Uh… so THAT happened. There are words. They're forming slowly because I have a melty puddle where my brain used to be. It's finale time for Gu Family Book, and I'll tell you one thing: It ain't boring! Ha. Hahahaha. Heh. Heh. Heh… *cries*
The finale brought in 19.5%, which left it just shy of ever breaking that elusive 20% barrier. I feel that it's fair, because the show left ME just shy of sane, so quid pro quo. Tit for tat, and all that jazz.
FINAL EPISODE RECAP
We backtrack a little to Kang-chi's visit to Lee Soon-shin, where he says it's time they take out Jo Gwan-woong. Or eons ago, but who's counting? Lee Soon-shin says he'll trust Kang-chi but in exchange he has to make a promise not to take any lives by his hand, in the name of revenge. Kang-chi promises.
After rescuing Yeo-wool from the Piñata of Doom, Kang-chi tells her to rest, but she says she wants to be there for the epic moment when Jo Gwan-woong finally gets his due. Well you can't blame a girl for wanting front-row seats to that showdown. *grabs popcorn*
Now back to the confrontation with Jo Gwan-woong, where our good guys line up like sitting ducks for Jo Gwan-woong's gun-toting minion to take his best shot. He lights the fuse, and Yeo-wool is the first to turn around and see him. Crap.
She sees that he's aiming for Kang-chi (which confuses me since I thought we were going after Lee Soon-shin to pin the murder on Kang-chi, but whatever it hardly matters at this point) and jumps in the way.
She takes the shot in the shoulder. Everyone freezes, and Jo Gwan-woong scowls at the shot wasted on the wrong target.
She falls into Kang-chi's arms and gasps, "Don't go anywhere! Don't disappear!" A tear falls, and then she closes her eyes.
Kang-chi's eyes light up green with rage, and he storms over to Minion like the Terminator, not caring that the guy is fumbling to reload his gun. He's not fast enough anyway, and Kang-chi yanks the gun out of his hands and starts punching him in the face over and over and over again.
Kang-chi strangles him as he bleeds, growling that a useless human like him needs to die. Whoa. So quick to forget our promises, Gumiho Baby.
Lee Soon-shin calls out to him to remind him that it's an irreversible path once you spill blood, but he argues back that this one can die and it would be better for everyone.
He's about to go over the edge when suddenly Yeo-wool calls out to him, and it works like an instant de-hulking pill. He runs over to tend to her like he wasn't just about to kill someone two seconds ago.
The boys get ready to move her, when Jo Gwan-woong suddenly declares that no one can leave. Oh, you're still planning to attack? Then why were you just standing around watching the show with the rest of us instead of attacking when you had a diversion?
So then we're back to square one, with swords raised on both sides. Jo Gwan-woong orders them all killed, which is when Lee Soon-shin finally steps up to say that he can't abide any more of his villainy, and calls in the troops.
Suddenly the place floods with his soldiers, and Lee Soon-shin arrests Jo Gwan-woong for framing innocent people as traitors, selling state secrets, and attempting to murder him. Uh, if he could just be arrested for these crimes, then why have we let him run around for twenty-four episodes?
The Japanese emissaries skedaddle post-haste, and Jo Gwan-woong is left to defend himself. Even though his guards have the slowest reflexes known to man, they use gas bombs to slip away. We don't even get to see the chase, so I'm assuming that means he got away.
Next thing we know, Soo-ryun and Chung-jo are getting word that Yeo-wool is on her deathbed, and we see Master Dam sitting by her side as Teacher Gong says there isn't much time left.
A flashback to Little Yeo-wool brings us to that day when she first asked Dad to teach her sword-fighting. He asks why, and she says that someone got hurt because of her, and all she could do was stand by and cry.
Little Yeo-wool: "If I don't want anyone to be hurt because of me anymore, then I have to become stronger." Aw. She learned to fight because of Kang-chi. Dad heaves another long sigh and stalks out.
Kang-chi is at So-jung's house, asking for some way to save Yeo-wool. So-jung sighs that it happened after all, and that there's nothing Kang-chi can do when a human meets her fate.
