[Drama Review] 'W' - Episode 16 (Finale)

Welp, I was totally wrong about the ending.

It was bittersweet but not in the way I imagined it would be. Thank the heavens that Chul and Yeon Joo ended up together, right? But how sad was it that Yeon Joo's father, Oh Seong Moo, poofed into nothing? I was internally screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO," when the guy disappeared in his car in the webtoon.�

I had thought it would be Chul who makes the sacrifice and allows Oh Seong Moo and Yeon Joo to live out their lives in the real world, but things didn't quite go as planned when Han Cheol Ho started gaining greater agency. To sum it up, things kind of went to shit. Or so we thought. By the final episode's midpoint, I was pretty convinced that both Oh Seong Moo and Chul were done for.�

Chul is mentally prepping himself to die and let Yeon Joo go.�

Fortunately, that turned out not to be the case. If that were, well, I really would have wasted the sixteen plus hours I depleted from my lifespan to watch this series. Oh Seong Moo, whose soul had interlocked with that of the webtoon's villain, could only return to the real world safe and sound if Chul died. But clearly, that's not what he wanted. As a last parting gift to both Chul and Yeon Joo, Oh ultimately made himself the martyr. I suppose Oh felt that he owed Chul the autonomy he hadn't allowed him when he forced a story on Chul. So he decides to bestow that autonomy, albeit belatedly, by freeing Chul from the burden of being 'W's main character. Sadly enough, the only way to do so was to kill all the villains in the webtoon, including Han Cheol Ho and himself.

Your face when the drama doesn't turn out the way you expected.�

We got the happy ending that we wanted...but some things were still left unexplained. Like who was truly in control of 'W'. As we all saw, the webtoon would, in many instances, have a mind of its own. The most plausible explanation to the webtoon's having a life of its own would be the characters' will and self-awareness, particularly that of Chul's. It's not the most satisfactory explanation but I guess it's good enough. There were many holes throughout the story which I had pointed out in my previous reviews, but I'll let those slide since we got that semi-happy ending.�

Han Hyo Joo is devastated when she thinks she lost both her father and Chul.�

The other puzzling point in this episode was how Chul only got a two-year sentence after shooting a hole in a man's chest. You know, the director/producer of that show 'W'. Chul may have been cleared of killing his family with the discovery that Han Cheol Ho had set him up and tortured him. But...what about the guy Chul shot for dead with a gun that formed out of thin air? A bit harder to explain than a criminal setup. Imagine telling the prosecutor, "I'm telling you, the gun just appeared in my hand and shot itself at the man!" Ain't nobody going to buy that kind of story. So yeah, even until the very end 'W's got me scratching my head. But at least we've got a happy ending...?

"That's right BISHHH I got the girl!"�

All in all, the drama could have been better executed, especially plot-wise. And the way the plot drove itself forward was crammed at certain parts, appearing terribly rushed but extremely slow at others, with 15-minute long scenes of awkward close-ups. And the acting wasn't anything to write home about; however, Han Hyo Joo's acting did get better as the series wore on, possibly because she stopped acting like a frenzied dunderhead. I was most impressed by the acting of Kim Eui Sung, who had played Oh Seong Moo and the killer. The guy switched so effortlessly between the two jarringly contrasting roles without the need to convince me that he was both an affectionate father and amoral killer. Bravo, Kim Eui Sung, bravo.