The end is here, and with it we see a broken family become whole again with the help of our stage actor playing his part. And as the hotel struggle comes to a close, we look forward to the new relationships formed through the truth — rather than a lie.
EPISODES 15-16 WEECAP
Picking up where we left off, we see Jae-heon notifying Se-yeon of the play he has put together, and inviting her and Geum-soon. After leaving Se-yeon, he meets Dong-je to knock some sense into him. Jae-heon, with a sense of freedom now that everyone knows about the lie, speaks up to Dong-je regarding his struggle with Se-yeon. Jae-heon acknowledges that Dong-je has had a perfect life and the only blemish is his failure with Se-yeon.
Jae-heon says that Dong-je failed to be honest with himself and his feelings, and thus took an aggressive and domineering approach to get Se-yeon to marry him to “fix” said blemish. Jae-heon remarks that Dong-je genuinely loves Se-yeon, but that needs to be his reason for wanting to marry her – opposed to seeing the marriage as a chance to fix an imperfection in his life.
At the mansion, the family is notified that Geum-soon has woken up. They all visit the hospital together to see her. However, they bring Jae-heon instead of Moon-sung, since Geum-soon has yet to find out his true identity… so they think. Jae-heon, overcome with guilt, tells an exhausted Geum-soon the truth about who he is, what he’s done, and that he’s a professional actor. Geum-soon surprises Jae-heon when she tells him she already knew he wasn’t Moon-sung.
We all expected this. I guess she just was lying about Jae-heon looking like Se-yeon’s grandpa? I’m not surprised that Geum-soon knew already, but I will say I wasn’t expecting a big climax, considering how the rest of the drama has gone. Squandering tension is its specialty.
Geum-soon proceeds to tell Jae-heon that she acted as though she didn’t know the truth because they were all so caring and she could tell they had true concern for her. After apologizing a few times, Jae-heon asks Geum-soon if she would watch the play he has put together; she says yes.
Making his rounds to right his wrongs, Jae-heon asks to meet with Moon-sung. Jae-heon uses this opportunity to relay to Moon-sung all of the things Geum-soon had given him while he was there. After eating with him, showing him pictures that Geum-soon holds dear, and taking him on a Geum-soon related field trip, Jae-heon slowly breaks down the emotional steel wall Moon-sung has put up, allowing him to open up more be less on the defensive.
Over dinner, Moon-sung asks Jae-heon why he took the job to act as somebody else. Jae-heon, drunk, tells him that he didn’t only do it for Geum-soon’s sake; he did it for himself, as well, since he never was able to form a familial connection since his parents abandoned him when he was young. Gaining more of an understanding of Jae-heon and his sincerity, Moon-sung helps him get home and even offers to carry him on his back.
I love the Moon-sung we’re seeing in these last episodes. He is showing that he’s not the monster he has been made out to be and that he can care about the people around him. I just can’t help but wish we had more of this a few episodes ago, rather than right before the finish line. He could’ve been a character we grew to love.
After Jae-heon has done his thing, it’s time for Se-gyu to do his. Bringing Moon-sung out for a drink, Se-gyu gets attacked by the same woman he was attacked by with Jae-heon before. Se-gyu runs away and Moon-sung comes over to ask what was up with the woman. Se-gyu tells him he doesn’t even know her and that she’s just crazy. After joking with each other back and forth, Se-gyu promises to help Moon-sung however and whenever he needs it.
Personally, I loved how Se-gyu’s character arc turned out. In the beginning, he was standoffish, selfish, and reluctant to help anyone. Now, he is willing to help others and is trying to better himself for the people around him. He is making an attempt to be more present for his friends and family and in watching him, we can see that he has grown a lot.
Finally, after waiting so long, we get to see the first real and sincere interaction between Moon-sung and Geum-soon on a level playing field. Now understanding how Geum-soon really felt during the time they were separated, Moon-sung lets his emotions out about how he resented her and thought she had forgotten about him as she failed to keep her promise to him. She understands and apologizes but also tells him that she missed him and is glad he came.
Moving into the living room after speaking with Moon-sung, Geum-soon meets with everyone, minus Se-gyu, to reinforce the notion that she loves them and thanks them all as she has very little time left. She tells them that there is one last thing she wants to do — and that is to see Jae-heon’s show.
As Geum-soon’s passing is close, a meeting to discuss the inheritance is held with the family members in attendance. Everything is normal except for one added clause: before Moon-sung can receive his portion of the inheritance, he must naturalize as a South Korean citizen. His assets are placed under Secretary Jung’s trust until then.
With this development, Se-joon cannot receive Moon-sung’s shares for the sale of the hotel. On the other side, Se-yeon ends up receiving Dong-je’s shares as he allows her to purchase them from him. After his conversation with Jae-heon, he realized that the way he was handling things was wrong and irrational. He ends the marriage plans with Se-yeon and vows to regain her trust earnestly. And so, the whole drama-long hotel feud ends in an underwhelming fashion (what a surprise).
Then, to end the finale and wrap up our budding love line, Jae-heon asks Se-yeon out on a date. She accepts as she now sees him as Jae-heon – not Moon-sung or an imposter of Moon-sung.
Personally, I liked the ending more than I didn’t. There were still some things I was curious about (Jin-sook… literally anything having to do with Jin-sook), and some character depth needed but overall, but I enjoyed the finale week. Albeit rushed and sudden, the turnaround for Dong-je was nice to see. On the other hand, Se-joon’s drop in aggression and stoicism felt jarring to me. For how hard he was pushing to sell the hotel, it seemed like he had a change of heart a little too easily.
My biggest disappointment was with the handling of Moon-sung’s character, as he blew me away in the last few episodes. I couldn’t help but think we got too little of him. The drama hinted at his humanity early on, and we saw it in the end, but I feel like he would have bounced off the already-established characters well if he was more involved throughout the earlier episodes.
For a drama that had everything going for it, Curtain Call seemed to lean towards the anti-climactic side more often than not. Many characters felt one-dimensional and could have been fleshed out more. Despite that, there were a handful of solid and fun character moments throughout the drama. Though the ending had its flaws, overall the drama’s wrap-up closed the curtains on this story in a way that could make us smile.