On the Way to the Airport: Episode 16 (Final)

89 November 13, 2016November 13, 2016

by SailorJumun

This is it, folks — everything our characters have gone through has all led up to this. Before Su-ah and Do-woo can even think about having a life together, we still have one more confrontation to power through, and it could be the most surprising of the entire show. The defining moments in life aren’t always as big and dramatic as they’re often represented onscreen, and On the Way to the Airport is here to remind us that sometimes, things just happen, and we have to find a way to go on from there.

FINAL EPISODE RECAP

Su-ah enters the apartment with a heavy heart, saddened to return without Hyo-eun. She lies in Hyo-eun’s bed and remains there for the rest of the day, all curled up.

When night falls, she takes a walk around the neighborhood, much like she used to do in Jeju. Do-woo calls to ask what she’s up to, and upon hearing she’s walking around, he urges her to walk “to his house.” Su-ah smiles and says that no matter how far she walks, his house won’t appear.

Suddenly, a car parked in front of her flashes its lights – it’s Do-woo’s car. Su-ah stares at him, completely stunned, while Do-woo merely gives her his signature warm smile.

Do-woo takes Su-ah away from the apartment, saying that he knew she’d be slumped down after sending Hyo-eun off to New Zealand. “Like when Hyo-eun’s mom and Annie’s dad first talked on the phone,” he clarifies.

Though he’s not someone to remember people easily, Do-woo claims that he remembers everything about the first time he saw her.

This is news to Su-ah, who had no idea Do-woo even saw her there on the street way back when. She wonders how he could’ve seen her.

Do-woo takes them to their special room at the old house so they can talk comfortably. Su-ah even notes that the second she walked in, her heart felt a little more at ease. Do-woo suggests they make this room their home, though Su-ah feels bad since she’d insisted on suffering alone. Do-woo reminds her that he went through it first, and while he knows that a divorce is hard, he knows it’s even harder now when feelings that had never appeared before are suddenly popping up.

Su-ah lets his words sink in. “You meet and you part,” she says. “It’s such a common thing. You meet, you live, and you part.” And it’s that middle – the living – that becomes hard, she says. Do-woo says that he should live at least one day with her then, and he jumps up to grab some blankets. He leaves again to find some beer in the fridge and comes back to find Su-ah laughing while on the phone with Hyo-eun. He smiles to see her looking so happy again.

After she hangs up, Su-ah admits to Do-woo that she’d returned to Seoul with the plan to eventually return to Jeju Island with Hyo-eun, but she hadn’t been sure what she was going to do after that. And after Hyo-eun left for New Zealand, Su-ah says she was more confused than ever.

She lifts her eyes to look at Do-woo. “About returning to Jeju Island,” she starts. “I’m not so sure about that.” She thinks that there would be too many memories of Hyo-eun on the island, and she doesn’t have the courage to go there right now.

Do-woo smiles with understanding, and then half-jokes that it’s too bad, since he was planning on hiding out on the island with her.

The next morning, Su-ah slowly opens her eyes to find Do-woo already up, watching her intently. He asks what they should do today, and then suggests they simply rest and shut themselves in. They silently agree and continue gazing at each other lovingly.

Do-woo eventually comes out to greet Suk, who’s surprised to see he’s back in Seoul. He’s even more surprised when he notices Su-ah trailing behind Do-woo. When Suk asks who she is, Su-ah’s eyes widen with panic. Do-woo isn’t at all ashamed and happily introduces her as “Choi Su-ah – someone like family.”

Do-woo and Su-ah spend the rest of the day together strolling outside, enjoying drinks, and learning a little more about each other’s pasts.

The two settle back down in their secret room, and the conversation turns a bit more serious. Do-woo reveals that when he was waiting for Su-ah in Jeju, he would think of Annie and how she’d waited for her father. Hearing the guilt in his voice, Su-ah says, “I think it was thanks to you that Annie was able to wait.” She reminds him that Annie had always insisted on bringing Do-woo along to the pottery house when she could’ve gone alone, and that having Do-woo there must’ve made Annie feel strong. “Just as I do now,” Su-ah concludes.

Do-woo’s face does light up at that, though it dims again when he asks if Jin-suk is arriving tomorrow. He tells her there is one thing she can do: drop everything and run away. Su-ah says that anticipating nothing is the last of the three conditions they had for their relationship and thinks they should at least keep that, while Do-woo thinks they might as well break it now.

They’re interrupted by Su-ah’s phone ringing, and Su-ah says that it’s Hyo-eun calling for their video chat. Do-woo gets up to leave, telling her to take as much time as she needs and to call him when she’s done.

However, Su-ah doesn’t call Do-woo when she’s done. She sits in the room contemplating what to do while Do-woo remains in his office, wanting to go back to her. They’re like that all night, until Su-ah finally decides to leave that morning. As she rides the bus home, she narrates her apology to Do-woo.

Su-ah: “Do-woo, I’m sorry to leave without saying goodbye. If I stayed another five minutes, I’d probably run away with you, just as you said. It’s still hard to know what’s best for me, but right now, I think what’s best is to live blamelessly. I’m going to close my eyes and pass through it. When I open my eyes again, I hope to be sitting by your side with a peaceful heart.”

Su-ah opens her eyes, only to heave a big sigh to see that she’s once again sitting in her apartment alone.

Mi-jin spots Jin-suk in the airport and immediately texts Su-ah to let her know that he’s back in Seoul. This irritates Jin-suk, but Mi-jin tells him it’s time to stop running away. She sincerely wishes for him to overcome this before bumping into a colleague who asks what she should do with Su-ah’s nomination as an employee trainer. Mi-jin tells her to keep Su-ah’s name on the list.

Jin-suk takes a deep breath before coming into the apartment. But when he does come in, he walks past Su-ah and straight into his room. What did Mi-jin just say about running away?

When Jin-suk finally comes out to talk, he rambles on about Su-ah’s flight to New Zealand, not letting her speak. He wants them to wait until they’re all in New Zealand before they talk about anything.

But Su-ah doesn’t sit still this time, and demands that he get angry or at least ask her about it. Jin-suk argues that now that Su-ah is back home, she should just face reality. Su-ah’s frustration boils up and she has to pound her chest with a fist to keep herself from breaking. She fires back that she’s going to say what she needs to say, making Jin-suk stare at her and fall silent.

Su-ah says that Hyo-eun is liking her new home, so it seems right for Jin-suk to transfer over there. But she is going to keep living in Seoul, and suggests they settle this once and for all and just part ways. Jin-suk questions who Su-ah plans to live with then, and asks, “Seo Do-woo?” His words hit Su-ah like a punch in the gut. Jin-suk continues that he doesn’t want her to beg for forgiveness just so she can feel better; he’d rather she just swallow whatever bad feelings she may have.

But it looks like Su-ah is already done. She stands up, telling him that she won’t say anymore, and that she won’t be going to New Zealand either. Jin-suk: “It’s a crisis. Overcome it.” Su-ah: “It’s not a crisis. It’s already shattered.”

Su-ah leaves him there, and he’s too stunned to grab her or say anything else. Su-ah tries to collect herself on the elevator ride down, chanting “It’s okay, it’s okay” to herself. You did well, Su-ah. I’m proud of you.

Meanwhile, Do-woo meets with Ji-eun to take on a new project, which Ji-eun happily accepts. Do-woo then visits Hyun-woo to help out at the bar before it opens. He notices a new picture on the wall – the view of Seoul from the second floor – and something about it makes him stop.

Back in his apartment, Jin-suk is still shaken from his argument with Su-ah. His eyes land on the framed ornament of Grandma’s resting on the living room shelf, and the next thing we know, he’s leaving the building with the ornament in hand and determination in his stride.

Su-ah finds herself wandering over to Hyun-woo’s bar, and Hyun-woo smiles at her, saying that Do-woo has been wandering around the neighborhood as well ever since he spotted the picture on the wall.

Su-ah inspects the picture herself, remembering the first time she saw this view. She then climbs the stairs to the balcony on the second floor, surprised to see Do-woo walking down the street right below her.

She calls him and he immediately picks up, asking how it went with Jin-suk. She’s glad to report that she got everything off her chest, but she’s not sure if Jin-suk will actually listen to her. Do-woo wants to see her and asks where she is, but she just tells him to guess.

She gives him hints, saying that it’s a place she greatly missed somewhere Do-woo often comes and goes. Do-woo thinks that it’s Jeju Island, and Su-ah muses that this place is a lot like Jeju. Do-woo then walks out of her line of sight and she says, “I can’t see you.” When he’s too confused to answer, Su-ah explains that she now knows how he saw her the first time they talked on the phone.

Do-woo finally understands and looks up, smiling to realize how close they are. He notes that even now, they always end up in the same place, whether that be on Jeju Island or merely walking around Seoul. He tells her to stay put and that he’ll be right up.

However… oh no. Jin-suk pulls up to the bar, only seconds after Do-woo heads inside.

Jin-suk goes straight to Hyun-woo and states that he’s here to see Do-woo, throwing the ornament onto a table. Do-woo stops in his tracks, looking torn over whether he should keep walking towards Su-ah or turn around and face her husband.

It only takes him a few seconds, though it feels like a hundred. Do-woo turns on his heel and reveals himself to Jin-suk. And with both aware that they know exactly who the other is, Do-woo wastes no time and gestures to a table where they can talk. Oh god, I don’t know if I’m ready for this.

As the two take their seats, Hyun-woo hurries up the stairs to find Su-ah. He quickly informs her that he knows the new owner of the second floor, so she can go in there for the time being. Su-ah asks about Do-woo, but poor Hyun-woo doesn’t seem to know what to tell her.

Jin-suk begins by saying that he’s not one to get angry or throw a fit, and Do-woo agrees that he’s the same way. Once they have that settled, Jin-suk gets straight to the point: He knows that Do-woo helped Su-ah a lot since they first sent Hyo-eun to Malyasia, and that Do-woo and Su-ah coincidentally met again in Jeju. Jin-suk, of course, has his doubts about the coincidence part, but he says that he’s decided to overlook everything.

He continues, saying that he knows men like them prefer to live freely, but that there’s a certain time when they should quit. Do-woo takes all of this in calmly, and then admits that all this time, he’d been dying to meet Jin-suk – he wanted to understand how he thinks.

Jin-suk laughs dryly, but his expression grows dark as he asks if Do-woo’s wife knows about the affair. “I asked if your wife knows what I know!” he roars.

Jin-suk’s yelling drives the rest of Hyun-woo’s customers out the door. Still calm and collected, Do-woo reveals that he and his wife divorced not too long ago. Jin-suk interprets this as a plan that Do-woo and Su-ah came up with. “Am I next?” Jin-suk asks. He seethes that it’s not going to go as they planned.

“Planned?” Do-woo repeats. “There’s nothing going as planned. People meet and they part. How does that go as planned?” Jin-suk agrees with Do-woo there – he brings up Grandma and Annie, saying that there’s no way that could’ve been planned. And if it had been, Do-woo wouldn’t be human. In the back, Hyun-woo glares at Jin-suk, calling him a bastard. I’m with you, buddy.

Do-woo is shaking as he struggles to hold his tears and his clenched fists back. It looks like he’s about to snap, but Hyun-woo beats him to it. To Do-woo’s surprise, Hyun-woo grabs Jin-suk by the collar and furiously asks Jin-suk who he thinks he is to be acting this way here. Jin-suk yells right back in Hyun-woo’s face and shoves him off just in time for Su-ah to walk in and see.

Jin-suk freezes at the sight of her. “In the end, I get to see this,” he says, his voice defeated. Su-ah tells him they need to talk, but Jin-suk wordlessly storms out. When Su-ah turns to follow him, Do-woo grabs her arm in concern. Su-ah assures him that it’s okay and goes after Jin-suk. But Jin-suk is already in his car, and he drives off without giving Su-ah a second look.

Mi-jin returns to her apartment only to have the bejeezus scared out of her when she finds Jin-suk huddled by her door. He struggles to get the word “Elevator” out, saying he couldn’t take it up to his room. Mi-jin tells him to take the stairs then, which causes Jin-suk to bang his head against the wall, breathing with difficulty. And that’s when Mi-jin realizes what’s happening.

Mi-jin lets him inside so he can pull himself together, and says that while she knows Jin-suk developed claustrophobia because of how strict his father was, he hadn’t shown symptoms for the last twenty years. (The way Mi-jin explains this feels like a heavy exposition dump, but I’ll take whatever I can get). She asks what made those symptoms reappear.

Jin-suk’s voice is shaky as he admits that he was wrong about his condition. He hadn’t been afraid of his father’s scolding – he was afraid of having what was most precious to him thrown out. Mi-jin still doesn’t understand, so Jin-suk has to say with finality that he saw Do-woo and Su-ah together.

He’d had hope that it wasn’t real since he hadn’t actually seen or heard any of it, but now that he’s seen Do-woo and Su-ah right before him, he knows that it’s over. “I won’t see Su-ah anymore,” he says. “Tell her that.” Mi-jin sighs that Jin-suk should’ve treated Su-ah better if she was so precious to him. “Shut up,” he mutters, done with this conversation.

Mi-jin later calls Su-ah and tells her about Jin-suk’s condition (even though Jin-suk told her not to), and how he may have trouble flying for now. Su-ah is speechless, so Mi-jin tells her not to worry since Jin-suk will get plenty of rest in New Zealand. Su-ah still seems to feel terrible, but she’s at least relieved to know that Jin-suk has Mi-jin. Mi-jin smiles at that and reveals that Jin-suk is now willing to part ways, and that Su-ah was, in fact, very precious to him.

Su-ah calls Do-woo and tells him everything, and though he tells her that she did a good job, she’s not sure if she can say the same to herself. Now she realizes what Do-woo meant by divorce coming with a lot more emotions than just happiness. Do-woo can tell that something is weighing on her mind and urges her to let it out.

Su-ah starts to get choked up as she tells him that after sending her daughter off and making things harder for Jin-suk, she doesn’t know if she can let herself be happy and go to Do-woo. Crying now, she says that thinking only about herself in this kind of situation is even harder on her. She hangs up without another word.

The next day, Su-ah meets with Jin-suk at the airport before he flies out to New Zealand. She tells him that she’s already explained everything to Hyo-eun, and that they can all take their time figuring things out. Jin-suk tries to act a bit aloof, saying Su-ah probably won’t worry about him, but he does sincerely say that she doesn’t need to worry about Hyo-eun either, since they’ll be in contact.

Before Jin-suk leaves, Su-ah tells him to call if there’s ever any good news. She wishes him a safe trip with a genuine smile, making Jin-suk’s expression soften ever so slightly. He nods, and they both go their separate ways.

Su-ah asks to see Do-woo one last time. Do-woo shows up to the meeting place half an hour early, and not too long after, he sees Su-ah arrive early as well. However, Su-ah doesn’t see him and sits at a different table, nervously wringing her hands. Instead of approaching her, Do-woo uses the time to gaze at her.

Once the meeting time strikes, he walks up to her with a smile, which Su-ah returns. She reminds him of the time he asked if they could welcome each other’s texts while remaining apart, because she’d like to do that now.

Do-woo asks for how long, but Su-ah doesn’t know just yet. She’s scared of Do-woo’s answer, but he readily agrees. “You won’t be able to come to me if you’re the only one happy,” he says. “That’s why I like you.” He says that for now, they’ll only text. And if Su-ah continues feeling sorry about being the only one happy, they won’t meet. But if she eventually feels that she does want to be happy, they will meet. “You can do that for me?” she asks.

Do-woo nods and reminds her of the time she’d asked what she meant to him, and how he’d told her he’d answer later. He gives her his answer now: She’s the one person he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Su-ah is moved to tears, and she can’t help but smile at Do-woo’s earnest gaze.

A few months later. We learn that Hye-won has quit her studies and moved all the way to Malaysia to help Mary with the homestay. We see her visit the same spot at the airport where Annie had died, and while it doesn’t seem like Hye-won has forgiven herself yet, it does seem like she’s found some sort of peace.

Meanwhile, Mi-jin is still hanging out with Je-ah and Kevin, Su-ah is back in her red uniform and working as a trainer at the airport, and Do-woo is hard at work with his new project alongside Ji-eun. And all the while, Su-ah and Do-woo keep up with their texting.

Everything seems to be going well, though at the end of the day, both Su-ah and Do-woo reach for a can of beer in their respective homes. “If I had to say that something was different, it’d have to be that a day is longer now,” Su-ah narrates.

One day, Su-ah finds one of Jin-suk’s old caps in the storage room and asks Hyo-eun how he’s doing these days. To her pleasant surprise, she learns that Jin-suk’s been perfectly fine, and that he’s even flying again.

Later, Hyun-joo’s husband finds Su-ah resting in the airport and finally gives her the letter from Hyo-eun that he’d forgotten to hand over before. Su-ah opens the letter and reads that Hyo-eun had felt bad watching her mom work in the orchard, but she could also tell that Su-ah was happy. Hyo-eun always looked up to her mom for working so diligently with a smile, and says that she plans to do just the same.

Do-woo sends Su-ah pictures of the views from the airport and of the Han riverside. She smiles at the two sights, replying back that the two resemble each other with their desolateness.

When Do-woo sends her a picture of another location, Su-ah guesses that it’s Jeju Island. Do-woo tells her that it’s not Jeju, but it’s similar. As Su-ah scrutinizes the photo, she thinks back to Do-woo’s promise that they can meet again once she’s ready to accept her happiness.

Suddenly, she jumps up. She grabs her coat and bolts out the door, sending Do-woo a text saying that she’s breaking the last condition — she wants to visit the place in the picture with him. As soon as Do-woo reads that, he’s out the door just as fast.

They both hurry to the airport for the next flight out and… Ah, this scene looks very familiar. Do-woo: “Where are you?” Su-ah: “I’m already at the airport.” Su-ah rides the escalator down, her eyes searching the terminal until she spots Do-woo waiting for her at the very bottom.

It’s a long way down, but she and Do-woo are no longer in any rush. They smile at each other, ready to come together again.

COMMENTS

*slow clap* That was beautiful. I have to admit that I saw that ending coming and for the last few seconds, I was worried it was going to come across as used and cheesy. Many dramas have done the same thing with tying the ending scene with a memorable scene from the beginning, and at times, it can really feel like a cop-out. And sometimes the tie-in doesn’t even make sense (I’m looking at you, Doctor Stranger — you and your little bridge scene). But the moment I saw Su-ah step onto that escalator, I knew it would be perfect. It was a wonderful way to remember the couple’s very beginning and to look forward to their new beginning.

Though we’d all been looking forward to Su-ah and Do-woo making their relationship official, I was glad that Su-ah stuck to her guns and decided to wait until her happiness with Do-woo felt not only felt right, but earned. Su-ah has definitely grown into an admirable heroine, and it was extremely satisfying to see her finally raise her voice over Jin-suk’s — but I was also impressed that the show never changed who she was. She was a quiet, old soul who saw the beauty in everything, and who needed the time to figure her feelings out. That never changed about her, and in all honesty, it didn’t have to change. Especially since it makes sense for someone to need time to heal after a divorce.

Which brings me to the pivotal scene that initiated the divorce: Jin-suk’s breakdown in the bar. I can’t exactly call it a breakdown, but that is what it felt like. The way Jin-suk had been dealing with the discovery of the affair was interesting, because he would constantly laugh it off or ignore it completely. But seeing Do-woo there and actually talking about it made it much more real for him, and I was starting to see him crack with every dry laugh that came out of his mouth. And even still, it didn’t fully hit him until Su-ah walked in.

The symptoms of his claustrophobia that followed that, though jarring at first, eventually clicked into place for me, and I was able to understand him for the first time. The drama gave us little hints here and there that Jin-suk had had some sort of traumatic past, and it made sense for it to come up now. If anything, confronting Su-ah and Do-woo had to trigger something for him, and when it did, he had to come to terms with the fact that he’d already lost Su-ah a long time ago. I don’t see his past with his father an excuse for being a total asshole this entire time, but I think the backstory works well with the character. I wanted to see what was going on in his mind, and the drama delivered. Thank you, Airport.

I have many reasons to thank the show, the biggest being that it’s the first adultery melodrama I’ve ever watched from start to finish. I think we all came in harboring doubts as to how the show would handle the affair, but I was especially concerned since I’d had such mixed feelings about previous shows just like it, such as Secret Love Affair and Valid Love. Like the heroines of those shows, I held an intense dislike for their spouses and I gravitated much more towards the men the women would eventually fall for. Needless to say, it really messed with my head. I felt super uncomfortable rooting for something I knew was “wrong.”

After all, adultery is probably one of the most despised acts a person can do. If we think about The Scarlet Letter, it’s an act that can even be seen as evil — a result of nothing but lust. But we know that’s not always the case, since there are affairs with people who just happen to fall in love at the wrong time. And unfortunately, those affairs are almost always clumped together with the rest. Airport dealt with such an affair, and it couldn’t have been done better. The story was told in such a way that we understood our characters. We cared about them and we felt every drop of emotion they felt, whether it was the unbearable frustration within their marriages, or the sweet and endearing love they found outside of them.

We can still call this an adultery melodrama, but at a certain point, you (almost) forget about the cheating. It may be because of the stellar directing or the provocative dialogue, but I personally think it’s all thanks to the characters. Rather than focusing too much on the actual affair, we got week after week of engrossing family dynamics and individual searches for independence and happiness. Every ounce of work that went into this show is worthy of praise, but it was always those characters and the actors’ dedication to their roles that made the trip to the airport all the more worthwhile.

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1 lordseungri

November 13, 2016 at 3:08 PM

A beautiful gem tbh amazing for fall. The director should get all the awards.

I will remember this one for a long time.

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bogoshipda

November 13, 2016 at 9:13 PM

You were right! This is such a perfect drama for Fall. <3
Thank you SailorJumun for your recaps!!! Hope ur next drama will be as interesting as Otwtta. :D

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2 clinton carter

November 13, 2016 at 3:08 PM

This Drama is in contention for my favourite drama of the year. Very consistent in how well made it was from episode 1 to 16

Especially in a year that a lot of dramas 1st half were vastly inferior/superior to their second half

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3 Miranda

November 13, 2016 at 3:18 PM

I loved this series. It was like two magnets attracting, but not out of lust - out of a sudden knowledge they wanted to spend their lives together and then gradual sorting-out how. Do Woo just understood So Ah deeply and effortlessly, and she did the same with him. It's very rare to find that.

I get it's an adultery drama and that's controversial, but it didn't have lust or escape or fear as a motivator, just the compelling feeling that these two people were right together. Incredibly well done.

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Flightey Gazelles

November 13, 2016 at 10:11 PM

@Mirandaaaaaa!!!

So happy to find you hear. All through the series, was hoping to have your thoughts and hear your opinions. Glad you made it.

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Miranda

November 13, 2016 at 11:47 PM

I was out of commission for a couple of months - but that just meant I got to watch everything all at once. So good! And beautiful and sympathetic and quiet and really compelling. Hope we see more of this kind of drama!

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4 lunatic4kd

November 13, 2016 at 3:23 PM

Here I go again with my perspective from decades of experience with love and loss. When you are young and untested by time (whether 18 or 38), it truly seems that you will fall in love with your soul mate and live happily ever after. Then reality sets in when you live with someone and really get to know them. Being friends first always has an advantage but it's not usually the way we choose our mates. You never really get to know someone until you live with them a full two years. Even then total surprises can crop up. To the many commenters who railed "Leave your marriage first BEFORE starting an affair!", I suggest that sometimes you don't even know your marriage is in trouble until you are faced with the contrast of knowing someone who is easier to be around. If all of us ditched our marriages at the first sign of being attracted to someone else, none of us would stay married. Being attracted to someone of the opposite sex is a natural thing. It just is. What attraction outside of marriage teaches us is to wake up and examine our interior life - and the life we share with our mate. Yes, being honest from the git-go helps, but that can also come too early...before the external attraction meets its die-down rate.
Do not abandon your marriage before you give it your all in communication, honesty and commitment to grow together. Sometimes that means tough love. Sometimes it means trial separation (the BEST way to figure out how you really feel), oftentimes counseling works wonders...but if you've done what you can and your spouse doesn't change - or you realize how YOU contribute to the dynamic - then step into a new life with patience, gentleness and kindness. It is not your JOB to make someone else change and grow. It is only your job to know yourself and become the best person YOU can be. That's the person who will attract the true love that fits.

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pranx

November 13, 2016 at 4:39 PM

Very beautifully said!

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klurker 🐙 Dora-Momo makes me wish I was young again

November 13, 2016 at 5:22 PM

True that!

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January Blues

November 13, 2016 at 5:32 PM

Hear, hear!

Very wisely said indeed.

Even though i think Doo Woo and Sua WILL live happily ever after, i still think that Sua's marriage could have been saved if she just found enough courage to deal with it.

I really hate Doo Woo's character. For all the grief he gave Hye Won over her treatment of Annie, he is doing the same thing to Hyeon. He is essentially breaking up a marriage and family. A not perfect and flawed family, but still a family. He should have stayed away.

Hyeon would not very happy if she found out the real reason behind her parents divorce and with her father's character, she would always be trapped between wanting her mother to be happy and pleasing her father.

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hana

November 13, 2016 at 5:53 PM

That marriage being saved had nothing to do with Su ah's courage. Jinsuk even till the end he never once admitted he did anything wrong. He treated everyone like trash and never apologized or even admitted that he did. He trashed Mijin every time he spoke to her but then expected her to comfort him whenever he chose. He cheated on his wife every chance he got and never once thought for even a second that he was wrong. He even sat there bragging to his coworkers that its okay to have affairs! He never reflected on what he did wrong or how his mistreatment of his wife drove her away. Instead he blamed everything on her. You can't have a marriage or a family with only one person trying. Jinsuk was not interested in having a wife or a family. They never gave him his redeeming episode or even a good enough explanation imo.

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light

November 13, 2016 at 6:48 PM

Agree. JinSuk doesn't want to even communicate openly. Su Ah asked him a few times what he thinks of their marriage. Su Ah maybe could have communicated a bit more, but I feel Su Ah, and the rest of us watching, that Jin Suk is a hopeless case. They are doomed. Su Ah and Jin Suk have been together for too long, in a loveless marriage. If he loves her, to quote Mijin, he should have been nicer to her. It is behaviour that matters. Doh woo's behaviour was what helped Su ah analyse her marriage.

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Haha

November 13, 2016 at 6:55 PM

Preach!

I don't understand how people could have blame SA after seeing how she has lived with him
They have been together for more than 12 years and he never treated her like a wife. She only endured it until she met SDW and realized how someone can treat her right

Their marriage has dead along time ago because of JS treating her. SDW is just a wake up call

I'm tired with people keep blaming the women and wives even they are clearly not at fault. Why do they have to sacrificed their happiness for everyone but themselves. I'm glad CSA finally has the encourage to be happy at the end.

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Mann

November 14, 2016 at 8:48 PM

Totally agreed ?

Marina

November 13, 2016 at 8:35 PM

I disagree with that Su Ah should've worked harder to save her marriage. The way her husband's character is written, Su Ah needs a medal for staying with him as long as she did. She shouldn't have had married him in the first place, or got out sooner.
I'm with you on the Doo Woo's character. Though, I don't hate him, the writer didn't do him any favors by making him a very suspicious man in the eyes of viewers who live in the real world. And I mean the viewers who are or were married, had affairs, boyfriends while being parents of teenage girls. From first episode, he was cold and distant to his wife while showering love and understanding on her daughter. Then we learned he didn't even raise her, she had and loved her other dad, and he only married his wife to become close to her child. Normal, young, good looking, rich, attractive men don't merry women they don't love just to raise their teen children. Normal, descent men fall in love with the woman first, then transfer some of that love on her children, if any, from other men.
Many commenters on this blog, and majority of Kdrama foreign female audience, aren't streetwise ajummas with children. That's why lots of artistically well made nonsense passes here as romance or love affairs.

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geainne

November 14, 2016 at 6:13 AM

I think Su Ah worked very hard to save her marriage, but there's not much you can do when your partner won't participate. Marriage shouldn't be some sort of penance, and that's what Jin Suk wanted to make it for her. (In ep 15 he says to himself that her suffering will begin when she gets to New Zealand.)

The show doesn't feature flashbacks where Do Woo is being affectionate to Hye-Won, but he talks about being drawn to her before Annie was in the picture. I believe him. I think this character is pretty honest. However, it seems to me that Hye Won's fear could well have been a wall between her and her husband. After all, she recalls telling Annie that they are not at Do Woo's level. To me it means she doesn't feel that she or her child is "good enough" for Do Woo and his family. That in itself is really sad....

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indreams

November 13, 2016 at 8:39 PM

I don't think Suah's marriage could've been saved if she was more vocal/courageous with JS though. JS liked her and their "ideal" marriage specifically because she wasn't like that. He liked that she was a comfortable furniture (as he referred to her to that flight attendant) who was just there but didn't infringe upon his desired way of life. He chose to cart them off to his mother and not live with them even when Suah called him out on it. I tried to give him some leeway on that since he viewed it as proving a point to Suah. But even when she moved to Jeju, and Mijin and his mother had been pointing out to him what that move meant, he was simply happy that their relationship could be a more convenient one.

If anything, if she was more courageous, her marriage would've probably ended faster.

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indreams

November 13, 2016 at 9:01 PM

Also, SDW wasn't giving Hye Won grief over Annie because she divorced her husband/Annie's dad. It was because of the lies that Hye Won forced Annie to live in and how the kid had to live far away from the ones she loved and pretend like she wanted it when she was only doing it for her mom.

Whereas, Suah has always been respectful of Hyeon's wishes. And how she probably stayed in her marriage for as long as she did for their daughter. And, personally, it was heartbreaking for me whenever we saw that Hyeon knew her mom wasn't happy with her father (how she picked up that it was her dad calling cause she looked sad). Growing up with parents who are obviously unhappy about being together is much worse. Especially when you find out that they did it for you.

Yes Suah didn't tell Hyeon about SDW but SDW also isn't the entire cause of her parents divorce either. Not when we know that he's been cheating on her way before then, and their "convenient" relationship has been going on way before then and how she was already feeling frustrated before she even met him.

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light

November 14, 2016 at 2:30 AM

Agree. Too many times Jin suk made it clear to Su Ah on his idea of a marriage. She doesn't have to stay in that marriage for anyone.

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yukie

November 14, 2016 at 1:01 AM

I'm not sure if other ppl didn't see it that way or maybe I'm reading too much into things.

To me, the way JS treated SA was abusive. He was abusing her emotionally, by purposely neglecting her, dismissive and overall belittling her thoughts and feeling.

They never communicate, JS simply ORDER her around as well as their children.

I can't even see it as a working relationship and it's very far from healthy marriage. SA can never salvage their marriage. Not when JS view her as his belonging that simply has to obey his will.

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Marina

November 13, 2016 at 9:10 PM

Finally, a comment from someone with real life experience. There are millions of love stories and circumstances out there. Marriage in 21 century is not supposed to be a spiritual nor physical servant's indenture. Looks like it still is in many places. Think about it. It's a voluntary act of honoring a legal contract based on ...most unreliable things on Earth - human emotions and sexual drive. At best, it's winning a gamble, and keeping it as long as you can. At worst, it's a torture chamber for its prisoners. Let's not throw stones at women who try to escape it in still man's world, in some places.

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light

November 14, 2016 at 3:00 AM

Very much agree.

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pebble

November 14, 2016 at 3:18 AM

Well said @lunatic4kd, yours were sincere words of wisdom etched onto the mind by years of heartfelt experience.

Infidelity aside, I do agree that we couldn't stress enough the importance of communication, honesty and commitment in maintaining a relationship. It is definitely not easy to live with someone, especially after the initial honeymoon period. Along with the diminishing oxytocin, our patience also dissipated into thin air, to be replaced by irritation and intolerance, or even resentment when the routine humdrum of daily living wears us down. Communication, honesty and commitment thus become the cornerstone of a relationship.

Just because someone does not love you the way you want them to, doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have. Though it is easy to blame our partners for being insensitive to our needs, we may also want to honestly reflect on our own behaviour and attitude towards our partner. Whether a relationship can weather a stormy patch or not, depends on whether we have compassion for both ourselves and our partners. By honestly facing our own vulnerabilities and our fears, can we open up our hearts to the pain of others, more so for the one living so closely in the same space who breathe in the same air and whose heartbeat we can hear.

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pebble

November 14, 2016 at 3:36 AM

In regard to the marriage between JS and SA, it was so obvious that JS was emotionally unavailable to SA. This is the paradox of abuse, firstly, the abuser had been previously inflicted with the exact same pain he inflicted onto others. As a teenager, JS was traumatized by his emotionally aloof and abusive dad, and he in turn behaved in an emotionally detached manner towards SA. Secondly, the emotional abuse on SA had been so ingrained into her mind that she subconsciously accepted JS’s unreasonable behaviour. He constantly reminded her that she herself was to be blamed for being slow-witted and always making unwise decisions (eg. in regard to HE’s upbringing), as such she should faithfully follow those regimental “manuals” dished out by him without questions ask or any leeway given, befitting of a dimwit like her.

However, the truth is, JS was being dishonest with himself right from the start. He refused to address his own fears and vulnerabilities, and instead adopt the outer façade of the suave and flirtatious Sydney gentleman, while feeding on the sense of security by his control over SA. SA resignedly played along with his masquerade, not so much because she was dishonest with herself, but because she was unaware that she had the CHOICE to initiate change. It is not surprising that JS was totally devastated by SA’s transformation, as till the end, he was still trying to protect his delusional defence and putting all the blame on SA. If SA didn’t choose to break free, the ultimate pain would start in Auckland, as JS would lash out his menacing wrath mercilessly onto her, since it was all her fault and she deserved it. With JS not going to compromise, clearly, the marriage was already beyond salvaging, to hold onto it would just prolong the meaningless agony for SA.

Again, I want to borrow this famous quote from Scarlet Letter to describe a liberated SA, though in a different context from the original story, “She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.” It is through DW’s affection and affirmation that she was able to gain confidence in herself and to honestly explore her own basic needs as a respectable human being and a partner. She had been denying herself for too long, and once she tasted that new-found freedom and sense of empowerment, it finally dawned upon her that she could make the choice to find true happiness for herself.

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thursdaynexxt

November 14, 2016 at 6:34 AM

"In regard to the marriage between JS and SA, it was so obvious that JS was emotionally unavailable to SA ... If SA didn’t choose to break free, the ultimate pain would start in Auckland"

Yes, "emotionally unavailable" completely describes JS!

He may have thought SA to be a "precious person" to him (in the deepest darkest recesses of his mind, and when he bothered to remember her existence), but he wasn't capable of treating her with decency, no matter how precious she may have been - his first instinct was to treat her as his property, his furniture, and he cannot even communicate with her as he does with Mijin.

Even if he hadn't followed through with his threat to punish SA once she got to New Zealand, that was NOT the attitude of a man trying to save his marriage! (not to mention the fact that when he was muttering: "I'll kill them all!" I got severe Liar Game flashbacks!!)

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Mann

November 14, 2016 at 8:56 PM

I couldn't agree with you more!! ??

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5 matcha and the beer

November 13, 2016 at 3:28 PM

Thank you for recapping, It's beautiful. Every moments were so meaningful. And it ended nicely and memorable. :") *yeah, I cried a lot, thanks to this drama*

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Nina

November 13, 2016 at 8:29 PM

Thank you Sailor and Hanshimi for your beautiful recap for Airport. Really enjoy the awesome drama and getting a better understanding from both of you. This is so good... definitely not our everyday drama, a real gem in dramaland.

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6 Safeenah

November 13, 2016 at 3:46 PM

I can't believe is over...it was such a joyful and intense ride. it left with such a pang in my heart and an empty space that I will always remember... I'm really sad to see it go.

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7 PiscesDragon

November 13, 2016 at 4:03 PM

Thank you for the recap. This drama was a feast for the eyes, ears, mind and heart. The dialogues were especially touching but not cheesy. If I had one thing changed in the story, its Hyo-eun living with his dad in New Zealand. The writer might have wanted to change Do Woo’s situation by not marrying a girl with a child again, but since we know how much Su-ah loved and sacrificed for her child, it felt a little off. Also, it bothers me that HE will be growing up with such aloof persons, JS and the grandmother. Still, I love this drama. Good job by the actors and the production team.

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Nina

November 13, 2016 at 8:03 PM

I think I understand why the writer wanted Hyo Eun to live with his dad, it is to give Jinsuk a second chance to be a better man. The moment he saw Hyo Eun was very scarred at Jeju Airport, and how awkwardly he gave her a hug and comforting words, that was the first, I believe, he did something nice for her (remember the scene at soccer field? He even yelled at her to be smart at school because she was not that pretty, something like that. I really wanted to hit him when I watched that scene). Hyo Eun needs a father figure in him, and it is his only chance to redeem himself.

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