Come and Hug Me – Recap Episode 1 – 2

Come and Hug Me Recap- Episode 1-2

MBC’s new melo thriller, Come and Hug Me, debuted last week starring Chang Ki Young (My Ahjussi, Go Back Couple), Jin Ki Joo (Misty, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo) and Heo Jun Ho (Ruler: Master of the Mask.) Two young people are haunted by wounds from their past. One’s a cop who wants to atone for his father’s crimes and the other is an actress whose mother was killed at the hands of the cop’s father. The premise and the cast are very promising so I was looking forward to this series.

Episode – 1

On a sunny day, many crisply dressed candidates are prepping themselves nervously for an interview to join the Police. One candidate though, seems to be lost in his own head and has to be called twice before coming to his senses. That’s our protagonist Chae Do Jin. He along with three other candidates are lead into the interview room and almost immediately one of the interviewing officer looks at him with a slight astonishment. Do Jin too, seems to know him and looks a little worried at being recognised. The interviewer looks through the files hurriedly to check if his suspicions are true and Do Jin starts to look like a sad puppy.

In an auditorium, actress Han Jae Yi is auditioning for a movie part with the Im Soo Jung’s famous dialogue ‘I love you, Ahjussi’. She is pretty good but the director cuts in the middle abruptly asking why all guys pretend to be Kim Rae Won from Sunflower and all girls keep saying ‘I love you, Ahjussi?’ She takes it sportively and says she’ll do Gil Ra Im’s reactions from ‘Secret Garden’ if one of them reads Hyun Bin’s line with her.

Back at the Police interview, one of the candidates is explaining the importance cctv cameras in preventing crimes. When asked for an example he mentions case from 2006 when a serial killer, Yoon Hui Jae, who doesn’t leave behind much evidence, was caught on a surveillance tape while fleeing after killing a sixty-year-old woman. He also killed a popular actress Jee Hye Won and the cctv recording enabled his arrest. The interviewer who recognised Do Jin looks a little annoyed at the candidate for mentioning the case. Do Jin crumples his fist trying not to show any reaction to the conversation.

Another interviewer directs his question to Do Jin asking about the scars on him. He replies in a Busan accent that they are nothing serious. He got a cut last night on his face because of some drunk men in a restaurant, his fingers are injured from helping his neighbour with a fishing net and the last one is a nail art his sister gave him. A few of them look amused at his reply. The interviewer confirms from the file that he is from Chugae island where he has lived since 10^th grade. The interviewers ask about his situation why he quit school. He calmly replies that it was his mother’s decision as he was her only son and his family couldn’t afford the tuition.

At Jae Yi’s audition, the director asks her to read the lines from the script now. The movie is called ‘The House on the Hill.’ She starts pretty strong but then starts to stammer and get nervous. The line is about a whole family getting murdered at the hands of a serial killer. She actually sits down afraid that her legs would give out. Another director looks at her visible reaction to the script and starts to go through her file.

Shifting back to Do Jin’s interview, he is asked about the person he respects the most. He says the people who survived. He is asked about the reason he wants to join the police force and his reply is atonement which prompts the interviewer asks if he had any personal episode with the police. He says yes.

We flash back to a few years earlier. On a very snowy night, the interviewer who recognised Do Jin is interrogating a teenaged Chae Do Jin (Nam Da Reum) who looks bruised and in the verge of tears. He asks Do Jin If he saw the face of the criminal who ran away. Do Jin replies miserably that he didn’t but he knows who it was and even knows what weapon he uses as he has seen it before. When he is asked where he saw it he says at his home. He continues that his father is the culprit that ran away and cries.

In the present, Do Jin asks the interviewer whether he was the cop who took his testimony at the station that day. When everyone else looks quizzical, Do Jin continues that the serial killer they were talking about a while ago is his father. The room goes silent.

As Jae Yi leaves her movie audition one of the directors calls her and asks if she is the daughter of actress Jee Hye Won. He says that her name looks different but she still looks like her mother. The man used to be an assistant director in one of her mother’s films. Jae Yi seems taken aback a bit but still bows. The director kindly tells her that she may not get the part she auditioned for today and asks if she is interested in doing dramas. He continues that she showed a lot of spirit during the audition and will be better suited to the drama role where she has to be funny and overact. He says that he was a big fan of her mother and there are still a lot of people who remember her and that it was unlucky she met that psychopath.

Though she seems a little flustered, she thanks him sincerely and says she’ll make sure to get the drama if he recommends her. She gets teary but still asks him if she really looks like her mom smilingly. She says that she changed her name since she was being recognised a lot and that her real name is Gil Nak Won.

“My past is like a documentary but my life is now entertaining like a variety show” – Han Je Yi.

Do Jin’s fellow candidates are gossiping in the hallway about him. One of them says that Do Jin and Yoon Hui Jae look alike. He also says that Hui Jae was a handsome, smooth talking man who drove a nice car and that some of the victims probably went into the car voluntarily. Another guy wonders if psychopathic tendencies are hereditary. They go quiet when they see Do Jin standing near them.

Do Jin approaches them and tells that the information on the internet was wrong and the victim was abducted by Hui Jae. He says she was not someone who would get into his car voluntarily and that news was made up by the reporters. He further continues that the next time they talk about this case they should get the facts right because it would be very painful for the victim’s family to hear such words about the victim. Throughout his speech Do Jin speaks in a composed and friendly tone.

He also adds to the other guy that psychopathic tendencies are neither hereditary nor contagious and that he won’t catch it by looking at him. He asks them not to be cruel to the assailant’s family members too and all that he can do now is atone because collective punishment doesn’t exist anymore. He leaves with a reassuring smile but everyone else avoids his eye. He leaves the hallway quietly and sits tiredly in the station. In the TV before him there’s an interview of a father and son actor duo. Do Jin watches them sadly as they hug each other and the son says how proud he is of his father. As Do Jin is about to leave he sees a commercial film on the same TV.

He stares mesmerised at the girl on television who’s acting in the serum commercial. In his mind, he hears the voice of a young girl who says he looks beautiful and that she wants to hug him. She calls him Na Moo and asks him to come to her when he’s unable to handle his pain because she will like him for the rest of her life. Do Jin lets a tear drop as he recognises her.

In a beautiful countryside filled with cherry blossoms a new family is arriving. As they pass through a pork soup shop their dog barks at the lady of the shop. She gets startled and drops her water tub. A young girl (Ryoo Han Bi) peaks outside the window and apologises to her on behalf of her dog. The car comes in reverse and the young girl and her mom get down from the car to apologise properly. The lady is a little taken aback by the stunningly pretty mother (Park Joo Mi.) They introduce themselves and inform that they are just moving into the town. They leave on their way and we are introduced to the rest of the family. Nak Won , that is Jae Yi’s name in the past, is enjoying the beauty of the countryside from her car window while her brother listens music. They talk a bit about the moving situation and Nak Won is a little sulky about leaving Seoul.

 

As she looks outside the window she sees a boy in school uniform (Nam Da Reum) piggybacking a little girl. The little tells him about a family drawing she did for school. She apparently drew only their mom, him and herself but left out their dad and their older brother. She says she can’t remember their father’s face though she sees him every day and she deliberately left their older brother out because he keeps hitting her favourite brother. She tells Na Moo that next time their brother hits him she’ll bite his hand.

As Nak Won’s car passes the duo, Lucky barks at them scaring the little girl. Nak Won makes her father drive backwards again. As the car goes back Nak Won apologises to the girl and looks at Na Moo. He looks right back at her unable to break eye contact. She apologises to the girl again waves them bye still looking at Na Moo. She looks at them for a long time from the car.

The little girl, Seo Jin, asks Na Moo if that girl was pretty. He confirms and then they both talk about the dog for a while. Na Moo says to Seo Jin that she has him to keep her safe wherever she is and Seo Jin counters that she’ll protect him in return.

Back in the car Nak Won still seems to be staring at Na Moo. When her brother quips about it she says that the flower petals look like snowflakes. Her family is surprised that something poetic came out of her mouth for the first time. Her brother, Moo Won, lovingly places his headphones on her head and their car slowly pulls into their new home. The screen pans out to show that the house is on top of a hill.

Ok Hee, the lady from the soup shop gossips with her co worker about the actress who moved to the isolated house on the hill. She learns that it’s a summer house and that Jee Hye Won is taking a few years break and that’s why they moved to the country side. They discuss whether she’s a natural beauty or if she got plastic surgery.

