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The Impossible Heir: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

With the impossible heir taking over the company by force, what’s a mastermind genius ex-bestie to do but take over the takeover? In our final week of the drama, justice is delivered, an end point is reached, and all our plot points slowly fizzle out into a lackluster ending that underperformed my already-low expectations.

 
EPISODES 11-12

If an unsatisfying drama has an unsatisfying ending, does that make it a satisfactory conclusion? Whatever the case may be, The Impossible Heir ends — shockingly — without a single twist, and with nothing interesting occurring. The moral of the story is equally mangled, but we’ll get to that later.

We open up back in the hospital room, with the glare-off between In-ha and Tae-oh. The chairman is saved from patricide once again, and that ends that. In-ha continues his massive takeover plan, politicking with a bunch of guys three times his age. He also talks to his overly loyal friend Mo Ki-joon — you know, the kid that murdered on his behalf and took the fall for every one of In-ha’s crimes. In-ha tells him not to worry about taking the fall. But we all know that’s sociopath speak for “imma kill you” and sure enough, In-ha orders a prison hit on him.

Meanwhile, the Gold H Investment plan is going off without a hitch. The loan shark that owns the thing on paper is going to play his role in front of the Kangoh shareholders, but for some reason Tae-oh shows up instead and essentially reveals his hand. I don’t understand why the show did this, and this whole plotline barely holds together — but the purpose is to show that Tae-oh has had this plan in his back pocket, and he’s amassed enough stock-holding power to flip a few politicians. And Ki-joon.

Ki-joon survives his brutal stabbing, and after a convincing speech from Tae-oh, testifies against the very-arrested In-ha. Here, the drama does us a disservice with it’s editing (among other things). It has a fondness for ending on huge, loud, no-context scenes, and In-ha’s public arrest is one of them. It’s not until we get into Episode 12 that we back up and see that this was all Tae-oh’s doing, thanks to Ki-joon’s witness statement.

While Tae-oh and In-ha are trying to outplay each other, a few earlier plot points are touched upon. The most significant of these is Tae-oh’s imprisoned psycho step-father. He’s suddenly let out on leave, and he’s given intel as to where Monk Mom is. He makes a beeline there to terrorize and probably murder her for real this time, but she’s so scared she falls from the steps of her temple and dies.

Tae-oh gets word and goes to the morgue to identify her body. Yes, she’s really dead, and he’s utterly distraught. I want to feel for Tae-oh here, but really, we have not seen these two characters together for the entire drama and Monk Mom has had nothing to do with the story, so this comes off as another emotionally bankrupt plot moment.

But… maybe it’s the twist we’ve all been waiting for? Tae-oh’s mother has left him a letter. Ooooo, maybe it’s about his biological father and this will give us something to take to the bank? Nope. It’s just a nice letter to tell him to forgive everyone, forget the past, and live happily. Tae-oh seems greatly affected by this. And so am I, except with excessive eye-rolling.

The one good thing that comes from this scenario is that Tae-oh and Sung-joo get on the same page. Sung-joo tells him, “We both lost our mothers, and I think it was the same person” — Tae-oh’s mom’s demise was cooked up by In-ha pulling strings, and it is the same for Sung-joo’s mom’s arrest. She’s held accountable for all her crimes, and I’m not a bit sorry. So between this alliance of Tae-oh and Sung-joo, and Sung-joo finally telling off his mom, Sung-joo is now one of the good guys. Talk about a rando redemption arc. (Still, Lee Ji-hoon’s wildly over-the-top facial expressions have been the one thing entertaining me in this drama.)

Meanwhile, In-ha’s not only been legally converted to a Baek, but he can’t escape the gobs of evidence that are now turning up against him. Just like every blink-and-you-miss-it legal proceeding in this show, In-ha is soon slapped with a sentence for life in prison, and that is basically that. The drama thinks this is Very Emotional, but alas, it’s just another flat plot arc, ending with an equally flat moment.

The drama concludes this “high school friendship” storyline with a painfully try-hard scene in the courtroom. In-ha is asked for any final words after receiving his sentence. The metaphorical spotlight is on him, and Hye-won and Tae-oh, who are present in the courtroom. It’s implied they are all in anguish for the deep, long-standing bond between all three of them that is now broken. In-ha looks at them, but says nothing. He later commits suicide in his cell as a single tear drips down his cheek. *Really, Show?*

In case you forgot about Hye-won (I did), she reappears into our storyline in the courtroom scene, and earlier, to briefly provide moral support for Tae-oh after the loss of his mom. After the smoke clears the two have a beer together again like the old days. Hye-won says, “I want to focus on myself now” (uh, when did you do anything but that?) and they have a bonding moment about how they’re the same as they ever were, chasing their dreams for themselves. LOL. It’s as if the drama totally forgot that their “forbidden romance” was what started everything breaking down — indeed, it forgot the romance entirely. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I guess. There was no chemistry or real story here anyway, so I’m happy to wave good to Hye-won as she pursues her lofty career in politics. Bye Felicia.

In case you were wondering about the best character in this show — Chairman Kang — he survives his fake-yet-real heart disease and he lives on to praise Tae-oh. He tells Tae-oh that he sacrificed everything to protect Kangoh, and that means he, Tae-oh, is the one who should be the rightful heir.

After a handy three-year time skip, we see our Tae-oh and Chairman Kang duo surveying their very CGI Royal Road. “Your dream is here,” says Tae-oh, looking off into space with a satisfied expression. They created the thing they wanted to. Too bad the drama didn’t even fully explain the significance of this so that we could feel their victory with them.

And so, our drama winds to a close. In that glorious palace-like office of the chairman, a slow pan reveals that the current chairman is now… Tae-oh. He watches the fireworks from his tower like he did once as a scrappy teen, and he says to himself: I dreamed of this when I was 18, and I’m still dreaming dreams for myself.” The end. Roll credits. *Cue popcorn throwing*

So what exactly is the message here? Scheme to take over a man’s company and eventually he’ll just hand it to you because you’re so clever? Agree to a loveless marriage for money and connections and then dump your spouse when you don’t need a leg up anymore? Fight your way out of the gutter only to find that being a chaebol chairman isn’t enough and you want more? Okay, in Tae-oh’s defense he started a “foundation” to help humanity — like every drama chairman before him — but really, I’m at a loss here.

I didn’t expect a great ending from this drama, but I did expect one that was a little more satisfying — and if it can’t be satisfying, can we at least have some sort of resolution? Nothing was explained or resolved, really. Was Chairman Kang really sick or not? What happens to Hee-joo and her forced marriage? What exactly was the point of her and her crush on Tae-oh, since it went nowhere? What was the point of Hye-won’s character, since that also went nowhere? And most of all, why did the drama even tell us about Tae-oh’s parentage if it was never going to be a part of the actual story? Oh, Impossible Heir. Never has a drama thought so well of itself, and done so much nothing to earn that good opinion.

 
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Thank you @missvictrix for hanging in there till the bitter end. Your recaps were fun, can’t say the same about the drama.

What an utter disappointment and waste of talent.

Micheal chang? What happened to this? They didn’t want loan shark to get more screen time. Or did he not show up on the set that day and Tae Oh replaced him??

This show was nonsensical. It’s worse than flat beer on a hot day.
I didn’t care for any of them. And suddenly everyone gave up their dreams and decided to be zen?? In the last episode?

Handing over the ‘Bean of Disappointment’ to this drama. And fairly positive no drama can take this bean in the reminder of the year.

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Can't agree more on your last sentence.

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So the guy saw fireworks an dreamed of being in these people's place. They live in Asia, every occasion is good to have fireworks. He had no real reason to go against the chairman in the first place. So he became the handyman to In-Ha who used him like he used every other people in his life... The chairman was so right, he lost everything : his friends (even if they never were really friends in the first place), his love, his mother... All of that to be alone in a big tower watching fireworks.

In-Ha could have been way more interesting if they developped the reasons and feelings and not suddenly giving us only crazy actions.

Hye-won says, “I want to focus on myself now” (uh, when did you do anything but that?) I had the same reaction. She was so useless as a character. They never showed us what she could do, what she was actually doing except being stupid by not taking measures to not be followed... I never felt sorry for her. She used In-Ha too.

It was not a good story, the acting was meh, the direction didn't bring anything to this mess.

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And if he did dream of playing in the major leagues, we never saw TH enjoy the fruits of his labor. He lived a very modest life and drank beer in the rooftop. So why bother??

Hye Won is easily the worst written character this year. She had no strengths, no purpose and no skills.

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The acting... I laugh so hard in moments that were supposed to be dramatic... I can only say Hong Su Zu is raising in my list of "never watch a drama with this actor" close to you know who.

