Descendants of the Sun Ep 5 Recap (and sudden farewells)

Shijin kisses Moyeon gently. She freezes and doesn’t respond, the wine bottle stilling precariously in her hands. He draws back and looks almost confused at his own impulsiveness before cupping her face tendering going in for another when..

she turns away. Shijin freezes as she awkwardly wishes him goodnight and departs with the wine bottle. (Awww look at his devastated expression).

Moyeon doesn’t sleep though, opting to mull things over in her room. She thinks back to the soldier’s funeral they went to, and her realization that Shijin could die just as easily in his line of duty. Shijin broods as well, while undressing (boo, we don’t get a shirtless scene). We cut to Ri Yehwa, the Korean-Russian emergency relief nurse who works for Peacemaker, and the wife of Shijin’s acquaintance, Daniel. She’s clearly a light sleeper as she starts upon hearing a barely distinct noise, draws a gun from underneath her pillow and trains it on the person entering the house. The person asks her t drop the gun, in flawless English. She sighs and drops it, pushing aside the curtain to reveal her husband.

She’s irritated at him having come back after so long. Daniel sighs that he spent three months in Libya and a month in North Urk with Chen Gang. Yehwa inquires as to if he came back with Chen Gang, only for Daniel to pause and say that he’s dead. Cut to a picture on the wall of the three of them. Chen Gang turns out to be the soldier whose funeral Yoo Shijin and Moyeon attended. A new day dawns and Moyeon, her fellow doctors and nurses go on a tour of the Haesung Group solar-power plant.

It’s an impressive sight, boasting a large tower at the center.

Moyeon sighs that she’d love to climb up there when a man arrives on the scene announcing himself as Jin Young Su, Chief Manager of the Urk Electric Power Corporation. He’s more than a bit pretentious, (the amusing as opposed to asshole-ish way) insisting that his English name is Richard and getting pissed when no one calls him ‘Manager Jin’ in English and just go with his Korean name and title. Mooyeon gets a call right them from Chihoon who has good news and bad news to deliver. The good: he has a name for the kid they saved from lead poisoning, Blackey. The bad: Blackey is missing.

Moyeon hightails it back to camp and discovers that Blackey left a picture behind, a rudimentary drawing of a house, trees and a cat. Chihoon takes it to mean that Blackey’s gone home, but he does need medication and care so they need to find him. Chihoon’s enlisted Shijin’s help which Moyeon insists they don’t need just as SHijin enters. HAHA.

Shijin only takes one look at the map and figures out that the trees refer to a forest, the cat to a cat-shaped rock, and the house to a village. Blackey, he says, is the name of a village, not the child. Moyeon gets pissed that Chihoon didn’t even get the kid’s name and hilariously orders him to clench his teeth before raising a hand to whack him on the head. Shijin turns and she instantly drops her hand though. What’s even more funny is that Chihoon nevertheless speaks through clenched teeth for the reset of the conversation. The village is a six-hour walk and Moyeon sighs that she might as well go. She awkwardly asks Shijin to do her a favour by taking her there.

Shijin keeps staring at her on the drive there until she asks him to look ahead or they’ll have an accident. He awkwardly asks if she slept well last night, and Moyeon frankly says that she didn’t because of him. Shijin begins to explain when she cuts him off. Moyeon says she’s trying to avoid talking about it because she’s confused. Shijin says it’s fine if she’s angry so long as she doesn’t feel bad about it.

SHIJIN STOP KILLING ME. They arrive at the village where the boy plays with a group of goats. At his home, Moyeon draws pictures for the boy’s mother, using a sun to indicate what medicine he should take in the morning and a moon for what he should take at night. She comments on the group of children around the house being the same ones licking scrap metal earlier. Shijin compliments her good memory. Moyeon acknowledges that she has a great memory and for that reason asks him not to say or do anything impressive. Okay, that’s going to be impossible. Yoon Myeongju’s sitting with Lieutenant Park who’s greasy as hell and showers her with the best of the soldier’s supplies. She doesn’t catch onto the favoritism directly but is weirded out when he starts to comment on ‘their fate’ at meeting each other again. She springs at getting a call right then and dashes off to take it. Lt. Park asks if it’s from the Commander and she happily says that it’s far more important than that. Cut to her receiving status updates of Seo Daeyoung’s every move from her hapless lackey, Kim Bumrae. Bumrae’s even made notes and reads them out to Myeongju. Daeyoung passes by as he’s doing so and hilariously doubles back.

Bumrae disobeys his order to end the call (given that Myeongju ranks higher) and hurriedly ends his status updates, with Myeongju listening and grinning at the whole exchange.

Daeyoung orders Bumrae to run laps but even he cracks a smile as Bumrae leaves. Moyeon treats Shijin to lunch at the same bar he was at in ep 2 (with the very curvaceous white girl). She’s their waiter and Shijin hilariously stares at his plate while Moyeon scoffs at his choice of restaurant.

Shijin insists that Daeyoung’s a regular here (haha) that that he prefers instant food but Moyeon just shrugs. Given that she’s paying she asks him to answer something for her. Why did he become a soldier? She asks him not to joke that it was because of the uniform. Shijin answers honestly.

He notes that Mooyeon doesn’t seem to like his job, hence her confusion. She says she admires his patriotism, at which Shijin asks her what patriotism is anyway. Moyeon answer that’s being loyal to a country and its people. Shijin throws her a curveball there.

He isn’t sure what her definition of patriotism is, but his determination to protect people, no matter how frightening (taking cigarettes away from high-schoolers) or daunting (putting himself in front of a gun) the task is, that’s what he considers patriotism. He then poses a question for her.

She shakes her head, saying that would be too ordinary. Shijin sighs that he knew it.

He leaves the restaurant while Moyeon pays, when he catches the eye of two people talking a few years ahead. One of them instantly jogs his memory. He was the fellow they captured, who was smuggling in weapons, while pretending to be a UN Peacekeeper. Moyeon arrives then and Shijin clutches her shoulder as she turns to look, asking her to go to Yehwa’s hardware store and borrow a car from there.

He has to take care of something with his commanding officer (especially given that he was previously ordered to just cover up the car accident as nothing serious). The hardware store’s around the corner. Moyeon’s startled to find Daniel there when she enters. He introduces himself as Doctor Daniel, mechanic, doctor and vet, with a cute self-deprecating sense of humour.

Shijin goes straight for the two guys, pulling out his gun. The fake UN fellow comments on him pulling a weapon on an unarmed civilian. Shijin’s response is to shoot out his tires. Moyeon whirls at the sound of shots.

The men pull out their own guns and Shijin wryly notes that they are neither civilians nor unarmed. A whole group of armed men come out of the neighbouring restaurant to surround him.

Their leader, who Shijin shares some sort of past with, emerges as well, sighing at his men not having learned to “aim at the back” if they want to kill a man.

He corrects that Shijin’s probably a captain now, and whips off his sunglasses. Shijin freezes in recognition.

Shijin calls Daniel and informs him that it’s Argus, though when Moyeon inquires Daniel only says that it was the ‘local gang’ and that everything’s fine. He pours her some tea, and she asks how he came to know Shijin.

He lists off places, noting they somehow always meet in such circumstances. Back outside, Shijin’s still in shock, flashing back to when he was being tortured in an enemy camp. Though bloody and beaten-up, he refused to give up any information, simply reciting his name and profession (in the Special Forces) over and over. That’s when his superior (played by Kim Minjong) and comrades burst in to save him.

Daeyoung’s there too and tells him to hurry and get out, they only have 5 minutes, but Shijin asks for them to save the Delta Force captain in a neighbouring room. This turns out to be Captain Argus. They successfully get him out and are ready to board the helicopter home. That’s when his superior is shot (a scene we’ve seen in a previous flashback but know we’ve the backstory). Shijin is horrified. Even Argus looks shocked. In the present, Shijin stammers, asking Argus what he’s doing here. Argus doesn’t give a crap, saying that he changed job. This one pays better, and he gets to grow out his hair.

Shijin asks what happened to him. He was a legend in the Delta Force. Argus shrugs that it doesn’t pay. He not-so-subtly warns Shijin of the ‘many bad gangs’ in this neighbourhood without loyalty or honor, and orders him to stay away. Even back then, and now, he says, Shijin is far too empathetic. Shijin, who’s been speaking in English all this time, reverts to Korean, wondering why he went against heaven’s will anyway. A dying man must have been dying for a reason. Argus gets in his face, asking if he’s “hiding behind his language” (as if I needed another reason to hate this asshole). But Shijin just glares at him.

He tells Argus not to dare come near him again and leaves. Back at the shop, Daniel asks Moyeon if there’s anything else she’d like to know, but Moyeon says she has enough. He wisely asks what the purpose of her info-gathering is. To understand? Or to keep her distance? Moyeon borrows a car and drives back to camp, ignoring Shijin’s calls. She’s so preoccupied with her thoughts that she’s driving on the wrong lane and has to swerve when a huge truck going the other way, blares its horn. She looses control of the steering wheel though and drives off the road, down a steepy incline. The car halts at the edge of a precipice, below which lies certain death.

Moyeon hyperventilates, when Shijin calls once more. The simple act of reaching down for her phone on the floor results in the car inching a few metres forward. She’s half-hysterical, when Shijin asks her to tell him what she sees. Upon hearing that the car’s on a cliff-edge, he goes racing off.

She panics when he hangs up and tearfully starts leaving messages for her family and friends, as well as instructions to retrieve her security deposit and insurance. Aww!

The car jostles once more, freaking her out, but it’s Shijin entering through the back! He clambers into the front despite her protests that it’ll overturn the brake. Shijin sets her seat back and opens both windows, before looking squarely at her.

Moyeong thinks this is a terrible idea, and panics even further.

YES SIR. Holding her hands, he tells her to trust him. He will get her out, but she just needs to let go of the brakes. Mooyeon refuses, when Shijin grits his teeth and slams his hand on the steering wheel, releasing the airbag. That push is all the car needs to lunge forward and they plummet into the water. A few moments later, Shijin gently later Moyeon on the beach and begins CPR. She comes to in a minute.

The intensity in his eyes, people. I’m dying. She retorts that of course she aches everywhere.

Moyeon mutters that she’s not a soldier and he wouldn’t know how frightened she was. Shijin sighs that he just can’t leave her alone for a minute without her ending up somewhere dangerous. Moyeon grumbles that she’s too weak to laugh, while Shijin just grins away. They finally get back to camp where Shijin wraps his jacket around her.

Hee hee. Onto more dire situations. At the solar-power plant, Argus kills a man in Jin Youngsoo’s (the pretentious Chief Manager) presence. He tells Youngsoo that everything stays the same, save ownership having changed hands. As expected, Youngsoo doesn’t care so long as he gets his money. He hands over a small pouch of what appears to be diamonds. Argus notes that all Korean men feel like his brothers, due to them having to go to the military. He gives Youngsoo one week to deliver another batch of gems. Youngsoo tries to negotiate for a moment only to realize that Argus means business when the gun gets closer to his head. He agrees. Youngsoo returns to the factory where a subordinate manager and regular worker sigh to see him approaching. The young worker asks where his driver is. Youngsoo stammers that he quit, but the worker catches sight of bood on his socks. Back at the camp, Moyeon thinks back to the shot that had startled her when she was in Daniel’s store. Shijin approaches her having made coffee, but Moyeon has only one thing on her mind.

Shijin’s nonchalant about it and even recalls that her bra was black. Moyeon defiantly corrects it to dark blue which makes Shijin grin. She offers him a sedative in case he’s in shock and Shijin cutely wonders if she’s concerned about him. Moyeon retorts that she had to be, given that he’s saved her life. Shijin wonders if a guy has to save her life to get her to care about him. Moyeon quietly asks if he was aware that he was putting himself at risk while saving her. Shijin shrugs it off, saying that she’d wanted him to come. Moyeon notes that he’d mention going through a torrent to bullet to save someone. She’s just realized that it was probably true, and asks if he did get to save him. Shijin flashes back to his superior officer’s death once more and it turns out that he may have taken a bullet that was meant for Shijin. Completely devastated, he clutches him, asking him to remain conscious

Shijin quietly says that he did save him, but for the first time (he flashes back to Argus taking off his sunglasses) he wishes that he hadn’t. Mooyeon gently says that she knows he was lying when he said he was going to see his commanding officer. he came way too fast to her rescue for that to have been possible. She knows the gunshot at the store must have been him. Shijin  notes that a long must have gone through her mind but asks if she can’t just trust him to deal with it anyway. Moyeon just sighs at how complicated all of it is. Just then the lights go off, a common occurrence in the barracks. Shijin assures her they’ll be back in 30 seconds. The silence stretches out for a moment before he breaks it with his usual brand of humour.

This sweetheart. The lights come back on then and Shijin looks surprised at the warmth in Moyeon’s eyes.

You’re making ME blush. Moyeon notes that he’s probably had a lot of girlfriends. Women usually flock around men like him. Shijin mutters that he’s only ever surrounded by guys though.

He gets hilariously huffy over it and responds irritably to Moyeon’s question on what they should do about the wrecked car (I called the store already!). The next day, they watch as the dripping wet, battered car is unloaded in front of Daniel who looks like someone died. Moyeon hilariously asks Shijin why he couldn’t have just saved her instead of drowning the car, before taking her words back and promising to take out her savings and insurance to fix it somehow. Shijin assures that there’s nothing Daniel can’t fix just as the fender falls off, followed by one of the doors. Daniel sinks to his knees. HAHA. He recovers enough to hand Shijin the item he asked for: a walkie talkie for Moyeon so that she can always contact him and headquarters without fear of her connection breaking. She smiles at the thoughtful gesture  and apologizes to Daniel asking him how much she owes him. He sighs, saying that he’ll try to fix it but sadly talks about how he never filled it up with high-grade gasoline or had it painted. Aww! He’s such a cutie! Shijin hilariously holds out the walkie talkie saying that it might be the last time Daniel sees it, and to say some parting words. Back at camp, Shijin and Moyeon get mighty close while he shows her how to use the walkie talkie.

She doesn’t have her own call sign yet and tries to think of one, which Shijin proposes ‘Beauty’. She’s happy as heaven to hear it from his mouth and gets pissed when he says that she does look like one from time to time. They’re so engrossed that neither notice Myeongju watching the cute tableau, until she makes her presence known. Moyeon scowls, especially when Myeongju announces that she’s here to marry Shijin.

Myeongju snorts at having made the Yoo Shijin nervous. She informs him that she’s pulled a few strings (or didn’t have to rather, given Lt. Park’s willingness to follow her every whim) and managed to get herself under his command. Moyeon makes to excuse herself when Myeongju puts a hand out, asking her to forget the past, let bygones be bygones and work with her. Moyeon doesn’t shake the hand and mutters that she has no intention of forgetting the past. Shijin smiles as she leaves before asking Myeongju what happened between them, adorably taking Moyeon’s side in the matter. Myeongju avoids answering. Moyeon, however, is not precisely gone. Chihoon wanders in and gives her quite a scare.

Myeongju and Shijin chat unaware to what’s going on outside. She notes that her father’s giving Shijin special treatment by letting him return to Korea sooner to see his father’s discharge. She sighs that her father sure loves his future son-in-law. Shijin teases her in turn asking her if she’s gotten to speak to Daeyoung, who they both know isn’t picking up her calls. Shijin sighs that Daeyoung picks up his calls though, and calls him right then getting Myeongju al excited. Only Daeyoung doesn’t pick up. Haha. That’s probably because he’s busy leading his men in a simulation of warfare. He even stands in front of one of the targets and orders a soldier to shoot at the tiny silver of the target he doesn’t block. Daeyoung doesn’t even flinch when one of the bullets grazes his shoulder. After the session he tells the soldiers that obeying orders is everything (not the best policy, and clearly one you don’t entirely believe in given how you supported Shijin, but oh well). He reports to Lt. General Yoon afterwards, who asks him to pick the more promising trainees for Team Alpha on the Special Forces. General Yoon brings in Shijin, saying that he’s going to bring him back home and give him a position as a Minister of Defence. Daeyoung doesn’t blink. General Yoon cuts to the point, saying that his daughter thought Daeyoung’s transfer was unreasonable. Daeyoung agrees.

