Beatrice

Through the dark river into the light of the other shore

The show kicks off with stunning cinematography introducing the world and our main protagonist Su Muyu, the enigmatic assassin that turns out to be an introverted extroverted and whose brotherhood with his best friend the extroverted introvert Su Changhe is a driving heart of the story within the many relationships that Muyu forms. He's really the one makes friends with ease and even getting a girlfriend despite Changhe seeming the more outgoing one. Muyu is meticulous in negotiations, while Changhe is cunning in manipulation, Muyu is played wonderfully by Gong Jun with the expressive eye acting that he's known for, especially with the more understated character like Muyu compared to the more outspoken personality of all the other characters. Though Muyu has his girlfriend and Changhe has his blood younger brother, Muyu and Changhe definitely has the strongest bond in the entire series with the most moving decisions, their collective will shaking the martial arts world.

People are born or fall into a cycle of poverty and violence and it's immensely difficult to extract themselves from it. A otherwise normal person can be trapped into joining gangs because that is the only support system available to them. This is how a lot of the characters in this drama are. Many of them being orphans who had to join to survive or die. Muyu and Changhe were both orphans that share a similar background of their families and cities being annihilated and both have goals to change the circumstances of themselves and all their peers. To annihilate the gerontocracy of Blood River as a start and break all the chains that keep them as pawns for other's political struggles and bring Blood River into the light, to the Other Shore. Both are equally fierce and goes all out for their ideals and for each other. Since they children, Muyu would save Changhe, and Change would put himself in harms way for Muyu, Muyu would catch a sword with his bare hands for Changhe, and Changhe would plunge a dagger into himself so Muyu could be the lone survivor. Muyu tells him "Those who are strong, have the right to be naive/idealistic." They will find a third option together.

I really enjoy how the characters to the minor characters have personalities and lives that seem to go on off screen. It's something that James Gunn does well and it's always enjoyable to see in a drama. The costumes design is absolutely stunning from the different layers, fabrics, and designs of all the robes to the detailed hair pieces and make up as well. The martial arts battles is actually a feast for the ideas with creative visualizations, choreography, and stunt work that makes fight scenes that are usually a chore to watch in other shows very fun to watch. Muyu's humble umbrella sword alternatingly giving him a ghostly visage at times and an elegant ethereal spirit in others. Yumo's boyfriend's Phoenix that he promises to pick up her up with. Giant demons, swords, etc. The weather, plants, blood, anything that can be formed and manipulated with the will of the inner force. A force that can also form in otherwise inanimate objects like a sword. The music is also really good and some are even unconventional picks for dramas like this that add even more dynamic feeling to the fight scenes. There are still a lot of story that can be told for the main characters and the world that the story takes place in, I wonder if there will be a sequel, if so I hope it's made by the same team, starring the same actors.

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Portrait of a first love

This film that is grounded, if a bit somber, realistic lens into a lgbtq experience of girls that have always been in a religious single sex school and social environment their whole childhood where there aren't a lot of choices for romantic interests. The only choices they have are the school staff and each other. Thank goodness the teacher handles the situation responsibly. The small bit of bittersweet comic relief comes from the first time the couple was busted from a teacher witnessing them kissing as their bus passed bit and their parents were called in for a parent teacher conference. Both their dads are amiable with one another, both agreeing it's no big deal for the girls to be messing around as there would be no pregnancy and laughing that they're only like this because they never been with boys before. Wing Lam's mom is upset at her husband because their daughter takes after him, liking women. Sam Yut who is the sole provider for Sam Yut tells her he doesn't mind that she likes being with girls, so does he, but he has an honest conversation about their family's dire monetary situation and reminds her that she needs to keep her scholarship. Both dads offer and share their kid's snacks and sweets to comfort them. Their economic class difference shapes and diverge their paths. Wing Lam's family has both parents and is middle class, being able to afford a cell phone to sneak into their daughter's backpack though it is banned at school. Sam Yut makes it to University as a film major, but has to drop out to take care of her siblings once her father passes away and she refuses her derelict, estranged mother's offer to take them to the US. It's possible that Sam Yu is bisexual, having married a man before they have to act on their promise to marry each other if they are still single by 30. It's also possible she chooses the safer path of convention. In the end they were an important chapter in each other's lives as they move on in their respective directions.

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Erase it all

The series opened with such meaty angst with Lee Gun driven to deep mental unwellness by his family treating him as a second class citizen after his tragic tennis accident from when he was just a kid. His pain when he finally snapped and let his family have a piece of his mind was so palpable. It all goes down hill after the extremely ethically questionable procedure done to his brain to take away the bad memories and his personality turns into an annoying, obnoxious cartoon character. The actor can't bring any grounded nuance to balance Lee Gun out. Ju Yeon also just becomes annoying whenever she's with Lee Gun and gets worse as she falls in love with him. The chemistry for the two main couples are all mismatched. Lee Gun is actually way more interesting with his Sae Yan whose wacky personality actually levels out his cartoonish over the top behavior to something bearable. Lee Shin and Ju Yeon are also more interesting together with him having his own mental health issues that are more on the level that Ju Yeon can help with without lies and they can relate to each other better. 16 episode is way too long for this show as well, it might have been slightly more tolerable if it was maybe 10. The twist that Ju Yeon was the actual first love all along is extremely uninspired.

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Another no kiss, exploitative fanservice drama

I didn't know anything about this drama or the actors, so I gave it a fair objective watch and it's so disappointing. If the actors cannot commit to fully playing gay characters that includes even one plain kissing scene, then they should not be playing the leads of a gay romance. If they did at least commit to that minimal professional extent, then it would at least give the drama some sort of legitimate artistic grounding, but since they didn't it just makes it so many meta layers of bad, undermining any possible critique of the hypocritical kpop industry of making money off the the appearance of a gay romantic actions without any support for any actual gay rights or artists by literally embodying the hypocrisy.

The premise itself is a very real issue of using gay as concept to attract attention which the character Ji Hoon plays lip service to being against. Using skin ship and other actions as fanservice to pander to real people shipper fans that many idols are forced to do that have now gone from the once ubiquitous homophobia laced pocky game to non committed queer roles with no kissing. The in drama company so clearly is using the "Business gay" concept but also having their artists staunchly deny and have to avoid the media questioning their shady tactics like the media is wrong to question them. This is playing into the delusional fantasies of real people shippers that idols that are denying relationships are lying to them.

The in drama ceo is also quick to sell her artists to J who wants to work with his first love, and Hyun Bin who has roofied both Ji Hoon and Eden and had them both assaulted by an actress. He took photos of it happening to Ji Hoon and almost tanked his whole career. That's a huge criminal deal and the drama just brushes past it just like it has with everything else that's also a disturbing very real thing that kpop idols have to contend with, their management selling them for sexual favors. There are so many heavy industry things that the drama is lamp shading but does nothing with.

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Poor Opening

There is a fine line between expressive and over acting and the actress that plays Ah Young has annihilated that line and needs to take it down 5000 notches. The character is also immediately very annoying, turning off the tv that someone's in the middle of watching to hit on them, daydreaming and impeding traffic with her car stopped on the road but of course gets away with it because the cop that stops her knows her and she continues to take a phone call while standing in the middle of the road after he drives off. She literally writes herself in as a y/n character of course under the guise of saving Woo Bin. I feel so bad for this guy getting physically harassed by her. It was nice to see her be separated from him once Rebecca writes the police guy Myung Hwan in as her husband and probably his partner as their kid to distract her. It's weird that he's the only one that didn't get to return to his police officer job and is suddenly running the beachside book store. This drama randomly has the most explicit sex scene in recent non Netflix kdrama years.

