I just watched it subs and I loved every minute of it!
I am so glad we didn’t have to wait until the last ep to see our Snail couple happy together
However, Lee Gun’s illness feels like a reality now. Like we’ve said before, it is so sad, but it is life.
Adding Gumi’s translation of Geon’s father’s diary
“Lee Hui is definitely Lee Gun’s father. Here’s the detail of LG father’s diary, and it makes you just tear up.
numbers are the date, I can’t see which month it is….
2 MyungSook called me
7 MyungSook wrote me a letter
20 write the will/send money to wife’s family
next month
3 buy a robot for Gunnie
and here and there it’s scribbled, Gunnie, MyungSook, Gunnie, MyungSook…
Four words written on top left corner of the diary:
get out of the house
go home late
don’t drink
don’t cry”
Stuck on Hyuk 
I just rewatched episodes 17 and 18 with my mom, and I’m generally feeling more upbeat and positive about the outcome of the whole thing (compared to the gloomy, worst-case-scenario-contemplating mess I was last week). I think it’s just my mother’s fangirl giddiness rubbing off on me, tbh.
I’m glad they’ve reserved two whole episodes to stretch out Geon and Mi Young’s reconciliation + living together again. And hopefully much of this will include some lovely hijinks to convince Omma that the snail couple truly belong together, genetic disease or not. Though I largely say this because I’ve just finished another drama (which I will not mention, but safe to say it’s probably one of the worst ones I’ve ever come across) in which a spontaneous marriage proposal, parental opposition, wedding planning, etc were all breezed through in about 25 minutes of screentime. I don’t want the same kind of conveniently tied-up ending for FTLY. It doesn’t have to be neat, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I just need it to be happy.
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit since reading your post and @fiveinone’s take on the situation further up the page. And I feel like the way I’ve phrased the question – whether it would be “ethical” to have children when you know there’s a risk of a disease being passed on to them – feels like I’m judging/policing the reproductive and life choices of people with chronic or terminal illnesses, and it certainly isn’t my place to do so. It IS questioning their “right” to create a family to the best of their ability. Each illness, each situation must be such an intensely personal set of circumstances and expectations, that I suppose one blanket judgement of “this is unethical” would hardly be fair.
If they were a couple I know personally, I would certainly be ready to help them source out as much information as necessary to help them make the most informed choices they can. And you know, maybe I wouldn’t agree with the choices they make. Mainly because I think I would be personally too terrified to go ahead with having kids under similar circumstances. But If I’m going to bring up “rights”, then the right to reach out for happiness is certainly one of them.
And as for couples with no prior knowledge of passing on various afflictions to their children, well. My dad’s mental illness only manifested in his early 50s, and it’s a type which is likely to be inherited by male children in their late teens (my brother). Had my parents known that this would happen, would I have expected them to take steps to ensure that a male child would never be born? From my mother’s side of the family we run the risk of cancer, diabetes, hypertension. Is she selfish for wanting to have us anyway, in spite of this knowledge? It’s a very complicated, loaded dilemma. But my family, now that I think about it, has always adopted the Mi Young philosophy of “we’ll cry later when and if we need to”. And in the meantime we’ll be happy with what we have, and try and take conscious measures to minimize risks, wherever we can.
I anticipate many more heart-to-heart talks in the next two episodes. I can’t remember who mentioned this in one of the discussion posts, but Mi Young really needs to be fully informed, and allowed to have a clear picture of what she’s getting into. At this stage I feel it would be cheap of the writers to completely dismiss the genetic disease. It’s very heavy and present and important, and I’m very interested (and apprehensive, as always) to see how they deal with this.
Yeah… Given how much of the story has hung on Geon’s genetic legacy — be it emotional, psychological or narratological — I can’t see the FTLY team either sweeping this issue under the rug and pretending its nothing, or closing with a morose, fatalistic pain-fest. They have made such a point of drawing our attention to it that I get the sense that they did not just pick-a-deadly-disease-out-of-a-hat because the plot required it.
Just pause for a moment and consider all the issues and questions that have arisen here and (as far as I can tell) to some extent at other forums: I think it matters a lot that we are wondering about the ethical implications of this couple’s dilemma; that we are exploring our own convictions about what we think is right or should happen; that we are affirming the primacy of free will and agency; finding expression for our own inclination to make the road smoother for those we might know/discover in such circumstances; reading up on and talking about a malady that we might never have given a second thought, but most importantly, engaging our awareness that this sort of thing, if not THIS specific thing, is real for many people.
When I hear you talk about your family, @youholdthewater, framing your story in the context of the questions that are being raised here, I experience something both emotionally and intellectually: am moved that you willingly share of yourself and I am inspired that this experience comes out of the shared engagement with a story that sparked our curiosity and urged us to wonder, to worry, to reach for something greater than solitary cynicism and resignation…
I want to trust that the storyteller os FTLY intentionally loaded all, or at least most, of the worst pain the story has to evoke in that middle Act so that there could be a proper denouement worthy of a comedy; that is, Comedy in the true, literary sense of a story in which the protagonist triumphs to find a happy and hopeful resolution after enduring painful and fearsome travails.
Amen! @fiveinone:
Amen! I feel exactly the same way.
The questions and concerns arising about what the Lee family, and particularly Geon and Mi Yeong, should or might do are probably some of the same ones HD sufferers -or really, people in comparable situations- have to confront in their everyday reality. They cannot be easy issues to address, especially when they involve surrendering ordinary dreams of love and family that so many take for granted.
This is part of the fear I hear in Lee Geon’s voice and see in his eyes when he practically whimpers, “But I don’t have a right to love you” to Mi Yeong. All their painful history aside, remember how often Lee Geon has called his genetic disease “disgusting.” To him, the disease is not only horrifying for what it will do to him physiologically and the people who love and care for him psychologically, but also for what I can just imagine he believes it denies him – the “right” to love, and his wife – the “right” to create a family. Because, really, knowing the kind of person Geon is, I can just imagine him agonizing about the prospect of burdening his children with the family legacy he has been burdened with.
Geattongie was a happy fluke and I think that since Geon’s disease had never made its presence in him or danger to his family felt, everybody could just coast on the thrill of anticipating Geattongie’s arrival. Allow me to speak from persona experience when I say that when a baby is on the way, all anybody thinks about is the joyful prospect and even in the face of problems, the Optimist who sees only promise and possibility just has the run of everyone’s mind. For that reason, Mi Yeong’s admonition, “Why grieve over something that has not yet even happened? Let us cry when we have to, but not in advance,” went straight to the core of me and my love for that gentle superwoman just went all sorts of florid and luminescent. That together with @fiveinone’s remark’s compel me to pose a difficult question regarding the prospective danger to offspring:
Would any of you advise a couple with a history of, say, mental illnesses or cancer or diabetes or hypertension (and the list goes on) in the family to forego conceiving their own children and adopt instead? But even when parents have no discernible condition that might affect their child, nobody can guarantee that the child they conceive and bear will not be afflicted in some way. Can we presume to encourage those with known afflictions to refrain from propagating it..? It’s a harsh question, but I only pose it in the spirit of honoring what, for me, continues to be a very robust and meaningful conversation in this thread.
I have no idea how the story will address the problem. I do know that serious hereditary conditions do make people pause and such illnesses exercise a significant influence on the shape a person’s life takes and I’m curious to see where FTLY takes the conversation next week.
My long comment got deleted gahhh. Anyway, in summary I was asking, did Geon’s dad story create a plot hole? I remember, It was said that Geon’s parents died in an accident together. Could that have been a lie or just a writer’s mistake?
If I’m recalling this properly, it was either mentioned or implied that it wasn’t the HD itself that killed Geon’s dad? Which would allow for the car accident that took both parents’ lives. And that his father was never properly diagnosed? It might have been Dr Octopus, or perhaps I’m remembering something I read on soompi.
Yes Dr Octopus said exactly that. But if Geon’s dad abandoned his wife and son, it is strange that he died with Geon’s mom in a car accident right? It’s not that important but I was thinking about it
Maybe when Geon’s mom finally went and did what MY did, that is to get Lee Hui back, a twist of fate made them really brought them together, albeit it’s in death.. 😡
My headcanon is that Geon’s dad had a lucid period or a sudden realization and that he and Geon’s mom went on a drive to talk things through, and then tje accident happened.
OR that “car crash” is simply the official statement for whatever really happened. OR the writers made a mistake (which I can live with, probably, but it is nagging at me now you’ve pointed it out).
Yeah that’s why I want to make sense of it. In the diary it says that Geon’s mom kept writting him letters so the sudden realization theory could work.
My head canon is running along similar if more dramatic lines : they had a soul-pounding reunion too, but it ended tragically. Something like that. 🙂
I hope I’m not too late in joining the bandwagon for the discussion of the ending for FTLY. I wanted to comment earlier, but was too busy.
My take –
I was watching episode 2 last night, and (if the translation and my brain proved me right), I think Geon said this as he handed the casino chip to MY: “We can’t always win the game of life, but as long as you have that chip, you’ll always have hope and opportunity.”
It suddenly struck me that this has been the message that the story is trying to tell since the very beginning. While apprehensive about what the last 2 episodes will bring, especially seeing @mywebfoot’s vision of the ending, I’d like to think that we always have hope and opportunity. That’s why the chip appeared again in episode 18. Geon telling MY to stay with him forever, and MY saying the same back to him. I take it as the writers telling us, just believe! They ARE going to be together forever.
