Ok-nam, Jeom-soon, and our trio continue to adjust to the city life in Seoul. While things might be going well for them, things are a struggle for Yi-hyun and Kim Geum whose friendly competition with each other for Ok-nam’s love remains the biggest challenge they’ve both faced so far.
Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter: Episode 11 Recap
After witnessing Yi-hyun and Ok-nam kiss each other in the floral field, Kim Geum walks away in silence. The kiss was too much of a surprise for him and he struggles to walk back to the car safely. Ok-nam chases after Kim Geum to check up on him after she rejects Yi-hyun’s request for her to stay with him. Kim Geum stumbles and slips a few times and has trouble getting up.
Eventually, the love triangle make it back to the car and drive back home safely. They drop off Ok-nam at her house on campus and then head back to the apartment. However, Ok-nam grows worried when she finds her house empty and messy so she pleads Yi-hyun and Kim Geum for their assistance in finding Jeom-soon. When they reach Yi-hyun and Kim Geum’s place, they discover our trio and Doctor Lee unconscious on the ground after many rounds of heavy drinking, but Jeom-soon still isn’t anywhere to be found. Kim Geum and Ok-nam embark on a search party together to find Jeom-soon while Yi-hyun stays behind at the apartment due to his sprained ankle.
Kim Geum stops by the beer pub where Gyeong-sul works since Jeom-soon’s mentioned the place to him before. However, when they arrive, all they’re greeted by is a drunk man and no Jeom-soon. The two decide to just head back to the apartment in hopes that Jeom-soon is there. Before exiting the car, Ok-nam apologizes to Kim Geum for the kissing incident earlier at the mountains. She didn’t intend to hurt his feelings.
Just then, a car pulls up in front of the apartment. It’s none other than Gyeong-sul and Jeom-soon who returned from a date with each other. Jeom-soon is happy and content with how the date went and the fact that she got to kiss Gyeong-sul (of course, Gyeong-sul was recording their kiss the entire time without Jeom-soon’s knowledge or consent). Ok-nam and Kim Geum hurry out of their car to confront Jeom-soon.
Kim Geum scolds Jeom-soon for being out late at night and for not telling her mother where she was the entire time. Jeom-soon apologizes to Ok-nam for her behavior and is quickly forgiven by Ok-nam. Kim Geum volunteers to take the mother-daughter pair home, but Ok-nam politely rejects the offer. Kim Geum’s already done enough helping her find Jeom-soon he should rest. As Ok-nam and Jeom-soon walk home together, Jeom-soon informs her mother about Gyeong-sul and hopes to introduce him to Ok-nam one day. What about Ok-nam and her mountain trip? Did she discover anything? Since Yi-hyun hasn’t regained his memories just yet, Jeom-soon assumes they can live in Seoul for a little bit longer. She enjoys the city life more than the rural life and Jeom-soon likes that Kim Geum is so kind and loyal to Ok-nam. The mother and daughter pair tread home safely and soundly.
The next morning, Doctor Lee joins our trio and Mama Kim for breakfast. Doctor Lee follows up for more information on Yi-hyun and what time he returned home the night before, but our quartet are more focused on discussing the rivalry between Yi-hyun and Kim Geum. Doctor Lee doesn’t get much information out of the quartet. Lol.
Yi-hyun attempts to make sense of the conversation he had with the deer during the mountain trip. The deer claimed that it was Yi-hyun himself. How could the deer be him? More so, what was the deer referring to when it told Yi-hyun to make up for his sins? During lunch time with Doctor Lee that day, Yi-hyun questions himself and his personality. After observing Mama Kim drop off food to Kim Geum, Yi-hyun ponders if he’s a selfish person. Furthermore, does anyone really love him? Doctor Lee makes it clear to Yi-hyun that he is loved and that there are people – like her – who love him. Just as Doctor Lee is about to pat Yi-hyun on the head, the two are interrupted by Professor Park who sneaks up behind them. There’s an issue he wants to resolve with Mama Kim.
