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God’s Gift – 14 Days: Episode 16 (Final)

I wasn’t sure we would make it, but here we are in the final stretch. Believe it or not, we’ve got more twists and turns in our final day, enough to make me doubt if anyone was going make it out alive. It’s been one hell of a ride, and we’re kept on our toes until the very end. All the twists make us a little rushed at the end, but we do come full circle with gaps filled to complete our original timeline. And while we do get the answers, the show still leaves us questioning what could have been, what was, and what will be. But as always, that’s just up to our old friend, Fate.

 
EPISODE 16 RECAP

First Son Kim Joon-seo, provokes Dong-chan, who reacts by chocking him on the hospital bed. Soo-hyun intervenes to stop Dong-chan just as we roll over to our final day.

Now out of Dong-chan’s firm grip, Kim Joon-seo laughs at their attempt to kill him. Soo-hyun threatens him with the pictures, but he smirks. The pictures aren’t enough evidence to prove that he did anything. He tells them to try, but in the time the evidence gets put together, Saet-byul will already be dead.

At that, Dong-chan pulls him into another chokehold, but the bodyguards rush in this time. Dong-chan struggles to get out of the bodyguards’ grip, but Soo-hyun tells him to stop. This guy’s not worth their time.

Outside the hospital, Soo-hyun tells Dong-chan that Kim Joon-seo is right: the pictures alone aren’t enough evidence to prove anything. What do they do now?

Dong-chan gets a call and brightens up when he sees that it’s Grandpa Chu; however, on the phone, it’s not Grandpa but an assistant, who tells Dong-chan to come to the hospital. He realizes that today is the day that Grandpa passed away from a heart attack.

In his hospital bed, Grandpa finishes signing his will just as Dong-chan and Soo-hyun enter. Dong-chan scolds Grandpa for not taking care of his health and drinking all that coffee (aw), but Grandpa replies with an envelope, saying that this should help him with his investigation.

Inside is a written suicide note from Grandpa’s son (Chu Do-jin), which retells the events at Moojin ten years ago. In a flashback, Chief of Staff Lee Myung-han gives the guys two options: (1) become accomplices to the crime and cover it up; (2) be charged of murder and spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Chu Do-jin acts first and makes the decision by picking up the knife and stabbing Soo-jung. Chief of Staff Lee then takes pictures of the three guys with Soo-jung’s blood on their hands as blackmail to seal the deal.

Finally with the truth, Dong-chan looks at Grandpa with betrayal. Grandpa knew this whole time that Dong-ho had been innocent, but he didn’t have enough courage to tell the truth.

Dong-chan reasons that Grandpa must have offered the money to pay off Dong-ho’s imprisonment and tells him that he won’t be taking his money. He tells Grandpa to stay alive and live with repentance.

Dong-chan storms out, and Grandpa stops Soo-hyun before she leaves. He apologizes to her for acting so late and tells her that he has his people looking for Saet-byul. With that, Soo-hyun leaves and Grandpa gasps as he holds his weak heart.

Chief of Staff Lee relaxes in his home when suddenly Ji-hoon pops out in his living room demanding his daughter back. Lee acts oblivious, but Ji-hoon calls him out. He took the jewelry evidence, so let Saet-byul go.

Another flashback, but this time to five years ago when Ji-hoon still worked as a prosecutor. Yoon Jae-han, Te-oh’s hyung and one of the accomplices, offers to testify and asks Ji-hoon to reinvestigate the Moojin case.

Soon after this encounter, Yoon Jae-han dies in a car accident, and Ji-hoon storms into Lee Myung-han’s office, accusing him of staging his death. But of course, Ji-hoon doesn’t have evidence.

That’s where the jewelry evidence comes in. When Ji-hoon found the evidence recently, he threatened to use it against Chief of Staff Lee, but he also had some ulterior motives. In his negotiations, Ji-hoon says that he’s come to question how much he can do to change the world as a mere lawyer and asks Chief of Staff Lee to be a stepping stone for him.

But at this point, Ji-hoon doesn’t care about the deal. He drops to his knees and apologizes for everything. He begs Lee Myung-han to save his daughter and calls himself a dog, saying he’ll do anything he’s asked.

At that, Lee calls for the drop-off of Saet-byul at a nearby hospital and tells Ji-hoon to go to his daughter. How nice but very uncharacteristic of him… This was way too easy.

Morning has arrived, and Grandma reads the headlining newspaper article about the capital punishment proceedings. Suddenly, the corrupt police forces come into the house and arrest both Grandma and Young-gyu for Saet-byul’s kidnapping.

Dong-chan and Soo-hyun meet up with Jenny and Byung-tae to execute their next plan of action. Dong-chan calls Lee Myung-han with the truth and asks to meet up. Then he hands Jenny and Byung-tae the file for safekeeping.

Soo-hyun then gets a call from Ji-hoon with Saet-byul’s whereabouts. Dong-chan offers to go with her, but she tells him to go save his brother. Soo-hyun drives off on her mission, as does Dong-chan on his.

Dong-chan enters Lee Myung-han’s room, sarcastically commenting on how criminals live in great luxury. He kicks the board game off the table and sets down Chu Do-jin’s letter. Lee Myung-han reads the letter but says nothing.

Then he turns on his TV, which shows a live feed of Grandma, Young-gyu, and now Ho-kook, who is knocked unconscious. He says that there’s plenty of evidence — surveillance cameras, Saet-byul’s DNA at the Moojin hideout — that prove that Grandma is the kidnapper. Dong-chan doesn’t express too much worry, however, knowing that his mother isn’t the real kidnapper.

But Lee Myung-han doesn’t stop there. Grandma and Young-gyu will be taken to the police station, but on the way there, they will be allowed to escape. With the criminals escaping, the police will then shoot at them, not with their guns, but with Ho-kook’s gun. He orders Dong-chan to bring the original letter, or else the three of them will die.

Ji-hoon runs into the hospital to find Saet-byul, but she’s nowhere in sight. He calls Lee Myung-han, who tells him that Saet-byul ran away. Soo-hyun arrives and drops to the ground when she hears that Saet-byul is gone.

They’re running out of time, and Soo-hyun decides to go meet the president. She keeps thinking back to the phoenix tail that Saet-byul drew in the Moojin shack, the same one on the president’s ring. Frustrated, Ji-hoon tells her that the president has nothing to do with this scheme — it’s all Lee Myung-han.

Ji-hoon is sure the president knows nothing because he was in Switzerland as the president’s aide at the time. He actually sounds convincing, but Soo-hyun can’t trust him and needs to check for herself.

Dong-chan returns to Lee Myung-han with the original written letter, and the three are set free. Lee Myung-han rips up the letter, and we see that Saet-byul is still trapped in his basement. Oh, he plays extra dirty.

When Ho-kook wakes up, Dong-chan lies that he hit him, thinking Ho-kook was a thief. Then Ho-kook drops the news: Dong-ho is on the list for tomorrow’s capital punishment proceedings. Dong-chan knew this was coming, but the original date was a month later, not the next day. Uh-oh.

Dong-chan goes home and asks Grandma for food, shocking her by being less hostile than he’s been in years. He clearly feels regret for his attitude toward her over the years, and Grandma quickly warms up to his arrival, rushing to feed him. Young-gyu excitedly comments on how this is the first time Uncle Dong-chan has eaten a meal with Grandma and him.

Dong-chan turns to Young-gyu and asks if he wants to go see his father. Grandma protests, saying that Dong-ho will be shocked at Young-gyu’s state, but Dong-chan insists that he promised his brother.

He takes Young-gyu outside to give him a bowl haircut, with a literal bowl on his head. And with Young-gyu freshly groomed, he suggests that they take a picture. Grandma looks back at Dong-chan, confused and worried, while he forces a smile for the picture. It’s a bittersweet moment.

Meanwhile, Soo-hyun is making way in her own investigation of the president. Looking at a video of the president that was recorded at the same time that the Moojin incident was taking place, she sees that he never walked offscreen — he had no time to take a call or do anything else, meaning that he really didn’t know. Soo-hyun puts on a different recording of the president’s inauguration and sees that there are two rings: one for the president, one for the first lady.

The first lady was behind this all, trying to protect her own son. She has been looking after Saet-byul during her kidnapping and initially wants to let her go, but when she realizes that letting go of her would endanger her son, she decides the girl must be taken care of.

But why did Lee Myung-han help her cover up the crime? He says that he respected now-president Kim Nam-joon too much as a person and as a politician to let him to go down for his son’s mistake. He wanted to make him the president.

Lee Myung-han goes down into his basement and orders Tattoo Hand to get rid of Saet-byul. Tattoo Hand protests, saying that this is against his promise.

But Lee Myung-han reminds him that his son’s killer needs to hang in order for his wife to stop her suicide attempts, and the list of felons set for capital punishment can be changed at any time.

Visiting the prison, Dong-chan greets his brother while Young-gyu hides under the table. As soon he sits down, Dong-ho asks if the noose for his hanging will hurt. He cries, saying that he scared and doesn’t want to hurt.

Then Young-gyu pops up from under that table, shocking Dong-ho. Young-gyu is disappointed at first, thinking his father forgot him, but Dong-ho calls out Young-gyu’s name and apologizes to him.

Once Young-gyu is out of the room, Dong-ho asks why Young-gyu is different (since Young-gyu was smart as a child when he last knew him), fearful that he is somehow to blame for the boy becoming mentally slow. Dong-chan claims that Young-gyu was just happy to see him, but Dong-ho knows something’s happened. Then he asks Dong-chan to be Young-gyu’s father if he dies.

Dong-chan refuses, saying that Dong-ho should be his father and live happily together when he gets out. At that, Dong-ho’s face lights up and he asks when he can get out. But Dong-chan looks sadly at his brother, unsure himself.

Dong-chan goes to visit Woo-jin, who is still unconscious at the hospital. He tells Woo-jin that if he takes care of Dong-ho and Young-gyu when he’s gone and his mother passes away, then he’ll forgive him. Oh no, what is he doing?!

First son Kim Joon-seo is released from the hospital and swarmed by reporters when Dong-chan jumps in to give him a few punches. Then he proceeds to tell all the reporters that he’s the real killer in the Moojin cases and framed his brother for fun.

He puts on an act, claiming that he’s the real culprit and that it’s not fun when all the stupid police and investigators can’t figure out a thing.

He’s got the pictures to prove it and throws them at the reporters. Soo-hyun tries to reach Dong-chan but sees on the news that he’s being arrested as the Moojin killer.

In jail, Dong-chan sees on the news that Grandpa Chu has passed away, just like in the original timeline. Then Ho-kook runs to him, knowing that Dong-chan did everything to save Dong-ho. Dong-chan keeps up the act and insists that everyone was fooled.

Grandma comes to the station and asks why Dong-chan is doing this. She accuses Soo-hyun, wrongly thinking that she reported her for kidnapping Saet-byul and now she’s ruining Dong-chan. She regrets not having held onto Saet-byul, dead or alive.

Right then, Soo-hyun runs into the station, and Grandma grabs onto her, demanding her to save her sons. Grandma is dragged out, and Soo-hyun confronts Dong-chan. What the hell is he doing?

Dong-chan apologizes and says he’s done what can. Soo-hyun persuades him to not give up, but it seems that he already has. He tell her that Dong-ho’s capital punishment date is tomorrow, and this was the only thing he could do for his brother.

But Soo-hyun is not ready to give up. She still has time, and she’s going to use it to save Saet-byul, Dong-ho, and now Dong-chan.

Soo-hyun heads over to the Blue House, claiming she needs to talk to the president directly, but the guards won’t let her in.

Ji-hoon hasn’t given up either, and he’s back at Lee Myung-han’s house. Lee Myung-han denies any knowledge of Saet-byul, and Ji-hoon runs at him with a knife, an insane look in his eyes. But the bodyguards knock him down and beat him to a pulp.

Back at the station, Dong-chan is released. Apparently, the lack of evidence means that they can’t hold him in custody, so he’s free to go. He gets his phone just as it receives a text message with a meet-up location to save Saet-byul.

He arrives at the location, which happens to be the same club from the night he can’t remember. Dong-chan comments on the familiarity of the club and rejects any alcohol.

Unable to get an audience with the president, Soo-hyun forces his hand by talking to the reporters in front of the Blue House. They broadcast her public statement live, questioning the president’s lack of action. The president watches her from his TV.

And so do two men at the club. They complain about Soo-hyun’s persistence to meet the president and blame her for losing her child. Dong-chan, now somehow thoroughly drunk, confronts these two men and throws his drink at them.

Having made her statement, Soo-hyun is finally escorted in the meet the president. She tells him that he’s the only person left who can save Saet-byul and hands him her evidence pictures. She explains the truth and points out that her son has a scar on his collar from that night. It’s clear that the president was unaware of his son’s actions.

Tattoo Hand takes Saet-byul in his car, and she assumes that the first lady has let her go. She also sees that they’re headed to Moojin and assumes that Mom and Dong-chan are going to pick her up. She takes out a small wrapped bag and takes out her hair clip.

In a quick flashback, we see that Saet-byul received two clips in Young-gyu’s gift. Dong-chan threw one into the river, and Saet-byul has the other one. The clip hasn’t gone just yet…

Dong-chan is getting beat up just like in the original timeline, and he gets a call. No one seems to be on the other end, so he gets up to leave. He grabs his jackets but leaves one.

As he gets into the taxi, Dong-chan drops his phone on the street and asks the driver to take him to the Moojin reservoir.

Saet-byul begins to grow suspicious as Tattoo Hand pulls her along through the Moojin fields. When she falls, he puts his hands around her neck to choke her, but he can’t.

Understanding that he won’t be able to carry out Lee’s order, he apologizes to Saet-byul and promises to take her home. But in the distance, a group of men arrive and Tattoo Hand runs away with Saet-byul in his arms.

Lee Myung-han is notified, but he seems to have a back-up plan, having predicted Tattoo Hand’s actions. He orders for the preparation of the plan while Ji-hoon lies on the ground, bloody and helpless.

Tattoo Hand hands Saet-byul his phone (with the Angel Foundation bell keychain) and tells her to run. After some hesitation, she runs off and he stays to fight off the men. But they play dirty, and he’s stabbed in his side.

