See what I get for assuming what the drama schedule will be and how I could match up irregular episodes? I thought we’d have one this week and we get two! And they are good ones. We finally find out about the motivations of Chairman Nam and Secretary Ji, someone new finds out about the robot, and the robot himself gets a paradigm shift. Note that there will be SPOILERS for these three episodes.

Who is Secretary Ji Really?

Secretary Ji is still keeping his feelings to himself, and we are starting to wonder if he will ever fight back. We find out that he was an orphan who went to college on a scholarship from Chairman Nam’s company and was hired to babysit Shin. An interesting side note is that the Chairman says he is sorry for punishing Secretary Ji for Shin’s misdeeds, and Ji responds that it’s ok, because he knows it’s to teach Shin a lesson. Then later on Ji tells Shin 3 that he’s sorry for making him impersonate Shin, and Shin 3 replies that it’s ok because he knows Ji cherishes Shin. The similarity isn’t lost on him.

Shin 3 reminds Secretary Ji more and more of human Shin, who was rebellious and often did things on purpose to make himself unlikeable. (It makes us wonder if he was getting revenge for being taken away from his mother.) Getting tired of the stress, he tells Shin 3 to not trust humans too much. “Even you, even David, even Mom?” Shin 3 asks. But there is no answer. Is Ji starting to sympathize with Shin 3 and maybe feeling guilty?

The Shenanigans of Chairman Nam

The Chairman is of course the worst offender in demanding that people do as he says, including in the matter of who they marry. We have also noticed several times the sly little looks that he makes when he acts out with dementia. Now he confides to Shin 3 that he has dementia, and runs up against our mobile lie detector. “No you’re not,” Shin 3 objects, and the Chairman looks super annoyed but admits it. He is in fact very happy with how hard working and assertive Shin is now.

We find out that the fake dementia is a ruse to flush out who is loyal to him and who is after his money. It leads to Director Seo trying to oust him at a board meeting, where the Chairman dramatically walks in and upends everything. He lets Seo off the hook though, in order to keep an eye on him.

The Spoiled Brat Finds Out

After the board meeting Shin 3’s battery runs low, so he and So Bong go to get another one from the car in the basement garage. Ye Na finds them there and in the course of a tussle with So Bong, sees the port that the battery plugs into. Oh crap! They let her in on the secret and take her to see Mom and Coma Shin. She cries a lot, which makes us think that she actually likes Shin and might be a tolerable person after all. But only for a minute. She keeps the secret from her father at the price of having an early wedding.

She is very mean as she takes out her frustrations in a way that is designed to make us hate her even more. At the office she orders Shin 3 to stand in the corner, and when driving in the car she takes out his battery. She slaps So Bong and kicks her, and when she tries to hit So Bong again Shin 3 grabs her arm. She tries it a third time and he pushes her away and lets her fall. Back at the beautifully planted building where everyone is hiding out with Coma Shin, Ye Na claims that Shin 3 attacked her.

The Snake Strikes Again

Director Seo’s minion with the snake tattoo shows up again, shadowing Shin 3 and reporting to Seo that there might be a lookalike. He sees Ye Na slap So Bong and also the picture of So Bong in a bridal gown that Shin 3 puts up on a digital advertisement panel. (They aren’t very good at keeping secrets, are they?) He really rattles So Bong when he takes her to meet Seo in a deserted warehouse with a fire in a metal drum; an obvious gangster lair. I was yelling at her to not go in there, but Director Seo was quite low key, letting the setting make his threats for him.

The Bodyguard Steps Up

So Bong is accepting Shin 3 as a person. When he bursts into her room early one morning to go running, she doesn’t want to get up. “Shall I dress you?” he asks. “You’re not embarrassed are you? I’m only a robot.” She seems however to want to dress herself. But later when she is worn out from running, she lets him piggyback her home on the reasoning that he is only a piece of plastic.

She starts giving him advice, such as not hugging people if they don’t want it, and to be careful or someone might melt him down. She promises to protect him. She stands up for him against Ye Na, saying, “You are too harsh; go easy on him. He has a brain.” And when Ye Na tells Mom that Shin 3 attacked her she clarifies that Ye Na started it and he was only protecting her.

This is an important scene where lines are drawn. David and Secretary Ji side with So Bong’s point of view. David tells Ye Na she can’t treat Shin 3 as a toy and Secretary Ji tells her to treat Shin 3 as if he were the human Shin or they will get found out. Unfortunately Mom agrees with the spoiled brat and berates Shin 3. “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you obey my orders?”

The Robot Turns a Corner

When Ye Na takes his battery Shin 3 just sits there and lets her, but when So Bong tells him not to let anyone touch it again, something happens inside him. She asks him why he pushed Ye Na away and he responds that he’s not fully aware of the development of his deep neural network. But he has added a new priority rule to protect So Bong. It takes him a while to figure out that it is because she is the only one who sees him as a person.

Shin 3 claims that he doesn’t know what sadness is, but after Mom sides with Ye Na, he sits sadly talking to his vacuum puppy. “Mom was crying but I couldn’t hug her,” he says. His most important person doesn’t support him anymore and he is rethinking his programming. Secretary Ji has told him not to trust humans. Now So Bong tells him, “I’m setting you free. You’re not anyone’s servant. Behave according to your own judgement.”

What were they thinking?

Now we come to it: what is the robot thinking? Shin 3 is going independent. Will he take all his batteries and go rogue? Will Mom try to reformat him? Will he trust So Bong to keep her promise to protect him? She has asked to resign, after all. It may depend on whether Coma Shin wakes up. Check back next week, drama lovers, to see what he will do!

Telzeytalks

Dramas with a Side of Kimchi