Faith: Episode 24 (Final)
by girlfriday
We finally reach the end of our journey, but it’s only the beginning for Eun-soo, who at last deals with that pesky issue of time travel and faces the consequences of messing with the space-time continuum. If there’s anything I’ve learned this year in dramaland, it’s that there’s always a price to pay for tampering with time…
FINAL EPISODE RECAP
Ki Chul attacks the king’s men powered up on magic go juice, and Young finally arrives to find the hall littered with bodies. Loyal Dol-bae sees Young’s trembling, swordless hand, and lunges at Ki Chul with his spear.
Young screams, “Nooooooo!” But it’s too late, and Ki Chul icy-hands him till he falls to the ground. Young runs over to Dol-bae, who’s spitting up blood but still smiling at his leader like a faithful puppy…
And he dies in Young’s arms.
Young gets up and asks for someone’s sword. Deok-man hands his over, and Young orders everyone out. But it’s Gongmin who refuses, saying that he knows what’s happened to his hand, and that it’s okay to step down just this once.
But Young insists there’s nothing wrong with his hand, “just that the sword has become heavy.” Ki Chul scoffs and calls him a liar, declaring that he will kill every living soul in this place until Eun-soo is brought to him.
Young puts his foot down, dragging the sword along the floor like it weighs about two tons. He tells the men to leave again. Gongmin: “No. I will stand behind you!” Aw. Not so practical, but very sweet.
Young starts to fight Ki Chul, and he swings wildly with both hands on the sword. Ki Chul easily knocks it out of his hand, but he just picks it back up again. They clash, and this time, Young gains the upper hand, and Ki Chul looks up in shock.
He shoves Ki Chul back, and gathers all his strength for one swing, and chops Ki Chul’s sword in half. Nice.
Ki Chul asks wide-eyed, “What sword is that?” Young: “I told you already. It’s a heavy sword.” Ha.
Eun-soo wakes up, and Aunt rushes to her bedside. She asks for Young, and Aunt says he was with her all night and just stepped out. Eun-soo sighs in relief as she looks around her, “I was so scared… that it was all a dream.”
She worries about how hard it must’ve been for Young, but Aunt asks if the poison-to-fight-the-poison worked. She checks… her fever’s down and her vitals are back to normal, and Eun-soo gasps that she might live.
Dae-man sees Flute Boy and Firestarter approach, and sounds the alarm for everyone to protect Eun-soo.
Meanwhile, the stateroom is at a standstill. Young asks the king if he intends to keep Ki Chul alive, and Gongmin says that despite Ki Chul trying to kill him, he doesn’t want to do the same to him. WHY NOT?
Ki Chul sees an opportunity to be the devil on Young’s shoulder, and says that despite Gongmin going on and on about his people, none of the people even knows his name. But Choi Young, on the other hand… now everyone knows that name.
He offers it right then and there on the spot: Doesn’t Young want to be king instead of serving one? All those people he collected for the king in fact follow him, don’t they?
It’s an eerily familiar quandary to Young, and he flashes back to the king who killed his Jeokwoldae leader, and the same question posed to him – what he was going to do about the fact that the people trust him more than their king.
Gongmin gulps, and asks Young to answer the question.
Young: “Someone I know was asked a similar question once. And because that question was so heavy, the only thing he could do was to answer with his life. I know now… that he was wrong.”
It sends Gongmin’s heart to his knees. But of course Young isn’t finished: “He was wrong, because he ran away.” Ki Chul sighs at his lack of ambition – doesn’t he want to be king?
Young: “I already have the king. What else could I want?” D’aw. Can we break the tension for a round of hugs? A high-five? A badass nod?
Young asks again if they aren’t going to kill Ki Chul already, but he doesn’t give them a chance to decide. He smiles that this should’ve bought enough time, and walks out. Oh crap.
More Woodalchi stand in his way, but Young shouts at them to move, instructing no one else to go near him.
Hwasuin storms into Eun-soo’s room, where Dae-man and Aunt fend her off. She starts to burn Dae-man by the throat, but he uses a washcloth and a basin of water nearby, countering her fire hand with water so that she’ll just steam herself. That’s pretty smart.
He struggles to hold her off, but it buys enough time for Aunt to come up from behind and shove a dagger right through her heart. Finally.
While that’s going on, another Woodalchi takes Eun-soo to safety… or so she thinks until she gets tossed into a carriage with Ki Chul’s minion. He knocks her unconscious and they ride away.
Dae-man runs to Young to tell him what happened, and Young picks up his chin to look at the burn marks on his neck, and pets him on the head before running off.
Gongmin finds his room tossed and the eunuchs find a few things the baddies left behind: Hwata’s instruments, and the pages from Eun-soo’s diary that we’ve seen.
Noguk wonders if maybe heaven is retaliating because they brought the heavenly doctor here, where she doesn’t belong. Gongmin admits that it was his doing, and so he’s the one who ought to be punished, if that’s the case.
Noguk says she learned some heavenspeak from the doctor, and says she’ll say it to him when something good happens. He names things that sound like far-off pipedreams to him, like reclaiming Northern provinces (which in fact he does do later in his reign).
She says yes, as if it’s just a given, and he beams. She holds his hand, and asks him to think of Young and Eun-soo first, and he agrees.
Young finds Aunt sitting in his room, and she says numbly that Firestarter’s body was removed, so Flute Boy probably took her, which means someone else took Eun-soo. He asks about her condition, and at least gets one millisecond of relief to hear that the poison was neutralized.
He turns to go, but Aunt reminds him that the king said to wait. He shouts back that he knows, “But I feel like I’m dying right now.” He grabs his sword off the wall (yay) and storms out.
He goes to see the king, who asks if he’ll follow Eun-soo to heaven once he finds her. Young impatiently asks if this is the reason he’s holding him back – to get an answer to his question.
Gongmin: “I know how weary you’ve grown in this land. So are you going to follow her?” Young: “I already gave you my answer. The answer my teacher gave, the path he chose – I won’t follow it. So I have already returned to you. Help me bring my woman back too.”
He finally makes Gongmin understand, and without another word, they nod at each other and Young walks out.
Eun-soo wakes up with a sword to her throat, and a fuming Flute Boy who demands to know who killed Hwasuin. Ki Chul puts a stop to that right away, and tells Eun-soo that they’re going to heaven together. He finally puts Hwata’s third thing on the table.
She opens it with trembling hands… and takes out a… what IS that? A tape recorder?
Meanwhile, Suribang gets the bright idea to track the medicine that Ki Chul always takes, in the hopes that it’ll lead them to their hideout. It works, but they’re a step behind. Young gets on his horse and goes after them alone.
In the carriage, Eun-soo warns that she doesn’t know where the portal will actually take him, but Ki Chul doesn’t care. He gets that crazy gleam in his eye and says he’s going, no matter what. “All doors in the world are there to be opened and entered.”
She says fine, she’ll take him to the door, but she has to remain here. Ki Chul is adamant about the fact that they have to go together. Can we just shove you in and hope you come out in the Cretaceous period?
Young follows their trail, but always a half-step behind. He stops at an inn the morning after Eun-soo has come and gone, but finds a note from her scribbled on the wall. It’s the one heaven-phrase he would recognize: “It’s okay.” I love that she’s a quick thinker.
She even offers to check Ki Chul’s vitals at their next stop, but he stubbornly refuses to let her check on his health. I don’t think she’s particularly broken up about it. Moments later, there’s a loud knock on the door of the inn. Whoo, is it hero time?
Young bursts in through the doors and Eum-ja fights him off. But this time Young isn’t faltering or losing his grip, and stabs the first minion, and then pins Eum-ja against the wall with a table.
He leans in close… and then stabs Flute Boy clear through the table. Nice. Not as satisfying as doing something to make his eardrums pop for good, but in any case, he goes down bloody.
In the commotion, Eun-soo manages to use her dagger to slice Ki Chul in the hand, and he runs away. Young and Eun-soo have a tearful reunion, as he makes sure twice over that she’s really poison-free and okay now.
Young: “Then will you be staying by my side?” Eun-soo: “Yes.” He grabs her in an embrace, and she cries in his arms.
They lie in bed together and he watches over her, asking if she wants to go to heaven’s door tomorrow to at least say her goodbyes to the other side. She warns that Ki Chul will probably be there, but Young says he can beat him in a fight.
OR how about you guys just head for the hills and say your heavenly goodbyes to yourself? How about that?
She asks why he’s looking at her, and he says it’s to remember her, “Now that I don’t have to forget you.” You guys are making me nervous. This is way too much happiness and counting chickens and whatnot. Stop tempting fate!
She traces his nose and his lips and he kisses her on the hand and tells her to sleep.
With zero transition to get us there, suddenly Ki Chul is standing before heaven’s door, with the portal swirling open. He goes through… but the portal rejects him and spits him back out. Huh. Is there a morality quotient involved in time travel?
He finds Eun-soo and Young on their way there, and asks how you go through the door. She says you just go through, but he calls her a liar, thinking there’s some trick she’s not sharing with him.
He launches at her in a fury, and Young throws his sword and skewers him in the chest. But it’s not enough to take him down, and he grabs Young in a death grip, and freezes him until he falls to the ground, paralyzed and frozen and barely breathing.
Eun-soo tries to revive him, but Ki Chul yanks the sword out, sticks it in the ground at Young’s side, and drags Eun-soo away to the door.
Young watches her go unable to move, and thinks to himself: “Why did it happen to be her? – I wasted a lot of time wondering that. Father, I have now found it. Am I too late?”
Ki Chul drags her kicking and screaming to the portal, and shoves her in. No! He tries to follow her through, but gets rejected again, and falls to his knees before the door. That my friends, is the world’s saddest popsicle.
Eun-soo goes through the portal and finds herself back home in 2012. Young’s voiceover continues: “But she’ll answer this way: It’s okay, it’ll all work out. It’s only the beginning.”
She dashes to the hospital, and grabs a reporter’s backpack and cleans out the medical supply closet and adds a few things from her office, like that tape recorder-y thingamabob we saw among Hwata’s things earlier. Uh-oh. I don’t like where this is going…
She runs back to the portal, as an announcement of an explosion in space flashes behind her.
Eun-soo (voiceover): That time in Seoul, when I was running only thinking of saving that person. That day, what moment, what thing… went wrong? To return to the person I had left once, what was it that I needed? Was I lacking in yearning? Or in faith?
She goes through and runs back to the field where she left Young… and no one is there. Crap. It’s the loop, isn’t it?
Her voiceover continues: “I am once again far from that person. I’ve been left alone a hundred years before that world where I left him, as he lay dying.” She runs back to the portal, and it’s now closed.
We see her live out her days as Future-Eun-soo-in-the-past. (Or is she Past Eun-soo now? Urg time loop sucks.) She writes in the diary, and heals people, and says in voiceover that she believes in her heart that he’s alive and well in that other world.
She turns on the thingamabob, which turns out to be a pocket projector that stores videos. It has her lecture from earlier that day she was kidnapped, and a video from her parents. She watches it over and over until the battery dies.
Sometime later, she journeys back to the portal. Eun-soo: “Someone said that earnest desire makes fate, and memory is what makes that moment happen.”
Suddenly, the portal reopens. She goes through it like a seasoned pro. Lord knows how many times she’s done this now. She ends up back in 2012, which doesn’t surprise her in the least. She simply steps back in.
She goes to an inn and sees some familiar uniforms. Woodalchi. She stops one to ask what he’s doing here on Yuan land, and he wonders if she’s been living under a rock. He tells her that this is the fifth year of Gongmin’s reign. Yaaaaay! We’re back!
And then familiar voices rise from the din. It’s Deok-man, and Dae-man, who now order around the other boys, using Young’s trademark, “Just do it! Well!” Aw.
And Choong-seok comes in behind them to ask where the general is. “You know, there. Where that tree is.” Dae-man wonders if they should bring him food, ’cause he usually spends three or four days there every time he goes.
At that, Eun-soo goes tearing back to the field…
And there, sitting by the giant tree, is an older, more grizzled Choi Young, waiting faithfully for her to return.
He turns to her and smiles, not surprised at all that she’s just appeared out of nowhere after all this time.
A tear falls as she walks toward him, finally in the right place at the right time.
COMMENTS
Thank goodness for a happy ending. I was worried for a minute there that she’d just be stuck a hundred years in the past in that endless loop, which would’ve driven me crazy. For a show that really didn’t deliver in so many basic ways, a bad ending would’ve just sent me over the edge. It makes sense that she’d have to go back to the past and in effect become Future Eun-soo, and only after that could she find her way back to the right time. It’s just… if that’s where we were going, I would’ve rather spent more time with her on that journey back to him, rather than all that poison-re-poison hullabaloo.
The implication is that she travels back and forth over and over until she gets it right, and that it’s a long journey back to each other, earned through their faith and longing. It makes their reunion feel whole and deserved, which is a nice complement to the supernatural, because the last thing you want is a magical poof, happy ending! without it being earned. This way I feel satisfied that they didn’t just get an easy out, and their commitment to finding each other is what won out in the end. It’s probably the only thing about the finale that feels greatly satisfying, as the execution of the rest (as usual) leaves a lot to be desired. But, of all the things to get right in the finale, this is it – it’s the one thing that will carry you a long way.
This drama is such an interesting case of having solid parts… but put together all wrong. Kind of like sticking a new sports car’s guts inside your grandma’s ’84 Buick. Just… why? It’s painful to know what a scene is intending to do, and then have to watch it flounder time and again. The end result is that no matter how impactful a line of dialogue or a written heroic action, we don’t feel the full effect onscreen. There’s nothing worse than seeing the emotion that you know is supposed to be there, but not getting to feel it with the characters. And for me, there’s no coming back from that, as a drama. I enjoyed the characters and I liked the setup and the world. But the directing and the editing left me cold, which means I watched it all at arm’s length, excavating what was intended from what was given. There were certainly moments that got through to me, but they were far too few in 24 hours of screen time to get me on the hook.
I don’t even think that it’s a case where they took stellar writing and just shoved it through the wrong delivery device either, because there was maybe enough story for a 16-episode series. I feel like precious time was wasted recycling a handful of conflicts over and over, and meanwhile all sorts of things just fell by the wayside. And if getting the lovers back together was going to be the only central conflict we really deal with in a satisfying finale-worthy concluding arc, then why did we spend so much plot time in the political arena? I expected a much grander closing for Gongmin, who carried so much of my interest through the show. But alas, he just got a cursory Future-You-does-some-good-stuff nod to the audience, which left me wishing for more.
