If ever there was a production team who seemed to take sadistic delight in tormenting its loyal viewers, then SETTV‘s King Flower (Substitute Princess) wins the award hands down. I don’t even know how to describe them anymore – brilliantly machiavellian in manipulating the viewers to dance on a string, increasingly losing their mental acuity like Flowers for Algernon so we can’t fault them, or really just a bunch of clueless people trying to balance too much and ended up servicing too little? The written preview for the final episode 21 is out and its caused a fresh stir of worry that the drama will have an open ending. Everyone is screaming that if it ends like The Fierce Wife heads will roll. Speaking of TFW, I can’t believe that my dislike of James Wen‘s Lin Guan Jun actually is greater than my loathing for his Wen Rui Fan. I mean, c’mon! Wen Rui Fan – the guy who went to his sick wife’s hospital bed and forced her (holding her hand, no less) to sign divorce papers so he can flounce off to be with his floozy and has the gall to tell her “please let me go, I don’t just love you anymore, why do you keep holding on to me.” Rui Fan makes me see red but at least his weakness and assholery was well-developed, Lin Guan Jun is just one giant empty personality and purpose suck. His existence offends me from a narrative perspective. Maybe it’s the law of opposites kicking in, Terry’s unmatched awesomeness can only exist in a world where Lin Guan Jun’s douchebaggery provides a counterbalance.
SETTV Sunday night dramas are almost always live-filmed on the same schedule as live-filmed K-dramas so starting in episode 8 I started seeing more and more Terry as fans clamored for him starting around episode 3 when poor Liang Yen tumbled off a cliff. Normally SETTV Sunday dramas flounder on the episode length, the ending is set but really obvious and crappy filler material is inserted in the last few episodes to extend the drama leading to the final happy ending. This is the first time I’ve seen genuine narrative turmoil in the writing team and the bipolar story that resulted would be amusing if I weren’t so invested. I’m going to really miss this sucker when it ends this weekend, but I also feel like its ending a really bad relationship and finally I’m free to move on. I’m hoping Annie Chen and George Hu‘s Love Around is just okay because I need to take a break from SETTV now. Reading the written preview I get why some fans are saying its going to be an open ending where Da Hua doesn’t pick either guy but they are all good friends, but I think that won’t be the case. My gut tells me her heart lies with Terry and once she knows Guan Jun is fine and has moved on, she’ll finally have the guts to pick the most perfect man on the planet and spend the rest of her life making it up to him for dragging him through emotional hell and back.
Written preview for episode 21 (final episode):
Because of Guan Jun’s sacrifice to allow her to move on, Da Hua cannot accept the happiness right in front of her. But she excoriates herself because her indecision has hurt Terry, who has always sincerely given his heart to her. Da Hua comes to apologize and say goodbye to Terry, unwilling to continue letting them be sad around each other. The two of them have so many things they want to say to each other, but in the end they each say their farewells.
After going through so much, Da Hua decides to start anew and go to Australia to work and study. And Guan Jun is the first person to support her! For so long Guan Jun oppa has always been to Da Hua, the person who is nicest to her and understands her the most. Faced with this parting, when they meet again, will each become more mature and different?
Even though Da Hua still doesn’t know how she really feels, but when she takes the step towards her next adventure, the two most important men in her emotional world, the two men that she has a hard time choosing between, appears like Heaven’s destiny beside her again! Perhaps, a person’s life has many transit passengers, but love as an impossible to solve equation will follow her on the entire journey. In the end, who will win Da Hua’s heart?
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Um. What. She had better choose Terry. Otherwise F this entire production. Seriously. I was so certain she was going to pick Terry, but now it seems uncertain from the preview. UGH. 2 days.
I'm sure its a misdirection. The written previews usually only reveal part of the episode narrative. Two more long days....
Hope they will make it look like DH would fall hard for Terry :) so they can be together
ROFL! I loved your first line LMAOOO XD
Sigh I've given up watching this show ms koala save for hanging on your every word for terry goodness, I don't think my heart or brain can take anymore terry torture or the mindfart that construed the crappy personalities of guan jun or da hua.
hahaha that was really well articulated! I couldn't get the right words out, but wow that's so perfect.
I'm pretty sure she'll end up with Terry. On a side note I can't help laughing so hard at the failed writing ability in this drama. I mean Johnson, Kai Le, the parents, Director Du. Where is the opposition?? Are they seriously going let Bu's daughter be the ONLY one who's not okay with what's going on? I don't even care what happens to those characters (and obviously neither do the writers) but there was so much potential for realistic actual drama/chaos and they just let all the potential fall away! I don't get it...
I am not watching this show but I do read your recaps. Do they ever address the fact that it's really disturbing for Terry to fall very quickly for his dead love's doppelganger? For whose plastic surgery he paid! I just can't get over the weirdness/ickiness of this premise. I mean, poor heroine's choice is between a personalityless loser (GJ) and a guy who in any sane world would be viewed as creepy/issuefull under the circumstances (Terry).
@dangemousie - completely agree with you. That's one of the reasons why i am not too unhappy with the ending eventhough it could be an "open-ended" ending. Da Hua has to KNOW what she wants, who loves and what she wants to do with her life. Be her own person instead of having to marry one guy or the other. It is a modern world and she does not have to if she does not want to. I find it difficult to digest that, Terry, who is the PERFECT guy is falling so quickly for his dead's love look-alike whom he has "made happen" (he actually made a second Liang Yen) and if I am Da Hua i would like to make sure that he loves the ME (including all the faults the hang-ups etc).
Hi mousie!
Long time no see~ :-D
I really didn't ship DH with Terry at all when the drama first aired. And never thought I would either, because of that very "she looks like LY and he made her that way" conundrum.
The drama never once addressed this issue because ultimately it was a non-issue. I can't explain why it's not icky but it isn't because Terry doesn't see DH as LY despite them looking the same. He's always seen both girls as different in his love for them and in their interaction and relationship with him.
It doesn't come across in recaps but onscreen Terry and Da Hua's scenes are very natural, effortless, non-squicky, and very sincere. It's like the definition of obscenity "I don't know how to describe it but I'll know it when I see it." In principle their relationship ought to be challenged for that very reason, but in execution it becomes a non-issue.
Terry does all his soul searching about falling for DH off-camera, while the drama does shoot itself in the foot by focusing the last few episodes of angst on DH pining over GJ being the noble idiot.
Terry liking DH isn't creepy or fast, I can only say that the majority of viewers felt it when the gradual way it unfolded and totally approve and understand it as being sincere.
Thanks to Chris Wu's graceful sensitive interpretation of Terry. Also credit must go to Nikkie. I could never mistake DH for LY or vice versa. They look identical but are completely different.
Let me add that what made it work so unexpectedly was that Terry appeared to be totally caught off guard in how DH affected him, and actually tried to keep himself from getting too close to her or opening up to her. But their interactions just flowed so naturally from a caring friendship and never once did it seem odd that she looks identical to LY. He always seemed so sad and melancholy, and she got him to smile again. It was really so very simple, a love flowing from an appreciation of each other.
Yes, Terry was always so melancholy .....I think that's one of the reasons we want him to be happy. We know he missed LY with all his heart tho' being the graceful guy he is ...he kept it to himself and bravely soldiered on. How much he must have missed LY, how sad he must have been.....but he couldn't show it. He had to keep it together for his family, his company and all the workers.
I'm really concerned about my mental health post-Terry. I won't be surprised at all if I have post-breakup symptoms. He's been my reason to look forward to Sundays!
Ok, these preview writers are just messing' with us, right? Sadistic *bleep*s!
I will have to eat my words if I am wrong. But I still think that SETTV does the misdirection in the previews ALL the time. So I still think the end game would be that DH ends up with Terry. Is there a slight chance it could be an open ending, sure, but I highly doubt it. My money is on Terry and DH.
To be honest, I don't think Terry should be with DH. Terry should just move on too. :)
That would be something. Terry deciding to take some time out or even moving on. DH coming back from Australia and finding out he has gone off on a world tour with his adrenaline crazy friend. She can wait and pine for him. I think I could live with that.
I agree with a caveat that during his travels Terry meets a wise woman who can return his love with equal fervor.
Is it Sunday yet??
really?! am gonna get crazy and just chop some head off the production and SSETV when she's not gonna end with Terry. it's gonna be a grave offense to the viewers. what, are they still playing with us? for pete's sake, it's the finale, all right, bring in some decent ending will you, SSETV?! darn, i'm all anxious now!
thanks koala sis!
I also don't watch the drama but come and read the recaps. And still I am worried about the ending. I think too that DH will choose Terry.
Just saw the Final Episode of 21 and I can sing happy happy me :) since I don't have to flip a table today ;) ... Looking forward to your final review for this one..... thank you so much for all your clever reviews!!!!!!! You're such a good writer!