I’m almost 99% (gave it 1% of doubt, to show how much I love this show that I’m deadly afraid of being wrong) sure we will get lots of OTT Geon antics, amidst some heart to heart talks, many tears of happiness, and of course a mind blowing happy ending. *crossing my toes as well*
That makes a lot of sense. We’ve seen the lollipop show up, serve its purpose and leave. It’s the poker chip’s turn now. Life in itself is a gamble, but even more so for Geon, and for his and MY’s love. They have the opportunity to be together, and the hope for happiness, and that is probably what will carry them (and us) through the uncertain future.
I like having you around @fiveinone, your positivity is rubbing off on me. We were so busy collectively wallowing in despair yesterday that we could barely see the light, I think.
Aww, you r so sweet. I love reading everyone’s comments here. It’s more than just gushing nonsensically, but there’s depth in each discussion. Glad, that I can offer my own version of interpretation of the story here. ^^
My stomach is in knots of anticipation so much so it feels like the front is stuck to the back…there is no more room for it to contract any tighter or closer together!
sigh……..
Ah..episode 18. SO wonderful! It is so nice to have Gun and Mi Young get together with 2 full episodes left! I do hope we get to witness many more moments of their happiness and love together…which is something we rarely get to see but for a few moments usually in the final episode of a drama. I for one would love to see them interact even in simple daily living activities…the humdrum of daily life we all lead…as their being together just makes all those moments and chores so much more meangingful and less mediocre. Remember their baby class?
sigh……
Sigh….I have done a lot of sighing with this episode…sweet sighing. It has totally filled me up with so much love it is just squirting out from me all over the place!
I loved how Gun was so playful and giddy with love and life again…how he could barely keep himself in check at the dinner table or in the bed with Mi Young. LOVED him jumping over the furniture and over Mi Young in bed …the K-I-double S was soooo sweet and funny. Him poking her at the dinner table and then wrenching his hands together trying to keep himself from yanking her up into his arms. We all feel his frustation don’t we?
sigh…..
Mi Young has transformed into this totally strong woman, very much in control and so CALM! She is going to be his rock and I love that! He was hers before and still has her back but now HE KNOWS she is there FOR HIM and LOVES him NO MATTER WHAT! Of course he loves her so much too. In reality they both never stopped loving each other, just did not allow themselves to continue it because they thought the other would not want it or be affected in some negative way.
sigh……
Another thing I really like about this particular drama is the fact that I actually enjoy most of the other characters and their storylines! Love grandma and Mi Young’s mom and family. Love Gun’s half brother..he is so cute and sweet. Love Secretary Tak and isn’t he hilarious in his actions and goofy? Him sticking his butt out for Gun to smack it when he does a good job? RARELY do I find a drama where I give a crap about the other characters much, let alone most ALL of them and their storylines!
sigh……
With all our lives constantly being bombarded by the realities of life…it is so refreshing to see such love and happiness displayed in this drama. I for one would love to see more of it and for it to continue. Yes, part of me has felt the “this is too good to be true” feelings and wondering when the shoe is going to drop…but a bigger part of me is really hoping this will end well and happy for once. I want to escape into a fantasy of such love and happiness for once and make it become the reality. Wouldn’t that be incredible?
sigh……….just breathe Melinda……..breathe…….
I have watched episode 18 a couple of times now. I will likely watch this drama many times over. I love love love love it!
Yeah. Non-stop sighing. Even with all the gloomy speculation above, ep 18 was like the ultimate payoff. Whatever else you can say about this show, the catharsis is superb. 🙂
ALL of this. And what I love most about Mi Young’s growth is that she is still fundamentally very much the same Mi Young that Geon (and Grandma, and Dragon, and Sec. Tak) fell in love with. That courage and calmness has always been there – remember when Sera confronted MY in the hospital and insisted that she leave? And instead of crying, getting hysterical, angry or intimidated, Kim Mi Young simply stood her ground and quietly, respectfully asserted her right to stay and look after her husband. And Sera was just left completely speechless. Mi Young had the same effect on Geon, when she had to deal with his post-wedding mood swing and attempts to be deliberately cold and distant towards her. She’s not simply “too nice” or naive or a doormat. The woman’s entire core is made up of dignity and honesty. You can’t get angry or pick a fight in the face of someone so dignified and so true to who she is.
There’s this beautiful quote I read somewhere re: KMY’s character (must have been soompi) and I apologize in advance to the original OP for paraphrasing it here; “you cannot stand in a valley and look down upon a mountain”. And Kim Mi Young sure is a mountain of a woman.
The major difference in post-France MY is the fact that her existing dignity and strength now has oodles of confidence and self-assertiveness to back it up and really shine. Consider the way she so self-assuredly bulldozed through the swarm of reporters in ep 17, compared to the way she was so overwhelmed by a handful of reporters earlier in the show’s first half. The Kim Mi Young of today has no time for anybody’s bullshit – especially not for Geon’s (bless him, the poor fool).
And it’s so BEAUTIFUL to see her smile again in ep 18. I laughed every time she laughed, smiled every time she smiled.
I’m also reminded of the two main things we learned about her in eps 1 and 2 – her greatest weakness (the inability to say “no” to someone) and her greatest desire (to love someone with her whole heart).
And ep 18 sort of killed two birds with one stone using Mi Young’s confession scene. A Big No to Geon (no I won’t stay away, no I won’t stop loving you, no you are not allowed to make this decision for me) and the opportunity to stay and love someone with all her heart.
Yes. To everything you said. Kim Mi Young is my favourite female heroine (ever). Thank you mi young ssi, I feel like I’ve known you for a long time. Thank you.
YES! YES! YES! Exactly what you said @youholdthewater, YES!
Hurray!! Hurray! Hurray! Everyone has said almost everything I wanted to say. I would like to add, however, that I am loving the whole “Dragon” arc. I love the fact that Gun does not automatically group him with his mother. I love how broken he was over not really being related NOT because of the money but because he really loves this family. My hugging him and telling him that she would always be his sister? I wanted to hug her, too. She is such a healing character. No wonder everyone falls in love with her.
Dragon is definitely one of my favourite side characters in all of kdramaland! The idea of found or “made” families is one of my favourite tropes, and I love that Dragon is being rightly rewarded for his pure heart and simple desire to love and be loved. And it’s a sweet, small parallel too – both Daniel and Dragon finding the love and acceptance
of a sibling.
Also adding some love for Dragon’s mini-soap opera with Ji Yeon. The melodramatic music, the overwrought reactions. HILARIOUS.
Also I’ve just noticed the translation of Geon’s father’s diary –
“get out of the house
go home late
don’t drink
don’t cry”
Ooof, you guys. Ooof.
But like @dramafan pointed out somewhere above the page, it was so wonderful and important that Geon was able to understand and make peace with his father’s life and memory. I’ve always sort of thought that Geon being the way he is has so much to do with his dad – the overwhelming sense of responsibility over everyone else’s happiness and self-esteem and well being. He was probably trying really hard – consciously or unconsciously – to be everything he thought his father wasn’t. And then it turns out they have always been exactly the same man, the kind of man whose heart is often bigger than his head. And because they were each so busy being so selfless on everyone else’s behalf, they only ended up inflicting the greatest pain on themselves. It was good and necessary for Geon to see and understand his father’s mistakes, and to recognize how he has probably been saved from the same fate by one hell of a superglue woman.
This show keeps throwing us these curveballs. Nobody expected the video scenes and they turned us inside out. Now this diary is slowly worming its way into my psyche. It is a wonderful addition, and it throws one last ‘Take that’ at the people crying ‘noble idiocy’.
It just takes my breath away how much this comedy has moved me to cry – and continues to do so… and I can honestly say that it’s not making me cry by conventional tear-jerker means of blatant manipulation, but rather through the subtle undercurrents that run through the sort of thing you just described, @youholdthewater.
@mywebfoot observed that my parents must be very literary to name me as they did. That is true. They also made their passion for literature mine as well – or maybe it’s the other way round…
Anyway, what I mean to say is that the world my parents created for me is one that took you into the inner life of people you had never met and would never meet, that you had never seen and would never see.. and yet people with whom you would forge a profound connection because you saw not only what they did, but also why they did it. Unlike in life, and most cinema and TV, well-crafted stories and poems allowed (and allows still) the privilege of explicitly seeing into another’s heart and thus affords you the chance to understand them, even if you do not agree with them.
And both my parents have said for years that these bridges to insight are the province of comedy, more so than drama or tragedy (they are Aristotelian Humanists, you see) and so while we might sympathize with or feel compassion for the players in tragedy or a drama, we will always empathize with the fool in a comedy – provided the writer knows what s/he’s doing. Because only the fool can speak truth to kings and beggars alike, and laughter is the sugar that helps us swallow even the most bitter truths.
I think, I believe that, for me, everyone at “Fated to Love You,” especially the writers and the two positively exquisite Jang and Jang have done so much of what I hear my parents say great comedy does; for along with the bitterness of its truths – fear, pain, loss and the prospect of worse – it has known to offer the sweet draughts of both subtle and uproarious laughter.
I want you to know that as I am writing this, gloopy drops of very viscous tears are streaming down my face for reasons that I cannot really articulate. I am inclined to think that besides my love and admiration for the show, some of what I feel whelming up in me at the moment has to do with this group of people in this space.
*Now I will return to my corner and cry some more*
[*and please don’t worry – this is not a bad thing. I’m just happily overflowing…*]
Im not a poet so I’ll just say it simply. You are awesome! I love your words, your parents, your name and you lol
“Laughter is the sugar that helps us swallow the most bitter truths” This statement on the power of comedy us what I’d like to throw on the face of those saying this drama “should stick to what it promised to be, a rom com”. When was this drama not poignant? When did it not address heavy subjects? Ugh this is me getting frustrated at some people totally missing the point.
