One Final Choice?
We begin episode 15 of When I Was Most Beautiful with Ye-Ji receiving a visit from Yeon-Ja giving her a choice. Either she divorce Jin and let the brothers reconcile or stay with Jin and push Hwan out. She tells her to choose the former. As the two talk, Yeon-Ja finally opens up about her feelings and insecurities. Ye-Ji implores her to talk to her son and uses her own example as proof that it can really help. When she leaves, Hwan shows up and reveals he’s going back to the US. As he drives Ye-Ji home, he takes her out to a nice restaurant that evening. Before they go there, the pair stop by a special spot and discuss the past. Specifically, they touch on Hwan’s letter he sent (which she just threw away) and what will happen when he goes back to the US again. Meanwhile, Carry has disappeared which causes Jin to worry and try to find her. However, she’s decided to switch hospitals herself and messages Ye-Ji, telling her to show up. Ye-Ji does just that and speaks to Carry about what’s happened. Specifically, she tells Carry to show some sincerity regarding the current issues going on at JinHwan. When she leaves – having well and truly got through to Carry – Ye-Ji and Hwan return home. Ye-Ji tells him not to leave as when she breaks up with Jin, he’s going to need his brother. That evening, the two brothers and Ye-Ji get talking. Hwan admits that Ye-Ji was the first person to thank her. After all, Sung-Gon was too busy worrying about Jin, Jin was off doing other things and Yeon-Ja… Well, we’ve seen Yeon-Ja slam the door in his face back during the first episode. It’s a touching sentiment but one that’s smashed to bits by a jealous Jin asking whether she has feelings for Hwan and what would happen if they weren’t brothers. Disgusted, Hwan tells Jin not to torture Ye-Ji anymore and walks away. As he does, it gives Ye-Ji and Jin a chance to talk about the end of their relationship. At JinHwan, Jin makes a big statement against Chairman Bang. He mentions how Goryeo Oil kept him hidden all this time and plays his trump card – Carry Jung. She arrives at the board meeting to cast her vote. Police officers arrive not long after the damage as Carry is used as a sacrifice to keep Chairman Bang in power. Just before she’s taken away, Carry and Jin speak one last time. Jin thanks her for doing the right thing and admits that her rehab all those years in America helped bring him to where he is now. On the back of this, Ye-Ji’s Mother arrives at JinHwan to talk to her son-in-law. She’s heard about the divorce and bemoans what’s happened between the pair. She smashes into Jin, telling him how she never approved of a rich boy like him looking down on and mistreating Ye-Ji. Trusting that he’ll do the right thing, she walks away. Hwan goes on his dinner date with Ye-Ji. He gets dressed up in a suit and shows how much he knows about her, picking wine and food that she likes. As they get talking, she admits that he’s handsome and is envious of his future wife. Eventually Hwan asks one more time – will they ever have a future together? We don’t see the answer to this though, and instead experience a montage of Hwan and Ye-Ji’s time together through the years. Back home, Ye-Ji and Jin talk about love and specifically how Hwan’s love is the one thing that’s picked her back up when Ji’s let her down. However, Hwan happens to be listening to the whole conversation. As he slips away, Jin asks outright whether she’d be able to live without seeing Hwan ever again. In the morning, Hwan seizes his opportunity and asks Ye-Ji one more time if she loves him or not, which is where the episode ends.
The Episode Review
As we near the end of When I was Most Beautiful, this melodramatic web of emotion looks to be wrapping everything up now. The show has continued to deliver a strained and cliched love triangle while the issues at JinHwan haven’t helped matters either. While the acting is quite good, the show has struggled from the beginning with the constant time jumps and rushed marriage between Ye-Ji and Jin. Perhaps if we got some time to see these two fall in love then it would have been more believable. Instead, it was rushed from the beginning and then that questionable car accident with numerous plot holes just caused no end of problems. This has been a drama to forget, unfortunately, and the show looks to be ending in the worst way possible. I really hope Hwan and Ye-Ji don’t end up together. This drama works better without them in a relationship. Still, we’ll have to wait and see how this one ends.
