*spoilers* The ENDING ANALYSIS

For those who didn't understand the ending... This is @Cecilia's perspective on it over at @Soompi. Thought I should share :) A BIG THANK YOU to her ♥

PART 1

One korean review made a point I really like, that this drama is not about the good guys chasing the bad guys and catching them, but about CHOICE. Why did Hyun disappear for a year? why did he not tell Ji An what he was doing? What he did ultimately led to Min making his choice to finally break away from Lee Joon Young and be the real Lee Min, Hyun's brother, and be with Hyun.

If you think back to ep 15, or beginning of ep 16, Min was realising that 'a happy ending' looked more and more impossible.

He felt he had to choose to go with Lee Joon Young or Hyun, but with both of these options, never once did the choice of turning himself in cross his mind. It just didn't make sense to him. In fact, he didnt even see the need to break away from Lee Joon Young.That's what Ji An made clear when she was talking to Min. She said that it would get harder and harder for Hyun stuck in the middle, overlooking Min's crimes but knowing that Min needs to be responsible for his crimes. Ji An explained to Min that it's not right to harm anyone, and that one needs to reflect on their wrongs and pay the price, that even if Min doesn't understand, just try to think about it for Hyun, otherwise the 2 of them can't be happy. At this point in time though, Min still did not even consider turning himself in because it didnt make sense to him, having been raised by Lee Joon Young. That's why he chose to kill Lee Joon Young, to make himself and LJY disappear. He didnt understand that was not what Hyun wanted, he thought it would be better for Hyun if he disappeared. 

I think that's why the one year Hyun spent with Min was important. During that time, Hyun and Min caught up on the 20 years they lost and it was through this time that Min understood that Hyun wouldn't be happy without him. And over this time, Min slowly started to change. Hyun kept feeding the good wolf and Min changed. Even though he was offered a new identity by Lee Joon Young, choosing that would mean he was choosing Lee Joon YOung and his old ways, and Min decided to not take the new identity and chose Hyun instead, and went to turn himself in. The smile he had on his face as he headed off to the new start, because he knew this was what Hyun had wanted. What a big change!!!!

In this sense, LJY lost to Hyun because he had thought that it would be impossible for Min to change, since during his critical period, he was influenced by LJY. And this is where the choice bit is important. If it was a typical kdrama, LJY would be caught, or he would have killed himself or something along those lines. But if we look at this drama as a drama about choice, the ending tells us your future depends on your choice. Min made his choice, he was not bound by the way he was born or his past experiences. What a victory!

And it is with this perspective we can consider LJY's ending. It's true he's still on the loose, but to LJY that's not perhaps the most important thing. His obsession with Hyun, as he explained was because he thought Hyun was the only person who understood him. We can see that LJY doesn't think what he did was wrong, he said he always killed for a reason and he did it out of good will but slowly his world is collapsing because all those things he thought he did for good have been turning against him. People he thought he did a favour to have turned on him and said, NO YOU ARE WRONG - Hyun, the child he saved who tried to stab him, even Eun Bok has turned on him. Min's decision to change and turn himself in would be a big shock to LJY. Even though we don't know, we can sense that LJY's world in the way he sees it is collapsing. He tells Hyun to keep trying to find him, but ultimately this will one day lead to his demise as he realises more and more that everything he did was wrong.

It's not your conventional crime drama ending but a very good one for reflection and more deep thought.


PART 2 analysis

Lee Joon Young has his own view of choice but he’s been testing his theory with an answer in his mind already. He thinks that there are people who were born psychopaths like Min and there are people who were made in psychopaths – like himself. He tells Hyun in ep 16 how he could have turned into someone like Hyun but ultimately he’s trying to justify for his actions by saying that his childhood made him who he is and that’s why he’s hooked on Hyun because he thinks Hyun understands. But that is the same as saying that he had no choice, he was forced to be that way. Same with Min, he saw Min as a born psychopath that’s why he took Min away from Hyun so that Hyun could supposedly choose who he wanted to be – someone like LJY or someone totally the opposite of LJY (this is what hyun remembers the young LJY telling him in ep 16). We’ve seen how LJY doesn't believe Min can change, he doesn't think Hyun can take Min on. But Hyun proved him wrong, Min changed even after his ‘critical’ period. Everyone LJY thought he helped is one by one turning on him telling him that his theory is wrong. We are responsible for our own choices and we can make a choice.

