Summary
There’s a clear sense of Queen of Tears building towards a conclusion with some emotional turns late in the game.
You always get a sense when a show is narratively nearing its end, and that comes through very strongly in Queen of Tears Episode 13. The pieces are being arranged. The emotional moments are coming through. Everyone seems to be on the same page. But what next?
The episode opens with a flashback of the Chairman first being at the Hong family home, which is just as well since that’s where the present-day stuff catches up after the cliffhanger ending of Episode 12. When we assumed that the hidden panic room was the secret location of the slush fund dough, we were half right.
The money was there. But Seul-hee has moved it. She still refuses to leave the house, and only a court order will compel her to do so.
The Chairman’s Final Words
The spectre of the Chairman’s passing looms large in this instalment. Elsewhere, Hae-in listens to his final words to the family on the recording pen and takes to heart his urging for the family to live a fulfilling life instead of one, like his, mired in regret. This is giving voice to season-long themes of finding common ground and coming together.
At least the Hongs have a common enemy in Seul-hee and Eun-sung. With the money hidden and the share gap narrowing now the Hongs have their stocks back, the fight is rapidly approaching a resolution.
A New Problem Emerges
Episode 13 presents another big dilemma. As it turns out, the German lab can offer Hae-in a suitable procedure, but it comes with an important caveat – she’ll lose all her memories.
I don’t think this has much medical basis, but it works for drama’s sake. Hyun-woo decides to keep this detail to himself until they get to Germany, to limit Hae-in’s justifications for backing out of the procedure.
Awkwardly, this means the entire family celebrates the news without really realizing what it entails. The time Hyun-woo and Hae-in spend together is joyous and hopeful, from her point of view, but a ticking clock for him.
And Hae-in makes the countdown kind of literal by telling Hyun-woo that she will reveal to him three secrets, the first being about the MP3 player with the “H” on it belonging to her; she was the girl he met on the first day of high school.
News of Hae-in’s surgery spreads quickly. Grace hears about it when she offers a home spa day for Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s mothers; Eun-sung, who is trying to launder the Chairman’s slush fund and use it to buy Queen Group company stocks, overhears it when Grace tells Seul-hee. Let the meddling commence.
Eun-sung’s New Plan
Eun-sung’s new scheme is to capitalize on Hae-in losing her memory so that he can win her over from fresh. While Hyun-woo and Hae-in spend some time together as “newlyweds” in their apartment, Eun-sung begins laying the groundwork for this by ordering a clear-out of the couple’s belongings and anything else that might trigger Hae-in’s memories.
Towards the end of the episode he leaves for Germany, so he’ll be there in person to make things more difficult in the next episode.
Queen of Tears Episode 13 Ends With A Real Dilemma
Speaking of the next episode, we build towards that very purposefully with everyone finding out about Hae-in’s surgery side effects except her, while she and Hyun-woo make their way to Germany.
It isn’t until right on the cusp of the surgery, literally at the hospital, that Hyun-woo spills the beans. Of course, she doesn’t want to go through with it – she has a new purpose in her marriage and her business, she’s seeing the world differently. Losing her memory would be losing everything having only just discovered the real value of it.
But Hyun-woo implores his wife to live, which is where we leave things, save for an emotional epilogue in which Hyun-woo records a video for Hae-in telling her how much he loves her and will continue to love her even if she can’t remember him.
This is going to be emotional, isn’t it?
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