This is my headcanon and you canât tell me otherwise. The epilogue in Switzerland is set a few years after the events of that piano concert. They have already found a way to be together more permanently. To me the house doesnât seem like a vacation house, it seems like a home home.Â
There is that photo of Se-ri on the bridge, not something one would frame for themselves. RJH definitely lives there. Check out the north Korean coffee kettle and other souvenirs as well. This is the sort of stuff one would have in their home.
The only thing holding RJH to North Korean is his parents, the fact that they could be killed if he were to defect. After they die, he has no reason to stay. Weâve already been shown that he is resourceful and would know exactly how to get out. Not to mention that everything in north Korean runs on money, if you have connections like Se-ri and RJH doâŚ.anything is possible. And to me these two people with all their power, well they would find a way.
Danâs mother travels out of the country a lot as well for business. I think the 2 weeks is the longest trip Se-ri takes while RJHâs parents are alive. Itâs not the only trip of the year. I doubt her employees would be saying âyouâre going to Switzerland again??â if it was a once a year sort of deal they wouldnât think she had a man. They even say âitâs lasting a while this timeâ. Come on who in the world would think itâs a relationship if their boss goes to switzerland for 2 weeks a year. Itâs her favorite 2 weeks of the year because of it being uninterrupted time.Â
Well with her wealth and his determination, and connections via his family, Iâm sure theyâll find a way eventually, either it is his parents passing away (since it has been about 6 years between him going back to NK and the epilogue meetup), or him somehow getting a long term mentoring position at Switzerland. Youâre telling me Danâs mom a department store owner can swing to Europe anytime, and Se-ri who created a whole scholarship for her man canât swing something in collaboration with Papa Ri?
I got the impression the student performing his song on stage was a full-time student in Switzerland. RJH is not studying abroad but is teaching NK scholarship winners. Seri has been traveling back and forth a lot but these two weeks are the longest continual time they have together.Â
When Seri first sees him in Switzerland she asks how dangerous his journey was, and he didnât answer, just said he got on the wrong train but reached his destination. âDestinationâ implies a final location to me, not just a two-week stay. For two people who find it torturous to be apart for even a moment, destination would not have been thrown around like that. It couldâve taken his Dad some time to manage the politics to make a permanent teaching position with the National Symphony. He did see his son cry in the car after leaving her. That man is powerful, the 3rd most powerful man in North Korean. A political manipulation genius, a man always one step ahead of the others. He got his son and 5 people in and out of South Korea. You best believe he can make it happen. Heâs not going to sit back and leave his only son living without his only dream. Plus RJH was never a flag waving patriotic North Korean anyway. He already expressed that he wanted to stay with SeRi in South Korea, have a child that looks just like her. Itâs kdrama script writing 101 to not have your lead character mention a deep desire such as this one unless its foreshadowing or serves a larger purpose. And Park Ji Eun is no noob writer.Â
Letâs look at the way the show itself references fate and destiny. Regardless of how impossible it may seem, these two always managed to find each other again. Fate is pushing them together and is on their side. I donât think fate wants them to meet 2 weeks a year. Fate didnât make them meet in Switzerland, in North Korea, in South Korea, and in Switzerland again for 2 weeks a year for the rest of their lives. I canât entertain that. A lot of people think that the epilogue on the hill and when she meets him for the first time again in Switzerland with the parachute are the same time frame. I donât think so. I really do think the piano concert is the ending and the picnic is the epilogue. Itâs years from then, when everything has been sorted about how to be together permanently and itâs a window in to happy every after. Just look at their body language and expressions in the last scene, they are totally at peace and seem to have gotten everything they wanted. Even the music radiates peace. Listen to the lyrics of Sigriswil that play as the camera pans out âwandering this strange night, wonât you be here by me? now I hold your hands, with you Iâll be alrightâŚhow does it feel, my friend? Itâs been a long day and nightâ THEY ARE NO LONGER WANDERING ALONE THAT IS THE POINT. period. It was a âlong day and night, but now I hold your handâ ⌠how does it finally feel to have your happy ever afterâŚ.my friend. IT REEKS OF OPTIMISM and closure. In film making the atmosphere says everything about what is unsaid in the script.Â
You best believe he wonât leave a stone unturned to be with her, see her grow old and live in the house of dreams with their twins. Just the fact that he vocalized this thought in the show leads me to believe that it did indeed happen.Â
Believe in what the show is telling us to believe. What itâs showing us, not telling us even. That love will always find a way.Â
Cloyâs ending also reminds me of very heavily of (spoiler) that of âmy love from the starsâ. It was written by Park Ji-eun, the same writer as CLOY. So yes they are forced to be apart in that show too, but he finds his way back and each time they meet its for longer and longer and its implied that one day it will be forever. If an alien could find a wormhole to make it back to his love interest, north korea isnât looking too bad. Same thing with her other star crossed lovers show âlegend of the blue seaâ. The mermaid finds him again against all odds and they live happily ever (plus a baby). Hey Iâm just saying that the precedent has been set on how this seperation works through our writers own works. Having seen all of Park Ji Eun I know exactly how she structures her endings. Itâs almost always the same. The mermaid made it back, the alien made it backâŚnorth korea is where we draw the line? Theyâre only apart for awhile till they figure it out, and they work hard to do so.
