Part 1 of “My Dearest” has ended and was simply as heartbreaking as anticipated. The present has made no guarantees of a cheerful ending, and the additional it goes, the extra probably plainly Lee Jang Hyun (Namgoong Min) and Yoo Gil Chae (Ahn Eun Jin) might by no means get the happiness they deserve. Yet, the experience stays so, so painfully good. As we start the arduous month-and-a-half lengthy wait to Part 2, right here’s the place we depart off with our beloved characters.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 9-10 under.

1. Nam Yeon Joon: egocentric, weak, and making Eun Ae save him day after day

Last week, Nam Yeon Joon (Lee Hak Joo) was jailed by King Injo (Kim Jong Tae) after refusing to go to Simyang (an outpost of the rising Greater Jin empire) to take a message to Crown Prince So Hyun (Kim Mu Jun). Yeon Joon has all the time been ridiculously rigid and naive from his perception within the glory of battle (rapidly shattered) to his certainty within the divine knowledge and justice of the king (sadly not as simply shattered). Every different courtier understands that the King’s favor is mercurial and that they often have to do unsavory issues to maintain it, like bowing to the enemy and taking a message to the Crown Prince. But Yeon Joon is so targeted on retaining his Confucian beliefs to the letter that he doesn’t care in regards to the outcomes of his actions. After his imprisonment, Kyung Eun Ae (Lee Da In) and Gil Chae, their maids, and household are thrown out to reside on the road.

Eun Ae tries to be cheerful, however they barely have sufficient for meals and must promote their clothes, leading to folks wanting down on them for falling so low regardless of being of noble beginning. They look down much more upon Gil Chae when she decides to take issues into her personal arms. This courageous, resourceful woman remains to be grieving Jang Hyun, whom she thinks is useless. But she doesn’t shut down regardless of her grief. She acknowledges that their household gained’t have the ability to final lengthy with so many mouths to feed, so she decides to do what Jang Hyun did and check out her hand at commerce. To do that, she wants the assistance of Goo Won Moo (Ji Seung Hyun), the soldier who has falsely claimed credit score for saving her on Ganghwa Island this entire time when it was Jang Hyun who did. And that’s the place the tragedy actually begins.

2. Eun Ae: Gil Chae’s rock and heartbroken for her

Eun Ae is aware of how heartbroken Gil Chae is and admires her resolve to assist them, however she acknowledges that their predicament is because of her husband being imprisoned. She seeks out a well-respected scholar who has been gaining reputation for declaring the King’s unfair, paranoid conduct. King Injo is aware of he isn’t well-liked. People blame him for submitting to the intruders, and now, plainly the Crown Prince is extra beloved than he’s. Injo deposed King Gwanghae to get to the throne, and he fears that the identical might be executed to him, so he retains everybody who refuses him in jail, even when they achieve this for good purpose.

Eun Ae’s coronary heart breaks seeing Gil Chae work away within the forges, attempting to turn into an entrepreneur and chancing her future on whether or not her bowls promote. She hates seeing folks discuss poorly of Gil Chae for fraternizing with Won Moo or sharpening bowls. Talking one-on-one with out marriage? Noble girls working? Scandalous. She appeals to the scholar who makes use of his community to ship a whole bunch of appeals to the king. Injo has no alternative however to launch Yeon Joon given the folks’s wrath, as soon as once more proving Jang Hyun’s level from so a few years in the past: that Yeon Joon hides behind the ladies in his life and waits for them to unravel his issues for him.

3. Gil Chae: heartbroken, sacrificial, resourceful, and engaged

At this level it’s been three years since Jang Hyun left for Simyang, and Gil Chae has believed he was useless for a very long time. But she nonetheless hasn’t forgotten him and retains considering of him at vital junctures in life, like when her enterprise succeeds and he or she turns into a rich tradeswoman. The solely catch is that she’s depending on Won Moo’s forge. If he ever pulls his help, she has no place of manufacture. Won Moo has been taken together with her from the beginning and proposes to her. She turns him down, however he makes one other plea, saying that he is aware of about Jang Hyun, however that he’s useless. He asks her to return to him, even when she has Jang Hyun in her coronary heart. The phrases are so just like what Jang Hyun stated so way back that Gil Chae pauses. She rejects him time after time, however actuality will get in the best way of every little thing. She realizes that she must marry properly for her sister and for her maid to have the ability to marry. This isn’t about simply her happiness. So many individuals are relying on her that she genuinely can’t select to remain single without end.

So when she runs into Ryang Eum (Kim Yoon Woo), her coronary heart breaks, and he or she tearfully asks him whether or not Jang Hyun suffered an incredible deal earlier than dying. She doesn’t know that Jang Hyun despatched Ryang Eum forward to let her know that he had been allowed to return from Simyang and that he was coming to her. But Ryang Eum, all the time jealous of Jang Hyun’s love for Gil Chae, lies that he’s useless as a substitute. And Gil Chae agrees to marry Won Moo.

4. Jang Hyun: heartbroken, self-hating, and probably in a love triangle

Oh, Jang Hyun. This man has had the worst time of it in Simyang. The Greater Jin empire has turn into the Qing empire, and Jang Hyun is caught between a rock and a tough place, between allegiance to the land of his folks and slavery to the land that has conquered it. The unhappy factor is that Jang Hyun by no means wished to be concerned in warfare or politics, however his love for Gil Chae and his dedication to maintain her protected resulted in him taking threat after threat to maintain her protected—all of which caught the eye of higher-ups in each the Qing empire and inside Joseon. As a outcome, Jang Hyun has needed to maintain the Crown Prince protected and maintain himself protected, each of which have required him to show right into a double agent and commit horrible deeds in an effort to survive.

The crown prince is as rigid as his father, and it’s as much as Jang Hyun to point out him that being versatile and crafty with the Qing empire will enable the prince to reside lengthy sufficient to throw off their yoke. But Jang Hyun additionally is aware of that the crown prince’s flexibilty will lead to King Injo distrusting him. But he has his personal issues as a result of Yong Gol Dae (Choi Young Woo), righthand man to the Qing emperor, is set to seek out out if he’s a spy. So he’s assigned Jang Hyun to turn into a escapee-hunter to seize Joseon refugees who’re attempting to flee Qing persecution or rule. It’s a distasteful job, and Jang Hyun hates doing it, however he has no alternative. His will to outlive is just too robust. He hates himself for it however captures the escaping refugees and arms them over to be killed. His competitor in escapee-hunting is a mysterious, masked determine in blue that Jang Hyun is barely inquisitive about, however he’s too busy hating himself to care extra. That is, till his work pays off.

The crown prince’s flexibility has earned him a reprieve. He can go dwelling again to Joseon for a bit. And that signifies that Jang Hyun can lastly see Gil Chae once more. He sends Ryang Eum forward to let her know. And he’s so excited to see her, till he finds that she’s engaged. His coronary heart shatters right into a thousand items, and Gil Chae, him, is equally torn aside. She leaves her engagement celebration to go to him, and so they lastly have a heart-to-heart that’s been years within the making. Jang Hyun and Gil Chae have by no means had an opportunity to take a seat down and truly present one another who they’re. The imaginative and prescient they’ve of one another remains to be that imaginative and prescient from four-five years in the past, the place he thinks she’s immature however succesful and type, and he or she thinks that he’s dependable however leaves the second he faces damage. Gil Chae has matured within the interim into a powerful, succesful, and good lady whereas utilizing the talents Jang Hyun taught her to outlive. But those self same abilities have solely resulted in Jang Hyun having to commit acts he hates himself for. He hasn’t matured throughout their time aside. Which is why his first request to her is that they run away collectively.

5. Our couple’s destiny: heartbroken, fractured

Jang Hyun lastly is aware of the depth of Gil Chae’s feeling and is horrified to listen to that she agreed partly to Won Moo’s proposal as a result of he saved her at Ganghwa Island. Jang Hyun lastly tells her the reality: that he fought the invaders 17 to 1. The indisputable fact that Gil Chae isn’t stunned signifies that she all the time suspected it, however her engagement is sort of irreversible at this level. If she breaks it off and instantly goes to Jang Hyun, a person with a questionable fame as is, she’ll be excoriated by the townsfolk. And that gained’t simply have an effect on her, it’ll have an effect on Eun Ae, Jong Jong (Park Jeong Yeon), Bang Doo Ne (Kwon So Hyun), her father, and her sister’s prospects of marriage. That’s why Jang Hyun proposes that they run off collectively. Gil Chae desires to. So badly. She even runs off with him that evening.

They keep at an inn, the place she refers to him as her husband, and so they’re so blissful. Jang Hyun’s eyes simply gentle up round her. He offers her the sneakers he obtained for her as promised (although giving somebody sneakers in dramas signifies that you’re about to be separated from them!). He vows to be hers in probably the most romantic of how, and Gil Chae appears like she’s lastly blissful once more.

Eun Ae protects her when Won Moo goes trying to find her and Jang Hyun, and he or she even encourages her to run off, telling her to not fear. Gil Chae’s all set to go away on a ship with Jang Hyun. And Won Moo is aware of that there’s no likelihood of getting her again. So he does one thing despicable: he turns Gil Chae’s mentally-broken father out on the road. He is aware of Gil Chae will frantically go seek for him. And that’s what Gil Chae does. When she lastly finds her father, Won Moo is watching, and he or she realizes simply how deep her responsibility to her household extends. Her father would die with out her, and her sister would don’t have anything. And regardless of how a lot she loves Jang Hyun, Gil Chae has by no means been a egocentric particular person.

So she returns dwelling, picks up the engagement the place she left off, and writes Jang Hyun a letter that she doesn’t imply, saying that she doesn’t love or belief him sufficient to run away with him. And when she watches him sail away within the boat that ought to have held them each, she weeps for the longer term they might have had as he throws away the sneakers he saved for her. In the space, Ryang Eum watches her and Jang Hyun, deserted for his half within the deceit that destroyed Jang Hyun and Gil Chae’s future.

Two years later, Jang Hyun remains to be in Simyang within the service of the crown prince whereas having to kill Joseon folks to maintain the favor of the Qing. Only, he appears to be secretly attacking his competitors, the mysterious masked escapee-hunter in blue. Jang Hyun makes him miss his shot and catches him as he falls from his horse, solely to seek out that the escapee-hunter is a lady. He’s above her in a shot that might be romantic in every other circumstance. And maybe it’s. It has been two years in any case. And Part 1 has formally ended.

What a heartbreaking ending to Part 1! The writing right here is frustratingly sensible. The present has by no means tried to invoice itself as a fantasy the place girls are revered, have rights, or can select their future. It isn’t clear whether or not Jang Hyun doesn’t perceive the true purpose Gil Chae didn’t include him or whether or not he simply minimize and ran like he all the time does when he’s damage. It’s unhappy as a result of he accuses Gil Chae of by no means giving him the good thing about the doubt, however he’s the one who has hidden a lot of himself from her and is stunned when she sees precisely what he wished her to see and doesn’t belief it. Ryang Eum is one hundred pc the white-haired man within the asylum whom we met in the beginning of Part 1, and Gil Chae’s voice-overs point out that Jang Hyun might be useless within the current. Plus, the addition of Lee Chung Ah because the blue-dressed escapee hunter (actually the very best particular person they might have chosen Namgoong Min to be in a love triangle with!) means we’re due for an entire lot of heartache in Part 2 as these two discover their manner again to one another. If they do in any respect. Oh, it hurts so good.

Check out the drama under!

Watch Now

What did you consider Part 1’s finale? Let us know your ideas within the feedback under!

Shalini_A is a very long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in more and more implausible worlds. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and be at liberty to ask her something!

Currently Watching:  “Longing for You,” “My Dearest,” and “My Lovely Liar.”
Looking Forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask The Stars,” “The Girl Downstairs,” “The Worst of Evil,” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s subsequent drama.