This, my dear readers, is my way to try 'move' on from this drama, or better, from that ending, through the 5 stages of grief...

With all due respect to that ending, I really needed this 'therapy' review for my own mental and emotional wellbeing, and hopefully it can help the future audience too, who are somewhat heartbroken from that finale.

So let me begin, the 5 stages of grief...

'DENIAL'
Really!? This was it? This can't be it right? There has to be one more episode that I'm not aware of! If not, what's with all those fragments of the past, in her present life? From the red car, her shop's name and those rainbow chairs in that shop etc? Were they just 'aesthetics'? Were we all just a bunch of overthinkers? Is this pain on us then?!

'ANGER'
How could everyone else in the drama get their 'happily-ever-after' but not them? Even Seung Wan managed to get a reunion with a potential 'partner' in that 2mins of the finale, which, reminder, started with a greeting of freaking 10+ years ago!! Seriously!? So we can go to that extent to reunite them (I'm very happy for them btw), but we couldn't possible work out a way to make our lead couple end up together too? Are we kidding here? After all that they've been through? If time and distance and 'life' is what stopped them from being together, how did YuRim and JiWoong work out? Of course to each their own, but it's Baek YiJin and Na HeeDo we are talking about! You want me to believe THEY couldn't make it work!? THEM? The pair that went through it all?! All that good bad and worse of times they've been through?! All that for this? An ending that's labelling it all as a mere 'first-love's fate? Why make them both so mature and understanding in that relationship, in that 'love-that-betters' of theirs, to only end it, without even giving it another attempt? And the fact that the present HeeDo is even regretting that decision, while she is the one who actually initiated that breakup! Really? WHy make her regret her decision now?! It feel even worse!

'BARGAINING'
I'm someone who doesn't like open endings, but for this drama I'm not sure which is more painful, this or if they showed an open ending instead...Would all the 'what-ifs' make it better?

What if during their last embrace, under that cherry blossom, they promised to give it another try, rather than a 'goodbye'? Would we have had a different ending now? I can't believe that the YiJin and HeeDo, that we've known for the past 15 eps, would given up that easily, especially on this love of theirs. I feel like it was all because of time, both in the drama and outside the drama. In the drama because, well 'life' happened, outside drama, because I really think that if there were more episodes, like even one more, they could have reunited sometime after that 'break-up' and find their way back somehow, I have that much fate in them!

What if in that last scene, when older Na HeeDo visits that tunnel, to say 'goodbye' to that younger Baek YiJin, and she returns to her red car, to find an older Baek YiJin behind the steering wheels, telling her 'enough of past regrets, we are together now, that's what matters!' with that smile of his that's only reserved for HeeDo. What if they were married all along, and I'm sure we can come up with some logical explanations behind how that happened, at least that would still make more sense than how they couldn't resolve their issue and be together!

'DEPRESSION'
I feel like at the moment I'm still in the anger phase, so the pain is not sinking in yet, no matter how much tears I've shed, the weight still seems to be there sadly.


...ACCEPTANCE
I'm sure one day, just like MinChae reading her mom's diary, I'll look back at this drama with a bitter-sweet smile on my face, but in this instance, I don't think I'm strong enough to accept it yet, I need time...apparently HeeDo managed to forget all about that beautiful memory in the beach, so I think I can probably feel less bitter about this ending too, IN FACT HeeDo managed to freaking move on from her first love, a 'BaekYiJin-NaHeeDo' type of first love at that, and actually merry another person, so I'm sure I can move on from this pain of the ending too, I hope...

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Okay apart from me 'grieving' that ending, I'm well aware that we can't belittle a whole drama by its ending only, especially for this drama, which is much more that that!
But happy-endings, in the traditional sense of the leads ending up together, matters a lot to me, and endings in general are break or make for me. That is why I was contemplating a lot about what rating to give for this 'masterpiece' if only we don't include that ending. Should I give it a low rating because of how it scarred me with that finale, or a high rating because of how much joy it bought me throughout its run. So I came with the conclusion, that you never know, there could have been an even more painful ending ( I'm not emotionally available to think of its logic and details now, but you get the point), plus I like to believe in journeys being more 'important' than destinations, and what a journey that it was!! So here's me celebrating this wonderful journey, regardless of how it ended and its few/many? unanswered questions.

HIGHLIGHTS

~the complex characters----- some were more complex than others of course, due to screen time, but as a whole, the amount of effort put to make those characters '3D' instead of some 'plot-devices' is commendable!

~the screenplay -----the incorporation of real life events, the nostalgic setting of the past, how that changes over time, the narrative style, and how the whole story unfolds is just art! The beautiful cinematography is a bonus!

~the acting-----where to start from? I was seeing everyone's work for the first time, except for Nam Joo Hyuk, so although I had no expectation of others, I was not expecting much from him either to be completely honest, but I can't express it enough, how impressed I am of his performance. Be it because of the opportunity to play a complex character, or him improving over the years or them both, but he pulled off Baek YiJin perfectly! So when he said in an interview, to look at his acting career as before and after 2521, I think that's exactly it! Writing a wonderful character can sometimes fall short, if you can't find the right vessel to play it, and not only he did justice to this character, he freaking owned it! From Baek YiJin's restrained self at the start, to him gradually warming up to happiness again, to his heart-wrenching break downs, it really felt like he lived every single of those moments. The same can be said for Kim Tae Ri, what a wonderful job that they've done, makes me look forward to their future roles.

TAKE HOME MEMORIES...
The whole drama is actually filled up with good, bitter-sweet memories, and with many hints of this imminent ending, I guess it's on us that we tried to see pass those hints for a final twist, so here's me trying to stop understanding the logic behind it all, and simply 'accepting' it as it is. Afterall it gave us so many wonderful moments, it would be too harsh to not appreciate them enough due to how it ended, so here's me 'letting go' of this drama, on 'good terms', Baekdo style:

''You comforted me just by being there.'' Na HeeDo
''I now know what perfect happiness is.'' -Baek YiJin

So will I shed some more tears again, seeing their break up scenes in the future? Yes, probably...
But I'm still happy for them, how far they've come, what they've achieved and the impact they left in each other's life.
And I'm glad I've got to experience it all, as an audience!

(I guess I've eventually made it to the acceptance phase of grief after all heheh)

P.S. This was really it huh