[2022 Year in Review] Unhappy endings

[2022 Year in Review] Unhappy endings

by Dramaddictally

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about endings this year. In fact, I’ve doled out a lot of those complaints myself. It’s true that every year I expect a certain number of stories to turn out nonsensical, but I also pretty much take it as a guarantee that the leads will end up together somehow. Where there’s a romance, there’s a way, right? Sure, how they got there might not make total (or any) sense, but we’ll have our happy ending.

Happy endings (in the fairy tale sense) are the hope and fate of most drama couples for a reason: they make us feel good. (If they didn’t, I’d be out living my own life instead of squeeing in front of my laptop.) And yet, 2022 had no qualms about trying to make me feel bad. Again and again this year, the leads did not end up together — and I was dumbstruck each and every time. It wasn’t always that the endings were terrible — they often made sense for the story — they just went against the long-held laws of romance. They were unhappy endings.

In the spirit of ending the year (and to question my own assumptions), I wanted to pick apart some of these unhappy endings. As I listed the ones that surprised me the most, I started to wonder, is it still an unhappy ending if it didn’t leave me unhappy? With that, I saw that things didn’t always turn out so bad for these characters — and maybe all I needed was a change of perspective. So, as I make my way to 2023, these dramas are a reminder that things won’t always go as I expect, but, hey, that’s okay. Even if I can’t rewrite how things turn out (as I can’t in real life), I can always reframe the endings so they don’t hurt quite so much.

*Spoilers ahead*

Twenty Five Twenty One

In this case, I knew from the outset that the leads would not end up together. And yet, I wanted to believe I was mistaken, as I stuck to the idea of an OTP. This is a story about disaster — beginning with the IMF crisis, alluding to the Sampoong collapse, and ending with the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers. It’s about how people survive, but also about the individual-level disasters that come with day-to-day living. And it makes total sense that a heart-shattering breakup would count as a disaster.

When the end came and reality hit, it took me a minute to adjust. But afterward, I was surprised to realize just how okay I was with the breakup. While I loved watching Hee-do and Yi-jin be in love, the New York events didn’t just pull them apart geographically, they stressed the weak spots in their relationship. Hee-do wanted to share their burdens, while Yi-jin cut her out in moments of crisis. All their conversations (and silences) made me feel that staying together would hold them back — right when they were both realizing who they were and what they wanted.

Thinking back, the ending feels like a happy one to me even though (or because) they didn’t end up together. Hee-do went on to have a successful fencing career, found love again, and made peace with her mom. And Yi-jin also followed his dream and gained success as a journalist. In such a disastrous world, that feels like a fairy tale ending.

Yumi’s Cells 2

I’ll start by saying that the end of Season 1 really shocked me. But I loved it — not only because I knew that another season was a-brewin’, but because I loved the idea that the story was about Yumi (“There’s only one lead here” became my mantra). However, when Season 2 hit and I was exposed to Bobby’s spell, I truly believed Yumi and Bobby were end game. It was a romance drama, after all — and I obviously hadn’t learned anything that Season 1 tried to teach me.

When the pair broke up and then got back together, I treated it as further proof that they were meant to be. Yumi was gaining momentum in her writing career (i.e., growing) and Bobby was already perfect. (Just kidding. Sort of.) So when there was another breakup and this time it was for good, I was baffled and distressed (as if I was the one blindsided by the breakup). I couldn’t understand Yumi’s motivations. She had said yes to marrying him after he lied to her — what could have possibly changed?

After rewatching the drama two more times (when Bobby’s enchantment had time to quell and I felt I could get my researcher’s rationality under control), I had a different perspective. Yumi ended the relationship because she wasn’t in love — not because of anything Bobby did. He may have masqueraded as perfection, but he wasn’t perfect for her — and she knew herself well enough to know that. In the end, Yumi went on to be a huge writing success, with the hint that she will find someone better suited for her. When I think back on my Season 1 mantra, I can’t help but be happy for Yumi.

My Liberation Notes

This drama had a lot of things going on but my attention (in terms of the ending) was on Mi-jung and Gu. I started to veer toward disappointment as soon as Gu’s backstory was revealed and his character sort of spun out of control. But all that craziness took him out of Mi-jung’s life and (even within the course of the show) the breakup had a positive effect on her.

Mi-jung realized that she does have passion for things, and began to progress toward a fuller life without so much anger. Gu undoubtedly helped her move toward that point, but it was their time apart that allowed her to grow. The surprising thing for me was that they started seeing each other again at the end. My unhappiness in this case came from feeling like Gu’s lifestyle had become too toxic — and that Mi-jung would be better off without him.

This one had a very open ending, though, and on second thought I realized that Mi-jung’s newfound moments of happiness were what really mattered. Rather than worry about how Gu affected Mi-jung, I wanted to focus on how Mi-jung affected Gu — and the philosophy she taught him for noticing and adding up the good things seems like a pretty positive way to live.

Snowdrop

This is a strange one for this list but it nonetheless had an unhappy ending because the leads don’t end up together. In this case, though, there were two options: to end up together in life, or in death — and the show chose none of the above.

Snowdrop is a quintessential Romeo and Juliet story smacked into the political turmoil of North and South Korea. The leads come from opposing sides, making their love both forbidden and impossible to sustain. Like any story of this ilk, they have a short, whirlwind encounter, are overloaded with emotion, and face death to prove their love. In my viewing of this drama, there was only one correct (let’s say romantic) ending — and that was the death of both leads.

So, when I watched Soo-ho take a storm of bullets, while Yeong-ro survives unscathed, I felt cheated. Where the hell was my Bonnie and Clyde ending? Having one survivor felt worse than none at all.

When I tried to rethink this one without changing the end, I realized that had they both lived, they would have been on the run forever — and that’s not so happy either. Had they both died — sure, it’s romantic, but they’re still dead. At the risk of sounding morbid, Yeong-ro escapes two horrible fates in her separation from Soo-ho. I don’t know how she’ll go on to live, but just being alive means there’s still a chance to be happy.

20th Century Girl

I’m sneaking a movie onto this list because the end surprised me more than anything else I saw all year. I went into this brightly colored flashback of a movie thinking it was going to be all the happiness of Pez dispensers and cotton candy. And for the first three quarters, it was.

When the time comes for Woon-ho to move back to Australia and leave Bo-ra behind, I still had a happy ending in mind. Even when it was clear that they’d lost contact, I could imagine two endings that would leave me able to function in the world. In the first, they meet up again as adults (kind of a cop-out but happy enough) and in the second, they never talk again and get on with their lives. I actually preferred the second because — even though it wouldn’t be a happy ending — it spoke so much to the era in which the drama is set. In the 90s, it was common to lose contact (forever) after a friend moved away.

So, I was prepared for either ending — happy or unhappy. But what we got instead was so melodramatic! He died?! What?! They already weren’t going to end up together, so why did he have to die?

Well, in an unfair world the film does its best to be upbeat about it. Bo-ra, after holding onto so much anger for so long, finally gets closure. She learns that she wasn’t rejected or abandoned, and that her first love was as real as she imagined it. She doesn’t spend the rest of her life with resentment — she makes a happy memory out of the time that was.

And at the close of 2022, that is what I hope we all can do with our own disappointments, resentments, and regrets — because no matter the circumstances, there’s no need for an unhappy ending.

 
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[2022 Year in Review] Unhappy endings
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily