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Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 20 (Final)


Illustration by Ally

*peeks through hands* Is it over? Did I make it? Are we finally at the end of this One Road and all the puns we can possibly milk out of that name? You know, I misjudged this show. Even when it was on its continuous downward trajectory of plotlessness, I thought, But the finale can’t be that bad. Oh, guess who was wrong. I know, you think I’m exaggerating. Pull up a chair. *pat pat* You’re gonna need that whiskey and rubber hammer over to your left there…

 
FINAL EPISODE RECAP

Mi-rae raises a gun to her temple, while Seo-won cries into her sniper rifle. Seriously, that’s a sentence, and that’s what’s happening right now. A shot rings out, and Mi-rae goes down…

But just kidding, because she gets back up? Oy, this show. She’s only shot in the arm (also in the leg AND the other arm, because suddenly we’re Tarantino) and reaches for her phone.

She calls Woo-jin to say that she was scared of being captured and used like their parents, and urges him to survive this. “Living till the end—that’s revenge.” Uh… says the girl about to kill herself? She adds, “I’m sorry I couldn’t love you.”

And then she looks Seo-won right in the sniper scope, and… turns around to start climbing her bloody ass up the wall. Now you’re jumping? This is starting to become a suicide farce.

As Seo-won watches, still crying into her assault rifle, Gil-ro and Do-ha finally reach the rooftop. Gil-ro tackles Mi-rae down before she can jump, and then piggybacks her away, screaming at her not to die.

Woo-jin watches as Mi-rae gets hauled away in an ambulance, and sees Seo-won put the giant incriminating gun in her car. He jumps to the obvious conclusion, and follows her.

Do-ha reconvenes with Team Rogue in Gil-ro’s office, where Seo-won asks if it was Director Oh who ordered the hit. Do-ha refuses to answer, ever the Company Man. Seo-won can’t believe he’d blindly follow orders knowing it was wrong (again, still not sure when they proved it WAS wrong, but whatever).

She cries, “Is this the kind of person you are?!” Huh? OF COURSE this is the kind of person he is. Where have you been for nineteen episodes?

He bites back that she’ll never have to see him again then, and storms out in a huff. Wait, should you let him take the gun? Whatever. If you three were actually friends who liked each other as you claim to be, that scene might have had some impact.

Gil-ro and Seo-won head home, and fail to notice Woo-jin following them for the ten thousandth time. They lead him all the way from their super secret spy headquarters right to her apartment.

Inside, Seo-won is still so jittery from the shooting that she drops a plate. Gil-ro pulls her aside to comfort her, and says that they did their best to stop history from repeating itself, and that she didn’t act alone.

Just outside the door, Woo-jin raises his gun, and gets ready to ring the doorbell. But then something stops him, and he decides to walk away. He goes instead to the rooftop where Mi-rae was shot down, and leaves a message on her phone that he’ll come for her no matter what.

Gil-ro and Seo-won go to visit Won-seok in the hospital, and because Won-seok’s daughter is still such a brat about not respecting her father, Gil-ro finally blurts that her dad is a spy. Er, on what planet is that okay?

He says Won-seok deserves to be respected by his daughter, totally ignoring the fact that it’s not his decision to make.

While they’re out, Woo-jin saunters right into Seo-won’s apartment. I knew that lock code that doesn’t lock things sure would come in handy. Lawd. He takes a look around and scowls at the photo of Gil-ro and Seo-won… and then shoots it. Well that’s not conspicuous or anything.

Gil-ro and Seo-won go to see Mi-rae next, and please don’t tell me you put her in the same hospital as Won-seok or I will HIT YOU. She’s awake now and recovering, and knows they’re here for answers about Director Oh and JJ.

But Seo-won says they’re here to apologize for the past. I just can’t get onboard with this plot thread for the life of me. Why is she apologizing for Won-seok and Director Oh? Mi-rae pretty much has the same reaction, wondering what gives her the right to apologize.

Seo-won argues that she may not have made the mistakes, but she does feel responsible, “because that’s what history is.” I think I just pulled something trying not to roll my eyes. She gives Mi-rae the same speech she gave to Woo-jin—that the best revenge is to live a good life. In this case I don’t blame Mi-rae for scoffing at the attempt to move her with those words.

Gil-ro says that someday she’ll have to apologize to him for using his father and tossing him aside, pointing out that she’s no different than the people who did that to her parents. Huh, that line of reasoning makes a little more sense. He says that it takes more courage to forgive than to apologize, but that he doesn’t have the courage to forgive her yet.

Seo-won warns her that she’ll catch the Woo Brothers, and tacks on yet another Lesson of the Day that she wants to share: that the best revenge isn’t repaying the past, but correcting the course of the future.

Meanwhile, Woo-jin sits down in Seo-won’s kitchen and points his gun toward the door. Ah, so subtle wasn’t what you were going for in the first place. Gotcha.

Thankfully for them, Seo-won gets arrested before she can make it home. Gil-ro is held back as NIS agents escort her away for questioning, where Director Oh tells her that her prints were on the sniper rifle. See, I told you not to let Do-ha walk away with that gun.

He asks what she was doing there, but she keeps her mouth shut. Do-ha gets called in and makes up a thin excuse, swearing that he did the shooting and that Seo-won did nothing wrong.

Director Oh asks if he picked up the hard drive (incriminating him for selling state secrets) from the crime scene, and punches Do-ha in the face for his insubordination. For what it’s worth, Do-ha actually stands up to him this time, and asks him to let Seo-won go in exchange for the hard drive.

Director Oh does one better and tells him to finish the job with Mi-rae, and he’ll let Seo-won go. Do-ha offers to do as ordered if he lets Seo-won go first. For some reason, Director Oh agrees and sets her free.

Gil-ro’s still pacing nervously when she calls to say that she was released… and that she’s on her way home. Oh no.

She opens her door and walks inside, and makes it two steps in before Woo-jin cocks his gun. She looks up, terrified.

Gil-ro makes it home and walks past Woo-jin’s motorcycle on his way up. Seo-won isn’t there, but he notices the photo with a bullet hole, and then sees drops of blood in the living room.

He gets a call from her phone, and it’s Woo-jin calling from inside Gil-ro’s car. HA, I’m sorry, but it’s kind of hysterical how easily the good guys are thwarted.

Woo-jin: “I’m somewhere close.” Gil-ro: “Who are you?” REALLY? Really? Who are you? It’s Jack freaking Sparrow. Who do you think it is?

Woo-jin orders him to come downstairs and take his motorcycle and lead him to Won-seok’s hospital, or Seo-won dies. She yells at Gil-ro not to do it, but obviously he’s not about to let her die. He gets on the bike and leads the way.

At the same time, Do-ha creeps into Mi-rae’s hospital room. She takes one look at him and starts trembling, and watches as he injects something into her IV drip. She doesn’t try to fight it, and sneers that they’re doing exactly what she expected.

Gil-ro leads Woo-jin and Seo-won down the long hospital corridor. He flashes back to Won-seok ordering them to send his family home and then tell Woo-jin where he is. Gil-ro thought he was crazy for wanting to get shot again, but Won-seok had said that he had to save those kids before his sins grew any bigger.

They arrive, and Won-seok is either asleep or acting like he’s in a coma. Kinda hard to tell which. Woo-jin figures he doesn’t need the Spytastic Duo anymore, and aims his gun at Gil-ro. Seo-won struggles with Woo-jin for the gun, and he regains the upper hand and shoots at her instead.

Gil-ro dodges in front of her just in time, and gets shot in the shoulder. Seo-won runs to his side and Woo-jin just stands there talking to them instead of shooting again, when suddenly Coma Won-seok calls out: “Woo-jin-ah.”

HAHAHAHAHA. I don’t know why, but that was hilarious. Woo-jin jumps like he’s seen a zombie, and Won-seok just sloooowly opens his eyes, calm as you please. So you waited till Gil-ro got shot, just for funsies?

He gets up and says that he’s been waiting for Woo-jin to come. And the reason you couldn’t have waited with a gun? Just sayin’. He walks closer and closer to Woo-jin, who threatens to shoot but backs up trembling.

Won-seok confesses that he’s lived badly, but doesn’t want Woo-jin to live badly anymore. He says he feels responsible for all the bad things that Woo-jin has done, calling his sins his own. See, at least with these two, this line of thinking is based in something that makes sense. Seo-won with Mi-rae, not so much.

As they talk, Gil-ro spots a gun taped to the underside of Won-seok’s hospital bed. Aha.

Won-seok apologizes sincerely for not saving Woo-jin as a child. Tears stream down his face as he thinks back to that moment, but Woo-jin remembers his hyung’s words not to trust them, and says he doesn’t believe Won-seok’s lies.

He raises his gun, prepared to shoot. Won-seok closes his eyes… Gil-ro reaches for the gun under the bed, and shoots Woo-jin in the shoulder, and he goes down.

Won-seok gets down on his knees. “Forgive me.” Woo-jin breaks down in tears and Won-seok hugs him close.

In Mi-rae’s room, Do-ha starts dosing her with the drug… and then says not to worry because he’s moving her someplace safe.

Young-soon comes out once she’s asleep, having been in on it from the start. Do-ha reminds her that this is a secret from Director Oh. Ya think?

In the aftermath, Won-seok reunites happily with his family, and Young-soon questions Mi-rae at NIS headquarters. Director Oh packs up his office, and then has a friendly drink with Won-seok, who congratulates him on his promotion. Huh?

Wait, so he sold out his colleagues, went rogue, sold national secrets, and tried to kill key suspects multiple times… and he walks away unscathed? Okay whatever.

He admits to Won-seok that he sold him out, and Won-seok just laughs good-naturedly that it was for the good of the country and he should wear a bulletproof vest next time. I don’t get you people, but that’s not new.

Gil-ro packs up his things to move out of Seo-won’s apartment, and pouts that she won’t let him leave a few things there. She counters that she never told him to leave, so he quickly changes his mind, only to have her kick him out anyway.

She wonders when they’re going on their vacation, and they get all giggly and shy at the thought.

Gil-ro’s dad tries to convince Mom to move to the countryside so they can live a simpler life, while she argues that Gil-ro is still baby who needs looking after. But when he comes home and tells Mom flippantly that he’s going on another trip right away and that he’s been transferred to Jeju for a year, she agrees to move to the country immediately.

Gil-ro and Seo-won go on their trip, and she tells him she’s been reassigned overseas. Seriously, forty-five minutes into the finale and this is what you’re throwing at us?

He takes it like a champ, saying he won’t even ask where she’s been reassigned. Only he says it a little too emphatically, about three times, and so she tells him she’s headed to Germany.

He sighs at having to be apart from her, and suggests they go to bed. Of course she hems and haws and decides she wants to talk some more, and so he finally just picks her up and carries her inside while she hides her face, because heaven forbid she might act like she WANTS to have sex. We can’t have that.

Do-ha gets Sun-mi to return the research that Director Oh was using in his blackmailing scheme, and she sighs that they really won’t see each other more than once at year at best now that the team has disbanded.

She gives him a speech about how she’s not ridiculous enough to follow him around forever, and then promptly chases him down the street to jump him and get a piggyback ride. Oy.

She asks him just to go ten steps, and then five more, and he counts down. But he doesn’t ever get to the last five, and keeps recounting 2, 2, 3, 4. That’s cute, but it sure would have been nice if he liked her back for more than ten minutes of the entire drama.

Young-soon gets set up on a new blind date, and of course it’s the manager at Gil-ro’s father’s company. Sigh. But thankfully she actually has some standards and self-worth, and storms out on the guy and the dating service for good.

It’s time for Seo-won to leave for her reassignment, and Gil-ro’s bottom lip is out on pout patrol all the way to the gate. He sends her off glumly, only to change his mind and stomp back to the gate.

He picks a fight with her over how pretty she looks today, as if she’s doing it to spite him or something. She says she wanted to look her best so it’s the last thing he remembers, and then tells him that she’s sorry she hasn’t said this before: “I love you.”

He finally smiles, and says, “I love you more,” before sending her off with a kiss.

Gil-ro’s parents head down to the country, and of course they go to the only village that exists in the world. They stop a young soldier to ask for directions to the mayor’s house, and gee, wouldn’t have guessed—it’s Seo-won’s little brother. He takes them home to his parents, where the two pairs of in-laws gasp at the coincidence.

Gil-ro calls Seo-won and apologizes for not calculating the time difference properly and waking her up. She asks if he’s okay, having read that there’s a storm in Jeju, and he looks around him and lies that the weather is really bad. Wait, you’re not in Jeju? Oh geez, is this going where I think it’s going?

Flashback (I think?) to his next assignment from Won-seok, who orders him to stay in Seoul but go undercover as if he’s in Jeju. What is the point of that?

Anyway, so Gil-ro goes to an institute undercover as a professor… and in walks Seo-won in a labcoat and glasses. Oh my gah, you sent us through that entire last-minute separation storyline hullabaloo for this one joke?

He pulls her outside and they argue back and forth about who’s the biggest liar. “Germany?” “Jeju?”

Why are you even mad at each other when it’s Won-seok you should be mad at, since he obviously sent you both here while forcing you to lie for no apparent reason.

Gil-ro finally calms down and realizes that it’s not as important as the fact that they’re here together, and kisses her again.

Suddenly the cleaning lady whaps him on the head, and it’s Young-soon, who’s also there undercover. She chases them in circles with a broom.

The end.

 
GIRLFRIDAY’S COMMENTS

So… lemme get this straight: The bad guys just needed hugs. Being the director of a national intelligence agency means you can basically sell out your agents’ lives twice in exchange for secrets and/or power, and said agents will just buy you drinks after. The good guys can spend an entire series looking for a guy who’s already dead, never find out that he died, and it has no bearing on the plot. The team of good guys gets disbanded after all that distrust and infighting, and there’s no need to reconcile them as long as they pair off and mate. The transitive property applies to apologies, and oh yeah, sex is bad. Did I forget anything?

Sigh. This finale is almost a perfect example of what not to do, at every turn. It’s actually kind of amazing for that alone. I mean, even putting aside the absurdity of a world where everyone gets riddled with bullets and nobody dies, we spend nineteen episodes running ever so slowly toward one goal… which it turns out could have all been avoided if Won-seok just apologized for something that he knew and WE KNEW happened twenty years ago. We learn nothing new. Nothing changes. It has nothing to do with our lead characters whatsoever. PFFFFFFFT. What kind of a show does that?? Would it have killed you to throw in a nonsensical bomb or a terrorist attack, or SOMETHING for them to save people from, just for shits and giggles?

Obviously this show went wrong in too many ways to name, which likely stemmed from a fundamental lack of understanding of everything from women, humans in general, spies, narrative conflict, and why people watch television. But the saddest thing is that it forgot it was supposed to be a comedy. I don’t understand what happened tonally to this drama, but it decided one day it was a Serious Show and got progressively more self-important… which of course made it increasingly—and unintentionally—absurd.

The thing is, you have to be a really bad spy show for me to find nothing of value in you. Like, really really bad. Because I’ll put up with a lot (suspension of disbelief, badly timed romantic outbursts, gadgets o’ doom) in exchange for badassery and hijinks. I don’t know why it should be news to anyone that your characters ought to be base-level competent at their jobs, unless your point is to be Get Smart (and technically satire is the harder job, so I never expected that). Instead it just floundered somewhere in the middle, with the worst spies known to man, in a drama that set out to be all things—romantic, funny, badass—and ended up none of those things, and giving spies a bad name in the process. Sydney Bristow is rolling over in her tv grave.

 
JAVABEANS’ COMMENTS

Level 7 Civil Servant: “Well, if nothing’s going to make sense anyway, might as well make everyone happy! Even the bad guys! Who aren’t really bad! And morally corrupt people who get promoted instead of fired and/or disgraced! And the good guys, who do nonsensical things for nonsensical reasons just so we can have a callback joke at the end that isn’t worth the trouble! Drama miracle happy pills, disburse your powers!”

javabeans: Where are MY miracle happy pills? *glares*

Level 7 Civil Servant: *Jedi mind trick* *waves hands around* *says magic hoodoo words*

javabeans: *wishes for mind bullets*

 
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Thanks for recap , actually i skip the last few episode and just reading the recap ..hehehe

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Yeah, thanks for the recap, but even you guys couldn't save it for me!

To Show:

I now realize that there is something more painful than childbirth. Or maybe even Dr. Jin. YOU SUCK.

$#&$#(*&%%($&#!!!!

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I feel like I won by never starting to watch this show if it is in the same league as Dr Jin.

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Agreed. What a waste of quality talent. This is like the comedic counterpart of I Miss You. As in: makes sense it does not, waste actors it does.

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Dr. Jin is on a level of its own. This isn't THAT bad, imho. No time-traveling fetus at the very least, lol.

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At least Jin was funny as can be! It didn't mean to be funny, but I can still let a random ep play and crack up at Jins facial expressions lol

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I lost interest in the show a long long time ago. I don't know... it just doesn't cut it for me. it's painful and the story line is bizarre. the female lead isn't that versatile and she still has the same character as the one in protect the boss. Sigh...

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at least Dr.Jin was bad in a funny way and the recap was fun to read ...but this was just BAD .

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Woops...somehow my top line got deleted. denice, consider yourself lucky for not watching the finale. I'm currently scrubbing my brain with bleach!

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I have dropped the show at episode 10 but super liked reading all your recaps, Javabeans and Girlfriday. You guys are superb! Thanks for the entertainment.

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same! ep 1 was alrdy bad.. but i wanted to watch for kim min seo sake coz i super loved cho-sun!! wat a waste of time!! aft ep 10 only read recaps n even so, was falling asleep if nt for dramabeans terrific commentary..

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Thanks!

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Thank you GF for the funny recap! Can a kind soul explain the Tarantino reference to me, please? Thanks!

I actually did find this show funny (I laughed a lot and at times, I literally had tears), touching, and romantic at times. I LOVED JW in it. I thought he had good comedic timing, he did physical comedy well and I appreciated seeing this side of him, which I had not seen before, at least not to that extent. I loved a lot of GF's side comments in this recap and one of my favorite was "Gil-ro’s bottom lip is out on pout patrol all the way to the gate," because he did a lot of that in this drama. He looks so cute and adorable when he does that, I can't be mad at him, even if it makes him/his character childish. I don't watch 1N2D as regularly as I used to, and this drama gave me my dose of cute and adorable JW.

I also personally liked the fact that I learned a few cultural things/customs I was not familiar with or clear about, and that I was entertained. That was a plus for me. It was not perfect, however I enjoyed watching this drama. And I loved the OST, I am planning on getting it. My different perspective puts me in the minority, and I am OK being there. To each its/her own, right?

I didn't always agree with how SW was written, however I understood her character at times. Regarding sex, I saw her as someone who was shy about it, and as someone who needed to feel ready before doing it. It does not make her frigid, it makes her different, maybe.

When she rejected GR's affections after the argument they had when she bought the couple bags, she was still angry/pissed at him. She had done something nice, for the both of them, and he patronized her about it, instead of being gracious and accepting her gift (and thanking her for it). It was only later that I realized it. When he approached her, she was not ready to make up with him, and the conversation with her parents did not help later on.

She was the one who went to sleep with GR in ep. 19, after having sworn up and down that they were only to share the living spaces together, nothing more. And by just sleeping with her that night (and not doing anything else), GR indicated that he would take what she was willing to give at the time, and wait for her to be ready. I know, I know, she is an agent and a spy, and an adult woman (she was not 12, I know), however, she was also someone who had spent her life and adult years focusing on working, studying and taking care of her family. Those characteristics/traits to me are not mutually exclusive, this is a kdrama after all, we have had heroines like that before. We did not get a sense earlier on that she had dated a lot, had dated before or of how far she had gone in her previous (possible) relationships. It reminds me of that saying, "It takes all kinds to make a world," even characters like SW, I might add.

It also reminds me of Hang-ah (sp?) in the K2Hs. Granted, she was from North Korea and she had been sheltered all her life, however she was also a female character who was 30 and had never kissed a guy before she kissed JA. And yes, she did sleep with him before they got married, and we found out that to an extent, there was a point to that scene being there, which would help the narrative in the big scheme of things. Things later on were more dramatic/heightened because of that one scene/incident.

The other character that comes to my mind is the heroine of Personal Taste, who was in her late 20s, and had never had sex before. In fact, that was one of the reasons why her boyfriend had dumped her. She lived in modern Seoul, had a job, had had "a" boyfriend (that we knew of) and she was still a virgin. The hero was 28-30 and he, like GR, waited until she was ready to take things further, though he was strongly attracted to her physically. If we can accept that of those two characters I just mentioned (and those are just the characters that came to my mind), why can't we accept that of SW?

And it is not as if they (GR and SW) didn't kiss either (I know some people complained about that). Those kisses were few and between, however they went on for a few minutes, when they did happen. And in this episode, they did indicate that SW and GR became physically intimate, it would not have happened if she didn't want to.

I have come to learn, having participated on different blogs and having had long conversations with friends who love and watch dramas, that we each have our reasons why we like a particular drama and those reasons do not have to make sense to me. I laughed and smiled while watching this drama. Some things did not make sense (and I did ask a few questions in the recaps, so no, I did not park my brain at the door), and I learned how to take this drama, so as not to loose my enjoyment of it.

JB and GF, thank you once again for your hard work and for recapping this drama till the last episode. I have not always agreed with you, however I have always been grateful for your insight, for the different comments I have read and learned from on DB, and for a space where I could come and ask (any) questions, and share my perspective as well. Thank you for continuing to provide that space for us, the readers, and for the hard work the other recappers do as well.

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Tarantino is well renowed for his over graphic depiction of violence (people getting shot and/or stabbed continuously) and yet, miraculously, despite their wounds, them fighting on and bleeding all over the place.

No linky link I'm afraid - just had my breakfast. You can youtube kill bill death rides a white horse for one example.

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Hello Saner,

How are you today? Good I hope :-)! You came to my rescue, once again, thank you for that. I was not clear about your comment. Did you mean to say that despite their wounds, the characters seem to remain alive or are able to walk?
No linky link this time? :-( That is quite alright. I would not want your breakfast to be spoiled. I will youtube the scene you mentioned and see what comes up. Have a wonderful weekend :-)...

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hey Ivoire,
you put down in words very nicely what I was and am feeling. I agree with all your points and for me if a drama has a handome hero and happy ending..its all good for me!! and yes watching k dramas I have learnt quite a lot about their customs and traditions. right now i am in the process of learning how to eat with chopsticks and let me tell you I am also learning statistics and the later one is proving much easier than the former one :(

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"We each have our reasons why we like a particular drama and those reasons do not have to make sense to me."

That is so well put, and I, too, will try to remember it the next time I go crazy over a scene or a character or an entire drama.

Personal Preference is one of my favorites, too.

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Hello Epuda and Dominique,
Thank you for your comments. I will be back later to answer them. I have to go deal with real life. If you remember, check back later or over the weekend. Have a great weekend.

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ha ha, I've given up on this show waaay back, but I still read all the recaps for Javabeans' comments and reactions

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HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHA. omdude. x_x;

if joowon picks another cop role after his cop/burglar movie, i will flip. just flip.

if they continue to cast his female co-stars poorly, i will flip. just fliiiiiip. tables and all.

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he uh... I believe he's playing a cop in his next movie role. OY I dunno what is worse, Joowon playing a familiar role or that the movie is about a cop falling in love with a burglar..... *FLIP ALL THE TABLES!!!*

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OMG. I think I've gone crazy. I laugh at your comment for like... 2-3 minutes. Thanks for the laugh XD

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Me too...
Let's flip all...

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done

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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He's going to become a parody of himself if he keeps this up.

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haha. thanks, lemonade candy.

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Oh man! I was really *reading* the recaps just to see the drawings sent in. Oh well, we can always just rewatch the movie version. But man, they wasted a lot of talented actors in this show...

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Big applause to JB for your strong determination to recap this suck KD to the very end!

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Wooooooooooow... Applause for you ladies hanging in there! Thanks for the laughs!

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Crazy show.......poor joo won,what a waste :(

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wow, I expected things to go down hill but this ending was RIDICULOUS! This drama could have been soo much, but it fell, and I'm soooo sorry for the actors who are good but had to suffer through this mess!

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I can understand the stand-in-for-someone-else to apologize. It may be a Korean thing (as opposed to Korean-American). I was once part of Korean group where we had to take part in the same thing and although you may not be the one at fault, it was and can be very effective.

Anyhow, that fake smile Gil-Ro gave Seo-Won at the airport was sooooo cute.

My last comment is: Why, why no lip action in the last kiss scene?? They were like statues. Sigh.
Will miss Joo-Won! He did a great job

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Thanks you for risking you life watching & recapping this drama *bow*
I happily skip the recap and just read GF & JB's comments. I'm pretty sure that episode was all kind of bad. Well, at least now you can move on to (hopefully better) new drama(s) huh..

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I feel sorry for all the actors in this. What did they do to deserve this punishment. I guess we can now forget this ever happened and move on.

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I seriously thought the series ended at ep 16. Thought the extra eps were extensions...

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your recaps are so funny and thanks a lot for them :)

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Suffering over! Amnesia pills for the viewers and next projects for the cast and our dear recappers.

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if i have a cup of soju, I'll gather a toast for JB n girlfriday for your bravery to stick till the end LOL i neva started tis drama since the reviews sucks but I love your recaps :p

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Oy vey, does this writer know any living people at all? Is he even alive? If he's not then this is the best show written by a ghost ever. If he is alive then maybe he should go out in the world more, make some friends, get a girlfriend anything.

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Worst Drama Ever.

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Fashion King, then Dr Jin. Now this. The bar just gets lowered progressively.

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I agree but I'd also add I miss u to the list.

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It's not "I miss you", it's "I (*tears still dripping while having wide-eyed stares*) Miss (*cries for fifteen minutes* temporarily forgets what I'm crying about) You ( oh yeah *runs away crying*)...That show. I never made it all the way cuz I couldn't STAND the crying anymore! "I get it, your sad, does the water works have to happen again, you just cried 5 minutes ago" <-- those were my thoughts the whole time. lol. I swear that show de-sensitized me of tears for the next 5 years

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I swear, I Miss You makes much more sense than Prince's First Love.

Prince's First Love was crap.

Though, I still vote I'm Sorry I Love You for one of the worst treatments of adopted people EVER. I Miss You was horrible on that front, but the whole going over a cliff because of adoption angst made me vote it to the bottom.

And STILL Prince's First Love is worse. It got a very, very low rating by the end.

