Let it snow. Let it snow. Let. It. Snow.
And here I thought we should be praying for the sun. But in Kang-ja’s world, the sun brings out the snow, so I wasn’t totally wrong.
When we last left off, Anna told Chul Soo her real name as she cried. Now, we see her walk away from him, but this time around she’s not crying.
It’s Chul Soo’s turn to bring on the waterworks as he just watches Anna’s departing back. But when he says out loud her name… oof! The way he says that sentence. Poor baby.
Anna’s back inside her car and she thinks it’s time she erased her past life as Sang-shil. It’s not like you’ll unremember it all just because you delete the pictures from your phone! Omg, she then systematically deletes all the picture — one by one. Kang-ja: DELETE. Ggotsoon: DELETE. The 3 kids: DELETE. Chul Soo: DELETE.
She saves Sang-shil for last. “I hate you the most,” she tells Sang-shil. Who told you could go around falling in love? I can’t do that. So GET OUT of my life!” Sang-shil: DELETE. (This “kojo!” sounds familiar! hehe)
I had underestimated Anna and the lengths she’d go to remain unfeeling.
Chul Soo finds the 3 kids still up when he gets home. Aw, they say they miss Sang-shil ajumma. “Is she really not coming back?” they ask. “She went home,” Chul Soo tells them and the boys’ faces droop.
Chul Soo then asks if the boys want to move to another house. Naaaaw! I get that he’s trying to be un-haunted by Ghost of Sang-shil, but I’m 100 percent behind the kids when they say: “Then how will ajumma find us?” YES! The middle kid improvises: “We could leave her a note!” heh. Don’t mooove, Chul Soo.
Billy wonders if he has changed too, just as Anna changed. He tells Sec Gong how all he’d wanted was to get rid of Anna, and now look at him: All he wants is to desperately hold on to Anna. Sec Gong philosophizes: “That’s why they tell you to be good to the people around you. So that when they’re gone, you won’t be filled with regrets.”
Billy’s irked that Anna forgave Chul Soo’s lies but was so harsh with him. Sec Gong points out that Chul Soo was man enough to own up to his lies. Ha! “Yeah, I am a loser and a coward. I don’t care,” says a defiant Billy. “Let Chul Soo be the man. But I will hold on to Anna, no matter what.” Sec Gong’s not impressed and predicts that soon Anna and Billy will be back to their old sado-masochistic routine. But Billy explains how he doesn’t want to return to the past. He wants a fresh beginning with the new Anna who can laugh and cry. “But Chul Soo was the one who brought out that change in her,” says Gong who seems to be on a Truth roll! Billy admits this to be true. “It saddens me that it wasn’t me,” he says. Aw.
Walking on the cobbled front yard of her house, Anna nearly trips in her high heels. Ha. Takes a getting used to walking in your old shoes, eh, Ms. NoFeelings? She sprains her ankle and goes to the servant’s quarter to ask for a pain-patch.
The servants are shocked she barged in without notice and just when they were hanging around playing Go-Stop and drinking makgeulli, too. They do their best to clear out the mess, and it takes a while for the servants to realise that Anna actually wants to drink some of their makgeulli! Hee. So much for deleting Sang-shil.
Anna sits down and finishes off the open bottle and asks for more. The maid brings out four unopened bottles and look at Ms. I’m-NOT-Sang-shil greedily clutching the bottles to take them back to her room. HA.
One maid snickers at how ridiculous Anna looks, so Anna decides she’ll sit down with the servants and watches them play Go-Stop while she drinks her makgeulli.
Billy walks in on Anna chummying up with the servants and he can only watch. Anna doesn’t notice Billy as she’s busy giving the others advice on the science of Go-Stop. Anna learns that the rules of Go-Stop she learned at Chul Soo’s house is different from the one played here. Apparently, each town has its own rules! But it’s bittersweet to watch her repeat: “but back where I was, things used to be this way…”
She finally notices Billy and she ends the party. She walks past Billy without a word. I’d give a penny to know what Billy’s thinking.
Billy follows Anna back to their quarter. The maid runs after them with the medicinal patch Anna had requested earlier. The maid hands it to Anna with a genuine smile and an invitation to drop by whenever she has a hankering for makgeulli. Aw.
