Oasis: Episodes 11-12

Oasis: Episodes 11-12

by Dramaddictally

Absence makes the love triangle grow stronger when one of our leads is out for the count. As another time jump comes our way, we’ve got new jobs, lingering heartache, and old animosities coming to the fore. And, at the center of it all, there’s a queen bee who’s pulling all the strings.

 
EPISODES 11-12

We ended last time with Doo-hak getting shot and falling off the docks and into the water. When we jump into the action this week, we learn that his body was never found, making everyone believe he’s dead. In the aftermath, three of his gang member friends go back to prison for their involvement in his escape (but, oddly, Jung-shin isn’t in any trouble, even though it was her plan).

We then skip ahead three years and see what everyone is up to. Cheol-woong is now buddy-buddy with his new dad, Choong-sung, and the two start working together when Cheol-woong is promoted inside the ANSP. He’s still hitting on Jung-shin every chance he gets with no signs of backing down — no matter how many times she rejects him.

And, make no mistake, Jung-shin is still rejecting him. She wants Cheol-woong in her life and still thinks fondly about their time together as teenagers with Doo-hak, but she doesn’t want to sully those memories. She has no intention of being more than friends.

Still, Cheol-woong tries to help her (with obvious ulterior motives) whenever she’s in a bind. One such bind arises when Jung-shin loses most of her shares in Geum-ok’s production company and sets out to start her own film studio. Cheol-woong uses his powerful position to help her get a loan, and also collects data on the Hong Kong neo-noir film industry to give her advice on what to import. (We’re approaching the early 90s in the timeline, so this reference to the popularity of HK films was a nice touch.)

The strange thing about Jung-shin losing all her company shares is that it seems Geum-ok willfully screwed her over. Knowing Geum-ok’s personality, it doesn’t make sense — until we find out that Yeo-jin has coerced Geum-ok into doing it. Yeo-jin wants Cheol-woong to get over Jung-shin and she thinks that if Jung-shin goes broke, he’ll move on, and then she can hook him up with a chaebol heiress. Unfortunately for her, Cheol-woong won’t give up so easily.

It’s one of many instances this week where we see Yeo-jin orchestrating things behind the scenes. I knew she was a strategist, but now she’s got her hands in everything. Geum-ok even points out that Yeo-jin should be a main character in a movie — making me realize that she’s taken a center stage in the story we’re watching.

In addition to interfering with Jung-shin’s life, Yeo-jin also paid Am-daek a pretty penny to stay away from Cheol-woong. Am-daek is having a rough time since losing her husband and son three years ago and it makes her want to be closer to Cheol-woong — since she thinks of him as her only son now. But whenever she goes near him, Yeo-jin threatens her (or slaps her across the face).

There’s even a moment where Am-daek, blackout drunk, tells Jung-shin that Cheol-woong is her son. Jung-shin is so shocked that she asks Am-daek about it later, but Am-daek convincingly denies it, saying she’s been drinking too much and losing her mind lately. More than once, Am-daek tells Jung-shin and Cheol-woong she wishes they were a couple — but Jung-shin asserts that she’s not over Doo-hak.

Lucky for Jung-shin, our boy Doo-hak is alive and well (and looking mighty handsome) in Japan. He’s gotten in with some gangsters there too — who pulled him out of the ocean and saved his life — but he’s itching to return to Korea. Finally, the head honcho in his new criminal organization gets him a passport with a phony name so he can travel home. The catch is that he has to run the guy’s business in Korea — which I’m pretty sure has him headed for more trouble.

When Doo-hak returns, he seeks out his friends from the gang, who are now out of prison and running a gukbap joint. Against their better judgment, Doo-hak wants to get his revenge by putting things back to the way they were before he left. He misses Jung-shin but can’t meet her just yet because, once the baddies find out he’s not dead, they’ll try to kill him again. His plan is to hit them head-on before they get the chance.

As Doo-hak gets the old gang back together to run a bunch of casinos, he sets his sights on finding out who was behind his father’s death — since he doesn’t believe it was an accident. We know, of course, that Man-ok poisoned Joong-ho and then sent him stumbling into the road to make his death look like a hit-and-run. But we also know that he had orders to do that. Man-ok has been Choong-sung’s right-hand man for a long time, which is what makes the animosity growing between Man-ok and Choong-sung’s newly formed family so interesting.

Yeo-jin has had Man-ok in her pocket since she found out he tortured Cheol-woong — and Man-ok took the sole blame for it. As part of his debt to her, he’s been brokering real estate deals, since everyone is still buying up land around redevelopment areas. When Yeo-jin gets an offer to go into business with someone else, she backs out on Man-ok, leaving him in a tough spot.

At the same time, Cheol-woong is trying to have Man-ok fired — although, Choong-sung only sends him to a regional office. While we’ve seen Man-ok be nothing but loyal to Choong-sung, it looks like a stand-off is coming, given the way Cheol-woong and Yeo-jin are annoying him. And Man-ok is not someone I would want to annoy.

We end this week with Doo-hak approaching Jung-shin in the street to let her know he’s alive. We get hugs, tears, and relief, as our pair reunites and we’re left to wonder how they’ll start picking up the pieces.

The one thing I’m really loving this week is a side story thrown in about Doo-hak’s mom, Am-daek, teamed up with his former boss, Poong-ho, in a real estate venture. And no, Poong-ho isn’t running a scam this time. He says he owes Doo-hak, and so he’s trying to help Am-daek, but I smell a romance brewing. And for some reason, nothing would make me happier.

Am-daek lived such a tough life because of Doo-hak’s dad that, not only did I feel relief when he was gone (sorry Dad), but I wanted her to live happily in his absence. This week Am-daek says, “It feels like my heart is punched full of holes and wind just blows through them.” It’s a lovely line, and it points to what Poong-ho tells her: her problem isn’t alcohol, it’s loneliness — and she needs to treat the cause. I’d really like to see these two pair up in more than just real estate, and see if they can treat that loneliness together.

 
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Oasis: Episodes 11-12
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily