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It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, hence the delay in my review posts about the dramas that I’m currently watching. But I’m finally back after catching up on all the episodes of “When Life Gives You Tangerines.” (Also, in case anyone is interested, I was able to recently attend a film screening and talk for director Bong Joon Ho’s “Okja” as well as visit his special exhibition at the Academy Awards museum. I’ll follow up with a post about my fun experience about this soon so stay tuned!).

In volumes 2 and 3 of “When Life Gives You Tangerines”, the drama pivoted by focusing more on Geum-myeong’s life in college as well as middle-age Ae-sun. We also saw Ae-sun and Gwan-sik process the unfortunate tragedy of losing their youngest child and how this tragedy stayed with them for their entire lives.

In all honesty, as much as I enjoyed watching Geum-myeong and her college life (because there’s a part of me that could relate to her and her complex feelings towards her parents), it’s the parts of young Ae-sun that I found myself gravitating to a lot more. I thought it was so interesting and fascinating to see how young Ae-sun was influenced by her mother, how strong and courageous of a woman she was, and her marriage with Gwan-sik. Episodes 5 and 6 continued to show us more of Gwan-sik and Ae-sun by focusing on how they processed the death of their youngest child and how they were able to carry on even when they didn’t want to or thought they wouldn’t be able to. Losing and burying your child is never easy and it’s something that no parent should ever have to experience. For Gwan-sik and Ae-sun, they were understandably heartbroken and devastated. But they also knew that they had two kids who relied on them so they had to keep going. They found the strength to keep it together and to hold on. For both themselves and for their family.

Episodes 5 and 6 were heavy and emotionally draining but they were also so good and beautiful. We got to see another side of Gwan-sik that we had never seen before. The Gwan-sik who was usually hardworking, quiet, and more reserved showed his emotions of grief and mourning. He screamed at the top of his lungs and wailed for his youngest child who he had lost. The scene when young Geum-myeong and Eun-myeong blamed themselves for the death of Dong-myeong was such a heartbreaking one and it made me shed tears. They felt as if they were the reason as to why he passed away and it was just so heartbreaking. After Dong-myeong’s passing, we saw how each family member felt guilty in their own ways. We saw how they each reflected on their actions and decisions that forever changed their lives. We saw them ponder over the what-if’s and the endless possibilities and the many questions that they didn’t have the answers to. These questions was what was eating at them. What if Gwan-sik hadn’t gone out to help build the wall? What if Ae-sun hadn’t gone out right away? What if Geum-myeong hadn’t ridden her bike and gotten hurt? What if Eun-myeong hadn’t run out of the house and left Dong-myeong behind alone? They all struggled to process this unfortunate loss in their own ways by blaming themselves.

And that’s why the sequence in episode 10 where Ae-sun dreamed about this incident was one of my favorite scenes in the drama so far (I literally got goosebumps watching this scene). In all the nightmares she’s had so far, Ae-sun wasn’t able to save Dong-myeong and the same tragic event happened every time. But during this time, she stopped in her tracks, she turned back around, and joined Dong-myeong inside the house. She told him that she would come back for him and give him candy everyday. This was yet another scene where I cried because it hinted at Ae-sun’s regrets of not being there for her child and wishing that this was what she had done instead. It also allowed her to save Geum-myeong in the present. Ae-sun wasn’t able to save Dong-myeong but her motherly instincts kicked in and she knew that something bad had happened to Geum-myeong. And sure enough, Geum-myeong’s life was in grave danger and Ae-sun was able to rescue her daughter just in time.

Geum-myeong to me is so interesting as a character because she’s still young so there’s a part of her that is a little childish, whiny, and naive at how the world works. She scolds her parents and gets embarrassed that they don’t have money. But at the same time, she’s strong and independent. She’s self-aware (she was frustrated and upset with Ae-sun for not having money but also knew that she was the reason as to why they didn’t have much). Geum-myeong knows what she wants. She isn’t afraid to stand up and advocate for herself. She knows how precious and loved she is by her parents. She values herself and knows her worth. She also has complex feelings about her parents and is learning how to express her love for them. It’s been so interesting to see the parallels between Geum-myeong and her mom’s young adult life and how similar their stories are. The drama continues to draw parallels between Ae-sun and Geum-myeong whether it’s touching on what it’s like to be confined to the boundaries of traditional gender norms or whether it was about love and relationships. Gwan-sik had no issue with standing up against his family to protect Ae-sun and his family. Yeong-beom wasn’t able to necessarily do that for Geum-myeong which was why they broke up.

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” centers around the theme of womanhood and motherhood and we see how Ae-sun is constantly learning what it’s like to be a mother and wife as her kids grow. Whether it’s learning how to support Geum-myeong who’s in college or tending to a more childish and immature Eun-myeong, Ae-sun is always learning. She doesn’t know it all or have all the answers on how to be a mother and a wife. Young Ae-sun even talked about this to Gwan-sik (in episode 5) and how she struggled to make sense of it all. She asked him to pat her on the back to comfort her just like how her mother used to do to her when she was younger (and here was another scene where I cried like a baby. Any moments with Ae-sun and her mom always makes me so emotional!). But Ae-sun not knowing everything in life is perfectly okay. Because life is always evolving. You never know what’s going to happen next or what struggles and challenges is going to come your way. You’re also going to experience plenty of challenges but victories in life. For Ae-sun and Gwan-sik, they struggled financially and lost their youngest child. But there were also many things to celebrate, including sending Geum-myeong to college, owning Ae-sun’s mother’s house in Jeju, opening up a new business, and moving to a new apartment. With each passing day, you learn something new and gain new experiences. As the title of episode 5 stated, life goes on and on. And it certainly did for our characters.