Billy likes this changed Anna and he tells her to remain this way. But she says that if she keeps this up, she’ll never get over Jang Chul Soo. She finally mentioned Chul Soo’s name to Billy!
“I need to become colder to get over him,” she explains. She advises Billy not to get his hopes up either. When he asks in this wistful way, “Even if I told you I’m willing to wait…?”
“Then you should have brought me back sooner,” she reminds him. “I experienced warmth… so now… I… I’m colder.” Agh! The temporary warmth melted you some and now you’re trying to burrow into the North Pole? Is that it?
But then she goes to bed that night on the couch. Oh, Anna, Anna, Anna. Your actions betray you.
Look at her. So much for not remembering.
Billy watches her sleep. Aw, he’s been quite the stalker since Anna returned. It hurts my heart to watch him sit down and watch her face.
He looks at his wedding ring and acknowledges he’d been selfish. “For wanting the warm you… Anna, please forgive me.”
This ring really did mean something to Billy. Their marriage was not just a sham of convenience. Anna and Billy were two lonely souls seeking things in the other that they’d never find. That I’m now tearing up for Billy just as I teared up for Chul Soo says it all.
“I need to let you go for you to really forgive me,” he says and even manages a half-smile. Aw, I’m so happy you could say that with a smile, Billy. He then gently takes off his wedding ring and puts it on the table beside her. If only all divorces were this quiet.
Chul Soo is grieving in his own way. He’s back to staring at Sang-shil’s sofa. He speaks out to her like she can hear what he has to say:
“Go far, far away.
So far away that I may never find you, no matter how crazily I search for you.”
Dammit. Tears.
Anna of the Red Fur we saw in ep 1 is back! Full circles everywhere! The servants mill about taking her packed luggage to the car. She’s about to leave for the airport.
Anna notices Billy’s ring on the table and asks Sec Gong where Billy is. “He’s been staring at the sea all morning,” says Gong.
What’s Kang-ja doing in a cab? She spies Billy out near the sea and shouts and waves at him leaning out of the cab window. Heheheh. She thinks Billy’s playing teng and plans to unfreeze him once she’s done what she came out to do. Please tell me you came to meet Anna!
The cab driver indulges the kooky kid and says she’s pretty lucky to have friends in this part of town. Kang-ja agrees she’s pretty lucky, but she has one complaint: “It never snows.” When she says it better snow now that the weather’s getting warmer, the cabbie asks an incredulous: “Are you crazy?” heheh. Ignoring him, Kang-ja puts a flower behind her ear. Hee.
YESSSS! Kang-ja was on her way to meet Anna. Anna gets a call from Kang-ja’s number but, when she answers, the irate driver asks Anna: “Are you this crazy woman’s friend?” hehehhe. Yes, she is, but she’s trying to delete that fact.
Anna sends Sec Gong to deal with the driver, with the order to send Kang-ja back in the same cab. But Kang-ja scoots off into the house premises before Sec Gong can do anything about it.
YESSSS! Everyone needs a Kang-ja to rush to your side no matter what ice fortresses you build.
Kang-ja spies Anna inside the house and bangs on the window and shouts: “Let’s go home!” Aw. She’s ADORABLE! ❤
Look at the faces she makes as she tries to lure Anna out!
Sec Gong tries to pry the girl away and tells Kang-ja how Anna will soon leave for the States.
But Anna just walks away from the room. Aw, Anna. How many more hearts you plan to break just so you can remain broken yourself?
Then… Anna turns around at the last minute and looks at Kang-ja and thinks Kang-ja might wait there forever should Anna walk away now.
“Just like she waits for snow like a fool… I should take her home.”
Aw. I didn’t expect to be so leaky for this finale. Look how Kang-ja’s face changes when she notices Anna has decided to come out.
Meanwhile, Yoo Kyung learns from her resort colleague that only Anna will return to the US and they wonder why Billy and Anna split even when Anna had changed so much for the better.
Anna drives Kang-ja to her village and asks the happy little cookie to get off the car now that they’re here. Kang-ja has other plans. “Unni, let’s go to your home!”
“That’s not my home,” Anna insists.
“The kids are waiting for you,” Kang-ja tells Anna. “That’s why I came to get you.” Aw, Kang-ja you strange Empathy Bunny.
Anna wavers. Kang-ja leans in closer and says conspiratorially, “Even Ggotsoon’s waiting.” heheheh. I KNOW! Ggotsoon sent me the woof-note to transcribe.
“Why are there so many loose ends to tie up?” Anna complains. Is this what the two Hongs told each other? Hehehe.
Anna tells Kang-ja she needs to meet the kids alone. So she makes her way to the old house and for a bit I was scared Chul Soo had moved out… But she finds the 3 kids playing with Ggotsoon who immediately woofs her welcome at Anna. Woof woof, you too, Ggotsoon.
The kids rush to Anna for a bear hug but she barks her command at them: “Stop!!” The kids screech to a halt a few feet before her. Oh, you Red Witch with the frozen heart that you’re so afraid to melt.
“Listen to me from where you are, okay?” she tells them. “I am going far away. I can’t come back and see you again. So… don’t wait for me, okay?”
“We’ll never see you again? …What if we come to see you?” they ask.
“Your legs are too short to get there.”
“What should we do if we miss you?” they ask.
“Endure it. You need to learn to endure to live this life,” she tells them.
This makes the kids start sobbing. She then tells them not to cry in front of Chul Soo.
“But our tears keep coming…” say the helpless kids. “Don’t go,” they plead again. “You told me you’d teach me to count to a hundred,” says the smallest kid.
When the kids move to come in for a hug, she repeats her warning: “Don’t come closer. It’ll get difficult if you do.” But the kids shout out “Ajumma…” and rush in for a hug anyway.
Duk Goo’s mom sees this mini-drama and comes to help Anna untangle herself from the 3 kids who are now braying.
It’s like all that Chul Soo couldn’t say or do, Kang-ja and the kids have done for him. And for the last time, Anna addresses each kid by his full name:
“Jang Joon Suk, Jang Yoon Suk, Jang Geun Suk,
Stay well.”
She then leaves.
She finds Kang-ja still waiting for her beside her car. Kang-ja suggests they now go to the beach. Anna says she’s leaving. “Then I’ll be waiting here until you come back,” says Kang-ja. Bless her.
“Don’t. I’m leaving. So I won’t ever return.”
“It doesn’t snow. You won’t be here. How much longer should I have to wait?” pouts Kang-ja. Aw.
“It doesn’t snow here,” repeats Anna trying to make the whimsyful girl see the sense of the world.
“Okay,” says Kang-ja and follows Anna to her car. “Don’t follow me,” orders Anna. “Okay,” says Kang-ja and does just the opposite.
Then Anna breaks down.
“I can’t keep this up! I’m not capable of giving or receiving love. I’m not good enough for you all. So I’m about to leave. WHY do you keep following me? Leave me alone too!”
Everything she didn’t tell Chul Soo, she tells Kang-ja. Then, because she skirted too close to hurty truths, she has to mask it in anger: “Get lost!” she shouts at Kang-ja.
Kang-ja smiles. It’s a wise smile like she understands what’s ailing Anna. Then in Kang-ja fashion, she arrives at this conclusion: “Were you tagged? I’ll unfreeze you.”
“Te……nnnng!!” Kang-ja’s voice echoes loud and clear as she touches Anna. “Go then,” Kang-ja now says.
Hm. As crazy as it sounds, it’s as if Kang-ja the village imp has magically untied all the ties that bind Anna to this place. OR, maybe she has infused the antifreeze spell? ehehhe. What, I make sense.
“Unni, if you have to go, just go. But when it snows, please come back.” “It won’t snow,” repeats Anna. “But when it does, please come back.”
This show hits all the right notes for me. Even the crazy notes. Especially the crazy notes. The crazy notes and I are in sync.
Duk Goo’s mom wonders if Chul Soo knows about Anna leaving for the States today. Duk Goo talks about how Chul Soo looked like somebody not right in his mind. Ajumma sighs about how cold Ms. Na can be.
“Since she’s leaving her husband, why leave Chul Soo too?” This is news to Duk Goo and he wonders if Chul Soo knows. Get to work, Cupids. But then Chul Soo, who has just walked up to the office door, gets to overhear ajumma say: “Ms. Na is trying to forget it all. Bbangoo says that’s how she’s always been. Cold, mean, apathetic…”
Ajumma and Duk Goo think it’s all for the better anyway because Anna’s life’s so different than what she had here. “People don’t change,” says ajumma. “It’ll all be over today, anyway.” Chul Soo can’t bear to hear any more so he walks away from the office and mopes near his car. AND Anna watches him! STALKER.
It looks like Chul Soo has deleted all the pics he had of Sang-shil on his phone too. Sigh, you two. He wants to call Sang-shil up but stops himself and says he’s crazy if he ends up calling her. She, on the other hand, has an epiphany.
“I’m worse than Flower Girl. I won’t hang on to him… yet I won’t wait for him either. At least Sang-shil was always honest. Jo Anna why are you such a coward?” *slow clap*
Because it all seems so hopeless and dreary now, what with our Ice Queen refusing to thaw and our noble rogue refusing to act, Kang-ja runs alone on the beach, shouting at the winds: “It’ll soon snow!” If I had one advice to give to the people on this show, it would be this: People, listen to Kang-ja. “Hello, Mr. Sun,” she waves, “please let it snow!” Hee.
Anna’s back at the villa where she tells Billy the resort is his. Then she says: “Thank you… for everything. And I’m very sorry.” Aw. It’s sad that she should say those two words to him when it’s the end of the road for the two of them. “So why aren’t you back with Jang Chul Soo?” asks Billy the question that’s on all of our tongues. “Maybe what I’ll tell you will change your mind — ” He’s about to tell Anna about Chul Soo’s nobility, but she won’t hear it. She says all that has passed is “meaningless” to her. GRRRRRR. I have some choice words for you Missy. Now Billy worries she left him all for nothing. Heheheh.
Ooh, Anna then runs into Yoo Kyung! She thinks that if Yoo Kyung still makes her angry, it might not all be so meaningless then. Ya think? Anna asks if Yoo Kyung will go running to Chul Soo now that Anna’s leaving. “None of your business, really,” snaps Yoo Kyung and I AGREE. So does Anna. Ha. But then Anna puts forward this ridiculous proposition: “I’ll find a perfect job for you. Even a perfect husband, if you want. Just leave Chul Soo alone.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME, JO ANNA?
When Yoo Kyung calls Anna selfish, Anna agrees. “Yes, I am very selfish. I can only think of myself. I can’t hold on to him, but I still have feelings for him. You should know.” She alludes to Yoo Kyung’s crush on Chul Soo. Anna then repeats that Yoo Kyung should keep her hands off Chul Soo and that she’ll call one day to let Yoo Kyung know when she can have Chul Soo. She’s insane. Hilarious, but insane. “On second thought,” Anna continues “I don’t like you. So don’t ever get together with Chul Soo.” Hahahahah. As usual, she leaves Yoo Kyung reeling.
But then Anna turns around and says something that floors me: “I was wrong to have criticized your inability to let go of things. I’m sorry.” Wow. How can someone so astute and self-aware make such foolish decisions? “So you won’t ever come back?” asks Yoo Kyung. “I might… if it snows.” Be careful what you wish for, they say. As they might just come true, they say. “It doesn’t snow here,” say Yoo Kyung, puzzled. “I know.” Anna struts off. Hee.
Chul Soo’s at his house, still hovering near Sang-shil’s sofa, and he wonders if Anna’s left by now.
“Take everything. Don’t leave anything behind,” he tells her. But she did leave a ton of stuff behind to haunt this poor guy, not the least of which is a sad sack full of bittersweet memories.
To distract himself from his mopey thoughts, he decides to search for all the money she hid around the house: Under the sofa, inside the painting, taped to the yellow pages, and even inside the freezer! Heheh. He remembers Sang-shil’s bad attempts at being a smooth criminal and how he’d always known what she was up to.
Meanwhile, Billy decides to wait until Anna’s signed over the resort to him before fully coming clean! Billy, you shifty, shifty man.
His attempts to forget her having made him think of her more, Chul Soo finally lies down on Sang-shil’s sofa and wonders why he’s so achy-breaky. Because your spirit’s all achybreaky too? He misses Sang-shil in that moment as he thinks of her failed attempts at nursing.
On her way to the airport, Anna’s tearful and achybreaky too. Because you caused so much achybreakiness all around you? At almost the exact second, they close their eyes as if in prayer. YOU TWOOOOO!
THEN. IT. FRIGGIN. SNOWS!!!!!
IT SNOOOOWS!
I love this so much!
I adore all the reaction shots of our cast of characters as they respond to the sight of the snow, each very true to character!
“I guess somebody up there has gone mad!” Billy surmises. Hee. Or the world hasn’t caught up to that somebody’s madness. Ahem.
Somebody up there made it snow! Or should I say Kang-ja made it snow?! OR should I say Anna-Chul Soo’s combo Prayer of Pain made it snow? OR should I say Chul Soo and Anna’s self-imposed misery combined with Kang-ja’s fervent faith made it snow?
Oh, who cares! IT SNOWED! Omg, I’m so happy! I’m not kidding with the caps-lock!
Anna opens her eyes and smiles to see the snow. Her first thought: “Kang-ja must be happy.” Aw. Chul Soo’s the last to see it. The children barge in and wake him up and he stares at the snow in wonder.
Because the town’s a coastal one where it rarely, if ever, snows, Chul Soo and Duk Goo get an emergency call from a local farmer who wants help to save his crops. So Chul Soo drives to the job.
Anna, by now having digested the wonder of seeing the snow, gets pissed at the foul turn in weather: “Why snow now?! koraji hagunoon!” she snaps. Hahahahah. The traffic’s crawling. It’s partly because of the snow and partly because the farmer who hired Chul Soo has caused a traffic jam because of his slooow tractor. HEEEEEEEE!
Oh my! It’s really like the entire Universe is working to get our two idiots together! YAY. Otherwise I doubt they’d get back together until they were both in adult diapers.
Anna spots the slowpoke tractor and she shouts at the hanboji farmer to get off the road so the rest can pass. She orders her driver to overtake the tractor and their car nearly has a head-on collision with the oncoming truck in the opposite lane. So their car swerves to a stop by the roadside. Anna gets out to scold the tractor hanaboji and leaves her car door open! And, Princess escapes! HEEE. So. Many. Full. Circles.
When she gets back to the car Anna finds Princess missing and she’s distraught! She calls out to the cat desperate and worried Princess will be run over by the cars. A man, I think it’s the restaurant owner hyung, recognizes Anna and calls Chul Soo to tell him she’s out on the highway looking worried.
“So… you’re right there?” Chul Soo says in that still way of his. YES. And Chul Soo runs! YES. By now, Anna has found Princess and she clutches the cat gratefully, as she cries in relief. Chul Soo finds her thus.
Aww, poor Chul Soo. The way he stands there with both his arms hanging straight by his side. Something about that stance makes him look so vulnerable.
Then, she sees him. YES.
“Jang Chul Soo, what are you doing here?”
“I was just passing by and I saw you,” says the poor doofus, still sticking to his line. I love them so much.
“I’m going far away. So you won’t run into me again,” she says still sticking to her line.
“Don’t go!”
EEEE! YES! He says those magic words just as she turns to leave. What took you so long, Chul Soo-ya? But then again, you two wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t snowed.
“If you leave, I won’t be able to find you. So just stay.”
She turns around and asks: “Are you trying to hold on to me?”
He smiles and says, “Yes, I am… shamelessly holding on to you.” And to think he doesn’t even know she’s left Billy! Billy was never the source of conflict in between the two. It was all Anna’s demons.
“I’m probably a much worse person than Sang-shil,” she warns. “What if I can’t figure out what this thing called love is?” she asks. None of us has exactly figured that out, Einstein. Or should I say the definition of love changes like a slippery eel depending on the person and the circumstance? “I’m very fickle, and cold, and extremely selfish,” she continues showing off her bad traits as if they were badges of honour.
“I know,” he says, quietly. “But still, I like you. I’ve already told you that.” Stop grinning like a baboon, Maybee.
“What if you can’t stand me?” she’s still selling herself short.
“I can! That’s what love is!” he teaches her. Pffft. “I love you,” he tells her in that simple, shouty way he has. Heheh. “Whether you’re Jo Anna or Na Sang-shil, I love you.”
Then the dummies hug! FINALLY! Anna’s smile-crying and Chul Soo looks like he’s at peace.
WOULD IT HAVE KILLED YOU GUYS TO INSERT A KISS SCENE HERE? Whom do I gnash my teeth at? Hong sisters? The PD? Or MBC?
The traffic jam clears up as our nobly brazen couple still stands there in a hug.
Enough of the snow! It’s a bright sunny day and the sky is blue. Anna, who wears her hair down (like Sang-shil) but her bangs are swirled to the side (like Anna, who usually has the rest of her hair up), calls out to Ggotsoon. At first it’s a sweet, “Ggotsoon, where are you~~?” When no dog’s to be seen, she grows vicious: “Ibaaa, dog! Where are ya?” heheheh.
Ggotsoon trots up to Anna and Anna tries to teach Ggotsoon class (pffft) as they run on the beach with Ggotsoon on a leash.
Omg. Even Princess is there? How did the cat not freak out because of all that open space?
Chul Soo sits on the beach with Princess by his side. Pet Exchange Program: Successful. “You really don’t move around much, do you?” Chul Soo asks Princess. “I guess you’re living up to your name.” Hee. “Just look at your mean face,” he tells the sourpuss. “Just like someone I know.” hehehe.
Anna walks up to where Chul Soo’s sitting with Princess and sits down beside him, Ggotsoon by her side.
“I like the weather’s koraji,” she declares! EHEHEHE.
“It is warm,” he agrees, as he smiles and watches her face. Stop being cute, you doofuses.
Kang-ja calls Anna just then.
And guess where Kang-ja is? It looks like Anna sent Kang-ja to a place where it snows 24/7. Hehehehhe. So sweet! Kang-ja’s in 7th heaven watching all that snow.
The camera zooms out a bit more and lookkee who is there beside Kang-ja. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. This made my day! It’s a miserable, chilled-to-the-bone Duk Goo!
Kang-ja looks at Duk Goo adoringly and lays her head on her oppa’s shoulder. EHEHEHEEHE. Sweet justice is sweet indeed.
The camera zooms out some more and lookkee who else is there beside Duk Goo. AHAHAHHAHAHAH. This makes my day some more! It’s Kang-ja’s thuggy looking brothers!
They give poor Duk Goo a mean stare and he obediently stays by a very happy Kang-ja’s side.
I LOVE it that they got knitted yellow flower earmuffs for Kang-ja! That detail is just ❤
What about our love-thwarted, distantly related, cheesy couple, you ask? They’re busy scrubbing noonim-ajumma’s floor for the nth time. Both have their backs towards each other and their butts get nearer and nearer until they butt-kiss. AHHAHAHAH. That sounds gross.
Ajumma thinks they’ve scrubbed the floors to last a lifetime. Ahem. Poor them. Trying to undo their relatedness guilt. But now ajumma-noonim’s done scrubbing, thank ya, and jumps her Bbangoo. The camera zooms to two newly-wed dolls. We know what they did, show, we do. And we’re glad you didn’t get more explicit than that. Thanks! Hehehe.
Billy, looking plump and happy in his devil-red coat and new bangs, promises us that he’ll live up to his favourite song and do everything hiiiiis waaaayyyy now. “I’ll find myself someone who’s sensitive and caring,” he says. PLEASE DO THAT, Billy boy.
In the next second, he gawks at a woman at his hotel reception who looks to be Anna version II: Stylish with a nasty attitude. And Billy’s a goner. Heheheheheh. Billy, you fool. He offers the angry woman his salmon hanky and the woman mocks his color choice. Heheh. That’s the least of his problems, Anna II. The woman struts off and Billy says, “I hate myself for being attracted to her.” AHhahahahahah. I love him.
Yoo Kyung and her friend are at the bank tallying up their bank books. Yoo Kyung says she can only depend on the money she earns now. “Have you given up on marriage?” asks her friend.
“No. A pretty girl like me who can take care of herself? I’m invincible,” says Yoo Kyung. “I’ll choose whom I’ll marry. Tell them to get in line.” Ha! That’s more like it!
The kids!! SO CUTE! They’re all trying out their ittybitty tuxes and maroon bow-ties getting ready for their samchoon and ajumma’s soon-to-be wedding!
The littlest one says he’ll marry his Sang-shil ajumma, heheheh. The oldest one scolds him and says, “She’s auntie now, dummy!”
Aaaand back to the beach with Chul Soo, Anna, Ggotsoon, and Princess. Just as the kids pointed out the changed relationship, Anna says she doesn’t really mind the name Sang-shil even though it sounds tacky. Oooh.
“Should I keep calling you Sang-shil then?” Chul Soo asks. When she asks why he named her that, he tells her it’s because she lacked manners, charisma, heart, and even memory! “It fit!” he adds. heh. “I don’t like it then!” she sulks. Ehhe. He then suggests they now call her Jang Sang-shil. AHUM. Is that a marriage proposal Chul Soo?
We leave them there on the beach with Chul Soo sharing his plans about what to do with her moneh. Hehehe. So long, you two. Live well, Jang Sang-shil and Jang Chul Soo.
Thoughts:
Thus the Village Nymph prayed for snow.
Seeing how miserable the Red Witch and her Noble Rogue were, the Sun listened to the Village Nymph’s prayers. Then the Sun made it snow. The Noble Rogue then melted the Red Witch’s ice-cold heart with the magic word: “Stay.”
And they lived happily ever after.
Wasn’t this finale like an almost fairytale?! I loved that it snowed! If Roman Holiday had a fairytale ending would it have involved snow? Mwahahah. But then again, our Roman couple didn’t have a nymph and an entire village shipping their romance.
Before I gush along incoherently, let’s talk about how Anna went about systematically cutting off ties with the people she’d come to love. Once she said her goodbye to Chul Soo, at the start of the ep, it was like Anna went on Mission: Obliterate Sang-shil. She was trying to make it seem like the past few months were meaningless to her. She then planned to resume her past life except she’d wisened up enough to let Billy go. But she was still not reasonable enough a human to let love into her life.
I hear your exasperated WHY. All I can hazard is: Because she believes she’s not worthy of love. Because she’s scared of being vulnerable. Because love makes one vulnerable. So she’s afraid to love and be loved. And also because, in her own words, she’s a coward.
Remember the time Anna breaks down in front of Kang-ja and shouts she’s incapable of giving and receiving love? That’s so not true because we saw her as Sang-shil perfectly capable of doing both. But Anna doesn’t believe that. I think, at the root of this running away from what makes her happy, and choosing to be alone rather than love, is because Anna’s afraid. She sums it up for us in the few lines she tells herself when she watches Chul Soo from her car for the last time: “I’m worse than Flower Girl. I won’t hang on to him… yet I won’t wait for him either. At least Sang-shil was always honest. Jo Anna, why are you such a coward? I hate myself for being pitiful.”
So, essentially, this conflict may be the Noble Idiot trope turned on its head. Here we have a protagonist trying her best to walk away from love for selfish reasons. Let’s add cowardly to that list too. Isn’t that something? Hhehe. How relatable you find that might depend on how credible you found Anna as a character. Personally, Anna’s pig-headedness was dead-on. So, I guess this is what Noble Idiot’s distantly related cousin, Selfish Cowardly Idiot, looks like. So now we know.
If I had to sum up the way Anna went about killing everyone’s hope of her ever coming back to them, I’d again refer to that phrase that came up some eps back: ki dae. Yoo Kyung used it when she told Chul Soo she was willing to wait for him and promised she’d be around should he ever need her. I love that Anna was perceptive, and honest, enough to realise that this was where she differed from Yoo Kyung. At least Yoo Kyung promised to wait. Anna went about nipping everyone’s hope buds.
And I’m pretty sure Anna would have gone her icy lonely way to wherever and Chul Soo would have kept to his noble mopey ways forever and the two wouldn’t have ended up together until they were both in adult diapers, I tell you. ADULT DIAPERS.
But then it snowed!
“I’m probably a much worse person than Sang-shil,” Anna warns Chul Soo when he tells her he wants her to stay.
“What if I can’t figure out what this thing called love is?” she asks again, so afraid she’ll mess things up.
“I’m very fickle, and cold, and extremely selfish,” she then says.
And he is okay with all the cowardly cold selfish parts of her. So they live happily ever after. Till adult diapers do them part.
This story just worked for me, and I’m so glad I recapped it. I think this is one show where the recapping enhanced the experience for me. And did anyone else notice there was no time-skip here? Yay!
If I had to sum it all up in a sentence: This show is like Kang-ja — nutty, weird, and funny on the outside but heart-stoppingly sweet, wise, and a bit magical inside.
As Jang Sang-shil would have said, “koraji maamey thuro, show.” Well done!
Thanks for reading!
© dramababble 2015
This entry was posted by Maybee on 2015.
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