Angel’s Last Mission: Love: Episodes 31-32 (Final)
by SailorJumun
All this time, our heroes have felt that God was never on their side. He never listened to their prayers, never granted their wishes, and He never showed mercy. Still, even during the worst of times, our tragic trio are holding out hope that He will save them in the end. If not Him, then maybe the drama gods will swoop in.
EPISODES 31-32 RECAP
We flash back to the prior night, when Yeon-seo was writing her report to God. As she recalled her time with Dan, she wrote that she never knew a moment could be their last until it passed by. She never got to say goodbye properly, so she was hoping that her “Giselle” performance could be her chance.
Right offstage, Yeon-seo gets that chance now, being in Dan’s arms as she takes her last breath. Dan breaks down crying, begging her to wake up, but it’s no use.
Watch the video
Is there such a thing as a beautiful goodbye?
Yeon-seo is taken to the hospital and rushed into surgery, with Dan having to wait behind the operating room doors. He clutches his handkerchief, which is now spattered with Yeon-seo’s blood, barely noticing that Kang-woo has arrived too. Kang-woo silently stands there as Dan cries.
Director Choi and Uncle Kim rush over to the police station, horrified over the news of Luna stabbing Yeon-seo. They request a moment alone with their daughter and are taken to the interrogation room where she’s being held.
Choi gets right to scolding, but all Luna wants to know is what happened with Yeon-seo. She grins ear to ear and says, “Mom, tomorrow’s Giselle will be Nina,” making Choi slap her.
Choi chides Luna for talking about “Giselle” when Yeon-seo’s life is on the line, and Luna snaps that she’s not one to talk — the only reason they’re in this mess is because Luna had to finish what her mom started.
Luna turns away, while Choi can only stare at the monster she’s created and cry.
Three hours pass and Yeon-seo is still in surgery. Dan numbly tells Kang-woo that he’d promised to protect Yeon-seo, and Kang-woo firmly states that this wasn’t his fault — the couple already did everything they could. “No,” Dan says. “Yeon-seo won’t die. I’ll never let her die.”
He turns to Kang-woo and holds out his handkerchief. He asks Kang-woo to return it to Yeon-seo when she wakes up and to tell her that he’s sorry for not being able to be there. And for parting ways without a proper goodbye. Kang-woo tells him to tell her herself, insisting that it’s not over for them yet.
But it looks like it is over. Dan looks up at the clock and sees that it’s 11:59 p.m., one minute away from his deadline.
Dan drops to his knees in front of the doors, and inside, the surgeons struggle to get Yeon-seo stable. They shock her with the defibrillator paddles over and over until…
Dan starts to fade away. Kang-woo steps forward, concerned, but there’s nothing he can do. Dan just smiles, relieved to know that Yeon-seo is still alive. He shuts his eyes and, still smiling, completely disappears. Oh, Dan-ah…
Later, when Yeon-seo is in stable condition — but still unconscious — Kang-woo stays by her bedside. He tells her that he’d hoped and prayed that the couple’s fate would be different. He genuinely believed that she would sacrifice herself just as Seol-hee did, and that was why he was so scared.
So he apologizes for everything he’s done until now, including loving her. He places the handkerchief in her hand and relays Dan’s last words: “I hope she can think that I went on a trip. I hope she thinks that I went on a long trip to somewhere far away. I hope she thinks that I’ll miss her a lot.”
Kang-woo sighs, telling Yeon-seo to wake up since he can’t bear to watch them both suffer. Chief Jung then walks in and urges Kang-woo to head back to Fantasia — Yeon-seo would want him to go on with the next “Giselle” show.
Kang-woo greets the ballet de corps in the middle of practice and announces that the show will go on without Yeon-seo. He locks eyes with Nina and says that she’ll be dancing as Giselle tonight. However, Nina thinks she has no right to do so when this was all orchestrated by Luna.
Kang-woo smiles and says, “Rather than Geum Luna’s sister or Choi Young-ja’s daughter, do it as Geum Nina the ballerina.” The corps are super supportive, too, but Nina is still unsure.
Back at the hospital, Chief Jung is outraged when Choi and her husband come to visit Yeon-seo. She tries to kick them out, but Choi insists that she must compensate for her sins. Choi then recalls Dan confronting her days before and telling her that a real parent wouldn’t cover up their child’s crimes.
As Jung lets the couple inside, Choi remembers Dan’s parting words — to apologize to Yeon-seo if she truly wanted to start a better life. So when Uncle Kim gets down on his knees, Choi follows suit.
Now crying, Choi urges Yeon-seo to hurry and wake up so she can watch them get properly punished. With that, she finally admits that she did wrong and apologizes for coming so late. Her words turn into sobs, so her husband wordlessly walks her out of the room.
While in her cell, Luna begs the security guard to look up news of Fantasia’s show. And she’s overjoyed to learn that Nina did, in fact, perform as Giselle. But then the guard shows her a video of directly after the show, when Nina officially declared her retirement.
Luna falls to the floor, crying out in denial. Meanwhile, Nina shows up to Yeon-seo’s hospital room with flowers. She’s too ashamed to go inside, though, so she leaves the flowers out in the hall and walks away.
Some time passes, and Yeon-seo’s doctors inform Chief Jung and Kang-woo that it’s possible she could never regain consciousness. Jung breaks down in tears and curses Dan for running away at a time like this.
Kang-woo vaguely states that Dan probably had no choice but to leave. He then turns to the side table and notices the handkerchief, now clean. And hold on a damn second — the feather is still blue! Which means… Dan is alive?
Watch the video
The clue in the handkerchief
Later, when Yeon-seo is alone, Dan walks in wearing the same clothes from the day he disappeared. (But the screen is oddly fuzzy, as if this is a dream.) He says Yeon-seo’s name a few times, and her eyes flutter open. Relieved to see that he’s alive, she sits up and hugs him.
Dan offers to take her anywhere she wants, and she simply says, “I want to go home. To our home.” Once Dan does get her released from the hospital and back to the estate, she asks him what happened. And we see that when Dan had disappeared, he’d been poofed to the angel crossroads. A scroll had floated down, delivering a message from God.
The message read: “Angel Dan — You were given the mission to let the human Lee Yeon-seo learn what true love is… Love that can cover everything is risking your life and sacrificing yourself. You have successfully completed your mission. But you committed the sin of loving a human as an angel.”
However, considering Hoo’s pleas and the fact that Dan resisted the temptation of killing Luna, God was willing to overlook the fine print. He gladly accepted Yeon-seo’s last performance and forgave Dan for his sin, thus granting him access to heaven.
“So you’re still an angel,” Yeon-seo realizes. But as long as he doesn’t disappear, she doesn’t care. She brings him into another hug and murmurs that she missed his scent.
Over the next few days, the couple go on to do normal activities such as planting flowers, watching scary movies, and flicking each other’s foreheads over games of Jenga. It’s all incredibly sweet… and way too good to be true.
One night, Dan is reading Yeon-seo The Little Mermaid, and she tells him to change the sad ending into a happy one.
He continues reading, when she then asks, “This is a dream, isn’t it?” He freezes, only to compose himself and ask how she knew. She slowly rests her hand on his chest and notes that his heart isn’t beating.
We then see that she is, in fact, still asleep in her hospital bed, with Dan standing over her and producing these dreams. Apparently, when God had opened the doorway to heaven, Dan refused to go.
In the dream, Yeon-seo asks if she’s dying and if this is his final goodbye. Dan smiles and shakes his head no. He admits that in the beginning, he resented God for bringing them together only to tear them apart. But he’s come to understand that the time they had, no matter how short, was a gift. He was able to meet her, recognize her, and fall in love with her.
And now he wants her to live on. “It’s my last wish,” he says. “To give you my last breath.” He tells her that he loves her and always will, making her tear up, and then gives her a soft kiss. He does the same action in the real world, telling God that he’ll be giving the life that He gave him to Yeon-seo instead. He looks down at Yeon-seo and says his goodbyes, a single tear falling from his face and onto hers.
And just like that, Dan is gone. As the feather on his handkerchief turns black, Yeon-seo finally opens her eyes and immediately starts crying.
Three months later. Yeon-seo meets with the press to announce that while she can’t dance yet, she’s recovering well and will be permanently taking over as Fantasia’s chairwoman.
Afterwards, Kang-woo asks if she’s really okay — he heard that she cried nonstop her first week home and hadn’t gone outside until now. And to his surprise, she responds with, “I have hope.”
Yeon-seo explains that she has this strong feeling that she’ll see Dan again. It sounds impossible, but then again, she once thought reuniting with the deceased Sung-woo was impossible.
Kang-woo points out that even if Dan were out there somewhere, he probably wouldn’t remember her. But she doesn’t care; the important thing is that she remembers him. To that, Kang-woo just smiles and nods.
As for Yeon-seo’s family, it turns out that Director Choi was sentenced to seventeen years in prison, while her husband was sentenced to six. Luna, having shown no remorse for her heinous crimes, got life.
One day, after hearing rumors of Luna’s numerous suicide attempts, Yeon-seo visits Luna to tell her to stop trying to escape her punishment. Yeon-seo wonders if Luna ever loved anyone with all her heart. Because if Luna really loved Nina, she would’ve had feelings of wanting to die for her, not hurt others for her.
“You’ve never once had these feelings,” Yeon-seo continues. “So your heart is empty, and you’re desperately trying to fill it.” She truly feels sorry for Luna since she’ll live the rest of her life in prison, never knowing how precious real love is. Luna is fuming as Yeon-seo stands and leaves.
At home, Yeon-seo realizes that her handkerchief is missing from its usual spot and has a total meltdown. To de-stress a bit, she goes out to the park and sits under Dan’s tree, holding her hand out.
Chief Jung shows up with Yeon-seo’s private physician, voicing her concerns over Yeon-seo’s mental state. For a while now, Jung has witnessed Yeon-seo talking to herself as if Dan was there.
While Yeon-seo does admit she’s been imagining him, she thinks she could actually be sensing him, like the first time they met. After a beat of silence, her physician states that she’ll be prescribing her medication. Heh.
That night, Yeon-seo and Jung chat over drinks. Yeon-seo accuses Jung of stealing her handkerchief, knowing Jung is the only one who resents Dan. Though Jung doesn’t have the handkerchief, she did find a box of notes while rummaging through his stuff.
Yeon-seo picks up the first note and reads “Happy first wedding anniversary!” There’s a note for every year, all the way up to their thirtieth anniversary, all saying that he loves her. She cries as she goes through each one, chiding Jung for hiding them away all this time.
Later, when they’re thoroughly drunk, Yeon-seo keeps insisting that she’s seeing Dan. She points over to the space in front of them, but Jung doesn’t see anything. Jung begs her to take her medicine, but she doesn’t want to if it means she won’t be able to see him anymore.
“If I’m only seeing him because I’ve gone crazy,” Yeon-seo cries, “then I want to stay crazy.” Still, she shouldn’t live like that when Dan wanted her to be happy. Jung hugs her as she continues that it’s so hard when she misses everything about him.
Once Yeon-seo is put to bed, we see that Dan is really standing there, all in one piece. And he has the handkerchief in his pocket, the feather back to blue. Um, WHAT?!
He heads to his former room, where he sits down to write a report. He thanks God for allowing him to stay by Yeon-seo’s side, even if no one could see him.
We flash back to all the times when Yeon-seo had “imagined” him and see that he was always there, holding himself back from answering her or touching her. “Even if she never knows,” he now writes, “even if no one else knows, even if I can only watch her, it’s okay with me.”
The next day, Kang-woo cleans out his office, ready to say goodbye to Fantasia and move on to New York. Yeon-seo stops by and says he should’ve stayed for one more show, and he replies that they’d have creative differences anyway. Haha.
They shake hands and thank each other for everything. Hesitant, Yeon-seo then asks if Kang-woo is at peace now. He smiles and gives her a single nod yes.
The two exit the building and are immediately ambushed by the ballet de corps. They gather round to say their goodbyes, ignoring Kang-woo’s attempt to nag them for their forms one last time. With that, the group takes a commemorative photo.
Kang-woo’s final stop is a small ballet studio, where Nina currently works as an instructor for children.
Nina is still living alone, having to pay a monthly rent and everything, but she’s happy with where she is now.
Still, Kang-woo tells her to contact him if she ever wants to get back into performing. “I’m an expert on bringing back ballerinas who retired,” he jokes. She laughs and says that the next time they meet, she hopes he sees her as a person and not just a ballerina.
Meanwhile, Dan follows Yeon-seo as she walks to the park, over to their tree. Having convinced herself that her sightings of him were mere illusions, she says that she’s going to live as cheerfully as she can.
Dan smiles sadly and sits next to her on the bench. He watches as a leaf falls from the tree and she jumps up to catch it. She’s disappointed, however, to see that there’s no mission written on it.
Yeon-seo takes out a pen and writes her own mission on the leaf, just as Dan did once before. It reads: “Today, right here.”
Yeon-seo sighs and realizes that she only got to spend one season with Dan. It was only one season, yet she feels so empty now.
“I’m going to live cheerfully,” she promises, her voice cracking. “I will. But I’m going to think of you every now and then and cry.”
Unable to watch her cry, Dan reaches over to caress her face. And she turns to him, as if she could feel it. For a second, she thinks he’s another illusion and shuts her eyes. But when she opens them, she still sees him.
They both stand, neither able to believe that this actually happening. Yeon-seo then places a hand on Dan’s chest and there it is — his heartbeat. At the same time, the handkerchief in his pocket vanishes into thin air.
He looks at her in astonishment and asks, “You can see me?” She just smiles and throws her arms around his neck, saying that she knew he’d come. They hold each other close as they cry from overwhelming relief.
Watch the video
You can see me?
Dan narrates his last report, saying that once a mission is over, everything returns to its place. Humans will disappear and die, while angels will be around forever. And this is the universe’s providence. “Within this providence,” he says, “we will live happily with this miraculous love. Brilliantly and dangerously, shining radiantly.”
COMMENTS
Wait… That’s it? That’s all we get? We don’t get to see our couple cuddling at home? We don’t get to see Dan begging for Chief Jung’s forgiveness? We don’t even get a last kiss?! Believe me, I’m ecstatic that our couple got the happy ending that they deserved. I’m ecstatic that Dan is back in Yeon-seo’s arms and finally (er, presumably) human. But to whip that out at the very last second? After all the heartbreak we went through? That is not cool. Not cool at all, Writer-nim. Rather than wasting time with two — freaking two — fakeouts of Dan disappearing, you should’ve wrapped things up and given us the reunion at least ten to fifteen minutes earlier.
For a while there, I thought that Dan was destined to be nothing but a guardian angel for the rest of Yeon-seo’s life. That Yeon-seo would realize this and be content in just knowing that Dan was watching over her. And though that would’ve been incredibly sad… I would’ve liked it. It would’ve been the perfect bittersweet ending. Plus, if it had gone that way, the two fakeouts would’ve made sense. I’m completely fine with the ending we got, though. I may not seem like it, but I am. I genuinely liked having their reunion at the park, as it was a nice way to bookend their journey. I’m just not 100% satisfied. And to walk away from a drama that I really loved feeling only, at best, 90% satisfied — well, it sucks. I want my other 10%, dammit.
I honestly think that the second half of the drama could’ve been so much better if the writer had toned it down with the religious aspect. The romance was already strong on its own, so it didn’t need all the extra angst that was piled over it. The only angst we needed was the detail that angels couldn’t fall in love with humans. I understood that, within this world, that was a big no-no in heaven. But did the God character really have to fight against them? He couldn’t have just been a silent figure? Because if God was going to grant the couple their wish at the very end, then what was the point of Him being against them? No matter how much I think about — and boy, have I really thought about it — it doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around this finale since there was a lot going on all at once. But I’m guessing that after Dan gave Yeon-seo his last breath, God took pity on him and allowed him to live as her guardian angel. And it was Dan’s willingness to do so that God saw as an act of sacrificial love, thus making him human. Am I getting that right? Who knows? Maybe I should be like Dan and Yeon-seo and just be happy that things worked out. I think we can all agree that the drama started off very strong, faltered in the middle, and became a bit of a mess towards the end. Still, messy or not, I never felt that the drama ever lost its magic. So I can at least say that this writer knows how to tug at the heartstrings — she tugged mine into oblivion. But it wasn’t just the writing; it was the acting, the atmosphere, and the amazing music that brought it all together.
Acting-wise, I was impressed with L and his range most of the way through. He is by no means a natural actor, but I applaud him for taking on a role that required him to be both goofy and dramatic. I’d been waiting for that one drama that would make me forget the majority of his resume and remind me of the awesomeness that was Hyun-soo in Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, and this is it. I have plenty of praise for the characters and the way the actors brought them to life, but this was definitely the Shin Hye-sun Show — she was impeccable. And I think it was her adorable and fun chemistry with L that also brought Dan to life. When Yeon-seo was onscreen with anyone, whether it was Dan or Kang-woo or Luna, there was an intensity there that’s hard for me to describe. What can I say, the girl is a phenomenal actress.
Overall, I had a great time with Angel’s Last Mission: Love. The drama took a lot from various ballet sources and drama sources, such as You From Another Star and my all-time favorite My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, and for that, I can’t complain. Even with all the unanswered questions, as has become the fantasy drama norm, I can’t complain. When you get a lovable couple like Dan and Yeon-seo, and you know that they’re going to be okay, sometimes it’s best to just sit back and smile.
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Tags: Angel's Last Mission: Love, Kim Bomi, L (Kim Myung-soo), Lee Dong-gun, Shin Hye-sun
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1 kkul
July 14, 2019 at 12:12 PM
ME: "SMILE. . . "
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2 OldLawyer
July 14, 2019 at 12:26 PM
For all of it faults- and they were many!- ANGELS LAST MISSION has been my favorite show. Shin Hye-sun is one of my very favorite actresses- and she was never been better. The main love story was wonderful to the end. L did a great job as Dan the angel. Lee Dong-gun played his part well but his role was far too limited for an actor of his talents- a complaint that I could also make of his role in WHERE STARS COME TO LAND. Lee Dong-gun has been one of my favorite actors for a long time- ever since I saw him in SWEET 18. I hope he gets a better role soon (and it sounds like maybe he has).
I finally saw a scene in which Shin Hye-sun was not giving a fantastic performance: That occurred when she is lying in the hospital bed unconscious. The writer does find a way for Yeon-seo to meet her fate and fulfill the prophesy- she does die on the operating table- and then is revived immediately. A bit of a contortion but it worked.
And to answer Sailorjumin’s question- at the end Dan has been turned into a man.
I knew that something was different about Dan when he was not turned to dust outside the operating room. Instead he just faded out. God was doing something different this time. It certainly did not seem like a punishment. And then Kang-woo picked up Dan’s handkerchief – and the feather is still blue.
It turns black after Dan’s farewell kiss. Then we see it silver blue again- after Dan has returned to stay beside Yeonseo.
After many weeks have passed Yeon-seo goes to the park bench where they first met and sits there. Dan sits beside her- and suddenly Yeon-seo can actually see him. She reaches out and touches his chest- and can feel his beating heart. At that moment it is the handkerchief that dissipates rather than Dan. It turns to dust in the same fashion as Angel Noel did. The meaning is that that God has chosen to transform Dan from angel to man: Dan and Yeon-seo certainly understand that this is what has happened: That is why we see happy man and wife embracing each other in the joyous knowledge that they will have a life together.
It takes a lot to make an old lawyer cry- but there were tears streaming down my face.
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BC
July 15, 2019 at 12:38 AM
I hope they will stay away from truck of doom 😉
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OldLawyer
July 15, 2019 at 5:45 AM
Me too. I think that they will- they have surely acquired enough good karma for that. Hey, if the writer can mix up religious ideas then so can I.
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PakalanaPikake
July 24, 2019 at 1:27 PM
@oldawyer OldLawyer,
Thank you for spelling that out so beautifully. After fixating on blackened embroidered feathers for so long, the subtlety of the handkerchief itself turning to dust and dissipating slipped past me. ;-)
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3 aklr
July 14, 2019 at 12:48 PM
It was a great drama. It has some plot holes, but it is a good story.
Kim Myungsoo has improved in acting! I have been a fan of Infinite since 2011, and it's great to see that he is learning and improving in acting.
Thank you for your recaps of this drama.
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4 Athena
July 14, 2019 at 1:04 PM
I was actually mad at the ending. Mad. There was no explanation, no reasoning behind it, just *pouf* wish granted, happy happy. What unadulterated bull hockey is that?!? The writer did a terrible job of explaining why this works in their wonky made up changing rules universe. I am usually satisfied as long as the ending works in the universe the writer created, but I don't feel like this is what we got. I feel like what we got is "Gee, the watchers want a happy ending and so, Viola! Cheer and goodbye. Cheap, bad writing.
The acting was great, but the writer should work on their craft. A lot.
Go to your corner writer-nim and think about what you did wrong.
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OldLawyer
July 14, 2019 at 1:36 PM
We all had a problem with the inconsistencies in this drama- largely rooted in the writer's own confusion as to the worldview that was to be portrayed. At times the writer wanted to show us a world in which everything happens according to fate and therefore nothing can change the outcome. At other times we were shown a more Judeo-Christian world in which outcomes really can change based upon our decisions and actions.
However I would point out that fairly early in this story we were told that it was actually possible for an angel to become human- because that was precisely Kang-woo's punishment.
Your frustration is very understandable- and I totally agree with you that the writer should indeed sit down and think about what was wrong here. Think really long and hard. Because this drama was still good- mostly because of Shin Hye-sun- but it could have been truly great.
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FlyingTool
July 14, 2019 at 2:03 PM
Agree with your last point - it could have been truly great!
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Linda Palapala
July 14, 2019 at 3:45 PM
I guess God is capricious. I didn't watch most of the drama for the first reason you stated. Since that was the predictable ending I didn't really get mad, it was more of a eye-rolling thing.
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BC
July 15, 2019 at 12:46 AM
If everything started - wisdom like- from that offered apple, which is the biggest metaphor in human history ( Isaac Newton confirmed gravitation by fallen apple) so God is a not only capricious...
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5 Lurker
July 14, 2019 at 1:14 PM
Relatively agree with most of what you said though personally all that tragedy at the end made me fall out of love. I finished the show just to finish it.
As for L... He's trying but nope... Still bad and stiff except when he was playing the humor card. I couldn't get into his character when he was angry, sad or supposedly head over heel in love. So err... during most of his scenes especially as we reached the end. He spoiled the drama for me which is a pity because I wanted to root for him since You could feel the guy was trying.
Overall, It started strong but ended up a huge mess by the end but I hung on for Shin Hye Sun who basically carried the show on her shoulders.
I won't rewatch it but I'll remember her performance.
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6 Hobakky
July 14, 2019 at 1:23 PM
I think my main qualm with this show overall is that it tried to be two different dramas at once instead of committing wholly to one concept. I think the original premise, based on the plot at least, was for this to be a cute rom-com about an angel falling in love with a human ala My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. But instead of filling the show with fish-out-of-the-water hijinks and silly love spats typical of a rom-com storyline, the writer tried to combine the rom-com concept with a serious melodrama about love and religion, which I think is where things went wrong. The end product ending up feeling like an essay without a thesis, where the writer only knew what they wanted their opening and closing sentences to be and filled in the rest with a hodgepodge of ideas gleaned from various other sources (MGIAG, YFAS, Black Swan...) that had no overarching purpose to tie them all together into a cohesive story.
Had they stuck with the Gumiho concept all the way through, I would have really enjoyed this one, even with the deus ex machina ending, since the fun journey makes up for the questionable logic. But the problem for me was that there were too many meaty tidbits that the writer dropped that teased a show that would tackle topics like God’s will vs free will, selfless-love vs selfish-love, and how love makes humans different from other beings, that I couldn’t help but get my hopes up for it actually being an insightful drama and then ultimately being disappointed when it failed to deliver answers to the serious questions it posed.
If the writer had been capable of telling the story I wanted her to, I think this could have been a phenomenal bittersweet melodrama, especially with Shin Hye Sun’s emotional acting chops. An ending where Lee Yeon Seo is like the grandmother with Angel Noel, left behind but able to move on in life thanks to having experienced the joys of true love, would have been fine with me. Or an ending where Dan chooses to accept Yeon Seo’s sacrifice to live the life he was originally denied because he truly wanted to live as a human, not just become human only to be with Yeon Seo, would have been good too. Sadly, the writer gave us a fake-out of both those endings which ended up making the miracle happy ending fall flat for me.
Overall, I think the writer fell victim to trying to be too many different things at once and succeeding at none of them, which made everyone come away from this with some level of dissatisfaction. Despite that Lee Yeon Seo will still be one of my favorite female leads and I’m grateful for the gorgeous soundtrack and the introduction to Shin Hye Sun this provided. But I’ll be staying away from this writer’s next work unless it’s billed as a makjang. I think she’d do pretty well with that genre.
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7 13infamyss
July 14, 2019 at 1:30 PM
Thank you SailorJumun for all your recaps on this show! And thank you beanies that I get to share this excruciating journey to finale with you.
The first 5 hours of this drama were memorable. Shin Hye Sun remains unforgettable.
This drama is not worth writing long essays anymore; I`m not gonna give that satisfaction to the writer.
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8 Cooler
July 14, 2019 at 1:55 PM
I could have accepted them being apart--the god of Angel's Last Mission was set up to be hard, unmerciful, and unknowable, so it would have fit with the mythology of the show. I could've accepted Dan turning into a black wisp--I wouldn't have liked it, but again, I saw Angel Noel, this god doesn't eff around with the rules.
Somehow this writer has made getting what I wanted--them together--suck. It didn't make sense in the world that had been created. Dan's god was not merciful. He was not kind. He wasn't one to fudge the rules. He burned up the letters, which is about as literal as you can be with with a "I ain't trying to hear that bulls***" response as you can get. It feels like it was just thrown in at the last second because that's what the audience was clamoring for. It was the writer saying, "Here's your ending, now shut up." My time feels intentionally disrespected rather than just wasted like what happens with a typical drama that turns to trash. . . I feel like I've been flipped off and sent on my way.
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9 gemwendz
July 14, 2019 at 2:29 PM
Thank you so much @sailorjumun for this recap and for holding onto this drama until the end even though a lot of beanies dropped this show midway. I was almost tempted because as you said, the show was fantastic at the start, hobbled at the middle and a downright mess at the end. My work schedule is the same as well which is why I had a hard time juggling both work and drama that have the same trajectory over the last eight weeks. But I think the OSTs are what kept me in the loop. Hehe! Kidding aside, this is Shin Hye Sun’s best performance ever and I will be very mad if she won’t get an award for this project. She made me cry twice - 1) that scene on the second episode with her breakdown after visiting Mr. Jo’s funeral and 2) when she poured her heart out to Chief Jung saying she was torn between wanting to be crazy just to see Dan’s illusion versus living a happy life as how Dan would want her to be after giving her his life. Oh dear! Her grief tugged at my heartstrings as if I was the one who’s going through the pain. Excellent! Myungsoo captured what I thought an angel should look like and if ever I have one, I want it to be just like him. He gave a great performance as well and I thoroughly enjoyed his scenes particularly his comedic moments on the first few episodes. I wish these two will have another project together in the future. I’ll be the first to line up for that show. 😍
Overall, I am happy with this drama. The only thing I hate about it is the portrayal of God which goes against my belief. When angels were sent to kill Angel Kang Woo but ended up killing Seol Hee instead, I was like WHAT?!? What kind of God would do that? And then at the course of the show, God was portrayed as the big bad which is just abominable. I think that’s what upsets me the most. If not for the great casts, lovely OSTs and my fondness for angels, I would have dropped this show to be honest. I wished the writer stayed in the romcom genre and didn’t go into melo. But hey, I guess you can’t get all that you want! Still, it is an enjoyable 16hours ride.
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10 sal
July 14, 2019 at 2:31 PM
to me writers strength is drawing out emotion as I was crying true the last two episodes. I am gonna remember our love birds for a long time, and happy knowing they got their miracle, and can live in peace as husband and wife❤️
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11 liar song #PuppyNotPuppyLeeJaeWookIsBack
July 14, 2019 at 3:36 PM
deus ex machina intensifies...
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12 blnmom
July 14, 2019 at 3:39 PM
Just wanted to stop by and say thanks for the recaps, Sailorjumun! I stopped watching a while back but have been keeping up with the recaps and watching select clips. My reaction to the end seems to be the same as everyone else -- namely, HUH? What just happened? I wish writers who write fantasy dramas were better at keeping track of their universe rules. Maybe someone can create an app for that?
Anyway, it really was a cute show at the beginning! I enjoyed the dancing and Shin Hyesun and L.
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13 ash27
July 14, 2019 at 8:11 PM
Seriously? All I wanted was for the ending to make sense, whether it was tragic or happy. Was that really too much to ask of the writer? Apparently so. I was so frustrated with this deus ex machina finale. Just poof! And they live happily ever after? But I have to say that it’s entirely what I expected at this point.
Clearly, the writing was the weak link in this show. We all talked at length about the haphazard “theology” employed throughout its run. The villains (Evil Aunt and Evil Cousin) were two-dimensional without believable motivations, which made them fall flat as antagonists. Ni-na and Kang-woo could have been great characters, but instead got the short end of the character development stick. Hoo Sunbae remained baffling until the end. But I do think the writing did one thing right: Yeon-seo. She was a fantastic character that will go down as one of my favorite women in kdrama. She was written with depth and not confined by typical gender stereotypes 👏. Oh, and our awesome lady butler stayed awesome.
Writing takes center stage for a show, so it’s understandable to judge a show by its writing, but I’d hate to ignore other aspects done well here. Of course we’ve all been gushing about how amazing Shin Hye-sun was in this role. I already really liked her as an actress, but she was truly phenomenal here. And I’ve already talked a couple of times about how much I love the way dance was utilized. But I don’t think I’ve mentioned one of the things that made the strongest impression on me since the beginning: the feel of the show. The beautiful OST, the editing and even the color palette created a whimsical atmosphere infused with underlying melancholy. This affecting atmosphere was part of the reason I stayed invested, and I think it helped the more emotional moments land even when things didn’t make sense.
All in all, despite the messy writing, I enjoyed the show. But I know I definitely enjoyed it more thanks to @sailorjumun's recaps and the ensuing discussions with beanies than I would have on my own 😊
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14 💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
July 14, 2019 at 8:12 PM
... Reading this finale recap was almost as wild as reading the entirety of "The Perfect Wife" recaps in one lunch break.
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15 Lumiere
July 14, 2019 at 9:06 PM
Thank you for all the recaps. It's been quite a ride that we all had together.
