My Happy Ending – K-drama Episode 10 Recap & Review

Episode 10

Trigger Warning: Descriptions of self-harm, Suicide

Episode 10 of My Happy Ending starts with a flashback from the night before. We see a car drive into an empty alleyway near an old factory. The car stops abruptly and the next morning, Detective Lee and his team take away a dead body from the car. The dead body is that of a man with several old scars resembling self-harm cuts on his wrist.

Detective Lee states that the man’s water bottle had been poisoned and learns that the dead body was that of Soon-young, Jae-won’s husband. The cops show up at Jae-won’s condo and arrest her for poisoning her husband. During questioning, Jae-won learns that the cops had found traces of pesticide in Soon-young’s water bottle, similar to the pesticide that Jae-won’s mother had consumed which led to her death.

Jae-won loses her mind when she sees Soon-young’s dead body and does not have any answers for Detective Lee. Tae-oh sends a lawyer who can help protect Jae-won in the case. The lawyer states that while Jae-won is still in custody without any evidence to link her to the case, she does not remember anything that happened on the night of Soon-young’s death.

Tae-oh learns that this could complicate Jae-won’s case. At the same time, Mr Kwon discusses Jae-won’s mental illness with In-seok and the other board members at Dereve. The board as well as Mr Kwon decide that they are going to replace Jae-won with a different manager. The group schedules a stockholder meeting. Secretary Kim tells Tae-oh all about Mr Kwon’s decision.

In prison, Jae-won is having a hard time accepting the fact that Soon-young has died. Meanwhile, Chang-suk takes Ah-rin home with him and hides the truth about Soon-young’s death from her. His sister puts her to bed and Chang-suk watches the news and breaks down. Later that night, Ah-rin wakes up and asks for Soon-young and Jae-won.

Chang-suk tries to hold up and promises Ah-rin that her parents will be back soon. At the same time, Tae-oh meets Detective Lee in private and tries to understand Tae-joo’s involvement in Soon-young’s death. Detective Lee protects Tae-joo and leaves without saying much to Tae-oh.

As he leaves, Tae-joo stops Lee’s car and scolds him for reporting everything to Tae-oh. He also discusses Soon-young’s case and learns that the cops were also on Tae-joo because he was seen around the same area at the time.

The other detectives in Soon-young’s case discuss the possibility of Jae-won’s innocence and point out that his cell phone is still missing. Mr Kwon meets Assemblyman Park and the two discuss Mr Kwon’s interest in becoming a politician in the future. He runs into the Police chief as he leaves Assemblyman Park’s house and the two chat for a bit as if they were old friends.

That night, Yoon-jin looks at her paintings and starts laughing before eventually breaking down, looking at a creepy painting. The painting shows an old man with blood on his face while he holds a little girl sitting on his lap. There is also a woman with a distorted face indicating a mental illness. The painting looks like one inspired by Jae-won’s family.

The episode moves to Jae-won being interrogated by Detective Lee along with her lawyer present. Jae-won is having a hard time concentrating on the conversation due to her mental illness. After the interrogation, the lawyer tells Tae-oh that Jae-won’s strange behaviour is alarming. Tae-oh wonders if she was taking her medications which the lawyer had no idea about.

The following day, Yoon-jin shows up to visit Jae-won. Jae-won is still distracted and tries to figure out what happened to Soon-young even during her conversation with Yoon-jin. Yoon-jin tries to bring Jae-won out of her trance which leads to Jae-won accusing Yoon-jin of killing her husband. Jae-won asks Yoon-jin to leave. Detective Lee releases Jae-won after not finding any evidence against her.

The media and reporters gather outside the prison as well as her house when Jae-won is released. Tae-oh drives Jae-won to his own house to prevent her from being found by the media.

On the drive there, Jae-won finally has a moment to think about Soon-young’s death. She breaks down the car ride and asks Tae-oh to take her to Chang-suk’s house so that she can meet Ah-rin.

Chang-suk takes Jae-won home and puts her to sleep while Tae-oh sits outside. He recalls his childhood when Jae-won had given him her old name tag when she had moved and changed her name from Yoon-jin to Jae-won.

That night, Mr Kwon meets his Yoon-jae, the man he had tasked to drug Seung-kyu. Mr Kwon asks Yoon-jae to keep a tab on Seung-kyu’s progress while keeping his identity unknown to the world.

Meanwhile, Tae-joo meets Yoon-jin in her studio and observes the obscure painting. Tae-joo asks what he should do about Tae-oh meddling with their business but Yoon-jin asks her to keep him out of their mess. The next morning, Chang-suk tells Tae-oh that Jae-won has gone missing. Tae-oh rushes in his car and tries to look for her.

Jae-won, on the other hand, takes a bus to the same beach that her mother took her to end their lives. A flashback shows a young Jae-won watching her mother drug her milk before she takes Jae-won inside the ocean to drown. Present-day Jae-won comes back to the same spot and breaks down thinking about how she had disappointed her mother now as a grown-up.

At the same time, Psychiatrist Su-kyung discusses how people suffering from mental health issues tend to look for ways to end their suffering by ending their lives. Jae-won walks into the ocean intending to end her life and meet her “Happy Ending”, one that her mother had told her about. However, Tae-oh shows up there just in time and drags Jae-won out of the ocean before she can drown.

Tae-oh brings Jae-won back to Chang-suk’s house and does not speak to her. He returns after driving away for a bit and tells Jae-won how he was disappointed in her. Jae-won tells Tae-oh that she does not know what is happening to her and asks Tae-oh to look after Ah-rin for a while as she is going to do something about her illness.

Jae-won takes Ah-rin on a walk and tells the little girl that she is going to be away for a while, asking Ah-rin to be strong in the time. The next day, Jae-won meets Soon-young’s colleague – Professor Lee who gives her the flash drive that Soon-young was looking into. He also tells Jae-won that Soon-young was looking for Ah-rin’s biological father.

Jae-won opens the flash drive and finds an audio file of the call between Yoon-jin and her father about Seung-kyu’s accident. At the same time, Tae-oh confronts Mr Kwon about his new business plan of closing down Dereve’s store in Busan. Mr Kwon tells him that Jae-won’s declining mental health was a key factor in Dereve’s downfall.

Tae-oh meets with a mental health professional – Dr Kim Sun-ah who agrees to help treat Jae-won. He convinces Jae-won to undergo treatment for her condition. Jae-won agrees to step down from her role at Dereve however she gets a call from the detectives.

The detective tells Jae-won that Soon-young’s autopsy reports suggest that he had died between 10 pm and 1 am, earlier than what was previously concluded.

On the other hand, Mr Kwon tells Yoon-jin that all she was is because of him. The next day, Yoon-jin shows up at an event as one of Dereve’s shareholders when Tae-oh confronts her. He asks her to stay away from Jae-won and accuses her of killing Soon-young. Tae-oh tells Yoon-jin that he is willing to come for her, no matter what it takes. Yoon-jin counters saying she expected Tae-oh to understand where she is coming from.

Meanwhile, Jae-won calls Su-kyung to tell her she would like to meet her later. Tae-oh shows up at Su-kyung’s clinic and tries to talk to her about Jae-won’s declining health. However, Su-kyung states that not only was she unfamiliar with Jae-won’s condition, she was not even friends with Jae-won.

Tae-oh calls Jae-won and tells her that she might have been hallucinating about her conversations with Su-kyung which scares her. Realising that her condition is far worse than she imagined it to be, Jae-won gets admitted to the psychiatric hospital to treat her bipolar disorder as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

The most shocking part of this episode was that Jae-won had been hallucinating her conversations with Su-kyung all along. This means that her condition is much worse than what we know.

I hope she gets the help she needs now that she has been admitted to the psychiatric hospital. It looks like Yoon-jin does not have any guilt for her actions and I cannot help but wonder if she also is suffering from serious mental health issues.

Tae-oh and his childhood connection with Jae-won is endearing to watch but I would much rather see Jae-won get better now than her have a romantic connection with Tae-oh. While we did see Soon-young’s dead body, I wish for him to be alive. I cannot see Ah-rin lose such a loving parent.

It is possible that Chi-young hadn’t died and it was his dead body that was found in Soon-young’s car.