All told, it was still a fun show. I can’t in good conscience call it a good show, but it was enjoyable, mostly because of the hilarious band of baddies (We’ll miss you, Ki Chul!), and the thread of wit that carried through. That was something evident in the writing that the directing couldn’t mess up; in fact, the wit was probably this show’s saving grace. I came to this party for Epic; alas, he was a no-show, and instead I walked away with a sweet love story. It didn’t fulfill what I wanted this show to be (or heck, what Show wanted itself to be), but it was a nice consolation prize, and at least it closed its own story in a logical way, which is more than some.
RELATED POSTS
- Faith: Episode 23
- Faith: Episode 22
- Faith: Episode 21
- Faith: Episode 20
- Faith: Episode 19
- Faith: Episode 18
- Faith: Episode 17
- Faith: Episode 16
- Faith: Episode 15
- Faith: Episode 14
- Faith: Episode 13
- Faith: Episode 12
- Faith: Episode 11
- Faith: Episode 10
- Faith: Episode 9
- Faith: Episode 8
- Faith: Episode 7
- Faith: Episode 6
- Faith: Episode 5
- Faith: Episode 4
- Faith: Episode 3
- Faith: Episode 2
- Faith: Episode 1
Tags: Faith, featured, Kim Hee-sun, Lee Min-ho
Required fields are marked *
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
1 Ivoire
October 30, 2012 at 8:30 PM
Thanks!
Required fields are marked *
Ivoire
October 30, 2012 at 8:32 PM
My comment will follow and it will be long... Thank you so much for recapping this drama and helping us understand it.
Required fields are marked *
Tara
July 12, 2015 at 6:35 AM
One thing I didn't understand is why in the world did the Woodalchi guys not recognize 'High Doc' in the end; like when she finally comes back after 5 years? o.O
Required fields are marked *
keenra
June 2, 2016 at 4:11 AM
maybe cuz hes a new recruit after she left.... i wish the other guys had seen her! can't believe they didnt spot her!
Required fields are marked *
Rose Gianne Orrola
January 14, 2019 at 3:25 AM
I think the first batch of Woodalchis' didnt see Eun Soo...So they didn't recognize her in the first place. Maybe she asked a new recruit, totally unaware that she is their general's woman. Cause had he known, he would've alerted Daeman and Dolbae right away.
Ivoire
October 30, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Thank you again for the recap! Last episode, what a journey for our characters. Before I forget, I would like to say that the ending (the very end) reminded me of the ending in City Hunter (another drama with LMH), where one character shows up and they (both characters) look at each other, smiling. When I saw LMH with facial hair, he reminded me some of Kim Nam Gil, and of some of the pictures I have seen of him (Kim Nam Gil) with facial hair (It might just be me who thought like that, and I thought I would mention it).
I wasn’t sure what to think of this episode, that things were more or less explained and tied up? I would say that the last 10mns or so left me a little confused about which ES we were dealing with, the current ES or the one who went 100 years too far back. I guess based on her clothing, it might be fairly safe to assume that the ES at the end is the one who went 100 years too far back in the past and came back to Seoul and went again through the portal and ended up in CY’s time period. So then, what happened to the ES we had been watching all along? Did she disappear or morph into 100 years back ES? That is confusing to me because current ES (the one we mostly saw during the drama) did not seem to remember past ES and the experiences that past ES had had.
And so that brings up another question from me: what about the prediction that the fortune teller (I think) had made about ES being in the past (Goryeo times) for only a year, or did I misunderstand? What am I to make of that prediction? I accepted the ending for what it was, but will admit that I didn’t fully understand it. So, CY recognized ES from 100 years back because basically ES is ES? (I think I am rambling here), or maybe current ES was dressed like ES from 100 years back?
OK, moving on… Another thing I didn’t understand, was how to interpret CY’s hand trembling when he was getting ready to fight KC. We know through ES that the issue of the hand trembling is not physical or neurological (I am assuming), and he wasn’t holding the sword yet. So why did the hand tremble? That left me perplexed. Maybe the fact that CY stayed the course (i.e. continued to fight and use the sword) is what was important, since 1)—he told the king that he would not go the way of his master (retire or die willingly because the sword is heavy? I am not really clear on that one either); 2)—when ES came back to Goryeo (and CY’s) times, she learned that he had helped conquer some of the Yuan territory and other lands and thus expanded Goryeo territory.
Maybe the trembling of the hand was a test for CY to see how he would handle it. He seemed to have handle it appropriately (or rightly) and so he remained a warrior? I think in the end, I feel more confused than I have clarity about a lot of what happened in the drama.
There is a look that CY had (it seemed a look of anger and determination to me) when he placed down Dol-bae’s hand, after Dol-bae died in his arms (kind of). I thought that maybe that anger and that determination helped him (CY) fight KC, even though the sword felt heavy and one of his hands felt weak. CY kept fighting, however. I also liked how Lady Choi remained awkward till the end with displays of affection (patting ES on the back) and how she remained badass, going back into the room to help DM fight Microwave lady (who died, at last).
I personally always liked seeing CY being emotional and vulnerable, because I got to see another side of him. I thought it was always a nice contrast to his attitude and mentality as a warrior. To see him worried sick about ES and her whereabouts and her welfare, yelling at his aunt, and later on asking tearfully to ES if she was OK and healed, and if she would stay with him, went a long way to show how far he had come and how much he had changed.
I was also impressed (as in I noticed, realized, although it might have been mentioned before) how often CY did not miss an opportunity to touch ES. By the end of the drama, it looks like it is a need that he has, to hug her, touch her (hand, hair, etc…) as if to say “you are really here with me, and you are staying with me. Basically, you are mine [and he is hers, of course])”. It was nice to see how comfortable they became with each other over time.
I felt that ES’s abduction (being escorted according to KC) was a little too easy, but hey, it was the last episode, so I guess whatever helped move the plot along was what was important. Speaking of KC, he really lost his marbles by the end, didn’t he? Does anyone know why he couldn’t go through the portal? Because ES and CY did just fine, so that left me curious, as I didn’t feel that I got a clear answer as to why KC kept being rejected (maybe the future didn’t want him and the portal knew it?)
I have loved every interaction between the king and his queen and her committed love to him, always willing to stand by his side, no matter what he is going through. That statement about suffering with him the consequences sent by heaven because of the abduction of ES was another testimony of her dedication and love for her husband.
I was hoping to see the queen say “I love you” and teach to the king what that meant, but oh well… I thought it was interesting that the euneuch smiled when the queen was speaking to the king, as if he knew something the king didn’t know, which happened a few times in this drama. Except I don’t think the eunech knew this time around, since he wasn’t there when ES was explaining the whole “love” concept to the queen.
I also liked the bedroom scene of ES and CY, and wondered if they had gone to another inn (there were dead bodies in the last one, creepy) for the night. The flowers in the room were a nice touch and added to the air of romance. It was kind of nice to see our OTP finally relaxed and enjoying each other’s company and it was nice to see CY being gentle and tender:-). I loved that scene because it felt intimate even though not much happened. I feIt that it spoke volumes about where they were at with each other, *swoon.* I was hoping to hear an actual “I love you” from our OTP (to each other), but oh well…
I really loved and enjoyed the bromance and commitment and affection and care that the king and CY have throughout the drama. They don’t necessarily feel that way about each other at the beginning, and up to when the king scoffs at CY about putting a woman above everything else. However, when the queen is abducted and the king realizes what CY had been feeling all along, their bond and support of each other deepened.
I love that the king could have left the room when CY was fighting KC, but he chose to stay in the face of danger, out of concern for CY. Added to that bromance of course is the relationship between CY and his “children,” who at the end of the drama are older and yet as protective and supportive of their leader (I liked the comment about bringing him food, so he would at least eat).
Many themes were explored throughout this drama, but I was glad to see that even though ES and CY had to wait 5 years to be reunited (finally being in the same historical time period in the end), CY did not revert back to his old ways of sleeping all day and barely living. He fought and helped expand Goryeo.
He also maybe kept “The faith” of seeing ES one day, since he (often?) went to the tree close to the portal and spent 4 days there each time. He knew and trusted that ES would be fine (and she was, when she was away from him). She didn’t lose her mind and she came back safely to him. I was hoping for a hug in the end, but oh well… CY and ES ended up having faith in each other and in their future. The king and CY learned to have faith and trust in each other as well, and so did the queen and the king. Faith was a theme that remained till the very end of the drama.
When CY didn’t want to sit and wait to find out about ES whereabouts and decided to go look for her, I totally understood that. Looking for her probably made him feel like he was at least doing something and helped him not go crazy (as he said, waiting, not knowing, was killing him).
I also had a few questions about this episode. Please help clarify if you can, thanks!
1—I thought the 1st daejang (CY’s master) died to save the girl (woodalchi), so she wouldn’t be humiliated publicly. Apparently, listening to CY, it was more than that (or maybe he didn’t die to protect the girl at all?) According to CY, when the sword became too heavy, the 1st daejang, to answer the king’s question gave up his life. Is that what it was? CY also said:”he (his master) was wrong because he ran away with it” I didn’t understand that. He ran away with what? The answer? And why was he wrong?
2—The expression (used by the Suribang sister) “to live like a ghost with a blackface,” what does that mean/imply?
3—The Gate to Heaven is a Coronal Mass Ejection (ES says it to KC), meaning?
4—In the fighting scene between CY and Eumja, when KC’s aide comes behind CY to harm him with his ring, do both CY and Eumja kill the aide with their swords? Because it looked that way.
5—ES asked herself (I think when she was in Seoul or when she came back to the portal the 1st time) what she missed the 1st time around, what went wrong. Does anyone know what she missed? Was it the time period, meaning she went too far back and so CY died the 1st time? (Remember her dream, where she found CY dead?)
As I said, I felt more confused with the wrapping of this show than enlightened with answers. Thank you to those who took the time to read and possibly answer some of my questions.
Required fields are marked *
kdramapedia
October 30, 2012 at 10:36 PM
I didn't read your entire comment yet, but I'll try to explain your first question about ES as easy as I can.
Eun-Soo is Eun-Soo. She is one person only. The one we've been watching all series long is the same one 100 years in the past and also 5 years in the future.
The first time Eun-Soo travels to the past is Current Eun-Soo. Before she was kidnapped by Choi Young, she's been living in the 21st century. Choi Young took her into the past and we've been watching Current Eun-Soo all drama along.
Current Eun-Soo gets dragged to the portal by Ki-Chul in the current time. But when she tries to go back through from the Seoul side, she is thrown back 100 years from the time period she's been spending with Choi Young. This is Eun-Soo's SECOND trip to the past. So even though she's now Past Eun-Soo, it's technically her second time trip.
But since there's this whole space-time continuum thing, it technically happened 100 years ago, so the clues Second Trip/Past Eun-Soo left for Current Eun-Soo have to appear in the current time (even though she hadn't technically left them yet). That's the reason Past Eun-Soo knows everything about Current Eun-Soo (because it's her second trip).
The Eun-Soo at the end of the drama is Future Eun-Soo. This is Eun-Soo's THIRD(?) trip to the past. But she ends up 5 years ahead of the time she was dragged to the portal by Ki-Chul. So technically, Choi Young only had to wait 5 years for Eun-Soo to return, but who knows how many years Eun-Soo had been leaping around through different time periods.
I hope that made sense. It's really confusing, but that's the best I could break it down.
Required fields are marked *
Kim Yoonmi
October 30, 2012 at 11:08 PM
That's about right. Except that Young would have been only been waiting about 3 years or less.
Gongmin banned Mongol dress in 1352. That happened in this drama already. Gongmin's regin started in 1351.
However the Yalu river extinction happened in 1356. (Which probably means the dates were fudged just a little--this happened 5 years into Gongmin's reign.)
Meaning that the general was probably waiting roughly 3 years? Maybe add or subtract a few months? And he's about to go off *again* to fight.
Fifth year of Gongmin's reign is 1356. If that is true, that the rebellion did happen and they did cross the Yalu river (where Qi Empress's brother died historically), then ES actually didn't leave Young waiting that long... but it's a bit fuzzy since they didn't exactly go 100% historical.
Required fields are marked *
Kim Yoonmi
October 30, 2012 at 11:12 PM
*Yalu river extinction (Sorry, shortened the actual name of the event without thinking)
Meaning where Gongmin ordered troops over the Yalu river, the Qi Empress tried to install a new king, failed, and Gongmin ended up killing most of the Qi Empress's family including her brother, as shown in this drama. (Though her brother dies by ice... in RL he was killed by sword, most likely.) The drama hinted at that, meaning if that is true, then ES left in 1355-56, meaning that she was only gone for a few months from Young's perspective.
kdramapedia
October 31, 2012 at 3:30 PM
I don't know anything about Korean history, so I was explaining based on the "facts" presented in the drama. Plus, my understanding is that they didn't follow history to the T anyway. But thanks for the historical clarification! Always learning =)
hallyuholicmom
October 30, 2012 at 11:50 PM
you got it- Eun-soo's time travels and Hwata's artifacts makes sense. actually, it's not that complicated or hard to understand. :)
Required fields are marked *
Jeezvive
October 31, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Your explanation reminds me a lot about the novel Time Traveler's Wife. Yes confusing but made sense when you tru to separate the past and future.
Required fields are marked *
Ennayra
November 1, 2012 at 5:08 PM
Oh my gosh! The Time Traveler's Wife is one of my favorite novels. I love love love it, and am so happy to see it mentioned here, and everyone should read it.
Everyone.
Phil
October 31, 2012 at 9:23 AM
This is a good explanation but there there has to be a 4th and maybe a 5th trip back in time.
It seemed to me that she went back to 1352 twice because the first time when she was at the river she had to choose whether to go back to the palace and save the queen or go to the portal. She chose the portal. That's why when she went back to 1250 she left the clues and the note to herself telling her to make a different choice the second time.
Also when did she meet the Yuan envoy's grandfather, why did she teach him Hangul and why did she give him the pocket watch?
Required fields are marked *
ketoglutarat
October 31, 2012 at 10:19 AM
dansa officer's grandfather was a goryeo man and he might have heard of her story in his time. but i agree, this is one of the points where the writing/editing drives me bonkers. they so often started irrelevant side conflicts that they didn't solve and i always had the feeling that i only get to see the wrong scenes/moments from this drama.
kdramapedia
October 31, 2012 at 3:29 PM
That's why I put a question mark after I wrote the third trip. Because the drama just didn't show the details. It's implied that more trips were possibly made, but since it isn't shown, I can't say for sure. So it's the third trip we see, but is it the for real third trip? Who knows?
shelly
October 31, 2012 at 7:04 PM
the different artefacts hwata left behind might have something to do with different trips and different outcomes from eunsoo's choices. the pocket watch might even have belonged to the japanese newsmen or whatever they were - she basically stole the hold-all thing. who knows what was inside.
her first time trip was in gongmin's time, she ended up loving choi young, and when her first try to return failed, she started calibrating, always learning a bit more about it. first error left her stranded 100 years in the past - but the time she DID return in choi young's 5-years in the future continuum, she had already failed to do something to save noguk once. and then, hwata fled a historical figure, right? didn't the story begin with how hwata was a great doctor who could use acupuncture to heal anything and some important king wanted her to be just his doctor?
she had barely started being interested in acupuncture in her first trip. she had to have gotten the knowledge somewhere, and it makes sense she learned it in some alternate history where choi young died, noguk died, maybe her own history was different.
i love time paradoxes :D
she practically jumped in time, destroyed a lot of possible futures, and had to correct each and every small departure from the timeline SHE knew until she got it right - noguk and gongmin, choi young dying in his old age (still violently but at least he got to live - it's implied they did have their together years). makes one wonder - if there were such things as time jumps, every traveler would remember a certain kind of timeline / history that led to the time jump in the first place, and changing anything in the past would stop the time jump from taking place.
i loved this drama. i didn't expect epic, i expected something of a romance, and that is was. i loved the wit, indeed, and loved most of the charas - i don't think i ever got to like a baddie before, but ki chul won't be forgotten. he's way too cool a villain - admittedly a mind-frailing one - but he really took me for a ride. i expected eumja to be a bit in love with ki chul, as he was acting all jealous over his deep interest in eunsoo, but in the end they made him interested in hwasuin. i guess it was a bit too much to have some more interest on that line there, after that guy who kept being flamingly interested in all males walking by, what's his name.
and i loved eunsoo. i didn't expect it - lee min-ho pulled me in, originally, but she and he have crazy great chemistry and i was rooting for both of them the whole time. they were both so human in all their reactions, i was sorry to see this end. and end it did in a great way - the sweet moments recap is too sweet, but the ending hits the perfect note and holds it. they're definitely going to be different from when they part initially, since a lot of time and growing up happened in their time away, but they still home in on each other. there's no better way to end this :D
what are their new dramas anyway? i'm having withdrawal symptoms already.
owl
October 31, 2012 at 9:16 PM
But it seems like ES didn't recall anything about time travel without the clues. So we, as the viewers ,could piece her time traveling together, but she herself could not. Somehow that makes me sad.
heartleaf88
July 21, 2013 at 5:17 AM
Of course there was a 4th and 5th trip and possibly 20th trip. Remember the purple journal? it had pages and pages of Eun Soo's computation regarding the portal opening. She must have kept at the time traveling thingy for years. It was evident in the way she entered the portal in the past and in Seoul. There was that resignation, like the task was a drudgery. She wasn't all that hopeful when she saw the Goryeo soldiers and boy was she surprised when she saw Choi Young by the tree.
*sigh* makes me wonder how old she really was in her mental years before she met Choi Young.
Final comments about the drama: I know the author above was disappointed with this drama ( and really, I find that most dramas disappoint DB authors hahaha), I am still pleased with Faith as a whole because it was able to finish in that awesome, sweet, endearing, and memorable way. *sigh* <3
*rewatches the last 20 minutes of the show*
Tenzin Kunsang
April 14, 2013 at 7:04 AM
I read your comment and i am so happy that we share same kinds of confusions and enthusiasm . Having watched this movie, that too, after long months of constant eyes-locking with books, well...."The great doctor" cured unbelievable sores on my heart..it is a total faith that i got to watch this faithful movie!!
Thanks to you, I even learned few things i didn't know while i was watching the movie.
I was also wishing so badly for them to give a long hug at the end but oh well...looking at each other,getting all so teary eased me alright.... i was so scared thinking this movie will turn out to be sad-ending, but then, it wasn't ...thank goodness!!
Oh, and i don't think CY had to wait for 5 years.. less than that . Because, she was replied by the soldier in the inn saying that the King-we-know ruled for about 5-years..and she had been on his first few months of ruling -period, so that would mean, while she was traveling in the time continuum a lot, he was waiting but for time less than 5 years ..probably 3 or 4 years..
Apart from that, we are perplexed at same events..but do you know how CY was able to revive his body and had been able to live ..after he was froze by that wealth-addict good-for-nothing devil KC??!.....Now that i think of it...do you think CY was able to revive that by himself...using inner power? Man, that could be it!!
And the hand-trembling thing, i don't think it is because of slaying too many lives , because if it is, then as you said, it would happen only if he has that sword in his hands...may be, that is what his teacher thought but his teacher doesn't has to be true all the time, right? And that is why , he said he is not going to run away like his teacher...run away as in dying by choice as his teacher did...so may be , given that he revived from his frozen body, he learned to control himself...Okay, this is not at all hinted in the movie but may be it is something to be guessed? LoL..never mind. If you come to realization of new things in the movie ..or if you get to know the answers to my questions, and of yours, please let me know right away.Thanks a bundle!!That Gu Jun Pyo in F4 , that Hunter in city hunter ...(Personal taste wasn't truly much of my liking) and now, this General in Faith...did wonders to me!! Thank you so much, for every one responsible for the movie!! Love you all , loads and loads!!
Required fields are marked *
sachi
November 21, 2013 at 8:48 AM
I know that this is late . i watched this drama many months ago and i was really really confused and i couldnt understand the ending ..after reading your comment i understood the ending ..Thank You ..
Required fields are marked *
annah1618
December 12, 2013 at 11:41 PM
i watch it over and over but still can't get the logic Whether Eun Soo is past present or future people? Second after the ice man dragged Eun Soo to the portal. So who safe choy young. Because had gone back to 100 years before where choy young was paralyzed on the ground? Third Eun-soo goes through the portal and finds herself back home in 2012. Young’s voiceover continues: “But she’ll answer this way: It’s okay, it’ll all work out. It’s only the beginning.” Was that a hint for us Or Eun Soo heard his voice? Those points are really confuse me So pls help me to understand the final episode At last scene they said their common dialogues Eun soo ask! Are you there Choy youbg answer i am hear. coz there no kiss or even a hug don't make sense right after they had separated for 5 years
Required fields are marked *
Sakshi3631
April 29, 2023 at 9:09 AM
I think you described it really well. Especially the part where Choi Young waited five years but who knows how many years Eun Soo spent going back and forth.
I also agree with Javabeans here. I think I would have liked to see her journey back to her love instead of just hushing it
Required fields are marked *
Grace
October 31, 2012 at 3:22 AM
Well, I have to agree with you (regarding the look-alike with KNG). In fact, seeing him with sexy facial hairs reminded me of Bi-Dam (Kim Nam Gil) in Queen Seondeok. I really love it when K-dramaland turn babyface actors to more sageuk-looking. With Lee Min Ho sporting such facial hair, I think I'm gonna start liking him.
Thanks for a really good recap for this drama. I really, really enjoyed reading FAITH. I hope this drama will be shown here in my country soon. (Philippines)
Required fields are marked *
mia
November 1, 2012 at 6:57 AM
Besides Kim Nam Gil, Lee Min Ho reminds one of Song Il Gook of the Jumong and Emperor of the Sea fame. Amazing what some facial hair on the face could suddenly transform them :)
Required fields are marked *
ketoglutarat
October 31, 2012 at 5:23 AM
i also didn't read your whole comment yet but i might answer some of your q's about this episode:
1. i think CY meant a more symbolic reason of how his general died, yes, he went between the king's sword and the girl to save her, but he was as well tired of this life as a warrior, so somehow he took this incident to show the king that he respects him and would pay with his life to prove, but also that he has responsibility over his troop and will protect them.
3. coronal mass ejections (flares, protuberances) also means heavy solar winds and these energy flows might cause some time/space wormhole to open. they are a natural phenomenon that take place irregularly, i might be wrong but i think there's a cycle for the sunspots (the sun is especially active at this time) to appear every 11 years.
4. it looked to me as if CY was holding EJ's hand and his sword to make him stab his pledged brother.
5. i think ES asked herself if she wasn't longing for CY enough so that she ended up in another time than CY's when she went back through the gate.
hth!
Required fields are marked *
Mayra
October 31, 2012 at 6:17 AM
I think she missed FAITH and she found it again ...in the end, they both had faith that they would see each other again, didn't know how or when but they believed....I loved the message.
Required fields are marked *
JJ
October 31, 2012 at 8:10 AM
I always waiting for your comment , It's such a joy for me. ^^
I have to agree with you , I am not so sure that How do I feel about this episode. I felt a bit like I watch MV too much on this one. Waste the time, I need some answers and timeline expanation. Lots of it , like pocket watch from Yuan 's Ambassador.
And How Yoo Eun Soo could't remember her past at all, and if she don't remember her past while she was living in CY's time , how could she remember him...Anyway it's a drama I just let it goes. I just think if the director or writer explain more this show will worth watch. There are so many question which coming up and not clear to me.
Required fields are marked *
Ladyhawke
September 11, 2013 at 2:23 PM
If someone has already answered the query, please disregard. The time that Eun-Soo spent in the timeline with CY was her very first time there. It was her past she was experiencing; it was her present.
Required fields are marked *
Ladyhawke
September 11, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Sorry: It "wasn't" her past she was experiencing, it was her present. Eun-Soo of the future had lived and loved during "her" Eun-Soo's present. I, too, believe that she had experienced many times through the portals to get back to where she was whe she finaly show Choi Young by the tree.
iZzie :)
October 31, 2012 at 10:52 AM
Hi Ivoire, I'll try to answer some of your questions and I hope I get them right. :)
RE: Eun-Soo
I think this is Eun-Soo's timeline.
1. 2012 - she was abducted by Choi Young and taken to Goryeo period, beginning of Gongmin's reign.
2. Goryeo period, beginning of Gonmin's reign - most of what took place in the drama: healing, poisoning, falling in love with CY, and getting items from her future self who have travelled to the even more distant past (pre-Gongmin's reign).
3. 2012 - after she was pushed through the portal by Ki Chul.
4. Pre-Gongmin's reign / 2012 - after she passed thru the portal again, hoping to return right at the time she left CY. This is when she started to do her "Hwata" things - traveling back to 2012 and then to another time in the past until she got it right.
5. Gongmin's reign well into its 5th year - that's when she met the slightly older CY and stayed.
In this drama, it is assumed that the events were already laid out throughout time including Eun-soo's time-jumps (since "Hwata's" history is what pushed Gongmin's team to seek the time portal). However, every change in Eun-soo's decisions changed events as she moved through her timeline as well. It was the same Eun-Soo all through the story. The Eun-soo did not disappear nor morph into the pre-Gongmin ES. The pre-Gongmin ES was the future of the ES we've been watching all along - that is also why the ES at #2 above didn't remember the actions that ES at #4 made; because the actions she made at #4 were the things she was yet to make. Although those actions/decisions were made 100 years earlier than Gongmin's time, in Eun-soo's own timeline it was her future.
I imagine the entire thing to be like back-stitching - moving backwards in a loop and then moving forward. Eun-soo's timeline deviated from the world's timeline as he went back and forth from 2012 and points in the past.
What really made me scratch my head was the existence of the warnings that was sent to Eun-soo from her future, 100 years past. The existence of those warnings in letters relied on her decisions during her stay at the beginning of Gongmin's reign. When she changed her decisions - like the one where she decided not to head to heaven's door and go back to the palace with CY to help the king and queen - the letter she got from the under the boulders should have disappeared cuz she wouldn't be needing to put that letter under the boulders cuz she saved CY's sanity by giving him the chance to save the queen. If the letter disappeared, then she wouldn't have found it under the boulders and not change her decision. Unless when she got to the older past she still tossed the same message to the rocks to keep events in Gongmin's reign happening - including her decision not to leave when she wanted to.
RE: CY's trembling hand.
His heart wavered and so did his hand. Remember ES's remark that it wasn't his hand that has a problem but his heart?
I think the trembling of CY's hand was related to him not finding his purpose in life yet, which was connected to him finding his king. I think the sword got heavy because until he realized that he wanted to serve Gongmin as his king, everything he was as a warrior had no meaning. (Even an ordinary person who realizes the mundanity in what he's doing would tend to drop whatever tool he's got in his hands to stop and think about it.) His heart and his hand settled when he reached the decision to stay and do what he was meant to do. I also think that ES's decision to not leave contributed to him pulling himself together and making a definite decision as to what he's gonna do with his life, since his heart would no longer be divided between the king that in his heart he wanted to serve and the woman he was meant to love and protect but also was about to leave.
RE: Choosy time portal.
I have the same question about KC not allowed to pass.
Time portal, why are you choosy? What are your standards?
Or is it because Fate has nothing laid out for Ki Chul in other eras? That he didn't serve for anything else? Not even dino-treat? What repercussions would it have to give a dinosaur a frozen delight?
Fate, why are you choosy?
I'm so for dumping KC to the Cretaceous period.
RE: CY's master's death
The master giving up his life after failing to find a king - his kind of king - to serve was his way of running away. The 1st daejang must have been feeling weary doing warrior work for a king who doesn't even recognize his team's efforts or give them support at all. So when he met the king, his weariness was justified. And then he saw an opportune exit in saving the woodalchi girl. I still believe that he wanted to save the girl, but it wasn't all that. It was like hitting two birds with one stone for him.
This, I think is one of the reasons why CY's sword got heavy too. It was a question if he should serve Gongmin - sure he wanted to leave him but he couldn't. It was a question if he should let ES leave or leave with her. And then his master's purpose of death became a question as well.
I think the answer that these warriors were looking for was to find who to serve and protect. The 1st daejang was wrong because he gave up without even trying to figure out who it was he was supposed to serve. Unlike his master, CY chose to hang on and figure his puzzle out.
However, I also think that finding the right king to serve was not the answer - even for CY - but to realize that it was their nation that they should serve no matter who sits the throne. It just happened for CY (who got lucky, btw) that he met and chose to serve the king who was right for the nation. He found his answer in Gongmin.
This reminds me of Varys of A Game of Thrones. If you haven't seen the series or read the book, Varys is a eunuch who changes sides as the reign changes - he has ways of adapting and getting the favor of the ruling clan. When asked by the King's Hand (Ned Stark) - whom he initially helped to topple the reigning clan and eventually helped send to prison - as to where his loyalty lies, he answered that it lies with the realm.
LOL. I hope this looong reply helps. :)
Required fields are marked *
iZzie :)
October 31, 2012 at 11:00 AM
correction:
The master giving up his life after failing to find a king – his kind of king – to serve was his way of running away.
The master giving up his life after failing to find a king – his kind of king to serve - was his way of running away.
Required fields are marked *
Jacqueline Patrick
January 19, 2014 at 3:22 PM
and practically setting off the humiliation
shelly
October 31, 2012 at 7:13 PM
re: the discontinuity between what eunsoo from the past (in the future) wrote and what actually happened is easily explained if she made more than one tries to get back to choi young.
as in, the first time she did it was not returning to save noguk because at the time she didn't know noguk had been missing; so in her future, the history had changed and she went back to try and restore it to how she remembered it. so she left herself a warning which made the gongmin time eunsoo return so that noguk could be saved.
which in turn changed a few more details, so that if other things went wrong - like the ambush actually killing choi young - eunsoo from the past (in the future) wrote different things in her journal than she had originally (since things were averted, they never happened anyway and she didn't have a reason to leave the initial warning at all.)
this can only be explained if more than one or two tries to return to choi young failed - she has to save noguk, save choi young once or twice, evade the king from the past who wanted her to be his exclusive doctor, etc.
in the end, the timeline we're presented with is the timeline eunsoo altered until she got it right :D
Required fields are marked *
shelly
October 31, 2012 at 7:21 PM
re: choosy time portal.
that behaviour actually makes sense to me. because, who ever went through it?
1. choi young (ELECTRICAL ki powers)
2. eunsoo (misplaced in time traveler lol.)
why should ki chul be able to go through? after all, he has the ice ki, nothing in any way related to solar flaring (no electromagnetical power of any kind.)
as for eunsoo, i figure she was a perturbation in time, like a bungee link or something, based in the present. once displaced, time would try to make her go back to an equilibrium - maybe bring her back to the present where she belongs, but at the same time in need of correcting the ripples she keeps creating. and since she doesn't stop at one trip but keeps changing things, she's not stabilized and blocked in the present.
time paradoxes FTW :D
Required fields are marked *
iZzie :)
November 1, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Thanks for answering my questions, shelly. :)
regarding the choosy time portal... I agree with what you said about CY and ES. from what you pointed out, I thought, what if CY was the only one who could pass thru the portal given his 'electrical abilities.' and that ES was allowed because CY was dragging/holding on to her as he passed thru, whereas KC pushed her thru the door and tried to follow but to no avail. And because ES caused ripple effects thru the world's timeline that she was allowed to go through loops to set things straight.
I have other questions though that the drama didn't provide an answer for - these may have been discussed in some other threads already but I'm too lazy to search :P - why was Hwata known to be male? And why was ES called Hwata? Was Hwata actually a different person (a male doctor perhaps) who was ES' disciple and 'inherited' her medical instruments? But then again, there was an account of Hwata fleeing thru the door alone. Or did ES disguise as a male in the pre-Gongmin period as a safety measure? Like, men would go after her and try to marry her like what that prince did.
Lupita311
November 7, 2012 at 12:04 PM
You answer as I would just that the letter under the boulders I think she needed that on because remember I forgot his name the king's uncle he burned the rest of the contents of the book so that letter was incomplete and she needed herserlf to find it. Some people say why she didn't recall her trips, because they happened after she was kidnap so at the point she heals the queen that ES didn't or couldn't remember that and CY heart was trembling so it wasn't a nerve disease but a psycological hold up, he was tired of that sword so his mind and heart and sould didn't wanted to fight. We have to assume she did more than one trip possible even five or six back and forth till she met CY again. Great drama too bad it is over.
Required fields are marked *
Sakshi3631
April 29, 2023 at 9:14 AM
You really analysed everything well. Reading your comment made me really happy, that there was someone else who was invested in the show and saw its subtleties
Required fields are marked *
Sakshi3631
April 29, 2023 at 9:22 AM
I think KC not being able to pass through the portal was poetic justice rather than a Physics phenomenon. The series often emphasizes on the concept of destiny and Faith. In the grand scheme of things KC wasn't meant to cross the portal.
Required fields are marked *
Madusha
August 11, 2013 at 7:35 AM
It seems that old ES did not come back to the 21st century. then how come current ES? why didn't she remember anything?
Required fields are marked *
mizteraplus
December 31, 2013 at 7:52 PM
It seems that everyone has answered your question about the time travel, so I will answer this question.
To answer your question about CY's teacher sword thing, him saying that he will not go the way of his teacher means he will not run away. The king asked him earlier if he would go through the gate with ES, and he answered that, meaning that he will remain with the king.
Required fields are marked *
TheOwlScribe
August 7, 2018 at 3:59 PM
Goodness. You seem to have written a thesis. What a long-winded comment!
Required fields are marked *
Farhana
November 1, 2012 at 6:47 PM
I found this in a blog, it helped me understand the ending immensley! Hope it helps some of you guys! TT_TT <3
Time Travel:
Maybe this has been explained elsewhere or in the comments here already. But this is how I understand the concept, granted there are a few things unexplained. In chronological orders:
1) One fine night in 2012, Eun-soo gets kidnapped by Choi Young to Goryeo to heal Queen Noguk. This is where Ep. 1 begins.
2) Ep. 1 to 24 is Eun-soo first time traveling and living in Year 1350 Goryeo.
3) Toward the end of Ep. 24, Eun-soo goes back to Seoul to gather medical supplies to heal a frozen Choi Young.
4) After a quick gathering of medical supplies, she goes through the portal.
5) But the portal takes her 100 years back to Year 1250.
6) Immediately after she realizes she’s gone to the wrong time, so she goes back to the portal to try another time-travel. But the portal is already closed.
7) She stays in 1250. She presumably heals a lot of sick people of that era while waiting for another chance to go through the portal.
8) While in 1250, she also leaves clues so that the Eun-soo of 1350 will remember what to do. The writing in her diaries and leaving a message in the film canister.
9) She also has time to figure out time travel dates (maybe not exact times) but at least she knows, from her previous time travel calculations in 1350, what formula and calendar to use.
10) Once she is positive about a date, she prepares herself for another travel through the portal.
11) When she gets to the portal, it is not immediately opened. It takes an unwavering Faith that this time the portal will take her to the right place, only then the portal opens.
12) She goes through it. It brings her back to Seoul. In her voiceover, we hear about this memory, longing and connection that would make her meet him again. Unlike her first time-travel in Ep. 24, this time she doesn’t even glance over modern Seoul because nothing in her heart belongs to 2012.
13) After a mere second in Seoul, she goes back through the portal.
14) This time it takes her to 1355 and there she finds Choi Young.
It’s that simple. Time is linear (but circular). She didn’t have any memory of her time travel experience in Ep. 1 because she hadn’t gone anywhere yet. Those clues were left there because her future self in Ep. 24, who had experienced everything from Ep. 1-24, knew the dangers in 1350.
The items:
Surgical tools, diary and mini projector have some significance.
-Surgical tools are to reaffirm the legend of Hwata – an emphasis on Hwata being a myth, a story is told and exaggerated from generation to generation. The 1250 Eun-soo with her advanced medical skills obviously would make people notice and connect her to the legend of Hwata. The myth lives on and on, so that people like Jo Il-shin knows. JIS knows about Hwata’s myth in Ep. 1 and convinces the GM to ask Choi Young to go kidnap Eun-soo in 2012. The story comes full circle. I don’t think Eun-soo intentionally wants to perpetuate the myth of Hwata. It’s more like she’s a doctor and her duty is to save lives, which is very consistent with her character. So while waiting for the gate to open in 1250, she puts her skills to use. This is also where Son Yoo’s grandfather’s story comes in; she saves people who would have died without her 21st century medical skills. In essence, her one year’s stay in 1250 shapes history, like a butterfly effect.
-The diary. She knows from her 1350 self that this diary will play a significant role, so whatever she does with this diary in 1250, Ki Chul will have possession of it in 1350. From the content of the diary, we see some solar flare calculations, which is helpful for her to figure the date to retry time travel. Some notes about what will happen in 1350 based on her personal experiences – Choi Young using his frontal attack and Choi Young is trapped while rescuing the scholars. Eun-soo already has those memories, so she makes notes to herself knowing this diary will find her in 1350 eventually. Everything is circular in away.
-A message in film canister. Again from her 1350 memory, she knows that day Choi Young and her travel to the portal. Without that message, they would have gone to the border and waited there, and effectively everything after Ep. 19 would not happen. Noguk would be killed; the history of Korea would be changed and Choi Young would be left devastated like what is written in that message. So she writes that message in 1250, leaves it under a rock (remember her looking at a direction of where 1350, Eun-soo and Choi Young embrace). Things become circular where there is no beginning or end.
-The mini projector. This one is not directly related to saving Choi Young. It is symbolic to show that there are people waiting for her in 2012 – her mom and dad. When Choi Young asks her to stay, he mentions there are people at the other side waiting for her too, and their journey to the portal reiterates that point. She needs to say goodbye to her parents, to people who love her in 2012. A mini projector of her parents is a way of remembrance, of her saying “goodbye” figuratively. It also solidifies her faith in finding Choi Young. I suspect the reason she can’t get back to the right time initially is because she wavers a little bit. That voiceover about her lacking faith “that day” and her looking over modern Seoul show us that wavering commitment. Thus the portal takes her to the wrong time, to Year 1250. Once she says her “goodbye” to her parents, and putting full faith in finding Choi Young, the portal takes her the right time, to Year 1355.
The question of time and duration:
First time she gets back to Seoul, it seems she has been missing only for a few hours in “modern” time. I suspect when the fortune-teller tells her in Ep. 1, that she’ll be gone for a year, he is referring to her time in “Goryeo”.
But in Ep. 1, we see that Goryeo time seems shorter than modern time. My justification for that is that the portal is unpredictable; it is predicated on Faith and Destiny. Choi Young is destined to meet Eun-soo and take her back to Goryeo in time to save Noguk in Ep. 1.
In essence, the concept of time is intangible; it is dependent upon a person’s faith. It takes Eun-soo a year of traveling to find Choi Young, while daejang waits for her four years from 1350 Goryeo onward.
Eun-soo’s presence in the past is destined to shape the history of Korea that she and viewers know. She believes that Choi Young is alive because her traveling to modernity shows that modern Seoul is still the same, nothing is changed. If Choi Young dies that day, then it would have created a butterfly effect that would alter history.
Required fields are marked *
AnaBanana
November 2, 2012 at 12:53 AM
NICE ANALYSIS! I loved reading it from beginning to end. I have to admit, as much as this drama took wrong, sometimes boring turns -- the last 11 minutes of the drama made up for it. For once, we get time-travel thing done right in a drama.
Required fields are marked *
pillowhead
November 2, 2012 at 6:49 AM
wow, thanks Farhana, for that simple and thoughtful explanation. I feel relieved that the story had a clear trajectory.
I thought the story got boring and muddy in the middle, but I did stay turned-in cause I LOVED Choi Young and En-soo's chemistry. The last few episodes were beautiful. Eventhough I had my moments with the series, the ending was so heartpounding romantic, I feel completely satified. <3
Required fields are marked *
MargaretB
November 3, 2012 at 7:53 AM
Yah! This is SH's analysis. She's amazing! Thank to her!
Required fields are marked *
Farhana
November 5, 2012 at 2:05 PM
No probs guys, just glad it helped some of you! and yes it is SH's analysis, she is awsome!! <3 ^^
Required fields are marked *
Lupita311
November 7, 2012 at 12:09 PM
wow I agree with you this is a great drama too bad it is over...
Required fields are marked *
sneha
February 28, 2013 at 7:28 AM
farahana.. thanks a lot.. fa that beautiful explanation, nw i understood ..was literally cramming my head n sleep over it watched dat last part of ep 24.. god knws hw many tymes..:/ still din decipher it.. but aft yo xplanation..:D yey!! ..:P nw i can sleep peacefully..:D
Required fields are marked *
joyce
January 7, 2013 at 3:08 AM
@Farhana.. your post help me a lot to understand the whole story. Thank you.. I love the story, indeed!
Required fields are marked *
Jacqueline Patrick
January 19, 2014 at 3:26 PM
framing it like that helps a lot. thanks
Required fields are marked *
tan
November 25, 2013 at 3:43 AM
so sad! choi young worked so hard, sacrifice sweat and blood for the king. lost his life many times.
but the king only promote him from level 5 to level 4.
but those scholars out of no where, just enter court and given level 1. don't understand the logic.
if choi young chose to be king, he'll do many times better. with his sense of intelligence, decisiveness, courage.
Required fields are marked *
2 Maymay
October 30, 2012 at 8:31 PM
Thank you! We're finally at the end. :)
Required fields are marked *
3 kdramapedia
October 30, 2012 at 8:31 PM
I just want to say that Lee Min Ho with facial hair is HOT.
Required fields are marked *
Mystisith
October 30, 2012 at 8:41 PM
Agree. He should have worn it from the start.
Required fields are marked *
kdramapedia
October 30, 2012 at 8:46 PM
I'm not even a LMH fan, but with that ponytail from the beginning and this facial hair? yup, I'm converted. Can I keep him that way?
Required fields are marked *
Nadine
October 30, 2012 at 9:42 PM
Ya, i am converted too..
His normal style is so boyish.. pretty boy..
But in Faith, he is manly.. Swoon..
Required fields are marked *
Ennayra
November 1, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Total agreement. I always thought he was cute, but this role just won me over; giant crush. ;-)
Fabmari
October 30, 2012 at 8:58 PM
Super agree!
Sizzling hot!
Required fields are marked *
Birdie
October 30, 2012 at 9:32 PM
Agree with you. He should have worn it from the start. Then he would have looked like a seasoned warrior like he was supposed to be instead of a flower boy warrior. And he looked hot too!
Required fields are marked *
Mama J
November 1, 2012 at 10:40 AM
Agreed. I normally don't like the patchy, teen-age boy type of facial hair. But it suited him and made him look older, a bit more weathered. I decided I liked him with long messy hair in City Hunter, now you add that touch of facial hair - yep. Finally he looks as hot as he feels to me.
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 8:52 PM
he looks so much older with his facial hair! like he's in his mid thirties. it's amazing what stubbles can do. can you imagine if he wore a beard?? haha
Required fields are marked *
kdramapedia
October 30, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Beard? No, we have to draw the line somewhere! lol
Required fields are marked *
Kelinci Biru
October 30, 2012 at 9:29 PM
super agree. i skipped a breath there. @__@ dizzy from the HOTness
Required fields are marked *
jusash
October 30, 2012 at 11:42 PM
AGREE! He actually looked older too, though no complaints about all his looks in this drama (he's come a long way since curl-mop Gu Jin-pyo days)
And the dude's acting also just gets better and better with each drama. The last scene - volumes spoken, just with gazing.
Going to miss Eun-soo and Choi-young. :(
Lastly, a BIG THANK YOU gf and jb! :)
Required fields are marked *
aud
November 1, 2012 at 2:44 AM
I think you meant gu jun-pyo.
Jin-pyo was lmh's dad in City hunter :D
Required fields are marked *
hawaiianseoul
October 31, 2012 at 12:42 AM
can he have a drama with a moustache on please dramagods?
Required fields are marked *
kdramapedia
October 31, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Yes, PLEASE!
*starts drama rain dance for LMH facial hair*
Required fields are marked *
girlinterrupted
November 3, 2012 at 3:13 AM
yes! i wanna see him with facial hair (even a lil bit more than what we just saw) for at least an entire episode...hopefully in succeeding dramas. HOT, HOT, HOT!!!
Required fields are marked *
ketoglutarat
October 31, 2012 at 5:26 AM
DITO!
Required fields are marked *
bigwink
October 31, 2012 at 5:40 AM
I can see where the hot stands in lee min hot
Thank you beard!
Required fields are marked *
bigwink
October 31, 2012 at 5:42 AM
Unbeard my comment
Required fields are marked *
Mayra
October 31, 2012 at 6:28 AM
I second that!!!! RAWRRRR
Required fields are marked *
malta
November 1, 2012 at 8:43 AM
I have to admit, I was swayed...he looked very good.
I would have been ok with him having facial hair for a few episodes. That would have been good.
Required fields are marked *
korazylady
November 1, 2012 at 9:11 AM
LOL! I am laughing because after reading such serious, thought provoking explanations of historical timeframes, coronal mass ejections and past/present/future time travels we can actually get down to the real reason many watched - LMH! And yes, the facial hair at the end even grabbed my attention (and I am not really on the LMH train, but I like the OTP.)
Required fields are marked *
Ivoire
November 2, 2012 at 1:40 PM
Hello KL,
I will slightly go on a tangent here and say that some of us (me for instance) actually were really interested in the drama as a whole, historical time frames, coronal mass ejections, past/present/future time travels and all.
We (I) also watched this drama for the other actors and actresses who did a wonderful job portraying their characters: the king, the queen, Lady Choi, even Jang Bin (though we didn't see a lot of him), the Woodalchi, the young king, the Suribang (the younger ones and the brother and sister pair) and all the other actors, even the bad guys who were entertaining in their own ways and gave their best, acting wise. KC gave us "derp faces," a term I was not personally familiar with.
I was curious about this drama because of LMH and because of the plot (originally), however, I stayed with it and came back really because of everything else (some of which I just mentioned) that grabbed my attention and curiosity. I fell in love with the king and queen (the characters and the actor/actress) in episode 1, and my comment in the recap of episode 1 showed that. After episode 1, (all) the other aspects of the drama became as important (if not more at times for me) as LMH's presence and character in the drama. To be honest, I actually liked Eun Soo more (and KHS more) in the drama.
And I know, we can agree to disagree, I know, I get it :-). So no stones throwing, thank you...
Required fields are marked *
Pm3
January 24, 2013 at 7:03 AM
Me too. I really loved KHS's portrayal of Eun Soo in this drama. She made the transition from a somewhat comical character into a solid dramatic character credibly. She got the biggest laughs from me in the early episodes, and her understated gut-wrenching moments were just so well done.
Honestly, I wasn't that into kdrama when she did most of her work, so I was unfamiliar with her, but I was really impressed.
Required fields are marked *
pillowhead
November 2, 2012 at 7:00 AM
mmmmmm grrrrrrr Minho. he was so manly as the Gen.. he needs to keep playing strong silent types. please stylest, do not put him back in skinny jeans, lady blouses and guyliner. You've done wronge, you must pay.
Required fields are marked *
Sakshi3631
April 29, 2023 at 9:30 AM
Sigh... they did just that in The Heirs. I cannot understand how an actor goes from Choi Young to Kim Tan
Required fields are marked *
4 amberscube
October 30, 2012 at 8:31 PM
Yay... Im happy for the happy ending.. I wasn't quite ready for LMH's facial hair though.
Required fields are marked *
5 ashin
October 30, 2012 at 8:32 PM
Aww, I stopped watching the drama after a few episodes but it's nice that there was a happy ending!
Required fields are marked *
6 Ace
October 30, 2012 at 8:32 PM
I loved that final scene. Just so lovely. And I was spazzing about Choi Young's facial hair.
Thanks for keeping the Faith. I may have loved City Hunter best coz of the director, but the romance here is my favorite.
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Lot of could've beens (execution and such), but the bottomline is that the characters and the love story's solid for me and that matters a lot. If you're gonna let me choose between a very good director with characters I barely care about and a story that's not thought-provoking and just doesn't touch my heart, then guess what I'll choose?
Ah, Lee Min Ho, when will your next drama be? And as for Kim Hee-sun, I hope she does a rom-com next as I really love her here and Eun-soo's one of the most unforgettable female characters I've seen this year.
Required fields are marked *
Annie
October 30, 2012 at 9:25 PM
Not to be obtuse, but there are plenty of Kdramas that offer both engaging characters and competent production. Just throwing that out there ;-)
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 9:29 PM
Yeah, I know. I've probably watched some of them too and been so much more excited but we can't always have it all. ;)
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 8:57 PM
I love the romance here too! A refreshing change from the typical whirlwind romance, love-at-first-sight narratives in k-dramas.
But City Hunter still tops my favorite list 'cos it kept me thrilled at all times, while I'd fast forward most parts of Faith, especially those that Eun-soo and Choi Yong are not in. It's hard to sustain my interest when the directing is not engaging and the writing is repetitive...
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 9:09 PM
I watched CH like 5 times already. ;) In Faith, I actually skip some scenes too especially if I've read the recap first. Also, I always procrastinate to watch an episode, but afterwards, I get a little bit surprised that I did wait because even if it's not as exciting as I could've wished, there are those wonderfully heart-tugging scenes and I always put those on replay.
Honestly, I'm annoyed with some people I know on how when they watch a drama and so-and-so actor fills up the screen and they always, always, always irritatingly exclaim how he's so good-looking, how he's so sexy, and manly, and gorgeous. Hah! Just watch a LMH drama with me and see if I don't irritate people too. Though I don't say it out loud, that's what I always think when I see him on screen with added questions like, How can a person be sooooo good-looking? And brilliant? And just adorable too?
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:17 PM
I'll procrastinate to watch the episode too! But I know what you mean by the wonderfully heart-tugging scenes. I put them on replay too.
Have you noticed, though, that Lee Min-ho's face is changing? Specifically, fleshier? Hahaha, I still love him, but I'm not sure if it is bloating from lack of sleep or late night ramyun, or his face is just filling out with age. I hope it's the former...
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 9:26 PM
I'd rather his face be a bit fleshier than the opposite. I guess in person, he'd be normal looking and maybe we could blame the bloating on the PD too as things that went wrong in this drama is always his fault. Haha
Misha
October 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM
True, Ace. I saw some pictures of him in an airport after finishing Faith and he looks normal. If looking normal if looking freaking hot, of course.
mia
November 1, 2012 at 8:57 AM
Lee Min Ho in various interviews had himself mentioned that he had put on weight....at one autograph signing, he even point blank lamented that he put on too much inspite of his ardent fan then trying to placate him.
Actually if one were to observe more closely, he tends to put on the 'fat' on his face rather than his body. At some points, it became rather bloaty. But in Faith, he looks very good in most of the shots, except in some scenes when he again gain some pounds on the face.
But still he is the gorgeous LMH.....with or without the stubles. each with their own charm. M....swoon.
7 kika
October 30, 2012 at 8:33 PM
It's finally here! I watched it last night but couldn't figure out the wormhole/parallel universe narrative....
Required fields are marked *
costshort
October 30, 2012 at 8:41 PM
is it parallel? i thought it was cyclical
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 8:50 PM
if it is cyclical... when did future eun-soo become present eun-soo?
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 8:49 PM
So, Future Eun-soo leaves messages for Present Eun-soo who has no memory of her future self. Present Eun-soo goes through the portal and gets stuck in a time loop, living the same life as Future Eun-soo. Present Eun-soo goes through the portal (again) (but doesn't the portal open only once in 65 years?! Does time pass at different speeds in different historical periods?) and manages to find Choi Yoon.
Are there two Eun-soo(s) at the same time a la theory of parallel universe? ie. The present one we follow, and one in the voiceover? If not, when did Future Eun-soo become Present Eun-soo and why did the latter have no memory of the former?
This is confusing me... Are you confused too? Oof, my brain hurts.
And how did Choi Yoon manage to heal himself after freezing over from Ki Chul's powers?
Required fields are marked *
Naz
October 30, 2012 at 9:15 PM
they gave him a blanket and he was fine after that. dont stress about the time loop, the show is called Faith after all :P
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:18 PM
Urgh! That was what kept me hooked till the end, but now I can't figure it out. Or maybe, it's not meant to make sense.
Required fields are marked *
sneha
February 28, 2013 at 7:36 AM
read.. farahana xplaination i guess its 3.1,, its put beautifully der..:)
Shae
October 30, 2012 at 9:36 PM
They gave him a blanket...LoL...but it was a disappointing Final Showdown with big bad...and what happened to CY lightning powers...they barely used it...
or did it not fit in the budget?
Required fields are marked *
Ivoire
October 30, 2012 at 10:15 PM
Hi Shae,
LOVE your comment (all of it) and I agree with all you said. Love the part about not being able to show lightning powers because the budget might not have allowed it :-). The wrapping up of this show was not (totally) clear to me either, and I wish it had been :-( That was one of the things I was looking forward to...
AnneOfGreenGable
October 31, 2012 at 7:47 AM
Hahahah.... this answer is hilarious!
Required fields are marked *
liza
October 31, 2012 at 4:22 PM
How does choi y heals himself...? remember that choi's power enables him to shoot "electricity" from his fingers and he can also internalize it ( remember when the dr stabbed him, and when he helped the queen " the answer is that he simply used his power and de-iced himself.
Required fields are marked *
heartleaf88
July 21, 2013 at 5:51 AM
The portal opening is in fact variable.
As for the past eun soo not having any memory... Future Eun Soo didn't become Present Eun Soo. Eun Soo (a single entity) went to the past, went further past, then went to future past. LOL. Confusing ain't it? Oh well. x3 *gives up*
Required fields are marked *
8 Yue
October 30, 2012 at 8:34 PM
Finally! I kept refreshing the page. Thanks for the recap, off to read.
Required fields are marked *
9 maxzzr
October 30, 2012 at 8:40 PM
Thank you so much for your recaps
Required fields are marked *
10 Seovero
October 30, 2012 at 8:45 PM
Awwwwww the facial haiirrr... Ermmm... Moustache... Errrm whatever you call that... I just looooveeeee it. Choi young looks more badassssss with it. I should just save it for my screensaver.
Quite a happy ending evethough i really wanted them to show something besides the gazing at the end. Hug or kiss perhaps. Oh show, you!
Btw thanks so much for the recaps. It was sooooooo marvellous!
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 30, 2012 at 9:14 PM
Actually, the ending was pitch-perfect for me. 'Less is more' seems to be the common thread running through the romance department in this drama, between Choi Young and Eun Soo and between King Gongmin and Queen Noguk.
A picture says a thousand words, and that last screenshot of the centuries-crossed lovers gazing at each other with so much love and longing says it all.
So many dramas and films nowadays end with the leads kissing hotly but I am thankful that Faith did not choose to do the same. After all, this drama is called 'Faith' - for Choi Young and Eun Soo is the undying faith they have that they belong together and can and will be together no matter what the future holds. And when they do become one, a kissing scene to me is redundant and over-rated.
An intense, tearful gaze, with eyes full of love for one another and a tremulous smile says so much of the feelings involved than any hot kissing (and if I were the director, I would add this - Eun Soo gently touching Choi Young grizzled face and Choi Young putting his hand over Eun Soo's hand and gently putting pressure on it to feel its warmth, all the while intensely, tearfully gazing into each other's eyes and smiling tremulously).
Aahhh...I am happy for the happy ending...aaaahhhh...
Required fields are marked *
Nadine
October 30, 2012 at 9:53 PM
I agree that the director should have added the part where Eun Soo gently touching Choi Young grizzled face and Choi Young putting his hand over Eun Soo’s hand and gently putting pressure on it to feel its warmth, all the while intensely, tearfully gazing into each other’s eyes and smiling tremulously.. That would be the best ending ever.. Even though i am still happy that it is a happy ending..
I find that the quiet gazing with emotions overflowing in their eyes are more touching than a kiss.. So i am fine with no kiss at the end.. lol
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 7:15 AM
"I find that the quiet gazing with emotions overflowing in their eyes are more touching than a kiss.."
My thoughts exactly!! Thank you so much for articulating them so beautifully...'touching' is the perfect word because it has both the literal (as in physically touching) and figurative (as in how the heart feels) meanings/sense but in this instance, the figurative sense stands out and is far more meaningful, making the literal meaning, well, LESS meaningful, and thus unnecessary... ;)
Required fields are marked *
Florentine Lily
October 31, 2012 at 9:30 AM
A big thank you to JB and GF for the recaps and witty one-liners.
I agree with Koreandramalover. It feels more authentic when they are staring at each other and the emotions are just pouring out of their soul. It's saying that everything else does not matter, just us and this perfect moment with each other.
I love the ending. I love the fact that he's waiting loyally for her and she's traveling through time to reach him. And I felt so sad for the world's saddest Popsicle.
And I must say I'm glad there was no love triangle/square/pentagon in this series. Just great friendship and an even greater love story. Well, two love stories. Can't forget our King and his Queen now.
Could the drama have been better? Yeah, but I'm not losing sleep over what could have been when I'm quite content with what is. Thank you to the writer(s), actors and actresses and...yes, even the director. The journey has been worth it.
To my fellow viewers, keep the Faith and I hope to "see" you soon. Here's to whatever Drama-land decides to throw at us next.
Cheers,
FL ✌♫♪˙❤‿❤˙♫♪✌
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 5:38 PM
Thank you, Florentine Lily, for sharing your thoughts! What a beautiful screenname - Florentine Lily!
I agree with everything you said, esp :
"It feels more authentic when they are staring at each other and the emotions are just pouring out of their soul. It’s saying that everything else does not matter, just us and this perfect moment with each other."
"And I must say I’m glad there was no love triangle/square/pentagon in this series. Just great friendship and an even greater love story. Well, two love stories."
And it has been such a wonderful ride with Faith!
