Oasis: Episodes 15-16 (Final)

Oasis: Episodes 15-16 (Final)

by Dramaddictally

It’s all adrenaline as Oasis goes out with guns blazing. Our triangle is solidly split this week as our heroes go head-to-head, and our heroine puts herself in the line of fire. As we tie up the threads and reveal the last of the secrets, our finale comes down to the morality of our characters and how much they’re willing to forgive.

 
EPISODES 15-16

We got our happy ending! And it’s made me overlook many of the missteps along the way. Jung-shin gets to be Princess Pyeonggang with her fool Doo-hak — and that’s really enough for me.

We start our episodes with a formal engagement as Doo-hak kneels in front of Jung-shin and presents a ring. The gem isn’t even visible to the naked eye, but she tells him, “I don’t need diamonds. You are my diamond.” And these two continue to have the sweetest of bonds.

Now that Cheol-woong knows Doo-hak is alive and — more importantly — back together with Jung-shin, all hell breaks loose. On one hand, Doo-hak just wants to take Jung-shin and his family abroad and live peacefully somewhere else. On the other hand, he can’t just up and leave without setting off Cheol-woong’s ire.

To try to square this problem, Doo-hak meets with Cheol-woong and asks him to drop all the charges against him so he won’t have to live as a fugitive. Doo-hak believes this will settle the score between them. He’s ready to forgive Cheol-woong for all his misdeeds, if Cheol-woong can just do this one thing and not be a total a-hole for once in his life (my words, not Doo-hak’s).

As you’d guess, Cheol-woong is not going to make it easy. He tells Doo-hak that he has one week to leave the country — but he can’t take Jung-shin with him. If Doo-hak leaves on his own, Cheol-woong won’t say a word. If Jung-shin goes, Doo-hak is a wanted man.

The one good thing that comes out of this is that, upon hearing Cheol-woong’s response, Jung-shin steps up and vows to protect Doo-hak, even if she has to die by his side in the process. I just love her character and how relentlessly unafraid she has been throughout this whole show.

Doo-hak is now stuck because he won’t leave without his lady, so he goes ahead with the plans he started last week with Man-ok. They’re already in the process of scamming Yeo-jin out of a chunk of money, and now, the final assignment is to get a recording of Choong-sung admitting that he ordered the killing of Doo-hak’s father. Afterward, Man-ok will retire and leave the country with his money.

As with any plan that has such a simple-sounding ending, we know it’s about to go awry. Man-ok meets with Choong-sung, telling him he’s going to retire, and trying to get the murder admission on tape. But Choong-sung is vague in his response. At that point, all Man-ok has to do is leave. But instead, he drops a final piece of information: Choong-sung is not really Cheol-woong’s father.

Surprisingly, Choong-sung already knows! He had seen the DNA test on his own, but he loves Yeo-jin so much, he’s decided to bury the secret. And because of that, he needs to bury Man-ok too. Choong-sung shoots Man-ok, causing him to fall into a nearby body of water, and has the murder covered up through the ruling party.

I need to pause to say, this totally shocked me. I have no idea how the drama managed to get me on the side of such a monster, but I found myself actually feeling bad for Man-ok. It’s not like he has any redeeming qualities, it’s really just a testament to how much I hate Cheol-woong, Yeo-jin, and Choong-sung — and how much I want their injustices to be unveiled.

Lucky for Doo-hak, he’s recorded the entire conversation and subsequent murder through the wire that Man-ok was wearing. But unlucky for him, when they pull Man-ok’s body out of the water, the wire is discovered and Choong-sung knows that Doo-hak has the recording.

With that, Doo-hak officially becomes a wanted man. But it’s not just for the crimes he actually committed — Choong-sung also frames him as a spy for North Korea (these corrupt government guys really have no creativity). Doo-hak hides out, biding his time, but doesn’t release the incriminating recording of Choong-sung killing Man-ok. Instead, he uses it to try to persuade Yeo-jin to clear his name as a spy so he can leave the country.

Yeo-jin understands that if the recording is released, it will take down not only Choong-sung but her whole family. Immediately, she sets out to double cross Doo-hak and brings him and Jung-shin to her house, where she, Cheol-woong, and Am-daek are waiting. She says she wants them all to find a solution so that Doo-hak can escape.

Cheol-woong turns into a cowboy, waving his gun around, saying Doo-hak should turn himself in and hand over the tape he’s holding. While he’s pointing his gun at Doo-hak, Am-daek blurts out that he can’t kill him because they’re brothers. Everyone is shocked, but Jung-shin realizes it’s true because she’s heard it before, and Doo-hak also seems inclined to believe it right away.

Cheol-woong, however, won’t even consider the possibility that Am-daek is his mother — until Yeo-jin openly admits it. And if you think this is uncharacteristic of her (because it is), you’d be right to assume this whole thing is a setup. She’s led them all there so that Choong-sung can storm in with a mess of armed men.

Just before the raid, Doo-hak turns to leave, Cheol-woong points his gun, and Jung-shin — gotta love her — puts herself between Doo-hak and the gun. Cheol-woong won’t back down, saying he doesn’t think being brothers changes anything. Doo-hak then reveals that Yeo-jin orchestrated the murder of Joong-ho, and he uses the phrasing, “She killed our father.” This finally gets through to Cheol-woong.

But that is when all the guys with guns come bursting in to shoot Doo-hak. When Cheol-woong refuses to participate in Doo-hak’s death, Choong-sung orders his men to shoot Cheol-woong too. Doo-hak pushes Cheol-woong out of the way of danger, just as his friends from the gang rush in to help them — because Jung-shin was smart enough to come with a backup plan.

In the fray that ensues, Cheol-woong protects his birth mother, not Yeo-jin, and Jung-shin tries to get Doo-hak out the door. But Choong-sung shoots Doo-hak and it appears he’s going to die. Everyone gathers around him crying, as Cheol-woong apologizes for all he’s done.

A little later we meet all of our characters again. Choong-sung has been arrested, but rather than face his charges, he jumps to his death. Yeo-jin now lives at a psychiatric hospital, where she’s delusional with all the lies she’s told over her lifetime (which just seems like a fitting end for her). And Am-daek, sadly, gets no love line with Poong-ho (boooo!).

The good news is that Doo-hak has survived and his name has been cleared. Our three leads are back in their hometown, watching a movie together, just like old times. Except now, Doo-hak and Cheol-woong have a developed a less antagonistic, brotherly rapport. While at the theater, the cops arrive to arrest one of them (who’s unnamed), and I’m guessing it’s Cheol-woong, who will now have to face retribution for all the crimes he committed as a prosecutor.

It’s been a long and winding road with our characters and I’m happy to send them off on an uplifting note. While I haven’t been a fan of all the choices made along the way, the core of this drama — and the thing that kept me watching — was the connection between Doo-hak and Jung-shin. I never doubted them once and having them together just made sense to me. Jung-shin was so easy to root for that I think I mostly wanted to see Doo-hak prevail because it meant Jung-shin would too. She deserved her Hollywood ending.

Cheol-woong’s character has flipped wildly from beginning to end and I feel his story could have been more impactful in a lot of ways. Seeing our love triangle there at the end was a nice sentiment, but it’s hard to forgive Cheol-woong — even if he’s about to be punished for his offenses. The fact that he can sit with them and seemingly finally be over Jung-shin is the biggest stretch of all, making it seem like he’s had a total personality revamp from learning the truth about his birth.

In any case, we got a happy ending with no unwarranted deaths, and justice served on all the right plates. For letting us believe that there’s some right in the world, I can forgive a lot of the drama’s wrongs.

 
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Oasis: Episodes 15-16 (Final)
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily