‘While You Were Sleeping’ Finale Review: Happy Ending For Lee Jong Suk’s Jaechan And Suzy’s Hongjoo (SPOILERS)

South Korea’s SBS TV aired on Wednesday the finale episode of “While You Were Sleeping” (pronounced as dang shinee jam duun sa ee ye in Korean), starring  Lee Jong Suk as Jaechan and Bae Suzy as Hongjoo. AGB Nielsen reported 8.7 percent rating for Episode 31, up by one percent to 9.7 rating for Episode 32. Viewers from the Philippines enjoyed same-night streaming from VIU.com, where episodes are broken per hour instead of per 30 minutes. Hence, the finale at VIU is known as Episode 16.

Spoiler alert: This review contains recaps of highlights and spoilers from “While You Were Sleeping” finale episodes.

‘While You Were Sleeping’ (WYWS) Recap Of Finale Highlights

In the final installment of WYWS, Jaechan and Hongjoo put an end to the drama villain’s (Lee Sangyeob as Lee Yoo-bum) acts of horror. However, two people close to them pay a great price to make sure Yoo-bum end behind bars. Their cop friend (Jung Hae-in as Han Woo-tak) loses his job, while the man they saved 13 years ago (Kim Wonhae as Choi Damdong and Lee Jae-kyun as young Damdong) loses his life.

In the penultimate episode, Woo-tak worries that his color blindness, a secret that he has kept from Jaechan and Hongjoo, would ruin the case against Yoo-bum. Hongjoo, who had uncovered this secret in a previous episode, tells Woo-tak he should not testify. She is worried he might lose his job in the police force. For his part, Woo-tak cares more about finally nailing Yoo-bum. Jaechan is overwhelmed by guilt when he realizes that Woo-tak is making a huge sacrifice for the trial’s success. In the end, Woo-tak makes a decision to go back to school and become a lawyer. He explains he would rather defend the innocent than to judge people.

WYWS Review: Their Dreams Come True

There is an undeniable romantic chemistry between Lee Jong Suk and Bae Suzy in WYWS. Perhaps if the plot developments were more real-life than fantasy, the series would have enjoyed a higher rating. Its narrative pacing was fair and polished, and the cast members are all compelling in their roles.

Writer  Park Hye-ryun was able to show the fated destiny of the drama’s dreamers in a way that is close enough to real life. Still, there is a sense of cheating in character exposition because the protagonists are usually prepared to tackle situations. They dream about things that could unfold, so they get to really think before they act. Their special ability is more god-like than god-given.

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Overall for KDrama enthusiasts, WYWS is easy to appreciate because of its diverse plots and cast members. It also skips unnecessary drama even when there is a love triangle in the main plot. Jung Hae-in was once again cute and charming as “the other guy” that made the leading man jealous. His cameo in “Reply 1988” and small role in “Goblin” were both remarkable for the imprint of his nice-guy smile, which was perceived as a threat by Ryu Jun Yeol’s Jung Hwan and Gong Yoo’s Kim Shin. In the end, Woo-tak chooses to just express his love from a distance.

Lee Sangyeob was abominable as Lee Yoo-bum. He effectively played a villain who did not exist only to deliberately put the protagonists in pain and misery. Yoo-bum would avoid dealing with Jaechan and Hongjoo if he had a choice. He only went after Woo-tak when he was losing a case. But their fates have been intertwined from the beginning. So in the end, the heroes of the story had to end Yoo-bum’s life — outside of prison. Yoo-bum gets a life sentence.

New Generation Of Dreamers

Kim So-hyun returns in the WYWS finale as Park So-yoon. She and Jung Seung-won (Shin Jae Ha) are still dating, to the disappointment of Seung-won’s new bestfriend. Meanwhile, Yoon Moon-sun (Hwang Young-hee), Hong-joo’s mother, takes on the role of a guardian for Woo-tak. Jaechan jokingly confronts her about her score sheet, but it is obvious that she has accepted Hoongjoo’s choice.

Only Hongjoo’s mother and Jaechan’s brother are aware of the dreams that the lead characters were having. But in the end, it is revealed that people whose lives they’ve saved are now on their own saving missions, too.

You Are Not Unlucky, Villain; You Are Bad!

The concluding dialogue between Yoo-bum and Jaechan in the finale was particularly interesting.  Yoo-Bum says he was put in a situation where he had to make a difficult choice. And then he got unlucky. He tells the other prosecutors that it would happen to them, too. Jaechan responds and makes Yoo-bum realize that the choices he made in difficult situations revealed his character. “You are not unlucky. You are bad,” the protagonist says.

“While You Were Sleeping” is a fantasy romantic drama written by Park Hye-ryun and directed by Oh Choong-hwan. It premiered on SBS TV on September 27.  This drama competed with MBC TV’s “Hospital Ship” starring Ha Ji Won and Kang Min Hyuk as surgeons. Episode 7 of WYWS was the first to beat HS in nationwide ratings (AGB Nielsen). The highest nationwide rating that HS achieved was 13 percent, while WYWS got only 10 percent as its highest.