he does.

This episode also truly proved to us just how big of a role Grandma plays in both Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s life. Grandma was the first family member that the two prepared to tell about the divorce whereas not as much effort was needed to tell others about the divorce. Whether it was Yoo-young, Shi-ho, or Ma-roo, Seok-moo and Hwi-roo had no trouble revealing to them about their relationship status. But things are different with Grandma and you can sense just how nervous and scared Hwi-roo and Seok-moo was to tell her. They obviously love Grandma and has many memories and ties with her that they’re afraid to break and aren’t prepared to let go of. It doesn’t help that Grandma has warm thoughts about Hwi-roo and Seok-moo and assumes they’re in a happy marriage. Just imagine how heart-broken she’s going to be when she finds out the truth 😦

Seok-moo and Hwi-roo are obviously engaging in a game of tug-of-war. In between all the small bickering and arguments fueled by jealousy and frustration, Seok-moo and Hwi-roo care for each other at the end of the day. They just have trouble expressing themselves because the way that they show their love and care for each other differs and doesn’t meet the needs that the other has. However, that’ll be the hard part that two will have to learn to face and overcome. People show their love for their partners in different ways. Instead of complaining about how they’re showing this love, Seok-moo and Hwi-roo should be thinking about why they still love each other despite having gotten a divorce.

Bonus: Extra screenshots from the episode 🙂

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