He doesn't much like that answer, and insists, "There must be something I can do! Yeo-wool will die!" But So-jung says that's how Fate works, and all he can do is accept it. He says that the best he can do is to go be by Yeo-wool's side till the end.
When Kang-chi returns to the school, he finds out that Master Dam and Gon have gone after Jo Gwan-woong.
The hunting party scatters through the woods, and Jo Gwan-woong starts to show signs of a cracked noggin—when a guard asks for their next move, he mutters at him to ask Minion because he'll know what to do. The same sidekick who got hauled off by Lee Soon-shin's men?
It doesn't take long for Master Dam to close in on Jo Gwan-woong's location, and a fight breaks out. Even when he's down to a few last guards, he manages to slip away… only to run right into Kang-chi.
Jo Gwan-woong orders his men to kill him, and Kang-chi just lets his green eyes glow and tells them they can live if they drop their swords and walk away. They choose life. It's pretty funny to watch Jo Gwan-woong get ditched so quickly.
Even after all that, he's still posturing and screaming that Kang-chi will die, and Kang-chi just super-speeds over to him and claws at his arm. They don't show much, but he reacts like Kang-chi just cut his hand off. Or is that just wishful thinking?
Kang-chi looms over him: "Does it hurt? This is nothing compared to the pain you've caused us."
We hear through gisaeng exposition that Jo Gwan-woong got hauled off to Lee Soon-shin, hog-tied and short of one hand. But… I wanted to SEE that. In all its bloody and ridiculous glory. What the hell?
Now that Jo Gwan-woong is powerless, Chung-jo can no longer be pushed around by the other girls, and they back out of her way.
Yeo-wool opens her eyes and finds Kang-chi holding her hand. She sits up and asks after Dad, worried and sorry for what she's putting him through. Kang-chi holds her and says she should just hurry up and get better then. She looks up at him and says she has three wishes. Aw man, is she really gonna die?
That night the family gathers for dinner by candlelight, as we hear Kang-chi tell Master Dam that Yeo-wool's first wish is to eat with everyone. I like that wish. They laugh and joke good-naturedly, though Master Dam is just sitting stoically, trying not to look at Yeo-wool.
They laugh about how Yeo-wool was taller than Gon until they were eleven, and how he still doesn't eat carrots like a little kid. Kang-chi outs Tae-seo for picking carrots out of his food too. I'm taking that as a sign that they're meant to be.
Yeo-wool starts to struggle against the pain, and both Kang-chi and Dad notice blood dropping on the floor. Kang-chi gently suggests they go back to her room now, but she wants to stay just a little longer. Oof, that one thing gets to me—her wanting to stay at the dinner table just another minute.
Dad finally turns to her and says she should go rest now. She starts to cry as she tells him: "I'm sorry, Father. I'm sorry, Father." He just wraps her tiny hand in his, and says with tears streaming down his face: "You are my greatest happiness, Yeo-wool-ah."
Once Dad cries, the floodgates open, and everyone starts to cry. He asks Kang-chi to take care of her, which is a bittersweet way to finally get that approval from Dad.
He carries her down the hall, and she asks for her second wish—to go on a walk with him. He takes her to the river where they sit for a while, and she asks something she's always been curious about: "Why are you afraid of spiders?" Kang-chi: "Because they have too many legs." It's true! They have too many. What do they need all those legs for anyway?
He asks if she remembers what he said to her back then—to be his wife. "If I ask you the same thing now, what will you say?" She wonders when he remembered, and why he didn't say anything about it till now.
He says the second he knew her name, he remembered, "But you had already begun to mean something to me." He asks again:
Kang-chi: Will you marry me?
Yeo-wool: Even though I can't cook?
Kang-chi: Will you marry me?
Yeo-wool: And my sewing is terrible?
Kang-chi: Will you marry me?
He starts to cry, and she wipes away his tears. "Don't cry, Kang-chi-ya. I don't want to be a sad memory for you. I want to be a happy one. I want to be laughter to you, not tears. When you remember me, I want you to be happy. That is my third wish."
He takes her hand and makes her promise: "Let's meet again. Let's meet again. I'll wait for you." She nods.
Kang-chi: "I love you." Yeo-wool: "I love you."
As they kiss one last time, blue lights come floating in around them. Kang-chi thinks in voiceover: "When we meet again, I'll recognize you first. When we meet again, I'll love you first."
And then her hand drops away from his, and she falls onto his shoulder. He calls her name, but there's no answer.
He holds her close as he breaks down in tears, and then he narrates: "And like that, the sound of her breath stopped. And in that moment, my time stopped."
Time stops for everyone as they mourn Yeo-wool's passing, and then when we find Kang-chi sitting in her room, staring at the flower he gave her, now wilted.
Tae-seo finds him there, still numb and not knowing what to do. He asks if Tae-seo thinks Yeo-wool might still be alive and happy if it weren't for him, and Tae-seo says that if he had to choose between living a hundred years or only living a hundred days but with the person he loves, he'd choose the hundred days.
Tae-seo: "Yeo-wool was happier than anyone because of you."
Tae-seo leads him out, and that's when we see that Kang-chi has a bag packed. Everyone is outside waiting to say goodbye, and he bows to Master Dam to thank him for everything.
Master Dam asks if he's going to find the Gu Family Book, but Kang-chi says no—he's going to spend some more time living as he is, waiting until he re-meets the person he wants to grow old with.
Teacher Gong gives him medicine and takes a ring off his finger and places it on Kang-chi's hand, saying that it's a sign that he is his disciple. Aw. Dad hugs him goodbye, and then Master Dam presents him with Yeo-wool's sword, telling him it's his to keep safe now.
He bows one last time, and takes his leave.
Gon, who's been conspicuously absent from the proceedings, steps out to watch him go. He says to himself in a quiet voice, "Go well, Choi Kang-chi."
Kang-chi doesn't turn around, but he knows Gon is there. He just raises Yeo-wool's sword above his head as he thinks: "Be well, friend." Okay, that was kind of badass.
Chung-jo gets a package—it's the shirt she made for Kang-chi, returned to her. She wistfully recites a proverb that means that first love makes a person grow, while last love completes them, and then sets out towards the prison with a purposeful look in her eye.
She bribes a guard to get inside, and walks right into Jo Gwan-woong's cell. He does in fact have a stump for a hand. And the reason we were deprived of that violence is…?
She says she came here to pour him a drink, and tells him it's time for him to die now. He takes the gesture as a sign of mercy, given the punishment he's about to face, but she just steels her gaze and says that she just wanted to cut off his breath by her own hand, that's all.
He takes a drink, and asks for another, as he calls his life un-fun and muses that he wasn't greedy—he just wanted to feel alive. Her expression doesn't change as he starts to cough up blood, and then she leaves him there to die alone. Farewell, Stumpy. It wasn't nearly painful enough a death for you, but we'll take what we can get.
Kang-chi runs into Lee Soon-shin on his way out, and says he doesn't really know where he's headed. Lee Soon-shin tells him there's no real answer to being human, save for trying, every day. He tells Kang-chi, "Of all the people I have met in my life, you are the warmest, kindest person."
Kang-chi promises to come running if he ever signals for help, and asks if he really thinks that the Gu Family Book exists. Lee Soon-shin says that if he believes in becoming human, then it must exist.
Kang-chi smiles and continues on his path.
And then in Yeo-wool's room, the blue lights return and bring her flower back to life.
Fade out, and then when we fade back in, it's 422 years later in present-day Seoul. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. WHAT. Suddenly he's Hong-Giljimae?
In a fancy modern apartment are very familiar old relics: Gon's sword, Teacher Gong-dal's medicine jar, Yeo-wool's sword, her purple flower. We only see a man from behind as he showers and gets dressed, and then a close-up of the ring on his finger, and a familiar red shirt hanging in the closet.
As he flips through a magazine we see that Teacher Gong-dal has been reincarnated as a doctor of eastern medicine, and then he gets a call from Yoo Yeon-seok, which is Tae-seo's actor's real name. This is getting too meta for my liking. So this is Tae-seo's soul reincarnated, and he shouts at his friend to hurry up and get to the party.
Kang-chi looks out his window and narrates: "The 5221st crescent moon I'm meeting alone." And down below in the street, a familiar voice cries out, "Excuse me!" as she runs through the streets.
Kang-chi finally turns his face to the camera as his butler calls to him, and it's Servant Choi. What, you made your dad a butler? WTF, Kang-chi-ya? And even Ok-man is a valet downstairs.
As he drives through the city, we get glimpses of modern life (and a little moment where he smiles up at the statue of Lee Soon-shin, ha). Kang-chi narrates: "The world changed so quickly, and the way that people live has changed so drastically."
At an intersection, a woman runs past his car in a blur, and it makes him do a double take. But the light changes and he keeps driving ahead. As he arrives to meet his friends, suddenly he hears a woman crying for someone to save her.
He sighs and pretends not to hear it, but she screams again, and he can't ignore it. The woman screaming turns out to be Yeo-wool's teacher, reincarnated, and she's currently about to get her purse taken from Ma Bong-chul, who's still a loan shark gangster even in this life.
Kang-chi shows up to save the day, only to beam when he sees Bong-chul and Teacher. "Are you taking money from people even here?" Ha. He counts to three just like the old days, and flashes his pretty green eyes at him before he beats them to a pulp.
He's just about to have his hero moment, when a familiar voice calls out behind him to freeze. Everyone else takes off running, and Kang-chi puts his hands up with a sigh, saying it's all a misunderstanding.
But when he whirls around, he stops cold. It's Yeo-wool, inching closer to him with her gun raised. Is she a cop? Seems fitting.
She comes closer and tells him to freeze, which he's already doing because his mind is blown, and he finally manages to say, "Yeo-wool-ah…"
She looks back at him quizzically: "How do you know my name?" Huh, so she's the only one who has the same name?
She asks if he knows her, and we hear Kang-chi's voiceover again that when they meet again, he'll recognize her first and love her first.
He finally answers cryptically with tears brimming in his eyes, "I might know you, and I might not." And then he looks past her to find a peach blossom tree and a crescent moon hanging up above. He finishes in voiceover: "And my time that had stopped… began to flow once again."
End credits… and then an epilogue.
Kang-chi's doorbell rings and he's shocked to find Gon at his door, bearing a national security ID tag. The man behind him takes off his sunglasses… and it's Lee Soon-shin.
COMMENTS
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Is this writer on crack? The thing is, I totally see what she was trying to do, and it's even theoretically the kind of ending I would love for a hero's journey. Really really, promise promise. But dude, you can't just slap that ending on without doing the legwork to make it organic, lived-in, and earned… hell, even remotely sensical. There's a finesse to the execution! You can't just decide your hero's gonna be Iljimae and then shove us into the future. That's messed up. I feel manipulated out of tears, and worse, cheated out of the hero's journey that would have brought us here in a satisfying manner.
You know, I actually watched this series much like Jeon Woo-chi–with low expectations for a cute, fun hero story, delivered with cheeky laughs. It was never going to be epically amazing, but I wasn't going to hold it to that when it was trying to be lighter fare. But this—trying to turn Kang-chi into one of those iconic in-every-generation heroes in the eleventh hour—was done so poorly. I may even have cringed less if they didn't decide that he had to be Bruce Wayne, or that everyone from 422 years ago just happened to be reincarnated in the same lifetime. (Or was this the seventeenth Tae-seo he's been buddies with? Who knows?) Just because you have a supernatural world doesn't mean you get to do ALL supernatural things all willy-nilly. There are rules. What you sacrifice for that fancy surprise twist ending is that you went there on your own and left us all behind.
Kang-chi could've been that kind of hero… if that was what you were building towards for the past twenty-three episodes. But it wasn't. And I know because I was there for all of it. We started in a good place, with an epic backstory and a great beginning for a hero. We set up a fantastic character who stood up for the weak and used his strength for the greater good. But then we let that sit there for the love story to take center stage. Living, loving, and dying was what he desperately wanted, and he fought for his human side to win out. So we wanted that for him. Because he told us so. We spent the rest of the episodes wondering if Kang-chi would ever get to the goddamn book and become human, and then gave up hope that this show would complete anything other than the romance. Because we spent SO MUCH time on the romance. And it was sweet, and cute, and all it needed was a pretty pink bow happy ending to satisfy us. That's it.
Instead we got a death to wring tears out of us, and then a left-turn fast-forward so sharp that my whiplash is having whiplash babies. And the crux of it, really, is that it gained nothing in doing so. All we did was come back around to the romance. I suppose if you're in it for a sequel, that's another story, but then I hate people who shunt an ending in service of a sequel even more. Basically, if your endgame was this all along, then you should've done a better job shaping Kang-chi into a hero of the people. A champion. Someone who, I dunno, sacrifices becoming human to save the world? For instance?
And this is all before even getting to the fact that they pulled the reincarnated soulmance ending, which drives me crazy. The straight version: Kang-chi is still Kang-chi, but Yeo-wool is reincarnated, and he's going to love her all over again. The fanwank version: Yeo-wool is also still Yeo-wool, because she still has the same name while no one else does, and her purple flower power gives her the right to do this. I dunno, I'm making it up. The point is, this kind of soul-in-new-body ending always leaves me with that niggling feeling that something's not right. Because it's not the same. Because she died, and he didn't, and there wasn't even any time travel for anyone who wasn't us, and because then the healthier thing to do would be to move on with your life and date Catwoman or something. I get that pining for 5221 moons is, well, moony, but I thought the entire setup of the parents' doomed tragedy of a romance was that the kids were going to get it right. And they did everything right every step of the way, only to get rewarded with a 422-year engagement.
I was all ready to put this show to bed with satisfactory B-marks, because it was fun and chipper, and a cool twist on gumiho lore. Though it didn't explore the full extent of the beast/man divide, I thought that it had interesting ideas at the center and that we were just going to wrap up our narrative neatly. Even the sadder version that ends at the fadeout with Kang-chi walking down the dirt road—that would've been better. Less than stellar, but it would've been an organic ending. I might've even liked it. I'd still be upset at Yeo-wool having to die (because that's just plain mean, is what) but I could be okay with Kang-chi setting out to live his life as half-human half-beast without her, and learning to accept himself as he is.
But so much of the emotional payoff I wanted was never delivered. And a finale that did that would've been enough for me to overlook the obvious flaws, like stretching story for 16 episodes into 24, or the unfortunate inverse stakes for Wol-ryung (epic, tragic, life-and-death) and Kang-chi (heartfelt, but juvenile, and not nearly as earth-shattering by a long shot). We were even shafted on the villain's big comeuppance, which I know was not cut for censorship, (Remember when Wol-ryung yanked the still-beating heart out of a man and liked it?) not to mention that the drama's over-reliance on Lee Soon-shin to come and save the day steals our hero's thunder. I had fun with this show, even if it was never on a deep emotional level, but these last two episodes really took the wind out of my sails. It was such an interesting universe, rich with potential. To sacrifice closure in that world, for this… what a damn shame.
RELATED POSTS
- Gu Family Book: Episode 23
- Gu Family Book: Episode 22
- Gu Family Book: Episode 21
- Gu Family Book: Episode 20
- Gu Family Book: Episode 19
- Gu Family Book: Episode 18
- Gu Family Book: Episode 17
- Gu Family Book: Episode 16
- Gu Family Book: Episode 15
- Gu Family Book: Episode 14
- Gu Family Book: Episode 13
- Gu Family Book: Episode 12
- Gu Family Book: Episode 11
- Gu Family Book: Episode 10
- Gu Family Book: Episode 9
- Gu Family Book: Episode 8
- Gu Family Book: Episode 7
- Gu Family Book: Episode 6
- Gu Family Book: Episode 5
- Gu Family Book: Episode 4
- Gu Family Book: Episode 3
- Gu Family Book: Episode 2
- Gu Family Book: Episode 1
No comments:
Post a Comment