Sold Out on You: Episodes 3-4
by Unit
Every homeshopping host must learn the Art of Persuasion in order to succeed at the job. But our mushroom farmer is a master of deflection, and our leading lady’s persuasive skills are wasted on him. But she’s also a master at tenacity, and her sincerity just might be the tipping point on our farmer’s scale.
EPISODES 3-4
The good news is, Ye-jin’s mom isn’t dead. Ye-jin was raised alone by her dad, DAM SUK-KYUNG (Kim Young-jae), until she accidentally discovered that Myeong-hwa is her mom. That’s right, the one and the same Song Myeong-hwa of the facial cream incident. Ye-jin has always been a fan of Myeong-hwa, and they reconnected after she insisted on meeting her mom. But their relationship had to be kept secret due to Myeong-hwa’s celebrity status. Flash forward to a few years later, Myeong-hwa got into an accident and a worried Ye-jin slipped up and addressed her as “mom” in front of reporters. But Myeong-hwa denied Ye-jin and stopped picking her calls, and their relationship naturally crumbled from there.
In the present, Ye-jin calls her mom in a hallucinatory daze, but it’s Matthew’s new line. She doesn’t quit the calls even when Matthew tells her it’s a wrong number, and his sleep schedule for the night is ruined. What happened to blocking her number or switching off his phone? Smh. A refreshened Ye-jin wakes up the following morning with zero recollection of last night, and she runs into Matthew and his eye bags when he comes to Sang-geum’s house to return the runaway chicken. Heh. Their bickering session doesn’t last long this time (thank God!), and they call truce — after Sang-geum makes Matthew give Ye-jin a tractor ride to the bus stop.
We finally learn that the “something” Mu-won and Matthew talked about last week was the construction of a lab for Matthew. And despite Matthew’s objection, Mu-won is going ahead with it because Matthew is supposedly happier in a lab than on a farm. We also learn that L’Etoile wants a larger volume of raw materials than usual, but Gojeuneok bio isn’t willing to compromise quality for quantity, hence their refusal to renew the supply contract. Hmmm. I wonder if Matthew once had a quantity–quality incident that blew up in his face and sent him from the lab to the farm.
Moving on, Eric briefs Ye-jin about his meeting with Gojeuneok bio’s co-CEO. But Matthew introduced himself with his Korean name, LEE HAE-SEOK, during the meeting, and that’s the name Eric mentions to Ye-jin. Hae-seok’s seeming rigidity — based on Eric’s recounting of the meeting — reminds Ye-jin of Mathew, but she doesn’t put two and two together. The math finally clicks when Ye-jin takes a complaint call while filming a promotional segment at HIT’s customer service department. It’s Matthew on the other end calling to report a fault in the product Sang-geum ordered last week, and Ye-jin sees his Korean name on the purchase history! Da-dun!
Ye-jin is suddenly the protagonist in a horror movie as she recalls how rude she was to Matthew in her search for the mushroom farmer. Lol. She heads to Deokpung village to fix the issue with Sang-geum’s product — and her relationship with Matthew, while at it. But he promptly kicks her out of his house when she lets him in on her newfound knowledge that he’s the mushroom farmer. Heh. Ye-jin ends up falling on her arm in one of her many attempts to win Matthew over, and she has to get a cast. But she removes it before a subsequent live broadcast because she can’t let her injury stand out more than the product she’s advertising. Ye-jin’s work ethic and devotion to her customers almost makes Matthew change his mind about working with her. But almost is not an absolute.
After the broadcast, Yoon-ji tells Ye-jin about Beauty Song’s plan to launch its own essence, and accuses her of trying to bring Myeong-hwa down by launching L’Etoile’s essence. This conversation sours Ye-jin’s mood, and she’s further pissed when she arrives home to meet her dad stocking her fridge with side dishes. Ye-jin doesn’t appreciate his gesture and she accuses him of always doing as he pleases. A flashback reveals that Myeong-hwa tried to contact Ye-jin to apologize for denying her at the hospital, but Dad stopped her from getting in touch. His excuse was that he didn’t want to see Ye-jin get hurt again, but it wasn’t his decision to make. All Dad can do now is apologize to Ye-jin. But it’s a little too late for that.
Ye-jin sleep-dials Matthew again, and he’s about to hang up when she mentions her name. He assumes she’s drunk and is about to hang up when he hears a crash in the background. Actually, Ye-jin broke a flower vase while sleepwalking. But Matthew assumes the worst, and his goodhearted self can’t help but rush over to check on her. For plot’s sake, Matthew is at Gojeuneok bio’s office in Seoul, so he manages to arrive just in time to save Ye-jin’s sleepwalking ass from getting hit by a car. I’m not clear on the logistics of how he knew her exact neighborhood, but we shan’t fuss about minor details. We get a brief flashback to a disheveled and barefooted Matthew sitting on a snowy street, his feet covered in wounds (of course he has his own sad backstory!). Then we return to a barefooted Ye-jin with similar bruises in the present. Trauma recognizes trauma, so Matthew buys Ye-jin slippers and trails after her to ensure she sleepwalks back home safe and sound.
As usual, Ye-jin wakes up with no recollection of last night, and it’s a little concerning how easily she dismisses the bruises on her feet. But she can’t dismiss HIT’s great expectations for the L’Etoile essence launch, so she returns to Deokpung for contract renewal purposes. Ye-jin ends up joining the villagers to harvest sweet corn (apparently, Matthew also has a corn farm), but everyone is disappointed to hear that the buyer won’t be picking up the corn due to money problems. Timing is everything for fresh produce, and our sold out queen cannot watch her harvesting effort the corn go to waste. She sets up an impromptu live stream with the help of the villagers, and every single unit of corn is sold out within minutes! The villagers are happy and even Matthew is impressed. But then Ye-jin goes on to pass out from heatstroke. Oh dear!
Ye-jin is not completely fine even after waking up, and she has to take glucose tablets to get her bearings. Matthew wonders why she’s overworking herself, and she jokes that it’s for contract renewal purposes. But he tells her he won’t change his mind no matter what she does. Ms. Overworking returns to Seoul to work even more at a cafe, and Eric “coincidentally” shows up after his assistant mentions sighting her. Earlier on, Ye-jin confirmed she actually recognized Eric from three years ago, but she didn’t bring it up at their first meeting because she was sorry she couldn’t show up back then. But lest Eric have some hope of rekindling anything, Ye-jin tells him now that she doesn’t date people she does business with. Still, Eric is hopeful they can resume the conversation after the conclusion of their business. A B C D(elulu) E(ric).
As the week draws to a close, Matthew discovers Ye-jin’s sleeping pills fell out of her bag while he was searching for her glucose tablets. It’s too late for her to drive down to Deokpung, so they agree to meet halfway at a rest stop. Ye-jin loses her car keys on her way to the bathroom, and she’s forced to sit outside and wait for Matthew — who’s running late due to an emergency on the farm. Time passes and the shops around begin to close. As the lights go off, Ye-jin’s feeling of abandonment begins to creep in. Then a headlamp cuts through the darkness and Matthew emerges. Cue: a teary and relieved Ye-jin rushing to hug him under the rain.
Afterwards, Matthew returns Ye-jin’s sleeping meds — or more accurately, a single dose of the pills. Ye-jin demands for the rest of her meds, and Matthew replies that he’ll give her a dose each day. “Dam Ye-jin, let’s meet everyday,” he says. We flashback to when Matthew escorted Ye-jin home during her sleepwalking episode. She called her mom (Matthew’s number) to report the “strange and stubborn guy” she recently met (Matthew). But she also says she feels like everything’s going to be okay when she’s with him. Back to the present, Matthew recalls Sang-geum advising him not to close his heart. According to her, “you can’t stop things that force their way in no matter how hard you try.” It’s clear Ye-jin has forced her way into Matthew’s life, and it’s up to him to accept it. Or deny it. We’ve got four more weeks to explore either option, anyway.
I thought the facial cream incident was Ye-jin’s only trauma, but she has mommy issues as well? Whoa! This adds a whole new layer to her conflict with Myeong-hwa, and makes the situation even sadder. On a lighter note, Deokpung Ye-jin has shed off her annoying skin and she’s beginning to tonally resemble Seoul Ye-jin. But while the villagers have accepted Ye-jin into their midst, convenience store owner, NA JIN-YI (Kim Seo-ahn) has her reservations. This may or may not have anything to do with Ye-jin’s promotion of the facial cream — which may or may not be the reason behind Jin-yi’s kid sister, NA SOM-YI’s (Ahn Se-bin) skin reaction. Jin-yi also has a crush on Matthew, so we just might have another love triangle on our hands.
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