We are finally at the end of our story about The Ballerina & The Angel who loved her. Do we have a happy ending or does God keep these two apart for eternity? Come find out as Kmuse finishes our Angel’s Last Mission: Love recap.
Not Dead Yet
I totally predicted that they were trolling us once again with Yeon Seo’s death. Turns out that being stabbed and then dancing while bleeding out did not kill our heroine. Just sent her to the emergency room where she went into cardiac arrest (which could cause long term issues).
Angel Dan stands outside the ER for three hours until his time is up. He requests that Kang Woo give Yeon Seo the blood soaked hankie since he won’t be around to give it to her himself. He then kneels on the floor and disappears to dust.
Evil Crazy Cousin gets a visit from the Karma Train
To the very end our Evil Cousin remains evil…and a tad bit unhinged. We get to see Slightly less evil Aunt show up and try to talk with her, only to be reprimanded for not being ruthless enough. Have to admit that it is very satisfying seeing Evil Aunt smacked in the face with the consequences of her greed.
We find out that Evil Cousin’s real intent this whole time was to make sure that Ni Na was the head ballerina. To the point that she falls apart when she finds out that Ni Na is officially retiring after her final performance of Gizelle. I thought this was a fitting way to make Evil Cousin pay and to close out the Evil extended family story arc.
Just live
Yeon Seo remains in a coma at which time she fantasizes that she wakes up and finds Angel Kim alive. We get a cute little honeymoon montage but reality bursts in and we find out that it was a mix of dreaming in Yeon Seo’s head, and possibly really Angel Kim being an angel again.
Angel Kim tells her that because she was willing to sacrifice and since she found love; he wasn’t going to turn to dust. Instead, he was returned to paradise. He may have also given up his
Filler
We get a ton of filler stuff where we find out that Yeon Seo takes over Fantasia and that Kang Woo decides to move on and mentor other people in the world. Ni Na becomes a ballet teacher and is finally happy, and Angel Kim lurks around (I think) in angel form occasionally. About the only real point of interest is Yeon Seo visiting her Evil Cousin in jail and letting her know that she really lost everything. But even that just felt like something that pushed the drama towards the finish line.
Together again
After Yeon Seo spends a ton of time lamenting over Angel Dan being gone, she returns to their special bench. A leaf falls but there isn’t anything written on it so she pens in her own message, “Today. Right Here.” Angel Dan sitting, invisible, next to Yeon Seo is obviously sad that she isn’t happy. Then low and behold, Yeon Seo looks right at him. After a few moments of thinking she is imagining him again, they realize that he is really there. They happily embrace and live happy ever after.
Final Thoughts
I can’t get behind the ending because it makes NO SENSE. God’s rules and reasoning remains, to the very end, scattered all over the place. Why did Kang Woo and the other older angel get punished but Angel Dan gets his happy ever after? There is literally so many plot holes surrounding the religious aspects of the story that I couldn’t even enjoy the last third of the show.
It also made me reflect that in the future I should take all religious, regardless of denomination, story lines with a grain of salt. Obviously, they can be warped and shifted to satisfy the needs of a writer and it doesn’t matter if they make sense or are at all accurate.
I loved the OTP of this drama and the first half was very enjoyable. Sadly, due to the sloppy storytelling of the latter half I can’t recommend this drama to others. It had it’s good points but at the end of the day, I could have been watching something that had a better plot.
Thanks for joining us for this recap and be sure to come back when Clkytta and I tackle our next drama (possibly When The Devil Calls Your Name.)
Til the next dramatic moment,
Kmuse
Dramas With a Side of Kimchi
IMHO, if we look at this story as an examination of the themes of the ballet, “Giselle,” and an examination of those themes (not a one for one retelling) in the present, I think we may be a lot happier with the story and it’s art. The journey is half the fun, and I do not want to spoil anything, but everything makes a whole lot more sense to me when I view LYS, KD and JKW as a Giselle, Loys/Albrecht, Hilarion trio and modern religion as the supernatural element present and fundamental to the ballet, Giselle. I loved this series. I see influences in Giselle and “That Winter, the Wind Blows,” and I particularly love the timing, so close to “Encounter” and “Her Private Life,” both of which also incorporated art and artistic analysis in their plot.
Also, a little background: I’m an English major and took as many Art History classes in college as I could. Perfect training for law school and a legal career involving a ton of textual analysis. This background is not intended to give my opinion any gravitas but, rather, to reveal my bias toward assuming that everything makes sense, and if I work hard to understand it, there is often a big payoff in the end.
Im glad you were able to get more enjoyment out of the show then i did. Im totally open to people liking stuff i hated and vice versa.
And I appreciate that. I found your blog when I was wrestling with concepts in “Her Private Life,” and the insight you all added was so educating. So, thank you for what you do!
I also loved this story. The only real logic hole was the old couple, in my opinion – showing that whatever deity this was (I’m not a fan of Old Testament Yahweh and thought this really smacked of that deity), said deity was inconsistent and vindictive. I’m a witch – a pagan – so I’m used to various mythologies with deities like this.
The older angel KILLED someone. That he got dissipated makes sense within the loose logic of this story. Also, neither of the middle aged lovers (our fallen angel, and his dead fiance) actually sacrificed – she had no idea anyone was there in front of him when she ran over to him and got killed.
I will say that the angel who KILLED her should have been dissapated! That was rather screwed up.
Still, those are the only real problematic ‘logic holes’ for me in this. I may not like the rules of this little universe very much, but that’s true of so many supernatural stories, whether KDramas, novels or whatever.
I think the story, on the other hand, very well done indeed! I love the chemistry between our two leads, the link to Giselle, the dancing, and I just adore Myung Soo, can I say? LOL
I agree with you! I really enjoyed the first half too and felt that it had so much potential – nice plot twists, good character development for Yeon Seo, interesting personality for Dan, engaging storyline… Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the second half as the story didn’t live up to the expectations built…
When they began to incorporate religion and philosophy pretty heavily, I thought it’d be great if they could show how everything was part of a greater plan at the end but it didn’t go that way 🙁 The whole Romeo and Juliet thing of dying for each other really didn’t appeal to me either, and side characters such as Kang Woo and Ni Na could have been better developed and involved in the story…
It’s such a pity as the drama could’ve been great if the good storytelling kept up till the end.
I would like to have a more definitive ending that Dan did indeed come back into the human world where everyone can see him, whether as an angel or human.
How is angel dan to dumb not to know yeon-seo cousins are evil??