GENRES: Romance, Time travel, Mystery/Crime
TROPES: Zero to Hero FMC, he falls first, time travel fate/consequences, evil best friend/husband/mother-in-law
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Contains graphic fight scenes, blood, depictions of various forms of abuse (physical/mental/emotional)
MARRY MY HUSBAND
Our heroine Kang Ji Won is terminally ill when she discovers the hard way that her abusive husband is cheating on her with her best friend! On top of it, the duo planned to commit insurance fraud even before they found out she was sick.
So Kang Ji Won does what any sane person would do: she confronts them right away. But she underestimates how ruthless they are. They end up taking her life...sort of. Somehow, she wakes up completely fine, and many years in the past.
Once she figures out she's really travelled back in time, she becomes determined to change her life and never have to live through those horrifying memories ever again!
photo credit - mydramalist
reason to watch: if you're a scapegoat, this is essentially like wish fulfilment. all those things you wish you could change, or wonder if you'd feel better if only you did xyz instead of abc? that's what this drama is about. it has a LOT of heavy content, but the ending makes it worth it!
Story Beat Recap
NB - I've been studying story structure as I try to write my own creative stories. so I wanted to try writing the main story beats and add a little discussion with it. Plus...everyone else is already writing the "regular" type of episodic recaps, so...I wanted to offer something different!
ACT ONE
Opening Image:
Kang Ji Won is in the hospital, and receiving chemo treatment. She looks weak, and it looks like she wishes she could go outside and enjoy the cherry blossoms blooming. But then her best friend comes in and closes the window, encouraging her to stay inside and stay healthy. We get the sense that a lot of things haven't gone well for Kang Ji Won up to this point.
thoughts - someone on X posted about this when the drama was finalizing. the cherry blossoms have a specific meaning. I think it was something like "renewal" but I forget (this was a long time ago). but it's important that Kang Ji Won is looking at them longingly for this opening scene. they re-appear at various parts in the drama, kind of like a cute ghost that pops in with a reminder about things getting better.
Catalyst:
the doctor tells Kang Ji Won that she needs to make a payment if she wants to continue receiving treatment! Surprised, she texts and calls her husband to find out what happened. he doesn't respond. So she has to make a choice: get kicked out of the hospital, or go find him to figure out why he didn't make the payment. She chooses to go find him.
thoughts - this is where alarm bells went off for me, and i worried about what was going to happen to her. it's well known that most men will abandon their wives during terminal/chronic illness treatment. so...we all know what these signs mean. but in true catalyst form: she had two bad options to choose from.
Debate:
She meets a strange taxi man who takes her on a different route than she expects. once again we see the cherry blossoms return. This time, she gets to see them up close as she gets a pep talk from the taxi man (who seems oddly like her dad who had passed a long time before that moment). When he drops her off at her house, she pays him...but he gives it back.
She's surprised by the kindness, and goes upstairs to find out that her husband is cheating on her....with her best friend! And worse: they planned to commit insurance fraud and profit from her illness! She ends the debate by choosing to confront them both instead of running away, starting a new normal where she doesn't put up with crap anymore.
thoughts - this debate is...super charged. i was like, "YES - STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!" but also..."Nooooooooo, call for back up!" But the kicker here is that....she doesn't have backup. abuse victims/scapegoats typically don't have anyone, because that type of abuse isolates them and makes them feel like they can't reach out to anyone even if they wanted to. so...there was no one who could help her.
ACT TWO
Break into Act Two:
her best friend and husband abuse her more, and an altercation happens. they push Kang Ji Won backwards into a glass table, and she passes away. But...she wakes up YEARS in the past, perfectly healthy, and in the middle of work! Unsure what's going on, she freaks out when she sees her then-boyfriend (future husband) acting nice to her.
She causes a scene where her handsome boss gets burned (changing the past, as she was the one who had the burn before), and then runs away from the company. Her handsome boss follows her and is kind to her, taking her home and bringing her meals. She sits down to think, and realizes that she's really in the past. but because she's already being sucked dry by her then-boyfriend (future husband), there's no easy escape.
thoughts - words can't describe how much i was praying for her to just use whatever money she had, and MOVE AS FAR AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. But then they introduced the fact that the boyfriend was a mooch...and had a serious hold on everything that was hers. and reality...is that you can't run when you don't have money.
so i patiently waited to see where they would go with this, and how she would endure while also trying to change things. She also realizes in this moment that her dad had been the taxi man, since the money he gave her had a little heart on it - something he always did in the past. This second chance at life...is a gift from him, and she decides to make the best of it!
