A Thousand Nights Over and Over Again
Mi-Jo is a young girl who was taken from her family when she was just a baby. She is now living at the orphanage with her sister, Mi-Hyeon. Mi-Jo has shown herself to be a kind and caring person, promising to bring her home as soon as possible.
Mi-Jo’s adoptive parents appear and promise as much. Mi-Jo is not convinced it is forever, but they promise to keep her on for thousands of nights.
As Mi-Jo returns to the present, she heads to see her birth mother at the prison. On the slip of paper at the prison, she tellingly writes “acquaintance” rather than daughter.
MiJo’s birth mother is all smiles and points out she’s living healthier behind bars. She’s completely nonchalant to leaving MiJo at the orphanage, not even bringing it up. When her mother claims she hasn’t seen her “in a while”, MiJo clenches her fists and decides to leave, claiming she has a stomach ache. This explains why she left so upset at the end of the previous episode. ..
Mi-Jo decides to go and see her adoptive parents, her real parents.
Mi-Jo is given tasks to do around the house. It’s exhausting work and after cleaning up the bathroom, she’s conked out on the sofa with her father on the one opposite. Mi-Hyeon returns home and the group have dinner together.
Meanwhile, Joo-Hee heads back to see her mother, reassuring her and pointing out how hard it must have been to keep Mi-Jo’s real mother a secret all these years. Carrying that burden alone must have been difficult; Joo-Hee is sympathetic with her plight. ..
Elsewhere, Chan-Young is greeted by her parents on her birthday too, who shuffle over that night in the rain and decide to surprise her. ..
Chan-Young is delighted to hear that Jin-Seok and she have decided to be friends again. When the subject of their past relationship is brought up, Chan-Young is quick to point out that they’ve decided just to be friends now. Interestingly, Jin-Seok happens to be at the door and he decides against knocking, hearing them conversing together. ..
Joo-Hee, her mother, and she head to the bank in the morning to deposit Joo-Hee’s 50 million won into a new account. Joo-Hee plans on giving it all away as a wedding present to her husband, but instead decides to use it for something that will make her happy. Joo-Hee looks into different leases at a real estate agency and finds one that she likes. ..
Hyeon-Jun appears while she’s there and decides to help her out, even addressing her as Ms Jung. He also decides they should go out for food together too. Afterwards, Mi-Jo messages and she heads over, dropped off by Hyeon-Jun.
In the latest episode of “Angelus,” there was a bit of product placement for Angelinus. This was prevalent in the previous episodes, too, so it’s not surprising. However, the cheeky bit is that the ladies discuss events during lunchtime.
Joo-Hee is thinking about starting her own small business, but is interrupted by Mi-Jo receiving a call from Seon-U’s father. ..
Mi-Jo speaks her piece at the assembly and stands up for herself, deciding that she and Seon-U should keep dating and unless something untoward happens, her being an orphan won’t be one of those reasons. However, this chat does clearly rattle her later on, especially when she goes out on a date with Seon-U. ..
Chan-Young and Jin-Seok’s ex arrive to see each other and apologize for their behaviour. They also ask for a favour – to convince Jin-Seok to allow them to take custody of Ju-Won as their second chance. I mean, I’m not sure why they can’t just share custody and do what’s best for him but there we go.
Chan-Young does as she wishes but Jin-Seok is not happy. However, she eventually tells him they should stay together and he should get divorced just as he promised before.
Mi-Jo eventually takes Seon-u out for a romantic date, playing on the beach and eventually getting her beautiful rings for their relationship, signifying how much Seon-U loves her. Unfortunately, Mi-Jo is swayed by Seon-U’s father and his words continue to play on her mind.
Mi-Jo’s birth mother rings her office, but she excuses herself and hangs up.
Chan-Young’s mother’s birthday is coming up, and she decides to get her a cake. Unfortunately, she gets a horrible pain in her stomach, forcing her to the hospital.
Chan-Young wakes up to find the bakery closed. With Joo-Hee and Mi-Jo together, they decide to break in and steal the cake. ..
Mi-Jo and Joo-Hee stay behind to phone the police after seeing Chan-Young leave. They report themselves for breaking the glass, and the owner is happy to settle. Everyone knows about Chan-Young’s terminal illness, given she’s told to “stay strong.”
As the women head out for drinks, they laugh and joke around like they always do. But this time, there’s a sense of urgency in the air. Chan-Young knows that she has only a limited amount of time left on this earth. ..
The Episode Review
The episode starts out promisingly, with a funny scene between Seon-U and his father. However, the comedy quickly dissipates as the story progresses. The plot is slow to develop, and by the end of the episode we are left with a lot of unanswered questions.
The acting in this is great and you can see what they’re trying to do with it, but the pacing is so slow that it disrupts the flow of both the comedy and drama.
The story is going nowhere in a hurry and the writers seem conflicted over whether this is the Mi-Jo or the Chan-Young show. Either way, this series has been a real disappointment. Let’s hope tomorrow’s follow-up is an improvement.
