i want to address the criticism about how vincenzo was acting out of character when he decided to save cha-young and not help han seo/neutralise han seok.
so, at first i felt the same way (i was about to post about it) but i wanted to gather my thoughts beforehand and i’m glad i did because i have a new perspective on this.
i want to say that the criticism is completely valid and understandable and that not everyone will share my point of view and it’s okay.
especially because vincenzo did act out of character.
the vincenzo we all know and love is always composed, extremely smart, quick on his feet, has amazing instinct...
in the past few episodes especially, the writers have really shown how invincible he is. he outsmarts all his ennemies, and they admit defeat. e.g. choi myung hee tells han seok he’s not someone they can beat. han seok goes to prison as a last resort measure because it’s the only way he can protect himself.
han seo even said in this episode that it will be okay [even if han seok wants to kill him] because he has vincenzo, and vincenzo knows everything, keeps him safe and beats up all the bad guy. he even asks “how can you be so amazing?”
and surely, vincenzo just like his name suggests, always succeeds. they’ve been showing that consistently the entire drama, it’s satisfying because he always triumphs, often without anyone’s help or at least by his own means.
however, in ep 19, vincenzo doesn’t succeed, or doesn’t succeed on his own.
1. he doesn’t beat up all the bad guys. he almost does, but he’s out numbered, cornered until the tenants appear. the ones saving the day are the tenants. it’s all of them working together that saves the day. they succeed as a family, as people coming together to conquer, not just vincenzo being moves ahead of everyone.
2. he doesn’t know everything. he did not anticipate myung hee’s sacrifice and han seok getting out of jail without anyone knowing. he didn’t see their move coming.
3. he didn’t keep [them] safe. cha-young and han seo both get abducted. vincenzo couldn’t protect them from han seok.
with this scene, the writers literally told us what would happen/was happening.
so yeah, the rational thing for vincenzo to do would’ve been to allow cha-young to flee by freeing her leg, than go on to help han seo overpower han seok and disarm him. and if this was the beginning of the drama, that’s what he would have done.
but there’s nothing rational about vincenzo in that moment because he’s scared. this is the first time that we’ve seen him AFRAID. (except maybe when his brother’s men almost got him killed but i would argue that it’s different bc it was only about himself, about his life.)
vincenzo has just lost his mom, and realised how hard it was to miss someone who’s dead. at first, he didn’t have any strong enough attachment in south korea to truly know what grief meant.
vincenzo has a family now. he has friends, companions. people who he cares about and who care about him. he has someone to lose.
cha-young is obviously the closest to him and the person he cares for the most. there’s no denying that. apart from his mother, she is his weakness.
in this episode, we see him accept his feelings for her. i think he’s realised he loves her a long time ago, but up until he decided to not leave for italy at the end of ep 18, he had never allowed himself to give those feelings a chance, to give cha-young and himself a chance.
in ep 18 he realised that he couldn’t leave her and that it was possible for him to stay by her side (or at least come back later and then stay). he made up his mind.
so when han seok kidnaps her, vincenzo is scared. not for his own survival, but for her. he’s scared to lose her because he knows how bad his mother’s death hurt him and he would rather get killed than let cha-young die. he even decides to sacrifice himself for her.
he’s not thinking straight, there’s no logic behind his actions. he’s a man that’s scared to lose the person he loves the most.
and so the moment he has a chance, he prioritises her survival over everything. he doesn’t do what’s right, he only does what he can.
his new found family might be his biggest strength, but it’s also his biggest weakness, his achilles heel. vincenzo up until now has been a dark hero who was always victorious, invincible. but now he’s become human, someone with fears and flaws, a mortal.
we’re used to watch vincenzo and get this satisfying, gratifying feeling of the dark hero always beating the bad guys, always coming to the rescue, always ahead of everyone. but in tonight’s episode, or at least its ending, was vincenzo failing. this obviously throws off most watchers.
the ultimate win will be even more satisfying and amazing to watch because of how disappointing/frustrating the end of this episode was.
anyway, that’s just my take on it. i think the writers made a choice in doing this because it’s part of his character development.
i’d be very interested to talk about it tho, especially if you disagree!!! i definitely felt wronged when i first watched this lmao.
