Kate

i knew there will be plot twist, predicted what it was on episode 3.
When it was officially revealed in the drama, was extremely disappointed and it just did not have much impact on me 🙃

If you know there will be some kind of plot twist, it's rather easy to see what it is early on.

Listen, I don't trust my judgement. I can turn shit into gold with overanalyzing hahahaha

I see a lot of people saying Da Un was not developed enough, but for me the way they presented his character makes perfect sense in the context of the story.

The same way we are bombarded with information about Si Won, since his personality is more open and he also opens fast to Da Un (episode 2 exactly, when he talks about his insecurities when he is drunk), we only get to know Da Un's thoughts in the last episode with sudden addition of his internal narration - because for him opening up was a slow process, hence the way his character was presented was also a slow process.

sure they play with expectations, but here they were rather clear about the fact these two did not end up together 🤣

Moreso, the writer created an illusion alluding that YJ was still present in HD life < yeah but I'm not buying that. If he was still in Hee Do's life, her daughter would know about him. For me it was more of a symbolism that she hold the memories dear to her heart, bot that he is truly still in her life. Everything went against that idea.

How can people say the drama writers played with viewers and kept the hope for happy ending till the end when from the start we know Hee Do's daughter had Kim surname, she does not know who Yi Jin is and does not recognize him from the photo?

I see your comment twice hahaha it did not disappeared hahaha

Different perspective.

1. There is a difference between being poor and ridiculed by others and seeing massacred dead bodies on daily basis for weeks/months and talking with people who lost their loved and ones family members for hours a day for your work. This is not something anyone could get mentally prepared for. Especially since Yi Jin is extremely empathic person with how he always picks others over his own needs. He got too emotionally invested to what was going on and the pain of others. It makes perfect sense.

2. He did not communicate with Hee Do about his struggles since day one. He was protecting her from all the negativity, taking it on his shoulders. That was also fitting the character. Since there was no positivity in his life when he was in US, he struggled with communicating with Hee Do and keeping in touch since he had nothing he could share with her. He only talked to het when he was able to overcome whatever difficulties he had, he always told her how she helped him with this and that, but it was after he handled whatever was happening. His priority was protecting Hee Do, while her priority was them being partners - no matter the situation.
Him applying to New York relates to his sense of responsibility. He was not sure he will get the job, but he felt the need he has to do it - he felt like he needs to help these people to tell their stories. He acted the same with pervious situations. Just because they were smaller issues, the consequences also were smaller. Here it was a big deal, but it was fitting his character anyway.

3. The issue is - Hee Do wanted a completely opened communication. Yi Jin did not want to share the negative with her. In how intense the situation was at that moment, he could not change in a day, and she was too emotionally exhausted hoping he would change soon. We know he ended up well, they didn't at that moment. He was drinking a lot, had to use meds to sleep and still had nightmares, from how the showed it, he was in simply depressed. It's not like they could stay close to each other and work it out.

4. Can't comment on this one. I just was not impressed with the whole present time line. It was mess, not executed well, barely developed and I did not really like the acting of the adult Hee Do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What i noticed tho - this rather impulsive break up between characters who were struggling and suffering in the relationship for months is seen as too much and making no sense. At the same time when people were making theories leading to happy ending even makjang shit like Hee Do having amnesia from car accident that's why she does not remember Yi Jin well, or Hee Do's daughter being adopted and being a child of Yu Rim who died made perfect sense and people were prising them. From the start the ending was there - Hee Do's daughter had no idea who Yi Jin is. I fail to see how them being together would make sense, unless they met again in the present timeline. If Yi Jin was in Hee Do's life in the present time, her daughter would have known who he is.

Great review, as always.

Personally, I "enjoyed" episode 15 quite a lot, even through the pain it caused. I loved the closing scene and for me, the past story could have ended on that, granted adding the closure for the present time line too. While I'm not mad about the outcome of the last episode, the execution of writing there was just too messy.

I regret not doing that hahaha

How can they make it happen as an end game with Hee Do's daughter from the start having no idea who Yi Jin is? Just that made it clear this is not an end game type of scenerio. There is no logical reason she would not know who he is if they were married and she was their daughter.

Even with the idea of her being adopted after Yu Rim died (one of the more popular theories fans had), she would have seen the photos of Yi Jin, she would have hear stories since Yi Jin was a huge part of Yu Rim's past too. If Yi Jin was in any meaningful way still present in Hee Do's adult life, her daughter would have know him or at least about him.

Chances are when they got married he was not travelling and did not have to do that with work. Maybe as he got promoted etc he started to be away more. She also grew up and became an adult, so she learned how to cope with it better. Hee Do in her 20' is a different person than Hee Do in her 40'.

We don't know the whole context. And it was not just him travelling that they broke up. It was about him not communicating his struggles and pain, him trying to shied her from the negativity and her looking for something else in a relationship at that time of her life.

It was obvious from the beginning that they will not be the end game tho. From Hee Do's daughter not knowing who Yi Jin was, not recognizing him on the photo, to her mother saying she saw Yi Jin not long time ago, as if he met an acquaintance she has not seen for a long time.

They were amazing couple in the past story line and many people desperately wanted them to have a happy ending together, but that does not mean the drama baited or cat-fished for a fairytale ending a happy ending.

People were literally killing off other characters so their theories about the daughter would make sense etc. But there was nothing in the show itself that would lead to that conclusion. It was just what viewers wanted to see, coz they adored the characters together that much.

It's fine to feel sad and disappointed with the outcome, but to say they cat-fished a happy ending is just not true.

Don't know if it will be of any help with "moving on" from the last two episode, but I wrote down a "short" analysis how (for me) it actually does work in context of the show and characters.

https://kisskh.at/695149-twenty-five-twenty-one#comment-9244553

Feel free to ignore and not read tho, just thought maybe a different perspective on it would help :)

❗❗❗ SPOILER OF THE ENDING ❗❗❗
My perspective and explanation why the ending makes sense.

Okay so I want to write, who from my perfective the break up and them drifting apart makes sense character wise.

Hee Do and Yi Jin had one personality difference that would be EXTREMELY hard to make their relationship work when they become actual adults: Hee Do wants to share her feelings with her partner - be it good or bad. Yi Jin wants to protect his partner from the negative feelings and would rather keep them to himself. None of their approaches is bad, it's just different.

Here's the thing - not everyone feels better after talking about their serious problems with their partner and going into detail how it all affects them. I now, relationships about communication and trust, but no matter the relationship, people need to respect each other's differences. So just based on these two completely different approach of dealing with issues, how could they make it work? Either Yi Jin would have to force himself to speak about his struggles and then feel guilty about putting it all on Hee Do's shoulders (which would make his emotional state even worse), or Hee Do would have to worry all the time and feel like she is not helpful to Yi Jin, because she does not know exactly what's going on with him. One of them would have to suffer for the other to feel better.

Another thing - Hee Do wanted an equal partner, while Yi Jin wanted to support and protect Hee Do. From my perspective, this was also the reason why he did not tell her how bad it was in US. He once said during the show that it's okay for Hee Do to be impulsive, make mistakes, not know about things, coz she has him and him will take care of it. He is extremely empathic person and he has no idea how to deal with it. He felt like he has to stay in US to report on the awful reality, he felt like it's his responsibility - but that also slowly ruined his relationship with the love of his life. I don't think it's as simple as him choosing work over Hee Do. He truly felt responsible to be there, he felt like he needs to be there. Not "oh it's a good job opportunity" type of deal. Even if he decided to come back to Korean, he would not be happy, most likely he would feel guilty about leaving these people in the US and not trying to help them in the way he could -by telling their stories. I honestly don't think Yi Jin could have gotten a perfect happy ending with Hee Do and work.

At first their relationship worked even when he went to US, because the reality did not hit them yet. But the more time they spent separately, the more it started to bother them. Why we did not see the same issue with Go Yu Rim and Moon Ji Woong? Because of their background, less severe problems, their different personalities etc. Neither Yu Rim nor Ji Woong had a trauma because of the parents not being there for them . YEs, Ji Woong had quite a messy family situation too, but it did not translate as well to his relationship with Yu Ri as it did for Hee Do and Yi Jin. While Go Yu Rim's situation was serious (her being the "traitor" and hate she got after moving to Russia) she had a huge support circle from her family and friends. Yi Jin was alone and was always the one taking care of the others - it's not that easy to out of a blue start oversharing about your emotions, if up till now you had to keep them to yourself. Another thing - Yi Rim and Ji Woong match in terms of their expectations of the relationship - Ji Woong respected that sometimes Yi Rim has issues with opening up, while Yi Rim made an effort to slowly open up to him. On the other hand Hee Do wanted it all right now, and Yi Jin was not ready and willing to do that.

No idea if it all makes sense, but for me it does. That's why I never felt like the break up was rushed. I did not like how they presented some stuff in last episode (for example they ended it on good terms right after Yi Jin left to US, but then they made big deal out of that diary as if it gave them closer they did not get before that... but they did get that closure), but overall, I saw no issue with the break up.

I already did write a review, tho I did not include it since I wanted to write a spoiler free on. Might add it in the comment under it as a spoiler tho 🤣

Honestly speaking, while I am all for how the drama ended, I am not happy with how they presented and executed it 🙃

It was early 2000' - mental health issues were not an open discussion type of deal. It still not in many countries now in 2022. There is a reason why Hee Do told Yi Jin to go to therapy coz it's easier in US - it implies it's not easy to get on in Korea at that time. Also, couple therapy when they work on different continents? How exactly would that work, with what technology would they do that? They both had extremely busy work schedule, how would they find time to even get one session a month? Where? It's easy to talk about it from our 2022 perspective when you can even schedule a meeting through zoom at any given time, but damn life was different in 2000'.

They were just different people, and while their relationship worked when they were happy and everything went well, the differences in their approach to life and relationship showed when things went south. I don't think it could work out no matter how much effort they would put into it - sooner or later it would all break down. Not every relationship can work out just coz you put effort into it.

I don't think Kim Tae Ri would pull of playing a mother in her what, early 40'? And definitely all the rest of the cast could not make it happen. No matter the make up etc, you are not making Bona look 40 🤣

I think the writers messed up a bit with showing the viewers that it's just Hee Do's story and not a story of all the characters. It was all Hee Do's perspective, and that's why it make sense at the end we only got to see her future/present.

long explanation why I feel the progression of the relationship in ep 15 and 16 makes sense 🤣