I rant it this way: The director screwed up shooting a beach!!! OMG, how can you screw up shooting a beach???? The water is blue, the white sand is there, point the d**n camera, you don't even need the rule of thirds, just point it at the water.... *fist shake*

They also gave Sung Yuri a lip disease to keep her from biting her lip when she acts... --;; (I'm serious). You can make a drinking game out of it. And you will be numb before you get halfway through.

Plus the guy she ends up with is an A-hole. Serious. And the second lead is lame...

Sorry... went a little too far.

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I'd have to agree that "I Miss You" was one of the worst I've seen. The acting was mediocre and the it was so gruesome, something I never expected.

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I swear, there are worse...

*cough* Dr. Jin *cough* Prince's First Love *cough*

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Hmm but Dr. Jin had Kim Jaejoong to make the occasional watchable scene, and i actually was able to convince myself to watch the last episode. Then again ... brain fetus.. squirting blood... (gulps amnesia pill to stop the going deeper into the nightmare)

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not really. i would say dr.jin is the worst, have you seen that one? i can't believe all the crap they put in that drama.

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A Thousand Years of Love. (forgot it)

I heard it was one of the worst ever in drama history...

I watched the first two episodes (somehow).

Makes.no.sense. OMG.

And that's an older drama.

Between Prince's First Love and A Thousand Years of Love, I can fully understand why Sung Yu Ri was considered a bad actress.

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Seriously, do the actors seriously preview the script before taking up the project or consider the production crew history especially the writer? Either due diligence is underrated, or there are other dynamics involved. This drama plain suckballs. Must be hard for them to memorize the script and try to act it out.

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Sadly, actors often sign for a drama with only 4 eps already written. When you known that the writer and the producer can change the script at the last minute without needing the green light of the actors... It's like signing a blanck check basically.

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Yup, as I said timing and failure to develop the spy plot and running out of plot in the middle. I called it. (And all his other mistakes as a writer)

I wouldn't have watched it if there was anything else decent to watch.

Right now I'm hoping Nine doesn't deliver me 9 times the damage.

I'm hoping for a good rom com soon. I feel like I'm living in the Dark Ages of Korean dramas.

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Oh I watched it raw this morning and went " what duh ?" so many times.
Well I watched it to the end. Being a Joo Won fan and all. My good deed or stupidity of the year.Probably stupidity.
Wanted to thank both of you till the end. The show got so bad I couldn't even ship the romance moments.
The best part of this whole episode was the pout patrol. Live and learn Joo Won .

As for me, thank goodness it's over. My poor brain each week.

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Yes! I watched it for the pout as well! XD

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I'm not even going to comment about the craziness and complete utter ridiculousness of this drama...

But I will say how much I enjoyed that screencap of Joo Won shooting Woo-jin in the shoulder. It's as if he was like, "Pfft! I'm getting sick of you two...."

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you know what would have been better? If this was all just a dream Seo Won had the day she was going to the interview

So what do we learn from this kids?.....LEAVE A GOOD MOVIE ALONE...no more adaptations

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Thank you for the recap!
I have watched this drama with a very good company, we was just laughing because of nonsense in the script and truly enjoying good parts. So, it was a good time for me.
The script is a disaster but the actors gave their best. The average rating is 11,4% and this is only their merit.
I’ll miss cute, hot, funny and adorable Gil-ro for sure. I am not surprised that Joo Won already has been cast in another romcom, he has brought such a charm to his character and made Gil-ro alive. I have no problems with his cops roles because they all are very different. Hwang Tae Hee is not Lee Kang Too, Lee Kang To is not Gil-ro. It’s like a difference between day and night and it’s very good for Joo Won to play such different characters, it makes him versatile actor. Can’t wait for his new movie.

And we were only the one drama here with drawings :-) Thanks to the authors.

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I agree with your comment about Joo Won.

Many people here have said that he is being typecast as a cop but if one watches each of his drama, they will realize that he brings a totally different interpretation to his role.

Besides his acting, the characters were written very differently personality wise. We can say both Hwang Tae-hee and Lee Kangto are cops albeit in different era, but in terms of personality they are as different a chalk and cheese. And to Joo Won's credit, he fleshes out each role so well that one will actually rub their eyes in disbelief when they see him in another character.

Having said that, I will of course like it even better if he were to take on something radical like an outright villain of sorts. But that doesn't seem likely as agencies don't take this sort of risk for actors his age and image.

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I fully agree with everything you said. He makes his each character unique.

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I don't know if we can attribute it all to Joo Won, the two characters in their motivation and writing were extremely different.

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I agree it cannot be 100% due to Joo Won's ability but it is largely so.
As his fan, I watch his dramas and scenes many times, I can see that he puts a lot of details into his acting. He would go as far as to give unique traits to each character he plays. When Joo Won acts, you can't see Joo Won the actor, he becomes the character.
I also came to this realization when I watch other actors. There is this well known actor who has played vastly different roles but yet each time he appears, I see the actor and not the character. Not that his acting is bad but somehow, he could not immerse himself deep enough and bring out the role that he was to play.
After having seen Joo Won in his 4th drama now, there are of course certain aspects which he repeats in more than one drama. But I'd say he is by far one of the better ones in the interpretation of his roles. Besides the science of it, I think he just has that flair of getting under the skin of the character.

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Hello SS, spoken like a true fan :-)...

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This would've been the best show for a naive 12-year old who doesn't have a basic understanding of the world and who can't stand sad endings. Seriously, this would've been their favorite show. If this drama got turned into a comic like Batman and Robin, or one of those pixel animations with really bad quality visuals, it might have made something out of itself. Nevertheless, I would never recommend this to any kid because it's bound to lower their IQ.

But thanks girlfriday and javabeans for doing the recaps so I can follow up with the show and support Joo Won without crying tears of blood by actually WATCHING it. Love you guys!

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So I basically tuned into these recaps for the wonderful, wonderful drawings by Ally and pumpkinattack (in addition obviously to GF and JB's awesome comments). Thank you for posting them, and may future shows have such awesome featured fanart! Thanks!

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The writer really messed up this one... and the person that approved the script is even worse - so many freakin' plot holes! This is one of the dramas that makes me think "What could have been..." The plot had so much potential to be really fun and exciting too. Hopefully this next round of new dramas will be better.

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Thank you for the recap JB and GF, you are dedicated recappers who always deliver awesome recap, most of the time, more enjoyable-entertaining than the drama itself.. ^^

Time to bid adieu to the show... *lift a glass of wine*

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I believe it is now referred to as French makkoli

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I read somewhere that the producers prepared 2 years for this drama.well..Thanks for the craps.

Am I the only one who feel that the actors were cheated?I remembered the discription of characters suddenly changed after they started filming.The writer sure tortured actors also.In one MBC interview,Joo Won and CKH memorising their lines at the last minutes because the scripts just arrived at their hands right before filming.

GF and JB.you guys have suffered enough.Thank you for recaps.

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MBC fails again in an entirely different genre than the last show it did. Just downward spirals. I can't even say that the best thing about this finale is knowing that next week a better show will come out. Because "When a Man Has Weird Facial Hair" is coming out after it and that looks like it'll be a train wreck too.
These MBC shows, you see the mess coming and hope for the best and they don't deliver. At least on this time-slot. Nothing else to say.

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There is definitely a MBC curse when it comes to the weekly dramas those 2 last years: This one, Jin and IMY. If When A Man Loves happens to be good, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
On the other side, I like their WE dramas which are completely nuts: They don't try to pretend it's Litterature and you can enjoy them without remorses.

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Hello Mystisith,
I beg to differ. The King2Hearts was an MBC drama, and overall, it was good. So not all of the weekly dramas on MBC have been bad in the last 2 years.

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Did I say ALL their weekly dramas? No. A large majority of them. They have the highest "failure rate" for dramas amongst the Big 3 and it's a well known problem, mostly for the channel itself (the MBC infamous President has been ousted and underperforming shows are surely one of the many reasons): http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/03/116_132807.html). That said, I won't fall in the trap of giving you figures since apparently you like to criticize and correct everything I say lately.
Still, have a nice day.

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Hi Mystisith. It's me again. :)

Oh thank god FINALLY he has been kicked out by the shareholders. Wonderful news. At least that 170-day strike last year had paid off well.

No wonder MBC's dramas (except TK2H & HaePumDal), well, y'know the drill...and I heard MBC's the more racist one of the Big 3 (in terms of the variety programs; and already I'm thinking South Korea has a streak of racism, even amongst themselves).

Now I don't know whether to continue DL'ing L7CS or not; ep.13 is #5 on queue in my torrent... :(

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Hello Mystisith,

Good to hear from you. I just took you at your word and I wasn't sure/clear whether you were implying all dramas in the last 2 years or not, and I just wanted to point out that not all dramas in the last 2 years had been bad. This is what you said, "...it comes to the weekly dramas those 2 last years." That comment could have implied (all) weekly dramas, imho. Thank you for the article, I appreciate it.

To be honest, I criticize and correct what I think/feel is not accurate in what you say/write. If I don't think/feel that way, there is no need for me to, really. You have helped me understand some things in the past and I have appreciated that. I base my criticism/correction on what I read and nothing else.

I hope you weekend is going well...

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I quote Blackadder:

"it started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle and the less said about the end the better — but apart from that it was excellent."

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WOW to Mini's bit of news. 2 years? Preparing for what? What a load of... The sponsors must be feeling so robbed. That show was unwatchable.

Thanks for recaps! Hilarious as usual. What a bonding experience.

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Hi guys ! Don't be so harsh on them ! It was hysterical to see how stupid they are ! I'm not really into the SW I didn't like her in PTB but joo won ! Holly merry I love him from. Head to toe ! Omg he is so amazing but that drama was a big let down for him so he is gonna go under the biggest waste of talent this year ! How dare they do that to my GAKSITAAAAAAAL ! Omg nevertheless he was amazing in acting the story was not good ! Well now all I can wait are gu family book and lee min ho's upcoming drama , well joo won , lee seung gi and LEE MIN HO. All in one year this must be the year for me !! Thank u for ur amazing last 4 posts for today ! They are $priceless$ hehehe

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The only positive from this series is that we now have the preliminary costume and make-up design prepped for next year's time travel drama: "Star Trek: The Joseon Generation."

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Thank you for carrying this joke all the way to the end. I think a great alternative title would be "Star Trek: The Romulans land in Joseon."

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Man, even after reading all the recaps, I still don't get it!

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lol i think the last few minutes minutes of this ep might just be worth watching hahaha thanks for the recaps

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Jb, gf, please do not feel obliged to finish a show you get bored of in the future, no matter how far into the show you've gone.
It's one thing to recap, but another to recap a terrible terrible show.. I definitely will not hold it against you two if,you decide to drop a show.
I understand you do pick shows to recap for its entire run, so I know your policy is to get to the end, but if it's as bad as this, I dont mind if you just drop it. Like how you did with lie to me, perhaps just OT the episodes.

