Divorce Attorney Shin: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

Divorce Attorney Shin: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by lovepark

It is finally time for our divorce attorney to face his last foe, but all the planning in the world might not be enough to win this seemingly impossible case. However, losing is not an option since his nephew’s life is on the line, and our hero refuses to give up without a fight. Along with his friends and a powerful ally, our divorce attorney attempts to change history and achieve his happily ever after once and for all.

 
EPISODES 11-12

I always thought Sung-han became a lawyer because of his sister’s death, but as it turns out, his true motivation has always been to protect his nephew. Though the path forward still eludes him, Sung-han knows that he is running out of time when Gi-young comes to his office in tears. Things are more terrible at the Seo household than he imagined, and he learns that his nephew is suffering from depression and binge eating disorder.

While Sung-han spends sleepless nights trying to come up with a solution, his friends worry about him and decide to help in their own way. Since Young-ju recently fired Gi-young’s trusted driver, Jung-shik thinks tailing Gi-young for days in his flashy car is a good idea — it was not.

Sung-han picks up Jung-shik at the police station and crosses paths with Young-ju. She accuses him of using Lady Ma and Gi-young to steal their family’s money, and then she insults Ju-hwa for acting so desperately in the past to get her share as well. He realizes that there is no point in reasoning with her and walks away.

Hearing Young-ju’s rant gives Sung-han enough clues to put the pieces together about Lady Ma’s situation, and he confronts her about the real reason for her divorce: she wants her share of the company to secure Gi-young’s future. When Lady Ma confirms his theory, Sung-han wants to know why she would go so far for her grandson, and she replies, “Because he is Ju-hwa’s son.”

All this time, Lady Ma cherished her late daughter-in-law in her own way and remembers the time they spent together fondly. As the truth dawns on Sung-han, he offers to negotiate on her behalf to avoid a divorce while still accomplishing her goal since she should not have to sacrifice herself in order to protect Gi-young.

Thus, Sung-han meets with Chairman Seo in person and gets him to agree to Lady Ma’s terms. The tidy resolution to a potentially messy divorce leaves the chairman wondering what Sung-han’s goal is in all of this. With a smile, Sung-han tells him that he will file for a termination of parental rights against Gi-young’s father.

After saving face thanks to Sung-han, the couple grabs dinner together, but the already sour mood turns rancid when Chairman Seo mentions Sung-han’s plans. He believes Sung-han will steal the money from Gi-young, so she informs him of Sung-han’s one condition in exchange for helping her: she is not allowed to give her shares to her grandson. Realizing that she, too, can change, Lady Ma decides to go through with the divorce, but this time, it will be for her sake.

Determined and ready, Sung-han goes up against Gi-young’s father and his army of lawyers in order to rescue his nephew from his suffocating home. Despite coming prepared with witnesses and CCTV footage, Sung-han struggles to sway the court and prove that Gi-young will be better off living with him.

Afterwards, Sung-han has a private meeting with Gi-young’s father and asks him how he can close his eyes to his son’s suffering. He tells him that he will never give up, and from the moment he quit playing the piano, he started this war.

As doubts creeps into his mind, Gi-young’s father finds his mother and asks her about Ju-hwa’s death. The reason for Lady Ma’s determination to protect Gi-young stems from the night Ju-hwa died since she overheard the conversation between her late and current daughters-in-law. Twisted with jealousy, Young-ju threatened to kick out Gi-young from the family if Ju-hwa did not stop, and told her to disappear from their lives so Gi-young could forget about her. After that harrowing call, Ju-hwa crossed the street in a daze and met her untimely end.

In court, Gi-young’s father agrees to take the witness stand, and to the shock of everyone except Lady Ma, he tells the truth. He admits to conspiring with Attorney Park during his divorce case and obtaining Ju-hwa’s health records to take away her parental rights. His confession is enough to cause concern, and as a result, the courts conclude to limit his parental rights and appoint Sung-han as Gi-young’s new guardian.

With that, our hero saves his nephew, and our evildoers get their comeuppance. For violating the Attorney-at-Law Act, Attorney Park becomes disgraced and leaves the firm penniless since Young-ju cut all ties with him. As for Young-ju, her husband treats her distantly and tells her that the limited parental rights was his idea. He sees through her ploy and says that they should just live quietly as their daughter’s parents.

Sung-han isn’t the only one who gets his “happily ever after” though, and the final two episodes spend some time sending off a few of its other characters as well. With the help of friends and her son, Seo-jin musters up the courage to fire back at the negative commenters, and with Sung-han’s blessing, she returns to the radio station as a host.

As for our lovebirds, they reaffirm their feelings for each other, and Hyung-geun assures So-yeon that he has truly moved on from his wife since she seems happy now. So-yeon wonders if this means she can be happy, too, and the unspoken line keeping them apart disappears once and for all.

Realizing that she never got to fulfill her wishes, So-yeon plans to go on a two-month trip to Europe and invites Hyung-geun to come. After thinking on it, he accepts the invitation, and the two look the happiest they have ever been.

There are also a few other loose ends that wrap up this episode such as Jun taking care of the young troll’s case and Jung-shik confronting Attorney Park. Alas, with only twelve episodes, I feel like these two characters in particular served more as comedic fodder than anything else. In the grand scheme of things, this was a story about Sung-han, and in that regard, I think Jun and Jung-shik served their purposes.

While a certain degree of underdeveloped side characters makes practical sense, I wish the show fleshed out Ju-hwa more, and in turn, made Sung-han’s endgame more explicit from the beginning. In hindsight, he probably gave up his career to gain custody of his nephew rather than to uncover his sister’s death or her messy divorce. Hence, he became a lawyer because he knew no one else would protect him and Gi-young. There are elements of this throughout the show when I reflect back on it (e.g., the grapes, his criteria for choosing cases, the dwindling visitations). If the creators brought these hints more to the forefront, it would have naturally built tension and made the ending more climatic. Instead, the creators wanted to manufacture conflict by rushing Sung-han, but this feels counterintuitive. Why have Sung-han tell the audience that he has been planning this from the beginning than show him floundering with no game plan? The building blocks are there; I just wish the creators used them to weave a more cohesive story.

The other direction the show could have gone is developing Ju-hwa’s character to make the final case more impactful. What we know of Ju-hwa is always through other people’s eyes, but even then, her relationship with Sung-han is less prominent than the last-minute montage between her and Lady Ma. Despite being the catalyst to Sung-han’s change, the show leaves her a mystery, so rather than her life, her death becomes the most important thing about her character. As a result, I had a hard time connecting with Sung-han’s motivation and sadness when it came to his sister because the show never explained the extent of his loss. While losing a sibling is devastating, I wish the show portrayed a more nuance depiction of guilt and longing because the most meaningful interaction we saw between Sung-han and his sister was his nightmare — which may not have even been real.

Though the final case could have been handled better, the results were still satisfying, and I was surprisingly pleased with the endings for our villains. Each and every one of our antagonists (including the chairman) was motivated by greed, and consequentially, they saw everyone else in the same light. They couldn’t imagine another way of living, and thus, their avarice and hubris became their downfall.

Even when given a chance to repent, Attorney Park refused to change because he thought he could never lose. He prides himself for lying and cheating because money is the only thing he values, so it’s a fitting end that he loses that very thing he cherishes so much.

In Young-ju’s case, she tried so hard to steal everything from Ju-hwa, but instead of being satisfied with what she had, she became greedy and caused her own ruin. Keeping Gi-young in the family was never Young-ju’s goal because her desire has always been about control. Thus, her punishment is not losing the case — that is her husband’s penance for his wrongdoings — but instead, the stripping of her power. She loses her husband, her job, and her standing in the household, and is met with the ending she always feared: living a quiet life as a nobody.

The best part of the show for me is Sung-han and his relationships, and the ending did not disappoint on that front. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a drama portray older male friendships in this manner, and for that alone, I think the show has some merit. It was refreshing to see Sung-han and his friends openly cry in front of each other, and rather than shy away from their emotions, they comfort and acknowledge each other’s feelings.

I think the show, too, knew its strengths, which is why it ended with the three friends drinking together outside of a convenience store. Hyung-geun and Jung-shik have stuck with Sung-han through it all, so it’s only appropriate that they revel in his joy as well. While many things have changed for them, somethings remain the same, and it was nice to see Sung-han finally being happy not just because he won but also because his friends have been and will always be by his side. Overall, it’s a whimsical ending for a whimsical show, and though it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, I enjoyed it for what it was.

 
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Source: Buzz Pinay Daily