Moon in the Day: Episodes 13-14 (Final)

by lovepark

Even after being trapped on this earth for over a thousand years, our spirit wishes to stay a bit longer. Alas, if he remains, then his love will never be safe, so though it pains him, he must let her go. However, before our couple can strive for their happy endings, they have to dispel the pesky ghost that wishes to continue this curse.

 
EPISODES 13-14

It’s time to say goodbye to this show and the 1,500-year-old curse that kept our heroes chained to the past. Plenty of loose ends are tied in neat bows — requiring a hefty dose of suspension of disbelief in some cases — and all in all, these final two episodes were consistent with the overall quality of the show. It’s a bittersweet ending that tries to paint a love story that transcends time, but a part of me wonders what could have been…

Once our main characters reaffirm their love for each other, they agree to work together and beat the curse. Do Ha seeks out the monk again for advice, and this time, he actually helps since Do Ha has figured out the reason for his existence (i.e., he exists to protect Ri-ta). Though still cryptic, the monk tells Do Ha that evil spirits are obsessive, and the answer to their problem lies somewhere between the other spirit’s obsession and Do Ha’s yearning.

While Do Ha is gone, Young-hwa receives news about Min-oh’s critical condition, so she rushes to the hospital… and walks straight into a trap. Chul-hwan uses Young-hwa’s savior complex to his advantage, and as predicted, she gives Min-oh her talisman to protect him. Using herself as bait, Young-hwa runs out of the room, and Chul-hwan chases after her while scoffing at their so-called love.

Chul-hwan reminds her of all the pain she is putting Do Ha through, and for a moment, she hesitates. However, Do Ha appears in front of her, and Young-hwa stops wavering. He taught her that love is about wanting to save the other person no matter the cost, and she no longer falls for the enemy’s taunts.

In that moment, the pieces finally click for Do Ha, and he realizes what he must do. Pushing Young-hwa to safety, he confronts Chul-hwan alone and tells his father that he will protect his love until her thirtieth birthday which will mean the end for both of them. Throwing his father down the stairs, Do Ha grabs Young-hwa as they try to escape, and suddenly, a car swerves in front of them: the attorney has switched sides.

With the attorney’s help, our main couple gets away, and during the drive, Young-hwa has her last dream. After she killed Do Ha, Ri-ta attempted to end her life, but with his last breath, he begged her to live. Waking up, Young-hwa realizes that Do Ha has always been her guardian angel and hopes to live with him for a long time. Unable to reciprocate, Do Ha wonders to himself if she will forgive him for hiding the truth from her.

With a week left until her birthday, Do Ha and Young-hwa hide in Jun-oh’s secluded house and enjoy the passing days with little fanfare. As their farewell approaches, Do Ha cries alone at night since he is unable to sleep as a spirit, and in the mornings, he spends every minute with Young-hwa, making sure to make the most of his final days.

The day before her birthday, they head to the market to buy stuff for her party, and Young-hwa picks out matching rings for them to wear. Do Ha thinks to himself that this was the happiest day of his life, and that night, with less than an hour before the curse is over, the lights turn off and Chul-hwan appears.

Do Ha holds off his father to let the others escape, but fueled by his desire for revenge, Chul-hwan tosses Do Ha aside and goes after his target. He corners Young-hwa in the woods, and right when it looks like they lost again, Min-oh comes to the rescue. Thanks to the talisman she gave him, he buys just enough time for Do Ha to come and protect Young-hwa.

Sensing his end, Chul-hwan reveals to Young-hwa that Do Ha will disappear if she lives, but Do Ha reassures her that everything will be alright. He impales his father on a branch — finishing what he should have done long ago — and watches him vanish into dust. The curse is finally broken.

As Do Ha falls to his knees, Young-hwa cradles him in her arms and begs him to stay with her. He reminds her that he will always be by her side, and for the first time in over a thousand years, Do Ha falls asleep. Dreaming of his past, he realizes that the majority of his time was miserable but meeting Young-hwa made him overwhelmingly happy.

During their week of hiding, Young-hwa and Do Ha spent a day resting under a tree and noticed the moon in the sky. He told her that he would be the moon for her — always there even if she cannot see it — so she will never have to be lonely. In the present, Young-hwa recalls this memory as his last farewell and wakes up in the hospital with a heavy heart.

While Min-oh prepares his brother’s funeral for a second time, a miracle occurs. Hearing the news, Young-hwa rushes down to find Do Ha and immediately hugs him. However, he pulls back from her, and her smile disappears as he asks who she is. She realizes that the man before her is Jun-oh, which means Do Ha is truly gone.

A year passes since then, and Jun-oh is now cancer-free after receiving chemotherapy (I guess ghostly possession helped him heal). Life goes well for the star, and though Do Ha’s influence slips out occasionally, Jun-oh recalls nothing from that time. He does remember Young-hwa’s name, and when he finds a box of Do Ha’s things including her picture, he asks his brother to let him meet her.

Young-hwa has also been doing well since her last birthday: going on failed dates, returning to work, and hanging out with friends. The two meet again at the temple, and unlike Min-oh’s worries, Jun-oh is only here to thank her for saving his life. He tells Young-hwa that he intends to move on since he does not want to stay stuck in the past and miss the present. Hearing his words, Young-hwa realizes that she should do the same and tells him to live well.

Before they part ways, Jun-oh hands Young-hwa a letter from Do Ha. He wrote to her that he could have repeated another thousand years if it meant staying by her side, but he could not lock her in hell for his own selfish desires. He hopes that she will leave their farewell in the past and continue to live life to the fullest. Staring up at the moon, Young-hwa thanks Do Ha for the birthday present and recalls the memory under the tree as not a goodbye but a promise.

Life moves on as we see snippets of the other characters from the attorney paying for his crimes in jail to Yi-seul making amends through volunteer work. As for Young-hwa, she achieves her goal of going to Antarctica, and in her dreams, she rewrites history. Instead of killing Do Ha, she hugs him, and they die together in each other’s arms. Just as his yearning kept him by her side for 1,500 years, she hopes her longing will reach him, too.

An undisclosed amount of time passes, and a university student who looks like Young-hwa snaps pictures of the moon. Distracted, she nearly falls over until a high school student, who looks like Do Ha, catches her. They gaze up at the moon together before smiling at each other, and it seems that Young-hwa’s yearning reached Do Ha after all.

The final scene seems to be a nod to the source material, though in more of an Easter egg sort of way rather than anything substantial. I’m not a fan of age gaps that include minors, so while I didn’t necessarily like the image of their reincarnations meeting again, the thought behind it was a nice treat for fans who were hoping for a happy ending. Overall, I think message of the show wasn’t my cup of tea which did hinder my enjoyment, but I can appreciate the conclusion as a love story about two people who are meant to be together across time and reincarnations.

Some of the logic surrounding possessions and spirits were flimsy and overly convenient, especially during the final showdown. Chul-hwan was super strong when it helped the plot move forward, but then weak at times in order for the heroes to escape. As for the differences in ending, I’m assuming Chul-hwan was vaporized because he was evil, and Jun-oh stayed alive because Do Ha was “good.” Speaking of, I wonder if the show would have been better if Do Ha was never a vengeful spirit at all. His death scene was poignant after seeing it in its entirety, but it did make me question how he forgot his mission.

The show made it clear that he held no resentment towards her even during his final breath, yet he thought he was angry at her for 1,500 years until he met Young-hwa? This could have been remedied if the show spent more time with Do Ha and depicted how his love morphed into resentment with each passing reincarnation, but instead, the creators turned it into a twist. The show set him up as a vengeful ghost, making the audience believe one thing only to reveal later on that they were withholding information. In this instance, the show sacrificed storytelling for a surprise which wasn’t worth the payoff.

It makes more sense in this version of the story to have Do Ha been her guardian angel from the start since their history is rife with sorrow and tension. There was plenty of things the show could have focused on and developed over the course of fourteen episodes, and I think it works much better as a drama about longing than it does as a fake out revenge-melo. Granted, the show has tons of other weaknesses that I doubt a few changes could have saved it on a fundamental level, but it’s indicative of a larger complaint I had towards the show: it tried to be too much and ended up not quite knowing what it wanted to be.

 
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