Full Sun: Episode 15

by gummimochi

I’m back for Full Sun’s finale week (albeit late), and this show doesn’t let up in the slightest even after everyone knows the truth. In fact, that should give us more reason to be on our toes and maybe even a little scared, especially when our hero is armed and at large. And while he’s busy trying to get forgiveness from everyone else, I’m afraid that he’s going to forget the most important person who he needs forgiveness from: himself.

Note: Thanks to everyone again for your immeasurable patience this past week, which was pretty sucky. Let me say that real life should never mirror tragedy in dramaland, but it came both fast and furious, and I’m eternally grateful for the time to recuperate. With that in mind, Full Sun saw a slight increase in ratings in this episode with a 2.6%.

SONG OF THE DAY

Tae.1 – “그 사람 (That Person)” from the OST [ Download ]

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EPISODE 15 RECAP

Kisses! And then Young-won and Se-ro break apart (not enough kisses, boo). Instead of apprehending Se-ro, the detectives walk up to talk to her, and Young-won turns them away before catching up with Se-ro.

He asks her to forget everything that’s happened between them and remember him as the man who ran away from her, even if it’s for her own sake.

Young-won collects her things to move out again, and when Madam Baek chides her for exposing her father’s wrongdoings, she retorts that it didn’t stop her stepmother from telling her about Woo-jin’s death. And now that she knows the truth, did they think she’d forgive and forget that easily?

She corrects Young-joon when he says it’ll only be hard on her if she goes up against Daddy Han, even if she can abandon everyone else in this family—she can’t abandon any of them, so she asks that they cast her aside instead.

Se-ro named himself as her sworn enemy to protect her from Daddy Han’s wickedness, despite how easy it could have been for him to hurt her with the truth. He still loved her no matter how horribly she acted towards him, and now she’s going to help him bring Daddy Han down.

She’s no longer a member of this family, Young-won notes sadly. All she has is Se-ro from here on out even if he won’t have her, so she begs that her family disowns her instead and pushes through the mob of reporters waiting outside.

News of Daddy Han’s list of his shady business dealings hits the airwaves, so Se-ro decides to hand over the original documents to the congressman. Kang-jae has already anticipated this move however, and sends Third Wheel Lackey to put a stop to it.

Only that move comes back to bite them because the envelope Hong runs off with is a decoy, and we see Se-ro deliver the actual envelope to the congressman. But then Hong is taken hostage, and Se-ro agrees to an audience with Kang-jae, though, he’s suddenly gripped by a splitting headache. Damn that growing medical concern!

Daddy Han’s hands are tied, so he takes the defensive approach and orders any and all evidence erased. That includes some files still tucked in his secret vault, and he worries about the incriminating files Secretary Ahn made off with, which are still out in the open.

As Hong hurls biting words at Kang-jaen for joining forces with their enemy, a flashback takes us back to when young Kang-jae was locked up for one of Dad’s threats on his behalf. The memory still stings in Kang-jae’s mind, and he muses, “Is the world fair?”

But Hong scoffs and says he didn’t tell Se-ro about Kang-jae’s involvement in Dad’s accidental death, how he toyed with Se-ro and hid the truth. Of course, Se-ro overhears all of this now as he approaches Kang-jae’s office, and Kang-jae simply buries his head.

Se-ro can hardly believe it as he steps inside, but Kang-jae just demands the envelope. Both men grab each other by their fronts, and it’s Kang-jae who throws the first punch. There’s no use avoiding the truth now, and Kang-jae elaborates on the details surrounding Dad’s death.

They were the ones who stole Belle la Fair’s diamonds five years ago, Kang-jae explains, but Dad ran off with their loot and he died in front of his eyes. Filled with rage, Se-ro throws a punch and demands to know why he was kept in the dark. “Why didn’t you say anything? You saw me every day and pretended to be the best hyung in the world!”

Kang-jae throws him off of him and stuffs the gun from his desk drawer into Se-ro’s hand, inviting him to shoot him directly in the heart. “You want to kill me, right? Shoot me.” But Se-ro can’t bring himself to do it, and Kang-jae parallels Se-ro hesitation to how no matter how angry he was, he couldn’t kill Dad either.

At Se-ro’s conflicted expression, Kang-jae spells it out for him—just like how Se-ro was wrongly thrown in prison, Kang-jae also served time for Dad’s behalf when he was merely fifteen years old.

Dad had told him it was a simple errand, but Kang-jae was arrested and went to jail. That was the first step down the slippery slope of his wretched fate, and Kang-jae sincerely thought Dad would make it up to him one day, even to his dying day.

Struck with utter disbelief, Se-ro drops the gun. And Kang-jae breathes sarcastically, “Should I have gotten revenge like you did?” before pushing past him.

