Faith Episode 24 Recap, just to get some feedback… Forgive the length… I’m using the time to house-b
Considering the general thought about the final episode becoming a great battle between good and evil I find it was actually a chase. A chase filled with heat wrenching, worrisome, and beautiful stops that could not be avoided even if Eun Soo traveled back in time and warned herself of the happenings. The whole series builds up to this magnificently quiet bang of realizations and I hope to make Faith’s Episode 24 some justice with this simple recap.
At the beginning of the chapter we watch where episode 23 left off, the attack to the King during the Royal Questioning; Ki Cheol doesn’t look very happy at all and is stalling for his accomplices to find the third and final relic (which I strongly believed to be an IPad to the very last second), when Choi Young makes his appearance at the room, looking quite calm/angry. Here begins the first chase: At this point we all believe his hand to be in bad shape, even Choi Young; and even when warned not to move Dol Bae attacks and his throat is frozen to provoke death. What worried me about this particular scene was that Choi Young was left bare and vulnerable before Ki Cheol, and while my favorite WooDalChi puppy died with a smile for having protected his General, Choi Young decides to attack in an old form: Frontal Attack. This was the scene that made sense of all this psychological madness: The power of suggestion had created doubt and fear in Choi Young’s heart, so the sword had become heavy because a coward cannot wield a sword. But that wasn’t the right thought: a man cannot only use the sword in order to find death, he uses a sword in order to protect the ones he loves, even if it was a heavy sword.
Meanwhile Eun Soo wakes up from her fever and realizes she would live; Death was not what she feared; having dreamed Goryeo and the people she met there was the ultimate nightmare for her, and although she is safe from the harm of the poison it was Choi Young’s heart what worried her. Now, safe from death, she can stay in Goryeo and be with the person she loves. Here begins the second chase: Dae Man discovers the fire woman, Soo In and her white haired lover Eum Ja, walking through the castle, obviously searching for the High Doctor. He calls for help, and warns the WooDalChi of them; before hurrying to protect the High Doctor.
Back in the interrogation; Choi Young practically begs the King to kill Ki Cheol, but is suddenly questioned and offered the throne. The people follow the General, they don’t even know who the king is, but there are few who do not know the General Choi Young. So the worst enemy the King could have is not Ki Cheol, but Choi Young himself. Because the man is the one who accomplished all things through his own means, all he lacks is the title, which Ki Cheol is offering. But having witnessed the death of his teacher after a similar question was issued: Choi Young understood that if he didn’t ran from the question, he could live in peace of mind and soul. Because his job was to guard the King and nation, just as his master had failed to do.
“I already have a King…
While guarded by Lady Choi, Eun Soo is attacked by Soo In, who fights and injures Dae Man with her Inner power; unable to leave the most loyal guard her nephew had, Lady Choi asks the Doctor to stay safe and in the hallway while she helps deal with the woman. Now I am not a big fan of Soo In, I hated her guts, but I had hoped she would go up in flames (quite literally) at some point; when I figured out that it was Lady Choi who finished her I was cheering for the old mum with so much delight my neighbor knocked at my door asking for me to keep my cries of joy down. With Dae Man and a sneaky trick of water and steam, the woman was finally finished by Lady Choi for good.
Not without having the High Doctor kidnapped by another goon, passing as WooDalChi. (Insert here screaming fit; How could she get kidnapped at this time?! Relax people; she had a high fever, she’s allowed to do something stupid.)
Weak and unable to protect herself, Eun Soo is kidnapped and taken away; Eum Ja finds the body of his beloved on the ground and destroyed he vows revenge (in his mind, of course, he is not that expressive even at the end). Dae Man tells Choi Young about Eun Soo’s disappearing and the general discovers the injury the boy bares because of his fighting. The Queen visits the King’s office and together they are to discover the scattered relics around the room; the missing parts of the journal, the rusty tools and to our delight this last scene with the royals (as a couple) is full of love and hope for their relationship. Because of their meddling with heaven they are been punished, but with the hope of finding Eun Soo they decided to overtake the territory north, where the gate is, so they can find her and share that elusive word the High Doctor teach the Queen.
Returning to his room Choi Young takes his sword, hand no longer trembling, and sure of what he has to do; he tells his aunt that the wait for news of the High Doctor would kill him, as pain is killing him right now. When to go to excuse himself to the King for leaving, the King asks if he would leave with the Doctor to Heaven’s, but Choi Young never had that in mind, he just returned to serve to the King, where could he go. So simply he begs the King for help to bring back his love.
Here begins the third race. Ki Cheol has to order the wind boy to move away from the doctor to keep her alive; the third artifact is finally brought forth and revealed. The digital projector she kept her presentation (of the first episode); this breaks her because it’s memories of things she had decided to leave behind and never look at for loving Choi Young, things unable to have again. Forced to go with them towards the Heaven’s gate, Eun Soo waits patiently for her rescuer to come; the Queen is prayer for the Doctor’s safe return, the King waiting patiently. This is the last time we see the royals.
