Shouldn’t someone have mentioned this earlier? And if we hadn’t loved Bu Ja ( Lee Se Young) so much, we wouldn’t be so outraged that “Hwayugi” spent weeks tricking us into believing there was a chance that the sweet zombie was still alive, only to unceremoniously inform us in the finale that she has been gone ever since Asanyeo took over her body. That being said, our disappointments with the finale stem from the fact that “Hwayugi” was so successful in making us care so deeply about its characters in the first place. If we hadn’t ardently hoped that Oh Gong and Sun Mi would get the glorious moments they deserved, we wouldn’t have been let down when they did not. There is some redemption in the fact that it is only through his love for Sun Mi that Oh Gong is ultimately able to defeat the dragon, but “Hwayugi” missed its potential by not giving its heroine a world-saving moment, instead sacrificing Sun Mi to give Oh Gong a battle scene - which, between the unconvincing CGI dragon and the fact that Oh Gong stood in one spot for its entirety, hardly felt like a fight upon which the future of the world was at stake. And while this death fulfilled Sun Mi’s own wish to not be killed by Oh Gong, it felt like a waste, especially after all the hardships she experienced throughout her life for the sake of being Sam Jang.

Only for Sun Mi to be stabbed by Kang Dae Sung before she is able to actually perform this role. This is largely because the finale missed the mark with its treatment of Sun Mi: we hear for weeks that Sun Mi has an important world-saving job that only she, as Sam Jang, can carry out… Jin Sun Mi ( Oh Yeon Seo) ultimately accepts her destiny, and shows new strength by carrying it out on her terms rather than allowing the heavens to force Son Oh Gong ( Lee Seung Gi) to kill her.Īs for Oh Gong, his love for Sun Mi has inspired him to become a better version of himself: a Great Sage who, when it counts, does what is right instead of simply what best suits him.Īnd while we’re proud of how far our OTP has come since the beginning of the drama, the big climactic battle that “Hwayugi” has been building up to was… well, rather anticlimactic. Warning: this article contains spoilers for “Hwayugi” Episodes 19 and 20.Īfter 18 episodes of grappling with evil, dangers, and the throes of love, this week our characters finally demonstrated the immense growth they achieved through it all. But along with some puzzling and heart-rending outcomes, the ending of “Hwayugi” also offered us notes of hope, so let’s review our thoughts on the finale! It’s been a fun and wild ride with our motley crew of supernatural characters, but we’ve finally arrived at the end of tvN’s “ Hwayugi” - and if we thought we could finish this drama without heartbreak or tragedy, the finale proved us wrong.

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