"My Sassy Girl - Drama" Episodes 29-30 recap

Now that enough of the conspiracy has been brought to light, the only real outstanding question is whether Ji-hoon will be brought to justice. Ji-hoon has always enjoyed the most protection because of all the people who have benefited from the allegations against the former Queen, Ji-hoon's boons have been the most subtle and obscured. All the same, Queen Jungjeon needed some sort of high level ally. And attempts at making Pil-yeong and Woo the fall guys run into some obvious logical problems.
The most obvious being, of course, why they would make an effort to bring attention to the conspiracy at all if they were the main perpetrators of it. And then there's Gi-joon's usual methods to try and get rid of all the evidence, which are inherently suspicious and shady and can not possibly be blamed on Pil-yeong and Woo when they're both under arrest. Besides that, Gi-joon doesn't really take action until episode thirty anyway, so it seems likely that King Huizong already knows more than he's letting on.
But that's all we really have to go on, is faith that there are hidden cards lying around somewhere. Our knowledge of the situation is mostly the same as what Princess Hyemhyeong knows. While there are some obvious guesses, overall she's just left in the dark, and has nothing much to do except ponder over the emotional ramifications of all that she's learned. This leads to the sad jailhouse scene with Woo that unfortunately does not much get into serious strategy.
It's a shame really, because in terms of tension the conspiracy plot in "My Sassy Girl - Drama" is quite excellent. Save for the occasional plot hole all the abilities of the various characters are well-defined. Even if as a matter of genre convention the victory of the good guys is inevitable, screenwriter Yoon Hyo-je does a very good job of very slowly cutting off possible avenues for a complete victory- and anything besides a complete victory will let Gi-joon fight another day.
Still, the general useless of the title character puts "My Sassy Girl - Drama" at an awkward standstill. This drama is sometimes a romance and sometimes it is a conspiracy but it rarely manages to convincingly be both at the same time. Well, I suppose the scenes with Da-yeon and Chang-hwi do get into that a little. They show how romantic feelings allow Gi-joon to gain more co-conspirators. Of course, as was the case with Queen Jungjeon, such dirty dealing proves to be inherently unsatisfying to matters of the heart.
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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