“It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” has aired its 15th episode a couple of hours ago, twitter is buzzing about the popular drama, it topped twitter worldwide trends with over 160K mentions as of this writing.
I am here to discuss my personal thoughts on the 15th episode of “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” and talk about why I absolutely loved it.
Before I do so, I’ll quickly recap the key highlights of “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” 15th episode, skip to the review section if you’ve already seen it.
The quick recap
Moon Young’s mom manages to lure in Gang Tae, he comes in and after speaking to her finds out that she killed his mother simply because of something she said. Apparently, Gang Tae’s mom worked for Moon Young and her mom, when she saw that Moon Young wanted to kill a bird because it was suffering from an injured wing, she suggested to her mother to send her to a hospital where her son goes.
Furious (for no good reason), the mom stabbed Gang Tae’s mom. Due to his fury, he tries to chock her but realizes he’s taking it too far and stops, she takes out a needle and injects him with a drug that causes unconsciousness.
Moon Young arrives at the place and also attempts to stab her mother because she keeps speaking hurtful nonsense words, when she attempts to stab her, Gang Tae stands before her and stops it. Sang Tae wakes up and sees that they’re having a fight and she’s about to stab her own daughter, he smacks her with a book.
The police arrive and take care of the situation. It turns out that she’s the one who sent the patient Park Ok Ran to stir trouble. She wants her daughter all for herself and hates that the two brothers are ‘ruining’ her daughter.
Sang In is at the police station because he made an illegal u-turn and basically kept running away while police tried to stop him.
When Gang Tae wakes up Moon Young takes him to the place of the incident and tells him to move out because she’ll never be able to be with him after all that happened and after how her mother ruined their lives. Gang Tae refuses and attempts to reason with her stating he can work around it and overcome it.
The next day, Gang Tae tells Sang Tae about the possibility of them leaving the place, Sang Tae says if she demands they leave without her, he’ll say, ‘over my dead body.’
Throughout the episode, Moon Young continues to demand they leave but Gang Tae and his brother continue to refuse her requests making up excuses.
Meanwhile, Gang Tae finally gets his first consultation by the head of the hospital who will quit due to what happened. He talks about how he’s not sure if he can actually get through this with Moon young together, he gets encouraged by the Dr. who tells him its better if they’re together.
Moon Young tells Sang In she’s done writing and is going to retire and sell her house. Sang In goes crazy not because of money but because she can’t communicate with people otherwise, he’s worried about her.
The entire squad them schemes with each other to get Moon Young to eat something, she arrives at the ahjumma place; she cooked her food, she gets emotional while eating it.
Gang Tae and Sang Tae plant a tree together in the name of their mother at the garden of the hospital.
After drinking with Gang Tae’s friend, Moon young returns slightly drunk to the house and sees Sang Tae’s drawings, he tells her he’s done his homework and she should see it for herself. She sees a portrait of Gang Tae who’s smiling while he’s sleeping, she becomes emotional.
The next day, Moon young visit the mother’s tree, Gang Tae follows her and asks her to stop pushing him away, she walks away from him while he yells ‘I love you, Ko Moon Young,’ ‘I said I love you, why are you leaving,’ and more.
They return home and she keeps insisting he leaves; he refuses to do so and gives her a kiss. He lifts her up to her desk and as he wants to kiss her, the episode ends *an unbearable cliffhanger*
The review
“It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” is the type of drama that anyone who watches till the end will probably love, I am one of these people. I haven’t seen many terrible comments about the drama. It has remained interesting till the very end and also very emotional.
While I do believe “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” has a couple of minor plot details I don’t understand/ agree with, I still believe it’s one of the best kdramas of 2020. This episode was long but I enjoyed my time a lot. I screamed during the last scene.
Sang Tae is still my fav character, he says it like it is and I just love with Gang Tae is all flustered by his honesty and sharp remarks. I loved how he became the one who saves them both, that’s a great parallel and a noticeable change from the first episodes.
I am glad Gang Tae got consulting but would’ve loved if that happened earlier on in the series and the same should’ve happened with Moon young, all of them need therapy and in the case of Moon young, she has a long way to go.
For a drama that focuses on mental health and has the setting of a psychiatric hospital, I expected a better focus on that specific part. It’s kinda sad that it was used merely as tool for plot development rather than playing a bigger part of it. It was always at the back of every single discussion but never mentioned as the beginning of healing, after all that happened to the characters with the mother, they really need therapy. It’s not easy to go through this and I do believe that Gang Tae and Moon Young will have issues due to this later on unless they take therapy or couple therapy to work their way through it.
Yet, a part of me does understand why the writer did this. He might’ve consider that part boring or simply too risky. It’s not easy to discuss mental health… that I know for a fact.
I also expected a better explanation regarding the mother and how she got all those surgeries, this seemed to be the most unrealistic part of the series for me honestly. They don’t even sound the same nor have the same body, I seriously expected her to be a copycat or her sister. I am surprised the writer went along with it. But again, it’s to make the plot more interesting and add substance to the final; such plot-device is needed to create more conflict between the main characters.
For a second project, screenwriter Jo Yong did an amazing job, better than 80% of what came out this year.
I also wanted to comment about how Gang Tae and Sang Tae refused to leave Moon young. I am so so happy the writer did this, I am sick and tired of the same cliché scenes reused over and over again in the finale of kdramas, we don’t need that mandatory separation period for the leads to make them realize they love each other.
I am so thankful the writer didn’t do this, I was so afraid of the 15th episode for this particular reason.
This goes without saying, the actors’ performances in this episode, yet again, amazing. I am so proud of all of them.
So what about you guys, what did you think of “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” 15th episode?
