Things are looking brighter for our characters as they find themselves succeeding in multiple aspects in their lives including their dreams, professions, and most important of all, love. Though we bid farewell with our Han siblings, Seung-ah, and everyone else, I take comfort in knowing that they will continue to prosper as well as nourish themselves with delicious food.
Note: I would like to thank everyone who stayed through and through with me in my loooong recapping journey of this drama. It’s been over a year since ‘Dae Jang-geum is Watching’ finished airing so I would like to thank those who were patient and flexible with me with these recaps. This has been the longest I’ve taken to ever recap a series and though I would have liked to finish recapping a lot earlier, I’m glad the recaps are finally done now than never. In the mean time, you can join me in my recaps for currently airing drama ‘Find Me in Your Memory.‘ Stay safe everyone!
Dae Jang-geum is Watching Episode 16: Love Fool
The final episode begins with us transitioning one year later. San-hae finds himself late for work after staying up late to talk to Seung-ah on the phone. He rushes to work without eating any breakfast with his bickering siblings and then is suddenly pulled aside by Seung-ah after exiting the elevator at his work building. The two hide themselves and give each other some adorable kisses before heading to work. Hehe.
For the past year, San-hae and Seung-ah has been keeping their relationship a secret from everyone else.. or at least they thought. After celebrating Seung-ah as the Salesperson of the Month, everyone in the office begins to discuss about rumors of a couple within the company. Apparently, the lovey dovey couple has been seen kissing and making love to each other in a car in the parking lot to the pantry to even Manager Lee’s meeting room. LOL. Seung-ah and San-hae panic at the rumors because they know it’s obviously them the rumors are about, but they keep their mouths shut and act ignorant. San-hae warns them not to spread such ridiculous rumors. Hahaha.
Jin-mi and Jung-sik are now a little bit more popular due to a TV show that they appeared on. On screen, they have a loving and supportive sibling relationship, but in reality, the two bicker and fight with each other often. LOL, talk about sibling love. Meanwhile, Seung-ah and San-hae set out to meet a VIP customer like how Manager Lee instructed them to. When they arrive at the the restaurant to meet the VIP customer, they’re surprised by how stylish and cool he is. He’s a father, but he also dresses really cool and presents himself charismatically. The VIP customer is played by Yang Dong-geun. LOL.
When the family plus San-hae and Seung-ah sit down to eat, it’s obvious the kids are a huge distraction. They pester their father with many different requests and can’t seem to leave their dad alone. Seung-ah steps up to take the kids outside while San-hae and VIP Yang stay behind to eat the delicious food and discuss car options that he can buy. The two enjoy the food so much they can even make a song about it LOL. Eventually, VIP Yang is content with the food and the great service of both Seung-ah and San-hae and he agrees to buy any vehicle that they think would suit him best. Aww, this part was so cute.
Jin-mi is now an MC for the show MBC Music Core along with Min-hyuk’s teammate, Sung-jae. As he waits patiently for his group’s interview to start (which I might add are Minhyuk’s actual group members from BTOB), he can’t help but get jealous at how flirty Jin-mi and Sung-jae are with each other. When it’s finally his group’s turn to be interviewed (“Hi, we’re A2B!” LOL), the group has to cautiously avoid any questions about dating so as to not give away the fact that Min-hyuk and Jin-mi are together. Though the group barely manages to prevent a disaster, everyone still remains cautious.
Speaking of love and relationship, Jung-sik might have found himself someone new during a book signing for his new book. Jung-sik is now an up and coming chef and is hosting a book signing. While at the event, a mishap with some hot coffee causes him to encounter one of his fans. Concerned that Jung-sik’s hand is burning from the hot coffee, the fan (played by Gyeongree of Nine Muses) holds his hand in concern. However, the coffee isn’t what Jung-sik is worried about; it’s the fact that the fan’s hand isn’t burning. His powers don’t work on her. To confirm, Jung-sik and the fan shake hands and when the young lady doesn’t react, Jung-sik becomes intrigued. Aww. Our little brother’s also found loveee~
Seung-ah and San-hae take a walk in a neighborhood while munching on some street food snacks. The two discuss about VIP Yang and his kids and just how cute they were. Seung-ah wishes she can also have kids of her own and eventually move into a neighborhood similar to the one they’re currently in. When all hope seems lost due to a phone call she received from her landlord about an increase in the lease, San-hae vows to make Seung-ah’s wish come true. He’ll buy her a house and they’ll live together as a family. He unofficially proposes to her with a fake ring he made out of a little string and asks for her to marry him. Of course, Seung-ah accepts and the two lock lips once again. SO DARN CUTE! San-hae also reveals to Seung-ah that they also locked lips that one time she was in the hospital; it wasn’t a dream like how she imagined this entire time.
Despite keeping their relationship a secret, Min-hyuk and Jin-mi still keep things strong. They communicate to each other via love letters hidden at the usual convenience store they used to visit together. Min-hyuk is eventually caught by one of his sasaengs who capture him writing a note and hiding it at the store. Uh-oh.
Before heading back into the office, Seung-ah and San-hae discuss on where they can potentially meet next without getting caught. However, San-hae is tired from having to keep their relationship a secret and confesses that they should just inform everyone. How much longer do they have to keep doing this? The couple head inside the office with plans of making an announcement, but they’re just a few seconds too late. Before San-hae can even mention anything, Manager Lee and Won Bin storm into the office to make their announcement first. They’re getting married! And Manager Lee’s pregnant. And oh, rumors of that company couple making love to each other in various locations throughout the company? That was Manager Lee and Won Bin. OMG, LOL. The couple and soon-to-be parents invite the team to their upcoming wedding. Seems like it’s not good timing for Seung-ah and San-hae just quite yet.
Jung-sik prepares dinner for his siblings and the guests that will be joining them that night, including Seung-ah. He decides to cook some mussels and rice for his cooking live stream. When San-hae and Seung-ah arrive at the house, Seung-ah volunteers to help Jung-sik cook while San-hae heads to his room to change. As Jung-sik will discover when he touches Seung-ah’s hand, Seung-ah was never immune to his burning hand. It was rather that she suffered from a low body temperature and always had cold hand and feet. It wasn’t until just recently that her body got warmer thanks to some medicine recommended to her by her mother. Jung-sik is in disbelief upon the discovery and cannot believe he mistakened Seung-ah as his fated love this entire time. Oops, LOL.
Eventually, it’s dinner time and the Han siblings as well as Seung-ah sit down to eat Jung-sik’s delicious food. San-hae and Seung-ah muster up the courage to make their grand announcement about their marriage to Jung-sik and Jin-mi, but neither are surprised. Instead, they expected it. Seung-ah and San-hae are always together it was expected that they’d get married someday. LOL, I love the not surprised reaction the siblings gave.
Speaking of couples, Min-hyuk has yet to join them for dinner. When Jung-sik checks up on Min-hyuk, he notices an article written about him in regards to his appearance at the convenience store. Maybe Min-hyuk got caught dating Jin-mi?! But it’s nothing to worry about. People can’t seem to decipher what the note he wrote for Jin-mi means and there were no photos of the two of them taken together after all. They’re safe (phew!). Min-hyuk eventually arrives at the house to join them for dinner.
The food at dinner is great, but Jung-sik feels quite lonely. He’s accompanied by two couples while he’s sitting by himself. He announces to everyone about the new person he met that day and how he believes she’s destined for him, but no one takes him seriously. He makes these type of assumptions all the time. Enough about couples, Seung-ah brings up the topic of eating at 7PM every single night together. Do the Han siblings still practice that routine? Though the Han siblings are hesitant to speak the honest truth, they know themselves that they haven’t been the best at eating together exactly at 7PM. But they have also come to the realization after breaking the rule a few times that nothing unfortunate happens as a result of not following the rules. And plus, the best type of meals you can ever have is those with your loved ones – regardless of time or people. Now it’s these types of meals that earn a five star rating in San-hae’s book.
The ending poem for the episode recites,
Come come / Have a spoonful / Go go / Eat before you go / Food is common, but hard to be enjoyed / Having a meal all together is the best indeed /
My Thoughts:
And it’s doneeee! It’s overrrr! I know it’s been over a year since this drama has finished airing, but it was still sad to watch the end of this journey with our Han siblings and their respective partners. Though there was a happy ending for everyone (including Jung-sik I think who might have found the love of his life?), it was bittersweet to bid farewell with our beloved characters. They were each so different, but also so similar in many ways and I loved watching them all interact with one another.
Seung-ah and San-hae were so adorable in this episode with first trying to keep their relationship under wraps but still taking risks and engaging in lovey dovey acts throughout the office and outside. While I feel like this final episode made up for the lack of kisses and couple interactions we got between the two the pasts 15 episodes, I am still a little sad that the drama pulled a time jump. I would have loved to see the evolution of our couple’s relationship throughout that one year and how things developed. It’s unfortunate that we only got one episode to witness and watch San-hae and Seung-ah as a couple and won’t get to see their wedding or them with their family in a house. Although there won’t be any scenes of this, I think it’s safe to say that it will eventually happen. Seung-ah and San-hae got the happily ever after that they deserved.
Even to the final episode, the drama remained hilarious as ever with the imaginations that San-hae had with each lunch scene. This time, he was with Yang Dong-geun and the two created a song for the food that they were eating. That’s what I loved about this drama more than anything; yes, the drama dragged out the love triangle and things did seem a little flat at times, but I always got a good laugh out of the lunch scenes throughout the drama. Whether it was rapping or acting as Freddie Mercury or anything else, Shin Dong-wook pulled off the hilarious antics effortlessly and it was always so funny. I mentioned this before, but the drama never took itself too seriously and always remained funny even if there were other things going on.
I’m glad that we got an update on other characters in the drama as well, such as Won Bin and Manager Lee. The drama had been setting them up to be a couple anyways so it was nice to see what will happen to them. The same goes for Jin-mi and Min-hyuk who were able to debut successfully, but still keep their relationship and love going even after a few bumps in the road. The only one I feel a bit sorry for is Jung-sik who has yet to find his match. Though it’s not definite, there is hope for Jung-sik. He just needs extra time and extra proof that anyone who doesn’t react to his power just doesn’t have cold feet and hands like Seung-ah did. LOL.
It took me a pretty long while to recap this drama (it’s taken about 1 year and a half to continue the recaps for this drama since I was in and out of my blog), but I don’t regret finishing the recaps. I’m actually glad I did. The drama was a fun one to watch and it’s not like I regretted recapping it in the first place. It just took me a while to recap because it wasn’t one that I desperately and urgently needed to watch, but it also wasn’t a drama where I was going to just stop watching. Like I said, it was fun and funny and I love our cast members so there wasn’t really a reason to quit watching and recapping. Sure, it took me some time to finally finish, but hey, better late than never right?
I’m definitely going to miss our Han siblings as well as Seung-ah, Min-hyuk, and even the office team. As viewers, we were able to learn some information about each of our characters and who they are and what they loved doing. That was one thing the drama was great at doing and I felt like we got to know our characters pretty well. We got to witness their struggles and their victories in the ongoing battle that is called life and it was great watching all of this. That sense of connection between us viewers and the characters were there.
Of course, our cast members did a great job portraying their characters. I felt like Shin Dong-wook was never shy of doing any of the ridiculous rap scenes or any scenes that required him to act silly and funny. He seemed like he had fun doing them and it was so great to see him in these type of scenes (and this is coming from someone who’s watched him in ‘Live.’). Yuri was so cute as Seung-ah and my history with her stems back to when she was in Girl’s Generation as my bias so you can only imagine how happy I was to see her here with Shin Dong-wook who I also love (which was a big reason as to why I chose to stick with this drama). Yes, I would have definitely loved to see more scenes of them together as a couple (over dragged out scenes of the love triangle), but hey, there were plenty of lovey dovey moments in this episode so I’m satisfied.
‘Dae Jang-geum is Watching’ was a funny romantic and family comedy whose premise was based off of the character Dae Jang-geum. What was thought to be true turned out to just be a superstition and I love how the drama came full circle by addressing what it focused on at the beginning: there is no consequence for not eating at 7PM every night together. Our Han siblings would rush to come home to eat together all the time, but as they eventually figured out, there’s nothing wrong with not doing that. Everyone is busy and have their own lives and their own schedules and it’s not always possible to eat together at a specific time all the time. That’s why I enjoyed how the drama wrapped things up by bringing that topic up in the remaining minutes of this final episode. Our characters and we viewers are reminded that regardless of what time it is or who you eat with, meals are best enjoyed when you eat with loved ones.
Extra screenshots from the episode~
MaryMeKpop 