Ok Hee serves soup to the customers and one of them gives her money to buy him cigarettes. She’s angry but still goes out to buy them anyway. She sees Na Moo outside the door and asks him to go home. He says that Seo Jin keeps looking for her. He takes the money from her hands and tells her that he’ll buy them. She refuses and asks him to go home. She tells him to make dinner for their father and tells them to eat properly even if she isn’t at home. He agrees and asks her to eat her dinner too and to pick up Seo Jin from a tree bench opposite the road.

Ok Hee watches Seo Jin climb on Na Moo’s back and gets annoyed again. She says that Seo Jin is acting like a baby even though she’s nine years old and that’s why Na Moo is so skinny since he keeps carrying her around everywhere. Ok Hee says to herself that one son is short tempered and the other one is too naïve.

The older son, Hyun Moo, is at a bus stop with a group of boys, irritating teenage school girls. The girls leave as soon as the bus arrives. Hyun Moo notices a mini truck a little further away from the bus stop. He recognises the vehicle and asks his friends to wait for him right there.

He runs across the street and gets near the truck. Yoon Hui Jae (Heo Jun Ho), his father, scolds him for running across the street as it is dangerous. Hyun Moo looks at the bag on the side seat and asks his dad where he is going. Hui Jae replies that he’s going to Seoul. Hyun Moo once again looks at the bag and then asks his father for some money to go to a net cafe. Hui Jae complains but still gives him the money, but tells him to make better looking friends. Hyun Moo takes the money and runs back to his friends promising to come back home early.

Hui Jae repairs the sink at an old lady’s house. He seems pretty charming as the she offers him juice and tells the old lady that it’s a very quiet house. She confirms that it’s a neighbourhood filled with old people like her who moved to live in peace after their kids moved out. She checks if the sink is done and turns around to see him with a hammer in his hand.

She gulps several times from the way he looks at her. His face hardens by the minute but then suddenly he smilingly offers her his apologies. He asks if there’s anything else he could help her with. She takes a couple of seconds to relax and says he did a good job with the sink. He leaves out the gate afterwards and walks around the neighbourhood. He comes to stop in front of a rusty gate and wears a cap continuing to look intently at the gate.

Come And Hug Me Recap Episode 2

Yoon Hui Jae goes back home and carries his bag splattered with blood to the basement. The basement looks eerie with chains, plastic sheet roll and cleaning agents. He even proceeds to cover an exhaust window with a wooden slab. After he is done, he goes back into the house and looks inside a room to see Seo Jin and Na Moo doing their respective homework. He smiles and announces to them that he’s come home. Seo Jin hides her drawing and sits next to Na Moo but Na Moo smiles warmly at him and calls him dad.

At Nak Won’s house they are unpacking and Moo Won suggests they hang the family picture. Dad admire Hye Won’s face in the picture and exclaims she is beautiful. Nak Won shakes her head and Moo Won laughs at his sister’s reaction. Dinner table is filled with laughter as the parents keep making fun of Nak Won and Moo Won continues to be a doting brother.

At Na Moo’s place too, he and Seo Jin are having dinner with their father. Hui Jae asks Seo Jin about her school and she only nods as an answer. She leans towards her brother for support and Na Moo diverts their father saying her homework was to draw their family. Hui Jae asks Seo Jin to see her drawing and she tells him that she isn’t done yet. Their dad insists on seeing how she drew her. Na Moo requests him to look at it later. Father wonders why Seo Jin is still shy around him now that they’ve been living together for over two years.

As Hyun Moo arrives home their father asks him to come and eat his food. He asks Na Moo to get some food for his brother. Hyun Moo hears a news on the television about an old couple who were found murdered in their house. Both the brothers look at the television concerned. It is read in the news that the crime scene was set on fire and no valuables were stolen. It is also said that no murder weapon has been found and no suspect has been identified. Hui Jae smiles at that bit of the information and Seo Jin notices it quietly.

Hyun Moo looks at Seo Jin’s drawing and sees that she has marked him as the stupid brother. Before he closes the book, he realises that she has drawn an empty face with no features for their dad.

Nak Won and Moo Won are walking to school and she gets a little miffed at all the attention he receives from the girls. Before she departs. Moo Won covers her with the hoodie and tells her to call him if anything happens. She says the same goes for him and goes away with a cute sign off gesture.

As she’s about to enter into the school a teacher stops her for wearing a hoodie and not her uniform. He keeps poking her shoulder with a cane until she says that he’s sexually assaulting her and she’s very uncomfortable. She takes off her hoodie and says he can hit her hand if he wants to punish her. That only angers him more and he asks her how is it wrong for a teacher to correct a student’s mistake.

He keeps tapping her with the cane again asking where she is uncomfortable until Na Moo pulls it away from her. He refuses to let go of the cane for a while. When he finally let the cane go, the teacher learns his name from his tag. He asks if he can be arrogant just because he is smart. They are both punished with running laps around the ground.

Halfway through the laps Nak Won slumps and Na Moo comes to her to see if she’s alright. He asks her to rest and offers to run her laps too. She stops him saying she feels terrible enough already by dragging him into this. She continues to plot an escape plan and asks Na Moo to help her.

They start running again and Nak Won collapses on the ground suddenly claiming she has a weak respiratory system. When the teacher doesn’t fall for it she lies down on the ground and their teacher comes running. Nak Won tells him that her mother told her to be daring but her father told her to faint whenever she’s at a disadvantage. Na Moo carries her to class at her request. He runs which makes her remind him that she didn’t really faint. He is a little flustered from the contact but he keeps walking.

In class, another teacher introduces Nak Won to the students. Na Moo notices her from the last seat. She introduces herself to the class and when the students seem to recognise her name she continues that her mother is actress Jee Hye Won. She also promises to get them autographs of famous pop stars. The teacher asks her to sit next to Na Moo and tells him he finally found a partner. Nak Won happily goes to her seat.

Na Moo, who couldn’t take his eyes off of Nak Won from the moment they met, refuses to lookup at her. He keeps politely refuting any small talk from Nak Won. She wonders if he’s angry at her and he replies with a no. When she asks if he doesn’t like her, he once again replies with a no. She moves close towards his face very suddenly so that he has no choice but to look at her. She asks him if he fell for her at first sight because she is pretty.

Na Moo once again stares at Nak Won as if he is spellbound, but she says that he’s not giving any response to her torture. She agrees that the last bit was actually horrid and that’s she’s sorry. After the class she hounds him to smile at her just once as it would make her feel better. She keeps following him around and enters the men’s room startling a bunch of boys. She goes back out and assures them that she didn’t see a thing. When the day is over she hangs out with a bunch of girls. She sees Na Moo smile brightly at Seo Jin and complains to herself that he has no trouble smiling.

At the Hill Top House, Nak Won looks at the rain and wonders if dad is picking up her brother. On the other end, Yoon Hui Jae drives back home in the rain and comes to a stop suddenly. Lucky, Nak Won’s Golden Retriever, blocks his way. He gets down from the truck and goes near the dog as lucky continues to bark at him.

Nak Won goes to look for her brother with an umbrella and notices that Lucky is missing from the lawn. She goes out calling Lucky’s name and finds his collar pendant. She finds a gate nearby and goes in to find Hui Jae’s minii truck which reads ‘Dog meat: wholesale, retail.’ She hears a dog’s bark from somewhere close, so she calls out to the people in the house. As she gets no response, she decides to follow the sound of the dog which takes her to the backside of the house.

She leaves her umbrella outside and enters into the room. There she finds a trapdoor and she opens it to reveal the basement. She goes down the ladder and realises that someone else is standing near the crate in which Lucky is lying in. The person is trying to break Lucky out from the cage with a hammer. He too realises someone is in the room and turns around slowly. Nak Won sees that it was Na Moo holding the hammer. She looks at him quizzically, while Na Moo realises that a third shadow entered the room.

Hui Jae, who stands on the top stair, startles Nak Won by asking who is she and how she got in. He walks down the stairs staring directly at her. Nak Won backs down a few steps and falls to the ground. Once down Hui Jae looks at Na Moo who is standing next to the dog cage while holding his hammer.

 

Thoughts

Come and Hug Me looked very inviting with such a beautiful title even before i read the summary. Nak Won/Jae yi is very gutsy, I’ll give her that. The actress who portrays the younger version is very pretty and acts well. Nam Da Reum’s Na Moo on the other hand is shy, silent and comforting. He pulls it off with ease but it’s Chang Ki young’s Do Jin/Na Moo who gets the full marks for this episode. I need more information about the plot and the characters to form any opinion but one thing I know for sure is that this show has me hooked. Especially with the cinematography. I’m looking forward to see what happened to the young kids after the said tragedy.

-Grey Husky

Come and Hug Me Recap 3 – 4