Whatever this image is from TVN left it unaired. They shot something they had to pull back. My crack theory brain says she looks a bit pregnant. Actually, that ainât even a crack theory, I stand behind it. Son yejin is so slim, and judging by the material of the dress it just wouldnât fall like that unless they were trying to make her look pregnant. Like LISTEN, just LISTEN to me. They put in the effort to get the actors in these outfits we have never seen before, they even gave seri flowersâŚwhY?? There are no other purely promo shots that didnât have footage attached. The only ones I can think of are the ones they took in front of a greenscreen for the photoframes inside their house. THIS WAS A REAL SCENE THAT WAS DELETED. South Korean dramas pre-film certain scenes (like the swiss ones) and live film the others to make slight changes to the storyline based on audience reaction. During airing there was quite a lot of political backlash a la north korea.Â
There are some stills TVN released that werenât screencaps. But ALL of them were in outfits relating to scenes we have seen, such as this one. It just would make no sense for them to go out of there way to get this image on the jam packed expensive swiss schedule and not just do greenscreen in korea like they did for all the other promo material UNLESS it was a real scene.Â
So you want more evidence for plot points that indicated the original, unaired, together forever in Switzerland ending?
Letâs look at some details, at one point in Episode 14 when Jeong Hyeokâs father is meeting with the bad guy Senior Colonel who tries to use photos of Jeong Hyeok in Korea as a bargaining chip, he says âYou should retire quietly. Using your health as an excuse wonât raise any suspicions.â now whilst this may be a casual reference to him being old and that health issues are plausible, itâs also possible Jeong Hyeokâs father has had some long term illness theyâve not mentioned which would add to why it wouldnât raise suspicions.
The main reason I thought of this is it would sort of line up with some other details, in the finale when theyâre deciding whether to send them back or not, at the NIS briefing they mention how the North has requested keeping it quiet and confidential, they mention âThey want the confidentiality term to be five years. Theyâre being sensitive about it because one of them is a high-ranking officers sonâ. Then if we fast forward toward the end when Se-ri is receiving the timed messages, a year passes after her birthday message from Jeong Hyeok, after that scene we see Jeong Hyeok having his farewell meal with the townspeople and preparing to leave after being accepted as a pianist for the National Symphony Orchestra, presumably around the same time as Se-ris birthday given that scene was right before. Se-ri then comes up with her Switzerland Music academy idea probably a few weeks or month or so after she read RJHâs text about meeting and then it tells as itâs one year later, Se-ri waits but doesnât meet him and returns home, her mum says âIt breaks my heart to see you return in disappointment every timeâ which if thatâs a correct translation it means itâs been more than once by this point. Add up this entire timelineâŚ.guess what it comes out to. FIVE YEARS. Thatâs how long it takes them to sort out a permanent solution for their problem.
When he chooses to defect it will be much easier for him considering heâs making trips to Switzerland already. All he would have to do is walk into a South Korean embassy in Zurich. They have an open door policy for North Koreans, he doesnât even need to cross the DMZ again.Â
You want even MORE proof? Okay my friend, Iâll bite. Why are there photos of a couple with children?? Honestly come on I really donât have to say more.
They had to leave the ending open. Due to the political situation, they couldnât exactly show RJH, a North Korean, defecting. Pretty sure our buddy Kim Jong-un would not be chill with that. However ridiculous it is, the show had multiple attacks on it while it was running by political parties saying it violated the ânational security actâ.
The ending was clearly cleverly re-edited to be less explicit so the viewer can read between the lines but the show-runners can protect themselves from lawsuits and public sentiment regarding a sort of maybe illegal situation. If you believe they met for two weeks a year for the rest of their lives, you donât know RiRi Ri-eally well ;)Â
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
izzy806
titsay
blakekathryn
romaincrisis
annaxmalina
gummygunk
ellievsbear
