The Bench
Ahead of the finale tonight, Hi Bye Mama delivers yet another harrowing and emotional episode with a big cliffhanger. There were some powerful and impressive performance from the main cast too while we are still left to wonder just what will happen to our main heroine and whether everyone will get their happy ending. Episode 15 of Hi Bye Mama starts in 2015 with Yu-Ri writing to her baby in her diary and telling her how she is looking forward to finally meeting her. We then cut back to the present as she bursts into Mi-Dong’s place, telling her she wants to live and have more time with her family and friends. At the same time, Gang-Hwa has just found that that Yu-Ri is dying again and demands to know why. Hyeon-Jeong tells him she was given 49 days to find her place as his wife and Seo-Woo’s Mum but she is not able to do it as she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. While sitting at a bus stop, Yu-Ri comes face to face with Gang-Hwa who confronts her about not telling him she is dying again. He desperately shouts at her about not telling him and asks how he is supposed to live if he has to lose her for a second time. She tells him that her place is gone and that she wasn’t able to go up to the next life until he was happy but he never let go of her. He tells her that if getting her place back means she can live then she has to. The next day, Pil-Seung arrives at the charnel house to pay his respects to his family. After recognizing a picture of Yu-Ri, he sees the exorcist who is there to take Hye-Jin. Pil-Seung stops him and takes him away when he hears him call his family useless spirits. Yu-Ri heads to Hyeon-Jeong’s restaurant to relay her conversation with Gang-Hwa. Her friend agrees with him as her living should definitely be a priority and tells her to grab that chance, while Min-Jeong tells Gang-Hwa she is not ready to talk yet. Geun-Sang researches Sang-Bong after he was told by Mi-Dong that he claims that his best friend killed him and framed the match fixing on him by making it look like a suicide. That friend also later committed suicide. However, all he wants is his mum knowing that he didn’t kill himself because of her. Yu-Ri decides to wait for Min-Jeong to try explaining herself. Min-Jeong wants to know why she lied and why she keeps saying sorry instead of demanding to get her husband and daughter back. Yu-Ri tells her that it’s because she is grateful and wanted to see Seo-Woo quietly. Back home, Min-Jeong tells Gang-Hwa she will leave him as he and Seo-Woo were Yu-Ri’s family first. He apologies again but is unable to say anything else while Eun-Sook takes her daughter out for a walk. She explains that she used to pray for Gang-Hwa to remarry but she did it for her and not for him in case she was watching. Yu-Ri tells her she did well as she is the only one who understood her. We then see a flashback of Eun-Sook sitting in the playground Seo-Woo used to go to with Min-Jeong. It’s here we see that Min-Jeong made sure she came whenever Eun-Sook was sitting on the bench. The next day, Sang-Bong’s mother arrives in Geun-Sang’s office who gives her her son’s medical files. She reads that he wanted to resolve his issues with his parents which makes her realize he didn’t resent her. We then see a flashback of him coming out to his parents and how badly they reacted. However, after his session with the doctor, he decided to visit them to resolve the issues. Gang-Hwa and Seo-Woo arrive in Yu-Ri’s house to take her out which surprises her and her parents. They go to an amusement park and spend the day together going on rides and having fun. After the little girl falls asleep, Gang-Hwa admits that she has been reminding him of her so much that it is the reason why he wasn’t able to let go. On her way home, Eun-Sook sees Min-Jeong sitting alone on a bench so she decides to sit next to her. She tries reassuring her by admitting she is Seo-Woo’s mother and nothing bad will happen. She then leaves and thanks her for minding her all these times. In the evening, Gang-Hwa takes Yu-Ri back home and suggests that she quit her job in school and takes her place back as Seo-Woo’s Mum. She tells him he needs to stop as he has done enough and she can’t take her place back. She reveals that if she lives, Seo-Woo will see ghosts all her life as Mi-Dong told her and she doesn’t want to be the reason why. In the charnel house after praying, Mi-Dong rushes to the temple where she sees a wishing paper from Eun-Sook which she wrote, wanting to see her daughter once more. We then see a montage of what Yu-Ri’s life would have been if she had changed her mind at the last minute and went back home that fateful day. We see her life with Gang-Hwa and Seo-Woo and how happy she would have been with a different “tomorrow”, which is where the episode ends. After this big reveal, it seems that Eun-Sook may have been the one responsible for her return to life as her motherly love was so powerful or perhaps it is a combined wish from both of them. This was quite the interesting twist and I am hoping Yu-Ri will be allowed to (hopefully) take her new place by her mother’s side. Yu-Ri and Gang-Hwa gave some impressive performances at the beginning of the episode and it is very hard not to root for them. Although it looks like Yu-Ri has made up her mind regarding her husband. Let’s not forget poor Min-Jeong either, who has been an excellent mother and did her best as a wife. There are still quite a few stories and plots to resolve and I am hoping the last episode will manage to resolve them fully. Hi Bye Mama may not be the strongest drama this year but it is one well worth watching thanks to the warm and emotional story tackling some very important subjects about life and love, helped in part by its impressive cast.
