SCARLET HEART: RYEO -- EPISODE 20 (FINALE)
Autumn colds are the worst!
Hae Soo finally returns to the present, but it seems like this is not the end...
Here we are at the end at last, but was this the resolution we were hoping for? Instead of wrapping up all the dangling plot threads, they tell an entire story from beginning to end, consisting of months, maybe even a year or two, where Hae Soo shacks up with Jung (as a friend), has a baby, and dies shortly afterward. Of course, this vignette presents us with a few problems...
The pregnancy materialized seemingly out of thin air. Real thin. Presumably the baby is So's, but this is the first we hear about it. Not only does this pregnancy not affect the ultimate destiny of Goryeo, it's completely extraneous to the plot. I'm not sure where they were going with this. The girl didn't even get a name FFS! And now Jung is responsible for raising this plot hole -- a lifetime of pain, likely, for now every time he sees her, he'll be reminded of Hae Soo.
"Good news: the voices in my head aren't telling me to kill you anymore."
Another thing that was odd in my eyes was that Soo sent a constant stream of letters to So. They went unread. Jung re-did the calligraphy on each envelope, and his reasoning was weird: it can't look like the king's handwriting. King So, assuming the letters are just Jung bitching at him, collects them in a pile. Now in the original source material, the calligraphy is important. Soo practiced copying So's poems so much that it became second nature to write like him. They fouled up a romantic thing by not even mentioning it.
The importance of Hae Soo's return to the present left us with more questions than answers. First off, what was the point? I mean, did she learn something that would transform her character? Did she get some feelz that would last a lifetime? I think it was to help So become a good and wise king, but this is only implied. And Astronomer Choi's modern incarnation apparently won the lottery -- his nice shirt and grime-free appearance are a far cry from the trappings of homelessness he sported in the first episode.
From rags to riches. WTF?
I do have to give credit where credit is due. The eye-popping effects at the end are superb. True, some are exactly the same as in the first episode, but I like some of the transitions and the flood of memories as she looks at the paintings from that era. When these guys are on their game, they are really on their game, and good at what they do.
Overall, though, the finale was full of awkward moments and other things ill-explained, and there were other pieces of weirdness I can only touch on, like the incestuous implications of Baek Ah meeting his prepubescent niece (who he ends up with in the future, BTW), and the completely random piggyback ride given to Soo by So at the very end. It looks they left it open for a sequel, following in the tradition of its Chinese predecessor. How else are we to interpret So's words at the end: "If we are not from the same world...I will find you...my...Soo." This installment pretty much mirrored what was wrong with the series -- it lacked focus. Maybe if there's a second season they'll get it right, but how many people are going to line up to find out?
Performance.........6
Pacing...................6
Autumn colds are the worst!
Hae Soo finally returns to the present, but it seems like this is not the end...
Here we are at the end at last, but was this the resolution we were hoping for? Instead of wrapping up all the dangling plot threads, they tell an entire story from beginning to end, consisting of months, maybe even a year or two, where Hae Soo shacks up with Jung (as a friend), has a baby, and dies shortly afterward. Of course, this vignette presents us with a few problems...
The pregnancy materialized seemingly out of thin air. Real thin. Presumably the baby is So's, but this is the first we hear about it. Not only does this pregnancy not affect the ultimate destiny of Goryeo, it's completely extraneous to the plot. I'm not sure where they were going with this. The girl didn't even get a name FFS! And now Jung is responsible for raising this plot hole -- a lifetime of pain, likely, for now every time he sees her, he'll be reminded of Hae Soo.
"Good news: the voices in my head aren't telling me to kill you anymore."
Another thing that was odd in my eyes was that Soo sent a constant stream of letters to So. They went unread. Jung re-did the calligraphy on each envelope, and his reasoning was weird: it can't look like the king's handwriting. King So, assuming the letters are just Jung bitching at him, collects them in a pile. Now in the original source material, the calligraphy is important. Soo practiced copying So's poems so much that it became second nature to write like him. They fouled up a romantic thing by not even mentioning it.
The importance of Hae Soo's return to the present left us with more questions than answers. First off, what was the point? I mean, did she learn something that would transform her character? Did she get some feelz that would last a lifetime? I think it was to help So become a good and wise king, but this is only implied. And Astronomer Choi's modern incarnation apparently won the lottery -- his nice shirt and grime-free appearance are a far cry from the trappings of homelessness he sported in the first episode.
From rags to riches. WTF?
I do have to give credit where credit is due. The eye-popping effects at the end are superb. True, some are exactly the same as in the first episode, but I like some of the transitions and the flood of memories as she looks at the paintings from that era. When these guys are on their game, they are really on their game, and good at what they do.
Overall, though, the finale was full of awkward moments and other things ill-explained, and there were other pieces of weirdness I can only touch on, like the incestuous implications of Baek Ah meeting his prepubescent niece (who he ends up with in the future, BTW), and the completely random piggyback ride given to Soo by So at the very end. It looks they left it open for a sequel, following in the tradition of its Chinese predecessor. How else are we to interpret So's words at the end: "If we are not from the same world...I will find you...my...Soo." This installment pretty much mirrored what was wrong with the series -- it lacked focus. Maybe if there's a second season they'll get it right, but how many people are going to line up to find out?
Score
Plot........................5Performance.........6
Pacing...................6
OVERALL............5.6
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