"Master - God of Noodles" Episode 19 recap

It is a time of revenge, realization and loss in the penultimate episode of "Master - God of Noodles". Gil-do is faced with the mistakes he has made and the lives he has ruined when a bigger evil than him exercises control he himself never had. Myeong's successes make him dangerously greedy and blind him to the dangers around him as they did Gil-do. There are always victims in games of power and those are rarely the ones who play these games.
Congressman So Tae-seop (Kim Byeong-gi) has always been sly and selfish, but he has turned into the true monster of the series. Gil-do (Jo Jae-hyeon) is evil, but he is pure, chaotic evil. He is the creation of a cruel society. A misguided freak lacking empathy and control. It is the self-made, privileged evil which is far worse, however and Gil-do finally discovers this. He has been hurting people and making enemies without considering the gravity of his actions.

This moment of realization as he attempts to exit the studio is exactly the reason why he needs to be stopped. In his mind he has lived a sensible life doing what he feels is normal. He grew up in a world accepting his lies, enabling him and rewarding him for them. Aside from the pain he has caused directly, provoking a monster worse than him means the only two people he remotely cares about are the ones to unfairly suffer.
Da-hae (Gong Seung-yeon) has to live as the daughter of a murderer and Tae-ha (Lee Sang-yeob) is probably dead because he refused to become like Gil-do. His apparent death is sad, but not surprising. The younger characters have been fighting to correct the mistakes of the older ones. Tae-ha's childhood is similar to Gil-do's and his character is similar to Do-kkoo's (Jo Hee-bong), but without the cowardice that kept the latter silent for so long. Tae-ha's sacrifice is his legacy.

At the same time, the way his fate plays out is a bit silly. Perhaps we are to understand that he essentially commits suicide by keeping the document on him and not securing his life first, but his death was still avoidable in this particular scenario and it therefore feels forced. The series suffers when it tries to conform to Korean drama norms, but it has resisted them quite well.
In an odd turn of events, it might be Gil-do and his uncontrollable rage who come to save the day in the show's finale. I doubt Congressman So will let those who know of his secret document be. I just hope our makeshift family's reunion and Tae-ha's death will wake Myeong (Cheon Jeong-myeong) up as well. He needs to end this and not just for his revenge.
"Master - God of Noodles" is directed by Kim Jong-yeon and Lim Se-joon, written by Chae Seung-dae and features Cheon Jeong-myeong, Jo Jae-hyeon, Jeong Yoo-mi and Lee Sang-yeob.
Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

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