Cheese in the Trap Ep 11 Review (and down goes Young Gon)

Trust Cheese in the Trap to open strong after a two-week hiatus, Young Gon’s downfall was incredibly satisfying as was Seol’s part in it. I winced so hard when Inha sent that picture of her with Jung three weeks ago and it’s testament to the show’s great writing and it doesn’t feel out of the blue for Seol to barrage in and take charge of the situation. Yet, one villain down doesn’t mean that there’s no more conflict left for Cheese to explore. It’s even more about the relationships than ever, and Seol and Yoo Jung keep taking one step forward and two steps back.

Given the breadth of relationships this episode takes us across, I’ll just subdivide this review in order to cohesively comment on each.

Seol + Bora + Euntaek + Jung versus Young Gon

Given that Inha’s role in the confrontation was on Jung’s orders, I don’t think there’s any relationship between her and Young Gon besides deep disgust on her part. Seol, on the other hand, has kept evolving since the start of these series and instead of seeing Young Gon as an object of fear, now sees him as nothing more than trash (and says it to his face!). It’s incredible when you think of how frightened she was back in ep 6. And the more her inner steel comes out, the more you realize why Jung thought she was just like him. Bora and Euntaek are equally as delightful in their handling of Young Gon. His spiral into a comic, as opposed to sinister, figure is complete when every attempt he makes to talk to Seol is foiled by Bora and Euntaek. Is Young Gon done for good at this point? Or is he just recovering for a second attack? Given that he’s wasted all his ammunition, and Yoo Jung (who is almost definitely behind the discussion board posts) is just preparing to fire, it’s likely that we won’t see much of him in the future. He’s just comic relief for the viewers and his classmates. And it really is by virtue of his own stupidity.

HA. If only you knew.

Seol – Inha

As great as it was to see them on the same side, the truce could only last so long. The two women aren’t out to devour the other though so mild hostility, curiosity from Seol’s side and hostility from Inha is as far as we’re going to go until the past is cleared up and Jung-Seol’s relationship is firmly solidified. One of the best things about this show is how Seol doesn’t wait for answers and watching her go after Inha to resolve her doubts was pretty great. The way the two navigated around the other was additionally fascinating. Inha may be temporarily muzzled as to what she can reveal but she digs into Seol every other way she can get. This isn’t even about her caring about Jung; she’s probably more in love with a brand name purse. It’s more about her wanting his money. As such, it was interesting to see her categorization of the women around Jung, because she fits into the second category (those who cling onto him). Jung clearly thinks the same way of the women around him because he initially valued Seol for not fitting into each of these categories. However, Inha calls Seol out on this, showing her that it’s nothing more than inconstancy. It’s a pretty brilliant moment of insight given by a character that woefully lacks the same impartiality when assessing herself (then again, don’t all the characters in this show? Except Inho). The way Inha sees it, she’s upfront about what she wants from Yoo Jung, but Seol isn’t. The problem, to her, is that Seol herself doesn’t know what she wants. But I like to think that it’s what makes Seol and Jung (and any good relationship for that matter) so great. Knowing precisely what you want from the other leads to the sort of give-and-take that Inha finds so clear cut, but can result in the relationship splintering when you meet someone else who fulfills those very needs. There has to be something in a romantic relationship that no one else can give you and that no one else will give you, even if you break up for other reasons. Otherwise, wouldn’t all significant others be essentially interchangeable? Just my thoughts xD

Seol – her family

We’ve seen fractures within Seol’s family throughout the past few episodes as such the blowout isn’t a huge surprise. Yet, that doesn’t diminish the sense of betrayal viewers feel through Seol one iota. Especially because we’ve seen her commute for hours, slave through group presentations, and work an assortment of part time jobs. So hearing her father speak as callously as he does about her taking time off immediately got me pissed. It especially hurt when Seol asked who she should lean on. Her family, and her father especially, deserved everything Seol threw at them (having to budget in your head day in and out is the most awful, stress-inducing, depressing mental routine there is) and it even irritated me when Seol slunk back in looking apologetic because she had every rate to go out as she did. But what’s also great about her family is how quickly they makeup without holding grudges. Despite being a group of deeply flawed individuals, there is a lot good about them and though they do have rather violent ways of expressing affection, like Seol, we see that they aren’t so bad.

