Summary
Love Next Door is beginning to rely too heavily on tropes in Episode 13. This feels like a show spinning its wheels.
Love Next Door is falling off a bit, right? It might just be me. But Episode 13 felt like a show that should have already ended, letting its core romance be overwhelmed by the tropes it handled so deftly earlier and content to allow the second lead romance to go a bit off the rails.
It’s probably too late in the game now for anyone who has stuck with the show thus far to abandon it, but I’m sceptical of how it’ll conclude, and whether the main thing that we’ll remember about the show was how sick of it we got.
Hopefully not.
Childish Matters
Anyway, things are going smoothly for Seok-ryu and Seung-hyo, who have taken to their new relationship status like ducks to water, sneaking kisses here and there and going on dates, and all the usual couple-y stuff you’d expect. Only, the union is still a secret from their parents.
This is a bit… I dunno, childish to me? I understand it, given how much trouble we’ve seen gossip and such cause up to this point, but these aren’t young characters we’re dealing with, and the idea of acting like teenagers to avoid being treated like teenagers is a bit weird.
You get the sense with Dong-jin as well. Again, this is a grown man. I get having anxieties about not being good enough, feeling inferior to a sibling, and trying as hard as you can to make something of yourself, but I struggle to feel sympathy for someone who can’t remotely get the basics of taking responsibility for themselves down in their thirties.
Still, it does lead to a nice moment between Dong-jin and Seok-ryu. But is it enough to have that moment if we have to strain credulity to get there? Mileage may vary.
The Seams Are Showing
At least things are a bit more mature over with Dan-oh and Mo-eum. The latter learns that Yeong-du is actually the former’s niece, the only survivor of an accident that killed her mother and her father, Dan-oh’s brother. Dan-oh has raised her as his own in a nest of guilt and trauma (he should have been on the trip they were attending but couldn’t be due to work.)
Dan-oh is fearful to commit to Mo-eum, who finds his story deeply moving, but the depth of her feeling for him compels him otherwise. He steps in when her mother is berating her for being the kind of woman that no man would want. It’s a nice moment but one can’t help but think that a lot of this feels like it’s coming out of nowhere, the last-minute big twist with Dan-oh’s bachelor status just positioning him as a more viable romantic partner for Mo-eum. Again, it’s nice, but it’s designed to be nice in a rather clunky and nakedly obvious way.
A Classic Trope
Love Next Door Episode 13 leans on a rather played-out trope – Seok-ryu is considering studying abroad.
It’s hard not to think Seok-ryu’s being a little petty here. I get the frustration of being newly qualified in something you’re passionate about and being rejected for jobs in the field at every turn, but everyone knows not to plan a major life decision like moving to another country without consulting your partner first!
Seung-hyo is upset but very reasonable about Seok-ryu’s request for space. Things turn around with another trope – is one of the leads badly injured? – but the show at least has the common sense to subvert this one. Seung-hyo’s fine, he just has a broken wrist.
But the shock is enough for Seok-ryu to tell Seung-hyo that she loves him. It took her believing he was in a life-or-death situation to bring those feelings to the fore, and it’s a big step in her personal arc that she acknowledges them. But with these two now at their happiest, most understanding point yet, what now?
RELATED:
