Heavenly Ever After: Episodes 9-10 » Dramabeans
Heavenly Ever After: Episodes 9-10
by lovepark
Some ties are harder to cut than others, but not all bad relationships have to remain that way. As our heroine learns new truths about herself and those around her, it seems that everything happens for a reason in life as well as death. While she might not know what lies at the end of her path, she does have the ability to choose what to do next.
EPISODES 9-10
Nothing happens by coincidence in this world of reincarnation, karma, and enlightenment. Today’s enemy may have been yesterday’s lover, and a trusted friend could turn into a regrettable reunion. Both our heroes learn this lesson as the past comes into view this week, and in death, no secrets are kept hidden forever.
As Nak-jun finds the detective he was looking for, the man runs off only to be then hit by a truck due to his own hubris. Angered by his seemingly pointless end, the man chokes Nak-jun until a grey, red-eyed Som-yi grabs him by the neck. A reaper appears moments later to retrieve the newly deceased man, and when Som-yi refuses to let go, she nearly gets erased.
Though Nak-jun was able to calm her down, they have a bigger problem on their hands: they missed the train back to the afterlife. As a result of this infraction, Nak-jun loses his job, and thus, his privileges to go to the human world are revoked. Alas, his side mission to find the truth about his son Eun-ho has been thwarted with the detective’s death, and now, even if he had his job, he has no way of finding out what happened to him.
When Nak-jun eventually tells Hae-sook about his unemployment, she takes the news well – in fact, she’s positively delighted. After finding flower rings in his pocket, Hae-sook feared that something might blossom between Som-yi and her husband, so any reason to keep the two apart makes her giddy. Her suspicions, though, aren’t completely unfounded since Som-yi starts acting strange around Nak-jun to the point where even Young-ae notices and warns her sworn sister to not harbor any inappropriate feelings that would hurt Hae-sook.
Speaking of one-sided affections, Young-ae realizes that she and the center president might not be destined for each other, but when she goes to visit him a final time, a different kind of fate reveals itself: her abusive father is in heaven and looking for her. Apparently as part of his punishment, he has been sent here to feel the weight of paternal love, but hearing her father call her name sends Young-ae spiraling into a panic.
As Young-ae cowers in fear, she turns into the frightened little girl again – the one who kept silent and hid in closets – and she hates it. Wanting to change, Young-ae confronts her father along with the center president and accosts him about heaven’s unfair practices. She asks why she, the victim, has to forgive her abuser, but the answer she receives is unexpected.
The president reminds Young-ae that fates are not easily severed, and her tie to her father goes back one lifetime ago as a couple: specifically, Hae-sook’s birth parents. As Young-ae remembers her past life, she recounts how her greed fed her actions, and though she did want to become a mother, by then, her change of heart came too late. The truth is crushing as is the irony of their situation, but now that she knows, Young-ae can no longer ignore what she did to the person who saved her.
As the two of them enjoy a picnic together, Hae-sook tells Young-ae to live a full life and meet her again in a different one. She heard about their connection from the center president, and while at first she resented the fact that the person who should have protected her never did, she realized that Young-ae was her friend, sister, and mom. With tears streaming down her face, Young-ae glows brightly and vanishes, waking up in the living world from a three-month coma.
After sending off Young-ae, Hae-sook drops by the church where the pastor is praying. He recently discovered a newfound appreciation for silence thanks to a conversation with the center president, and as he comes to the revelation that his prayers were answered, he calls Hae-sook mom. She is understandably shocked by his declaration since she never had kids, and the pastor wipes away his tears, lying that it was a prank.
With all this talk of parents and children, we learn of another: Som-yi regains more of her memories, but the picture they paint is alarming. She remembers having a son named Eun-ho, but when she shares this information with Nak-jun, he gets mad. While she hides in her room with Nak-jun banging on the door, more memories flood her mind, and she recalls him taking her son, meeting up with the detective, and then drowning her.
From this limited version of events, it seems Nak-jun sold off their son for illegal overseas adoption, but her accusation leaves him confused. He demands an explanation from her, but his aggression triggers her fight-or-flight response. She smashes a cup against his head, causing him to reel just long enough for her to escape. Once Som-yi is gone, Nak-jun calms down, and as he gathers his thoughts, we hear him talking to the center president, commenting on how the latter knew all along.
While her husband and Som-yi go through this roller coaster of emotions, Hae-sook remains blissfully unaware of the chaos at home – her attention completely captured by the upcoming lottery festival. It’s a chance for heaven-dwellers to appear in someone’s dream to tell them winning numbers, and Hae-sook thinks this is her chance to leave something behind for her daughter, Young-ae.
The event is rather simple: find a key, open a chest to receive one of the six participation tickets, and then sell your sob story to get the most votes. Unfortunately, Hae-sook’s attempts to bribe the president for hints go nowhere, and her search results in zero keys. Though unable to understand her desperation, the pastor prays on her behalf, and his earnestness gets answered in the form of a key, literally dropping from the sky.
Thanks to her friend, Hae-sook becomes the last participant for the lottery festival and enters the competition with the intention to win. During the televised event, she nitpicks all her competitor’s stories, pointing out the minute details that suggest a better life than hers, and one person even quits. The fifth participant, however, is the wife of the hell escapee, and her only wish is to tell her husband that she does not resent him and hopes they can meet again so she can treat him to the life he deserves.
With the previous participant getting 99 votes (only the pastor didn’t say yes thanks to Hae-sook threatening him), it seems our heroine’s chances of winning over the crowd are slim to none. By now, everyone is bored of sob stories – neither her childhood nor her husband’s accident elicit anything more than yawns – and as a last ditch effort, Hae-sook throws the spotlight on her friend.
The pastor plays along, sharing his last memory of a cold street as a five year old, and as his words draw the crowd in, she comes in with the finishing blow: she is here to condemn his mother who forgot him and betrayed his trust. Hae-sook announces to everyone that she is that mother, and the pastor goes along with the lie, even shedding a few crocodile tears.
As their story nabs Hae-sook the win, the scene changes to Som-yi accusing Nak-jun of getting bored of their relationship and trying to kill her. He sits in silence as she sobs and then tells her that Eun-ho is Hae-sook’s and his child. The show then cuts back to the festival where a PD calls for Hae-sook’s disqualification on grounds of lying, but the center president intervenes, saying that lies are not permitted in heaven.
It appears that even heavenly connections occur for a reason, and when the pastor thought his prayers were answered, it wasn’t metaphorical. While the timeline fits, and I’m not too surprised by the twist, I’m not necessarily a fan of all these fated entanglements, either. At this point, every important relationship in Hae-sook’s life doesn’t exist on its own merit, and though I love a well-thought-out relationship chart, I guess I have a tipping point when it comes to destined encounters. However, there’s still a week left to wrap up loose ends, and I hope the wonderful relationship the show has built between Hae-sook and the pastor comes to an equally satisfying conclusion because these two have become my favorites.
Despite some of the language and iconography suggesting influences of Christianity in the show’s depiction of the afterlife, their actual themes seem to lean more Buddhist in regards to life, rebirth, and liberation. As someone with very little knowledge of their teachings, my insights are inevitably limited and ultimately biased. Keeping that in mind, I did find some of the messages this week a tad too self-righteous, and the clash of worldviews ultimately muddied the show’s intentions. While I do think some of the observations are intriguing, it feels overly simplistic with a glaring omission of systemic oppression and an undue emphasis on individual agency. However, depicting the afterlife is a tall task, so I won’t hold it against the writer for not answering the impossible. Most worlds fall apart when examined too closely, and for the majority of the show’s run, its internal logic was fun and creative.
More than worldbuilding, the highlight of the show has always been the characters and their complicated relationships. The twist about Hae-sook and Young-ae’s fate did make me cry, but I really think it was because of the performances by Kim Hye-ja and Lee Jung-eun. They conveyed the conflicting emotions of their characters so well – their longing and regrets intertwined by their crisscrossed relations – and in that moment, they were both mother and daughter to each other simultaneously. Though I was feeling slightly fatigued by all the destined fates at this point, their relationship was ultimately another reminder to the audience that decisions aren’t made in vacuums nor are motivations black and white.
While I would describe the show as a string of vignettes, there has been one overarching mystery: Som-yi. The show has finally revealed more details about her character, and it seems that our mystery woman may actually be Hae-sook. That would explain why Nak-jun saved her on the train as well as why Hae-sook felt a connection to Som-yi despite not knowing who she was. It also makes sense why Young-ae may not recognize her but Sonya did. However, if this theory is true, it also opens a new can of worms. Why did their five year old son die in the streets? Why does Som-yi have memories of Nak-jun drowning her? Why was Nak-jun so mad at Som-yi if he might have an inkling about her true identity, and why does Hae-sook not recognize herself? With two more episodes left, I suspect the show will focus on Hae-sook and Som-yi in its final hours, and hopefully once everything is revealed, I’ll feel more connected to the mystery woman who’s been left in the dark for far too long.
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