The ending made me infuriated.

This show was a 10/10 for me until somewhere in episode 11 or 12, then something just totally derailed in the story. The acting for this show was amazing and het main characters have amazing chemistry. Everything was smooth sailing and the story was on its way to become one of, if not my favorite kdrama of all time. I really liked the main song used in the series, maybe because I have not heard Last Dance of Wu Bai before. I have not watched the original, so I do not know if the story ends exactly the same, however the ending just feels rushed, like the writers didn't know how to continue the story, and therefore magically fix some stuff, and leave everything unexplained.

Now for the explanation about what I disliked, Warning spoilers ahead!!!
For me it all went wrong when Kwon Min Ju started taking over, and left Han Jun hee in her head. Don't get me wrong I am all for some character development for Kwon Min Ju, as it felt kinda unfair that Jun hee got everything that Min Ju wanted. However the way it was handled was poor at best. At first she is really stubborn, but when Jun Hee takes over again, she is like allright maybe I do not want to kill myself, because suddenly Jun Hee "understood her". Instead of this ending I would have liked if there were more time travel attempts, instead of the final one were Jun hee suddenly gets back in 1998 right at the moment of the accident after praying to the lord that is Nam Si Heon. They should have realised Jung In Gyu was the answer for Min Ju's sadness and attempted to get them together, like Si Heon tried from the very start before the time travel interference. However in the current storyline this is not possible as everyone is dead and only Jun Hee can do something, but she can only watch. Maybe they should have had Si Heon time travel again to Jun Hee instead of the random prayer bullshit at the end, and somehow fix it. I am not opposed to them finally destroying the tape. But the reunion in the new timeline also is underwhelming. All the memories are gone, but somehow they just feel that they belong together. I get it they averted the crisis and got their happy ending, but come on at least give some subtle hints. Show the new timeline where Min Ju, In Gyu, Jun Hee and Si Heon are all happy and maybe even friends. What has happened to Oh Chan Yeong, is he in jail like he should be, or is he out there killing other people? What about the uncle, did he become a barista? The final episode had all those little problems which made the conclusion not counteract all the suspense and sadness we went through to get there. Sorry if this is more like a rant, but I just had such high hopes, and the end was an enormous let down.

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A really good show... until it wasn't.

This show had some of the best cliffhangers of any drama I've ever seen. Plot twists you really didn't see coming. And although there were some minor flaws in the plot and lots of things left unexplained, the story made sense, went at just the right pace and was what I would call addictive.

But then we get out of prison... (for the final time)

And from this point onwards it slowly starts to go downhill. However, the show was still salvageable and could have been a good 9 maybe even higher. Only if it wasn't for the last 10 minutes of the show. These 10 minutes give a sentiment that oppose everything established in the show so far. It is not a good ending and it does not feel justified. All the build up and all the people we have got to know, get thrown away for a simple and senseless ending.


Explaning the problems this drama has in my opinion. !!!Warning Major Spoilers from this point onwards!!!

The main problem of the second part is that the real power of big mouse is never demonstrated. Park Chang Ho (PCH) was more like a little mouse (a prey). In the prison he demonstrated real power going from a nobody to a god, managing to outsmart even Big Mouse himself. But then he gets to live and from this point onwards, he starts to weaken. Maybe the man needs to live under the fear of dying to actually be able to perform.

So we get out of prison and the first main thing that happens is that he becomes the lawyer of big mouse and his main goal is to destroy the organisation of Major Choi DoHa and Chairman Kang. But from this point onward the opponents keep on getting the upper hand (I get it, we need it to keep the plot going, but it does not seem like the opponents get some unfair advantage or luck, they are just smarter than Big Mouse). This does not mean that the smart tricks stop entirely, but the power and reach of the organisation of Big Mouse is never really shown. The three main important guys from big mouse are the prison guard, Jerry and PCH's lawyer friend, but other than the fighting gang, we see like one outside guy actually able to pull some strings. Most of the things they do are giving PCH small information, but often Major Choi is already one step ahead and the 'friendly criminal and big force' Mr Gong Ji Hoon is needed to help Big Mouse but turns out he is just useless. The only time we saw the real influence of big mouse was with the police escort and allowing Ko Mi Ho to speak during the interview. But why couldn't they protect their witnesses like Jang Hye Jin (why did she even need to come back) and more importantly Hyun Ju-hee when se was supposed to testify. (Like they know Do Ha is a manipulative monster, but well he wouldn't do anything to his wife or something...)

The things I didn't like include Mr No (Original big mouse) dying in a stupid way as a big maffia boss. Also the backstory of his daughter was not really big enough to make me feel sad for him (It gets pushed to the background by all the other evil deeds of DoHa/NK Chemical and make that the main driving force of the battle of PCH). Then we have Ko Mi Ho getting terminally sick from the radiation, but continuing to fight and reveal the truth, but this was all for nothing. Also they did have no business putting her dead at the very end of the show and then justifying it by letting PCH kill DoHa by using the same water that killed his wife. You know this likeable guy who wanted to become a 'kind' big mouse and fight evil. Yes, he just killed the 'real' evil guy by doing the same evil stuff Do Ha has been doing the whole time (Yes it was revenge, but it would've been sweeter revenge if they just won in court.

Then the final issue: the rushed, unsatisfactory and inconclusive ending. We needed at least one episode more, or they could've cutted some of the shenanigans from the 5 episodes before it. The current ending leaves plot holes and makes me wonder about what the message is. How does the story continue from this point onward? DoHa is dead and some of the evil guys are locked away, but is the entire organisation of NK chemical really gone?? Is there a guarantee they won't come back, if they do will PCH just kill them all? What will PCH do now, just continue being a "normal lawyer" (he was really good at that lmao), or play Big Mouse and kill more evil guys "to save the world"?
Also what tf happened with the son of chairman Kang, why was the plot even introduced, why no lawsuit??? They could at least let Mi Ho have her revenge for Tak Kwang Yeon (the sick prisoner who took the blame for Kang's son).

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