East of Eden

First, I want to thank everyone who read and commented on my recaps (:
i really had a lot of fun recapping this show and i loved reading everyones comments.
There were times when i wanted to give up on the show, but i kept going because of this blog and i am glad that i did.
*also, i will be recapping something else on this blog in the future, so make sure to come back and check for my future recaps! meanwhile you can visit my personal blog here

DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED THE ENDING YET!!

1. my opinion of the ending
Although I am dissatisfied, I am okay with the ending and I don’t hate it. I just wish it had been a little different.
I wanted a big showdown. I wanted Shin tae hwan, Dong chul, and Dong wook to all be there and for Dong wook to realize by himself who the good person was.
Instead, he found out from Rebecca. And insetad of a huge showdown, Shin tae hwan was tricked by Kyung tae and killed silently, away from everyone while Dong chul got shot by a MINOR CHARACTER.
More than anyone else in this show, Dong chul and Young ran deserved a happy ending… but they didn’t get one. Every time I remember their happy moments playing in the snow and talking together in episode 56, I get really really upset about Dong chul dying. They finally got their happiness and it was pulled away from them almost instantly.
But a day for them is like a thousand years, right?
Really though, I probably would have been upset with any ending, just because the show had ended. We have been following the characters for 30 years, and to suddenly have it end seems to not make sense. I want to know how the rest of their lives turn out.
*My favorite thing about the end: Dong chul was scared of dying but calmed down and let go when Young ran promised to meet him again in the future. That part totally made me cry.*
The only major disappointment from the ending for me was the cheesy heaven-family scene. I don’t care what Dong chul dreamed about while he was dying, I want to know if the family ended up happy or not. I would rather have seen and actual scene from the future with everyone happy.
I am upset by the ending because it ended too painfully. Dong wook and Young ran would both feel so much guilt from Dong chul’s death that I don’t even want to think about their pain in that scene. Although Ki chul’s death in episode 2 is still the saddest scene in this drama, Dong chul’s death was the most painful.
But this was a tragic drama. How could the ending have been happy?

my opinion of the drama as a whole
I love the drama.
Although the ending was not satisfying, it didn’t take away from the drama. Especially the beginning episodes. The beginning was incredibly tragic and really really well done. I remember wishing that Song seung heon would come in and replace Kim bum, but after Kim bum left I kind of missed him. Everyone did such a good job in the early episodes.
The middle got a little draggy. There were definitely times when I avoided writing my recap until Sunday night just because I didn’t feel a need to watch the show. Luckily I did continue, because the middle had a few parts that made it worth watching. (The reunion of Dong chul and Dong wook… Ki sun and Wang gun… etc)
The end I have already explained… disappointing mostly because we don’t know what happens to the rest of the characters.
Also, in a drama that is so much about good vs. evil, to have the goodest person die totally unfairly seems to send kind of a bad message.
It definitely wasn’t the ending I was expecting, but it was really well done. The acting in that last scene at the warehouse was awesome. I don’t care what “experts”/”critics” say about this drama- it was amazing. Viewer ratings show that people loved it, and based on how many people read my recaps, I know people loved it. And it deserved that love.
East of Eden was an epic tragedy, and even though I usually hate “sad dramas” I thought it was amazing♥♥♥♥♥