Our tale of reunited lovers comes to a close this week, but before that can happen, there’s a lot of redemption, wrap-up, and closure in store for us. Each of our characters reaches a turning point in the final week of the story, and it’s these moments that determine where they land at the end of our tale.
EPISODES 15-16 WEECAP
While I found the pacing of our final week a little incongruous (so much sudden movement and so many character awakenings after weeks of stasis), I did like where we landed. The drama, in fact, is really careful to wrap everything up for us. It does such a nice job injecting moral and positivity that you can tell they’ve been waiting with bated breath to give us this warm ending, after all the somber scenarios that have come before it.
Last week we left off with a crazy cliffhanger when Jae-hyun was brutally stabbed. We quickly move through this little plot arc, though, because what the drama is really interested in is what comes after — in short, the chaebol plot line wrap-up, and what that means for our hero. At first, I didn’t find this life-threatening plot arc to be very crucial, though it did tie up the storyline with Jae-hyun, the protesting father who misunderstood him, and the instigator Se-hoon. On second thought, though, post-recovery Jae-hyun is essentially the closest to the Jae-hyun we know from the past. So perhaps, in a way, he did need that life-threatening event to metaphorically bring him back to himself.
Of the many character changes in our finale week, Jae-hyun’s is definitely the most important. Even though he and Ji-soo fell in love again, there was still that friction between Ji-soo’s rock solid in her beliefs ever since their 20s, and Jae-hyun’s rocky road that made him lose himself.
But, it’s Ji-soo that finally gets to him, and causes him to change his course. And it’s rather poetic that his own rhetoric and beliefs are reflecting back at him, because of her, and creating a mirror. So, while he continues with his plan to expose Hyung Sung, he chooses to renounce the company ownership he’s long fought for. And just like that, our hero is back.
Ji-soo knows he’ll make the right decision, and it’s her faith in him that not only proves they’re meant to be, but is the catalyst for Seo-kyung to finally let go of her grip on her dead marriage. She realizes how much more deeply Ji-soo knows him; Seo-kyung realizes, too, that she cares for her family and position more than keeping her marriage. I actually like where these two women end up; there seems to be a mutual respect of sorts now.
So, Seo-kyung renounces Jae-hyun in the same way he renounced his hold on her father’s company, and they agree to part ways amicably. I liked their final conversation and the closure around their relationship. I like where we leave Seo-kyung, too, by the end of the drama. She’s far more wise, far more mature, and far more focused on her son (and he needs it!)
Our Ji-soo also has a final mountain to climb, and that’s the healing around her trauma, and how she’s unable to face her birthday ever since the accident that took her mother and sister. With her crew around her, and Jae-hyun prodding her along, she takes a big step towards healing. The drama represents this beautifully, with Ji-soo going back to that moment that has been haunting her for years, and finally getting the closure she needed: seeing their faces, and being able to say goodbye. For me, this moment of healing was stronger than any other, in a conclusion that was filled with people learning the error of their ways, forgiving, and finding peace.
Healing, kindness, forgiveness — these are the themes that our drama closes with. In fact, there’s so much warmth by the end of the final episode that it almost feels like we’re watching a different drama. Not only are our lovers forever united (and they put a PPL ring on it too), but all our other characters are also sent off well at the end of the drama. Young-woo adopts puppies and then meets a new love interest, the malicious Hyung Sung chairman is in jail, Seo-kyung is happily being a mother, and Se-hoon is taking his punishment.
Our story is over, and our characters are all in their rightful places, but the drama isn’t over yet. Instead, it chooses to conclude with a symbolic sequence where adult Ji-soo meets young Jae-hyun, and adult Jae-hyun meets young Ji-soo — both recognizing their beloved as they knew them in the past. Then, Ji-soo and Jae-hyun embrace their younger selves, signifying this peace they’ve made with the past.
Even though this might feel a bit out of place in our drama, I’m positively a sucker for this kind of ending. They did the same thing in Come Here and Hug Me, and I was a shameless bucket of tears. There were less tears here, but the tenderness of this moment was quite lovely, especially when juxtaposed with the somberness of the drama that preceded. We’re left with the heartwarming wish that everyone might have a love that blooms eternally — but more than blooming loves, my favorite bit was the little treat in our final flashback scene.
We see young Jae-hyun at a rally, and we can tell it’s before they’ve met, and before our story began. He pulls down his bandana as he recognizes Ji-soo across the crowd. The drama is trying to tell us that he liked her first, even while he pretended to be aloof — but for me, the best thing about this closing sequence is the sense of the story coming full circle again in order to close.
“I found you,” Jae-hyun says to himself. They’re fitting words to tie their love story — and our drama — together, reiterating the story’s theme of finding, losing, and reclaiming the things that are most precious to us.
