Chaos has completely overtaken and turned the lives of Kyung Hee (Kim Hye Soo), Jae Hong (Kim Ji Hun), Soo Jung (Cho Yeo Jeong), and Bo Sung(Kim Jae Chul) upside down in “The Affair Was Just the Beginning.” Their daughters Ye Ji and Min Seo caught their parents in compromising positions, and the noose is getting tightened as the missing detective Na Sol’s brother Na Do (Park Ryang Woo)… is hot on the heels of the two teens.

Adding another twist to the already complicated scenario is divorce lawyer Choi Sang Chul (Lee Dom Seok) who white trying to retrieve his phone comes across more damning evidence. So each one tries to save themselves and push the blame on to the other, things are utterly complicated and humorous.

Spoilers below

When the parents got caught by the kids

Ye Ji has seen the video of her father and Min Seo’s mother, while Min Seo has seen her father and Ye Ji’s mother together. The parents, equally shocked that they have been caught by their children, are equally embarrassed and panic-stricken, since the situation demands answers.

So as Kyung Hee and Bo Sung try to placate Min Seo, telling her it wasn’t as it seemed. Ye Ji, still in shock after witnessing the video, tells Min Seo she got it wrong. But the one equally shocked, if not more, is Jae Hong. He cannot believe Kyung Hee would cheat on him and is equally shocked that the man in question is Soo Jung’s husband. A classic case of don’t get mad, get even.

What follows is a hilarious blame game. Jae Hong, who is a pushover, is appalled at how his wife could hurt him like this and turns against Soo Jung, saying it was never love between them ever. The man never stands up for his actions and excels at passing the buck. On the other hand, Kyung Hee’s pent-up rage and frustration at keeping up with her curated family image crash to the surface. She is tired of portraying the farce of her curated family life and the perfect social media posts on which she has built a fortune.

Soo Jung blames Jae Hong for introducing her to the detective, leaving Bo Sung horrified that she had orchestrated it all. The couple, so consumed by their own rage and issues, keeps doing what they do best: passing the buck. As each blames the other’s child for causing the accident, it highlights how children often turn into mere pawns. For Kyung Hee, though, Ye Ji is fiercely protected, as she completes the perfect family picture. On the other hand, Soo Jung and Bo Sung use Min Seo as a prize between them as they engage in their warped couple dynamics.

The two girls, who have found comfort in each other, are lonely and lost and leave the house with none of the parents realizing they are the ones who need looking after.

Damage Control: Kyung Hee’s way

Hell hath no fury like a mother pushed to her limits. As both parents engage in whose child was at fault, little realizing there is greater danger lurking for the girls.

In the middle of the affair—in this case, the cover on the affair being blown—there is another intruder at home. Choi Sang Chul, who has been lurking in Kyung Hee’s home wanting to retrieve his phone, sees the video clip and decides to blackmail both Jae Hong and Soo Jung. Little do they realize it is Sang Chul who ran over Na Sol and not the girls. A skirmish results in him being knocked out.

While on the other side, Na Sol’s brother Na Dol has held the girls hostage at Kyung Hee’s holiday home. Both the mothers rush to rescue the girls, with Kyung Hee taking charge. She proves that when pushed to her limits, she is not one to backtrack but surge forward. For her, there is a solution to every problem. It is almost comical how the two women take on a man thrice their size in build and strength, though joined by their husbands, it is Kyung Hee leading the show.

Through a series of bizarre happenings, there are now not one, but three dead bodies, with both Sang Chul and Na Dol knocked out dead. Kyung Hee, well aware that her actions will catch up with her, seems confident to take on whatever comes her way, even if it means losing everything she has built from scratch. For her, her sole mission is to protect her daughter, and she can even kill for it.

It is also comical to see how everyone takes Kyung Hee’s lead, never once questioning the consequences. The police catch up with Kyung Hee over Na Dol’s disappearance since he was last seen on her premises and they have proof she was following him. A real badass, Kyung Hee calmly responds that she had hired him since her husband was having an affair with her neighbor, well aware of the repercussions on the reputation she had been trying to protect all along. Kyung Hee apologizes to the public for the scandal and inconvenience caused. Jae Hong and Soo Jung are now publicly exposed and are made the villains of the piece. Soo Jung’s clinic has shut down, and Jae Hong has been canceled; she has got her revenge even the coolest way possible on the two people who betrayed her. With her entire Captain Park image in shambles, Kyung Hee is unfazed because she knows she can rebuild herself again.

The end no one foresaw

It has been a classic case of each one putting the other under the bus. What began with one dead body, now there are three buried in Kyung Hee’s holiday home. This is the best kept secret between the couples, who have, despite the damage to their reputations, made a pact never to divulge. Adversity turns foes into fair-weather friends.

The police, on the other hand, keep reaching a dead end in their investigation. They retrieve Na Sol’s car from the river, and the dash cam is missing. On the other, they find footage of Na Sol being hit brutally by Sang Cheol, who according to them is on the run. The police come up with their own conclusion that Sang Cheol who has sought the help of the local mafia boss Du Sik, had killed the twins and in turn was killed by Du Sik. The case is closed, with Du Sik protesting that he had never committed the crime. The way the investigation is conducted, though hilarious, also satires how many cases end without justice being ever given.

What makes the ending so bizarre and hilarious is that no one really knows who killed whom. It is all so tangled up, with the police left trying to piece together a case where every version seems to contradict the other. And through it all, the family watches everything unfold, somehow emerging completely unscathed from the chaos around them. It is darkly comic, but also strangely reflective of life itself, where nothing is ever quite as clear as it seems, and there are always different versions of the truth.

Puja Talwar is a Soompi writer with a strong Jing Bo Ran  and Lee Junho bias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewed Lee Min Ho, Gong Yoo, Cha Eun Woo, and Ji Chang Wook to name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram.