A Disappointing End
After 15 episodes, Good Casting bows out its first season with hints toward a possible follow-up and a relatively disappointing conclusion for our main conflict. With everything wrapped up in record time, the second half of the episode attempts to round out all the big plot points but fails to do so in a compelling way, leaving lots of unanswered questions. Episode 16 of Good Casting begins with Chan-Mi leaving the room disguised as a maid while Mi-Soon and Ye-Eul are taken away. Mi-Soon tries to call Wang Kai’s bluff and mentions a sniper across the roof but this villain scoffs at the notion, telling them he’ll kill the two women if the sniper doesn’t fire. However, Chan-Mi arrives and has another trick up her sleeve as one of the guards shows he has a bomb strapped to his waist. Through this, the trio manage to stop Wang-Kai and his men, as Dong moves in to arrest them with his team. Woo-Seok follows Michael in hot pursuit as he leaves the DK Hotel Lobby while Wang Kai rings and arranges a meeting. Only, he gives him the wrong room number which acts as a warning sign. Unfortunately Michael is wise to what Woo-Seok is doing and he blindsides him in a school, where the two fight. The end result sees Woo-Seok stabbed in the stomach for his troubles and left for dead. When Chan-Mi arrives and sees this first-hand, flashes of the past come flooding back. In the car park, Chan-Mi and the others manage to corner Michael and arrest him. With our antagonist in custody, Yoon rushes to the scene and witnesses Woo-Seok’s final moments as he passes away. The autopsy results show that Woo-Seok swallowed the chip to prove Yoon’s innocence, wrapped in aluminium foil to prevent it spoiling. With this revealed, Yoon is cleared of his charges and he sits with Hwa-Wan who congratulates him for what he’s managed to done and walks away. However, before she goes she admits to doing all of this because she wanted his attention. Meanwhile, Woo-Won heads off with the intent of finding Ye-Eun but on the way he finds out she has a daughter and immediately looks shocked. Inviting him in for dinner, he shouts at Ye-Eun infront of her daughter which prompts little Su-Hui to start crying. Outside, he peer pressures her into being with him and kisses her infront of a large crowd. Chan-Mi resigns from her job at Il-Kwang while Mi-Soon heads home and asks her daughter whether she should quit her job or not. As the two talk, she asks to go to Woo-Won’s concert but Mi-Soon immediately rejects that idea. At the same time, Mi-Soon’s husband learns that “it’s over” and believes his wife is referring to her affair rather than job. The final step in the operation sees Chan-Mi head back into prison undercover to confront Madam Wu, the woman who has ties to White Collar and reveals the truth to her. Michael stabs himself in prison and manages to get himself taken to hospital. Using a lock-pick in his mouth, he breaks free from his shackles and tries to leave. Only, he’s injected with a syringe in the hallway by none other than Chief Tak who survived being hit with a fast-moving car several episodes ago. When Chan-Mi catches wind of this, she and the team realize those at the top are starting to cut their loose ends. As the episode closes out, Chan-Mi, Ye-Eun and Mi-Soon all sit together and share food while wondering where their next mission will take them. In terms of finales this year, Good Casting is probably among the more disappointing. The quirky humour that made this series so endearing to begin with soon changed for a more sombre crime drama and unfortunately it’s done little to further any of our characters. Ye-Eun and Woo-Won are an awful couple, built on toxicity and the way he peer-pressured Ye-Eun into kissing in the street reflects really poorly on his character. He’s learnt nothing through this entire ordeal and still has the same bratty attitude he had before. Mi-Soon isn’t much better and she hasn’t really grown over the series, still showing disdain toward her husband. Only now, the heartbreaking reveal that he believes she had an affair will almost certainly eat away at him. It would have been nice to see him call her out for it and her admit to being an NIS agent, strengthening their marriage together in the process. Chan-Mi finally finds redemption for what happened to Min-Seok in the past but even then, the show hasn’t done a great job showing her learning from the recklessness that consumed her past actions. A better angle perhaps could have been having her stay with Woo-Seok while he bled out and let Michael get away. That way, Dong and his team could have moved in and stopped Michael while showing a more compassionate edge to Chan-Mi’s character. Ultimately though, the finale feels a bit hollow and the rushed way of wrapping everything up, coupled with the weak motivations for the majority of characters, make this a disappointing end to a Korean drama that could have been so much more.
