This recap of Nevertheless season 1, episode 6, “There’s No Such Thing As Love. Nevertheless”, contains spoilers.
Nevertheless, Episode 6 takes us out of Seoul and back to Nabi’s hometown. It was a refreshing episode because she wasn’t in the mix of the hustle and bustle of Seoul or her gossiping peers. She took the initiative and left, leaving everyone surprised and it was needed.
Despite Nabi being an annoying main character — to me — she did need some time away, time to revitalise and spend time with her loving aunt. It was lovely to see the mother figure in her relationship because she had mommy issues and whenever she seemed to be distressed in previous episodes, she would call her aunt first.
Being back in her hometown, Nabi and Dohyeok are back together, taking trips, cycling together, going to the market and all that good stuff. He’s the good guy that we know and love, the underdog you root for, the sincere one. All of this is great but as annoying as it is, Nabi clearly doesn’t take him seriously. She is well within her rights to but she shouldn’t string him along as it’s evident he likes her. From telling her she was his first love and confessing to her in the van, Nabi didn’t seem to care. It’s harsh but it’s clear that Dohyeok doesn’t excite her like Jaeeon did — though she was never in a relationship with him. Nabi shouldn’t hurt him in the process.
It’s comical though because Korean drama fans tend to root for the ‘nice guy’, which is valid, but she still needs to be comfortable and have self esteem before committing to a relationship. In my previous recaps, I labelled myself as a second lead stan but this episode and how Nabi reacted to Dohyeok changed my opinions. So, maybe the love triangle trope with Nabi, Jaeeon and Dohyeok is tired because nobody is serious except for Dohyeok.
Now, my favorite part of Nevertheless episode 6, Bitna and Gyuhyun finally get together — I’ve been waiting for this since the first episode. However, it’s not exactly the best friends to lovers trope because Bitna is desperate to hide it. I still think she doesn’t want to be vulnerable but continues to string Gyuhyun along — especially because he likes her more. She’s still using dating apps but is in a ‘relationship’ with Gyuhyun, constantly disrespecting him.
As annoying as she was, I think it’s important for women to just be — she doesn’t need to have a backstory for her potential vulnerability and secrecy surrounding this relationship. We should let female characters be — even if they annoy us. But I hope that she fixes up and stops disrespecting Gyuhyun or they both end it because it’s rude.
As for Park Jaeeon, the roles reversed because now HE is down bad and I loved it. You don’t get to play with people’s feelings and hurt them. In this scene, he walks around Seoul, showing up at the spots he and Nabi met each other that night — the bar, the alleyway and more. We know he’s even more irritating because he met a woman at the bar and used the same exact butterfly line on her like he did Nabi when they first met. At their sculpture classes, he constantly glances at Nabi’s desk but she’s never there.
We even see a small brotherhood spark between Gyuhyun and Jaeeon as they speak about their relationship issues. From Jaeeon’s insincerity, Nabi and of course, Bitna’s stubbornness — it was a cute scene because it was nice seeing men being vulnerable with each other, instead of offloading their problems onto women as a form of emotional labour.
On Jaeeon’s birthday, we learn that he comes from an affluent family and meet his mom who bought him a car. She finished her performance in Paris and he’s instantly reminded of how Nabi wanted to go for an exchange year to Paris. I felt like this was a filler scene, leading up to this point — when Jaeeon drives to Nabi’s hometown with his new car. Now, that was annoying because Nabi, Dohyeok and Jaeeon meet — meanwhile it seems like he disrupted Nabi’s development progression in the next episode as we saw in the preview.
Speaking about the Paris exchange, I feel as though it foreshadows the end of Nevertheless (4 episodes left) where Nabi (hopefully) gets self esteem and gives the relationships a break.
What did you think of Nevertheless season 1, episode 6? Let us know in the comments.
