Who knew that a fun camping trip would help our divorced couple realize a few things about each other? Seok-moo and Hwi-roo’s emotions and feelings for each other are put to the test when they finally embark on an adventure together for the first time in their 3-year relationship.
Matrimonial Chaos: Episode 7 Recap
Our group of women have some fun by dancing outside in the rain. They stop once they witness Jang-hyun and Seok-moo staring at them from far away and run towards the two guys. Everyone convenes in Grandma’s cafe and they discuss about Seok-moo and Hwi-roo’s divorce. Hwi-roo once again brings up Seok-moo’s habit of only focusing on himself and caring about what he wants or likes. Seok-moo admits that he was wrong, but he had his reasons for acting so selfishly. He was in a dark place and was scared that he was going to pull Hwi-roo into the dark place with him which is why he distanced himself from her.
At that moment, Jang-hyun suggests that they go camping together to make amends. Seok-moo isn’t so opened to the idea, but Grandma advocates for the camping trip. Since Hwi-roo and Seok-moo weren’t able to go on a honeymoon, they can go on a ‘divorcemoon’ with this camping trip. Haha. The next day, Hwi-roo helps trim Grandma’s hair. Grandma apologizes to Hwi-roo for not noticing earlier about Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s relationship issues; it must have been difficult for Hwi-roo to live with someone she had already split up with.
Hwi-roo breaks down into tears upon hearing Grandma’s apology. Grandma adds that just like with the history between canned food and the can opener, precious things sometimes arrive late in life. Hwi-roo later on attempts to communicate the same story with Seok-moo at home, but he misunderstands and has trouble understanding Hwi-roo. Hahaha.
So Jang-hyun, Hwi-roo, Seok-moo, and Yoo-young all embark on a road trip together. Seok-moo doesn’t seem to enjoy it so far, but the rest are liking the idea of the road trip. Back at Grandma’s cafe, Ma-roo and Soo-kyung have a talk with each other about the camping trip. Just then, they’re interrupted by a surprise visit from one of Soo-kyung’s friends, Sun-hee. Ma-roo watches carefully as the two friends catch up with each other at a table in the cafe.
Our quartet finally arrive at their camping destination. As Jang-hyun and Seok-moo cook some stew and have a talk about their respective relationships, Hwi-roo and Yoo-young go on a walk. Seok-moo comments that divorce life is not exactly what you think it is; it doesn’t guarantee you freedom and there are still problems when you get divorced. As for Jang-hyun, he comments that he’s not a free spirit like Seok-moo thinks he is. Hwi-roo and Yoo-young also talk about their relationships. Yoo-young isn’t planning on registering her marriage; both she and Jang-hyun are content with how their relationship is currently. Hwi-roo herself still seems to have feelings for Seok-moo even after the divorce.
Grandma takes care of Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s two cats back at the apartment and helps clean up their place. While looking around, she comes across the family portrait of Hwi-roo’s family with Seok-moo’s family. Grandma is reminded of the time when Seok-moo first introduced Hwi-roo to her. Times were much happier back then; is letting go of Hwi-roo the right decision for Seok-moo? Just then, a real estate salesman and a couple enter the house to take a tour of the place. Grandma ends up turning them away, claiming that she’ll buy the house instead.
Seok-moo and Yoo-young head out to do some grocery shopping at the marketplace. One of the vendors mistaken them as a married couple. Hwi-roo and Jang-hyun stay behind and have a talk about marriage. Jang-hyun views marriage as a simple thing: if you love each other then that means you’re happy and you can make each other happy. If you’re not happy, that means you’re miserable and obviously not in love. In regards to Yoo-young and Seok-moo, Jang-hyun isn’t jealous of the two spending time with each other. There’s a reason why things ended between them back in college.
Dong-koo visits Mi-ri at work. She decides to set things straight with him to clear any misunderstandings. She has feelings for Seok-moo, not Dong-koo like Dong-koo had originally thought. Since Seok-moo rejected her, she’s unsure as to whether she should keep going after him or just stop. Dong-koo breaks down into tears upon hearing the truth and even cries while at work. Aww, poor guy.
With the help of Hwi-roo, Seok-moo manages to successfully put up the tent. To decide who gets to sleep where, the two couples battle it out against one another in a series of competitions and games. Hwi-roo’s athletic nature comes in handy during the first few games, but Seok-moo’s clumsiness holds them back from winning against the other couple. Haha. While Seok-moo is at camp, his sister Seok-young grabs dinner with her husband and some friends. They’re genuinely curious about Seok-young’s reason for marrying her husband, but she doesn’t answer their question.
When the two arrive home, Seok-young seems upset and frustrated. However, just like all the other times, she doesn’t tell Mom the reason why. Back at the camp, our quartet all gather around the campfire. A newly married couple near them approach the four and ask to have some new wine that they recently bought together. They accept the offer and sit around the campfire with the newlyweds. After taking a wild guess, Seok-moo and Yoo-young are assumed to be a married couple while Hwi-roo and Jang-hyun are the other married couple. Hwi-roo speaks first about Jang-hyun, saying that he’s a quiet man who doesn’t show much emotions. However, it’s obvious that he’s in love. Yoo-young then speaks about Seok-moo and states that he’s an honest and sensitive man and carries more burdens than people think. It feels comfortable to be around him.
When they finish drinking the wine, Jang-hyun and Yoo-young lay down on the bed together in the trailer while Seok-moo and Hwi-roo head out for a walk. Hwi-roo can’t stop thinking about the way that Yoo-young was describing Seok-moo just moments earlier; she seems a bit jealous over that moment. Seok-moo hands Hwi-roo a jacket to keep her warm before tracing after Hwi-roo again. Hwi-roo spots a few huge balloons floating in the air and grabs onto the string to pull it down to her. As she pulls on the strings, she comments about how everyone can see the balloon, but she can’t for some reason. Seok-moo can’t seem to quite understand what Hwi-roo is referring to.
Ma-roo asks Soo-kyung questions about her friend Sun-hee who Soo-kyung met up with the other day. Soo-kyung calmly claims that they met through church when they were younger. Ma-roo has plans of finding someone new as well. She’s going on another blind date. Soo-kyung fails to show any emotions to the news; instead, she quickly runs to the bathroom hovering over in pain.
Seok-moo and Hwi-roo wake up after a cold night of sleeping in the tent. Seok-moo unfortunately catches a cold so Yoo-young hands him some tea to care after him. Hwi-roo grows jealous, but she also has her own tactics in making Seok-moo jealous as well. Shi-ho calls Hwi-roo right at that moment so she picks up and purposely speaks to Shi-ho in a sweet way to make Seok-moo jealous. Shi-ho quickly picks up on Hwi-roo’s tactics and hangs up not too long after.
On her blind date, Ma-roo can’t seem to stop talking about Soo-kyung. To change subjects and locations, Ma-roo and her blind date head out to eat some noodles afterwards. Ma-roo’s blind date is impressed with her, claiming that she doesn’t judge him like all his past blind dates did. She was being tested by him this entire time. Unlike the blind date, Ma-roo walks off unimpressed and upset with how he was testing her the entire time. Who is he to be testing her? Soo-kyung listens to Ma-roo rant after the blind date, but just like before, she walks off in pain over a stomachache.
Our quartet head back home from camping. On their way back, Jang-hyun suggests they stop by a hotel so Seok-moo can rest since he’s sick. He also randomly asks Seok-moo what the most difficult part about divorce was. While Seok-moo thinks it was privacy, Hwi-roo comments family. No one except Grandma and Ma-roo knows about their divorce yet. Yoo-young notes that you can’t choose family, but can you choose your spouse who eventually becomes your family?
At the hotel, Hwi-roo has some fun relaxing in her bubble bath. She’s never tried anything like this before since her and Seok-moo’s never gone on a trip. Meanwhile, Jang-hyun gets on his knees and begs Yoo-young for forgiveness; he wants Yoo-young to fill out their marriage registration form when they get back home. Yoo-young happily accepts and the two share the news with Seok-moo and Hwi-roo. They also ask the divorced couple to be their witnesses once they file their marriage. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo are a little hesitant and uncertain if they want to become witnesses, but Yoo-young and Jang-hyun are fine with it. Back in their hotel room, Jang-hyun asks if Yoo-young’s truly happy.
