Visibly incorporating well-loved, highly popular fairy tales and twisting the moral lessons into darker versions, It’s Okay To Not Be Okay brings a whole new world of relationships and emotions.
As the plot thickens with the progression of each character’s journey, it’s been fascinating to see how mental illness can be a normal part of a person’s life as displayed by Sang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) and Moon Young (Seo Ye Ji).
It made us believe that dramas like this, where the writers and director take care of educating about mental illness through the drama, will be one step forward in breaking the stigma around the issue of mental disabilities.
Episode Recaps: | 01 | 02 | 03 |
Episode 3: Sleeping Witch
“Moon Gang Tae, what I want is you.”
The story continues on with Moon Young’s growing fascination on Gang Tae’s life as she followed him to Seongjin City. Moon Young’s arrival at the OK Psychiatric Hospital causes a frenzy among patients and staff, with Joo Ri dismissing her presence and Gang Tae finding out who her father is. The hospital director asks Moon Young to teach a literature class for their group therapy sessions in exchange for scheduled walks with her sick father.
After leaving the meeting, Moon Young finds a shirtless Gang Tae *squeal* in the nurse’s locker room. Her reaction to his abs is so relatable. Gang Tae tries to shove her out the room but stops by the door only to be seen by Joo Ri and the other nurses, establishing that Gang Tae and Moon Young have some sort of relationship.
“Sang Tae, Gang tae’s been picked.”
At the end of the day’s shift, Gang Tae and Joo Ri bump into each other at the local food store and decide to go home together since they live at the same house. Sang Tae and Jae Soo are also there to eat with them, setting up dinner at the house’s rooftop.
They are joined by Joo Ri’s mother, who also cooks for the hospital. While eating, playful banter were exchanged, mostly from Jae Soo who’s complaining about being in the basement apartment even if his space is the biggest one in the building.
Soon Duk, Joo Ri’s mother, takes good care of Gang Tae, encouraging him to eat more. Jae Soo notices this and comments to Sang Tae that his brother has been chosen as a son in law already.
“The cursed castle.”
Meanwhile, Moon Young goes home to her old house to CEO Lee’s dismay as he tries to come up with ides to fix the scandals she left behind in Seoul. Her old house is actually a mansion, built by her father to celebrate her birth.
The mansion is located in the middle of the forest for Moon Young’s mom can focus on writing. Like a space withered with time, the mansion became decrepit and creepy, with creaks and squeaks here and there by old eerie doors.
Coming back to a place that gave her so much trauma, Moon Young begins having flashbacks of how her mother died and was visited by her mother’s ghost in sleep paralysis. Eventually waking up and recovering from her ghostly encounter, she remembers Gang Tae’s butterfly hug method and imagines him giving her the hug instead.
“The show begins now.”
The next day, a VIP patient rolls in the hospital just in time for the treatment of his manic syndrome. As an assemblyman’s son, his manic episodes could look bad for his father who is currently campaigning for elections.
Meanwhile, Sang Tae works part time at Jae Soo’s pizza shop by drawing caricatures as a promo. His check up with the hospital director went well with the latter prescribing him of painting on a blank wall of the hospital to further use his talent.
Sang Tae seems to be interested in making a lot of money and Gang Tae finds out it’s because he wanted to buy a camper van for the both of them so they won’t have to move around anymore.
“Do you want to sleep with me?!”
Moon Young’s first literature class at the hospital consists of debunking popular moral lessons from famous fairy tales into their darker counterparts. Despite that, the class ends on a good note.
Moon Young and Gang Tae meet, only to exchange unsavory words once again with Moon Young getting her way by shouting “Do you want to sleep with me?” for the whole hospital to hear.
After containing the situation, Gang Tae tries to push Moon Young away once again, but is taken aback when Moon Young called him a hypocrite.
“I’m also his child but he treated me like I was invisible.”
The next day, Moon Young meets the VIP patient who is running around on a manic rampage and invites him to have fun with her. They drive around the city, being followed by Gang Tae on a high speed car chase, only to end up at the assemblyman’s campaign rally.
There, the patient gets everyone’s attention and introduces himself as the politician’s son. He reveals that compared to his siblings, he was born a bit dumb, causing his father to mistreat him.
He is regularly hit, locked up, and looked down on just because of his mental illness. But in the end, he just wants his father’s attention. The episode ends with Gang Tae looking on at the VIP patient, Kwon Gi Do, and sees himself in the young man.
Episode 3 Peak Points and Afterthoughts
Just like how Moon Young’s fascination on Gang Tae grew, the story tightly grips the viewers even if they don’t know what to expect.
In this episode, we see how Sang Tae valued Gang Tae’s woes of moving around to the point of him taking side jobs from Jae Soo and the hospital director in exchange for cash. It goes to show how both brothers treasure one another and it also displays that mentally disabled people are capable of emotion and responsibility.
“The Sleeping Witch” gave us an insight as to how Moon Young is the way she is by going back to the place of her childhood trauma. We saw flashbacks and glimpses of her relationship with her mother.
It also gave us an impression that she saw her mother’s lifeless body at a young, impressionable age. It’s a modest display of what people with her disorder experiences behind the scenes.
The introduction of Kwak Dong Yeon’s character, Kwon Gi Do, brilliantly articulated how childhood trauma can manifest in different ways to different people. It’s also refreshing to see what the young Gang Tae had to endure while growing up with a mentally disabled brother.
Photos: tvN
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