1. Why am I still watching this?
Because I wanted to know who this “Teacher” was.
2. Who’s the “Teacher”?
It was the Catholic guy.
In Kdrama, every time there’s a Catholic guy among the suspects, the Catholic guy is the bad guy. This anti-Catholic bias is insidious in kdramas, and pop culture. And I’m looking at you, Writer Choi Yoonkyo of “Angel’s Last Mission: Love” and Writer Lee WooJung/Director Shin Wonho of “Hospital Playlist.”
To be precise, it was the Catholic guy Director Seok’s evil twin from a parallel dimension.
The original Director was anti-time travel, right? He wanted to stop it. He suffered, died and was buried. But he wasn’t Jesus so he didn’t rise from the dead after three days. He WAS unearthed after five days, however.
His evil twin, on the other hand, wanted time travel to continue. He just popped up in Episode 12 with the same sigma tattoo on his wrist.
Note: I told you didn’t I? Yoon TaeYi’s “omega” symbol had a meaning. She was the “end” of time travel because she would give birth to JW who would close the gate of hell/time/barnyard/whatever. To me, the “sigma” tattoo meant that there’s a “sum” of them … or a great number of murderers and pro-time travelers.
To me, this evil Director Seok character was contrived. The writer had painted herself in a corner when she made Director Seok a good guy. It was obvious to me, that he was the perfect foil for JW’s surrogate father/Det Go and he’d make a great Mr. Evil. After all, he prayed in a Catholic Church, and all evil people and hypocrites met in a Catholic church…according to kdramas.
This evil twin had ordered his minions (i.e., the Schrodinger murderer, Det Go, and the Team Leader) to go look for the book.
But this writer’s last-minute addition of Evil Director Seok wasn’t as annoying as the lack of parity and consistency.
That’s what irritates me the most. If Director Seok could have an evil twin thrown into the plot, then where were the evil/good counterparts of the other lead characters? Like, MinHyuk/JG’s dad. Where’s his doppelganger? He’s handsome enough to have two doppelgangers!
Everybody should have doppelgangers!
In fact, where’s Prof TaeYi’s doppelganger now? Remember her? I haven’t forgotten about her. When is she going to show up?
This story is a mess and I blame the inexperience of this writer. The writer of “The King: Eternal Monarch” had a better handle on this parallel world dilemma.
3. What happened to Det Go?
He died.
I told you, right? This old man couldn’t be the “Teacher.”
For one, he was bowing to somebody on the phone, and for another, he’d been fatherly to JG (and DoYeon) all these years. Paternal love wasn’t easy to fake. He was the only one who wanted JG to live a long and happy life just as his mother TaeYi had wished for him. If Det. Go wanted to kill JG, he would have done it a long time ago while JG was staying at his house.
What surprised me about Det Go was his backstory.
In 2050, his wife died and the Team Leader/MinHyuk’s “Hyung” offered him a chance to see his wife again in 2010 in JG’s different world, if he found the last page of the Book of Prophesy. But then he met the doppelganger of his dead wife and he followed her back to her home. There, he discovered that she was happily married to his doppelganger. He was satisfied to know that his dead wife had a happy life in this world. However, as he was about to leave, her real husband *conveniently* died and he took his place.
And that’s what I found totally icky and revolting. For 10 years, he’d been posing as the husband. He’d been making love to his …err, the wife of the REAL Det Go without her knowledge. He was an imposter who replaced the dead husband in their marital bed.
In what world is his action acceptable? How would you like it if somebody replaced your cute doggy with a lookalike and passed it off as your beloved pet? See how horrifying that is? And we’re only talking about dogs here….
But it was par for the course with this writer who toyed with the incest trope.
4. So did Prof Yoon TaeYi find out that she was the doppelganger of JG’s mom?
Yes. Finally!
As I said, the “reveal” didn’t need to be a big dramatic scene; it just needed to be done ASAP. How hard was it to write a scene with Prof Taeyi seeing a picture of JG’s mom on his bookshelf?
But nope! This crazy writer dragged out this misunderstanding until Episode 12. He/she unnecessarily prolonged this whole incest trope, turning off so many viewers, and doing the character a disservice.
By Episode 12, Prof TaeYi was already feeling like a girlfriend to JG. At first, I cut her some slack because she didn’t know — and because I’ve a pretty low expectation that a genius Physics professor like her could add 1 + 1 in real life. (end sarcasm)
BUT then she began showing her true colors.
She was the unhinged sort of girlfriend that I warned my sons about. She’s the “Overly Attached Girlfriend” in the memes.
source: google
Prof. Taeyi was the Kdrama version of this Unhinged Girlfriend.
First, she tried to install a tracking app on his phone behind his back. When she was caught, she tried acting coy about it.
Then, she shopped around for a new billfold wallet for him to replace his. Can you imagine that?
While he was taking a shower, she began transferring his stuff into her new wallet for him. WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION.
What the heck?
Why would a NORMAL sane person do these things? I don’t care if Prof TaeYi was Einstein, reincarnated; she crossed the line. She was no better than those scary, delusional sasaeng fans chasing after their idols.
I’m glad Karma bit her in the ass. She discovered a pic of JG and his mother in his wallet, and discovered the truth.
TY: So this is your mother? She really looks exactly like me.
JG: I didn’t hide it on purpose.
TY: I must be stupid. I knew about time travelers. And I even traveled myself. How did I not figure it out?
My reaction? Boohoo, cry me a river, lady.
On top of this, this clueless writer thought the audience would sympathize with Prof Taeyi when she tearfully said to MinHyuk, “Do you know what I fear most? The fact that I’m no longer myself to some people. They’re looking at me, but they’re seeing someone else who looks exactly like me. They’re with me, but thinking about that person.”
Newsflash, writer: That’s why this whole incest trope was gross from the onset. No sane viewers could envision a romance between the two leads because they know that Prof TaeYi was the exact replica of JG’s mother. Viewers aren’t idiots.
5. What about MinHyuk?
He’s now vowing to avenge his lover’s death.
This one is another frustrating character. The writer made it appear as if he was doing a noble deed by NOT disclosing to JG that he was the father. In reality, his decision is needlessly going to backfire on him, and endanger JG.
He had so many chances to tell JG that he was the father but noooooooo, he must do a Darth Vader, and delay the reveal.
I bet 10 cents that MinHyuk will tell JG the truth only when he’s gasping for his last breath.
Why is this newbie writer lacking in original ideas? Star Wars is sooo last century.
6. Are the viewers still confused about the time travel thing?
Yes.
I made the mistake of looking at the comments on Viki and I was appalled that at this late stage of the story, some still don’t get that JG wasn’t merely time traveling, but traveling to a different dimension altogether. Why didn’t they get that? Have they been sleeping all this time?
Wake up already!
Time travel ≠ Parallel World travel
I already explained this a long time ago here.
source: https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2020/09/16/alice-miracle23s-timelin-and-qas/
Whenever JG traveled back in time, he didn’t remain in his world. He was actually going back in time in ANOTHER parallel dimension.
That’s why from the very beginning, the 2050 mother didn’t hesitate to kill the 2020 mother. She wasn’t worried that she’d disappear in the future because the 2020 mother was from a parallel world.
I even mentioned that there were severe ethical issues to the Alice business. For example, the Alice people were changing the course of events in another world, without fear of any consequences in their real life. They could kill with impunity in JG’s timeline/world because they were exempted from facing punishment for their crimes back in their timeline/world.
7. Grade?
D for Dumb characters and Dumb writing.
Hi pm3, here’s my 2 cents. It’ll get dumb n dumber i guess. You mentioned ‘clones’ in an earlier review, now it seems fit. Those with scars were clones. My absurd guesses:
1. Min Hyuk is not JG’s father. The surprise/shock on his face when he knew JG was TY’s son wasn’t there, not that that a father should have.
2. There is a relationship route between Prof. TY and JG, not mother n son though.
I thought Director Seok was the teacher at his first appearance. But he turned good guy in the latter episodes n i’d mistaken. Humans, clones, time travel, parallel worlds n Alice— is it an AI? or just a concept world? I will continue this drama to see how it ends. If the writer could score my A for being absurd.
Btw, thank you for the explanation on Kairos n Chronos in the other post. Have a quality weekend! Adios.
@pkml3 I grade this ‘I’ for infuriating. It had in its premise, so much potential to be a higher calibre show. The actors are really not bad, if not for the deplorable script. I wonder that the director went ahead with it. There does not seem to have been a proper plan about how to get to the end in a plausible, logical way, within the dramaverse. It may be that the writer will have to keep writing up stuff on the fly to get herself (himself?) out of one mess after another.
@2uke you are made of sterner stuff than me. I may only watch the last episode to see what goes in for an ending.
@2uke,
MinHyuk is the father. The surprise/shock wasn’t visible probably bec the actor wasn’t that good in emoting. 🙂 But he is the father, according to the script. He was guilt-stricken when JG told him to stop going after Det Go or he’d kill him himself. JG told MH that Det Go was the man he considered his father. This exchange bet father and son was to show dramatic irony. We the viewers were meant to see that:
A. MH felt crushed bec he failed to be a real father, (and MH is the type to be dutiful)
B. JG doesn’t understand what’s going on. Of the three men in that scene, only he didn’t know that he was speaking to his Darth Vader/Dad.
As for the “clones” or doppelgängers, I’m surprised that JG’s police assistant (what’s his name? The big guy who exercised a lot?) didn’t have a clone of his own. 😂
Even the use of the word “Teacher” was misleading. “Teacher” doesn’t mean “The Great One.” I think it’s only a term used to address a higher authority, something like “Sir.”
Like in Ep 11, the Team Leader was called Leader.
But in Ep 12, the Team Leader called Director Seok, Leader.
So in future episodes, who shall Director Seok call Leader?
To me, Director Seok isn’t the ultimate enemy and arch-nemesis of JG. He’s too “easy.” We all saw that he was a baddie right from the start.
Soooooo, if I were a newbie writer, I’d go for a plot twist here. 😂 I think that the real LEADER here is Yoon Taeyi, that is, the “Fountain Taeyi” that we saw in Ep 1.
Now, THAT will raise the emotional stakes for both father and son. Will they be able to kill this doppelgänger of the woman they loved?
@pkml3 This is definitely a possibility. As you say, that doppelganger in the form of unfriendly Taeyi, has been not around for a long time, and it’s time she showed up … and we do recall that behind her stood the woman who would kill her 2020 self. Being associated with future doppelgangers who’d be killers is definitely a sign that the unfriendly Taeyi is probably a baddie herself.
@PM3, I agree with you, too! And that’s why Mom Taeyi told JG to escape if one day he sees her face again in the future. Think she wasn’t referring to the TaeYi at present time who is just a few years older than JG, but the TaeYi that comes from the future.
I haven’t watched Ep 13 yet and will do tonight.
Right, Aud0101?
That Fountain Taeyi had always been in our crosshairs because we knew she couldn’t have been Prof Taeyi. They dressed up differently. hahaha.
That Fountain Taeyi was from the future, too.
I was informed of some spoilers but I still don’t get the mood to pick this up again😅 No kdrama for the time being except Private Lives which only occupies my saturday night time.
I might just read the finale here🤭🤭🤭
I want to stop watching this drama too; it’s going to be a train wreck and I feel like I have a front row seat in the disaster. 😂😂
Well…I have taken a look at comments elsewhere and it does sound like it’s a train wreck ending. The sort that makes you want your 16 hours of angsty watching back kind of ending 😂. Don’t know. Haven’t watched past Ep7/8 I think?
https://twitter.com/biasmultifandom/status/1320005568132571136?s=21 (is one person’s review). It does sound pretty bad? 🙄
@nrllee and @pkml3, I’ll bite the bullet and FFD to power through only Ep 16. I watched up to Ep 12, and read only parts of some recaps. Yes, the viewers who watched up to Ep 14 already note the train wreck dead ahead.
Hi @nrllee, I’m back after watching very quickly Ep 16. Yeah that Tweet you gave a link to more or less gave the spoilers. Briefly show logic did not make sense.
MORE SPOILERS BELOW
There were 3 Jin Gyeoms around, 2 of whom were either trying to kill the mum or each other. This was supposed to close the door of time, by killing the child (JG) who should not have been born. In the end 2020 JG kills future JG and mum kills herself, and time resets, but that does not make sense, because the 3rd Jin Gyeom was still alive.
The original aim was to have been to kill the mum before the child was born or to get her to abort the child so that there would be no JG = no open door to time travel. Why? Show does not explain in Ep 16 and I doubt it does so in Ep 13-15.
So in what logic is killing future JG supposed to stop time travel? And why should mum killing herself make a difference? All it was, was her feeling guilty that so many died and she wanted to be punished for it.
Ending also makes no sense. The 1992 JG grows up to become an architect and he does not remember Tae Yi, then for some reason he does remember TY. And so, what? They are what? Friends? Family? No clue.
*eye roll* *sigh*
@ GB, I’ll move your posts to the other thread I made for the finale. 🙂
@nrllee, I’ll move your post to the other thread I made for the finale. 🙂