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Big: Episode 15

Oy, my head hurts. This wasn’t a straight-up bad episode, which I might have even been fine with, given the entertainment value of bad. (See: Dr. Jin.) Instead, it was outright incomprehensible, leaving me scratching my head in confusion and wondering if I suddenly lost a few brain cells in the story comprehension department, because I felt like everyone in the drama was acting like stuff made sense… only IT MADE NO SENSE. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

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EPISODE 15 RECAP

Kyung-joon initiates the blood transfusion with his body, leaving us to wonder: Did he swap? DID HE SWAP?!

In a dream-limbo state, Yoon-jae sits beside the racecar bed, reading the Miracle book to sleeping Kyung-joon as with a bedtime story. Big Kyung-joon observes this as an out-of-body experience from the sidelines. He comes face to face with his hyung, although it’s trippy that they’re both wearing the same body, and Kyung-joon wonders, “Seo Yoon-jae? Were you waiting for me, remaining just as you were when we met in the water?”

Now we see that this dream state has a watery feel to it, with light bending and reflecting around them as though they’re both still underwater. Little Kyung-joon is awake too, but Big Kyung-joon wonders if he’ll lose all his memories once he leaves this place.

Yoon-jae holds out his hand, and Kyung-joon hesitates: “If I take that hand, I’ll wake up as a happy kid.” This is one of the better twists in that Kyung-joon is facing the ultimate ignorance-is-bliss scenario—the only thing is, his unhappy, fully informed self has to be the one to choose to let go of that knowledge in favor of that ignorance. Like Charly, peering into the fate of Algernon.

Kyung-joon reaches out a hand to take it, but before they make contact, Da-ran’s voice calls out his name. She’s at his bedside, and he opens his eyes. Still in his shell body. Ah, so the switch wasn’t an automatic side effect of the transfusion?

He sits up and she checks that he’s still Kyung-joon. He gets up and heads for his hospital room, Da-ran hot on his heels. Mari’s at his bedside, and his body is still asleep.

Da-ran joins them and calls his name. Kyung-joon looks at her for a long, long moment—and we return to dreamland, where the two hands are still outstretched. Take it or not? Kyung-joon thinks, “If the me that was here disappears, there’s somebody who becomes unhappy. Give me a little more time.” Yoon-jae registers the request and lowers his hand.

In the real world, both ladies anxiously await proof of his identity. He says in this cool voice, in stiff jondaemal, “Yes, I am Kang Kyung-joon. Gil Da-ran Teacher.” He acts like he doesn’t understand what happened—and furthermore, he pretends he’s lost all his memory post-accident.

Ah, interesting. So he’s going to prepare Da-ran for the eventual blank-slate version of him, only he gets to have control over this scenario. I’m not sure if that’s shrewd, or a terrible idea in the making.

He turns to Mari for an explanation over Da-ran, feigning indifference to everything. It’s a totally unnatural way to respond to being told you’ve swapped bodies with the brother you never knew you had, but I suppose portraying a realistic response isn’t really his priority.

The parents arrive and Mom embraces him worriedly. Mari notices how Kyung-joon doesn’t react to her touch—he must really not remember a thing.

They go home, and Kyung-joon acts like this is all new to him. Mari’s chipper about Kyung-joon’s no longer being in love with the teacher, while Da-ran tries not to act crushed. Kyung-joon keeps up the distant act though he does stop upstairs to hover his hand above Da-ran’s head (twenty feet away from it), as if wanting to pat it comfortingly.

Mari pushes her luck by informing Kyung-joon that they’d fallen in love, but he scoffs at her: “Don’t lie. I remember everything.” What, you’re going to share this big secret with the bulldozer? He explains that the lie will become true when he really wakes up, and that suddenly disappearing on Da-ran will be too much for her. So, he wants to undo everything now, to help erase what they shared together. Which, wut? How does that even make sense? Just rip the band-aid off and do it for real, rather than going through the pain of a practice round.

Mom watches at Kyung-joon’s hospital bedside and tells Se-young she wishes he’d be able to accept them easily when he wakes, with a face as peaceful as the one he wears in sleep. Well, duh. That’s the easy way out where you don’t have to account for any of your sins, of course that’s what you want. You get no insight points for that statement, lady.

Kyung-joon tells Da-ran that Mari filled in all the gaps of his memory—like how he married Da-ran so she could be with Yoon-jae and also look after Kyung-joon. Anything other than that, Mari has supposedly told him not to wonder about, since it’s painful. He figures that his lost memory is good for both of them, a comment that has her looking hurt. He adds that he’ll keep up the Yoon-jae act, but she doesn’t have to look after him, “Because I hate when other people interfere.”

It’s jarring and hurtful for Da-ran to suddenly be relegated to an “other,” an outsider with no influence or importance in his life. He says he’d rather do things alone—being around her is awkward. He even knowingly eats pizza with mushrooms, to emphasize the memory loss.

Da-ran asks if he’s just making good on their promise to pretend not to know each other, but he feigns ignorance. She asks, “Are you really going to act like that? Do you really feel nothing when you look at me?” He replies, “Yeah.”

She keeps looking for a crack in his facade, wanting to believe it’s just an act. She reminds him of the ten-ten clock and asks him to throw away a bag of trash—the stuff she’d rescued previously. Kyung-joon complies, but pauses by the curb to look in the bag, finding the moon ticket she’d printed out among their other mementoes.

Da-ran comes outside and tells him she knows he’s faking, but that there’s no need to rush the scenario even if it’s going to happen later. Well thank you for speaking sense for once, Teacher. She says, “When you said you’d lost your memory, I was so scared. When you said everything we went through together had gone away, everything in my sight turned white.”

He sticks to his denial, so she challenges him to throw away the bag. He tosses it in the garbage truck—goodbye flowers, panda, 20-year-old Hyungnim liquor. Stunned, she watches the truck sweep up the trash and crush it.

She’s near tears, unwilling to believe it, but he tells her that he really can’t remember and therefore her reactions just make him uncomfortable: “So don’t act so burdensome and just throw it away.”

Finally, she tells him fine, she’ll throw everything out: “But there’s so much trash to clear, it might take a while. So even though it feels burdensome, put up with it.” On his side of his whited-out door, Kyung-joon fights his own tears and forces himself not to go after her. I guess I might have more sympathy for his pain if it weren’t so stupidly motivated.

Da-ran cries, “How can you turn everything into nothing?” That’s what I’M sayin’.

At the hospital, Mari has Choong-shik take photos of her glued to Kyung-joon’s bedside so she has proof of her devotion. She imagines that he’ll be touched at her loyalty, picturing the fairy-tale scenario where he wakes up as the sleeping prince and she’s the Snow White waiting for him, telling him, “The person you fell in love with while you were asleep is me.”

He blinks at her confusedly, so Snow Mari grabs his face and growls ominously, “Believe me. MARRY ME!” Okay, the fact that she can’t even be nice in a fantasy cracks me up, but more so the fact that Mari seems to consider this scenario an ideal one.

Mari instructs Choong-shik to erase everything in his head about, say, the fake-ring she bought and replaced for Da-ran, and only remember how she spent every day taking care of Kyung-joon so he can play eyewitness. He points out that that means she’s copping to spending every day with Choong-shik, but she says blankly that she’s erased all such thoughts from her brain.

Choong-shik tells her that insisting on it doesn’t make it true. Love doesn’t stick around in your brain, but in your heart. “Jang Mari, no matter where you are or what you do, I’ll find you not with my memory, but my heart.” Then he ruins his cool exit by bumping into a table, ha. It’s okay, Choong-shik, you’re still the most mature character in the bunch, even though I’m not sure that’s a compliment to anybody.

Kyung-joon and Da-ran meet with Mom, who says she’s trying real hard to accept Kyung-joon as her son. Oh, congratulations, you get a cookie. Kyung-joon points out that Kyung-joon may not accept HER as parent; how would he feel knowing why he was conceived and then abandoned? Mom says that’s why it’s best for Kyung-joon not to be told, but he jeers that it’s an excuse for Mom and Dad to feel better.

Da-ran looks at Kyung-joon suspiciously—this rings false to her. Or rather, perhaps too true for someone who supposedly shouldn’t know this. Afterward she asks if he remembers this, and he says that the moment he saw his parents, he felt such anger that the memory tagged along with the emotion.

She sighs, “So you remember all the things I wish you wouldn’t, and say you’ve forgotten everything I wish you would.” He asks if she’s referring to something about herself, and then says, “When I see you, I don’t feel anything coming to mind, so I don’t remember anything.” Aw, and ow.

At home, she points out all the ramyun she’d bought for him because he like a particular brand, which he again says he doesn’t remember. She says that memory or no, his liking of it should be there, so they sit there eating ramyun together. And then to extend the point into a metaphor about herself, she tells him, “See, you like it. You don’t have to say so, I can just tell. That’s enough for me.”

Kyung-joon asks Mari for a favor: Once he swaps back to his body, don’t let him meet Da-ran, or tell him a word about what happened all this while. He tells himself it’ll be okay if they make things as though they never were: “I’ll erase them in advance.”

Which, again, huh? I so don’t get his train of thought. Are you doing this for her sake, or your own? Because if you have to play God in your own life like this, it just seems like you’re going through a lot of trouble to keep everybody unhappy. Bah. It’s not even noble idiocy because I can’t see where it’s noble. It’s just… idiocy.

Da-ran continues making plans to switch schools to one outside of Seoul, which coincides with the Seo family’s impending departure to Germany as Yoon-jae seeks treatment. Oh, so he’s still going even after the blood transfusion? Her parents don’t understand this separation (I’m with them), but she says she’ll explain it all later.

Da-ran finds Kyung-joon at home, typing up a report to be given to his family regarding Kyung-joon. He’s not going to just let them jerk around Future Amnesiac Self; he wants them to do some of the work getting to know him and trying to be attentive parents.

He adds that Mari informed him that there were some feelings between the two of them, but that he has no memory of them to get over. But he advises her to get over hers, and that pushes her over the edge.

Angry now, she says sarcastically that there’s nothing to remember: “It’s just a scandal. Ah, you won’t remember, but you liked me. I said I didn’t like you, but you brought me flowers and blew the wind to me and sang me songs. I was so won over that I found it cute. But I have no intention of drawing out this child’s play any further. I’m just ashamed of myself and afraid that someone will find out. Since you’re offering to act like nothing ever happened, I’m the one who’s grateful.”

She storms off to cry, leaving him shaken as well.

Kyung-joon drops off a journal with his aunt and uncle, telling them that it’s because Kyung-joon won’t remember stuff when he wakes up—like uncle selling his house.

The Gil family hears about Da-ran’s job interview and search for a home near the new school, worrying about the state of the marriage. Choong-shik seeks Kyung-joon out to ask if he’s really just going to send her away and go to Germany, without a care: “Brother-in-law, you’re quite cold.”

That rattles him, and he sits at home in agitation. Da-ran had told him she’d be home late or not at all given her interview, and he worries that she won’t come at home at all before his departure next week. Her belongings have been packed and she’s been cleaning up, which has him feeling uneasy.

Kyung-joon tells himself it doesn’t matter since he’ll forget soon enough, but saying the words aloud gives them a sad finality: “I won’t see her today… or tomorrow…”

That gets him moving, at least. He gets in the car and drives, arriving at the school just as Da-ran arrives for her interview. She pauses to look at sunflowers, remembering the bouquet he threw out. Are you going to pick them? You’d better pick them.

Da-ran exchanges pleasantries with a teacher while waiting to meet with the principal, and Kyung-joon overhears that teacher then chatting with another. They wonder why the Seoul teacher’s coming here in the wake of her divorce—here in the sticks, she’ll be under more scrutiny and face more gossip than at her current school.

It’s those magic words that spur Kyung-joon into acting—that coming here will be more painful for her—and he interrupts the interview to take Da-ran away.

He accuses her of running away to the boonies—she said she’d forget everything, but if she hides away here after changing jobs, losing her husband, and leaving her family, she’s hardly forgetting anything at all.

Da-ran cries, “Yeah, I wish I were like you, able to get over everything in one shot. I wish what I said about loving you could go away, that I could take back admitting my wayward feelings. No, I wish I hadn’t met you at all.”

Kyung-joon says, “Since I messed everything up for you, everything will be fine once I leave.” Da-ran: “Yes. I hope that’s what happens.”

You people! I just. Don’t. Get. Is it me? Tell me it’s me. That this all makes sense and this angst has purpose and I’m the idiot for missing how all these pieces fit together perfectly into a solid narrative whole. Because I’m not following anything so far in this episode. It’s frankly hurting my head.

Da-ran’s parents find a bit of encouragement hearing that Yoon-jae asked about the rural school. But it’s not enough given Yoon-jae’s impending departure, and Mom urges Dad to step in and talk with her about it.

So Dad takes Da-ran out for a drink and asks if her running away to a new job is an attempt to cast away the husband, or grab onto him. If you say you don’t know, I am going to slap you. Da-ran says she knows what she mustn’t do, but asks about his struggle from years ago when traveled to an island trying to send Mom away. What if she had told him she didn’t care, that she forgot all about him? Then would Dad have been able to say he forgot too?

Dad says no, he would have stayed on that island for a long, long time. Da-ran figures that since Dad is like her, he wouldn’t have been able to leave that island for the rest of his life.

Dad says that with things you mustn’t allow yourself to do, running away to the countryside isn’t far enough. Are you trying to comfort her, or send her away? She wonders if going farther would work—Dad’s island trip didn’t work, after all. She sobs, “Father, I don’t think it would work even if I ran to the moon.”

Kyung-joon gets a call from Dad, and heads to the pojangmacha to tend to a drunk Da-ran. She starts to stumble off, but he stops her before she trips over her own feet.

She mumbles, “You may be able to erase it in one shot, but I can’t do that. But I’m good at enduring things. I can endure because I like you. And I can let you go because I like you. But if I’m supposed to forget about liking you, what strength can I use to endure? You asked me to just remember you. Can’t you just remember me too?”

Yoon-jae’s parents wonder about the kids’ relationship, like why Da-ran told Mom that they hadn’t yet filed the marriage registration paperwork. There’s a big family dinner tonight with both sets of parents, so they’ll have to see how things play out.

Da-ran tells Kyung-joon of her plans to announce the end of the marriage. Saying it’ll be harder with him around, she tells him to use the hospital as an excuse to stay away. She’ll take care of the rest.

Choong-shik worries about the big family dinner, sensing that noona’s going to make a big announcement. Ah, at least I can relax a little, because I swear, Choong-shik is the only character I still understand. Mari declares that she’s going to go to the family dinner too, because why draw boundaries with the girl who doesn’t see any?

Kyung-joon demands the watch back from Mari, saying it’s the only thing he has from Da-ran and he needs to return it, “And return that time to her.” Erm… you know that’s not how time-space works, right? I get that it makes for nice wordplay, but there are some rules to punning: First off, the words have to make sense before you play with them.

Kyung-joon uses Da-ran’s explanation of how she’d let go of her “mental strings” to be with him, so once she realizes that he’s gone, things will return to their original places. Yes, if emotions were chess pieces, which they aren’t, because feelings aren’t little wood figures you move around on a board! Lordy.

Kyung-joon offers her a ride, assuring her that he’s not tagging along to her announcement dinner. But she realizes he’s driving away out of Seoul entirely. He says that there’s something they have to take care of first.

They arrive at the lake where they’d gone the first day, just before the accident. He tells her that when he returns to his body, he’ll return to this time in his memory. Oh thank you, you’re finally telling the truth. It only took 50 excruciating minutes to find some sense.

He tells her that the Kyung-joon who’d been with her will disappear—the reason Yoon-jae never woke up was to stop time for him on his return. “So turn your time back to that time too.”

He returns the watch and sets it to 10:10: “Your ten-ten will disappear forever, and the Kang Kyung-joon you loved will also go away.” He throws the watch into the water, telling her to do that with her feelings, to return to the time she stood her hoping to hear Yoon-jae’s confession of love.

He leaves her at the lakeside, taking in the realization that everything will soon erase whether they want to or not. (Begging the question: Why the need for this episode, then?) She thinks back to their times together, such as the time Kyung-joon had asked her not to forget him—back when he’d been afraid she’d only have eyes for Yoon-jae upon their re-swap.

Then she tromps right down into the water, fishing for the watch.

The in-laws convene at Uncle’s restaurant that evening, sitting uncomfortably while waiting for the kids. Choong-shik and Mari arrive while Da-ran hitches a ride back, caked in mud and clutching the watch.

As she runs, Kyung-joon arrives to address the adults, explaining that he and his parents will be going to Germany. His parents will stay after his surgery, and he’ll return to Da-ran. But he doesn’t mean as himself, but as Future Yoon-jae: “When Seo Yoon-jae returns, everything will go back to their rightful places. I’ll return and hold on to Da-ran again. Right now you have the wrong idea about Da-ran being in love with someone else, but there is no such person.”

But Yoon-jae’s mother remembers KKJ as the Other Man. Kyung-joon confirms, “He does not exist in this world.”

Just then, Da-ran bursts in through the doors, exclaiming, “No! That person does exist.”

But at the same time, the vitals spike on Little Kyung-joon’s hospital monitor.

She continues, “Because of him, my heart will always be stuck at the time ten-ten. We’ve held hands and crossed the uncrossable sea. We’ve been to the moon together, and the city on the ocean floor. I’m crazy, aren’t I? Because it couldn’t be erased, I’m telling you all. So that it can’t become erased, everybody please listen up and remember it.”

She smiles up at Kyung-joon, and declares, “I love KKJ.”

 
COMMENTS

It’s amazing how much one episode can change things. Previously, I was watching Big with a sense of detached amusement—maybe not everything flowed smoothly, and maybe there were some plot points I didn’t care for, but I was generally along for the ride, bumps and all. And then Episode 15 hit and not only slammed on its figurative brakes and screeched everything to an abrupt halt, it basically shoved you out the door, ran you over, backed up and ran you over backward, then forward, and back again a few times. Leaving you broken and confused, wondering Kerrigan-style, “WHYYYY?”

Aside from the very obvious reason that we needed to fill the time, I see no reason for Episode 15 to have existed. What was the purpose of the fake amnesia, given the impending real amnesia, especially if he’s just going to pretend that the fake is the real? Was it to ease Da-ran into a (false) sense of… what’s the opposite of security? Shoving you off a cliff without warning, only you feel sorry about it while acting like you meant to do that all along?

I actually think the amnesia bit is pretty spiffy, if it would only just play out already. Why do we have to mess with the whole practice round? It’s like doing a dress rehearsal for a funeral: Let’s get into character with the sadness now, to make the real thing worth it! I mean, WTF?

Alternately, you could use the impending amnesia as a wonderful ticking clock, making the lovers appreciate the teeny sliver of time together before he’s gone. It would have been way more understandable if Kyung-joon hid the amnesia bit from Da-ran and enjoyed their last moments, keeping her from the pain of discovery so they could bask in the glow just a few days more. That would be dumb in a different way, but at least it makes sense from a story and a human-psychology standpoint: You protect the ones you love. Instead, he’s trying to deal with future amnesia… by hurrying it up faster, and inflicting intentionally the pain upon Da-ran that he doesn’t want to inflict upon her unintentionally. WTF? I repeat, WTF?

The problem is, if Kyung-joon was going to reject the body-swap from his underwater-dreamland exchange, he should have gained something from it. Even if it was something that brought pain, there had to be a reason he needed that time—some benefit to prolonging the body-swap limbo. At least when Harry Potter went back he defeated Voldemort.

So you have Kyung-joon pretending he doesn’t care because it’s all for her good. Because hurting Da-ran now is supposed to somehow help her not hurt later… when you repeat this whole pain-a-thon anyway when the fake becomes the real like the Groundhog Day from hell? Apparently one can erase feelings that way…? Honey, the only way that works is if you hit somebody so hard that you damage their ability to feel anything ever, and I’m talking in a literal brain-damage way, not in some sort of twisty metaphor for emotion that involves time and erasing and tens of clocks and stupid people.

All series long my heart bled for Kyung-joon, because he was the emotional center of the show. But as it turns out, you can’t suddenly make him do stupid things and have that sympathy extend, because once you start bringing needless pain upon yourself for reasons that make no sense, I totally lose sight of your character and I’m stuck in Not-Caring-Land, party of one. Basically at this point the only character I remotely can comprehend is Choong-shik, and he barely does anything.

This drama, I swear. I went from pleasantly enjoying myself, brain checked halfway at the door, to RAGEFIT.

I DON’T UNDERSTAND. I CAN’T EVEN.

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To KKJ:

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” (Mother Teresa)

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This show is really a mess. If we could go back to the start, I wish the Hong sisters would just give us a TV adaption of Tom Hank's movie Big. Nothing wrong with their idea of long lost brothers switching bodies. It's just how they execute that idea that I dislike. I also don't like the fact that they make the heroine too ditzy. Don't get me wrong, I like Lee Min Jung a lot. Maybe that why I dislike her character even more, because I think LMJ deserves a better role.

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lol well I'm glad I didn't watch this episode. After I saw the trailer, I was just like nope not watching this. Arghh how are they going to wrap up in the 16th??? They should've switched back on this ep!!!!!!!

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Lol Big copied Flower boy ramyun shop with the whole brothers 13 years apart in love with the same girl and the younger won.
Except Big is much more ridiculous--seriously wtf My Sister's Keeper crossed with FBRS?? How is that even possible.

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right?

apparently, there was some good crack available this season in korea and drama writers were given unlimited access to it.

lol

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"apparently, there was some good crack available this season in korea and drama writers were given unlimited access to it."

iDied

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I don't agree with you javabeans. dramas have logical loopholes because the genre entails it so. if you want realistic emotions or stories, then just watch what happens out your window.

If you can't feel anything anymore, if you find it hard to establish affinity with the moments in the drama, then you should just go sleep it off. who knows, you might even recover your brain cells and sensibilities.

It's obvious that you're too tired to even realize the potential of each story, that in each story there really is no such thing as ideal reality, and that even in reality, things doesn't really make sense.

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I don't agree. You can have unrealistic events like body swaps in a plot but still having a plot that makes sense around this unrealistic event. I think that's the whole point of, well let's say magic events in plots. Sometimes, the twist is trying to be more realistic with debts or loss of a former status, etc, but the characters around should make sense somehow.
A TV show is meant to be watched by people, the same way novels are meant to be read, etc. If you lose the audience because they don't understand anything about what's going on, you don't have a good TV show/book/etc.
Some make art and make it complicated "art is not supposed to be understood by anyone", but I think most TV shows and novels are mainly meant to entertain, aren't they? Even if they have their own rules and patterns, you shouldn't create something that confuses people the wrong way.
Hence the feeling of having a potentially glood plot but not going for it.

Though you're right, sometimes things don't make sense in real life. It doesn't mean that plots shouldn't make sense at all.

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mabel: if they wanna write this kind of crap then they need to put an adult warning on it.

the premise of a 30 something falling for her student is not ok.

i admire jb for taking a stance on this AND for enduring this crap-toid drama.

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I'm not currently watching the drama (only reading recaps), but had to chime in: Da-ran is in her mid-20s, not in her mid-30s. Given the premise and the fact that Kyung-joon is now 19 or 20, I don't think the age difference is all that big of a deal. The idiocy (I'm not even going to call it "noble" at this point) and the execution of the premise is a huge problem, but the premise itself not.

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Except Kyung-joon looks like a 14 yr old boy and not an 18 yr old teen, much less a 20 yr old.

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No...this show is terrible. Definitely one of the worst dramas in the last two years. And such a disappointment with such a great cast! The writing is terrible!

Events in a tv show don't really have to be all that realistic, because it's tv, it's not real. However, emotions in a show have to be logical or you can't sympathize with the characters.

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I couldn't disagree more. Successful dramas have an internal logic that usually depends on consistency of characters and of events to hook the audience. Whackadoo things can and do happen in dramas, and the degree to which the audience stays along for the ride is usually dependent on how relatable, consistent, and realistic the characters are. The most outlandish story can be presented in a realistic manner--meaning, the drama establishes its version of what the world's "reality" is, and the characters behave realistically within those confines. The main problem with this episode of Big seems to be not that weird things were happening to the world that it created (since it's been established from the beginning that this takes place in a magical sort of alternate reality), but that the characters were not responding in any sort of logical, realistic way to those events. Given that the Hong Sisters have spent 15 hours trying to build the audience's buy-in to the pure love between Da-ran and Kyung-joon, for Kyung-joon to suddenly make choices that make no logical sense whatsoever given the internal logic of the world of the show is...problematic, to say the least.

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@rearwindow
You took the words right out of my mouth. Many fantasy and mystical dramas have gotten awesome ratings/results--Secret Garden, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, etc etc.

The ones that work despite the crazy magic and hocus pocus do so with excellent writing/plot and real emotion and good acting.

Sadly, despite LMJ and GY's valiant attempts at carrying this through, it was a major flop in my book. Especially with the last episode. Even more disappointing than this episode. Sigh.

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I was gonna say that this was the most disappointing drama of 2012 but after this ep, this was the worse drama of 2012 that I have seen.. WTF was the Hong sister's thinking and I am big fan of there previously work.. Ahhh they wasted some talented actor's acting on such a story....

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agree. i am done with hong sisters.

i really hope parents are not allowing their children to watch this drama.

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I'm trying to make sense out of this kdrama.
The beginnng was fine: girl likes guy, both in a hurry to get married despite barely knowing each other (which I acknowledged as okay in kdrama land, no in real life). Guy has secrets but doesn't share, girl unsecure about his love, meeting a younger guy who happens to be her fiancé's brother. Accident, both guys swap.
Girl learns that fiancé had secrets and feels he didn't love her while being with the younger brother because swapping = huge secret.
(here are the parts where I lack understanding:) Some emotional uneasiness on her side, eventually decides her fiancé didn't love her. Younger brother falls for her, he leaves, he comes back a few years later, she falls for him and marries him to protect him (but doesn't register the marriage?! I really don't understand Korean notion of marriage, kdrama and real life). She keeps her feelings for herself because awkward kdrama situation + society, eventually goes for it (this episode). She learns about both brothers and that her fiancé may have loved her, younger brother learns too, painful moment for him (it's his life, he's allowed to) and for her (trying to protect him by hurting him, yay!! and maybe also guilt toward her fiancé).
Fiancé is still in coma, but his real body needs his younger brother's help. Hard to get, but still, he helps.
Then, younger brother decides arbitrarily that he will forget everything after the swap and decides to pretend that he forgot everything to witness his beloved suffer (thus suffering too... that must have been the point of the fake amnesia: not let her suffer alone. Otherwise, I'm completely lost.) Girl, then, implying in front of her whol word well, her family) that she loves him.

?? It still doesn't make real sense. If you think you'll forget everything that happened after your accident, wouldn't you try and force yourself to remember? Like leaving you notes or stuff like that? Especially when dealing with the secret behind your birth that upset you and your unusual but deep love?

I still think that the one who's going to hurt like hell at the end of this drama will be Yoon Jae... ok, he'll have a nice younger brother and his mom will stop being as creepy as she used to, but he'll have lost his fiancée to her brother despite being married to her (or not, if it's not registered) and he probably doesn't know anything that has happened so far (being in a coma and all). Will the bitchy doctor try to marry him to ease his pain? xD Or will Ma Ri fall for him? :') I don't see a way for him to be okay with everything if he remains alive.

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thanks for the recap, jb. but i disagree with your comment about Dr Jin being worse than this drama. at least the extremes in dr jin make us laugh and there are history points to learn from. what do we gain from BIG drama? nothing but bad feelings. imo, this is the worst drama ever...in the history of dramas.

said it before, the premise subjects young viewers to legal and moral issues that are aberrant.

the acting sucks. the writing, heh, makes you wonder if they are even writing anymore.

15 mins of this episode actually turned me into a snarky, whiney viewer that is sending bad vibes to hong sisters. and i don't want to be that kind of person. sorry hong sisters. in order to stop bad vibes...i'm done with you bigtime!

this is my BIG GOODBYE

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I feel exactly the same. This is my BIG Goodbye to the Hong sisters, too.Just don't want to waste any more time on it.

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Too too insane. The writing is so so so unfortunate. Thank goodness for Gong Yoo's acting. It is incredible even when the motivations are impossible to fathom you can see the character control. Awesome!

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This drama was amusing the first few episodes but I found myself NOT cheering on the "main" characters. So the big bro
1.) saves KKJ's life (from drowning)
2.) had been searching for his younger brother (to have a relationship w/ him, we can assume)

And how does the little bro respond? He steals his fiancee and is bitter at him for having grown up w/ his parents.

Do the writers really expect people to cheer on infidelity on Da-Ran's part?? I certainly can't. The reason I love superhero movies is b/c Good always wins over evil. Right wins in the end.
In this drama, poor Yoon Jae who did nothing but right and had the misfortune of saving his brother's life gets the short, short, really short end of the stick -- And that to me is NOT RIGHT. If he were evil, it'd be different. But they took an innocent guy and stepped all over him and expect the viewers to applaud the twisted "love" story??
Wait 'til Da-ran sees that the person she supposedly "loves" looks like a little kid from the Disney Channel.

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Not just infidelity, but infidelity w/ a younger brother (who could have been a fraternal twin - eww), and frankly, Da-ran giving up on her feelings for the Doc for the brother (who looks like he is 14) is simply unbelievable, esp. when the 1st 3rd was all about Da-ran and her feelings for the Doc.

Da-ran stated in this ep that is real difficult for her to forget her feelings; well.... (evidently not).

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Hehe, this is the first time that I couldn't help posting. Although this episode was really flawed, IMO it served its purposes. One was to show what GDR's response to the possible post-body swap amnesia would be, choosing KKJ and a complicated life or sticking by SYJ's side. IF KKJ would indeed lose his memory once everything returned to normal, at least he (and we) would have seen what her choice would have been, no matter how long it took her to make that choice.

The other was to make all the other key players aware that something momentous had been happening in GDR's life that would have permanent consequences on the status quo. The writers could have taken the easy route and have only GDR, KKJ, Mari and possibly SYJ aware of what exactly happened, but at least to some degree, the secret was out and everything changed irrevocably. Even if the others are not aware of the exact nature of the change, i.e. body-switching or it was KKJ all this time, this period of time would be unforgettable. KKJ, or rather his impact on the situation, would always be remembered, after all.

Now, after this, I don't know how a perfect or even just satisfying resolution could come about in just one episode. Would SYJ give way and die after all, leaving KKJ to inhabit his body with only the three (or four) knowing the truth? Is this just supposed to be a bittersweet lesson in life for GDR and KKJ? Are we supposed to believe that KKJ will grow up to look exactly like SYJ?? Will GDR and Mari switch bodies?? ;P

Whatever the ending, I don't regret the time spent watching each episode because of the the excellent actors with their equally great performances, and some truly sweet and thrilling scenes that brought smiles to my face.

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Really glad I stopped watching after episode four now...

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Hey - Une danse

Thanks for the song by the way!

For once I understand a few sentences in a korean song and the title that aren't in English...
"Dans le ciel la lune sourit" ("the moon smiles in the sky")
"Une étoile danse avec moi"("a star is dancing with me")
"Voudrez-vous danser avec moi ?" ((which is a bit weird...) "will you want to dance with me?")

I've looked for other songs from Hey.

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Totally agree that after 15 episodes, this is the WTF? Totally didn't make sense.I feel the same as you. Why waste everyone time with so much back pedaling?

The Hong sisters have created a dud other than seeing Gong Yoo's bravado performance. Only the last 5 minutes save it otherwise it should have gone into the toilet.

Finally Da Ran admits her love for KKJ! Hurray! About time, and every one knows it in your face!

Isn't it possible that when they switch back that they will retain their respective memories?I wish. Hopefully, the Hong sisters can make some common sense in the final episode.

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"Kerrigan-style" -- love it. And so true.

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Lee min Jung : the new queen of tears - OMG can she cries and looking gorgerous at the same time : that's not easy - noticed her from BBF but now i'm sure that she can acts

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LMJ's crying/emotional scenes have improved since the 1st few eps.

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Ohh JB I totally get your frustration caused I was going WTF!!! *facepalm** and **headesking** every 5 minute. I felt like the actors where just riding along to get this mess over with...Hong sisters I though I would never say this but you have fail me BIG time!!... I hope the next project can be much better.

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Honestly, i think the reason for the Fake Amnesia was for the sole purpose that they wanted to use Gong Yoo as Gyung-Joon and not Gong Yoo as Yoon-Jae. because let's face it, they didn't want to use Won Ho as Gyung-Joon because that would be weird.

so my final guess is that some how some way, Gyung-Joon is going to stay in Yoon-Jae's body. that is the only way i can explain the reason for the fake amnesia. Good luck to the hong sisters trying to pull this one off. lol.

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the worst drama ever, I wasted my time watching this. Sick of this, Even Dr.Jin is better

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O M F G !

Thank GOD I'm not the only one who agrees with this ridiculousness! Like seriously?! What happened to this show? Have they gone mad?!

And I'm telling you, Kyun Joon is so damn selfish. This is all for Da Ran? What load of crap. Apparently, he's still not thinking of the long term consequence. Yes, she'll be happy temporarily but when he dissappears, she's the one who has to live with the memories the rest of her life while he dissappears.

STUPID!

Please Yoon Jae, COME BACK already!

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Do they really want us to believe that Da Ran would love KKJ in his 19 year old body? Seriously?

For some reason, I still believe it was easier for her to find love again or at least open hear heart to possibly loving someone else because KKJ was in her first love's body! I mean, rather than losing Yoon Jae completely, isn't easier to love someone who somewhat reminds you of him even if it's only physically?

It's official, Da Ran has completely gone MAD and I blame KJJ! 'BIG' time! In the end, the person who gets hurt the most will be Da Ran anyway. How so? KKJ 'loses' his memory and then Da Ran is left with memories--the good & the bad.

Oh Hong Sisters. Such a waste on something that could've been good if done right. I don't know how they'll pull this off with the end nearing.

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the only thing I could think of, the whole episode, to make any sense out of it, was that when he realized he'd forget everything, he decided that he needed to try to put everything back so everyone could go on the way they were "supposed" to (the body swapping and consequences being unnatural, and derailing everyone). The REAL amnesia would not have him making an effort to stay away from her, so he was, in his head, a noble idiot trying to fix what he broke so she could go on with her normal adult life, since, after the switch back she'll have to deal with the fallout of her fake marriage and being in love with a former student and STUFF, he had an off screen noble idiot epiphany that she'd be better off without him. There's no evidence of that....anywhere, but it's the only thing I could come up with.

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All I can say is thank you for the recap, honestly I CANNOT wait till you post the last episode recap and really explain to confused people like me what's up. Can't wait for the comments.

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Thanks alot for recap.You know what the recaps from the DRamabeans is best of the best.I always cling on to it and its my 1st in the list.

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The best thing about this episode was reading your recap. :) Thanks!! :)

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As usual. The comments you made in the recap are so dumb, for want of a better word. I have been keeping track of yr other recaps and once again you missed the point of the journey the OTP has to take and what the episode has to offer.

Let me explain it to you it in simple words so u can understand. The entirety of Episode 15 was a build-up to the final moments for Daran to show her strength AND conviction in her love for KKJ, even when faced with her lover losing ALL the memories of their time together.

Do you know how important memories are to everyone of us? Without it, we lose our identity and defining moments that makes life worth living and pushes us forward.

You should respect the writers intentions in trying to tell a story. There is only so much screentime that you can give in telling a story, so instead of saying rubbish like 'my head hurts' or 'outright incomprehensible' to gain attention, comment on the story the sisters were trying to tell behind the scenes.

If u want to offer a critique, offer one objectively suggesting there might have been some areas that could have been improved on with view of what the writers were trying to convey. If it is dumb to you, then don't bother to recap it with dumb comments at all. Just state it for what it is with some intelligent bias.

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you have a point Voyager. People are disliking this drama just because they don't pay attention to the overall detail of the story.

They don't even know what a critique is, because if they do, they won't even watch these dramas. instead, they would realize that dramas are forms of ideological manipulation.

and since javabeans seems to analyze dramatical logic, I think it would be best not to criticize it all at. since that would be ironic, given the position that the writer of this recap submits to the whole capitalistic, unartistic ideology of popular culture.

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Episode 15 was the definition of a major waste of film. I can't believe the writers wasted a whole episode on KKJ pretending he didn't remember when so many important issues in the storyline needed to be tackled. The only thing that made up for it was Da Ran's declaration of love for KKJ in front of all the family at the end. It was so necessary for him to hear how much he was loved since his uncle and aunt are only in it for the money, his biological parents only had him for spare parts, and Ma Ri is just an obsessed stalker. He was afraid the part of him that existed in Yoon Jae's body would be wiped out of existence. He wouldn't remember, Ma Ri was already on the path to rewriting history, leaving Da Ran to be the only one left to remember that part of him. He only wanted Da Ran to forget to protect her heart, but she loved him enough to protect his heart over her own.

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ah...Quite disappointed with this drama actually. I think I hoped for a lot coz it's by the Hong sisters. But this episode was written very sloppily. I think the part which I was most impressed with was that the brothers are fraternal brothers, and Kyung Joon could have been the older one. That was an interesting twist to the plot...too bad nothing much stands out.

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What a waste of an episode. I want my hour back. "At least when Harry Potter went back he defeated Voldemort." haha So true... I especially hate how they made Da-ran so stupid and made Kyung-joon from being the only character with sense to a character that does stupid things, too. What happened, Hong sisters?

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i totally agree. this episode had me raging too.

i love your recaps javabeans. really. "kerrigan style"... love it. your recaps are better than the episodes themselves.

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I think we have to withdraw ourselves from the drama for a bit and understand that although this whole drama, as confusing as it seems, and as hard as the hong sisters tried to make sense, we, the audience are humans.

We have seen KKJ in GONG YOO's body falling in love with GDR and GDR loving KKJ in GONG YOO's body. I honestly think it will be too wierd to see KKJ in Shin Won Ho (the younger actor)'s body and seeing how GRD loves him all the same. As much as we want to see that great noble love, we are humans and it is difficult to adapt, especially when Shin Won Ho has lied in bed for 99% of the time. I guess this was probably why the Hong sisters decided to drag that switch till the very end so that we get to stay with the main characters (KKJ and GDR) acted by the main actors and actresses (Gong Yoo and Lee Min Jung) whom we have grown to love (or hate. lol).

Whether the plot makes any sense, i think we have given up on it long long ago. hahaha. So, if given a choice, I'd rather watch my Gong Yoo and Lee Min Jung till the very end. Switch back or not, I don't really care. Make sense or not, it never did anyway.

I think this show has made me grown to love Gong Yoo and Lee Min Jung (albeit less) but definitely not KKJ or SYJ for that matter. I know that usually, we like both the actors and characters at the same time, which one comes first doesn't really matter cuz there is no identity swap. haha. But for BIG, the crazy ridiculous identity swap with one actor as good as dead, we cannot judge it the same way as we usually do!

Conclusion: Gong Yoo and LMJ have done a great job and let's give them some credit, ok? ^^

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I postponed watching this and only decided to watch it now, and omg, this is such a bad episode. Wasted 45 minutes of my life I can't take back!

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Okay, for the first time during this show I genuinely did not like the KKJ character. His phony amnesia was indescribably cruel and beyond stupid. What the typical person in love would try to do when faced with the possibility that they would lose all memory of the person they love would be to spend as much time making good memories with them before that happened, not put them through horrible pain and suffering beforehand in the hopes that it will make it al better later. He didn't even give her a choice in the matter, he could have just said tha there was a chance he would forget everything when he switched back. Starting the pain early in no way mitigates it. This episode was pointless and useless. The only point I could see it serving was to make nasty trash Ma Ri hold out some extra hope that she would win her prize in the end. A prize that was never hers and one she certainly does not deserve.

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