dangermousie | Shut Up eps 15 and 16

In the aftermath of the break-up (Do Il with hoodlums cracks me up btw)

I really liked this scene with SH and HS because however much SH tries to draw parallels between them, he is all wrong and tries to make himself feel better - HS didn't ditch his friends for fame...

HS calls JH but nobody picks up

Poor JH. He is so without moorings in this episode - he has no one, no friends, no goal, no Soo Ah.

The confrontation between HS and HJ with DI trying to play peacemaker. I love the little moment of Soo Ah overhearing.

JH in front of BH's burial. It kills me when he tells him "I burned my guitar, but I couldn't burn yours." Despite his maturity and independence, JH is still a kid, all alone in the world which is changing too fast for him.

Ha Jin finds out why Hyun Soo left. Yes, repair the bromance!

By now, I am actually finding Kyung Jong good-looking. I truly have been brainwashed.

Lost boys...

Ji Hyuk and Soo Ah missing each other. It kills me how utterly alone they both are, and how well they are coping with things no teenager should deal with. This show wasn't primarily a romance but it did its romance(s) better, more movingly and more convincingly than many a love-centric drama.

Ji Hyuk's confrontation with his mother. That was a viscerally painful scene and my heart broke how even after he went in, he kept hoping she would actually try to come in after him but of course she didn't. It's amazing to me he grew up as adjusted as he did, seeing that his family pretty much dumped him to live on the street because he was inconvenient (that is why he can identify so much with Soo Ah - her father may not have meant to ditch her, but the result was the same). I also loved that this wasn't a big makjang focus of the drama, just one of the underpinnings of what makes Ji Hyuk tick. Also, Sun Joon was really amazing in this scene.

I love Ha Jin standing up for Hyun Soo to Seung Hoon. See, SH, see, some people have real friends.

That scene was uncomfortable to watch and I wanted to brain the gangster-type his parents work for. You do get the sense that HS has had to put up with a LOT of crap in his life and is a very very good son.

Eeeeee! Bosslady tells Hyun Soo what Ji Hyuk did for him.

This was my favorite scene in the episode, because Ji Hyuk finally loses it and breaks down and spills his guts - everything he's been holding in and in for episodes - about his loneliness and need of the band as family and how much he loved Soo Ah and how they shouldn't have resented it etc. I love it. You get the sense he really has been pushed beyond his limits.

JH: "Well, what are you coming here now and saying I should do?! Was it a crime for me to like Su Ah? Huh? I wanted to see her, so I did. For a girl who had nowhere else to go, I told her to stay at a place that was already empty. What does that have to do with the band? That I said I had a girlfriend to the reporters? I didn't want to hide anymore. But what about that? Did I ever say one word about you guys causing trouble?"
DI: "Ji Hyuk, calm down."
JH: "You're the same too, you bastard. You pretend that you're so thoughtful, but whenever Su Ah's name came up...your face got so hard, you wouldn't let me say a word. You don't think I know that? [pause] Friends who are supposed to be with you, but you all ditched with one word from your folks! I'm left-I'm left behind on my own, so what am I supposed to do? You all have a place to go without the band. You have parents...You have older sisters...and younger ones. But what do I have? Su Ah was alone like me, so that's why I liked her even more. I wanted to protect her even more too, but I sent her away too. To protect this goddamn band!"
HS: "You still could have told me the truth. Did you not trust me?"
JH: "Hyun Soo, I never once thought of you as having quit the band. I was going to keep going with the others, until you came back. Let's stop here."

I am not crying, I am not...

He walks out and the rest of the guys are pretty much stunned...

He totally wants to call Soo Ah. Do it!!!

I loved this scene with JH and Rock Kim. Because Ji Hyuk breaks down (and cries! oh no!) but it's also incredibly cathartic and helps him to be set on his future path, which is music. Of them all, he's the one who really loves music for music's sake, who needs it. It was so tied into his desire for family and other things, that I don't think he fully realized it before.

Meanwhile the boys, minus JH, learn that a Japanese producer offered them another chance. In Japan. I love how ready HS is to give up all his newfound fame and start from scratch for the band.

JH thinking...

JH overhears that Soo Ah is considering going to China to join her father. His faaaaace. It kills me! You know he thinks he has no right to expect anything but he is so heartbroken. The darlings kill me. They are so much more mature than people twice their age but still so young.

I love you, boys!

With the reporter. A lot of this is them figuring out what it is they really want as opposed to what it is they think they want.

Yerim is so straightforward she manages to draw out hidden vulnerability in Hyun Soo.

JH missing SA. Call her!

The scene with JH and HS. I loved how they finally don't hold back and talk it all out (while still being allergic to displays of affection, LOL), including JH's loneliness and HS' Byung Hee complex and everything. I think it's also the final push to crystallize what JH wants, to realize he can keep his surrogate family, band or not. (Side note - JH's throwaway line about what his house was when he was little is horrifying).

Boys reminiscing...A lot of this ep is about closure.

With Japanese representatives, realizing that once again it will be all looks and hype and image.

I love that WK obliquely calls DI good-looking, that JH talks about SA (and WK and DI listen) and how he thought it was harder for him and he isn't sure he should be selfish and try to get her back, and WK's acknowledgement they were never dating and it's time for her to move on and not be a stuck piece of gum and Do Il's adorable "does the gum have to be stuck there?" etc etc.

Soo Ah calls and he runs, runs the whole way. I love how both of them talk about how they shouldn't have broken up out of misguided notion to protect the other person etc etc. They really are the sanest, healthiest couple I've seen in ages. And when she turns to go and he grabs her hand and begs her not to go to China OMG I thought my heart stopped.

Afterwards...

The pivotal scene in the drama, where JH tells the boys they shouldn't take the Japanese job. I love that they all realized they can be a family without having to be in a band. The band was their surrogate family but they realized that can be a better surrogate family without. Because they do have different goals and hopes and can achieve full potential that way and be a better family because they are happy. Hyun Soo isn't just good at being an idol, he genuinely likes the shiny, regimented world. And for him to throw away all the success he worked so hard for, for friendship, would really be a sacrifice that shouldn't be made. Do Il is allergic to fame so being in a famous band is about the last thing he's want. Neither KJ nor HJ ever saw themselves as professional musicians before the fame boat unexpectedly scooped them up. And Ji Hyuk - he is perfectly suited to be an indie musician, writing his own stuff and performing on his own schedule, making his living far from the idol world and its polish and packaging and PR, doing gigs in clubs, and going home to Soo Ah with nobody caring if he has a live-in girlfriend or not. And I love that JH gets it all across...

SA telling SH she is not going to China.

Boys! Boys! So happy and together without pressures of trying to fit wildly disparate goals into one mold...They are totally a family!

I nearly died at the adorable happiness of this scene. JH is going to Rock Kim's club for training and hears a voice from across the hall, saying that she thinks her guitar-playing neighbor will be trouble. And he's all "didn't you go to China?" and is totally shining and looks so ridiculously happy. But he pretends to be gruff and to leave only to then reappear on her side of the roof. AWWWWWWWWW. (Side note - I love that someone put him first. Soo Ah picked being with him over going with her father, her only family. That was so necessary to him, I think. Oh God, I love these two!)

Rock Kim is totally a parent figure (I love that at some point JH says he goes there to be yelled at and fed. He so needs a parent figure so he must love it).

That was just plain hilarious.

Do Il discovering his inner geek and talking about college. I love Ha Jin and Kyung Jong looking at him as if he's insane.

I just love this because look at Hyun Soo smiling, saying he plans to use Ji Hyuk's song on his new album.

Soo Ah inviting her friend over. I loved it because it represents Soo Ah not hiding about anything her life from anyone any more.

Boys!

Yerim and Hyun Soo. She totally got what she wanted at the end. Look at him be all jealous and stammery and date-proposing. Heeeee. I knew jealousy was going to get him. Heeee. Plus, who could hold out in the face of Yerim's awesomeness, her open affection but utter lack of pressure.

This scene made my bones melt. So like Do Il to show his caring in wordless ways. And I love how she opened her eyes, smiled, and went back to sleep. Because it says volumes about their hope and comfort.

JH with (former) BossLady. I love how comfortable in his skin he is - he has a parent figure, his surrogate family/friends, a girl who loves him, and a dream he is pursuing.

A little flashback to Hyun Soo being loyal and awesome.

Do Il being nerdy :) (I forgot when he earlier was extolling the rush of solving math problems, LOL).

Running to visit BH.

Can you say adorable? I knew you could.

With Soo Ah, before his first solo gig, bursting in equal parts with nerves and happiness. How are they so adorable and functional and perfect and real, how?

Performing...

Calling on his friends to perform with him. And I pretty much melted from happiness at this final scene. The boys performing, utterly happy and together, because no matter what they are friends. And their girls and other well-wishers watching and the crowd rocking out...It's such a fitting, hopeful yet open ending...

SUFBB was the incredibly rare perfect drama that never flagged - great beginning, a fitting ending, no slacking middle, that made me care for all its characters and think them real. It is going into my Top 5 of all time.

And you get a medal if you read this whole thing!