Episode 14 of When Life Gives You Tangerines is almost like a stand-alone episode because it shifts narratives from Geum-Myeong, the eldest, competent, perfect daughter of the Yang family, to Eun-Myeong, the not-so-perfect second child who was reminded that he will always be only second-best. At the end of thirteenth episode of the show, Eun-Myeong is arrested soon after Geum-Myeong’s wedding. In episode 14, we see Ae-Sun’s struggles of juggling being a good mother and being a good mother to her daughter. I think you’ll understand this a bit more once we get further into this episode. But after every cold winter comes a bright and beautiful spring full of risks, and boy, does this family take its risks. This episode definitely feels a little bit weaker than the rest of the show overall, but this is not to say it’s a bad episode. It’s just different somehow, but maybe we did need a little break from all the Geum-Myeong drama.
Spoiler Alert
Why Does Eun-Myeong Think He’s Second-Best?
Episode 14 begins with Eun-Myeong in a holding cell and his parents struggling to figure out how to get him out. This is the first time Eun-Myeong really voices how much he’s struggled within the family because all A-Sun and Gwan-Sik ever cared about was Geum-Myeong. Dong-Myeong died a few days after Eun-Myeong’s birthday, so he could never celebrate. His sister always did well, so he was always sidelined. And we already know that Ae-Sun always wanted more for her daughter because she didn’t want her to suffer the same fate as her. The little things Ae-Sun said to her son, while he was growing up, unintentionally left him more bruised than she could ever imagine.
In a flashback, we see Ae-Sun tell Gwan-Sik that she’s terrified (while heavily pregnant), but that she wants to be the best parent in the world. Now, she thinks she failed at the most important thing in life. If you only treat the child that does well right, how does the one that’s average ever get motivated to do better? Still, Eun-Myeong always wished he could do more for his parents. Despite being the one who didn’t get pork cutlets and who always got told to do better, he always did want the best for his family. He could’ve turned out an actual delinquent, but I guess there was something right in his upbringing, unlike the boy who got him arrested for his own wrong.
How Does The Family Get Eun-Myeong Out?
Cheol-Yong was Eun-Myeong’s business partner, and they’d started a pawn shop together during the economic crisis. It obviously failed, but Cheol-Yeong decided to steal 70 million won worth of stuff and run away, leaving Eun-Myeong to get arrested in his stead. The first thing Ae-Sun does to get her son out is fight with Cheol-Yeong’s mom. An actual physical fight because the woman says some terrible things about her son. The aunts and Ae-Sun manage to get some stuff from that woman’s shop, but it’s obviously not enough. For Hyeon-Suk’s dad, this is actually not much money. He’s been rich right from the start, so she goes to her father for one thing. Even after all these years of never being there for her, Sang-Gil refuses to pay the bail and set Eun-Myeong free. This is even after the guy made him a grandpa. Sang-Gil never even met the boy.
Finally, left with no choice, Gwan-Sik parts ways with the one thing that saved his family all those years ago. The Geum-Eun-Dong boat. This boat wasn’t just a hunk of wood that Gwan-Sik made a living from; it was the bread and butter of the Yangs. It was a gift from his wife, and it was the boat that brought Gwan-Sik back to his family every time he went out to the scary sea. While looking through his things, he finds the poem Ae-Sun wrote about him back in the day—First Love. When Eun-Myeong gets out, he asks his mother how he could be important enough to sell the boat. Ae-Sun reminds him that he’s always number 1 for his parents. She tells him he can resent her as much as he wants, but not his dad. Of course, this means Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik have to find work yet again. But what do you do “When Life Gives You Tangerines?” You keep going.
What Job Does Eun-Myeong Do?
Gwan-Sik learns from his daughter-in-law that his son is doing a night shift selling rice cakes. This is the kind of job that nobody would’ve ever imagined him doing, but since he can’t really do anything else, he finds himself stuck in this mundane job because he’s desperate to help out. But, ironically, when Gwan-Sik learns about it, not only does he give Eun-Myeong something to drink or eat on his way out every night so he can handle the cold, but he also gets Sang-Gil to join him in paying off the neighbors so that they buy things from Eun-Myeong. The thing is, everyone assumes he’s an ex-convict even though he was innocent. With his confidence so low and his nights so hard, Eun-Myeong decides to do the one job that his parents would be completely against.
While watching the news of the increasing number of suicides in the country because of the economic crisis, Ae-Sun learns that her son is about to get on a boat. Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik run off to find him, but Ae-Sun is reminded of the stormy day that Dong-Myeong died and has to stop in her tracks. Gwan-Sik continues to rush on. Sang-Gil and he get the boat to turn around, and Eun-Myeong is thrown off it. Ae-Sun catches up and tells her son that she will make pork cutlets for him every day, but she never wants him getting on the boat. In a way, it’s the same thing with her not wanting Geum-Myeong to become a Haenyeo all those years ago. Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun don’t want their son to suffer in such a dangerous job; that’s not why they raised him the way they did. I suppose a parent might be willing to take on all the suffering in the world but never see their child go through the same thing. Turns out that all the people who bought the rice cakes from Eun-Myeong told him to be good to his dad. This is why he decided to take up the job.
At the end of When Life Gives You Tangerines episode 14, it’s the start of the new millennium and a time for the Yangs to take big risks. As Geum-Myeong watches Chung-Seob’s ex on TV starting a successful noodle business, Geum-Myeong decides she wants to start a business of her own. At the same time, Young-Ran passes the real estate exam and finally leaves her husband (well, they get separated). She finally “won” because he challenged her, saying she’d never be able to survive without him. Meanwhile, it is Ae-Sun’s mother-in-law who encourages her to write poems. Finally, Gwan-Sik decides to take a big leap himself, spread his wings, and fly. An exciting new beginning for the Yangs.
