5 Relationships That Came To A Close In Episodes 20-21 Of "My Dearest"

We’re here! We’ve made it to the end! But did everyone else? “My Dearest” said farewell with an explosive finale, giving us blood, war, and more tears than ever thought possible. This show has been a stunning ode to love in a time of horrific political strife, while illuminating how the very people tasked with protecting civilians often treat them as puppets just because they can. So who’s standing? Who’s buried in the earth? Read on to find out!

Warning: mentions of sexual assault, suicide, and spoilers for episodes 20-21 below.

1. Gak Hwa and Jang Hyun

As predicted, King Injo’s (Kim Jong Tae’s) paranoia persists to the extreme. Crown Prince So Hyun (Kim Moo Joon) is dead, but the king hasn’t stopped believing that everyone associated with his son is plotting to take his throne. He has every interpreter who served the crown prince murdered and discovers that Lee Jang Hyun (Namgoong Min) was not only the prince’s closest aide but also oversaw the escapees’ return to Joseon. Jang Hyun is blindsided by the prince’s sudden death and is arrested. And it’s the women who come to his rescue.

There’s no love lost between Yoo Gil Chae (Ahn Eun Jin) and Gak Hwa (Lee Chung Ah), but both are prepared to put aside all differences if it means saving Jang Hyun. Gil Chae begs her to save him, and Gak Hwa immediately sends word to King Injo that the Qing will only communicate through Jang Hyun. The king can’t kill Jang Hyun as planned and is forced to sit through a round of questioning by Gak Hwa who notes that the king killed his son’s wife on suspicion of treason but without any proof. This lets the king know that the Qing suspect his hand in his son’s and daughter-in-law’s deaths. That threat allows the Qing to keep the king in check, and Gak Hwa even helps the escapees return to Joseon. It’s so sad because now, the Qing are doing more for the people of Joseon than their own king. Gak Hwa orders Jang Hyun to return with her and keep his promise. But he gently says that he can’t.

Gak Hwa doesn’t threaten or kill to get her way. She finally, finally sees what it is to love instead of to possess. She wanted to have Jang Hyun regardless of his feelings, but loving is wanting the other person’s happiness regardless of her feelings. And Gak Hwa finally loves Jang Hyun enough to let him go.

But there’s trouble waiting for him. If the king can’t kill Jang Hyun in secret, he’ll manufacture a reason for it if he has to. And since the people hate him, he needs a liar whom everyone will believe, like the saintly head of scholars Jang Cheol (Moon Sung Geun), whom he has some serious dirt on.

2. Yeon Joon and Eun Ae

We’ve seen bits and pieces of Nam Yeon Joon (Lee Hak Joo) joining Jang Cheol’s group of Confucian scholars, and he’s grown to become his most trusted aide. The trouble with Jang Cheol’s school of thought though is that it’s pacifist, sexist, classist, puritan, and demands that the weak sacrifice themselves for the strong because the strong are apparently always right. It decries new thought in favor of outdated ideals that harm everyone but the wealthy. Jang Cheol is basically running a cult of weak men. They’re too snooty to fight, too cool to get their hands dirty and try to help those hurt by the invaders, and content to sit and do nothing. Jang Hyun’s assessment of the scholars years ago remains on point. And Kyung Eun Ae (Lee Da In), Yeon Joon’s faithful wife, is starting to see it.

When Yeon Joon goes off on a rant about how women assaulted by the Qing should just die (even if the Qing only touched their bare shoulders!), Eun Ae’s in shock at the ugly person her husband is. She bravely reveals that she was nearly raped by an intruder and saved by Gil Chae. And Yeon Joon, hypocrite that he is, shuts down. The idea that his wife has been keeping this secret from him for so long is somehow untenable. He doesn’t consider her feelings even once, only his hurt pride. He distances himself from her and delves fully into Jang Cheol’s new orders. Only, the new orders are to kill all the escapees and punish them as rebels against the throne. And it starts with Jang Hyun.

3. Jang Hyun and Jang Cheol

Yeon Joon is horrified that the same Jang Cheol who protested the king’s murder of escapees is now going to mass murder them after falsely accusing them of treason. But Jang Cheol has no choice. The king has dirt on his father, who falsely accused a family of treason and had them murdered. So the king wants Jang Cheol to do the same, or he’ll reveal the truth. Under the same Confucian ideals Jang Cheol loves so much, the crime would result in him being stripped of his position as a scholar and relegated to lower-class commoner. And Jang Cheol’s one weakness is prestige. Despite everything he preaches, he loves that all the scholars in the country look up to him. So he does as the king wishes.

Yeon Joon looks into Jang Hyun’s background and realizes that his teacher’s missing son and Jang Hyun are one and the same. Determined to make Jang Cheol see reason, he warns Jang Hyun and arranges a meeting between them. Jang Hyun shows up ready for battle because he knows who he is. He’s known all along. And we get the truth of Jang Hyun’s parentage. He’s Jang Cheol’s son but willingly abandoned his family after Jang Cheol had his slave Sam Do beaten to death. The slave’s crime? Loving Jang Hyun’s sister. At first, Jang Cheol debated on raising the slave’s status and allowing the relationship. And Jang Hyun was so proud of his father. But Jang Cheol discovered that Sam Do was the last remaining family member of the group Jang Cheol’s father framed. Sam Do truly held no ill will toward Jang Cheol and was very much in love with Jang Hyun’s sister, but Jang Cheol still had him beaten to death. And he told his own daughter to drown herself. And little Jang Hyun made a choice: to leave, live as a slave, and rise up in the world without his father’s name behind him.

Jang Cheol tearfully embraces his son, even as he tries to protest that he did everything for the greater good. He tells Jang Hyun to just give in to the king because Confucian ideals. What does it matter if hundreds of innocent people die? The king’s throne must be preserved! Jang Hyun refuses and leaves in preparation of fleeing with the captives. And Jang Cheol makes his choice.

4. Yeon Joon and Jang Hyun

It’s no secret that Yeon Joon dislikes Jang Hyun. But he doesn’t want him to die. Deep down, he knows that his pretty ideals are useless and impractical, and it’s people like Jang Hyun who see the ugliness and good in both sides of a war who can truly shape change. Yet those pesky Confucian values raise their head once more, and when Jang Cheol orders him to kill Jang Hyun and all the escapees, Yeon Joon sees himself as having no choice but to agree. That’s the thing with Yeon Joon. He never sees himself as having a choice. He never takes his life in his own hands and hides behind Confucianism and stronger women. He’s always ready to blame his choices on everyone but himself. Eun Ae is horrified at the man she’s married, who’s willing to kill elderly escapees who have endured hell just so he can look good before the king and Jang Cheol. And Eun Ae, this amazing woman, leaves him.

Yes! Yes! She deserves so much better!

Jang Hyun and Gil Chae flee to their old hometown of Neunggeun-ri. When Yeon Joon and his pack of soldiers chase after them, Jang Hyun leads them away, promising Gil Chae that they’ll see each other again. Ryang Eum (Kim Yoon Woo), faithful to the end, puts on commoner clothes, prepared to fight and die for Jang Hyun, but he won’t let him. He knocks him out and vows to return for him.

Yeon Joon corners Jang Hyun and the male escapees, asking them to surrender and that they’ll be tried fairly for their treason. But everyone, including Yeon Joon, knows it’s all a lie. They fight, and we’re back where we were at the start of this show. Jang Hyun faces off an army of his own people, the same people he tried so hard to protect from the Qing. He’s bleeding badly but fights and fights, and Yeon Joon freezes upon seeing him try so hard to go home. He thinks back to Jang Cheol once telling him that a man shows his cruelty when he’s afraid. Jang Cheol was talking about the king, but Yeon Joon finally sees that the same truth applies to his teacher. Jang Cheol is killing his own out of fear for his own position. And Yeon Joon screams at the archers to stop.

5. Jang Hyun and Gil Chae

The battle is over. The dead are many. Goo Yang Chun (Choi Moo Sung) and all the male escapees with Jang Hyun are dead. Their bodies were thrown in the sea. Eunuch Pyo Eon Gyum (Yang Hyun Min) took his life after the crown prince’s death, realizing all his happy stories of the crown prince’s bravery had been taken by the king as signs of his son’s treason. King Injo has a heart attack and finally dies, good riddance. And Jang Hyun is gone.

Yeon Joon returns to find that Jang Cheol has killed himself out of the guilt of falsely condemning his son to death. He goes home, and Eun Ae has left him. He’s a murderer now, guilty of awful things, because he personally oversaw the murder of innocent Joseon people. His Confucian ideals have only harmed, never saved. Gil Chae mourns Jang Hyun for years. Yeon Joon tries to kill himself. Eun Ae happens to return on that day and saves his life. He wakes to find Eun Ae and Gil Chae watching over him and apologizes to Gil Chae. He reveals that he never saw Jang Hyun die though he was bleeding badly and didn’t find his corpse. He’s searched for years but hasn’t. He gives Gil Chae Jang Hyun’s last known location, and a brokenhearted Gil Chae goes to find Jang Hyun’s bones.

Instead, she finds news that Jang Hyun is alive. He’s been wandering the country because his memory is all messed up. He remembers Gil Chae’s words and voice but not her face. She retraces his steps around the country and realizes that he might be back in Neunggeun-ri, isolated in the mountains, where they once swore they would live. And that’s right where she finds him. He doesn’t recognize her at first (a conceit that would have worked better if we hadn’t had amnesia literally last week), but all it takes is a walk in the sunset and for Gil Chae to pull out their rings and repeat the question he’d once asked her on what she was thinking that day they met. The day she was on the swing. She tearfully says that she thought she’d meet the man she was destined to be with, and Jang Hyun’s shaken, realizing who she is. He tells her that he heard flowers blooming, and for the first time, Jang Hyun actually breaks down and sobs. They hold each other tight, and our lovers are finally, finally together.

Wait. Wait. What happened to Ryang Eum? As surprising and lovely as this happy ending is, there are several moments that could have been axed in favor of giving us a more concrete ending, like the amnesia round two. Is it conceivable that Yeon Joon wouldn’t have told Gil Chae Jang Hyun’s last known location for years? And poor, poor Ryang Eum. How did he get locked up in an asylum? He’s been there for at least 10 years at this point, only knowing that Jang Hyun promised to come for him. The poor man doesn’t even know what happened to Jang Hyun! He begs the scholar who visited him to tell him, and we don’t know if he even does! For a show that started with Ryang Eum’s asylum cell, it would have been great to see him getting out of it at the end!

But that aside, “My Dearest” remains the most stunning drama of the year in cinematography and storytelling. Was it perfect? Pretty close to it. Namgoong Min turned in the year’s finest performance, and seeing him break down at the end, this war-scarred man finally realizing that he can live now, was just incredible. Give him all the awards. The sheer amount of anguish dragged at times, and several plot threads (Ryang Eum!) were left incomplete. But the beauty of this show was that it was more than a love story. It was an ode to strength, love, friendship, and human resilience in the worst of times. It showed the worst in both the conquerors and the conquered and critiqued the systems that stratified people. And if there’s one thing to take away from this drama it’s to love earnestly, fiercely, and as deeply as Jang Hyun and Gil Chae did. Not only with each other, but with all the people they touched. Because at the end, just as with these two, it’s all that love that saves us.

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Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in increasingly fantastic worlds. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything!

Currently Watching:  “Moon in the Day” and “Vigilante.”
Looking Forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask The Stars,” “Queen of Tears,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.