It was a terrible struggle to get through all of her scenes even with the short half hour plus run time of a mere 6 episodes. This could have been way more enjoyable with a good actor with better acting skills, but this isn't that. It still has an interesting premise that they tease at the end could be expanded upon. I hope if they do it will be better cast with competent actors as the lead.

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Atypical Kdrama

Right off the bat I enjoy the casting of the main leads for Gwi Ju and Da Hae. I like how Jang Ki Yong is playing against his usual cool guy role, being a dorky regular Joe Gwi Ju who has the mushroom/coconut hair. Chun Woo Hee is effervescent as Da Hae who gives off this endearing charm where it's understandable how people are drawn to and trust her. I love how both of the actors ground even a silly funny reactions so that they aren't cringey, which includes the bickering which is usually a fast forward moment in other dramas. I love the scene where Da Hae goes off to con a fourth husband in order to shake of Gwi Ju. She shows off her full con mode, she's very effective but Gwi Ju doesn't have any jealousy or anger or is even phased. Which was a preview version of later when he finds out she faked her death in an attempt to save him. He was angry and confused, but he just embraces her as soon as he realizes why she did what she did. Their chemistry is so good! Of the extended cast, Kim Geum Soon is really impressive as Baek Il Hong, Da Hae's loan shark turned adopted mom. She's fantastic at keeping her motives ambiguous as to whether she's sincere or a plot, whether she loves Da Hae or she's a cold hearted crime boss who will collect on Da Hae's due.

The writing for the most part is really good. The writing for this show actually understands how to withhold and reveal information with impact. They play with the expectations of the powers really well from the evolution of Gwi Ju being able interact with past Da Hae, to her revealing to him things his future self did but the audience aren't sure if she's lying or not and she's able to use this in a actual lie as well, to her simultaneously interacting with both past and future him, and how he's saved. The flower scene is probably the most trippy time travel event of the whole series, because she didn't lie but he also didn't buy the flowers until his future self gave them to her. Ina's friend/bully doesn't even know that Ina has the power to read minds when she looks into people's eyes but was unknowingly able to use it to mentally bully Ina. Da Hae is able able to flip Man Huem's fatalist viewing of her negative dreams into a reinterpretation of the events into a positive outcome, building on what her fellow regular human father in law Man Seok has been doing to make the positive dreams come true. Man Seok seeming like she was tricking Il Hong about a vision about seeing the daughter she lost (the one that died while she was in prison) grown and alive but actually was about embracing Da Hae who faked her death hit me so hard in the heart.

The weakest part of the writing is Dong Hee's storyline and struggle with eating and body image. Dong Hee was used a comic relief character when she was heavyset and then suddenly she's just all serious when she's lost the weight again. The optics of that is really suspect to say the least. I could see there was the intention of wanting to convey the reasoning behind Dong Hee not being able to fly was not actually her physical weight, but the crushing mental insecurity and regret, but I don't think the story conveyed that as well as it can be. Then the other weak parts was the unnecessary teasing of the scumbag doctor by Da Hae and Grace that causes him to push her out the window and then him being the one to cause the foreseen school ire that forces Gwi Ju to time travel to the past feels forced. It's like they just transferred all of Dong Hee's cartoony nature into him just to move certain plots along.

The conclusion is lovely though. It turns out Da Hae and Gwi Ju definitely got frisky at least once at some point because they have a son at the end and it's so beautiful that her child is who brought Gwi Ju back to the safety of the future. I thought it was funny that they didn't show Ina's face in the future, only that she has long hair. Her actress was probably actually around 11 at the time playing a 13 year old while all the class mates were played by 14 or 15 year olds which makes her look as small as possible, so I understand how it would be hard to age her up. They should have cast an older kid so she could reunite with her dad too. Overall the drama was very enjoyable to watch and it's always great to see kdrama try to do something different and mostly succeeding.