B story 1:
She knows exactly what happened in the past, since everything was so emotionally negative. so she starts changing everything. she stands up for herself when her best friend - who also works at the company - gets mad. instead of letting her friend trip her and spill food all over her, Kang Ji Won avoids it, letting her friend trip and spill her food all over the then-boyfriend.
Kang Ji Won pretends to be sorry, and says she'll get something to help them clean up. but while she's in the bathroom, another coworker calls out for help (she just got her period and got stuck in there!). Kang Ji Won comes to the rescue, and even grabs a sweater to cover up the issue for the day. This starts a friendship with this coworker, and begins to take Kang Ji Won away from the negativity and control of her best friend and then-boyfriend.
thoughts - this made me feel so happy! she not only got back at her best friend and then-boyfriend, but also started a potential REAL friendship based on mutual respect/understanding. i started praying that the best friend wouldn't get too jealous and try to sabotage this, but thankfully she had other plans in mind for more important things (like stealing Kang Ji Won's work).
Also, we learned somewhere around here that...anything that was destined to happen, will still happen. It can be given to someone else (like the handsome boss taking the burn mark), but Kang Ji Won can't avoid anything that was supposed to happen. Therefore, we figure out that the antagonist's are being helped by...fate. And so Kang Ji Won has to get creative if she wants things to change.
Fun and Games: First plot point -
Kang Ji Won remembers that she's good at her job, and actually enjoyed it. So she tries to put a lot of work into an idea, and submits it with lots of pride. But...the team leader rejects it without even reading it. Suddenly she remembers that this was how her friend ended up stealing it and getting promoted because of it.
Reaction to first plot point -
Kang Ji Won is determined to change this...and not let her friend steal it from her! So she meets another B story character (B story 2), a coworker with a slightly higher position on her team. she asks this coworker to work with her on this project. the coworker only agrees after seeing that their team leader hadn't read a single word of the proposal even though he criticized it.
First pinch point -
the best friend finds a way to get her hands on the project anyways, by smooth-talking the team leader. the team leader loves the attention, daydreaming that the best friend is actually interested in a relationship with him, and threatens to take Kang Ji Won off the project if she complains. this serves as a firm reminder to Kang Ji Won of what her "enemy" is capable of. fate will still happen.
B story 1 con't-
we see more of a real friendship happening between Kang Ji won and the B1 coworker she saved in the bathroom. this friend helps her glam up for an old high school reunion. In the first timeline, this moment had been a surprise punishment from the best friend (the best friend hadn't told her it was a reunion, and she had been bullied by former bullies...as an adult!).
this time, the B1 coworker helps Kang Ji Won shop for trendy clothes, and get a new hair style that totally reinvents her look, and even helps her get curious about finding out why her bullies had bullied her. Kang Ji Won uses the moment to find out what happened, and set the record straight. her best friend is humiliated as it starts to become obvious that she's been setting Kang Ji Won up for years! On top of this, her first love makes a surprise appearance and confesses to her!
thoughts - so much happened in the first part of act 2 that i hope i got the order right! but basically: Kang Ji Won makes huge changes. she learns that there's lots she can change even if fate is determined to keep things the same. seeing her glow up was amazing, and finding out that her friend was always a snake was vindicating. so often, these people get away with these things irl. so if you've been a victim of these things, this part of the show will feel so good.
it's also worth noting that it was around this point that i started to ask myself if the best friend had histrionic personality disorder, since she was obssessed with everything being about her, she wanted attention constantly, she wanted to be seen positively and went to extreme lengths to get that, and she seemed to have a very warped view of events.
Midpoint - we find out that THE HANDSOME BOSS WHO'S BEEN DOING WEIRD THINGS TO HELP KANG JI WON (the one who took the burn for her) IS ALSO FROM THE FUTURE AND TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS!
in other words: Kang Ji Won gains a strong ally. her boss validates everything she's going through. he explains that her best friend and husband were arrested at her funeral, and that a lot of people felt regret. he lies to her and doesn't explain that he had a car crash and that's how he returned. Kang Ji Won fills him in on what she discovered: that things can't be prevented, but they can be given to others. he offers to support her any way he can.
thoughts - this was one thing i didn't like about this character. lying is still a red flag, even if he did it out of shame or what not. if he had of told her straight away, they could have prepared a way to change his fate, too. it feels like it was a soft attempt at the miscommunication trope, which i *really* dislike. but I'm glad they didn't take it too far.
Takes action by:
Kang Ji Won sets up her best friend and then-boyfriend to get together. she needs to get them to marry so that she can be free of it. at the company workshop, she achieves this. but she underestimates the greed of her then-boyfriend - he just wanted a fling. Kang Ji Won realizes she's got to try harder. But luckily...being used enrages the friend, and she acts on her own to seduce him even more at work. Her actions end up getting her fired.
