It is one thing to handle divorce cases for a living, but it for sure hits differently when one finds themselves at the center of one.
Our ace attorney finds herself stuck between a rock and a hard place: keep living in denial while feigning ignorance about her husband’s affair, or face the situation head-on even if this means risking everything she achieved so far. But with our rookie attorney by her side supporting her, we can only enjoy the ride and look forward to where this partnership will take us.
Bunny S. watches Good Partneron Viu
Episode Recaps:01 & 02
Good Partner Episodes 3 and 4 Highlights
“I won’t divorce him, so save the drama.”
Being aware of the affair is one thing, but how Eun-kyung plans to do just nothing gets Yu-ri shocked. If it were Yu-ri, she would divorce that trash of a husband immediately and expose the affair before everyone. But a more rational and calculative Eun-kyung weighs up her options before making a decision. And to her, the cons outweigh any pros Eun-kyung might get out of the divorce. Still, I have to say Yu-ri had a point when she asked what about Eun-kyung’s life as a woman. How can she stand living with a cheater?
Ironically, it is Eun-kyung’s husband, Kim Ji-sang (Ji Seung-hyun), who wants a divorce. And nothing Eun-kyung does or says will get Ji-sang to change his mind. Not only did Ji-sang have an affair with Eun-kyung’s secretary after Eun-kyung got him a job as a medical consultant at the law firm, but also he is brazen enough to claim spousal negligence as the reason for the divorce, painting Eun-kyung as a workaholic who neglected her family for her career.
“I will help you work up the courage.”
Our first case for the week features a wife whose husband turns abusive while drunk yet is “gentle” while sober. The catch: the wife seems hesitant about filing a divorce, using her daughter’s upcoming marriage as an excuse to push back the divorce, though the daughter doesn’t seem to mind it and wants her mother to be free.
Between feeling afraid of getting labeled as a divorcee who threw away her family, worrying about how her husband will get by without her, and pondering over whether it is really worth it to get a divorce, the wife seems torn. But with a little push from Yu-ri, the wife signs the power of attorney, though I wonder how long the wife will remain determined before having another change of heart.
If it were up to Eun-kyung, she wouldn’t take on the case, to begin with. The reason why she assigned the last consultation to Yu-ri was to send away the wife politely. But Yu-ri’s sense of justice yet again kicked in and got her to take on the wife’s case, hoping to punish the husband for his abuse.
Unsurprisingly, before long, the wife starts questioning if getting a divorce is really the right thing to do. You know, her husband won’t have anyone to take care of him if she leaves him. And it doesn’t seem that the wife so much minds the black eye she got after her husband beat her when she told him about meeting an attorney.
Things get more complicated, with the husband attempting to commit suicide and the wife throwing the blame on Yu-ri. Once again, it isn’t about how the case ends (the husband survives and the wife decides to drop the lawsuit, falsely hoping her husband will change after this incident) but how the case affects our leading ladies. Yu-ri is overwhelmed by guilt and questioning her actions, asking what Eun-kyung would have done if it were her.
Eun-kyung’s advice is for Yu-ri to separate her personal opinions from her work personality. Instead of projecting her personal beliefs onto her clients, Yu-ri should check with them what they want to do. Still, I appreciate how Eun-kyung assured Yu-ri that it wasn’t her fault what happened to the man and made sure to tell Yu-ri that this advice was Eun-kyung’s way of trying to console Yu-ri.
“There comes a moment where you just accept everything. And care only for the future.”
Seeing no future working as a divorce attorney since she won’t be able to follow Eun-kyung’s advice, Yu-ri returns the bag Eun-kyung bought her and informs Eun-kyung of her decision to quit. As a parting gift, Yu-ri tells Eun-kyung that Ji-sang is currently living with his mistress. (It just so happens that Yu-ri and the mistress are neighbors.) That wasn’t Yu-ri being nosy, but her wanting to help Eun-kyung.
Spotting Ji-sang acting lovey-dovey with the mistress in person serves as the nudge Eun-kyung needs to make up her mind. Initially, Eun-kyung kept collecting evidence of the affair to avoid getting divorced, since the guilty party couldn’t file for divorce. But now that she saw for herself how shameless Ji-sang and the mistress were, Eun-kyung changed her mind.
What Yu-ri didn’t see coming, though, was Eun-kyung turning down Yu-ri’s resignation and hiring Yu-ri as her attorney, mainly because of the misguided sense of duty and the poor sense of justice Eun-kyung scolded Yu-ri for earlier. “Let’s punish them.”
For someone as experienced as Eun-kyung, winning her divorce case will be a piece of cake. So, why hire a rookie attorney like Yu-ri to represent her? The answer is more astonishing to Yu-ri. The reason Eun-kyung chose her is because of their differences. They have different points of view, interpretations, and solutions. Thus, they will balance each other out well. Interesting!
“Let’s put on the most perfect divorce show the world has seen.”
Getting served with the lawsuit papers, Ji-sang and the mistress consult a lawyer. And it seems that everyone is in accord that settling out of court is the best option for the cheating duo. However, they aren’t on the same page regarding the custody of Eun-kyung and Ji-sang’s daughter, Kim Jae-hee (Yu-na.) While Ji-sang wants to raise Jae-hee, the mistress wants both Eun-kyung and Jae-hee gone from Ji-sang’s life so she can have him for herself.
Well. Eun-kyung shares the same sentiment about wanting to raise Jae-hee. Except, she doesn’t plan to settle. Instead, she wants to take this fight to the end. Rationally speaking, reaching a settlement outside court might be ideal for everyone. But it seems like Eun-kyung’s anger and the desire to get revenge on the cheating duo have clouded her judgment, not even caring about how her public image will be affected by the news of her divorce and only focusing on having Ji-sang leave this marriage with nothing.
While I can understand Eun-kyung’s anger, she needs to set her personal feelings aside and think like a lawyer. Otherwise, she might lose everything while caught up in her emotions. You see, the mistress makes a low move, spreading a rumor that Eun-kyung is having an affair with Woo-jin and claiming it as the reason for the divorce.
That might be an absurd and groundless rumor. Yet, given how fickle-minded people are, they will just enjoy gossiping about Eun-kyung’s private life, regardless of the truth. You see, if even Eun-kyung’s so-called attorney got the wrong idea about Eun-kyung and Woo-jin after walking in on them together in Eun-kyung’s office, then one can only imagine what other people would think.
“Would you rather be dragged along by a woman who makes threats with your children?”
Giving us a parallel to Eun-kyung’s case, for our second case, we have a goose father whose family has been living abroad for 10 years. It has been 5 years since he and his wife got separated, settling to sign the divorce papers amicably after the children finish college. However, the wife changed her mind after the husband’s company got listed in the stock market and now she wants 50% of his shares.
A smart Eun-kyung figures that the daughter’s testimony will be the key to solving the case. So, using a little trick, Eun-kyung pushed back the hearing so that the daughter would be an adult by then and the court could accept her statement. With the daughter submitting a written statement objectively specifying the facts about her parents’ marriage and separation, the wife gives up and agrees to settle.
Though she kept her rationale until the end, we could see how Eun-kyung empathized with the husband’s story. The roles might be reversed, but just like the case with Eun-kyung, the husband was the breadwinner and the wife used being lonely as an excuse for her affair. When things didn’t go her way, the wife tried to sway the husband by bringing up that earning money doesn’t make him a parent, just like how Ji-sang tried to make Eun-kyung waver and agree to settle by bringing up their daughter.
While I don’t want Jae-hee to be brought up by that cheater of a father, I wonder if Eun-kyung can really take care of Jae-hee by herself. You see, Eun-kyung had Yu-ri pick up Jae-hee because the shuttle bus didn’t run and she had an upcoming appointment. But what if something like that happens again? I think Eun-kyung needs to think about how to balance pursuing her career and raising her daughter.
Ironically, though Eun-kyung’s life mostly revolved around work, Jae-hee grew up to be a little copy of her. And despite Jae-hee’s protests against it, claiming not to take anything after Eun-kyung, I guess it is her way of expressing that she misses her mum and wants to spend more time together. (Jae-hee is smart enough to figure out her parents are getting a divorce, but we are yet to learn whom she wants to live with.)
Good Partner Episodes 3 and 4 Musings
The more we get on Eun-kyung, the less she feels like the cold-hearted person people describe her as, and the more it feels like she just can’t express herself. Granted, Eun-kyung might not be a big softie and might prioritize work over people, but she isn’t mean or harsh, treating everyone with respect, even the mistress. Having the mistress quit would be a piece of cake, but Eun-kyung resolved to keep her personal and professional lives separate.
It could have been easy to cave in to her anger and pull the mistress by the hair and lash out at Ji-sang, yet Eun-kyung tried her best to control her emotions and plan her moves rationally, though that facade cracked whenever she was alone. This makes me feel for Eun-kyung and realize that for all her achievements and fame, she is a human being with vulnerabilities.
I am not sure if it is because Yu-ri reminds Eun-kyung of her rookie days, (Woo-jin mentioned how similar they are, but Eun-kyung strongly denied it.) but their time together is starting to rub off on Eun-kyung. Be it cracking a smile without realizing it while having lunch with Yu-ri, giving the wife from the first case a refund, referring her to an alcoholism specialist to help treat her abusive husband, or promising to take on her case if she changed her mind.
Likewise, though Yu-ri’s affable personality is still predominant, she is also learning to think more like a lawyer. And I liked how Yu-ri correctly pointed out that Eun-kyung was doing the same thing she called out her clients for, getting too hooked on their revenge and dismissing the bigger picture.
The theme of why women choose to live with abusive/cheating/violent husbands instead of getting a divorce was introduced during the first case. For the abused wife, it was the fear of living on her own, for Yu-ri’s mother, it was for her child’s studies and for Eun-kyung, it was because she was too scared to admit she was living in a lie and her perfect life was just a delusion.
Though I don’t necessarily agree with the idea of staying in a wrecked marriage, I don’t think it was the drama’s intention to make us judge those women’s actions but to provide some insights into why some people choose to live in misery rather than getting a divorce.
It might be just me, but the ongoing theme of cheating and affairs is really off-putting. Also, as things stand, it seems like we might be spending some time dealing with the cheating duo. And even if Eun-kyung got a divorce, they might remain a pain throughout the drama. Is it really too much to expect a decent exploration of the divorce world featuring other facets than cheating?
Photos and Videos: SBS Drama