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C grade

The adults act so childish while the teenagers get all the emotional heavy stakes and interesting plot developments. The best parts of the drama were actually the teenagers and their struggle to meet these physically and mentally taxing educational standards and expectations of their parents and society as well as the mother daughter relationship between the aunt and niece. The wildness of the the hagwon institutions like how the parents have to line up everyday to get the best seating for their children was interesting as well. The murder mystery part of the drama was okay, but it was dragged on for like 3 or 4 episodes too long. When it was revealed that the brother is a red herring and assistant guy is the murderer, that's when they should have wrapped it up.

I quite enjoy seeing pairings where both grown consenting adult characters have the female lead as older than the male lead and the corresponding actors, but the casting here is really distractingly off with the actress not looking anywhere near believable as the character age range she is portraying. It didn't really need to be a noticeable issue except for the drama itself making it awkward by throwing lines like "she doesn't look old enough to be a mom to a teenager" and showing that only a decade has elapsed between the past and the present the story takes place in. It's compounded by the fact that the costume department didn't make a single effort to at least style her to look like she's in her 30s or even 40s and always put her in clothes and hair styling that made her look very middle aged.

Her character is also like an emotionally volatile doormat, it would have been nice to see her have some smarts and effectively save or stand up for herself and her loved ones from time to time. Her version of acting cute was really off putting as well with the over the top laughing as she covers her face and violently hits whoever is in front of her. The romance plots of all of the adults were the least interesting parts of the story. None of them had chemistry and it would have been better to keep those as brief as possible. The teenagers were more interesting, I like how the two boys actually developed a friendship despite being love rivals.

For a single mom with younger man romance that also includes a serial killer plot, I recommend watching When the Camellia Blooms instead of this drama.

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Killer ethics

My hopes for season 2 were answered in some ways. We do see how good Jin Man is good at setting up or at least assembling the people to create intricate black market shopping mall for professional killers or hide outs at different locations and help him run it. The drama shows Ji Ahn getting straight forward mercenary/special forces training without it being couched as something else, but not much coaching from Jin Man to be the successor to the bloody family business, she already hits the ground making plans. She's always shown to be very smart and quick to pick up on what she needs to do in a situation to survive, but it would have been more satisfying if her mastermind leadership side was built up through the earlier episodes than appearing fully formed already. There needed to be more a lot more scenes of their Mutherhelp family bonding together in their new shop before half of them died. There were too much time given to the Babylon side, way too much Bale who needed to have died in the first episode. Kusanagi starts off with the perfect balance of believable villain and chewing scenery, but tips all the way into the latter category by the end. There was too much of her scenes as well. Q is a cute petite, deadly killer team leader who has a cute relationship with her team and harbors a crush for Jin Man which does not stop her from full on wanting to kill him when she was mislead to think he killed her brother, which good for her. I also get why she didn't stick around to have the promised meal with him from when they met that one time years ago. Jin Man is just all about dedicating his life to his niece daughter who had no choice but to be in this life whether she wants to or not. As Q notes, Ji Ahn also has that same look in the eyes as they all do including the both of them in this kind of life. At least Ji Ahn will flourish after giving up the normal life when giving it a good college try got her sweet fishing village orphan boyfriend killed. It was so moving when the one of the village grandmas comforts her all of the women their had husbands that died at sea for one reason or another just as Ji Ahn's boyfriend did, but she needs to continue to live. And so she does as the new CEO of a killer shopping network. If there's a season 3, I would like to see more of Jin Man and Jin Ahn working together to run things and maybe expand more of how he came to form the shop in the first place.

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Gorgeous special effects and design

The drama is succinct while giving twists and turns in the 8 eps. The creature designs and the fantasy design work all look really good. The leads are likable and builds believable bonds. I like the cute little yang (and endless snacks) eating Ggeomeoksali buddy too. Definitely leaves an opening for another season with Gu Cheon's soul shacked to the supreme spirit, but it concludes well if it doesn't with princess Saeng Gaeng along and the big little guy heading to off palace adventures or misadventures together. The drowning travel aspect is already a enough to suspend disbelief over, but getting sword stabbed in the stomach is like but getting a scratch.

