Thirty-Nine is a Netflix-based Korean Drama released on 16th February. Episode 3 was broadcasted on 23rd February and narrates the dilemma Mi-jo goes through as she struggles to inform her Chan-young about her diagnosis.
Recap
The episode starts with three friends hanging out with each other and enjoying ice cream. But the mood dampens as they start talking about funerals. This scene is highly heart-wrenching for Mi-jo and viewers alike as they know about Chan-young’s illness.
The setting later changes to a confrontation between Mi-jo and Jin-seok, the man who is married and has an affair with Chan-young. Mi-jo is troubled by the helpless situation she has been thrown into and takes out her anger on Jin-seok.
She blames him for Chan-young’s condition, leaving him confused as he doesn’t know about the illness. He decides to calls Chan-young.
Meanwhile, Seon-woo gives Mi-jo a ride to Chan-young’s house. They overhear San-joo bad-mouthing Chan-young, asking her to stay away from her husband.
Still enraged with everything, Mi-jo barges into the room and slaps San-joo, who immediately calls the police for the assault. Mi-jo is taken to the police station.
Chan-young calls Jin-seok and pleads to him to settle the situation, who agrees and asks his wife to drop the charges.
Chan-young goes to visit her parents, and Mi-jo is left anxious for one more day. She meets with Joo-hee, who can sense something is wrong but doesn’t bring it up.
The same evening, after Mi-jo leaves, Joo-hee gets drunk and creates chaos in Hyun-joon’s restaurant. Hyun-joon just watches her, amused by it.
The next day, sober Joo-hee realizes the disturbance she had caused in the restaurant and apologizes to Hyun-joon. She leaves upset, as he mistakes her to be a 42-year-old.
Finally, gathering her courage, Mi-jo decided to tell Chan-young about her illness. She goes to Chan-young’s studio and gets teary-eyed as she watches a cheerful Chan-young interacting with her students.
After the class, Mi-jo finally goes to Chan-young, with the one motive to tell her about everything, but starts getting nervous and beats around the bush.
Chan-young is smart and knows that something is wrong. Mi-jo finally tells her about her stage 4 pancreatic cancer and assures her that everything will be okay.
But both women sit in silence, knowing that it was far from the truth and their days together might be limited.
Review
- This episode is comparatively slower. It goes around in circles before touching the plot of the episode. While it is evident that this was done to portray Mi-jo’s dilemma as well as all of their lives before things went wrong, it became tedious at times.
- The romantic side plots are quite exciting and gave the viewers a much-needed break from the anxiety of knowing about Chan-young’s illness.
- The advancement in the love lives of Mi-jo and Joo-hee also seems like a perfect cushioning for them to fall back once they lose Chan-young.
Rating: 3/5