Summary
An improvement over the previous episode, Queen of Tears is currently thriving on the ambiguity in the central relationship.
Episode 3 of Queen of Tears doesn’t bring us any closer to fully understanding Hyeon-woo and Hae-in. Are they falling back in love? Or is Hyeon-woo just trying to ensure his wife likes him enough to sort him out in the will when she dies? At this point, I’m not sure either of them could answer these questions, but it’ll be up to the rest of Season 1 to reveal all.
In the meantime, we pick up from the end of Episode 2, with Hyeon-woo having killed a wild boar to save Hae-in from its rampage. But did he do it out of love, to preserve his financial future, or because Eun-seong makes him feel insecure? No idea just yet.
Either way, the heroic action prompts some strong feelings on both sides. Hae-in, in particular, is taken straight back to their past, when things were good between them. She gets the nervous butterflies in her stomach, that little pang of excitement unique to certain stages of a relationship. It’s a fairytale feeling.
Hyeon-woo is the man of the hour. Having been endlessly underestimated on these trips, now he’s the triggerman, years of secretive army training coming to the fore. Hae-in is quietly charmed by the notion. Hyeon-woo is mostly just confused and awkward. Can’t be easy when you don’t know whether you want your wife to die or not.
Class In Session
Episode 3 allows us to dig a little more into the class dynamics between Hyeon-woo and Hae-in’s families, and to be frank, it’s no surprise that the relationship was on the rocks.
Hae-in being loaded influences everything, and while it seems like a shallow perspective to judge her in that way, how can you not when you’re on the opposite end of the socioeconomic spectrum? But it works both ways, too. Hae-in’s family never bothered to mingle with Hyeon-woo’s family. They’re worlds apart. It simply isn’t the done thing.
This is why it’s complicated. Hyeon-woo’s siblings don’t want the couple to divorce, but not for the happiness of the couple. It’s because proximity to wealth is almost contagious. These are hardly romantic circumstances.
Eun-seong is clearly the villain here
Complexities between the lead couple notwithstanding, it’s obvious that Eun-seong is up to no good and is the closest thing the series has to an outright villain. I expect this to become more true as we go.
For one thing, the dinner he tricks Hae-in into attending is clearly a set-up, and Mr. Hermann was obviously never going to be there. Eun-seon has ulterior motives and too obviously delights in making Hyeon-woo suffer.
Luckily Hae-in is pretty stand-up, and whatever issues she might have with her husband, she isn’t going to badmouth him to other people or let other people badmouth him around her. Hae-in really shines in this episode, and while it’s clearly intentional to make us feel stronger about her plight, it works nonetheless.
The third episode ends with Hyeon-woo and Hae-in as close as we’ve seen them. Again, it isn’t clear if Hyeon-woo is just bristling over having his manhood challenged or if he’s rekindling old feelings, and it’s similarly uncertain if Hae-in is rediscovering her love for her husband or simply living in a heightened state out of fear of her impending demise (and, you know, because she’s drunk).
Either way, the episode ends with the two of them kissing. It remains to be seen how this will affect things going forward.
What did you think of Queen of Tears Season 1 Episode 3? Let us know in the comments.
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