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Sweet horrific romance

Full marks for the extreme angst of the romance. A drama that does not play around with the enemies to lovers, it truly is as blatantly dark and bloody as can be for the character's romantic set up of entangled karma. The deep conflict within Ri Ta is so palpable with both the hate and sympathy that clenches her heart and soul for Do Ha who slaughtered her father on the battle field and also executed her mother and entire household in front of her. She didn't witness the battlefield so that would be one thing if she fell for her father's murderer, but she watched him personally execute her mom. That would normally be the deal breaker for anyone, but she tries to assassinate him as well as a untrained former rich girl could and gets stabbed in the shoulder, though spared by him to serve and hide in his household in secret while he gives her some training to kill him properly. She learns he's murder machine Cinderella for his adopted father who uses him to gain glory and higher position at court while also deeply jealous that his puppet that risks his life for him is awarded with attention from the king. Her heart can't help but soften as she sees him with a constant death wish, breaking for him as he muses aloud how the only person that wishes him to live is his would be assassin, falling in love with him, but still horrified when he uses his killing skills to kill countless people for her in place of killing for his adopted father. The scene where she stops him from killing a child is truly chilling and she knows she has to kill him save others hunting them just as he had killed her family as an example to quell her people and save them from being killed. His dying breaths is stopping he from killing herself immediately, telling her to live, but his spirit forgets already in the moment he left his body what his lingering feelings keeping him to her are and in the succeeding 19 lifetimes of reincarnations that he watches over her.

Ri Ta's 19th life is Young Hwa, who is a dogged firefighter who may have a bit of anger issues, at least ones that are triggered by popular actor Jun Oh. She's unintentionally framed for excessive violence against her kidnappers who were left severely injured by the Do Ha possessed Jun Oh. An example of the kinds of victim blaming laws that may or may not be real in Korean, but there certainly real life examples of such injustices. She's suspended for a few months which gives her time to become Do Ha's personal bodyguard for a while as she slowly recalls her past life through her dreams which she initially could not remember, but could now seem to retain the memory of now that she's within the vicinity of the person she's been dreaming of. This could have been better explained in the show, but it can still be taken as so through observation. Her life time is unique in that she's the only one that can see him, remember him, looks like Ri Ta and also got to receive the special lotus seed amulet that she had received from Do Ha as a wedding gift as Ri Ta. There's no explanation for why Jun Oh looks like Do Ha. Young Hwa doesn't have any feelings of person hood separation despite her life and personality being absolutely different than Ri Ta, she accepts that she's the same person. Both sets of parents are dead, but the trauma is different and Young Hwa still lives a loving and fulfilling life, perhaps she is who Ri Ta would have been all along. Her 20th life reincarnation being the same kind of upbeat personality seems to suggest so, that this is who her soul would always be if not in such dire circumstances. It's strange that even though she accepts her memories as Ri Ta, she still calls Do Ha as Jun Oh and not by his actual name even when they're not in public around people who already know the truth.

Do Ha's supernatural ghost abilities and limitations is very inconsistent. He can affect the lights a little bit to his will, which was funny when she challenges to do more than just the ones around them outside at night and even he found silly. He seems to have healing powers to be able to resuscitate the dead, terminally ill body he occupies. At first he was prone to fainting symptoms just as Jun Oh originally dealt with from the cancer, but then that just disappears towards the end of the drama. Jun Oh whose prognosis was death from every doctor his brother Min Oh consulted is suddenly able to recover within a year of chemotherapy. I do like the set up of Do Ha being able to access Jun Oh's memories as needed and Jun Oh retaining a little bit of Do Ha's personality and feelings for Young Hwa, but not enough to have transference of love or anything, just enough to deliver Do Ha's final letter to Young Hwa for closure to the 19 lives of strife so that they start her 20th fresh with Do Ha again after living a full life.

The angst and chemistry between the lead characters is great, but the stiff jpeg kisses AND stiff hugs takes you out of the immersion of the intensity of the show. They don't need to do much, just kiss and hug in an organic way. It's all the more flummoxing when they do get to do one scene of organic kissing at the end. It's like they're only allowed one like an F word in a PG 13 American film.

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Needs to more script edits again

The pacing of this drama is atrocious and the weakest point is writing for interpersonal connections, for one character to convince another of something or just to bond. The drama has the bones of a stronger drama if only the script was better. The acting of the two leads are serviceable, but there's not much in the way of chemistry either inherently between the characters nor in the writing for them, but when they finally kiss, it's nice.

High school guys holding hands is not a common thing, certainly not in 2008, but it's nice neither guys have any issue with it and it is very cute. The writing just put Cyworld in the script and called it a day on establishing the time period. The time traveling guy doesn't act much more different than the high schoolers, in fact probably less mature. It's annoying that he's a grown man, but can't figure out a nicer way to break a friendship with the guy he likes than being very cruel and mean. Especially to someone he liked that died so early and haunts him to current day.

Hye Seong's change of heart is really sudden and doesn't give a good explanation to Yu Jin, He didn't try at all with his other friend Taejun and just acts like an insane person saying things without proof that would make his friend believe without waiting for violence to happen and especially since things are unfolding differently than the original timeline and could lead to something worse for Yu Jin and Taejun.

.At his skill level, it makes no sense for him to draw something quickly for their group homework. Hye Seong's color blindness also didn't come into play in a clear way. It seemed more like an stylistic cinematography choice than something that was supposed to have bearing in the story. The fake out editing like Yu Jin ran into traffic again was not good. Just cutting off as he ran around the corner with Tae Jun's concerned reaction was good enough

I do like the little changes that occur like in the photos of the current day from injuries to new photos on the wall from new memories made in the past or disappearing. The strongest part of the series is it's time travel mechanics. It was interesting that Hye Seong is physically disappearing from the present and appearing in the past, but it's unclear if he's completely meshed with the version of himself in the past who no long appears when he returns to the present. How would the timeline continue without a version of him in the past going to art school and being with his family? There's so many holes in this script.

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Improving through the past

The show is surprisingly detailed in addressing the different issues that come in up in the self ruminating, romantic, platonic, and time gap inter relations that occurs within it's short run time so well that it's a shame that it was not full hour episodes to explore even further. I think the writers would have been able to round out the story with an even stronger finish.

It's really beautiful that Shion found that she actually grew a lot as a person despite the core trauma that still impacted her well into age 29. She found her passion the craft of make up and look like the person they want to be, like for herself, which really grounded her in a way that her high school self hadn't found yet. I thought it was funny she left the house in a full outfit and hair done only to go to work to change into a uniform and different hair style. The denim shirts for the school uniforms is really cute and easy way to stand out from the other school uniforms. Shion using her mom's contact lenses was wild though. Prescriptions are not interchangeable unless her mom has the same or really close to hers.

I like that she immediately confronted her crush for being cruel to another girl that gives him a crush confession. He genuinely thought that it was more efficient to be mean because he had a bad experience of people not knowing no means no, but she tells him it's actually traumatic and to stop and understands. If there was more time to episodes they could have shown him rejecting someone in a kinder way. I also liked that he pointed out that originally he never got to know Shion properly because every time he tried to talk to her, she would get all weird and leave, like she didn't like him. She's so in her own head that she didn't even know how she was coming off.

It's really nice that there's an actual cause for Shion's time travel. Mitsuki's jealous friend Kaoru putting a curse on the group picture rather than a love spell so it causes Shion and later her Mitsuki and Souma to time travel back to the moment the picture was taken. The age and experience difference is slightly touched on between her and Souma and actually impacts her decision to go back to her own timeline. She misses her own timeline's versions of her parents and best friend. That's pretty sophisticated understanding more than most protagonists in time travel narratives. I do want to see for once that someone time travels back to their teenage selves and does not want anything to do with their crush anymore because they no longer see teenagers as peers. The ending with the grown up version Souma getting memory of his alternate timeline counterpart is really convenient, but can chalk it up to some fictional quantum entanglement and magic. This is where if there were more episode time per episode or more episodes, they could explore a bit more of their relationship as well the friendships in present time line.

