'It's Okay to Not be Okay' Episode 10: Will Sang-tae accept Gang-tae and Mun-yeong's love and a new family?
Sang-tae's (Oh Jung-se) burst of anger at the end of episode 9 takes fearsome root in Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) who begins to believe fervently -- in Episode 10 of 'It's Okay to Not be Okay' -- that he should have never gotten distracted from caring for his brother. It is ironic that the little boy who wished his brother dead is doing everything he can to appease his guilt for having such thoughts in the first place by making everything in his life revolve around his brother. Sang-tae too is not used to sharing his brother's love and attention after having been the sole companion of Gang-tae all this while.
It was expected that Sang-tae would have problems accepting the new equation between Mun-yeong (Seo Ye-ji) and Gang-tae, especially because he had believed that Mun-yeong was his best friend. He believed that the three of them would be together, and so the first time that Mun-yeong and Gang-tae left Sang-tae behind, he couldn't accept it. All the anger that Sang-tae had buried deep from the past resurfaced and led to him accusing Gang-tae of wanting to kill him. After such an emotional burst of anger from Sang-tae, Gang-tae decides that the moments that he had been with Mun-yeong which had led to his happiness were a dream and now he had to wake up from the same.
He says the same to his best friend from Jae-su when he is being consoled and he gives a much harsher opinion to Mun-yeong and tells her that she was only a firecracker who was like a one-time event in his life: Something that cannot recur and someone that needs to stay away from his life because his brother is most important in his life right now. Mun-yeong also doesn't understand at the beginning that her life, if she wants Gang-tae in it, would also have to include Sang-tae and this leads to Mun-yeong and Gang-tae parting on a bitter note.
Mind you, they haven't broken up. They are trying their best to navigate their relationship that even they are unable to completely comprehend. The episode also shows how Sang-tae needs time and patience to accept the new equation between Mun-yeong and Gang-tae more than anything. He needs to be taught that it is OK to welcome a new member into the family in a way that he understands. The head nurse at OK Psychiatric Facility is accepted into confidence by Sang-tae when he stays at the hospital to recover from his emotional outburst because she gifts him Dooly's mother. Dooly is his favorite dinosaur. By giving something that Sang-tae loves, she is accepted.
Later in the episode, Mun-yeong also tries to do the same. She tries to give Sang-tae his Mang-tae back and in return she asks for Sang-tae to return to her. She says that she wants her best friend back, but Sang-tae is not ready to believe it because she left him out of the trip. So everything that she says seems like a lie to him and he even throws Mang-tae away. That's when Mun-yeong tells him the tale of the 'Boy who Cried Wolf' to explain to him that she was not lying anymore. In fact, Mun-yeong is telling the truth about missing Sang-tae because we saw how she sat in the brother's bedroom looking at things that belonged to both of them.
Like she had said in the previous episode, Mun-yeong likes Sang-tae and after seeing the picture that he had drawn of himself with Gang-tae and Mun-yeong on a camping car riding away into the sunset, she is moved. In a moment so beautiful and yet so fragile, Mun-yeong, who is supposedly diagnosed with Antisocial Behavior Disorder (ABD) learns what it really means to miss someone and it is at that moment that we truly understand that the road to recovery for both Gang-tae and Mun-yeong is not smooth. There is regression and digression that the two of them have to deal with and face on their own if they hope to lead a life together.
Mun-yeong attempting to understand human emotions like never before and Gang-tae attempting to step away from his responsibilities of protecting his brother even for a day is a huge step. So what followed is an expected obstacle and by facing it the two will only become better for themselves and each other. The reference to the tale of the 'Boy who Cried Wolf' is not only for Sang-tae but also for Gang-tae who begins to ignore Mun-yeong after his meltdown. He knows better than anyone that Mun-yeong is scared of her mother and now that he had learned that her mother could possibly be alive and visit Mun-yeong after all these years because it is her birthday, he has to rush.
He has to be by Mun-yeong's side when she faces her worst nightmare and the episode ends on that note making us wonder how Mun-yeong and Gang-tae are going to navigate their all-new relationship going forward.
'It's Okay to Not Be Okay' originally airs on tvN on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 pm KST in South Korea and can be streamed on Netflix.