Glorious Women
Episode 16 of Mine starts this finale with our detective contemplating whether Hi-Soo really is responsible for killing her husband or not. While he does, Seo-Hyun questions Butler Joo over her trying to leave in the middle of the night. Jin-Ho returns to his lottery scratching… and wins! He actually wins the 5 million jackpot! He doesn’t need the money though, instead handing the winning ticket over to the security guard. There’s no catch; Jin-Ho just wants some company. Elsewhere, the Bible group reconvene where they meet Father Paul. In the words of George Takei: “Oh my!” All the girls immediately forget about Mother Emma as they thirst for this hunk. Back at the villa, Yu-Yeon returns. Seo-Hyun is much more casual and kind to her this time and encourages her to take up lessons in various different pursuits to better herself. All the family that are left gather together in the dining room. Everyone’s there, and this time there’s no arguments or ill-feelings. The chairman takes his place at the head of the table and everything goes well, even when they mention Ha-Joon heading abroad. We then flashback to that fateful night in question. Seong-Tae is acting shifty, especially given the acid being stashed away in his room. Joo calls him out for his behaviour before the big celebration, but he simply scurries away. Meanwhile, Soo-Hyuk buys a beautiful necklace for Seo-Hyun and thanks her for raising him well. This, coupled with the Suzy Choi confession, confirm Seo-Hyun’s transformation into a much more warm and accepting woman. During dinner, Jin-Ho receives a call from Jung-Do. He heads off to answer while Seong-Tae lets Ji-Yong know where Jin-Ho has gone. Everyone watches as Ji-Yong gets up and leaves the table. Seong-Tae shuts up and locks the bunker door, leaving Ji-Yong inside. He heads down to the basement with the bottles of acid and pours them into the air supply. With Ji-Yong inside the bunker, he poisons him. Joo realizes what’s happening as her buzzer starts going off repeatedly. Ji-Yong rings Hi-Soo while he’s stuck inside the bunker, choking and gasping for air. Seong-Tae has a sudden change of heart, turning the oxygen back on again and grabbing Ji-Yong, pulling him out the vault to safety. He apologizes repeatedly and hurries away. Believing Hi-Soo is responsible, Ji-Yong grabs her by the throat and looks set to push her over the balcony. The commotion is loud – loud enough to bring Seo-Hyun out of her office. But she’s not the one to smack Ji-Yong in the head. It’s Butler Joo! Yes, she’s the one who knocks out Ji-Yong. The ensuing blow sends Ji-Yong tumbling over the balcony and straight to the floor. He smacks his head hard on the way down, which kills him instantly. When Seo-Hyun heads out and sees what has happened, Mother Emma also arrives and notices a bloodied Ji-Yong on the floor. She scrambles out as Hi-Soo awakens from her ordeal, having also fallen from the balcony. Seo-Hyun moves the fire extinguisher but ends up cutting her hand in the process. With Hi-Soo up on the balcony, she locks eyes with Mother Emma, who returns one more time before eventually hurrying off. Seong-Tae heads inside while Mother Emma goes to the police. Seo-Hyun quickly calls Dr Kim and requests assistance, as she notices the nasty bruising and cuts around Hi-Soo’s neck. After the deed, Joo plays her part well, feigning shock while Seo-Hyun tasks Joo and Seong-Tae with cleaning up the blood, being careful to make sure it only looks like one person has fallen rather than two. When Dr Kim arrives, Joo and Seong-Tae talk in the latter’s room. She questions why he chickened out of this and tells him he should have kept Ji-Yong inside the bunker. As Joo starts sobbing, she tells Seong-Tae he needs to leave but implores him to hand over the blue diamond before he does. Why? Well, she needs something to cover up the guilt she feels for killing Ji-Yong. We then catch up with the moments off the back of the last episode. Joo is on her knees, sobbing, as Seo-Hyun questions why she killed Ji-Yong. Joo has always been loyal to the family and didn’t want Hi-Soo to get hurt, hence the fire extinguisher blow. She never meant to kill Ji-Yong though and the result of this caused her to slump into a depressive state. This also explains her crazy eating and erratic behaviour these past few episodes. In order to prove her worth, Seo-Hyun gives Joo an ultimatum – leave the blue diamond necklace at the villa and be a saviour, or take it and be branded a murderer. Well, Joo chooses to hand over the necklace – choosing honour over vanity. Mother Emma speaks to Hi-Soo about her past. Before she was a nun she used to be an arrogant entertainer at Aesanggak. Hi-Soo despairs though, believing she has nothing left in her life. Emma reassures her though, telling Hi-Soo she hasn’t and to try and find peace with her life. Back home, Hye-Jin learns that Hi-Soo was faking her amnesia all this time. When asked why, she confirms that Ji-Yong tried to kill her. She couldn’t tell the police given how painful the memories are and feigned amnesia to protect Ha-Joon and his image of his father. She chose an honourable route to protect Ha-Joon and not give him an ill impression of his father, despite all his shortcomings. Just before walking away, Hye-Jin and Hi-Soo patch up their differences and end up on the same page. Soon-Hye is back eating again while the security guard keeps his promise and shares a bath with Jin-Ho. The pair connect over the armed forces but there’s definite differences that make him long for Seong-Tae’s connection. Joo manages to hold it together until she runs into Hi-Soo by the main doors. Hi-Soo thanks her for what she did that night, prompting Joo to break down into tears. In the end, everyone was trying too protect everyone else in this house, with honour prevailing over greed and vanity in the end. We then jump forward six months later. Soon-Hye gorges herself with food while Jin-Ho is a changed man. He’s selfless and does everything he can for those around him, including Jin-Hee’s ex boyfriend. Yu-Yeon and Soo-Hyuk are together, with their subplot excluded from large chunks of this second half of the season. Seo-Hyun meanwhile is now the chairwoman of Hyowon Group. Hi-Soo also makes her comeback with a drama series called Mine. Talk about meta! Seo-Hyun visits Emma out on the farm where she apologizes to her on behalf of society keeping her in the closet. In a really touching moment, Hi-Soo and Hye-Jin decide to team up and raise Ha-Joon as best they can. As the episode close, Seo-Hyun phones Suzy and tells her she’s going to come and visit her in a week’s time.
The Episode Review
Mine bows out with an excellent final episode, one that manages to round out all the big plot points and does so with some brilliant storytelling throughout. Finding out what happened to Ji-Yong that night was immensely satisfying and actually quite surprising too. All the clues were there that both Joo and Seong-Tae were heavily involved but there were also enough red herrings and doubts in play to make it a tough one to figure out. Kudos to the writers for that, they really did do well. Jin-Ho’s arc is definitely one of the best of the show, portraying him moving past his demons while opening up as a more selfless individual. The only characters really that get a lackluster ending are Soo-Hyuk and Yu-Yeon, who end up as background players in the end. Whether this is as a result of feedback from viewers or not remains to be seen but the show has undoubtedly done well with almost all of its storylines, especially Seo-Hyun’s sexuality which has been handled with respect. In the end, Mine closes out with a very strong finale.
