Familiar Wife Season 1 Episode 3 Recap

Ju-Hyeok wakes up beside his new wife, Hye-Won. He’s happy, but he still feels awkward around Hye-won that he carefully puts his arm around her. Once he gets out of the bedroom, he sees that not only does he have a new wife, but he also lives a different life. He no longer lives in an apartment but in a much bigger house. He also owns different games for his Game Station. Hye-won prepares breakfast for him and calls him honey, much to Ju-Hyeok’s delight. He enjoys eating breakfast even if Hye-won says she’s spilled the salt bottle. Hye-won even kisses him before she hands him the keys to his car. Ju-Hyeok looks so happy that he has his own car, but he still works in a bank. His coworkers are the same people, except Mr. Byeon is nice to him. “Your father-in-law is the VVIP of our bank. You have connections with the JK Group,” Jong-hu says. Ju-Hyeok checks online what the JK group is and finds that his father-in-law is its CEO.

Though many things have changed, most people in his new life are people he knew in his previous life. His friend, Jong-hu, who used to have twins, is now a bachelor. His other friend, Sang-Sik, who owns a restaurant, now has a kid. Ju-Hyeok finds it funny until he asks who his wife is. When his sister, Ju-Eun, comes down to the restaurant. Ju-Hyeok gets angry that his dear sister has ended up with his friend. “You bastard, when did it start?” Ju-Hyeok asks as he grabs Sang-Sik’s hair. Ju-Eun stops Ju-Hyeok from hitting her husband and asks him why he’s only complaining about it now. When it finally sinks in, Ju-Hyeok realizes he is an uncle. Ju-Hyeok remembers his kids. He comes out of the restaurant and starts crying. “I hadn’t thought of my kids. I’m such a monster. How could I be so selfish? How could I let this happen just so I could be happy? Forgive me, kids. No, don’t forgive me. I’ll take all the punishment. Don’t ever forgive me,” he says. Wu-jin passes by, but Ju-Hyeok thinks he is just hallucinating, so he ignores her. When he comes home that night, Hye-Won thanks him for keeping his promise to her parents before they married. Since Ju-Hyeok doesn’t remember making the promise, he asks Hye-won to remind him. “That we’d live closer to them, have meals all together at weekends, take vacations with them and go to our house first on the holidays,” Hye-Won says.

When Ju-Hyeok returns to the office, he realizes he has left his smartphone at the convenience store. Wu-jin, who happens to be at the convenience store then, picks up the phone and brings it to work. When Ju-Hyeok calls his number, Wu-jin answers the phone and tells him she will return the phone to him later. “I can’t believe I found my type of guy. This is why you do good deeds,” Wu-jin says to a coworker. Wu-jin arrives at their meeting place, but she receives a phone call, so she leaves without meeting Ju-Hyeok who is just a few steps away from the restaurant. When Ju-Hyeok walks into the restaurant, he doesn’t know who to look for. An employee approaches him and says a woman asked her to give the phone to a man who will come looking for a phone.

Jong-hu makes a mistake in approving loan applications. He accidentally left out the documents of one of their major partners. The company owner complains and says they will move to a different bank. Seeing that his friend is having difficulty, Ju-Hyeok thinks to ask his father-in-law for help. He goes to his father-in-law’s company, talks to him, and pulls favors. The next day, all of Ju-Hyeok’s coworkers thank him for helping them through the tough time because it would cause them problems if they lost a major partner. Because of the mistake, they realize they must hire more people.

They can’t agree on what to do, but everyone listens to him when Ju-Hyeok gives his suggestion. He suggests moving Hwan to the Loan team and for the deposit team to hire someone. While he’s still at the office, Ju-Hyeok receives a message on how much Hye-won is spending. When he arrives home, he asks his wife if she went shopping and then asks about the most expensive dress she bought that day. “They said it was sale season. These dresses normally cost over a million won. What do you think?” Hye-won asks while she shows off the dress. “It’s pretty,” Ju-Hyeok replies. When Ju-Hyeok opens the fridge, he finds they have spoiled food. Hye-won asks him to throw them away, so he does. He remembers how Wu-jin hated wasting food and can’t help but compare the two. “Yes, not everybody’s perfect. She grew up in a rich family, so it’s understandable,” Ju-Hyeok tells himself. He receives a call from his mom asking him to visit sometime because she misses him a lot. Ju-Hyeok senses something is wrong, so he talks to his sister. “She’s a little sad and disappointed. I know that Hye-Won comes from a good family, but it feels like she disregards me sometimes. It’s not like you visit mom all the time. And she doesn’t even call our mom to see how she’s doing,” she says.

Hye-won goes to the university where she teaches music classes. Suddenly, a university student runs to her side to share her umbrella. “Sorry, can I share the umbrella with you to where you’re going? I can’t get my clothes wet today. I have a class presentation,” the student says. Hye-won thinks of removing her wedding ring as she talks to the student. Later, the student tells her he’ll buy him lunch as a way to thank her. 

Everyone gathers to greet the new employee. When she turns around, Ju-Hyeok is surprised to see it’s Wu-jin. Ju-Hyeok panics when he sees Wu-jin that he accidentally fires the tear gas gun he’s holding. It’s a mess inside the office, but all that Ju-Hyeok can think about is how he will hide from Wu-jin. Once the smoke disappears, everyone has teary eyes and runny noses. Ju-Hyeok is asked to come out to greet the new employee. The bank manager says Wu-jin just transferred from the head office, so he asks everyone to help Wu-jin since it’s her first time working at a branch office.

Wu-jin rushes to return home after discovering her mother has gone missing again. She looks around the neighborhood but has no idea where to look for her mother. Suddenly, she hears someone complaining about the taste of coffee. She recognizes her mother’s voice, so she follows the sound and finds her mother getting a new haircut. She holds her mother’s hand tight to ensure she doesn’t lose her again. 

The next day, Ju-Hyeok arrives at the office early, and so does Wu-jin.

Our Thoughts

We think that when Ju-Hyeok wished to go back and wished for Hye-Won to be his wife, he only thought of how he liked her before. He didn’t think much. He was having a really bad time, so he wanted to leave Wu-jin. But in Ju-Hyeok’s defense, Wu-jin was really mean and rude to him. They were both having a difficult time, but it seemed like Wu-Jin was taking out her anger on Ju-Hyeok. And in his new life, Ju-Hyeok doesn’t have kids; he only realized it after hearing a baby cry. Yet it seemed he moved on easily because after crying about his kids, he just returned to work the next day. He can’t do anything about it anyway. He has a new life already. 

As for Wu-jin, she looks really good. She’s still single, and she’s looking after her mom. Her mom was sick in her previous life, and she still is in their new life. Wu-jin takes care of herself and is very conscious of how she looks. She also manages her temper well compared to before. Yet it seems whatever they do, she and Ju-Hyeok are meant to meet each other. Of course, no one else knows they were together in the previous life except for Ju-Hyeok. We don’t think she’ll make a move on Ju-Hyeok because he’s a married man.