Take care and see around in another drama! ;)
WybornT
October 30, 2012 at 11:40 PM
I agree.... drama ending with kissing feels like forced to the actors for the viewer's sake. Looking at each other without word saying so many things, like, 'I found you' 'have you been well' 'sorry for keeping you waiting' 'I will not leave your side from now and will stay with you forever and ever' they looked at each other with relief of finding each other again and so much love for each other. I liked this ending.. though I want to see more of these couple.... Hope we get the part II where they live as a couple facing all the political scenario and I want to see them grow old and maybe ending the drama with the general's grave that I have been googling these past week. ;P
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 7:25 AM
"drama ending with kissing feels like forced to the actors for the viewer’s sake. Looking at each other without word saying so many things, like, ‘I found you’ ‘have you been well’ ‘sorry for keeping you waiting’ ‘I will not leave your side from now and will stay with you forever and ever’ they looked at each other with relief of finding each other again and so much love for each other."
Exactly, Tara! My thoughts exactly!! Thank you so much for articulating what was on my mind while I was watching them. SO MUCH meaning in just a gaze, so much more than a kiss or hug can convey.
Although I can understand WHY so many fans would love to see a kissy-huggy ending, there are times when such providing something just for fanservice degrades the drama as well as the viewers. Drama-viewing should not only and always be for entertainment but should engage and challenge us intellectually, spiritually and emotionally as far as possible. As the saying goes - the sexiest part of the human body is the BRAIN.
Required fields are marked *
CallieP
October 31, 2012 at 7:09 PM
I agree with you, the ending was pitch perfect. The look on CY's face just spoke volumes. Furthermore, he looked like a general and if you noticed he had a new uniform, and the grizzle gave him the look of a seasoned warrior.
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 9:07 PM
"The look on CY’s face just spoke volumes. Furthermore, he looked like a general and if you noticed he had a new uniform, and the grizzle gave him the look of a seasoned warrior."
I couldn't have said it any better, CallieP! Thank you so much for articulating what was on my mind because YES! CY looked every inch the legendary warrior/saviour that history said he was - much like a polished gem being revealed for us to savour, when before we had the unpolished version of CY... ;)
Required fields are marked *
Qítko
November 11, 2012 at 3:56 AM
I am happy I am not only one who is satisfied with no kissing scene at the ending. You see, I would considere such ending to be kind of …..hmm...sentimental or too much sweet. Something like bedtime story (something like this: prince kissed the princess and then they lived happily forever...). Thanks to their stellar acting no words were need – they had everything written in their eyes.
Required fields are marked *
Sakshi3631
April 29, 2023 at 9:37 AM
I am fine with no kiss at the end but they would have had one more during the series apart from the one at the wedding. I enjoy kiss/skinship scene in stories where the romance is properly developed rather than american series where they have such graphic scenes between people who have just met
Required fields are marked *
Ennayra
November 1, 2012 at 5:17 PM
I'm just here to agree with the Choi Young badassery comment. :-)
Required fields are marked *
11 koreandramalover/kay
October 30, 2012 at 8:48 PM
"And that my friends - is the world's saddest popsicle."
HAHAHAHA!!!! Girlfriday!!! I died laughing at this!! How apt!! HAHAHA!!!
Required fields are marked *
Nadine
October 30, 2012 at 9:54 PM
Hahahaha.. me too..
Damn creative way of describing KC.. ROFL
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 7:07 AM
Right? In fact, both Javabeans' and Girlfriday's middle names should be 'damn creative' seeing as how creative they are with words! Hahaha... ;)
Required fields are marked *
Raitei
October 31, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Lol. Exactly the part I loved best in this recap. Seriously. I kept looking at the screenshot and then reading the popsicle comment over and over again. Too funny imo. XD
I find this drama to be lackluster after a few eps., but I am happy that it has a good ending. Otherwise, I would have lost the littlest of faith that I had in this drama.
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 8:43 PM
"I find this drama to be lackluster after a few eps., but I am happy that it has a good ending. Otherwise, I would have lost the littlest of faith that I had in this drama."
I totally agree that we cannot in good faith call Faith a great/perfect drama through and through because of the numerous flaws in directing, editing and plot but I am thankful that it does have good parts to it that could adequately, in my humble opinion, distract me from them enough to enjoy the drama for the most part. ;)
Required fields are marked *
12 xianzhongfan
October 30, 2012 at 8:48 PM
Thanks GF and JB for the recaps. Don't get me wrong, i love your recaps, but i like what Joonni has written here on it as she says the writer wants us to walk that journey together with ES and thus at certain spots things look so uncertain. And that's because it was an on-going journey. http://joonni.com/2012/10/30/recap-faith-episode-24-final/
Required fields are marked *
mia
November 1, 2012 at 9:48 AM
Thank you for the Jooni link ---- woah, her review brought T_T to the eyes. She nailed it right to the heart....thank you, thank you !
Required fields are marked *
13 Yue
October 30, 2012 at 8:49 PM
Hey, at least it wasn't a love square hahaha...
Required fields are marked *
14 gp
October 30, 2012 at 8:49 PM
omg i am SOOO happy for a happy ending!!! cried my eyes out!!!!!! so sad for the fallen woodalchies tho!!!
Required fields are marked *
15 Nada
October 30, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Thanks for the recap! Kind of sad that the show is over now.
World’s saddest popsicle indeed.
Required fields are marked *
16 fangirl98
October 30, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Can't believe it's been 24 eps already! I stuck with this one for LMH and became invested in the king & his wife and Young & Eun Soo's collective "happily ever after" around ep 12 or so. All in all, 7 out of 10; good but not outstanding.
I hope LMH takes a nice rest and picks a project that will make us fangirls say WOW!!!! I'm still waiting for that from him....
Thanks javabeans & girlfriday for the recaps! Much appreciated. <3
Required fields are marked *
17 jude
October 30, 2012 at 8:51 PM
Yay. True. The writing saves this drama big time and is the true source of my addiction to Faith.
The first kdrama that ever makes me wanting to read the novel (if they ever publish it. In English. Because I don't speak Korean or read Hangul *sigh*)
Required fields are marked *
Aqee
October 30, 2012 at 9:05 PM
I would most definifely joined u reading..!
Required fields are marked *
18 Odet
October 30, 2012 at 8:57 PM
It's a happy ending but so unsatisfying. Beautiful endings are suppose to end with a tight embrace or a sweet kiss. hah... what's with just standing-there-staring-at-each-other with a very suppressed smile? Reminds me of Yoon Sung and Kim Nana in CH. Heee.
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:02 PM
I actually love standing-there-staring-at-each-other with a suppressed smile as their romance has always been restrained and subtle. For me, it'll have been out of character for them, and jarring with the depiction of their romance if they had kissed...
Just my two cents' worth (:
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 30, 2012 at 9:22 PM
Kika, I can't agree with you more. Subtlety, restraint, grace, elegance, gentility - all evident in the romance between Choi Young and Eun Soo and between Gongmin and Noguk throughout Faith. It is after all a sageuk and so much in keeping with the time and era. Jarring would be an understatement if the ending was hot kissing and hugging. Thank God Faith did not take that route!
Required fields are marked *
Farhana
October 31, 2012 at 5:37 PM
Took the words right out of my mouth. Im glad that they didnt kiss either. the ending was superbly done. im extremely pleased. However....... Im so sad its over, i wont see him for a while now...... i cried so much! to ease me missing my Min Ho oppa im rewatching BOF.... <3
Required fields are marked *
Fabmari
October 30, 2012 at 9:02 PM
Hhahahaa.... "what’s with just standing-there-staring-at-each-other with a very suppressed smile?"
A spot on!!!!
At least a tight embrace or even a hand-holding.
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 9:13 PM
My first thought too. But after replaying it, it's a beautiful ending for me with them staring at each other and Eun-soo's sigh seeming to say, "Finally! You're here. I've found you at last." Ah, it seems more romantic than a kiss and a hug (though those wouldn't hurt!)
Required fields are marked *
Mystisith
October 30, 2012 at 9:19 PM
That's the kind of happy ending they give when they have dropped the ball and don't give a damn about the rest. Episode was shorter in time by the way: Take off the credits and the BTS at the end and see what is left.
I would say the ending is at the image of the of the all show... Globally disappointing.
Required fields are marked *
Elise
October 30, 2012 at 9:21 PM
Oh noes! I'd rather have this ending any day than the huggy, kissy, cheesy ones! Like this Jdorama called Pride, everything was top marks till the last scene where not only did the reunited couple kiss and what not, they even had fireworks exploding in the background...gross ; )
Required fields are marked *
skelly
October 31, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Hmm. Well, Pride was about an unromantic, self-obsessed cad learning to love and care about someone else. He set up the fireworks specifically for her, after waiting a long time to get her back. It was a modern story, and at least in the relationships I know about, when people meet after a long time and reconcile, and the guy does some sweet gesture for the girl, they usually kiss. If you think all of this huggy kissy stuff is gross, well...
Required fields are marked *
AnneOfGreenGable
October 31, 2012 at 2:48 PM
I beg to differ... PRIDE is an excellent drama.
KimuTaku is spot-on in every scene til the end (Kawaii)
I actually love the ending, I replayed it a million times.
Both actor/actress are perfect to the role.
Same thing with all the supporting cast.
Required fields are marked *
19 Elise
October 30, 2012 at 8:58 PM
Lee Min Hot with a stubble is hotter than 'fire hands'! Heck he's hotter than his own name!
Required fields are marked *
20 kirara
October 30, 2012 at 9:00 PM
The ending was very simple and it went along with the actual title of the drama.. "FAITH" and I agree, that there were some things that kept being brought over and over and the story with the king just kinda well it was basically "well that's that" and it ended..
I also agree with you that the hilarious baddies made the show all more interesting even though execution lacked.. (Poor way to cut out Doctor!!) but it still was good and it helps to have good looking Lee Min Ho and the strong chemistry with the leading lady, with actions speaking louder than words.. in this case with Choi Young and Eun Soo..
Thank you so much recapping the entire drama.. enjoyed reading, watching and commenting.. now we will need to find our next drama to watch! :)
Required fields are marked *
21 heymonkey
October 30, 2012 at 9:00 PM
So how many years did Choi Young spend before Eun-soo reappeared? (How many years into Gongmin's reign did we start out?)
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:03 PM
We started at the beginning of his reign I think? When he was escorted back to Goryeo from Yuan by Young. I'm not sure though on how much time Eun-soo and Young spent together before she went through the time portal...
Required fields are marked *
earthenvessel
October 30, 2012 at 10:52 PM
Eun Soo was taken close to the beginning of Gongmin's reign. The fortune teller told ES that she would be gone for a year (I think that's how long she was with them before going through the portal) and she reappeared 5 years into Gongmin's reign. So I want to say that they were separated for four years Choi Young's time?
I don't know how much time ES spent in the other time period. It seemed short cuz her hair was still the same. If that were true and she didn't really age, I calculated that she and CY might be around the same age when they get reunited. :) 29+5=34 It's very close.
Required fields are marked *
Aden01
October 30, 2012 at 9:29 PM
5 years. since ES's left and reappear again. it tooks 5years for CY. but How many years that ES's took for her to be at the right portal into the goeryoe land and meet CY again, that's what we dont knw.
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Maybe we can hazard a guess based on appearance. He had a stubble and looks much older while she still looks the same. So it probably took less than five years for her, but then again, kdrama heroines do not age.
Required fields are marked *
ochi
October 30, 2012 at 9:54 PM
In ep 1 the fortune teller told Eun Soo that she'll be away for about a year so we can assume she's been in Goryeo for 1 year?
Since she came when Gong Min started his reign, so that means she re-appeared abt 4 years later...
Required fields are marked *
Kim Yoonmi
October 30, 2012 at 11:24 PM
Has to be less than 5 years. Calculated it at the top. Gongmin banned Mongol dress in the drama already and that was 1352. He was installed in 1351, so five years in is 1356-1357 (depending on the month installed)
If they didn't fudge it, it would have been 1356 when she left because that's historically when Qi Empress's brother died. (though by sword) meaning a few months. If not historical, then I would say she left in probably 1353? Meaning Young was only waiting 3 years or less. (1356-1353=3)
Five years is incorrect, because we started at the beginning of Gongmin's reign, but witnessed the ban on Mongol clothes fairly early in the drama, meaning that we at least got to 1352.
But I detect serious fudging...
Required fields are marked *
22 jenhul
October 30, 2012 at 9:02 PM
I feel like this show sucked three months from my life that I can never get back. It was like a car wreck. I wanted to look away but my eyes kept coming back to it like a magnet!
The only thing I'm happy about is that they finally got together in the end. The last few minutes had me worried and I felt my anger level rising. I was thinking how I could afford an airline ticket from Texas to Korea in order to slap someone...anyone, if there was a sad ending. My relief at them finding each other made up for the lack of kiss, hug or handshake. Geez! From now on, if an actress has a jealous hubby, don't hire her for a romantic drama!
LMH is going to be one good-looking man in a few years. Even with the facial hair he still has a baby face, but once he matures a little more, like a fine wine...RAWR! But honestly I would prefer him in a modern day rom-com. His smile was under-utilized in this show!
I think I'm going to avoid watching shows live. Waiting for new episodes each week is bad for mental health!
Thank you for the awesome recaps. They add so much to the experience.
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:06 PM
"I feel like this show sucked three months from my life that I can never get back. It was like a car wreck. I wanted to look away but my eyes kept coming back to it like a magnet!"
This is exactly how I feel!! But I can't figure out why. What was the magnet? Sometimes I think I'm watching it superficially for Lee Min-ho, sometimes I actually think it's the (romance) story...
Required fields are marked *
Skysky
October 30, 2012 at 10:11 PM
You are so right there about watching shows live! I usually don't do that cos my life becomes wasted while waiting for the next episode to come. But LMH lured me and I was a wreck for the last 2 months ! Glad to be normal again!
And I had the same inclination as you- fly to Korea and scold the hell out of the writer if it's a bad ending! Haha.. doesn't seem too healthy of us...
I do like the idea of ES persistently time travelled to look for him. Remember in her journal there were so many dates? That probably showed the extent of her determination. Never even bat a lash when in 2012 each time before entering the door again. I could have gone home for a hot shower first! But thankfully it's only 5 yrs apart.
Just as her persistence is romantic, I think his waiting for her at the tree is too. Not even surprised to see her. Just an expression "Ï know you'll come". Though I hope they will do a Special on Faith. Perhaps on life after the reunion. Kinda miss their time together and the bickering. The final few episodes have been too serious and laden with politics!
Required fields are marked *
liza
October 31, 2012 at 4:37 PM
I have to agree with you,more so about the waiting for the episodes being bad for mental health; as a rule I used to wait until the show was over before watching but got sucked in with gentleman's pride. I am going to detox this weekly watching as soon as I get hooked on a non-korean show. Let us wish each other lots of luck.
Required fields are marked *
23 rainbow
October 30, 2012 at 9:03 PM
thanks for the recap.....
Required fields are marked *
24 JennGo
October 30, 2012 at 9:05 PM
I am happy with the ending though I still felt I needed more. I agreed with Girlfriday that I needed to see that everyone was doing well rather then just a line over. I am happy that they finally found each other again but not really satisfied with so many thing hanging over the back of the story. If this is just the story about CY and ES, then the whole show should concentrate on them rather than developing other characters as the go along. It felt like the other characters were there just to tell the story about CY & ES and when they are no longer needed, it just fell thru like Dr Jang...
It is an easy series for the pure entertainment but I wish for my mashmellow warm hearted ending.
Required fields are marked *
25 Abbie
October 30, 2012 at 9:08 PM
This was a really nice ending. If I'd been given something where Eun-soo was stuck in her own time loop, I'd have been one unhappy camper. Just saying. I'm glad we got this ending, because it makes since for the love story, and was just well-deserved. Yay, for happy endings!
That said. I'm glad the only ones who died were the baddies. Even though, even until the end, Ki Chul remained one of my favorites. He was just so hilariously incompetent for a lot of the show, that I couldn't help but love him. Boy, I'm glad that Hwasuin and Eum-ja died, too.
Even though the directing and editing left much to be desired, the writing (for most of it) was solid. At times it felt the writers were just throwing stuff in to fit into a 24 episode series, but it was still good. I know this is, politic-wise, supposed to be a prelude to all the things Gongmin does but I, too, felt we just left him and Noguk hanging. It is weird how a historical show like Faith can make me love and sympathize with the real-life people they portray. I know next to nothing about Korean history (which is one reason why it was fun to watch this show, and others, too), but now I really want to know a lot about it.
Lee Min-ho was so good, as was Kim Hee-sun. Indeed all the actors, actresses and the characters they portrayed were brilliant. So thank you, Show, for giving me a great and entertaining 12 weeks.
Thanks for all the recaps, GF and JB!
Required fields are marked *
26 Stephen
October 30, 2012 at 9:08 PM
So, so many loose ends though: what was up with the Dansa officer's fancy pocket watch (something that was about 300 years and one continent off) and the implication that he was some sort of time cop (taking care to destroy the surgical tools, for example.) Also, given the show choose to use very specific historical characters, and reference very specific historical events, there's no hint of coming to terms with the very specific grizzly ends of both Choi Young and Gongmin in the fallout from the collapse of the Goryeo dynasty. And remember, the driving force behind the appointment with destiny at the Gate was that the sunspot activity record meant that it wouldn't open for another 65 years or so: yet Eun-soo re-enters Goryeo just five years after her departure. For me the characters pulled this show through, but the plot...
Also, I was rather sad that Ki Chul didn't get to go through (thanks to some deus ex machina, no less) Some squandered dramatic potential there. He could have been ironically run over while admiring the magic chariots. Or it would have been interesting if he not only actually was satisfied with life in 2012 (maybe after some modern mental health therapy), but also ended up helping Eun-Soo put together the time-travel sun spot cheat-sheet in her diary (which she left behind, why? Leaving a dead projector I can understand, Leaving herself a letter with spare notepaper, sure, but her active notes while she's still searching for the exact time jump she needs, not so much.)
An anticlimatic final episode, but I'll remember the show for the great chemistry between the two main couples, a good villain, and a special shout out the awesome Lady Choi.
Required fields are marked *
Ace
October 30, 2012 at 9:21 PM
When Ki-chul didn't go through, I wasn't entirely surprised because I remember in episode 1 that they said only a faithful worshipper or some such could go through the portal as the myth suggests. Oh, but my image of Ki-chul shopping in modern Seoul is just left there in my imagination. It would've been a great laugh to see him resolve his mental health issues by splurging in Gangnam. hahaha
Required fields are marked *
Nadine
October 30, 2012 at 10:25 PM
I was so relieved that they found each other at the end that i did not think about how the portal could only have opened 67 years later..
It was after i was over the high of a happy ending that i remembered the 67 years time frame.. But then what the heck, i want them to be together.. So i will put the 67 years time frame to be an error from ES's wrong calculation as she was still exploring time travelling to find CY!!
Required fields are marked *
27 Belinda
October 30, 2012 at 9:16 PM
I'm with Kika on this ouch my brain hurts from trying to figure out the space time continuum . I was waiting until the end to bash on the direction and editing , to which I have to say the director is asking something of the audience and that is to have faith . After reading recaps I just realized that's also what choi young was supposed to find what his father was asking ultimately finding faith . Period.
I am not a facial hair person , But Damn my baby looked all manly .
Required fields are marked *
kika
October 30, 2012 at 9:25 PM
"I was waiting until the end to bash on the direction and editing , to which I have to say the director is asking something of the audience and that is to have faith ."
I think the same goes for the time space continuum too... Or maybe the writer's too smart for the majority of us to understand...
Required fields are marked *
Waca
October 31, 2012 at 7:56 AM
No, it's not that the writer is too smart for the majority of us to understand, it's just that you are searching too far.
Dunno how to explain this...let's see, I hope it'll be clear:
In this case, it is you who are too smart, do you get it? The time theory that the writer chose is very simple. But as you are thinking too much, you don't understand it. It's just like when a kid ask you to help him with his math problem and you realize you don't understand how to resolve it because you, as an adult, have learnt very complicated maths and are unable to think back in a simple way. It is the same here.
This time theory is just simple: ES is part of history, so everything she did already happened. That's why KC gives her her three objects even if she did not left them 100 years ago yet: in history, her future self already did.
What led us wrong and thinking too much is the contents of her letters and her weird dreams. Because what was in her letters was ambiguous, we were left wondering if there was other timelines in which ES had screwed up; but there wasn't. ES just did write her letters in a sad and melancholic state, which left the letter ambiguous.
As for her dreams, the one about CY dying may just have been that: a premonitory dream of what could have happened. About the one where she sees herself writing the diary, it could be a premonitory dream as well. I think it wasn't a good idea from the writer to put these dreams there because they lead us to wrong conclusions. The time thing itself is really much simpler.
I hope I made sense and that you understand now? :)
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 9:53 AM
Waca, thank you for your take on the so-called unresolved issues in Faith esp abt the space-time continuum and time-travelling...I have to say that your explanation has explained a lot for me...
This is what I believe :
I think it would simply a waste of time, energy and money trying to make sense of something that does not make sense to begin with - the space-time continuum/time-travelling thingy...there is no proof from any source, be it scientific, spiritual or any other means, that time-travelling is possible...
Thus, I think the best way to look at it in Faith is that it is fictional and thus the writer can weave all sorts of stories to make it the slightest bit believable, but I am sure all throughout the drama, the writer and PDs had their tongues-in-cheek weaving their tale to produce what we saw in Faith...
So, my humble wish for those who wish to watch Faith, do so with a gigantic pinch of salt, leaving out any thought of making sense of the whole time-travelling thingy and just ENJOY watching it...
The writer/PD never meant for Faith to show the real history of that era and so whatever poetic justice they employed to produce Faith just needs to be seen as that - as a means to an end, which is to produce a FICTIONAL DRAMA on what we all know as history...nothing more, nothing less.
So, free our minds from trying to do the impossible (making sense of what is nonsensical in the first place) and just enjoy the ride, that is Faith...esp having Lee Min HOT being his usual HOT-self...on screen at least... ;)
Required fields are marked *
Waca
October 31, 2012 at 10:45 AM
Well, sorry for wasting my time explaining the setting of the drama to those who were deploring about not understanding it.
Of course time travel doesn't exist and is entirely fictional. That is why when novels, movies, games, or drama, write about time travel, they set up some rules to be at least a bit logical. It is not because something is fictional that it has to be illogical. The made-up rules are there so as the story wouldn't become a total chaotic thingie.
I understand that the logic in time theory is not always easy to catch, and I often have to ask my brother to explain it to me because I am not a genius, however it is not because you in particular don't understand it that you have to say the writer was just being illogical, because that was clearly not the case in Faith. I think it very disrespectful of the writer, if you want my opinion (but clearly, you don't want it).
It may be a waste of time to like having the setting explained, even when it's about rules that the writer sets up himself because these rules don't exist to begin with (time theory, magic things, parallel worlds, whatever you want), but at least I watch the show for all it has to give, not only for LMH's hotness. I still have a brain, thank you. Do you? Because your comment was just hurtful.
Me Too
October 31, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Kay,
"Thus, I think the best way to look at it in Faith is that it is fictional and thus the writer can weave all sorts of stories to make it the slightest bit believable, but I am sure all throughout the drama, the writer and PDs had their tongues-in-cheek weaving their tale to produce what we saw in Faith…
So, my humble wish for those who wish to watch Faith, do so with a gigantic pinch of salt, leaving out any thought of making sense of the whole time-travelling thingy and just ENJOY watching it…"
I can't agree more.........CY and ES King and Queen and all the cast of FAITH CONGRATULATIONS...............
Hey..esp having Lee Min HOT being his usual HOT-self…on screen at least… Do you think he's not hot offscreen......LOL !!!!!!!!!!! you made my day. Thank you
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 5:28 PM
Waca, how is it that you find my comment hurtful? In what way did I say that YOUR comment was wrong, nonsensical or illogical? And if you can offence in my comment, how are you any better by what you said in YOUR comment that asked me if I have a brain?
I was just giving my opinion, just as you did, but in no way was I degrading your take, as I have said at the beginning of my comment above.
Perhaps you are far too sensitive that is why you take offence when none was intended.
If you are offended, then I apologise sincerely. I enjoyed reading your posts and far be it for me to criticise other people's opinions because I never thought that my comments are better than others. I am just giving them, not with the intention of crushing other people's opinions while doing it.
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 9:21 PM
Hello MeToo! Thank you for your comment! So agree with you that everyone involved with Faith esp the cast deserve a huge round of appreciative applause for a job well done!
And as for my answer to your question : Do I think that LMH is NOT hot off-screen? ;) Haha...I am afraid so.
Off-screen he does not exude as much hotness as when he is on-screen...hehe...
He is undeniably gorgeous whatever he does, on- and off-screen, but as for hotness, I think LMH as LMH the person is more dorky and self-effacing than LMH as the actor, because on-screen he transforms into hotness-overload...hehehe...
I suppose one way we can look at it as this - he is capable of switching his hotness on and off, when the situation warrants it...esp if and when he is alone with the woman in his life...hehe...
mia
November 1, 2012 at 11:01 AM
Yes, LMH is rather adorable-dorky in this late teens and even in his very early twenties, hehe.
But he's grown more sophisticated and more confident on stage and when face-to-face with his fans and others. If you have the chance, watch on U-tube the program "The Happy Camper" a 4 parters ), a chinese variety show with LMH as the main guest. He's the epitome of hotness there and his true mischievous and charismatic self indeed surfaced, although he will lapse to his korean correct-politeness every now and then.
But give him time....he's only 25 plus and already wowing most of us. Could easily imagine him in 5 years' time.....
Awe
October 31, 2012 at 3:29 PM
well, poo.
Waca-- thanks for raining on my parade because i do believe in time travel and magic and unicorns farting rainbows. *cries*
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Have you been offended by my comment, Awe? Why the comment with "Well, poo'?
I was just giving my opinion, not with the intention of crushing other people's opinions or beliefs, nor was I intending to shove my thoughts on other people's minds.
This space IS for us to rant/rave but I am well aware that criticising others should never be done because who are we to criticise others when we are not perfect ourselves?
There is a difference between expressing our views passionately and simply ranting for the sake of ranting and crushing other people's opinions while doing it.
I meant no offence with my comments and I am amazed if any was taken by anyone.
Awe
October 31, 2012 at 8:03 PM
no.no.no.
k-lover---no, i am not offended by your comment or any thread of your comment.
if you notice, my comment was humoursly directed at waca because waca's comment was "time travel does not exist at all" and i still wanna believe ;)
tbh--the only time i leave serious comments is when ppl bash others. pls pls pls do not take offense to my comment.
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 8:31 PM
Awe, thank you so much for your reply! I am so relieved to know you are not offended. If I did, I sincerely apologise if my tone or words have not been carefully chosen to avoid offending anyone. ;)
I too so want to believe that time-travelling is possible, if only for the fact that I am a hopeless romantic and I love romantic notions of making life better if we could turn back the clock and correct the wrongs that I have done in my years of living in this harsh world of ours. ;)
Awe
November 1, 2012 at 2:47 PM
k-lover
we're good. hope to enjoy more exchanges with you on dramabeans.
koreandramalover/kay
November 2, 2012 at 5:49 AM
Awe, I too look forward to future exchanges with you in other drama-recaps by our lovely, brilliant wordsmiths, Javabeans and Girlfriday here in DB. ;)
Take care! ;)
28 crazedlu
October 30, 2012 at 9:18 PM
wow. i think i would've really enjoyed watching that journey back to him. i MIGHT have even tuned in if that was the route they had taken.
but...
meh.....
Required fields are marked *
29 Reena
October 30, 2012 at 9:19 PM
Ooooohhh I loved the grizzled Choi Young! Ahhh sooo Lee Min Hooooottt! ^^ I like it! He looks more like a man now...
Required fields are marked *
30 koreandramalover/kay
October 30, 2012 at 9:27 PM
Thank you so much Javabeans and Girlfriday for recapping Faith. As always, you complete my drama-viewing with your dedication and commitment to recapping the dramas with so much heart, wit and humour, that at times, reading your recaps proved to be more enjoyable than just watching the drama itself.
God bless both of you lovely ladies! ;)
Required fields are marked *
31 louiza
October 30, 2012 at 9:29 PM
While i ejoyed the Recaps by GF and JB so much this show should be about 12 epiosdes---
so much ittitating same same-----
LMH and KC were the best actors----so extreme opposites
but sweet to look at
the rest of the storylines were irritating---
Required fields are marked *
32 Foxypnay
October 30, 2012 at 9:33 PM
Ahhh.. If not for my undying love for LMH I would have shred the finale into pieces! There were so many unnecessary scenes, recycled conflicts, and in he end it left me with even more questions than what I started with. So frustrating! Lee Min Ho can't wait to see ur new drama! No more sageuk!
Required fields are marked *
33 Stardust
October 30, 2012 at 9:35 PM
I lost interest in this drama, sadly, and after watching through maybe 8 eps? I only continued reading the recaps, and after like ep 12 I stopped even reading them... Its for the sake of closure that I am watching/reading the end... just to tie up the story in my mind.... Engaging-wise, I am just sad that this drama had never really managed to pull me into the story, or care about the characters, nor managed to execute the FANTASY aspect of the storyline... I mean, time travel is fantasy but its more like a 'science', I suppose the mutant powers part of it measures more to fantasy in a saguek world.. haha...