But nonetheless, thanks for the hard work and snarky comments you showered us with making the reading of these recaps more fun than the drama itself could muster.

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First, you're not JB and GF, and this is not your blog/site.
No offense, hun, but what they want to recap is their own business. Hands off the keyboard vitriol.

Second, watching dramas like these (eventual-crap-dramas) is like taking drugs. You have the thrill at first, but then it becomes a necessity/chore you slowly get frustrated to, and then you wanna stop already but you can't. Simple as that.

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'Keyboard vitriol'? I don't see any, what is the problem with someone saying they don't want JB or GF to suffer through a terrible show just to write recaps of it?

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Thank God I gave up after ep 10/11. It started out pretty well and just went to sh*t I guess at the end (as usual for K-dramas).

The big problem with that is the live-shooting process. They film and edit and play the episode within a week, and are constantly monitoring the ratings and comments to structure the rest of the script to please the fans (I suppose). Horrible. They really need to change up the system. Not only is it stressful for the actors, crew, and writers, it really loses the vision for the show...and therefore, followers. They basically sell-out their story just to get higher ratings. Really pathetic.

If they actually:
a) write scripts way ahead of time,
b) film a couple of weeks ahead,
c) also choose more interesting, complex scripts,
d) have a diverse and meaningful location shots,
e) have useful and prepared background info,
f) and stick to their story,
they will do well.

It's like comparing an essay I wrote one week ago to one I wrote a month ago...which one is most likely to be better? Obv the one I spent more time on.......or if you can't do that, just make it 10 episodes from now on....I hate unnecessary dragging of one dimensional plots. As complicated this show was, it was still 1-D, nothing really new or exciting came forth, nor was there really any character development. :(

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Let's just nominated L7SC for ALL-TIME-WORST-KDRAMA along with Dr.Jin and Fashion King.

Even the recaps no longer interested me, only read the last 15 minutes recaps.

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The plot needed work but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's one of the worst along w/ Dr. Jin and the crazy brain fetus. Did you even watch this one the whole way through? So many have come on and said, "Oh, I stopped watching long ago, blah, blah..." and they kept saying that for every episode recap. That's fine but it really is unfair to judge a drama from the recaps without having watched it yourself. I'm not saying you specifically, but "you" as those who kept commenting the SAME thing each and every time. It really got old.

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I did watch it until episode 11. That time I couldn't stand it anymore, then I read recaps until episode 18, then I gave up too. So I skip the recaps until the last fifteen minutes where they're trying to tie the knots.

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thank you jb & gf for persevering 'til the end. :-)

as ridiculous as this drama was, Joo Won was still worth watching. everyone else, everything else..i skipped (especially in the last 8 or so episodes). heehee!

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Although the show was a major flop, I had thoroughly enjoyed the fan art from everyone, especially Ally! We should have more of these in future recaps! ;)

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what. the. actual. fuck.

lol i remember when i was like, legit excited that L7CS was going to be a drama... and now i'm just like ohthankgoditsover

sighhhh. thanks for the recaps<3

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I thought the ending was perfect!! What started with a lie ended with a lie. I liked the good looking cast, lost track of the story but still entertaining, hee hee.

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all I cab say is that tha actress that played Mi-rae is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, thats it

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Oh my Lord! I am so glad this is over! Also wishing for mind bullets. So glad I did not watch the whole way through. Thanks JB and GF for biting that bullet for us.

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Thanks JB and GF for the recaps. It's may have been a 20 hr drama but you guys must have invested twice or 3 times the amount of time since recapping is such a slow process. Thanks again and thanks for all the people who drew the fan art, they were really good and talented.

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hnn,, i know guyss .. this joowon's drama not the great one,, but we can forget the fact.. jowoon is tallented and good actor. just stop complaining guys.

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At least Dr. Jin was funny for the wrong reasons, plus true to story line, they covered some 'gore-y' ground. Here, they faithfully avoided the story line and gave another screen-space-waster, another 'Big'. Would be so much better to have more 'Nine's, 'Incarnation of money's, or maybe more 'just anything's instead, 'sigh'.

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Thanks for suffering through this, javabeans and girlfriday!!

I'm curious to know the reactions of all the staff members and the actors to this nonsensical drama. I can just imagine the person holding the boom mike for the scenes, trying really hard not to say "what the f*&% is this?".

Sadly, the ratings, if you average the numbers out (since the drama started with great ratings -even hitting 20% at one point- and then the numbers declined), weren't that bad. There have been better dramas with half the ratings L7CS got. The writer will probably delude himself into thinking that L7CS wasn't the crap we all know it to be.

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I can't believe some are actually saying Dr. Jin was better than this drama.
"At least Dr. Jin was funny for the wrong reasons" (poster Dee) -- Oh, really?? That's a very nice way of saying Dr. Jin was funny because it was ridiculous and made NO sense, even as a science fiction.

The spy plot of this drama was slow and they didn't tie up all loose ends but it did follow a storyline.
So many here rag on this drama but they didn't even watch it all the way through.

And some even went so far as to write that Choi Kang Hee was unattractive or "ugly: as some put it. Well, she looked better than Ha Ji-Won did in Secret Garden imo!!

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Oh man, I could say a lot about this comment but I will keep it for myself. Thanks for the laugh...

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It's a Rave/Rant, not Reasonable, remember..
So, do we agree to disagree?
Sorry, but as the saying goes, 'My comment, my opinion'.
:) Let's loosen up and have fun people!

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