Backstories and past connections take center stage this week as the mystery regarding our heroine’s neighborhood oppa gets revealed at long last and the truth behind a certain brutal incident comes to light.
But instead of things turning smoother by those reveals, everything gets more complicated, prompting our former gangster to make a decision that he might come to regret later.
Bunny S. watches My Sweet Mobster on Viu
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 & 04 | 05 & 06 | 07 & 08 | 09 & 10 | 11 & 12 | 13 & 14 | Final Recap + Series Review |
My Sweet Mobster Episodes 7 and 8 Highlights
“Some parents don’t take care of their babies the way you took care of me.”
Ji-hwan carries Eun-ha bridal style and takes her to the hospital. He is dead worried about her, and it isn’t until Eun-ha utters his name that Ji-hwan gets relieved. Eun-ha was so touched by how Ji-hwan protected and took care of her, asking what she was to him.
Before a stuttering Ji-hwan can give Eun-ha an answer, though, his dear found family interrupts the situation, having been caught out listening in. A mad Ji-hwan scolds them, but Eun-ha steps in to help calm down Ji-hwan.
Another interrupter is Hyun-woo, who drops by the hospital as soon as he learns Eun-ha got admitted there. Eun-ha can’t have Hyun-woo and Ji-hwan running into each other. So, she rushes over to meet Hyun-woo in the lobby while enlisting her best friend Mi-ho’s help to keep Ji-hwan in the room until she gets back.
Thankfully, it all ends well, and our leading men don’t come across each other. But the highlight was Eun-ha walking in on a dozing off Ji-hwan, gazing lovingly at him, and having him get an IV drip while chatting together. Needless to say, Ji-hwan ends up staying there for the night. And his dear found family gets curious as to where Ji-hwan spent the night.
“Have you really been single for 36 years?”
In the morning, a shocked Ji-hwan moves as quietly as he can to not wake up a soundly asleep Eun-ha. But he takes a few seconds to cover her with a blanket before leaving. A dropped wallet has Eun-ha making a journey to Ji-hwan’s company, though, where she is first denied access and then spots Ji-hwan holding Ye-na’s hand. In Eun-ha’s eyes, Ji-hwan was acting lovey-dovey with another woman, but the truth is Ji-hwan was only stopping an allergic Ye-na from eating a piece of sausage.
At home, a jealous Eun-ha digs through the garden to find the time capsule she buried there together with “Hyun-woo.” (The house where Ji-hwan is currently staying is used to “Hyun-woo’s” house.) But no matter how much she tries, Eun-ha can’t find the time capsule.
As we come to learn, 8 years ago, the real Hyun-woo, who turns out to be …. wait for it… Ji-hwan himself, dug out the time capsule but then buried it back, arguing Yoon Hyun-woo (Ji-hwan’s childhood name) is now dead and he has become a different person from that innocent boy from back then. Still, seeing how Ji-hwan got the spot right in almost no time, it means he never forgot about Eun-ha and their memories together.
In the present, Ji-hwan gives the time capsule to Eun-ha, claiming he got the rest to dig it up lest the tree gets pulled out because of Eun-ha’s multiple digging attempts, when in fact Ji-hwan is the one who got sentimental and dug it out. Ji-hwan might believe for now that some memories are better left buried. Yet as things stand, I don’t think Ji-hwan will manage to steel his resolve for long. And it will be only a matter of time before he wavers and admits to being the real Hyun-woo.
Eun-ha might not be aware of anything for now, but Hyun-woo is privy to the truth. While looking into “Hyun-woo’s” current whereabouts as per Eun-ha’s request, Hyun-woo finds out that the man he is looking for is none other than Ji-hwan himself, someone who is desperate to catch and put behind bars.
“It all started with me.”
Putting a pause on the love triangle, the drama takes us back 10 years in time to unfold the truth about what happened the day Hyun-woo came across a bloodied Ji-hwan and his animosity towards Ji-hwan first developed. Having inherited his father’s gang after defeating right-hand man Go Yang-hi (Lim Chul-soo), Ji-hwan ratted out his father to the prosecution and finished off the gang.
Set on taking revenge, Yang-hi gathered a bunch of thugs to attack Ji-hwan and cause the ruckus we saw last week. Ji-hwan did his best to put up a fight. But a blow on the back of his neck sent him tumbling to the ground. Luckily, Ji-hwa managed to get back on his feet quickly and leave the place, yet unluckily Ji-hwan got stabbed on his way out. By that time Ji-hwan could barely stand on his feet and it was at that unfortunate moment that our leading men first ran into each other.