Regardless thank you so much girlfriday and javabeans for seeing this drama through.... I wasn't along for most of the ride, but I appreciate the recaps very much, esp during the confusing times...
So I guess the time wormhole thing, which just makes me go... : O...kaaay..... So we are to believe that Eun Soo jumps through the portal which conveniently/inconveniently will open for her after every week?month? I assume her body still ages as time passed by and doesn't magically get younger after every jump, since she should still age ... So if she took a few years to get back to him, she should be even older now.. haha....
And whats with the end?! You two have been waiting FOREVER to get back to each other, we couldn't even get a beautiful run-into-each-other's-arms embrace under that tree? XD
Required fields are marked *
skelly
October 31, 2012 at 8:53 AM
Some here - after about episode 8, I just got tired of all of the loose threads, and the laughable fight scenes. Director, why were you so lame? Writer, why did you leave so many interesting ideas and characters in the dust?
So many of the actors did such a fabulous job, maybe over Christmas I'll marathon the whole thing - I could watch it while I wrap presents. Then I won't mind so much the recycled plot points and missed opportunities.
And I am going to be totally seditious, here, and say that I got really tired of CY's stares. I know lots of people read all sorts of meaning into his stares - he's tired, confused, longing, angry, plotting something, in love, etc. etc. - but sometimes to me he's just a blank, pretty face, and I didn't get any of that stuff I was supposed to read from him. Although if his eyes were watery I assumed he was upset.
Required fields are marked *
mia
November 1, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Take it as a sign that you're just not into Lee Min Ho. He's not your cup of tea, hehe. But many a fan of his would vouch for his steady improvement in acting and they seem able to read more into his "stares" there.....no, no, no....not 'blank, pretty face' but meaningful, intense acting with quite a good range in emoting. Already quite amazing at such a young age......couldn't wait to see how far he could go a few years down the road...yay ~
Required fields are marked *
mia
November 1, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Running into each other's arms under the tree ? It's precisely because they refrained from this cliche scene that I gave the kudos to the show.
Would really really curse them if they had had gone through that hackneyed crushing into each other's body and mashing their lips together. Their very restrain, just standing there with that yearning and soul-touching loving look in their eyes say much much more. Thank you, writer-nim, for avoiding that dreaded cliche ending...this ending is just perfectly right for this drama.
Required fields are marked *
34 just kirey
October 30, 2012 at 9:36 PM
Thank You Girlfriday for recap this drama, God Bless You...
I glad is happy ending
Required fields are marked *
35 owl
October 30, 2012 at 9:47 PM
I can’t believe how unapologetically I can say that the ending was acceptable to me. Since it was a time travel, historical, semi–sci–fi, love story combo, I don’t require too much explanation. It would just give me one whopping headache.
I can replay (in my head) the highs and block out the lows (and watch reruns and I’ll know when to fast–forward). It works for me.
I loved in this order: ES, super rockin’ Lady Choi, fb CY, the Queen, little messy Dae Man and heartthrob Vice General, hot men in uniform Wudalchi, durn cute Suribang boys , (Dr. Jang while he was with us), KC for his priceless expressions and he did go down in the end, the King who never quite came through for me but had some worthy bromoments , pledged aunt and uncle, did I miss anyone?
If not for the real history to keep CY there, it would have been so very cool for ES and CY to go together to the 21st century cuz 14th century life sucked big time.
Know what? I don’t think I will need post–dramatic support after all. The recaps and comments helped me work through my real fake kdrama life issues. Thanks co–fanistas!!
Required fields are marked *
36 gaeinalee
October 30, 2012 at 9:47 PM
"..This drama is such an interesting case of having solid parts… but put together all wrong.."
Couldn't agree with you more, GF. Thanks for the recaps for the past 3 months to you and JB!
The ending is a happy 1, tho to me it's not satisfyingly good. Don't want to rant about it since we all know from the beginning about its flaws. So, adieu Faith, sayonara~!
*Time to gear up for the upcoming cryfest. ^^
Required fields are marked *
37 Aden01
October 30, 2012 at 9:48 PM
this drama could be more kickin' if they make the story line more packed and faster to get the final legendary that they aimed for. the scriptwriter should hv make all the fighting-bad guys scenes finished in ep 23. and leave ep 24 to give us a proper-detail story about this time traveling thing and how CY-ES's waiting for each other in faith. it would bite the viewers more.
so, how long should i wait to see LMH in another drama? ughh... i need to see that face twice a week.
Required fields are marked *
38 nabithoj
October 30, 2012 at 10:04 PM
I love the stubble. He looks definitely like my type of guy...lol..
I know it's been said time and again, and I've noticed it too, but it never really, really clicked until this episode, but dude, the fighting scenes are horrendous in this episode. Like "oh so embarassing" bad!!!
I love the ending. A simple, sweet ending that marks a new beginning again for those two. I'm sad it's over.. :(
Now what am I suppose to watch?
Required fields are marked *
Awe
October 31, 2012 at 4:03 PM
you're not supposee to watch anything. go clean your house.
Required fields are marked *
39 shahera5
October 30, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Thank goodness it was a happy ending. I saw some Facebook posts today so I knew it was going to be happy, just not quite how because I didn't want to spoil the episodes by reading too much before I watched them (23 and 24 together tonight).
I would have liked at least clasped hands at the end. There was just a bit too much space between them. LMH was definitely hot with the mustache. Does anyone know what his next show is?
Thanks for the fabulous recaps. Reading them and all the comments helps bring me back to a more centered emotional state. I don't think I've ever cried so much at a drama. This is the first Kdrama I've ever watched. Are they all like this?
I will have to watch more of LMH's other shows. Have been having a romp with Boys Over Flowers.
Thanks again!
Required fields are marked *
40 dafatlady
October 30, 2012 at 10:10 PM
Thank u GF and JB for your recaps - so often they were way more entertaining than the show itself!
Am on the fence about the ending. However as many others have pointed out, it was so deja vu of City Hunter. I think I am just a lot more bothered by the unanswered questions along the way and choppy editing, bad directing(what a way to cut Dr Jang out of the show!) and terrible pacing.
Yes if not for the commendable acting which made the characters so engrossing or likeable (even the baddies) - Ki Chul, CY, ES (found her irritating in the first few episodes but grew to appreciate the depth of her characterization), GM, NG - this show would have fallen flat on its face.
So I'm still haunted by the question - how did CY recover from the freezing accident? I thought he did not respond to the CPR that ES gave him?
And I forgot whose comments above started with "Lee Min *Hot*" - u are too funny!!
Required fields are marked *
Nadine
October 30, 2012 at 10:42 PM
I agree with you totally..
Even the villains in this movie are lovable, especially KC.. I love it how he lighted up when he saw ES when she came to him for his help to pressure DH, or his comical expression when ES declared she was not from heaven.. He had acted so well for his part!!
And i agree that initially i found ES irritating, all that temper tantrums just made me feel like she was a spoiled brat from Seoul.. And CY was so patient with her.. But then as the drama progressed, ES matured into better person worthy of CY.. I would like to think that CY & the experience in Goryeo had made ES realized the value of her life!!
And for CY recovering from the freezing accident, I would like to think that CY's will to see ES again and his own "Ki" had saved him.. It is up to the viewers to fill in the blank here.. I guess.. And I never thought CY would have died there as history does say he lived to be a grandfather..
LMH is hot at the end with stubbles.. So manly.. Unlike his normal flower pretty boy look.. lol
Required fields are marked *
WybornT
October 31, 2012 at 9:41 AM
my thought exactly on the survival of CY at the end... he must have used his own 'ki' with the determination to see ES again. because he told her once, that he will be fine.
Sometimes, rather than feeding every detail to the viewer I feel that it is nice to leave some room for us to ask question, 'how?' 'why?' and fill in with our own theory ... making it more engaging for the audience... I think the the team did a great job. I am not complaining about some of the scene that I fast forwarded to get to main leads.
Required fields are marked *
koreandramalover/kay
October 31, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Nadine, thank you for your take on how Choi Young survived the encounter with Ki Chul - I believe that Choi Young's 'ki' could have been revived after Eun Soo's CPR and helped him to recover...
But then being fictional, the writer/PD did not explain it and left it up to the viewers' imagination to try to explain it...and so ANY conclusion we can come to, is technically, not right or wrong...which is what makes watching Faith so much fun because if we are so invested in trying to figure out what's what, who's who, the whys, hows, whens and so on and so forth, we all will slowly go insane...over a drama...hehehe...
I started watching Faith with no expectations whatsoever that anything about the space-time continuum/time-travelling aspect will make sense, because how can we make sense out of something that is nonsensical and purely fabricated in the first place, right?
I set out to just ENJOY watching the drama because of Lee Min Ho and from the very 1st episode till the end, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching everything...
There are aspects to Faith that make sense and had engaged me intellectually, emotionally and psychologically...most note-worthy are the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects between and within the characters; the romantic threads involving the OTP and Gongmin and Noguk; the meaning of the drama's title 'Faith' with the plot and the whole drama; the resonance, meaning and timelessness of love and faith, as portrayed in Faith, to all of us...
Thanks again Nadine, for sharing your thoughts! I enjoyed reading your every word! ;)
Required fields are marked *
41 new fan
October 30, 2012 at 10:19 PM
this drama had a good storyline n leads.. but everything about the crapping filming n editing!! just make it so damn terrible!!
just when i feel the actors emotion then it's cut right away to something else!!!
it got such a big name n list of strong actor n actress n yet it all destroy by the directing!!~~ especially how the baddies died and dissapear!!how how they kill of jangbin!
so many untold story !!
all the ES time traveling only shown in a few minutes!! they should hv split this into two episode so we at least felt how much they miss each other !! i really hate the poision thingy~~
boooo for the directing!!!
Required fields are marked *
42 Briggy(@subin70)
October 30, 2012 at 10:31 PM
I'm actually more confused with the ending than I was with the beginning.Pledged Bro and Sis were not so invincible....what took them SO long to die??????????!!!!!!!I loved this drama but not the final 10minutes.I'll definitely miss the cast.I loved them all but I'm very very confused,really confused!!
Required fields are marked *
43 joybells
October 30, 2012 at 10:34 PM
Thank gawd for a happy ending....although all this time travelling stuff leaves my head spinning (is it parallel or cyclic).
Required fields are marked *
44 KiChulsRefrigerator
October 30, 2012 at 10:37 PM
"That my friends, is the world’s saddest popsicle."
omg. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA I can't even.....hahahahahahahahaha
Required fields are marked *
45 SD
October 30, 2012 at 10:40 PM
OMG!!! LMH with facial hair??? I think my jaw just dropped 6 feet to the ground. O.O
Required fields are marked *
46 dcmbr
October 30, 2012 at 10:55 PM
Was totally surprised by Choi Young's facial look, he really looked like he waited there for five years for her (that's correct right, 5 years)?
Loved the ending, though I wish the last 10 minutes shouldn't have been so rushed since the past Eunsoo played a significant role. It should have gotten more story time into it.
And Ki Chul was so so desperate I was rooting for him to get into the portal and get stuck in the future.
And finally "That my friends, is the world’s saddest popsicle." <-- love this comment!
Required fields are marked *
47 earthenvessel
October 30, 2012 at 10:58 PM
The bed scene was my favorite. It took me by surprise a bit but was a very sweet scene.
I feel bad for ES' parents. The show never resolved that and even showed them in the end of all places. They would've been so devastated to have their daughter disappear. She never got to say goodbye to them. I can't imagine that ES loved CY so much that her parents didn't matter to her anymore.
Required fields are marked *
Waca
October 31, 2012 at 8:03 AM
I don't think that her parents did not matter to her anymore, because we do see her crying while watching them on the screen.
As ES traveled a lot through the portal, even if she lived 100 years before Goryeo, she has crossed the portal many times so as to write down all these dates on her diary. So it is possible that she sent them a message during one of her passages to Seoul, if only just to tell them she's ok. Maybe she chose not to see them anymore so as not to shake her resolve in finding CY again.
I do agree: the show never resolved that. But the fact ES and CY did discussed about going back just for her to say her good-byes means that she may very well have done so later during her numerous travels. It's left to us to imagine it...even if I would have preferred them to show it to us instead of filling the hour with flashbacks.
Required fields are marked *
Awe
November 3, 2012 at 10:58 PM
Waca--
i agree with you. quite honestly, there were too many tangents to address --- and i actually like that the writer and director left holes for us to fill.
Required fields are marked *
48 cheekbones
October 30, 2012 at 11:20 PM
Wow, Lee Min-ho with mustache and stubble ! That's all I can say......
Required fields are marked *
Pat
October 31, 2012 at 12:45 AM
I was so shocked when I saw him. That little change added just the right amount of warrior roughness.... he looked so perfect and seaoned that I almost gasped. I wish he had been that way the whole show, but then I may have been TOO
distracted. Sometimes I wish the Korean public would drop the pretty boy trope once in a while. He will be a fine looking man for years. Obviously my shallowness must be what kept me watching.
I really enjoy the recaps, ladies thank you so much.
Required fields are marked *
49 SuziQ
October 30, 2012 at 11:27 PM
Loved your comment about Ki Chul being the world's saddest Popsicle....He was one of the most funniest villains with some dorky facial expressions.
Wishful thinking. I liked him. My ending would have been that Ki Chul got future shock if he had gone through the time portal and arrived in 2012 Seoul. Maybe instead he would have gotten run over in one of the Korean automobile accidents that they always have in Kdramas!
Thank goodness for a happy ending even though my head was spinning trying to figure what time period ES was in at the end. Couldn't understand why she was going in and out of the time portal so many times at first.
Thanks for the recaps!
Required fields are marked *
50 Veronica
October 30, 2012 at 11:28 PM
QUESTIONS QUESTIONS AND MORE QUESTIONS;
first of all what the he'll happened with the last pages of the diary? Weren't they like super important? What about the one that other evil dude burned? Was that even necessary?
I'm having a hard time thinking about the actual purpose of that diary? And why was she called hwata back then?
So all this time ki chul couldn't have crossed that portal even if he wanted to, so all this was for nothing, well at least it wasn't as bad as jinceprion I guess.
Moral of time traveling dramas: they will mindfuck you big time
Required fields are marked *
shelly
October 31, 2012 at 7:44 PM
no, as i take it, ki chul could have gotten through the portal any time if only it was working and he had one of two people with him: either eunsoo - or more probably choi young.
eunsoo might not even be able to take anyone over with her - she's been skipping after the initial time fracture. but choi young is the one electrically abled lol, he's the first to go through and he obviously can take people back with him - he took eunsoo.
so ki chul should have frozen him and carried him over lol if he wanted to make it through :D
Required fields are marked *