In the final episode of When Life Gives You Tangerines, Netflix’s slice-of-life K-drama, protagonist Ae-sun (played here, in her 70s, by Moon So-ri) tells daughter Geum-myeong (played here, in her 40s, by IU): “Getting old is nothing special. You feel the same on the inside, but when you look in the mirror, you see an old woman. That’s all aging is.” As a line of dialogue out of context, it is a valuable and perhaps relatable observation. In the final act of a TV series that has just spanned 70 years over the course of 16 masterfully executed episodes, it is devastatingly profound.
We know what Ae-sun says is true because we have lived those decades alongside her, seeing how life’s joys and pains still cut the mother, wife, and poet just as deeply as they did when she was young. Here’s how one of the best K-dramas of the year so far tied up its tapestry of Korean modern history, Jeju culture, and one family’s dreams in its emotional conclusion.
Does When Life Gives You Tangerines have a happy ending?
In the final episode of When Life Gives You Tangerines, the precious agony of being alive is borne out in the death of Gwan-sik (played predominantly by Park Hae-joon in these final episodes), Ae-sun’s beloved husband and Geum-myeong and Eun-myeong’s dad. Gwan-sik has been by Ae-sun’s side since they both were young, when he would bring fish from his own family’s table to feed a neglected Ae-sun. Together, they have lost a child, and raised two more to adulthood. They are grandparents and beloved members of the community, and they’ve done it all side by side.
As he’s dying, Gwan-sik apologizes for not being able to make Ae-sun’s life easier, but she reassures him: “Thanks to you, I was never lonely for a day.” She doesn’t regret choosing to marry Gwan-sik over someone like Bu Sang-gil (Choi Dae-hoon), whom she was briefly engaged to in her youth.
Sang-gil was rich in resources but lacked loyalty or affection. The woman he ended up…
