K-Drama Reaction: Mother

That was fast! I expected for the court proceedings to last for at least two episodes but we’ve got all the court drama and rulings all in one go.

I was feeling frustrated at first watching Ja-young (Go Sung-hee) gained the upper hand in the trial. We’ve got all the witnesses to testify on the violence and neglect she committed against Hye-na (Heo Yool) but she and her defense lawyer knew how to make every testimony work in her favor. But that’s what not bothered the most, it was her ability to make herself believe that she’s indeed the victim in all that’s happened. I was infuriated when she tried to justify her action of demanding money in exchange for Hye-na’s life as a way of taking a revenge against Soo-jin and her family when she herself knew the fact that it was not that case. So I was happy that Cha Young-shin (Lee Hye-young) slapped on her face the fact that a child is not a mother’s property and that trying to use Hye-na as a pawn for revenge made her nothing less than an animal.

And just when I was about to lose hope, I was pleasantly surprised that it was the detective (Jo Han-chul)’s statement that would help Soo-jin. Honestly, I didn’t really like him for what he’s done to our mother and child, despite it being a call of duty, but he surely redeemed himself by telling the judge that it’s apparent Soo-jin saved Hye-na and not the other way around.

But there’s nothing more applaudable in this episode than Hye-na’s bravery to stand witness. I liked the fact that she chose not talk about the instances where mom hurt her because she believed she had a ‘reason’ to do it, but it was not the day when Seol-ak (Son Sukku) put on a lipstick on her lips and mom then put her in a garbage and left her to die. We could see that Ja-young seemed to have a moment of realization that she indeed had something done something wrong.

Soo-jin was now set free from jail, however, she could not get Hye-na because she’s on probation. All I could hope for is that they’ll see these hardships through and get reunited and never be separated again.

OTHER THOUGHTS

The scene where Jae-beom (Lee Jung-yeol) went all the way to fetch Hyun-jin (Go Bo-gyul) after she resigned from her work convinced me he’s indeed his father.