Author: Nandini Pradeep J from ECI
Photo Credit as tagged
WARNING: If you haven’t watched this episode, please be aware of spoiler from reading this article.
Episode 14 begins with the surfacing of a watch which, in a sense, overturns Dokgo Ma Te’s destiny itself. There he was, imagining himself to be the illegitimate heir to a business conglomerate and here, “time” draws up a new card: he’s, in fact, the child of the Chairman’s second wife, who was the stepmother figure until then. So now, not only is he his worst enemy’s son, he is left with the realization that he is unwanted by his mother, even after all these years.
She tells him how Hong Yu Ra, who figured out this secret, uses it as a bait to ask a favor of Na Hong Ran. However, Yu Ra’s attempt to intimidate Na Hong Ran fails, given the kind of power the lady has. Na Hong Ran poignantly calls herself as “MG” itself, i.e., she reminds Ma Te (and Yu Ra), that she’s not just a person but a position and an enterprise itself.
Ma Te’s search for his father, thus, takes him into the uglier realms of truth: that his birth mother hates him for being as beautiful and attractive as his father, who took advantage of his mother and got her pregnant, knowing that she’s the daughter of a Chaebol household.
Na Hong Ran gives two options to Ma Te: either to leave the country or disappear forever because otherwise, she herself will make a hellhole out of his life. Ma Te is overwhelmed by his situation whereas Hong Ran remains unchallenged but with a drop of glistening tear hidden somewhere beneath her mask.
On the parallel scene, David is helping Bo Tong move – yes, even her painting of Ma Te. They are as always bickering and cute, but both sad to leave each other.
Lady No.7 Yeo Mim follows Ma Te and offers to drive as he is not in a state of mind for anything sane.
Bo Tong moves in with her family; her mother and brother, who prepared a beautiful room for her, is worried about David and his loneliness now that Bo Tong is gone.
But Bo Tong, as always, worries about her “Yeppeun” oppa!
Ma Te confronts and interrogates Hong Yu Ra only to realize how business-minded that person can be. Now that Ma Te doesn’t fit into her scheme of things, she is no longer concerned about him; she’s as cold as Na Hong Ran, which reminds us of Ma Te’s comparison of the two in the previous episode.
Bo Tong and Choi David exchanges texts at night and it displays how adorable those two are, especially Bo Tong with her naive comments.
The conversation between Na Hong Ran and Ma Te was recorded – the room was bugged by Yeo Mim. But the lady is quite unsure of how and where she should make use of this or if it’s useful at all.
Meanwhile at Hong Ran’s house, Park Ki Suk wants to put everything and everyone in their right places but Hong Ran doesn’t want anything to alter her plans. For Hong Ran, Ma Te is a scar that reminds her of the horrible past – the disloyal brothers, the man who abandoned her, the pain she went through.”But the past is a thing of the past”, says Park Ki Suk – her husband.
Bo Tong goes to Ma Te’s house to find him. On not finding him there and seeing his mother’s photograph, she guesses where he could be.
On reaching the crematorium, she finds Ma Te talking to his mother’s photograph placed near the pot of her ashes.
Bo Tong realizes that Ma Te is not his mother’s son. (P.S. He looked so damn handsome in that scene: looking melancholic yet profound. My PEELy body wasn’t ready for this *dies*)
On a serious note, we meet a Ma Te struck by the existential crisis: “If mom is not mom, then what does that make me?”, he asks Bo Tong as tears trickle down his cheeks.
He tells Bo Tong that his mother is Na Hong Ran (they should’ve just hugged omg :'( !!) In the next scene he tells her how he feels like an actor who acts his part as if it’s reality and later realizes that it’s an all act. That he realizes how much of a fool he must have looked like. Bo Tong tries to comfort him by saying that Mi Sook was really his mother but Ma Te cannot unsee the hatred in his birth mother’s words; the mother who doesn’t have even one kind word for a son whom she lost once and found after years. Instead, she wanted him to get lost forever. But in this chaotic mess, Ma Te understands that the one constant thing in his life is Bo Tong herself- someone he wouldn’t want to lose.
