Mikey...could you give a recap of the final show? My tape didn't record . . .
Oh my! I, too, suffered from tape problems! In my case, though, I’d carelessly neglected to check the amount of tape left on the cassette, and thus only managed to record about 40 minutes of that final episode.
I still
saw it, though, and what a fine one it was! While I thought that the second-to-last episode (where Soonie reconciles with her estranged mother) tried a little too hard to push my emotional buttons, that final episode was done just right. Jeez, it even had me choked up and teary-eyed – and I’m a pretty crabby, unemotional kinda guy. Despite the sadness of that final episode, it was a really outstanding ending to an outstanding drama series.
*****
“My Rosy Life,” final episode:
Sungmoon and Soonie are in bed together, and Soonie suggests that maybe she should go to the countryside for a while. Perhaps the fresh air and water will help her recover. Sungmoon thinks it’s a good idea.
Next morning, Sungmoon awakens to hear Soonie screaming at Heemang (the older daughter) who wet her bed again. Soonie is furious. What stepmother would accept a 9-year old daughter who wets her bed, she asks? Heemang, crying, says that she had an awful dream that her mother was going to leave her. Sungmoon tries to calm both Heemang and Soonie down, telling Soonie that he’ll be the one bringing up the girls.
Sungmoon and Soonie go to Heemang’s school, where a councilor explains that Heemang’s “low intelligence level” isn’t the problem. Heemang, she says, is very emotionally insecure, and needs the support of her parents to solve this problem. On the way home, Soonie (feeling a little guilty) tells Sungmoon that Somang can take care of herself, but that Heemang will need extra care. She will have a hard time, she says, with her new stepmother. Sungmoon tells her again that he will be the one taking care of the girls.
That evening, Soonie summons Youngie and (Dr.) Baksa to her apartment. Soonie first asks to speak to Youngie alone in her bedroom, where she tells Youngie that she wants to head off to the countryside for a while, staying at the place where she and Sungmoon had honeymooned ten years earlier. Youngie is doubtful at first, commenting that the place is “in the middle of nowhere,” but she brightens up at the thought that Soonie was going there with the intention of recuperating from her illness.
Soonie asks Youngie to watch over her girls while she’s gone. She says that her MIL will do most of the watching, but that she hopes that Youngie will help out, too. As Youngie starts to leave the bedroom, Soonie stops her, reminding her that she only has one life, and to live it without regrets. “Be loved by him, and love him all you can,” she tells Youngie.
Youngie’s alarmed. Why is she saying that all of a sudden? Because, Soonie explains, she might never return home. It finally dawns on Youngie that Soonie’s not going to the countryside to recuperate. She’s going to countryside to die.
Youngie frantically urges her to go to the hospital instead, but Soonie simply tells her that she’s accepted her fate – and to never tell Sungmoon of her real intentions.
Youngie exits the bedroom and heads straight outside, in tears. Sungmoon isn’t sure what’s going on, but he then directs Baksa towards Soonie’s bedroom.
There, Soonie only asks him that he make Youngie happy. “Be nice to her, and support her,” she tells him. “She had no mother, so she can be cold sometimes, but she’s soft inside.” She tells Baksa that she’s learned that trust is the most important thing in a marriage, and when trust is broken, everything’s lost. Baksa assures Soonie that they’ll live happily. Baksa leaves Soonie’s bedroom and also steps outside, where he sees Youngie sitting on a park bench, sobbing.
The next day, Sungmoon and Soonie visit Soonie’s father. Soonie speaks at length with her new stepmother, informing her of her father’s picky preferences in cooking. As she’s about to leave, Soonie calls her new stepmother “mother.” Step-mom is happy and grateful that Soonie has accepted her as her new mother.
Soonie’s father insists on following the two out to the car as they leave. Soonie says “goodbye” to her father, in something of an all-too-certain tone, and her father watches them as they leave. The grim look on his face seems to indicate that he senses that it’s the last time he’ll ever see his daughter.
The next morning, Soonie and Sungmoon leave before dawn, not wanting to awaken the girls. Soonie says she’s already said goodbye to them. But, the kids wake up anyway, and they dash out just as Soonie and Sungmoon are leaving. Soonie can’t bear to say goodbye to them, and she covers her ears to avoid hearing her screaming children chase after their automobile.
They arrive at the country retreat, the same place Soonie and Sungmoon had honeymooned ten years earlier. It’s a run-down farmhouse, with only a wood stove for heat. Sungmoon is optimistic, saying that out in the fresh air, she’ll get better in no time. They reminisce about their honeymoon night, and how they were so happy, even though they were poor. Soonie jokes how they spent everything they had on some beef soup.
The next morning, though, Soonie refuses to eat. She hasn’t eaten in three days. Sungmoon insists that she eat, but she tells him that she wants to hear her daughter’s voices. Sungmoon calls home, where Soonie - lying - tells the girls that she’s gained some weight, and that she doesn’t smell any more.
Soonie seems to be suffering from increasingly severe pain, and (in a scene that’s particularly difficult to watch) she goes for the pain pills. Sungmoon takes them away from her, reminding her that she overdosed on them a few days earlier and nearly stopped breathing. Soonie - in absolute agony - begs Sungmoon for more pills, telling him that she’ll do anything he asks, if only he’ll give her some more pills. Sungmoon takes the pills and runs outside, leaving poor Soonie on the floor, convulsing in pain. Sungmoon returns a minute later – without the pills – and puts on such an embarrassing show for her that Soonie manages to crack a grin amid all the suffering she was bearing.
Back home, Youngie goes to pick up the girls at the playground. The girls are sad and lifeless, so Youngie promises to drive them to the countryside to see their mother.
But, it turns out to be a bad idea, as Soonie had earlier looked upon her image in a mirror, and then smashed it against the wall. Soonie isn’t in the mood to meet with anybody right now.
The carload of kids arrives, greeted by dad, but Soonie refuses to meet with them, telling Sungmoon that she “looks like a ghost.” Through a hole in the paper window screen, Soonie - sobbing - watches as Youngie and the crying girls drive away.
That evening, Soonie devours a whole bowl of gruel (delighting Sungmoon) and then asks him to help her take a bath. As Sungmoon happily prepares a bath for Soonie (using an old fashioned, wood-heated bathtub) his mother calls from home. She says that she heard that the kids didn’t get to see Soonie – is she getting worse?
No, he tells her. She ate a whole bowl of gruel. She’s improving! Though Sungmoon is giddy with excitement, his mother tells him that something’s not right. His father, she reminds him, ate a whole bowl of rice the day he died. “People on their deathbed give it one last shot,” she tells him.
(mikey’s tape runs out, so he’s going strictly by memory now . . .)
Sungmoon gently bathes Soonie in the old-fashioned bathtub. Soonie confesses a craving for beef soup, just like they had on their honeymoon night. Sungmoon is a little startled, explaining that the nearest restaurant is an hour away, each way, but Soonie is insistent. So, Sungmoon heads into town to fetch Soonie some beef soup.
Soonie, though, takes a serious turn for the worse while he’s gone. Sungmoon returns a few hours later with the soup, only to discover Soonie’s unconscious body on the floor, covered with the blood she’d vomited up.
Sungmoon grabs Soonie, places her in the car, and – in a total frenzy – races towards town, calling ahead for an ambulance to meet them at the main road. But, Sungmoon is too crazy to watch what he’s doing, and he runs off the road and into the mud, where his car gets stuck. And poor Sungmoon then rushes out in the cold rain, frantically scooping mud away from the car’s tires with his bare hands in an attempt to free the stuck automobile.
Inside the car, Soonie awakens. She reaches for the cell phone, and reaches again, but she’s just too weak. She just can’t reach far enough to get her hands on it.
Sungmoon finally gets the car free, makes it down the road, and then transfers Soonie to the waiting ambulance. All for nothing, as – despite desperate efforts – Soonie doesn’t make it. She dies soon upon arrival at the hospital. The doctors quietly mention that, in accordance with the patient’s request, they will remove Soonie’s eyes and use them for organ transplants.
Sungmoon, the girls, and a few close family attend Soonie’s funeral. They use the funeral portrait that Soonie had taken of herself earlier. Soonie’s casket is then moved to a furnace. The door closes, a man in uniform salutes her, the fires are ignited, and the casket goes up in flames.
Sungmoon returns home from the funeral. He’s exhausted, physically and emotionally. He picks up his cell phone and discovers that somebody’s left a message.
It’s from Soonie. Somehow, she’d gotten hold of the cell phone as Sungmoon was trying to dig the car out of the mud.
Soonie tells him that she won’t say she’s sorry, and that they had a good life together. She remembers how they’d earlier discussed that if they have a second life, she’d want to come back as the man, and him the woman, so she could give him the same treatment he had given her. But now, she says, she thinks otherwise. She hopes she comes back as the woman, and him the man, so that they could live their lives together again. And she finishes by telling him something, she says, that she never told him before. That she loves him. Sungmoon collapses in tears.
Fast forward one year. Sungmoon, the girls, Youngie and Baksa are visiting Soonie’s ashes in a memorial park. Alongside an urn holding Soonie’s ashes are a few photos and some nick-knacks. Sungmoon tells Soonie that everything’s going fine, and that Heemang isn’t wetting the bed any more. Youngie tells Soonie that she and Baksa were married, and that they’re living happily. As they leave, Sungmoon turns back, looking towards Soonie’s resting place. He sees his happy girls running towards him. And he smiles.
THE END
*****
Gawd, I was getting teary-eyed just writing that summary!