The Strange Housekeeper Episode 1

Also known as The Suspicious Housekeeper

Also known as The Mystery Housemaid

Also known as Why Can't These TV Shows Have Just One Title And Stick With That?

 

 

 

Our Strange Housekeeper seems to be getting interviewed for a job. Another woman (that we don't see) asks the housekeeper if she's willing to do anything she's told to do. The housekeeper answers only with, "Yes." Oh yeah? Well, are you willing to kill someone if you're ordered to?

 

Cut to the funeral home. Yoon Song Hwa (played by Wang Ji Hye) pays her respects to the late wife of her co-worker, Eun Sang Chul (played by Lee Jung Jae). He turns to introduce her to his kids. Hey, there's Crybaby Chunchu from The King's Dream. And that girl looks familiar as well. Whoever the girl is she's giving Song Hwa the Evil Eye. Are Song Hwa and Sang Chul more than just co-workers? Hmm.

 

When Song Hwa joins some other mourners (that I take to also be co-workers) they ask if she's okay since she's been gone for two days. Song Hwa dismisses it as merely having a cold. Their attention is drawn by a crying Eun Hye Gyeol, Sang Chul's youngest. The family is trying to comfort the crying child when another woman dashes in with a doll. Ah, it's Hong Joo from A Hundred Year's Inheritance! (BTW, the dead wife is also an alumni from 100YI. She played one of the aunts.)

 

Anyway, here actress Shim Yi Young plays Woo Na Young. I think she's supposed to be the dead woman's sister. She attempts to pacify the crying child with the doll. Hye Gyeol continues to wail, pointing out the doll was made by her dead mom. Good job, Na Young.

 

Will anyone shut this kid up?

 

Forty-nine days later the Strange Housekeeper arrives. Inside the house oldest sister Eun Han Gyeol (played by Kim So Hyun. I think she was the evil sister in Rooftop Prince.) tries to take dead mom's place in the family. It's not going well. The brothers are of no help. Hey, Crybaby Chunchu (Chae Sang Woo), wash your own damn clothes. While the children are trying to find something to eat out of the empty refrigerator, dad Sang Chul is sitting in the bathroom. Shit or get off the pot, Dad.

 

Sang Chul comes out to have what I would call a convenience store breakfast with his family. You know, Dad, you could go to the grocery store. It's not that complicated. Youngest son Eun Se Gyeol is whining about how Dad needs to help him get into an international middle school and such. Dad is just about to make a family announcement when two things happen simultaneously. The ugly cuckoo clock starts to chime at 7 a.m. right as the doorbell chimes.

 

You have three guesses as to who is at the door and the first two don't count.

 

The Strange Housekeeper is Park Bok Nyeo (played by Choi Ji Woo. Ji Woo may have a truckload of awards to her name but I've never seen anything she's done.) She'll be working for the family from seven in the morning (exactly) until nine at night (exactly). Brother Asshole/Doo Gyeol starts laughing when the housekeeper introduces herself because (as Viki explains) Bok Nyeo is what the Koreans called Mother Theresa. I don't see what is so funny about that but Doo Gyeol can't wash his own clothes so why should I care what he thinks.

 

Whimsical music plays as Bok Nyeo inspects the house. Nobody thought to buy toilet paper in 49 days? The music comes to a stop for the moment when it comes to Dead Mom's old room and her things. What should be done here? The family is divided on whether to get rid of Mom's clothes or not so Dad simply requests the housekeeper to leave the room alone for now.

 

The whimsical music returns as Bok Nyeo dons her apron and gets to work. (I wish she would come to my house and fix my sink.) The kids head off to school and discuss their new employee. As Dad is walking out of the house to go to work, Bok Nyeo stops him to straighten his tie. This is when Nosey Neighbor (mother to someone named Eo Jin) spots them and the gossip mill starts to grind. She reminds me of Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched.

 

Dad is only half-listening to a presentation at work. The other half of him is constantly looking out the window at Yoon Song Hwa. Dad runs out to talk to Song Hwa in the hallway. He figures since the 49 days are up they can just resume where they left off before his wife met her tragic end at the river. Bastard. Song Hwa, however, doesn't appear to be too keen on the idea.

 

Before Bastard Dad can convince her otherwise he gets a call from Director Hong, the woman who runs the agency who sent Bok Nyeo over. She's just checking up to see how things are working out with the new maid. Then Hong gets all serious and warns Sang Chul to be careful as Bok Nyeo will do exactly what she's told to do. For instance, if you were to tell her to kill someone she just might.

 

Who says something like that to their customer? She's like The Strange Boss of the Strange Housekeeper.

 

Right after The Strange Boss hangs up on him, Sang Chul gets a call from The Strange Housekeeper. Bok Nyeo wants to send some of his suits out to the cleaners. She found a birthday card in one of the suit's pockets. What should she do with the card? Sang Chul asks who the card was from. Bok Nyeo opens the teeny tiny b-day card to see Dead Wife's signature. Bastard Dad, who is by now back to giving longing stares at Song Hwa, simply tells the maid to put the card away somewhere.

 

The Strange Housekeeper hangs the card up on the refrigerator door. Creepy music plays as Bok Nyeo stops to look at Dead Mom's picture. Hmm.

 

Sang Chul comes home to an absolutely spotless house. (Strange Housekeeper, please come to my house next!) As Bok Nyeo chops up a cucumber with a very sharp knife, Bastard Dad thinks back to what Director Hong said about Bok Nyeo killing someone if you ordered her to. The kids ooh and ahh over the dinner Bok Nyeo fixed, commenting on how the food tastes just like how Dead Mom used to make it. Brother Asshole finds this weird. Han Gyeol and I tell him to shut his mouth.

 

Bok Nyeo goes to take the garbage outside. This gives Sang Chul (who is not only a bastard but an idiot) the chance to tell the kids about the phone call from Director Hong telling him how Bok Nyeo would even commit murder if you ask her to. Who tells something like that to their kids? Stupid Bastard Dad, that's who.

 

Out at the recycling bins, Nosey Neighbor tries to chat up our Strange Housekeeper, bringing up the gossip that some people don't believe Dead Mom's death was an accident. Bok Nyeo says nothing, only crushes Nosey Neighbor's empty water bottle.

 

Thinking they don't have anything to eat, Aunt Na Young drops by with bags of groceries. Tomorrow is Hye Gyeol's birthday and Na Young wants to throw a party. (Some people would say that's too early just after a funeral but to each his own.) Sang Chul, who seems to have just now learned that his child's birthday is tomorrow, asks Hye Gyeol what she wants for a present. It should come as no surprise that the little girl asks to see her mom again.

 

It's an uncomfortable moment for everyone. Except Aunt Na Young, that is, who brightly declares that sure, she'll make it so Hye Gyeol gets to see Dead Mom again.

 

At precisely nine o'clock Bok Nyeo takes off her apron and gets ready to leave for the night. (She sort of reminds me of Miss Kim from God of the Workplace.) Sang Chul is worried about what exactly his SIL has planned but he's afraid to go over to her house as he'll then have to deal with his father-in-law, Woo Geum Chi (played by Park Geun Hyung). He asks/sort of orders Bok Nyeo to go over there instead.

 

The next day Bok Nyeo stops by the really big, really nice house of Dead Mom's family. Gruff grandfather Woo demands to know what she's doing there. Like an automaton Bok Nyeo recites the entire incident concerning the birthday party and Hye Gyeol's wish to see Mom again. Grandfather Woo jumps all over his daughter's case for even going over to "that house." (Apparently Grandfather didn't approve of Sang Chul who got Dead Mom pregnant and thus made her marry below her station.) Na Young argues back that she's not going to turn her back on the kids like her father has.

 

Back home, Bok Nyeo calls Sang Chul to report on how things went, again reciting like an automaton every single word Grandfather Woo said, warts and all. Still, they don't know what Aunt Na Young has up her sleeve.

 

A lonely Hye Gyeol watches all the other kids in her kindergarten class be picked up by loving mothers. She's thrilled when Bok Nyeo (in her hat and winter coat) comes by to pick the little girl up. They get home to find someone in the kitchen. It appears to be Dead Mom but turns out to only be Aunt Na Young wearing a wig and some of her dead sister's clothes.

 

Seriously, are all the adults on this show brain damaged?!? You just don't do that! This is just torturing the little girl.

 

As the birthday party goes completely off the rails, Han Gyeol gives the rash order to Bok Nyeo to get rid of all of Dead Mom's things. Useless Stupid Bastard Dad just stands there as the housekeeper and Han Gyeol start throwing Mom's clothing outside. She breaks down and cries about how her grades are suffering because of the extra workload of trying to take on Mom's responsibilities.

 

Bok Nyeo brings out the gas can and sets the pile of clothes on fire. Brother Asshole is so enraged at this that he actually punches the Strange Housekeeper in the mouth. She doesn't react, though. He now has his cathartic moment as he cries about his last words to Dead Mom being mean and hurtful.

 

Brother Se Gyeol also starts crying but I don't care about him.

 

Hye Gyeol comes forward to confess that it is all her fault that Mom died. As only a child can think, Hye Gyeol had refused to eat some tomatoes and told her mother to disappear. And so Mom did.

 

Nosey Neighbor comes out of her house and complains about the dangers of the fire spreading to her house. Bok Nyeo turns on the water hose to put the flames out. Nosey Neighbor continues to stand there and run her mouth about the Eun family being in tatters so the Strange Housekeeper has no choice really but to "accidentally" spray Korean Gladys Kravitz with the waterhose.

 

Now that the fire is out (symbolically as well as literally) the family attempts to restart the birthday party. Nobody thought to get a birthday card because everyone in this family is stupid. No worries. Bok Nyeo pulls one out of her hat. I mean, her bag. I thought she was going to get the one off the refrigerator but I was wrong. And is Brother Asshole ever going to apologize for socking the maid in the mouth?

 

The next day at work Bastard Dad is still trying to renew his relationship with Song Hwa. She's still against it. (Translation: "I had no plans of becoming an Instant Mom to your kids.")

 

At home the kids are worried because Hye Gyeol hasn't come home from kindergarten and it is late. They try calling Useless Stupid Bastard Dad but he turns his phone off so he can continue talking to his ex-mistress. The kids go out on their own to search the town.

 

Hye Gyeol is with Bok Nyeo. They're sitting down next to the river. Oh my, is this the same river where Dead Mom met her end? We cut to the other siblings still searching. When we come back to our duo, Hye Gyeol and Bok Nyeo are walking hand in hand into the water, which is getting deeper and deeper, at least for the little girl.

 

 

 

What the hell did I just watch?