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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Suspicious Housekeeper" Episode 16

This episode was about how Bok-nyeo's decisions keep everyone on edge and confused so that she can make a clean, quick break from them. She uses confusion as an emotional smoke bomb to disguise her true intentions.

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The themes of truth and honesty have been finely woven into the Suspicious Housekeeper's fabric and now take center stage. Bok-nyeo's illusions are so effective because they are mostly truth and only partly lies. It's the same quality that makes Seo Ji-hoon so terrifying because the truths and the lies are nearly impossible to separate. Bok-nyeo won't be honest with the Eun family because she doesn't want to endanger them. Instead she feeds them truths and masks them beside insincere behavior.

It's frustrating that she doesn't tell Sang-chul about her plans because her silence and lack of honesty causes a lot of hurt. It's even more frustrating that she doesn't go to the police and request a different inspector than the crooked cop who helped Ji-hoon. The children are in serious danger because of her. Hye-gyul, the maknae, even found herself alone with Ji-hoon. It terrified Bok-nyeo, but not enough to make her trust in the authorities. For a woman who cares so much about children, I find this oversight befuddling.

Bok-nyeo is a woman who has picked her path with difficulty and chooses to stay on it no matter what factors come into play. This time she's chosen revenge and to say goodbye. She pairs up her boss with the Eun childrens' grandfather. She helps the children with their lives and aspirations. She picks on maknae Hye-gyul to the point of tears; she is cruel to be kind. However, none of this will protect them from Ji-hoon if he ever discovers Bok-nyeo's plans and deception.

The child cast is doing a marvelous job. Much of this episode rested on little Kang Ji-woo's shoulders. Her Hye-gyul was heart-wrenching and pitiful while she suffered at the hands of Bok-nyeo. It is she who has the most emotional power of Bok-nyeo and from whom Bok-nyeo must separate in order to exact revenge on Ji-hoon. It would be better if Bok-nyeo didn't act like an idiot and sacrifice herself and her relationship with the Eun family for revenge. But the writer is struggling for material and thus relies on overused tropes.

There are a few oversights the show made that are just plain illogical. Hye-gyul runs away from school in plain sight of a teacher and the teacher just lets her go without making an attempt to catch her. What school teacher would do that? Also, the Eun kids never fuss at each other anymore. It's just plain bizarre. What siblings never fuss? Yes, The Suspicious Housekeeper has a taste of the fantastical to it, but what grounds that is the fact that most of it is based on reality. It needs to stay that way.

Written by Raine from Raine's Dichotomy

"Suspicious Housekeeper" is directed by Kim Hyeong-sik and written by Baek Woon-cheol and features Choi Ji-woo, Lee Sung-jae and Kim So-hyun.

 

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