Se-ro chases him downstairs, hollering if Kang-jae thinks him naive enough to believe that story now. Kang-jae drags him outside to continue his story, saying that the stolen diamond then ended up in Se-ro’s hands—the way Dad ends up screwing people over makes him no different than Daddy Han.

Those lofty ideas of revenge, reconciliation, forgiveness, and love are all crap, Kang-jae argues, because living his own life is the easiest path to take. He invites Se-ro to try and stop him, but he’s going to take this to the end.

Those words tear at Se-ro’s heart, and Se-ro desperately hangs onto Kang-jae, hoping that it’s all a lie. But Kang-jae shoves him off, and tearfully lashes back at how Dad screwed him over up to his dying day. “Your father was my Han Tae-oh,” he finishes.

And Kang-jae makes one final request: that Se-ro gets lost.

Kang-jae heads over to see Jae-in and forcibly kisses her, an act that earns him a hard slap across the face. She retorts that he said she’s nothing to him now and that he didn’t need her anymore. And as if those next words were meant for himself, Kang-jae answers haltingly, “I thought… you might be lonely and lonesome… that you might have been waiting for me.”

Jae-in turns her head in refusal when he leans back in. His voice breaking, Kang-jae says all he needs is her, but she says he’s changed too much and now he makes her nervous. Even if she were to love him now, she won’t.

Those are harsh words, and Kang-jae asks if she can’t trust him once more. But that answer is no. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

After mulling over Kang-jae’s spiteful words, Se-ro heads back to the office to collect the dropped gun, then walks through the streets laughing like a delusional fool. But then his head throbs in pain again, and he collapses in the street.

His vision blurry, Se-ro thinks to himself before slipping into unconsciousness, “Young-won, why are you and I so alike? Maybe that’s why I couldn’t help but love you.”

When Se-ro comes to at the hospital, he spots the police calling in to report his capture. He rushes out just before Young-won arrives. Citing their recent car accident, Young-won asks after Se-ro’s condition and learns of the severe hemorrhaging in his brain.

Young-won leaves a voicemail, telling Se-ro that he needs medical treatment. They can clear his name and she’ll bear the brunt of the consequences, so she asks to meet.

It isn’t long before the police come knocking at Daddy Han’s office with a search and seizure warrant. Elsewhere, Hong protests angrily at Se-ro’s suggestion to go their separate ways when they’re so close to making sure Daddy Han pays his dues.

Se-ro doesn’t want to drag Hong & Hama down with him—he’ll figure out a way to clear his name on his own. Se-ro says that he’s going to take a trip to his hometown, but his outfit today looks mighty similar to what he wore at the beginning of this show.

It’s touching that Hong doesn’t want to send his hyung away, asking if it has anything to do what Kang-jae said last night. Se-ro advises Hong to let go of his anger surrounding his family’s downfall before it consumes him entirely. No matter how angry Hong might be at the world, Se-ro doesn’t want to see him fall like that. Aw man, it breaks my heart to see Se-ro act like a protective hyung.

Hong says that sounds like a farewell, and tells Se-ro to take Young-won with him. He asks if he should tell Young-won about this bout of noble idiocy, but Se-ro simply smiles back at him and shakes his head.

Young-won calls Jae-in out in hopes that she might know where Se-ro is, especially with his growing medical concern. But Jae-in doesn’t know where he is either.

When asked why Young-won keeps referring to Se-ro as Lee Eun-soo, she answers that it pains her too much to call Se-ro by his given name. Then Jae-in recounts the other half of Se-ro’s story: of how he came to see his father in Thailand, only for Dad to die and for him to be framed for murder and his dreams crushed.

Jae-in believes that leaving Se-ro’s side is what’s best for him—doesn’t Young-won think that her very existence makes it hard enough on Se-ro? Sheesh.

Aw, Se-ro keeps to his word to see Grandma in the countryside, though he doesn’t approach. Young-won drops by Se-ro’s old home and flips through a photo album. A photo of a happy Se-ro with Grandma has her recall his words of how even a criminal’s son could have once lived as an ordinary boy.

Se-ro confronts Daddy Han outside the family’s home and gives the chairman one last chance to beg for forgiveness. But Daddy Han laughs in his face, telling Se-ro not to forgive him. The chairman’s current woes pales in comparison to what Se-ro has gone through, but Se-ro tenses when Daddy Han belittles his lowly conman father for messing with the wrong people.

Se-ro is letting himself be beaten and they live in different worlds, Daddy Han argues. Though the chairman admits that he regrets forcing Se-ro’s hand like this, he won’t apologize for it. He adds that he was better off having Se-ro killed, just like Woo-jin.

