Divorce Attorney Shin Episode 2 Reactions: Hyeon-u Makes Viewers Emotional While Cho Seung-woo Feels Relatable

1. Again, not really a fan, in any way, shape or form, of the “life happened” hand-waving… this is not taking responsibility for one’s choices -repeated over time- in any way, shape or form. I would have very much preferred for her to focus on the obvious fact that her abusive husband was very much undeserving of any loyalty. But this “whatever” attitude where she avoids acknowledging the fact that it was a deliberate choice, very much *not* the only option, and that it always posed a risk of hurting her son (school episode, and the possibility of this coming to light even without her husband and lover’s atrocious actions), yet she chose to do this anyway. In that respect, I very much appreciated her apologizing to her son (though, of course, the “life happened” hand-waving kind of detracts and undercuts/undermines the perceived sincerity).

   I very much would have liked more focus on the incident where her brother died and why that in any way impacted her decision to stay with her husband: was the implication that she suspected her husband to have had a hand in the incident and was afraid that he would have killed her and her son had she chosen to divorce him (not sure how having an affair that he could have discovered would would have been a risk more worth taking if that had been the case, though of course a divorce is something that her husband would have necessarily known, while the affair she could attempt to hide… of course, if she felt her husband was dangerous to that extend than it would have been even more reason to get both herself and her child away from him).

   On the point of the son deserving to know who his mother really is, I have to agree with the principle, though not with the abusive husband’s actions, meaning that if the child is to decide who to stay with, having the full context would be very important in terms of him being able to make an informed decision. The affair is something I would have very much liked to know about before making such a decision, in his place, particularly if there had not been any abusive behavior from his father: without that, it might have been a decisive element in determining who I (he) would have liked to stay with (i.e. putting the school incident in the context of her affair with her lover, etc.). Now, all this is made a moot point by the abuse which makes the question of who to stay with a no-brainer, plus his father tried to traumatize him by showing him an illegally filmed and distributed video filmed without his mother’s consent, which by the way should have legal implications on its own (was the mother’s lover put in jail?). But I do agree with the principle of the child having the full context and taking everything into account if he is to make an informed decision about who to stay with. Again, in this case it was a moot point because on balance his father was abusive and unworthy of any loyalty.

   Once again, I very much would have preferred a more honest approach of owning up to her own actions and acknowledging the factually incontrovertible reality that they had been her own decisions and choices, and that they hurt her son, and had in risked hurting him and endangered his happiness even if it had not been for her husband and lover’s atrocious behavior (the school episode, plus the fact that being discovered, with all the traumatizing consequences on her child, has always been a risk, and a risk that she was willing to take… in that respect, I do have, again, some issues with the notion of the kid being the one person she never wanted to see hurt given that, once again, in terms of her priorities running such a risk was something that mattered to her less than the affair, as evidenced by the fact that she chose to run that risk and have said affair… talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words, and are what counts in the end, and she certainly didn’t put her money where her mouth was in that respect), while making the case that her husband is essentially someone unworthy of any loyalty.

   Her husband’s characterization was that of a monster with no redeeming qualities, which I am okay with given that it’s basically necessary in order to not make the mother seem utterly repulsive -the case being that she was disloyal to someone that didn’t deserve any loyalty and essentially a monster that deserved to be hurt and humiliated in such a manner-. I would have frankly expected more focus on the lover as well, given that he had illegally filmed a video without her consent. Basically, the two choices to “sell” this kind of behavior and have the viewer be on-board are to make the one suffering the consequences of it utterly repulsive (this drama, Secret Love Affair, or A Good Lawyer’s Wife, The Magicians, where I was 100% on board with the wife/girlfriend sleeping with another man as revenge on their cheating husband/boyfriend) or give the two lovers no choice due to circumstances (Hymn of Death, though not Mr. Sunshine because there she honestly breaks off the engagement).

   I guess that the only wrinkle there is that while her husband very much deserved zero loyalty and was depicted as scum whose suffering and humiliation not only don’t matter, but are a positively good thing, is the fact that her child was hurt by her actions too, something that she apologized to him for (albeit an apology in my view undercut by the attempt to evade responsibility with some vague language… again, her husband was responsible for the abuse, but the decision to have an affair instead of, say, divorcing him, was entirely her decision). I guess there the husband was depicted in such a way where it was clear that he cared for the kid even less, so she still comes ahead in relative terms. Again, I would have expected also more focus on the lover (who filmed without her consent the video that was shown to her son).

   I very much would have liked more focus on the incident where her brother died and why that in any way impacted her decision to stay with her husband: was the implication that she suspected her husband to have had a hand in the incident and was afraid that he would have killed her and her son had she chosen to divorce him (not sure how having an affair that he could have discovered would would have been a risk more worth taking if that had been the case, though of course a divorce is something that her husband would have necessarily known, while the affair she could attempt to hide… of course, if she felt her husband was dangerous to that extend than it would have been even more reason to get both herself and her child away from him).

   On the point of the son deserving to know who his mother really is, I have to agree with the principle, though not with the abusive husband’s actions, meaning that if the child is to decide who to stay with, having the full context would be very important in terms of him being able to make an informed decision. The affair is something I would have very much liked to know about before making such a decision, in his place, particularly if there had not been any abusive behavior from his father: without that, it might have been a decisive element in determining who I (he) would have liked to stay with (i.e. putting the school incident in the context of her affair with her lover, etc.). Now, all this is made a moot point by the abuse which makes the question of who to stay with a no-brainer, plus his father tried to traumatize him by showing him an illegally filmed and distributed video filmed without his mother’s consent, which by the way should have legal implications on its own (was the mother’s lover put in jail?). But I do agree with the principle of the child having the full context and taking everything into account if he is to make an informed decision about who to stay with. Again, in this case it was a moot point because on balance his father was abusive and unworthy of any loyalty.

   Once again, I very much would have preferred a more honest approach of owning up to her own actions and acknowledging the factually incontrovertible reality that they had been her own decisions and choices, and that they hurt her son, and had in risked hurting him and endangered his happiness even if it had not been for her husband and lover’s atrocious behavior (the school episode, plus the fact that being discovered, with all the traumatizing consequences on her child, has always been a risk, and a risk that she was willing to take… in that respect, I do have, again, some issues with the notion of the kid being the one person she never wanted to see hurt given that, once again, in terms of her priorities running such a risk was something that mattered to her less than the affair, as evidenced by the fact that she chose to run that risk and have said affair… talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words, and are what counts in the end, and she certainly didn’t put her money where her mouth was in that respect), while making the case that her husband is essentially someone unworthy of any loyalty.

   Her husband’s characterization was that of a monster with no redeeming qualities, which I am okay with given that it’s basically necessary in order to not make the mother seem utterly repulsive -the case being that she was disloyal to someone that didn’t deserve any loyalty and essentially a monster that deserved to be hurt and humiliated in such a manner-. I would have frankly expected more focus on the lover as well, given that he had illegally filmed a video without her consent. Basically, the two choices to “sell” this kind of behavior and have the viewer be on-board are to make the one suffering the consequences of it utterly repulsive (this drama, Secret Love Affair, or A Good Lawyer’s Wife, The Magicians, where I was 100% on board with the wife/girlfriend sleeping with another man as revenge on their cheating husband/boyfriend) or give the two lovers no choice due to circumstances (Hymn of Death, though not Mr. Sunshine because there she honestly breaks off the engagement).

   I guess that the only wrinkle there is that while her husband very much deserved zero loyalty and was depicted as scum whose suffering and humiliation not only don’t matter, but are a positively good thing, is the fact that her child was hurt by her actions too, something that she apologized to him for (albeit an apology in my view undercut by the attempt to evade responsibility with some vague language… again, her husband was responsible for the abuse, but the decision to have an affair instead of, say, divorcing him, was entirely her decision). I guess there the husband was depicted in such a way where it was clear that he cared for the kid even less, so she still comes ahead in relative terms. Again, I would have expected also more focus on the lover (who filmed without her consent the video that was shown to her son).

   Ultimately, she had a responsibility toward her son, to protect him, and his happiness was endangered by her actions, not only by the affair but by the fact that she didn’t divorce and take the kid in the first place given that her husband was dangerously deranged. Again, this is not only about her and her feelings, it’s also about the kid: she has a responsibility to protect him, and in this case he was hurt both by the affair (the school episode, plus the fact that him discovering it was always a risk, irrespective of her lover and husband’s actions, and it was a risk she decided to take) and from his abusive father (which she should have divorced years ago, taking the kid -having the affair but staying with him really didn’t help her situation, nor the kid’s-).

   Not sure how to interpret the bit about the brother dying, whether the husband was involved with the incident in any way (he certainly was depicted as deranged enough to have had something to do with it). In any case, she had a responsibility to protect her son, and not only her decision to have an affair endangered his happiness (the school episode, plus the risk of discovery that existed even without her lover and husband’s actions -a risk that, despite her words, she was factually speaking willing to take, in terms of priorities-, as well as not leaving her husband).

   If she felt scared then I would say it would have been all the more reason to leave her husband, if only to protect the kid: to be explicit, if what is being suggested with this hand-wavy and confused mention of her brother’s death is that she suspected her husband to have been involved in killing her brother, all the more reason to take the kid and run as far away as possible from the dangerous psychopath.

   It was very good to see her apologize to her son for making that decision, though the attempt to skirt responsibility and act as if this was something that “just happened” (“life happening”) kind of detracts from the sincerity of her words, as it runs contrary to her taking full responsibility and owning up to her actions. Bottom line, she should have divorced and taken the kid ages ago.

   One must say that both her husband and her lover were real pieces of work (though I guess that, considering he was willing to have an affair with a married woman -with a kid, to boot-, the fact that her lover was not someone worthy of trust was kind of self evident… kind of surprised that him illegally filming the video was not turned into a bigger deal, both by her -her son saw that very same video- and by the law -cannot remember if he was put in jail, in any case the focus in the last two episodes was more on the husband-

   I think it would have been significantly better if the argument had been keep at:
   1. What she did was her decision, it was not necessary, and she could have just as well just gotten a divorce.
   2. The husband was an irredeemable sociopathic monster whose suffering and humiliation were not merely inconsequential, but positively good outcomes. He was unworthy of any loyalty, and therefore didn’t get any.
   3. The only bad thing about the cheating was the impact on her son in terms of the school episode, see above.

   Quite frankly, had her husband not been abusive, and we set that aside, focusing on her action, then I would say that her missing the parent/teacher conference and the issue with the son and the hospital definitely makes me question her priorities: despite protestations to the contrary, she did prioritise sleeping with her lover over her son, it’s just that her husband is so horrible that she still ends up on top by comparison. But it’s one thing to basically throw the message out there that he deserved to be hurt and humiliated in such a manner because he was an abusive scum -basically, he was unworthy of any loyalty and he didn’t get any-. It’s quite another to pretend that her affair was a consequence of his behaviour, given that she had the option to divorce him -it’s not his behaviour that made her forget about the parent teacher conference and caused the school incident while she was busy sleeping with her lover-. One thing is the husband, who the show makes into a completely unsympathetic monster so that he “deserves” her betrayal, one other thing entirely is the kid who certainly deserved better.

   Pretty hard to make the case she didn’t want to hurt her son when she forgot about the parent teacher conference and he had the school/hospital incident while she was with her lover. Her words might say one thing, but her actions speak much louder and say something quite different

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