Sadly, the then-boyfriend made terrible financial decisions, and so he continues to propose to Kang Ji Won in order to leech off of her. Kang Ji won talks back to her former mother-in-law at the family meeting, calling off the wedding, and then accuses him of cheating in public at work. This enrages him, and he rejects the best friend even more, which causes her to jump into action.
2nd pinch point:
the best friend, desperate from losing her job, the guy, and Kang Ji Won, writes a letter and puts it on social media. It's in Kang Ji Won's handwriting, and enrages a customer by insinuating that they were greedy (instead of victims, since the best friend and the then-boyfriend slacked off and didn't put out the allergy warning properly). Kang Ji Won is once again reminded that her best friend poses a huge threat by being able to copy her handwriting and frame her for major things.
Kang Ji Won catches her best friend and shows the customer that it wasn't written by her. But the best friend has another card up her sleeve: she lies and says that she's pregnant, and that's what made her do everything.
Renewed push to victory:
Because the best friend pretends she's pregnant, it pushes the then-boyfriend into marrying her quickly. But things still aren't great between them. Luckily, the best friend still thinks she's winning against Kang Ji Won and taking everything. Kang Ji Won thinks she's finally free. She falls for her boss, and they share a passionate kiss.
Sadly, the B2 character starts to develop the cancer symptoms that Kang Ji Won had at the start of the show, and the best-friend/former husband figure out that they were tricked. On top of it, the handsome bosses ex-wife (from the future) doesn't like that he called off their engagement, and appears to take him back.
3rd Plot Point:
Kang Ji Won thinks that her boss was trying to cheat and stops trusting him, but the ex-wife isn't willing to let it go. she recruits Kang Ji Won's long-lost mom (who ran away with her best friends' dad) to unalive Kang Ji Won and take her out of the picture. The handsome boss figures it out and thinks it's his fate to be in a car accident. He rushes to save her.
He takes the hit, and is rushed to the hospital. But we find out that he had left her a voice message finally explaining everything. She prays for him to recover, and they patch things up. But they realize that things are not over because the best friend is too tenacious to get sick and go through what Kang Ji Won went through. She has to set up the situation better so that they take on the karma instead of the B2 character.
Rises to determination:
Kang Ji Won tries to re-seduce the ex-husband using money, but then she finds out that he already has another woman (the bosses ex-wife!). So she drops him, insulting him in the process. he goes insane and tries to unalive her when she's alone at work. the boss arrives in the nick of time to save Kang Ji Won, and the ex-husband is fired and becomes more desperate for money.
Then, Kang Ji Won and the handsome boss work to set up his ex-wife, the best friend, and the ex-husband. It goes exactly how it went in the past, except that the best friend survives...and unalives the ex-husband!
thoughts - this is the one thing I didn't like about Kang Ji Won's character: they made her become super prideful, and she talked back/exposed her thoughts numerous times. with the type of abuse she experience, anger usually doesn't happen this fast because the fear is stronger. so in my perspective, they made a mistake with this and kind of mixed her character up with others. BUT...it's also possible to argue that she "learned" it from them since they did it to her for years.........so, i was able to suspend some belief on this trait because of that.
ACT THREE
Climax:
the best friend goes after Kang Ji Won, planning to unalive her in a fire and lie to authorities that she didn't take out the ex-husband. she thinks that by doing these things, she will have finally won. but Kang Ji Won had learned some self-defense, and is able to subdue her best friend after getting the confession out of her. the best friend goes to jail.
The B2 character no longer has any issues with her stomach or abusive husband.
Similarly, the handsome boss is able to catch his ex-wife by rescuing Kang Ji Won's mom/the best friend's dad (who had ran to hide/save their lives; the ex-wife tried to unalive them to hide the evidence). their confession locks the ex-wife away. but she's bailed out, and tries to flee to the airport to get out of the country. while fleeing, her car flips and she passes in the crash, taking over the fate of the handsome boss.
resolution:
Kang Ji Won and the handsome boss get to be happy together. Their work goes smoothly, and then they get married, and have three children. The final shot of the show is them, on the day that Kang Ji Won died in the first timeline, looking at a painting of cherry blossoms. Kang Ji Won explains that the painter finally got a chance to be a big deal, too, because "everything was set right."
thoughts - this ending honestly made me bawl my eyes out. it started with the cherry blossoms, and ended with them, too. that symbol of renewal...i wish i could remember the full explanation that person posted. but basically, their lives began anew just like the cherry blossoms bloom every spring.