[Drama Recap] Remember You: Episode 4

Normally I really dislike it when a nominally sympathetic character in a story works unfailingly to prop up a lie.

What makes Ji-an different in this regard is, in the first place, she knows full well that Hyeon won't cooperate if she just tells him the truth. Hyeon's willingness to be helpful is directly proportional to how much he gets to act like an uncooperative, mean-spirited jerk in the process. This is what Hyeon's personality has been like since childhood, and that's not going to change any time soon. This only becomes all the more clear when the new plotline shifts into gear and Hyeon, rather than behave rationally and normally, decides to initiate an elaborate cover-up for pretty much no reason. Well there is a reason- in the immediate sense he can get back at Ji-an by invading her privacy the same way she invades his.

And also Hyeon can continue to act like he's way smarter than the police. Which to be fair is mostly true. The main problem with all of this is that I'm kind of waiting at this point for Hyeon to receive some sort of comeuppance. I really liked the last episode of "Remember You" because it was all action in a drama that, up until that point, had mostly been about build-up. And this episode continues that- Seon-ho (played by Park Bo-geom) rather obviously appears to be the real villain of the drama but technically speaking he's still just in a supporting role. And that's really the broader issue here.

"Remember You" can have fun and fanservice when that's what the production team wants to do, but there's so much emphasis on build-up I can't help but worry that the punchline is inevitably going to be a disappointment. Meanwhile, all we really have to go on in terms of entertainment value is the charm of the larger cast. The doofus police investigation team definitely has its moments, but there really needs to be more than that. Hopefully the current mystery is going to be complex enough to justify the wait time. At the very least there's definitely the implication that the crime in question had something to do with something important regarding Hyeon's past.

By extension, this also means that Ji-an could be involved. But how exactly can they do the buddy detective thing when Hyeon barely even tolerates Ji-an as a minion, let alone an equal?

Review by William Schwartz