Trapped in a Novel with my Bestie
Okay, this! I mean THIS! When I think about all the Vertical Dramas I have watched, and I have watched a few (Hundreds? Thousands?), this one made me laugh out loud. No really, OUT LOUD! Not a ha ha, but a “Babe! You gotta watch this!!!” proceeded by me forcing him to watch it and getting a chuckle out of him! This is what is missing from so many Vertical Dramas, levity and actual enjoyment. I’m not one to necessarily hate watching the same story with different actors and minor changes, but this is unlike nearly everything else I have seen. It has echoes of Evil Stepmom Survival Guide but it still feels really original.
First, the story is in Chinese, so you do have to be prepared to read the subtitles. Though, to be honest, I always leave the subtitles on (even if my pet peeve is subtitles not matching the words being said) but this is SOOOOOO worth it!
The High: The friendship between Sandra and Fiona is what all friendships should be! These two actresses have awesome chemistry between each other and you can easily believe they are ride or die in real life.
Before you start, you have to know that the story line has the two characters (Sandra and Fiona) being transmitted into a novel, but there is no details about how, and they seem to all have back stories, so that part of it is confusing, but you don’t really have to get it to enjoy the story.
So, the main characters (AKA the besties) are Fiona and Sandra. They are cast as the unrequited loves for Gabriel and his uncle, Gavin. The opening scene Fiona is marrying Gabriel about to exchange their first kiss when he leans over and tells her he’s only marrying her because he has to, and Sabrina is his one true love. Standing up for her is her bestie, Sandra, who holds arms with Gavin when he yanks his arms away from her and tells her she’s just a substitute, also for Sabrina! Both ladies have shocked expressions on their faces until they look at each other and smile. Cut to them laughing and throwing gobs of money into the air and dancing around. They both imitate their partners’ cutting words about Sabrina calling them arrogant and laughing at them. They’re making plans for getting all the money they can from these two fools.
Gavin comes home and the girls scramble to hide the money just in time. When he’s talking to Sandra with Fiona hiding behind the couch, he corrects her smile making it wider for him and as soon as his back is turned she’s flapping her lips and making faces at him. He gives her a dress to change into and meets her in the living room where he’s playing to piano. Sandra voice overs that all she hears is the sound of money coming her way. He reminds her that she’s there to please him and starts making love to her while she’s mentally calling him a pervert. Meanwhile, Fiona heads home and is immediately handed divorce papers. Gabriel goes on about how they only have to stay married for a few months and then they will divorce with a fatty settlement on Fiona. She pretends to be hurt by his words, but as soon as he leaves she picks up the bankcard with glee. Both Gavin and Gabriel receive a text message from Sabrina, “I’m back!”
The two ladies are together freaking out about Sabrina being back. In the original story, Fiona’s character refuses the divorce and is put into a mental hospital to die. Sandra has it even worse, her original character sends thugs after Sabrina to rape her and then her (Original Sandra’s) tendons were cut and she was left for dead in the desert. The ladies don’t want to get caught up in all that, so they decide to run away. The men walk in and overhear the end of the conversation, but the ladies cover while the men say they’ll be out late. The ladies decide to head out for a night of fun, too.
Gavin and Gabriel are at the club razzing each out about Sabrina when she walks through the club. She sits down with the two guys, but Gavin is quickly distracted by Sandra (IN THE SAME CLUB) hooping and hollering with Fiona over hot guys taking their shirts off. Gavin drags Sandra over where she and Fiona cross words with Sabrina. They are trying to keep their cool and their head in the game for the money!! The ladies head off and Gavin sits down drinking while one of the other men is bad mouthing Sandra. He gets angry and crushes a glass in his hand. This is literally the best scene…okay, one of the best scenes, but it’s the one that made my husband laugh as hard as I did. Gabriel sees the glass get crushed and in the background you see him grab an empty glass off the table and then several more shots are of his face straining to crush the glass in his own hand. I can’t even begin to describe how funny this scene is. It’s the scene I make everyone watch to when I’m trying to sell them on watching it, it is just hilarious (Episode 6). Just before leaving the club, the ladies put their heads together and decide they know too much about the Gu family to be safe if they leave and they will need to fake their own deaths to be safe and escape with all the money.
Sandra and Fiona return home to Gavin’s mother (and Gabriel’s grandmother) and pretend to love the men so much and that they are so hurt not being the true loves, so she will write them a check to pay them off. The ladies ham it up even more and she slaps down more money, but just as they were trying to take the money and run, the men return, tearing up the checks and thwarting their plans. Then Gavin does that thing that is really common in the Chinese drama’s, picking up his girl in just one arm. I don’t know what it is about it, but H-O-T-T it is! Phew!
Sabrina didn’t get the fawning she expected at the club so she schemes up a fake kidnapping story that she blames on Fiona. Gabriel runs off to the hospital to be at Sabrina’s side, even though it’s Fiona’s birthday. Sabrina works her best victim act and Gabriel demands Fiona come to the hospital to apologize to Sabrina, but Fiona already met up with Sandra and decided that Fiona would be the one to fake her death first (rock, paper, scissors, of course). Sandra calls Gabriel to tell him Fiona was in a car accident, but Gabriel doesn’t believe her. The ladies continue with their plans, producing an urn of Fiona for Gabriel, but while trying to ready it, Sandra is caught by Gavin. She asks him point blank if he loves her which he rebuffs. Gabriel calls again and Sandra tells him Fiona died, setting up an alter at the cemetery. Sandra continues to be a real one and chews Gabriel out for how he treated her friend. When Gabriel goes to retrieve his wife’s ashes (from the empty urn) he finds a dice that Sandra convinces him Fiona wanted to turn her ashes into for some ridiculous reason. Gabriel flashes back to his time with Fiona and seems hurt by her loss. Sandra can barely keep her shit together. Later, Sandra is giving Fiona the low down and is caught by Gavin, so she covers and they make love.
The next morning, Sabrina comes by and tries to visit Gabriel, but she’s turned away at the door when Sandra walks out with a bright hickey on her neck and plans to go resell all the gifts the ladies have gotten from the men. Later, Sandra is at a gala, rethinking her feelings for Gavin. Sabrina and her bitchy crew show up to give her shit, which just renews her desire to leave. Sabrina demands Sandra serve her, and Sandra says she only serves Gavin because he pays her, so Sabrina offers Sandra money to serve her tea. Gavin interrupts and pours the boiling hot water into Sabrina’s cup himself, confusing Sandra further. When Gavin regifts Sandra’s gift to Sabrina, she walks out of the room and proceeds to fake her own death. However, Sabrina sent a killer after Sandra and as soon as he confronts her, she’s all, “So, Sabrina sent you? Okay, bye!” and jumps off the bridge “killing” herself for him. Gavin freaks and has everyone out searching and looking for Sandra and Gavin is absolutely devastated.
Sandra claws herself to shore where she’s picked up by Fiona. Meanwhile, Gabriel is mourning Fiona, drinking and holding “her dice.” He mistakes Sabrina as Fiona and in a fit of contempt she throws his dice into a pile of other dice and Gabriel goes nuts on her. He has his servant take all the dice to the lab to figure out which dice is Fiona (this is soooooo funny!!). Gabriel tells Gavin he knows how he feels, they are both devastated by their loss, but Gavin’s like, your wife is dead, my girl isn’t. A servant runs up to tell Gabriel, the dice wasn’t made from Fiona’s ashes at all. Now both men realize the ladies just ran off.
The ladies are back at another club, drooling over shirtless men when they are grabbed by another guy who needs one of them to help him put off a girl. The shirtless fuck boy’s at the club get ahold of one of their purses and steals their bank card which alerts Gavin and Gabriel to their location. The men show and the ladies run off and a car chase ensues. Sandra flashes back to when she first met Gavin, bleeding in her convenience store. She patches him up and does the Vertical Drama trope of kissing to hide a man in plain sight (which always makes me wonder about the intelligence of the thugs when it works, lol), and she tells them this is how to hide in Vertical Dramas!! That’s so meta :) It doesn’t work this time though, because the men are Gavin’s. He is simply charmed by her and he propositions her on the spot. She’s such a dork and is completely adorable. More glimpses of the beginning of their relationship show how deep Gavin is into her.
Sandra wakes up handcuffed to the bed with Gavin telling her she can’t escape him. Sandra begs to be let go, but Gavin ain’t having it, so he starts kissing her. She bites him, but it doesn't thwart him. She calls him a yandere (which my kids had to explain to me, lol, basically a loving then psycho person with possessive and stalkerish tendencies) and she can’t beat him. She tries tricking him again, but no dice (ha ha! Like Fiona) so she tries to send him off to Sabrina, but he isn’t taking the bait. He finally uncuffs her and Sandra blasts him for making her be a fake version of herself and if he wasn’t paying she wouldn’t be staying. Gavin isn’t one to back down from a challenge so he pulls out a third pair of handcuffs and chains them together. LOL, Sandra is like, “How many pairs of handcuffs do you have????” and they make love.
Fiona managed to make it to a bar just to be found by Gabriel. They argue, with Fiona bringing up Sabrina’s kidnapping, which Gabriel claims he’s still investigating. Fiona basically says investigating, my ass, so Gabriel picks her up and carries her off over his shoulder, but there she is, Sabrina in the middle of it all, again. Sabrina is a bitch with her catty comments and fake innocence. Fiona isn’t having any of it while Gabriel tries to get Fiona to make nice with Sabrina. When she won’t Gabriel again tries to threaten her with divorce, but Fiona tells him “Bitch, go ahead, I never liked you in the first place.” Gabriel is rocked by her statements. Fiona says to go ahead and divorce me so you can get with Sabrina. Sabrina pretends to be helpful and gives Fiona a check to leave and be nice to Gabriel, which Gabriel snatches and says, “you want money? I’ll give you money,” and hands her a bank card for 50 million. When she takes it, he insists she returns home with him.
The ladies crawl into bed together and lament their two men and the fact that they’re going to end up dead. Gavin comes back with the pink diamond ring Sandra asked for only to find Fiona in his spot. He calls Gabriel to come get his wife. When Fiona wakes she sees Gabriel beside her and flashes back to meeting Gabriel for the first time at a ball she was forced to attend where she was bullied by her stepsister. No one would help her until Gabriel saw her across the room and asked her to dance. It was love at first sight for her and she was excited to get to marry him and therefore heartbroken when she found out he only had feelings for Sabrina. As she’s looking lovingly at Gabriel, his phone receives a message with a sexy picture from Sabrina in a nightgown and Fiona drops his phone on his sleeping face. As a person that has wacked themselves with their phone on their face (more than once), OUCH! But I totally get where she’s coming from, go get him, gurl!
Sabrina returns to try to show off what a good person she is to Gavin but it’s not working as Gavin instead tries to lure Sandra back to bed. Sabrina and Sandra continue to throw barbs at one another, with Sandra having the funniest lines. Once alone, Gavin receives the news that Sabrina arranged the kidnapping herself to trick Gabriel, he decides not to tell his nephew in hopes when he figures it out for himself he’ll finally be able to put to rest the idea that Sabrina is wonderful. Sandra tells Sabrina that Gavin doesn’t love her (Sandra), but if Sabrina wants him she’s going to have to step up to keep him. Fiona arrives and they brainstorm that the men dragged them back because of the novel’s original plotline (again, how are they in the novel? Makes no sense) and they’ll die without a trace. They think they failed because they were amateurs and need professionals.
The next day Sandra heads to the bank to empty her accounts and she tries to get away with Gavin right behind her, but when he calls home to check the ladies have made elaborate plans to trick the housekeeper so she tells Gavin Sandra is at home. The ladies decide to head to an obviously bumbling smuggler to get away, but remember Gavin with his Big Boss energy and team of guys? Well, of course he knows this guy and shows for a meeting with him at the same time, but it’s okay because Sandra puts a folder in front of her face when she walks past him, lol. They think they’re safe and continue on with their plans, arriving at take off day with two separate cars and “personal bodyguards” which are Gavin and Gabriel wearing masks which somehow the ladies are unable to see through? It doesn’t even completely cover their faces. And the ladies once again wake up in their home beds.
The ladies decide to step up their game, if they won’t let them go to be with their supposed one true love, then they will make them give them up by being wild ladies. Sabrina brings Mother/Grandma a stack of photos of the girls living it up with shirtless men and lots of clubbing. Mother/Grandmother confronts the ladies on their behavior and tells them to leave which makes them so happy and they ask for her help to escape. Mother/Grandma thinks it’s a trick to drive a wedge between Mother/Grandma and the men. As nice as they try to be to her, she thinks they are scheming so she leaves without helping. She’s acting weird so they follow her and find that she’s been hoodwinked by a smarmy Instagram model trying to take advantage of old ladies and their money. While the girls are eavesdropping they bust in and expose the jerk and proceed to smack him down. Gavin has arrived, but sees the ladies taking care of business and he leaves them to it. This endears the two ladies to Mother/Grandma and they commiserate with her being lured by a handsome man and explain a world of “try-hards (guys who act pretentious), gloomy-guys (hide in dark corners and radiate negative energy ex. Gavin), psycho guys (on the surface look decent, but secretly crazy and possessive ex. Gabriel) and P.U.A.s (those who put you down and tell you it’s all for your own good). Mother/Grandma is really bonding with the ladies when Sabrina walks in acting like a total P.U.A and Mother/Grandma calls her that to her face! Die!
Gabriel arrives and Sabrina immediately starts slandering Fiona, but Gabriel now knows Sabrina faked the kidnapping and he calls her on her bullshit, surprising all of the women gathered on the couch. She tries crying to Mother/Grandma but she isn’t having it either and says her lies almost cast her in the role of evil mother-in-law and kicks Sabrina out of the house shocking the ladies. Gabriel gives a shit apology and says well, maybe I won’t divorce you causing Fiona to slap him and run out of the room. When Gabriel tries to get sympathy from Mother/Grandma she berets him and his bad apology and slaps a credit card in Sandra’s hand and tells they to go shop their asses off, high-end only, the least they deserve for putting with psycho and gloomy men.
The girls shop the malls where Sabrina and her bitch crew show up. A jewelry clerk approaches the group and asks Mrs. Gavin to come with her to see Mr. Gavin’s purchase for her. Sabrina follows and makes Sandra and Fiona come with her to see the purchase. The jewelry is the pink diamond of Sandra’s dreams and Sandra is heartbroken to see it as the ring Gavin is giving Sabrina. Sabrina jams the ring on her finger continuing to taunt the two ladies and they have finally had enough saying holding on to your anger causes cancer and biting your tongue causes heart attacks, so to save their health they are done. They throw water on one of Sabrina’s minions and unleash their fists of fury on the mean girls. Just as Sabrina is about to hit Sandra, Gavin grabs her and asks who gave her permission to touch Sandra. Sabrina launches into her woe is me routine, claiming to be attacked because of the ring. Fiona backs her friend up and Gabriel backs up Fiona. She looks at him all WTF? Sabrina finally asks Gavin if the ring is for her or has he fallen for Sandra? When he takes too long to answer, Sandra starts to leave pissed, truly done with Gavin. As she walks past him, Gavin springs into action, throwing her over his shoulder. Fiona tries to go after them and stop him, but Gabriel holds her back and eventually drags Fiona off to their home.
Sandra tells Gavin off in the car, and even after he offers her his cheek to slap, she can’t do it. She does tell him that she is done being a substitute and a tool to make Sabrina jealous. No sooner does Gavin tell her that he doesn’t have a true love than his servant runs up to tell him he’s done telling everyone in the city Sabrina is his true love. Needless to say Sandra is unimpressed and leaves. Gavin makes plans for the servant to bring Sandra to the rose garden the next night and threatens him with death if she doesn’t show. Fiona is dragged into the bedroom by Gabriel where he finally truly apologizes to her and she finally reveals the depth of her true feelings to him, with Sandra listening at the door. Gabriel asks to start over but Sandra accidently interrupts before he can get an answer from her so he calls his uncle and asks when is he going to fix the problems with Sandra, because she’s basically cock blocking him with Fiona.
The next day Sandra is stopped by the desperate servant who gives her an epic sob story to convince her to meet Gavin at the rose garden. “When I was very young, I was born! Right after I was born, I couldn’t even walk! Every day when I closed my eyes, I could only see darkness! I only knew to eat when I was hungry!” It’s the silliest little rant about perfectly normal things, but it convinces Sandra to show up.
Everyone is there, including the awful Sabrina. Gabriel is on the stage with an arm load of flowers posing and practicing to give them to Fiona while the ladies watch and make fun of him. Sabrina starts in right away saying Sandra is a real class act to show up at her proposal and wish her happiness. Gavin arrives and literally shoves Gabriel off the stage. FINALLY, Gavin confesses that Sandra is the one he wanted to marry and she was never a stand-in for Sabrina. He only used Sabrina as a shield to protect her from his enemies. If they thought he cared about Sabrina, they would leave Sandra alone. He takes the ring from Sabrina and puts it on Sandra’s finger. Sabrina can’t believe she isn’t the chosen one, but Gavin quickly refutes all of her claims. Gabriel and Fiona realize at the same time that Sabrina was the stand-in all along! Their matching faces of surprise is too funny! Gabriel gets in on the moment to tell Sabrina he also isn’t into her. Sabrina is dragged out of the party.
Sandra at first rejects Gavin’s proposal. Fiona finds Gavin drinking his sorrows away and demands he tell Sandra WHY he did what he did. Without knowing Sandra is behind him, he explains after watching another mob boss guy lose his wife he could never lose the woman he loves like that so he created the elaborate stand-in scheme. Now that Sandra knows why he did what he did, she has him redo his proposal and she accepts.
5 months later, Sandra is dressed in a wedding gown and now visibly pregnant. She complains about being in a wedding dress while pregnant and wanted to wait for the baby to be born before they marry. Gavin gushes that he just couldn’t wait to be married to her. Fiona rushes her off to change into another set, while the guys wait on the couch for them, Gavin continues to rib Gabriel as he has done throughout the whole series. They realize the ladies have been gone for too long. They go searching for them a find a note telling them they went off to have some fun and not to miss them. Cut to them riding off with Mother/Grandmother in a convertible and then dancing in the club with more shirtless men.
I cannot stress enough how completely silly and funny this series was! This is like a comfort watch. I watched it three times completely through with my husband and kiddo before I ever sat down to write my play by play. It’s really funny to watch these two women have so many silly and happy moments, and while they are interested in the men they are with, they aren’t playing the typical Vertical Drama tropes of these poor downtrodden women being abused by the scheming returned love interest. You honestly feel like if Sandra and Fiona didn’t end up with their love interests, their lives wouldn’t be over. They clearly just need each other to survive and if there happens to be a man beside them, then that’s cool too. This is just a truly refreshing take on Vertical Dramas and I think a lot of English speaking audiences will overlook this one. I was lucky the app had a preview long enough to get me through episode 1 and onto 2 because about ten seconds into episode 2 I could see what a complete gem it was. It’s such a funny show!! It has made my top 5 best Vertical Dramas list for sure!!
I nearly forgot! There wasn’t a single drugging event! Like, so very rare in a Vertical Drama these days. I feel like Gene in Bob’s Burgers in the Topsy episode (Season 3, episode 16) if you’re interested. He makes a musical and doesn’t add all his usual sound effects which he says “I know, and without a single fart sound. Oh, my God, I forgot the fart sounds!” I feel like who ever wrote this one would say, “I know, and without a single drugging scene. Oh, my God, I forgot the drugging scenes!” And aren’t we all better for it?
Spicy Highlights.
Episode 2: Gavin pulls Sandra onto his lap, kisses her and tells her she has to please him.
Episode 8: Gavin picks up Sandra with ONE ARM!! H-O-T-T-O-G-O!!
Episode 13: Sandra kisses Gavin (to distract him from her phone call). After some sweet words, Gavin kisses her and makes love to her, giving her a huge bright hickey.
Episode 26-27: Gavin has Sandra handcuffed to the bed and tries repeatedly to kiss her. He releases her only to pull out a third pair of handcuffs and cuffs them together and makes love to Sandra.
Episode 28: Gabriel picks up Fiona and throws her over his shoulder.
Episode 34: Gavin pulls Sandra to him and tries to convince her to return to bed with him.
Episode 43: Gavin tells Sandra that she is his and kisses her in the back of the car.
Episode 56: Gavin picks up Sandra and throws her over his shoulder.
Episode 65: Gavin walks right over the back of the couch to get to Sandra. He proposes again and they kiss.
