Castaway Diva (2023) K Drama Episode 12 (Final Episode)

Episode 12 of Castaway Diva starts with Dae-woong sharing food with the others inside the Salon. They all discuss Dae-woong awakening and generally have a good time… until Bo-geol receives an awful call. It’s Woo-hak. He’s with his dad, who’s rushed to hospital and taken into surgery. And there we have it! Our obligatory waiting room scene.

Does Jung Bong-Wan get his comeuppance?

As for Bong-wan, he all but admits to stabbing Sang-doo and leaves a message for the whole family, bitterly taunting them that they’ll never be able to get rid of him and they’re stuck with his surname until they die.

Jung Bong-wan leaves a suicide note and kills himself in a cowardly way, popping pills and going quietly in his chair. When police show up, they’re shocked and see that he’s unconscious. To rub salt in the wound, Bo-geol ends up with the handwritten letter from his biological father after identifying him at the morgue. Given they never officially married, it means Bo-geol and Woo-hak won’t be able to take Sang-doo’s surname and are stuck with being Jung unless Ha-jung marries officially.

How does Sang-doo get the last laugh?

While everyone plays the waiting game, we cut back in time and see Sang-doo and Ha-jung together as they make their wedding photos. However, it’s a miracle as we jump to the present. Sang-doo wakes up and he’s not dead after all! In fact, he narrates a letter of his own, telling Bong-wan that the best revenge against him will be to cherish his memories and happiness of having a family. Sang-doo hopes the man rests in peace, as the scene cuts across to Bong-wan, whose death is recorded as having no friends or family.

How do the brothers get over the past?

With this saga over, we return to Mok-ha’s singing career. She continues to practice for her debut solo. She warms up her voice in the morning and then heads out for a hard day’s labour to get the blood pumping. She’s got a lot of strength, and some of that comes from her time on the island having to move things around all the time.

Over at the Salon, Sang-doo and Ha-jung quiz each other over hairdressing questions. At the paper, Woo-hak and Bo-geol decide to embrace their true names and are actually reinstated too. They accept their birth names again now that they don’t need to be living in fear.

Woo-hak decides to express himself and it comes from him being super lovey with everyone. Seeing his father nearly die is enough to really step it up a gear and show how much he cares about the family.

What does Ran-joo do about President Lee?

Elsewhere, Ran-joo and Producer Park show up to see a lawyer. She thinks they have a case (regarding the international invoice discovered at the end of episode 11) but the outcome is closer to 50/50. It’s not going to be easy to prove President Lee did this deliberately and he’s already signed a resignation form too. This is a war of attrition and it could go on for a long time.

Ran-Joo decides to go ahead with this, pointing out that she has a “sword in her hand and she might as well use it”. Even if she doesn’t win, it could go in her favour.

At the studio, Ran-joo and Mok-ha are not happy with Lee’s continued meddlesome ways. In fact, he switches up the songs for Mok-ha so Mo-rae sings a completely different trakc. Ran-joo is not happy and decides to march up and confront him about this.

Ran-joo speaks to Lee about him “stealing” the song. He tries to speak his mind, while Mo-tae shows up and she’s just as angry. While she and Mok-ha butt heads and eventually realize that Lee is the problem, Lee explains his actions to Ran-joo, deciding that he’s being a tyrant and trying to dictate how the company is run under his iron fist.

To make matters worse, Lee drops an absolute bombshell to Ran-joo. He admits that her mother was the one who originally shredded the document as she wanted Ran-joo to continue being a singer rather than getting into the business side of the company. President Lee was actually the one who taped it back together again.

Ran-joo is shocked and finds her confidence shattered. Lee though, is so confident he’s made the right decision that he thinks if Mok-ha doesn’t get top spot with this song then he’ll quit. He even agrees to put it into writing as well. He also admits he never signed the investment papers either, because he’s not a “complete scumbag”.

Is President Lee proven right?

President Lee has his judgment absolutely spot on. Mok-ha loves the song that was meant for Mo-rae and actually wants to sing it. She agrees to switch it, which shocks Ran-joo. As per the deal she made with President Lee though, Ran-joo agrees to stand by the decision.

Back home, Woo-hak speaks to his brother who admit that finding Mok-ha was not coincidence. It was fate. He’d been working so hard to try and find her, sweeping over all the different deserted islands to “clean them up” and try to find her. Woo-hak is not happy with all these secrets and tells him he should have been honest, otherwise he wouldn’t live with regret.

How does Mok-ha handle her new song?

While the brothers patch up their differences, Mok-ha starts to work on her new song, which she names “Fly Away”. As she’s working, Bo-geol shows up and decides to heed his brother’s advice. He admits exactly how he feels and how finding one another is fate. Mok-ha already knows though and she agrees that it’s definitely fate.

As the pair playfight, Woo-hak sees them and decides he’s not going to tell the truth after all. He concedes to his brother and knows that he’s the one who’s supposed to end up with her rather than him. Anyway, Mo-rae decides that Mok-ha is the much better producer and wants Mok-ha’s help. She even agrees to give her writing credits too. And it works! They all agree to help one another and become better as a tight unit.

Speaking of which, Producer Park decides he wants to switch teams over to Mok-ha’s and “have fun”, having grinded it out for long enough. 

In the wake of all this drama, Mo-rae ends up as number 1 and she decides to follow Ran-joo on social media too. Although she’s topped the charts for 10 days in a row, Mok-ha is happy with slowly climbing the charts down at number 31. She’s also got a gig for a gymnasium too.

In a lovely way of rounding out this drama, Ran-joo and Bo-geol organize traffic and decide to hand out blue balloons to welcome Mok-ha onto the stage. It’s just like how she welcomed Ran-joo with her big comeback and it shows how far our characters have come.

What is Mok-ha’s perspective on life?

While Ran-joo questions whether Mok-ha is content enough with doing a small show like this, the latter reflects on her journey on the island. Her difficult task of having to navigate through all the trials and tribulations there eventually paved way for her embracing the sunlight.

The sunlight basically represents Mok-ha’s perspective on life. She content with working hard and making her own luck. If it happens and she becomes big then that’s amazing, but she’ also not going to stress over things she can’t directly control. 

That song she’s singing that was initially for Mo-rae? Well, it made her think of her time back on the island when she was working so hard and learnt this hard lesson. She’s content with just taking each day as it comes and not stressing over whether she’ll make it big or not – she’s someone who just wants to live in the moment and enjoy what she has.

How does Castaway Diva end?

Ran-joo is moved by Mok-ha’s words and rings President Lee. The latter is in the middle of a stock transfer agreement. However, Ran-joo decides they should put it on hold for now. She still thinks Mok-ha might top the charts. She finishes her live performance and revels in the rapturous applause that the crowd give her.

During the epilogue we cut forward in time. Mok-ha has won awards, including Song of the Year, while she’s every bit a part of the family as she was before. They’re all much closer than they were before and she likens them to her family as well.

The Episode Review

The final episode rounds things out in a worthwhile way, with a compelling message and some satisfying arcs rounded out for all our characters. The way every single character has a satisfying (or not) ending, feels justified in the grand scheme of things.

Mok-ha’s lesson about working hard but also not stressing about things out of your control is actually a really good life lesson in general. This is conveyed beautifully in the show, and it’s backed up by the way Ran-joo realizes what her true purpose in life is and what she really cares about.

Seeing Mok-ha embrace her family at the end is a great touch and the show does a good job of conveying exactly what family is and how it’s not necessarily blood that binds us. Mok-ha finally finds her perfect family at the end after being an orphan for so long, while both Woo-hak and Bo-geol get pretty good arcs.

Bong-wan’s ending is also quite poetic, seeing him with absolutely nobody around. While it hasn’t always hit the right notes, Castaway Diva does round things out with a satisfying conclusion by the end.