Beyond Goodbye – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Beyond a Lifetime

Episode 7 of Beyond Goodbye begins with Saeko drying her hair from the rain. She can’t stop thinking about her kiss with Kazuma and even drinks coffee to get her mind off things. She eventually rushes out, thinking over what’s happened, while Kazuma is given a new diagnosis at the hospital. The heart is rejecting him, and he has less than a year left to live.

Outside, Saeko stumbles over but finds herself in the presence of a monstrous brown bear. It approaches her but her phone rings and startles the bear, which eventually retreats and leaves. Saeko breathes a sigh of relief. She rings Hiro, but she’s distracted by the press showing up, wanting to talk to her after encountering the bear.

Unfortunately, as she ends up on the news, Miki sees this and it’s a reminder of her ties with Kazuma. Of course, Miki doesn’t know about the cheating, while Kazuma is wracked with guilt, as he should be. Still, he agrees to see her later on that day.

They laugh and joke about the bear incident, before getting down to brass tacks. The pair admit that they’ve met each other before, reminiscing on this moment. Apparently Kazuma is feeling fine about it but Saeko is conflicted. She’s falling in love with him and isn’t sure whether it’s him or Yusuke that she’s feeling love for. She can’t handle this and doesn’t want to screw his family life up.

As for Kazuma, his feelings aren’t helped by the fact that Saeko brings up his better qualities, even beyond that of Yusuke’s spirit. Eventually they decide to part ways, with Saeko realizing this is a dangerous path and deciding to go in a different direction with her life.

Kazuma doesn’t tell her he’s on borrowed time though, and it would appear that Miki doesn’t either, as she’s just getting on with her life. Kazuma is conflicted, revisiting all the different hangout spots again and trying to get through to Saeko. However, she’s ended things and doesn’t want to see him again. Kengo encourages him to live his life and stop chasing after Saeko.

Unfortunately, Kazuma cant afford to do that right now and decides to follow after Saeko all the same. Unfortunately, his heart gives up while he’s out trying to catch up with her.

The Episode Review

With the moral compass of the show completely skewed and out the window, it makes sense to do the same thing with the plot and throw a bear into the mix, to spice things up. This whole incident is utterly bizarre and feels disjointed to the main plotline.

Unfortunately, that kiss from the previous episode has undone a lot of goodwill, although Saeko deciding to walk away before things get worse is definitely an admirable move. However, Kazuma has learned nothing and continues to chase her. We definitely don’t really see much confliction here, as it seems either Yusuke or Kazuma’s dominance only wants to be with Saeko.

Saeko has now left though, and Kazuma is on borrowed time, given the heart he has is rejecting him. Whether this is a direct result of his behaviour, working at odds with Yusuke’s free-spirit and happiness, is anyone’s guess, but adding in Miki to the mix and making Kazuma a married man chasing after another woman is just not a good look for this drama.

As we approach the finale, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen next, but it’s clear that this may not have a happy ending. We shall see.