I have to say I hated how this episode ended. Of course Pil-gu is allowed to have his fears and anxieties and Dongbaek is also very emotionally damaged, but I just don't buy her argument that Pil-gu would turn into her, if she and Yong-Shik stayed together??? What Yong-Shik's mom did was horrendous, and she has beaten out Joker in my dislike because I don't even have any feelings about him (okay other than anger about what happened to Hyang-Mi, but even the show seems to brush that aside), but how would Pil-Gu growing up with two loving father figures harm him in any way?

I can see why Dongbaek would make that argument, because she is so very damaged, but the fact that no one pushed back against it is maddening. I grew up as the child of a single mother, and my mother marrying my step-father didn't make my family any smaller nor did it cause me to lose contact with my father.

Pil-gu is 8 years old, so I don't expect him to make emotionally mature choices, but someone needs to explain to him that his mother loving someone else doesn't mean she loves him any less.

Also if it turns out to be that Dongbaek is now "allowed" to marry someone, in her 50s, bc now Pil-gu is grown up and approves of that I am going to be so mad. She's her own goddamn person. Yes Pil-gu is her son, and her No1 Priority, but he shouldn't be her whole universe.

I hope "I finally grew up" means that as soon as Pil-gu realized that his mother would give up YS for him, he also realized that he could allow YS into his mother's life without losing his own place in her affection. If it means that he kept her single until he was an adult, I will be disgusted.

Reading this recap, I realized that we never found out the message that HM intended to leave when she swallowed the little yellow thing. I hope the show isn't going to drop this thread.

I feel like this show has a lot of work to do in the last episodes to pull together different threads and give us a satisfying ending. If we leave YS with a broken heart, I think I might hate this show. More than any other character, he made us love him, and I need to see him be his usual cheerful-hearted self before we say goodbye.

This episode made me see red, and I'm sorry but I don't agree with you @teriyaki, PilGu isn't traumatized, he is confused and he need a real talk with his mother not casting aside all male figures from his life. I was so mad when they showed DB gaining her confidence by physically attacking JR for daring to want to be in his son's life, WTF that was??? All that made Joker reveal pretty anticlimactic and I hope the show mend it's way this week, because right now I'm pretty disappointed.

This drama has lost its way, its heart.

In as much as I don’t like JR, I like his interactions with his son. He’s a shitty husband but it’s obvious he wants a part in PG’s life and it’s his right. I found it ironic how he went on and on about DB’s way of raising PG that the moment he has temporary custody, he’s sort of neglectful. But he’s not the only guilty party - both parents have failed to sense Pil-gu’s feelings and often mistakenly neglect him or give him problems an 8 year old has no business having.
PG hasn’t been allowed to be positively influenced by the presence of his dad by JR and DB.
He’s a kid and of course he feels the fear of being a burden or being replaced. Nobody in the show but YS is acting like an adult. This is something they have to give time to. While I understand where the traumatized kid that is DB is making this decision, like another beanie, I’m pissed no one is trying to make her see reason.
And there’s no justification in telling JR not to see his kid. JR isn’t helping matters either. He needs to sort his life out and continuously try to form a relationship with his son.

I think Pil-gu will realize that hes not going to be abandoned and will allow them to be together. He was anyway warming up to Yong-shik and even allowed him to stay at their house in his absence, which I had thought was a blessing. But I really hope it doesn't happen that Pil-gu just allows it, being the mature adult he is, just so that his mother can be happy, but Dong-baek also puts some effort and has a proper conversation with him about it. She really shouldn't just let go of someone as amazing as Yong-shik, hope she gets that.
Jung-sook and Yong-shik should've had that break up in dramas talk in front of her lol!
Why couldn't she atleast wait a day to break up with him! He caught Joker! And he started out on it for her! She should be celebrating! The ajummas are her friends now and Joker is caught! Things just started getting better. Does she enjoy being miserable?
Hope she uses this time to properly think about Jong-ryeol and Yong-shik's involvement and discuss things with Pil-gu and her mother and be strong and decisive about it.
I think even Deok-soon will see how miserable Yong-shik is and will give up her stubbornness.
I don't know why but I'm glad that the Joker storyline is done with and it wasn't that complicated or stretched out.
I think the show will end well. Fingers crossed!

These episodes were the worst in story construction and execution. I always thought the Joker mystery was a waste of time and effort to create a sense of drama. The conclusion was meaningless, and immaterial because there was no motive or connection to the killings. HM death makes even less sense if she swallowed a bottle cap which was her actual cause of death.

The only true bonding experience was PG and Jessica at the kitchen table. It was the only truly honest moment between two frustrated and misunderstood characters.

I think it would be a cheap sudden180 degree turn to have the last episode turn into a "happy" ending for DB and YS. Their break-up showed they are at two different levels of immaturity. DB decided her life would only revolve around PG. YS gave up too quickly because he had no answer to her decision. If he could not change her mind at that emotional moment, it would hard to find a logical way for him to re-spark their relationship.

I can understand Pil-gu’s fear of being abandoned as he’s still an 8 year-old after all, but I’d be mad if the tantrum of an 8 year-old is gonna cost Dong-baek the chance to have a happy relationship for 20 years. Seriously, all she need is just a heart to heart talk with Pil-gu and assures him that his love for Yong-shik is not going to replace his love for Pil-gu. Pil-gu is a boy who’s more mature than his age, and he was even willing to sacrifice himself by leaving her so she can get married with Yong-shik, so I don’t think it would be too hard to convince him if he knows that it would make his mom happy. And she should also consider that having a father figure like Yong-shik would actually make Pil-gu happier than having none. I still hope that the time jump will show that Pil-gu is able to grow up well with a loving mother and a father figure.

The Joker’s resolution does feel quite anticlimatic, and I’d be really disappointed if they don’t flesh it out a little bit more. I thought the yellow thing was gonna be Hyang-mi’s final message that will lead to the Joker’s true identity, but it wasn’t so what’s the point of that?

Am i the only one who’d like to see more interactions between Pil-gu and Jessica? I feel like they could unexpectedly get along quite well, so I was kinda disappointed that Pil-gu left the house so soon.

Well, the conclusion of the Joker subplot was rather poorly handled :(

I enjoyed the suspense that it induced in the earlier episodes, and I was looking forward to a better explanation than what we got.

First off, not everyone who has an antisocial personality disorder becomes a murderer (I'd know since I'm studying Psychology, and even without formal psychological knowledge, it's not a convincing argument). Even if it was, it's still hard to swallow, because the show doesn't even explore what the disorder actually is to give us more insight.
Second, if Joker stopped killing five years ago because he couldn't walk after that accident, why didn't he go after Dongbaek immediately after recovering? And for that matter, WHEN did he recover? WHY was he after her in the first place? And if he was so willing to cooperate when he got busted, why didn't he just turn himself in lol?
Third, WHAT is it that Hyang-mi actually swallowed? That seemed awfully important, but then the show just swiped it under the rug.
IDK if there is still more to the Joker plot, like a final twist or reveal, but I wish we'd been given more insight into Joker's motives, what really makes him tick, and how he came to be a murderer. His story seemed really interesting (and good enough to warrant its own drama).

But that being said, I'm not too disappointed (or surprised), because I watch this show mostly as a slice-of-life ish drama.

Now, if the show could only stop trolling us with a "break-up" with only two episodes left... but that wouldn't be a k-drama, right? 😂. I'm a little bit annoyed at it for using this trope, with everything it managed to avoid; but then again, I don't exactly think I'd consider this as noble idiocy. Dongbaek's logic makes sense for a mother in that situation somehow.

A little disappointed, not what I was expecting. The whole arrest of the Joker was so rushed, and where does Heung Shik is? He would be an accomplice of his father, because he knew that he was killing people. Pretty much all the work that Yong Sik and the Chief did to find out who was the man behind all those murders, at the end it was not recognized as it should. They were on the side.
I am wondering about what was the message that Hyang-mi wanted to give them by swallowing that yellow liquid. We already saw what happened, but they mentioned that, and I hope they follow up.
I think it was pointless for Yeong Sik and Dongbaek to break up now, when they went through so much, they grew up, they supported each other (more like he supported Dongbaek, though), and then? She says she just want to be a Mom. I am sorry, but he opened up his heart, put his life at risk to save her, the relationship with his mom got tense, and she just cries while she says BYE TO HIM? I thought that she was already a strong and more self confident woman who knows that she deserves to be happy too. Of course her priority is Pil Gu, but WHY NOT take care of her son, and not necessarily marry Yeong Sik, but give herself a chance to be loved and to love him?.
I hope that glimpse to the future of a grown up Pil Gu, means that she was his primary support, but all was the result of her being happy and loved.
I am looking forward to see how this story will wrap up.

Kyu-tae definitely needs to join the police force. Not because I think he is a good detective but because that hug between chief and him was so cute and the only highlight of this episode.

Lordy, cut DongBaek some slack. She's never had anyone teach her how to be a mother or even anyone who's taught her to confront people and stand up for herself. She's always backing off and being non-confrontational because thats how she had survived that whole childhood of taunts from every front - both kids and adults.

