Goodbye, You!
Episode 16 of Hello, Me! begins with Yu-Hyeon checking out the picture of Ha-Ni’s Father. It turns out he was there for Yu-Hyeon during his Mother’s funeral. While Yu-Hyeon grieved for his Mum, Gi-Tae showed up and gave the boy some encouraging words of wisdom. This allowed him to move forwards purposefully, entwining everything together with a beautiful twist of fate. Ha-Ni and Scarlett both decide to work on bringing the latter back to her timeline. However, the pair are running out of time. The talisman continues to blacken and Scarlett starts having bad dreams. Anthony looks over his accomplishments in the office, before coming to an agreement to sign over all of his life savings. He’s much more mellow and at peace than he was before, something that Jung-Man comments on alone, missing the old Anthony’s complaints. Well, Anthony heads back to Ha-Ni’s apartment and decides to adopt his original name of Chun-Sik. He’s going to see the world and rediscover himself. Before that though, he’s just stopped by to say goodbye and to apologize. He believes Gi-Tae’s death is because of him but Ha-Ni is quick to correct that. Chun-Sik eventually does leave, but does so without saying bye to Scarlett. Scarlett heads back to her Mother’s, where Hong-Nyeon awakens from her unconscious state. She apologizes, telling her Grandmother that it’s her fault that she got ill in the first place. At the prison, Yu-Hyeon and Chairman Han arrive to see Ji-Sook. Han’s vision is not clear anymore but as he sits before his sister, he asks how she is. In fact, Han actually apologizes to her, believing he should have listened more. Han asks her for forgiveness before admitting that he misses her. This kindness thaws away at Ji-Sook’s icy exterior, eventually leading to her apologizing for what’s happened and walking back inside the prison. It’s a nice bit of closure to her character and a reminder that kindness will always triumph in the end. Over at Ok-Jung’s place, Ha-Ni and Scarlett begin looking through the photo album. There, they notice a familiar place linked to their past. However, Yu-Hyeon interrupts them by showing up with food, ready to cook. Only, midway through Ha-Ni smashes a plate on the floor. With two days left, they’re running out of time to get Scarlett back home. It doesn’t look good for our characters. Scarlett’s dreams continue to get worse as well, with visions of her walking through an old field. Everything starts to fade away. “Ha-Ni, it’s time,” A ghostly voice calls, as Scarlett awakens with a start. Now she knows what she needs to do. With the talisman shriveled and dissolved, little Ha-Ni makes a bold decision and heads off in the middle of the night. When she does, she leaves behind a note telling Ha-Ni she’s found a way back home. In the morning, we follow little Ha-Ni as she heads out with her school uniform on, determined to save her older self before something bad happens. While she leaves, Yu-Hyeon and Ha-Ni work together and realize the spot she’s heading is a tunnel where Ha-Ni went missing beforehand. She races up to the tunnel at the same time as little Ha-Ni. With her phone ringing, confirming there’s only one day left, Ha-Ni finds herself confronting this long tunnel and believing this is her way back home. The two Ha-Ni’s both say goodbye, walking together through the tunnel while they sing. It’s a beautiful moment, one that eventually sees Ha-Ni count to three and return to her own time period. Only, as she does the truck of doom hits Gi-Tae just like it always has. This is the moment she’s been dreading, and as the younger Ha-Ni faces this head on, she begins sobbing. With little Ha-Ni back in her time period, our older Ha-Ni finds herself crying and worried about her younger self, hoping she’ll be okay. Back at Ok-Jung’s, Ha-Ni’s grandmother recognizes her granddaughter now and apologizes to her puppy. As the two hug warmly, it’s a really touching moment between them. Remember those moments from the opening episode where Ha-Ni wrote Hello Me? Well, we finally catch up to that as both Ha-Ni and Ji-Eun sit together and decide to be friends again. The big change here though comes from Yu-Hyeon, who decides to join Ha-Ni’s team and step away from being the Chairman. At least for now. He’s also just in time for Joa Exercise too! Chun-Sik meanwhile, returns from his trip and finds himself working in a restaurant. In fact, he’s also regarded as the guardian angel for the others at the school, stopping bullies as much as he can. Yu-Hyeon shows up for food, where it’s revealed that they were both the characters involved in that shady deal all those episodes ago. As we skip ahead slightly in time, Hong-Nyeon is now in a nursing home. She struggles to recognize Ha-Ni and Ha-Young though, referring to the latter as the “ugly one.” Bit harsh! However, Hong-Nyeon does start to show glimmers of her past memory too. As she strokes Ha-Ni’s hair, she calls her puppy again. Yu-Hyeon and Ha-Ni start to grow closer together, taking it easy and deciding to get to know each other before starting their romantic quest. In fact, this crescendos with Yu-Hyeon giving Ha-Ni some flowers. In exchange, Ha-Ni gives him a kiss. Reflecting on her journey until this point, Ha-Ni writes in her diary and thanks her younger self. She finishes the note by telling her she loves her. As the episode closes out, little Ha-Ni attends school and sends a message to herself, telling her it’s okay to fail sometimes and to treasure every moment along the way.
The Episode Review
What a lovely drama this has been. While Hello Me hasn’t been a particularly outstanding or incredible Korean drama, it has been a consistently enjoyable and solid, comedic treat over the weeks. It’s a cathartic, well written romp with light bites of drama and a really solid message as its core. This emotionally charged finale is really typified by that final goodbye between Ha-Ni and her younger self in the tunnel. This entire scene was really beautifully handled and ended things between them in a suitably bittersweet way. It also leaves the door open for Ha-Ni and Scarlett to learn from their experiences and grow into better versions of themselves. This has, in its simplest form, been what this show has been about. The end montage for all of our characters was a lovely touch as well, showing where all of our players are now and seeing their happy endings play out too. While it would have been nice to see Ji-Eun with a baby and her and Do-Yun happy together, it’s a minor quibble in truth. Hello Me will certainly be missed and this quietly understated drama bows out with a solid finale. Bravo!