With that, Se-ro raises his arm to point the gun at Daddy Han’s face. “I could kill you, too. I want to kill you,” he declares. Even though Daddy Han denies all wrongdoing, he not only ruined Se-ro’s life, but Young-won’s as well.

He encourages Daddy Han to admit that he was wrong, even for the sake of his daughter. “What would that change?” Daddy Han asks. “I’ve lived too long to regret the path I’ve taken.” He’d rather die now than to deny that choice.

Se-ro calls Daddy Han a vicious and pitiful man who gave up on his humanity. Lowering his weapon, Se-ro explains that the only reason he’s looking for an apology now is so that Young-won can breathe a little easier.

He issues the chairman one final warning: don’t drive Young-won to become like him one day.

Kang-jae calls in belatedly to warn Daddy Han not to meet Se-ro because he has a gun. But Daddy Han sighs that nothing happened, and Kang-jae calls Hong to tell him that Se-ro’s armed.

So Hong calls Young-won as she’s busy tidying up Se-ro and Grandma’s place (and the pictures of them together are adorable and sweet) to tell her that Se-ro is armed with a gun and he’s nowhere to be found.

She takes the car and drives off to the villa in Gangwondo, wrought with worry. Her search is intercut with the show’s opening sequence: Se-ro trudging through the deep snow, walking towards the middle of a wide-open field.

His repeated narration now holds greater weight: of how he could turn back to when he was young, running away from the police with his father; or when he first saw her smile; or to the day everything went wrong.

But now we see Young-won running through the same field, memories with Se-ro flooding back to her. Run, run, run! And then we see Se-ro raise the gun to his temple as he repeats: “Could I have lived as Jung Se-ro?”

And at that moment, Young-won calls out his name over and over again: “Se-ro. Jung Se-ro. Jung Se-ro!”

Se-ro turns back, the gun still pointed at his head. Oh god, don’t pull the trigger in front of her! Young-won breathes an affectionate “Se-ro-yah.”

He’s completely stunned as Young-won runs towards him… and then he drops the gun. Ohthankgod. Once Young-won catches up to him, she slaps him across the cheek. Well, someone had to do it, and I for one am glad that it was her.

Se-ro takes Young-won’s beatings as he falls to his knees, crying. He can only nod as Young-won confirms that he is Jung Se-ro and that he didn’t kill Woo-jin. She demands that he say it himself—that Se-ro was framed for Woo-jin’s murder, right?

Se-ro ekes out an affirmatory response.

Young-won continues: “You came looking for me because you were angry and wanted revenge. Is that right?” Se-ro says yes. He admits that he was wrong for lying that he was the one who killed Woo-jin.

“Why did you deceive me?” Young-won shrills. “Why did you lie to me?!” Se-ro can only sob in response and she falls to her knees too in apology.

Se-ro pulls her into an embrace, apologizing over and over again. “You love me,” Young-won affirms. “Is that right?” Se-ro says that he was in the wrong again.

They hold each other’s faces for another few moments until Se-ro pulls her in for a kiss.

 
COMMENTS

I know I’ve said this pretty often throughout this drama, but damn. It’s an hour that takes us back to the very beginning, and boy has it been one hell of a ride to get to that point. For once, I’m thankful that the police are such dunces when it comes to arresting our hero for a crime he didn’t commit and allowing the show to devote the hour to an emotionally charged episode, focusing on the aftermath of everyone learning the truth.

In that sense, Full Sun benefits from hosting such a strong cast, especially when it comes to a conflicted character like Kang-jae. We finally got to learn the seed of his bitterness, and while suffering a similar experience to be wrongly imprisoned like Se-ro was is nothing new in dramaland, we have Jo Jin-woong to sell to us the emotional depths of how that experience shaped his moral character. I still don’t get how serving Se-ro on a platter to Daddy Han (at least how it stands right now) will help Kang-jae’s own tortured soul, especially since we’ve seen how Kang-jae still cares for Se-ro. Still, there’s some comfort in how he made the call to warn the others about Se-ro.

On the other hand, there’s Daddy Han, who holds no remorse for his actions. He isn’t necessarily the best villain we’ve come across in dramaland, and there was a time that I thought that he’d actually cracked out when Secretary Ahn betrayed him. Instead, he’s as leveled as ever, and though powerless now without his secret blackmail documents to save him, I almost shared in Se-ro’s disbelief at how Daddy Han would stick to his pride rather than apologize for his actions.

It might be that very stubbornness in Daddy Han that makes me love Se-ro all the more. Our hero desperately wants to rid himself of everything that led up to this point, admitting to his wrongs to the very person he wronged. And I truly believe it when I say that what’s more important than to gain Young-won’s forgiveness for lying and deceiving her is for Se-ro to forgive himself.

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