Queen of Tears Episode 9 Recap

Who's in the cast:
Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo
Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in
Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-sung
Kwak Dong-yeon as Hong Soo-cheol
Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-hye
Lee Mi-sook as Moh Seul-hee
Jung Jin-young as Hong Beom-jun
Kim Jung-nan as Hong Beom-ja
Jeon Bae-soo as Baek Du-gwan
Hwang Young-hee as Jeon Bong-ae
Jang Yoon-ju as Baek Mi-seon
Kim Joo-ryoung as Grace Ko

Locked out of Queens Town

Protesters demanding land compensation line the road back to Queens Town, and a call to Grace Ko brings word that the back gate is clear. Out of sight, someone is waiting to see whether the Hongs show up, and a mocking headline is read aloud about a conglomerate family gone broke and thrown out. At the gate, Grace explains that Chairman Hong Man-dae gave Moh Seul-hee power of attorney over Queens Town while he is away, and Seul-hee wants them to lie low. Their company cars, drivers, phones, credit cards and key cards are gone. When someone calls for the police, Grace says the reporters would love that, then hands over the essentials she packed for old times' sake.

Baek Hyun-woo gets them away from the cameras. When one of the Hongs asks how Seul-hee can lock them out of their father's house, he explains that a residents' lawsuit would take time. The chairman's convertible rights clause, with his family as joint surety, has frozen their real estate, stocks and accounts. He promises somewhere safe to plan. On the way, someone demands that Hong Soo-cheol say something about his wife, Cheon Da-hye, being in on it.

Their arrival in Yongdu-ri, Hyun-woo's home village, replays the close of episode 8 from the car's side of the headlights. His sister Baek Mi-seon is still telling him to forget the sly fox when he says the sly fox is here, and not alone. Then the scene runs on: Hong Hae-in and her family face the Baeks, someone fumbles between father-in-law and former father-in-law, and the guests are led inside.

Hae-in's mother, Kim Seon-hwa, demands a cab back to Seoul, learns there are none at this hour, and steps in cow dung. In the yard, Hyun-woo's brother, Baek Hyeon-tae, gets pulled into a debate about why Hyun-woo brought his ex-wife home. The answer is the two Koreas fielding one Olympic team against a common enemy. Same team, comes the reply, but no promise of unification.

Hae-in tells Hyun-woo she will find another place tomorrow; she is, after all, at her former in-laws' house. He meant his own comfort, he says. He has too much on his plate to worry about her as well, so he asks to be selfish for now. She reminds him they are divorced and her troubles are not his. He will stop worrying when she is better, he says, and asks her to stay. Asked whether being together will make them happier, he says, "We'll be less miserable."

Two families, one roof

At dinner, Seon-hwa announces that her sister has offered a villa in Namhae and they will leave first thing. Soo-cheol will not eat, then asks for sealed water, ideally from the Alps, and someone at the table adds that Germany, Australia or Fiji would also do. Hae-in tells him to drink from the kettle and hits him. Later, Mi-seon takes back the sly fox remark, her own high-school nickname, and asks whether the couple came because of feelings. Hae-in calls it an emergency, nothing more; they would not have divorced otherwise. Mi-seon then mentions a principal's daughter, So-yeong, who wants Hyun-woo's number, and is told to go ahead.

The Hongs are given the annex. Their host says even neighbors help in hard times and they were family once, and the villagers have been told to stay off the internet so the visit stays secret. There is no bathtub. Soo-cheol's towel, from Baek Ho-yeol's first birthday, is eight years old. He tells Hyun-woo what is more unbelievable: Da-hye and Hong Geon-u have left him, and Yoon Eun-sung deceived him.

At Queens Town, Eun-sung finds the house empty. Seul-hee says she cannot live with the people they stole from. He warns that the Hongs will look for a weakness to strike back at. She asks if he just wants Hae-in close, and tells him to forget her.

Eun-sung reminds her that when she sent him away, she promised to bear missing him because she loved him most. Then she never once called her young son abroad. Enduring out of love is a lie, he says. He will bring Hae-in back here at any cost, and since their goals differ, he can choose something else over his mother, as she chose this family over him. An order goes out to search every hotel and villa.

