dangermousie | Snow Queen eps 6-7 meta and picspam

Snow Queen is getting better and better. I finished ep 7 earlier and by this point, a lot of kdramas start to drag, but not this. This just draws me in more and more, and not just because I literally space out occasionally from how pretty Hyun Bin is. Especially when he wears black and/or suits.

I’ve decided I know what I want for the end. More than the OTP together, more than anything, I want Tae-Woong to be at peace and to progress with his life. Even if Bo-Ra dies (and who are we kidding, she is someone with serious illnesses in a drama. The only time that premise surprised me with its ultimate end was in Tattakoi), I don’t want Tae-Woong to descend again into depths of despair. He is too good a guy.

Before I get to the OTP stuff, I want to talk about other topics. I love how TW is slowly fixing the relationship with his mother. I loved the flashback that resulted in him running away. She said things in anger (and I don’t blame her. He just told her he will never study again) but he was utterly fragile at that point, so…

But she kept all of his notebooks and medal and everything, wow. And they have slower growing connection. I love it when she first feeds him dinner (and OMG, you can tell how he drinks it in), and then he asks her if he can sleep over and she says no, but some days later, she asks him to stay the night because it’s late. And she tells him if he has a girl he likes, bring her over and she’ll cook for her. *squee* I bet he will bring Bo Ra over at some point.

And earlier, she comes looking for him and I love that scene so much. She tries to call him Deuk-Gu (the name he’s been calling himself) and you see him flinch every time and then she says she can’t. And I love how he asks her, a little desperately (he is so young) whether she’ll forgive him if he goes back to studying. And I love that she tells him he should do what he likes, he should do things he is enjoying, not do things for others, and it’s such a thing he needs to hear, because he’s been living for others for so long. It’s a novel idea for him now, to do what he wants. And I love that he actually ends up going back to that weird little Prof. he struck a friendship with and studying, really studying, not out of obligation or guilt but because he is drawn to it, he loves it, he can’t help it.

I think, it a lot of ways SQ is about TW learning to live again, and I love that the meaning of life isn’t solely wrapped around Bo Ra for him. He needs to learn to forgive himself, and things like his Mother’s words, the joy he has with Bo Ra, even the meeting with the old classmate who tells him it’s not his fault, really help. But a lot of it IS Bo Ra: he gets to have fun, to be his age, to be a ‘real boy’ and to enjoy life again, to feel worthy.

And now, I want to talk about OTP. Oh my OTP. They so rescue each other. Bo Ra is extremely lonely (she mentions to TW that she’s never had a nickname because you need a close friend for that and she’s never had any) but she can relax, be happy with TW. That is why she becomes so much gentler, so much nicer: she is happy and safe for the first time in many many years. No wonder when later on they have a huge fight, she is temperamental and moody and reverts to her prickly self (not to mention forgets that TW is not around and is all startled). Ultimately, that is why Geon Woo (nice as he is, and he is wonderful. Love the scene where he meets with BR’s Dad and is charming and straightforward and uncowed) has no chance with her: he cannot do for her when TW can (though I feel horrid for him as he was worried that TW and BR were getting close but was thinking it wasn’t so bad and then found out TW was BR’s first love). Bo Ra can play and tease with TW, she can have fun and it’s not something she knows a lot about: just watch the adorable kimchee making scene. She is having a ball. She is more and more playful and oddly childlike with him: she can allow her inner girl out, she doesn’t have to have her walls up with him.

But yes. They are growing so close and what I love the most about eps 6 and 7 is TW’s slow realization he is in love. He doesn’t realize it at first, even though he keeps staring and looking unhappy during the meeting between Geon Woo and Bo Ra and Bo Ra’s Dad (and flashbacking to overhearing her asking GW out. Silly boy, you don’t run like mad over town the way you did earlier, just for the heck of it). I think the first inkling he really has is when the four (TW, Bo Ra, GW and Seung Ri) are drinking together. After Bo Ra and the Doctor leave, SR (who is tipsy) is feeling all relieved because she points out to TW that oh, it’s OK, Tae Woong is only nice to Bo Ra because he feels sorry for her and you see the look on TW’s face, and he is confronted with that bare statement and realizes that is not the case at all.

