Jealousy and self-destructive desperation fuels the fourth episode of Madame Antoine and oh boy, the competitive tension is on like Donkey Kong.
Ping ping ping!
Episode 4
Episode four swiftly rolls into where we last saw Hye Rim in the testing lab awaiting to undergo her brain analysis. Who does she like the most? Soo Hyun is eager to know. The complex machinery she’s wired to is designed to read her brain’s activity as she views certain images projected to her on a screen. The first picture she’s shown is of Seung Chan, who scores a decent 43% of interest. Ji Ho only scores an 18%. However, Soo Hyun is the one to come in dead last with a pathetic 6%.
This doesn’t please oh mighty professor senpai.
Soo Hyun lividly storms into the testing room like a hormonal teenager and blindsides a confused Hye Rim with a frustrated: “Why are you doing this to me?” Since he feels he did everything he possibly could to peak the mountain top of her interest, Soo Hyun can’t seem to accept the fact that all his hard work and stalkerish efforts went to waste. Well, it turns out Soo Hyun had in fact pushed just the right buttons because Hye Rim does indeed like him the most. The reason he scored so lowly is when his picture appeared, Hye Rim was aware that any emotion she felt in that moment would give away her true feelings. So, she distracted herself by closing her eyes and singing a silly little tune to herself.
Soo Hyun is being cranky in his office, fretting over losing out to Seung Chan and Ji Ho. He still can’t accept the fact that he ranked so lowly. Seung Chan comes strolling in with a smug smile. Seung Chan is on top of the world because he scored the highest for Hye Rim’s interest so in his mind, he’s in the lead. He gloats to his older brother by mockingly telling him to work a little harder or else he really will steal the heart of Hye Rim.
While on snooping duty, Hye Rim gets a text from Soo Hyun. He asks her to meet with him at a high-class fancy boutique where he spares no expense in wooing her with material items. This is all for the sake of increasing his percentage. Soo Hyun grants Hye Rim the privilege of picking out whatever she likes. Hye Rim isn’t fooled by Soo Hyun’s obvious ploy but she plays along and sticks it to his wallet really hard, allowing him to buy her a dress and several purses—only to have her turn around and tell him to donate them all. Hye Rim becomes direct with Soo Hyun after he has another childish tantrum and tells him that if he wants to raise his percentage, he must teach her psychology. Soo Hyun agrees to take her on as a scholarship student.
Ji Ho goes searching for Hye Rim to gift her a box of chocolates. He goes up to the third floor of the cafe and walks right into Hye Rim’s apartment without even knocking. Because of this, Ji Ho catches Hye Rim right in the middle of changing her clothing. Her back is facing him the entire time so she doesn’t notice him drooling profusely as she poses sexily in the mirror. Ugh! My cutie Ji Ho just went from adorable to creepy peeping Tom in a matter of seconds. *ugly sobbing* lol jk I think find him cute as hell.
Ju Ni shows up for her session with Soo Hyun, spoiled as always. She once again tries winning over the attention of the clinical center’s men but Ji Ho is too dazed by Hye Rim’s perfect figure to give a damn and Seung Chan is down right terrified of Ju Ni.
During her treatment, it’s revealed that Ju Ni was involved in a series of car accidents. One accident in particular resulted in the death of her road manager; this took place sometime in November. Afterward, Ju Ni casually went on vacation as if it were her pet goldfish that got grim-reapered instead of her freaking manager whom she’s spent copious amounts of time with. Hye Rim finds Ju Ni’s heartless actions despicable.
Ju Ni drolly tells Soo Hyun that she’s fallen for him but she does it only so he’d reciprocate the same attention back to her. Soo Hyun calls her out for her ludicrous behavior and asks her if she’s aware that she’s always acting like a donkey’s anus. Ju Ni admits through Soo Hyun’s guidance that yes, she’s a spoiled selfish brat and a terrible person. When she acts out, she’s trying to make up for the fact that she has no confidence in herself and she can’t show that side to the public since she is a celebrity.
Soo Hyun is determined to find the connection between the month of November and John Denver’s ‘Annie’s Song’ that causes Ju Ni’s random fainting spells.
Seung Chan and Hye Rim giddily go shopping for a Christmas tree. Seung Chan can’t help but admit to Hye Rim that he ranked first in her brain testing. Hye Rim is both shocked and amused when Seung Chan also lets it slip that Soo Hyun received a score of only 6%. This news elates Hye Rim since she successfully prevented Soo Hyun from discovering her true feelings.
While on a dinner outing with Soo Hyun, Seung Chan gets a phone call offering him a job as an elementary baseball coach. Seung Chan politely declines the job, finding that kind of work to be beneath him. He’d much rather rub Soo Hyun’s nose in his 43% high percentage. The rascal is so comfortable with Hye Rim to the point where he starts addresses her informally. Soo Hyun scolds his younger brother by telling him to check his ego at the door.
Hye Rim puts on her Sherlock cap and takes her snooping to the next level by breaking into Soo Hyun’s office. She hops onto his computer in pursuit of juicy data and ends up downloading a video from Soo Hyun’s computer onto her flash drive. Right in the brink of downloading, Soo Hyun and Seung Chan return to the office and hear her clumsily bumping around. They threaten to call the authorities, believing that they have an unwanted intruder on their hands. However, when they get the door unlocked, Hye Rim pretends to vacuum the floors with a pair of headphones plugged in ears. Though Hye Rim slides by with silky smooth calmness, Soo Hyun knows she’s suspicious and demands that all paper files of the experiment be terminated at once.
Hye Rim later watches the video she stole in the privacy of her home. It’s extended footage of Kyung Joo, Soo Hyun first test subject, on the tree declaring her love for her man. A puzzled Hye Rim wonders what it all means.
Seung Chan gets into a small argument with Hye Rim over his decision not to coach elementary baseball. He explains to her that he doesn’t want to take the job because it’s belittling to him. He’s played professional baseball; his fall from grace shouldn’t be that low where he has to resort to teaching kids. Hye Rim tries to encourage him by saying every great success needs to start somewhere. Seung Chan wants to hear none of it and storms off, upset. Soo Hyun catches this little tizzy and tries to take advantage of the situation. He meets up with Hye Rim at library for their first psychology lesson dressed as a stereotypical anime senpai.
While discussing brain activity, Soo Hyun gets intense. He grabs Hye Rim’s hand and directly asks Hye Rim if she likes him. She’s flustered and can’t answer his question straight away but before she can even finish her sentence, he cuts her off and rushes away.
Hye Rim later regrets not admitting the truth. She feels as if she should have just admitted to it however she still doesn’t find his affections to be genuine.
Ji Ho is high on happiness. He bombards Hye Rim by asking her if she’s into smart guys. Hye Rim pats his butt like a mother would to a cheeky toddler and sort of entertains his weirdness, that is until he unintentionally shows what a total pervert he is when he briefly mentions she should wear less clothing.
Right after Hye Rim tosses Ji ho out of the kitchen, Yoo Rim enters the café sporting a new hairstyle. She cutely asks Ji ho if he notices anything new about her. Ji Ho is Ji Ho and tells her exactly what’s on his mind.
LOL!
Mi Ran finds out she has cancer. Her doctor informs her that if she doesn’t get surgery immediately, the disease will spread and become unbearable for her. Mi Ran is scared to death but puts on a brave face for the doctor even though it’s clear she’s on the verge of a breakdown. Later, she comprises a bucket list of all her desired goals she wants to accomplish before she dies. Thinking of Seung Chan, she makes getting closer to him a top propriety of her bucket list.
While watching a much anticipated baseball game with Yoo Rim, Hye Rim calls Seung Chan and tells him that she’s always rooting for him. Seung Chan smiles warmly. He agrees to go to the interview for the elementary coaching position.
Adorable.
Bratty Ju Ni arrives early for her next session with Soo Hyun, bitchy as usual. She whines like a annoying preteen after being excluded from a ‘staff only’ brunch at the clinical center. She ends up somehow bullying her way into the lunch anyway, much to the rest of the gang’s displeasure.
