HIGH SCHOOL: LOVE ON EPISODE 7

The "black book" when an angel touches it

Recap:

Two cellphones are missing at school and Seul Bi is blamed. She refuses to apologize or acknowledge guilt because it is a plot engineered by bully Jae Seok and Ye Na. Of course, the two boys who like her handle this entirely differently. Woo Hyun is harsh on her and derides her for not understanding the seriousness of the situation. She takes this as a cue that he believes she is the thief. Sung Yeol, on the other hand, is supportive. He sticks up for her in class and tells her flat out that he believes in her. During all this, Grandma tries desperately to figure out all the finances for Woo Hyun and Seul Bi when she is gone, reaching out first to Woo Hyun's father and finally Ji Hye when she can't get a hold of him.

Of course this culminates in Seul Bi being bullied and Woo Hyun explodes into action and pounds Jae Seok to a pulp. Sung Yeol pulls him off the bully, they all get dragged into the office for fighting, and they are forced to bring their parents the next day. Testimonies by Seul Bi and Ji Hye convince Jae Seok's father to deal with his own son fairly rather than expelling Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol. That night, Seul Bi and Woo Hyun make a promise to always trust each other. Woo Hyun goes to bed, and Sunbae informs Seul Bi that she is not quite angel and not quite human, that she is becoming unreal because of this and that's she's causing too much trouble in the mortal world. Seul Bi picks up her "black book" and makes the choice to be an angel again...


Sung Yeol restrains Woo Hyun to keep him from getting into more trouble.

My take:

Wow. So this is what the plan was, huh? Make Seul Bi look like a thief, so�Ye Na will get another shot at Woo Hyun�and Jae Seok will get revenge. This, of course, doesn't happen. Jae Seok will be dealt with by his father, only I'm not sure what that will entail. And Ye Na, instead of having Woo Hyun warm up to her, simply gets told to leave Seul Bi alone. Sung Yeol goes off on the girls in the class, too, saying Seul Bi "is completely different from [them]."� Thankfully, the plan backfires, though Seul Bi's decision to become an angel again is sad. Although, we don't really know what happened. All we see is the book glow, a shockwave of magic energy spread throughout the city (nice effect, btw), her vanish in a puff of magic, and her eyes glowing.

Jae Seok's father is kind of a cad here. Despite Woo Hyun and Grandma on her knees, he maintains his position on expulsion. I know he wants justice for his kid, but expulsion is a bit much. His son is not critically injured or in the hospital for reconstructive surgery or anything that we see in the headlines. He just suffers a few bruises and scrapes. On the other hand, this is the man who produced the monster Jae Seok, so we shouldn't be taken aback. It does make me wonder, given his predilection to harshness, what punishment he has in mind for Jae Seok's "bad morals," as he puts it.


Ye Na's plan didn't work as well as she'd hoped.

I like Ji Hye stepping up to the plate here and addressing the situation. She makes a great lawyer, despite not actually being one. She even brings up the special treatment when Jae Seok was caught cheating. I think this speech, plus Seul Bi's revelation, changes the old man's mind about what's really going on here. It's a clear cut case of his son bullying someone yet again, and this time getting his just desserts. Despite her failings, I really like Ji Hye as a character. It makes me eager to find out precisely why she left Woo Hyun and her first husband.

There's a fatalism here that is dragged out in front of us here. At home, Grandma advises that "the world is filled with unfair situations." While technically true, it's negative thinking, a passive acceptance of what she considers inevitable. Yes, life is full of unfair situations, but there's no reason to accept it. I'm a big fan of slaying the metaphorical dragon rather than letting it ravage a village. Perhaps this line of thinking is what kept her from seeking medical help for so long?


"Let's promise we'll trust each other from now on."

I love this show. It just gets more exciting every episode. Yes, it's cheesy and over-simplified, the bullies are rotten and never get any better, it's pretty clear who the good guys are, the love triangle between Seul Bi, Sung Yeol and Woo Hyun formed fairly quickly, and it only airs once a week.� But every once in a while, a show rises above its warts and I think this is one of them.� I like the acting, the characters, the special effects (all too rare in K-Drama), and the soundtrack. Isn't that really all there is to it?

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