I second @dramafan’s love for you and your parents and your entire existence! You truly have a poet-philosopher’s soul @curio, and it’s been a delight and privilege to be able to have a glimpse into your thoughts. You – and everybody else on this site – has made my FTLY-viewing experience so much richer.
Absolutely agree re: the fact that this show has been able to naturally project poignancy and authenticity not IN SPITE of it being a comedy, but BECAUSE it is a comedy. FTLY walked into our lives with its heart on its sleeve. And sure, the show may have spent quite a stretch of episodes bleeding at our feet (I’m gonna stop this metaphor before I get carried away with it) but like @dramafan rightly points out, it hasn’t ~cheated~ anyone, or failed to deliver its promises. It promised to be a beautiful, sensitive, warm, tender, funny, raw love story, and I’m very very happy with what I’ve been given so far. This show, to me, is a Love Story, with all the grand and beautiful and sweeping and timeless connotations that come with that term. “Romcom” is just a convenient genre tag for it, as far as I’m concerned.
Everything you guys are saying. @curio is true to her(?) name
This will stay with me for a long time:”Because only the fool can speak truth to kings and beggars alike, and laughter is the sugar that helps us swallow even the most bitter truths.”
This really is a wonderfully warm place to be as we talk about “FTLY.”
Thank you @Drama Fan, for letting us all just unspool…
☼♡☼
Augh. No babies even?
Maybe they just take their chances. Oh I don’t know. FTLY – prove me wrong. Take me to a good place!!!
BTW: did any of you watch Scent of a Woman with Lee Dong Wook and Kim Sun Ah? Similar premise – terminal disease, to love or not love, a dash of noble idiocy (shorthand, shorthand) and a promise to Carpe Diem while they can. It ended decently, I think. Maybe that’s the way this will go?
I mean because the kids could inherit the disease
Yes, that’s another thing. Whether or not kids would be a viable (or even ethical?) option, knowing that you may or may not be passing on a terminal genetic disease.
And if it’s any form of consolation, all this pain we’re feeling is pretty great proof of the fact that the show has done a fantastic job of making us love and care and be invested in the lives and happiness of two fictional people. Shame it has to hurt so much 😦
Yeah, why gamble, right?
Still, urgh. Losing Gaedonggie. Permanent ban on more kids. That’s a raw deal, no matter how you cut it.
They could, they could. So no babies either. Someone hold me.
Why not? Like mi young said, why worry before it happens? The kid has the right to experience this world too. And to find their own fated to love person. Don’t be noble idiots I say MY-Geon, have babies, have lots of them. They will learn to deal with it like their predecessors had done. Who knows, there’s a 50% chance they won’t ge the genes. Cos our MY is the luckiest bond girl out there!
Its a devastating illness though. I have a twitter friend who can’t get over the fact that Geon and grandma never even mentioned the disease when Mi Young got pregnant. I wonder why the writers chose such a terrible disease. It’s too much to accept the gamble, I think.
😦 no soft squishy gunmy babies? 😦
Well I dunno but awwww gunmy sounds so cuteeeee like gunmy bears awwww damgghhbb
Sure, it’s a devastating disease, but it happens in real life too right? I mean we don’t want our OTP to suffer because we love them so much, so as much as we all hate HD, it’s not that far fetch that if it’s true, they have to face it like all real life couples do.
I couldn’t put in better in words, some of you have already said, how this show is deeply rooted in reality while being fun quirky and bordering on the line of ridiculous at times.
So, before you help them decide whether they should have kids to spare the kids from the disease, remember that they don’t need any “right” to experience what all other normal couples get to experience – that is, making love and having a family. Same with all real HD sufferers out there.
Besides, how informed are we about the research on HD, for all we know, 3 years later (which is the timeline in our story now) we may have the technology to isolate the gene so that offsprings won’t inherit the gene?
😀
@fiveinone That would be wonderful, and if they could make it happen in a realistic way, hey, I’m all for it. After all the snail couple is now living in 2017, just with ‘old’ phones. 😀
If its believable Im all for a happy ending too. I just don’t know how they can do it. But I’ve never guessed anything right regarding this show :p
Responding to @fiveinone’s remarks I ran a bit long, so I’ll post it on a fresh tab for your convenience…
Here’s my recommendation. Don’t watch it. Read it. I think you would get a kick out of the dialogue. The show is nowhere in the same ballpark.
@DF here’s an idea for a post-FTLY reunion for us here, if our speculations are right – GROUP THERAPY.
Gawd. I’m done with this convo. I now want to go sit in a corner and rock myself while muttering Goen_Young babies, Goen_Young babies.
But should they have babies though? I know I’m being gloomy. I kind of think they shouldn’t. Maybe they should adopt.
😦 no soft squishy gunmy babies? 😦
I like your word very interesting…
That we can write “tragic horror-sweetness ” and actually know what it means is a sign of far this show has taken us. I am starting to wonder if the writers were inspired by The Fault In Our Stars, which also had a good dose of ‘tragic horrow sweetness’.
Just contemplating that makes me want to take all my oh-so-mature words back and scream for happy ending with a white wedding, babies and a bright future, consistency be damned.
Oh god, why is it that every new comment is starting to convince me more and more that @mywebfoot’s ending-vision might actually be quite close to the truth of what we’ll be getting?
@curio, this bit of speculation –
“Suppose one of the ways FTLY decides to handle the all this foreboding is by framing Lee Geon and Mi Yeong’s life together as a joyful one – despite the pain, suffering and loss brought on by Geon’s illness?”
would actually be quite consistent with the conventions of love-story-plus-terminal-illness. That the truly valuable thing is how well you live and love with the time you DO get, and not about growing old and dying together. That one of you, at some point, must learn to carry on without the other. Re: @dramafan’s point about the lucky poker chip – MY can promise to stick to Geon no matter what, but Geon simply can’t make the same commitment (through no fault of his own).
*sigh* It’s going to be a long week, isn’t it?
[*Okay, I’m going to sit in the corner and just cry for a while now…*]
I simply hate to think about the pain that means for both of them…
Had I waited a moment longer I would have placed my speculation here instead of up above…
Your comment makes me want to see “The Fault in Our Stars” now…
I am a bad fangirl. Bad. I don’t trust this show. There’s too much happy in Ep 18. They even set up house together. And made whoopee. And pervy Goennie made a comeback in a big way. Too many ticks were made on the Happy Ever After checklist. Is Omma really the last obstacle? Halp. *suspicious side eyes*
Omma herself is not. The fear of the disease is the obstacle since the disease is real. Its a “ticking bomb”.
I won’t lie, I’ve been pushing the same thoughts to the back of my mind until I could finish spazzing over the cute.
But yeah, most romcoms tend to conclude with the reunion of the OTP. And now we’ve been given a premature happy ending with two episodes’ worth of story time to fill (not including the Daniel- Se Ra stuff).
I agree, I don’t think Omma or the company/family elders will be the final hurdle our snails will have to face. I’m very apprehensive. I trust the writers to handle it well, whatever it is. But yes, we have been blindsided with a “happily together – but then what?”. Any other romcom would have ended at this point. Fingers crossed for something special (even if hurts?).
I don’t think they’ll show Geon dying, possibly not even showing signs of the illness but they might have to face their future reality via watching another victim or something like that. I think Mi Young needs to know what she is committing to. Also, they need to pound more rice cakes or Geon will die of the blue balls! lol But I’d be surprised if they decide to have children. It would be strange in the midst of his fear and the fact the illness is genetic.
Whew I’m not alone. I had a sudden flash forward when they were making the bed. I saw Mi Young talking to Goen’s picture at the crematorium, telling him about how life has been. Then turning and walking away as the camera pans out with her holding the hands of two children. It was a happy-sad scene. It warmed my heart. I must be crazy.
It looks like ep. 18 produced a common effect amongst us. I’m too am glad I was not alone in finding the episode strangely dissonant. I just did not know how to verbalize it for a while so I’m glad @mywebfoot took the plunge and sounded the alarum – it helped me sort my thoughts and find the words I was looking for…
@ mywebfoot – Reading your vision for the final scene of the show first made me gasp at the tragic horror-sweetness of it all, and then I laughed. Because honestly, I’m not sure a conventional Happily Ever After ending would cut it at this point (which is why they’ve…probably…tricked us into thinking we’re getting one so soon?). It’s going to be bittersweet for sure. Like @dramafan says I’m not sure if they’ll go so far as to actually show a sick/dying/dead Geon, but I don’t think a clear-cut, neatly-wrapped, fully-resolved finale is what we’ll be getting either.
I am on EXACTLY the same page with you, @mywebfoot, but with one difference [which might actually end up not being a real distinction anyway]: I actually trust that the show has a truly phenomenal finale in store for us precisely because ep. 18 so shamelessly releases such a flood of endorphines into our hapless brains that we have to be suspicious that something is afoot!
You said exactly what I was thinking when I first watched ep. 18 – that it has a “genuinely contrived” feel – like the show makers are making a big show of delivering a “Happily Ever After” ending and going out of their way to crowd out the authentically tender and moving and joyful beats (of which there were quite a few) with OTT clichés [I just learned ‘OTT’ yesterday 😉 ].
But if we look back at FTLY’s mode of storytelling, we notice that they have trotted out all the touch-stone drama and rom-com clichés and hijinks with great fanfare time and again, and yet each time, they have either polished some worn trope to a sparkly new shine or they have turned it on its head completely. To wit: Bond-girl makeover, shotgun wedding, love rhombus, all treated with an easy casualness and just enough sincerity to make them go down easy. Other time, the FTLY storytellers have taken some of the most dismaying clichés — despite the anticipated dismay of [prospective] viewers (viz. 1) the Arrogant Billionaire Chaebol+meek Candy nobody/everywoman pairing, 2) the amnesia, 3) the deadly disease, etc.) — and ended up giving us instead 1) a deeply empathic, kind-hearted prince of a man and a gentle, resolutely loving woman, 2&3) a narratively viable crisis and catalyst for conflict AND growth…
Anyway, what I’m getting at is that given FTLY’s narrative wit and savvy so far, the blatantly artificial veneer of “Happily Ever After” in ep. 18 leads me to suspect that its function may just be to get more of the rom-com genre clichés out of the way before delivering a proper “Fated to Love You” ending that is true to what we have experienced so far: genuinely side-splitting chortle-worthy hijinks; mind-tickling, soul-sounding, heart-thrumming Love; and ultimately, some genuine Hope for a couple who appear headed for a rough time if Lee Geon’s (still as-yet unclear) health status is destined to worsen after the final credits roll.
Of course, this could all be wishful thinking on my part due to a refusal to imagine that FTLY could drop the ball after so much perfection… Seriously, I really could be wrong. I really hope I am not…
Thanks for calming my not so convinced brain. I guess what I learnt from this show is that, I should stop thinking and just go with my heart. My heart tells me the next 2 episodes are going to be the best ever yet, so I’m gonna trust it till the last 2 episode proves me wrong.
Though no harm forming a praying circle. And throwing a rabbit’s foot. Burning a talisman. Hanging a teru teru bozu. Just you know, we need all the luck we can get. *cross fingers*
To me the lucky chip scene, his insistence that she remains by his side, his still very present fear of the illness and its consequences were sobering. It was a constant reminder that this is not a happily ever after moment and that they might not have one.
@fiveinone MUAHAHA You made me feel like a fool for worrying, then you made me laugh about it.
@curio – You’ve expressed the exact hope I have. Please, please, make everyone happy in ep 18, then use 19 and 20 to tell the ‘real’ story. Come on writers, go for it! *screaming wildly and waving them geek pom poms*
Ep 18 was necessary release and almost fan servicy. But I did feel it has real important moments. Geon dad’s diary being one I can think of. From the beginning of the series I felt Geon needed to reconcile with his father. By judging his father so harshly Geon became too “righetous” and “responsible” a person. His need to “not be like his father” dictated his actions. He needed to let go of that by seeing his father as a human and not a monster. This way he could allow and forgive his own vulnerability. Mi Young’s growth is another aspect I appreciated a lot. The contrast in the way she handled the press back then and now and of course how she rescued Geon from himself at the press con. Somebody pointed out it was a paralell to the conversation after the auction where she says “She wants to be greedy but she shouldn’t” and he says “In this world, there is nothing impossible and kiss while tearing up. Here he says “I don’t have the right to love you” and she reassures him “Why do no need a right to love? and they kiss among tears as well.
@DF omg. You are right. That was it. The promise and the demand to stay by his side forever, THAT was the foreboding scene. Crap.
When he nervously asked her why she was crying I thought, He probably thinks its because of his illness. And in the future, it might as well be the case. In which case I hope she doesn’t hide her tears because it’ll remind him of his mother hiding her tears from him and that will probably make him feel worse. At least this time they were happy tears. By yeah, I think the point is that they will have to face life together, the good and the bad and never hide from each other again. And that no one’s life is eternal and its length is not predictable. Regarding the illness, I felt it more present than ever this episode. Before, it was easy for many to call Geon an idiot for having this fear, but after seeing the rest of the world reacting to it we can’t really blame him, can we? His grandma’s first thought was to dissuade Mi Young from staying next to Geon. She knows how hard that life can be. Mi Young’s mom got scared, her older sister is also against Mi Young staying with him. Yong got paranoid. It almost seems like the world was telling Geon “You were right! You should’ve kept it a secret” He stopped being a man to become “a sick man” in front of others.
That’s such a great summary of everything FTLY has done – and done RIGHT – for 18 episodes. I’m inclined to think that even the Premature Happily Ever After could be an intentional subversion of universal romcom tropes. The curtains fall with the final kiss, the fairy tale ends when our prince & princess find each other again – we usually don’t want to know what happens after Happily Ever After. The reward in itself is the wedding scene, the big reunion, the airport chase — confession — kiss. If the FTLY writers really know what they’re doing, I believe we may be in for something very, very special in the final two episodes. Maybe even something we have yet to see in your average kdrama.
And sure, we could be wrong. But in my experience of viewing FTLY in real time, I have spent literally every week since episode 1 & 2 just overflowing with apprehension and fear that the very next week, the very next episode, could be the one episode that finally drops the ball and breaks the spell. I’d like to believe this show can follow through on its magic for just ONE more week. It’s ridiculous how exhilarating AND terrifying it has been to watch this show. For all our sakes, @curiosor, I very much hope that you’re right 🙂
@fiveinone – I found the number: 1-800-DIAL-A-SHAMAN – I’m with you all the way!
@ Drama Fan re:
Just the fact that I’m about to indulge in some speculation (which I generally eschew even under duress) tells me that I am really reaching for… a shred of hope.
Suppose one of the ways FTLY decides to handle the all this foreboding is by framing Lee Geon and Mi Yeong’s life together as a joyful one – despite the apin, suffering and loss brought on by Geon’s illness? Suppose they decide that “Happily Ever After” is not a one-size-fits all mold; that even just a day, just a month or just a year of Love makes every Now a Forever; that the obstacles and deadlines don’t matter and there really are no benchmarks for assessing the ‘successful happiness’ of Love when there IS Love…
It would be a courageous affirmation of life and love – one that I daresay does not capitulate to arbitrary superficial criteria that say you have to be together for at least X number of years or N amount of time before we can deem yours a truly happy love…
Just a thought. Speculation over.
@youholdthewater:
Oh! Mah! Ghad! Look who’s mind-reading! And I thought I was the only one whose addiction kept getting reinforced by the incredible rush that washed over me after each successful week’s showing. It was always in the background, the terror and the thrill, but palpable…
Aigoo…! One more week of this… Know any good rehab facilities, anyone?
@dramafan I don’t know why I keep missing your comments, because you’ve said many really insightful, perceptive things about this ep. The main thing being the fact that Geon’s once-mysterious genetic illness is now being taken VERY seriously in the show’s universe by other characters too. You’re right – it was easy to dismiss the Huntington’s as Geon being a fool, and as a plot device to somehow get our couple separated. But right now the Deadly Illness has evolved into (or has always been) a legitimate concern and a part of Geon and Mi Young’s future. And for the writers to disregard it at this point would be really cheap and out of character. The sheer “presence” of the disease, as you’ve put it, is probably what has made so many of us confused and frazzled, and so convinced that Geon’s illness/mortality simply MUST have some form of significance to the Happy (?) Ending After The Happy Ending.
I don’t think I’ve ever been as in love with a fictional character as I am with Lee Geon. Here are some more happy glimpses into his nutty mind. [I especially dig the overwrought interpretive dance at the beginning – totally Lee Geon!]
I am LOVING these. At this rate we could come up with a playlist for Lee Geon’s Sexual Frustration. Lee Geon’s Blue Balls. Lee Geon’s Inner Lust Monster.
Also I would be totally up for reading another long, eloquent treatise on the many whys and hows of your love for Geonnie as a character. Just saying 🙂
I, too, look forward to finding the words to express it! Right now its is all mostly inarticulate feeling – joy, fascination, perplexity, pride, compassion, amusement… and the affective terminology just rolls on along…
Shall I let you know when [if] I do find them…?
Please do! I’d love to read it, especially because I know it’s going to encompass all my ~feels~ about the man too, just expressed in a far more poetic manner than I could ever manage.
A sneak peak into Lee Geon’s [not so secret] thoughts
I hope the video of this Ray Charles version comes through. Change a few details here and there and we get the inside track on Geonnie-ssi’s hilariously one-track mind.
What can I say… happiness is seeing Geon conquered by love…
This episode was fantastic! Kisses and hugs and everything….I just hope they would complete that last scene in next episode…not cut it and show the next morning directly!! 😉
You guys. YOU GUYS. I’m so happy. My joy cannot be contained. I asked for at least two final episodes in which our OTP is already back together instead of wrapping up their reunion in the last 15 minutes of the show. And now I have it.
Will also need to come gather my thoughts and come back later because right now I’m just like. Lucky poker chip! Wooden ducks! Snail couple wearing matching/complementary colours again! Geon slooowly adding more and more colour into his wardrobe again (we started with that glorious turqoise necktie and then BAM! maroon suit).
But more than anything I loved seeing them together at that dining table. It felt so right, and so good, and so EARNED.
I want to write a coherent comment right now but I all I keep thinking about is “Stop the beat, stop the beat over here” and the goofiest, butterflies-in-stomach-inducing spelling. I can’t even.
I loved it! Watched it several, no about three times during the day, in between work, 😉 kkkkk….Oh how Gunni’s stares penetrate. And MY is soooo sweet but courageous…I have nothing in depth to contribute but only to show my deepest appreciation to such great actors, writers, director and all of the FTLY staff….
Gunnie’s stares are pure gold, especially the predatory ones. The fact that MY made it to the end of the episode (meaning one or two days later) without going in for a kiss is just crazy.
Here, @ramennoodles of Soompi collected his longing stares
http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/comment/27734793#Comment_27734793
Yoohoo! Did you forget to open for episode 18 because u are still basking in the happiness of this amazing episode?
I haven’t watch it yet, but can’t wait to join the spazzing when I saw the pics n gifs! Smooooooching hot!
Ok, I need to get back to work. Be back later! ^^