Soo-hyun gets back in her car from her meeting with the president and gets a call from Saet-byul. She tells Mom that she’s in Moojin, but the group of men catch her before she can say any more. As Saet-byul is taken away, her hair pin drops on the ground.

Saet-byul is taken to a church, the same place where Soo-jung was killed. She sits down and empties her bag, looking for her pen, but only the Snake puzzle piece and the bell keychain fall out. She finds a crayon on the ground and begins to draw on the wall – the same drawings from the Moojin shack.

Soo-hyun runs into the Moojin shack, expecting Saet-byul to be there, but she’s nowhere to be found. Dong-chan has also made it to Moojin, and he drunkenly picks up Saet-byul’s fallen hair clip and puts it in his pocket.

And then a bit farther along in the fields, Dong-chan finds Saet-byul lying on the ground. Unconscious or dead? Suddenly he remembers the call from that drunk night—it was his mother, who claimed that she mistakenly killed Saet-byul.

In denial, Dong-chan convinces himself that it wasn’t his mother; it was all him. He killed Saet-byul. In a voiceover, we hear Lee Myung-han’s plot and the reason for Dong-chan’s brain scan.

He knew about Dong-chan’s drunk blackouts, so he manipulated that weakness and made sure he had alcohol in his system the whole time. At the club, his drink was spiked, and in the cab, more alcohol was injected into his bloodstream.

Then Saet-byul was made to look like she was dead, and a woman with a similar voice to Grandma called Dong-chan. Lee Myung-han predicts that Dong-chan will take the blame for his mother, just like Dong-ho did for him.

But that’s not all. As evidence, pictures will be taken of Dong-chan’s actions and will be sent to Ji-hoon at an appropriate time. Lee Myung-han trusts that Ji-hoon will take care of things once he sees that Dong-chan killed his daughter—and in the original timeline, we see that he’d done just that. He’s the one who ordered Dong-chan to be thrown into the reservoir with the cinder block.

Just as Lee Myung-han finishes his briefing with the first lady in her son’s hospital room, the president walks in. He checks the scar on his son’s collar and steps back in disbelief, his doubts confirmed.

Dong-chan walks towards the water with Saet-byul in his arms, apologizing the whole way. Soo-hyun searches for Saet-byul in the fields, when suddenly she gets a call from the president. He tells her go to the reservoir and stop Dong-chan, who thinks that Saet-byul has died.

Dong-chan carries Saet-byul out to the water and starts to believe his worst nightmare. He convinces himself that he was the one in the original timeline to kill Saet-byul.

Soo-hyun yells at him from a distance, and he apologizes to her as well. Just as we roll over to D-Day, Soo-hyun reaches the edge of the reservoir.

The president makes a public announcement about his resignation the next morning, saying that he will be facing the repercussions of his family’s unforgivable deed.

Dong-ho is released from prison and returns to three blurred silhouettes while Soo-hyun overlooks the Moojin waters with Saet-byul and her mother (no Ji-hoon). Please do tell me what happened.

Just as Dong-chan was about to throw Saet-byul in the water, her hand grabs one of his buttons. He realizes that she’s not dead and thinks back to the prophecy. The two people in the prophecy weren’t Saet-byul and Dong-ho; they were Saet-byul and Dong-chan.

This was why Soo-hyun and Dong-chan were sent back to fourteen days ago. A big wave of relief passes over Dong-chan, and he smiles as he says that he’ll protect Saet-byul. With that, he walks forward, into the water.

As our story comes to a close, Soo-hyun and Saet-byul look over the waters, and we’re also shown the ending of Dong-chan’s version of The Story of a Mother as he told to Saet-byul. “The knight saved the child and returned her to the mother. And the child and her great mother lived happily ever after.”

Then Saet-byul asks, “What about the knight? Did he live too?”

 
COMMENTS

And yes, that is the end. We don’t get an answer to the Saet-byul’s question, and the fate of Dong-chan’s life is left open for us to decide. ALKSDJFOIENCZK. In my mind there are two options that makes sense: either Dong-chan realizes that he needs to sacrifice himself for this fight to be over, or he fights Fate and stays alive. But really, show? Did you really have to leave off on a cliffhanger? Given the nature of the show, I realize that this is supposed to be somewhat of an open ending, but this ending doesn’t really give us anything. I mean, it’s THE END, no more, nothing, nada. They’ve got to give us more than that.

In the case where Dong-chan does die (I know, infuriating to think about), we know his reasoning and the steps he took throughout the episode that showed this choice as a possibility. He was willing to take the blame for the Moojin cases to take his brother’s place, and he even went to Woojin to ask him to take care of his family. And when Dong-ho is released from prison, we’re purposefully only shown the silhouettes of three people without their faces. It could be Dong-chan, it could be Woojin, it could be Ho-kook. Who are we to know? But again, who are we to know if all these little hints are just red herrings?

I personally find the second option more compelling. If Dong-chan is alive (as I would like to believe), he’s shown that the whole journey through the 14 days meant something and had enough power to change Fate. Throughout the 14 days, we’ve seen our dynamic duo change things in Fate and alter the course of certain events. Why not this time? This time around, Dong-chan knows the truth and knows what he’s up against. He most certainly had the power to not give any shits about the prophecy and end the battle with Fate.

Overall, it was kind of a confusing episode. Not that I wasn’t confused every episode, with all those false alarms and intricate twists, but I was expecting some more clarity. The show never failed to fool me again with their red herrings and anticlimactic moments, even in the final installment. I was legitimately scared when Dong-chan remembered the phone call from Grandma, who admitted to killing Saet-byul. I definitely saw that as a possibility and thought, “Holy shit, did Grandma really kill Saet-byul?” But nope false alarm. Also, when the tables turned and Soo-hyun had all the burden to save Saet-byul, Dong-ho, and Dong-chan. I was like “Hell yes! Full circle with motherhood and baddass Soo-hyun!” And about two scenes afterwards, Dong-chan was released, and we got lost the potential great moment to an anticlimactic one.

I was getting antsy when there were about ten minutes left of the show, and it was still going the wrong way. I had no idea how it was going to turn itself around and give me that happy ending I desperately needed. I wanted some enlightenment on how everything unfolded, how the baddies were punished, and how our Baddass Mother and Captain Awesome get their well-deserved resolution. But we were give so little, so I’m going to let my imagination flow to create that ending.

But despite the ending, I thoroughly enjoyed this drama. It did its job in making me enjoy every second of anxiety and giving me that right dose of OHMYGOD to make me keep watching. It also showed me a new side of dramaland and a new twist on the time travel element that was executed quite well. And of course, we can’t leave out the acting. Lee Bo-young and Jo Seung-woo gave great performances individually and as a duo, and I really hope we get a chance to properly ship them in the future. And Kim Yoo-bin, charming and wonderful as always.

A big thank you to javabeans and girlfriday for getting me through the bootcamp and letting me write for this awesome Dramabeans community! This was a great first drama recap experience, and I thank all the Beanies as well for bearing with my struggles. Until next time!

 
JAVABEANS’ COMMENTS

What a letdown of a finale. Aside from the Dong-chan question (which I’ll get to in a moment), it was poorly slapped together, its live-shoot process evident in practically every transition. There were cuts that felt like a commercial break had been edited out, which I could have dealt with if only it didn’t also feel like whole scenes had been chopped out too.

Twists are fine and all, and based on the pacing of this story the whole way through, it seemed likely that we were going to be thrown more curve balls. Where the drama dropped that ball, however, is in adequately explaining the twist or building up the tension to arrive at that point so that our principal reaction is “Oh my god, I totally didn’t expect that but it makes perfect sense!” and not “Wait, what’s happening now? Why?”

As for the ending, I believe Dong-chan is dead, but not because the drama showed that to me or explained why satisfactorily. I believe it because the trappings of a heroic death are there (an episode full of goodbyes and making provisions for ones left behind), even if the logic lacks persuasiveness, and also because it’s in all the news stories and the producers have insisted that Dong-chan’s death was something they’d considered from the synopsis stage. So if your drama producer tells ya that he’s dead, I think he’s dead.

Now, here’s the thing. I think a Dong-chan death could have worked. And I do believe many of us would have been fine with an ending where he died if it had been executed well—after all, I do like the poetry of Dong-chan both thwarting Fate (Saet-byul lives) and succumbing to it (the price is himself). If only the poetry coincided with reality. How frustrating was the reservoir scene? The whole build-up of the frame job was to ensure Dong-chan would dump Saet-byul’s body believing that the girl was already dead. Then he sees the girl is alive. And his reaction is, “Ah, then Fate must mean I’m supposed to die instead of her”? Why, why, whyyyyy.

But this drama has always had more ambition than ability to execute. It wanted to do so much and threw so many threads into the mix, when really a solid edit would have done wonders. Clarity, as dramallama mentioned, was sorely lacking, and how can I be content with a finale that leaves me confused? In the beginning the pace was fast and the steady stream of clues and revelations were addicting, exhilarating even, so that I was happy to go along for the ride, thinking it would all clear up in the end. But then the clown car of killers just kept spitting out more bad guys and the plot hurtled forward based on the flimsiest of evidence and the show seemed much more interested in pulling out reversals than ensuring that those reversals felt organic. And I would be willing to accept flimsy logic in many cases—say, for instance, seeing a ten-year-old photograph and immediately knowing that the fifth guy must be our killer—because God’s Gift was always about the direction of the investigation more than the details of the investigation. As long as these clues kept the plot moving, fine. Except in the last case where it does us wrong, and Dong-chan assumes that Fate must be appeased, and that he must be the one to die, and that there’s no other reason for his magical journey back in time, all based on the prophecy that Soo-hyun told him she once heard. Aghhhhhhh.

I was ready to forgive this show a lot of its flaws because it was still an entertaining, sometimes gripping ride and I found every episode to be engaging. So as long as I ended on a satisfying note, my affection could override the minor quibbles with the sometimes-clunky execution. Alas, the finale just tanked it all, and now I’ve just got this sour taste in my mouth. If only I had 14 days to give the producers to go back and do it better. Unfortunately, their stance on Fate’s will sort of suggests they’d just muck it up all over again.

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Omo! I CANNOT believe they ended this awesome roller coaster of a drama this way. This just BREAKS. MY. HEART. I had to sit for a good 15 minutes to process everything. My Ki Dong Chan.

And what's even sadder is that I kinda see why they couldn't give Dong Chan a happy ending. He didn't know he was framed the first time around. All Dong Chan was holding on to was that after that drunken night at the bar, he woke up with Saet Byul's clip in his pocket. So he must be the murderer, right? And now in the second timeline, he wants to save his mother like his hyung saved him 10 years ago. This is the kind of stupid nobility that has me mentally giving some dramas a (happy) ending different than the ones the writers actually use.

Yes, I get why he would want to off himself. Mom can't go to jail, right? And he didn't want to put her through the agony of having a son on death row all over again. But whyyyyyyyyyyyy?!!! Am I expected to feel better that he killed himself before Ji Hoon beat him to it? Do i console myself with the fact that at least it all stops with Ki Dong Chan? No more blackmailing everyone in the whole entire world anymore? Or that now, Dong Chan is reunited with his first love Sung Joo? No. I don't believe he needed to die. There would have been absolutely nothing wrong with giving this drama your typical happy ending where everything falls into place, because I think i deserve it. LOL. AFter being tortured with all the twists from episode 1-15, I wanna finally be able to breathe.

Ahhh, show. Yes, you kinda tied the loose ends in a satisfying way. I like how the first timeline parallels the second, enlightening us simultaneously. Episode 15 was sort of anti-climactic, what with the twists better than finding out who the actual killer is. But episode 16 delivered. Even with the a-mother-will-do-everything-for-her-child theme of the drama, it never occurred to me who the real mastermind was. It was pretty good.

Another thing that was very pretty with this drama is Lee Bo Young. Oh my stars, she is beautiful. I've been watching K-dramas for a little over a year now and I have never seen any of her dramas before. All I know was that I was ready to hate her because she is Ji Sung's (one of my biases, thank you very much, Secret) wife. I didn't expect to love her. Maybe because I am a mom, too, that her fears as Soo Hyun hit close to home, but she did her role justice. Even her recklessness was sometimes admirable.

Also, Jo Seung Woo =) And Baro as Young Gyu, and Kim Yoo Bin as Saet Byul are the cutest, and their friendship the sweetest.

They should've extended this drama by one episode to give us an ending that's neatly and tightly wrapped with a brightly-colored bow. I won't ask for Soo Hyun and Dong Chan to end up together anymore. Heck, I won't even hold him onto his promise of waiting 10 years for Saet Byul to get older. I just want justice for him. Because...

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You mentioned this is your first Lee Bo Young drama, I definitely recommend you watch I Hear Your Voice, she's great in that as well.

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Thanks for the recommendation. Will definitely watch it =)

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Sorry for riding your comment, but it's important. )

For everyone who would like to have a God's Gift Director's Cut DVD, please participate in this petition - https://www.facebook.com/sinsundvd

Just send a message to to this page's admin, saying that you would like to buy a Director's Cut DVD (you're not required to actually buy it, it is just for estimation of potential buyers).

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In a rebroadcast of ep16, some scenes were changed!

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Seriously. I very much prefer Lee Bo-young's role in IHYV more than in here but that's not because of the acting (she rocks in that department). More like her character was much more perfect in IHYV whereas here, she was rather too reckless for my tastes.

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I am a bit relieved that I am not the only one who is critical of LBY's acting in this drama. I love her in IHYV and I thought that IHYV and My Daughter is So Young are the turning point of her career. At the very beginning of God's Gift, she is doing fine. But once Jo Seung Woo and Kim Tae Woo have more scenes, the problems in her acting become apparent. LBY can act and she can act well, but somehow, it's a bit "mechanical" to my taste. It's also partly because how her character is being written. There is no trajectory of SY's development. I get that her journey is to save daughter. But what does this journey mean to her emotionally? What's the point of naming the drama "God's Gift"? I do not see the emotional growth of SY. Regrettably, LBY's does not bring in much energy to her character either, like she did in IHYV.

The beacon of this show is one and only: that is, Jo Seung Woo's interpretation of Jo Seung Woo. No wonder Korean reporter said that "The real gift of 'God's Gift' is to the happiness being together with Jo Seung Woo." (In Korea, it is very expensive and difficult to see JSW up and close for his musical shows...therefore, JSW's appearance on the small screen is a blessing for Korean audience!).

I cannot rave enough about JSW's acting in this drama. He is not that tall and he is not your typical hot hunky Korean guy either. But he commendable and yet effortless acting makes him a formidable giant who carries the show. He simply lights up the screen and infuses the drama with so much energy, love and sincerity that one cannot help falling in love with such a wonderfully flawed character.

I've known JSW's works for ten years. He is always a show stealer, even in Classic. But still, I am so grateful that this show put him on the radar of international audience. He is a natural born actor and indeed he is the precious gift this drama gives to the audience.

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I wouldn't find LBY's acting mechanical here. If anything, I thought she embodied the role of a mother really well. Only issue was that the writer made her character act far too senselessly at times (like repeatedly begging the multiple killers on the show to save her daughter which in turn only pointed out her weakness to them, lol). So the way the character was written was bleh. Only Jo Seung-woo shined in the drama because his Ki Dong-chan, for the most part, was grounded in reality. Like, when we were all collectively groaning at Soo-hyun's reckless actions, so did Dong-chan ("Aish! I really can't leave this Ajhumma alone!") thus allowing us to connect with him and appreciate his sensibility. If he didn't have issues with Soo-hyun's was of doing things, then most likely we would have rolled our eyes and thought, "Both of these characters are sooo stupid."

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Yes! JSW is the scene-stealer here. LBY suffered a bit from the bad writing in the second half. But I have got to say, she is able to portray different characters in the 3 dramas I watched her in, including this one. She was a sullen and proud orphan in My Daughter SeoYoung, a funny, bitchy one in I Hear Your Voice, and a crazy loving mum in this one. Some other actors are really just one-dimensional. Although I think her role in IHYV was the best, because I think it fit with her personality as a funny person in real-life, she remains my favourite Korean Drama actress. I have seen none other like her.

More JSW and LBY please. Individually or as a duo.

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I actually began to see Lee Bo Young's acting potential from the drama "Harvest Villa" in which she played against Shin Ha Kyun. Shin of course gave a fantastic performance in that drama but Lee was surprisingly solid. It's not an easy feat given Shin tends to eat his costars alive (as in Brain).

I have no doubt regarding Lee's acting ability. However, it is interesting that once you pair LBY with Jo Seung Woo and Kim Tae Woo, you can see the difference. In particular, JSW's acting has so many different shades and colors. Maybe that's what critics identify as "style"? It's not only about giving a truthful representation of the character. JSW gives the character a distinct flavor, a life form of its own that the audience can completely forget that it's a drama and he is only performing. Otherwise, why would we detest this ending so much? We identify with DC and we want him to obtain happiness and peace after such a traumatic life.

I guess it's just a matter of preference. I also want to comment on how other side characters bring the drama to life. Kim Tae Woo, another fixture of Chungmuro, makes us hate and yet inadvertently respect his character. The various actors who play villains are all brilliant (except the president's son, I would say). And DC's brother just breaks my heart--every time DC appears together with his brother, my tears well up.

I do wish that SY is a better written character and DC doesn't have to be die...sigh..

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I agree with you about JSW. I am totally smitten with him and he is indeed the one that carried the show. Rushing to watch every ep was mainly because of him but the show in itself was also riveting. I'm a devoted fan now and promise to catch his future works.
LBY is a wonderful actress. I loved her in My Daughter Seo Young. She did a great job there to make that series an outstanding one and she continued wonderfully in this drama too. I can't say I liked ICHYV much. I thought it was too shallow a character for her to portray.
Now, I really hated the ending of GG. Many times we think some dramas could have condensed the last 2 eps into one but this series needs to add one more ep to tie everything up. We want to know what happens to everybody. The ending was totally dissatisfactory and disappointing! A definite letdown. I hope many of the viewers will 'complain' directly to the Korean writers/producers etc.

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Agree with everything you have to say about JSW!!

The charming, handsome and amazingly talented JSW=perfection <3

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Totally agree with you on JSW, he is a great actor who has always been known as a show stealer, he not only just portrays his characters but brings them to life and becomes the character, even when he is given a boring character role like in 'Horse Doctor', he totally changes boring into interesting through his acting, i've watched almost all of his movies and loved him in every one of them, he has played almost all kind of characters, a thug and a gangster in 'Low Life', an autistic marathon runner in smash hit movie 'Marathon', a gambler hell bent on revenge in another record breaking box office hit 'Tazza: The High Rollers', a Royal Guard in love with the Queen in 'The Sword With No Name', a baseball player in 'The Perfect Game', a cute romantic guy in 'Love Phobia' and many others, i think acting is in his genes as his whole family have musical background, his father is a singer and musical actor, his older sister has been acting in musicals for a long time, he himself dreamt of becoming a musical actor because of that and now he's the most famous musical actor in Korea, his demand is very high and his tickets are always sold out. Now that he spoiled me by appearing in God's Gift, i want to see him more in drama roles so that i can see him every week. I hope the average ratings of this drama doesn't faze him from taking another one.

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Thumbs up for your comment on Jo Seung Woo. I agree.

But I don't think at all that Lee Bo Young was mechanical in her acting in this drama. She had such depth (her crying scene in the first part, when she held on to the fake kidnapper, etc) but yes, in the second half after SaetByul when she indeed got kidnapped, her recklessness was no where to be seen which I guess was Director's fault. It showed inconsistency in her character- Soo hyun not the actor LBY.

Also very rarely such wonderful drama has been written and directed. This drama sure has a lot of depth in terms of acting and character but, in the second half they tried to rush it all and give some screentime to the actors. It would have been better if the drama was extended to 20/24 episodes.

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I have never seen any of JSW's before, but i adored him in this drama. It's such a testament of how good an actor he is when i am not familiar at all with his body of work, and yet, he got me to love him as Ki Dong Chan.

And then of course, the online stalking follows.

It is a very pleasant surprise finding out how truly talented he is. Oh my stars, can he sing!

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you need to watch another of her dramas : becoming a billionaire. i love her there too.

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i agree. I hear you voice. Very Nice...

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Then you've gotta see My Daughter Seoyoung too! (Bonus: Lee Sang Yoon is in it!)

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I saw that My Daughter Seo-Young had 50 episodes, and that it was the 2nd highest rating show of 2013, so it is definitely one that I wanna put in my queue =) Thanks for telling me about it.

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just started watching My daughter Seo Young. :) Didnt know she acted as an actress there!

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Ok, so Park hae Jin as her twin brother? cool!

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OHMYGOD! Park He jin? in y daughter Seo young!

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actually MDSY gained highest rating in 2013.

KBS Dramas Dominate With Highest Viewer Ratings in 2013
http://www.soompi.com/2013/12/29/kbs-dramas-dominate-with-highest-viewer-ratings-in-2013/#.U1oI6tJHLv0

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Gosh, my sentiments exactly --- I sat for 15 minutes waiting for more... it took me a while to process that the show actually ended.

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It has been a while since I've seen a drama with this much violent reactions to the ending :P Now I need a rom-com with Lee Bo-young and Jo Seung-woo (with JSW exactly as he is here). Please writer-nim's please.

PS: Oh and thank you, thank you very much for the recaps :)

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Seems like the only thing that will placate the disappointed and frustrated viewers of the show is the put Lee Bo Young and Jo Seung Woo in a rom-com. Tee-hee.

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I really disappointed that it ended with sad & I feel it's not finish yet.
I really prefer writter should add some more romantic scene at the end to make it 100% ended. I still have question in mind : why the bad guy (minister of justic) still peaceful lives ? why innocence were dead without justic ? why Soo Huyn & Dong Chan can not love each other ? writer should give reason.
Any one can let me know title of any film that Soo Huyn & Dong Chan role together ? I like them a lot, they act very very good.

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I really disappointed that it ended with sad & I feel it's not finish yet.
I really prefer writter should add some more romantic scene at the end to make it 100% ended. I still have question in mind : why the bad guy (minister of justic) still peaceful lives ? why innocence were dead without justic ? why Soo Huyn & Dong Chan can not love each other ? writer should give reason.

Any one can let me know title of any film that Soo Huyn & Dong Chan role together ? I like them a lot, they act very very good.
Or is there God Gift season 2 ?

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I believe how dong Chan would throw himself in, that makes sense.
It just would have been awesome if soo hyun saved him from under water just like he saved her, I was hoping for it , so sure of it!
Then the drama just ends ! Boo hoo !

All I did after the shock was to close my eyes and ears screaming na na na na na na, pretended I didn't see that and wrote my own ending in mind !,

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I would love your version of the ending!!! Yeah Soo Hyun ahjumma go save Dong Chan this time around... ahjumma and saet byul were always saved by DC!!!

I miss the show though!

Booooo confusing ending!

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This ending sucked. It made me feel like I'd wasted all this time on this show when I should've felt everything turned out okay.

I can deal with DongChan dying and SooHyun forgetting him, but I can't deal with the randomness of YG's injury, and the lack of the promised surgery to help him, and I really got irritated with the drama trope of Evil Mom, Good Dad.

I call Shenanigans!

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Yea. The it was an ending where i had to mentally and LITERALLY shake myself. But i don't think it was enough to sour the whole drama for me.

I mean, we gotta admit, it was a darn good ride. Even with the countless red herrings, it was fun and heartwarming.

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That is true, it was a good ride. But to be honest, I found it a bit tedious these last two episodes. I figured the kid and the brother in jail would both live somehow, but I did want some help for Younggyu.

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I know, right? Young Gyu wasn't born that way. It wouldn't be a far-fetched idea for him to undergo treatment and get better.

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I totally agree Lee Bo Young absolutely shines in this drama, I believe I've never seen her done better!! not even in I Hear Your Voice (which I'm not that impressed even with the fantastic reviews). But after this, I'm definitely going to be looking out for more of her!

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They should've extended this drama by one episode to give us an ending that's neatly and tightly wrapped with a brightly-colored bow. I won't ask for Soo Hyun and Dong Chan to end up together anymore. Heck, I won't even hold him onto his promise of waiting 10 years for Saet Byul to get older. I just want justice for him. Because the show was also big on that. I mean, do the masterminds not get bitchslapped by karma?

So in my mind, there will be another episode tomorrow. The splash that I head was Saet Byul and Dong Chan going in the water, but Soo Hyun comes to save. Both of them. And after that reunion by the water which Ji Hoon was noticably absent, they go to the hospital to see Dong Chan. Who is very much alive. And will be giving Soo Hyun and Saet Byul the tightest hug ever. While Dong Ho and Young Gyu, with their matching bowl cuts, watch with the same grins on ehtir faces =) And then Saet Byul learns that she can't just make like Carl from The Walking Dead, never listening when grown ups say stay. Heehee.

Oh, and before I forget ... Show, how hard could it have been to have Soo Hyun fall into Dong Chan's arms even once? Or for them to just grab each other's hands? It's not like I'm asking for a wrist-grab or a piggyback ride. They were thrown in the middle of something so bad that they only had each other to rely on. Couldn't they have shared more than a few pats on each other's backs? I think I was more upset over the fact that while they dropped the formality of their speech around each other, they didn't end up calling each other Dong Chan-ah and Soo Hyun-ah. LOL. I'm not the only, right?

And I'm also not the only one who watched almost all of Jo Seung Won's performances on youtube, right?

Sorry this was kinda long. Did he even really kill himself? Or did I just imagine all that? My mind is still processing this show's ending. Have a great day everyone =)

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The fact that Dong-chan never once stopped calling Soo-hyun ajhumma told me that there wasn't going to be anything remotely romantic happening between them, heh.

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Yeah, eh? But it could've just been a term of endearment. LOL.

My husband asked me why I was crossing my fingers for these two's relationship to evolve in a romantic one. It's just that .... would it have been to much throw us a bone, writers? Just one hug? It doesn't even have to be a back hug. Just one quick one.

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I even expected Dong Chan to call her Soo Hyun. Just once. Once!

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Right?! In this drama, that would've been like skinship. Lol.

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And maybe some face-holding scene through the jail bars? Just one? One quick one?? Lol. haish. It will be a tiny bone for us, amid the one hour of bad edit.

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Yea. they should've given us one tiny bone. I mean, if they were gonna make us go crazy thinking about whether he dies or not, at least hold hands, dammit.

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I'm saying the splash was Sh jumping into the water after DC to save him like he did her 14 days ago.

And nope, you are so not alone in your shipping of DC and SH! I would have loved it if they changed the way they addressed each other towards the end of the show! But I'd like to believe that DC and SH were both aware that there was something more (especially DC) even since that beer drinking scene where they BOTH gave these glances towards each other! And Sh was totally warming up to DC a lot by the end!

It wasn't just all his youtube videos. It was all his movies I could find online and I *even* attempted to watch horse doctor (that didn't turn out so well...)

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Ooh I like that hypothesis that just like he saved her in the beginning, she went and saved him the second time! (Though it would be nice if the writer had just, you know, clarified that in the ending. >.<)

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Yes! The more I rationally think (more like obsess) about it, the more it leads me to believe that Dong Chan wouldn't suddenly turn even more mentally-challenged than Dong Ho and Young Gyu, and kill himself after seeing that the child is alive

Plus, he said that he was going to protect Saet Byul from thereon, right? Realistically speaking, how would he do that six feet under?

It's like, they didn't show us that he was alive ...

BUT! Did they show us that he was dead?

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im thinking about that too..but because the ferry tragedy the scene SH save drowning DC might be deleted

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You are not alone. I wanted a hug, or even a peck on the forehead between the jailbars as cheesy as that sounds! And yes, I YouTubed Jo Seung Won in Horse Doctor, contemplated to watch it, but I think I need the Investigator hair, facial hair and suits. LOL

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I know. I don't think it was too much to ask for to hold hands between the jailbars. I mean, what's up with that? They trust each other with their own lives, but they couldn't even high five?

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that's EXACTLY what I was thinking! I almost expected a kiss between the jailbars, even though I doubted it at the same time. Ugh, if Soo-hyun can't have Dong chan, let us have him!

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WHAT IN THE WHAT FUCK!?! I am so angry. This ending doesn’t even make sense. Did he set Saet Byul back down on the bank before committing suicide? And how does one suicide in such shallow water? Which was why I wasn’t even nervous when he was on the verge of dropping Saet Byul in the lake -- unless he breaks her back, Saet Byul would not have drowned with Soo Hyun being meters away to save her.

It is impossible this is what happened in the first timeline. Halmeoni would have never threatened to kill Saet Byul leading her to make that phone call. More importantly, Lee Myung Han wasn’t even involved the first time to catch the murder on film because there was no jewelry for Ji Hoon to blackmail him with, since Soo Hyun would have never found it in Cha Bong Sub’s house had she not gone back in time. And I could have sworn Dong Chan had recurring nightmares long before he's ever met Saet Byul.

Man, how I wish Kim Joon Seo’s wife and kids overheard his confession and non-remorse. His smug face made me want to strangle him along with Dong Chan. Lee Myung Han coercing the three friends to stab a dead body and pose for pictures with bloody hands is the most evil thing I’ve ever witness. Yep, definitely enough to send one of them to a mental asylum and drive another one to commit suicide. Mothers really is the universal theme in this drama. The First Lady being the evil mastermind -- I did not see that coming.

I knew Dong Ho didn’t know Young Gyu was mentally disabled because he was already incarcerated when Young Gyu was held hostage, but did Young Gyu know the reason his father was not around because he was behind bars? Sigh of relief Ho Gook didn’t die, but I'm curious if Woo Jin ever woke up. I assumed the brain scan photograph in Lee Myung Han's file was of Young Gyu, not Dong Chan, as a means to blackmail Woo Jin with proof his bullet caused Young Gyu's disability. But it was actually Dong Chan's alcohol-related brain defect.

This ending ruined an otherwise enjoyable drama. The writer was too focused on inserting red herrings and plot twists leaving us with unanswered questions and plot holes at the end. Nevertheless, thanks for recapping the entire drama, dramallama and team!

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And thank you very much for the recaps =)

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Indeed, WTF was this ending about? DC had ABSOLUTELY no reason to die. NONE. WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!! His death fulfills nothing. Solves nothing. Does nothing. His brother would be released bc the Prez knows the truth, so he is set free. The Pres's right hand man should be the one to die, if anything. He deserves to die after all he did.

The moral of the story, don't listen to shaman's, psychics and such. They actually don't know a damn thing, but they're 'suppositions' alter your behavior and set things in motion.

I'm really sick of writers not knowing how to close a show, so they just throw some bullshit together "for creative purposes" but it makes no sense and goes against the entire plot of the story. I'm also sick of writers pretty much telling us that evil prevails in the end. This isn't the first time I've felt like this. But good people suffer and never truly get the justice they deserve.

I'm really, seriously freaking pissed right now.

This is Eun Shi Kyung from King 2 Hearts all over again. A senseless death that fulfills absolutely nothing but a cheap plot point that betray's the trust of the viewer.

(Please excuse my language. I am seriously raging right now. LOL )

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I don't really think this is Eun Shi Kyung all over again. I mean, he died (if I remember properly) either because he was protecting Jae Ha or because the evil guy was avenging his act of betrayal. It was one of the two....my memory is a little vague now. But I certainly don't remember his death being senseless. If anything, it was super heartbreaking and added another whole level of heart to the show.

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I guess that's why they didn't show it out blatantly. Cuz they weren't sure either.
Just like aback door and escape !

I seriously liked the show and despite all these bunch of killers and stalkers , it was weekly fun with heart and oozing with captain's awesomeness ! But the ending just killed it for me :(

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maybe 'Bride of the Century' would make you feel better... and I like the way Fate and buddhist concepts are handled in the drama...koalasplayground recaps it

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Honestly I'm more confused/annoyed about Soo Hyun's reaction and the last scene. Wasn't Dong Chan the big driving force that helped her arrive at this point during this entire drama? They may have not followed a romantic plotline but didn't they depend on each other? Wasn't Dong Chan Soo Hyun's bodyguard/partner? Then how does it make sense for the writers to make the last scene Dong Chan's death and Soo Hyun smiling off into the distance with Saetbyul as if nothing happened? Is she all fine and well that Dong Chan died for her daughter? And what about Saet Byul? What about Ji Hoon, Jenny, and all the other important characters? And what on earth was up with the heavenly, golden lighting and the ahjumma approaching Soo Hyun and bringing Saet Byul, when the ahjumma barely had a central role in the drama?

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Unless there was supposed to be some sort of symbolism behind the swaying golden wheat and the hazy sunshine, like Soo Hyun, Saet Byul and the ahjumma (?) are all pondering their fates and looking off into the future in some kind of heaven.. this was such a stupid ending and a waste of wonderful actors and characters

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I just don't get why, in the end, he decided that the cafe lady was talking about him and Saet Byul (one has to die in order for the other to live), especially when she's alive in his arms. The ending was way too rushed for anything to make sense.

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IN the end, i blame the flipping prophecy. It wasn't clear to me why the other had to die in the first place to save the other.

And fate my butt.

Fate didn't take dong-chan's life. He offed himself because "the prophecy said so." Maybe it was to end the cycle of framing and blackmailing every other person in the drama to cover up the crime, or maybe because the show meant for him to be the kind of hero that did the ultimate sacrifice. Either way, it was poorly executed.

After watching 15 episodes of this drama, I WAS FREAKING READY FOR ANYTHING. I was ready for dong chan to actually die WHILE SAVING SAET BYUL (that was what the prophecy said so anyways), but Saet Byul was already saved. Alive, and in the arms of her knight.

What is up with giving us the impression that Ki Dong Chan died?

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I agree with you, zappy.. the writer just wants to confuse us by giving us the impression that Ki Dong Chan died. Not when we know SH would by all means return the favor of saving him should he attempt to drown himself, right?!?
They've gone a long way protecting each other in the process and will never give up on each other just like how SH encourage DC when he was inside the cell.

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I know right! Nothing in this show led me to believe that the prophecy HAD to be fulfilled.

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Probably the writer prepares the sequel. Dong Chan is not dead, though he committed suicide. He has amnesia and live far away from Saet Byul, Soo Hyun, Dong Ho.. everyone he knew. Present Dong Chan is disappear, means that Dong Chan is 'dead'. And the prophecy is fulfilled.

After time jump, Dong Chan is remembered who he is. And the prophecy is back. And we get the sequel.

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DC is doing a Voldermort a-la self fulfilling prophecy. If SH hadn't tell him about it, he shall be alive.

Dumbledore: “If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not! Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?”

I do not regret watching this drama, i don't even mind if DC really dies. Only I feel the end to abrupt..Can we have at least another 5 minutes to ties everything up. I especially want to see the evil people get their comeuppance. I feel..not satisfied..not satiated...
Ah..I dunno..I never have in mind that DC and SH will be lovey dovey OTP..but can we have a proper sending off?

Anyway, good job GG.

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Me for one, REALLY do mind that DC dies. For sure the evil doers will get their punishment....did not the President announced to the public his resignation, saying that this was due to the HORRIFIC crimes committed by his family ?

And with Soo Hyun around ( she's not dead, right ?) would anyone imagine she would allow the President's wife, the Chief of Staff and the Limping Son to escape the gallows ? So fret no more that they will escape their just desserts.

What galls me is the death of DC ! It would not be too mean to say that the writer here is trying to be 'too clever' by half to senselessly kill off this wonderful man. Like many here have said....for what purpose would DC have to commit suicide ? If the child is alive in his arm, that means his so-called mother who supposedly phoned him and confessed to killing, did NOT kill Saet Byul. So why, why would he off himself just like that ? Would he rather not use the time to try his best to rescue his brother DH instead ?

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I guess it was more of guilty feeling that anything, in original timeline , it was he who got drunk, it was he who dumper her in water and bought about her death and He was the one who forgot about it.
I get why he jumped off, but not why he wasn't saved by soo hyun, why it wasn't shown , why why why !

They just concentrated on keeping us on edge of the seat until last scene and just messed it up everywhere.
I am disappointed, show !

You will be joining the long list of drama last episodes that I wish would get a do over !

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I also don't get it. I spend a good minute to laugh and chuckle because I can't believe that's what the show done to us. I mean, seriously there has to be some sort of explanation to that damn prophecy and whether or not DC died is left to the viewers.

What's this, Show?? What do you want to show? WHY, SHOW, WHY you have to kill Dong Chan at the last minute just because he believe on that prophecy?

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You want to know how I interpreted the prophecy when he had his revolation?

I thought he was thinking that he had to die in the first timeline to come back and save himself in the second timeline. (and Saet byul)

It made perfect sence to me while I was watching...

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.....stupid keyboard - sorry I meant "sense".....

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But in the end, he did NOT save himself in the second timeline ? Only Saet Byul was saved, right ?

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Oh! I get it. Like Soo hyun died the first time and came back and brought about the saving of herself and Saet-Byul, but Dong Chan did NOT die the first time. So this second time if he dies instead, then in the third timeline they can all survive together. That would have been GREAT. So great, in fact, that I'm pretty sure they would have claimed this rationale if they had really had it in mind . . . But that's a great call!

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Time-traveling drama with an open-ended finale. Reminds me of Mirae's Choice.

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Haha, many weeks ago, when this drama was actually still really great, I compared it to Mirae's Choice and some felt my comparison was uncalled for. I suppose I can feel a little smug now for being a bit prophetic. ;)

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If this drama was a little bit more decisive on the finale, it won't remind me of Mirae's Choice. But now, after they messed up the finale, I feel like my past wound opened again.

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I've been checking this site for the recap for 19 hours straight, only refreshing 93842790 times. Jokes~
Thanks for the recap!

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till now I still can't believe that Ki Dong-chan has gone /sobs/
Ki Dong-chaaaaaaaan T_____T

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I'm just gonna grab a pen and edit the ending, since apparently you can change Fate by doing that.

"What about the knight? Did he live too?"

"Yes, he did. The mother saved him, just like how he'd saved her before."

;)

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Before commenting on the finale, which left me infuriated, (more on it shortly) I just want to throw a HUGE THANK YOU. Thank you to our Fantastic Four team - dramallama, solabelly, javabeans and girlfriday, for taking the time to recap the show and writing insightful comments. I always read you recaps even if I had already seen the episode - it was a pleasure and a true enjoyment. It didn't even feel like dramallama and solabelly were new to this. Thank you to all the commentators out here, who made the brain frying process less painful :D :D . The best part of this show was reading and commenting on everybody's theories. I don't think I would have enjoyed it the same way without the brainstorming sessions. And last, but not least, thanks to the awesome Gifted Team from Viki, who always had the subs ready by the end of the day. You guys fed my urge to see the show in a timely manner. It was a bumpy ride, but I was in good company, so I regret nothing :D .

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The detective work amongst the fans was part of the enjoyment of this show! :D

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Sigh, what exactly happened to Dong-chan?
More importantly, is he alive or dead?

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Dead is my guess, because of the splash and the fact he never answered Saet Byul's last question about whether the soldier lived or not.

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Now on to my final FINALE comments you will probably not miss LOL.
1) GOD DAMMNIT THIS SHOW!! That ending infuriated me. I am so saddened and angered, I have no words. OUR CAPTAIN AWESOME NOOOOOOOOOOOO. It feels like a slap in the face, the show jumped the shark hard with this episode. Ok, I won’t pretend I was surprised to see him “die” – this ending has been telegraphed throughout the entire show, but I feel completely cheated by the execution. It was rushed – the whole episode had a troublesome pace and then, all of a sudden, DC is carrying her. We hear a GLUP! – the end. We didn’t even manage to digest the images – it’s as if the writer tried to squeeze 5 episodes into a single one, leaving loose ends, with no time to film. I appreciate how the evidences were planted since day one and how sadly, everything was pointing to this ending - at least the DECISION of killing him off was not something taken a day before airing the finale. When he takes those family pictures, I pretty much knew he was as good as dead. OMO OMO SHOWWWWWWWW I said I want the ending with book reading to be done by DC, but I didn't know I was meant to specify that I wanted to see him doing it while ALIVE. And damn, my first hunch with the men sent to kill DC by HJH and DC seeing himself in his nightmares, was always right, just like the induced blackouts, among other things. I love to be right, but this is probably one of the few moments I actually wished with all my heart to be wrong. AJUSSHIIIIIIIIIIIII . Our Captain Awesome can't swim, dammit!!! And the fact that SH never knew he was so in love with her makes me feel even more angered. DC had tragedy written all over him and precisely because he had such a miserable life, he deserved to be happy, even though that might have been a feel-good ending. Sometimes, it’s OK for an ending to be happy and predictable, as long as it feels like a normal conclusion to the events. It looks like God’s gift was actually DEATH to the main character – gee, what an awesome present!

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2) Some might argue that Dong-chan never died – QUITE POSSIBLY – at least the show does offer some ambiguity with that prison release scene, which I liked, but I am unsure, despite the fact that his suicide does not make any freakin’ sense. So SH at no point screams at him that SAET-BYUL IS ALIVEEEEEEEEEE and she gets fairly close to the shore before he throws himself in the water. Are we to assume that he went back to lay her down, then returned to drown himself, all this without ajumma managing to stop him? I do like open endings, as long as they respect the “open” part, making both options plausible – life and death. But here, it seems like it forces his death on us and it teases us with that story. It’s like – hey guys, we DEFINITELY killed him…and for a split second: Oh, maybe not! THIS IS THE EXACT Iljimae ending, with someone asking if the protagonist survived, just like SB asks DC about that guardian from the book and it even goes back to a story they started the show with!!!

3) Not to mention that the sacrifice was done just because the writer was so fixated with making him responsible of it and forgot to make it coherent. I know I said it before, but that first timeline has NO SENSE AT ALL. I already mentioned several things in the previous recaps, so I won’t repeat them and become tedious, but really show, should we just believe that DC killed her in the first timeline just like that? That he thought he received a call from his then super-uber-duper estranged mother, telling him she killed a child she barely knew? At least now she threatens to do it, which makes the call more convincing. And how did they know back then that he would go to Mujin to take the fall on her behalf?

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3) If timeline #1 made sense and DC's "murdering" of SB wasn't orchestrated by LMH but a result of an alcoholic blackout rage (as many of us feared in the beginning), the ending would have actually been really good but the execution of this finale was a fail on some many levels!

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One of our first collective theories was DC suffering from multiple personality disorder, which in some way, would have been kind of bold and awesome. Sure, they would have had to work around it and make him less lovable and more suspicious, but it could have turned out to be an interesting twist. The best moment to give a clear hint of it would have been when CBS dies. We did gasp there for some time, thinking "OMG HE DIDN'T GO THERE" - if he indeed would have killed CBS, that would have been the definite alarm signal. I just wish they would have invested more effort into making all these events more plausible in the first timeline as well *sigh* :( .

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Yeah at first I was praying that DC didn't have DID but now I wished that he did. Isn't it sad that'd we'd rather have DC suffer DID than accept this ridiculous ending? lol

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Just want to mention. In Iljimae's case, PD said they dropped the hint specifically to show that he was alive. First, they closed up the sword which had dull side showing, meaning it could not kill him, Second, they brought two shoese to the island for his teacher.

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4) But the stupidity of this scene is that, in a nutshell, Dong-chan sacrifices himself because he remembers the prophecy and fulfills it, to avoid any fatalities. And he didn't even do it consciously in the previous timeline - he was drugged, for God's sake. I guess we just have to assume that he couldn't go on living with the guilt of going through all this because he was the one who did it the first time around (well, framed to do it, to be more precise). The sacrifice would have felt more genuine though, if we would have been sure that there really was no way for both of them to survive. That’s my biggest problem with his death – we knew SB was alive, we knew the president found out about everything and that DH would eventually be released – so why do it? It was absolutely pointless, just for the desire of shock value. Writer, if you wanted to kill him all along, you had to make sure his death was earned. They could have had him to go all the way with taking the blame for what DH had been accused of – this makes the whole “confession” and getting himself in prison pointless. It was anticlimactic, lasting for like…5 minutes?? Although it was a good excuse for him and SH to interact, but that’s about it. It would have been more emotionally devastating to see him being hanged for something he didn’t do, to make it up for DH spending so many years in prison, but more logical as well.

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5) At first, I actually thought that DH's release from prison is DC's foreshadowing while drowning, projecting himself into that event, since his biggest wish was to get his brother's freedom. It did look like him, since Jung Gyu-woon (WJ) is very tall and is differently built. I figured it's that moment when you are dying and your whole life flashes in front of your eyes - he probably died with that beautiful image in mind. The worst part is that we hear that GULP!, the sound you hear when a body is thrown in the water and that does it for me. Either this – or, since DC tells WJ that he can’t forgive him for what he did, but it would be even more unforgivable if he didn’t wake up from that bed, I guessed that person was supposed to be WJ. After all, DC asks him to take care of YG and DH in his absence, to earn his forgiveness, so they probably used a body double in that scene, since Jung Gyu-woon was either getting married or on his honeymoon LOL. Or maybe indeed the writer is teasing us hard and that person is supposed to be DC. Ok, as I was writing this, I actually found out that in the Iljimae ending, by the same writer, the protagonist was supposed to be alive, but they did not have time to film it, although it’s a strange coincidence that they had the exact schedule conflicts this time around as well. Here is the article where it says that: http://sevenses.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/thoughts-on-iljimaes-ending/ . They will also air now a GG’s special, as an attempt to fill in the plot holes, so we might find out that our Captain Awesome is actually alive and well :) . But seriously, writer, WE TRUSTED YOU!

6) As for WJ, although I adore my oppa, the character was terribly underdeveloped. Since WJ and DC were best friends at some point, we deserved to witness DC telling him all that while he was awake. I wanted to see a breakdown of him in front of DC so badly! DC didn’t even know that WJ indeed looked after his family, so there was no need for him to ask him to do that, since he was already doing it. I liked that he didn’t forgive him just because he was half-dead and I liked the conditions under which he would do it, but yet again, this scene was just another reminder that DC was signing his death sentence. At least he should have freakin’ woken up. And SH doesn’t even know he was beaten up so badly.

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7) As for the main baddies – the Secretary, the president’s son and his wife, once again I feel cheated. We’ve seen countless good people getting beaten up and killed, but we don’t even see them get a taste of their own medicine?? I know the president does publicly state the crimes committed by his family and how they will be punished, but after seeing so many instances they got away with it, hearing about their punishment and not actually seeing them go through it is incredibly disappointing. I might sound sadistic, but it would have actually been pretty bad-ass to see the Secretary executed by his own death penalty law. And that disgusting wife beater who was SH’s stepdad – he never gets his punishment! Now I know that sometimes they get away with it and I am not that scandalized when it happens in movies/series, but not with the price of so many corpses of good people at their core.

8) Ahhhh of course mommy had to be behind this – after all, every mother in this show went to great lengths to protect her child, but she went as far as wanting to get rid of another child so that her son won’t go to jail. This just shows how poisonous can love become, even if it’s of a mother’s. Also, it was a very weak motivation for the Secretary to help the president’s son – seriously, going through all that just because he sympathized with the president? It also took him 10 years to become Minister of Justice. It sounds like BS, especially since he looked like a pro when he manipulated virtually everyone, without personally committing the crimes. Yet, we should believe he was doing it for the first time? I wanted more background on him. He wasn’t a doer, he was an orchestrator. In the end, I think out of Hephaestus and the Secretary, there should have been only one character, because we are led to believe that Hephaestus scared the crap out of everyone, yet he wasn’t the mastermind in the end – he did a killing and the rest cleaned up his tracks. Everybody said how they were afraid of Hephaestus - Yoo-jin even draws the picture of him strangling SJ and she stabbing him with the hairpin, but he was unconscious from the drugs when it happens, so how could he had seen it? Only when he finally wakes up does he realize what happened. He wasn't talking about the stabbings, because DC recognizes the chocking pose from the reconstruction with his brother. In the end, he was supposed to be traumatized by what the Secretary made him do and not Hephaestus.

9) Characters suddenly disappear out of the picture – what happened to Min-ah? Snake and his pregnant girlfriend we only see in picture? His hyung and his bruised face? Yoo-jin? Jenny? Byung-tae? Ji-hoon????? What were the other 2 mysteries that HG’s brother was talking about, when he said he didn’t understand how come DH was there? Ack, so many questions. We need a Director's cut of the show!

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Lol I love your idea about Secretary being hanged by his own death penalty law, that would have been awesome.

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This k-drama really increased my level of sadism lol, but really, it would have been awesome to see him die in the exact same manner that DH died in the first timeline; not to mention how ironic it would have been, since it was him who tried all along to push the death penalty forward. Writer, if you need help next time, call me ;) .

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10) If gramps wanted to give DC the money all along as a compensation for hiding the truth, why didn’t he do it the first time around, if he felt so guilty? Back then, DC wouldn’t have refused it. He gave everything to charity instead, making that YG surgery talk just meaningless in the end

11) Now I know DH was mentally disabled, but why on earth would he believe that YG would take after him, if he was adopted?? I felt that line was thrown there just for the emotional impact.

12) The show reduces DC to a bumbling idiot in this last episode, just so to mimic the events from the previous timeline, despite being illogical. He suddenly doesn’t remember the place he went to drink – I know it seemed familiar to him, but come on – he remembered going there as soon as SB gives him her hairpin. Are we to assume that now, voila!, he forgot what he did there? And what’s with the two jackets he takes and the one left behind when he is beaten up? Did he actually take the wrong one in the first timeline and that’s why it was bloody? DC had been the super clever detective for all this time and now he suddenly returns to being hapless again?

13) The photos where the president’s son has black pictures and the flashback with him wearing white trousers + melted/unmelted candles were a goof after all. Oh man, I overestimated them there.

14) Despite my incredible disappointment with the last episode, I don’t have the heart to dismiss the show for its entirely. Omitting this finale, it had its flaws and sometimes it made my eyes roll with just how tangled the web of conspiracies was. The red herrings were on overload and after a while, the a-killer-but-not-OUR-killer shtick got tiring, just like the characters sometimes falling into the same mistakes. Not to mention the tedious scenes, with the same nice choreographed fights over and over again. And how many times can you kidnap SB? Some massive suspension of disbelief was required in regards to the skills of some of our characters, there were quite a few jarring editing mistakes, some pacing problems and the scenes were occasionally murky, but other than that, I can’t find any more faults. It had so many qualities, that I am willing to turn a blind eye to those mistakes. The acting was incredibly strong, from the leading ones (JSW for the win!) till the supporting ones and it had the ability to engage its audience with characters we could get emotionally attached to, managing at the same time to have that constant reminder that everybody was still a suspect.

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13) *has black trousers. Brainfart

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You were rooting for most of them to be innocent, because the show pulled you in, hitting all the right notes and it made you care about them, without forcing you into it. Everything just came natural. Characters which make me feel conflicted are my favorite ones, not to mention that our heroine, for all her flaws, but she was no damsel in distress, which was a warm welcome. She and Dong-chan really felt like a team – it’s not that DC was doing everything by himself, while she stayed there waiting – it was a true collaboration. Just like I mentioned earlier, there was no definitive line between good and evil – they were all flawed in their own way and no matter how loathsome they were, there was something redeemable about most of them. I also liked the exploration of the “Mother’s love” theme and how they all defended their children at any cost. The show made good use of the ticking clock, although I wish I would have felt more that time urgency because the events and characters made me feel it and not because I, as a viewer, knew how much time was left until the kidnapping. I loved and hated at the same time the show for avoiding clichés and changing the question just when you thought you had the answer. You can say anything you want about it, except that it was predictable, although curiously enough, some of our early theories proved out to be right in the end. Not to mention that absolutely EACH AND EVERY episode ending was a cliffhanger. The show probably had the best episode endings I've ever seen - I would have finished it in one day if I wouldn't have watched it as it aired. There has been given so much care and attention to detail, that we felt like we were taking part on that investigation ourselves, so rather than playing a waiting game to see when the characters will discover what we already know, we mostly discovered things alongside them.

Although…THE FIRST TIMELINE DIDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE lol. It was merely a “scene” for them to spread clues to be used in the second one. The show hasn’t been written on the fly, because there was always this advanced setup, going back to key moments from early episodes, just when we started to think they were meaningless. That’s why we had to wait for it to end to know if a continuity error was there or if the editing messed with us on purpose. I’ll miss you all - you guys were the real awesome captains!

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LOL - I feel you! Thanks for writing out most of my rant (along with many other beanies, I'm sure).

Also thanks to the recappers!

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This testament was truly cathartic - I let all my demons out LOL. Haha you're welcome, I am happy if I managed to spare you the anger of remembering all of it to write your rant :-) . Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, since, as you all can see, I have a length problem (NB: I am a girl, so don't have any kinky thoughts :D ).

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LOL! How do I respond - 'length problem'. LMAO I have tears!

Your rant was great and pretty spot on. It was very cathartic just to read it. Thanks again. :)

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gee, your posts hit all my rage points (?) and satisfied what I felt irked and angry about the ending. It felt so therupeutic reading that haha, thanks :D

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Hahaha thank you, I was on a rant rampant :D . Great to hear that I am not the only one who needed it :) .

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And the thing was, it wasn't even like the writer was squeezing 5 episodes into 1 episode, she squeezed 5 episodes into 10 minutes... -_-

I knew they were going to bring back DC's edit of the ending of "The Story of a Mother" but I was hoping it would be in a voiceover type of thing where we hear it as we see that SH and DC changed fate (entirely) and were all living happily or something! :(

I think SH was very well aware of DC's feelings for her but she just chose to ignore them for the moment, putting her daughters safety above everything else. She a'int got time for romance. But I'd like to believe that she stored that knowledge and her feelings for DC away, ready to act on them once SB was safe!

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This is for #1

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For me, the perfect ending (using the given scenes) would have been to have DC ready to throw her in the water and then realize she is alive and smile in relief. Fade to black. Then - cut to DC reading the story. SB asks: "What happened to the helper? Did he survive?". DC responds with a question: "What do you think?" and smiles. This would have still retained that ambiguity, but it would have ended more on the happier side, feeling a lot more hopeful.

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Or, better yet - to suddenly have the camera move and reveal that SH is there as well and have her ask SB that. A girl can dream...

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YES!!!!!!

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As I said to some friends on Twitter, Dong Chan was drunk, drugged and mentally unstable. This was not a grand sacrifice with logic behind it. It wasn't a "We're both hanging from a cliff with only one rope". It was basically a messed up man somehow getting the brainfart that "Ooooh, this is Fate!" and killing himself.

It's like someone running into a burning building to save a person he just saw walk out. It was "coolness" for the sake of it, a pretentious, half-baked attempt to make it "edgy" and fool audiences into thinking it's some "deep grand tale", because we all know death = instant poignancy. The ever so huge delusion of amateurs who desperately want to inject meaning into their shallow creation. The "my first novel" stuff of an angsty teenager.

But I was not surprised, given this series was half-baked in its mystery, totally screwed its female character over for the sake of becoming a temple to the male lead (them ajummas don't need plot and strong wimmins, let's give them swooning! type of industry robot logic) and generally failed at reaching the potential its first act had created. Sad, but it's just another day in Dramaland.

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completely agree with the SH character, who was quite awesome in the beginning. It could be a case of them writing her as a one note character, but i have a feeling the live shoots came into play. With all the (quite deserved) praise of dong chan i'm sure they altered course for dong chan to become the main lead which was never more evident then this episode.
Did she do anything in the final episode besides get knocked out and run to the water screaming (not like she did ever did much else but her screen time was maybe 20 minutes) Which is further infuriating because the leads got ZERO CLOSURE, and were separated 90% of the time this episode. I freaking loved Dong Chan but even he is diminished after this because they have forsaken all this character development, not to mention the premise of the show (a mother doing anything to save her daughter) for some wham bows in the last 3 minutes. I'm all for ambiguous/sad endings as long as it has some semblance of narrative sense and give the characters justice.. but this??
This...was attempting to be as flashy as a Lytro camera before you realize your cap was on and all you get is nothing but darkness.

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Weeeellll she did go and talk to the president which DID help her get to know that her daughter was in Mujin--> she went to Mujin.

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Exactly. She "helped". Even the closing scene was about the story of a knight saving the little girl. What started as the story of a mother, an existing story, by the way and as a series about a strong woman fighting for her child became all about said Knight in Shining Saturi handling the weak female's hysterics and trying to protect her while saving her daughter with her, sometimes for her.

It's like Soo Hyeon existed to be kidnapped, beaten, locked away for him to save her. We even had a rape threat for Jenny just to make her man the hero who confessed to save her. This show loved using violence against its women just to make the guys more swoon-worthy. I think that says a lot...

And then they completely lost it and turned even their worshiped male lead into a drunken idiot. Waste of such good performances on bad writing.

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can't say I wasn't expecting someone to die. When I started the show I was so distraught over the prospect of saet byul dying (literally tore me up, almost didn't want to watch the drama because it involved the death of an innocent kid) but at the end I felt... empty. Of course I'm glad that she was alive and all but I was more devastated over the implication that dong chan died to care (sounds horrible but my attachment to his character grew more in comparison to saet byul) . I'm still heartbroken over his demise. His voice overs near the end killed me omg. However I thought the little twist at the end was amazing! I never would have guessed that everything was planned out by the lawyer and mother so meticulously it astounded me and almost made up for DC's death (still not over it. Nope). When its revealed that DC was framed for the murder the first time around i was about ready to explode but when there was a reversal in events after the president found out my sigh of relief was quickly replaced by a wtf when DC died anyway. The drama as a whole was definitely addicting and although the latter half lost some of the finesse possessed by the first, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Plus it reintroduced me to the charming, talented and every other positive adjective you can think of Jo seung woo and his incredible portrayal of one of my now fav drama land characters. Going to keep an eye on him for sure.

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Felt like they were expecting an extension, but didnt get one last minute. I totally thought there was something wrong with the video on Viki, but I went back and realized that's actually just the end.

Thanks for recapping :D

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Good thing i stopped watching after 5 episodes are else this show wouldve broke men with their stupid open endings! i hate those types! i rather they tell us if its a sad ending or not!

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Maybe.. just maybe.. if Dong-chan didn't die, his fate with Saet-byul isn't end and there's possibility situation like this will happen again in the future, situation between life or death, so one of them really have to disappear. That's why Dong-chan did that, sacrificing himself.

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The ending, in a nutshell:

Part 1:

Dong-chan: OMO OMO AJUMMAAAAAAA FORGIVE ME! MY MOTHER DID NOT KILL SB, I DID. SHE DID NOT KILL SB! IT WAS ME!!! NOOO NOOO NOOOO

Part 2:

Dong-chan: WHAT SORCERY IS THIS? SB IS ALIVE!!! YAAAAAY! Let's partyyyy!

Part 3:

Dong-chan: OH WAIT...SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK! I forgot about the prophecy with one of us who has to die. I will never let anything happen to you, my bride, so I'll just put you back on the ground and I'll kill myself, m'kay?

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I did not watch the show, but your recap is funny. I am just going to watch the last 5 minutes to see what the fuss is about.

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LOL. buticut pretty much nailed it.

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Well God's Gift - 14 Days has ended. Do I regret watching it because it ended with essentially loose ends - an open ending? Not at all!

I’m glad that Lee Bo-Young and Cho Seung-Woo had the chance to work together with one another in this project. Their presence was an added bonus.

Episodes 1 & 2 were the strongest in terms of finding and striking the right balance between the actions of the characters; their emotions; the intensity and suspense; and the action with a tightly woven plot and story that flowed seamlessly.

Anytime the concept of backwards time travel is presented, scrutinization of and detailed attention to the past, present, and future are of paramount importance in order to successfully frame and execute the story. A solid and consistent explanation of events and developments without logical contradictions really matters when the entire plot and premise depends on trying to alter established past events.

In my opinion, the drama ran out of time for the story that it wanted to tell. The last 15 - 30 minutes of Episode 16 felt rushed, unfinished, and ended abruptly. As the clock ticked down to the last few seconds of the drama and the screen faded to black in the midst of Dong Chan's revised ending to Hans Christian Andersen's The Story of a Mother, I just kept thinking that GG14D needed more time to give justice to the ending of the tale and what ultimately happened to him.

Captain America may be the No. 1 movie at the box office in many countries right now, but Ki Dong-Chan has owned/was bestowed the name Captain Awesome for at least two (2) months now.

Did Ki Dong-Chan, Kim Soo-Hyun, and Han Saet-Byeol come full circle and appease Fate (“one must die for the cycle to end”)?

1st Timeline = Han Saet-Byeol’s death + 49 Days + 3 lives (Kim Soo-Hyun, Ki Dong-Chan, and Ki Dong-Ho)

2nd Timeline = 14 Days + A life for a life (Ki Dong-Chan)

Thanks writer Choi Ran for the math lesson in Probability - A 50/50 chance of the prophecy being true or untrue and a 50/50 chance that Ki Dong-Chan lived or died. Now we know for sure and saw time and time again Kim Soo-Hyun and Ki Dong-Chan trying to prevent/stop the sequence of events and/or circumvent fate. Their actions simply delayed the inevitable in addition to changing/impacting the location of the event.

Ki Dong-Chan deserved a better farewell scene if he did indeed die.

I like the fact that the character Kim Soo-Hyun was a strong-willed woman and mother. She proved several times that she could quickly and easily defend herself. Nor was it her first (1st) reaction to ever succumb to fear. Just because she encountered an intense situation, it didn't mean she resorted to walking away or fleeing. She was determined to give her all and to fight for her daughter's life till the end. On the other hand, it bothered me that she sometimes didn't reign in her impulsiveness. Neither did she always read situations before acting or adjust her respones...

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Neither did she always read situations before acting or adjust her responses accordingly. Several times she let her impulsiveness get the best of her and the situations she encountered.

Like Mother, Like Daughter! Han Saet-Byeol had the impulsive trait/gene as well. She continued to disregard and disobey her mother's admonishments. However, after she was kidnapped, Han Saet-Byeol finally started to change her behavior and show maturity.

I am disappointed that the writer and director robbed us from actually (visually) seeing:

* Lee Myeong-Han, First Lady Park Ji-Young, and Kim Joon-Seo get their comeuppance for all of their attempts (1) to coverup the initial murder of Soo-Jung; (2) framing, ensnaring, blackmailing and other heinous crimes; (3) kidnapping and intentional murder of Han Saet-Byeol.

* Lee Myeong-Han, First Lady Park Ji-Young, and Kim Joon-Seo having to face justice administered in a court of law, being convicted, and serving prison time.

* Lee Myeong-Han, First Lady Park Ji-Young, and Kim Joon-Seo being subjected to dealing with having to confront public opinion and suffering from it.

Lastly, does anyone have the link to or know the name of the (instrumental) music that is played during most of the intense and suspenseful scenes in God’s Gift – 14 Days?

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Not sure about the music, but the OST song names are on God's Gift-14 Days Dramawiki page so maybe google/youtube the names you'll find the music

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Believe me, I have searched google, youtube, and wiki sites. However, the OST's that pop up are not for the instrumental music version.

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I can't even think straight right now. That finale...

Even though I don't have to the words to explain all my thoughts on the show's ending... can we all agree that the President's son... is not his son? It was never stated, but I'll be damned if he's not the Chief of Staff's actual son. The lengths that man went to save that murderous bastard. Plus, they look alike too.

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Ah yeah. My reaction at the end. Was basically: WTF

At the last ten minutes I was thinking to myself, ohkay I probably won't see many happy after-scenes now but that's okay they're gonna tie it up nicely. RIGHT?

But noooo, they just left me gaping at my laptop screen thinking: What the hell is going on.

Man, if there's any good thing about an open ending, it's that I can still believe whatever the heck I want. And hence I believe that Dong Chan is alive. FOREVAH.

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Huh? Why is there talk about dong-chan being dead? He's alive, guys. Alive. Right now he's back at his office cracking jokes with ho-kook and jenny. Business took off after the public found out about his noble efforts to save both saet-byul and his brother. Meanwhile, saet-byul and soo hyun decided to drop by his office to pick him up for a happily ever after "family" date after the credits rolled. Also, Soo-Hyun divorced her asshole cheating husband.

Turns out the knight lived after all. A flashback shows soo hyun chucked a rock at his head in that last scene to wake dong-chan up from his nonsensical idiot thoughts. Phew. That was close one. All is well.

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I'm going to drug myself in order to convince myself that is the real ending!

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You two made my night! HAHAHAHAHA :D

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:')

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I still don't get it, but I definitely don't like it.

I've watched other red herring filled twisty-turvey backwards and upside down dramas and movies filled with time jumps galore and enough flashbacks to give me nausea and still been able to follow the plot. This just left me swearing and ticked.

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When I thought an open ending would be the best for this drama, I meant an open ending between Soo Hyun and Dong Chan in the romance department.

The only thing that will placate me now is a second season, where the baddies are punished, and Dong Chan is very much alive and kicking.

Or at least a very, very, super duper special episode where we see him not dead.

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I thought the splash at the end was Soo Hyun entering the water? And I assumed Dong Chan is alive, they just didnt have time to finish the show and decided to be all dramatic and mysterious?

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Yes.

This will actually make me sleep better tonight =)

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I don't even care anymore who, when, how, whatever that happened happened in all the past episodes, I've become a raving lunatic over this ending. Nothing's going to fill this Captain Awesome sized hole in my heart!!

Dong Chan-aaaaaaa! *heartbreak*

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There is no scene showing that our Dong Chan is death. So just think positively fans! He is not death. Like Iljimae, it is up to your thinking whether Dong Chan or Iljimae is death or not

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Thanks for recapping.

I really dislike it when a story stops being organic and I start feeling the writer is totally concerned with psyching out the viewer to some extreme degree and not with characters, plot, et al. And I am sooooooo glad I copped out at episode 13. I DID try to watch the other episodes but it all felt like a chore and I just couldn't bring myself to be jerked around by that. I don't mind genuinely tragic stories but this story felt as if the tragedy was forced into the plot, just as all the red herrings were forced into the plot. I just saw something not too pleasant coming along and I thought, "Nah, I am a free woman. I don't really have to stay on a twisty train that is going full-speed into crazy over-the-top gotcha plotting." Yes my sixth sense is getting very attuned to protecting me from disappointing k-drama endings.

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I saw it way back that this drama was going to decline and give a weak ending. But I still stuck with it because I just had to see Saet-Byul alive and the "mastermind culprit" behind it all getting his punishment. Sadly, it only gave me the former when I cared more about the latter. To be robbed of the perpetrator being persecuted was disappointing. But I realized that when you have a drama at the 45 minute mark wherein Saet Byul still isn't safe, then the drama was going to end on a disappointing note. Not enough time for a full closure and hence an open-ending.

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I started having the same feeling at around episode 5, and it kept getting worse as it progressed. By episode 12 I was pretty much into the "I don't much care about anyone" but did not really lose faith in DC until around 14, when it really started going downhill.

I could have forgiven all the convolutions and stupid plot holes if they had been filled in at the end - but they were not.

This show was NOT "open ended", it just quit - leaving a ton of issues dangling and unresolved plot holes.

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And I think Baek Song-yi abandoned the show as well at some point, since she stopped commenting :( . I actually admire you guys for being able to refrain yourselves from watching a show you feel it's headed for a train wreck or a show that has already become nonsense. I don't have that power - I can leave shows at any point, as long as I am rather detached from them, but this one sucked me in for good. As I said repeatedly, I don't regret it, but the experience of watching it has been better than what I actually watched.

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@buticut --I loved reading your indepth analysis. They were so clearly-spoken, so full of hope that everything made sense. Ah my friend! ::smh:: your great analytical talents went to waste on this show.

@windsun33 -- Do you think it quit? A show quitting its organic plan in its great aim to be some super-awesome-twisty thriller and a show that just totally lost itself.

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@ Windsun33: Yeah, Dong-chan was the saving grace for most of the show. And I guess you're right about it not really being an open-ending. I just call it that because everyone else is and I'm not sure what else to call it, LOL.

@ buticut: When you've watched a ton of dramas and recognize what suits your tastes the most, you'll start discarding them after sampling about four episodes and seeing that they really don't have potential. It's just a gut feeling. I also watch some crappy shows sometimes because they either actually aren't crappy to me (as in, my mood is perfectly right for it at the time of viewing); the drama has an actor/actress I love to death and so can endure just about anything; or the show is mediocre but the discussion over it is the best (sometimes it's just fun to bash a show or gripe about it with other people).

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@Carole Aw, shucks! I was always reluctant to post long analyses, because I thought people would hate me for making it hard to go through comments - however, I couldn't help it. But I am very happy and humbled that some of you actually enjoyed them, although you are overestimating me hehe. There were so many witty people throwing theories and I do wish though that the show would have executed those we were right about in a smoother and more logical way. It didn't feel that much of a waste, just that some went nowhere - at least I had my senses alert LOL. I still very much enjoyed many things related to GG. We do deserved a better executed show though. Just like javabeans said, the drama has always had more ambition than ability to execute and I used to saying that GG crossed several times the line between being intelligent and faking to be intelligent.

@DayDreamer I initially started this show because of my oppa Jung Gyu-woon (WJ) LOL - who apart from being a talented actor IMO, also has excellent comedic timing (I thought he was genius in History of the Salaryman). Of course I knew there would be no comedy here, but I was excited to see him in such a different genre from what he is normally used to. Since I went through some bullcrap shows he was in, I thought I would have no problem handling only 16 episodes. But as this show progressed, I got immersed in it to the point that I couldn't quit, just because the characters became so endearing and it always managed to build up the anticipation for the next episode. And now, JSW is on my hot list as well - just give him all the awards!

As for the decreasing quality, I guess I was in denial and despite seeing the evident flaws, I had high hopes that it would end on a strong note. It didn't, but I still try to remember all the moments I thought it was bad-ass, to wash the sour taste in my mouth LOL.

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Maybe Golden Cross will be more worthy of your skills. I know they kinda rushed the "put innocent daddy behind bars" premise so hero can start investigating. But maybe a rushed beginning doesn't necessarily mean a rushed ending. Unlike GG which seemed dang near perfect in the beginning and rushed headlong into writerly headgames.

