One thing that makes Kdramas all the more interesting is their plot twists. Crime dramas,
in particular, need those twists to keep viewers glued to the screen. However,
if a plot twist is not done right, it can just ruin the show altogether. And today,
we are discussing these twisty plot points that no matter how you view it, just do not work.
Dol Dol Sol Sol La La Sol - the last episode Well, Dol Dol Sol Sol La La Sol was a good
romance comedy series while it lasted: there’s an optimistic and passionate female lead despite
facing multiple adversities, a cool yet gentle love interest that supports her in proper means,
and some really, really good music. And, if you want to laugh, the series
also has its fair share of well-done humor, as ex-rich- heiress Go Rara maneuvered a completely
new life and dragged the unwilling Jun along. It is healing, musical, enjoyable, guaranteed
to be a brilliant mid-week entertainment. Or at least, things were bright and shine until
our male lead was revealed to have an incurable disease, and passed away when there’s only a
couple of episodes left to air. Upon hearing such news, Rara was unable to stop herself from crying,
and from then on, struggled in grief. You may think, ‘a tragic ending doesn’t sound all that
bad’, and you’d be right. Because it’s better than the plot twist that’s about to happen.
Winding up to 5 years later, and we arrived at when the very last episode took place.
There, we got to see Rara playing the piano while reminiscing about Jun, saying that she had lived
her life to the fullest, that she still missed him, and that playing the piano is her own way of
greeting her love. Emotional and meaningful, but then, A VERY MUCH ALIVE AND HEALTHY JUN appeared!
Rara saw him, believed it was her imagination, but then they hugged,
and she realized he’s there for real. Apparently, Jun faked his death and just up and left,
to surprise his love by being healthy again! Yes, this is a happy ending,
and we get the appeal of happy things, but you have to admit that this move is extremely shitty.
Seriously, in what world is faking your death and making your lover suffer in agony and mourning
a good idea? No matter how you see it, putting a person through emotional grief over your death
and then suddenly going ‘surprise, I’m alive’ is just not the way to go.
School 2015 - whatever happened to the love line
As one installment in the ‘School’ series, ‘School 2015’ was a pretty
decent youth drama with interesting characters, a well-developed story, and a good take
on heavier themes such as school bullying. The premise of the drama was also pretty neat:
Two identical twins were separated, and while Eun Bi was stuck in the orphanage and heavily bullied
at a public school, Eun Byul was adopted and went to a prestigious private school.
One case of mistaken identity and amnesia later, and Eun Bi now assumes the identity
of her own sister. There’s also a catch: the sisters’ personalities are the exact opposite:
with Eun Bi more cheerful and meek, while Eun Byul’s more confident and prickly.
And as with most K-dramas, we are introduced to two love interests.
There’s Yi An - Eun Byul’s athletic childhood friend, and Tae Kwang - the troublemaker that
hid his sufferings behind a smile. As the series progresses, two things
stand clear: Yi An had been in love with Eun Byul for 10 years, while Tae Kwang’s heart has
always been with Eun Bi, standing by her through hellish bullying. To many of us, that sounds
like a sign of two couples in the making, but then, a plot twist proved things wrong.
Eun Bi’s true identity is eventually revealed, and to the surprise of many, many of us, Yi An just
suddenly fell in love with the nicer twin version of the girl he had loved for half of his life.
Worse, there was little development on this behalf, like the guy just took a gigantic drift
in his romantic feelings because the plot said so. It didn’t help that Eun Bi’s relationship with the
second lead is so well written too, making the final couple forced in comparison.
So, while Nam Joo Hyuk had done a brilliant job at portraying Yi An, this
kind of end game just doesn’t really work out. Bitter feelings aside, you can still give this
drama a try, but remember to brace yourself for a very heavy case of the second lead syndrome.
Bring it on, Ghost - late stage amnesia
With Ok Taecyeon and Kim So Hyun as the main cast, ‘Bring it on, Ghost’ already sounds super
promising. And that it is. The series is the right combination of comedy, thriller, and crime, as
Bong Pal - our ghost-seeing male lead, encountered the kick-ass Hyun Ji - the ghostly female lead.
Contrary to most ghosts, Hyun Ji can’t seem to remember her past life,
she thus lingered inside a school, trying to discover her true identity, and ended up
calling Bong Pal and fighting him in the process. One thing after another, they accidentally kissed,
and Hyun Ji suddenly recovered a piece of old memories. She started to follow Bong Pal around,
annoying him until the two reached a truce and started to collaborate on ghost-fighting missions.
It was pretty entertaining to see the two bicker all the time while growing closer,
and the development of their relationship is sweet to watch. The two of course started to
fall for each other, until, well, apparently Hyun Ji was just in a coma, and she had revived.
And then, things started to go downhill. Admitted, it was pretty reasonable
for Hyun Ji to still be alive. It is better if our female lead is no longer a ghost, and this
turn of events can finally give us romance. But it didn’t. Because Hyun Ji had lost all
her memories as a ghost, which means, Bong Pal is now a complete stranger to her,
and their relationship had hit a reset button. Now, the overused amnesia trope can still be done
right, but frankly, this twist is just totally unnecessary. It threw all the build up of the
series into the trash, and turned Hyun Ji into a meek little girl. It further dragged the story
when we already had all the pieces, and honestly, ‘Bring it on, Ghost’ could have been done better.
Penthouse - overused resurrection
There’s not much to explain about the plot of ‘Penthouse’: there’s a murder mystery,
a lot of cutthroat dramas, and many, many evil plots. And of course, these evil schemings result
in people dying, injured, or going insane, and that’s the charm of this genre of drama.
Now, there’s always this certain impact that follows a major character’s death: it can drive
major drifts in the storyline, as well as make the audience mourn and await a worthy-revenge.
There is also nothing wrong with the resurrection trope, because people in K-dramas fake death all
the time, and if done right, it would make for an interesting plot twist.
However, Penthouse went downhill, for the series had abused the trope so much that
it ended up ruining the show. First, we had the major character Shim Ru Yeon who appeared
dead in the finale of the first season. She came back in an extremely hot look,
and things were so far still reasonable. Then, we had the more minor character Ro Na,
who died in the middle of season 2. She was pushed off the stairs, stabbed in the head,
and had her breathing support pulled off in the middle of night. Her demise served as a motivation
for the main character Yoon Hee, so when she came back, it was a bit iffy, but still acceptable.
The revival that finally pulled the straw though, was that of Logan Lee. He’s on the good side,
and was on his way to a happy ending, before being blown up in a car explosion at the end
of season 2. And he also managed to live to assist Ru Yeon in her feat of venange.
And he still died in the end, which raised the question of ‘why kill him in the first place?’
The worst thing about these revival plot twists, though, was not that they are illogical. In fact,
Penthouse’s screenwriter herself admitted that the series ‘defied logic”, and that’s its own charm.
However, these fake deaths ruined the audience’s feelings for every character that died afterwards.
Take Oh Yoon Hee for example: she was betrayed, pushed to death, and yet the
audience can hardly cry for her because they half-anticipated that she would come back alive.
In the same way, these “bad plot twists” had rendered the drama’s ending completely
unimpactful: even with most of the cast deceased in the end, there was little tears to be shed.
Of course, that’s not all the bad plot twists in Kdrama land, you may also think of:
Black’s nonsensical ending The sudden reappearance of
the mother in ‘It’s Okay To Not Be Okay’ What happened at the end of ‘Lovers in Paris’.
And many, many more. So, what did you think about the mentioned plot twists?
Are they ‘yay’ or ‘nay’? Did any other twist ruined the show for you?
Feel free to let us know in the comment section.