Unfortunately, that tragic incident might repeat itself. Unsurprisingly, the one behind Missing Employee’s kidnap turns out to be none other than Yang-hi who plans to use Missing Employee to seal a deal with a drug cartel. Having learned about this, Ji-hwan settles to go save Missing Employee without telling anyone except for II-young.
Except, II-young isn’t about to repeat his past mistake and let Ji-hwan go on his own. After an emotional conversation, the two men go and successfully free Missing Employee. But before he could escape, Ji-hwan ended up getting hit by a car interestingly driven by the same man who had stabbed him before. Yang-hi is having a blast beating Ji-hwan up, yet unbeknownst to him, Ji-hwan tipped the police about the drug deal beforehand.
“You didn’t tell anyone and entered the lion’s den by yourself.”
Hyun-woo is the first one to arrive at the scene where Ji-hwan is held hostage with the police just hot on his heels after catching the drug cartel. Being the coward rat he is, Yang-hi escapes yet unluckily Ji-hwan is arrested along with Yang-hi’s underlings.
Also arriving on the scene are Eun-ha and the others, having tracked Ji-hwan down using the tracking app our leads set up on their phones in case something dangerous happens. They are all hurt to see Ji-hwan cuffed up and settle to wait in front of the station until they learn what happened. With Missing Employee giving his testimony, Ji-hwan gets released. The injuries on his body surely hurt a lot, but having Eun-ha see him in that situation breaks Ji-hwan’s heart into pieces.
Earlier during the investigation, Hyun-woo knowingly mentioned the name “Yoon Hyun-woo” to provoke Ji-hwan, making it clear he is aware of everything. But Ji-hwan just denies knowing anything about this. Worried about Eun-ha and wrongly deeming himself undeserving of being loved, Ji-hwan pushes Eun-ha away and shuts down her attempts to take care of his wounds, asking if Eun-ha is doing this because she likes him and calling her just a tenant. Hence, hurting Eun-ha’s feelings.
We don’t see the whole thing playing out, but after stepping out to meet Hyun-woo, Eun-ha tells Ji-hwan she has found her neighborhood oppa, thanks him for everything he did for her, and finally tells Ji-hwan they should stop seeing each other.
Knowing how Hyun-woo is, I doubt he told Eun-ha the truth about Ji-hwan. Did he perhaps tell Eun-ha the real Hyun-woo has died? Anyway, with this we pull down the curtain on the drama’s first half, hoping to get more romance and shenanigans in the second half and no thugs or drug cartels.
My Sweet Mobster Episodes 7 and 8 Musings
I got into the show expecting romance and silly humor, but the drama has a lot of heart and found family dynamics at its center. After reporting his father, Ji-hwan was left with only II-young and Kwak Jae-soo (Jang Hyun-min) by his side. But along the way, he got another three family members, Hong-ki, Jung Man-ho (Lee Yoo-joon) and the youngest family member Lee Dong-hee (Jae Chan), who were just as lonely. Now, the six men live together under the same roof while caring for each other in a way some blood-related family members might not do.
Ji-hwan might have decided to go on his own to save Missing Employee since the situation might be dangerous. But everyone got so hurt that he left them out of his plan. Watching Eun-ha and the rest act childishly, ignoring Ji-hwan and II-young at the table, is funny and all. But they are doing this because they feel as if Ji-hwan doesn’t trust them or consider them family the way they do about him. Hence, I hope Ji-hwan realizes this quickly and apologizes to them.
One scene that got me teary-eyed this week was the conversation between Ji-hwan and II-young, where the latter insisted on tagging along to save Missing Employee as he regretted leaving Ji-hwan alone on the day he got attacked by Yang-hi. Back then, Ji-hwan helped II-young get into college and wanting to forget about it all and live as an ordinary student even for a short moment, II-young didn’t pick up on purpose, only to get hit later by the news that Ji-hwan got stabbed.
Being the selfless person he is, Ji-hwan doesn’t blame II-young but says he would have died happily that day had he learned that II-young could leave freely even for just a moment. The way Ji-hwan puts his found family before himself and even jumps into the lion’s den willingly to protect them has me admiring him more. That sentiment is reciprocated by them as well. They follow Ji-hwan not because they have to, but because they want to. He isn’t their boss but their leader and savior.
I am almost calling Hyun-woo a lost cause, seeing how obsessed he is with wanting to prove Ji-hwan is back into crime and put him behind bars. Not only does it feel like Hyun-woo is letting his personal feelings and bias get the best of him, but also sometimes I think Hyun-woo is blocking off any attempts at logical thinking to avoid admitting that he is wrong. If Hyun-woo has time to meet Dong-hee and “force” him to give reports about Ji-hwan, then it might be more effective to plant someone in Yang-hi’s group and catch him red-handed since Yang-hi is undoubtedly a criminal.
Photos and Videos: JTBC Drama
