Wow. 끝났어. I’m overwhelmed. My heart is full and I’m at a loss for words, so this won’t be the 1000+ word type post I’ve been routinely banging out these past few weeks haha.
[white_box] Mild spoilers for the last episodes (15-16). Thoughts are a bit all over the place! [/white_box]
- As I suspected, Yoon was not the one responsible for Eun-soo’s death. Even knowing that it was Secretary Woo who did it doesn’t make me feel any better because she was just an unexpected casualty of war that no one, not even Chief Secretary Lee, accounted for. And that makes me feel a bit empty.
- And what did I say about Chief Secretary Lee orchestrating EVERYTHING? While he did enjoy the fruits of corruption, it became too much to bear and so he tried to mete out justice as he saw fit. I loved that Shi-mok referred to him as a monster created by a disordered system. Lee Chang-joon is probably one of the most tragic, best acted, better written characters I’ve ever seen in any drama. Unbelievable performance by Yoo Jae-myung. Still can’t believe this is the same person who played Do Bong-soon’s dad, lmao.
- Speaking of tragic, Yoon’s backstory just twisted a knife into my heart. I think the writer did an excellent job in characterizing Gun and Yeo-jin’s anger towards him (which is justified) and Jung-bon’s sympathy. His sorrow is profound on so many levels and you can understand the WHY behind it, but it doesn’t justify any of the actions. Kyung-wan asking Yoon if he felt any better about murdering Moo-sung really broke my heart, because you know it didn’t. That’s an emptiness he’ll feel forever.
- I liked the ending. In real life, taking down one bad guy wouldn’t mean the problem is totally solved, and I like that it expressed that there is still work to be done (and not necessarily the possibility for future seasons).
Overall, best Korean drama this year so far. I highly doubt that it will be topped. Forest of Secrets was a huge emotional investment, so I feel like taking a break from dramas in general (which I did after Signal), but as usual I have a backlog of Japanese dramas to get to :(