The Interest of Love season 1 finale recap, review & ending explained: Do Sang-su and Su-yeong end up together?

Open Go TV / February 10, 2023 / Reviews

[ad_1]

The finale of The Interest of Love picks up the story four years later. Sang-su and Su-yeong move on in their lives, but soon cross paths again. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

Time passes by, Sang-su has been promoted to the post of assistant manager and is transferred to the Yeomnam branch. He forgets about Su-yeong on some nights, but he can clearly remember her on others; it has been four years since he last saw her.

All the employees attend Ms. Bae and Mr. Ma’s wedding ceremony. Mr. Noh is now the branch manager, Mi-gyeong is a manager at the HQ, and Ms. Seo is pregnant with her third child.

Mi-gyeong comes to the wedding. Sang-su hears her name and turns to meet her. He does not see her but smiles, thinking about her. Mi-gyeong watches him from a distance but does not approach him. She talks to Gyeong-pil and claims that Sang-su is just an ex now.

Sang-su goes on blind dates, but it seems like none of them has been successful so far. On the other hand, Su-yeong now owns a drawing cafe called Future Happiness. She has been in touch with Ms. Seo but never asks her about Sang-su.

Sang-su went to the beach in Tongyeong and other places he visited with Su-yeong because he has still not healed completely from the pain caused by his first love. The pain is not unbearable, but it is always there.

Sang-su chases a woman, thinking that she is Su-yeong. He ends up going to her cafe, unaware that Su-yeong owns it. He inquires about the name of the cafe, which reminds him of her.

Su-yeong goes to take a loan from the Yeomnam branch, as her cafe’s security deposit is being increased. Su-yeong and Sang-su miss each other once again.

Mi-gyeong runs into Su-yeong at an art gallery. The two women are glad to see each other. Mi-gyeong admits that she resented her and wondered why she did what she did. However, Mi-gyeong also missed her, and Su-yeong confesses that she also missed Mi-gyeong.

Mi-gyeong then tells her that she will visit her cafe with her boyfriend; she has moved on from Sang-su and is now fine talking about him. Mi-gyeong’s mother tells Sang-su’s mother that Mi-gyeong might get married soon.

Mr. Jeong is now a police officer; he is living the life that he always wanted.

Sang-su gets a document at his workplace and finds out about Su-yeong’s cafe. He tries to contact her but decides against it when he remembers that Gyeong-pil told him that Sang-su also gave up on her by not looking for her when she did not reach out to him.

Sang-su and Su-yeong still think about each other. Sang-su visits Su-yeong’s cafe for bank-related work. They see each other for the first time in four years. Sang-su tries to leave as soon as the work is done, but Su-yeong asks him to stay and have coffee with her.

She remarks that he has not changed in all these years. The two admit that they tried to be happy, and Su-yeong even says that she named the cafe “Future Happiness” because she wanted to find it.

Ms. Seo asks Su-yeong to go easy on herself now that she is living a good life and to stop bottling everything inside her.

Mr. Jeong still wears the watch Su-yeong gave him, even though it is broken. The two come across each other. Su-yeong smiles at him from across the street but does not approach him. Mr. Jeong keeps the promise he made and salutes her.

Sang-su visits Su-yeong’s cafe once again for work and decides to paint something before leaving. He paints a sandcastle on a beach, similar to the one Su-yeong made in the past. He then says goodbye to her and leaves.

The two run into each other at the place where Sang-su goes when he is going through something difficult in life. Su-yeong admits that she often comes to this place, and they have coffee together

Su-yeong wants to know why Sang-su is not asking her about never contacting him again. He tells her that he does not fully understand her reasons, but he somewhat understands. He then asks her to have pork cutlets with him at his university, a promise they made years ago.

Sang-su cannot leave the bank on time because the balance is not even, but unlike last time, he evens the balance with money from his own pocket and meets Su-yeong on time.

The Interest of Love season 1 ending explained:

Do Sang-su and Su-yeong regret their past?

At the university, when Sang-su asks her about not calling him, she questions him about not looking for her. He tells her that he did look for her but could not find her, and Su-yeong replies that she never called because there was nothing more to give or receive.

The two think about their past. Sang-su admits that there was a time when he wondered about it every day; he wondered whether things would be different if he had been more honest, if he did not hesitate, and if he had asked her not to run away.

Su-yeong, on the other hand, admits that she often wonders whether things would have been different if she had been more honest about her feelings and if she had waited for him. She regrets not telling him the truth.

What kind of life Sang-su and Su-yeong imagine together?

The two think that if things had been different they probably would have been married to each other and would have had children. As always, Su-yeong thinks of the worst outcome and says that they might have gotten divorced, but Sang-su believes that they might have had a happy ending.

When she points out that they are simple people even in their imagination, Sang-su states that love is two people going through life together.

Do Sang-su and Su-yeong end up together?

They think that they were once a part of each other’s lives, they fell in love, and they made foolish decisions. All the moments that they regretted made them long for each other even more, but they wonder if it was love or if they were blinded by interest.

As the two are at the spot that, during Sang-su’s college days, used to help students forget everything and start afresh, Su-yeong asks Sang-su what did he forget today, and he tells her with a smile that he forgot nothing, implying that he did not forget their past and their moments together.

Sang-su and Su-yeong continue walking towards the pork cutlet food joint to fulfill the promise that they could not in the past.

Review

While the show has always used symbolism and implied things more than stating them, the writers went a little overboard in the finale. The ending only had ambiguous discussions, and the finale left too much to the imagination of the viewers.
The whole episode was dedicated to showing how various characters are faring in life. However, that, along with the open-ended finale, made the whole episode underwhelming; it felt like nothing happened at all. The episode was not as interesting as a finale should be.
The episode made it clear that not everyone gets a happy ending. Mi-gyeong is the only character who has completely moved on; she finds a coin again but uses it to buy something insignificant, attaching no emotional value to it. Mr. Jeong, Gyeong-pil, Sang-su, Su-yeong have clearly not moved on.
Gyeong-pil and Su-yeong’s truth never comes to light. The episode seems to indicate that in real life, where love is simply two people going through life, not everything gets resolved.