Ko Mun Yeong's Mother death circumstances investigation

Regarding KMY mom being 100% confirmed to be dead from a fall, Falling head first doesn't always means "fatality" as there is several factors in play. For example, how high did she fall, how hard was the material her head was in contact with, did something break her fall before she hit the stairs, how fast did she get treatment?

Analyzing the footage, we can see that when she is pushed by KMY's dad, some of the momentum was slowed from the push as she hits the sides of the railings. Moreover, the stair which she has fallen on was carpeted (thus the material is slightly softer), the height she falls isn't very high either due to how she has fallen from the first floor onto the stairs which begins at the ground floor. Thus, she has only fallen half a floor. The way she falls, her shoulders and body had most likely bore the most brunt of the fall so it isn't far fetched that her head isn't injured fatally. There could be fracture in the skull or face which is why she did performed a plastic surgery. A recent example of someone falling off a stage was Red Velvet member Wendy who didn't fall head first but have also suffered facial injuries. The reason why there is so much blood could be the skin of the scalp being cut open because even minor cuts can cause alot of bleeding. https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/postings/2016/11/head_injuries.php 

What is more significant are the fact that the dad didn't even check her heartbeat so we would not know if she remains alive or dead. She could have passed out from the fall due to concussions so she could be in an unconscious state until she was awoken by the water from the lake. For people that may say about her dying from blood loss, a human body can lose around 40% of blood (2 litres) in their body before it becomes fatal and based on the footage, the blood loss isn't that much either as the blood only flows without creating an actual pool. https://www.quora.com/How-much-blood-can-a-human-lose-before-dying-of-hypovolemic-shock-blood-loss 

Remember the part when CEO Sang-in talks about how KMY's mom comes from a family of doctors? and now that we know her mother also works in a psychiatric ward for 20 years after the fall, it is very likely that her mother does have experiences dealing with blood loss and injuries. The police never found a corpse either since KMY had to register her death manually.

 In episode 3, there was a scene where KMY dreams about that exact lake where her mother was rising above the water as she chanted "save me". Not exactly sure if KMY did witness the scene but she could be imagining based on her father's response in going to the reservoir (creating false imagery). The part where KMY witness her mother falling as well as her blood in the basement are traumatic memories which can be falsify as a way for her to cope, especially when the mother did mentally abuse her in her childhood. The father who was partially drunk and have a brain tumor could likely have a distorted memory too.  I am on the theory that when the father dumped her into the lake, KMY Mom was woken up by the influx of water flowing into the bag which lead to her escaping easily from the bag due to it being "zipped" only and I assume she wasn't restrained by ropes or anything. That dream of KMY could be a foreshadow to how her mom escapes from her death.

Anyway, I notice people think of her mom's escape and surviving as a plot hole but to me, there is so much elements we can find which suggest she could very well survive in those scenario shown by our directors. We just need some more "analyzing" to know if she indeed died during that scene. The reason why KMY mom got a plastic surgery is because not only did she sustained injuries to her face, she also gets the benefit of hiding her identity. Thus, the writer did not create a plot hole in my opinion as it can be explained rationally unless there is other details I missed out.

P.s I have heard an actual story from My father regarding his sister where she have climbed a coconut tree in the past during her childhood years. His sister have fallen and hit head first onto the ground but was able to get up straight away other than some bleeding. Since it was such a long time ago without the proper education and "funding for treatments" and his sister felt fine, they didn't went for a checkup with the doctors. The sister was fine for a few days until all of a sudden, she passed away and it was found out she had internal bleeding in her brain which could have been treated in time. The reason for this sharing was to highlight the fact that the sister felt "well" enough to still walk and talk like normal after falling from a tall coconut tree headfirst. So, as long as you go to the hospital in time, you can still escape death since the immediate fall would not always result in certain death. Just make sure to see the doctor no matter how small the injury looked if you got the injury from an accident.

Yeap, there is many past cases of people feeling fine after being hit in the head until they have suddenly died out of nowhere for not getting the proper treatment in time. After watching the ending, I am sure this is the most likely theory to explain her survival and I can now safely cover the minor "plot hole" which exist in other people's eyes. Very satisfied with the ending and will remember this drama for as long as I can think.

I thought the problem was not really "how did she not die?" but rather "why she came back from hidding"? I did not see enough elements to suggest that what KT, ST and MY did undermined her or her work so that she had no choice but to unveil her true identity. Because as crazy as she was she surely knew she would just end up in jail.

 Rjei27:

Reading this definitely gave me some closure on the mother mystery  

https://chasehermes.tumblr.com/post/625989613310394368/i-was-thinking-about-why-the-show-did-not-discuss 

Hi.. I think point number two is wrong.. her mother want to kill Gangtae not KMY

 OneAjhussi:

 I guess you are right regarding psychopaths  but I still think the motivations and behavior of the mother were described in an unclear and confused manner . It was a bit disappointing that in the end, she was just a psychopath.  I always assumed there was something strange and mysterious about her: the way she talked and how raised her daughter, her clothings, the  dreams of MY about a black floating woman haunting her... ) I would have prefered something more complex about her character in the finale. 

I know what you mean. The last 2 episodes were good but they were missing something. They should have revealed more about the mother. I guess they wanted to keep her mysterious but instead it felt like her character was not fleshed out properly. I do think at the end of the day this drama was about MY, GT and ST and how they healed together so I was not too bothered about that.

I am watching Flower of Evil right now and that drama kind of fills the holes that were left by this one in terms of mystery, the mind of a criminal, etc. If you have not started it yet, give it a try. Maybe you will like it.

 OneAjhussi:

Flower of Evil is on my watchlist but after following IOTNBO and Backstreet rookie I feel a little bit empty. I was thinking maybe I should wait for Flower of evil to end before I strat watching it. Thank you for your feedback about the drama. Mayby I will give it a try. 

Maybe. Because waiting a week for new episodes feels more like a year. So if you have a hard time waiting for dramas you like to air new episodes, then yeah, maybe it is better to wait. I usually wait too so I can binge-watch, but since I have been quite busy recently and dont have time to binge-watch anyway, I have been watching as the episodes come out.

Yeah. I also engage a lot more in comments and seem to have more enjoyment watching a drama when I watch less episodes, like 2 episodes per week. When binge-watching I tend to skip more scenes and the ratings are not as high as when I watch it slowly.

Seems like many people was on my thread 13 days ago and I didn't notice. My final opinion on IOTNBO mother's arc is that as unbelievable the way the mother survived, her motives also become "crazy" where she can kill Gang Tae's Mother for the smallest grievance when the GT mom was just trying to teach her about KMY's situation with a dead bird. That to me already sparked an image of a psychopath that should never be define by our common sense. 

Her motivation was largely the fact that she wanted KMY to become her, a psycho as well. As she began seeing KMY change for the better (becoming bright), she wants to stop that at the cost of her life or GT's life. That was what she amounts to, a way to revert KMY back to her old mentally tortured self using the most drastic method irregardless of consequences. By not spending more time on KMY's mother, it is just like a fairytale where the villain  are actively being forgotten and ignored, only the love&friendship between the leads matters. 

By focusing on the good part, we would feel inspired and heal as a human. Fairytale has always been written with flaws, there was never a moment that was perfect in the plot since a true villain would end the story before it even began. What we hope to see in a fairytale was always the character developed, and the happy ending we wished for since day 1. IOTNBO delivered that perfectly as a character growth drama and I applaud it. 

Flower of evil are currently what I am watching where the male lead suffers the exact same "symptoms" as KMY. Lee Joon Ki is one of the best male actors out there for his intensity thus I recommend giving it a watch after IOTNBO.