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Vincenzo: Episode 20 (Final)

by quirkycase

The epic fight between our mafioso and his adversaries comes to a close in an intense finale that takes vengeance to a new level. In a tale with a death toll higher than its episode count, we know we’re not in for a happily-ever-after. But we do get a solid ending that does justice to the characters we’ve gotten to know and love over the past several weeks. So grab your espresso and settle in for one last wild ride with our favorite consigliere and his loyal Geumga Plaza crew.

 
EPISODE 20

While Vincenzo sits on the ground holding a bleeding Cha-young in his arms, Joon-woo raises his gun and points it at Vincenzo. Han-seo leaps up and grabs the barrel of the gun, trying to wrestle it away from his brother.

With the gun now pressed into Han-seo’s abdomen, Joon-woo tells him to let go, but Han-seo refuses. He begs Joon-woo to stop and says, “You really shouldn’t have been born, you scum.” Joon-woo stares coldly and shoots straight through his brother’s stomach. Noooo!

Vincenzo stares in shock as Han-seo falls to the ground. Joon-woo points his gun at Vincenzo and pulls the trigger. Vincenzo covers Cha-young with his body, but nothing happens – Joon-woo is out of bullets. Vincenzo chases Joon-woo out to the balcony but doesn’t follow when Joon-woo jumps down to the ground below and speeds off in his car.

While Vincenzo calls an ambulance and checks on Cha-young, Han-seo calls out to him. Vincenzo rushes over and cradles his head. “I did well, didn’t I?” Han-seo asks. Vincenzo says he did well enough to qualify to be his little brother. Han-seo says it’s the first time he’s ever helped anyone.

He coughs up blood but manages to hand Vincenzo his phone, telling him he knows what to do with it. Han-seo thanks Vincenzo for everything and then goes still. Vincenzo bows his head, and Cha-young sheds a tear. Vincenzo gently closes Han-seo’s eyes and remains by his side. Meanwhile, Joon-woo tosses his phone in the river.

Cha-young wakes in the hospital, luckily only sporting a shoulder injury. She tells Vincenzo it wasn’t his fault she got hurt and encourages him to go catch Joon-woo. He promises to finish this within 24 hours. Then, he’ll leave. She asks him not to say goodbye when he goes.

In prison, Myung-hee reads the headline article about Joon-woo fleeing after murdering his brother and attempting to murder a lawyer. She curses Vincenzo’s name. At Geumga Plaza, the tenants are relieved Cha-young is recovering and determined to stay in this fight to the very end.

Vincenzo passes Han-seo’s phone and the original Guillotine file over to Team Leader Ahn who vows to uphold justice. Vincenzo encourages him to use it to “trample” his enemies instead. He shares that, from a villain’s perspective, the scariest enemy isn’t the just official but the regular citizen who stands outside with a baseball bat when his rent is raised.

Elsewhere, Attorney Han psyches himself up to sign the warrant for his own arrest. Right before he signs, Vincenzo calls and offers him a way to survive: Release Myung-hee within the next three hours.

When Attorney Han hesitates, Vincenzo terrifies him by reciting his schedule over the past few days and saying he could’ve killed him at any time. Attorney Han eagerly crumples his arrest warrant and prepares to sell Myung-hee out.

On the run, Joon-woo buys a bag full of weapons and hires a group of men for some new nefarious plan. Meanwhile, shortly after the prosecution raids Wusang, Myung-hee is released from prison. The prosecution determined she took the fall for Joon-woo because her life was threatened.

Vincenzo calls to tell Myung-hee this is her final day and plays her the recording of Attorney Han trading her life for his. Myung-hee goes straight to Wusang, unaware Young-woon is tailing her and reporting to Vincenzo.

Myung-hee retrieves a secret cell phone from her office and calls the number Joon-woo texted her. He informs her of his plan to escape to Mexico and encourages her to flee the country as well. He sends her to remove sensitive information from his laptop and tells her to transfer five billion won to herself.

While Vincenzo and Team Leader Ahn somehow track Joon-woo via Han-seo’s phone, Attorney Han addresses the press about Joon-woo. He pins all Wusang’s illegal dealings on behalf of Babel on Myung-hee and claims Wusang is the victim.

Attorney Han’s little press conference outside the courthouse is interrupted by a call from Joon-woo who chides him for being disrespectful. “Go keep my little brother company,” Joon-woo says ominously. He watches from a van as one man breaks through the crowd and stabs Attorney Han in the gut and another stabs him in his neck. By the time Vincenzo arrives minutes later, Attorney Han is dead.

The breaking news reaches Cha-young and Joo-sung in the hospital. Even as Cha-young reassures Joo-sung that Vincenzo will be fine, her face betrays her worry.

Vincenzo suddenly loses the GPS signal while chasing Joon-woo, but Young-woon has an idea of where Myung-hee will be. Myung-hee arrives at her apartment and checks in with Joon-woo before going up. She rushes inside and freezes when she hears the tell-tale sound of Vincenzo’s lighter.

Young-woon blocks her exit after taking out the security guards outside, so she pulls herself together and faces Vincenzo. When he tsks that it’s better to hide than run from a predator, Myung-hee argues she wouldn’t know since it’s her first time as prey.

Vincenzo promises that the money she sent to Joon-woo that he (or Mi-ri, more accurately) intercepted will go to a good cause. Myung-hee sighs that he’s been thorough in his making a fool of her and asks to finish her beer before he kills her. Vincenzo recalls her love of Zumba and instead offers to let her “dance” as much as she’d like.

The police are baffled as to why CCTV footage shows a member of the Mafia and an unknown accomplice abducting Myung-hee from her apartment. Based on the link between Wusang and Babel, they assume Attorney Han’s death, Joon-woo’s fleeing, and this kidnapping are all related.

Elsewhere, Myung-hee wakes in an abandoned warehouse with her feet possibly nailed to the floor. (It’s hard to tell exactly, but they’re covered in blood and she’s unable to stand.) Vincenzo waltzes up and reminds her he vowed she wouldn’t have an easy death.

Myung-hee argues she’ll be dead either way, so why does it matter? Besides, they’re both the same type of terrible person. She laughs when Vincenzo denies it, but he’s done chatting. He turns on the sprinkler above her head and douses her with lighter fluid. (And we’re back to his favorite hobby of arson.) Then, he turns on some Zumba mood music.

Myung-hee panics and appeals to his conscience, reminding him he once said he doesn’t hurt women and children. Vincenzo retorts that doesn’t apply to monsters. Myung-hee begs him to just shoot her instead.

Vincenzo tosses his lighter behind him as he walks away. Myung-hee struggles to stand as the fire engulfs her. It’s a brutal scene set to disturbingly upbeat music as Myung-hee “dances” around the warehouse on fire.

Meanwhile, some of the tenants head to Joon-woo’s location to stop him from getting away until Vincenzo can get there. Joon-woo tries to make a break for it as they fight his hired men, but Cheol-wook catches him and puts him in a chokehold.

Joon-woo manages to pull out a knife and stab Cheol-wook in the leg. The tenants stop fighting, but Joon-woo still stabs Cheol-wook again, this time in the chest. He then pulls out a gun, but before he can shoot, he gets shot in the leg.

Vincenzo has arrived in the nick of time, as always. When Joon-woo reaches for his gun, Vincenzo shoots him in the leg again. While Larry calls for an ambulance for Cheol-wook, Hong-shik knocks Joon-woo out.

Cheol-wook tells Vincenzo not to let the police get Joon-woo but to punish him personally. Even as he struggles to speak, he smiles and says he wants Vincenzo to be his daughter’s godfather. Vincenzo holds his hand and agrees.

CEO Park surprises everyone when he takes charge of emergency treatment, expertly bandaging Cheol-wook’s leg and stopping them from pulling the knife out of his chest. He used to be a surgical nurse. Huh.

The police arrive, so the group splits up. The tenants block the street so that Vincenzo can escape with Joon-woo in the backseat.

Joon-woo wakes up tied to a scary looking chair in, you guessed it, a warehouse. (How does Vincenzo find all these abandoned warehouses?) Joon-woo is confused when Vincenzo says that he located him thanks to Han-seo.

In a flashback, Han-seo and Vincenzo casually eat ramyeon in Vincenzo’s apartment. Han-seo tells him that he found it so out of character when Joon-woo gifted him that matching watch that he disassembled it. There was a tracker inside. He secretly put that tracker in Joon-woo’s watch and linked it to a tracking app.

Vincenzo doesn’t see why Han-seo bothers tracking Joon-woo, but Han-seo knows his brother’s pattern. Thanks in part to their father, he’s learned to run after he does something horrible. Han-seo thinks Joon-woo could’ve turned out differently had he been held accountable for the murder of his classmates.

Han-seo was detailed and put a tracker in each of Joon-woo’s watches to be safe. Joon-woo sighs that his brother was useless until the end.