Hong Yu Ra wants Park Moon Soo to bring in Choi Jooh Ha / David (his step-brother) and she reveals Hong Ran’s secret to him.
In the following scene, David puts up a big framed picture of Bo Tong in his room and this moment his brother calls him for a drink. He tries to scout Joon Ha but the latter describes the ugly face of MG and tells him that it’s the sole reason why he hates MG. Moon Soo is taken aback.
Although initially he is confused, after watching a video sent by Bo Tong to make him feel good, Ma Te makes up his mind on what he should be doing.
Ma Te sends back the watch to Hong Ran, severing all ties with her. Back at Bo Tong company, he asks why David joined the company and he cheerfully replies that it’s because of the capable CEO with a vision.
This gives Ma Te enough perspective to confidently do well in his SS Company presentation.
Bo Tong makes a surprise visit to David’s place and finds her photo there. She takes this opportunity to turn down David’s proposal as she can’t see anyone other than Ma Te. In his reply, David tells her about this novel his mother loved (Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy). He never understood its meaning or the significance of the passages she marked out. But today, he thinks he can relate to it: That to meet someone whom you can love is a miracle in itself, that that someone loving you back is not an impossibility but just something ‘extraordinary’. David decides to wait.
Ma Te invites Park Ki Suk to dinner. They discuss Mi Sook and Ki Suk tells him not to give up on the password and on his mother. He also discloses that he took care of Ma Te out of love for Hong Ran. Meanwhile, Moon Soo goes head on at Hong Ran, cancelling out the decisions she had made in the case of the cleaning socks and also, tells her that he’ll bring Yu Ra back. Hong Ran accepts the challenge.
There’s a shift in Ma Te’s style at this point: profound sadness on the face, unruly hair, tired attitude, and relatively passive-shaded outfits.
While Yu Ra sets up a meeting with Choi David, Bo Tong brings Ma Te to a skating rink to reminisce the beautiful past.
Hong Yu Ra warns Joon Ha to quit following the path of unrequitted love and to take up his position in MG. But he curtly tells her to shut up as he replies: “Right now, I should LOVE.” But then Yu Ra tells him why Bo Tong cannot be separated from Ma Te….She’s his password!
Something commendable about this drama is its use of metaphors. In the subsequent scene, Bo Tong uses the skating rink as the metaphor for their life and asks Ma Te to master the slippery floor and that if possible, she wishes to be his skating shoes! Like a baby, she walks towards Ma Te but Ma Te realizes that it’s time he took his first steps towards her instead. Ma Te embraces Bo Tong – whom Yu Ra describes as Ma Te’s password (to Joon Ha).
At that moment, the perfection and warmth of love spreads and makes you feel like the ice would break apart and a new sun would emerge. At that moment, there’s no one else but Ma Te and Bo Tong – what we were waiting for, right?!
Can’t believe this will end soon! What will happen next? How will David react now? What will be Ma Te’s fate? How would MaTong couple fare? Episode 15 would be nothing less than a pandora’s box! Stay tuned!
[END]
sis, Wowww!!! This is beautiful recap for such a sad and heart broken Episode. Thank you for sharing.
You are right. The plots and storyline of this drama are like metaphors. I love all the valuable lessons and metaphors in this drama.
Me too, I’m SAD this drama will end soon, and at the same time, also feeling PROUD and happy that this little push thru to completion, despite many obstacles and hurdles for this drama.
To me, this drama is one of my all time favorites……because I love to watch “inspirational” dramas, so with little romantic scenes is super OK for me…!!! Plus, I have Love Rain drama to watch for mussy mussy lovely love story…..hahahha
He He! Thank you so much sis! Same here! I have my reservations when it comes to extreme mushiness! This drama is just about my kind of lovey dovey! Plus, Bo Tong’s character – it represents our “fangirl” feelings, I suppose hehe!! I totally understand Bo Tong!
Sis Nandini, thanks for such a great recap. I love when you pointed this out: “Something commendable about this drama is its use of metaphors. In the subsequent scene, Bo Tong uses the skating rink as the metaphor for their life and asks Ma Te to master the slippery floor and that if possible, she wishes to be his skating shoes! Like a baby, she walks towards Ma Te but Ma Te realizes that it’s time he took his first steps towards her instead.” This drama has been smartly written :)!
@Kailey: lol… Same here, sis! When I need to see warm love story as well as lots of skinship and lovely couple to admire, I’ll simply rewatch ‘Love Rain’ 🙂
We have the same habit…hahahahah…and I also keep on reating episode 10, 16 and 17…hahahhha
Thank you so much sis! Throughout the drama, I’ve felt that there’s more to it than what meets the eye! Very smartly done, indeed! Kudos to the writers!
Nandini, I agree, there is so much more to Beautiful Man than meets the eye! So many non-eels think it should be light & fluffy and are annoyed with the Birth Secret storylines… but I keep trying to tell people… it’s so much more than a manga! LOL
BTW, did anybody notice the SS group… Double SS? Do S? Hm, wonder who suggested the name for That company? ROTFL
im worried about mate now.i think he will fight with not one..but two evils now.what will he do? Although he have enough confident and several person to backup him now..can he fight both NHR and HYR?
But he’s not alone anymore . .He has accepted his own feelings for Bo Tong and also, he has Choi David, who trusts in him . .Now I think it’d be interesting to see how David would turn out eventually! Too bad the drama is 16 eps only! Too short T_T
i dont think david will turn to a bad guy..he’s a good man.and he start to admire mate too..for botong sake..he will protect mate.he will continue to fight for botong happiness.i just worried about those evil women.i think HYR is more dangerous than NHR. even NHR is a bad mother but she never lie about her feeling.
I really wish they will extend this drama. I want to see more development between Ma Te & Bo Tong!! Thanks Nandini for thebeautiful recap!
I hope so too T_T . . I really love this couple!
P.S. Thank you !! *hugs*
Nandini, Thanks a lot for this beautiful recap. Among all the episodes this is the one that watched 9th times already, and made me cry a lot! Its because the 1st part was too painful for Mate to be told by his mother that he was born destined to be abandoned, that I keep repeating the part where PKS told Mate how his adoptive mom love him as his precious son, just to have the feeling that Mate was consoled after all those heartbreak. My heart flutters for Mate and Botong for the first time. At last Botong’s love is reciprocated after 10 years of waiting.
P.S. I do not know if many have noticed to that drawing papers that Botong was holding when she sent a video to Mate. That drawing where Mate cried a river, there was an eel swimming in that pool of Mate’s tears. So smart, they know a lot of EELS are crying on this episode.
OMG! That’s really clever! EELs are clearly drowning in Ma Te’s sorrow! T_T
P.S. Thank you for your comment, sis! <3
the drawing seems to be done by the same artist that does all Suk’s merchandize .. so surely she knows well about eels.
Thanks for the recap. Bio mom drops a bomb on Ma Te and then promptly hands the script over to a 12 year old. I can respect a woman who makes the decision to let a child go so she doesn’t beat the crap out of him because he reminds her of his rotten father. This is someone who makes a mature decision based on their own limitations and wants what’s best for their child. I bet she’s pissed that this kid was robbed of that opportunity based on the selfishness of her husband and his “babysitter”.
Coming into this I just assumed that the adoptive mom was making the best out of a bad situation but I was wrong. No, this was intentional. We now see that she was just as delusional as Bo Tong, maybe even more so as she convinced herself that this was her and the chairman’s child and raised him to believe it too. Part of me now wonders if she told him they couldn’t afford meat and that’s why he ran around telling people he was a vegetarian.
Oh and the chairman. What a flake. Letting things happen when you have the power to change it is negligence. Letting it happen to your children or the children in your care is child neglect. Ma Te never should have been in a position where he had to whore himself out to put a roof over his head. SHAME ON YOU, Chairman!
Before anybody gets their panties in a bunch just to let you know I spent 20 years in child welfare, adoptions and therapeutic care so I do know what I’m talking about. I’m the one whose been stuck dealing with the results of this kind of behavior. I have spent the past 14 episodes wondering why Ma Te is not getting angrier about all of this and the only conclusion I can come up with is that he has no idea how deeply he has been wronged nor the wherewith-all to do anything about it. (don’t worry baby, I can help you with that)
And this is where our predator Bo Tong comes in…
If only this were a love story like she convinced herself it is. This is a story of revenge. Revenge against the pretty guy who’s only crime is in how he looks. I’m gonna MAKE him love me. I’m going to follow behind him, sabotage any attempts at real growth and swoop in when he’s vulnerable. All the while everybody thinks I’m cute so I can get away with being mean and horrible because it’s wrapped in Aegyo. He is devastated by his mom and Bo Tong calls him a crybaby? Come on, this is BULLSHIT!. (IU is PERFECT in that role) Now hurry up Ma Te and go back to being pretty and prickly oppa so I can maintain my delusion.
I grieve for all of the “work” that Ma Te has done on himself as being with Bo Tong makes it all pointless. Adoptive mom gets he wish, that Ma Te is so emotionally crippled on the inside that he is in reality only an pretty face and Bo Tong will make sure she reminds him of this for the rest of his life.
PLEASE DON’T END IT LIKE THIS!
Sis, I totally agree with you! All the “Beautiful Manslave” roles that Yu Ra made him to play seems absurd all of a sudden. Ma Te clearly feels this too – which is why he probably calls himself the artiste who just realized he’s only part of a greater art and not the art itself. Hong Ran’s character is clearly unfathomable -what end is she trying to achieve? I wonder what scars made her like this! There are a hundred questions and only a little time left. I am curious as to how this will end. It’s not yet time to end – so my heart says T_T
Agree with you that perhaps Ma Te had gone around saying he is vegetarian because mom could not afford meat and he didn’t want her to feel bad about it. Also think that Chairman is an absolute Casanova (rather than Ma Te who actually only had ONE relationship in the whole drama which is with the first woman in real estate)and a man of despicable character. Chairman had one wife who bore the eldest son (currently CEO of MG), then he had a second woman who bore him another second son – David Choi, whom he promptly abandon both mother and child to marry HNR for her wealth. He subsequently burden a third woman who loves him (Ma Te’ mom) with HNR’s son and effectively ruin her life because she is such a kind and loving person that she could not bear to give the baby (Ma Te) up for adoption to someone else. Furthermore chairman lent no financial assistance to the Ma Te and mom even knowing full well of their existence. A true sign of a politician when he has actually done so many despicable things and still come up smelling like roses.
Thanks Nandini..
Episode 13 & 14 were really heartbreaking…esp 14
Not wanted by one of your parents is hard enough, but to told that you are not wanted then and certainly not now…and even wants you dead is really a stab in the heart…poor Mate…to discover you have been living in lies and secrets of so many involved to the point you don’t even know anymore what your identity should be…who can you trust?
I wonder what the story of his mother was who had to cut ties with her family because of Mate..who was her family and why she had to cut ties with them…and why Botong as password..Why did she moved to the town of Osan to live with Mate; did Mate and Botong had to meet for a special reason? Or is it just because his mother saw Botong as the only geniune person in Mate’s life who would defend Mate even with her life..because he is her life; but why Mate has to bring the password (Botong) to the president…is he gonna get something or will there be a secret reveiled?
OMO…We have to wait to find out…and yet so sad…only 2 episodes and this beautiful journey of our beautiful man comes to an end…
This eel is crying : (
This EEL is crying too *drowns in sadness* Poor Ma Te !
Thanks for sharing. I managed to see ep.14 with English sub. Your recap helped me to understand better.
Anyway, I’ve seen every episode several times. All was so intense, so much have happened in each. The story was so good degree that now seems like a volcano ready to erupt.
You’re right. Too bad that are just 16 eps. I going to miss the moments in which I expected to see a new episode.
All the best.
Totally, sis! The next two episodes will probably turn everything upside down! Can’t wait~