So I had more thoughts about the last scene in episode 14 of Flower Boy Next Door, completely and totally shaped by the comment section in the recap post on Dramabeans. (It starts at comment 3.1 by “Wishful Thinking” and continues on down.)
Spoilers for episode 14, both below and through the link above.
I’d taken the scene as it was given. Dok-mi tells Do-hwi that she likes Jin-rak just as Enrique, Jin-rak and Dong-hoon come in. Dok-mi is stunned to have her confession overheard:
Enrique is heartbroken:
Jin-rak steps forward to do the heroic wrist-grab, sweeping Dok-mi right out of there:
Aaaaand scene.
I questioned the whole thing a little. Because I know Dok-mi has no romantic interest in Jin-rak whatsoever. And I know he knows that, too. And I also know Dok-mi is pretty madly in love with Enrique. (And I also know Jin-rak knows that, too.) Because, come on. No way a woman looks at a guy like this:
while he’s drooling into a pillow without being madly in love. So my theory (nudged along by the episode’s flashback to Dok-mi asking Jin-rak to help her convince Enrique to return to Spain), was that Dok-mi set this whole thing up.
But the conversation on Dramabeans has led me to conclude my little theory is wrong. The timing was too perfect and too narrow. And Dok-mi’s never shown herself to be a good actress. The emotions she shows are true. Her defense is to show no emotions at all. (Or, to just not be there to be seen.)
It’s interesting to me that I didn’t question the whole set up to begin with. FBND has made a habit of setting up what you think will be one type of scene, only to open up the next episode totally turning those expectations on their head. So it’s kind of embarrassing I wasn’t watching with more alertness. (Though, I do tend to go with a story’s flow while I’m in the middle of it. Part of that is defensive. If I develop too many pet theories I get too involved in those theories being right than in enjoying the story. And part of it is pure laziness, I’ll admit.)
But also, for some reason, the noble-idiot trope doesn’t automatically annoy me. It can be annoying, sure. But I don’t find the trope, in and of itself, a bug. So I wasn’t emotionally interested in the set-up not being true. If it was, fine. If it wasn’t, cool reversal!
That’s the benefit of watching live and with a community (though, I’m kind of lurking on the fringes with this drama). Sometimes it’s the way others watch the show that gets you thinking. Which is awesome.
Creating Volumes 
I never thought the ending was palnned. That the boys happened to appear to Do Hwi’s place just as Dok Mi was finishing her sentence. I also never thought her ‘like’ ment’s he loved JR. Yes, she does like him as a friend and neighbour but that’s all. This show is filled with fakeouts and I believe this was just another one. We’ll seen next time how it really went.
K-dramas’ tendency to suffer from noble-idiocytits is rather annoying. It’s almost always used to add totally unnecessary angst to the story.
And I ment… DM finishing her sentence was pure coincidence.
Where did the end of the sentence go… ? o_0
Once I saw that pointed out in the comment section I was like “oh, of course!” At the time I was so excited by the connection of both Enrique and Dok-mi planning a scheme I didn’t really think about how absurdly perfect the timing would have to be. I leapt too quickly down that false path.
I’m not sure why it is the “noble-idiot” thing doesn’t bother me that much. Maybe I’ve been lucky enough to have avoided dramas that fell back on it to provide plot? A benefit of watching only after others had screened it? Or maybe by the time it comes I’m either invested enough in the story to not care, or I’m already unhappy for different reasons and it’s those reasons I’m thinking about as I get annoyed. I shall have to ponder. 🙂
It’s funny because I was so angry that Dok-Mi might have set it up that I can only hope the show it doing a “Actually, just kidding!” moment. I think it annoyed me more because that would mean she took something Enrique told her as a weakness (jealousy) and is using it to manipulate him into going back to Spain so he will work on an animation even though he already said he wants to stay with her instead of doing that. It just felt like Enrique went through this moment of “Oh, I can’t tell you what to do you have to decide” and then Dok-Mi was like, “That’s right, I’m my own person! But, I know what you want more than you know what you want even though we talked about what you want.” So that’s where the noble idiot gets me, trying to help the other person out, but instead, you’re just ignoring the actual clear communication in your relationship.
Yeah, the lack of communication is the most idiotic thing about the noble-idiot trope. Some dramas manage to pull it off for me, in that I do believe the character would be idiotic about communicating. (For example: Shut Up: Flower Boy Band did that so well with the whole incident between Ji-hyuk and Hyun-soo because they both had such a hard time talking to each other past their baggage — or to anyone else, for that matter.)
I honestly didn’t really think about it (and was distracted by my “mirroring each other” theory), but Dok-mi hasn’t been that idiotic about communicating with Enrique so it wouldn’t fit as well. I do think she has a hard time believing she could be that important to anyone, which is why she’s pushing for Enrique to leave. But I think she’d have tried to convince him by convincing him. Via words. (With maybe some added words from Jin-rak speaking as a concerned hyung.)
Exactly! I think it works well when it fits with the characters, but it doesn’t always, so I think it’s a little jolting for the audience (or at least for me personally). I think her not thinking she is worth it really is the only explanation, but I guess we will find out very soon if the show is just doing some trickery, which I would still prefer to her actually doing this because it just seems so hurtful and destructive against everything she and Enrique have built together.
So I’ve seen episode 15 and I WILL SAY NOTHING!! Because ep. 16 is coming and I’m avoiding all FBND discussions like the plague at the moment because I don’t want spoilers and therefore I will not spoil either. 😉