"My Sassy Girl - Drama" Episodes 19-20 recap

By the end of episode twenty we get to the big exciting climax where Woo has figured out a way to expose a conspiracy. It's satisfying as expected, because even if there's no direct evidence implicating Gi-joon, his participation in the broader scheme can definitely be used to put his credibility into question somewhere down the line. But why did we need four episodes to get to this point? The conspiracy only had minimal exposition, and the remaining screentime has mostly just been about the love triangle.
Which does have its moments. Prince Darhan keeps breaking my heart with all these sincere emotional stories explaining his motivation. The scene with Prince Wonja (played by Choi Ro-woon) is especially good, because we can see that Woo is trying to make everything go smoothly. However, jealous little brother that he is, Prince Wonja doesn't want to give up his silly dream of seeing his awesome teacher marry his awesome sister.
While there are other good moments in other subplots as well, what makes these scenes stand out is their brevity. Sim Hyeong-tak barely has any scenes as Chung-joon yet manages to steal almost all of them through faux idiotic charm. Se-ho, of all people, gets a love interest. Hee is fighting a losing battle in Da-yeon's clique and annoying though Hee may be, I'm worried what will happen to her when Da-yeon realizes there really is no hope of her getting together with Woo.
...You know, maybe the pacing isn't off after all. It's just that "My Sassy Girl - Drama" has a lot to get through in terms of various subplots. And all of these are likely to be relevant in the long run one way or another. Well, it's hard to see how Se-ho's romance is going to be relevant to anything. It also seems likely that Prince Darhan will just go back to China. Although, geez, after that bromantic fight scene I really just want to watch Prince Darhan and Woo run off and fight the conspiracy together as a team.
On the other hand "My Sassy Girl - Drama" has been faltering in the teamwork department lately when it comes to Princess Hyeomhyeong. Lately all she does is brood. One attempt by Princess Hyeomhyeong to try to attack the conspiracy without Woo's help ends disastrously and geez, that more than anything else makes me want to see them get back together again. Their teamwork is where all the chemistry comes from.
Review by William Schwartz
"My Sassy Girl - Drama" is directed by Oh Jin-seok, written by Yoon Hyo-je and features Joo Won, Oh Yeon-seo, Lee Jung-shin, Kim Yoon-hye, Son Chang-min, and Yoon Se-ah.

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