While I was having a good time watching Like Flowers in Sand as a fun slice-of-life rural town show thus far, I’m feeling a little bit bored by the mystery premise. I suppose since the show is ending next week, it would’ve made more sense for that chapter to be closed this week and for the romance and ssireum plot points to take over in the final two episodes for a fun and happy ending. I found the latest two episodes quite tedious, and it took me quite a bit of time to get through them both. It’s a shame because the show has everything to make it a part of the list of “healing” K-dramas like When the Camellia Blooms (the premises are quite similar too). With only two episodes remaining, we’re nowhere close to finding the culprit, and neither is the romance blooming. It’s unfortunate that everything’s been left to the last two episodes, and I’m hoping it won’t just be chaos.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 9?
In a moment of truth, Mi-Ran finally admits that she didn’t believe the fact that Du-Sik’s family had anything to do with her father’s death. Mi-Ran returned to the town to try and figure out who else might’ve been involved instead. On the other hand, Chil-Seong appeared out of nowhere one day and visited Mi-Ran’s cafe a few times. One day, out of the blue, he told Mi-Ran that he was responsible for her father’s death. Now, he uses the word “technically,” taking partial responsibility for Mi-Ran’s death. So, she knows there’s someone else involved too. On the night when Baek-Du got drunk, Chil-Seong had been telling Mi-Ran in the car that the person who killed her father still lived in Gosan. He had asked Mi-Ran to meet him in a particular location the next day to tell her about the said person; however, Mi-Ran found out, to the townspeople’s shock, that he had already died. Mi-Ran still arrived at the location and got a bag in the empty room. Baek-Du opens this bag now and finds a huge amount of money in it. Mi-Ran doesn’t accept the money, but Baek-Du admits to Du-Sik that if he were in her place, he would’ve kept the money, despite it not really compensating for the pain she went through back then and still has to deal with.
On the other hand, the town has started a rumor that Baek-Du is dating Yu-Gyeong, who, of course, is believed to be married. As it is, that’s unacceptable to all the “ajhussis” and “ajhummas” in the town; however, they all want to save Baek-Du from the wrath of his parents. Obviously, word spreads very fast, and Mi-Ran tells Du-Sik to be careful about the rumors, as they are very harmful in this town. Du-Sik tells Baek-Du about the rumor, and he laughs about it. She says she denied it when she was asked, and she tells Baek-Du to do so too. Baek-Du tells all the men in the town that he will sue them if they spread baseless rumors. However, later, when he hears one of the women tell his mother about what happened, out of frustration, he tells them that even if he denies the rumors, they will not believe him, just as they did with Du-Sik way back when. Although it’s a noble idea, this leads to the whole town reopening old dusty files and chit-chatting about everything that went down back then (yikes).
Although nothing much happens in this episode at all, as is the case with most of the episodes because it’s mostly about small towns and how they function, we finally get the confession scene from Baek-Du. He tells Du-Sik that the rumors aren’t entirely baseless because they’re half right. He tells her he likes her and that he wants to join her in finding the truth about what happened all those years ago. Basically, he confesses his love and asks to be a team at the same time since it’s the most important thing to Du-Sik (adorable).
What Happens In Episode 10 ?
As usual, Baek-Du can’t handle anything that Du-Sik has to say to him, so he tells her he doesn’t want to hear what she has to say and makes a run for it (this man-child, oof). Baek-Du’s mother, on the other hand, has finally learned of the massive impact Du-Sik’s incident had on Baek-Du back in the day. She could never have fathomed how much he cried about it and thought he simply forgot about it because he was a child. On the other hand, Seok-Hui makes a few important discoveries in this episode, as un-cop-like as it may be. After so many years, he’s finally realized that the dog Snowball hasn’t been running away herself; there’s no way she could remove her leash so easily. Instead, it must be someone untying her every morning as she goes to the reservoir.
Finally, we get some information about Chil-Seong and learn that he received multiple calls from a single unknown number, which happens to be the local payphone. In between the serious stuff, there’s a lot of fun happening in Gosan. For one, Hyeon-Uk claims he doesn’t want to work with Baek-Du, which causes friction between the two of them. It all disappears when he challenges him to have a drinking competition. They’re both lightweights with no memory of their drunken nights, so it’s clear they are meant to be working with each other. I am not quite sure if Hyeon-Uk is simply protective of Du-Sik or if he really has some kind of feelings for her; however, in the end, he has to work with Baek-Du.
Throughout the episode, Jin-Su finds it hard to tell Baek-Du to focus on his ssireum rather than on the manager. Seok-Hui has told him that Baek-Du might be seeing the general manager. Jin-Su completely denies the idea at first, but later, he starts to see how they sneak out together and such (for work, of course), which makes him realize the rumors might be true. Seok-Hui then tells him that she might be Du-Sik, and despite his vehement “no,” he later realizes that it’s true. It’s quite a cute scene when Baek-Du is explaining to Du-Sik that he’s had feelings for her for 31 years (they’re 32), and they’re laughing it out together when Jin-Su sees them. He’s reminded of their childhood selves and tells Seok-Hui that she really is Du-Sik.
There may be hints that Jin-Su’s father might’ve been involved in the deaths; however, this might just be me overthinking at this point. The neighborhood is a toxic one, but none of the old people seem like murderers. At the end of episode 10, Seok-Hui makes the massive blunder of blabbering in front of Yu-Gyeong that Baek-Du and Jin-Su are convinced that she is Du-Sik, but he thinks that’s an insult because Du-Sik was an ugly-looking “boy-like” girl. He doesn’t shut his trap until Du-Sik shifts to her native accent and tells him he hasn’t changed at all. Ultimately, the gang is back, and Du-Sik chases after Seok-Hui as Jin-Su and Baek-Du try to stop her, and Mi-Ran watches them fondly. I suppose this means things will fall back into place, and those who are meant to be together will eventually be by each other’s sides.
Is Du-Sik Alone?
A lot of episode 10 is about the friendship of the five kids that lived in Gosan all those years ago. It’s a full-circle moment for these 5 kids because, by the end of episode 10 of Like Flowers in Sand, they’re back to being together, a package of chaos and love. It’s nice to see how time hasn’t changed the important stuff. Du-Sik herself wonders if she felt alone all this time; however, she’s reminded that back when she was a kid, she had people around her who cared, and she has them again now.
