[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Heirs" Episode 20 Final

I don't think I've ever been this frustrated by a happy ending before. A certain amount of schmaltz and contrivance is appropriate to get a story to end on a positive note, sure. But nearly every single conflict solved here quite literally appeared only one episode ago. And even in those cases where there was a bit more foreshadowing, we're talking extremely brief glimpses from several episodes ago.

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The most annoying part about is that Kim Tan, our alleged main character, barely has anything to do with any of this. Yes, as usual, the scenes about the love story between him and Eun-Sang predominate. But in terms of narrative structure, the one who does all the work and makes all the sacrifices is big bro Kim Won. I'm disappointed in this entire turnabout, because the giant screaming question here is why.

Again, Kim Nam-Yoon, and the company he cared about so much that he was willing to traumatize his own children for it? These are bad things. They have consistently been treated as bad things for the entire drama. I cannot fathom why we are supposed to be happy that both of them survive largely intact, with absolutely no indication that either will make a genuine change to be a less toxic influence on the lives of the Kim brothers. Frankly, we're off to a pretty lousy start already, with yet another arranged business marriage taking the place of the ones that were scuttled earlier in the drama. And, again, business marriages have consistently been treated as unambiguously bad things right up until this episode!

I got the feeling watching this episode that maybe writer Kim Eun-sook was just on a different wavelength this whole time. We get a callback to the letter Kim Tan wrote to his professor about the phrase "Those Who Want the Crown, Withstand the Weight of It". Apparently this expression was meant to be interpreted ambiguously- it could be a crown of love, wealth, or fame.

Actually, crowns represent power. And withstanding the weight of it means having to suffer the consequences of power, like the Sword of Damocles. Yet with this ending, this drama has managed to take the worst of all possible interpretations, creating a dream-like scenario where apparently no one has to suffer from the negative consequences of the crown at all, mostly through the power of plot contrivances. So Kim Tan and Eun-Sang got together? Good for them. As far as every other promise goes, "The Heirs" has completely failed to make an impact.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Heirs" is directed by Kang Sin-hyo and written by Kim Eun-sook and features Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye, Kim Woo-bin and Jung Soo-jung.