You From Another Star: Brotherly Love

So much good stuff this week that I won’t even try to catalog it all. Instead of focusing on our main couple of deeeessstinnnnyyyy (Is anyone else getting tired of that soundtrack?), let’s take a look at the brothers in the show. From side-splitting to stomach-wrenching, they gave us some of this week’s most memorable moments.

Cain and Abel Korean Style 

He’s been alluded to throughout the show. But they finally introduced Hwi-kyung’s older brother in flashback, and he’s just as sweet and supportive as Jae-kyung is sinister and psycho. As so many suspected, the original heir to S & C group fell prey to his middle brother’s homicidal tendencies. Does Nail Ring Guy practice these little speeches he gives to his victims? I imagine him laying awake nights thinking, “What is the most hateful way I can gloat over their paralyzed bodies as they take their last, dying breath?” It looks like the oldest and youngest brothers got all the kindness genes in the family. They must take after their mother, because it sure ain’t Papa-kyung that passed on any good traits.

Welcome to the family 

Yoon-jae continues to play the man in the family as he gives Do Min-joon his blessing to marry Song-yi. Then he takes him to meet his absentee Dad and gives his best imitation of a turtle as he huddles inside his jacket collar, trying to pretend he isn’t there, all the while soaking in everything his father says about taking care of your loved ones. Did anyone else get the impression that the Dad didn’t even realize this was his son? The fact that he never once looked at him during dinner made me think this. He hasn’t seen Yoon-jae since he was a tiny boy, so he might have thought he was just a friend of Min-joon’s. But later when Song-yi went missing, the Dad sat with Yoon-jae and Mom like it was no big deal. I’d like to see an actual reconciliation scene between father and son. Is that asking too much?

If Baby Brother is Rhett Butler, does that make Min-joon Scarlett O’Hara? 

Did anyone else notice the way Yoon-jae pulled Min-joon’s collar tight to protect him from the cold on their walk home? I just love this relationship. Drunk Do Min-joon is too cute. But what can beat the sight of our 400-year-old alien cramming his baby brother-in-law in a phone booth and teleporting home? How about said baby princess-carrying his hyung off to bed? I bet Kim Soo-hyun never thought he’d be on the receiving end of one of those swept-off-your-feet moments.

E.T., phone home 

You may not believe this, but I have never seen E.T. How did I make it through the 80s without that pleasure, you ask? It just worked out that way. But even I can recognize an extraterrestrial parody when it’s coming. When Yoon-jae held out his finger with that pleading expression. Oh my word! And then they HAD to go and play the E.T. theme music to back it all up. Just priceless. I really love how Min-joon humors his baby brother-in-law. And I don’t think it’s just to earn points with Song-yi, either. The Cheon siblings just have a way of melting a crochety, old alien’s heart.

So much for blood being thicker 

Hwi-kyung stepped up to the plate in a major way these last few episodes. At the beginning, he was a sweet, but empty-headed rich boy who spent what little brain power he had on ways to win over his beloved’s heart. But now you get the feeling romance is waaaaay down the list of his priorities as he orchestrates a plan to catch his scheming brother in the act. I don’t see a way that Nail Ring can get out of this one, with the pen recording of him murdering his older brother, the CCTV footage of him threatening his younger brother, and even his infuriatingly supportive father finally accepting what a monster his son is. I thought it was a plot hole that he would prepare the wine poison for Song-yi in advance. How would he know Min-joon would be there? Then I realized he probably did it as leverage with Hwi-kyung. He knew there was some sort of recording and probably thought he could trade Song-yi’s life for the pen. I guess he didn’t count on a teleporting alien being there to save her.

Only two episodes left and I still heart this show. So. Much. The Romance! The Bromance! One-upping the villain. Then two-upping him. Adding an insurmountable disintegrating alien storyline and leading our couple to a metaphorical cliff of sacrifice. Is the writer capable of building a plausible bridge to the other side where our happy ending awaits? If the first 19 episodes are any indication, we’ve got nothing to worry about.