I Hear Your Voice ep 16: Dramatic Review

What the.............???

This is the only thought I have at the moment as I just finished watching episode 16.

How am I supposed to be able to function in any sort of rational and coherent manner after that cliffhanger of an ending?  Seriously?  What in the world did they just pull on us????

This is going to be crazy unconventional of me, but I'm going to start with the end and talk about it first.  It's the unavoidable, tap-dancing elephant in the room, how can I not?  Oh yeah, I said tap-dancing elephant, because just a plain old, non-tap dancing elephant in the room is too mundane for what they just dished out.  It doesn't rightfully express the magnitude of the situation we currently find ourselves in.  Dramatic?  Me?  No way.  How could you even think such a thing?  Did you not see that last line???

Dongsaeng's Drama Dozen Divided by Dul of episode 16

1.  Tap Dancing Elephants Show Up Out of the Blue

Hye Sung is missing.  She went into the courthouse with Attorney Cha for her trial, but never turned up.  Somewhere after she entered the "safe zone", she managed to slip past undetected by the police officer watching her and disappear.  Her phone goes unanswered.  Well, not unanswered per se, it actually gets answered but then immediately hung up when Attorney Cha tries to reach her.  Soo Ha finds a pay phone and calls and who should answer it but Min Joon Gook.  We then are left with Soo Ha's voiceover telling us how on that day and at a specific time, Hye Sung was kidnapped by Min Joon Gook and thus ends their (Soo Ha and Hye Sung's) 11 year history together.  Are we seriously to believe that she is DEAD???  As in "as a doornail"?  Pushing up daisies?  Swimming in Davy Jones' Locker?  I don't believe it.  I don't know where they're going with this, but I don't believe it for a second.  Nonetheless it certainly did leave me slackjawed and in shock, muttering repeatedly to myself "WTH?"  And made me run to my computer to start this post in order to get my thinks and feels out before I esplode.

2.  On with the Show

Okay, so there was a whole entire episode beyond the last minute.  I suppose I should touch on all of that as well.  First though, let me just yell at Soo Ha for a moment.  Dude, seriously???  After that dream, weren't you a little weirded out when you saw the exact same necklace???  WHY LET HER OUT OF YOUR SIGHT TO BUY THE DARN NECKLACE THAT YOU SAW IN THE DREAM WHERE SHE BLED AND DIED IN YOUR ARMS????????  Are you some kind of stupid???  That is right up there with walking alone into a dark room of a haunted house while the creepy music plays.  Or being the one to venture out into the dark and stormy night to investigate the mysterious noises you hear going bump in the night.  What did you think was going to happen man??  You think that was just a coincidence?  It's a sign, a sign from the drama gods --- DON'T BUY THE NECKLACE FROM THE NIGHTMARE YOU JUST HAD!  Oi.  Seriously.  I thought you were some kind of genius, but I guess not.  I am very disappointed in you you silly git.  I love you still, but honestly, I just don't know what to say to you at this moment.

3.  Where Was I?

Ahem, sorry for my outburst there.  Now, where was I?  Ahhh, yes...the rest of the episode.  Hmm...let's see.  There was a trial, many many feels and Stabby Daddy is set free when Do Yeon chooses to withdraw the indictment.  This will get her in big trouble at work, but she doesn't care.  Turns out that the father she was desperate to save was Stabby Daddy, not Cover It Up Judge Dad.  Oops.  My bad.  So yeah, he goes free.  And Evil Ghost Mommy wakes up from her glass-shard induced coma.  Hey - if rain can cause one to faint and pass out and nearly die from fever, obviously something as dangerous as a piece of glass can cause a coma.  Deal with it.  Lawyer Shin has a moment of self-doubt and guilt thinking that if Stabby Daddy had had a different lawyer 26 years ago, maybe he would have fared better.  This resulted in a little flashback story where Attorney Cha tells of a case he had had as a cop that involved Attorney Shin and ultimately led him to study the law.  Cha caught a guy who he was convinced was a rapist and murderer, was angry when Shin got the guy off but then relieved when the real rapist/killer was caught later.  They hug it out and have their touching moment.

4.  Speaking of Touching Moments

After the trial, Do Yeon tells all to her mother.  The two of them then leave Judge Dad because Mom is so angry at what he did those 26 years ago (and everyday since).  Do Yeon takes the opportunity to get to know her birth father.  She visits him in the hospital and draws him using the crayons he had bought for her all those years ago.  This culminates in a selca of the two of them being sent to Attorneys Shin and Jjang.  Ah, wonderful happy father-daughter bonding moments.

5.  Forgiveness

A reoccurring theme of this episode was that of forgiveness.  Stabby Daddy forgiving Judge Dad for covering up the truth all these years.  Hye Sung seeing this and remembering her own mother's final words to her of forgiveness and not living the rest of your life filled with anger.  Attorney Shin forgiving Attorney Cha for throwing poop on his car in a fit of rage after letting red-sock man go 7 years ago.  And finally, the long awaited apology of Do Yeon to Hye Sung for falsely accusing her in the firework incident as children.  Goodbye hatchet - looks like it's burying time all over the place.

6.  Focusing on Something Else

I'm still very distracted by that tap-dancing elephant and therefore have decided to finish off today's list with just some random happier and goofier moments to remember.  For the most part this was a happy, joyful, celebratory episode.  Should have been my first clue that it would end the way it did.  I like to call these "happy traps".  A drama lulls you in to a false sense of security by the surprising lack of, well, drama.  Things are going good.  Drama 101 though teaches us that anytime anything good or positive is going on (and it's not the last episode), something devastating is sure to follow.  The happy isn't allowed to stay for long.  I know this, yet time after time I fall into the trap.  Oh, silly, naive me.  Anyway, there were many moments that made me giggle or sigh a happy sigh.  There were also many moments where our lead guy looked fantabulous.  Also wonderful moments where our supporting characters were pretty fantastical themselves.  Even the cops on security detail tailing Soo Ha and Hye Sung.  Drama gold I tells ya.  The greatness of this drama is in the details - the little things that often get skipped or ignored for the sake of the bigger story.  I love how this one balances it all out - we get the gripping suspense and overwhelming heartache mixed in with the goofy silliness and warm, tender moments.  It is a perfect blend of wonderful.

And that's where we leave it for today.  I guess I should just mention really fast something that came back to me as I was reviewing the screencaps.  Soo Ha had his bag stolen by a repeat offender known to the police.  When it was returned to him, the valuable necklace and all of his money was there, but his phone was not.  I would just like to point out the obvious - my theory is that the phone was intentionally stolen so that Psycho could use it in order to lure Hye Sung away by posing as Soo Ha.  There.  It's out there.  I said it.  Let me also go on the record as saying that there ain't no way she's dead.  She's just not.  He meant something else.  "It will put an end to 11 years of our story" just means that this chapter - the sad part - is over.  Part two in their life is about to begin - she's going to be fine, Psycho's story will be unveiled, he will be vanquished and all will return aright and they will live happily ever after and all of this will be resolved in episode 17 so that episode 18 will be nothing but happy times, rainbows, hearts and smiley faces.  Yup.  That's my prediction and I'm stubbornly sticking to it.  After all, how else am I going to survive this next week?

Thanks all for listening to my ramblings.  I get so invested in these things sometimes, don't I?  Come on Dongsaeng, it's just a story.  Fiction.  Let it go.  Don't let it consume you.  Or, rather, let it consume you and blog about it in case someone else out there is going through the exact same thing as you.  Yeah, that sounds like LOTS more fun!  I'll go with that one ;)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!