A White Christmas
Episode 16 of Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol begins with Ra-Ra opening her online Lala Land with the star of the show playing piano – Mimi! With so many students, Ra-Ra contemplates whether to bring in another piano and teases Seung-Ki and Ha-Young that they may need to move out. Next door, the women from the salon discuss Joon studying in the US and how he and Ra-Ra spend all night talking and texting on the phone. Both of them are still wearing their relationship rings but Joon is clearly struggling. Ra-Ra is awoken by Joon phoning while sitting on the edge of his bed. He has an IV drip next to him but mentions how he misses Mimi and her. She realizes this is a bit out of character for him, especially given he usually scolds her, but follows his request when he asks her to sing so he can fall asleep. With tears falling gently down his face, he reminisces on old times. In the morning, Eun-Seok rings Ra-Ra with good news – Mr Kim has woken up. She rushes in to see him and the pair discuss Joon being Dodosolsollalasol. She also confirms to him that Joon has moved abroad to study but he left behind a letter for Kim to read. She hasn’t read it out of courtesy for Joon, but hands it over and leaves. Ra-Ra heads back home and starts making sushi for a grateful Sook-Kyeong and Ha-Young. Only, when she mentions Ha-Young’s boyfriend, she quickly changes her tact and becomes suspicious of her daughter. Ra-Ra manages to save face though, steering the conversation across to Ra-Ra proposing to Joon. They decide to do so at an upcoming Christmas party – which Joon agrees to head along to. And Christmas time arrives! The party goes ahead and everyone gets into the festive spirit. There’s drinks, food and all the Eunpo residents showing up to celebrate. They comment on how it’s a white Christmas outside as snow falls lazily to the ground, blanketing the ground with a frosty hug. All of them await Joon showing up but unfortunately his plane has been delayed thanks to the heavy snow so he’s going to be late. Phoning his number, Joon doesn’t pick up but they do have a video of him playing piano instead. The Christmas concert goes ahead and each of the different residents take their turn to perform, including Jae-Min who completely shocks his Father with a pitch-perfect rendition of Flight Of The Bumblebees. Eventually the final performance goes ahead for Ra-Ra and Joon. Using a video of Joon performing from home, he and Ra-Ra do their piano duet together – long distance style. Interspersed around this are numerous shots of their time together. It’s an emotional performance and one that sees Mr Kim sitting solemnly by, struggling to hold back tears. As we soon find out, the contents of the letter ask Kim to take good care of his health given Joon’s ill and has blood cancer. He needs to receive treatment but promises to return soon. That evening, Ra-Ra gets Mimi dressed up in a Christmas outfit. Honestly this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. So much so that I’ve had to add a picture of it here.
Instead of Joon waling in the shop though, Yun-Sil shows her face. They sit together and eventually she reveals the truth about Joon. He recorded the piano-playing video a month ago and didn’t want to tell her. Her presence alone gave him strength to carry on and she thanks Ra-Ra for her help over the past few weeks. As a token of her appreciation, she hands over a gift – that being the teacup Ra-Ra wanted to use with her future husband. That gesture, of course, insinuates that he too wanted to be married. Remembering her own words echoed back by Joon, Ra-Ra starts crying over the loss of Joon. We then cut forward 5 years in time. Lala Land is still open and Ra-Ra happens to be on the phone to someone regarding a little girl called Ji-A. This happens to be Seung-Ki and Ha-Young’s child. Sook-Kyeong is still with the divorced ladies and both Ha-Young and Seung-Ki join the TWD. Ra-Ra also joins their group too. Jae-Min is off to Germany to perform the piano but with Mr Kim and Joon gone, Sook-Kyeong comments how much she misses them both. Ra-Ra smiles sadly and agrees, struggling to hold back tears. Eun-Seok meanwhile finally caves and decides to get back with Young-Joo again, who’s finally happy to be serious. She promises to be a loving wife and agrees to let Eun-Seok stay in Eunpo. Afterward, he breaks the news to Ra-Ra and thanks her for helping him find himself again. With Joon gone, Ra-Ra continues to do her best living each day as best she can. She plays the piano alone…until Joon suddenly rocks up again! He’s alive after all! It looks like he’s fully recovered too but she’s not happy he lied to her. The truth is, Joon really wanted to wait until he was fully recovered before seeing her. As they sit together, he kisses Ra-Ra and it seems all is right in the world.
The Episode Review
Everything we’ve seen over the weeks has really been leading up to this, especially with Joon hinting that he could potentially pass away. Yet I – like many others I assume – didn’t see this coming and it was definitely quite emotional. However, after that absolute rollercoaster ride of emotion, we do get a happy ending for all involved as Joon returns. It’s a little fairytale-esque and the sudden return perhaps undoes some of the emotional weight the reveal about Joon’s death actually had earlier on. There is, however, a theory going around that the Joon we saw at the end isn’t actually the real one but an apparition summoned by the music. It is admittedly quite abrupt the way he suddenly pops back up and I can understand why some people would be torn over this one. So what do you think of that ending? Is Joon really alive? Or is this all in Ra-Ra’s mind? As a healing drama and a romcom to boot, this one definitely hits all the right notes though. It’s not perfect but definitely has some very memorable moments throughout. When it comes to Korean dramas in 2020, Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol is definitely up there with one of the best and it’s most certainly had a lot of dramatic and funny moments along the way. I’ve really enjoyed this one but that ending is definitely going to make or break this for a lot of people. I’m definitely going to miss our characters going forward though but perhaps it may have been better had Joon stayed dead all along.
