The fifth episode of Our Blues, titled Yeong-Ju and Hyeon, deals with the teen lovers’ unplanned pregnancy and how they take things into their own hands. The episode, however, starts with Dong-Seok (Lee Byung-hun) and his mother’s estranged relationship. The former doesn’t know the latter is battling cancer and is in a critical stage. It is later revealed that she re-married a man he did not like, which is one of the reasons for his coldness towards her.
We go back to the protagonists of this episode. Yeong-Ju (Roh Yoon-seo) says she wants to escape this island and go to the mainland. The only thing that is a break from the monotony of the sea and the fish markets is her friend Hyeon (B Jung Hyun), who mistakenly gets her pregnant. Yeong-Ju and Hyeon’s respective fathers Bang Ho-sik and Jung In-kwon, used to be closest friends at a time but something broke their relationship to the extent that they get furious even at the mention of the other.
Here, we get an idea of the personalities of the two. Bang Ho-Sik is caring and protective of her daughter. We see her clothes neatly kept whereas his have holes in them. His toothbrush is rugged while the one Yeong-Ju uses is new. Jung In-Kwon, who was a former thug, has a different love language. He is tough on the exterior and always screaming at his son but is proud of his achievements and feels content, although he doesn’t express much when his friends praise Hyeon.
However, telling their respective fathers about the pregnancy would mean a death trap for her, which is why Yeong-Ju takes care of her own abortion. She doesn’t let Hyeon help but he is constantly worried about her and gives her the last penny he had. Throughout the episode, she struggles to get an abortion, but being a teenager, nothing works in her favour.
In Yeong-Ju, we see a protagonist who is unapologetic about the fact that she wants to end her unplanned pregnancy as it could throw her life off track. She doesn’t want to feel guilty about the fact that she is killing her ‘baby’.
On the other hand, Jeong Eun-hee finds her at the OB-GYN and also sees the two lovers kiss in the middle of the road which makes her wonder whether she might be pregnant. She keeps this information away from their fathers knowing what hell it could unleash.
The sixth episode puts a pause on Hyeon and Yeong-Ju and starts a fresh story of Lee Dong-Seok (Lee Byung-hun) and Min Seon-ah (Shin Min-a). The latter loses the custody battle of her son due to her depression. She once caused an accident while bringing her son back home, which prompted this battle, and her mental illness makes it extremely difficult for her to convince the authorities that she can take care of her son.
The person who comes to question her before her custody battle shows her a video of their son reacting to their parents. While the little one calls her father his friend, he expresses that his mother is sick. This has the potential of turning the case in her estranged husband’s favour.
Broken, she comes to Jeju where she meets Lee Dong-Seok. They have a shared history that goes back to their childhood days. It is also revealed that a couple of years back Lee Dong-Seo kissed her but she brutally rejected him. He is troubled to see her back as it brings back those painful memories.
Their story is revealed in bits and parts through flashbacks. We also see Captain Park Jeong-joon and s Lee Young-o’s love bloom, however, the elders warn him that she already has a man in her life and they are planning to kick her out.
The episode ends with Seon-A recalling her son’s words and eventually in the water. An alert is sent out and Captain Joon turns his boat to save her.
The fifth and the sixth episodes mainly deal with themes of teen pregnancy and mental health and show how these issues can affect the people around us. The fifth episode is by far the best in the series as it very sensitively dealt with an issue that is considered taboo and made us lookout for the kids. Hyeon and Yeong-Ju’s ideologies clash- you can have a baby and be happy, or you can abort a baby and be happy too. Yeong-Ju finally seems to give up due to the lack of safe abortion options. The entirety of the fifth episode saw her resilience and determination to abort the baby that she is not ready to raise for all practical purposes. To see a woman, a teenager to be specific, take charge of her life like that and propagate, for a change, that abortion doesn’t make you a sinner was a fresh change on the screen.
She finally gives up after facing denial from every doctor and her keeping the baby can be an essential plot of the story or it can also be her genuine choice. However, it made us question whether the audience is not ready to accept a character who wants to be happy by aborting a baby she didn’t plan?
While the fifth episode had us feeling the pain of the teenagers, the sixth one makes us feel a different kind of emotion as a mother is going to lose her son to her mental illness. Shin Min-a perfectly brings out the helplessness of her character as she cannot even defend herself. The episode not only shows us how depression can affect the person who is suffering but also changes the lives of people associated with them. While you sympathise with Seon-A, you also understand her husband’s concern about not letting their son be with her after the negligence she unwillingly put him under.
Our Blues is setting a standard for itself with every new episode. The omnibus series is streaming on Netflix.
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