https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31QIGttiTE
The Final Week
We’re finally here. After 14 hour long episodes we’ve reached the final weekend of Memories Of The Alhambra. With effectively 2 hours left to wrap up the story, this penultimate episode does give some answers but frustratingly leaves a lot unresolved and big questions around how this one will end going into tomorrow’s finale. We pick up where left off last week with the shocking return of Se-Ju. Clearly in a state of shock, Hee-Joo’s brother reveals little other than his whereabouts and a vague hint that he may not have been responsible for Marco’s death. It turns out Se-Ju was held up in a hand-crafted dungeon he refers to as The Instance Dungeon, waiting for someone to reach a high enough level to escape. That man, by coincidence, happens to be Jin Woo. Speaking of which, we catch up with our protagonist partway through the episode where we learn of his fate following his run-in with Emma last week. Despite being missing for half the episode, we learn this holographic NPC literally holds the key to salvation. It turns out the Key To Heaven is actually a master key used to delete all bugs within the game and reset the mainframe back to factory settings. In order to do this, Jin Woo is forced to endure the pain of having the key thrust into his chest and turned in agonizing fashion. Unfortunately for us and the game’s future, the pain is too much to stand and he pulls away at the last second, keeping the game running but the quest mostly complete aside from the actual rewards this garners. While we deliberate over these actions, we cut to CEO Park Sun-Ho who, upon learning of Se-Ju’s re-appearance, confronts Professor Cha and pleads that they take responsibility for their actions regarding the game. It’s here where we see a different side to Professor Cha, a more reflective and repenting man than we’ve witnessed before. Whether this is genuine or just for show is left up for debate. At least until the last third of the episode which sees The Professor and Jin Woo go face to face one last time as their fates are decided. The episode ends pretty much where left off last time with Hee Joo in tears and big question marks around how this one will end. Despite the show doing well to wrap up a few of its stories and closing out the arcs for a couple of key players in the game, Memories Of The Alhambra still finds itself stuck with an impossible number of questions to answer. How did Se-Ju survive for all that time in the Instance Dungeon? What really happened with Marco? How did the bug get into the game in the first place? Will Hee Joo get through an episode without bursting into tears? With an hour left of the series it’ll be really interesting to see how this Korean drama finishes. One thing’s for sure though, Memories Of The Alhambra is another bold step forward for Korean drama and one way or another, will go down as another memorable entry in the fascinating world of Asian drama.
