Down With The Sickness
After several weeks of foreshadowing and building up to the dramatic crescendo of Dan-O’s heart problems, Extraordinary You returns with one of its best episodes. With a really good pacing and some nicely implemented montage segments, Extraordinary You sets everything up for a dramatic final few episodes next week after an almighty cliffhanger ending. We return to Extraordinary You where we left off, with Do-Hwa and Ha-Roo discussing changing the scene. As they do, Ha-Roo sneaks into the doctor’s office and manages to check the date of Dan-O’s surgery, trying frantically to alter the future and change the date. As Dan-O sits down in the office with Dr. Lee, it appears the scene change was successful as she’s told she doesn’t need surgery after all. As the scene changes back to the shadow, Kyung tells Dan-O she needs to go to surgery regardless of what her doctor has told her and goes on to hand her the charred fragments of Trumpet Creeper. “He’ll kill you,” Kyung goes on to say, before walking away. As he does, Jimmiche checks the “Secret” book and notices, to his horror, that Ha-Roo has changed the scene again. This brings us back in time where we see him part of the story and succumbing to a terrible fate at the hands of Kyung, who kills his beloved. When we return to the present again, Kyung confronts Ha-Roo and tells him he needs to stop or he’s going to kill Dan-O. Do-Hwa meanwhile hurries up to Dan-O, who continues to suffer from heart problems, and tells her about the story change. While Dan-O returns the ring to Kyung in his room, she looks set to leave until he reveals the truth about how he’s been feeling and how Dan-O reminds him of his Mother. He pours his heart into trying to make her stay but she simply apologises and leaves. Back at school, Joo-Da continues to gain the upper-hand over Sae-Mi, telling her she feels sorry for her and squares up to her face, calling her a bully before the shadow turns back to the scene. Holding Nam-Joo’s hand, Sae-Mi watches on in disgust as Joo-Da leaves the room with him. Outside though, she drops his hand and tells him she’s sick of receiving his help. Meanwhile Dan-O and Ha-Roo discuss the scene changing before showing him her bucket list. In an absolutely adorable scene, they decide to cut class together and go on a picnic with Sae-Mi and Soo-Chul instead. It’s a beautiful day but unfortunately it’s cut short by Dan-O’s heart monitor going off, causing her to fall and clutch her chest in agony. Although she momentarily regains consciousness and seems fine, Ha-Roo remembers what he was told before while Jimmiche squares up to Kyung and threatens him, going on to admit through gritted teeth that he was responsible for his Su-Hyang dying in the shadow during the previous comic. Unfortunately if that happens, it takes away a person’s self-awareness. During the scene, Dan-O’s heart problem appears to be fixed but unfortunately away from that, during the shadow, she continues to have problems. This ties back in to Trumpet Creeper too where we see Dan-O was killed by none other than Ha-Roo himself in the shadow. Realizing what he’s done, he walks away from her and tries to distance herself. As Dan-O’s heart monitor continues to beep, she follows after him where he finally admits that he was the one whose been hurting her all along. Unfortunately the shadow changes back to the scene again where we find Kyung and Dan-O in the hospital celebrating her all-clear from the doctors. As the scene changes back to the shadow, Kyung tries in vain to keep her by his side but instead she tells him Ha-Roo is her fate, before collapsing on the ground. Ha-Roo rushes to the hospital where Kyung remembers what he was told earlier in the episode. If you die in the shadow you only lose your self-awareness but if you die on the stage you leave the comic forever. Realizing he has to make an impossible choice, Kyung rips the face mask off her before we flash back to the past where we see it was actually Kyung who forced Ha-Roo’s sword into her. He was the catalyst for what happened in the past and quite possibly the one responsible for what’s happening in the present too. Despite Ha-Roo arriving at the hospital, Dan-O begins to flat-line as Kyung walks away. Suddenly, the shadow changes to the scene and back to the shadow again where we see Dan-O has lost her self-awareness and remains oblivious of Ha-Roo who watches on in stunned silence as she walks past him and to her friends instead. It’s been teased for a few weeks now but seeing Dan-O suffering badly from her heart problems and all the drama that’s stemmed from that has been quite the gut punch, especially with the cruel way this has turned on Ha-Roo in the story. These two are absolutely adorable together and I hope the writer has a happy ending in store for us. As it stands though, this was one poignant episode, tinged with sadness and drama throughout the hour. There’s plenty left hanging in the balance here though with the finale looming on the near-horizon and it’ll be interesting to see what direction the show goes for its final two days of drama. Next week is shaping up to be a very exciting conclusion to this k-drama and all eyes now turn to Dan-O as we’re left wondering whether she’ll get her memories back or not. If she does, what sacrifice will this inevitably mean our characters have to take? Only time will tell of course, but Extraordinary You delivers a wonderful episode here and I hope this momentum continues through to next week.
