Falling in love with the very person that caused her unfortunate fate makes Dong-kyung a reminder that life can be sweetly cruel.
While the lead pair of Doom At Your Service settled on a point of no return to cherish each other, the complicated love triangle of the supporting leads entered an imminent agonizing state.
abbyinhallyuland watches Doom At Your Service on Viu
Episode Recaps: Opening Week | 03 & 04 | 05 & 06 | Mid-Series | 09 & 10 | 11 & 12 | 13 & 14 | Finale Week + Review
What Has Happened So Far In Doom At Your Service?
Nothing grand and typical normal, Tak Dong-kyung’s life warrants no misfortune to happen. So, when her doctor revealed her numbered days, her desperate plea was heard by Myul-mang, the deity who causes destruction and disappearance of life.
Sealing his connection to Dong-kyung, his special ability to grant a wish to a human was given to her. Driven by the knowledge that she clamored for the world’s destruction which he also hopes for.
The agreement for Dong-kyung to wish for the world’s destruction before she dies in less than a hundred days is in place. She gets an extra service from Myul-mang to lessen the pain of her illness by holding his hand. Failure to fulfill the contract means her most cherished person will die.
Resigned to the idea of making Myul-mang fall in love with her to survive, Dong-kyung proposes for them to live together. However, the deity counterpart of Myul-mang appears disappointed in the chaos-creation balance because of his wavering emotions.
Doom At Your Service Episodes 7 & 8 Key Moments
“People who are nice always disappear. It was always like that for me. There was never an exception. It’s like they were nice to me because they knew they were going to disappear.”
Right after blurting her wish and being sweetly kissed, Myul-mang vanished. He was confronted by the “creator deity” who mocks his grand dream of mixing love with Dong-kyung. Appearing back to her presence, she demands to bring him to his house’s front door so she can go somewhere in case he goes off-grid again.
Declaring she will visit his house since it is near, Myul-mang disagrees. He tells her they have to stop living together as it’s impossible for him to love her.
Meanwhile, Sun-kyung has found new hyung friends in Editor Cha and Hyun-kyu. The two listen to him blab about love tips which they seriously need.
“I might not get married, but I’m surely headed somewhere. I have cancer, so I’ll be dead in three months. I’m headed to the afterlife way before I can get married.”
After meeting the problematic youth writer who currently trains as an idol, Dong-kyung meets another who reveals leaving writing for good because of her terminal illness. She tells her she wants to relay her situation in person in case the blabbermouth writer who is friends with her ex-husband spills it in the scheduled team dinner.
At the dinner, the blabbermouth goes to his usual annoying self. Talking about the dying writer’s condition to have been brought about by her bad attitude. Hitting her tipping point, Dong-kyung announces her condition shutting up the writer who knows only how to be rude.
In order to summon him, Dong-kyung uses herself as leverage to no avail. While she was sleeping, he visits to charge her and places a pillow under her head. When she wakes up and realized what happened, out of fury she removed the red bracelet which led her to be hospitalized.
Dong-kyung: “You can’t run away before you grant me my wish. I said you could go after you grant me my wish. Don’t you remember?
Myul-mang: “I do not know the answer to that. So the only thing I could do is to let you decide.”
At Life Story, Na Ji-na rushes to look for Dong-kyung after finding out her condition. Editor Cha drives her to the hospital and hides her so Hyun-kyu won’t see her.
Waking up at the sight of the hospital, Dong-kyung aimlessly walks and sees Myul-mang with a weary face. Softly chiding his previous actions, she reminds him that she doesn’t have much time left. Opening his heart, he tells how he caused all the unfortunate and saddest events in her life.
Undaunted on his claim that he brought her misery, Dong-kyung appeases his woes by saying beautiful things happen because of him – like the spring, morning and new beginning. Their happy chat was interrupted by the creator deity who brought Dong-kyung to her garden.
The creator deity warns her that she will be heartbroken whatever she chooses to do. But she asserts he does not give her misery. Receiving a marble from the deity, she heads back to a door that leads to Myul-mang’s place.
Confronting the creator deity, Myul-mang tells her to leave Dong-kyung alone. She responds that’s what she did and relays how she was scolded. Hoping she is wrong and that the lovers’ choices are right, Myul-mang knows that the reality is the opposite.
“Everything that disappears is usually beautiful.”
Going out for sweet times, Myul-mang is quick to give Dong-kyung what makes her happy in the blink of an eye momentarily. He brings in a cherry blossom road. Beaming, she tells her a fond childhood spring memory of their family at a theme park.
After meeting Ji-na, she decides not to sleep at her place when she learns of her writing project with Cha Joo-ik. About to cross the pedestrian, Myul-mang appears to gift her another sweet surprise and leads her to a theme park. Gazing lovingly at her happy face, she mumbles she’s scared the beautiful scene might vanish.
Reminding her that beautiful things usually disappear, she asks if she can possibly fade without people being reminded of her memories. But Myul-mang answers her with a kiss. Capping off his impromptu date night, he made her relive her childhood memory with her parents at that same park.
Before she can make a move, they are back to reality. Worried his magic gift did not make her happy, she assures him that she is. Their conversation is halted as she hears her aunt calling her name.
“Like me. It’s okay to like me. I don’t care about anyone but you now. You don’t have to wish for it now. So choose. Choose yourself and the world.
Doom At Your Service Mid-Series Musings
We’re back to how it started in Doom At Your Service. This time around though, Dong-kyung won’t face her problem alone. After the fast-paced opening chapters, I didn’t expect a mellowed-down mid-series. It was as if, it’s telling us to prepare for the worst already.
There is still vagueness in the supernatural premise of the story. Specifically, the connection between the creation and chaos deities is not elaborated in a way that makes sense.
We need to know if they can just join power for one or two episodes, so we can just bask in six episodes of fan service. It’s easy to be curious if Myul-mang can just trade his god status, be a human, and live happily-ever-after with Dong-kyung.
If we don’t overthink the plot, all Myul-mang and Dong-kyung have to do is to check with the creator deity if she can prolong her life. Putting a lot of value on Dong-kyung’s wish in the narrative does not actually make sense if the same wish can’t grant a way for her to survive.
While the fantasy element feels wobbly at least the love story continuous to mesmerize. Credit that to Park Bo Young and Seo In Guk’s chemistry and the well-penned lines on the series’ peak moments.
Ji-na, Joo-ik and Hyun-kyu’s love triangle also expects to go on a full circle as we move to the second half of the series. It’s a battle of “first love” and “first kiss” – will Ji-na finally makes her “first relationship”?
Catch up on the latest episodes of Doom At Your Service on tvN. International fans can watch it on Viu.
Photos: tvN | Viu
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