Well my friends, it took me a whole lot longer than I intended it to but we’ve finally come to the end of this drama and this review which means it’s time to give our final thoughts and say goodbye. (Don’t worry, it’s not a permanent goodbye, just a “so long” to this particular drama.)
I can’t say I’m at all surprised by the way this one ended. We all knew eventually the good guys would win, which they did, but honestly, it was a rather underwhelming way to wrap up this drama. Yes, Suk Hoon was finally brought to justice, or at least imprisoned for his crimes, but did he learn any lessons? Did he become a better person after being held accountable for his crimes? No. His refusal to let go of his lifelong grudge and his stubborn refusal to feel anything for his wife led to both his downfall and her death but did anything more come from this? Again, the answer is no. Suk Hoon felt guilt for being the cause of his wife’s death, as he should, but it’s sad Mi Yeon was right in her predicting he’d only look her way once she was gone. Fat lot of good that does anyone!
Poor Mi Yeon! She really did love her husband and it had to suck to spend all those years living with a man you love to death while he never even bothers to glance your way. I guess living in that much misery would lead to your eventual insanity, which is probably why Mi Yeon did as much crazy as she did. However, Mi Yeon wasn’t crazy enough to not feel guilt for her crimes and she did try to come clean before the end, so I give her credit for that. But the way Mi Yeon went about this whole saving Ji Sook thing and then confessing to her before going to help Suk Hoon escape was so lame. I get that Mi Yeon didn’t want to have to be held accountable for her sins but really, all that does is prove she didn’t learn anything from all of this insanity any more than Suk Hoon did. And then she goes and kills herself!?! Lame! (And also very predictable.)
Then we have Ji Sook and Min Woo, who work together to bring everyone to justice and I guess in some ways it works. I mean Suk Hoon does go to jail and Ji Sook pays her dues to society like the good girl she is and most people eventually gets to live happily ever after but man! What a high price they had to pay for this eventually happiness! Still, eventually Min Woo reconciles with his dad and Ji Sook and her family are finally free from their money problems so I guess it was all worth it. But honestly, I don’t even fell right writing that. I mean Ji Sook’s mom is dead, Eun Ha is dead, Mi Yeon is dead and Suk Hoon’s last words were a promise to meet Mi Yeon soon, which means he’s probably dead now too… That’s just a whole lot of death happening to bring about this happily ever after.
I suppose I can’t really expect a drama like this to have a purely happy “happily ever after” because nothing and no one in this drama is pure. Even the most innocent of characters has some pretty major flaws, which is nice because that makes them more human, but it does make it difficult to walk away from a drama like this feeling completely satisfied. I want to be happy. I want to walk away from this one rejoicing that the bad guys are dead and the good guys are happy but I can’t. Not completely anyway. I’m not even sure why. I guess I was hoping for more… Some major, “ha ha, that’s what you deserve” moment that brought about some sort of righteous satisfaction, or something. But I had none of that. Instead I almost felt sorry for Suk Hoon when he showed up at Mi Yeon’s funeral and that’s just wrong! I NEVER WANTED TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIM! I guess that’s my gripe with this ending. I didn’t satisfaction, I got unwanted feels. Ugh! Why must my heart be so easily swayed?
I guess rather than focusing on what I didn’t get from this drama, I should be grateful for what I did get. I got 20 hours of highly addicting entertainment and a male lead who made me swoon on a regular basis. I got a female lead who was able to stand up for herself and make things happen and in the end, my OTP got to find their happily ever after. It wasn’t a fairy tale ending but it still ended well enough and so I’ll stop my whining and be happy with what I have. After all, what’s the point of reaching for what’s over the top of the hill when you’re perfectly able to be content with the flowers growing right beside you?
You can catch up on all my reviews of Mask here: