As reluctant as we are to say goodbye, it’s time to send off the show that has provided us with so much joy and laughter for the past six weeks. Our finale is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster unlike the fun we’re used to, but No Gain No Love wraps up on a happy note with decent resolutions to its plot points.
EPISODES 11-12
We resume post Hae-young’s discovery that Ji-wook was her mom’s foster child. Ji-wook explains that Mom made him promise to keep it a secret, and Hae-young storms out of the house, upset that Mom had no qualms taking in another foster child even though fostering cost Dad his life. On the other hand, Ja-yeon is relieved that Mom wasn’t alone in the house after Dad died, and she assures Ji-wook that Hae-young will understand. She just needs time to process things first.
We come to learn that six years ago, Mom went to see Ja-yeon to apologize for blaming her for Dad’s death. At the time, Ja-yeon was wallowing in guilt, and Mom tells her that it’s not her fault — and that she kept the murderer’s identity a secret from Hae-young because Dad insisted that Ja-yeon should never be branded as a murderer’s child. Since then, Ja-yeon has been operating under the assumption that Hae-young doesn’t know who killed Dad, and she moved back home to be with — and take care of — Hae-young in place of her parents.
Ji-wook traces Hae-young to Mom’s old house in the countryside and shows her a video of Mom in the nursing home which indicates that she (Hae-young) is alive in Mom’s memories despite her assumption that Mom no longer remembers her. They talk about his foster days, and he mentions that they once ran into each other outside the house — she was flirting with a pack of cigarettes and impulsively asked the high-schooler passing by for a lighter. Hae-young is surprised that Ji-wook was the student she met that day, and we come to learn that it was her first time smoking. Now I see why we had that “you never never forget the person who taught you how to smoke” dialogue last week. Lol.
On their way back to Seoul, Hae-young is uneasy because Ja-yeon is not answering her calls. Hee-sung is also unavailable, so Ji-wook calls Gyu-hyun to check up on Ja-yeon. This turns out to be timely because Ja-yeon’s father has broken into the house to attack her! Thankfully, Gyu-hyun swoops in to save the day — and just when I’m thinking I’ve not had a good laugh since this melo episode began, Gyu-hyun whips out Hae-young’s glow in the dark dildos to beat the shit out of the crazy dad. Ladies and gentlemen, I died!
Hae-young and Ji-wook arrive home in time for the crazy dad’s arrest, and Ja-yeon slinks back when he loudly announces that he’s her father. But Hae-young grabs the dildos and smacks him across the face because he has no right to claim parenthood. LMAO! Ja-yeon realizes that Hae-young has known all along, and Hae-young replies that she kept Ja-yeon around because it was obvious that she (Ja-yeon) was having a hard time. Hae-young didn’t want to lose her sister alongside her dad, even though she admits that she sometimes felt that living together would make Ja-yeon suffer even more. But Ja-yeon replies that she hung in there because of Hae-young, and I’m already tearing up at this point.
We pan over to the Bok half-brothers in the middle of an educational discussion about the number of ~bananas~ in Hae-young’s bunch. Lol. After thanking Ji-wook for giving him the chance to protect Ja-yeon, Gyu-hyun addresses him in an informal brotherly tone, and Ji-wook is touched. But I wonder if that is supposed to make up for Gyu-hyun’s lack of apology for calling Ji-wook the son of an adulteress and for demoting his wife. Aaanyway, now that the cat is out of the bag, Gyu-hyun assures Ja-yeon that he loves her despite everything, and the couple share a kiss.
In our final episode, Mom passes away, and Hae-young and her foster sisters grieve. Ji-wook assists them to arrange the funeral proceedings, and Mom’s other foster kids arrive to bid her farewell. It’s a bittersweet send-off for Mom, and from her foster siblings’ stories, Hae-young learns things about her mom that she never knew. She ends up acknowledging that Mom lived a fruitful life, and didn’t suffer a loss. After the funeral, Ji-wook tells Hae-young that he made a promise to Mom to hold on to her — but at this point, Hae-young has had it with him and all the promises he has been tasked with.
Earlier on, Ji-wook mentioned that he disappeared after their fake wedding because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep the promise not to tell her he was a foster kid. He also never went to visit his mom because he wanted to keep the promise he made to his grandmother. Now he’s staying by her side because of yet another promise he made to Mom? How stressful! Hae-young tells Ji-wook that he’s no longer bound by obligation to stick with her, and that he needs to make himself a priority. “I don’t want to be the reason and purpose of your life,” she says, before taking off his wedding ring and walking away. Oof!
We could have had Ji-wook assure Hae-young that he’s choosing to be with her of his own free will and not because of some darn promise, but no. Show somehow forgets that it gave us an OTP with healthy communication skills, so it sends Ji-wook abroad and leaves Hae-young — and we viewers — to wallow in misery for the majority of the episode. Sigh. This is why I have trust issues.
Fast forward to six months later. Hee-sung is doing well with her voice acting, and she’s keeping the pregnancy — and raising the child with her boyfriend after they break up and get back together. Ja-yeon no longer hides her spicy writer self, and she even gives a guest lecture at a university. Of course, she’s still happily dating Gyu-hyun — who has surpassed his father’s expectations and taken Ggulbi to the number one spot in the industry. Ggulbi has also revised its policy to include equal benefits for single and married employees.
Unfortunately, Woo-jae still thrives at the company and reaps the benefits of Hae-young’s hard work (ugh!) so she quit to launch her own startup. Hae-young poaches Ha-joon to realize his dream of writing code, but all roads lead back to Gyu-hyun to secure an investment in their startup. Tsk. Why did the show have to make them indebted to him? Gyu-hyun agrees to invest in “Traitors One and Two,” and he had better cut them a large check because he’s the reason why they quit.
Ji-wook returns to Korea with a lady, and Show tries to convince Hae-young that they’re getting married. But no worries, the only thing between Ji-wook and said lady is English dialogue I struggled to hear — and sibling DNA. Lol. Apparently, Canada was one of the destinations in his world tour and he’s now close with his mom’s family. Good for him. Ji-wook informs Hae-young that he’s not getting married. “I came back to where I left my heart, so you’ll just have to bear it.” Okay, sir. Hae-young tells Ji-wook she loves him, the rings are back on their fingers, and we get the obligatory kiss to end the drama. Whew!
We were so close to getting a perfect show, but like clockwork, K-dramas will always K-drama. It’s almost like logic was buried alongside Hae-young’s mom because I don’t get what happened to my beloved show after the funeral. Okay, I get it in theory. Hae-young wanted to set Ji-wook free from promises and obligations, but I promise you, Show, it did not have to be so complicated. There were better ways to reunite Ji-wook with his mom in Canada — and give him space to figure out what he wants to do with his life — outside of a forced separation.
I was totally looking forward to Hae-young and Ji-wook’s real wedding, and while I can understand — lies, I can’t understand — not getting a wedding, I absolutely cannot believe we spent the entire final episode of a rom-com without a single lovey-dovey moment between the lead couple! And no, an ending kiss doesn’t cut it because a last-minute OTP reunion had no business in this show in the first place. I’m upset because we had a good thing going on. I mean, we could have been up there as one of the rom-com greats of dramaland!
But thinking about it again, No Gain No Love is actually up there. I mean, the show utilized nearly all the tropes in the book and still managed to subvert and make them feel fresh. And despite feeling a little letdown with the finale, I have to hand it to the drama for eleven episodes of peak rom-com excellence. Show gave us a healthy romance, lots of laughter, fluff, heartwarming found family moments with the sisters — and of course, Hae-young, who is one of the most wonderful and best written female leads I’ve ever seen. So what if it wobbled a little with its landing? The show is still a solid 9/10 in my books, and that’s pretty good, too.