Realistically rationalizing that competence is required when deciding to marry or to divorce, Strangers Again asserts the importance of mutual compromise in a relationship.
Surprisingly, Strangers Again does not like beating around the bush and reveals already the answer to the hanging question from the opening week.
Rooting for “love” to resolve the initial conflict presented, the series engrosses with its sensible reflection that love alone, most of the time, does not salvage a relationship.
abbyinhallyuland watches Strangers Again on K-PLUS
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 |
Strangers Again Episodes 3 and 4 Highlights
Seeing the woman who caused her divorce from Eun-beom evoked feelings that Ha-ra thought she already buried.
It bothered her and her friend Bi-chwi is taking the stress.
“The fleeting usefulness she sees would be my legal knowledge, you see.”
Confronting Eun-beom about his recent reconnection with Ki Seo-hee, Ha-ra rests her case as he declared unable to drop the case he’s working with Seo-hee.
It turns out, Ha-ra takes the case of Seo-hee’s husband, Jun-kyung, so the ex-couple meets in the court to defend their respective clients.
With the courtroom battle ahead, their officemates wage bets on who will win the case.
“Do I become polite if I do what other person desires regardless of my feelings?”
Meanwhile, Eun-beom meets Jae-gyeom and chatted about his situation with Seo-hee. Briefly discussing the affair Eun-beom had, he evaded going deeper into it while Jae-gyeom refuses to believe he could really do it.
Jae-gyeom also confessed how he has not been in contact with Ha-ra since the night she saw him with Seo-hee. He relays how they faintly argued and that she’s not picking up his calls.
Worried that Ha-ra will stop her connection with him, Jae-gyeom admits being deeply involved with her already. However, he thinks that Ha-ra has not moved on completely with Eun-beom still.
At home, after respectfully defending herself from her mother’s nosy friends, Ha-ra receives a call from Jun-kyung about the visitation which he thinks his daughter does not want to go to.
A blast from her and Eun-beom’s past emerged when she saw a picture of them on the day, they first held hands watching a concert.
“I felt really bad. It felt complicated. Because it seems that you knew. That I’m not over Goo Eun-beom yet.”
Getting a bunch of side dishes from her mom, Ha-ra gives her a money gift for her birthday and drives back to her place where Jae-gyeom has been waiting for her.
Honestly revealing her real thoughts, she emotionally confessed how she felt bad and embarrassed since she figured he knows she was not over Eun-beom yet.
Jae-gyeom responds that her concern is acceptable given she married because of love. But he assures her that out of all the things he’s good at, waiting is his strongest suit.
“It wasn’t an affair but I would have been led to that. I just turned myself in before it actually happened. Married life was not for me.”
Seo-hee’s first visitation expectedly did not go well as her daughter was estranged from her for two years. Pushing to present evidence of assault that’s why Seo-hee was forced to abandon her child, Ha-ra carefully assessed her client’s situation.
But when she sees Eun-beom and Seo-hee talking happily when she spontaneously made a visit to discuss the case, her mood change.
At the court hearing, Seo-hee’s affair which involved her that she initially does not want to be used, she submitted accordingly. Surprisingly, Eun-beom who lands in a sticky situation confessed that the affair was fake and he conspired with Seo-hee because he wanted a divorce.
Appalled at Eun-beom’s confession, she talks with him to spill the details and gets an answer that is even more baffling. Her ex-husband realized he is not fit to be in a married life.
Wallowing in alcohol, Eun-beom chatted with CEO Seo and Si-wook. He looks back on his married life memories with Ha-ra revealing their differences. Some are even trivial things like house chores, movie preferences, and even room temperature.
At the same moment, Ha-ra on a call with Bi-chwi realized how she has not yielded that much when she was together with Eun-beom.
“There’s no one who has it all. Everyone lives at a crossroads of some amount of happiness and some amount of misfortune.”
The aftermath of the real reason for her divorce took Ha-ra in an expected despondent mood. Thankfully, she has CEO Hong who provided words of wisdom about different circumstances that either keep or give up the initial marriage promise committed.
Braving the emotional bomb she just received, Ha-ra confronts another predicament when she learned that Jun-kyung plans to take his daughter to the US while the custody hearing is in process.
Her decision to let Jun-kyung does what he wants leads to his innocent child’s accident who went out of the airport and was hit by a vehicle.
Upset at Ha-ra’s decision of protecting her client which led to the accident, Ha-ra defends herself citing the root cause of the problem was the divorce of Da-wool’s parents.
Fortunately, Da-wool survived and her parents agree for her to stay with her mother. Seo-hee then makes a move to really have a serious affair with Eun-beom.
Ha-ra, on the other hand, has been spending meaningful time with Jae-gyeom who honestly wants to be in her life. While contemplating the recent events in her life, she asks him if he wants to formally go out with her.
Strangers Again Episodes 3 and 4 Musings
Honest conversations are the best part of Strangers Again so far. More than that, it’s nice that the perspectives of Ha-ra and Eun-beom are insightfully delivered to get the whole picture while understanding their apprehensions.
In the second week, we received some ruminating moments on how being unrelenting in a relationship slowly builds up the worst case of complacency. Something that would just burst somehow and would make a person turn back on the initial love he felt for someone.
For the divorce case tackled, it sheds light on the expected emotional hit that would transpire to the child of divorcing parents. By presenting two scenarios of divorce that are both reasonably warranted; the ground raised in Eun-beom’s and Ha-ra’s marriage dissolution was quite contemplative.
Hinted to be the next movement of the story are possible new relationships for both of them. Now, based on what they feel; we can assume they are both not emotionally ready to deal with their own emotions; much more the lingering emotions they still have for each other.
Nevertheless, it’s refreshingly nice to see how pacifying the series behaves when the topics being delved into are not the happy kind of things.
Week 2 also illuminates the acceptance that marriage is not only about two people being in love. Normalizing the weight of things to consider before committing to share your personal space should be of utmost importance when considering the possibility of having someone enter that private boundary.
Perfectly captured in the seemingly mutually loving relationship between Eun-beom and Ha-ra; we witnessed how the former resorted to faking an affair to free himself while taking the blame in consideration of her emotions, and probably because the love is still there, but it can never be enough for him.
Strangers Again is airing on ENA Channel and Genie TV. International fans can watch it on K-PLUS or Viki.
Photos: ENA
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