Ok-nam takes care of the plants near the coffee shop. She uses her powers to keep them healthy, but they quickly grow old afterwards. It seems like her powers didn’t work on the plants this time. Ok-nam is then approached by Teacher Gu so the two have a discussion about her mountain trip. Did Yi-hyun recall any memories during the trip? Though Ok-nam isn’t certain, she feels as if Yi-hyun’s lived a hard life which is why he refuses to retrace his memories. She also recalls the kiss between her and Yi-hyun at the mountains and simply states that she feels pitiful and sorry to him (she doesn’t specifically state who exactly). Ok-nam never wants him to ever be alone.
Professor Park visits Kim Geum, Jung-min, and Gyeong-sik in the lab. He demands Kim Geum to make him a wrap out of the lunch that Mama Kim packed for them and then asks for Mama Kim’s phone number afterwards. Without going into details about what specifically he needs the number for, Professor Park warns Kim Geum, Jung-min, and Gyeong-sik to never take someone else’s belonging without their permission.
Jeom-soon uses Bong-dae’s phone to contact Gyeong-sul. When he fails to pick up the phone call, Jeom-soon asks Bong-dae to inform her when Gyeong-sul calls back. Gyeong-sul has to pay her back some money. Back in the lab, Kim Geum stares at the couple flower hidden in his drawer that Ok-nam also has. He’s reminded of the moment they bought the flower together. Yi-hyun too thinks about Ok-nam while staring at the lunch box Mama Kim packed for him. He decides to share some of the food with Ok-nam so the two have lunch together that day.
Yi-hyun shares with Ok-nam some of the concerns on his mind. He feels as if he’s not loved and he’s never known what it felt like to be loved by his mom. However, Ok-nam reassures him by creating a wrap for him to eat and reiterates what Doctor Lee told him. Yi-hyun is loved and Mama Kim made food for Doctor Lee because she wanted to create good memories with Yi-hyun. Yi-hyun is a good man and Ok-nam reminds him of this. She creates more wraps for him to eat and the two have fun with each other during lunch. After lunch, Yi-hyun returns to his office. Fairy Izy of Mazar watches as he skips back to his office happily. She notices how much of a fool he’s become over Ok-nam and grows disappointed.
Jung-min notices Kim Geum’s strange behavior so she encourages him to grab himself some coffee and food. When he arrives at the coffee shop, he silently observes Ok-nam deliver some coffee to customers. He’s well aware that he’s not the man Ok-nam is looking for and that he shouldn’t be in love with her, but he can’t help himself. Meanwhile, Yi-hyun almost forgets about his lecture and is thankfully reminded about it thanks to his students. Lol.
Teacher Gu catches up to Mama Kim wandering around on campus. Upon encountering her, Mama Kim shares with Teacher Gu the song that she was listening to on her phone. At that moment, Professor Park calls Mama Kim, but Mama Kim and Teacher Gu assumes his voice is a part of the song (“is this the rap that Jeom-soon was talking about?” LOL). Professor Park grows angry and hangs up. Jeom-soon herself is also agitated when Gyeong-sul fails to show up to their date. She assumes he must not like her anymore.
Gyeong-sul is busy watching the clips of him and Jeom-soon that he recorded the night they kissed. As he watches the clip, Bong-dae follows after him and peeks inside the room he’s located in. She grows alarmed upon seeing the video clip of the kiss. Things aren’t looking so good especially since Jeom-soon’s tail appeared once she kissed Gyeong-sul. Gyeong-sul storms out of the room upon watching the video clip while Bong-dae assumes Gyeong-sul was the one who stole money from Jeom-soon.
Kim Geum encounters Jeom-soon in her cat form walking around campus so he takes some time to talk to her. Why did she transform as a cat? What happened to Jeom-soon? Jeom-soon shares that she got dumped from Gyeong-sul. It also doesn’t help that he dumped her after they kissed each other. Though Kim Geum encourages Jeom-soon to wait a little bit longer, Jeom-soon finds it difficult to be patient.
