FreshKicks

I just watched Ep 36 and realize I'm half-wrong. I'm very happy that he stood up to his mom (for probably the first time.) I was letting off steam when I wrote that earlier comment and probably should delete it, but for penance I will leave it up. :)

What annoys me is the spoiler that LX and JJ break up because he hasn't been forgiven by that witch for something he didn't do.

And I truly do not want a redemption arc for Chen Ting. It would ring false. Her meanness is too deep-set into her character. For someone like her to make a turnaround would take years of therapy, so unless they do another 10-year time jump I won't be buying it.

Learning that LX would reveal this just makes me SO ANGRY. I'm starting not to like him.

After staying away for 9 years and doing everything he can to keep JJ 'on ice' so that she'll be available when he returns, then chasing off the one guy she did more or less date and then relentlessly pushing to make her his girlfriend, he comes up with this?

Why did he bother to pursue JJ at all? Just because she's his 'medicine' does that mean he has to treat her as an object to be used when needed?

I haven't yet seen the episode where he finds JJ crying after his mom has done another search and destroy mission on her sense of self-worth, but if he just gives JJ another one of his bear hugs and doesn't make his mom account for it, I'M DONE. It will be time for JJ to dump his selfish ass. Otherwise it will be just a taste of what she'll be dealing with for years to come.

And this means that if they do finally break up, I hope it's JJ who does it. If he does it he'll make it all about him and how he's got to sort things out, blah blah blah, and leave her hurting once again. What a paper tiger!

I'm not looking to his mother to make any amends before the end of the series. In fact any redemption arc for her will not be believable so I hope the writers don't attempt it. The reason that redemption works for He Mei is that her wickedness was based on misperception and a lack of understanding. For her, rather than redemption, what's really happening is that her true situation is coming to light and everyone is beginning to understand and forgive her.

Redemption for Chen Ting would require her to undergo a brain transplant. She's is a bitter, angry, and manipulative vampire who sucks the happiness out of everyone while projecting her own failings onto them. Blaming LX for his sister's death is just the start.

So many dramas do this. They set up a perfectly evil character then redeem them at the last minute. I hope that 'Go Ahead' will have the courage to let evil stay evil. Cruel people do exist in the real world, and until now this drama has been so true to what real people are like that it will be a shame if Chen Ting (a source of pain for the entire drama) is suddenly let off the hook.

I get only a brother-sister vibe between ZQ and the little sister. Even if she was closed to his age, from the way he bosses her around so much I'd be concerned if she was attracted to him lol. That kind of relationship works only with siblings. :)

It was really satisfying, wasn't it! Great acting by both women too.

thank you, this puts my mind at ease over the whole idea

But what if raising the kid gives us the setup for Season 2? ;)

I thought 'Skate Into Love' was unworthy of his talents, but it made him better known so maybe it was a smart choice for his career.

Me too! It's a naturalistic drama just like this one.

He's become popular due to more mainstream stuff like 'Skate Into Love,' but a series like this one or 'Huckleberry Friends' lets him show his range.

Are they adding episodes by expanding the scenes with footage they hadn't planned to use, or are they actually shooting new footage?

Getting everyone together to shoot additional footage would seem very expensive unless all along they've continued to produce this drama while it was already airing.

I think every reason she gives is the "what real humans would do" reason, but it's only to mask her evil intent.

Aggressively so .... a kiss intended to make a statement

(caffie posted a link to the clip just a couple of comments up)

This looks appetizing! I hope I'll be able to access it.

In Chinese society is it possible for a parent to prevent their adult child from marrying the person they love?

There seems to be so much fear in the comments here about Chen Ting being able to stop LX's marriage to JJ, but can't he just tell her to buzz off (especially since his dad is on his side)?

And this is even setting aside the fact that she abandoned the family.

Great analysis. I think the show does a nice job of setting up the contrast between the two mothers. They both abandoned their children but the similarities end there.

Chen Ting did something really terrible, which was to project her own guilt (which you lay out so eloquently, like a prosecutor in court) onto her son. There's none of that kind of abuse from He Mei.

This is a wonderful , thoughtful review.

As you probably know, a lot of people believe the last episode shows Hao Ting utterly incapable of moving on after Xi Gu's death and preparing to commit suicide. It's been a while since I saw it, but I think in the scene with the Xi Gu lookalike he ends up giving the guy all of his climbing equipment? And the trek into the Himalayas is so that Hao Ting will be as close to the stars as possible when he dies. There are additional clues that others have cited that I can't remember right now.

Wayne's performance in the final episode is outstanding. Who would imagine that the jokester in the early episodes would undergo such a transformation? Wayne makes us believe it.

LMAO .. I wish you could hear me actually laughing right now at how stupid I am.

It's a clip from "Find Yourself" ... no wonder I didn't recognize the woman!

I'm an idiot. Sorry!

It was on youtube without subtitles ... i will see if i can find it in my history

I wouldn't be surprised if the ratio is 80:20, women to men.

You've expressed my own thoughts very well. I think the feelings were there, she just hadn't made sense of them until he started his pursuit. From there it wasn't a matter of developing feelings but of finally making sense of them.

Oh no! The nosy dentist is one of the most annoying characters.

There's a preview out there showing LX in formal attire at night, watching from a distance as a woman is comforted by a man. I think he has chased after her, but after watching them for a moment he turns around and walks in the other direction.

Along the way he passes a woman in a gown. I honestly couldn't tell who she is. Now I'm wondering if that's the nosy dentist!