Forecasting Love and Weather: Episode1 & 2
If you haven’t seen the episode yet you better watch it first, my summary contains a lot of spoilers.
Episode 1: Signal
The episode starts of with a monologue by Jin Ha-Kyung (PMY’s character) about “Signals”, which is the episode 1’s title foreshadowing what is to be seen by the end of the episode. We see Ha-Kyung, her sister Tae-Kyung and her mom, one of our favorite Eommas, Kim Mi-Kyu who is against her daughter marrying Han Ki-jun played by Yoon Park, preparing for the upcoming wedding. In an attempt to stir Ha-Kyung away from marrying Ki Jun, Eomma and sister brings Ha-Kyung to a shaman to read their marriage compatibility. Of course, the reading wasn’t favorable and she was then warned to bring an umbrella in preparation for a forthcoming rain in contrast to how sunny the day was. We then see Lee Si-Woo (Song Kang) getting a seal and explaining his name which meant “Rain that arrives at the right time”. Then we see Ha-Kyung dropping by Ki-Jun’s place with porridge, here we start to something is definitely off with Ki-Jun but Ha-Kyung just brushed it off since she needed to be at work.
Conflict then arises at work for Ha-Kyung she was alerted by her co-worker of a coming hail but with the probability of it happening less than 5%, Ha-Kyung decides to brush it off without telling her senior about it (yes, another signal she ignored). On the different end, we see Si-Woo trying to be sweet and romantic with his girlfriend, Chae Yu-Jin played by Girls’ Day’s Yura. But Yu-Jin’s response to Si-Woo’s effort was pretty bland. While the two were having a meal, hail starts to drop down and the two immediately ran off back to work Yu-Jin being a weather reporter while Si-Woo was a severe weather forecaster. An emergency meeting was then called for where Ha-Kyung’s senior, Director Choi suffered a cardiac arrest after receiving criticisms and reprimands for not being able to forecast the hail. Ha-Kyung then had to fill in Director Choi’s position making her cancel her dinner appointment with Ki-jun, she also gets caught in between an argument with senior forecaster Eom and Si-Woo who was so adamant on issuing a heavy rain warning even without the permission of his superiors. This irked Ha-Kyung and made her storm towards the branch where Si-Woo works. A heavy rain indeed pours while Ha-Kyung was talking to Si-Woo which made Ha-Kyung retreat. She goes to Ki-Jun’s place only to find him cheating on her with Yu-jin.
There is then a time skip, Director Choi has recovered and decided to resign leading to Ha-Kyung’s promotion. Apparently, Ki-Jun and Yu-jin got married and Ki-Jun was ought to be transferred to a different branch but was cancelled. Ha-kyung receives an offer to be sent to Geneva but is hesistant whether to take the offer or to continue working with her ex-fiance and his wife. Episode 1 ends with Ha-Kyung getting flabbergasted with how Ki-jun decided to split the things that the two of them invested together.
Episode 2: Sensible Temperature
Episode 2 starts with Ha-Kyung getting drenched in the rain and Ki-Jun apologizing to her. She calls off the wedding to which he immediately agreed to and hurt Ha-Kyung even more. We can then hear Ha-Kyung’s monolgue on “Sensible Temperature” and see her and Si-Woo having contrasting commands towards the restaurant owner where both of them happened to be in.
The following day Ha-Kyung helps out Si-Woo, vouching for his identity for his entry since he’s been temporarily dispatched to HQ. Ha-Kyung is then introduced to a new senior forecaster assigned to her team, Mr. Eum who had a previous argument with Si-woo and seems to be someone who had a previous mishap and was originally from headquarters but reassigned to a branch.
Ha-Kyung overhears Yu-Jin brags about her married life making Ha-Kyung to cower towards the restroom only to overhear her co-workers gossiping about her. Her team doesn’t make things better for her, she then witnesses Si-Woo and Senior Eum arguing about the possible cause of the sudden drop in temperature.
In a press briefing, Yu-jin subtly gives off some snide remarks towards Ha-Kyung which Ha-Kyung had to deal with professionally. Ha-Kyung and Ki-Jun discusses again how to split their investments and our boy Si-Woo saves Ha-Kyung. Seeing Si-Woo however alerts Yu-jin as Ki-jun seems to be suspicious of Si-Woo. So Yu-jin confronts Si-Woo because apparently Ki-jun is unaware of Si-woo but lo and behold Ha-Kyung witnesses the confrontation.
Si-woo, Ha-Kyung and Senior Eum declines their team dinner invitation. We then move to Senior Eum situation which shows hat he is unwelcome in his own home, his daughter being awkward around him and his wife. Ha-Kyung on the other hand starts to upload pictures of appliances that she and Ki-jun bought together for them to be sold via online. In the process she ends up reminiscing their sweet moments like how they put up the wallpapers together. Her mood gets even sour and she ends up not getting any sleep when she found out that she was again fooled by Ki-jun into paying for their things solely. Unable to sleep, Ha-kyung decides to head to work and figure out the cause of the drop in temperature. Si-woo arrives and helps her with her task and starts talking about how he figured out Ki-jun stole his girlfriend, subtly clarifying what Ha-kyung witnessed. They both start berating their exes. Si-woo then proceeds to encouraging comforting Ha-kyung by telling her that an affair is like the wind, it is invisible but it always leaves a trace.
Ha-kyung finally figures out the cause with Si-woo’s help and they make a good forecast. Si-woo tries to invite Ha-kyung for lunch but gets brushed off when Ha-kyung receives a call regarding the apartment that she and Ki-jun invested in. She called out Ki-jun and immediately slaps his face. They both then argue in front of their colleagues. Ha-kyung then realizes how the two of were at opposite poles of their 10 years together. Ha-kyung then announces that she is not leaving for Geneva and curses at Ki-jun.
Si-woo invites Ha-kyung to drink together and now the restaurant owner seems pleased to see them in better terms. The two start talking about how they end up dating their exes and how terrible they were. Si-woo shared the story of him stealing Yu-jin’s bridal bouquet and they both drink to it. Si-woo then asked Ha-kyung why she wanted to marry him to which Ha-kyung that she was fool for wanting to marry him despite how terrible Ki-jun is. They both agreed that it felt hot and the restaurant owner gladly turns up the aircon. And like some cliché romcom the two ended up having drunken sex which Ha-kyung tried to play cool since she won’t be seeing Si-woo only to be surprised that Si-woo’s transfer is already permanent.
My thoughts:
Signal is so fitting as an episode title to episode 1. We see how important signs are and how they could affect us. We see Si-woo being so tenacious to even the slightest signs which could make a lot of difference and could end up into bigger disasters which unfortunately was disregarded by Ha-Kyung.
We also see the testament of the saying that mothers knows best. Ha-kyung’s mom was so against their marriage even if Ha-kyung has dated Ki-jun for 10 years. I think 10 years is enough for someone to learn how to love a person which shows that for Eomma something is really off if she still does not approve of him. Ha-Kyung though just shrugs it off, Ha-Kyung I guess is your typical hopeless romantic and someone who is afraid to take risk (like how she ignored issuing the hail warning despite how strong the conviction of her colleague was ) that despite the changes she still stuck to Ki-jun and continued to trust him. At the back of her mind she really suspects Ki-jun but is probably afraid to confront Ki-jun and destroy whatever they have if ever she was wrong (or if she was right). We also see that with 10 years of being together, relationship eventually becomes lukewarm. Maybe for Ki-jun it was because he was already busy with Yu-jin but we also see that Ha-kyung’s efforts to keep their relationship has become less, she just dropped off the porridge without even properly checking in on his health (her work demands much from her though).
Si-woo is our happy-go-lucky man who seemed easy going but would move mountains to get what he wants, well, especially when it comes to weather forecasting. He either noticed the bland treatment he got from Yu-jin or he was to dense to even notice it.
Talking about signal once more, you know that gut feeling that’s telling you that something bad is going to happen? Episode 1 is all about that. Ha-kyung definitely felt that in her gut that something is off. The passcode, the excuses, that conversation in the hallway, the sudden cancellation of their reservations. She felt that but was hopeful that they could still fix things or Ki-jun just missed those out. But Ki-jun just have to break her trust and cheat on her, a month prior to their wedding. Maybe it was her pride that stopped her acknowledging that her mom was unto something or maybe it was the trust that she placed on Ki-jun and their 10 year relationship.
Episode 1 in my opinion wasn’t that much impactful because we’ve been seeing the signs that Ki-jun and Yu-jin have been cheating on Ha-kyung and Si-woo. I’m not saying that it is bad, episode 1 was just light that you don’t even notice that episode is ending. The climactic part where Ha-kyung discovered the betrayal wasn’t that much impactful too, maybe it is because we actually saw the cheating coming our way but Park Minyoung’s acting was really good. The part where she was crying in the rain really wretches your heart like I was the one getting cheated on. And what hurts even more was that Ki-jun had no plans of holding on to her. Probably, at the back of Ha-kyung’s mind was the hope that he’d say it was all a mistake, it was a one-time thing, but no, Ki-jun let her go.
In episode 2, sensible temperature shows us that each one of us have a different perception of things. At the start, Si-woo and Ha-kyung had dissenting opinions, Ha-kyung felt hot while Si-woo felt cold – probably a representation of how the break up has affected them. Ha-kyung felt hot from anger after the betrayal while Si-woo felt cold and just lost.
The confrontation scene was my favorite. I agree with onlookers on that part, Ki-jun was so brazen and deserves that slap and humiliaion. That scene was another application of “sensible temperature”. For Ha-kyung her 10 years with Ki-jun was blissful and worthy of reminiscing but it wasn’t the same of Ki-jun. He felt emasculated by Ha-kyung’s success. Ha-kyung’s memory of the wallpaper felt bittersweet for her but it was a burden for Ki-jun. It was big of Ha-kyung to accept that she too had some flaws in the relationship and accepted that the betrayal had some contribution from her. But still, loneliness should not be a reason for one to cheat. If one is no longer happy in the relationship, then the couple should talk it out and try to work things out. The partner might not be aware of the other’s feelings and when the other finally would break down the relationship would just explode in their face and would tremendously hurt each other. But in general, Ki-jun was definitely an ass. He was constantly taking advantage of Ha-kyung’s trust and he really deserved that slap (Yu-jin deserves a slap too).
How the break up affected Si-woo wasn’t dwelled much in this episode but we can see that he’s handling it better than Ha-kyung (or so I think). We don’t see Si-woo getting that affected seeing Yu-jin but we can see that he’s getting irritated and does not want to get involved with her. Or maybe he is doing that because he wants Yu-jin to be happy even if not with him. I’m hoping for the former. Also, I find how Si-woo handled the morning after, so cool. I mean he handled it better than Ha-kyung. I find the part where he stopped the blanket from sliding really funny and very gentlemanlike.
Based on episode 2, I can infer that Yu-jin would be insecure along the way and I’d really like to see that happening, her getting jealous while Ha-kyung won’t care about them anymore. I also like to see whether Ki-jun ends up regretting what he did. And most definitely, I look forward to how the hoobae-sunbae romance will bloom.
Once again we are blessed with a romcom starred by the beautiful Park Minyoung. She really fits the role of a strong independent woman and fits the office romance genre perfectly. Song Kang on the other hand has been quite the charmer (especially the topless scene), he’s got this sweet and innocent image which is the opposite of his previous role in Nevertheless. This is my first time seeing Yura act so I can’t say much but for Yoon Park, so far he’s been getting the asshole roles and it fits him quite well.
How about you, what are your thoughts?
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