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"Lee Bo-young and Jo Seung-woo gave great performances individually and as a duo, and I really hope we get a chance to properly ship them in the future."

OMG please drama god's let this happen!!!! Since the "God" of this show just screwed us all over with this finale, it's the least the universe can do! Am I right?!?!

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Yes!! Please Drama Universe, let there be Lee Bo Young and Jo Seung Woo partnersip in the future! With a proper romance please! Even if it's in the last episode because their chemistry is crazy!

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Hahahaha glad I wasn't the only one thinking 'what did I just watch...'
But I don't understand how Dong Chan's death saves Saet Byul's life. It's not like people believed him when he said he was the real killer - the corrupt police said there was insufficient evidence but even if the case was re-investigated they would have found Dong Chan innocent. Besides the president also reveals his son was the culprit.

Dong Chan.... :( I'll take Ilikemangoes word and believe he has a happy ending too haha!

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My drama subscription service says the show has 20 episodes. Therefore I was ok with ep 16. When I read HERE that it was finale, I'm stunned. I was looking forward to some clarity, roasting of the president's son, his creepy wife and creepier minister of Justice. While death for Dong Cham seems likely, I like Dramallama's version, staying alive and fighting fate. What a disappointing ending.

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WHAT WAS THAT I’M SO GODDAMN PISSED

I thought there was going to be a sad ending when Dong Chan was about to throw her. And I was bawling at that. Then SB finally let him know that she was alive. I let out this huge cry of relief but then he made his big decision and I sobbed like what the fuck Dong Chan. Your logic does not make sense. Your death didn’t make sense. For all you know, the fortune lady could have been talking about the Pres' son and Saet Byul for the two that one must live.

The fortune teller lady told them to *fight fate*. Dong Chan could have fought against it. Why is it that in the beginning, the four of them died but now only Dong Chan died? Dong Chan could have easily walked out of the fucking ocean and saved himself, Saet Byul, his brother, and Soo Hyun.

They could have at least built up to Dong Chan's decision. Like a few episodes back, they could have make us think maybe it's between DC and SB. Maybe Dong Chan has to die. DC could have spent a few episodes mulling it over, deciding whether to sacrifice himself for Saet Byul. At least then I could have understood how he got to that decision and why he chose to end it that way. But nope, he makes this decision in a few seconds and leaves us with that.

And that ending was bullshit. It was what? Thirty seconds? Maybe a minute? They didn't even give closure to the rest of the characters. What the fuck happened to Soo Hyun's ex? Did he live? Did he die? What happened to DC's mom? She just accepts his death and moves on?

I'm so pissed. The writer had this intricate plot, it was going so well, it was amazing and then they give us this pile of crap. I'm just really pissed at everything because I don't understand why they thought we’d be happy with this ending

Sorry for ranting. I hope I'm not the only one that feels this strongly about this drama. I despise dramas that start off amazing and then have a shitastic ending. Just ruins the whole experience for me.

ugh I’m done with this drama bye

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even if they expanded the finale by 15 minutes, it might've helped. I kept looking at the clock and the runtime and thinking...WTF? No time left, no time left

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Sooo, that ending.
* I actually really liked the twist reveal that Dong-chan was the one who inadvertently drowned Saet-byul in the first timeline. There's been plenty of foreshadowing — the hairpin, his blackouts when drinking, his nightmares — even the teasers showed a very suspicious looking Jo Seung Woo. Should have realized that the short period where our suspicions about Dong-chan were allayed (in ep 10? I believe) didn't actually answer any of those questions - it was a red herring designed to take him off the suspect list, because we don't want him to be guilty. In detective fiction you always want to make the culprit the person you least suspect, and here that was either Dong-chan or Soo-hyun. I didn't think it would be Soo-hyun since this is the story of a mother saving her child, but I didn't think the writer would have the guts to make it Dong-chan, so brava there. I think it was pretty much the only twist that I was genuinely surprised at. As javabeans said in the recap for ep 19, making Saet-byul's death the result of a massive government conspiracy isn't all that interesting because it is impersonal. Making it the fan favorite makes it much more engaging.
* That being said, as much as I liked the parallels between Soo-jung and Saet-byul and Dong-chan and Dong-ho, the actual scenario of how Dong-chan was tricked into it made me raise an Eyebrow of Disbelief. For one thing, I'm pretty sure injecting alcohol straight into someone's bloodstream would kill them.
* However, I'm really mad about the last five minutes with Dong-chan deciding the prophecy refers to him and Saet-byul, and proceeding to sacrifice himself. Even if he wasn't in his right mind at the time, that was an *extremely* stupid thing to do. I wonder why the writer decide to go with that— we were literally three minutes away from a happy ending that would have made just as much sense.
* Personal headcanon: Soo-hyun jumps in after Dong-chan, and this time she saves him instead of him saving her. Once everyone's on dry land again she tells him what an idiot he was. (I never put much stock in the prophecy, because what happened to making your own fate, but it could also refer to Saet-byul and Tattoo Hand)
* Overall, the last two eps were really rushed and a lot more clumsily done than the earlier eps (how many hostage/evidence exchanges did we have?) Pretty sure the ending was another victim of the live-shoot.

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So, so irritated that YG didn't get his surgery.

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There is no scene showing that our Dong Chan die. So just think positively. Like Iljimae and Dark Knight Rises, It is up to your thinking whether the hero is death or not. Anyway, Although, Jeon Ji Hyun is great, Lee Bo-young is awesome, Jo In Sung will definitely be excellent as always, a Daesang for our Dong Chan please! He is just so good

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My head hurts at how awful the ending was.

Sorry, it's my first major disappointment with an ending that I have no idea how to cope with it. I think I cried more from being disappointed than from anything from the show itself.

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*pats shoulder* There, there. First experience can definitely be sad. But it'll build you up for future disappointments considering there have been plenty more awful endings (even worse than this) in Kdramaland. :P

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*cue What Happened in Bali and Fashion King*

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*and Sword and Flower, and Age of Feeling, and Basketball, and...*

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Fashion King and Sword and Flower were terrible shows from the beginning. Fashion King was more entertaining during its the first 6 eps though. Its ending had me burst into laughter like no other. I'm glad Yoo Ah In made us forget this horror afterwards.

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My first experience of it was Hong Gil Dong. I was destroyed. I was dead for two whole weeks. Talk about a nonsensical, unnecessary, manipulative ending that MADE NO SENSESESES stupid dklfjdlsgh jfdlkn kbk

cry

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Nooooo! Terrible way to wrap up this story. What kind of crappy rushed job was this! UGGGH!

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I'm the minority that actually liked the finale. This drama was a lot of things-confusing, sad, thrilling, etc but it was never happy. I wanted a happy ending because I liked the actors but it wouldn't have been organic either.

Also, if Dong Chan did die its understandable. In the original timeline he killed Salt Byul so in the 14 days timeline he had to die. It was a life for a life.

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I totally get why Dong Chan "had" to die. But the whole purpose of going back 14 days was to set things straight. If they were able to set it straight in a way that Dong Ho is freed, Saet Byul doesn't die, and that they uncover who really killed Soo Jung, then they should have at least extended it to Dong Chan, who had nothing to do with Saet Byul in the first place.

He didn't know she was alive.

And now that they (well, except Dong Chan - he didn't know he was framed) know the truth, they shouldn't have given an ending that will lead most people into believing that the best character in the show dies.

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I firmly believe dc is dead. But, we've all said it but I still have to say it. What a stupid move on dc's part!!!!!! He sees that SB is alive and he still offs himself???? Whyyy WHYY whyyyyyyyyy wtf is wrong with the writer ahducjdnskaiehfnshsu and we see that SH reached the edge of the water, she would have had time to save both of them right??? Ok, dc can't drown himself without drowning SB too because he was still carrying SB. Therefore he would have had to go back to land and set SB down and then go back into the water. If SB was lying on the shore then SH would have came directly to SB, not heading into the water as we saw. So how the scene could only have played out is that SH went into the lake and reached dc and SB, told him what happened and saved them both. However if dc was alive then they would have shown him at the end like they did SH. And the producer says he's dead. Omg!! Invested all those hours and emotions into this show only to get this kind of ending!!! *rage*

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I agree that a Dong Chan death would've been acceptable (even moving, and powerful!) if it had been properly motivated, but there was literally NO REASON for him to not turn around and walk out of the water and they both live on. In the podcast, one of you (girlfriday I think?) mentioned that the time travel function wasn't being used properly, in that the character's remained reactionary despite theoretically being able to anticipate what might happen, and that feels like the crux of the whole issue with this fate thing. Even if you get a chance to go back in time, you can't really do anything about anything because Fate determines it all anyway. What was the point of Soo Jung's mother telling Soo Hyun to fight (in the prophecy) if there's nothing she can actually do?

Additionally, Dong Chan's rationale of "oh, it must be this way because faaaaaaaaaaaate" seemed totally out of character. He's always been the one to fight the hardest, even when the odds seem the worst (anybody remember when he kept trying to go to Soo Hyun's rescue at the abandoned building despite not being able to, um, stand?). Which led me to conclude that his brain was just addled from all the stuff they dosed him with to get him to (accidentally) kill Saet Byul. Which, seriously, how sad is that? The hero died because he was drugged?

I loved this show despite it's flaws, and I loved it mostly because of Jo Seung Woo and Lee Bo Young (as well as other great actors), but the real saving grace was the awesomeness of Captain Awesome and this flimsy, rushed, abrupt disaster of an ending just threw cold water on the whole thing.

"But then the clown car of killers just kept spitting out more bad guys" - this however, is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

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I agree. It's not that I was hoping for a happy ending, per se, but just one that was satisfactory! When DC decided that he *JUST HAD TO* die for SB to live (while she was alive in his arms...-_-), I was screaming at the screen at how illogical that conclusion was! And I have to say, why did DC and SH think they should follow the prophecy of a woman that couldn't even predict her own daughter's death!??!? If instead DC died because he took DH's place on death row then it would have been so much more emotionally salient and I would actually have enjoyed the ending since that would fit with the overall story.

Also, DC was sooooo out of character in this episode! He was acting so irrational and foolish when he's usually the intelligent detective who uses common sense!

Jo Seung Woo (and Lee Bo Young) was the real saving grace for this show. If he weren't the person acting out that ridiculous ending, I think I would have thrown my computer across the room.

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I agree!!! It was so out of character!! He was intelligent enough to realise that she was alive, not dead, in his arms. He should be clear-headed enough to not kill himself. That's why my theory is, he did't die.

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Yes! Throughout the series, there have been remarks from the police station that Dong Chan was an exceptional policeman.

When they thought Saet Byul was taken from the station, who used quick thinking to block the parking lot exit so they can check the vehicles that were leaving? My Dong Chan.

When the dog next door wouldn't stop barking, who figured it out that it wasn't the homeowner inside, but the guy they were looking for? Dong Chan!

And who figured out the one way mirror when SH was being held hostage? Dong Chan!

So while it seems that the show wants us to believe that he's dead, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

DC was not a stupid man. He certainly wouldn't surrender himself to fate when he's spent the last 13 days trying to fight it.

They wouldn't just make him abandon the evolution of his character just for the sake of giving the viewers one final whiplash-inducing twist, right?

Right??!!!

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Yeah, I didn't care of the ending was happy or sad or something in the middle, I just wanted it to be emotionally satisfying and coherent. Instead it was confusing, illogical and abrupt.

I'm glad this show introduced me to the greantess of Jo Seung Woo, but otherwise... /rage quit

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I could understand DC deciding it was fate if it was a clear choice between his or SB's survival. Of course he would kill himself so she could live but that wasn't the set-up.

She was alive, he was alive and there was no threat to either of them. The logistics of him killing himself there and then make even less sense than it being a prophecy thing.

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I too am disappointed by this drama but not so much because the increasing decline in quality was very much visible for a larger portion of the series. The beginning was fantastic; I still remember how I excited I felt when the camera lingered a moment longer on some things to alert us to clues and how Soo-hyun's anguish over her daughter's death pricked my heart. But then the lack of clarity in which things played out ruined things. For about half the episodes, I was really not sure what was going on and by the end, I couldn't even figure out how several people were connected to each other. I disliked that I had to sit down and map both timelines out with a pen and paper, going back to the recaps and finding all the details that were crucial. I wanted this show to give me the reveals and like Javabeans said, to be able to say, "Aha! That's how it was!" instead of, "Huh? What happened?"

As for ending, I also think Dong-chan died but the reason for it was so ridiculous. I mean, if he felt SB was alive, then he couldn't gone up with her, thwarting fate. Why did he feel he had to follow through with destiny?

Aside from that, I did kinda enjoy the last twist (of him being the one to have killed Saet Byul in the first timeline) even if I preferred the prophecy to have been more about Saet Byul versus Dong-ho considering that made tons more sense.

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The equation of stupid suicidal action with "knight" just so frustrated me.

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the ending definitely left me shell-shocked, numb, and dazed. i still am, so much so that i can barely gather my thoughts to comment properly. half of me is enraged, furious, screaming "MY 16+ HOURS!!!" while the other half is still numb.

1. i just can't get over why those three boys decided to become accomplices instead of fighting for the truth. what would have happened to them if they had chosen the latter? it appears they all came from well-to-do families, particularly grandpa's son. heck, grandpa was probably the most powerful of the lot at the time.

we know (now) that the president is a decent man to the core; if only those boys had refused to give in to blackmail and let him know, they wouldn't have been blackmailed into such a horrendous act. this particular revelation really left me gasping and swearing with rage at the secretary—how evil do you have to be to think up something like that?

2. lee myung-han's explanation for protecting First Son seemed too simple. he respected the president as a politician and didn't want to see him go down? it would have been more believable if he'd said that he wanted to grow his own power too, through making his friend the president.

3. why didn't ji-hoon think of approaching the president with the truth? did he just not have enough faith in his character?

4. can anyone explain the recurring nightmare dong-chan kept having throughout the show? the one i think most of us presumed was an old nightmare of seeing his brother dump SJ's body into the lake. i didn't understand it—was it really from his memories? i thought it was made quite clear that DH did dump SJ into the lake, and DC's memories from that night, at least, were accurate.

if it was his memory of throwing SB into the lake, then it was a new nightmare, not the old ones he'd been having for 10 years... right? ugh. i did not understand this bit at all.

5. i really do think this drama would have been benefited from an additional episode (or two), for the sake of preserving the drama's flow and style. the first few eps were so beautifully executed! but these last few episodes, i agree with javabeans, has been downright shoddy in comparison.

thank you, thank you for all the recaps. despite the flat out awful ending (will not mince words), it was a really good ride until the end. i hadn't enjoyed a drama THIS much in ages.

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4. I'm pretty confident that the nightmare is from his repressed memory of throwing SB in the water since the angle and build was completely different from when DH threw Sj's body in the water. Also, remember when SH and DC were talking in episode 10 about him taking the sleeping pills, DC said that he thought he was getting better but RECENTLY these nightmares started occurring and that's why he got them prescribed again.

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That would mean DC have 2 recurring nightmares....one which lasted for 10 years ( the one which he witnessed DH his brother dumping SJ's body into the water ) and the VERY VERY recent ones ( lasting for only 13 or 14 days ) of which HE himself ( not the DH ) was dumping the body of the little girl Saet Byul into the water.

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I understood that as well, although he seems to have that nightmare also before SB's death. When he drinks too much and has a blackout, waking up alongside that woman, he was sweating, seeming to have a nightmare. However, we don't see any images back then, so maybe we should just think that his mind was mixing up those two memories of the dumping of the bodies, since in one dream, the person carrying the body looked like him and in the other dream, the person had a bowl cut similar to his brother. He might have taken those two separate nightmares as one.

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What. The. HELL.
I have no idea what happened in the finale. This episode was horrible! I always thought we'd have a finale which was tied up neatly with Saet-byul, Jenny and Ahjumma some how fighting over Dong-chan and Dong-ho feeding Young-gyu and Grandma watching over happily and Ji-hoon going out shopping with Saet-byul and a budding bromance between Byung-tae and Ho-kook and Tatto man finally moves on from his son's death and Lee whatever and the president's son are executed and well my imagination just says everything becomes right. 'Cause THAT was the deal with the time travel, to set everything right. SO WHY ON EARTH IS DONG-CHAN DEAD?! Or might be dead. We went through SO much with these characters, SO MUCH. They deserved their goddamn happy ending! I was in tears at the end 'cause something worse then my worst scenario has happened- we don't know what happened to Dong-chan! I was so afraid that out of Saet-byul, Dong-chan, Ahjumma and Dong-ho, someone would die. Not knowing feels worse. PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN'T THE END! This can't be how it ends. *cries*
I was in love with this show, dreamed about it and obsessed about it and now I just feel so wronged.
I really hate it when an amazing drama has a bad ending. :'(

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I'm so flabbergasted by the ending that I had a WTF expression after watching that's episode. They could've execute Dong Chan's death much more reasonable because it just does not make sense that he chose to die in order for Saet Byul to live. I'm praying that Dong Chan didn't die because it's a waste of his character T_T the special better be good or explained why did they choose this ending.

On a side note, I fell in love with the actor who played as Dong Chan especially that singing scene *swoon*

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I sense M. Night Shyamalan

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This made me laugh out loud! Haha

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If there's anything this drama has given me it's the sore reminder that you can't exhale and praise a drama until the credits roll on the final episode. I haven't been burned this badly by a drama in a long time.
Thank you God's Gift for returning that pessimism to me. I totally needed it :/

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Can't agree more. Well actually it's not all that bad, this drama gave me alot of sweet memories too but I can still feel that sore in my head.. I finished this last night and here I am, hoping that it wasn't really happened, that it's only a nightmare

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Woojin's bae here again.
So, this time I wasn't eating dinner so I didn't have a plate to set down (or throw in a fit of anger), but I'd like to share that my laptop may or may not have sustained certain damages due to my rage quit.

I just.. Wow. Just wow. Open endings always make my head hurt and heart suffer, but this ending was just... Too quick and unsatisfying. The first half, I was like YAAAAS!! but then when I realized more than half the episode was flying by and there were too many questions left unanswered, I was preparing for a terrible ending. But oh my god. I was not ready for this ending. NOPE. I mean, I did kind of guess in the previous episodes that the "one must die in order to live" quote had something to do with Dongchan and I had a strong feeling that he did have something to do with Saetbyul's death in the beginning, but the way the writers/drama gave it to us made me roll up into a ball and cry. Okay, wasn't this drama about changing fate? Which is why they went back in time to save Saetbyul and change her fate? Why... Why did they (the writers) suddenly have Dongchan believe he couldn't fight against fate after 14 days of them basically doing just that?! I want to hope that Soohyun actually went in to save Dongchan and the scene where she's gazing off into the distance symbolizes her memory of smacking Dongchan upside head and asking him what the hell he's doing.

That ending hurt me, but what made me sooooooooo upset was how the criminals were caught like, holy shit. After all this time, we just get the president having a press conference about how his was disappointed in his family?? Like??? I did not spend 16 hours of my life for him to be like lol whoops sorry i have a shitty family aHA!!! (okay, so he was really serious during that scene but that's what I was feeling from the writers) Ugh, I wished they had shown what happened to the shit!trio. When the president barged in the hospital room, I was punching my pillow like "YEEEEES, YOU GON DIE TONIGHT, SON!!!!!!!" but then i was just like oh what the hell. I can handle that ending because I expected from the beginning that we weren't going to get a super nice and fanfic-like ending, but the way the shit!trio was handle? Nah son.

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THIS! Especially since the show makes a point about how you can't escape fate, but you have to stay there and fight it (When SH tries to take SB away and she has that allergy on the plane). The fact that DC had to die wasn't fate - it was a mere prophecy of a shaman whose daughter had a potty mouth. And a suicide couldn't be more opposite from fighting - it's practically giving up, surrendering yourself.

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To add more to this, the ending goes against their mentality throughout the show, which was fighting till the bitter end. In a way, sacrificing himself for nothing is a contradiction, since he chose death, without being forced to commit the act due to the circumstances or sorts.

It's curious how both SH and DC kill themselves in two different timelines, over SB. One because she couldn't cope with the pain of living without her and the other one because he couldn't cope with the pain of having killed her previously. If the two (SH and DC) were "supposed to die", just like all the other characters who die in both timelines, then they would have never been sent back in first place. Not to mention that if Fate would have said: "Wait, you two died in the previous timeline - you can't possibly stay alive!", then SH should have died as well. Oh God, I am blabbing right now and I am not sure if I actually make more sense than the show.

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Wait! What about the special next Monday??? I will not give up just yet. While they said no extension, it still could further expain what exactly took place and why.

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Amen to Javabean's appraisal. I couldn't believe how thrown-together the episode felt. And, a finale episode should never be thrown together. A finale needs solidity, especially in a drama with so many twist and turns.

As for the rich old man, they turned his character into useless and dumb. With all that money, he couldn't have played the cat and mouse game better than he did? It doesn't even seem like he had a plan of any sort. The writers couldn't have thought up a better storyline for him?

I understand that every character had lousy judgement and made lousy decisions, in spite of their selfish justification of protecting one's own. But, did they have to make all the characters dumb, too? Except for the President's Chief Secretary, who seems to have sucked up all the smarts.

However, I'll admit that the thrills were great in the drama.

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Ohhhh, I got the writer's message for the drama now!

People loose all their brain power when they are protecting the people they love or care for.

So, don't be stupid, in the name of protecting your loved ones. ?????

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That ending was freaking ridiculous and unnecessary! What happened to my DC?!?! Is he alive?!?!? Was that him I saw standing there waiting for DH’s release with the rest of the family? But what was up with the splash?!?! “For one to live the other must die”? To hell with that! If it made more sense then sure but DC was literally holding a LIVE SB in his hands with Ahjumma literally 20 feet away running towards him (why the hell did she not yell out to DC that SB is alive?!?!?)! So even when he decided to give up his life for SB to live (which was unnecessary!!!), SH should have been able to reach him and stop him since DC would have had to go back to shore to put SB down first! SH would then explain that everything was now alright with the president on their side, everyone will be safe! It was so unnecessary for him to have to die!!!! Did the writer really have to make his character THE MOST TRAGIC CHARACTER IN THE HISTORY OF DRAMAS?!?!?!? SO this freaking ambiguous ending is definitely not up my ally! Did the knight survive?!?!? Million dollar question of the day! He better have because I’m already pissed at the show for pulling something like this! They crammed so much in the last 10 minutes!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! And that whole set up!?!?! SO they drugged him up (um why the heck didn’t he stop drinking that water after he felt a little off, he drank like 7 glasses of that water), got a lady whose voice JUST HAPPENS to sound just like his moms, LMH managed to get a specific taxi to pick him up then get in a inject him with strong alcohol just so that he will have induced blackouts and amnesia?!?! How the hell was this all possible?!? And my DC, how could you possibly fall for this? How can you think SB was dead, freaking check her pulse! I know you are much, much smarter than that!!!!!!

And then we are to believe that it was also DC who “killed” SB in the previous timeline to protect his mom, which parallels DH’s hiding of SJ’s body to save DC?!?!? And then it was HJH that told the Big Bear, Brown Bear to kill DC? (Great work, those who guessed this) AHHHHHHHHH, what?!?! It makes some sense with the nightmares and whatnot but seriously?!?!

So what was the whole purpose of this show?!?!?! All their hard detective work led to nothing! They were defeated and outsmarted by LMH throughout the entire last episode (and series if you ask me)! If it wasn’t for the president being on their side they would have been ruined completely!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The president=deus ex machina!!!!

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But despite my disappointment on the finale’s execution, overall, it’s been quite a great and fun ride! I have to thank GG14D for introducing me to the love of my life, JSW! :p And the show, though it had its bumpy moments and contrived scenes (and this ridiculous ending), was truly a joy to watch! I like that the show made me think and that I was a part of the detective investigation just as much as DC and SH were! I’ll truly miss this show and the characters that I have become attached to! It really was a cut above a lot of other shows regardless of its imperfections! It’s been a blast!

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I feel you with the ending. As much as my heart tells me it’s DC there waiting for DH, my pragmatic brain tells me it’s supposed to be WJ (body double, because JGW was probably not there), since that was pretty much the condition to receive DC’s forgiveness. Would it have been so hard for them to have DH scream DC’s name, like he always did? Why show, why???? The only way his suicide would have made sense in that scene would have been if he never realized she was alive. Actually, it would have been better if no one actually knew she was alive. DC thinks she is dead -> feels devastated -> he sinks in the river with her -> SB suddenly wakes up, swimming and fulfilling the prophecy, but DC dies.
There is absolutely no consolation in regards to his character, his life was a Greek tragedy in its entirely. Our Captain Awesome, the super sneaky and clever detective, all of a sudden falling for all these far-fetched tricks – I can’t!

In the end, somehow the villains won, because we never have the satisfaction of actually seeing them pay for their sins. I even think they should have gone as far as mimicking the DH hanging from the first timeline, but this time with the Secretary in his place.

Oh my God, JSW is so on my radar! I even had a movie of his (“The Classic”) stored on my HDD, that I didn’t remember under which circumstances did I get LOL…I guess I was unconsciously his fan even before knowing him. With all the headache, but I don’t regret having followed it for two months, alongside you guys!

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The thing about this body double theory is that they could use ANYONE to be the person to stand there if it was intended to be WJ but instead they choose JSW to do it (I'm pretty confident that's JSW, or someone who looks a lot like him). They intentionally made it ambiguous and gave us a tiny strand of hope, but that is not enough to make up for that kind of ending... -_-

Yep, if DC dies then regardless, the evil masterminds won on a certain level! Where's the justice in all of this?!?!?!?!?!?!?

As you already know, JSW for the win, always!!!! <3

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I've been rewinding the last 10 minutes n ask what the HELL is happen here???? N keep on crying when I don't see DONG CHAN in the end,why.....why...why...u did this to me show??????

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Damn, I was waiting till its over so I can marathon it. Jo Seung-woo I love you please go back to doing movies where you belong.

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He is really fantastic in the role, and the sole reason why I have no regrets watching. This is my first exposure to JSW, and now I need to see mowr! what films of his would you recommend?

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Oh yes the drama introduced me to JSW and I've watched most of his movies by now^^ And I am also watching Horse Doctor xD

As for movies... I liked all of the ones I watched so in my opinion you can't do any wrong^^

'The Classic' and 'Love Phobia' are great but I swear I was blown away by his performance in 'Marathon'! 'Go Go 70s' is also a great watch as is 'Who are you'.

I just hope he does a movie (or another drama, maybe something funny bc he is a really funny person as can be seen in the BTS clips of GG) soon though I have this feeling that he will go back to musicals again...

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I would definitely recommend The Classic and Marathon, although like what zakin said, I enjoyed most of his movies: Love Phobia, Sword With No Name, Who Are You.. Mind you, I'm biased :D
And also check out his drama special: Yi Sang Above the Cloud and Beyond. His character is pretty similar to Dong-chan there

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DJMuenchen you can start with refresh_daemon 's movie reviews here on Dramabeans. There are 2 with JSW in it.

TAZZA
http://www.dramabeans.com/2013/08/movie-review-tazza-the-high-rollers/

Chunhyang
http://www.dramabeans.com/2013/08/movie-review-chunhyang/

His first drama was Horse Healer.
http://www.dramabeans.com/2012/09/posters-and-stills-for-the-horse-healer/
I didn't like it. It was one of the most boring sageuks I've seen and I have seen over 100 of them but you might be able to endure it for him and Kim So-eun.

I love all his movies and musicals but like zakin89 and latteholic comments. The Classic and Marathon stood out for me too and I lup sageuks and "Sword with no Name" was good and I loved him with Su Ae. I could go on and on so its best to say watch all his work, you wont be disappointed.

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Thanks for the suggestions! Watched gogo 70's and let me say slightly rebellious bands covering soul songs plus JSW (showing his mane of glory and that he is a glorious man)= the Korean version of The Commitments and so far its been fantastic!(and the endless soul Seoul wordplay never ceases to amuse.) Classic and marathon are now on my radar as well. Viva the Seung-alution!

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