Summary
Episode 14 of Love Next Door has a bit more energy that its predecessor, but any conflict at this stage just feels a little contrived.
There’s nothing like a brush with death to put things in perspective, and that’s where Seung-hyo is at in Love Next Door Episode 14. Predictably, his experiences have only solidified his feelings for Seok-ryu, and it becomes of paramount importance to him that he plans the perfect proposal. With two episodes left after this, it was tough to tell where the drama is going to come from, but the answer was staring us in the face all along – the mothers.
The previous episode left our main couple at their happiest point yet, but it also spared some time for the slightly contrived progression of Mo-eum and Dan-oh’s relationship, so let’s start there.
Mother’s Approval
Despite how out of left field the twist about Yeon-du’s parentage felt, I do like the progression of this subplot. It has taken a while for these two to get together and there’s a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing them do so, not to mention how nice it is to see Mo-eum’s mother finally accept him and appreciate what her daughter wants.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s not amenable to the idea at first. She thinks Mo-eum getting with a single father would cause a great deal of pain since she has been a single parent herself. But the revelation that Yeon-du isn’t Dan-oh’s daughter helps – even though there’s functionally no real difference at this point – and Mo-eum’s surety in how she feels about him seals the deal.
You can pick at it, but this is generally a nice storyline.
A Falling Out
As implied above, it seems like the drama in the final two episodes is going to stem from the parents of Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu. In Love Next Door Episode 14, the mothers fall out, and the initial disagreement is about – what else? – money.
Seok-ryu’s mother is worried she can’t afford a planned trip with the lavender girls and tries to avoid the subject. Seung-hyo’s mother volunteers to cover her share, but this is taken the wrong way. Seok-ryu’s mother is defensive; Seung-hyo’s mother says (rightly, in my view) that she has a bit of an inferiority complex. It’s tit-for-tat, pointless nonsense, but money is always a sore spot and you never quite know what people are thinking internally.
Hilariously, the husbands’ strategy meeting to repair this rift ends with them just getting drunk. But this isn’t even the half of it. The episode ends with the parents discovering what’s going on with Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu.
The Perfect Proposal
But what is going on with these two? Well, Seung-hyo spends most of the episode trying to dream up the most perfect, romantic proposal possible but is hit by a run of relentless bad luck that stymies all of his plans.
When he eventually decides to pop the question, I respected his choice of timing (he picks a moment when Seok-ryu is happily emotional at a response to a cooking vlog he compelled her to make.) But Seok-ryu rejects him outright, which is unexpected. Her reasoning isn’t great, either, especially given how many epiphanies these two have had during the previous episodes. Sure, she might get sick again. But I think we’ve established it’s a risk worth taking.
Luckily, they eventually realize this together. Seung-hyo’s brief brush with death has given him a new perspective on the inevitability of the matter, and they both finally realize that either way, they want to be with each other. The problem they have now is that with their mothers bickering, they’re probably going to run into quite a determined final obstacle to their happiness.