She's only beginning to take baby steps in understanding that she is worth standing up for her happiness thanks to YongShik. But when it comes to her son, it's understandable that she falls back into her old ways again just because he's the one uncompromisable factor in her life and now that PilGu is basically screaming that he's feeling threatened, it's no wonder her first instinct is to take that threat away.

And, well, I can't fault PilGu either. He's just 8. Throwing tantrums is his prerogative. He's got a lot of growing up to do, which I'm sure will come in due time, with how well he's being brought up by everyone - not just DongBaek but also his grandma and now even JunGi's mom. It really takes a village to raise a child and I'm sure he'll come round to it, since the issue is not that he hates YongShik, the person, at all, but just because he's fears that YongShik will take his place beside his mom. When he understands that no one can ever do that, I'm sure DongBaek and YongShik can go for round 2.

The bigger problem isn't even PilGu though. It's YongShik's mother, the adult. Damn if I will ever marry a guy whose mother makes my son feel like he is my burden. YongShik has to handle his mother before he and DongBaek can ever get back together for reals.

“What’s the big deal about murdering someone? Stop causing a big fuss.”

Spoken like a true King? President? Chaebol? Not the thing to say if you are the dude who used to install air conditioners and couldn't even do that without screwing it up.

I think the break-up is just the catalyst for Deok Soon to get over her opposition to the couple. I would have done it another way but i’ll go with it. DeokSoon has spent her life shielding Yongshik from hurt and now is the reason her carefree cheerful son will experience heartbreak and sadness while wounding another mother’s child in the process.

My frustration with how this episode came about is probably the same as others.

I have always been a bit frustrated with DB's character - but I am frustrated with such people in real life too. Too passive and timid people make me very impatient. So, I really do admire Yonk-Shik's patience with her. After all that, her breaking up with him because he could not communicate well with her child was quite shocking.

I am kinda hoping that the last two episodes address that and tell us they actually got married that year...They just had to have Pilgu get used to the idea.

I have consistently believed that DB should have given a choice Pilgu's father to be part of his life. He actually wants to be a father and does not know how to be one now and DB does not help at all. A proper communication with Pilgu could quite possibly handle this situation - even if it is a slow process but every conversation between his father and her are about their relationship, not about what is good for Pilgu.

I do felt joker revelation a bit anticlimatic. But I am glad that is done.

Despite my frustration with DB handling things in her life, I do enjoy this drama quite a bit. After at Eighteen, my favorite drama I think.

Does everyone buy the Joker story, that they got the right person?

I’m not buying it.

Part 1 of 3

Thank you for your recap, @teriyaki! “Jung-sook can’t understand how Dong-baek grew up to be so kind and it’s not a compliment.” – Thank you for explaining that scene. I didn’t pick up on the sarcasm. Like you, I’m bummed out over the raw deal that Dong-baek has dealt Yong-shik, despite all her protests that she hates goodbyes. This is one goodbye that she did have control over and could have avoided.

The cliffhanger at the end of last week’s episodes blew my doors off. That flash-forward of a young man in a business suit speaking on the phone to someone who sounds like a concerned parent, and the accompanying voice over immediately following Dong-baek’s breakup with Yong-shik, made me gasp. “... and so ended the miraculous spring day of my mother’s life.” The hint at THE SPRING DAY OF MY LIFE / MY BLOOMING DAYS (with Kam Woo-sung, Sooyoung, and Lee Joon-hyuk) struck me as ominous, especially as organ transplantation is a significant factor in that drama, and we know that Dong-baek’s mother is on dialysis. I had gotten the impression that Dong-baek may have the same condition. And then I couldn’t help but wonder if Yong-shik’s luck will run out and he dies in the line of duty – but is an organ donor who ends up saving one or the other of them. Yeah, my mind is going makjang ballistic.

Dong-baek has been so scarred by her own sad early life that it’s the only way she knows how to be. Pil-gu finally can’t stand it any longer, and lets her know that he never asked to be born and raised without a father. And now she’s whining and upset that he’s walking on eggshells – when that is all he has ever seen her do. She purposely deprived him of a father to protect him from Jong-ryeol’s self-centered immaturity. I think it’s also because she herself never had a father and didn’t think she needed one. Her attempt to protect him from the neglectful Jong-ryeol ends up being a bigger disservice to her boy than she ever imagined. I winced as I watched the replay of her crying with baby Pil-gu. No wonder he grew up thinking he had to protect her. Because he did.

- Continued -

hey @teriyaki I think the childhood flashback belongs to Yong-shik based on the taekwondo uniform (it has his name) so it understandable how suddenly Yong-shik remembers Heung-shik's dad face.

Oh well, this drama went downhill on its latter half. Disappointed but not surprised. The murder mystery never appealed much to me and as it began to take more and more space of the story the narrative got lost. They can pull an amazing plot twist at the finale week, who knows, but at this point I'm not expecting much.

I'm more disappointed at how they manage the other plotlines. It always feels like we're taking one step forward and two steps back. We had so many good characters to explore, so many interesting dynamics and tensions. Instead the drama chose to revolve the same situations over and over. Hell, in episodes 33-34 JR was STILL trying to convince DB to move in with him. At this point we should be waaay past this conversation.

I love the chemistry between JR and PG and wish we'd had the chance to see their father/son relationship bloom, wish we had seen more of how the presence of PG would affect Jessica and her marriage to JR.

I'm also disappointed at DB. YS has done pretty much everything to prove he loves DB and PG, he's made so many concessions and compromises. I'm frustrated that at this point their relationship still feels so one sided in the sense of the level of effort each one is making to make it work. I don't believe the break up will last but if it turns out to be definitive I won't be mad.

I have so much affection for this characters so I hope they can still deliver a somehow satisfying finale, though I'm also bracing myself for the worse.

The revelation of Joker’s identity as Heung-shik’s father hit me hard. I recalled the news of a man falling off a building after the OK Aesthetics murder report, but there was no follow-up. When we finally saw his father in the room with a folded-up wheelchair and the bottles of paraquat (the name by which the herbicide is known in the US), I thought that the cat killer had developed Parkinson’s disease from exposure to the chemical. But that was not the case. He’d fallen off the roof (it sounded like karmic payback for all the cats he threw off), and took years to recover.

Dang, he’s been ambulatory for how long? He’s been poisoning the cat food after Heung-shik puts it out. And that is why Hyang-mi addressed an unseen cat feeder as “ajusshi.” Did she know who he was? I suspect that when she saw him through the open door across the hall from the room she was staying in at the hardware store, they recognized each other. Hmmm. In his voice over, Yong-shik states that Joker killed her because he mistook her for Dong-baek since he couldn’t see her face under the helmet. But was that really the case? It wouldn’t be the first time he drew a logical conclusion that was incorrect. Hyang-mi hadn’t known who he was when she met him outdoors as she had only been in Ongsan for two years, and his accident happened three years before her arrival. But now she knows that he can walk, and it’s only a matter of time before the police find out. Hmmm.

My blood ran cold when I realized another possible reason for Hyang-mi’s death: Heung-shik liked her. His father killed all the cats he (or was it his brother?) brought home when he was a lonely, motherless kid. (Did dad kill mom, too?) When Hyang-mi asked Heung-shik for a place to stay, she had no way of knowing that she would be just like one of the stray cats he used to bring home. I’m not even sure that her seeing the burns on the underside of the table was the issue. From what I gather, his father hated hearing the ticking of the clock (Because of hypersensitivity to noise? Because it drove him nuts when he was bedridden after the fall?), which is why none of them worked. When she installed batteries as a way of thanking Heung-shik for a warm place to crash, she unknowingly antagonized his father. In the long run, it was her showing up like a stray cat herself that sealed her fate, at least metaphorically. His father seems to have begrudged him any kind of relationship with another living creature.

With a father like that, Heung-shik never had a chance. Even so, he was a decent human being. I understand why he tried to contain his father’s homicidal tendencies by padlocking him in the house. It’s a wonder that he himself was still alive, if you can call that living. And now he faces the prospect of jail for aiding and abetting his horrid father. He is truly a tragic figure. I feel as if I’m watching COME HERE AND HUG ME.

One of my favorite scenes in this episode was of Capt. Byun comforting Lord No outside the police station. Gyu-tae is itching to be interviewed about his role in assisting in the apprehension of Joker. The way in which Byun envelopes him in a knowing hug and pats his back really got me. When I looked up Jeon Bae-su’s filmography, I was stunned to realize that I’d already seen him in supporting roles in HAECHI, GUEST, 17 BUT 30, MAD DOG, and the movies MASQUERADE, THE PIRATES, and ON YOUR WEDDING DAY. He’s been in many films. What a chameleon.

Another chameleon in the show is Lawyer Hong. When I saw that person in a black baseball cap watching Hyang-mi drive up to deliver the food across the way, I thought I was seeing a security guard or something. I was floored to learn that it was actually Lawyer Hong, whose testimony is invaluable in tracing Hyang-mi’s last rides.

Hyang-mi’s presence of mind that prompts her to swallow the yellow object to catch the attention of the medical examiner is amazing. What is truly sad is his pronouncement that it took her half an hour to bleed out. Could she have lived if Dong-baek’s mother had told the cabby to follow the truck with Camellia’s scooter instead of taking her to the hospital? Was she alive when she was dumped in the lake? (Her lungs would be full of water if that were the case.) The more we learn about her demise, the more hideous it becomes.

This drama I keep getting torn between loving this drama (mostly because Kang Haneul is so adorkable) and wanting to smack all of these characters upside the head and tell them all to grow the fluff up. Pil Gu is not a possession. Why hasn’t anyone taken the time to talk things over with the kid? Instead, they spend all their time playing tug o war over the child (he’s mine, no he’s mine). No wonder the kid is confused and stressed. I am still having a hard time with DB as a character. I can’t sympathize too much with her when it comes to the baby daddy issue. She had no right to do what she did to both Pil Gu and JR IMO, and a lot of the trouble she could have avoided by simply doing the right thing in the first place. But everyone at this point is on my nerves. “Hey JR, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your son. I was scared and confused, and then some time went by and you got married and I didn’t know how to tell you. Let’s tell PG together and let’s try to come to an agreement so you two can get to know each other . I’m in a relationship right now but let’s make sure PG knows we are all on his side.” “YS eomma, put a GD sock in it. We are grown @$$ adults, and my child is not a burden and you should apologize immediately.” “Pil Gu. I know it’s shocking for your dad to suddenly come into your life out of the blue, and your mom suddenly starting to date someone. It is important that you know that you are my first priority, but I’m important too. We will all take things nice and slow, and We won’t live together with YS until you feel comfortable.” There. Fixed it.

At this point in the drama I still could not get it why DB is shown to be walking on eggshells even at her age. She was as good as an orphan at young age when her mother abandoned her, became a single mom and was the target of a killer. Over the years she has been dealth with blows left and right but is shown to have raised a good a d smart kid, and having someone romantically interested in her. Can you have done all that if you were weak and kept on walking on eggshells? Her sniffing and pouting when being verbally attacked or abused has been getting on my nerves. Inconsistent characterization, if I might say. Overall, though, I give the show a thumbs up for bringing out parenthood issues.

What a crushing disapointment this series has become. From a story I looked forward to watching it has become a pathetic nightmare. Its original beauty has become so ugly and irrelevant. I just can't continue to watch it. What a shame!

I'm bummed about the time-jump, Joker's end and the break up.
I mean I'm happy Joker was caught but the reveal felt a bit anti-climatic.

As for the break-up, it could be avoided if the adults learn to talk to Pil Gu! He's a very smart, protective kid and has obviously been putting up a strong front so it was totally heart-breaking when he broke down and declared it felt like the end of the world when DB didn't pick him up and the door code was changed. Amazing acting by the little boy!

If only they gave Pil Gu reassurances - DB would love him no matter what, JR is trying to build a relationship with him and will never abandon him again, YS is a good man and will love him too - then i'm sure Pil Gu will welcome them with open arms! Poor kid, and he doesn't even know about HM's death or grandma's sickness yet :(

Please, writernim, make the DB and YS break up permanent. I want YS to be happily married to a woman with no hang ups.

aww this drama was doing so well until this episode!!! lol

it's ironic because in doing so, pil-gu does indeed become a burden....which he never really was.

but they had that scene where pil gu was warming up to yong sik and yong sik came to save him during the baseball game. i'm really surprised they decided to take the drama this direction lol

Whatever they have written in the last two episodes for the ratings has worked, because I'm going mad waiting for the finale. Also I'm reading every new comment put up here.

What a horrible image Dongbaek portrays in this scene. There is cruelty in her indiference. In earlier scenes she told him how her heart was fluttering, but now we see she really has no heart. Of course it is the script writer (Im Sang-Choon) who has produced this radical revision of Dongbaek's personality with no credibility whatsoever.

Turns out noble idiocy isn’t less annoying or selfish when it’s an 8 year old doing it.

As far as I can tell, like a lot of overly mature children he suddenly discovered the benefits of chucking a tantrum later in life. Because that's what this was - a tantrum. He should have gotten it out of his system younger. But also the minute he told his father the real reason he was leaving he should have turned the car right back around.

The comments on the fan wall about this episode are the reason I waited till I had all of them to watch because it looked like the show was about to go full kdrama. My instincts weren't wrong. I really hated it.

One thing I will say about it though, its previous fetishisation of motherhood was annoying me because it's the kind of misgoynistic philosophy that lets men off the hook for parenting. So it was nice for this show to finally make the point that parenting is parenting and both parents have a role here.