Seol – Inho 

There wasn’t too much of Seol and Inho together as there was during the past few episodes, but what little we saw made me ache for the poor boy who’s head over his heels and is just beginning to realize it. He can’t get close to her for fear of permanently turning into a tomato, he stays up all night waiting for her to get home, and gets adorable flustered at her having noticed small details about him.
And all she has to do to make his day is call him ‘oppa’.
He constantly does his best without artifice or the intention of scoring points to make him look good to her. And he looks so happy to be included in a family dinner that I wish he would officially become a part of it. But he’s become a source of tension between Yoo Jung and Seol for these very reasons. I do wish Seol had mentioned Inho increasingly active role in her life before, but given Yoo Jung’s tendency to treat all talk of Inho (and the man himself) very coldly (and given her quasi-estrangement from him) I can understand why she didn’t (I seriously love how naturally the conflicts in this show arise). But shit is about to go down judging by the preview because Inho’s going to confess to liking her. Let the love triangle begin! (Though I’d really have preferred if it hadn’t!)

Seol – Yoo Jung

This episode really showed the immense among of scrutiny Jung is under at his workplace. To have everyone watching your slightest movement to use it against to you is frightening, and I love the way the camera cut to all these different people with the same eerie, hopeful and wary look on their face, wanting to see some evidence of a mistake or loss of control. It’s seriously no wonder Jung is the introverted control-freak he is, given the sort of environment he’s been brought up in. But it’s around Seol that he truly relaxes and lets down his guard, letting his emotions run the gamut, whether longing

hurting because she’s hurting

or just plain happy

He wants nothing more than an honest open relationship and he’s definitely kept his end of that, to his own detriment, but there’s always some strange level of reserve between them. Some barrier that isn’t coming down despite her emotional breakdown in his arms (such a gorgeous scene, honestly). But that barrier’s down with Inho, and he’s forced to watch her comfortably talk with him about things they probably discuss everyday that he knows nothing of. Because unlike him, Seol isn’t always honest at times (and for good reason at times) and it hurts every time she does so. And added to the messiness that is the strange barrier between the two, Seol not being completely honest with him, and Inho having fallen for Seol is that the present has started to mirror Yoo Jung’s past. He works all day to ensure that no one has cause to insult him (say he got a free ride and what not) for being a chaebol, to the point where he’s treated as a pushover by others (both in middle school and in the present). But he comes home to his father happily listening to the Baek siblings’ day without caring about his. He’s his father’s biological son, but his father heaps care onto Inho and Inha and responsibilities onto Yoo Jung. And it’s the same with his relationship with Seol. He’s her boyfriend, and heaven knows the boy loves her, but she double-thinks everything she says to him while she has no filter with Inho, who at this point is far more a part of her life than Yoo Jung has ever been.
It’s not hard to fault him for leaving after that and frankly I was more than a little pissed that Seol, with her newfound mettle, didn’t go straight after him to explain that she had no feelings for Inho, whatsoever, and cared about HIM. Instead, we’ve to see her watch Jung walk off for the sake of stretching the conflict out a bit, and whiel the conflict is valid and Jung’s hurt is valid, the final 30 seconds of these episode were incredibly illogical. Go after him, Hong Seol! Show us how far you’ve come, don’t negate your growth!

(Or not?) I hope tomorrow’s episode features some real talking between these two, because smooches don’t solve everything, and it’s way better to smooch without things unsaid swirling in the back of your head. So can we get there? Please? For the love of all smoochies?