General Yoon says he’s prepared for Daeyoung to file a case against his abuse of authority, but Daeyoung surprisingly says he won’t be doing a thing.

Daeyoung says General Yoon’s sole weapon against him is his genuine care for his daughter’s future hence his disapproval of him. But he cares about Myeongju too and shares those same concerns, so there’s nothing he can do but walk away (Oh Daeyoung, you’re stronger than this!). Leaving the office, he pauses when his phone vibrates. It’s Myeongju but he doesn’t pick up, remembering instead a letter she’d left for him prior to leaving for Urk. In it she wonders if they got to meet in the future or were forced to part ways again, and apologizes for loving him and following him despite the trouble it causes him. They both think back to happier days.

The call goes unanswered. Myeongju gives up just as Chihoon waves hello and begins asking her questions on life in the army. Myeongju takes it as something else.

Moyeon arrives then, happily complimenting Chihoon on his great eyes. The two women face off instantly, with Myeongju sarcastically noting the amount of equipment they’d brought with them just to get a few publicity shot of Moyeon doling out vaccines. Moyeon counters with the fact that all equipment is donated to the UN after their departure but misinterprets one of Myeongju’s insults as a compliment. She does get the last word though before Myeongju just leaves.

The medical team meets in the interior of one of the army lodgings. Shijin comes in and smiles at the sight of Moyeon using the walkie talkie. She happily relays that she’ll check the lunch menu using her new call name but starts when Shijin announces his presence.

He wants to talk but she’s too pissed over his “fiancee” to listen. Sanghyun speculates as to whether’s there’s something going on between Moyeon and Shijin, like there was with him and Ja Ae. He leaves in a huff when Ja Ae says that all they ever had was regrets. Ri Yehwa watches Daniel trying to fix his car, commenting that he’s sexier when wielding a scalpel than a spanner (ooh, so he’s a surgeon. And honestly he looks sexy. period) He successfully gets the car started, his happiness making Yehwa smile until he asks her to bring him the cardoor and she has to lift the heavy thing. Back at the dorm, Shijin packs (oh no!) listening with a smile to Chihoon, Sanghyun and Ja Ae, playing soldier with the walkie talkies. They ask Moyeon to sing, which she does, pretending to be an entire girl group. Shijin walks around the barracks gazing pensively at everyone working hard. Cut to Moyeon arriving for dinner, only to find cake at the table. She’s surprised at hearing its a farewell party and freezes upon hearing that it’s for their captain.

She paces about that night, muttering that she really doesn’t get him. Moyeong finally switches to the military base channel and overhears something on ammunition storage. She makes to speak but pauses, wondering what sort of person Shijin is. He talks over the channel that very instant asking any soldier who’s seen her to tell him where she is.

Shijin’s more interested in what she’s doing listening in on the military channel. He jokes, wondering if she’s a spiy, before joining her. There’s a gorgeous, neither tense nor awkward silence between them, before Shijin says that he’s returning tomorrow. Mooyeon’s irritated that she was the last person to know but Shijin reminds her that she left when he tried to tell her. She argues that he could’ve just gone after her. He asks if things are still complicated for her. Moyeong’s silence is answer enough. He then asks one last question, given that it maybe the last time they see each other again.

Not the face I would be making if Song Joongki was confessing to me. Come to think of it, it would probably the the most bug-eyed, mental face ever.

Sorry about the late recap today! University has me by the neck. Tomorrow’s should be up much sooner!