Upset by the lack of attention she receives in comparison to Hye Rim, Ju Ni pretends gag on her food then passes out in the most dramatic way possible. For some odd reason, everyone takes her fake little fall out seriously and rushes her promptly to the hospital.
Oh, and Ju Ni is still a bitch to Hye Rim.
Hye Rim feels the need to check in on Ju Ni’s condition, despite the chick literally screaming through the hospital hallways how much she hates Hye Rim’s guts. Soo Hyun prevents Hye Rim inside Ju Ni’s hospital room, explaining to her that Ju Ni faked the entire melt down because she’s jealous of her. He sends Hye Rim home while he, Seung Chan and Ji Ho stay with Ju Ni at the hospital because you know, a total drama queen singer masking a jealous bitch fit as a mental breakdown totally requires an overnight stay at the hospital.
Ju Ni awakes after a nap in her hospital bed. She sees Ji Ho sleeping besides her in a chair. A vengeful Ju Ni steals Ji Ho’s phone and texts Hye Rim, posing as Soo Hyun in order to lure Hye Rim to the parking garage. Hye Rim falls for the scam and flies over to the hospital in a heartbeat. Ju Ni expected she would. She insults Hye Rim about being so whipped for Soo Hyun and how pathetic she is for it.
Hye Rim makes it very clear she doesn’t want to get into it with Ju Ni but the devious singer could care less about civility. She starts baiting Hye Rim, firing insult after insult while roughly shoving her backward. Ju Ni then slaps. At this point, Hye Rim has had enough of Ju Ni’s abuse. She slaps Ju Ni back then explosively unleashes her frustrations by berating Ju Ni for her terrible behavior such as going on vacation when her road manager died in a tragic car crash.
Triggered by Hye Rim’s harsh yet truthful words, Ju Ni breaks down and admits that she loved her road manager. But he didn’t like her so as a defense mechanism, she treated him terribly. Ju Ni claimed he was really ‘tacky’ and loved listening to John Denver. When the fatal accident occurred, ‘Annie’s Song’ was playing on the stereo as he took his last breath.
Ju Ni never had the chance to properly confess her true feelings to him. He died in the month of November and ever since then she fainted whenever she’d hear music by John Denver. Later at the clinical center, Soo Hyun comforts Ju Ni as she cries and cleanses her broken soul while Hye Rim tearfully watches from behind the scenes in the one-way room. She wonders to herself if she’d ever be that affected by someone the way Ju Ni was with her manager where it actually causes her physical harm.
Soo Hyun gets a mysterious bouquet of roses from an anonymous sender but it’s super damn obvious it’s from Hye Rim. A ticket to a musical is attached to the card. We then see Soo Hyun anxiously waiting in the musical the same way Hye Rim had when he anonymously invited her to a concert yet unlike him, Hye Rim actually shows up.
Afterward the play, the two enjoy a meal together. Well, actually it’s just Hye Rim disgustingly stuffing her face with chicken feet. She tries to convince Soo Hyun to eat with her but the sight of chicken feet turns him off. Hye Rim gets a bit of sauce on her bottom lip and out of instinct, Soo Hyun raises his hand to wipe her lip clean.
They get caught in an intense stare down.
Oh boy.
This show is getting pretty heavy with it’s romantic themes and so early too! I cannot construction in a freaking proper sentence just how much I’m rooting for Ji Ho and Yoo Rim. Like, they aren’t even the main pairing but still, I ship them so much! (Even though Ji Ho is totally clueless to Yoo Rim’s growing feelings for him. Actually, I’m sure she hasn’t even realized that she’s crushing on him yet…T-T) It’s heartbreaking the tough struggle Mi Ran has to endure with her cancer but I find it so sweet how all she wants to do is get closer to Seung Chan because he makes her happy. I’m anticipating more but I’m a little afraid this won’t veer in the direction I want it too but I have faith it might.~