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SNE won't feel alone in your list anymore.

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“They live in Asia, every occasion is good to have fireworks.“ 🤣🤣 No truer words have been spoken my friend…

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[In-ha] later commits suicide in his cell as a single tear drips down his cheek.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!! No way. NO WAY. No.

How did you all survive this? Can we send help in anyway? Chocolate? Alcohol?

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Honestly, I am not sure, I think those of us who watched, just watched. Not even a morbid curiosity, just mild interest that never waned. We just kept going.

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I didn't see this drama, but I enjoyed @missvictrix 's recap, and I have to comfort everyone who watched this show with these poignant words from Smokey Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMEz0lB6hBI

Just like Pagliacci did,
I try to keep my sadness hid
Smiling in the public eye,
But in my lonely room, I cry,
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around, oh, yeah, baby

Now if there's a smile on my face
Don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Don't let this smile I wear
Make you think that I don't care
When really, I'm sad
Hurtin' so bad...

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Thank you for the recaps @missvictrix. Cheers to you and all the rest of us for hanging in till the end of this train wreck 🥂!

I think the last paragraph of the recap really encapsulates the primary issue with the show - the absence of an actual story to tell. Characters and plot points were introduced and forgotten in quick succession over and over again. Like the conversation where Tae-ho was going to make Hye-won the heir 🙄.

Even when it supposedly 'closed' the story loop, there was no real resolution - the only way in which the story knew how to move forward was either by killing off people or time-skips.

Here's hoping all the actors find themselves with better work in the future 🙏!

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Yeah. Whatever happened to Hye-won wanting to become the chairwoman? It’s like they write something to create a twist and forget about it the next episode 😂

Also, ambitious mother is suddenly okay because her son told her he wasn’t happy. When did that ever stop chaebol fights???

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I have to wonder if she was deliberately written out of the drama and not simply forgotten about. Again, I try hard in my life not to be mean, but the actress was AWFUL, and what we saw on-screen was probably the product of a lot of behind-the-scenes work with her and in the editing room to try and disguise that fact. And she still sucked. So my theory is that once the show arrived at the reveal that In-ha is a psychopath they were able to basically purge Hye-won from the script and tell the story without her. That would also potentially explain why girl-with-crush disappeared; maybe her arc ultimately relied on Hye-won as well. Regardless, no character in this show was at all well written or developed, but it seems pretty obvious that something more profound than that happened with Hye-won's characterization.

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That's an excellent explanation of what probably happened. LJW's and especially LJY's eyes did 90% of the acting in this show, and the Chairman's shirts did most of the rest, but they all had to work overtime because the lifeless doll of an FL sucked the emotion out of every scene she was in. I feel sorry for the actress. I dimly remember her brief appearance in Lovestruck in the City and it wasn't a demanding role, but she wasn't notably terrible. Charitably, I've wondered if she was ill during filming of this.

The summer 2023 dates on the 'present day' banners and documents in the show indicate that it must have been in post-production for months. Was the production team trying to make something presentable out of awful material, or did that give them too much time so they overthought everything? I had the impression throughout that lots of missing scenes had been filmed and then cut.

Despite everything I've said, I enjoyed this show in a weird, passive, how-bad-can-it-get way.

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I've wondered whether the FL was edited out as well. It would explain the weirdly choppy scenes at least.

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The mom's transformation was so ridiculous. Pretty sure Hee-joo said the exact same thing to her like 10 episodes back and it had no effect. She just changed because the writer needed her to, at this point 🙄.

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OMG, I forgot about Hee Joo's marriage, LMAO. This drama was so BAD. So many unanswered questions. What was the point? WHY? Who were we supposed to root for? I understood nothing because the writer didn't know what they wanted, so they put everything in. SIGH

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Lol. So did the writers. When the ‘fiancé’ came in the last scene I didn’t even know who he was!! I had completely forgotten about him.

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I never even understood anyone's motivation. Well, Inha's was the only one that made sense, but Taeho? Really? My only purpose in life is to make you the heir. Why? No wonder Inha went psycho, when you have a supposedly brilliant guy acting as your puppy and minion, you think you are close to be a god.
Stupid, stupid show.

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I won't remember much of this drama (thankfully), except that the music was quite impressive and often really loud.

Whilst I was also pretty bored during the last two episodes, I asked myself, not for the first time, who would voluntarily move into such an ugly office? Is it even possible to heat this room properly? I would probably have permanently cold hands and feet. Questions that are more exciting than anything this drama had to offer.

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Cold feet! 😆

I liked a lot of the score but I had to keep turning the volume down on my TV during the ~*dramatic*~ moments. And there is one OST I really loved - a piano-forward male vocal that plays over the ending credits of the finale, among other times - but since it's Disney+, we'll be lucky if we ever find it.

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My theory is that the music was so loud because the makers knew they had to wake the audience up every now and then.

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🤣 it was ridiculously loud so that’s as good a theory as any!

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How bad is it that you were so taken out of the drama that you were thinking practically about the physical needs of the characters, maybe the chairman and all visitors wore thermals under their clothes!

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Random notes about a random drama:

So the Kang family robs Tae-oh of everything he has - the girl he likes, his mother, his freedom (for a while), his best friend - and then Chairman Kang faults him for failing to ‘protect’ all that? And then, apparently for no reason, offers him one more chance? Huh? And it turns out the chairmanship was in Chairman Kang’s gift, and at his whim? All that Board of Directors maneuvering and corporate scheming was meaningless? Figures.

So the Royal Road development somehow morphed from the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai to, I don’t know, random ecologically disastrous resort plunked into a swamp? That seems about right.

For a show as queer-coded as this started, they did a horrible job making any sense of In-ha’s and TO’s relationship - they hinted at what attracted them to each other but there was no further sign of that until the very end or of what each perceived, expected, needed, or wanted from the other.

Among the few things I liked:

- When TO takes down the PCITA, it feels like a breakup - the only emotionally resonant moment in the show.
- I laughed out loud when, um, what’s-her-name the FL says she wants to live for herself now. That’s her big character resolution? Like everyone’s, my reaction was, when did she ever do anything else?
- Hee-joo’s unwanted fiancé was hot and funny and I enjoyed his precious few moments onscreen.
- At the end, each main character is alone. The price of power apparently is isolation, but the show mercifully refrains from commenting on that.

How a drama could go this wrong should be studied in a lab.

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I am sooo glad I didn't watch this, after all. Thanks for your hard work recapping such a mess of a story.

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I found funny that the photo that second female lead sent to ML at the end. He zoomed on and smiled. This made many people happier. That was the actress actual photo taken in 2019. Seriously, they used an old photo when their budget was pretty big. Huh! This drama is on another level!

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Funny how fireworks played such an important role visually and as a metaphor in both Impossible Heir and Wedding Impossible.

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I am going to go against the tide here and say that I don't think Lee Jae Wook is a good actor. Apparently, Taeoh's first reaction watching fireworks was that of amazement? I thought Taeoh was disgusted by such a lavish spending or recognized that he was studying with the son of his biological dad. I had so many explanations for his reaction and neither had anything to do with the excitement.

To make it fair, the whole show felt as if it had 30 episodes and the last minute, was cut to fit into 12 episodes. Maybe Lee Jae Wook was given a different description of the scene before the writer randomly decided Taeoh wanted those dumb fireworks.

Either way, it was fun watching the show from afar. Dropped it after second episode and stuck to the recaps. 10/10.

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I am going to go against the tide here and say that I don't think Lee Jae Wook is a good actor.

Add my vote. It's not that he is "bad", per se but I don't understand the accolades. Cast him in a good rom-com and I might view him differently but for now, he sees to be stuck in a particular suave/handsome/dark stereotype role. Not that it is a bad thing for a very good looking 25 year old.

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I think he has a leading guy charisma, but I agree with Kathryn51 that it feels like he's stuck in a specific type of acting. not because he's being typecast but more like his own interpretation of how he should do the job.

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So, another ☑️ in the column titled “glad I didn’t subscribe to Disney”

@missvictrix, you are to be commended for sticking with it!

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This was on my watchlist (I'm not sure why) but I held off for the very simple reasons that something told me (intuition?) that a drama with lots of twist and turns and with Lee Jae-wook would end with LJW the "hero" and the other main male lead would be the bad guy. But I followed the recaps to see if I might be wrong and there might indeed be a surprise or two for the viewer.

Alas, score one for my intuition. Thanks for the recaps @missvictrix - instead of wasting my time on this drama, I have doubled down on spending my kdrama viewing hours on investigating every clue, hint, subtlety in my obsession drama Queen of Tears,. 🥰🥰🥰

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Random thought I even forgot what chaebol mother exactly did so I thought she was framed for Tae-oh's mother's death when arrested.
Never saw a drama this confusing

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Thanks @missvictrix for finding ways to point out the ridiculousness with more humour than the show deserved. It worked for me as the one beanie who was ok with drama despite everything.

There were of course many questions left unanswered but these were the things that I was left with.
I noticed how power corrupts because Inha’s lawyers ensured he was given a life sentence when he did far worse crimes than Taeoh who had been given a death sentence.
The mystery of Inha’s missing mum was solved with one graphic image but we never saw the link between his life with her and his connection with the sea in times of distress.
Taeoh getting the company and the two siblings left standing being ok with him and each other was unexpected.
Special mention has to go to wardrobe for dressing the chairman of a massive corporation in the standard loan shark uniform throughout the drama and it worked.

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Thanks @missvictrix for every witty and resigned weecap. I have not commented on them all but read them and helped me get through this nonsense. I don't regret having watched, though. I always say you learn as much from bad dramas than from good dramas.

I just didn't get so many things in these episodes: the Michael Gold plot? Why? The sloppy prison guardian that doesn't check they guy he's payed to kill is not actually dead. The lack of security cameras in a prison. A doctor woman who was addicted working in a men's prison in SK (this is specially laughable). Inha taking his own life while watching the photo of the three. HyeWon saying she will focus on her life. All those old men saying they would follow Inha when he has nothing... anyway, nothing made sense because this was written by a 12 years old who thought a revenge and witty drama should have all these brilliant twists. Guess what? They were not brilliant. Someone please tell writer-nim.

I hated the acting. I consider Jun and LJW good actors, but they were just over the top, and the second part of the drama was actually painful to watch. Opening your eyes a lot should never count as acting. As for terrible FL, she's already in the list with you know who. I will call her from now on you know who 2 or you know who heir one.

The one thing the drama did well was about the actress portraying Monk Mum: she actually shaved her head. Considering how much I hate when in a drama someone goes through neurosurgery or has big injury in their head and not a shaved head, I was very surprised. My deepest respects for the actress who took her role seriously (I can't say the same about the rest of the cast).

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@missvictrix Thank you for convincing me to stay away from this one! You gave it fair chance and it looks like this one didn't give any payback for that chance.

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My biggest complaint about this drama is probably the fact that it doesn't make me feel happy that I watched it. Initially, I was fine with the fact that I was indifferent to the drama and its characters, because it meant that I would accept whatever happened in the plot calmly. There are many dramas where I don't care about the fate of the characters and I still enjoy watching such dramas. However, here my indifference towards the characters made me see more clearly all the mistakes that were made in creating this drama. Indifference towards characters is good when the drama is good. When the drama is not good and the audience cannot like any of the characters, they become merciless towards the script. I have a major complaint against the screenwriter for not presenting the characters' motives in a more clear way for the audience. I have read various comments and I have the impression that some viewers did not completely understand what the characters' motives were, but I blame the script for not presenting these motives well. For me, this drama will be a drama from those that you forget and don't want to come back to. There is nothing about it that would make it worth wasting time on again.

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I enjoyed the first 3 or so episodes, but man...crash landing badly!!

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@missvictrix , I salute you. For your endurance and wit. when I saw this was up I literally took a bottle of cold water a d a yougurt drink to treat myself properly to this highly anticipated finale (of recaps)
Your deadpan delivery of the most "emotionally potent" moment cracked me up.
Fav qoute:
"After a handy three-year time skip, we see our Tae-oh and Chairman Kang duo surveying their very CGI Royal Road.". Laughing as I'm writing it. Wishing you excellent dramas for the rest of the year, you earned it!

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Hello Void! I’m here after watching this drama randomly for no reason other than a sudden craving for watching Lee Jae Wook. I had actually dropped it after the first episode aired, but here i am after completing all 12 episodes of nonsense. Was i disappointed? Not really, thanks to all the Bean’s post on the wall, i had plenty of warning of how Bad it is. It absolutely delivered it the Terrible Drama category. What a load of wasted potential. The drama tried hard to be smart but it fizzled out, and it didn’t even try to draw us in emotionally so it ended up with a bunch of characters no one cared to root for. What the drama unintentionally did was bring out @missvictrix’s excellent writing and humor, so i’m gonna check out the rest of the recaps for fun 😂

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