The chair Vincenzo tied Joon-woo to is outfitted with drill bits pointing toward Joon-woo’s body. Vincenzo is borrowing a technique called “the spear of atonement” he learned from the Russian Mafia. He’s not concerned with the atonement bit – he’s using it for the pain.

Vincenzo uses foot pedals to operate the drills and explains that the drills will embed five millimeters every five minutes. Joon-woo won’t die until the following afternoon. Joon-woo bargains and pleads, offering everything he can think of, but Vincenzo isn’t interested.

After he manually sends one of the drills in further, Vincenzo puts the machine on auto with a timer for every five minutes. Just like Myung-hee, Joon-woo begs Vincenzo to shoot him. Vincenzo tells him to go apologize to Han-seo and removes Joon-woo’s watch to keep as a trophy.

Once he leaves, Vincenzo contemplates calling Cha-young but ends up turning off his phone and discarding it instead. He meets up with Young-woon and Team Leader Ahn who gives him a Korean passport. Director Tae arranged for his personal data to be linked to this passport temporarily.

Team Leader Ahn grabs Vincenzo in a hug, and right as Vincenzo is about to leave, Cha-young and Joo-sung pull up. Vincenzo rushes over to Cha-young who assures him she’s fine. She just wanted to see him before he left.

After hugging her and Joo-sung, Vincenzo leaves with Young-woon. It’s not until after he’s gone that Cha-young lets the tears fall. The next day, Joon-woo is extremely weak but still alive in the torture chair when a crow begins feasting on him.

A month later, Cha-young listens to a news report about how the police have found no signs of Vincenzo’s whereabouts. Cha-young visits a vineyard where it looks like she’s bought a row in Vincenzo’s name.

We jump ahead a year and learn that Babel is going into receivership, and Candidate Park lost the election. Chief Kim is now running for office on a platform of gentrification. While he gives a speech outside of Geumga Plaza about how they need to tear it down and make the district wealthier, Cha-young leads the tenants in protest.

They wear their snazzy suits and dub themselves the Cassano Geumga Family. They declare no one gets to tear down Geumga Plaza and prepare to fight the campaign workers who try to throw them out.

Six years after the original trial, Kyung-ja’s case is retried. She is convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, and Chairman Hwang is convicted of sexual assault. Thanks to written testimony from the imprisoned Min-sung – which Cha-young procured by giving him photos of Vincenzo to stare at longingly – his mother is charged with negligence.

Team Leader Ahn has been promoted to Director Ahn and has been searching for Vincenzo the past year to no avail. They’re still working on holding all the corrupt officials in the Guillotine file accountable. In the meantime, Young-woon is brought back into the fold.

We next catch up with our tenants at Geumga Plaza. CEO Park helps out at the pawn shop while Yeon-jin and the very much alive Cheol-wook focus on their adorable baby. Mi-ri gives piano lessons and enjoys the gold bars hidden in one of her pianos. The monks have made Nanyak Temple into an official marriage proposal spot.

In a flashback, Vincenzo tells Monk Jeokha that he can’t quit his work and become righteous. He’s afraid he’ll end up back where he started and live out his days in regret and anguish. Monk Jeokha talks about Vaisravana, one of the Four Heavenly Kings who protects Buddhist ideals and fights evil. Vincenzo may never be like Buddha, but he can fight for the people and do good.

Cha-young sits outside at a park she and Vincenzo once visited. He’d again promised to come back one day, likening them to the separated lovers in a folk tale who reunite thanks to a bridge formed by birds. Cha-young joked that Inzaghi and his pigeon friends could stand in for the crows and magpies in the story.

Back at the office, Cha-young and Joo-sung are happy the retrial went so well on the eve of Kyung-ja’s death anniversary. Cha-young finds a postcard (with a picture of Malta) from Vincenzo on her desk. It looks like he’s been sending them monthly.

Joo-sung hands her a ticket to a Korean-Italian diplomatic relations event but says he can’t make it because it conflicts with his paper airplane competition. Pfft. Cha-young attends the event alone and wanders around.

She stops to stare at a painting and hears a voice beside her say, “War and art are best observed from a distance.” We get the slow-motion turn as she faces Vincenzo, and they smile at each other.

Vincenzo explains he snuck in with the Italian delegation, so he’s only here for a day. But she can come visit him. He bought a deserted island near Malta, as you do, and named it Pagliuzza which he says is the Italian word for “jipuragi.”

He thanks Cha-young for letting him hide his gold at her place. In flashback, we see that everyone brought the gold they siphoned off bit by bit to a building on Cha-young’s property.

Vincenzo reveals that he’s no longer a consigliere but the Cassano family boss. The island has become their home base and a haven. Cha-young asks if she can come and is excited to hear Vincenzo set aside a room for her.

After a pause, Cha-young says she’s missed him. Vincenzo has missed her too and says he hasn’t stopped thinking about her since he left. Cha-young scoffs at that and starts walking.

To prove he means it, Vincenzo spins her around and kisses her. He pulls back and says villains are too tenacious to break up. Cha-young smiles and kisses him again.

Later, when Vincenzo leaves with the delegation, Cha-young watches from afar. They stare at each other for a long moment before he walks away.

As he walks down the street clicking his indestructible, ever-present lighter, Vincenzo narrates that he took over Malta’s olive plantations after fertilizing his vineyard with three Luciano family members. He’s still a villain who believes justice can’t beat evil.

Everyone, even villains, dreams of peace. But since that’s an impossible dream, he’ll just keep taking out the trash. Vincenzo leaves us with a final piece of dire villain wisdom in Italian: “Evil is powerful and vast.”

 
COMMENTS

And with those words to live by, our journey has come to an end. The ending was as intense as I’d hoped and wrapped up everything in a way that felt fitting and earned. Everyone ended up in a better place than where they started, and although Vincenzo had to leave, he found purpose and gets to live out his days with his Cassano family. And he can at least see Cha-young – and hopefully more of his Cassano Geumga family later on – from time to time. It was as happy of an ending as a dark drama like this could have without seeming incongruent. I wasn’t sure what kind of ending we’d get, but I’m glad the drama went with a hopeful one. Evil may be pervasive and impossible to eradicate, but if you choose not to accept it and fight, the world might just get a little bit better. Unfortunately, as our characters discovered, that choice can come at a high personal cost.

Way more of the “good” team survived than I expected – only poor Han-seo didn’t make it. Why do the reformed villains with tragic pasts always have to die? Every time, I get overly invested, even knowing they’re just going to die in the end. While I was upset about Han-seo’s death, I have to admit having him die saving someone’s life was a beautiful end for him. Han-seo started out traumatized and solely focused on his own survival. With Vincenzo’s support, he grew into someone brave and self-sacrificing. Thanks to a well-written character arc and Kwak Dong-yeon’s lovable and sympathetic portrayal, Han-seo turned into a surprisingly impactful character. I’m definitely a fan of this writer’s penchant for creating endearing enemies-turned-unlikely-friends pairings.

Although Vincenzo was an ensemble drama, it would never have worked without a charismatic lead. Vincenzo’s character relied on Song Joong-ki’s charm which he brought in spades. Whether he was daintily sipping espresso or destroying his enemies, he did it with poise and style. I feel like Vincenzo was almost as much an aesthetic as a character, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Overall, I thought everyone was well-cast from the tenants to the villains. I was worried about Cha-young’s character in the beginning, but Jeon Yeo-bin ended up doing a great job once she settled in. I love that Cha-young was always a part of the action and never felt like merely a tool for the male lead’s revenge plot as so often happens. While I never found Joon-woo to be a particularly engaging villain, Taecyeon did better than I would’ve thought in the role. Maybe I’m just over the murderous psychopath angle, but I prefer my villains a tad more subtle. I did find his trusting partnership with Myung-hee interesting, though. The two of them together made an effective villainous pair.

I appreciate that the drama didn’t try to reform Vincenzo and turn him into a good guy. For a while, I thought that’s the direction we were heading, but it’s refreshing that he stayed an unabashed antihero (or villain, as he dubbed himself). His brutality wasn’t sugarcoated, and in fact, they leaned into it. Vincenzo’s creative endings for Myung-hee and Joon-woo were disturbing and darker than I’d anticipated. Considering this was billed as a dark comedy, I assumed they would keep the tone somewhat light and only go so far with the depravity. It did start out that way, focusing more on the comedy angle, but it just got darker and darker as things progressed. This writer’s comedies are always quirky and somewhat dark, but Vincenzo really went there.

While I liked the drama overall, I do wish they’d gone with the typical 16-episode length. The middle of the drama started to feel repetitive with all the back-and-forth scheming. Shaving off a few episodes would’ve kept things tighter without sacrificing the plot. Less is more. My main issue with the drama, though, is that I felt like it was constantly trying to impress me with its (or Vincenzo’s) cleverness. After one too many “twists” and cliffhangers followed by flashbacks to Vincenzo’s secret genius plans, it started to feel hollow. I love a good scheme, but you can only throw so many gotcha moments at the audience before it gets tiresome.

When I first heard about the premise of Vincenzo, I expected a hot mess. What I got instead was a surprisingly cohesive drama about an oddball group of people fighting for themselves and each other. Vincenzo is like the eccentric cousin of a gangster film, mixing the refined, badass gangster antihero with an underdog justice tale and a comedy about wacky neighbors. That’s the kind of vibe you need for the story of a Korean adoptee somehow becoming the consigliere to a prominent Italian Mafia family and later helping take down an evil conglomerate. Vincenzo’s violent brand of vigilante justice might qualify him as a “bad guy,” but to those mistreated people he fought for, he was a hero. He had a drastic impact on everyone around him, bringing them together and turning them into a family. In turn, they grounded Vincenzo, giving him hope and a cause. He might never get to live a peaceful life, but he and his mysteriously indestructible lighter found purpose as a vengeful protector of the wronged.

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Tags: Jeon Yeo-bin, Kwak Dong-yeon, Song Joong-ki, Taecyeon, Vincenzo

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so long and thanks for all the plot holes, wasted potential,carrots ... fish.

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There's no Vincenzo tomorrow. Sad.

Anyways, I was cajoled into watching this, and then shockingly it became the sole drama I have finished in 2021, and the way things look so far, maybe it will be the only one. I love characters who are morally not quite on the up and up, add in a bit of vigilantism, a found family, and no tropey love story bogging down the works, and well, I'm in.

Honestly, I don't really have much more to say except I really really enjoyed this ride, I'm glad they didn't redeem Vincenzo because he really was never going to go straight, but I am disappointed that we never got a balloon ride. That was my one quibble with the finale. I mean, they could have given someone a free ride to North Korea or something.

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Vincenzo is my single 2021 bean so far and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I forgot to mention it in my endlessly long essay myself, but I'm sad about the balloon ride as well. Vincenzo even got the cutest balloon ride ticket of all tickets, why wouldn't they have him cash it in :(

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I was completely satisfied with the ending (although I admit to covering the screen and fast forwarding some of the torture). Found family stories always get to me, as well as the triumph of the underdog. And YAY for the lack of a love story taking up time. I don't regret this one.

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I am also very sad they didn't show a hot air balloon after hyping it up and hinting at it all series! We were robbed of a Chacenzo balloon date lol

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I loved this show. It had its flaws, I know, but I just loved it. The ensemble cast had my heart. I love the breadth in the villains' characters. I love the juxtaposition of dark humor and serious business. I love CenCha. And I LOVE this writer's ability to write morally-murky-but-still-sympathetic characters.

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Han-seo's death was hinted at with his arc coming to a close, but I was still in lowkey denial. At least he gained a real brother in the end and went out fighting. That scene with tracking the watches clearly shows he was smarter than most people gave him credit. MAKE KWAK DONG-YEON A LEAD YOU COWARDS!

Han-seok showed some seriously unhinged energy here as he was increasingly running out of options. In the end his and Myung-hee's deaths were gruesome but I was quite happy to see it. Kim Yeo-jin was something else as a stereotype defying character. I also think Taec deserves credit for choosing an unredeemable, villainous role instead of sticking to the standard good guy-romance dramas that many actors do. He might not be perfect but he's growing as an actor.

This show introduced me to several actors whom I've never or barely seen before. I'm looking forward to more from them in the future! I know some people want a season 2, but I feel that it'll be tough to replace the characters we lost.

Credit where it's due, the cast and crew were able to make the craziest things work. Kudos to them <3 This was such a wild show and I looked forward to it every weekend. Certainly had its share of flaws, but as each episode leaned further into the absurdity, the smile on my face grew larger. I watched a few interviews and behind the scenes videos, and the people all are such goofy buds, both on and off screen. Their wholesome energy clearly came across in the show. Thanks, Team Vincenzo!

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KDY is a treasure and we need him in a leading role!!

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While I'm heartbroken at Han-seo's death, I had a sinking feeling he would die. Yesterday, I was terrified Han-seok had killed him when we heard the gunshot, so was relieved Han-seo was still alive, but his crying "no, no" when Han-seok aimed his gun at Vincenzo, he chose to sacrifice himself for his Vin hyung. The flashback of Han-seo eating ramyun at Vincenzo's house was sentimental.

The only way for Han-seo to have lived was to go into hiding abroad as Vincenzo recommended, which he refused. And that's if Han-seok doesn't find him first or hire a hitman. It was presumptuous of Seung-hyuk to throw away his go-to-jail-free card because even if Vincenzo doesn't kill him, of course Han-seok would get revenge for betraying him.

What I loved about the romance was that their love was unspoken. No confessions were needed because Vincenzo and Cha-young knew they were in love with each other. Despite asking him not to call when he leaves to protect both of them from pain, she couldn't help sending him off in the end. I cried when Cha-young cried after Vincenzo and Young-woon had driven off. Ever since the airport with Luca, I felt for our couple for never getting to say goodbye privately every time he left.

Their kiss was magical and the location breathtaking. Song Joong-ki and Jeon Yeo-bin have the perfect height difference. Vincenzo kept his promise to return like the Cowherd Gyeon-woo. It may be a long-distance relationship, but whenever Cha-young visits, they would have his whole island to themselves. I wished he had thanked her for finally getting justice for his mom especially since today was Kyung-ja's death anniversary. I really wished Cha-young had called Vincenzo "Joo-hyung" at least once.

Did Vincenzo give the tenants a cut of his gold because they deserve it for risking their lives? I cried when I thought Show had killed off Chul-wook too. Even though the tenants fought alongside Jipuragi voluntarily without expecting anything in return, and the monks obviously forgo money, only keeping the golden Buddha.

I really wished Vincenzo had met his goddaughter Dal-rae. When Yeon-jin and Chul-wook announced her pregnancy (with Chul-wook refusing to let go of Vincenzo's hand), I squeed, "That baby is going to be spoiled by Uncle Vincenzo." I wished Vincenzo had reunited with mafia boss Inzaghi. When he cheekily replied he forgot to feed Inzaghi, I was waiting for their reunion after his disappearance. I was extremely disappointed Vincenzo never cashed in his free hot-air balloon ticket. Although the ride is bokbulbok, so he may not even make it to Malta.

I was looking forward to Vincenzo's Zumba immolation- and spear of atonement-styles torture on the swindlers from the airport who drugged him and stole his belongings in Episode 1. If only Jin Sun-kyu and Lee Hee-joon had reprised their cameos in the finale like Kim Sung-chul.

Where do I join the Oh My Corn Salad fan club with founder and president Ki-suk,...

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(cont.)

Where do I join the Oh My Corn Salad fan club with founder and president Ki-suk, members Han-seo, Chul-wook, Joo-sung, CEO Park hyung, Mi-ri, Accountant Yang, and Min-sung, and theme song Adrenaline? I'll be on my Vincenzo high for the rest of the year. Forever thanks for recapping this drama, @quirkycase!

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The moment he declined to go abroad and decided to stick around and be brave, knew there was a 95% change he was going to be a dead man. :(

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Loved this drama!
Can we say that it is a proof that you need a really good group of side characters to make a show glow?

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I'll second that, what made this show transcend was its use of detail in the background

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Exactly! It makes me feel like the writer, cast, director, and all of the staff must be having a fun time putting together these details and maybe even coming up with details of their own. Also, it can make it a fun re-watch - to catch all the details missed before!

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My favourite part about this show! The little things make the show feel like the entire staff truly loved working on this show, and it just makes me so happy whenever I find something I hadn't previously noticed.

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But the side characters didn’t work for me. The slapstick postures - complete with drumroll soundtrack - heralding - in-your-face comedy scene, here I come!

Song Joong Ki and FL dad were great. First episode and last 5 minutes ending scene is good.

The rest is wasted potential.

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Having spent 19 episodes telling us how indestructible and undefeatable Vincenzo is, he couldn’t find a way to quietly kill off all those people and/or find a way to enter and leave the country at will? I’m a little peeved at the writer for that. I suspended judgment pretty much through the show, surely writer could have come up with some implausible explanation.
That said, I really enjoyed this show. I’m sad it’s over. I would have enjoyed watching the geumga plaza lot bumble around in Italy. And jeon yeo bin was fantastic. She has a new fan.

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I think the writer told us for 19 episodes that Vincenzo was a villain and then ended it without making him a hero for that reason.

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Jeon Yeo Bin plays a very different but equally memorable character in Be Melodramatic.

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Yes, she was so good in that!

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Jeon Yeobin has a new fan in me too! She was phenomenal in her part and had sizzling chemistry with Song Joongki

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Went into this drama not knowing what to expect and started it purely to support Jeon Yeo Bin but ended up enjoying the crazy ride with the wonderful Geumga Cassano Family. The drama definitely had flaws but what drama doesn't. It's been a while since I've watched a drama as it airs and I'm definitely going through the withdrawals but I'm really glad to have been part of this journey. Really loved the cast and hope to see them in something together again in the distance future.

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After flip flopping back and forth on what this show was (it's a classic farce, it's an operetta), I've now ended squarely on it being a huge, sweeping over-the-top, nonsensical Opera designed for its spectacle: there to entertain, not to teach. There are those who take issue with the fact that it was ultimately not about anything but you don't spend four hours at the Opera for thematic consistency or the plot. You do it for the spectacle.

Vincenzo was 20 hours of pure, unadulterated entertainment with characters we enjoyed watching and the titillation of bloody revenge and the hint of romance. VINCENZO himself was a Mafioso from beginning to end: someone who cared only about his family and who, once that was taken away, built a new one to protect. A family that expanded out from Hong Yoo-chan as a replacement father figure then to his daughter and then to the whole of Geumga. This was a Korean mafia tale, a Chaebol Godfather, where there is no good or evil. There's just your side and my side and no limits to protecting what's yours.

VINCENZO himself was not a hero or an anti-hero but an outright villain, someone who had no character development from beginning to end but who was, from go to woe, Mafia. A charming, urbane and charismatic one - both in the show and as a character - but a stone-cold amoral killer nonetheless.

And while I felt the show went a bit too far in this episode to remind us of who he was (I've come to believe the writers were increasingly perplexed that people seemed to believe he was a hero or an anti-hero and wanted to remind us that this was not who he was), those scenes make sense from a character perspective.

Now there's a whole other conversation to have here as to whether the show degenerated into glorifying violence for the sake of violence - and in my opinion in this final episode they did - but the writers never stood back from telling us who VINCENZO was. A Mafioso fighting a Mafia war that happened to be set in Korea.

And in terms of sweeping grandeur and consistent eye for detail down to the most minor of characters, it was a fantastic and enjoyable ride that I personally loved.

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I think Song Joong Ki was equally perplexed that Vincenzo received such admiration. He just did an interview where he said he found Vincenzo to be more evil than the villains combined and was not someone viewers should support. I'm sure they were all scratching their heads throughout.

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Why would they be scratching their heads? The show spent 19 episodes hyping up Vincenzo's "mafia" side and calling him Corn Salad and Mr. Consigliere and making mafia a running joke; every other fell in love/lust with him, and the entire plaza started to dress like him. Only in episode 20 did they actually go "PSYCH" and show the dark brutality of the mafia.

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Scratching their heads as in...just like i was when I caught myself rooting for Vincenzo. He's clearly a villain and I would constantly be baffled at the fact that I liked him. SJK seems surprised his character received so much support and admiration.

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I've seen Vincenzo recommended a lot by beanies lately, so I took a peek to see what all the love was for. The zumba murder was the most egregious thing I've seen in a kdrama, not simply because of the horrible way she died but because Vincenzo told her it was designed to be extremely painful and walked away without a care. How could anyone think he was anything but evil after that?

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I have no idea. I think people wanted him to be an anti-hero on a quest for justice but he was never either of those things. Just a guy who believed that the world was divided into warring families and had found a new one to fight for. By any means possible.

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Yes. A wonderful, extravagant over-the-top Opera. I've spent all week thinking about my delight in a character who does not believe in the rule of law, who takes bloody vengeance into his own hands, an eye for an eye type of guy. Irl I abhore it. But damm, Vincenzo gave me so much vicarious laugh-out-loud pleasure. Drama and catharsis, but if we don't support the rule of law, we have nothing - the law of the jungle.

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Ah, thank you for this insight - yes, opera! Entirely right: even in my best moments, there are always moments of the opera that I have no idea what is going on, but that is never the point! The overall experience is so rich and lingering. For me, this is what Vincenzo was - I care very little for the inconsistencies and so on. The experience was utterly absorbing and I loved it.

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Was the crow who started feasting on Joon-woo a cousin of Inzagi's?

Shouldn't V have arranged or more rapid death for Joon-woo? What if somebody had wandered into the warehouse and found him.

I wasn't too happy with V's concluding career arc, but the rest of the final wrap-up seemed well done -- less draggy than many other shows.

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Just how many abandoned buildings are there around Seoul, where no one can hear you scream?

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Okay, was it only me or did other people get the vineyard scene.
Cha-young stomps on the dirt in front of Vincenzo's row and there is a pull string laying on the surface. Considering the reference to burying enemy in a vineyard, I reckon Joon-woo's body is buried there. That's why Cha-young visits the vineyard and why she stamps the dirt down.
Any thoughts

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And thinking about it, I reckon Myung-hee's charred remains are there as well as under Vincenzo Cassona is written 1 + 1

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1+1...the same as if you were in a grocery store buying groceries...the hilarious, irreverent humor in the details is what makes this drama really such a fun experience to watch.

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Myunghee and Hanseok became fertilizer,that was the meaning...

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This did NOT occur to me!!

But I wonder if Cha-young or any of the Geumga Cassano family would actually bother retrieving those bodies to dispose of them? It doesn't seem consistent with the way Vincenzo just walked off after setting Myung-hee on fire/leaving Han-seok to be kebabed, like he literally didn't want to waste any more time on them (and tbh I wonder if those bodies were ever found).

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Young Woo would though. He after all was V's original "cleaner".

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Oh, that's a good catch!

(wonder if ashes make good fertiliser, though? I honestly thought he would just leave Han-seok there to become bird food but I don't mind this)

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I guess he has another reason to walk off just like that (although if we remember long enough, he did simply walked off the vineyard after he burnt it down, in Ep.1): he has no time, his name is on the warrant, and he has to act fast so he can escape.

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Got it too. I thought it was a nice touch, classic attention to detail that this production team is famous for. Vincenzo had always been talking about turning his enemies into fertilizer for his vineyard so both Hanseok and MyungHee's bodies were there. 1+ 1.

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SO glad others picked this up otherwise the whole vineyard scene was a useless fill in. Why visit a vineyard in South Korea?

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Oh my goodness. It never occurred to me. Too dark. Pushing up grapes. I wonder how the wine will be labelled?

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That's why Cha-young said she would try to make something out of those "cheap" grapes...

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Icky, icky.

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I wondered what the 1+1 meant when I watched. Wow!

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OMG -- I didn't draw that reference! That would be so macabre though, cos that scene was filmed in such a cheery, touristy, vacay way ---like a pastoral idyll.

But yes -- "dancing on your grave."

Oh my. But that would be fitting echo too - to the other 1+1 (them both bereaved son and daughter would have respectively avenged their parents).

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OK - I think it's true.
Cos it ended with Vincenzo talking about how he buried 3 members of the Luciano family in his vineyards in Malta...

wow. Vincenzo was eerily prophetic: when he told Cha Young in the earlier eps - You should have been in the Mafia

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I think they referred to an early episode when vincenzo and hong yu chan went to babel construction office, they talk about 1+1 thing there

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I am actually going to argue against this.

CY did not relish in revenge; in fact she found their methods unbearably cruel. She followed through with it because she knew that this was the lesser of the two evils in their scenario. Even so, when she witnessed the death of her father's murderer, it shook her. When she agreed for Vincenzo to continue, she was not doing it out of malice. She wanted justice, and on this case this was the only way to serve justice. Vincenzo was known for his brutality. CY may have proven herself to be a maverick and to use questionable methods, but there was always a flavour of justice, not vengeance. Vincenzo was the opposite.
Even after he left, she continued to fight through the courts. So overall I think this theory doesn't quite fit their characters. I don't think she'd bury them there to dirty their grapes, or to be a constant reminder. Justice was already done.
I think the "cheap grapes" refers to the fact that they aren't premium Italian grapes for his picky Italian tastes, and 1+1 is for the two of them.

I read that whole scene as a way for her to stay connected to him in a small way.

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I really enjoyed this series overall. I, unlike most viewers, found the comedic elements jarring to the storyline and silly. I would have preferred a straight up drama format that portrayed lighter/funny moments through the humanity of its characters. Having known real Mafia members, the comedic scenes of the character Vincenzo seemed very out of character. The writers are at fault for that.

The beginning scene of episode 20 was also totally out of character for Vincenzo. He never would have just sat on the side while Joon-woo went ballistic...never. I could not believe the writers thought we wouldn't notice that the usually fierce Vincenzo suddenly became deer-in-headlights stupid and totally passive on the sidelines. So out of character....yes, some of you will defend this with whatever reason you suspend your disbelief, but it didn't work for me.

I do really like drama's portrayal of the fight against evil and a corrupt system. Many of us see this kind of corruption in our daily lives, and we also see how ineffective the current Legal System is in addressing it. We need more Vincenzos who will fight for the greater good.

The ensemble of actors was very well selected, with each bringing a richness to their character. Really good acting overall.

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If you watch The Good Manager and The Fiery Priest, you will understand that the writer basically inject humors into his previous works, no matter what roles or characters.

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Yeah that humour is part of the house style for Park Jae-bum, and I think it was needed here.

Though I agree with netizen comments that Vincenzo as a story is much darker and angrier than even The Fiery Priest.

