The Matchmakers: Episode 16 (Closing)
by Unit
As our matchmaking story involves an finish, our OTP should make sure choices: household or emotions, denial or loss of life. It is likely to be “scandalous” to kind romantic entanglements exterior the boundaries their society deems as acceptable, however for our OTP, all’s truthful in love and matchmaking!
EPISODE 16
It appeared like solely yesterday once we welcomed Ro-woon and his gat again to dramaland, and now we’re on the final lap of what has been a tremendous trip. Final week’s cliffhanger had us anxious about who startled Jung-woo and Quickly-deok within the bridal chamber, and to my reduction, it was Ye-jin and Boo-gyeom! By the point the suspicious Justice of the Peace storms into the bridal chamber, he meets the latest couple on the town as a substitute of Jung-woo as he anticipated, and that’s one downside solved for our OTP.
Now we transfer to the opposite downside: Girl Park. She refuses to simply accept Ye-jin and Boo-gyeom’s relationship, however there’s not a lot she will do as a result of the ceremony was already held and they’re a legit couple within the sight of the joint marriage ceremony attendees. There’s at all times the selection to let everybody know that Ye-jin ran away earlier than the marriage, however Girl Park’s pleasure gained’t enable that to occur. I wager she regrets citing the stand-in concept. Heh.
With a slap, Girl Park accuses Quickly-deok of attempting to smash Ye-jin’s future by partnering with Jung-woo. Ye-jin is greatly surprised to listen to that Quickly-deok is in love with Jung-woo, however she’s not completely in opposition to it. What shocks her most is Girl Park’s eventual blurt about killing Lord Jo and Minister Park to maintain the household collectively. Now Ye-jin is aware of how her father actually died. Oops! It should suck for Girl Park to have all her plans blow up in her face like this.
Now that the Maeng sisters’ marriage challenge is concluded and Jung-woo’s annulment is formally underway, the king praises him for a job effectively accomplished. He additionally teases that Jung-woo ought to take up matchmaking as a profession. Lol. Actually, Jung-woo and Quickly-deok Matchmaking Inc. will not be a nasty concept, and I’ll join their companies in the event that they’ve obtained guys like Jung-woo and Quickly-gu amongst their clientele.
Sadly, whereas Jung-woo continues to be deciding on his future plans after the annulment, Girl Letter Forger strikes once more. This time, she sends a letter from “Geun-seok” to Jung-woo. And when Jung-woo arrives at Lord Jo’s residence, she has him locked up in a room with Quickly-deok. Uh-oh! Girl Park then informs our OTP that she has reported Jung-woo to the authorities for violating her daughter-in-law, and the officers are on their solution to arrest him. Ha! So that is payback for the groom swap. She actually obtained them good.
Jung-woo and Quickly-deok apologize for placing one another on this state of affairs, and Jung-woo insists that Quickly-deok denies her emotions for him till the tip. He’s superb with struggling alone, and no, he gained’t ever remorse their encounter. When the officers arrive, Jung-woo and Quickly-deok are locked in an embrace, and I like that the officers don’t attempt to pry them aside. They only stand there watching our OTP’s defiant and comforting hug.
After Jung-woo’s arrest, the matchmaking base is remodeled into the Jung-woo Rescue Operation base with Sam-soon as chair. Shi-yeol suggests a jail break and Du-ri helps her husband by plotting to make the guards drunk. Lol. Their concepts are actually candy, albeit ridiculous, however issues take a extra critical flip when Quickly-gu comes with the information that Jung-woo will likely be sentenced to loss of life by poisoning. This present actually likes its poisons.
Fortunately, the king halts the punishment simply in time. Seeing the king, Jung-woo, and a bowl of poison in a single body gave me flashbacks to week one when the king arrested Jung-woo to make him provide you with a plan for the crown prince’s marriage. However proper now, it’s a extra critical state of affairs, and all Jung-woo has to do is admit that there’s nothing happening between him and Quickly-deok. Jung-woo chooses loss of life over denial of his emotions, and the king has no possibility however to hold on with the loss of life sentence. *Browses Pinterest for funeral outfit inspiration*
However it seems that I don’t want the outfit as a result of… Jung-woo isn’t lifeless. You see, he was given a small dose of poison, and the king secretly ordered a doctor to avoid wasting him. Phew! I knew Mr. King was going to come back by! However whereas that’s excellent news and all, Girl Park already goaded her daughter-in-law to suicide after informing her about Jung-woo’s loss of life. And when Jung-woo hears that Quickly-deok is lifeless, he loses consciousness once more. What within the Romeo and Juliet is occurring right here?
Time skip to a month later. Ye-jin and Boo-gyeom live fortunately with Geun-seok. Quickly-gu has traded his gown of shyness for the gown of shamelessness — which he wastes no time to tear off at any time when it’s enterprise o’clock. Talking of which, Shi-yeol works the quickest as a result of Du-ri is already pregnant! As for the crown prince, effectively, who wants Jung-woo caught to your facet while you’ve obtained a sensible spouse like Ha-na to have mental debates with? Their latest matter of debate is about Sam-soon’s newest launch: The Final Agent of Love of Joseon. It’s fiction, in fact, however everybody on the town can inform it’s the story about Jung-woo and Quickly-deok — each of whom are formally lifeless.
However as we all know, Jung-woo continues to be alive, and he’s holed up within the matchmaking base nursing his hurting coronary heart. With the annulment lastly official, the king visits the bottom to place Jung-woo to work as a secret royal inspector below a brand new id. Jung-woo’s activity: rounding up all of the bachelors and spinsters in Joseon. Ha! We’re actually getting that matchmaking company in any case. However Jung-woo isn’t precisely chomping on the bits to get onboard his new project. “Spherical up? [Bachelors and spinsters] are usually not bandits!” He rebukes the king like Quickly-deok did to him firstly of their matchmaking challenge. Loool. I like these little callbacks to the sooner episodes.
The king has additionally discovered a brand new matchmaker to work with Jung-woo, and apparently, Ms. Matchmaker has been ready some time for him to get better. Hmmm. Might it’s…? “Jung-woo ya, have a great life.” The king says to Jung-woo after a protracted pause, and now I’m formally satisfied that my hunch is correct. Stated matchmaker lives in Quickly-deok’s childhood house, and she’s none aside from… Quickly-deok herself! Our OTP has an emotional reunion, and I’m in a puddle of blissful tears.
By way of a flashback to when Girl Park requested Quickly-deok to kill herself, we see that Quickly-deok refused to die as a result of love will not be confirmed with loss of life. If she has to die in any respect, she’d reasonably “die” because the daughter-in-law of the Jo household — and she or he slices off the strap of her hanbok to indicate the severance of her ties with the household. Quickly-deok warns that if she dies, everybody would know Girl Park was behind her loss of life. And he or she can not let Geun-seok and Ye-jin dwell a life resenting their solely remaining member of the family. I’ve by no means seen Quickly-deok look so decided as she dares her mother-in-law to hold out the loss of life menace.
The ultimate scoreline reads Quickly-deok 100:0 Girl Park. Whereas Quickly-deok strikes out and has Geun-seok over infrequently, Girl Park finally ends up on their own within the Jo residence, unrepentant until the tip. By the way in which, the king despatched somebody to guard Quickly-deok on the night time of the confrontation together with her mother-in-law, so Girl Park couldn’t do something humorous to Quickly-deok even when she tried. Shout out to the very best Joseon king ever! He’s not a figurehead; neither is he a tyrant. He’s merely a jolly good fellow with everybody’s greatest pursuits at coronary heart. Mr. King is Santa, y’all.
And so, JungSoon Matchmaking Inc. is able to hit the street! Earlier than arranging different individuals’s marriages, Jung-woo proposes they get married first. However Quickly-deok suggests beginning out with a heart-pounding romantic relationship first, and Jung-woo is open to the thought. Our OTP shares a young embrace as they overlook all of the territories they’ll conquer of their matchmaking endeavors, and with this we come to the tip of our matchmaking story!
The place do I even start to precise my adoration for what has been one of the constant dramas this yr? The Matchmakers began out nice, had a wonderful development, and caught the touchdown. I’m so delighted our OTP obtained their fortunately ever after as a result of there’s no another deserving of it than they’re. I preferred that the drama revered the connection they’d with their late spouses, and nonetheless delivered on a strong second-chance romance between them. The story didn’t even have to leap by hoops to present them a gorgeous ending as a result of the inspiration for that had already been laid out.
If I needed to describe this drama with a phrase, it’d be “intentional.” This can be a well-crafted present with considerate writing and plot factors that served the story, nuanced characters pushed by plausible motivations — together with prince Jin-sung, whose existence felt actual although he didn’t have a bodily presence within the present. Severely, I can virtually image him in my head. And the cinematography? Chef’s kiss! Each shot was deliberate, and each scene instructed a narrative. You might actually simply pause at any level to absorb the surroundings, and it feels such as you’re proper there in Joseon respiration the identical air.
I’m impressed with the present’s consistency at balancing its enjoyable components and the intense ones. Neither facet felt compelled, none overshadowed the opposite, and the drama didn’t do a nosedive into the genre-switch territory. I would like different exhibits to take classes as a result of that is the way you do a correct balancing act.
Except for that preemption that disrupted the circulate of the episodes, I can’t consider any downsides to this drama. Okay, perhaps Lord Jo and Minister Park. However the presence of Dumb and Dumber served to spotlight Girl Park’s character because the “brains” of the family, in order that they have been a needed addition to the present in any case.
In a drama with well-written and non-passive feminine characters, I preferred that the principle antagonist was a girl — and such a fancy and calculating one at that. Having a formidable antagonist like Girl Park run facet by facet with equally shrewd protagonists like our OTP will at all times make for a great story, particularly within the hand of a talented author like The Matchmakers’.
All good issues should come to an finish, and this drama is not any exception. For a matchmaking present, we obtained an amazing OTP and wonderful facet {couples} whose romances have been equally enjoyable to observe, and the romantic in me may be very happy. General, The Matchmakers was a unbelievable watch on all counts, and having its concluding episode air on Christmas day made it all of the extra memorable.
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