Tia

I finally finished this. I have to say, I don't think the ending is bad (while I don't fully agree with it, this is based on historical events, after all.) I can't think of a single form of media where a villain protagonist has genuinely won and not faced a tragic downfall or suffered at the end. Not Macbeth, not Death Note, not House of Cards, Secrets and Lies (another ambiguous ending), Queen of Ambition, The Blacklist (ish), Ruby Ring (the ending for this was INSANE lmao, literally and figuratively), Return... the list goes on.

Edit: There are a few movies where the villain protagonist wins at the end... but that's rare. I will not spoil them, though. So I was slightly wrong.

So the way Ki-Tae's story ended didn't surprise me much. He would've never became president. That being said, there was no use to Ki-Hyun's character in the drama. I get that he was meant to be a foil to Ki-Tae, but he was mostly wasted and mainly a goddamn coward from beginning to end. Yu-Ji's change surprised me (I don't understand why a few people had issues with it? She was literally tortured, that would change anyone 😭), Ye-Jin... did some stuff, but of course, never got to completely showcase her own talent (she felt like a better foil to me than Ki-Hyun, tbh), Gun-Young basically went off the deep end because of revenge, things were never gonna end well for him. Oh, and I HATED the General! Fuck that guy! Chief of Staff Cheon was interesting, but then... he turned out to be a total rat. Of course. Pyo Hak-Su was hilarious though lol

The part with Madam Shin being a shaman felt random and kinda unnecessary? Like whatever I guess... The overall pacing improved a lot in this season. I would say I like both seasons equally at this point? The acting remained fantastic, of course. And the music was great. I found Season 2's opening to be much better than Season 1's, in my opinion. Suited the darker tone of the season. And with Ki-Tae fading away, I think that should've been a hint as to where his story was headed. 💀 My one minor gripe is probably the smoking scenes. I feel like they overdid it here 😂 stylistically it's cool, but some scenes were literally just "dim, smoke, foggy. Whispers and stares." And that's it. As I said on here, Baek Ki-Tae is one of my favorite villain protagonists in k-dramas. Hyun Bin's acting definitely helped with that, and the writing... very... hmm, layered, to an extent?

My theory is that Ki-Tae did not die. Let a girl dream. He survived and made it to that boat. 😭 Faked his death and became a fixer overseas or something! I love that the ending is ambiguous, though. My ideal ending would've had him win. OR, lose and reinvent himself somehow, becoming worse and far more cunning. I still feel like my theory happened, so... maybe the second one might be true? 👀

Overall rating for Season 2: 9.5/10. I still recommend this series. Feel free to watch it if it's your cup of tea. If you like fluffy rom-coms, skip it. Do not press play, move on. 😁 BUT if you like villain protagonists, political thrillers, morally grey characters, and a ton of conspiracies, go for it. This is an incredible drama.