And you had to pick that first picture 🙈 it reminded me of the Michelin tires logo!!

Ep 16 reminded of the good times. We could have gotten here without the serial killer.
A lot of people just turned a new leaf like original mom, lawyer mom, Su-a mysteriously. Are we to assume she got treatment?
I didn’t see any change in the mothers. They continue to gossip and spread rumors.

Anyway. Will remember the greatness this show was until Ep 12!

Man this drama. Such mixed feelings. I have SO much love for all the main characters, but I can’t help but feel like there was such sloppy writing to resolve issues.

Consort Ji was a mass murderer? Ah, he commits suicide (!?!?!?!?) and leaves behind absolutely no trauma and faces no consequence.

The last minute estranged mom return? She just chooses to leave again and no longer has any impact on the plot after causing so many tears.

But then they show the slow mo of Hae Yi running to Haeng Seon after the CSAT calling her “mom”, and my heart is full. All else is momentarily forgotten as I bask in the true magic of the show, which was this beautiful adopted mother-daughter relationship.

Everything of the high schoolers was awesome, from the slow burn friends to lovers OTP, to the foursome friendship. The handling of the love triangle turned bromance was the best, and I can ship Sua and Geonhu (though i wish Sua’s mom had learned her lesson… but it seems like it’s true that some people never change). Could’ve done without the weak plotpoints listed above, and focused more on the two year time skip (Chi Yeol really making a difference in the classes with his teacher friend, Haeng Seon struggling to study and balance love and her college daughter, and of course our lovely med students. Or if you were going to bring back the bio-mom, do it earlier and actual resolve it… just skip ALL of the murder plot PLEASE). When this drama was a romCom, it was truly magic. I’m happy that this drama did so well ratings wise, I’m so proud of all the beautiful actors, and I’m so glad we got to see Jeon Do Yeon without her bangs (she’s absolutely stunning, guys). These were lovely characters with some stumbles for me, and I’ll bask in the glow of the sweetest family plus their friends, and skip the rest.

A few things I liked about the finale.

The first will be Chi-yeol and Teacher Jeon's friendship. It is sad that this two individuals grew apart thanks to the education system. But I was glad to see them heal from their hurt and be good friends again, even exchanging ideas and talking about their challenges. I'm happy for them both and their back to fledging friendship, and I'm happy that Chi-yeol has a safe space in Jung-ryeol.

Did we really have to have the mom around? And why is Seo-jin's husband suddenly showing up after everything wrecked up and down? I wished he was back sooner cause he was really sweet and supportive. The healthy air meal they shared as a family...all is forgiven. Even though it was just one scene and we didn't see the journey, I believe they have done the work to get to where they were today. Seo-jin is proud of her son, and she let him know that she no longer sees him as a disappointment but as a child she will become very proud of, a child she'll no longer hide but will flaunt for all and sundry to see.

One more thought? Do the kids really have to suddenly be mature about everything as if they are the only ones battling life? Why did Sun-jae have to drop out of school? Why did Hae-e have to talk about relocating to Japan? It's the adults that messed up so why are they shouldering the responsibility for them. And even if they wanted it, does it have to be that grave? The best Sun-jae could have done was take the last position in the class for that term. That's is a better consequence for his action, but him dropping out...that's similar to cutting off the head to cure an headache.

You are kids, you are young. Let your parents take responsibility for their actions and even yours as well. When the time comes, you can do those things for yourself but until then, please stay in line. Your parents did not ask you to take responsibility for them.

Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon's kiss in public flushed me with first hand embarrassment. I'm supposed to blush but I'm was more of embarrassed and it felt cheesy and good at the same time. Please, do not do that next time.

At the end of it all, everything fell right into place. I ended up liking Hae-e's mom, Seo-jin got her family back, Seo-jin went on a trip with Hui-jae (this one had me feeling all sorts of dopamine mixed with gathered tears), Su-a summarized notes for Hae-e to catch up with class, Geon-hu sleeping in the academy class( that's some consistency for me🤣), Su-a got her mental health back and could now compete in a healthy fashion, Hae-e picks Sun-jae (my legs were in the air in jubilation). Everything is right and it doesn't feel like they were tying up loose ends.

And that's one good-looking pregnancy sported by Yeong-ju.

They killed Dong Hui off early. I felt a profound sense of sadness at his death. I could only see that bespectacled boy and couldn’t help thinking, every adult in his life failed him.
Not much interest in the story after that, but I was happy to see Sun-Jae and Hae-Yi get together. The sudden pairing of Geon-Hu and Su-Ah was odd. He got over Hae-Yi pretty quickly. LOL.
I hated that aside from Su-Hee, the moms got off lightly for their toxic behavior.
Also, aside from a couple of lectures about it, there wasn’t a lot about the toxicity of the uber competitive educational system, which, I thought was what the drama was about. Oh well. Choose wisely next time you commit to a drama, sister!

Thanks for the weecap @mistyisles. I dipped out at episode 2 and followed through the weecaps and came back in to watch episode 16 which was the right ending for the romance drama I had hoped this was going to be. I am glad the noble idiocy was headed off at the pass so Haeyi could shine academically and get the career she deserves and avoid the nightmare in laws she would have had if they didn't sort themselves out.

I liked the final episode. The fact that none of the class left until they heard if Haeng son passed her certification shows how far Chi yeol has come in those 2 years. He telling them and them applauding was so darn cute.

And it was nice to see the teenagers, be teenagers in college.

Now my disappointment. We were denied a arc where Hyo won should have been the number 2. She would have still done her job and still told CY about himself. Those two scenes we saw of them together should have been throughout the series.

If we were going to have that type of mystery, it should not have been that close to home because now it makes no sense, no matter how they try to justify that Chi yeol was being manipulated by Dong hee.

The best thing about these finale episodes were all the jokes and laughs sprinkled throughout. I loved how Geon-Hu teased Sun-Jae after the failed confession. And the nod, wink, wink about Jae-Woo's "vitality" that he didn't quite pick up on. And many more good times.

There's a lot I could say about this drama, but I'm just going to pretend the murder subplot didn't exist and move on. I do feel like the proposal was rushed; we never got to see these two real get to enjoy being together. The first time they started hanging out after they were "offical" was overshadowed by fighting and controversy. I think the proposal could've come after the time skip. The characters in the last four episodes had some jarring personality changes, but at least everything worked out in the end. Sometimes you want a nice, neat bow at the end, and that's exactly what we got out of this rom-com.

Jeon doyeon and jung kyungho carried for me. The moment the drama wasn't directly about them and they were not on screen together, it lost its spark. All the comments about the couple's age gap, how she looked too old or whatever are nonsense to me bcs these two had an amazing chemistry since the first scene together.

I was so into this drama until ep 12 and I could barely bother watching the finale as soon as it was out. It really went downhill for me. The last episodes were a class of what not to do when pacing your story. I never liked the murder teacher assistant plot, but we went through it all, waiting for anyone to finally link the clues and then it just ended LOL I was on board with haeyi's mom coming back and it was a plotline that could have been introduced earlier to bring more discussions, but it was terribly done with a caricature of a character that was really out of tune with the rest of the writing in my opinion. I know this drama has been a type of old school romcom, but some of the latter stories looked like satire of the genre with how stereotypical they were and haeyi's mom whole thing was an example. Same with everyone getting a romance. Geonhu and sua? Really?? If the writers wanted this boy to end up with a possible loveline, my girl danji was right there. Its a shame that once again we got a "main lead's best friend" type of character that is sidelined even by the barely there annoying teen antagonist.

Another annoying thing: This drama did a lot of stuff off screen and with voiceovers. Moments that should have been scenes, played out by the actors. We waited haeyi`s mom to return and we never got a fully confrontation for example. Haeyi's answer to sungjae's confession was done off screen. why?!

The drama could have talked more about the problems with korean education system throughout the run. All the small talks CCY had with his new assistant and teacher friend could have happened before, with more impact into our teen characters' school life. The teacher's issue with how to manage a class with so many different levels could have been a thing earlier and not just a name-dropping talk in the last episode, for example. In the end, the message this drama gave me was that the ends justify the process somehow. The drama is still centering someone's whole life into getting into college or not. With the career you will have. Sungjae's mom changed but she almost went to jail and lost her sons to get to that point.

While its true I remain a little disappointed in the last 6 episodes or so, I'd still say this is a cut above the average for the way it integrated its critique of the pressures put on high achieving students with a pleasant romance. But speaking of that, I was unclear what the message of Haeng-sun delaying marriage to Chi-yeol until she passed the exam was supposed to convey, besides a light-hearted parallel to the high stakes testing being endured by the younger generation. Does it continue the critique of academic culture? Or does instead approve of the testing model, saying Korea should apply to every aspect of life, including romance? Among the other alternative narrative paths I would have preferred, I would have liked the show to end with Haeng-sun continuing to fail the test, to see how it would have answered that question.

The test barrier to marriage raises an interesting policy possibility: I could see an argument for an intensive hours long test about every aspect of your future spouse before being allowed to marry--including a questions on all details of her/his past history, plus essay questions on philosophic matters like "how would you respond to the trolley dilemma involving rape legislation" or "if you divorce your husband because he had an affair that later he revealed was fake would you consider getting back to together." It might ensure a lot more long lasting marriages! On the other hand, it might also contribute to the drastic decline of childbirth in Korea.

But at least then, that would solve the testing pressure on students to get into universities, since the decline in the number of students would eliminate any competition to get into medical or law programs!

It's a rare kdrama that does not induce some coat envy in this viewer, but episodes 15 and 16 had some of the most unflattering coats I've seen in dramaland.

This is my final review of this drama. Decent start, liked some of the sweaters, they dropped their message in the back half, and the coats were real bad at the end. Fin.

Hum... I was sure we will get a happy ending. But honestly, it felt rushed after the angst we had to suffer during so long...

Dong-Hee's case was a disaster since the beginning to the end. The poor boy saw his sister's suicide, he was abused by his mother, nobody helped him after the trial, like the importance was not about if he killed or not but why... and then he killed people and it ended with his own suicide... What's the point of this story?

Sung-Jae's mother was like Dong-Hee's mother. She never apologized to ruin her son's life and started to ruin the younger one, get treated for alcoholism. No she just left on vacation with her son like nothing.

Sua's mother is just pushing her own craziness on other mothers and she's paid for that.

Haeng-sun should have not accepted her sister comeback. It made Hae-Yi suffering for mothing. She had enough arguments to tell her to leave and just let her contact infos if Hae-Yi wanted to get them.

How Hae-Yi could let the poor Sung-Jae waiting for so long and just give him a peck? When writers will stop to make highschooler/college students acting like kids? At least, they were cute.

Geon-hu was a fresh air breath in this story. He was funny and gave so much positivity. He was a good friend.

I loved our main couple but I really missed the humor from the beginning. In all this angst, I liked how they communicated and support each other.

The casting was really good!

Why did the mothers get happy endings? They were horrible people. At least there’s some indication of regret in Sunjae and Heejae’s mother, and her whole life changed. But Sooah’s mother now gets Paid to do what she has always done?

Jaewoo and Youngjoo: just eww.

I resented being manipulated by the writers into thinking Haengsun went for a makeover when she disappeared after seeing the photos of the pianist girl. Instead, she comes back wearing an Absolute Abomination of a coat.

For a brief moment I thought maybe she’s hiding a pretty outfit under all that puff, until I saw whatever scarf or shirt was peaking out in the neck area. And holy spy balloon, did they have to show it to us in that profile shot? I don’t understand how such a piece of clothing even exists in this world. It’s too big for a maternity coat. And I can’t imagine a hanbok coat using such a pattern that would detract from any hanbok that it covers.

I’ve been Hate-Watching since ep14 and the only part that gave me joy is Sunjae and Haeyi becoming a couple. And like @jerrykuvira mentioned, Chiyeol's rekindled friendship with Teacher Jeon. Everything else was meh or annoying or enraging.

*Ahem*
Clears throat. Flexes fingers.
There's a RANT incoming.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just tired of how shitty this whole thing was in the end that I'm over it.

Boy that education system is terrible, whatcha gonna do about it really? Let's all focus on my lovelife instead. It's a nice distraction. After all, everyone we care about got through it. Only a few people died. Here's a diamond ring.

If I do end up with the detailed and longwinded discussion of why everything was awful then watch this space. Otherwise, let's go find something else shiny.

I dropped the show when it became apparent that Dong Hee would be made to be a murderer. Shin Jae Ha is so good at portraying good people that I desperately didn't want Dong Hee to be anything but that. His friendship with Chi Yeol and sincere care for his well being also does not sit well with Dong Hee killing off teenagers or just the people who are close to CY.

Otherwise, I also hated the show for being simultaneously progressive AND regressive.

+ The FL is a middle aged woman with a kid
- The kid is not biologically hers and in fact she never had a relationship.

+ The character is autistic
- when people in a coffee shop are downright hateful to him, his sister has to give them a sob story and then thank them profoundly for understanding.

Actually, everything about the brother bothered me. Everything from the looks of the actor was similar to the brother from Psycho but It's Okay, but because of the less nuanced writing the character fell flat(?). I just felt he was there for #representation points.

Yeah, and Hee Song reminded me of every candy female lead from the older kdramas.

I am not very good at expressing my thoughts, but I think the reason I write a negative comment on the final episode is because I just really wanted the show to be better. Either way, I am happy for the good ratings - I love Jung Kyung Ho and I hope that this show will encourage showrunners to write more rom coms with middle aged leads.

Not gonna lie, I throughly enjoyed most of the fluff in episode 16!

The leads were so adorable together, this is what I wanted, to see their relationship without the other silly side plots. Haha Geon-hu is definitely the fairy-godmother of the group, the teens were a treat to watch from beginning to end. I’m also happy with their pairings.

Everything else tho is questionable…but I’m just gonna sit with the good memories this show provided me without dwelling on the nonsense. Also happy the drama ended with high ratings! Jung Kyoung-ho and Jeon Do-yeon definitely deserve the success, both their performances were amazing!

I haven’t watched ep 16 yet because I was waiting for the weecap to see if it was even worth my time. I will go back and finish it, especially as it seems like most folks agree that ep 16 was a return to form in a lot of ways, but they really did everything they could in ep 15 to make me care about this finale as little as possible. I think it was mainly the biological mother storyline. It felt so tacked on and unnecessary, and in the entire episode we didn't get to see any of the things I was interested in (teens being a notable exception that proves the rule) and had to deal with a whole bunch of extras that I wasn't. If there had been any more episodes, I think I would have just dropped it completely. Now that I've calmed down though, and read this summary, I think I'm ready to dip back in.

I enjoyed this show and would have liked it more if it hadn't been billed as a romcom. To me it works best as a critique of the Korean education system and the extreme pressure parents put on their kids to succeed. I live in U.S. suburb where a lot of parents and teens are very invested in elite college admissions, so that storyline really resonated for me. (Thank goodness there is no serial killer here, but sadly we do have many kids with severe mental health problems.)

The romance was cute and refreshing. It's nice to see a romance between adults.

This writer and director shine at creating complex characters (even the minor characters have some depth!) and showing warm and funny moments between them. That's what made this drama compelling to me.

The only thing that bothered me is that I don't think it went far enough in exploring/ critiquing the system itself. Chi-yeol is profiting off the kids' (and parents') stress and anxiety. At the end, both Su-Ah and her mom are rewarded for her mom's terrible parenting. I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm not sure what the solution is, though. Our American system may even be worse in some ways.

I had a smile on my face for most of the last episode. I loved our non-traditional family and our gang of teenagers. I think it could have been really brilliant if they had followed @mistyisles suggestion of keeping Dong-hee controlling but no murder subplot. And if they'd done a more substantive look at our families. I couldn't believe that the trauma of having a murderer running around killing people connected to CHY in this Pride school was so quickly dismissed (not that I wanted more of it). I wanted some scene of explanation between Hae-yi and Haeng-sun discussing why she'd said she'd go with her bio mom (was it noble idiocy or an attempt to outmaneuver that she was starting to worry would fail?) and some happy reunion scene there. Although I did love the school pick up parallel with the beginning. I did not like Geon-hu getting romantically involved with Sua-a. She did not appeal to me at all (and imagine her mother as your mother-in-law - yikes) and Geon-hu was so great. And I didn't find believable that Hae-yi waited 2 years to say yes to Sun-jae. As soon as they talked at her hospital bed, the chemistry was still there. I was glad Sun-jae and his family seemed to be reuniting. But at least it was a huge happy ending with a glowing Haeng-sun :)

go girl give us nothing! ✨

i could list the 101 problems i had with this show but I've decided to hold my tongue and let my anger dissipate.
really disappointed with this, there was so much potential :')

The highlight for me this week was Gun-hoo giving Seon-jae his space to confess and then teasing him about getting turned down/put on hold. This is one of the best love triangles portrayed and it was bromance more than anything else.

The parallel between Haeng-soon waiting for Hae-yi after SAT vs the scene from childhood was heart melting. Haeng-soon is the only one deserving to be Hae-yi's mother and no one can deny this.

I loved the finale. It returned to the drama we signed up for but I would have loved it if they gave Young-joo and Jae-woo more screen time and a more convincing set up. Getting together because because a don't go to the blind date trope is boring and typical.

I didn't like Hae-yi's birth mother. So typical and shameless and prefictable. If they wanted to show Hae-yi's dilemma, they should have given that arc more time but still I don't think I wanted the birth mother to return. If you abandoned your daughter for over a decade, you have no right to be called a mother.

Don't get me started on how they handled Dong-hee's arc out especially the suicide act that felt as forced as the whole mystery arc. I am okay with him being the younger brother but not a manipulative person. Why not make him into an example of someone who managed to live a good life and now tried to help others not to repeat the tragedy?

Su-ah and Gun-hoo were a shocking pairing but I will just getting behind that pretending that I am fully convinced Su-ah is now a better person. We saw snippets of the toll stress took on her but I would have loved to see her get therapy. Perhaps her redemption arc will be more convincing.

I loved that Su-ah's mother didn't make a 180. Some things don't change. As for Sepn-jae's mother giving Hee-jae food and going on a trip aren't enough to make up for what she did. Also her redemption arc was left behind the scenes. I wanted a sincere apology and the boys speaking out.

Last but not least, it was really a crash course perhaps not purely on romance no thanks to the tiger mothers and the mystery arc but we had a lot of interesting topics like family and friendship. I feel sad for the drama that could have been but I will try to enjoy the sweetness and forget about the bitterness.

Thanks for the recap!!

They could have cut out the serial killer subplot and still have had 16 episodes since the endings for the other characters were really rushed. Also the final episodes felt like the conclusions to two different dramas. It's as if Dong-hee never existed in their world by episode 16.

I was disappointed to see Haeng-seon being such a doormat in front of her terrible sister and seeing how drama was really about how a bunch of high school kids deciding to be the real adults. Still, the finale did have a good ending for mostly everyone, deserved or not. I smiled a lot through episode 16. Lots of feel-good moments.

Despite my frustrations with the serial killer plot and with the mom-drama, this drama has a lot of warm and charm. There is more good than bad, and I can see why it got huge ratings. There is a good mix of old-school and modern. Sometimes those warm moments hit me in the gut and makes me smile and even cry. Haeng-seon waiting for Hae-yi with the other parents as they collect their kids from CSAT day and Hae-yi going "Mom!" was a great throwback to beginning of the series. TEARS!!!

I enjoyed the ending of Haeng-seon studying and passing the CSAT. And Chi-yeol and his class being so invested in her results!

Honestly, I was pretty disappointed in the ending. There were some good moments, but overall the ending was not good. They tried though, I guess.

My greatest impression at the end was that this drama tried to do far too much . We had a) a romance between 2 people, b) a ML with trauma from an ex-student's suicide, c) a FL who had to quit a career in national sport to care for a dependent, d) a "daughter" dealing with being abandoned and then having to work through mother re-appearing, e) that mother processing her own decision to leave her daughter and deciding it was a good one, f) an assistant who ended up working with his boss due to a dead sister's final wish to work with him, g) the assistant becoming unhinged if anyone else got too close to his boss which led to murder, h) a bunch of mothers who competed to extreme lengths within the school and tutoring system to ensure their children "succeeded", i) how that competition led to criminal behaviour, abuse etc., j) the effects of such competition on their offspring, k) the challenges of running a business and a family as a single parent, l) the extra challenge of having a neurodivergent family member who needs specific attention and support at times, m) an exploration of how romance might look between two colleagues in the business, n) a high-school love triangle and bromance... (I'm sure I've missed some, but enough!) Waaaaaaay too much bitten off and it's not surprising that the resultant chewing was pretty unsatisfactory at points. If they'd chosen to focus on fewer points of interest, I feel it would have been so much better.