Kim Geum is well aware of how Jeom-soon feels and what she’s going through. He witnessed the woman he liked kiss another man so he too is heart-broken like Jeom-soon. Jeom-soon assumes the woman is her mother which Kim Geum states is right. He’s angry. He’s angry that Ok-nam doesn’t even bat an eye at him. He’s angry because he feels as if he has a better connection with her than Yi-hyun does. Unable to hold it all in for much longer, Kim Geum plans on confronting Ok-nam about everything. He’s going to tell her how he truly feels.
My Thoughts:
Finally! There will finally be some kind of action! I’m definitely looking forward to Kim Geum’s confession to Ok-nam and how he plans on confronting her about everything. Kim Geum has been very patient so far watching Yi-hyun and Ok-nam interact with each other while waiting on the side so I’m excited to see him take initiative this time and be the one to approach Ok-nam. He knows he shouldn’t and he’s not expecting much since he assumes Ok-nam only cares for Yi-hyun, but maybe the results will be much more different than what he (and even we) expect.
This episode made it a little bit more obvious that Kim Geum is the reincarnated husband which is good considering that we only have 4 more episodes to go. Whether it’s small details like how Jeom-soon described Kim Geum as her ‘dad’ or the way Kim Geum took care of Jeom-soon in that ending scene, things just feel so more natural with Kim Geum than with Yi-hyun. Jeom-soon and our trio definitely like Kim Geum a lot more and get along with him much easier so I can see why he would be the reincarnated husband. He’s probably built a bond with them in the different lives he’s lived both 699 years before and as a fairy so it would make sense that all those connections and feelings transferred over with every reincarnation. Plus, even if Kim Geum wasn’t the reincarnated husband (which would definitely be a little concerning and disappointing considering the poor storytelling that the drama has given us so far), he blends in so well with Ok-nam and her family and you can’t see anyone else being a fit for her than him.
The drama has launched the beginning of the end so it’ll be interesting and fun to watch how things slowly wrap up for our characters. Granted, we haven’t even reached the climax yet, but I’m assuming that we’ll reach that moment in the next episode when Kim Geum confesses to Ok-nam. The love triangle has always been intense, but I do feel pitiful for Kim Geum who’s always had to put in more effort just to gain Ok-nam’s attention and love. He’s always been behind Yi-hyun and the one who silently watched them interact with each other so he’ll finally be the one to fight for Ok-nam this time based on how he wants. Kim Geum won’t wait any longer; this time, he’s going to go to Ok-nam.
We still don’t know much about Gyeong-sul and what his deal is. We also didn’t receive much details this time about the reincarnations or fairyland. I know we should be provided with context about the past so that we can make progress and inferences on the husband search arc in the present, but is it weird that I actually feel relieved when we don’t receive flashbacks of our characters from 699 years ago or from fairyland? I know it’s necessary, but I sort of feel as if the drama has gone from focusing on the husband searching to now focusing on Yi-hyun and Kim Geum’s rivalry to win over Ok-nam. It seems as if both Yi-hyun and Kim Geum are just merely fighting to be with Ok-nam as her lover and not because they’re confident they’re the reincarnated husband she’s looking for. I actually would be fine if the drama decided to just drop the whole reincarnated husband thing and focus on the love triangle as its own thing. It wouldn’t make much sense since Ok-nam traveled to Seoul in search of her reincarnated husband (and her winged clothes), but the drama hasn’t been doing that great of a job focusing on that. Instead, we’ve just been watching Yi-hyun and Kim Geum fight for Ok-nam’s love so why not just continue with that instead?
This episode was a little bit easier to watch than the ones prior so that’s a good sign that the drama is slowly improving (hopefully it wasn’t just a one-time thing). The drama hasn’t done enough for me to assume it was a strong and consistent drama overall and it has its many flaws. However, this episode was effortless to watch and I actually quite enjoyed it so I’m hoping the next few episodes will feel the same. Of course, I anticipate Ok-nam’s reaction to Kim Geum’s direct confession and thoughts on everything. Maybe things aren’t entirely as what they seem.
Bonus: Extra screenshots from the episode~
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