My Happy Ending – K-drama Episode 12 Recap & Review

Episode 12

Trigger Warning: Descriptions of self-harm, Suicide, Sexual Assault

Episode 12 of My Happy Ending starts with Jae-won watching as Yoon-jae tries to run Sang-beom over with his car. On the other hand, Mr Kwon learns that Jae-won has been in contact with Kim Mi-so and the two had plotted to have Sang-beom investigated.

Tae-joo calls Yoon-jin to tell her that Jae-won had planned the entire thing out so that Mr Kwon would take Sang-beom out for her without even realising it.

At dinner, Jae-won, Tae-oh and Secretary Kim try to determine Mr Kwon’s next move and Jae-won tells them how he often tried to cover up his secret dirty work under charitable works from the Yein Arts Foundation. After dinner, Tae-oh takes Jae-won home and they run into Yoon-jae who is leaving her house.

Assuming Yoon-jae to be of harm to them, Jae-won stops Tae-oh from attacking him. Yoon-jae leaves without a word and Tae-oh tells Jae-won he will be staying over that night to ensure her safety.

Tae-oh goes inside to check the locks and makes room for himself in the living room. Meanwhile, Jae-won tries to avoid talking to the hallucination of Su-kyung that was following her.

The hallucination tries to instigate Su-kyung, claiming she is too weak to take Yoon-jin down. Jae-won takes her medication instead and goes to sleep. The next morning, Jae-won cooks some rice while Tae-oh makes eggs for the two to eat for breakfast. Tae-oh asks Jae-won to muster up the courage for the day they had planned.

Jae-won shows up at the art showing where Yoon-jin and Mr Kwon are present and hands over a bouquet to her. Jae-won accuses Yoon-jin of killing Soon-young with Tae-joo’s help and promises to make her pay.

Meanwhile, Tae-joo shows up by the lake where Chang-suk was fishing. Chang-suk recognises Tae-joo and gets worried when he learns that Tae-joo is after Jae-won.

Jae-won visits Soon-young’s tombstone and apologises to him. There, she runs into Detective Oh who talks to Jae-won about the dynamics between her, Yoon-jin, Soon-young and Sang-beom. Detective Oh wonders if Jae-won had anything to do with what happened to Sang-beom and wonders if his accident was connected to Soon-young’s murder.

Jae-won refuses to answer the cop’s questions. Detective Oh shows up just as Detective Lee and Tae-joo chat about Soon-young’s case. Detective Oh brings up Tae-joo’s late wife which infuriates him. She claims that the place where Tae-joo’s wife was found dead is the same place where Soon-young’s dead body was found.

Jae-won meets Mr Kwon’s secretary and learns that Mr Kwon had cancelled his meeting on the night of Soon-young’s death. That night, Tae-oh tells Jae-won that he met with one of Yoon-jin’s friends who told her that Yoon-jin was with her at a bar after 1 am on the night of Soon-young’s murder.

Jae-won concludes that Yoon-jin did not have an alibi during the time of Soon-young’s death, i.e. between 10 pm to 1 am and also thinks that Mr Kwon was involved in the matter.

The next day, Yoon-jin overhears the employees at Dereve talk about Jae-won and how they missed their former boss. Yoon-jin tells Tae-oh how the employees hated her as their boss.

Tae-oh claims that Yoon-jin was making the employees struggle for her benefit, something that Jae-won would never do. On the other hand, Jae-wom meets Mr Kwon and confronts him about killing Soon-young. Mr Kwon denies the accusation. Jae-won wonders if Mr Kwon resents her because she is better than his daughter – Yoon-jin.

Yoon-jin is painting in her studio that night when she recalls an interaction between her and her father from 10 months ago. During the interaction, Yoon-jin accuses Mr Kwon of never thinking about her. Mr Kwon tells Yoon-jin how she is better off after the miscarriage because Sang-beom was not the right man for her anyway. Yoon-jin is dumbfounded by her father’s reaction and breaks down. She blames him for killing her child.

Back to the present day, Jae-won thinks about Soon-young as they sit at the park. She watches the CCTV footage from her house and sees Tae-joo there. She sends the video clip to Tae-oh and goes to the house to confront Tae-joo. Tae-joo looks at the notes in Soon-young’s study and tells Jae-won how she was missing several pieces of the puzzle.

The conversation between Jae-won and Tae-joo gets out of hand with him trying to choke Jae-won. Tae-oh shows up at the house and fights with Tae-joo. Tae-joo beats Tae-oh up and asks him to take care of Jae-won before leaving. After Tae-joo leaves, Tae-oh asks Jae-won to stay somewhere else but she refuses.

The next morning, Jae-won continues to see Su-kyung in her hallucination but refuses to talk to her. After breakfast, Tae-oh meets Mr Kwon’s secretary and learns that the businessman was buttering up the Assemblyman to save himself during the upcoming national audit.

Jae-won shows up to meet the Assemblyman and instigates that his connection with Mr Kwon is harmful to her.

Reporter Choi captures Jae-won leaving the Assemblman’s residence. That night, Secretary Kim tells Jae-won that Seung-kyu has finally woken up from his coma. Yoon-jin learns about Seung-kyu and tells Tae-joo that they do not need to worry as she is sure Jae-won will not use him now. Yoon-jin starts doubting Tae-joo and wonders if he is playing a double agent between her and Jae-won.

That night, Yoon-jae shows up at the hospital to kill Seung-kyu but finds his bed empty. The next morning, Mr Kwon learns from the news that there was a raid at the Yein Arts Foundation. He tries to get in touch with the Assemblyman but the politician refuses to meet him.

Yoon-jin arrives at work and is shocked to learn that her father’s charitable trust is being investigated for embezzlement.

Tae-oh hands in his resignation to Yoon-jin and tells her that he needs to spend some time resting. Yoon-jin is disappointed in Tae-oh’s decision and tries to stop him but he refuses. Jae-won meets Reporter Choi and gives him some information, asking him to publish the article after she gives him a go-ahead for the same.

That night, Detective Oh questions Detective Lee and wonders why he arrested Jae-won for her husband’s death. Detective Lee claims that Sang-beom and Yoon-jin had alibis whereas Jae-won was the only valid suspect at the time. Detective Oh realises that Yoon-jin’s alibi is faulty now as the time of Soon-young’s death is different.

That night, Yoon-jin tells her father that Jae-won had visited the Assemblyman and points out that she was the reason for the raid. Meanwhile, Jae-won unknowingly starts talking to the hallucination of Su-kyung in her house. She tries to make sense of what Tae-joo is up to and tries taking medicine to stop hallucinating.

The next morning, Jae-won shows up at Mr Kwon’s office and threatens to expose the audio recording between him and Yoon-jin about the accident involving Seung-kyu. Jae-won asks Mr Kwon to think about his daughter before he takes any drastic measures to harm her. Jae-won then goes to meet Seung-kyu who is kept in a high-security house away from town.

During their conversation, Seung-kyu apologises to Jae-won for what had happened. Jae-won meets Tae-oh and tells her that Mr Kwon and Yoon-jin are both after her.

That night, Jae-won goes back home and changes into a sweater. Meanwhile, Yoon-jae hides in the house and injects her with a drug, knocking her out. He kidnaps Jae-won and takes her away where Mr Kwon meets Jae-won. The episode ends with Jae-won recording her kidnapping through the camera placed on the button of her sweater.

The Episode Review

This show is getting messier and messier with every episode and the only character who hasn’t revealed his loyalty yet is Tae-joo. For the first half of the show, he was helping Jae-won and now he is tight with her enemy – Yoon-jin.

By the end of the show, it wouldn’t be shocking if it turns out that Tae-joo is actually Tae-oh’s birth father before he was adopted. This could also explain his connection with Jae-won’s late mother.

The timeline in this show is not in pace and I am not sure what to make of it. Yoon-jin’s flashback from 10 months ago was about her conversation with her father, blaming him for the incident.

However, we have seen that Yoon-jin miscarried her child after finding that Sang-beom had raped Jae-won. If that is the case, the incident should be 5-6 years old – the same age as Ah-rin. I hope the makers clarify this as the show progresses in the episodes to come.