Hong Beom-ja talks by phone with her brother, Hong Beom-seok. One of them threatens to hang up if it is about their father, who said not to come even to his funeral. Beom-ja admits she feels guilty now that he is ill. About ten years ago she threw a fit when he wanted to make Seul-hee his legal wife; maybe Seul-hee held a grudge, and maybe Beom-ja should have let her have the ring. She feels to blame.

Later, an older woman finds Beom-ja crying, hears that her father is sick, and tells her to cry it out and treat him better. Then a man calls the woman Mom. She says he is a lunatic who follows her around, so Beom-ja poses as her daughter. That works until he mentions her soap opera, and the woman happily leaves with her son.

A pink MP3 player and a muddy village

Hae-in is listening to Hyun-woo's MP3 player when she tells him the oldies on it are all her favorites. He says it is not his. He found it on the field on his first day at Hanil Foreign Language High School and kept it when no owner turned up. In her head, it clicks that the player is hers: "Was he born to love me or something?"

Aloud, she guesses the girl must have been pretty. He claims he remembers nothing about the owner, not even whether it was a man or a woman. He only stashed it, he insists. She sends him to bed. He comes back once to remind her to draw the curtain, since the room faces east.

In the kitchen, Hae-in helps Hyun-woo's mother, Jeon Bong-ae, make japchae, calls her Mother, and marvels at her carrot work and her two-handed egg technique. Seon-hwa learns the Namhae villa is off and suspects her sister's husband fears the reporters. She gives Mi-seon the cleaned shoes, and Mi-seon does her hair. When Mi-seon's friends gossip that Hae-in's mother cried a river after stepping in dung and ask to see the woman's face, Seon-hwa reveals herself. Their assets are only frozen, she says. They are not penniless, not freeloading, and leaving soon.

Hyun-woo plays along

In Seoul, Eun-sung, now the youngest chairman, announces a Singapore corporation by 2025. Someone else reports that Mr. Song, who set up the chairman's secret fund, lost track of it after ten countries. The trail ended at a Labuan bank in Malaysia, where the money turned out to be missing.

Eun-sung summons Hyun-woo, who calls him Chairman Yoon without hesitation and says he is no longer part of Queens or Hae-in's husband. Eun-sung tells him to drop the act. Hyun-woo plays the broke job-seeker with no alimony, asks for one month, and notes he cannot see its classified documents anyway. Asked where Hae-in is, he says she took the car and stopped answering.

Grace, meanwhile, expects to take over Hae-in's post. Instead she is told to close her spa and join Director Jo in the US. Elsewhere, a man in hiding is traced through the academy of his daughter, a would-be cello major. Someone has sued him for fraud and for violating the Communications Privacy Act.

Soo-cheol takes in Da-hye's farewell. She is five years older than him, her family, money and schooling were fake, and Geon-u is not his son. Flashbacks show a girl named Cheon Da-hye teasing a rich but dim boy. Years later, at a wedding, someone still annoyed that Hae-in chose that guy tells Da-hye to seduce Soo-cheol. She uses her real name, and he still does not recognize her. In the present, Soo-cheol weeps that she forgot something when she left: him.

Hyun-woo tells someone he will prove that Eun-sung did not win legally. Suing would take five years, so he picks a shortcut: investment fraud. If he can prove Eun-sung planned a two-trillion-won fraud to lure the family, the family gets back what was provisionally seized and Eun-sung loses his power, though not the stocks. At Queens, one staffer pretends not to know who Ms. Hong is, and another calls friendship and loyalty abstract nouns because they do not exist. Hyun-woo meets the protesting landowners, who say Queens offered five times the market price and then only double, and suspects a double contract.