I totally understood the way the romance was delayed, it would have been so out of place for him to think about his romance with Ji An when he was being faced with finding out who Min was and gaining his memory. He told Ji An his thoughts were complicated. In ep 16, i think one of the reasons he disappeared for a year was because of Ji An, he knew Ji An said she would wait for him but knew she would be conflicted and have a hard time. So he went away to deal with it on his own. Before he went, he went to see Ji An 3 times, it was his way of keeping his promise to Ji An to the best he could. And the 1 year when he was away from Ji An, he must have missed her alot. Remember when it was her birthday and Min mentioned it to him but Hyun at first restrained himself from going to see Ji An? He wanted to go see her but for Min’s sake, he stayed. He must have repeatedly felt that way over the one year period. So when he felt his mission was finally done and Min had changed, he reappeared in front of Ji An. It was anything but casual to me. The way he looked at her, and told her he missed her A LOT (has hyun ever said that to Ji An???), it was him telling her that it wasn't only her who missed him (i can only imagine how many times Ji An went to Hyun’s house so that he would show up 3 times). I saw great longing for her when he looked at her at the kiss scene. It wasn't just smiling casually, you can tell he missed her lots.

I don't see the ending as Hyun just starting a new life. He and Ji An had become real partners to go after LJY because Min was no longer a point of conflict and contradiction. Hyun never returned to Korea to capture LJY and put him in jail. He came back because he wanted answers. He wanted to know why his father thought he was a monster, he wanted to look for Min, he wanted to solve the mystery behind his lost memories and in the end, he did indeed solve all those things. He found the answers, he remembered everything and reconciled with Min, Min had changed and now he and Ji An are ready together to go after LJY with a bond so strong nothing would break them apart.

I think the flow of the last 2 eps definitely had issues. Also personally i felt Leader Kang had too much screen time and I wasn't really interested in his story. But i think his story showed the different faces of evil. His father is no less evil than LJY, his actions led to others’ deaths, ruined people’s names but did he even feel remorse for a second? No. In a normal kdrama, you would expect this type of character to be exposed and punished but Leader Kang said to Ji An, exposing his crime wouldn't really be punishing him because there was no evidence and even if he got killed out of the police force, he would end up in some corporate position where he would earn more money and engage in more corruption. So Leader Kang severing the father-son relationship with him could perhaps be seen as his punishment. I find all these different depictions of evil thought provoking and reflective. In the real world, not only the serial killers are the bad guys, there are lots of silent bad guys and many times they are the ones who are worse.

http://forums.soompi.com/en/topic/345606-drama-2015-i-remember-you-%EB%84%88%EB%A5%BC-%EA%B8%B0%EC%96%B5%ED%95%B4/?page=262

Thanks.

Hmm, yeah, this is probably the perfect analysis of the ending.  "A drama about choice."  I like it.  The points about defying LJY's "critical period" theroy are especially on point, I think.

Thanks for taking the time for writing this perspective.  I just finished this drama and the ending was kind of bothering me. Seeing it from a different perspective makes it a more satisfying ending.

 I really liked the analysis thank you

Thank you for posting this <3 . I was little bit confused after watching the last episode but this perespective is so meaningful.

I agree with everyone else, that I needed someone else to point out that the ending I hoped I was seeing (but it was really subtle) was actually there. I am quite surprised that there was such a better option than death all around! I will definitely re-watch the show.

The greatest tension comes between the Hyun and his brother and LJY, before the reveal of who each of them is, and then after they all know each other's identities and are tied together in an uncomfortable secret. Despite this being a fictional drama, it made me consider all the people throughout history who have had to live side by side with people who killed someone close to them  - consider all the captured brides, people taken during wars and living the rest of their lives as slaves or even prized servants in an enemy country, marrying into a new culture and becoming part of that culture. The same kind of strange ties might bind people together oddly in all sorts of situations. That is why this drama feels so "real" to me because Hyun's conflicted feelings about his brother and LJY all seem true to real human experience, even if not as common in modern times.

Thank you for your analysis. It made me rewatch the last 20 minutes and I saw a whole different ending then before. 

My ideal last 20 minutes would have focused much more on the brothers because that for me was the main key of this story.  I would love to have seen a real convo about life and their options.

The ending as a point.. is logical for me because we always have options. Will they chase him.. will they find evidence? We don't know.. 

I believe that the biggest punishment for Jun Young would be not to get any attention anymore from both the brothers, they live their perfectly normal lives with their own reponsibilities.