The Impossible Heir – K-drama Episode 12 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Choice

Episode 12 begins with Tae-oh in the columbarium, reminiscing about his mother. Hye-won decides to pay her respects and comforts Tae-oh, emphasising that he needs to keep going. Tae-oh then goes back to the first home he bought in the town where he first met In-ha. He reminisces about his journey – meeting In-ha and planning to take Kang-oh down. Back at his city house, he tears all the pictures off of his window, signifying the end of his life-long mission to make In-ha the heir. 

Elsewhere, Seong-ju relays to his mother in the prison that he doesn’t want to live her dream anymore, and that he has always been miserable. Geum-su understands his agony and extends her support. 

What happens at the stakeholder meeting?

There’s an emergency stakeholder meeting with the agenda to make In-ha the chairman. In-ju’s wife and Hee-chan joins In-ha’s side. At the same time, In-ha is arrested by the prosecution. Alternatively, Park Sa-jin’s daughter is revealed to be the doctor who helped Tae-oh in the prison. She tells his father about how In-ju tormented her that it was impossible for her to survive without drugging herself. Park Sa-jin promises to do his part as her father. 

Kang In-ha’s arrest reach the meeting. The scene changes and Park Sa-jin’s daughter calls Tae-oh to tell him that her father wants to see Tae-oh. He is able to convince Sa-jin to not support In-ha and agrees to let him have Kang-oh energy in exchange for one share. 

How is Gi-jun alive?

At the same time, In-ha is taken for questioning where we find that Mo Gi-jun is actually alive. In a flashback, we find that the prison doctor, also Park Sa-jin’s daughter, found him right after he was attacked since Tae-oh predicted it. Tae-oh visited Gi-jun to tell him the truth about In-ha. It’s assumed that Gi-jun testifies against In-ha. 

Back at the Kang-oh office, the audit team conducts a raid on In-ha’s department. The chairman seems to be struggling to stay alive in the hospital. 

In-ha receives a letter from the chairman where his surname is changed from ‘Kang’ to ‘Baek’. Elsewhere, Hee-ju asks Tae-oh to visit the Kang residence where Tae-oh finds the chairman in a wheelchair. 

What happens to In-ha?

The scene changes and In-ha is sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. Tae-oh later meets In-ha in prison and asks him why In-ha framed Tae-oh. In-ha replies that he cannot remember anymore, and maybe because it was Han Tae-oh. Tae-oh leaves In-ha with a picture of the three – Tae-oh, In-ha and Hye-won. 

Hee-ju and Seong-ju have a good relationship now, and Hee-ju leaves for a long trip. Tae-oh meets Hye-won and they discuss briefly about In-ha. Later, we find that In-ha had hanged himself. 

How does The Impossible Heir end?

We jump to 3 years later where chairman’s ambitious city-wide project has been completed. Hye-won is working with the congressman again. Seong-ju is in charge of Co-prosperity Cooperation Centre and Tae-oh has become the chairman of Kang-oh. In a flashback, we see the chairman acknowledging Tae-oh’s efforts to save Kang-oh and makes him the chairman. 

Tae-oh later visits In-ha at the columbarium. Hee-ju is in Mexico and Sunwo Wan and Boss Tak are enjoying their vacation sponsored by Tae-oh as a gift. The episode ends with Tae-oh’s dream coming true and him saying, “I’m still dreaming for myself”. 

The Episode Review

As expected, a disappointing finish. Firstly, we have a scene where Seong-ju claims to be miserable? Not once in the entire series did his character expressed to be miserable. He did follow his mother’s orders but it was clear that Seong-ju wanted to become the heir in the initial episodes and he suddenly claims that he never wanted to be one?

These are the kind of loopholes that arise in this show which makes it lose it’s authority over the plot and characters. It seems that the makers wanted to have a heartwarming scene with Seong-ju and Geum-suk conveniently forgetting initial few episodes. 

And after a number of episodes, Hee-chan, who briefly featured as Hee-ju’s to-be-fiance appears. We have no clue what transpired with him in the meantime. It seems like the makers introduce a character purely in terms of convenience, disregarding their involvement in the plot. 

About Park Sa-jin’s daughter, we just know she “suffered” due to In-ju but we have no clue to what actually happened. Again, the show just focusing on surprise gimmicks without much explanation. With so many introduction to fleeting characters – the use and throw kind, we hardly remember them after a week. 

Moreover, another inconsistency – Tae-oh’s verdict – was a death sentence, that seems irrational at the time as well, but now, In-ha gets a life sentence for the same act? How does that even add up? 

And what happened to Gold H Investment? Wasn’t Boss Tak supposed to appear as Michael Chang in last week’s episode? There are unending questions. It seems every week, we are confronted with a new plot.  The plot loopholes are so big that they overshadow any of the positives about the show. Hopefully, we will never see a season 2.