Eun Soo finally figures out that the gate is connected to the emission of the sun; each time the sun flashes a burst the gate changes the date it will lead to, and she warns Ki Cheol about this, but he doesn’t care and wishes to drag her along, even when she wishes to stay. They enter an establishment and taking a bit of coal she writes the words she once showed Choi Young, (It’s alright.) words that are found by the man barely an hour or so later.
The chase is still on; day becomes night once again and they rent the entire inn rented by the King in the first episode; emptying it for their personal use. It’s ironic how the table turns on the Prince of Court and it is he who ends up been attacked later on. Eun Soo offers to help Ki Cheol but he refused, not trusting her… when Choi Young finds them, and all hell breaks loose.
The white haired guy fights Choi Young, and is defeated along with the fool I never figure his name out. The fight that issues in that dark room was epic for me; tables were thrown, chairs broken, jumps on walls and swords hammered at each other. It was a quick ending for two enemies; which I strongly believe doctor Jang Bin would have helped if he had survived (or hadn’t left the drama). Choi Young searches the inn, but not for long, and finds Eun Soo.
For now the chasing comes to an end, and the most beautiful scene unfolds; resting without fear of separation the two of them rest in the closed off inn, tangled in sweet warmth under the same duvet and hands free to touch each other.
Ever the gentleman Choi Young offers to take Imja back to the gate, so she can cross it and say goodbye to those she would be leaving behind; worried about the sudden arrival of the Prince of the court he assures Eun Soo that he could win if he does appear.
The fourth chase happens after the Prince of the Court is refused entrance by Faith itself into the gate, and he needs to find the High Doctor in order to cross it. The woman is currently dangling from the General’s arm, happy. A final fight issues, in which the man is stabbed to death by the sword thrown by Choi Young; with his inner energy, Ki Cheol freezes Choi Young and submits him to the ground, leaving him for death; Eun Soo attempts to keep the general alive, but is dragged away by Ki Cheol towards the Heaven’s gate. I was scared at the moment Ki Cheol set the sword on the ground, and I’m sure it was intentionally done so we the viewers believed Choi Young was stabbed to death by the man, but of course he wasn’t, the sword resting very close to his face, while he laments of having wasted time:
These words are quite important; it’s his understanding of things to happen. I believe that somehow Choi Young understood that she had to leave, reason why he offered to escort her to the gate to Heavens. He’d realized at some point she had to return, do whatever itw as she had to do in her time (leave her clues and other items) and then return. He had faith that it would take a little time, so he would patiently sit at the gate and wait for Eun Soo because he’d found her at last. But Ki Cheol had other plans and probably their chance to be together was lost, they had been too late for love. Yet Eun Soo was a stubborn woman, he knew this better than anyone and she would struggled to get back and make things right. So everything would be fine.
Finally at the gate Eun Soo is brought forward, able to escape the man at the last moment, and entering the gate alone, leaving Ki Cheol to die frozen by his own power. Afraid for Choi Young’s life Eun Soo returns to her office, steals a bag from a photographer, in her office throws in her projector, a necklace, finds new tools, treatment items for hypothermic patients, and hurries back to the gate. Her own words about solar flares forgotten she is dumped into another time, not sure of why this happens, later she ponders: did “she lacked in yearning? Or in faith?”
A hundred years apart, him dying on that field, and the portal closed there was nothing she could do to save that man. Instead she created her own legend, Hwata, and left her mark in the world; so the Eun Soo to travel could find herself and be with the man she loved. Unsure of what would happen then, because she was now future Eun Soo, she gathered the items to be used, wrote the diary to be found, and had faith that Choi Young survived. This is a really significant scene; because she uses the power of memories to keep herself steady, watching her parents in the recording of the projector. She never got to say goodbye to her parents, so when the battery died it was the end of her past life and her farewell to her family. Aware that in a future trip she had to deliver her messages, she returns to the gate and hopes it opens.
The portal opens, she crosses it, and is faced with Seoul, 2012. No longer a place of importance but only of remembrance she smiles and walks back to the gate. Her goodbyes had been said so there’s no need to remain; in the restaurant she visits WooDalChi soldiers eat plentiful and she discovers that King Gongnim is still on the throne. There is Deok Man, Dae Man and the Vice General, all asking for the commanding General, who left for that place witout signing his documents. It sounds very plausible for Choi Young to set aside the paperwork to sit beside a tree to wait for four days.
Here the fifth and final chase begins.
Desperate to see him Eun Soo leave the restaurant, probably leaving everything she has behind, and races for the tree she had been forced to leave Choi Young at. Sure enough, there he is; sitting and waiting for her. Older now, of course five years had pass, but he is alive. Choi Young stands and in the haze of finally seeing her, their eyes fill with tears.
The End.
Many would tell you that this series had a lacking ending; no hug or kiss, not even a word was shared as they stared at each other. But us, who have fallen through time, through kidnapping, horror and pain; us who have watched this couple grow from enemies to allies to lovers… Was there really a need for any of those? So westernized is our view of things that couple really needs to have sex in order to show their mutual love? Does a kiss even represent real longing; was there anything, really, to be said after such a long wait? Hearts speak in silence, and that was what they needed the most at the moment. They would have their entire lives for those things; let us be glad and rejoice, that they found each other again, that the chasing came to an end and they could be together.