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Yong-pal: Episode 18 (Final)

by gummimochi

We’ve come to the end of the road with Yong-pal, where love is the motivator for our characters to either climb upstairs or step downstairs to the world where the other is. For the doctor who would once resort to nearly anything to protect those he cherishes most, he’s given one last opportunity to face the world of the crocodiles. More tears are shed in this final hour, but it’s time to close up the surgical wounds and step away from the operation.

SONG OF THE DAY

Park Hye-soo – “나 하나만 기역해 (Only Remember Me)” from the OST [ Download ]

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FINAL EPISODE RECAP

At the sound of Yeo-jin’s shrieks, the head maid finds Yeo-jin looking distressed in her bedchamber. Insisting that she’s fine, Yeo-jin drinks the likely drug-laced water by her bedside, but when she tries to put it back, it crashes to the floor instead.

But that’s not all—the head maid’s eyes go wide when Yeo-jin asks where her brother is… because she thinks today is the day of the party, the fateful one that took place over three years ago.

Although Tae-hyun can’t hide his happiness after seeing Yeo-jin last night, he does share his concern over Yeo-jin’s health since he doesn’t know what’s wrong.

While Tae-hyun is busy ruminating over that, our geeky hacker is actually doing something about it by hacking into the security system. Despite a close call with Secretary Min, he manages to download Yeo-jin’s medical scans.

Upon receiving the restraining order, Tae-hyun calls Chae-young, who appears to have been waiting for his call. Since Tae-hyun can’t reach Yeo-jin, Chae-young agrees to go and meet her on his behalf.

She and the shareholders are currently gathered in Yeo-jin’s office, and the men believe victory is within their reach. But Chae-young says it’s too early to pop the champagne just yet because Tae-hyun isn’t someone to be trifled with. Given his current behavior, agree to disagree?

The hacker brings the CT scans straight to Tae-hyun, who confirms that this patient has liver cancer. Reading the scans more closely and seeing that they were taken at Hanshin gives him pause, and he’s told that these are Yeo-jin’s scans.

Chae-young plays dumb when Tae-hyun calls her again about the possibility of cancer, though he tells her that it’s simply speculation. He also asks her to relay a message: “When you meet her… tell her that I’ll go up to the thirteenth floor. Tell her she doesn’t have to force herself to come down to the first floor.”

Once Chae-young arrives, she makes a grab for a cup of water meant for Yeo-jin, only to be signaled by the other maid not to consume it. Seeing this, the head maid confirms to herself that it was the water after all.

Chae-young’s visit to Yeo-jin is a short and mostly silent one, since the latter sits at the edge of the bed, unresponsive to her callings. That has Chae-young think she’s just being ignored, putting a damper on actually getting to enjoy her revenge.

Still, Chae-young makes it sound like all of Tae-hyun’s questions were answered when she calls him afterward. It’s cancer all right and Yeo-jin likely sent the restraining order against Tae-hyun because it was getting too hard to see him—last night’s visit was to see his face one last time.

Tae-hyun has to hold back his tears upon hearing that Yeo-jin’s days are numbered, then asks after Yeo-jin’s reply to his message. Since Chae-young doesn’t know the couple’s secret code language, she lies about Yeo-jin’s supposed answer, saying that Yeo-jin said she won’t ever go to the twelfth floor nor to his clinic and will just stay at home.

If those words strike odd to Tae-hyun, he doesn’t let Chae-young know it. Secretary Min pulls up to the house just then, and although he and Chae-young exchange smiles, there’s still an underlying hatred for one another.

After we watch Tae-hyun scrutinize every single step of how his message was relayed and what he heard in return, Secretary Min looks quite relaxed while hearing about how much Yeo-jin has progressed.

He chuckles at the head maid’s recommendation to carry on this conversation elsewhere lest the rest of the staff overhear, because he isn’t the least bit worried since Yeo-jin’s condition is terminal now. Well that escalated quickly.

Secretary Min agrees to the head maid’s next suggestion of moving Yeo-jin to the guest house since her deteriorating health may encourage gossip. It just so happens the manor is expecting guests tonight—Chae-young and her cronies—to rewrite Yeo-jin’s will.

Speaking of whom, Yeo-jin is looking pale and sickly when she’s wheeled into the guesthouse. The maid drugging her water is dismissed, and when Yeo-jin asks for some water, the head maid destroys the pitcher. Couldn’t you have just poured out the water instead?

“You must not… drink this water,” the head maid tells her. Her eyes fill with tears when Yeo-jin insists with an empty look in her eyes that she’s thirsty. The head maid begs for Yeo-jin to come to her senses. “Pull yourself together, Yeo-jin-ah,” she desperately cries. “What’s wrong with you?! Yeo-jin-ah!”

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun is still trying to put two and two together in his office. So it’s a good thing his bodyguard comes in to spell out more of the puzzling details, though he lets slip that he’s still technically Tae-hyun’s bodyguard per Yeo-jin’s orders.

Other than Yeo-jin, the head maid is the only person who knows about it, so when the bodyguard calls her, the head maid speaks cryptically in case someone is wire-tapping their calls (which they are).

The important takeaways from her message about coming to pick up the ring that’s still here waiting for him are that there are guests coming tonight, and that there’s no one to chase out the neighboring dog without him around. Since that means little to nothing to the other security personnel, those notes are thrown out.

But Tae-hyun has figured it out: that Yeo-jin is staying in the guesthouse and to come take her away before their guests arrive tonight.

As for the clue about the neighboring dog, the bodyguard recalls the opening in the fence he made to make sure the dog left the grounds safely. That’s the same entrance he and Tae-hyun use to sneak back in, and the bodyguard takes down a guard so that Tae-hyun can enter.

When he discovers that the doors are locked, Tae-hyun charges through them. He sees Yeo-jin sitting in a wheelchair and staring blankly out the window. He grabs her hand and calls out to her and slowly but surely recognition sinks into her face. “Tae-hyun-ah…”

In a scared voice she asks, “It’s really you, right? It’s you, isn’t it?” He says it is, and Yeo-jin wraps her arms around him and sobs, thankful that he showed up.

So when Chae-young, Secretary Min, and the other shareholders gather together to discuss Yeo-jin’s will, they’re interrupted by the announcement of her arrival. Tae-hyun carefully assists Yeo-jin down the stairs, and the mere sight of her leaves everyone shocked.

Secretary Min calls for security to apprehend them, but that’s when Yeo-jin tells him that he’s fired. She orders the men to remove the guests from HER house.

Outside the gates, Detective Lee and his squad are waiting to apprehend people, since Tae-hyun called him earlier that day. Just when he wonders if they should leave, the gates magically open.

Greeted by the head maid, they’re asked to wait, but it isn’t long before the shareholders are tossed out and read their laundry list of charges including, but not limited to: trespassing, kidnapping, unlawful confinement and poisoning an individual.

When Secretary Min demands to see a warrant, Detective Lee says he doesn’t need one because the owner of the house called to throw out the thieves in her house. So practically everyone from Secretary Min to Chae-young to the corrupt maid is dragged away by the police.

But they aren’t out of the woods just yet because Yeo-jin suddenly faints. Tae-hyun rushes her over to Hanshin (why Tae-hyun. Why take her to the one place where people go to die?) and Yeo-jin asks him not to leave her. She has nothing to worry about because he’s not going anywhere.

Yeo-jin is put on dialysis and she wakes to see Tae-hyun sleeping by her bedside. When Chief Lee comes in to check on her, she makes it clear that he’s the last person on Earth she wants to see. But he’s here to clarify her actual illness: she’s been slowly ingesting a colorless, tasteless, and odorless poison iocaine—er, I mean ethionine that has led to acute liver cancer.

Despite the grave news, the prognosis isn’t all terrible: the cancer hasn’t spread to her other organs so it’s still operable. Of course it is. However, the surgery success rate is pretty low because the area overlaps with her previous surgery three years ago.

Her best shot to live is to allow Chief Lee to operate on her mostly because there’s no one else willing to perform the risky operation. Yeo-jin asks if this means the power dynamics between them have flipped, but Chief Lee corrects her—he’s just a doctor and she’s a patient.

That brings a small sad smile to her face as she wistfully remarks, “That’s right… you were once a doctor.”

Tears fall from her eyes as Yeo-jin says she had hoped to live happily with Tae-hyun for a little longer. All she’s done this entire time was hurt him in the name of her revenge, all to regain her title, she cries.

She pleads with Chief Lee to somehow buy her some extra time. “I want to make [Tae-hyun] happy.” Chief Lee takes a moment and promises to do so.

Because Yeo-jin requires a liver transplant, the head maid offers up her own because she discovered that she was a match three years ago. Chief Lee takes note of it.

While Chief Lee works tirelessly in his office, Yeo-jin falls asleep while talking to Tae-hyun. Nurse Oh stop him from waking her up because she’s likely exhausted. Chief Lee looks somber when Tae-hyun asks him about a possible organ donor because Yeo-jin cannot be cured by a transplant surgery alone.

No one is willing to perform the risky operation, which is when Tae-hyun says that he’ll do it. I… I… I’ve got nothing. At least Chief Lee has enough sense to tell Tae-hyun to get a grip. If he didn’t have a conscience like his past self, he probably would’ve allowed Tae-hyun to let Yeo-jin die on his operating table.

But he’s a new man thanks to Tae-hyun, and he will not let Tae-hyun destroy himself. Tae-hyun breaks down in tears. All isn’t lost yet, Chief Lee says, because a group of specialists will discuss her case.

At the meeting, things start to look hopeful, but then all the specialists state that it’s near impossible upon seeing the CT scans before logging off in turn. The conference room full of doctors file out as well.

So Tae-hyun asks Chief Lee to perform the surgery because he was the one who saved Yeo-jin all those years ago. While that may be true, Chief Lee says he cannot do it now. Tae-hyun gets down on his knees and tearfully begs him to save Yeo-jin again.

Chief Lee lets out a sigh and a tear rolls down Yeo-jin’s cheek.

Yeo-jin catches Tae-hyun off-guard when she says she doesn’t want to get the surgery. He claims a surgeon who’s willing to operate on her will turn up, and she calls him out for being a terrible liar.

She asks him why he hasn’t given her a ring yet, and he answers that he was going to give it to her when they returned to the windy hill. So she asks that he take her there now, and he promises to take her when she’s fully recovered after her surgery.

He refuses to go now, firmly believing that there will be a next time, and she says that this could be her final wish. That persuades him, and in the ambulance ride over, Yeo-jin asks if she can make it to the top. Even if it’s tough, she’s determined to make the journey.

Someone arrives in Korea and aiieeeeee! It’s Cynthia! And a new kid sitting next to her in the taxi. But back to the windy hill where Tae-hyun carries Yeo-jin on his back and jokes that she’s heavy.

They’ve finally made it to the top and Yeo-jin wonders why it took them so long to return to this place. Tae-hyun takes out the ring from its box and places it on Yeo-jin’s finger.

Yeo-jin marvels at how pretty it is, and Tae-hyun sheds a tear before repeating that if a couple shares a kiss here a second time, they’ll never part. And then Tae-hyun goes in for a soft kiss that leads to another and then another.

Cynthia and her visitor head over to Hanshin, because she’s heard about the predicament with Yeo-jin’s surgery. That’s why she’s brought her business partner with her, introducing him as Yong-pal. Er, say what?

But that answer has to wait while we go back to the windy hill, where Tae-hyun takes Chief Lee’s call to bring Yeo-jin back to the hospital. He tries shaking Yeo-jin awake because they have to go, but her head lolls to the side, unresponsive.

Tae-hyun makes it back to Hanshin to be introduced to New Yong-pal, who makes illegal house calls like Tae-hyun once did. He’s here to operate on Yeo-jin.

When they open Yeo-jin up, it’s worse than they expected. While Ex-Yong-pal works alongside New Yong-pal, the head maid is prepped for her surgery. Chief Lee is given the green light to take over, and Tae-hyun tells Yeo-jin in voiceover to hang in there.

Fade to white. Then we hear Yeo-jin’s voice narrate, “One must wake up to escape a bad dream. But if one cannot wake up, the nightmare continues. Therefore that nightmare becomes yet another reality, and that reality will never cease to end… until he calls my name.”

And as if on cue, Tae-hyun calls, “Yeo-jin-ah, do you hear me?” She opens her eyes. He asks if she knows who he is, she answers in her head: “Yong-pal.”

 
COMMENTS

But is he? Yes, he called your name, but you can’t possibly be trying to tell me that this guy is the Yong-pal we all once knew. Because here I thought that he stopped identifying himself with that alias ages ago.

If the attempt here is to make the show’s title relevant by tossing out the name in the final seconds of the last episode, then I’m sorry to say that it falls short. If anything, it puzzles me because Yong-pal is a name that has hardly been associated with Tae-hyun for a large part of the middle stretch of this series, Yeo-jin barely knew him when he was still running around as Yong-pal and making out-of-hospital house calls, and that it was the name Kim Tae-hyun that brought her hope in her emotional darkness. I can understand if the show is trying to make the story come full circle, but thinking about the journey that took us here, I can’t help but think that the show was scrambling to finish and tacked on the same opening narration.

But what really saddens me is all the opportunities that Yong-pal had at its disposal, and yet chose not to use them. In this final hour, Tae-hyun had an honest chance to stand up and be Yong-pal when it came to saving Yeo-jin, to have said “the hell with it” and insisted upon operating on her (…which he sort of did anyway). It would’ve have been totally nuts, yes, and I may not have agreed with it, but it would’ve given Tae-hyun a greater sense of responsibility than disappearing into the wallpaper like he has been ever since he was taken out of the hospital and a shadow of the older brother who would do anything to save his sister. What happened to the reckless, devil-may-care, Macgyver-esque surgeon? Not only that, it truly was a sad sight to see his former brilliance and medical knowledge slowly being sapped away from him with each passing episode until we reached a point where that highly competent doctor who could stick a tube into someone’s chest in seconds would later take a half-day to figure out why Chae-young said what she said… and still not quite know what was wrong.

This is all to say that by saying the alias Yong-pal at the end doesn’t shine the spotlight on a mostly absent aspect of the supposed hero. Especially when the focus was on building Yeo-jin to be a power heroine. Because by doing that, Tae-hyun’s character ended up falling to the wayside, relegated to be the guy sitting at home. Furthermore, if we were trying to highlight that Tae-hyun = Yong-pal in Yeo-jin’s eyes, then why the show would introduce New Yong-pal—who assumes that alias more than Tae-hyun has done for the majority of this series—baffles me. He may have been the other surgical option so that Tae-hyun wouldn’t have to operate (even though he did) but we’re led to believe that New Yong-pal and Chief Lee did most of the legwork in saving her. I don’t want to minimize Tae-hyun’s desperation in asking people to save Yeo-jin’s life, but he’s the least like Yong-pal out of the three of them. It would’ve been different if Tae-hyun had performed this surgery himself despite everyone telling him not to, saved Yeo-jin, and gave her reason to acknowledge him as Yong-pal (as a doctor who broke the rule and saved her life), or used Cynthia’s cameo to try and convince Tae-hyun to become Yong-pal once more, but that’s not what happened. What happened was the the new guy came in to save the day but the one who’s always been there gets the credit.

It always hurts when you see a show that could’ve been far more compelling than it ended up being. Yong-pal had a promising start with an intriguing revenge angle that I wanted to see how it would play out. And then somewhere during the series’ run, the revenge narrative that was grounded in Yeo-jin’s motivation to destroy her enemies ended up with killing off all of her enemies and with literal lofty talk about either climbing up to the thirteenth floor or coming down from it. Not only that, Chae-young’s revenge was a loosely woven scheme of a drug-induced liver cancer in which the rate of success has only been previously recorded in rat studies? Because that guarantees success?

I keep asking myself the question of what could’ve been if the series had opted to use some of their narrative cards at more strategic moments instead of trying to rush through certain elements. If it had chosen to sit upon some key aspects like the blossoming friendship between Tae-hyun and Yeo-jin for just a little longer, if it hadn’t killed off the most interesting characters so early before our heroine got to dive into her revenge, if we had learned about the truth regarding Tae-hyun’s past a little earlier or if we had seen more of a consequence to serious felonies than simply seeing a character’s sense of guilt.

In the midst of these what ifs, Yong-pal still achieved high numbers in the ratings department, surpassing the 20% threshold at times. There’s no doubt that there were times the show was still entertaining despite its brokenness and flaws, and a time when the show had my heart. But we believed in you Yong-pal, we called your name, and you were nowhere to be found. Or maybe I’m just waiting on the wrong floor.

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Tags: featured, Jo Hyun-jae, Joo-won, Kim Tae-hee, Yong-pal

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The End.

Although I can't get my head around the story, and keep rolling my eyes, thank you for ending it. Let us move on to more solid story..

Heads and Gummi, thank you for your continues recap, to the bitter end. Hats off to you, ladies.. *salute*

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I blame it on the extension. The writer almost seems like he's so pissed he doesn't care about anything anymore.

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He'd better be... A fantastic story went down the toilet courtesy of SBS's rating frenzy.

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Ha! But if it went downhill due to the ratings frenzy, wouldn't they want to give the people what they want? I don't get that line of argument very well, lol.

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You hear about this a lot in American TV shows too - something gets popular and everyone and his dog wants to chip in. They start messing with the script ("they need to fall in love earlier!" "One villain isn't enough, make it a conspiracy!" "What if there was a RUSSIAN SPY!?") and all of those small tweaks completely derail the story the writer wanted to tell. That's without product placement considerations, etc.

I think they're called "studio notes" in industry-speak, and frequently feature totally nuts requests. I can imagine it would be much worse in Korean TV, since they don't have the ability to spend time talking a TV executive off his ledge ("Okay, then have Cynthia rip her dress and turn into a ninja!" "Don't just shoot give Tae Hyun a flesh wound - shoot him in the stomach, it has to be dramatic!" "How about they dress in white and play with children in nature? You know, an innocent theme."). With live-shoot they just have to bite the bullet and pick a route.

The live-shoot system must be hell for a writer. At least in the conventional system you're only dealing with edits; in live-shoot you're dealing with people who think they've got a blank canvas to work with and you're just a transcriptionist.

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@Miranda. I hear the point u are making but the thrust of my quandary was aimed more at a pondering over the herculean effort of writers/production to sustain the interest of people captured by their work if the said capturing has been grounded on a variety of ideas of what the said audience would be enthralled to see and what drew them in from the start...and just ends up falling short of certain viewers' standards. In other words, it doesn't make sense to me to blame perceived twists and turns in a drama which do not work well on wanting to sustain ratings because if those things don't work ratings would drop or...should drop. Couldn't it perhaps just be the story the writer wanted to tell all along? Wouldn't it be fantastic if they could satisfy every hooked person though? But is that really possible? Could they just aim for a common denominator?

In other words, it's a circular question. Or a series of logical progressions. A long, winding ponder. I don't really expect anyone to have the right answer. Maybe someone could come close hypothetically... I think no one really knows how these things happen sometimes would be a more appropriate answer. Hehe.

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I mean, couldnt it be the story the writer/production wanted to tell all along and hope people would hop on the bandwagon, go with the flow , get with the program, basically...still like the work?

a typical example was School 2015...writers/producers did exactly what they wanted till the end. If they were listening to what the people wanted, wouldnt that havr boosted ratings since it emanated from the people and vice versa, if you want even higher ratings, due to being caught up in a ratings frenzy, shouldn't you be looking out and delivering what the people want to see? But would you be satisfying everyone?

I dont mean to make a blanket statement, but I think the vision just begins with a lot of hope that the entire project hits the jackpot with people until it doesn't anymore.

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The ending sucks

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What a makjang ending. Seriously? Drug-induced liver cancer? WTF is this? Some Chosun-era fusion sa-geuk?

And all you need to do is call the police, and all those powerful baddies got nothing to say? Really? And why did YJ's SIL want to avenge DJ anyway? She hated his gut. Almost every arc in this drama is a mess. Basically the drama rocked up to the part where the plagiarism scandal started. After that, it's like the writer just decided to smoke crack and throw out whatever he felt like throwing out.

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Yeah. All those powerful baddies managed to get the Seoul court to issue a bullshit restraining order on TH, and they can't even deal with the police for whatever reason?

And the whole "we're having a meeting to change the will" thing was so laughable. I hate to be Captain Obvious, but you can't just change someone's will.

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It's called forgery.

Many a times, wills are contested in court for their validity. Forgery is a common charge levied by those who contest the will.

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No, actually forgery in wills is not that common. A will requires notary and witnesses. Unless YJ was dumb enough to let CY and Min have access to her will, they can't forge her will.

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I correct my previous comment. I wanted to say it's common that wills are contested on grounds of forgery. Another would be lack of mental capacity or under undue influence.

I am not sure about notary. In my country, you only need 2 witnesses. How is it in Korea?

YJ was already losing her mental capacity. I don't know if Min had access to her will. I assumed they have her seal in possession and some expert can forge her signature.

The thing that puzzled me somewhat was the necessity for celebration. It looked more like a party, kind of like rub in YJ's face thing. They could have changed the will somewhere else if they do not need YJ. Or maybe they planned to get YJ to sign the new will while she was intoxicated.

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Weeeeeeeeee. I feel like I've been slipped hallucinogens by writer-nim over the last 12 episodes. No other way to explain the WTF smorgasbord story with a cherry on top (that would be the promise of Cynthia's return which was done so......well?).

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Meh. In the end it wasn't a particularly good drama. It certainly wasn't a clever drama. Six great episodes followed by a lot of wandering around and some occasional great moments. 3/10 for execution, 5/10 for enjoyableness.

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I do have to say one thing though - for all it's faults, this was still much better than Heirs :P

I am still having flashbacks from that...

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Heirs was at least campy... though I've never been brave enough to rewatch more than the first two episodes. And even then I have to mute and hide from the American bits.

But yes, at least Yong Pal kept moving in one direction. It was a schizophrenic, insane direction, but it didn't loop back and cover the same ground again and again and again and again...

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what are you talking about?
Heirs is so much better than this garbage. At least it had coherent ending with better eye candy.

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I didn't want to sound totally shallow but... Yes, the eye candy of Heirs made it more bearable.

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Are we doing a 360 here? Okay. If we are talking eye candy here how aboooouuutt... The eye candy of Boys over Flowers makes it more bearable than any k-drama ever produced?

It's still is and will likely remain THE most internationally popular and most watched contemporary k-drama. How would you like that for a k-drama legacy? O sacred eye candy!

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The psychological torture of "Almost PAAARADIIIIIIISE!" far outweighs ANY eye-candy benefits of Boys Over Flowers. Shudder.

As for Heirs, I thought it was pretty terrible! But I was occasionally distracted from the terrible by eye candy. Never for long enough to actually like the show, mind you, but long enough that I actually would tune in again to and watch bits of each episode. (While yelling at the plot.)

"More bearable" in comparison to "totally horrible" isn't exactly complimentary...

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@Miranda. Hahahahahahaha! I agree.... BOF is such an assailant, lol! I liked Heirs... I watched all of it but the ending didn't satisfy. The OST is up there with the OST for My Love from Another Star for me. But BOF LMH was better eye candy compared to Heirs LMH. Overall top LMH eye candy has to be City Hunter LMH! Hawt! Pheww! Lol.

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Lets rewrite the story from episode 7 onwards
This is my take. Apologies in advance to those who think current one is perfect. I merely want to inject some thrill back into the series.

TH takes YJ to the church to recuperate. They amicable part ways, each acknowledging the other as a kindred spirit. YJ goes back to the crocodile pit (read boardroom) but realizes her health is still not in the best shape. DJ's faction is waiting for her to commit a misstep so that they can claim she is physically unfit to lead the company. YJ cannot be seen heading back to the hospital, so she summons yongpal to help her. TH is now back to being yongpal with just a single patient on his list.

CY divorces DJ. YJ allows her to stay in the house under the condition that she has to pretend to be in a relationship with TH. That will be pretext for his house calls at the mansion. CY agrees, since it means more time with TH.

I am not a writer, so thats all I can think till now. This is probably cliched, but to me it makes more sense.

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To continue.

YJ and TH fall in love. CY is furious when she comes to know. She realizes she has turned into a DJ, a person who obsessively tries to hold onto someone who is in love with another. Angry at being played by YJ, and developing some empathy for DJ, she becomes a double agent.

(CY was my favourite character till she turned into a rebel without a cause)

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I enjoy the current one thoroughly although it's not perfect. But I could definitely go with your alternative take on TH and YJ because I had always wanted to see more TH as Yong Pal in action. Your story could have him do more of that as well as slowly falling in love with YJ. Again, I have no problem with their romance happening faster than usual but I feel that in a drama, most viewers are more receptive to romance which are built up slowly.
The major problem with this is that DJ would never let YJ be in Hanshin. He would get people to pronounce her mentally unfit from the very start like in ep 13. He'd put her under sedation again and eventually kill her. How will you resolve this?

Sorry, I don't agree with your take on CY though. I guess we could go the typical 3rd wheel route and have her fall in love with TH while still being stuck in a loveless marriage.

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SS,

Yes DJ would never let YJ be. But this is how I interpreted the initial episodes. DJ was ruling Hanshin by proxy. YJ's proxy. Thats why she had to be alive, otherwise he could have just killed her 3 years ago. For simplifying this lets assume he instantly seized power after their father's death.

In my version of the story, YJ gets the hospital head on her side. Due to the fact that he tried to pass off a living person as dead, he is in dire straits otherwise. Now you might say TH is also in hot water since he called her time of death. Well, she can exonerate him saying that his actions were under her instructions. I want to avoid the contract marriage since I want TH to have secret visits to Hanshin mansion.

Regarding CY, lets cancel the divorce. Lets make it separated, pending divorce. After all, divorce proceedings take time.

I won't say CY is ever in love with TH. She just sees him as a nice toy to have. I read your earlier comment where you said her revenge on YJ is for herself, not DJ. I agree with you. Neither of the siblings treated her as a person. She has already experienced DJ. I don't recollect if they showed her with YJ prior to YJ's accident. Remember she had asked for TH when springing YJ out of the hospital. YJ had agreed. In the grand scheme of things (power struggle of a huge conglomerate) it is a small thing to ask. But even that she didn't get. Coupled with her father's obsequious behaviour first with DJ and then with YJ, she realized she will always be the powerless one. That makes her want to play kingmaker, playing each side against the other hoping that they kill each other and she emerges the sole winner. Good way to take revenge, innit?

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On second reading, it seems like I got carried away with CY (again) and forgot about the original problem ie DJ :)

The hospital (in that particular scene) will not be on DJ's side, so he can't claim she is mentally unstable. But YJ's victory won't be that easy. In the period that she was in coma, DJ was amassing Hanshin stock in his name and his shell accounts. So she can't just force him out, because a person with that big a share can do irreparable damage to the company. So it will turn into a tug of war.

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So disappointing in so many ways. That final episode was a hot mess and insulted the intelligence of us viewers. Nothing made sense. I was actually embarrassed for Joo Won and Kim Tae Hee. All of the actors obviously exhausted at the end of this shooting and all I can think about is how upset the director must have been with the writer. At least Kim Tae Hee fared slightly better than her beloved man Rain did in My Lovable Girl, which is about the WORST drama I've ever seen. Not his fault at all. Not hers here - and certainly not Joo Won's, who can do NO wrong.
What I simply cannot understand is how on earth Yong Pal earned such high ratings in Korea. Why??? Yes, the first 8 episodes were really good but did everyone hang on until the end out of sheer, desperate hope that it would get better??

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The director is the one who has a long career as a SBS employee while the poor writer is a recruit from OCN where he made his debut. It's probably the other way around...

High ratings were courtesy of a wider male audience.

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I can see clearly why this show is having so much trouble being validated now. The legitimate expectations of the majority of people were just not met. I do wonder though how outsiders can tell that a writer's vision wasn't translated in the appropriate manner. Becos people didn't like it? But still watched it? Why would writers do that to people then? Do writers have the final say on the final cut? Anyway... I refuse to believe that the writer in this show sought to deliberately torture anyone. JMO. :)

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So right about My Boring Girl. That was embarrassingly bad.
Yes, I too feel badly for the actors.

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I’m so disappointed in Yeo-jin. She’s not better than her brother. Murderers.

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Pretty much.

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@Kendra. YJ did not kill them. She just didn't do anything about them wanting to be dead. Go slashed his own neck and DJ could have lived if he'd JUST gotten on to that chopper and didnt get all delulu about wanting to STILL vanquish YJ.

In the end, all her guilt was about hating them so much for what they did to her and wanting them dead... and having those deaths happen someway, somehow.

I would say, their deaths ended up being fated than actually planned by YJ.

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She did hit her brother with a car - by proxy, sure, but still!

The weird chuckling "oh, did someone die?" didn't jibe with YJ's later horror that her business rival (and actual assassin of her brother) tried to kill himself - it certainly read like she had had a hand in arranging Go's death.

And then you have the DJ combo of car/sedation/knowingly putting him in harm's way.

Those aren't fated so much as arranged by YJ. She didn't pull the trigger, but she sure as heck lined everything up.

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@Miranda. Nope. YJ still did not kill anyone. If we are going to get technical and use the appropriate terminology, I guess, we could say she was an accessory to their murders. But Go and DJ brought their deaths upon themselves. Pls let's not argue about this when Prez Go had a kill order for TH in his phone and DJ effectively kill YJ's fiance SJ and attempted to murder YJ which was 99% done until TH walked onto the scene.

There was no redemption for those two because they never wanted it for themselves... And YJ doesn't have to carry the blame for that eternally.

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@Miranda. The analogy here would be me or anyone wanting to make a pancake. I line up the ingredients... And wait. Then someone comes along and makes the pancakes. Should I take all the credit for making those pancakes? Even if I do, would it be reasonable? At least, I will own up to lining up the ingredients but by no stretch of the imagination can I say I MADE those pancakes.

And if we are talking punishment for her... Who knows what might happen? The ending was nice and open. Started dealing with penance and karma for everything before the show was over, at the very least.

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@Affie, I'd say no one brings their death upon themselves unless they suicide. Go was coerced, and DJ was straight-up murdered.

Go's death is probably criminally defensible, as he technically suicided, but morally the area is much more gray considering he seems to have suicided based on a threat from YJ. DJ was hit by a car on YJ's order, which certainly IS criminally liable, and which set up a circumstance where DJ was unable to defend himself and got delivered to his death. Again, a gray space when it comes to laws (at least when it comes to death) but morally not defensible: she knew exactly what was likely to happen and was not a bystander, she had a part in that entire cycle.

So yes, she did not personally kill someone. She might not be criminally liable for either death. But morally they should haunt her.

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@Affie, the pancake analogy is hardly sinister enough for a murder.

It's more accurate to think of a hunter. If the hunted animal is like Go, maybe the trap is deliberately set near the animal's den so that the animal feels the only way to protect its young is to sacrifice itself. If the animal is like DJ, maybe it's like a fox hunt where the fox was previously trapped and then let "loose" in territory where the odds are stacked heavily against the fox.

In either of these situations, I'd say that the huntmaster is largely responsible for that animal's death. As is YJ.

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@Miranda.... oooh... I like the fox analogy. I really do. I like everything you say in fact Miranda. Everything you say is very interesting. I guess that's why I keep talking to you :).

Im going to agree with you on YJ being held 'responsible' for their deaths, to an extent. Again, because your fox analogy was so apt you have convinced me to accept that YJ is a culpable party in Go and DJ's deaths. However, the thing here is I was never in denial of that.

I wanted to make an effort to separate the intention to kill from the actual killing, because although that in no way absolves YJ's guilt, it exonerates her from the bulk of it becos in a way, like your fox analogy, its only a fox that freely walks into the said trap that will get captured. In a way, that fox charted its own fate.

If Go had resisted the urge to kill himself, who knows if YJ would have given further kill orders. Don't forget DJ was hit by the car by YJ's proxy for the purpose of being put into a SIMILAR coma by YJ. Sec Min was the one fearing YJ wouldn't carry out murder on her brother, prompting him to call CHAIRMAN CHOI. In the end, it's still up for debate whether DJ couldve safely gotten on the plane if he hadnt gotten furious with YJ or if YJ wouldn't have merely kept him in a coma till she was convinced by TH to call it off...which with the kind of influence TH wielded over her... was a very distinct possibility. Kindly.

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@Miranda...so in a nutshell, what im saying is that:

1. I'm not in complete, flat out denial that YJ is culpable in Go and DJ's deaths.
2. There are moral reasons to totally refer to YJ as a murderer or murderess but there's not a lawyer born who wouldn't defend a murderer in YJ's circumstances becos the intention to kill and the actual killing did not emanate from her. At worse, she's an accessory to their murders.
3. Go, being a fox trapped with the odds stacked against him by the hunter, wwouldn't be exactly the same here, I think, since the odds here are Prez Go's own deeds. Again, assuming the note was from YJ, Go was in an interrogation room having dinner. He was in a place where he could've been protected from assassination. But he chose to be his own executioner. Apart from being gloaty because of the outcome, I find myself not wanting to give YJ all the credit for that particular death.
4. As a moral judgement, YJ is a murderer. Fine. A vicious cycle of a murderer murdering murderers. Fine. We saw her get haunted and regret everything she did. So in that same moral sense, she got punished. As far as im concerned though, Go and DJ just went cos they deserved it. And YJ got through her penance and got some happiness in the end cos she deserved it too.

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You too, @Affie - discussion is interesting, and I do get a lot of where you're coming from.

I agree with you that YJ would probably spend little to no time in jail, and she'd likely get off easily represented by a good lawyer.

With Go... Am I remember incorrectly, or did the note threaten his kid in some way?

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@Miranda. It's been a delight talking with you too! I get a lot of where you're coming from too. YJ will 100% get off if she's brought in on a murder charge. Her lawyer just has to be good. Maybe, a smart prosecutor ought to bring her in on abetting, aiding, being an accessory or a part of a murder conspiracy charges if they want her to do time. I'll bet TH would wait till she got out. Real life is that complicated lol.

Yeah, Go's note.... the note was presumably from Prez Go's son to him. And it sorta read like 'Father, dont do this to me (or us) anymore' or something along those lines. I forget... But basically, I think it was asking him to end the humiliation of their family or just man up to his crimes and take his punishment without dragging the family's name in the mud too much. And Go's response was to go 'nighty night' forever.
YJ was later seen taking responsibility for it, making her culpable in the whole machinery of his death as you analytically stated, but not nearly enough to be corporally punished for it. Not even in real life, I'm sad to say..

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I really like Yong Pal. Of course I have favorite eps, and unfortunately the last ep was not the one I like. I had hope that last ep would be Yeo Jin and Tae Hyun have their white wedding on the Hill of the Wind, and the last scene would be the wedding kiss. But you know what, after what happened, I think this ending works well too. We established at least few things:
1. TH and YJ are alive. They stay together, and love one another no matter what.
2. The rats are out from the house. CH knows that she did something wrong to TH and I think she would be too ashamed to buy her way out from the prison. Ex. Sec. Min... Well I dunno. He looks crazy to me in this last ep. Such a waste of brain.
3. Chief Lee is back being a real doctor, and miracle worker at that. I am sure he become more famous now that he succeeded YJ's operation after the whipple.
4. YJ and TH has friends who love them, and staff who sincerely cares for them to die for them. I only hope buttler Yeo lives through.

Overall, I think this is one if the best shows in years. I would definitely watch it again, and I would be looking forward for this team (writer, actors/actresses)'s next project!

Pssttt.... I wonder if 7th Grade Civil Servant would have better outcome, shall the main couple is Joo Won and KTH.

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Forgive me but this show took a nose dive into cringing sentimental time wasting, gratuitous romance with a dash of corny humor. Poor Joo Won to get stuck with another snooze-cheese fest.

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Phhhhheeeewwww!

We came to the end of the road. What a journey! Thrilling times! Sweet moments! Anguished times! I loved it! Truly.

This show has a fan for life in me. No matter what. Jjang!

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same here! Jjannnngggg~~ ^_^ Yongpali fighting!!!

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Yeo jin is alive! Yeojin is aliiive! My gawd, I cried so hard I thought my eyes gonna popped out! But what the fudge happened? That's all?! I thought we could see them having their wedding reception, beautiful babies playing in their lavender garden *sigh* Though disappointed, I'm just happy that Kim Tae Hee rocked her role here yay! You go girl!

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Hahahahahahahahaha! IKR. No k-drama has ever made me cry as much as this one! Also no k-drama Final episode has ever made me cry til this one! I was straight up bawling! Cos I thought YJ wouldn't make it and her life has been unfortunate for far too long.

I think a lot of people think rich people don't suffer. Omg. Rich people suffer too. I'll bet I sound annoying saying that but I hope I can be permitted to say it.

Yes. I too would have loved a wedding on the Hill and kids and everything else but when someone was on the brink of being lost, I think, just having the person back is far more overriding than all the niceties of a wedding and what not. Hence I totally loved the ending. And yay! I finally finished my tissues watching a k-drama. That was new!

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Ikr! Great show indeed. Of course we dream of white wedding on the windy hill and babies to fill that empty dining chairs. But since both YJ and TH are alive, I am happy just to assume all those will happen. Hahahaha.

Funny thing is, many people find new friends over discussions on Yong Pal. I am glad I read your comments, Affie. I am looking forward for another good drama such as this one, definitely. The name Jang Hyuk Rin will be imprinted on my mind when it comes to dramas, along with obviously Joo Won, Kim Tae Hee and all other casts.

What a ride, what a ride!

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@Affie, thank you for your wonderful and often hilarious posts. I enjoy your company very much. Sad that I don't get to say good bye to @Shuerei, @Audrey @Vgy7*uhb.

@Bunny I agree that Jang Hyuk Rin will be a writer I'd look out for. He has improved tremendously from his first drama, Reset. There are some kinks in YP which I hope he will learn how to iron out and write a even better drama next time.

It's great to know people like you guys who can understand this drama and appreciate it for what it is.

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Ha! But if it went downhill due to the ratings frenzy, wouldn't they want to give the people what they want? I don't get that line of argument very well, lol.

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@SS. Oops sorry SS. Lol! That was a reply to a comment higher upthread.

What can I say? I've really enjoyed this ride with your POV on it as well. You have been absolutely marvellous!

I believe everyone has the right to like what they like and not necessarily adhere to the status. I also saw all the things that where wrong with the show and chose to still enjoy the story the way it was being told. Does that make me weird? Of course not! Lol. Just different.

I said somewhere upthread that I get any and all the negativity being hurled at this show in hindsight bcos a legitimate expectation was created in people to expect an extremely active Yong Pal. Unprecedented medical action. I don't know if people would have only stayed for the action though...I like the transitioning from one genre to the next within the same drama. A motley mix. But I guess if a person can't stomach that, they shouldn't be force-fed otherwise they're just gonna throw up.

In any case, I'm trained to respect contrarian views...I only can't stand verbally abusive ones. So I'm taking it all in stride and not tossing out the baby with the bathwater. Salut!

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Also, much love to @Shuerei, @Audrey, @sera, @Vgy7*uhb... Becos they all made my reading comment s experience so worthwhile! One of the most time consuming things I've ever done outside of work but I loved every minute of it and you all. May future atypical dramas give us another exhilarating, tense and bittersweet experience. Ha-ha! Don't mind me... I like giving toasts! ;)

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Goodbye @SS---for now. I will look forward to our next meeting---and miss you, in the meantime. I so appreciate you and all that you stand for.

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To @Affie, @Shuerei, and @SS: may I echo Affie in saying, "May future atypical dramas give us another exhilarating, tense and bittersweet experience." You are all gold and I too have loved every minute I have spent reading every word and thought. May the drama gods unite us in the future! I am very much looking forward to that.

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This drama seriously drove us apart in to two teams, love it or hate it.

I'm okay with a sudden-transition genre of this drama, I should've expected from the beginning tho. The one that makes me rolled my eyes is the cancer-thing. Seriously that was so weak for a smart and sharp drama like Yongpal. If only they make it more reasonable and acceptable then it'd be better. It's not that YJ shouldn't get a punishment after what she did, but using a poison to make someone got cancer in 6 months, just.... Ugh! They should've make it better.

The cast, I think they did a brilliant job here. Played their role so beautifully, and for me, I can feel their strong chemistry of our OTP esp in the latest episode. Even the maid, nurses, bodyguards, CY, HDJ, all of them did a very good job. Now I know what makes me keep hanging on this drama till the end, none other than the casts. I must admit that I love joowon and kim taehee more now.

And for the kind of narrative-ending like that, I prefer that than lovey-dovey happy family in the future. At least I've got the point that both Taehyun and Yeojin willingly leave their 'floor' for their loved ones.

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No, there is certainly a middle ground too. I liked it. No more, no less. Too inconsistent for me. But too many good moments placed frequently enough that I didn't want to give up on it either. But I also found it frustrating at times.

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OMG! I really think this is one of the best Kim Tae Hee performances I've seen, Her Jang Ok Jung might be up there, but she had abit lost at the end of the second half of that drama. But here in Young Pal.she was soo solid throughout the drama and bring so much subtlity to Yeo Jin's character. . No doubt she is the star of this show. the rest just abit lackluster despite delivering decent performances.

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Her character shines the most here in Yongpal. Powerful and Solid. Not a weakling or a martyr type of heroine who always depends on the hero. Great acting from Kim tae hee.

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If this show had been called "The Sleeping Beauty" instead, maybe we won't feel so disappointed.

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I agree in part. I think YP was a round character meant to evolve into someone who would always be there as a dependable doctor, person and husband.

But I get your point...all Aurora did was sleep and wake up when she received true love's kiss but she still got the book and movie title. Lol.

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Wowwww Daebak! This thread already looks like a swamp of YP’s haters that put me in limbo whether to jump in or not. From comment number 1 until latest, here is what I see:
1. Commenters type 1. These are people who follow this drama dilligently each week from eps 1 till 18 with one hope to get entertained. These people genuinely feel entertain with whatever the drama offers (acting, writing, directing etc). That is why they invest in 18 hours of their precious time for the drama. Of course, they see flaws here and there, but they stick around because they still find this drama entertaining. On the comment section, these people usually concentrate on the good side of the drama, discuss the flaws as a way of learning how some aspects of the drama fail and why the other don’t. They bare any critics, and try to say their point of view (politely and) rationally.

2. Commenters Type 2. These are people who decided to stop watching after 4 eps, 6 eps and 8 eps (I havent seen any who stop watching at further eps). These are who find the drama no longer able serve their personal tastes after certain eps, and seek another show that meet their expectation for their own good. On comment section, no matter what they say in this final thread doesn’t count, because they are so lack of whole storyline after stopping before it is finished. Or, they do it to proof how their six sense works in this matter.

3. Commenters Type 3. These are peope who said they were dropping the show midways, but still reading the recaps until the end, and never recovered from dissapointment even after reading the last one. Unless they are an occasional drama recappers, who most probably paid profesionally for doing the job, I can’t figure out what motives in doing what these people are doing. Shouldn’t they have something else to do, instead of hang in there like hopeless predators? What else are they looking for, instead of documenting as many as fault they can find? On the comment section, commenters type 1 are always the silly ones to their logic, while at the same time making themselves as the only one with the BRAIN. They also feel the obligation to dish all components of the drama (the casts, writer, crews and producer) HARSLY, especially for gaining high ratings after failing to create a show that meet their expectation. Ahhh, they blame K-viewers too for having such a low taste (regarding the high ratings).
I have confidence that type 1 and 2 will continue fulfilled their quest for entertaining drama by doing what their doing. Whether they are going to invest in time and energy to watch certain drama is merely about their taste, which is purely emotional and differ for each person.
Well, I don’t know with type 3, tho.

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Type 3? Maybe it's like this?

"I don't understand why you like this dress"

"This dress is simply awful."

"I would never buy this dress"

"What do you mean you like your dress?"

"Can't I tell you how awful your dress is?"

"So what if I told you already? I will tell you this every time I see you."

"What, are you kidding? This dress is the top seller for 2015? People must have such bad taste (Like you)."

"There are better dresses out there, like the one I am wearing."

"Omo omo! Just what on earth was the designer thinking when he designed this abomination? Was he high on drugs?"

"You must be smokin weed to think yours is a nice dress."

"Oh, that's rude. How can you say I am unreasonable? Nasty nasty. I dislike your dress, not you."

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Bahahahahahahaha

I cant even read type 3's comments. It ruins my mood. The dress they hate? They have not even seen it.

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Using the dress analogy for Type 3, I'd say it's more like this:

You're buying a dress for a fancy occasion. You've seen an awesome-looking blue dress online with great reviews, so you go in to try it on. Once you're in the dressing room and try the dress on, you like it! It feels good, it looks attractive, and maybe a tiny little bit of tailoring will make it spot-on. "I'll buy this", you think.

The salesgirl comes back and tells you that's the store's sample dress, so she'll bring you back one you can take home. Great!

The blue dress arrives... But now it's got sequins all over it. No, you explain, you'd like the original dress. She leaves, and brings back another dress, this time with a mesh cutout on the midriff. Uh, no - you're looking for the original dress. The salesgirl frowns, and you try to broaden your criteria a bit: you'd REALLY like original dress exactly, but you're willing to look at very slight variations on the dress as long as all the important stuff like cut and material and color are all the same, and hopefully from the same designer?

The salesgirl continues to bring in dresses. One is knee-length with a ruffle. One is electric orange. One has a train made of ostrich feathers. One comes apart at the seams the instant you put it on. At this point you're laughing because it doesn't seem possible that things could have gone so badly off-course. You check the online reviews again, and start to see that other people have experienced the same problem with this dress shop.

After fourteen failures, the salesgirl brings out a hoopskirted ballgown that is made of iridescent nylon and instantly gives the wearer liver cancer. This is the point at which you sigh and say "I came here because I liked the dress I originally tried on, I stayed because I hoped you would eventually bring something close enough to that dress that I could be happy with it, but I guess we're going to have to call it quits". Then you go home and write a Yelp review about the entire insane experience before going online to start dress shopping all over again.

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@Miranda
Was it a story about a hopeless customer?? Checking out review from other shoppers every single time, but keep coming back?? Either, she has an esteem or judgement problem or just too lazy to shop around.

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It's actually the opposite - it's a hopeFUL customer who came to the store and had the good experience of trying on a dress she really liked, so she's sticking around waiting for the shopgirl to bring something out that resembles that first dress in style and taste. She's completely confused at the randomness being offered and keeps trying to explain why ribbons, netting and sequins aren't what brought her to the store in the first place.

It's hardly laziness if she's hearing that this is actually the best dress shop in town, and she's fine with her esteem and judgement - she's just bewildered that the store has gone from showcasing a really nice dress to offering a series of getups that remind her of a costume shop.

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haha ...Your dress story sounds so much better than this drama honestly... like we are discussing the displayed PPL.
The only good thing about this drama is it's over now and JW can get his much deserved rest. I hope he choose a better script in the future like good doctor coz I adore that drama so much. I still watching it from time to time.

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"Anytime anything does well there's going to be the voice of the discontented and that a lot of times remains quiet when the show is tanking cause why kick that horse when it's down. But I think that some of those complains are not without reason it's just maybe disproportionate in volume level or something." Javabeans, Dramabeans Podcast #30 talking about criticisms on Yong Pal

I agree with Javabeans on this, but for #3 types, instead of "it's just maybe disproportionate in volume level", it would be "but it's disproportionate in ridiculous volume level".

Which is a kind of attitude that I don't get at all.

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@SS
Hahaha...you're so funny. Thanks for all the analogies. If I may adding one more:

"Gawd...this dress is so ugly, definitely not my taste. Everybody does say how ugly it is. That's why disliking the dress is legit and confirmed. But going to keep it in my wardrobe anyway. Whenever I need to, I will scold the dress for being so awfull" LOL

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I agree. With this.

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Whosover wrote the recap, thanks. Then again i hate your thoughts on the drama, @far could have post his thought, he nailed it more than you.
No matter the bashful/hateful comments here, YP is still a great drama. The rating was a success because Koreans turned in to watch this entertaining drama, not like one idiot said that they were forced to watch, did anyone point a gun at their foreheads?
Even I'm not that satisfied with the ending because my biggest question was not answered. That is if YJ come down floor the 13th floor or if YP climed up to her. Aside that this drama is good, so who don't like it should shut up and don't bash at the drama.

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Ha, funny ! I finished the drama, wrote my critic and... well, it started out the same your did. Like... WTF drama ? Where did the meaning of your name go ?

I actually find it pretty much the same as Nae Il's Cantabile : a drama with a name irrelevant to what is happening. Where Nae Il's Cantabile made Joo Won its hero, Yong Pal forgot him.
I just don't get why she called him that way in the end. It just makes no sense whatsoever. I don't get how a drama so full of promises could end up so bad. I'm so sad Joo Won lost his touch. He plays so well, in dramas that are so bad. Since Gaksital and Ojakgyo, he just...

Well, Yong Pal, I don't thank you for making me waste my time.

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Ha! I guess I'm in minority here who loved the ending haha. I just don't care about the inconsistencies/lapses of logic of this drama, I watch to entertain myself and for the past 18 hours of investing my time in this drama, I got pretty entertained and thrilled. This drama completes me every week and I told myself as long as Yeojin lives, I'm not gonna complain. Thank you writer-nim! Haha. I just wish we got to see their wedding in the windy hill hehe

I know I might sound OA but tissue's not enough for my tears in this ep, so I had to use a towel or my t-shirt instead (yes, it's gross haha). I had to pause every time I can barely see the subtitles because of my tears LOL

Kudos to all cast of this drama! Kim Tae Hee and Joo Won, you just gotta love them!

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@ SS
Agreed.
1) I think there is enough evidence to lock up the crocodiles for good, and with the USB info, YJ has direct access to people in high positions to ensure justice. Since she has strengthened Hanshin group, her status is more formidable now.

2) I think this time TH would be willing to up to 13th floor with her for at least a period of time to restructure the company, and they will later settle near the church and adopt a bunch of the orphans...

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Thanks @Shuerei, you are right.

I hope the crocodiles would be locked up for good. But I am totally fine with that open ending. It would take more episodes to deal with those reptiles proper. This show is not centered around corporate politics and its hijinks. The show just expected viewers to make their inference.

There's a possibility of YJ not being able to conceive if she cannot be taken off the immunosuppressive drugs. Whatever it is, I think they have learn how to cherish each other, cherish life and enjoy the simple pleasures.

I love ep 17 and 18 so much partly because the OTP moments were just so wonderful. So much sweetness and sadness intermingled. JW and KTH had such awesome chemistry. Have you seen their BTS?

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Hi @SS
I can see that too. Our OTP chemistry is getting better and more believable on these episodes. Actually, I prefer YP ending more than Healer. To me, JCW-PMY chemistry was a bit off post eps 16. But, it didn't happen in YP. The last kiss on the Windy Hill says it all.

Rain better beware not to keep Kim Tae Hee in limbo any longer...ha!

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There was this pic on someone's IG, I think it belongs to a staff, gaaaaahh......they were so cute!

I can't comment on Healer. I always feel I must be the odd one out not to be floored. If so many people went crazy over it, I must be weird. Somehow I only remember the bed scene because it struck me as quite extraordinary for a drama to show that when some are still giving chaste kisses, LOL.

You don't know how thankful I am that KTH doesn't restrain herself when it comes to kissing. If I have to see Joo Won's female co-star do another choding kiss, I will scream.

Even when YJ and TH just talked, the air was already electrifying. I much prefer those scenes than the dreamy ones.

Since we are on this topic, do you notice that TH touched YJ a lot besides the kissing? I love those as much as the smooching :D Like how TH kissed YJ's forehead. The way TH keeps holding and caressing KTH's hands - they convey loving, assuring, comforting and the "I am here" messages.

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@SS. Ermahgerdddddd! Saaaammme sentiments for me too! They were too perfect together. I keep having to stop myself from fantasizing about them too much cos I'll take them to weird places....gahhhhh! Lol!

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Aigooo...yeah the conversation is getting too serious and boring far up there. I'm so glad not alone here haha! Shippers gotta ship until 13th floor LOL. Joo Won looks very protective around KTH, and behave. On Windy Hill kissing scene 1, I feel KTH initiate most of it, but at the second Windy Hill, by looking at their hand movements, both play their part really really well (KTH's pull JW closer, grab his upper bod, JW's hands on her upper hip). Just the way I wanted to happen in a kiss. The ice is totally melting between them.

I personally can't get over these scenes below:
1. Both Windy Hill's scene of course.
2. First time YJ and TH met (early eps), it is when YJ is taken to OR secretly by Nurse Hwang and YJ try to cut her neck with a piece of glass. TH grab it out of her hand. Their eyes meet and the expressions were so ahhh..
3. TH's love confession at the church, when he rush to find YJ right after she called and tells him to return. And, he scream "Yeo-Jin-aa". Hillariously sweeet..
4. The scene when TH wake her from her long induce coma.
5. The welcome hug when they both first go home after the funeral.
6. The party scene. Her say thank you to TH for willing to come and bare the ackwardness.
7. when YJ tells TH that he is the head of the household.
8. That good bye scene, start from the dining room through the garden scene next day.
9. How YJ's look when she see TH's approaching at the hospital when he come for a visit after seeing her fainting on TV. And how she wants him to stay..but can't (because of other crocs). Again, Joo Won looks HOT in that outfit. Second after his surgeon outfit lol.
10. The rooftop scene in ep. 17 - all of them.
11. TH break in to the guest house and how she relieve to see her hubby. eps 18
12. One tiny scene - in case you notice - YJ faint right after the police picks up the crocs from HS mansion in eps 18. The way KTH fainting is really interesting. Seem happily fall into Joo Won LOL. Do you think they were stunts?

To me, Yong Pal already makes so many unforgettable scenes. These are the ones related to YJ and TH romance that I will happily re-watch over and over. *wink

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@QueenBi! Omooo! U made me squeal all over again with those scenes you just stated! Uggghhh! Mah feels all over again! Ugghhh. Lol!

in addition I also lurved TH rushing into the funeral hall to deliver the marriage registration certificate. That yell...'Chakan!' I hearted it!

also, YJ asking him for that huge favor on the rooftop which favor just happened to be 'marry me'. Ermagerrd. Lol

next, when TH asked YJ to stop her revenge, specifically on Chief Lee,and that text message stopping security went out. Afterwards, I totally loved when Chief Lee tried to thank YJ and she went like 'thank Tae Hyun'!

And lastly, only because I don't want to write a thesis here, lol... the scene after the tense dinner scene when they are both tossing in bed, sleepless, and YJ types out ...'Come to my room, Tae Hyun'!

Gahhh! My heart skipped a beat! But of cos she didn't send it... but the thought of those two, alone...in the same room... ooh! Hahaha!

I really, really want to ship them together but Rain keeps intruding, hehe! In the end, I just stop myself from fantasizing too much cos I dont want KTH to be committing adultery in my head! Lol!

BUT then again, JW is the one who has given her a ring here, so I guess Rain just has to suck it. :D :D :D!

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@Affie hiiiii
Omoo..please write me a thesis and i'd be happy and meticulously read it coz i always enjoy reading you, chingu. I think @SS won't disagree lol

You are right..how can I forget the 'almost' message! Post a big fight and both are regretting what they said to each other?? No need to guess what happen next..if only YJ sent it *sigh* Our writer always know how to tease us, desperate (and pervert??) viewers ha..

Good reminder for Rain! Once we heard the ding-dong bell of KTH and Rain, we can still sail our boat to Joo Won and Stephanie Lee/Cynthia. Our ship just need a little adjustment to another floor LOL

Yong-Palii...what have you done to us??

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From the 1st up to the last eps I have watched this show.

There are times that I would frowned at the surgical skills and procedures of the show.(Plastic dummies never fails to get a facepalmed from me. Also, surgeons don't cut the tissues that way.Just NO! Liver cancer?..*sighed*

I understand that this is only a drama, so I have to fast-forward those scene to save my l sanity or else I'd go dumb.haha! Anyway, I have to come love this show. I was hooked with the plot and the characters so I just keep going.It could have been awesome really!
The final episode is a total mess. the captivity of Sec. Min,CY and the gang felt somewhat rushed. Is that the best thing they can do? And I agree, I dont get CY why she have to get a revenge. DJ is a FOOL!

Also, feel irratated with TY the wholetime, I was seriously throwing stuff on my monitor screaming what are you doing? just go to her already!wtf. ugh.

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But I guess, I just want to say thank you to YP cast( the performance of KTH wow , shes awesome! and JW is love) and crews to all you hardwork. All the rollercoaster emotions and cringe-worthy moments!

Kamsahamida! *bow*

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I really had no intention to comment here but i can have my opinion, right?

I stopped watching this show after ep 8 or maybe 7. It was so filled with non-sense, that fake death, factory worker' death, the funeral drama, cynthia's absence, nursd hwang's murder, tae-hyun saving detective lee...(my hand hurts)

And that Marriage thing!! Like really, without your pass-port, ANYONE can be your legal guardian?! You expected me to believe that, Show? Do you think am that stupid??

When the posters for YP were revealed, yong-pal was mistaken as Healer. But this wasn't even a quarter of Healer. Atleast, there we truly had a Fealess night errand boy, not one scene of night house call.. The resources of this show were not utilised at all. It is my first time watching Joo-won drama and am disappointed, hecause he lost his sleep over this.

And Cynthia, atleast use her better in the last epi, writer-nim.

Thank God, it wasnt 20 epi or more

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"And that Marriage thing!! Like really, without your pass-port, ANYONE can be your legal guardian?! You expected me to believe that, Show? Do you think am that stupid??"

Eh....maybe you should check out with your Korean friends(if any) about this before you use the word stupid?

I asked my friend who stays in Korea and she said it definitely possible to do it alone, as long as you have your spouse's registration card. In lieu of that. they can use the passport. She added that this issue did not come up at all with viewers in Korea because it's the way they allow it there, as bizarre as it is to us :D

Btw, Yong Pal had quite a number of house calls. Why must they be in the night? A doctor saves any time of the day.

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Le sigh! So much for Yong Pal. Who wants to re - see Healer?

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ME! If I watch Healer and I Remember You in tandem, all will be well.

And Twenty Again, that one is a total genre break but AWESOME.

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Can I join in?

Let's ALL DISS YONG PAL and watch Healer and I Remember You!!!!

Where is there justice that Yong Pal gets 20% ratings when our Healer gets less than 10%. IRY got only 5%, boooohooooo TT TT

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Seriously. Those ratings numbers truly are in inverse relationship to the writing and acting.

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I guess this is one of the reasons of the "disproportionate volume of criticisms" for Yongpal because your favorite drama rated lower than it. People have not fully admitted it but really jealousy over ratings is one of the reasons why people refuse to watch the drama for what it's worth and instead just nitpick on things. Constructive criticisms on the otherhand is different.

It's not injustice, it's preference and demographics. Yongpal's a mix of different genres that can cater to a wider range of audience. Plus you can't deny that it's mostly entertaining. I even saw a picture of several people crowding over a television in some public area in Korea trying to catch the last episode. If "just because they have no other options and so they watch it" is the line of reasoning for the high viewer ratings, would they bother to stand there and watch it? And besides, that's too unfair for the drama.

I think @SS also mentioned before of how about half of the viewers of Yongpal are male and how the age range are more of the young adult to adults and not of teens. And maybe that contributed to the high ratings.

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Personally, I don't really care about the ratings. They matter more to me in the US, where bad ratings lead to cancellation - in Korea good ratings might lead to extensions, but that's its own curse. "Yong Pal"'s good ratings are a mystery to me, but hardly anything that would inspire jealousy - either way the whole series will air (well, not in the case of Ex-Girlfriend Club, but I think that one was having pacing issues also, even though I mostly enjoyed it).

Nitpicking vs. constructive criticism seems to be in the eye of the beholder. I just don't get why people freak out about the criticisms - there were plenty of criticisms of Healer, and some of them were pretty valid, they just didn't bother me personally. It's almost like they're "protecting" the drama like Korean fans tend to "protect" idols - it's a mindset I can't really understand, a little mobbish for me.

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Maybe I should have tagged @Healme in my earlier post, just quoting his/her words:

"Can I join in?

Let’s ALL DISS YONG PAL and watch Healer and I Remember You!!!!

Where is there justice that Yong Pal gets 20% ratings when our Healer gets less than 10%. IRY got only 5%, boooohooooo TT TT"

If that's not an indication of jealousy, I don't know what is @Miranda. It may just be one person, but like I said, it might be one of the reasons for the 'disproportionate volume and maybe even level of criticisms/hate' and someone at least validated that for me.

I don't want to go on and talk about nitpicking posts and constructive criticisms because that has been lavishly discussed previously. As for 'protecting the drama' maybe it's more of that some of us wanted to share with everyone else our different take on some scenes, motivations, dialogues, etc. We know not everyone will agree and more often than not we agree to disagree, but it's nice that we find others who share the same views as we do or understood it the same way we did. And if that's mobbish, then so be it.

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Miranda, you said it. We hate Yong Pal constructively. Can't folks here tell the difference?

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@yong82, it's not mobbish to chat happily with others who enjoy the drama - that makes perfect sense to me! Those are good conversations that make you enjoy the drama more, right? Good!

The irony is that those who are frustrated by the drama are ALSO looking for like-minded people to talk about the drama with, and that's going to result in critical comments, which then get a strange response along the lines of "why are you here anyhow". (I'm not sure how critical comments can be disproportionate - aren't they also valid comments?)

As for the YP/Healer/IRY ratings, I'd say bewilderment rather than jealousy. Jealousy implies that there's some benefit that YP got that fans of other shows would be envious of, and I'm not sure what that would be - however I can totally understand enjoying one type of drama and not enjoying another, then being confused as to why Koreans appear to watch the one you thought was a hot mess much more. It's a mystery - is it the stars? The timeslot? Advertising? Is there a tie-in for some product? Is it the station? Mysteries, all.

But hey, I live in a country where Duck Dynasty had a huge viewership, so I guess I don't correlate ratings with quality that much anyhow.

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@Dee, I think the difference here is that if Yong Pal (or any show I think is going off the rails) suddenly started making sense again, I would be pretty psyched! I actually do want these shows to make sense to me. But... liver cancer!

You keep watching in the hope that the show will return to its roots, aka the reason you tuned in in the first place. In this case I tuned in for a doctor running an illegal practice and rigging up surgical tables in underpasses. It's disappointment that causes people to criticize.

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@Miranda

As usual, you are always right! :D :D :D

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@yong82, don't take @healme's comments to heart. Tbh, based on her tone, the commentator seems to be trying to be sarcastic? trolling?

As to the "disproportionate volume of criticisms" for YP, imo it's more due to the viewers being disappointed probably because of the too high expectations arising from the fantastic initial episodes. The viewers wanted more of the greatness but the show became ordinary, not bad and still good, just not as great.

Sharing of similar or same views is a wonderful experience while we are watching a drama, and that is why we are here. It's not mobbish at all. However, there will always be different opinions which are not to our liking, so it's best to ignore them. No point getting upset when we should be enjoying ourselves. Of course, we should still give our take when the criticism is totally unfounded, for instance, a supposed plot hole which is actually not a plot hole because the issue was addressed in an earlier episode and the commentator did not notice it. But still, there's no need to make not-so-nice comments about the commentator himself/herself, just clarify on the content itself would be better. Pardon the poor English. Peace out.

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Quoting @Miranda "Jealousy implies that there’s some benefit that YP got that fans of other shows would be envious of, and I’m not sure what that would be"

Ratings? and everything else that comes with it - drama extensions, special episodes, bts, guestings, interviews, cf and photoshoots for the cast, drama replays, showing of drama overseas and promos by the casts there, more options for future productions for cast and crew, etc.

"I’m not sure how critical comments can be disproportionate – aren’t they also valid comments?"

I talked about, based on the last podcast of JB and GF, disproportionate VOLUME of criticisms and not disproportionate TYPE of comments. Like what they said, I was thinking whether it would get the same VOLUME of such comments had it not been performing as well in the ratings?

"The irony is that those who are frustrated by the drama are ALSO looking for like-minded people to talk about the drama with, and that’s going to result in critical comments, which then get a strange response along the lines of “why are you here anyhow”.

And it's nice to read as to WHY and WHICH do they find frustrating and discussion could then flourish. For instance, @Miranda found it disappointing because it's not what she tuned in initially for. I can see her point since the initial teasers were probably misleading that it was about a parkouring, moonlighting doctor, although the synopsis stated that the drama was about that until he meets Yeo Jin, leading to unexpected consequences and changes in his life. I, too, wanted more Yongpal-ing but I have come to terms that its not the entirety of the show.

It's also not surprising, to me at least then, for the "strange responses" to be posted when the comments are mostly the same as from initial episodes aka rehashed.

@Dee, I respect and acknowledge that you hate Yongpal constructively and would love to know WHY. I tried searching for your views in this episode to understand you better but only got :

"It doesn’t help that the other dramas like Scholar, She Was Pretty and Master of Trade Inn all sucked worse. No competition whatsoever. Poor Koreans, forced to watch Yong Pal."

p.s. not watching was always an option but maybe they found something with Yongpal to continue watching it.

"IKR, this writer must be on iocaine. How else can she get so messed up!"

p.s. writer's a HE. I'd like to think thought that it's a combination of factors that gave birth to the latter part of the drama, and not just the writer.

"Writer nim wrote an Addictive Drama! I hope Yong Pal gets Top Crack Drama of 2015. Best honor ever. ROFLMAO"

Yep. Yongpal's one addictive drama and I'm probably having withdrawals now.

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@yong82, interesting summation about ratings benefits, thanks - the only one I was aware of was an extension, which I tend to see as a bad thing more often than good. The rest of the promotional stuff doesn't hit my radar, and I don't mind about the show being exported because I'm clearly already watching it now.

And now I get you with volume - I thought you all meant volume-as-in-loud, not volume-as-in-quantity. And you're probably right there, as someone who dropped the show in episode 6 but kept seeing news stories about ratings might come back for ep 11, then post "what the heck? This is still crazy!" (or whatever). So the popularity might have prompted people to rewatch after dropping, more than they would your average drama.

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@yong82. As usual...you are perfectly on point!

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I already tried, but failed. I watched Healer after it ended via streaming on a website and I loved it. I even thought it was better than City Hunter that time. So I decided to download an HD copy to keep and so that I'll be able to re-watch it again. When I finally got the weekend to re-watch it, I stopped mid way of episode 1. I got bored and I don't know why. I re-watched Misaeng instead. With that I negated the thought in my mind that it's better than City Hunter since I was able to re-watch that one twice.

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Honestly, you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy a show sometimes - I find some weeks are sageuk days for me, others are fusion weeks, sometimes I'm up for a comedy, etc. I tried rewatching Sungkyunkwan Scandal this summer and realized I just wasn't up for it, but now the weather's getting cool again I think it'll work.

Try Healer on a rainy day when you feel like eating candy. Try Moon Embracing the Sun in January when there's snow. Try Warm and Cozy when you want to fall asleep, because I swear your brain will just shut itself off in self-defense.

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@76.2.1 Miranda
I see, I will try that for Healer. I didn't like Moon Embracing the Sun though, I finished it all for the love of Jung Il Woo. I didn't like it, primarily because Han Ga In. She wasted Kim Soo Hyun and Jung Il Woo's acting. I haven't watched Warm and Cozy yet. Is it good? When I read comments about it, they sounds like Hong Sisters failed again on this drama.

Btw, though, I believe a good drama should be re-watchable in and out of season.

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I actually didn't like MEtS that much either, but I'll sometimes go looking for a particular scene that sticks in my mind. I don't think I'd watch that one again as a full series.

Warm and Cozy is terrible, in my opinion. Great setting, Kang Sora is lovely, but there's just nothing there. Very stilted, characters doing stupid things because it's required by the plot rather than being a remotely human reaction. There were elements there that could have made a good show, but they got the tone all wrong. It's like they couldn't figure out where to focus, so they just did a sketchy job on all of the plotlines, then forced them all to haphazardly intersect... It was weird.

I watch dramas according to my mood, so I don't think I've found one that's a go-to no matter what. Maybe You From the Star... That one I'll always find a good scene to watch. I've got to make a list of the ones I like sometime.

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@Vgy7*uhb. I found Healer boring too. I quit on ep. 9. But I kind of really started out by not really getting the title Healer. The last time I heard Healer...they were the healing wizards in Harry Potter's world. Lol. So I started out like...this nickname is not even appropriate. And now I'm tickled to see people having similar issues with Yong Pal. At least, YP was YP for as long as he could...till he evolved into someone much more rounded.

Healer was really just a bit meh to me. It was always on the brink but never truly impressed me till I just let it go completely. I'm not the type to quit shows and continue reading recaps either. So I was really gone... Healer... A character he was. Hm. One day with a purpose... The next day... Hm. Didnt work for me. And i tried watchinh a second time... Quit on ep.1 too. The action was out of place in parts and Park Min Young really didn't engage me as a character from the get-go.

My position now is to understand why many people on DB loved it and why the Koreans themselves didn't enough to give it high ratings. Chacun a son gout.

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Shhhhh! Heresy to say it here on Dramabeans, but I actually liked Yong Pal way more than Healer.

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+1,000,000 shhhh me too! <3 YongPal love!

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I'm not sure I totally agree with the analysis, though I did feel that we got into a formula, and I wanted more, but still loved the show.

I didn't like that Yeo Jin did not pay for killing 2 people - except in losing Tae-Hyun temporarily and feeling guilty. I do agree the romance happens too fast - in fact it came out of nowhere - I actually went back to prior episodes to watch again because I was sure I must have slept through some build up. (The dream sequence? Seemed like a reference to The Good Doctor). I definitely liked the beginning of the series better, but Joo Won continued to amaze. Though the story line got pretty standard at the end, the acting was pretty amazing - though I'm not sure I've seen so many tears rolling down cheeks in awhile, still, what convincing tears and beautiful cheeks! I thought also that Joo Won is a more exciting bad boy with a heart of gold - I started to get bored with Bridal Mask after he was converted to a true rebel, instead of just trying to avenge his loss.

Oh well - the end did make me accept more that it was over. The idea of Tae Hyun spirit animal being a koala really brought me to laugh out loud!

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I also didn't like that we just glossed over the fact that Yeo Jin was responsible for those deaths. All that fuss over revenge vs. forgiveness and then we just skip ahead and have to assume that she's sorry? I mean, I don't hate that character even so. It's meant to be a difficult situation, but I don't like the resolution (or the lack thereof).

For me, the romance was fine - but I have to qualify that, lol. I could see the buildup just fine (episode 5 in particular), but when episode 7 happened, it lost me. But not because I wasn't ready for them to be together, but because of how the show handled it. That dream sequence? Make it go away, please. The rest of the episode wasn't much better in making me feel their love. They did it in a way that felt very manufactured to me, and I was totally disappointed. Later episodes did somewhat better, so I was back on board. But every so often, the show would throw in something that just felt very insincere, that I thought was supposed to be convincing me that they loved each other, and it always did the opposite. I was a fan of the understated, low-key, very natural way their relationship was already progressing, and those moments won me over to their relationship. Haha. Didn't mean to write so much about that.

I laughed at your line about getting bored with Kang To after he became too good. But isn't that when you fall in love with Shunji? Or was that just me? :)

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I liked how the writer made Yong pal go through begging on his knees just like he did for his sis and make yeojin go through dialysis just like his sis. just like there were no surgeons for taehuns mom there was non for yeojin either and making him go through them again made him do what he wanted to do for his mom and sis back then to his new love you in. These touchs were remarkable ways of showing taehyun's new love.

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this comment perfectly on point too!! <3

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The story was a bit makjang because of the 2-eps extension. The writer had to introduce another revenge subplot. The stooges were trying to make her incoherent so she would submit to cutting TH out of her will. Her dying soon from cancer was just icing on the cake. The overacting by the bad characters was to show their outright callousness at this point, hence the presumed impending victory and subsequently speedy fall.

The slow build up for our hero to take action was purposefully subtle. Its like a commoner trying to get information out of the palace: subterfuges, misinformation, and spies everywhere. TH was deliberately cautious to find out the available facts. In the back of his mind, he acted rashly before and that's what got DJ killed. When he couldn't trust the conflicting information, he had to take a leap of faith on who he can trust. Game of wits, not seat-by-the-pants action.

TH, at best, was a good trauma ER doctor-in-training. He got a lot of extra field experience by going out to patch up gangsters. His surgical experience was mostly patching up flesh wounds and preventing loss of life due to severe physical trauma. No hospital resident would have been allowed to perform such triage operations similar to being in a war zone.

TH was still a resident and had not had the full training to become a general surgeon yet. He was definitely not at Chief Lee's level. Even if they could bypass hospital regulation about not operating on a loved one, Chief Lee stopped TH because he did not have the skills set for a complicated transplant. TH also hadn't practiced surgery for 6 months. The reason why you would need a second general surgeon (not TH) is because donor and recipient operations would be going on simultaneously. If you botch either surgery, you would risk both patients lives.

When Shin-shia arrived with her new business partner, she introduced him as code name Yong Pal. He obviously was not licensed to practice in South Korea, so he's probably traveling under an alias. If the emergency operation had failed, they would've had to hightail it out of the country like secret agents on Shin-shia's private jet.

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It was established that TH was above chief's level in the surgery department in the first episode. Tae Hyun was the linch pin of the surgery department. Professors relied on his aid when they couldn't solve a problem in the OR.

We only see TH patch up gangsters, but we are inform that he had been operating underground for quite the amount time. Chief Lee stop Tae Hyun because they required another doctor with sufficient Whipple operation experience to support them. It's a known fact that TH is able to manage the hemorrhaging of patients. His skills are on another level and was acknowledge by all the characters he had worked with.

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"TH was above chief’s level in the surgery department in the first episode"

That's because Chief Lee was a shadow of himself. He was one of the most talented surgeons in Han Shin. In trying to explain to Yeo Jin how Chief Lee saved her life 3 years ago, TH said that Chief Lee's operation on YJ went down in the surgery annals as an incredible feat.

TH is good of course but this is a very complex operation. No cases like his gangster patients could have come close. In the end, TH is still the one who saved the day. Chief Lee did his part in aiding and the second YP was a standby.

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Don't forget the gangster boss actually brings gangster to TH's clinic aka criminals that are evading the police. It's likely some cases require surgery. Thus it's improbably for him to be rusty.

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@will, that's a really awesome post! Thank you.

I can't see how one could watch this drama and totally failed to grasp this part. Unless they don't want to.

Like @I like strawberries' comment further up, it's even laid out clearly not just in lines but in action. As to TH's ability to do it successfully by himself, one just needs think. I guess this is what happens when you dial down your brain.

If drama had TH saving Yeo Jin all by himself, I am sure the grouse would be that it is illogical and impossible. And when the drama actually presents it in the most logical manner albeit still a miracle, it's being slam for not embodying the Yong Pal spirit. Damn if you do and damn if you don't.

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Ahhhhh...I want another Joo Won and Kim Tae Hee drama^^...

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My only regret(s) are there are some stories that I want to know, about the Nurse Hwang and her relationship with YJ, President Go's death, more flashback on YJ-DJ relationship. Maybe it will better for 20 episode or just stick to 16 epi.

Overall, this gonna be my best drama for 2015. I am always prepare for story who is not cliche, and when it has strong female lead esp.. aa, for those comparing the The Heirs above, lol. You should watch rom-com, or high school story instead. These two are different genre, and the comparison doesn't make sense. It is based on you preference.

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I think she called him Yong Pal because he performed a miraculous surgery yet again, affirming his skills as "Yong Pal". During the first quarter of the series he had refer to himself as Yong Pal in front of the distress Yeo Jin. There was also the phone id he gave her.

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Awesome chemistry for Joo won and Kim tae hee. Im so attached to their OTP..Subtle yet deep. Hoping they will reunite on bigscreen. There r few plotholes but that never hinders me from enjoying this drama so much. Kudos!

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I hope they will reunite in big screen. I will prefer thriller or maybe historical genre.

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I was thinking what if Javabeans or Girlfriday wrote the recap. Would it have sounded this somewhat "hostile"? I know the recappers Gummi and Heads have done hardwork for this, and I thank them for that, but it is clearly evident that they were losing interest towards the latter half of the drama, getting frustrated and was doing it out of chore. I apologize if this comment offended gummi/heads and other readers, but I was actually offended reading their recaps which confused me whether they watched it fully or skipped parts based on some questions they raised or things they mentioned that are different from what some of us understood. I don't know if the subs were wrong or we just understood differently?

I know recapping is hardwork, and that it does not have to praise the show all the time. But I felt there was a better way for that. Like how JB and GF presented recaps of TSWWTN, L7CS, Big, etc. That despite plotholes or absurd storyline, they still managed to bring out the best in the drama but at the same time point out the 'mistakes' tactfully instead of the other way around. Again, it's just what I felt reading and I apologize if it offended you guys but felt I had to let it out.

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No, as much as I respect the recappers for all that they do, @yong82 as much as you, there are different ways of presenting a recap: and frankly, I thought that some of the last few recaps of Yong Pal were disrespectful of that "objectivity" which yet included valid comments, as usually portrayed by the Dramabeans crew. I will name no names.

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it is alright that you let it out. It was written with respect for the writers and I think they will appreciate your comment.

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It is alright. The way you commented is far to be taking personally. As a reader, we are freely to express our opinion and there must always be a correct way to express it.

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@84 yong82

I'm with you on this. I was thinking about that as well, and wishing that they did the recaps instead. Thanks for putting your thoughts up the way you did. I couldn't have put it any better without being offensive to the recapers whom I know labored on this which is why I opted not to post anything about it.

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Thank you for saying this, @yong82.

All of you said it better than I possibly could.

I reminded myself that a recapper has every right not to enjoy a drama or find it lacking. Taste is totally subjective. So are questions like "Should Yeo Jin be punished for her part in Go and Min's deaths?"

But when it came to things which were obviously different from what was depicted in the drama, I got frustrated. When the error was used in an argument which made the drama looked bad or ridiculous, it made me even more frustrated.

I sort of understand the dilemma DB has. If I recall, this blog never drops recap mid-way. I salute them for persevering but this time, I wonder if it would be better to drop recaps.

I admit I had to muster a lot of courage to write this. I am afraid of offending the recappers, GF and DB. I won't dare to read a post addressing this issue. Maybe because I made up my mind to check out already, I feel a wee bit braver.

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@yong82. Yes. I said exactly what I felt too. I'm glad you did it too. The option of course is not to read this site. The downside is missing out on fabulous people like you. But like Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca ...'there'll always be Paris."

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Oops. Lol. Replace 'I said' with 'That was...' hehe. Don't even know how that happened...

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"I was thinking what if Javabeans or Girlfriday wrote the recap. Would it have sounded this somewhat “hostile”

I have read Javabeans and Girlfriday recaps that have sounded far more "hostile" than these last few recaps. I think you are looking at them through rose-colored lenses.

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Although this is kind of cliche (for me): Thank you, Yong Pal, for a brilliant and wonderful ride! I will miss the tension and suspense, and the "expecting the unexpected".

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I watched this episode for the 3rd time, and it's brilliant. The Yongpal Spirit is the center of everything, whether he is jumping roofs or not.

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despite the questions and far fetched-ness, it was still a good, fast pacing drama overall.

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I just want to talk about the leads.

Every time, Joo Won has a new drama, I wonder if he could outdo himself once again.

I keep thinking he can't possibly own another new character like he did in Tomorrow Cantabile, Good Doctor, Gaksital, Ojakgyo Brothers and Baker King. Yet, he did it again in Yong Pal.

Kim Tae Hyun is a wonderfully written character. Idealistic yet pragmatic. Smart yet streetwise. Resilient yet vulnerable. Downtrodden yet inspiring. Far from being a gold-digger, he is in very sense a hero with a heart of gold. A doctor who stayed true to his calling when so many others has fallen wayside. All these were fleshed out by Joo Won who brought Kim Tae Hyun a.k.a. Yong Pal to life. He acted his heart out. ranging from the very intense to the deeply moving nuanced ones.

Joo Won and Kim Tae Hee had such chemistry that I tried hard not to ship them. I love Joo Won and Moon Chae Won in Good Doctor but the drama had few romantic scenes so in a way, I am thoroughly enjoying the romance between JW and KTH in Yong Pal. If there's an ounce of truth in KTH bashers' criticisms, then I must say she prove them all wrong in this drama. She was perfect as Yeo Jin. I love that KTH was so uninhibited in her scenes with Joo Won. I will remember this OTP for a long time to come.

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1000 yesss for you words @SS Please check my reply. Lets ship more Lol.

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I like this drama, and I actually enjoy watching it, maybe because I never overanalyzed every single freakin' thing that happened in this drama. I guess I'm just a shallow viewer who just like to be entertained, probably like those 20% k-viewers.
One thing though, the PD really knows how to shoot a kiss scene, because all the kiss scenes in this drama are really preeeetttyyyy....

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Absolutely the PRETTIEST after i compare them with other drama most people say has lots of kisses: Healer and High Society. KTH and JW just set the bar lol

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From the background, colors palette, the lighting, the music, editing, love them all!

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@justme. Oh yeah! All the kiss scenes were flawless on this. The actors did them really well. And the director caught all the right angles! Lol. Missing JW and KTH already... :(

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The kissing scenes are beauuuutiful! I cant remember when was the last time I watched kissing scene so convincing and pretty as if it's something popped out of sweet dreams.

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Does anyone know the names of the actors that play the hacker and Yong Pal 2.0?

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Sad what happened to this drama. Disappointing ending, but should have expected after the mess of episodes after 6.

I thought they could turn it around but they sadly couldnt. :(

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Not that I am complaining. Really, I love this drama because its very refreshing. Tae Hee is so beautiful and Yong Pal is so cute! Anyway, this girl really she got like 9 lives. She survived the fall from the building, then the carotid veins, and now the liver cancer. All she needs now is meow.. Lol

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Guess I was missing Yong Pal so I came back to the beanies' comments to see what I had missed in the interim: must say I haven't really found another drama of any type, that has made me want to invest my time and energy just yet. Will probably watch some that have come out in the future, but didn't feel a "draw" to want to watch them live. Although, "Six Dragons" might be a possibility...

So, why am I posting here once again? Well, something kind of bothered me and here it comes...Joo Won and Kim Tae Hee are not newbee actors...and although a whole lot of people doubted the acting chops of Kim Tae Hee at the outset, many, many more felt that she more than justified the fact that she was chosen for this complex role...so we have basically two seasoned, experienced actors. What I am extremely, I guess puzzled about, is why people haven't given these two actors the respect they deserve in the execution of their roles? What I mean is this: given the star power and credentials that both have brought to this drama, do people honestly think they had no input whatsoever and were merely by-standers in the evolution of this drama? Kind of boggles my brain to think such a way. The way I see this is both of them, plus input from secondary, but vital actors, all of them contributed to the end product. They were not hapless victims of maniacal directors, producers or writers; such a scenario boggles my brain, especially when you consider the track record of Joo Won alone. What I have seen in Yong Pal, has been a collaborative effort---no way could I ever see Joo Won, for example, not putting his two cents in, if he didn't feel a scene conveyed what he felt it should. So my point is: credit must be given to the actors, all of them, for staying true to their characters and to the plot overall. Granted, one can make points about editing, after the fact, or about continuity, but, hey, the bottom line is that these are intelligent people who knew what they were trying to convey, and whatever the viewer may see as good, bad, or indifferent, the actors, in this instance, did their utmost to deliver a good and believable story line. And I, for one, think they succeeded most admirably.

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And as if on cue, Tae-hyun calls, “Yeo-jin-ah, do you hear me?” She opens her eyes. He asks if she knows who he is, she answers in her head: “Yong-pal.”

When the odds are stacked against you and not in your favor? How meaningful it is when an unexpected blessing seems to fall from heaven right at your darkest moment. Yong Pali demonstrating empowering encouragement and reassurance when Yeo-Jin needed it most. Things have come full circle again.

Kim Tae-Hyun & Han Yeo-Jin - a foundation of mutual respect, genuine love, and authentic commitment, and being real even about their faults.

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I wished this series focused longer on his house calls... the whole revenge/politics were a bore.

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OMG! That was the ending? It was extended yet it has a very dissappointing ending. Every viewers of a love drama are expecting of a romantic ending as a consolation of their wait to see episode per episode every week. It was not the ending i expected because i have seen lots of Korean drama that has a breathtaking ending with lots of awe and fluttering smiles. Maybe, i am just a romantic person that is addicted to a Korean drama. But really, the ending of yong pal was very dissappointing to me.

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Anyone know where is the exact location of the Windy Hill? I would like to visit it. Lovely scenery. Haven't seen a wind turbine face up before.

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I'm going voting crazy!

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one of the most very disappointing drama I have ever watched.

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