5 Climatic Moments In Episodes 13-14 Of “Moon In The Day” That Tied Everything Up

Here we are! “Moon in the Day” has reached its end, and let’s see who’s still standing. This show’s been a surprise delight, with leads Kim Young Dae and Pyo Ye Jin giving their all in bringing Do Ha’s (Kim Young Dae’s) and Ri Ta’s (Pyo Ye Jin’s) past and present to life. With only the final battle left, here’s everything that we loved about the final episodes!

Warning: spoilers for episodes 13-14 below.

1. Do Ha figuring out Soribu’s weakness

Despite Do Ha’s promises of a happy ending in last week’s episodes, he is hiding a great deal from Kang Young Hwa (Pyo Ye Jin). He’s growing weaker as well as Young Hwa’s 30th birthday approaches, and he doesn’t know why, let alone why Soribu (Lee Kyung Young) has been trying to kill Young Hwa before she hits 30. A visit to the monk Hae In (Shin Yu Ro) clears things up a little. Just like how Do Ha hovered by Ri Ta’s reincarnations for 1,500 years out of yearning and not resentment, there must be a reason why Soribu’s doing the same. And that reason has a deadline.

When Soribu in Seok Chul Hwan’s (Jung Woong In’s) body keeps targeting the people around Young Hwa, Do Ha realizes why. Soribu’s powers and ability to last this long are linked to the reason he became a malignant spirit: to kill Young Hwa at the same age she was when she killed him. That’s why he hasn’t been running around killing teenage incarnations of Ri Ta. He prefers waiting for them to build a life before taking it from them. If Young Hwa lives past 30, then Soribu has failed. His han, or the resentful goal attaching him to the mortal plane, hasn’t been met, and he dies. But the trouble is, if that’s true, then Do Ha’s on a timer as well.

2. Do Ha figuring out his own weakness

I wish we’d learned more about the rules of what keeps ghosts tied to the human world. But all that’s given to us is that deep emotion, be it resentment or love, can bind souls together—just like the lotus seed bracelet that held Do Ha’s fervent will that Ri Ta be protected, saving Young Hwa’s life over 1,500 years later. Young Hwa gives Han Min Oh (On Joo Wan) the lotus seed protection bracelet that’s been preventing Soribu’s attacks. She absolutely needs it in order to survive until her 30th birthday and for Soribu to vanish, but she just can’t have Min Oh or anyone die because of her, so off goes the bracelet onto Han Min Oh’s wrist. She dares Soribu to get to her because she’s ready to burn him down. It’s a great moment that highlights how Ri Ta and Young Hwa really are the same person. But it’s tempered by the bitter truth Young Hwa doesn’t know yet: Do Ha will die once Soribu does.

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His regret, yearning, and desire to protect her are what kept him to this plane for so long. After 1,500 years he had it all mixed up in his head and thought that her death would save him, when his reason for existing was to protect her. So when Soribu dies, so will Do Ha because the threat he was trying to protect her from his entire life is gone. But, of course, Young Hwa isn’t warned of this. Do Ha bundles her (and her friends! He’s a supportive man who protects the whole crew) over to a remote house in the countryside to keep them all safe until Young Hwa’s 30th passes. But Soribu’s not about to go down without a fight.

3. The final showdown

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Young Hwa is worried as her 30th birthday approaches but gets the most out of every second with Do Ha. They’ve finally found each other again and remember everything. This is their second chance, and she’s just so happy to be with him. Her every wish involves them being like this in the future: watching sunsets on the Han River, celebrating birthday after birthday. So when Soribu crashes down her birthday party, she’s terrified but doesn’t expect them to lose. After all, she has Do Ha on her side, and they’ve both vowed to protect each other. Only, she seriously underestimates what Do Ha meant by protection.

Back in Silla, Do Ha was ready to sacrifice the world to save Ri Ta, but she never wanted that. Now, he’s ready to protect the world for her and sacrifice himself instead. That’s the sort of effect Young Hwa has had on the people around her. Even Han Min Oh races all the way from the hospital to help fight against Soribu and saves Young Hwa from a bad blow. But it’s Do Ha who takes the final stab wound, and Do Ha who finally kills Soribu. And it’s Do Ha who falls to the ground after.

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Soribu taunts Young Hwa as he dies that his death will trigger Do Ha’s. She doesn’t want to believe it—that they’re doomed even after all that pain. But it’s true. Do Ha pleads with her to live, just as he did 1,500 years ago after she stabbed him and prepared to kill herself. He asks her to live well and be happy. And he dies.

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4. The aftermath

Young Hwa’s practically catatonic afterwards. She wakes up in the hospital only to freeze upon hearing that Han Jun Oh (Kim Young Dae), the body Do Ha was in, is apparently alive and well. She races to see him, thinking that Do Ha’s managed to survive and has come back to her, only to realize that he isn’t back. Rather Jun Oh, the original owner of the body, who had supposedly incurable heart cancer and the same man who supposedly died after cardiac arrest, is back. He doesn’t know her beyond their interactions prior to Do Ha possessing his body, and he was 100 percent supposed to be dead. Min Oh is ecstatic at having his brother back, but Young Hwa crumbles into a thousand pieces. Her Do Ha is fully, truly gone.

The next year is a blur for her. She pretends to be okay every single day. Meanwhile, Jun Oh gets chemotherapy and returns to Korea to film the same drama that was interrupted a year ago. It’s essentially Do Ha and Ri Ta’s story. Min Oh has been careful not to mention Young Hwa around him because he and Do Ha are two different people, and there’s no point dredging up the past. But Jun Oh gets curious upon finding a box full of Do Ha’s memorabilia with Young Hwa. He requests a meeting with her, and a heartbroken Young Hwa shows up.

The writing actually shines here because there’s no sudden return of Do Ha’s memories to Jun Oh’s body. He is not a stand-in for Do Ha. He’s a separate person and will never be the man she loved. Kim Young Dae does a brilliant job in clearly delineating Jun Oh and Do Ha too. Jun Oh tells Young Hwa that for some reason, he kept thinking of her name during chemo and gained this strange will to live just from that. It’s heartbreaking because it means Do Ha’s love for Young Hwa left its mark on Jun Oh’s body. Jun Oh is grateful and just wanted to thank her. He thinks he has memory loss but says that he plans on forgetting everything and living well. And he brings a final present from Do Ha, a letter he wrote the morning of Young Hwa’s 30th birthday, before it all went wrong.

5. The future

Young Hwa reads the letter and sobs her heart out at Do Ha’s heartfelt final message. He knows he doesn’t have much time left, but every hour, every minute spent with her was the happiest in all his many miserable years. He asks her enjoy every day even if he can’t be with her because the woman he knows was one who just wanted to live. Young Hwa takes courage from those words and finally sets out to Antartica to live every day grateful for the time and love he gave her. It’s her turn to hold onto his memory while he’s somewhere she can’t reach. All of this began when she tried to save Do Ha by killing Soribu but doomed them both. But if Do Ha’s yearning kept him by her side for 1,500 years, then her yearning can bind her soul to his, and she’ll wait for the day they reunite. And just like that, the years pass, the seasons change, and even Kang Young Hwa vanishes back into the earth.

Many, many years later, Young Hwa’s next reincarnation (Pyo Ye Jin) snaps pictures of the same house Soribu, Do Ha, and Ri Ta used to stay in. She focuses her camera on the moon, musing that it’s rare to see the moon during the afternoon, when she nearly trips and falls. And a very familiar face catches her. Do Ha’s reincarnation (Kim Young Dae) looks just as smitten as Do Ha was a millennia ago when he found a very angry assassin in his bedroom. The two smile at each other, unaware that this time, they’re finally going to get the happy ending they wanted after over 1,500 years of yearning.

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Show of hands, who else is crying? Because that was just heartbreakingly good. This show hasn’t been great at logical writing (Do Ha in Jun Oh’s body was seen outside with Young Hwa for months, and no one said anything? How did Jun Oh come back when the show kept telling us he was 100 percent dead and gone? And how did Do Ha not notice Soribu for 1,500 years?). But “Moon in the Day” seriously lucked out with Kim Young Dae and Pyo Ye Jin as the leads. These were powerful performances, and every emotion was laid bare on both their faces through the tragic past and present timelines. Everything else faded to the periphery when these two were burning up the screen. Please unite in another show!

This was fundamentally a show about yearning, love, and loss, with two people trying to save each other over and over again. It hurts to know that Young Hwa never got the happy ending she yearned for in her lifetime and that the two reincarnations may never know the truth of what occurred all those years ago and how hard they always fought for each other. Those memories were so powerful and beautiful that they feel like they shouldn’t be forgotten because they drive home how the present is that much more worth celebrating. But who knows? After all, Young Hwa started dreaming of the past the second she met Do Ha and lost her protection bracelet. With no such bracelet necessary in the future timeline, perhaps Do Ha and Ri Ta’s love will reach through time and memory once again to their younger reincarnations. But what’s for certain is this: there’s no separating those two. They’ve proven it time and time again. And now, all they have waiting ahead are 1,500 and more lifetimes of happy endings.

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Stop, I’m never emotionally recovering from this.

 

cr: Soompi