Heavenly Ever After: Episodes 11-12 (Final) » Dramabeans

Heavenly Ever After: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by lovepark

For our elderly wife and her devoted husband, love transcends time and turns suffering into bliss. The tears and pain that marred their past may have given them immeasurable heartache, but as their story comes to a close, even heaven with all its perfect glory pales in comparison to the warmth they lived together.

 
EPISODES 11-12

A lot happens in this final week as the show answers questions and explains its core mystery: who is Som-yi? The pieces of her memories — a lost son, a near-death drowning, and a corrupt cop — paint Nak-jun as a villain, but our cheerful hero is hiding a different truth behind his genial smile. While Som-yi may not understand everything, she knows enough to conclude that there can only be two, which means either she or Hae-sook must go.

Though Som-yi does consider making Hae-sook disappear, she ultimately chooses to leave instead and asks Nak-jun to end her since he saved her first. With a bleeding heart, he tells her that he can’t because the very reasons that moved him to grab her that day on the train are the same ones that stop him from harming her, too. She is Hae-sook, and Nak-jun loves all parts of his wife — even the ones that cause her pain.

As Som-yi realizes that she is nothing more than a piece of Hae-sook’s subconscious personified, elsewhere in heaven, Hae-sook is busy sending the pastor off. He applied for reincarnation, so as his older and wiser friend, she takes it upon herself to make sure he is prepared for his next life. All these lessons, though, are simply excuses for Hae-sook to spend more time with the pastor before he goes, and on his last day, he walks her home and tells her not to come to his send-off.

At the reincarnation gate, the pastor never arrives, so Hae-sook wanders heaven looking for him. While searching for her friend, she recalls a similar moment from her past, and those locked emotions come flooding back like a tidal wave.

On a busy market street, younger Hae-sook told her son Eun-ho that she would leave him behind if he didn’t follow her, and in that split second of her turning around, he disappeared. Though she and Nak-jun looked tirelessly for their son, they never found him, and during that first month, Hae-sook deteriorated quickly. Nak-jun worried that at this rate he would lose his wife, too, but his attempts to erase Eun-ho from their memories only made her condition worse.

Receiving a tip that people sold lost children to welfare centers for illegal adoptions, Nak-jun searched around for a clue and stumbled across the corrupt detective that took his money and fled. He confronted the man, but in the ensuing chase, he got into an accident — the one that made him paraplegic. When he woke up in the hospital, Hae-sook doted on him, seemingly better, but at the mention of their son, her face drew a blank.

After recovering her memories, Hae-sook reverts back to her previous, detached state while Som-yi becomes a ball of fury. She blames Hae-sook for losing their son and forgetting about him, but as she tries to erase Hae-sook, Nak-jun intervenes. He shoulders the blame and embraces Som-yi, willing to take away all of Hae-sook’s pain, but in that moment, Eun-ho’s voice brings clarity.

Walking towards his parents is the pastor as grown-up Eun-ho, and as it turns out, he knew that Hae-sook was his mom a while back. He tells her that everything is all right now, but he needs her to let go so he can find peace. While he still remembers the cold embrace of death, he also knows the warmth of her hug, and as he thanks her, Som-yi vanishes. With that, Eun-ho’s last lingering attachments have dissolved as well, and he says farewell to his parents to welcome a new, happier life.

With Som-yi and Eun-ho now gone, Hae-sook’s final task is Young-ae, and as promised, she gets a chance to visit her in her dreams. She passes along the winning lottery numbers (with Nak-jun’s help), but when Young-ae goes to buy a ticket, she runs into the debtor from Episode 1. She gets too distracted chasing after him to buy it in time, but in a twist of fate, it seems her jackpot may not have been the prize money but rather a new love.

As things start to settle down for our couple, Nak-jun finds a new job in the living world erasing memories of individuals who retain their past lives. While there, he runs across the president who is on vacation (King Yeomra is watching over heaven for his older brother) and the two share a drink.

The president mentions how he hopes Nak-jun will choose spiritual advancement over reincarnation, but Nak-jun tells the president that he owes a great debt to Hae-sook and cannot leave her. Hearing his answer, the president shows Nak-jun his past lives — he was married to Hae-sook twenty-three times — and what he sees makes him reconsider his decision.

Unaware of her husband’s shifting feelings, Hae-sook prepares to reincarnate with him and gets chosen for a TV special about the process. They answer questions about their time in heaven from their tumultuous beginning to their happy end, and as they get less stiff in front of the camera, they enjoy a sweet moment on the beach together basking in their last sunset.

The president and his employees personally see Hae-sook and Nak-jun off, and after they pass through the gate, they are greeted by another long road. Hae-sook is grateful to have her husband by her side on this journey, and Nak-jun carries her over the final bridge. While she excitedly talks about their future together, Nak-jun tells her that they should stop now. While he would come to her side a thousand times over, he knows that it’s his regrets that keep them bound, so he wants her to experience a life without him and the suffering he brings.

Hae-sook’s lip quivers as she listens to her love’s farewell, and she confesses that despite all her complaining, she enjoyed being with him, too. However, as she looks up through her tears, Nak-jun is gone. Truly alone now, Hae-sook honors his wish and walks through the gates to live her own life without lingering attachments or past regrets.

Back home, Nak-jun watches the special about them and cries as he listens to Hae-sook talk about wanting to reincarnate as his wife again. He remains in the house they shared — her name still etched on the front gate — and he reminisces about all those years spent together with her were not hell but a life more beautiful than heaven.

Sometime in the future, an older Hae-sook lies in a hospital bed surrounded by what looks like her family. As she draws her last breath, Nak-jun appears to pick her up, just as she wished before. With tears streaming down her face, Hae-sook tells him that she cannot do it again without him, and he tells her the same.

Life continues, as does the cycle, and in narration, the president says that God is all around us in the connections that bring us life and death. As two strangers walk along the street, they lock eyes and break into smiles. They run to meet each, possibly a reincarnation of our two lovers or just another fated encounter more beautiful than heaven.

Heavenly Ever After started off as a quirky mishap between a wife and husband, but despite the visual mismatch, the show never once questioned their love. Whether Hae-sook was twenty-five or eighty, Nak-jun loved her all the same, and whether she fell into depression or wallowed in oblivion, he loved every part of her. As for Hae-sook, whether Nak-jun could walk or not, his smile remained her shining light, and whether he brought her laughter or tears, she loved him regardless. Their story was a romance that survived the pits of hell, the heartbreak of loss, and the test of time — and though they knew a future together would bring them more suffering, they still chose each other because a lifetime of troubles with the right person is better than a perfect afterlife without them.

While the Som-yi reveal makes sense — she smelled different from humans and didn’t show up in their system — I do wish the show would have allowed more interactions between her and Hae-sook rather than keep them apart for the final twist. They mostly interacted when Hae-sook mistook her for Young-ae, and once that theory was debunked, Som-yi tagged along with Nak-jun. There were so many things the show could have explored by having the two bond, and it feels like the main reason they were separated was to increase the shock factor. While I still think the direction the show took with Eun-ho was touching, the overall secrecy surrounding Som-yi may have deterred rather than enhanced her plotline because she always felt tertiary to everything until the final reveal.

Overall, I had my issues with some of the show’s messages about forgiveness and fate, but when looked at through the lens of a love letter, I found it quite moving. At the very end of the last episode, Hae-sook gives an interview, stating that she hopes to be reincarnated as an actor who gets to portray a multitude of lives. In this fourth-wall-breaking moment, it appears as if Kim Hye-ja is talking about herself, wishing to be known as an actor who was full of warmth, and that, ultimately, is the biggest message of the show. It was a love letter to a prolific actor who touched the hearts of many, and while the show may have its warts, it showcased Kim’s warmth and portrayed her with such affection and care. It told the story of a woman who lived a life worth living, and even death could not temper her love.

 
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