“Leon” The Plant
Things are slowly starting to change with this latest episode as we witness Ji-Soo finally reacting and making a stand with the toxic people in her life, while we see just how determined Jae-Hyun is with bringing his father-in-law down. This adds some suspense to the series too as we continue watching all the past and present hardships both have to endure. Episode 8 of When My Love Blooms starts with Jae-Hyun on his way back home from Gang Chon. He remembers the conversation he had with Ji-Soo which ended with him telling her that he found out why she made that choice so he wants to correct it. In Seoul, he meets with Se-Hoon and tells him to leak the video if he wants; he can take the child from the mother but he will take Ji-So when she loses Young-Min. At the same time, Ji-Soo meets with Seo who asks her why they broke up if they loved each other so much. Ji-Soo remains vague though and explains she didn’t want him to suffer from her pain. We then see a small flashback of a young Seo-Kyeong on a merry-go-round looking for her mum. In a flashback, we see Ji-Soo and Jae-Hyun sharing an ice cream and talking about the future. Suddenly two soldiers arrive and put Jae-Hyun under military arrest for ignoring his draft notice. A despairing Ji-Soo follows but before saying goodbye, Jae-Hyun tells her it is just for a little while. She returns to the house they were staying in and found Jae-Hyun’s Walkman with a song he recorded for her. As we go back to present, this memory is enough for her to change her mind as she calls Se-Hoon to tell him she will not be manipulated and wants to make a stand. Se-Hoon then calls Seo-Kyeong and relays what has been happening. Jae-Hyun arrives at the stables where his wife has been riding a horse. She tells him she was abandoned once as we see a flashback of her mother leaving her while on a merry-go-round. At home, she finds a box full of old memories including a picture of a young Ji-Soo. When Jae-Hyun arrives home, he finds the box ready to be thrown out and decides to listen to the tapes inside it. He then texts Ji-Soo who admits that she has decided not to go ahead with the wedding but also that she thinks they should stay away from each other. However, Jae-Hyun insists that he will carry on doing his best to protect her.
Ji-Soo later arrives at school to pick up her son. She asks him to forgive her and Young-Min does just that. As she sees her son with a plant given by the school, she decides to plant it by the church as it reminds her of the time she went to watch Leon in the cinema with Jae-Hyun and Dong-Jin. Back then, she made him buy her a plant and called it Leon. When he was in the army, she planted it in the same garden by the church and sent him a picture of it. Later on, Ji-Soo catches up with Sun-Hee who offers her a small job playing piano for her union while in Jae-Hyun’s office, the prosecutors are back for another search. As he heads outside, he sees the festival by the labour union where Ji-Soo is playing the keyboard. In the evening, Jae-Hyun finds Ji-Soo about to go in the grocery store and asks her not to do those kind of events anymore. She tells him she wants to make a difference even if it is small. While driving his grandson, Jang San learns that another kid threw a chair at him. This prompts him to confront the school’s head teacher who explains that it was Jae-Hyun who insisted on sorting the matter out but not to get the disciplinary meeting. Meanwhile Seo-Kyeong meets with a mother from school to tell her she won’t be attending the school open day. She lies about Ji-Soo crying to her husband about the incident and claims she would feel uncomfortable seeing her. The mother then promises to take care of it. Jae-Hyun meets with Dong-Jin to tell him about the investigation and that he is scared to go in prison again as Ji-Soo might disappear. Ji-Soo however, is invited to have lunch with the mothers of the school. The mother who spoke to Seo-Kyeong confronts her about hitting on another parent and the lies she has been telling everyone. Ji-Soo defends herself though and admits that they didn’t do their research very well as they didn’t mention her record. She then accuses the mother of being a leech resulting in the two fighting. Ji-Soo gets the better of her though and tells them that they got all their stories wrong as she risks going to prison again if they spread the rumours to the kids.
Meanwhile, Jae-Hyun gets called into the prosecutor’s office whhere he’s told they will not be able to protect him as a public interest informant because of the law. When mentioning that the fish they are trying to catch are too big for their net, Jae-Hyun promises to help as there are more. A determined Jae-Hyun then gets to work with the prosecutor before leaving and being hounded by the press. Ji-Soo then sees on TV that Se-Hoon is the lawyer who has filed a complaint against Jae-Hyun regarding the suicide of a former employee. As he drives home, Jae-Hyun remembers a protest that turned violent near a church in 1995. He ran inside the church and was soon helped by Ji-Soo. They later talked and she promised to always hide him. Back in the present, Jae-Hyun heads to church and sees Ji-Soo there. They sit in the same place they did many years ago and as he puts his arm around her, Jae-Hyun remembers that he called the place asylum, where no one can see or find them. She tells him she was always afraid of being held back by the past, so she kept walking forward without looking back, which is where the episode ends. The latest episode of When My Love Blooms has given a glimpse of Seo-Kyeong’s past and what happened with her mother. While it was quite sad to see what she went through, it is still difficult to sympathize with her after she spread that rumour about Ji-Soo. The flashbacks carry on being really touching and help build the characters really well. There was a fun little mention of the movie Leon as well, which lead to another heartwarming moment for our couple. Things are certainly picking up this episode though with Ji-Soo reacting to the torment of her ex-husband and the mothers from school. As we reach the halfway point of this romantic drama, despite being a little slow to begin with, When My Love Blooms is really starting to settle into a consistent groove now promising to deliver some great drama going forward.