The ending and how they loosely tied the plot together did disappoint me somewhat. The drama had such an interesting premise that I felt they missed so many chances and avenue in which they could have made the journey even more epic. The supernatural elements could have had more presence, the way it was done in Black and Goblin to ground us all into the fantasy genre. To make a drama in the fantasy or supernatural genre, I feel strongly that it had to be tangible enough to shake the core of our expectations or perceptions. Instead, what we get were mere arguments and second-hand (and skewed!) interpretations on the mysteries of the spiritual world. I wish they'd make it a little clearer on the rules where angels can become human and vice versa. And I did so wish that they hadn't made the "deity" into an entity so replete with petty human emotions such as jealousy and made such frivolous rules.
I guess the drama had wholly banked on the chemistry between the actors/actresses and it was their excellence in performance that carried the drama through to the end. I admit to looking forward to the beautiful relationship and interactions between Kim Dan and Yeon Soo that had solidified in the first half of the drama. I wanted so much for Kang Woo's character to have more depth and that his relationship with Nina developed into something more meaningful. It didn't have to be a romantic one, but I felt that they could have helped each other out even as friends in healing their respective emotional losses. Their relationship had so much potential.
But all in all, I would still rate the drama higher than some other trainwrecks this year. I usually prioritize emotional investment higher than technical perfection anyway, because, at the end of it all, I would usually remember how a drama or movie made me feel, instead of how it made me think. And yes, I did feel quite a lot throughout watching the show, despite the protests coming out of my brain.
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Lumiere
July 14, 2019 at 9:08 PM
Comment was deleted
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Lumiere
July 14, 2019 at 9:09 PM
Oh typo error there, sorry. I was meaning to say "The ending and how loosely the plot was tied together did disappoint me somewhat."
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16 growingbeautifully
July 14, 2019 at 9:21 PM
@oldawyer @sychotic1 @hebang @linda-palapala @gemwendz @lumiere @quirkycase @hobakky @13infamyss @sal @blnmom
Thanks @sailorjumun and fellow Beanies for coming on this ride together with insightful comments and questions amidst stuff that got us going "Huh!?!?" I felt that it was still a pretty fun ride and enjoyed it, eye-roll and all.
I was re-reading what I wrote about the burning of the reports and how god was being painted in http://www.dramabeans.com/2019/06/angels-last-mission-love-episodes-23-24/#comment-3483668
An interpretation of the ending as an answer to prayer. This might be reaching, but in a show with inconsistency, I was looking for a consistent thread.
The overall mission was always too vague and open to interpretation in too many ways. This led to endless questions of, debate with, protests against and arguments with god. Despite Angel Hu and Dan and even KW accusing god to be guilty of a whole bunch of stuff like cruelty, unfairness, wanting his pound of flesh, ... they continued to pester and badger god to let them do what they wanted. (In other words they wanted what they wanted and barely considered that god may have had a plan). In any case, they went through the motions of 'praying' and hoping or demanding that their prayers be answered. Well, in the end some prayers were answered, and these in god's time, in god's way. One wonders if it was god's purpose to get them all het up to keep up the communication with him.
The reports were often written prayers, and their being self-destructed in flames, I always interpreted (as in the link to my past comment), as the sign of the messages reaching heaven, and likely accepted, but not necessarily that god would act on the requests in the way or at the time that the requestor wanted. Those that did not burn up immediately were under consideration, but could still be accepted.
Within the overall big plan of god, we see that there is the freedom of individuals to choose and set their own mini-missions/goals.
The smaller missions that were to support the overall love mission were given in the form of falling leaves stating a time and place where a beneficiary of the mission would be. When it came from god, it was mainly a mission. When it was written by someone else, it could work as a mission and a prayer. Thus it was consistent that Dan wrote on a leaf to set a mini-mission for YS to be at the Gisele performance, and YS did the same for Dan to meet her in the here and now. The time and place being right, with Dan right there, this prayer was answered immediately, and thus Dan fulfilled his LAST leaf mission by appearing in the flesh beside YS.
So maybe yes, what I hoped in my old post about god being painted black and then shown to be more reasonable after all seems to have happened, but we just don't know for sure, how or why... so yay?
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13infamyss
July 15, 2019 at 4:52 AM
Thanks growingbeautifullly. It was fun reading your thoughts and sharing theories with you. Till next drama again! ^_^
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growingbeautifully
July 15, 2019 at 6:46 PM
Yes, absolutely @13infamyss Let's have another drama that gets us either all over the moon or all riled up for the most 'effective' commenting!
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ash27
July 15, 2019 at 10:47 AM
Thanks, it's been fun!
And that's as good an interpretation as any for the ending. This show took the concept "God works in mysterious ways" to a whole new level...
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growingbeautifully
July 15, 2019 at 6:45 PM
@ash27 A whole new level because we'll be scratching our heads forever?
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17 growingbeautifully
July 14, 2019 at 9:39 PM
The could have beens:
I believe some of us have been thinking for some time that Show should have used other worldly mythical characters like goblins or fairies since it did not want to work consistently with the concept of a caring Judeo-Christian God. It has added to theological misinformation and confusion. It could have been a great show with capricious god spirits and gun toting goblins instead of angels.
What I didn't like were that the characters who were meant to be 'good' and who were supposed to know better, acted inconsistently and out of character, and how they justified evil action under the excuse of 'For Love of the Other', when in reality it was mainly for self. This was never elaborated or shown to be erroneous.
I had hopes that were dashed. When Dan said that god had probably planned for him to meet YS and even KW, and I'd say Ni Na too, for a purpose, there was so much potential. At the very least the 'love' mission was expanded to include Dan himself, but it could have encompassed all good-hearted individuals.. I had hopes that the good changes in these characters would take place through their interactions and relationships. I hoped that the character developments would be driven interior-ly by the appreciation of the love that Dan embodied.
This did not pan out since it was generally some external force that drove the decisions and no one gave credit to Dan's goodness, except maybe in YS's case. Worse, Dan's interactions with the evil ones made him change for the worse, to choose an evil route, that led to Hu's destruction. What a disappointment.
In the previous episode when Dan disappeared from the hospital and YS flatlined, I thought how great it would be if they met each other in passing from life into Life. Well it didn't happen.
The positives:
What I did like was Dan's giving YS his breath in hospital, comes back into the picture again. We have come full circle to when in the beginning, Dan gave YS his breath of life on the bridge, while she was thinking of dying.
His being granted a chance to not leave entirely but remain near YS suddenly suggested that god was more compassionate than he'd been made out to be.
In the end, although it did not come about in the organic way that it could have, the 'love' mission was more than fully fulfilled since YS, KW, Ni Na and Dan learnt to love themselves, to embrace life and to care for others: a 180 degree turnaround from Episode 1. Therefore I feel in that sense, we had a sorta good ending. 😉
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OldLawyer
July 15, 2019 at 5:40 AM
I do think that there was inconsistency but there was at least an attempt to reconcile those in the last episode. YS writes her prayer- asks that God consider her dance as her prayer- and then dances beautifully even after being stabbed- this was both prayer and sacrifice. Then she fulfills her prophesy by dying on the operating table (but then being revived- yay medical science). Dan being transformed into a man at the end was a possibility that was always indicated by the story of KW.
The destruction of Hoo was unnecessary simply because the writer never understood that angels exist to act, not just watch. God does not need watchers. It was 'consistent' with what the writer had said before about the rules for angels but it was a classic example of a foolish consistency.
We all would have been happier with better thought out religious background rules and a more organic story, but the happy ending for our husband and wife was very moving for me. I love the fact that they will now have a lifetime of loving each other and of that love touching the others around them.
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18 Nessa (Bebe) 🌹
July 14, 2019 at 10:15 PM
Thank you for the recap, @sailorjumun <3
Finally, 'tis done.
"Because if God was going to grant the couple their wish at the very end, then what was the point of Him being against them? No matter how much I think about — and boy, have I really thought about it — it doesn’t make sense to me."
^ This, coming from a 'religious' (goodness, with all due respect, I actually hate this word... A person of faith-- a person's faith itself-- isn't just a belief (system), but it's more than that... it's a lifestyle choice), it is to show that God, being God, and being the Creator of all things, has power and authority in and over all things--including who He chooses and orchestrates into our lives-- but He chooses to give us free will, He chooses to use us and to have us by His side to do things for Him, He chooses to give us choice and a choice of who we love; But because He is God, he can, and will, take it all away if He so chooses.... Many would say that this kind of God sounds selfish/narcissistic/mean, etc., but it's sort of justified and fair, because humans were created to glorify and to love God in the first place, because He first loved us (bible verse from
1 John 4:19)
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Bangtansdoc
October 25, 2019 at 1:29 AM
Thanks so much for this! I'm also a Christian and I frankly don't appreciate the term "religious" as well since Christianity is a way of life as you rightly said. I see nothing wrong with the writer's potrayal of God in the show. It has been known that He is a jelous God , and he gets jealous when we give His place in our hearts to other things. But when He corrects He does so with love, and I think inthe end our trio learnt that just as sunbae hoo said , He always has an answer, we are just too blind to see it. He is compassionate and merciful yes, but he is also not afraid to dish out punishment when need be. Might I also add that the black and white angel's weren't aiming for seol hee at all so God didn't technically kill her. Hoo I've ranted a lot but I just wanted to say my mind. Overall I really enjoyed ALML but I also felt like it got very melodramatic compared to the beginning. I thought L was amazing though! Like YS said, he was a breath of fresh air. Can't wait to see him in more dramas.
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19 deadlybaby
July 14, 2019 at 10:26 PM
i don’t know what drove me to read this after half losing my mind last week, but @sincerelytod i’m gonna need another dose of amnesia, please and thank you.
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20 Kurama
July 14, 2019 at 11:09 PM
The best parts of the drama were Yeon-seo-Dan's bickering, their romantic scenes and Shin Hye Sun's acting. I liked the dance was a big part of the drama until the end.
The story was badly written : the God's rules were not clear and very stupid (like killing a human to punish an angel), the thriller part was stupid too because the motivations of her evil family were so lame...
When they write fantasy, they should do like a detective novel, starts by the end. Fantasy dramas always are messy.
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OldLawyer
July 15, 2019 at 5:42 AM
I think that you are right about how a fantasy drama should be written. We loved this drama because Shin Hye-sun was brilliant, not because of the writing.
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BdxPelik
July 15, 2019 at 7:56 PM
Agreed with every word you said.
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21 PMSahjumoni
July 14, 2019 at 11:35 PM
Thank you, SailorJumun for the recaps and your wonderful insights every week! I actually loved the ending and how calm this episode was as it provided closure for each of the main players, especially how at peace Kang Woo and Ni Na finally seemed. It made my heart feel at peace just looking at them, knowing that they will both be embarking on a journey of betterment now.
I really loved the ending scene - the brief acknowledgment provided an impactful end without having to show more. I didn't need to see their life after that because it has already been shown in the entire show (and dream sequence). I mean, which show gave us a first kiss so early on and complete with a wedding that some shows can only manage at the last 10 minutes of the finale, or worst none at all. We had more that a glimpse into what their lives would have been like so that the writer can close out the drama by paralleling the beginning. It was truly beautiful. I'm just always glad a drama did not have a Black ending (yes, still bitter).
A nod to all the great actors in the show who made it more than it could be. I especially loved Butler Jung and the actress steals all the scenes she was in. I've also never seen Shin Hye Sun looked more beautiful that she did in this drama. She was positively radiant. L's angel was imbued with so much warmth and innocence, it's hard not to fall for his charms. Lee Dong Gun gave weight to an otherwise forgettable secondary role. I shall remember Lee Yeon Seo and Kim Dan fondly for a very long time!
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22 최재민
July 15, 2019 at 5:11 AM
We got a happy ending! Yaaaaas! But the way they wrapped things up was so abrupt, it ended before we could even wrap our heads around what was happening. I wanted to see their life at home. I wanted to see babies! THEIR 10 KIDS! sighhhhhhh maybe, I am just being greedy. Oh well. Still a good show. I will miss Dan and Yeon Seo as well as Myungsoo and Hye Sun's undeniable chemistry - possibly the best thing about this show besides Hye Sun's acting.
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23 Fatcat007 (Kitty 💜)
July 15, 2019 at 5:42 AM
okay.
just.
with all the impending DEATH doom since ep 3(?), I totally thought that the point where he breathes his life into her would be the last scene & I was crying buckets & actually ok with it.
But show did a 180 on me!
I mean yay that otp lived happily ever after so why did we get SO many fake deaths in last 2 eps ??? Seriously.
In memory of past Angels being punished left & right, I hope at least Kang woo became mortal (which wasn't exactly confirmed).
But ok show, whatever you say.
Excellent acting SHS, even more in the second half. I'm thoroughly impressed.
Thank you for the recaps, & sticking through till the end Sailorjumun <3
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24 Cloggie
July 15, 2019 at 6:06 AM
So what I took away from this drama is that there's a god who doesn't listen to prayer but is swayed with a wonderful ballet performance? It explains a lot... we're basically living in a world ruled by the wishes of ballerinas.
Slightly less facetious, I'll just say that this drama was perfectly servicable and I don't regret watching it, but I also won't attempt to figure out wth it was trying to say - as the drama didn't know that itself either.
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FlyingTool
July 15, 2019 at 2:14 PM
“...is swayed with a wonderful ballet performance”
That explains all the dance sequences in The Carrot Boy and His Magic Horse, doesn’t it? The proto-history humans had a closer relationship with the deity, supposedly...
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25 chousaurus
July 15, 2019 at 7:24 AM
aww it was a good ride while it lasted. i'm still such a sucker for like bittersweet romances that are fated but tragic LOL
i feel everything you said in your recap. i'm happy they got their happy ending, even though theres so many questions.
him hanging around her without her knowing kinda reminded me of the ending of abyss too LOL but this made WAY MORE sense than abyss. we do not talk about abyss. lmao
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26 JiaYou
July 15, 2019 at 8:27 AM
Was the last four minutes of the show forcely inserted to make all the viewers have a happy ending? It doesn't make sense to me at all. What just happened? That's it? He becomes human? How? Why didn't the deity do that earlier? I have so many questions.
But kudos to Shin Hye Sun for this! I'm now a fan of hers!
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27 Esther
July 15, 2019 at 11:29 AM
Another thing in this show aside from the chemistry, Lee yeon seo/shin hye sun & Kim Dan/Kim myung soo that is perfect is the OSTs!
They’re 🔥🔥!!!
I’m not satisfied but not complaining either
It was a fun ride!
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28 Jana
July 15, 2019 at 11:48 AM
I don't get the negative comments especially those who said the end doesn't make sense. Of course it does!
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growingbeautifully
July 15, 2019 at 6:51 PM
LOL, I've certainly done my part to make sense of it for me!! (If you see my comment above).
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29 BdxPelik
July 15, 2019 at 7:53 PM
"That Yeon-seo would realize this and be content in just knowing that Dan was watching over her. And though that would’ve been incredibly sad… I would’ve liked it. It would’ve been the perfect bittersweet ending."
YES. I know exactly how you feel. And truth be told, this isn't the first time I'm dissatisfied with a happy ending. I do not like happy endings. And by that I mean happy endings emerging from death fakeouts. There's something powerful about Yeon Seo willing to do exactly what Dan wished for her to do if he's gone. She was willing to grow stronger and braver. She's in pain, but she wants to honor his wishes. I really admire that.
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30 HellyJ
July 16, 2019 at 7:28 AM
Thank you for the recap, I really appreciate it. I agree that maybe the ending seems a bit lacking in many ways. I was thinking to myself that it should make sense and watching it for the second time makes more sense to me : we’re watching these characters evolve from what it was before.
