Review: Yumi’s Cells – Deepening Bonds (Episode 3 And 4)

Have you ever been around a couple who are just right for each other, and instead of their interactions being cringeworthy, they just warm your heart and make you feel happy for them? That’s what it feels like watching Episodes 3 and 4 of ‘Yumi’s Cells.’

When watching K-dramas, a common trope is the fast progression of relationships between the main leads.  However, the way Yumi and Woong’s relationship grows is paced rightly and so endearing.

First Date and Hysteria Cell

 

 

Yumi tries to salvage her disastrous blind date by laughing at Woong’s one-liners, even if she didn’t mean it. She is ready to call it quits and head home but, Hunger Cell decides to plays the flute and makes her stomach growl. However, Woong (being the smitten gentleman that he is) pretends to not hear her growling stomach and suggests to go eat at a nearby matjib (good and popular restaurant). This is the turning point of their date. Woong continues scoring, with the restaurant’s food being to her taste, to getting an apron right when Yumi’s cells started worrying about dirtying her white outfit. This is enough to win over Yumi’s adorable cells, except one –  Emotion.

Woong doesn’t want the date to end and requests that they go to the Frog Festival. There a worker asks them if they are a couple, which a slightly awkward Woong tries to deny. However, Yumi’s Finance Cell kicks in and realises that they could save a lot of money if she says yes. It leads to the two of them snapping a picture which she posts on social media. This attracts Ruby’s attention, who calls Woong to ask if they are on a date. After the call, Woong states that he finds Yumi’s co-worker weird, primarily because she refers to herself in the third person. This makes Yumi giggle, and she lets her guard down even further. The mood is right, and everything is going well until disaster strikes.

 

 

Hysteria Cell arrives with stress bombs and leaves the village in chaos, and the other cells scramble to save themselves. We can see this change reflecting in Yumi as her bright demeanour vanishes, and she panics. She reminisces about her failed relationships, arrives at the conclusion that this whole date is a joke, panics, and bolts out of there.

First dates are always awkward, and there is a lot of overthinking and analysing involved. However, little things can make all the difference. Even though the romance doesn’t involve anything grand and revolves around simple conversations, the cells add a nice twist. The whole thing with Hysteria Cell is very relatable (this is something we all love about this show, everything that happens is very relatable, almost as if it is a reflection of our own lives). 

Is it the beard?

 

 

Woong, poor, sweet Woong wonders what he did wrong. One thing leads to the other, and he shaves off his beard — the thing he called his ‘pride’. We feel bad for him at this point. On the other hand, Yumi is miserable, and everything is going wrong for her. She ends up soaking in the rain and giving Rubi a piece of her mind. At this moment, Woong shows up and has eyes only for Yumi. When she faints, his cells run the ‘Woong Algorithm‘ so that he can avert the crisis and take her to the nearest hospital.

Yumi wakes up after a while and sees the clothes Woong left. She changes into the dress, which has a frog on the front (reminding her of their first date). At her cell village, a frog approaches the heavily guarded gates. Earlier, Woong’s Love Cell had been sent back from these gates. We can tell how high Yumi’s walls are when we learn that Yumi’s gate has a 28-digit code, while Woong’s is a 4-digit one.

Bad experiences can lead to us shutting out people, even if they are amazing. We usually tend to assume the worst like Yumi did because of the Hysteria Cell. He convinced everyone that it was worthless to try because she would end up hurting herself in the end. Sometimes, it’s no one’s fault, just circumstances and our overthinking, which leads to us giving up on good people or great opportunities which come our way.

Love Heals Everything

 

 

After some discussion, the gatekeepers decide that the frog is cute enough to enter. The frog cleans up the sludge, saves the cells, calms Hysteria down, and even finds Yumi’s missing cells — Love and True Feelings. He finally reveals himself to be Woong’s Love Cell! How swoon-worthy!

Now that everything is set right, Yumi asks him out on a second date and throws back the same joke Woong used on the first date. The day of their date rolls around, but Lust Cell decides to spice things up when she spoils her dress by spilling coffee on it. Our lead couple ends up at Woong’s house, and they end up staring at each other longingly. His phone rings (Saved by the bell? Spoiled by the bell? What do you think?), and the two decide to break it up for the day. Later, Woong heads over to Yumi’s to give back her dress, and the episode ends with the two of them kissing! The ending gave us butterflies!

SaeYi

 

 

The advice that Saeyi, Woong’s ‘friend’, gives to him is suspicious. Everything she says since Wooki set up the blind date seems to be either an attempt to hurt the budding relationship or to remind Woong that he liked her when they were young. Saeyi’s innermost thoughts say that she wouldn’t marry, but if she does, it would be to Woong, and it says a lot. We can be sure that she will be the central source of drama in Yumi and Woong’s relationship.

Verdict

 

 

All in all, after a somewhat mellow and not so engaging start, the plot is getting way better, and it has us invested in the show. This new episode explored many things we go through, awkward first dates, falling for someone at first sight, anxiety over letting our guard down, and how it feels when we are at our lowest. The show portrayed how a bad breakup can dictate how we behave when things seem going well when we meet someone new. Showing the world of cells is a window to the lead couple’s souls and a personification for how thoughts work. It also shows how people are complex and how no one has the same thought process.

Woong is as vulnerable as Yumi, and it shows when he frets over not getting a reply; and how he tries to impress her — going so far as to shave off his beard for her. We ship Woong and Yumi so much, and even if things don’t end well for them, we think it will be worth it.

What did you think about episodes 3 & 4? Let us know in the comments! We’ll see you next week for Episodes 5 & 6!

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By Ileeka Pal & Kanan Agarwal