Or the scene during the basketball games, where he just stares at her, and he is so aware of her physically: her smiles at the other guys in the game to distract them (and he is jealous!), the way she splashes water on her face after the game. The camera lingers on her, on how translucent her skin is, how the water touches her face, to show TW’s new hyper-awareness of every little thing about Bo Ra, about her desirability. He is really noticing her as a woman, and I love how even small connections and touches seem to get him all frozen and burning at the same time. Like the scene where he helps her walk because she is limping, so he is holding her arm, and then, even when he lets go, their hands are close together and later (and I almost died) you see him sit on the hood of the car, just staring at his hand in wonder (and then Bo Ra shows up and startles him). Or later, when she wants him to get econ notes from a girl so she smoothes his hair and pats his face and you can see that even though he doesn’t move much, he it totally hyper-aware of her hands on his skin. And there is a scene later where she falls asleep studying and he just looks at her, and whispers ‘her eyelashes are so long’ (he is besotted, that’s for sure) and puts his head down on the table next to her and touches her cheek gently (and she wakes up and he withdraws his hand very fast).

He is so attuned to her emotionally, as well. He notices her distress at having to be at a hospice opening (though I love how later she tells her Dad she is going to live a very long time. Being with TW has given her strength and will to live). That is why he is so angry when she talks of death after that opening: he is too emotionally invested and the thought of her dying is insupportable. And in parallel, she wonders why she is afraid of dying now, as she didn't use to be. That is because she has things to live for now.

And one of my favorite scenes follows. In going after him, she falls and cuts her leg and needs stitches but she is allergic to anesthetic so they have to stitch her without. And the local doctor tells Tae Woong to hold her (so she won’t move) and he holds her, holds her shoulders tightly, as she is biting her lip not to cry out in so much pain, and OMG his face. And his hands are clutching her and you can tell he is feeling every bit of her pain for himself. And then she is sleeping, out of it, and he is sitting by her and he is all shaky, whispering ‘you should have at least cried out, idiot!’ and he reaches out to stroke her hair. I screamed. And he is so gentle and hesitant but he finally does and EEEEEEEEE!

And GS who came there, actually sees (though he doesn’t let on). When Bo Ra is better, GS takes her home in his car, and I love how TW falls back (in the ‘official’ car) because he cannot bear to drive behind them and to see Bo Ra and GS together (just as later, he sees them walking and joking together and fades into background because he is in turmoil). In his quiet way, TW is a very emotional person with very strong feelings (just see the way he acted after his friend’s death) so this must be terrifying and terrifyingly new.

And of course!!!!

This all culminates in A KISS!!!!!!!!!

It’s snowing, and Bo Ra is being incredibly adorable and she closes her eyes to make a wish and I love how TW keeps staring at her and then walks closer as if he is drawn, can’t help himself, and AND AND AND he kisses her!!!!!!!!

!!!

It’s a very light, incredibly gentle kiss. And she is so started for a second and then she slaps him.

And runs off.

And she is in turmoil and says she won’t forgive him, and asks Dad to switch drivers with her from now on, and tells TW it’s a betrayal as she always viewed him as a brother (heeee, liar :D) and I think she is co confused and messed up exactly because she feels so much for him and it’s hard for her to face it, especially since it will be such a confusion in her life and…

I love how you see him try to apologize, and then to drown his thought of her in work/practice/study (and how significant is it that she didn’t demand he be fired).

But then, but then…

She has a meeting from hell with her Mom (and GS just adds fuel to the fire. He is a good guy, but not attuned to her the way TW is) and she is missing and TW goes looking for her everywhere and he finds her…at the gym (!!!!) and I love how he is all ‘everyone is so worried’ and she just looks up and she is in tears and goes ‘Oppa?’ and I love how he is her shelter really, and he just walks forward and holds her. As if she is fragile and he will comfort her and she will be safe. And you hear in voiceover the lines from the SQ story she loved so much when she was a kid and which he’s read since, about Snow Queen asking Kay why he wanted to befriend her, when she is so cold and her heart is like ice, and Kay pausing and then replying “Because I love you. Because of love.”

And they stand there, stock still, holding each other.

End of ep.

Cut to me, sitting wide eyed, and happy, and crying and…

This is one of the best dramas I’ve ever seen.

P.S. How could I forget to mention the scene early in ep 6 where Tae Woong tells Bo Ra he knows she is that little girl! And apologizes. And there is awesomeness and wonderfulness. Or the fact that Bo Ra is actually the younger sister of TW’s dead friend? Though he doesn’t know it, and she doesn’t know that he knew her brother? Oh woobies…

Some SQ pics from eps 6 and 7:

OK, I lied, this is earlier, but I love this shot: