"Answer Me 1988" Episode 18 recap

It's the little touches that makes all the difference in "Answer Me 1988". Pay close attention to the set design here. It looks like the characters are just hanging around in the same neighborhood and the same houses they were this entire time and yet somehow, everything looks a tad shinier. A tad cooler. Especially the characters themselves. Note how Taek very nearly appears cool and attractive now, even though he mostly acts the same. What's causing these changes? The haircuts? The beer? Or just...the nineties?
That much, by the way, was absolutely adorable. Before the kids just hung out at home freeloading while their parents were in the next room. Now they hang out in restaurants, spending their own money getting drunk but otherwise just acting the same as their childhood counterparts. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I just love the sense of constancy here. Childhood friends indeed.
Anyway, the plot. As expected, Rubbish gets a cameo. But don't set your expectations so low. Rubbish isn't just random fanservice. Everything about Rubbish, from his story arc in "Answer Me 1994", to his name to the plot contrivances that have made up the ouevre of the entire Answer Me franchise are used as background here to deliver an astonishingly touching message about love and fate.
The short of it is- we want things to happen in a certain way. We as humans believe in fate because it takes the stress off of us having to find a way to deliver upon our own desires. To a person who is too proud to admit they have emotional needs, having fate intervene is the ideal solution to loneliness. It's why romances so often feature couples meeting as the result of adorable circumstance. If it's destined to be, if it's not being forced, that's the only way you can be sure that the person you like is happy too.
Is this much actually true..? Well, I don't really know. For that matter I'm not going to let the ending of this episode serve as a definite clue about who Deok-seon's husband will be because it doesn't really matter. Is it really fate just because the script says so? Or could it be that Na-jeong and Rubbish got together because they kept trying, and in the end, finally had that moment where they admitted to genuinely missing each other? We get a moment like that here in "Answer Me 1988" too, and it's a pretty strong one.
Review by William Schwartz
"Answer Me 1988" is directed by Sin Won-ho, written by Lee Woo-jeong-I and features Seong Dong-il, Lee Il-hwa, Ra Mi-ran, Kim Seong-gyoon, Ryoo Hye-yeong, Hyeri, Ko Kyeong-pyo and Ryu Jun-yeol.

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