Marry My Husband And The Curse Of Episode 12
Most of us felt a definite sinking sensation in our stomach at the end of episode 11, when Yu Ji-hyuk’s ex-fiance walked towards the happy couple and introduced herself to Kang Ji-won.
As experienced drama watchers we knew the cues.
It was in the way Yu Ji-hyuk’s (Na In-woo) face looked apoplectic with rage or the way Kang Ji-won (Park Min-young) looked like a distressed, scared mouse.
Or the way, the ex first introduced her as “his fiance” before belatedly correcting herself.
We knew a show down was inevitable.
But unlike every other very dramatic twist in the story so far, this introduction of a new villain towards the tail end of the show only elicited groans of frustration. What happened to the writing that kept defying expectations for so many weeks?
A Revenge Melo That Felt Fresh
Between Perfect Marriage Revenge and Marry My Husband, drama fans have lately had a taste of melodrama lite. These were dramas with a concept untethered to reality. Revenge that would be impossible in a story about an ordinary woman living in the real world, suddenly becomes deliciously possible when time travel and a second chance is throw in to the mix.
Something that personally endeared these two dramas immediately to me was that the female leads were allowed to be empowered from very early on.
They didn’t have to fight against an unfair world for 15 episodes before finally (grudgingly) getting a happily ever after on the 16th. They knew how the future would unfold and this gave them power and confidence to write their own story, where they were happy right now.
Ji-won accomplished this the moment she woke up ten years in the past by using whatever savings she had left to buy up stocks she knew would skyrocket in this period. This instantly put her in a better financial situation than she was in during her first life when her boyfriend (and future husband/murderer) had used up most of the money she had saved.
Having money in her bank account let her make changes she never had the energy or will to do before. She changed her wardrobe, took risks at work to better her situation, she moved to a new place where boyfriend couldn’t barge in any more.
It Was All Going So Well!
Ji-won’s situation in her second life was vastly improved by her future knowledge. It allowed her to plot her way out of entanglements she couldn’t exit easily before. Like her friendship with Su-min (Song Ha-yoon) or her romantic relationship with Min-hwan (Lee Yi-kyung).
We, as the viewers, loved this. We rarely get to see heroines have such a substantial advantage over their enemies, without the strength quickly being taken away or reduced to mundane uselessness. (See: Strong Girl Nam-soon and how utterly useless her strength was against the society she wanted to change.)
But what was even more delightful was the unhurried pacing of Ji-won’s plots. Her plan hinged on slowly bringing two delightfully evil people together, so each episode gave us ample scenes of Ji-won using her personal insights into these two people and giving them the right nudge at the right time.
Sometimes these nudges were Ji-won leaving them alone a lot, and sometimes they were more insidious, like, when Ji-won told Su-min that she no longer needed to be friends with her because now she would be getting a real family after marrying Minhwan.
The fact that Ji-won was capable of being ruthless in her pursuit of revenge (as well as avoiding a fatal fate) was such a great change from the usual run of beleaguered heroines filling up dramaland.
But Then They Ran Out Of Story In the Drama
This isn’t entirely true. In the webtoon this drama is adapted from there is enough material to fuel at least fourteen episodes. The problem may be that the webtoon’s final quarter doesn’t follow the structure of a drama’s screenplay.