“CHEAT ON ME IF YOU CAN” EPSIODE 10 REVIEW
We finally get insight into how Woo Sung sees his relationship with his wife.
Part of the appeal of thrillers is not knowing. Not knowing the story direction of a piece of work; the reason why things are happening, and as a result how things will end. However, a problem occurs when writers prolong the mystery in a the plot. Once in a while though, it can make perfect sense to grip back on the core details of a story to really deliver a powerful emotion in the end. Cheat on Me If You Can is one of these shows that benefits well from holding back the pertinent details about who the protagonist is.
The thriller, starring esteemed South Korean actress Cho Yeo-Jeong, as crime author Kang Yeo-Joo, is smooth. So far the key feature that keeps the show so entertaining is the mystery of who Kang Yeo-Joo really is. She’s very difficult to figure out especially because she doesn’t quite hold up to any ideas you might have of her. Every episode reveals little details about who she is.
We’re first introduced to her as a chilling writer with a cheating husband named Han Woo-Sung (Ko Jun). Their dynamic seems simple enough starting out. She is stoic or cold to most except him (but only if he manages to get on her good side). While he is colourful and charming to everyone due mostly to his nice countenance, his dressing, and smile. Ironically dubbed the perfect husband, he cheats on her almost indiscriminately, with mutual friends of theirs or even coworkers. So because of this, he is always attentive to her whims and temperament changes to ensure that he’s able to maintain his double life. Their most glaring cause of friction is that he signed over physical rights of his body to her in the event of some kind of indiscretion so, he has a lot to fear if she were to come across evidence of his infidelity.
Cheat on Me If You Can basically centers on Kang Yeo-Joo drawing inspiration from real life murder cases to write a new book while also investigating her husband to figure out if he is cheating. Each episode, she comes close to discovering the truth but either her husband is too clever about hiding evidence or she talks herself out of the truth. The cat and mouse relationship continues for quite some time, so much so, it makes you wonder how she could appear to be all-knowing, and yet so naïve when it comes to her husband.
But episode ten of the episode finally clarifies what is happening. It’s not that she doesn’t suspect that Woo-Sung is cheating. We know this because after all, she killed her frenemy Baek Soo Jung (Hong Soo Hyun), when Soo Jung confronted her about the possibility of stealing her husband from her. Seems her trigger is actually finding the evidence on her own. In fact, she likely gets a thrill from the idea of finding evidence since it would allow her to exercise her physical rights to abuse or kill him. This would mean that she may be a professional serial killer with years of experience from harming past lovers who also betrayed her.
In this episode, Woo Sung was near discovery when Ko Mi Rae (Yeonwoo) presented herself at his office with a gift for ruining his shoes at a photo-op. She was hoping to pursue him since she’d convinced herself that he must be unhappy being married to the non-traditional Yeo Joo but instead, she was humiliated. Mi Rae was told to hide in his cabinet, she was frightened by his threatening wife and then rejected by Woo Sung later on when she tried to build a relationship with him. The entire exchange provides great insight into how Woo Sung sees his relationship with his wife and it turns out that he isn’t seriously concerned that his wife is cruel but mostly scared about losing her. He considers her tender which is laughable but also intriguing. What else are we missing about her?
The most interesting aspect of Cheat on Me If You Can which was always nebulous was Yeo Yoo’s origins and the reason behind her confidence. This epsiode finally addresses this eerie confidence of hers, hinting that her father may be someone who holds a lot of power and who is in a high enough position in government to be able to control the secret police. So we’re looking at the president or a chief elected officias with stakes in ensuring that her penchant for killing is hidden from public sphere such that every time she kills someone, they cover it up before it becomes a problem for their image.
Yeo-Joo seems to be aware of his need to protect his image; that her father hires people to watch over her and clean up after she kills someone and feels secure with this fact. It’s why she details her criminal history in novels because she’s certain that no one could ever tie any crimes to her, not only because of how precise she is at covering up evidence but because she knows she will always have agents backing her.
That suggests that Cha Soo Ho (Kim Young Dae), the undercover agent that is keeping a watchful eye as her assistant will be the key to her demise. It seems that he is very scrupulous and someone who wouldn’t feeling comfortable standing aside with the knowledge that she is harming others. So, once he is able to get his hands on the book she hid in the basement, he will finally be able to stop her.
Cheat on Me If You Can is fun not just because of the fantastic music, acting, or cinematography, but because it feels as though screenwriter Lee Sung Min left no loose ends. Sung Min, knew it wouldn’t be enough to dangle her eventual capture in the face of viewers, we also needed her identity to be equally puzzling. As much as we can theorize about the reasoning behind her actions, unless we know who she is, it’s difficult to know for certain if she is a bad person or if this was all Sung Min’s trick.