The fake deaths were necessary to establish the fact that one of them has to die and they both are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. Dan, at one point was about to disown his belief and cross the bridge of no return, but instead Sr. Hu sacrificed himself-to just make a point that Dan had indeed changed him and that he considers Dan as his own family (and at the same time giving his blessings to the couple).
I think it made perfect sense. Like someone mentioned, Dan gave her, his breath of life in the earlier episode and then his dying breath to just let her live on. Yeon Seo, although was really sad, tries her best to honour Dan’s wishes, but she didn’t stop hoping for him to come back. Even the time frame kinda make sense too, they were together for 100 days and separated for the next 100 days and reunited at the same place again. Their selflessness and sacrifices, their resolution that their time together was a gift instead of torture, their faith to each other - was what different that Kang Woo’s and Angel Noel’s situation. They didn’t run away, they faced the challenge together, so this ending makes me happy, it was subtle but impactful enough for me to understand and appreciate.
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31 Mystery Song
July 16, 2019 at 9:44 AM
Hi. The drama was amazing yes, but I 100% agree with your comment about at least 10 to 15 minutes earlier. Also I am writing this comment because I have a question related to the show and if someone might be able to help me. There is this song in the show that I cant find in the OST list at all. It goes a little like "I can say anything that I want, when I want, I believe in things that I see..." for reference this song plays many times and the last minutes of episode 30 is one of those times, I have been trying to look for this song but cant find it. Please help.
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Mervin
February 13, 2020 at 5:33 AM
Pray by Klang.
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32 akix
July 16, 2019 at 8:23 PM
The last couple of episodes were definitely messy but I liked our couple too much to be bothered. I think a bittersweet ending would have been better but as for why Yeonseo was able to be with Dan again at the end... I’m choosing to believe that it was because Dan was sent to paradise, and his paradise was with Yeonseo.
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33 welh
July 17, 2019 at 9:06 AM
This was another one of the those dramas that could have been better, a lot better. The script had problems with continuity and its own world rules from the very beginning. The director could have molded the plot into a better cohesive (if he had time) story by toning down the religious elements.
This drama falls into the category of the actors outshining the script. But dramas are supposed to tell a story, which was the weakest part of the series.
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34 mary
July 17, 2019 at 1:28 PM
Divine Logic aside, this show is still super cute so I'll recommend it to friends who like rom-coms. :)))
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35 brainsandwich
July 17, 2019 at 11:14 PM
I started out really liking this drama. Usually this is not my type of show. But I like Shin Hye Sun so I decided to watch. But many people have pointed out the flaws and the unanswered questions. But my main complaint with the show was that Yeon Seo started out as a strong character but then allowed herself to become meek. I get that love changes a person but in this show I was hoping to see her become stronger and not so codependent on Dan. I was also expecting more humor and well more dancing. But both were lacking.
I found it amusing that Yeon Seo ended up in a coma. I was like am I watching her last show, Still 17. And with the evil sister I was reminded of Oh My Ghostess.
Even though the show was not that great I am happy that the people who needed to be punished, got punished. The sister got life in prison and the parents got sent to jail as well. In other dramas, I find it preposterous that the evil characters sometimes get happy endings. All their sins are forgiven and they are brought back to the fold. Here the baddies ended up where they were supposed to be.
For her next project I would like to see Shin Hye Sun do something different than a rom-com or a soap. Something with action or a court room drama or a medical show.
Now onto Hotel Del Luna.
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36 Tanya
July 18, 2019 at 1:02 AM
Guys, if somebody knows name of the final song in 32 episode, please write it for me)))
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37 Cathy
July 18, 2019 at 3:31 PM
It was good . A perfect mixture of angst and romance . My heart consistently wrenched for the main couple , the dancing was amazing despite the main actress being an actor . The female character yeon soo was also incredible from the beginning till the end . A must watch , just the last 5 minute ending , I still don’t understand . But , it could be just a miracle?
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38 PakalanaPikake
July 24, 2019 at 1:07 PM
Part 1 of 2
Thank you, @sailorjumun, for your recap and final summation of ANGEL’S LAST MISSION: LOVE. What a long, strange trip it’s been. I was gobsmacked by that ending that came out of left field. We got a full-blown miracle (Say Hallelujah! Say Amen!) as the deus ex machina that brought the story to a close. At least I think that’s what happened. It left me somewhat exasperated.
The significance of Dan’s name finally dawned on me. His mission had been to bring love into the life of the bitchy ballerina Yeon-seo. You know, the martinet who used to terrorize and torment her army of employees. Perhaps his name is a tip of the hat to Dan Cupid, which would jibe with the angel’s Puckish behavior. Thank heavens he wasn’t a chubby cherub with a bow and arrow. In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed L’s portrayal of Dan.
After beaucoup angst, criminal behavior, and worrisome angelic uproar, ANGEL'S LAST MISSION:
LOVE ended on an upnote as the baddies were punished and some of them repented. It was especially fitting that Nina retired to teach immediately after her understudy performance as Giselle, thus depriving her homicidal unni Luna of the payoff for which she had resorted to murder and violence. Evil Aunt and Uncle groveled, and headed off to the slammer. Redemption and forgiveness abounded, with former angel Ji Kang-woo gaining much-needed closure and peace of mind.
Archangel Hoo's sacrifice strikes me as the ultimate paternal expression of love for Dan, the angel and the man, that echoed his mortal father's apology. I was horrified that Dan would seriously consider killing a human, let along attempt it, and blessed Hoo for pulling a fast one to save his hoobae's soul. To paraphrase John 15:13 with a slight twist, "Greater love hath no angel..." Even so, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. The hit man's death appeared to be an accident, but even throwing him through the stacked bricks could have been the kiss of dissolution for Hoo. Wasn't there some way to hogtie him in angelic gossamer instead of killing him? Or was this meant as a demonstration to Dan of what would happen if he killed Luna? Maybe I'd better not look too closely.
- Continued -
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PakalanaPikake
July 24, 2019 at 1:08 PM
Part 2 of 2
Yeon-seo's (temporary) demise paralleled that of young Yoo Sung-woo, and Kang-woo's human sweetie. The details may have differed, but the feelings they elicited were a significant part of the human condition that angels are not privy to until they truly experience them first-hand as mortals. She flatlined just as Dan's time ran out. I could appreciate their anguish at being unable to say goodbye in person. I also noticed that the agent of her death, Luna, was the same party who who caused the brake lines of the car to be cut. She was supposed to have died in that accident, so it seems that the instigator got a do-over.
I took the reunion in the hospital between Yeon-seo and Dan to be a lucid dream within her coma. What had appeared to Kang-woo as Dan’s dissolution looked to me like a slow-motion version of the Angelic Transporter sans Hoo's finger snap.
Dan's eventual redeployment as a guardian angel worked for me. It was nice that Yeon-seo could sense his presence, even if she looked stark raving bonkers to everyone around her whenever she spoke to him. I was wondering what was in Dan's tin box, and found his stash of 30 years' worth of anniversary greetings to be very touching.
The resolution of Dan's becoming human for the third time was reasonable to me. It came about after Yeon-seo and Dan had both accepted their lots, and had expressed gratitude for the time that they had had together. Their reunion felt earned, although Hoo's intercession played a big role in the process. As did that miracle. ;-)
-30-
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39 PakalanaPikake
July 24, 2019 at 2:38 PM
Dramas often suffer in inevitable comparison with other shows that I'm live-watching simultaneously. Sometimes they come off second-best because I don't have enough emotional bandwidth left over when I'm already mesmerized by a truly superior production. Because I don't watch a single drama at a time, I will always compare shows that I'm watching with each other, as well as dramas I've viewed in the past. NOKDU FLOWER has been such a well-written and executed drama that it has blown all my other shows out of the water. A certain amount of my frustration with ANGEL'S LAST MISSION: LOVE stems from having seen how meticulous attention to writing, characterization, and detail in general -- along with a terrific cast and crew -- paid off in spades in the case of the sageuk.
Early in ALML's run, I couldn't help but note that ARANG AND THE MAGISTRATE is one of my all-time favorite dramas precisely because of all the attention to detail that went into the creation of its dramaverse and supernatural characters. I was again reminded of A&TM a couple of episodes ago:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2019/07/angels-last-mission-love-episodes-27-28/#comment-3494976
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40 maono
July 31, 2019 at 6:06 AM
Waste of my time. I don't understand why i keep forcing myself to watch those bad shows, already knowing the ending. Why are dramas always forcing a dramatic happy ending when IT DOESNT EVEN MAKE ANY SENS ? I'm tired of kdramas. I think i should really stop watching those rom-coms, i guess i've seen too many... Why do those become all so bad after 6-8 episodes...
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DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
July 17, 2023 at 2:32 AM
It's because they write the first 6 to 8 episodes, and then it's decided whether the show will go on to 16 or 20 episodes, or whether it will be ended quickly.
So they have to hurry a lot to write the last half.
Also, I believe they respond to the demands of audiences and sponsors. (Often, that results in exciting shows becoming conventional to please a majority and also to avoid offending conservative sponsors).
I am still surprised, again and again, of what a mess is made out of really good beginnings... don't they have *any* plan for what to do in the case of success and prolongation?
Right now I am following "See you in my 19th life" ... and i LOVE the show, but also fear that the plot will suddenly end up in a mess like this. Please, SYIM19thL, keep up the quality! I beg you!
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41 Paopao
July 31, 2019 at 1:28 PM
Actually I just came here to confirm my happiness, I just want a second the motion that Dan REALLY became a human, I literally began to cry the moment the handkerchief disappeared coz right at that moment I knew that he already became a human, I did realized that the reunion should've been like 10 mins or longer... it only took like 1-2min scene to end the episode, but at the bright side, we all got what we wanted, and that's Dan and Yeon So's Happy Ending. I'm now in a happy place, continuing their love story in my mind.
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42 ADJUMMI
September 29, 2019 at 5:56 PM
The best thing about this drama was Old Lawyer's comments, whoever you are!
I thought YS was a horrible woman, even when she was in love, she still bossed him around, was clingy and barely ever really nice to him, unless he did what she wanted him to do.
Honestly, all of you who loved her and the drama completely escapes me- it was high melodrama, not nuanced, totally confusing, and WHY both men loved this woman, I do not understand!
I did love L - I thought he was adorable, and that kept me watching. I thought he did a pretty good job with his character.
Though I have read your comments about it being some of your favorite dramas, I must admit, I still don't get it!
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43 SJ
October 23, 2019 at 11:16 AM
I was very impressed with L/Myung Soo's acting... first time I've seen an idol act WELL. And I've seen a lot :/
As for heroine- forget it, no comment, she's just AMAZING. One of the best actresses I've ever seen. She can transform into totally different PEOPLE in different shows. Serious TALENT and SKILL.
Overall, was a very heartwarming and rather sobering watch. Good stuff though. Agreed that the Director's actor was *very* good and would like to see him have bigger roles. He pulled this one off so very well. And Idk why but I LOVED the mom- the actress, that is. She's just so good.
Overall, good watch.
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44 Jane
October 31, 2019 at 2:32 AM
Anyone knows the title of the song played in the credit?
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45 weirdnshort
March 27, 2020 at 8:41 PM
I watched this for Hye Sun, and don't regret it. I just found that the God in this drama is super cruel. I feel sorry for Lee Dong Gun's character. He was being tortured for 15 years, unable to die, because of his love with a human. I don't see how doing Giselle brought him peace. I wish the ending could have used him a bit better to wrap it all up. My mom and I were guessing how it could possibly end. I wish this was how it ended:
Kang Woo, who is a human who was unable to die saves Yeon Seo and gets himself killed. In this process, we can see him finally RIP with Seol Hee. Since he sacrificed his life, somehow it paid the price for Kim Dan/Lee Yeon Seol.
To be quite honest, i think Lee Yeon Seol already showed her love to Kim Dan when...she proposed to him. They should have just made him human at that point. I didn't quite like the whole "I'll die for you, so that you can live" story line. I think Kang Woo was right, they're all being cowards, afraid to live by themselves.
Another ending would be that Yeon Seol dies and joins Kim Dan on the other side or he ends up being her grim reaper. Then they will be reborn again.... and meet up as kids? (lol at this, my mom pointed out that's not Christianity but more Buddhism).
I don't know. I think there were so many possiblities.
My greatest take out of this was...Shin Hye Sun is one heck of an actress. I think she's going to be my favourite kdrama actress. L - I really thought he was a pretty face. He is a lot better than before. I hope he continues to grow as an actor.
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DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
July 17, 2023 at 2:25 AM
This was not Christianity anyhow, so you just go ahead and find solutions.
I would be miffed at the use of Christian symbols here, were it not that I know lots of (mainly Western) stories have used Asian mythology completely random in a similar way. So I find the random inserting of the cross and poor Jesus somewhat funny (funny peculiar or funny ha ha? Both).
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46 Buds and Flowers
May 26, 2020 at 3:46 PM
The writer might have tried to emphasize on the matter that God is not person who would grant someone's wish just like that. He would always disagree with our wishes to see how much we can fight for it. How much do we want it. He may grant us our wishes if we can price to him that we want it, love it more than anyone, that we are even ready to sacrifice ourselves for it.
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47 Julika
April 27, 2021 at 4:51 AM
I’m not sure about this drama , is it good ? Is it bad ? It’s somewhere in between . At the beginning , it was engaging and interesting. Then it gets complicated but it makes no sense.
L performance is great , not amazing but great . The leading lady is good , not amazing but good. The rest is not bad.
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48 DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
July 17, 2023 at 2:17 AM
This was one big mess.
I could have easily made three different better endings, sad or not.
Like: How about she had actually been an angel, dancing before him as a child, and they had alternately saved each other, shifting between human an angel, but could only remember bits of it? That would make a whole lot more sense within that universe, … and both of them had at one time been very cynical and had to be saved from that by each other?
Another solution would be to let the G-oddity actually just make less and less sense, and so they would … end up revolting, … even if it meant dissipation, it would be a dissipation in spite rather than despair, know what I mean?
That ending would be even better if it resulted in some kind of revolution … that would be a grand story! Angry angels revolting … you know it has happened before (according to the Bible) … but maybe this time not angry that they should serve human kind, but that they should serve an envious and petty God! What a story that would be!
(I keep my own Christianity out of this, because this drama is so far from making sense within any religion I know of anyway. I am just talking about meaningful mythology or anti-mythology here. World-building).
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49 DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
July 17, 2023 at 2:34 AM
Oh, BTW, the bingo card for this show is here:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/CecilieDK/activity/1425025/
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50 Goyangi and the Camel Crickets
August 29, 2023 at 4:50 PM
Another amazing performance by Shin Hye Sun! First time I've seen L, he did well too, but everyone was outshone by SHS. Loved the cinematography, dancing, and music, and I thought the ending was just right. I still don't understand the rules of this world, especially how a 12 year old died and became an adult angel. Though I like the idea that someone who had such a sad childhood was given a chance to live a happy life.
My biggest complaint was for Yeon Seo's dog, Gureum. I wish Kdramas would take a more believable approach to characters who have disabilities. The guide dogs in this show and in Blind both ran away from their human partners, and in Blind the dog even refused to return when called. True story: there were two guide dogs in the twin towers on 9/11 when the planes crashed into them. Amid the chaos, not only did both dogs stay right beside their partners, they both calmly and expertly led their person and a couple dozen other people the safest way down 70+ flights of stairs and outside to safety. They could easily have run out by themselves. The loyalty of these dogs far outweighs fear. Kdramas writers and directors: planning a drama with a blind character? Contact me, I'll gladly consult on your project! 🐶
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