Most of us already reacted to @nrllee’s recap/madcap and Episode 12 in the Open Thread.

Link here: Little Women: Eps 11 & 12 Open Thread

But for the sake of consistency, I’ll post this as a separate thread.

Thanks, @nrllee, for taking time to recap. You took one for the team. 🙂

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Ep12 Finale

Finale? Is it? I really hope so…but from reading some spoilers…it sounds like writer wants the audience to demand for an encore with S2…and I will NOT be watching that. I was impatient so I blitzed through the ep as quickly as I could so I will not be doing a recap. It’s close to an hour and a half long too 🙄😑

Did the screenwriter actually say she wanted Season 2 or is this the usual request by viewers for Season 2? I remember observing that requests for Season 2 is one of the most tiresome comments on Youtube and fan forums. It’s up there with comments like, “Great chemistry,” “First!” and “When are the subs up?”

Bitch Talk: “Season 2, please” and Other Useless Comments

Notes
1. Unnie testifies. Admits to colluding with Mrs P and embezzlement. Absolves IJ of any criminality in the matter. Used IJ’s name to deposit funds because she needed to be able to access the account post “death”. Refused to reveal to prosecutor who died in her place? How can she even get away with this? Gave IJ the 2bil because she wanted IJ to be free of her poverty. Her motive in all of this? Revenge against Mrs P.

2. IJ is acquitted of embezzlement of the 70bil. But…because she took the 2bil, she has been sentenced to 1yr6 months with 2yrs of probation.

3. There’s a time jump for that time IJ spent in prison? I am confused…or was there not? Or was she just released to serve her sentence at a later date? I don’t know.

No time jump, @nrllee. Unnie still had a bandage on neck when they met up at the Great Aunt’s old house.

If this encounter was a year after or after IJ served her sentence, then the injury should’ve healed already and the bandage should’ve been long gone.

BTW, you asked about the white stuff that JongHo gave IJ after she was released from jail. I said it was tofu and it had something to do with protein from tofu because inmates don’t get to eat a lot protein. I just did some more digging and here’s what I found from this blog Ask a Korean. The blogger cited three reasons:

• “Tofu is pearly white. By eating something white, which symbolizes purity and innocence, the convict resolves to live a crime-free life going forward.
• Tofu is cheap and nutritious. During the Japanese occupation of Korea–when this custom appeared–the prison conditions were beyond terrible. In addition to undergoing frequent and brutal torture, prisoners were often malnourished. As tofu is one of the cheapest source of protein, someone who just got out of prison could receive an emergency injection of nutrition in the form of tofu.
• Tofu is made of beans. Also during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the standard prison food was rice and beans. Although rice would be the preferred meal, Imperial Japan’s colonial administration liberally mixed in cheap beans into the rice, as it was in no mood to spend too much money on prisoners. Although this practice ended in 1986, Koreans use the idiom “eating rice and beans” as a euphemism for going to prison. In her essay titled Tofu [두부], famed novelist Park Wan-seo [박완서] wrote that eating tofu represents a transformation. As tofu is the liberated spirit of beans, one also wishes one’s criminal spirit is likewise transformed.”

source: askakorean.blogspot.com

4. Unnie and IJ meet. Unnie reveals she saw IJ’s delight in Singapore (all her dreams and wishes) and vowed that if she were ever reborn, she would want to come back as IJ. Unnie came back into the picture when she found out IJ was coming to the Orchid Festival and fake Unnie (Mrs P) had suddenly showed up in Singapore as well. Goodness knows how. I thought she was locked up in her room? How anyone could mistake IJ to be HwaYoung is beyond me. Maybe everyone has prosopagnosia. 😂.

Or Singaporeans also have problems like I do telling Korean faces apart. lol.

O @packmule3 you were right about the white car that blocked the truck of doom in Singapore that saved IJ. Unnie was in it. It was Unnie in the hospital that IJ saw. And Unnie left the canvas shoes. I guess she was wearing sensible shoes to drive? 😂.

Boooo. I was hoping that Choi Doil was driving the white car. Not the Unnie. But okay, we’ll take that “assist” from Unnie.

