My Wife is Having an Affair This Week is Worth Watching Despite it Ratings

My Wife is Having an Affair This Week explores the complexities of marriage, betrayal, and emotional recovery. Despite its mediocre ratings, I consider it one of the best K-dramas I’ve watched in a while. In my opinion, the affair in the story is primarily Soo Yeon’s responsibility. Her emotional detachment, failure to ask for help, and decision to engage in an affair with a client underscore her accountability. Although Hyun Woo isn’t without fault, the bulk of the burden lies on Soo Yeon’s inability to manage her own struggles.

As I reflect on the show, I’m reminded of a lecture I attended on academic cheating, where the presenter explained it follows a bell curve: 16% are chronic cheaters, 16% would never cheat, and the remaining percentage could cheat depending on circumstances. When applying that framework to relationships, it suggests that most people, like Soo Yeon, are redeemable and capable of growth. Initially, I was harsh toward her character. I wanted to hate her, but over time, I found myself pitying her. Her explanation for the affair felt weak, and like her husband, I searched for a deeper reason. Ultimately, there wasn’t one. Sometimes, the lack of a clear reason is the hardest part to accept.

Although I have seen some who criticize Soo Yeon for her apparent lack of remorse at being discovered in the affair feel that his was an sign that she would have continued. Without her being discovered she of course would have had no reason to change her behavour it was the massive weight of discovery that caused her to reevaluate what had happened. She lacked the self awareness to even know what led her to cheat in the first place.

Did she love Sun Woo? I believed that she thought she did, but as the Hyun Woo’s mother explained to her that it is hard being married and it does become boring and routine. Soo Yeon was a woman who longed for the attention that Sun Woo gave her, and the chemical rush that you get at the start of a relationship probably felt like love to her compared to cooking and cleaning and sucking up to the other mothers. I think as the story progressed she began to realize the superficiality of the relationship and her loss.

On the other hand, Hyun Woo’s emotional journey is marked by immense burden. Throughout the series, he bears most of the weight, even suggesting he could forget the affair to keep the family intact. This felt unrealistic, as true healing would never consist of forgetting—it requires forgiving. The psychological wounds left by the affair are too deep to simply brush aside. While Hyun Woo’s growth is evident, I found it frustrating that the series consistently placed too much guilt on his shoulders. If I were to assign blame for their marital breakdown, I would say it’s 80% Soo Yeon ’s and 20% Hyun Woo’s. Soo Yeon ’s failure to ask for help and her unrealistic expectations about being the perfect wife and mother contributed to her choices. While Hyun Woo could have noticed her struggles sooner, he was also dealing with his own challenges, as he told her, "everyone lives like this."

When we apply the stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—to Soo Yeon and Hyun Woo’s experiences, we get a clearer understanding of their emotional responses. Hyun Woo goes through these stages visibly throughout the series. In the earlier episodes, we see denial, even when he catches them at the hotel and asks if they were just playing with fire. Later, his anger builds, and by the end, his acceptance is evident when he agrees to the divorce.

Soo Yeon, on the other hand, seems to skip many of these classic stages. Instead, she is consumed by shame and guilt. Her avoidance of conflict and emotional detachment suggest that, rather than grieving the end of the marriage, she focused on the consequences of her actions and the harm she caused, particularly to Hyun Woo and their child.

Soo Yeon’s pride and emotional detachment were at the heart of her downfall. Her inability to communicate her struggles and her desire to maintain a perfect image contributed to her poor decisions. The moment when she mentioned ending the affair "for now" felt especially cruel. It seemed that she underestimated the consequences, assuming the marriage would survive unscathed. The scene at the funeral, where she acknowledges that she loved Hyun Woo first, was one of the few moments where she showed real emotional depth—but it came too late.

Engaging in a relationship with a client was not only morally wrong but also highly unprofessional. Her personal and professional boundaries crumbled as her mental health deteriorated. Her affair partner, who came across as a "player," exploited her vulnerability, further fueling her downward spiral. This relationship damaged not just her marriage but also her career and her sense of control over her life.

Soo Yeon’s emotional and mental health struggles seemed to be the root of many of her bad decisions. Her inability to seek help or communicate her struggles led to a downward spiral that affected not only her family but also her career and social connections. This internal battle contributed to the affair and her deteriorating work performance, reflecting how untreated mental health issues can lead to destructive choices.

I found it interesting that Hyun Woo’s date with the woman downstairs may have served as a catalyst for their reunion. It seemed to boost his confidence, making him realize that his return to Soo Yeon wasn’t out of a lack of options. Soo Yeon, meanwhile, was starting to acknowledge her own failings, particularly in her chat room interactions. Here, she recognized the pressure she had placed on herself and the breakdown of their marriage. When she saw Hyun Woo with another woman and noticed the prepared food in the refrigerator, I felt she finally began to understand the pain and jealousy Hyun Woo must have felt. Yet, unlike him, she didn’t fight to keep the family whole.

At first, I interpreted Soo Yeon ’s inability to fight for her family after seeing Hyun Woo with another woman as evidence that guilt still held her back. But after further reflection, my perspective changed. I now believe Soo Yeon didn’t reach out not only because of guilt but also because she felt unworthy of a reconciliation. Her long post defending Hyun Woo from criticism showed that she was reflecting on her actions and their consequences.

It’s possible that Soo Yeon believed Hyun Woo deserved happiness, even if it wasn’t with her. By stepping back, she might have thought she was giving him space to move on. Not reaching out could have been her way of repaying the sacrifices he made throughout their relationship. Watching her giggle when speaking about Hyun Woo shows that she had emotionally reconnected with him. However, despite this, she still held back. She likely felt her past actions disqualified her from having a future with him. In her mind, sacrificing the future she now desired may have allowed Hyun Woo to heal and find happiness elsewhere.

This internal conflict—a mix of guilt, love, and an understanding of the harm she caused—leads Soo Yeon to act in ways that, from her perspective, could be seen as an attempt at redemption or reparation. While Soo Yeon often failed to communicate her feelings, I did note how the sound track, especially the song “Mistake”, could be viewed as our gateway into her thoughts that she was incapable of expressing to Hyun Woo. The placement of the song at critical moments was our chance to look at her feeling of guilt and remorse.

The ending left me somewhat unsatisfied, initially, I thought the final scene—where they wrap their arms around each other and walk back to her home —was too easy, it lacked the emotional complexity and needed to be more authentic reflecting the complexity of the situation. In the final voiceover, Hyun Woo, still accepted most of the responsibility for their breakup, this felt unbalanced, as it didn’t address Soo Yeon ’s role in the divorce. I would have preferred more time spent on the couple’s emotional reconnection after the divorce, rather than the subplot involving Yoon Gi and Ah Ra. Their divorce was short-lived, as evidenced by Soo Yeon moving into her new apartment just prior to their reconciliation, more time was needed to deal with Soo Yeon recovery from her mental health issues. Additional development in this area would have been valuable.

Overall, I was considering a 9/10 rating, but the final episode may bring it down to 8.5. The show’s exploration of guilt, trust, and the difficulty of healing after betrayal was compelling. Even though the ending left me conflicted, My Wife is Having an Affair This Week remains a highly engaging and thoughtful drama that resonated with me.

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