New Beginnings
Episode 12 of When the Phone Rings starts with Hee-joo having a nightmare of Sa-eon getting shot by the kidnapper. She wakes up from the dream, but her reality is not any less hurtful. Sa-eon has disappeared for the past six months; no one knows where he is.
Six months ago, Hyeok-jin called Hee-joo and informed her that Sa-eon donated all his inheritance to different charities. He also quit his job and went MIA. For days, Hee-joo waited for him to come back to her. She followed up every lead, including visiting Do-jae multiple times to find a clue about Sa-eon’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, no one told her anything. Even I-na, who knew why Sa-eon left, kept her sister in the dark.
What happened to the Paik Family?
The police killed the real Paik Sa-eon on the fateful night when he threatened Hee-joo and her husband. Kyu-jin was sentenced to life imprisonment, but she appealed and asked for a death sentence. She could never forgive herself for not protecting her son.
In her last conversation with her true son, she confessed her regrets and wished she had protected him from Paik Jang-ho. Never did she acknowledge that her son was in the wrong, too. As for Ui-hyong, he denounced his family and announced that he would live an ordinary life. Mr Min was the only one who was truly remorseful and was jailed for five years.
What happened to Sang-woo and You-ri?
After months of dating, You-ri and Sang-woo finally got engaged. We were so wrong about Sang-woo. We couldn’t be happier about his newfound love with You-ri.
What happened to Sa-eon and Hee-joo?
After months of looking for Sa-eon, Hee-joo gets a clue when she receives a letter from Argan, thanking her for donating two billion Won to a sign language school. She meets with Hyeok-jin and asks him about his time as a soldier with Sa-eon in Argan. Hyeok-jin tells her that Sa-eon had a special spot to watch sunsets in Argan.
She decides to visit the war-torn country to look for Sa-eon. Even against multiple advice, she insists on going to Sa-eon’s old sunset spot. She ends up getting kidnapped by the rebels, but fortunately, Sa-eon rescues her.
He admits that he felt guilty after learning Paik Jang-ho killed Hee-joo’s brother. He thought Hee-joo was pretending not to know the truth for his sake. I-na had initially told him that Hee-joo knew the truth. He wanted to punish himself by setting Hee-joo free.
Hee-joo reminds him that they have lost enough time misunderstanding each other and she is done waiting. She passionately embraces Sa-eon, and they end up making love. Sa-eon admits that he donated to the sign language school because he’s planning to divorce Hee-joo, but he’s actually planning to remarry her under his new name.
How does When The Phone Rings end?
Sa-eon changes his name to Paik Yu-yeon and remarries Hee-joo. They move to a new place and invite their close friends to celebrate their union. It is at this party that You-ri announces her engagement to Sang-woo.
Later, Hee-joo talks to her family, and her parents give her their blessings. After everything that has happened, Hee-joo is ready to forgive her parents but hopes to take the relationship slow. She also forgives I-na and encourages her to forget the past and find her happiness. On the other hand, Yu-yeon reconnects with Sang-hoon.
Simultaneously, Hee-joo gets a new job as a sign language interpreter at the broadcast station. Yu-yeon gets a new job as a state negotiator and is sent on an impromptu mission, causing Hee-joo to worry.
The show ends with Yu-yeon calling Hee-joo back after succeeding in his recent mission. He asks Hee-joo to keep calling him 406 when she is angry so that he can know when he has done something wrong. Hee-joo agrees to keep it real with him always and asks that he safely return to her. Surprisingly, Do-jae is working as Yu-yeon’s assistant.
The Episode Review
Well, as we suspected, Paik Jang-ho was behind the accident that killed Hee-joo’s brother. This is why Sa-eon/ Yu-yeon went into hiding for six months. The ending of this show was a bit anti-climactic. Was it necessary to have Sa-eon and Hee-joo have another misunderstanding?
The whole Argan storyline felt too dramatic and unnecessary. We could have used more lovey-dovey scenes that were not imaginary. The writers also deprived us of Sang-woo and You-ri’s relationship arc, which is a pity. They make a cute couple, and seeing how their story developed would have been nice.
Other than that, the show wrapped up all the storylines perfectly. Most, if not all, of our questions were answered, and we got a happy ending. Were you satisfied with the ending? What did you love most about this show? Please do let us know in the comments.
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Episode Rating
(4)
Given the silly Argan episode (the ML conventiently has a shack in the forest which they seem to go to yet wake up by the beach with parasols) and the ultra saccharine ending (cute house, and blessings from all), all of which are out of key with the rest of the series, I just wonder if the male lead wasn’t actually killed and if this whole episode isn’t the female lead’s dream of a beautiful life that will never happen? It reminded me of the strange ending to City Hunter where you also wonder if the ML is really dead or not. He seemed to be, yet the director insisted that the ending was him alive heading back to the girl. Might this series might be the reverse of that?
@Shruti. Exactly how I felt. They wasted our time in episode 12. It felt like I was watching a really bad war movie.
Hi Marky I agree with you but please note that Sa
-eon was not shot. That was Hee-joo having a nightmare. The police only shot the kidnapper.
I
Technically, he is also a diplomatic negotiator and former soldier but I still agree with you. This was too much.
It was close to being a perfect drama BUT…
1. So what happened actually when Sa Eon supposedly died? Because we know he was there with the killer who talked to him, so Hui Ju couldn’t have imagined that. But if Sa Eon was really shot, he wouldn`t have been able to sit next to her bed the next day. If he wasn’t shot, why was it shown to us at the end of episode 11, where it wasn’t a dream but we saw the real scene.
2. Maybe I missed it in the drama but how did Hee Joo know her brother was killed?
3. The Argan thing was over-the-top (he is a spokesman not a military guy! and all that to “punish himself” for something that his not-even-actual father did to Hee Joo?) They should have given us cutesy slice of life instead.
4. They deprived us of the romance between Sangwoo and Yuri who were super cute. They deserved more screentime for an actual development of their lovestory.
I was expecting a happy ending and we got but it’s not enough.. They could have done all the misunderstanding, fights till 11th ep and could have given us 12th ep as a bonus the relationship building between side couples, other characters and main couple’s cute scenes or happy scenes but all this drama in the last ep like warzone thing was over and unnecessary I liked the show till 10th ep
The last episode was like watching a bad B-movie. A rating of 3.5 is already too high. In my opinion it should be a 2.5 or 3 at most. I almost couldn’t watch this episode, how terrible.
How on earth is she ending up alone between armed militants in the jungle in a fake country. Wearing a headscarf, as if to camouflage herself (are you serious…), but also wearing a white shirt?
Sa-eon shows up alone to rescue all the hostages, but actually only Hee-Joo is put in the car to escape. What about the others? Set them free in the middle in the night in a jungle between armed militants? Seriously??
And Sa-Eon went to a certain place in Argan because the sunset/sunrise is beautiful there. And that happen to be a church in the middle of the jungle? Um. I am missing something here? Maybe a beach would have been more realistic…
Also, he was shot from close by in his belly just below his heart, but he was apparently absolutely fine the day after as he sat next to Hee-Joo in the hospital acting fine. Um.
All in all, this last episode was pathetic and simply stupid in many aspects and ruined the ending of this otherwise good serie.
As anyone noticed that the name Yu Yeon is actually his real first 2 names as in Yu Yeon Seok?
I think they did too much – I was on board until the last two episodes – he’s saving people with all his spokesman training ?? Gahh – they were so close ..
4! You gave the finale a rating of 4! It was 2.5 at best with the idiotic argan thing!!!
Our man, who had absolutely nothing to do with hee-joo’s brother’s accident went to a war torn zone because he felt guilty?!?!
They could’ve come up with a better reasoning to wrap it up…
I believe In-a’s character was undercooked and they could’ve added more layers to her personality, given her strong presence on screen.
Sang-woo & you-ri deserved to have more screen time for ys to see their relationship mature to the point of marriage, their was no emotional trigger learning of their happy ending…
All in all, the show started with a bang but ended with a fizz