Unnie was returning to her Singapore apartment (don’t ask me why she got there later than IJ because she had local knowledge and she did leave the hospital earlier than IJ did 🤷🏻‍♀️), saw IJ throwing paper aeroplanes from the balcony. Was about to head up but then saw Mrs P arrive instead. She was the one who reported the illegal paper aeroplanes (littering) to the security guard. Unnie passes out after she tells the guard to do something about it. Paramedics are called and she’s taken away. She claims she was only released from hospital a few days ago. And had to do major catch up about what had happened whilst she was out of action? And hurried back to the trial when she came to? Wait…so what happened to IJ’s sentence for taking the 2bil? 😑🙄🤷🏻‍♀️

5. Choi was acquitted for lack of evidence. Spent no time in prison at all. He asks IJ to fly out to Netherlands with him to find IH (before Mrs P does). How can she though? I thought she committed a criminal offence and is supposed to be rotting in jail for 1.5-2years? Unless she had already served her sentence in which case Unnie’s meeting with her after IK picked her up from jail happened 1-2years later? Why wasn’t Unnie and Mrs P charged for embezzlement during that time then? The timeline makes no sense.

@Fern suggested that the translation re sentencing could be incomplete. That’s possible. Me? I just assumed that the writer is playing fast and loose again with her details. I’m going to repeat what in the other thread. Note: I’ve no knowledge of the Korean justice system.

I’m just going to assume that IJ got a suspended sentence, either conditional or unconditional.

Conditional suspended sentence = IJ doesn’t serve her jail sentence, provided that she doesn’t embezzle again, get involved in criminal activities, stay out legal trouble, blah blah. If she does, then she goes back to jail and do the time. Her suspended sentence may or may not be considered equivalent to her probation.

Unconditional suspended sentence = IJ gets no jail time. She’s released with no conditions. Her criminal record isn’t expunged.

And Unnie still has bandage on her neck during the press con.

6. Lady who died in Unnie’s behalf. Was someone who wanted to commit suicide anyway? Huh? This is just all wrong.

Yes, @nrllee.

All of us here on this blog are appalled by this. For one, it’s unconscionable that Unnie “groomed” — to borrow @Snowflower’s words — a suicidal person for her personal revenge. What kind of person would do that?

For another, it’s outrageous that this screenwriter used a suicidal person as a plot device. I’ll repeat what I had written in the other thread:

@nrllee,

Yes! I’m angry that this writer used a SUICIDAL person as a PLOT DEVICE!

I just can’t wrap my head around that. What is this writer thinking? That a suicidal person’s life is a throwaway because she plans to kill herself? How callous.

This writer has a weird POV on suicides.

1. When Park JaeSung jumped off the room, the suicide was framed as heroic. He was doing it for a cause.

🤬🤬Great way to encourage more suicides, you twerp of a writer! 🤬🤬

2. Then when Unnie needed a body double, a suicidal person was killed in her place, so she was free to live it up in Singapore.

A suicidal person needs help. Why do you think we have disclaimers on shows with suicide content, encouraging viewers to seek help if they’re in mental distress?

But this freaking writer makes use of a depressed person (that includes Unnie, too, she was clearly depressed since her mother’s death) and a person with suicidal ideation to explain away Unnie’s Back-From-the-Dead Trope. I’ve seen her use “deus ex machina” over and over again to save her dumb plot, but she just didn’t know when to stop.

🤬🤬Way to trivialize mental health, you crappy writer. 🤬🤬

3. And where’s the justice for this poor dead lady?

If Unnie already had the CCTV even back then, then why didn’t she share it with the police so they’d go after the murderer? The footage showed who the murderer was.

I said there’s no way in hell this writer could resurrect Unnie “without making it look forced and clumsy.” She’s no genius like Agatha Christie.

The writer’s name is Chung Seo Kyung. I’ll remember that name. This makjang of hers is trash. 🗑🚮🗑🚮🗑🚮

I became dumber just for watching it.

Woman conveniently wanted to die without anyone knowing. So for 2 years they mirrored each other. Same orchid tattoos. Same length hair, same physique. How??? Don’t you look at someone’s face to confirm the person that died is who they think she is? 🙄😑. They are not twins? Video footage of Unnie’s apartment conveniently had this woman (face is all bandaged up so everyone assumed it was Unnie because she had plastic surgery done? 🙄😑) sedated by Mrs P and she’s the one who made it look like she committed suicide.

This writing makes zero sense. So it’s okay that she died because she wanted to die anyway? 🤦‍♀️

You know, a few months ago, when I was the at the beach, I was skimming through this book, “The Anatomy of Story,” by John Truby, a Hollywood screenwriter, on writing great scripts. He said that “a great story is not simply a sequence of events or surprises designed to entertain an audience. It is a sequence of actions, WITH MORAL IMPLICATIONS (emphasis mine) and effects, designed to express a larger theme.”

Then, he explained what a theme meant for him. He said, “Theme is the author’s view of how to act in the world. It is your MORAL VISION. Whenever you present a character using MEANS TO REACH AN END, you are presenting a moral predicament, exploring the question of right action, and making a moral argument on how best to live. Your moral vision is totally original to you…”

And that’s why I find this writer’s moral vision objectionable. It’s one thing if Mrs. Park kills people; she’s designed to be the villain in this story; she’s going to get her just desserts in the end.

But it’s entirely another matter when the writer uses a suicidal character and minimize her death in order to come up with an explanation on how the Unnie came back from the dead. This is the writer’s moral vision that we’re seeing here, and no matter how long I look at it, her argument is all wrong.

7. Unnie kept a digital copy of the ledger which she released to the public. But she loaded it up to BookKeeper of the Future. So you need to download the app before you can access it…so of course everyone downloads the app…this doesn’t sound right to me. Profiteering? 🤦‍♀️

But we were right. 🙂 We knew that the name “Bookkeeper of the Future” was significant.

Was the app free, though? I think Unnie just wanted to be prophetic, and to prove that her “baby” was to be invaluable as she predicted it would be.

8. JSP is given an overdose of the blue orchid liquid…stabbed in the neck by Mrs P in the private ward of her father…with a nurse watching…said nurse just runs out and does nothing after she is told to just hurry along.

9. Somehow Unnie gets kidnapped by Mrs P and is kept in the Orchid Room to lure IJ? 🙄😑. IJ alerts the police. Why doesn’t she just wait for them? She heads there herself? 🤦‍♀️. Somehow she manages to get her hands on a grenade?? Which she found in a locker?? Threatens to detonate it when she confronts Mrs P with the captured Unnie. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️. Flashback tells us that Choi Snr conveniently slipped it into her hands in the carpark before he was apprehended by Police. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️. Everyone should carry at least one bomb in their life. Really? Says who?

BTW, is Choi Senior still alive? He seems to have disappeared after his 15-minute of fame was over.

10. IK is kidnapped by Park goons as she visits WonRyeong to talk to JSP about the memoirs. Find him hanging in the room (Park goons still there). With a blood trail…and a sword on the ground. JongHo uses a sword (which was on the ground) to try to save her. He decides it’s a good idea to plunge the room into darkness by stabbing a power point with the blade? What?? That’s how you get electrocuted? 🤦‍♀️. He’s too late. IK is taken. He dials IJ but he gets Choi instead because he has IJ’s phone.

11. Mrs P rigged the sprinklers (runs twice a day) in the Orchid Basement to deliver hydrochloric acid instead of water. How??? This is makjang to the next level. Mrs P accidentally killed her mom. She pushed her mom in the closed room. Mom hits head on corner of the table (which was rounded by the way…so maybe “blunt” force trauma 🙄). Mom was still alive. Told her to get out of the room, tell nobody and forget it happened.

Shouldn’t she have called for medical help for her mom? Why didn’t she try to save her mom?

She returns later to find her mom hanged herself. She decides to remove her mom’s bloodied clothes and dress her mom up in her best clothes whilst she was hanging there. Don’t ask me how she got her mom’s top off whilst she was still hanging in the closet. It had no buttons. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️. IJ tries to psychoanalyze Mrs P. I am over it. Too weird and it beggars belief.

Yes. I listened to that whole spiel about the lost kittens. IJ told Mrs. Park. “You said you were the type who picks up stray kittens. You would feed and give the kitten shelter, only to abandon it and let it die when the kitten thinks of you as its mom. I always wondered why you did that. You were punishing that little girl. Because the person you really wanted to kill was yourself.”

This doesn’t make sense. If Mrs. Park hates kittens once they’ve formed an attachment to her and thought of her as their “mom,” then what about her own daughter, Hyorin? Her daughter is very much attached to her (at least, more so than to her dad) like she was with her own mother. Shouldn’t she push away Hyorin too?

12. Choi and JongHo take out goons who kidnap IK. Mainly Choi. JongHo came later and rescued the damsel in distress. Choi gets stabbed by Ms Go who demands to know if he’s doing this because he’s in love with IJ. Man says, “you shouldn’t be doing this if you suspected that I am in love with her.” And proceeds to twist her arm so the knife stabs into her instead. That sounds like an affirmation to me 😂👏.

13. Mrs P presses remote button for sprinklers and leaves. Unnie is burnt with the “acid rain” as Mrs P watches from a corner of the room with glee. IJ chucks grenade into a hinged manhole (?)…which explodes. Uses lid of manhole as an “umbrella”, runs to Unnie and shields them both from the acid rain. Whips a knife out of her pocket and cuts Unnie’s rope ties.

When did IJ turn into a G.I. Jane? She carries a hand grenade and a knife now?

And they both run out of the room under the cover of the metal shield. Mrs P is trapped in the opposite corner though. Choi bursts into the room just in time to grab a failing Unnie and help the 2 ladies out of danger. Mrs P runs out of her corner in spite of the acid rain, fights with IJ.

This catfight was kinda funny because I was half-expected IJ to pull out some hidden kimchee from her pocket and kimchee-slap Mrs. Park. (Hey…if she had a grenade and knife in her pocket, why not kimchee??)

IJ breaks free and Mrs P falls back into a pool (?) of acid? Wow that filled up fast, it’s no puddle…because she practically sinks down and her skin is mottled with burns. Tree and orchids wither and die…

14. IK gets memoirs from a little girl from WonRyeong School who was instructed by JSP to pass them onto her. She reads the memoirs. I fast forwarded this part. It details how he came upon the orchid in Vietnam.

I stopped watching here, too, @nrllee.

15. Gen Won dies. Not sure if it was because of the blue orchid drops Mrs P added to his nebulizer or not.

16. Choi heads to Greece. He can’t convince IJ to come with him. 😑🙄🤷🏻‍♀️. He will be out of contact for a while. No phone or internet. But he tells her he will “see her again”.

17. Unnie is in jail. 12 years.

18. Great Aunt left IJ the apartment by the Han river. Mumbo jumbo about how a house will accept souls that belong to them. 🙄 whatever. IJ’s soul searching still involves a house/apartment. The house “accepted her” so she’s now a different person? Apparently it means she has to pay tax on this gift.

19. IK wins some Reporter’s award. She’s scouted by some rival news company. She turns it down…for JongHo…whom she confesses to. She wants to go with him to the US. And we get a kiss 💋. Whatever.

20. Choi helped IH and HR run away. He asked about HR’s Panama account. Which she can’t access till after her 18th birthday? So this is the account Choi shuffled the money (70bil) into? Which Mrs P couldn’t track down? 🤦‍♀️😑🙄. Money is divided. Choi gets same amount as IK, IJ gets 3x more? HR and IH get a share too.

And that’s how it ends…😑

What? The 70bil of illegally gained money is just divided up amongst the sisters, HR and Choi and this is okay? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️. Final grade for this drama is an F for me. It’s NOT okay to take money that doesn’t belong to you? You didn’t earn it?

No. It’s not okay for the sisters to divvy up the 70B won among themselves. Gosh. Don’t the sisters know by now to strive to be on the good side of the law…if not, of  karma?

Whatever.

credit: @nrllee

I’ll have to end here. Moving on to “Love in Contract” now.