Rant : Cheese in the Trap Finale
I am going to be really straightforward and as my title says: this is going to be a rant. There may be spoilers but I’ll try not to. But it is going to be the least of my priority since I am primarily writing to vent out my overflowing negativevibes for the finale of Cheese in the Trap.
I want to highlight the things I like about this show for such a long time now but I have been very busy. I never intend or even expect myself to be composing this kind of rant for a drama that brings light to a fresh and unique type of characters. I love the characterizations so much because they are new concepts. It felt like this is the drama that would keep you interested not because of the romance developing between the protagonists but because of their personalities. It intrigues the no-time-for-watching-dramas me that I willingly give up my time for at least a five-hour sleep only to ride on this trip to nowhere. It is taking Seol’s journey with her and our destination was Jung’s mind. Sure enough, his mind is complex- it is a given. From the beginning, the writers make it crystal clear that Jung was incomprehensible, strange, weird, different. YES, AND I GET IT, ACCEPTED IT, LOVED IT.
BUT IT IS BECAUSE I THINK I AM WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO BE UNFOLDED.
Most, if not all, is about Yoo Jung.
Yoo Jung is more than just Seol’s love interest; more than just Inho’s ex-bestfriend/ex-brother; more than Inha’s ex-friend; more than a son of a huge company, Taerang; more than a two-faced persona in this drama. Yoo Jung is the skeleton of this story. He is the soul that livens up the narrowing path of kdrama plot lines. Yoo Jung is the subject that the storyteller-Seol - wants to share with everybody.
Regardless of the issues about CITT, the ending is utterly dissatisfying.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate open-ended stories, I actually prefer them deconstructive so I won’t be forced opening a wrapped-up present I cannot accept ever in my entire life. However, it is a dangerous way to tie things up. When done wrong, it may leave out strands of minor concerns of the audience. And when these minor issues pile up, they will be called loose ends. Serving us a half-cooked dish in a cute little platter is not going to cover up these lousy direction.
2.) [SPOILER]“I want to be with you when i can love you properly.”
How in the drama world would a main character be thrown far away to figure himself out in the last few minutes? Not letting us know where he is going or where he is after those long three years without the girl he has ever liked and protected by all means. They broke up with an implicit suggestion that he will come back and by the time it comes, he can love her the way he thinks is right. It even leads me to another question, what part of his love isn’t right? In my opinion, Yoo Jung depicts his love for Seol fine. His reasoning and how he views people other than Seol are the crooked ones. His love is never a question. Seol even told him in the last episode, (just in the last episode- episode 15. How many writers does this drama have that this line is treated like it never happened?) “You are so good to me, Sunbae. How can you not be the same to others.” Okay, disclaimer. Not sure if that is the exact line, it probably isn’t, but it goes a little something like that. Back to my point, Seol feels his love, his care, his tenderness that, in Seol’s words again, he chose to only show her. I wished they gave him a better break-up line than that. It is just so inappropriate.
3.) Everyone lived perfectly well (love and career) except, Seol and Jung.
I admit, this may just be me and my super-bias thinking, but I have thought that Seol is there to help Jung throughout the process of his betterment. My interpretation is based on how the CITT is narrated from the beginning. Seol wants to understand him; Jung needs someone who does. Finding each other is a game-changer for them but the bigger chunk goes to Jung. Their separation only gives irrelevance to Seol’s existence in his life because she cannot help him. He goes out on his way alone to know figure himself out, talk about soul-searching. He has been alone for the longest time, and when he finally met someone who is continuously and tirelessly understanding him without complaints, he leaves(?) The story begins telling us that what Yoo Jung badly needs is someone who will stay with him and teach him along the way no matter how rocky the roads are going to be. It ended quite the unparallel to this.
Somehow, (don’t wanna say totally), Seol’s accident made way to his introspection. Although it seemed that the hardest hit came from his dad’s words which were very ruthless and lacking of empathy. I despairingly swallowed the point that what happened to Seol can be said as the karma he had to receive to teach him a lesson the hard way. I can’t help but protest the unfairness of it all. He made himself out to be a human karma who sentenced people’s wrong-doings, yes. It will never be the right thing. BUT. The depth of slash he had to pay for it was too much. (only in my opinion) The people he hurt, the people he stepped on their emotions were not innocent; it made the story very interesting because of that. Jung was not an entirely bad and hateful being, he had his reasons. He did those things from the past way back before he met and liked Seol. So it can’t be that he did his creepy antics because of his love for her. Thus, his line from my previous point. I cannot accept that. Writers knew they had to provide an explanation for his actions but I did not expect they can only come up with this.
I have more to say but I might end up spouting more nonsense, if I continue. I do have a good laugh from the first episode to the last, no joke. I just have so much expectations from this drama because it started high. It turns out sustaining it will be a difficult challenge to conquer.
