A mission of Love

Episode 3:

We back up from the ending scene of Episode 2 to show how we got there: Myung-wol is given three months to marry Kang-woo, and sleeper spy Ok-soon put in charge of her lady training. Thing is, she's so bad at using her feminine wiles that Ok-soon decides the best strategy is to go in with a direct assault: a declaration of love.

Myung-wol studies Hollywood romances and their K-drama counterparts, taking in Im Soo-jung's anguished love declaration from MISA (I'm Sorry, I Love You), which seems like exactly the wrong choice for Kang-woo. I'm giggling already.

A camera is planted for spy surveillance, and Ok-soon gives Myung-wol the advice that the key to Operation Seduce Kang-woo is "a quick progression and skinship." Can that be the key to my mission, too? Heck, can this BE my mission? I'll totally seduce Eric, FOR MY COUNTRY!

Ok-soon feeds Myung-wol lines for her love confession, and it's the standard, prettily worded stuff: "I don't expect anything from you — just let me be with you," etc. Hee-bok scoffs that her dialogue is too old-school — men don't want a clingy declaration — and it doesn't appear to be working on Kang-woo, so Myung-wol goes off-script, and takes a page from the MISA handbook with a straightforward "I love you."

That shuts Kang-woo up, and when he sees In-ah appear at a distance, he kisses Myung-wol as his way of making his rejection of her clear.

The thing is, Kang-woo's reply to Myung-wol sounds ominous ("How far are you willing to go?"). Combined with the sudden kiss, the agents freak out and order her to retreat.

Alas, "retreat" stirs a knee-jerk reaction in Myung-wol, for whom that word is usually accompanied by a very different scenario. She instinctively lashes back at Kang-woo, which naturally makes it tricky when he asks, "What, isn't this what you wanted?" Ok-soon urges her to retreat rather than attempt explanation, so Myung-wol just runs away. HA.

In-ah thinks he's trying to make her jealous — funny how everything's about her, no? — and tells Kang-woo to cut today's shoot short because she's in no mood to film. He tells her to be a professional and learn how to act, or go home. I love how very blunt he is about his disinterest in her.

Ryu picks up the phone In-ah throws out of pique, and she recognizes him from Singapore. He merely says they can attribute this meeting to "strange coincidence," and leaves. Just the thing to keep him mysteriously interesting.

Kang-woo can't shake Myung-wol's declaration, because he can't figure her out, and that intrigues him. He thinks back to all their encounters, and I love that this supposedly poignant reminiscence includes an explosion, ha.

In the following days, he sees Myung-wol everywhere — working at the cafe, posing as a stylist at the station — and naturally shakes it off, thinking he's seeing things. HA. I love that in any other drama, this would be one of those "I can't stop thinking about you" montages, but in this one, it's Myung-wol playing stalker. And if she just happens to drive Kang-woo nuts in the process, all the better.

Ok-soon tells her that the plan is to make him doubt his own eyes (hee), because his interest will be stirred once he starts wondering why all the women around him suddenly resemble her. It's like reverse-psychologizing his brain: If you mimic the symptoms of love, can you get him to think he's in love? (Or, to cite a more recent reference, it's like Dokko Jin confusing his pounding heart for love.)

The kiss — and this mission — gets Myung-wol all confused, too, and she tells the stone-faced Ryu that she'd always known who her enemy was — till now. Ryu tells her to think simply of her orders. Spoken like a true soldier automaton. I do enjoy how stiff and humorless he is.