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Much darker except for the background story of the priest.

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I watched Good Manager and was exasperated with the repeated storylines.

Same here, and this time the slapstick comedy is worse.

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Totally his thing. It's unique and wild and dark. I love it.

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I agreed with you that the beginning of episode 20 really make me feel that the write has spoilt the ending. I enjoyed watching this drama but Vincenzo sit there like an idiot while letting Han Seo fight his brother?? I am like, really???

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I forgive you Show for the confrontation (or lack thereof ha) at the beginning of the episode. Yes, I'll even forgive the fact that Vincenzo ran to CY even when Han Seo was clearly dying. Why? Because you had a solid ending, something very few dramas can accomplish. I admit I had to look away at the violence. I don't need those images in my memory, thank you very much.

I'm always satisfied when I complete a drama convinced that the entire production team had envisioned the story they wanted to tell from the very beginning. Loved the cast and their chemistry, the witty dialogues, and comedic bits. I started Vincenzo on a whim after work one day and I'm glad I did. It's been an exciting ride. I discovered JYB and finally understood SJK's charm lol. I'll definitely keep watch on what they do next.

And of course, shout out to Kwak Dong Yeon showcasing his excellent acting chops. Main lead! Good script! Main lead! Good script!

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Kwak Dong Yeon! Main lead! Good Script! Main lead! Good Script!

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KDY is our treasure and he deserves a lead role!!

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Goodbye to this awesome drama, it was well worth the 20hrs I spent on!

I have to say that I was wary of how this drama was going to end as well as for our beloved characters but I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying ending. The few things that I worried about like Vincenzo’s ending as well as his relationship with Cha Young was wrapped up as neatly as it could be, given their situation, and that kiss was the icing on the cake for me 😉

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thank you @quirkycase for the 20 episodes recaps. It's a wild ride. Aside from complaints here and there, Vincenzo remains as one of the most interesting drama I've watched. Vincenzo himself stayed true to his roots that he sees himself as a villain, acts like one, and doesn't try to sugarcoat it into something else. And as gory as the killing in this episodes are, it shows what kind of a person Vincenzo truly is. It's rare to meet a character as strong as Vincenzo.

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What a wonderful 10-11 week adventure this was! I'm so glad I enjoyed it, just as I had enjoyed the writer's previous work -Chief Kim (which had great rewatch value) and Fiery Priest (it did take me a couple tries before I got hooked). Vincenzo was the darkest of them. It's interesting going from Chief Kim - which was a lighthearted battle against company corruption to Fiery Priest- which was darker and angry but with the characters being pretty moral in their battle against corruption- and now to Vincenzo, where the writer feels fed up with corruption and is like "the only way to fight evil is with evil".

Anyways, regarding the ending of Vincenzo. I suspected Han-seo was going to die after the scene of him getting dinner with Vincenzo, but was still upset when it finally happened. A part of me wishes for a squishy, rainbowy end for Vincenzo, but the drama kept the ending consistent with his mafia nature and I respected that. While there were moments of absurdity, hilarity, and just cuteness, he spent his teens and adulthood in the mafia and working up to the level of consigliere. You don't get to that level just by being smart, cute, and good at fighting. You need to be able to take it all the way and make people fear you. As dark as it was, the horrific way Vincenzo killed Myung-hee and Han-seok was cathartic. Myung-hee's was sort of darkly funny since she really did appear like she was dancing while burning to death. I liked the reminder that Vincenzo wasn't some champion of justice. He was just protecting what's his and protecting the people that he had grown to care about. If it wasn't for Yoo-chan, he would not have gotten involved. I love how all our Geumga plaza residents made it out alive and with such a happy ending!

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Not to mention this woman (Myung-hee) had zero issues hiring men to kill Cha Young's father and Vincenzo's mother. In both instances, she can be seen dancing over both deaths with glee so I'd say it was a fitting end seeing her burn like the wicked witch she was lol.

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Maybe I thought Vincenzo’s new family had changed him more.
Maybe I expected cartoon characters to get cartoon endings.
Maybe I thought the bad guys didn’t deserve that much of Vincenzo’s time, effort or conscience.

Either way the finale was jarring. Emptying a barrel of bullets into each villain would have felt more satisfying to me. Otherwise jokes, hugs and tears with someone who’s just tortured two people to death feels like bad taste...

Loved the rest of the show, though. So. Much.

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What a thrill ride of a drama this was. I remember catching the first episode back in February and chuckling at the improbable premise, but it's like a cake made with coca-cola - it doesn't sound like it should work, but it does, and in style.

I can't say I'm totally shocked by it - I've really enjoyed writer Park Jae-bum's previous dramas, and Song Joong-ki has never put a foot wrong in the more than 10 years I've been watching him in dramas, but what I am surprised by is just how much I love it, plot holes, neverending lighter supply, pigeons, Vincenzo's super-antihero levels of invincibility and all. Also this is the first time I'm seeing Jeon Yeo-bin in a lead role, and she's awesome - we didn't get enough of her in the penultimate week, but she played Cha-young as the perfect mix of wackiness and steel (plus I love the character too - it's rare to see a kdrama protagonist, especially a female one, actually have shades of grey in her own right, she would have made a really good villain if the story had gone that way)

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I am watching Vincenzo for a second time. Probably what I want to say everybody above me has said it, but I guess we really should recognize one of those interviews Song Joong-ki made right after this show ends.

In there, he said, Vincenzo is a tragedy disguised as a comedy, because we shouldn't hope for a bigger devil to do justice for us and defeat other devils. As a person who saw the city I was born (which I don't say it out loud here, but you probably won't feel difficult to guess it) destroyed by an evil dictator, and most of my fellow citizens (current or former) putting their hope on another devil to save the city is in fact pretty sad, and the story of Vincenzo as well tenants of Geumga Plaza put their faith to a devil called Vincenzo is just as sad.

And so, we may feel happy when those bad guys are getting what they deserved, we must not forget this: relying a monster to save you will only make yourself a monster, and it should not be something we should do.

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Thank you for saying this beautifully. I didn't find the death of the villains in the finale satisfying or cathartic, I was in fact heart-broken about the whole thing. I was cheering for Vincenzo until he started to go full mafia mode on his enemy and show his vicious nature. While I understand the anger of everyone on the Vincenzo 's side toward the corruption, I truly feel that they were "drinking poison to quench thirst" and it's a dangerous and slippery slope to go down to. I love that Vincenzo really makes me think hard about justice and question my moral compass at times. Such an amazing show. I'm a fan of the writer now.

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What more heartbreaking is, to be very honest with you, @purplefall, I think initially both Myung-hee and Joon-woo's treatments are pretty spectacular, and I somehow like it (because I repeated both scenes several times, trying to bathe in it), until I stop and think about Song's words, and I was like, "Oh my god, why does my heart so brutal and cruel" ... This is actually, very scary.

Think about those Romans getting into Coliseum to watch a show about those slaves being slaughtered by other slaves, and cheer on those spectacles, I guess we (or at least, myself) have never changed for thousand years ...

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Very well said. Relying on a monster to save you is in the end a tragedy, as my countrymen had found out. Your city may have been my country, and sadly, my countrymen voted for a villain(who was a self confessed killer) they thought will save us and even looked the other way when he bodies indeed started to pile up. Now we are living a real life comedy of sorts...

Anyway, Vincenzo had been fun, and yes, has to be appreciated as an entertainment only. I plan to rewatch too to appreciate the details.

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I agree that it should be for entertainment value only. I did find it cathartic since it's just a tv show. In real life, that sort of vigilante justice is a slippery slope.

What Vincenzo did and why the characters relied on Vincenzo to help them was borne of government's failure to protect its people and provide legal avenues for justice. That is the originating tragedy. In many cases, they were actively participating in the sort of crimes and injustices that hurt their people and the few good ones were not able to take on the growing corruption. It's one of the reasons why mafia and similar gangs exist - for protection and for opportunities to make a living. For some people, that's their last straw to grab on to when legal, institutional systems fail. Vincenzo was needed because there appeared nowhere else to turn and no one to trust. The second tragedy is when it gets out of control and turns against the people. And then where do they turn to next?

I'm glad the Geumga plaza residents took on the more positive aspects of Vincenzo's mafia - organizing together and looking out for each other while being dressed to the nines.

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“When I got the script, I knew Park Jae Bum’s productions often had an image of comedy, but I thought this was a sad genre. The reason is that viewers had to cheer for Vincenzo, a villain.”

“I think the events that take place in ‘Vincenzo’ are close to reality, while the character Vincenzo is the only surreal part. There are so many bad people in real life. The writer used a lot of those people as reference, so there were many cathartic scenes.”
——Song Joong-ki, in his own words

Source: https://www.soompi.com/article/1467132wpp/song-joong-ki-on-playing-an-antihero-in-vincenzo-undeniable-chemistry-with-jeon-yeo-bin-future-plans-and-more

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"I could immediately feel his pent-up anger at society."

This too. I'd be very interested in knowing the writer's thoughts now that the drama is over. Obviously, this is just television. It's entertainment. Yet it has a true frustration, concern, despair, etc. at its root. Park Jae Bum is an excellent writer imo and I applaud his skill at showcasing corruption. Many kdramas sell that plot but it falls flat. I know I don't want anyone dealing with the world's injustice the way Vincenzo did but characters like this somehow fill society's need for some sort of retribution for wrongdoings. It's not right but it just shows how messed up the world has gotten. Great discussion beanies above.

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It is, in fact, interesting, because in Park Jae Bum's past drama, the title characters has some good in it although they are also twisted in terms of their moral value, but in Vincenzo, Vincenzo Cassano is a purely evil character: You probably won't cheer for him if he is not going against the Babel villains, and he may well be choosing to cooperate with Babel to help evict Geumga Plaza.

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Very true. If it weren't for Yoo-chan, Vincenzo would have gone in the opposite direction like you said. Even when he's dead, Yoo-chan's righteousness keeps giving hope and guidance for others, in this case, it's Vincenzo and Cha-young. This is why I believe that no matter how dire the situation is, we should all try our best to do the right thing in life, not just for ourselves but also for others. If everyone only looks out for themselves, there would be no "last straw" for anyone to hold onto.

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I really liked this drama. I remembered when I heard about the plot I was really suspicious about the fact it could work. But it did. Surprisingly, the humor and dark part worked very well. I think Song Joong-Ki did really well in the both, he didn't feel shy and made it work. He reminded me Hyun Bin in Memories of the Alhambra. For this kind of drama, I always feel disapointed to not be Korean, because I think I missed a lot of easter eggs and pun words.

I was happy they kept the fact that Vincenzo always said that a simple death was too kind for the villains. Vincenzo didn't change so much during in the drama, no big evolution, but he reconcilied with his mum and found love that made him take risks. He was up to the bad guys but needed some chance too (thanks to Inzaghi and empty gun). The battle between good and bad was well-balanced.

Cha-Young was an unique female character, I just loved her! She was smart, not shy, direct and overall I liked how she accepted Vincenzo's nature and the fact she always knew that he will have to leave. But she didn't let it change her way to act, she just enjoyed the moments she shared with him. The love story never encroached on the main story but was present enough to make my heart fluttering :)

Poor Han-Seo :( he grew up so much. I hoped for an end like Moonlight Draws by Clouds, but not this time. KDY really shined in this role.

The villains kinda lacked motivations beyond "I'm a psychopath" and for Myung-Hee, it hasn't never been clear what she did it. Just for power?
All the tenants and supporting casts brought a lot of fun to the story and touching moments by creating this big family.

The PD did well, it was nice to watch the BST and how they all discussed to create the best scene (I'm happy they didn't follow PD's instructions for the last kiss by the way :P JYB did well to suggest a second kiss!)

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What was the use of all of those GPS trackers if they didn’t use it when Joonwoo was released from the jail! Poor Hanseo :( (I know I am using too much of logic here)
Also on a lighter note, did anyone notice how even after Vincenzo tosses his lighter to start a fire, he magically gets it back! :D

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Actually we were shown in episode 18 that he had a collection of these lighters.. as other beanies had also speculated before, he just hoards them actually.

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They didn’t know he had been released from jail that’s why they delayed in tracking him. Han Seok being released was something only him and Myung Hee planned, Vincenzo and Chayoung were only aware that Myung Hee had also been jailed. And as soon as he was released he kidnapped Chayoung and HanSeo

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I was definitely happy they didn’t lean away from Vincenzo’s dark side. When they faked the corrupt police deaths near the beginning I was worried they were going to lean into the no killing. The two deaths of our villains were suitably brutal, and fitting.

I still maintain that the show could have been shorter, or the time spent better, but I’m happy with what we got for the most part. I’ll admit I was hoping for a little more delving into Vincenzo’s dark past and how it affected him. And we couldn’t get away without one last fakeout death, which irked me a bit.

All in all, a fun show, with a likeable cast that enjoyed chewing the scenery at every turn. A bean I’ll add when the time comes with no regrets.

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Vincenzo is now the top 3 K-dramas to rewatch for me. I started the show with pure curiosity and no expectation, and bam I was swept away with beautiful cinematography and amazing acting. Above all, I'm still in awe at how much I was invested in the story and characters. I just have to shout out to whoever managed to put together such a solid team from the writer, the PD, the cast, the music department to the staff. Not only did they do justice to their jobs, their lovely bts interactions are to die for.

I can see that with the success of Vincenzo SJK and JYB are heading to the next stage of their career. I'm super happy for them and wish them all the best. I feel like a proper shipper for the first time (lol!). But seeing how devastating it was to SJK when the last ship sank, and how harsh fan can be to rising actresses, I truly hope they both can find happiness at their own pace and with whoever they vibe with without any pressure.

Finally, I love love the discussion everyone has around Vincenzo. I think I learn more about justice than my last legal system class in college haha. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts in the last two months!

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I loved the all 19 episodes of this drama, sure it had its flaws but I enjoyed it. But I disliked Ep 20 immensely. I couldn't wrap my head around how Vincenzo just didn't have a backup plan or a gun hidden somewhere when he went to tackle Jun Woo. For someone who outsmarted his enemy from a mile away, how could he not have a backup plan just in case Jun Woo was released from jail early and did turn up a mess like this?

And Han seo's death!!! Don't get me started on that. I feel like the drama wanted to kill a character since we were towards the end and decided to go for Han Seo in a drawl. It was unnecessary. And for he had taken a soft spot in my heart, I hated it.

As for Vincenzo's ending living in an island far away from South Korea, am I the only one who thinks that he got away easy for all the crimes he committed? He is an evil guy and villain like Jun Woo, Choi Myung Hee and everyone he killed. It's just that he is on the other side. No matter who is his opposition is, at the end of the day he is a murderer like them and I felt like, if his character had ended being killed or may be served some time, then may be it would made more sense to me or justified in some way. Those torturous scenes were just too much and seeing that all I thought was this guy needs to be in hell too with them.

But despite all my complaints about the final episode, I really enjoyed this drama and loved it very much. The supporting casts were all brilliant as their roles and their bickering onscreen and offscreen has been too good. I can't wait to see them in more works in future since they all seem very talented.

The previous works of Song Joong Ki I last enjoyed was Running Man (I know variety show but I loveddddd him there), Werewolf Boy and Innocent Man. I didn't particularly like DOTS or any other works. So it was nice to re-enjoy his acting talents and there were so many scenes where he was just brilliant and a treat onscreen.

As for Jeon Yeo Been, I loved her in Be Melodramatic and her character was the one who I was heavily invested in. And in this drama she just cemented as a fav actress of mine and I will be watching all her future works religiously from now on.

And lastly... The chemistry!!!🔥🔥🔥 I think I would need another 1000 words for that, so I may just not stop it here, but want to say, JYB has been the best costar SJK had and I think he seems to agree to it too after seeing all his interviews post drama he gave. They seemed to be totally in tune of each other and I loved how the romance wasn't forced or in our face. I wish they would act again in another project for I want more of them together. I usually don't ship costars, but these two makes me want to... and those bts footages aint helping.

Anyway all in all... I am finally ready to say goodbye to this drama and bid my farewell. I wish they have season 2, but then it doesn't look like they will.

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I only disliked about 10 minutes of episode 19.

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Same with you, the first 10 mins of episode 20 does not make sense to me :)

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A thousand thanks to you, @quirkycase, and all fellow beanies for making this ride so enjoyable! It is always an absolute pleasure to read others' thoughts, see new perspectives, pick up on what I've missed, and enthuse. Long may it continue!

I loved this spectacle. From the attention to detail, to the precise world-building, to the love for each character, to the penchant for the ridiculous, it was joyous. As others have said, definitely up there on my favourite drama list. SJK and JYB were phenomenal - agree that SJK had a huge responsibility in ensuring this was carried of with the required amount of panache, and he delivered. Their relationship was done especially well - so understated and yet so clear. Beautiful. The Geumgavengers were one of my favourite supporting groups since the Ducklings in CLOY and I loved watching them in the BTS clips simply enjoying every minute of filming.

I appreciated the way they sequenced Han-seo's story. Wasn't surprised that he was killed off, but loved that the final scene with him was not his death but his victory. He was accepted by his Vin-hyung (round his house eating ramen with him), had figured something out and done something clever (tracking all Han-seok's watches), and had chosen to break free and start again. I liked that the final shot of him was backlit - almost heavenly? - with him just smiling freely and at peace. A great way to send off a character that ended up being well-loved.

A final shout out to the OST - loved all the musical choices and they definitely served rather than distracted from the drama. A few lessons could be learned here...

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Yay! The OST is tremendous and made me LOL many times 👏🏽

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The first half of Vincenzo was a solid ride. Although I knew V was a murderer from the beginning, I initially thought his turn in Korea would change him through his wacky found family. V's fish-out-of-water moments when he first came to Geuma were hilariously memorable. Although most people seemed to enjoy the increasingly dark tone of the show, I found myself skipping more and more of the revenge scenes. I continued watching only for the comedy and Chacenzo and eventually Hanseo (best boy who I didn't actually think was as stupid as everyone thought until he actively sought a second murderous hyung ;-;).
I know Chayoung was morally grey in terms of how she practised the law but I don't think she knew the full extent of V's mafiosa side until he blew up the man in the hotel, a scene which I found to be in particularly bad taste (and sank my ship). I didn't watch the torture scenes of the finale but they obviously cemented V as a villain, although the tenants think of him as a hero, a dilemma which I think transfers to the audience who try to reconcile this by calling him an antihero. Despite my quibbles I will definitely miss the farcical antics (Mr Cho and V's vault sequence was my favourite). I need a light-hearted Oh My Consigliere spin-off helmed by Mr Ahn to get my fix.

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Farewell, Vincenzo! Oh how I loved thee.

I started watching Vincenzo because @mindy told me Vincenzo was swearing in Italian at an annoying pigeon. Repeatedly. I was clearly not looking for anything serious, meaningful, or even tightly written. I just wanted a fun, entertaining watch to kill the time.

And boy, did this show deliver! I didn't think I needed to see a villain taking out a villain, and I thought I would be uncomfortable with sympathizing with a cast that was entirely unlikeable characters, but I was proven wrong on both counts. Most episodes had me giggling, screaming and laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all. Seeing Vincenzo and his Geumga gang getting their wins over and over again, and seeing people like the Wusang lawyers and Han-seok rage or cower in fear was an almost cathartic experience. It was exactly the fun, over the top, crazy ride I needed, and I am sad to have to let it go.

Did this show teach me anything? Not really. It was a tragi-comedy without much of a deep or hopeful message, if any message at all other than "wow the world is terrible". But it was so. much. FUN! My one takeaway is that I want to try to be more shameless like Hong Chayoung, because life just seems more fun that way.

Oh. And that Kwak Dong Yeon is a TREASURE and deserves a lead role. I've been saying this for years and I stand by it.

Anyway my very last list of things I loved this episode!
- Jang Hanseo getting to pass at least with the knowledge that he helped someone. I didn't think he was redeemable, so I always figured he was going to have to die, but damn did it still break my heart.
- Vincenzo talking to the monks in order to make peace with his villain existence. I'm glad he went to talk to the monks and I'm glad they were able to help him find some sort of purpose. I really love the monks so much.
- The monks keeping the golden buddha in their basement vault. In one of the earliest episodes, the monks said they liked to meditate their because they could feel buddha's presence - upon which the camera panned to the buddha statue in the vault. I might have fallen in love with the show right then and there.
- Hanseo with the WATCHES my BABY. He put TRACKERS IN ALL OF THEM my OTT smartest goodest baby boy. Oh his SMILE. Can we please just get Kwak Dong Yeon a HAPPY PUPPY LEAD role PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.
- Mr. Ahn being a director! I'm glad he got promoted, he's the goodest guy the secret service really needs. I am sad we didn't get more Ahn x Nam scenes because this fanboy duo has my heart.
- Chayoung's court victory and her EXPRESSIONS when she won. I love her. I love how over the top she is and I love how she never changed.
- CHAYOUNG SLEEPING ON THE GOLD.
- Mr. Ahn's boss going "YOU AND YOUR CORN SALAD" this is everyone to me forever from now on.
- Chayoung's vineyard. Are 1 + 1 really Myunghee and Hanseok as fertilizer?
- The PERFECT Chacenzo confession scene. All I wanted was for...

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Wow this is the first time I'm writing so much that DB cut me off! RIGHT AS I GOT TO CHACENZO. Anyway, here we go:

- The PERFECT Chacenzo confession scene. All I wanted was for those two to recognize their feelings, and I was not disappointed.
- The reinvigorated Geumga squad being able to stay whole and together (sans Mr Ahn though :( ). While their adoration of and reliance on Vincenzo started out as (tragi-)comedic, I'm still so happy that their involvement with him ultimately empowered them. They initially needed this villain from Italy to clean up their mess/save their lives, but throughout this show they learned they're just as capable of standing up for themselves and defending their own. Of course, it helps that they're somehow almost all Olympic level fighters.

I have so many feelings and thoughts about Chacenzo, which I honestly never expected to care about so much going into this drama. Their ending was bittersweet with him leaving (despite the promise of island visits?), but it was true to the tone of the show. They're honestly both self-serving villainous characters (Chayoung worked at Wusang for EIGHT YEARS. And she was THRIVING), which is why their romance felt guilt-free and perfect to me. They were two people who deserved eachother. And gosh, the chemistry. THEIR CHEMISTRY. I'm going to miss them so, so much.

Show, I loved you so. Goodbye, my love!

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Thank you for all of your love letters to Vincenzo and Chacenzo. I've enjoyed reading all of them.

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*the monks liked to meditate THERE oh my god my KINGDOM FOR AN EDIT BUTTON

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All of them.
Monks and ByeByeBalloon crew were my favourite tenants. We only missed that balloon scene, it would have been fantastic.
And yes, KDY is our treasure and we need him in a leading role. And yes, please, make him a cute puppy!!

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This show was dark and fun in so many dark and silly ways.
I will miss it on my weekends, but to be sure I'll never think of a nutria the same again and I'm replacing it with new ones.
Vincenzo was delightfully different on so many levels and I look forward to the next drama by this writer.
Thanks for recapping this!

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Hanseo not running Babel was a sad note. After all the growth, he at least deserved. While I wanted Joonwoo gone, Babel wasn't in the mix.
Hanseo, and Hanseo-runned Babel would have been a more satisfying arc for his character.

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What a ride this has been. I LOVED the drama to pieces from the writing to the action to the characters and their developments. The characters stayed true to their self till the end. Vincenzo never was termed as a good guy. He was and still is a dark antihero and has no mercy over the people who he likes to torture. Song joongki's best work so far. What charisma he brought to this character and that fact is undeniable.
Along with the male lead, the supporting cast has such great rapport. their scenes were so funny and what a great team they had been. One of the best ensemble cast. Long live the Cassano family,
I never anticipated a romance line in this drama, because i thought the show will focus on the journey of Vincenzo on his mafia role. But i am so glad and grateful to the writers for putting some romance in this show. This drama has hands-down the BEST slowburn romance of all time. I love the development between Vincenzo and Chayoung scenes. Their chemistry was on another level. Such mature and understanding romance line between two of them. Wish we got more scenes of them. I cannot stop watching their scenes on youtube.

I loved how the villians got what they deserve. Such monsters needs brutal endings.

I am terribly missing this drama. Farewell to one of the best dramas of 2021.Wish we can see Jeonki couple in another drama.

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I'm sure the whole cast had an absolute blast making this drama and I loved every minute of it. I would have preferred an ending where Vincenzo and his love set off towards the island in a Bye-Bye Balloon with an excellent chance of landing somewhere, if not strictly on the island near Malta. They could have taken some gold bricks as ballast and tossed them out when necessary. I'm surprised the writers missed this one - they didn't miss much else!

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Just curious about @quirkycase said in the beginning of this recap "In a tale with a death toll higher than its episode count", I just do a counting of death toll. If I have missed someone, please let me know:

Vincenzo's "Papa" (just before Ep. 1);
3 (at least) in the Italian vineyard, including Emilio the rival boss (Ep. 1);
Lee Seon-ho, a test subject for the drug RDU-90 and whistleblower for Babel Pharmaceuticals (Ep. 3)
Hong Yu-chan, Cha-young's father (Ep. 3);
Gil Jong-moon, chief doctor of Babel Hospital (Ep. 9);
4 family members of Babel Chemical's BDSL research (Ep. 9);
Seo Woong-ho, Assistant Chief of Seoul Southeast (Namdongbu) District Prosecutors' Office (Ep. 10);
3 assassins attacking Vincenzo (Ep. 10);
Another 3 assassins from Italy sent by Paulo Cassano (Ep. 15);
Oh Gyeong-ja, Vincenzo's mother (Ep. 16);
Hwang Gyu & Pyo Hyuk-pil, both "Crystal Ball" of Myung-hee, and being Vincenzo's enforcers later (Ep.17);
Jung In-kook, a prosecutor who once helped Vincenzo, and later betrayed him (Ep.19);
Jang Han-seo (Ep. 20);
Han Seung-hyuk, The CEO of Wusang Law Firm, and later chief prosecutor of Seoul Southeast District Prosecutors' Office (Ep. 20);
Choi Myung-hee (Ep. 20);
Jang Jun-woo/Han-seok (Ep. 20);
3 Locarno Family members, rival of Cassano Family(Ep. 20).

Total: 29

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Forgotten, also 14 employees from Babel Pharmaceuticals, so total dead count should be 43.

Sorry, I am just too bored ...

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Nope, piece of brilliance. Thanks v much!

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Wang Shaolin, the Chinese boss and owner of the gold, was killed by Young-woon on the International Security Intelligence Service's order in a flashback in Ep. 13.

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You're right, @panshel, and thanks for your correction. So official dead count should now be 44.

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Also all the workers who built the vault witnessed by Gilbert (Ep. 7);
Jang Guk-han, Chairman of Babel Group and Jang Han-seok and Jang Han-seo's father (Ep. 7);
Mr. Lee, Babel Chemicals union leader and Truck of Doom victim (Ep. 12);
Oh Jung-bae, CEO of Daechang Daily and shaman worshipper (Ep. 15);
Kang Ho-chul, Choi Myung-hee's lackey and Oh Kyung-ja's killer (Ep. 16).

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Actually It's pronounced Gil-Boet.

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YOWWWWWW!!! What a freakin' ride!!! This ranks as my favorite kdrama of all time. I was checking this out in February after noping out of Sisyphus due to its bad reviews, and did not expect to tumble down a Vincenzo rabbit hole. I've never been so obsessed with a drama.

Man, this drama blended so many genres and managed to pull it off. I was screaming, hollering, fist-pumping, clutching my hair, and crying during every episode. My neighbors probably thought I was nuts. There were quite a few plot holes that prevent this drama from being an absolute masterpiece, but it's up there with the greats.

Episode 20 / the finale threw me for a loop because it really went dark, the kind of dark we all expected in the beginning. The show really stuck the landing with the anti-hero theme and I fist-pumped at the ending monologue. I'm glad the writers didn't try to redeem Vincenzo. He is a true anti-hero and morally gray character (the only one I can think of in a kdrama). I know alot of people call him a monster and villain, but I think of him more as an anti-hero than evil. I think he has principles that he sticks to and he's more neutral-neutral on the moral alignment, if that makes sense.

This is the first Song Joong Ki drama I've watched. Prior to this, I only knew about him because of his personal life drama that even made the Western news. I AM A CONVERT. Holy shittake mushrooms! I know SJK is famous for his flowerboy looks (this show was like a homage to his looks), BUT GOOD LAWD THE MAN CAN ACT. The range he displayed here was incredible. Give this dude an acting award! He really shouldered Vincenzo and this is now his defining role (probably will be one of the defining roles of his career). I'm going to watch whatever he is in from now on.

Jeon Yeo Been was a revelation. I didn't know her coming in, but she KILLED portraying Hong Cha Young. I LOVE HCY so much. She's my spirit animal and favorite kdrama female lead. JYB has crazy acting range too. I thought up to episode 14 (before they sidelined her), she was flat out stealing scenes from SJK. Because of Vincenzo, I went to watch her recent gangster movie. Hot damn can she transform between roles. I hope she achieves superstar status because she really has the acting chops and I'm tired of seeing kdrama female leads who are as bland as white bread and cannot act.

Also, the CHEMISTRY between SJK and JYB! I went into this drama not expecting romance, but the chemistry between the two knocked me over and I turned into a crazy shipper. I have never shipped two actors before, but I'm shipping them like crazy. I was one of those crazy people chanting "KISS" at the screen fervently. Vincenzo isn't a romance drama, but the Vincenzo - Chayoung pairing is the best romantic pair I've seen in a krama (and among best in TV shows). Some of their scenes were so poignant or heart-fluttering they made my heart physically ache.

Loved the Gaunem-avengers. KDY is an acting revelation...

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I haven't watched the ending yet and I think I never will, not because I'll miss this drama, but because I was enjoying the journey, the ending didn't matter much, I was only worried about the gold. :D

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I've got to say it- I'm getting really sick of the "abuse victim finally overcomes/confronts abuser and proceeds to die" arc. Like, I know it made sense narratively, but it's still disappointing.

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I enjoyed this, although I had to watch it with my moral compass switched off entirely. In fact that’s why I didn’t watch as it was broadcast as I was concerned about a drama with a Mafia lawyer as hero. I then saw it was described as a comedy, so decided to give it a g go.
I’m not sure the comedy always sat well alongside the Grand Guignol horror, but it certainly swept me along, brushing aside all loopholes in the plot.
I loved the music and have been trying to find if there’s a list of all the classical music played as there were I recognised, but just couldn’t place, particularly one violin piece that came up every so often starting on a high note, then crashing down to a low one.

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After wrapping Vincenzo, I started thinking that I’d like to see Jeon Yeo-bin take the role of Villanelle in the Killing Eve remake. She’s not the most obvious pick... but she has screen presence and charisma, and there’s something about her that gives off androgynous vibes. Villanelle could be really interesting in her hands.

Watching the chemistry between Cha-young and Choi Myung-hee made me wish there were more scenes between them. I’d really like to see Jeon Yeo-bin bring a special kind of energy to Eve and Villanelle’s interactions. The steely toughness she displayed in Night in Paradise would make her a great fit for Villanelle as well.

As a bonus, I think her beauty is a lovely contrast to Lee Young-ae’s type of beauty.

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This show was made especially incredible because I loved and cared about every single side character. I thoroughly enjoyed this show so so much and was literally consumed by it. I'm so glad I gave it a shot.

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Regarding the indestructible lighter--There's actually a shot when he's in his room packing to go back to Italy where they show that he's got almost half a dozen or more of those lighters. Maybe that explains it.

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My brain:
- Noooo! Don't die Hanseo! I hate this writer. Always offing my faves.
- Oof. They're gonna send Myeonghee and Joonwoo off like that? Damn! Is this for real? like damn!! (maybe the writer's not so bad.)
- That was a crazy fun ride. Kinda glad it's over though. It was getting boring.
SONG JOONG GI IS SO HOT IN THIS!>>>>>>>>

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And Kwak Dong Yeon is the cutest fluffball villain 😊😊😊

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how i missed this show this past weekend! so sad that it's finally over T_T

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Thanks so much for the recap and comments, and also to all the beanies who shared their love for the drama.

I loved the drama. It was perfectly imperfect. It could have been perfect but it was just this imperfect drama that I loved to bits. I know I can turn to one episode and watch and burst into laughters. I don't care about its inconsistencies, I just love it.

What I loved the most was the fact that the drama always reminded us that Vincenzo was not good. We liked him, we fangirled around him, we could be part of his fanclub, but he was evil, and I thanked the drama for that. So was ChaYoung. They both killed people with no remorse. You can argue that those people deserved it, but both Vincenzo and ChaYoung should be behind bars.

Acting was fantastic. I totally agree with you about SJK and JYB I couldn't imagine any other Vincenzo or ChaYoung. And I need to say how good Taecyeon was in his portray of JoonWoo/HanSeok, he was at his best, his acting served the drama perfectly and I can't love him more for trying this hard. But the true gem of the drama was KDY. I can never stop saying he is a gem, a true treasure and I hope he can shine in a leading role asp (one in which we can see his big smiles throughout the drama, please!!).

I'm already missing you, drama.

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Its definitely not perfect but I really liked it. Its entertaining, heartfelt, the cast was awesome and SJK was fantastic in this show

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I really dislike the last episode. I dont understand why Vincenzo abandoned Han Seo to an evil guy who has a gun. When Han Seo hit his brother instead of Vincenzo, Vincenzo should go in for the kill and finished him off. Instead he is so slow in reacting and even attempted to run away with his girl instead of killing the enemy. He is so out of character that I find it unbelievable!

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I started this show not caring about anyone, because no one seemed likable. I didn't even feel excited about starting the second episode. But I carried on and it grew on me. As others have said, the supporting cast was incredible. That's why the thing that bothered me most was most of them getting 0 from all of that gold after all the help they gave. This is literally hundred of millions of dollars worth of gold we're talking about. Giving each person/family in the plaza a few million bucks would have changed all of their lives (no need for barely making it at a pawnshop with a newborn for instance). Instead we get Seo Mi-ri hoarding gold in her piano and Hong Cha-young using gold for a bed (and getting a terrible backache from it). What if the other plaza residents somehow found out? Would they be happy about being left out, after they had agreed they'd share with Vincenzo? Sell the gold and make people's lives better.

Other major point, I didn't see much chemistry between the two leads at all, and I'm not sure what other people are seeing (compare to the sacrificial love of crash landing into you for instance). That I think is the writers' fault. They could have built in more affection without going full R-rated (though with the murder scenes, why not have implied sleeping together?) It wasn't believable at all to me. Why not show Hong Cha-young in the end as a mafia don's wife with a family on a beautiful Italian island? It would have been more satisfying than having her lonely sleeping on a pile of gold.

And yes, Vincenzo not doing anything while Jang Han-Seo creates a distraction is ridiculous. He also should have called in for back-up or had some plan in place before going in there. You could still have gotten the end result of Han-Seo getting killed by sacrificing himself a lot more believably.

Those are my gripes. Over all, though, still an enjoyable ride.

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