“Destined With You” Ending Explained- Episode 16 Recap And Review

“Destined With You” has wrapped up its run earlier today, let us discuss the finale and explain the ending!

“Destined With You” episode 16 recap

The episode begins with Hong Jo being kidnapped by Na Jung-Beom. She wakes up and reveals that the grandpa confessed, and she didn’t drink the drink he gave him to give to her and that she’s here to stop him. she also says police are on their way.

He then has some tools with him and plans on casting a spell, he asks her to change but she refuses, she then hits him and runs away. The two get into a physical fight as she runs away from him in the woods. Shin-Yu arrives at the scene as well as the police but they miss them narrowly.

After another fight between Hong Jo and Na Jung-Beom, he overpowers her and handcuffs her, its now night, when she wakes up and it’s a full moon, he forces her to drink something, he’s trying to cast a sort of spell bounding them together for eternity, he forces the drink on her but police and Shin-Yu catch him as he’s doing it. She passes out and Shin-Yu rushes to her side.

Later, at the hospital she’s treated and is fine.

Meanwhile, Na Jung-Beom is being interrogated about killing his wife which he says he did because she kept smiling at other dudes.

Hong Jo goes into a hospital room and is visited by Shin-Yu’s parents. Shin-Yu’s father is still on the fence about her but Shin-Yu mentions grandma had a conception dream and it’s a girl. Everyone is shocked.

The next day, Hong Jo meets the grandpa at the park and he talks about how scared he was of Na Jung-Beom and how he truly didn’t know it was that bad. He also fears that if he goes to jail U-Ram will have to go to an orphanage.

When Hong Jo arrives at work, the co-workers are watching a video exposing Na-Yeon for what she did to Hong Jo as kids and what she’s been doing for the job she’s been assigned as the mayor’s daughter. Of course, her reputation is in shambles.

Shin-Yu hands his resignation to the mayor who is upset by it and says he will not allow it. Shin-Yu tells him to worry about his daughter instead. Na-Yeon meets with Hyun-Seo at night and brings up marriage, he explains he was only with her because she was Shin Yu’s and he wouldn’t marry a former bully. She’s stunned because she just now found out.

She goes to Hong JO’s house to confront her and Hong Jo does not allow her insults to pass, she corrects her and says its her fault she is in this mess.

Then police show up and arrest Na-Yeon for aiding and abetting in Na’s escape. She claims she didn’t know and screams.

At the trial of the whistleblower Jae-Gyeong

Jae-Gyeong decided to turn on the mayor and Hyun-Seo and testify they tried to bribe him and expose their crimes and revealed it was his intention all along. Shin Yu defends him and he’s acquitted of the charges.

At work

Despite rejecting Gong Seo-Goo’s proposal, Ma Eun-Young sits down with him for lunch after learning he’s injured. Later, the team has dinner after the couple made up and discuss a possible wedding and how wedding halls are completely booked. Ma Eun-Young says not to worry as they decide to marry in a park. Everyone attends and Hong Jo catches the bouquet.

A while later

As Shin Yu settles for his job back at his original law firm, Kim Wook says he’s joining his mother and will pursue acting as his passion.

At the drama’s shooting location, Song Yoon-Joo sees her husband brought her a support truck to show his affection.

At the police station

The grandpa is being interviewed for his complacency in the crime, Shin Yu steps up and will act as his lawyer to defend him.

Jae-Gyeong moves out, he’s now been acquitted from the charges and he will move into the blue house as many politicians want to work with him. he mentions whether Shin Yu proposed but she says no.

At night, it turns out who will move next to her is Shin Yu, they’re now practically living together. on another day, they have a house welcoming party and cook meals for the parents and the grandma. It does not taste good.

They mention marriage as now the father is pushing for it and the grandma asks about the daughter she dreamt about, the parents of Shin Yu reveal it was them, they’re having a baby.

On another day, at the beach where Hong Jo spread her father’s ashes, Shin Yu asks for his approval and for her hand in marriage, she says yes.

On another day, The couple takes the original box of the spells and burry it where its supposed to be. Then a montage shows them walking happily together in a field.

In the post credit scene.

Shin Yu’s past self is seen digging up the box and taking the book of spells with him.

The end.

“Destined With You” ending explained- FAQ

“Destined With You” ending thoughts

That was an okay ending. I think if you liked the drama, to begin with, this ending was more than enough for you and you probably enjoyed it.

There are a lot of parts of the ending that are highly ridiculous even with the suspension of disbelief including how Hong Jo just goes with the kidnapper unprotected, as if they couldn’t coordinate with the police to save her and arrest him more efficiently.

Yes, she is right, he needed to be caught, but couldn’t there have been a better less dumb way to construct that final step? A way that would ensure she’s protected.

I am a woman and I tell you this, any woman with a brain wouldn’t do what Hong Jo did.

Aside from that, I didn’t like how the parents of Shin Yu just reconciled because the father was obviously very emotionally abusive and neglectful. Years and years of calling her dumb, correcting her in front of people, not treating her respectfully, and worse, and then she gets back with him, and not only that, but they’re having another baby…. Just right when she’s picking up her career again….

I mean the writing choices are hella odd wherever I look, its fascinating how you can fumble on every aspect like that even with the ending.

One other plot line that was kinda funny is when Jae-Gyeong gets love calls from politicians after being a whistleblower as if any major politician would ever want to work with a known whistleblower, I just thought it was unintentionally funny.

Aside from that, the way he proposed to her was nice asking for her father’s permission like that. The two actors also had good chemistry.

“Destined With You” review- final thoughts

“Destined With You” has flawed writing across the board in various aspects. It leaves a lot to be desired. I definitely think there was a good script there somewhere waiting to bloom but it never happened.

I think the drama would’ve benefited a lot from a lower episode count and a bigger focus on the ‘fantasy’ aspect in the earlier episodes. I honestly thought at first that a good deal of the drama’s script will be focused on the spells and what not because they’re very interesting, but instead, she cast like 3 spells at first and for a good 4 to 5 episodes we focus on the male lead constantly complaining about the spell, saying the most corny/cringy stuff about how he’s helplessly in love with her while looking deeply annoyed and offended he is in love with her.

I mean, I wouldn’t have minded 2 episodes to focus on that, but having a good chunk of the drama’s earlier episodes focus on this made it stale and at times, quite frustrating.

If I wanted to deeply dive into the writing decisions I don’t agree with, we’d be up here all night. This includes the stalker issue, the co-worker and the fidgeting treatment of Hong Jo among her co-workers among many other issues.

The female lead has been a point of contention among fans and for good reason. She is not confident; she begs for attention in the worst of ways and overall does not scream a ‘strong female lead.’ She only gains strength once she’s in love with a very competent handsome rich man, which does not send a good message, like, at all… if you think about it for like 5 minutes.

Some will say ‘take it at face value,’ but that’s a weak argument especially when you consider Rowoon has a large young fanbase. This reinforces the idea that women could be worth much more depending the man they attach themselves into. I could dive even deeper into the social commentary of this but I don’t think the screenwriter herself even thought of this for like more than 2 minutes.

Some will retort with ‘you’re thinking it too far’ or such but the thing is…. The screenwriter made it a point to bring up how pathetic the female lead is and on many many occasions, so it makes sense for a portion of people to bring this point up.

Also, Just because you don’t intend for something to come off a certain unflattering way, doesn’t mean it didn’t….

Imma level with you, I don’t hate exploring this idea per se, there are women like this, and you do gain a new perspective when dating and sometimes even more confidence, but there is a right and a wrong way to go about this in terms of writing…

If I were to fix it, I’d say I think the screenwriter could’ve focused on building up her confidence individually first in separate situations where the male lead couldn’t reach/save her, and then tying that to the love aspect eventually, I think this would’ve made that part of the plot more palatable.

Another huge issue with the script was the father-mother relationship of Shin Yu which is passed off as a ‘side’ plot, but even if taking it at face value, its highly problematic, the way it was handled and the way it was resolved too. Every side of it.

The fact that the mother takes his insults as some ‘minor’ inconvenience when the plot calls for it was disturbing. The way its just considered a ‘side’ plot that comes and goes and only considered of value when the run time needs to be extended and some drama needed to be added did not sit right with me either.

I don’t mind such plot devices being used, however, have some perspective and depth to the said topics. The screenwriter ends up treating the issue wayyyy too lightly which comes off a bit offending.

JTBC, tvN, SBS and MBC are all complaining of declining viewership for their weekday programs blaming all sorts of factors neglecting to mention the worst offender, bad writing. Compared to their weekend counterparts, the weekday dramas are mostly not even comparable in terms of writing, for like 70% of them.  

I have a lot of other criticisms about the drama’s writing, but since this is about final thoughts, I’ll say one last thing. Overall, “Destined With You” was a disappointing drama, in my opinion.

I liked it at first, and despite the obvious corny-ness, I saw some endearing qualities to it, but as time went by, that became frustrating instead.

What did you think of the ending? did you like it or not?