The Suspicious Housekeeper

I just finished watching this, The Suspicious Housekeeper. Lets Dive right into it!

There were 20 episodes, the the plot could be divided into three parts. The story starts of with the death of a mother/wife. The husband then takes care of four of his kids. The first part of the plot was focusing on how the family was coping with the death of a loved one. At that moment, the dad hired a housekeeper. This housekeeper was very suspicious because she doesn't smile and literally interacts like a robot and completely obeys all your commands. The housekeeper was literally apathetic. Although on the outside she lacked compassion and all, but deep down the family and the viewers knew that she had a story to tell. She also in a very weird way, started to actually help them overcome their individuals difficulties. After the death of their mother, each child experienced difficulties differently. The eldest daughter started to search for love elsewhere and almost wanted to have sex with her boyfriend or something (well, Koreans aren't that liberal). The second eldest (son), couldn't focus on his basketball, and started picking fights. The third (son), was being bullied and felt like dying. The youngest daughter (and the cutest), just......lacked love. 

The husband, apparently cheated on the wife, and that was the cause of her (the mother/wife) suicide. But before that, the last person that she met, was with the person he was cheating with (the mistress). The mistress was the one who actually told the wife about it, otherwise she wouldn't have found out. The mistress wanted him all to herself, and told the mother to stop being an obstacle. Drowned with those words, the literally drowned herself in a river. Now, not only the children had to deal with the death, they had a deal with the fact that the cause of their mother's suicide was, their very own father. So the family started to fall apart and they were staying separately. Long story short, the housekeeper, by her twisted methods, brought the family together and they felt very grateful to her for that. It was right then, when they started to get curious as to why she didn't smile and was monotonous all the time. They started asking questions about her past, and tried hard to get to know her, in order to return her favor. 

The second part of the story was focusing on the housekeeper's background story. It was triggered when she saw a man one day (in a restaurant), and started shouting, "Why are you still alive?" It was then that the family became even more curious. When she eventually told them about it, they felt really bad for her. By this time, they already loved her so much that they really wanted to help her. So apparently, her story is that she had a stalker who was in love with her. Of course, she didn't marry him. She married a doctor in Somalia (Somalia because she was on the run from the stalker actually) and had a son. One day, the stalker actually killed the husband and the son by burning their house, when she wasn't at home (well, it was all perfectly planned to be such). But before the restaurant incident, she was thinking he was dead, because he faked his death (because he had leverage over a cop, and the cop helped him fake his death). Now, using that restaurant meeting opportunity, the stalker decides to start going for the housekeeper, but not as the stalker that once liked her, but as the new man he has become (hoping she doesn't recognize his old self, and kill him instantly). So he continuously tries to deceive her by proving he is someone else, but she starts to dedicate her life to prove that he is the same guy as the stalker. She does that by pretending to be his lover, and finally she manages to get a recording of him mumbling the wrong things to his cop friend. The stalker then gets caught and goes to prison.

I never really expected anything much after the bad guy got caught, but then I realized that there were two more episodes to go, which is an usually pattern for Korean dramas. Turns out, the last two episodes (the third part) was the best and most meaningful part. The kids totally love the housekeeper now, and they actually ask her to be their mom. The dad, although doesn't love her, he is trying to do what is best for his kids. This is where Korean dramas differ from most other dramas. They are daring to show the truth and what is right. The children moved on from their mother's death pretty easily due to the distraction and help from the housekeeper. Now they are so much in love with her, that they actually forgot their mother's (dead) birthday. They were so blinded that they actually wanted the housekeeper to be their mom. So again, using her twisted mind gaming techniques, she shows them the truth, that their mother cannot be replaced like that, and on top of that, she needed her own grieving time. To be honest, at one point I became okay with the fact that she can be their mother too. 

In the last two episodes, the ideas that were brought up were really deep. If you move on after a death of the loved one, does it mean you never loved that person who died? If you don't move on, does that mean you feel guilty or is it out of respect? Can you actually ask someone to fill in that position of a mother? If you are worried for a person, you care for that person, you hurt when they hurt - does that equate to love? Does that equate to the love of a mother, and the love of a wife? Her twisted technique to make them realize was to act like she was the evil stepmother (at one point, she wanted to throw the late mother's picture away). She started scolding the youngest daughter, started asking them to do chores, telling them to get out of the house if they don't like it. She drew a very clear line, of what is it to be a mom, and what is it to be a housekeeper. It was because, they were expecting her to be their mom while having the good benefits of a very kind and loving housekeeper that does not discipline them when they do something wrong. If they want someone who only does what they want and makes them happy all the time, what they really want is a housekeeper, not a mom - and it took time for them to realized that, even for me as a viewer. 

The ending was, she left them for a year to grieve for her husband and son (because only recently she found their grave. Her mother-in-law kept that from her as a punishment because she previously thought that the housekeeper and the stalker worked together in the arson). A year later, she returns to them, smiling, as a person that cares for them and loves them, but never as their mom, as it can never be replaced. I really really really enjoyed this drama. It was very exciting. I cried (I actually never do), but the acting was so good, it was moving. All the children did really well, especially the youngest. When she cried, it was so real. The eldest daughter (Kim So-Hyun), I already admired her acting before, in the drama, 'I Miss You' & 'The Moon Embraces The Sun'.

Kim So-Hyun & Kang Ji-Woo

It's definitely a must watch if you enjoy Korean dramas. It's different from the normal couple love dramas out there, because this focused on moving on after the death of a loved one from the angle of a family life, while dealing with affairs and reconciliation. See ya!