FWIW, I would have focused on educational competition as the key issue. The mothers and their children would have had a large part, and I would have still had the romance between the star teacher and a woman who had proven that success in education is not all there is to life. I would have had the trauma of the initial student's suicide, but then the little-brother-manager being a star and helping his boss through the trauma (in tandem with new girlfriend) to emphasise the point about there being more routes to success and fulfilment than cut-throat education. And definitely some discussion on whether star teaching serves or destroys the education system: that was juicy fruit waiting to be picked and I can't believe they didn't go there.

(Sorry. Reposted one more time. >.<;;;)
Episode 15 was horrible. I hated that the writers wrapped up Dong Hee's story by ending it swiftly with his suicide instead of him getting the proper treatment and punishment for his crimes. I don't like that they included a fancy scene of him floating and the past scene of him and his sister was shown too little and too late.

There were still unsatisfying and disappointing parts, but the finale was overall alright. It had a similar tone to the early, light episodes.

Some parts I like:
- Seo Jin getting support from her husband and their family back together again.
- Seo Jin and Hui Jae healing and growing closer. Hui Jae surprising her in his uniform!!
- Hae Yi running to Haeng Sun after the CSAT. Happy tears. :]
- Su Ah & Geon Hu! Not a ship I was expecting. Glad Su Ah is in a better place.
- Sun Jae's ecstatic reaction after Hae Yi expressed her feelings for him. Really cute.

Some parts I didn't like:
- Haeng Ja's reappearance. Eh... it was so short and sudden. A last minute problem before the end. (Her letter to Haeng Sun was pretty touching though.)

- Hae Yi never talked to Haeng Sun about why she acted out and the real reason she wanted to leave her. She never apologized.

- Young Joo & Jae's Woo WHOLE relationship progression. NO. Hated this side story. I don't even want to talk about it much. The romance was nonexistent. Honestly, this part left a huge stain on this drama.

- Su Ah's surprising kindness was indeed a surprise. A bit sudden? We didn't see her in therapy or see how she changed to her current, happy, healthier state. Or what caused this change? Her parents?

- There was the scene between Chi Yeol and Jong Ryeol where they were criticizing the extreme education system in Korea, but that was it. No real improvement or proposal for change. I'm not sure what else happened with Chi Yeol's career 2 years later. He is still helping private academy students, but was he helping public school students? College students?

This drama started off well - it was fun and funny. It sucks that the writing was so bad by the end. A dang shame. Got to see some nice acting from new-to-me, young actors at least. Hope they get more projects. Especially Lee Min Jae! Main lead role please.

I dropped the drama after the murder mystery took center stage (episode 12). I was not convinced by Dong-hee's character. His murderous background and motive felt forced and out of place.

Throughout the show, I also wasn't convinced by the adults' romance. I don't see the chemistry between Haeng-son and Chi-yeol. And it's not because Haeng-son looks like a mom or is older. (The Shape of Water had a leading lady who was in her 40s and a fish creature leading man. And there was plenty of chemistry between them.)

I'm too dumb for this show. I can't understand what the writer tried to do with the story, what was the meaning of it all.

I just... I wanted to see Chi Yeol ask himself what questions he's going to write for the exams. I wanted to see him ask himself what questions he should ask his students to make things better for them. I girl fainted in his class and that was like nothing. When he said "Omo why would she go so far?" I just rolled my eyes.
After all these people died/killed themselves he's shocked because a girl takes pills to concentrate better? Wow. He still doesn't know what's going on, does he?

2. I wanted to see the All Care moms LEARN something. Take a moment to reflect, to really understand what they've done so far to their and other children. I didn't want a lazy and useless time jump where we see the most awful moms out there give advices to other people about how they should raise their children and talk all casual about their education.

3. I wanted to happen was that I wanted Haeng Seon and Hae Yi to have a real omma-tal conversation. If it wasn't for Haeng Seon's unnie, they wouldn't be together now. They solved nothing.

Hae Yi had this idea of being a burden, she acted like she was just visiting, and HS never tried to solve that misunderstanding. HS was the same.
The moment her unnie appeared she started acting like "well, I had fun with my niece, bye".
In my opinion, HS should've told HY that she was her daughter and that it was okay for her to stay if she wanted to. She should've told her that she has two (well, more like one and a half) moms, not one. I didn't like that the one to validate their relationship was HS's unnie.
She goes there to steal money but instead she gives them their permission to be mother and daughter. Aww.

4. Oh, right, Jae Woo and Yeong Joo. Why do I feel like the writer thought they were doing a favor to these two characters...
But from where I'm standing this just looks wrong.

Their kid's is going to ask for "how I met your mother" but their going to get the traumatic season of Friends where Rachel and Joey are a thing.

The mother thing made no sense. It was just like in "Its okay not to be okay". We could survive without. Bring it was just extra stress and added nothing to the history.

I disagree that this show had a happy ending. Sure, the ships sailed, yay! But, think about it - nothing has changed. Helicopter parents will still obsess about their child's college admission; Chi-yeol never got out of this vicious environment and still playing a major role in this lopsided system of the have's and the have-nots, he never even bothered to address the obvious lessons learned from the tragedy of Dong hui and sister - I was expecting at least with his money he could have put up a foundation that may serve as a refuge or offer therapies for victims like them. Depressing to think that there could be more Su-a, Hui-jae, Dong-hui, or even that girl who fainted. Hae-yi only got lucky because her aunt is dating a star teacher, but what about the rest of the less - privileged? It is actually a depressing ending.

I feel this is a weird highlight, but honestly a refreshing part of this drama was COMMUNICATION. E.g., I LOVED that when Chi-yeol found out about Consort Ji, he calls Haeng-sun and tells her about it. With Hae-e and Sun-jae, it was so refreshing to see that she would CALL him to check in on him. IDK. It's probably because I'm one of those people that prefer calls to texts ><

I don't really have any thoughts that others haven't covered, so I Just want to say that Yeong-ju being pregnant really bothered me. Maybe it's because I'm dealing with infertility, but I'm just so tired of shows and books tacking pregnancies onto everything. Also, I'm still not super comfortable with their relationship, so a reminder that they apparently had sex wasn't... great.

I agree that the show tried to do too much and a lot of things weren't wrapped up well, but in the end I appreciated the happy ending because a lot of Kdrama romances haven't been giving me that lately. Also, I was really happy about Hae-e and Sun-jae, although I wish she hadn't resisted his hand-holding at the end (I get what they were trying to do but it already felt questionable if she was into him).

Definitely lots of flaws and missed potential with this drama, but I have to say the actors were all amazing. Even as I was questioning the writer's choices and wanting to throw my screen across the room, I kept watching because the actors drew me in and convinced me in each scene. Props to all of them.

One of the things the writer was consistent throughout was making the women in Haeng-sun's family (Mother, two sisters and grand daughter) headstrong. It would have been nice to see more of Kim Mi-kyung as the matriarch but it did not happen.
I referred to Haeng-sun as a sort of "shoot first, ask questions later" person. How many times did she whip off that apron and run out?
Sister Haeng-ja shows up with elbows out and tries to take over.
Even Hae-yi announces she will move to Japan and will kill herself if mom tries to wheedle money out of Chi-yeol.
At least Chi-yeol goes into his marriage with eyes wide open.

I almost never like the endings of these 16 episode dramas. They lose their dramatic tension as each character must find some sort of resolution. I do want to say, however, that I was encouraged that most of the characters were able to resolve their problems. I did not want to see all the mean moms stay mean and all the screwed up families stay screwed up. This is the ideal behind the story. If you screw up college admissions requirements, you can't go to an elite university. If you get injured, or otherwise have to stop your training, you can't be an elite athlete. But, real people can interrupt their education, resume it, and learn the material, or recover from injuries and regain strength and ability. They can repair their relationships with family members and improve their mental. If foolish and flawed characters don't find happy endings, it's not a comedy. That was the real problem with the villain here.

I am looking forward to Jeon Do-Yeon's next Netflix show in which I think she doesn't have to wear featherbeds or whatever those were supposed to be. (Why would you wear a coat indoors anyway? It's not just "OMG where did they find those coats" but was that even a coat? Bathrobe? Tent? What?)