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Unexamined ethical dilemnas

There's many different kinds of time travel conceits and narratives. Alice's version is that there are many different parallel and branching time lines, dimensions, and multiple versions of one's selves can exist at once. The series serves up complex relationships built up from the consequences of the situation but doesn't dare actually explore what it means that their relations are warped and tangled in frankly taboo manners.

This drama is truly the tale of two Tae Yis. Tae Yi prime starts off as a scientist who also has fighting skills and very clearly has an active sex life leading to her pregnancy. Once she becomes pregnant though, she does not even bother to discuss with her boyfriend/work partner's concerns about the irradiation of the fetus nor the doctor later about the health defects detected. She just has a one track mind to birth this child. It's her right to decide, but there is value to a pros and cons discussion to choosing to go through with a pregnancy where there's already knowledge the child's quality of life will be severely impacted due to the radiation damage. As she grows older, she has not one iota of fighting skills left, not that she's rusty or out of practice, just nothing, like she was never a fighter at all. Her life is just entirely Jin Gyeom and even more so the radiation effects has left him with the condition of lack of emotions which in the drama can seemingly "improve" as he ages and forms different relationships with her death being the catalyst. The exact combination of events to keep him from being a serial killer in between timelines seems to be up to chance. She got lucky she got the timeline where he does decide to embrace the right and wrongs of society.

Professor Tae Yi is the most affected by Prime's time travel creation. Her mother is another complexity that the drama just mentions and doesn't delve into. An unseen and unnamed time traveler who stayed in the past with the book about the end of time travel that some one wrote and died in child birth to Professor. The time traveler may either be a peer or younger than Prime. Professor watches her father be slain and adopted by an alternate version of herself for a little bit. Jin Gyeom being her younger brother. She then meets this guy only a few years younger in her early 30s and she is no one's mother and develops a very much romantic and non familial feelings for detective Jin Gyeom even after she learns she's basically the genetic equivalent of being a twin sister to the mother they shared for a while to the point they have a sibling photo. Jin Gyeom for his part has kept a friendship with Do Heon who is very important to him but doesn't exactly reciprocate her romantic feelings. He seems to treat Professor similarly while the show is very much leaning into all of the romantic tropes in the scenes for Professor and him. He sees his mother and his promise to protect her no matter their relationship. This promise ties Professor and an architect version of Jin Gyeom together after the reset erases the police version of him with Do Heon not in his life at all except for interviewing him in the course of her work. He has memories of the green door house, but not in the way that he grew up there. He seems to be born in different circumstances in the new timeline and may no longer be genetically related though it's unclear.

The adopted familial relationships are very touching. Jin Gyeom with his adopted father and Professor with the family that adopted her after Prime returned her to the orphanage after seeing Professor remembering the last page of the time travel book. It actually would have still been interesting if Professor and Jin Gyeom developed a more sibling relationship, but for whatever reason this drama went the romance route which they tried to keep a subtle as a kdrama truck of death without outright saying it or again having any kind of discussion about it. Does her memories or feelings from Prime affect how she feels about him the way that serial killer Jin Gyeom possesses Police Jin Gyeom at times?

The show lost track of it's own time travel and also character logic by the end. The series does feel influenced by Dark with the time travel book, cycles that act more like spirals that differ enough each time that at the end the loop is finally broken with older alternate versions affecting the narrative, but with way less effective ending. To end time travel, they needed to break the cycle of Tae Yi's mom going to the past to have her, but grandma is no where in the picture of the story. The story is not time travel, it's the boy mom romance fantasy that wasn't mainstream terminology for at the time of airing.

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