As for Hwi-roo and Seok-moo, she once again points out the difference in the way that Seok-moo treats her and Yoo-young. It’s obvious he still cares for Yoo-young which Seok-moo doesn’t deny. He’s worried about whether Jang-hyun will cheat on Yoo-young even after they register their marriage. Why is Seok-moo so worried about her, but never feels the same way about Hwi-roo? Hwi-roo wishes to just be loved by Seok-moo; to be put first by him at times. She sheds a few tears thinking about the word ‘love’ and what it means to her.
The next morning, Hwi-roo wakes up and finds herself naked on the bed. She quickly puts on her clothes and recalls the horrible dream she had. She dreamt of her making out with a drunk Seok-moo at their hotel room the night before and is relieved when she assumes it’s just a dream. However, contrary to her beliefs, she recalls the moments the night before when she and Seok-moo did end up kissing each other on the bed. Her dream wasn’t a dream after all.
Hwi-roo turns around to stare at a naked Seok-moo lying on the bed. He also assumes that their make-out session the night before was a dream, but she reiterates that it wasn’t a dream. They really made love with each other the night before.
My Thoughts:
Hahaha, talk about the common phrase ‘dreams come true!’. Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s dream eventually came true and they found themselves expressing their desperate love and feelings of yearning for each other. If their camping trip taught them anything, it taught them that they want each other more than ever. The divorce only brought them closer to each other and made the two realize just how much they yearn for the other. The camping trip was supposed to be a ‘divorcemoon’ for the couple, but it seems like it was a honeymoon for them.
Other than the hilarious antics that Seok-moo and Hwi-roo pull on each other to make the other jealous (I can watch these moments over and over again and not get bored), I enjoy even more watching the two yearn for each other. That’s the primary reason as to why they’re starting these antics in the first place. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo assumed that a divorce would grant them both freedom and time away from each other, but it’s brought the two closer to each other if anything. Even if they act like they don’t both like it, it’s obvious that they do like still being in each other’s company. It’s just rather that they both have too much pride at this point to say how they honestly feel, especially since they filed for divorce. They believe that they’re not supposed to feel things for each other since they’ve gotten a divorce and that they have to be strictly separated from each other, but it’s apparent that that’s not how they feel about each other. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo are still clearly intertwined and tied into each other’s lives even after divorce and maybe they like that. Maybe it’s what they secretly want.
Yoo-young and Jang-hyun’s relationship is interesting as well in their own ways. What caused Jang-hyun to have a sudden change in heart and want to file his marriage with Yoo-young? He was fine with cheating before while pretending to care about Yoo-young, but then now he begs for forgiveness and wants to go through with their marriage registration. Maybe he’s only sorry because he got caught. If Jang-hyun never got caught, then maybe he would have continued with the cheating and pretended like nothing bad was happening. Of course, the bigger question is why Yoo-young is going forward with the marriage registration knowing fully well what Jang-hyun was doing and why she shouldn’t register their marriage. She continues to make excuses for Jang-hyun, but just for how much longer can she keep things inside and not explode?
Seok-young herself seems widely dissatisfied with her marriage just like Seok-moo was with Hwi-roo. It’s interesting that two siblings are discontent with their respective marriages for different reasons. While I myself am not the biggest fan of Seok-young’s husband either, it raises the question of what will she do especially given that they have a child together. What will happen to their child if they do get divorced? How does divorce affect a child’s life at a young age?
It’s quite obvious that Ma-roo seems to care for Soo-kyung a lot more than Soo-kyung does for Ma-roo. Maybe it could be that Soo-kyung just doesn’t know how to emote or express her emotions well which is totally fine or maybe it’s that she doesn’t feel anything for Ma-roo at all. While it might still be too early to make any assumptions, there is the possibility that Ma-roo has feelings for Soo-kyung and likes her unconsciously. She yearns for any kind of reaction from Soo-kyung and couldn’t stop talking about her on her blind date. Plus, Ma-roo seemed jealous when Soo-kyung reunited with her friend Sun-hee at the cafe. Small details like these makes you question whether she has feelings for Soo-kyung or if she just simply cares for her as nice friend.
Seok-moo and Hwi-roo find themselves in an even more confusing, chaotic, and messy situation than before. Unlike what they assumed, life after divorce doesn’t get any easier. Things only get harder and the two have to figure these problems out themselves. With wise Grandma around and Yoo-young and Jang-hyun to keep the two in check, maybe our divorced couple won’t remain divorced for too long.
Bonus: Extra screenshots from the episode~
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