Three questions at a time or else we’ll get sick.

Disclaimer: No fans, antifans, disgruntled viewers, writers, directors and animals were consulted during the writing of this blog. Do not eat; not a toy. But chewing over a good idea is a good idea. Intentional misuse by deliberately misconstruing my words can be harmful or fatal. This product has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats.

Q: What happened to Marco?

We don’t know.  We don’t know how Marco died and who killed him. But I don’t care. If there was a plot device in the story, it wasn’t HeeJoo. It was Marco.

We had four possible sources of information re Marco’s death.

a. “A” but he could only provide the police reports and not the whys and wherefores of the death.

b. SeJoo because he was there. However, he swears he didn’t kill Marco. Moreover, since he’s suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder, he’s an unreliable source.

BTW, did you notice how he fiddles with his fingers (or picks his nails?) when he’s stressed out? I’m not going to diagnose a fictional person. However, I wonder if the actor was trying to portray a character with high-functioning autism.

c. JinWoo because he’s the “narrator” of the story. However, since the death of Marco happened BEFORE he entered the story, his best effort was only a RECONSTRUCTION of the events based on what happened to him personally. He patterned Marco and SeJoo’s story after HIS and HS’s story. There’s bias, right there.

Further, since Jinwoo didn’t have a chance to meet up with Sejoo before he started his narration, he had no CORROBORATION for his version of the story. This meant that his voiceovers/narrations throughout the kdrama (that is, from Episode 1 through Ep 15) were merely his SPECULATIONS or “best guess” of the events between Marco and Sejoo.

In fact, he gave us a caveat in Episode 9 when he declared, “I keep racking my brain, but only my delusions make sense. A lunatic’s crazy delusions. From here on, these are my delusions. What I think happened to SeJoo that day a year ago.” He then narrated the story of SJ and Marco meeting in the forest of Granada, SJ rifling through the pockets of dead Marco for JW’s phone number and SJ running to Barcelona.

We noticed right away that his story had holes in them, especially time and place, and we wondered why.

And now we know: his story had inconsistencies because he was only piecing together what little information he had. At the time of his narration, he had not met nor communicated with SeeJoo so he couldn’t have known the real story.

And get this, too: One of the reasons it’s called “Memories of the Alhambra” is because he’s recounting the whole story from his memories of what happened that day, that year, that time. lol. It’s all a FLASHBACK for him, the narrator. That’s another reason why this whole kdrama was full of flashbacks….

Memories of the Alhambra: On Flashbacks and Hedges

d. the director/writer. But we’re not going to get any help from them because they DELIBERATELY left it open to interpretation to force us to to think about their theme of faith/belief/disbelief.

So, what happened to Marco?

To me, as irrelevant as 179. (I could have chosen another random number like zero or 143.)

Q: WTF was that Open Ending?

If a kdrama writer-and-director duo ever wants to enrage a large swath of their audience, there’s nothing like Open Endings. Previously, I thought that the vilest move for a writer and director was to have the wrong guy end up with girl (I’m still looking at you, Poem Crap a Day director). But I realized that the half of the population (the silly half) could have been rooting for the wrong guy anyway.

An Open Ending offends our expectation of a well-structured, three-act story with an exposition, conflict, and RESOLUTION. We want the happy endings, the KISS at the end, and the defined closure.

Admittedly, I prefer my finales hermetically sealed, preferably wrapped in romantic paper and tied with ribbons. Even if the content of the kdrama is absolutely garbage, I can still grin and bear it if the ending comes with a conclusion.

“I conclude that it’s all trash. (Grin)”

However, I don’t mind an ambiguous ending as long as I can DECONSTRUCT the plots points, examine the blurred lines of fact and fiction, and THEN create order out of the scriptwriter’s chaos. I like the challenge of peeling the layers of the story and puzzling over characters and plots. I’m thrilled whenever a writer and/or director makes a strong case for her ideas.

With MotA then, I actually applaud the writer and director’s gutsy move to have Open Ending.

Contrary to many critics’ notion, the decision to have an Open Ending wasn’t at all a decision taken lightly.

To me, it wasn’t an idle choice of the writer or a haphazard call of the director that they had HJ running towards I-don’t-know-which-gate-that-is-Sungnyemun-perhaps and JW fighting there in the shadows.

They knew the repercussions of the Open Ending. For certain, the finale will cause a furor, garner the writer some hate and disdain, and jeopardize future projects. YET they stuck with their decision because they thought the theme was important.

To me, the open ending in MotA is meant to FORCE the us, the viewers, to CONFRONT their message at a personal level. And their central message is about faith.

Do you believe or not? And if you do believe, how intense is your belief? Is it a tepid belief like Park or a fervent one like Heejoo? Will you believe for a year then give up? Or will you go on believing even when there’s no sign at all?

The genius here is even the belief FAITH of the writer and the director in their project is unshaken. Did you get it? They knew that they were going to be pilloried with their open ending and yet they persisted with it because they BELIEVED in their work. That’s their faith in action right there.

That’s why I say that they didn’t half-assed this ending. 😀 And that’s ONE REASON why I gave them an A and their critics a D.

The writer and director worked their brains harder than the critics.

Q: WTH? JinWoo’s face wasn’t shown! How could the director do that? Was that even Jinwoo??!!

I’m sorry I’m such a bitch. I cackled when I read those comments because it told me how clueless they were.

But I gave YOU ladies a heads-up, didn’t I? I wrote the blog about “faith” last Friday, before the final episodes, because I thought belief/disbelief was a major theme in this kdrama.

To me, it was the real “magic” JinWoo was looking for all along…somebody to “believe” in him. (I’ll explain this later.)

I said that there’s a nuance about “belief” that people do NOT understand or do NOT really think about. People can call it “belief” or “trust” or “confidence” but I said the correct philosophical term is “faith” (and I’m not speaking in religious terms there). Because this is a bitchesoverdramas blog, we went for a deeper analysis.

I pointed out that, as far back as Episode 9, the theme of faith was already pronounced… at least, to me.

On Faith

Whenever the issue of belief came up in the story (and it came up several times), there was a juxtaposition of Park’s and HeeJoo’s trust in Jinwoo.

I mentioned this a while ago that Park has a lukewarm belief.

Memories of the Alhambra: Who’s the Villain?

He already had a moment of crisis in Episode 5 when he remembered Jinwoo’s hatred for HyunSuk. He thought it was possible that JW did something to hurt HS.  But then he decided to give Jinwoo the benefit of the doubt. He would believe his friend.

In contrast, HeeJoo’s faith in Jinwoo had always been unwavering.

Do you remember what I said about HeeJoo running up the stairs instead of going down when she saw Jinwoo’s body fall down? People thought it was STUPID of the writer. But I defended the script and said no. There was a point there, otherwise THIS writer and THIS director wouldn’t stage that scene THAT WAY.

She saw the body fall down.

But she looked up and went upstairs to look for him.

I wrote that “HeeJoo’s strength is she doesn’t trust what she sees.”

Memories of the Alhambra: On Platforms and Staircases

Do you get it now? HeeJoo goes beyond what is visible and provable. Even back then, she knew that JW couldn’t do something stupid as jump off from the 6th floor. No way would he kill himself.

Despite reality telling her that Jinwoo’s body hit the ground floor, she didn’t “trust” her eyes. Her mind rejected his suicide, and believed that he couldn’t have done it. Although there’s NO evidence to support her belief in his self-preservation, she ran upstairs and looked for him. But hey, that’s how faith works. She believes in the improbable and the incredible. And that’s why the dialogue in Episode 9 was significant. She thought he sounded insane but she believed him.

Note: Christians will understand this. Didn’t a guy say that He was going to rise from the dead? That’s mind-blowingly insane, too, but we believe Him. As @nrllee reminded me earlier, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1

But now, in Episode 16, we see up-close the contrasting personalities of the two characters, Park and HeeJoo, and the writer and director are asking us to choose a side. That’s the whole point of Episode 16. From start to finish, it was about faith.

Which one are YOU then? Park or Heejoo? Judging from their decision to do an Open Ending and put everything on the life for something they believe in, the director and the writer are definitely channeling Heejoo. But what about you, the viewers? 

Will you have a lukewarm belief (with a small “b”) like a doubting Thomas** and walk away like Director Park.

Dir Park: Give up. Jinwoo is dead. No. He’s been deleted.

Or will you take a leap of faith and B.E.L.I.E.V.E. like HeeJoo?

Heejoo: I won’t give up. I’m still waiting for him….He will. Whenever that may be, he will return. I believe that he will.

And I’m copying and pasting my further explanation on faith/belief in the comment section. (I edited it for clarity.)

*************

Yes @agdr03 and @phoenix, most people don’t see the difference between faith and belief. (And this is understandable because they’re not bitches.)

Belief is like the mailman who comes to deliver your mail. As their motto goes, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” will stop him from coming. You believe that he’ll come deliver your mail because he does…all the time.

Faith is like the dinner guest you invited but is already 5 minutes late. He didn’t cancel and he hasn’t called up to say that he was going to be late. So you begin to wonder “Where is he?” and you worry, “What’s happened to him?” (lol. After I wrote this, I remembered that in some cultures, 5 minutes late is acceptable and 30 minutes late is “on-time”!! So, let’s make this 55 minutes late instead.)

BUT even if he’s late, you have faith that he’s coming because he said he would.

Just like HeeJoo waiting up all night and watching the clock at 6am for Jinwoo to arrive because he said he’d be there in the morning.

Now, if you peek out the window and you see your friend coming up the driveway, you say, “Oh! He’s here!”

You don’t say “I believe he’s coming” because you KNOW he’s actually there. Get it? Your belief is irrelevant; it has no bearing on the situation because he’s physically present. You don’t need to believe that he’s coming when you can confirm his arrival with your eyes. lol.

But if you can only HEAR your friend’s car in the driveway (and not see the actual car), then you can say, “Oh! I BELIEVE that’s him parking right now.”

But if you can neither see his shadow nor hear his footsteps then you say, “Hmm…I wonder what happened to him. But I know he’s coming. He won’t break his word. He won’t cancel without letting me know. I’ve faith in him.”

That’s when faith comes in.

**And for non-Christians here, I mentioned “doubting Thomas” because he’s a famous guy in the bible who was skeptical that Jesus rose from the dead. He said that he would only “believe” physical evidence. He said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Then, a few days later, Jesus appeared and told him, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Then, Thomas believed that Jesus was truly risen, and called him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus answered him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” There are some people who believe because of proof, but there are those who believe EVEN without proof. And guess who has the stronger belief then?

Believing without proof = faith

And that’s why the rants of the audience made me CACKLE. They’re totally left in the dark, literally and metaphorically.

But I wasn’t surprised that the director had Jinwoo in shadows! HE SHOULD be in the dark. 

If the director had shown Jinwoo’s face, then that’s NOT faith. Just like in my example about hearing your friend’s car park in the driveway or seeing him walk up the door, you would already have all the proof that you needed to know that he has arrived if Jinwoo’s face was shown clearly.

Faith wouldn’t be required then. Faith is believing that Jinwoo will come even if you cannot see him or hear him. Just like HeeJoo…

Without any confirmation that the guy in the park, defending others with a gun, was indeed Jinwoo, HeeJoo started to run to the park to meet him. And she said, “I don’t care if the whole world doesn’t believe it, but I do. I believe that we will meet again.”

I know it was Jinwoo but SHE didn’t. Yet she still ran.

So I say, the director’s move to obscure JW’s face here is genius. Too bad though the audience didn’t understand it.

For consistency in the plot (and giving us that staircase accident AS FORESHADOWING), I gave A for the director and writer. F for the critics for DISSING everything they couldn’t understand (including the staircase. pwahahaha.)

@oli, your question is next. 😀