Two fathers and a fainting spell

In the fields, Hae-in's father, Hong Beom-jun, shares makgeolli with Hyun-woo's father, Baek Du-gwan. The toast is tricky, since neither health nor a happy reunion fits the moment, so they just clink glasses. A few cups in, Beom-jun refuses to go home: as head of his family he should tell them all will be fine, but he is too ashamed. His closest friend just refused him 20 million won, and the man who recently signed a 45.6 billion won tax invoice does not have that in his pocket. Nobody carries that much, Du-gwan says. Beom-jun accuses him of lying to be kind, and Du-gwan swears he has never had that much.

Ho-yeol promises his Aunt Hae-in that nobody will hear about her from the Yongdu-ri Internet cafe, which he more or less runs. Then Hae-in faints. She blames anemia, Seon-hwa scoffs that everyone is suffering, and Bong-ae tells her to see a doctor in Seoul with Hyun-woo tomorrow. Hae-in agrees at once, and Seon-hwa resents that obedience. Someone who calls her Seon-hwa begs her to treat Hae-in well so she will have no regrets; she says she never does anything she regrets.

Hyun-woo learns Hae-in has been in touch with Secretary Na Chae-yeon and lays out the scam. A broker bought the land promising five times the market price, then signed with Queens at a third of that price. The broker plans to fly out after his wedding this weekend, but Hyun-woo had the landowners sue and got him on the No Fly List. When he tells her to stay out of it, Hae-in lists her troubles, ending with being stuck in her ex-husband's hometown. She gave herself the WBC injection today, and her goal is to recover so he can leave without worrying and they can part like a true divorced couple. He promises to share everything and help her get there fast.

Eun-sung reads the diagnosis

At Sungmin University Medical Center, a kiosk reprints Hae-in's records. The tumor has spread between her cranial nerves, treatment failed because of her low WBC, and the average life expectancy is three months. Eun-sung corners the doctor who wrote it, whose name even the hospital director would not give him, and asks how to save her. The doctor will tell him nothing, since he is neither family nor guardian, and Eun-sung asks whether that changes if he becomes her guardian.

At the Yongdu-ri Supermarket, Beom-ja describes the older woman's son, a Leslie Cheung lookalike, and is told nobody like that lives nearby. In Seoul, Eun-sung refuses Seul-hee's plan to take over the department store; it is Hae-in's, and she is coming back. Seul-hee intends to keep the chairman alive but unconscious, since his coma gives her control of 21 percent. A text warns Hyun-woo to get its sender off the No Fly List.

Then Seul-hee finds the chairman gone. Eun-sung reminds her that their goals differ. When she asks what happens if he dies, he says, "Then it can't be helped."

At the Baek house, Hae-in slips out for a walk before dinner, promising not to go far, and is told Hyun-woo should be home soon. Hyun-woo's name shows on a phone. While dinner waits for him, he is face to face with Pyeon Seong-uk, the broker, who says he should be in Boracay after his wedding. Hyun-woo got the text, and he will not drop the suit. The epilogue replays the MP3 denial and adds the truth: Hyun-woo once searched the whole school for that girl, and he remembers her vividly as his ideal type.

Thoughts

The best scenes this week are the small domestic ones. Seon-hwa in cow dung, Soo-cheol demanding sealed Alpine water, Beom-jun crumpling over a 20 million won loan he could not get: losing everything has finally made the Hongs look like people. The makgeolli scene between the two fathers is the episode's heart, and Du-gwan swearing he has never had that much money is the kindest punchline the show has delivered.

The MP3 reveal is irony done right. Hae-in now knows she is the girl, Hyun-woo still does not, and his shrug to her face sits next to his admission that he remembers her vividly. Each of them holds half the story. Her stated goal, to get well so they can split for good, is the least convincing thing she has said so far, and Hyun-woo promising to help her reach it fast sounds like a man playing along with a plan he means to lose.

Eun-sung is where the hour turns cold. He tells his mother he cannot bear missing someone he loves, then shrugs at the chance that the chairman could die. Now he has the diagnosis, and his question about becoming Hae-in's guardian is the scariest line of the episode. Grace has been sent packing, Da-hye has fled, and mother and son no longer want the same thing. That crack looks like the opening Hyun-woo has been waiting for.

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