Episode 16 of My Happy Ending starts with Yoon-jin trying to kidnap Ah-rin from the airport. She drives away with the little girl when Jae-won shows up there. Jae-won get worried when she is not able to trace her daughter.
Yoon-jin takes Ah-rin to have some ice cream and asks her what she missed the most while being in the USA. Ah-rin states that she misses her father – Soon-young the most which makes Yoon-jin feel guilty.
Detective Oh and Tae-oh team up with the other cops and go looking for Ah-rin. Jae-won is in her car when she gets a call from Yoon-jin who asks her to go home. Yoon-jin asks Jae-won to tell Ah-rin the truth about Soon-young’s death.
However, after ending the call, Yoon-jin meets with an accident while crossing the street and is hit by a truck that kills her instantly. Detective Oh who was out looking for Ah-rin finds Yoon-jin’s dead body on the street. Tae-joo
A year after Yoon-jin’s death, Jae-won finally visits the real Psychiatrist Su-kyung, the one she had been hallucinating. The conversation is odd with Jae-won expecting Su-kyung to talk to her like she would in her hallucinations. Su-kyung chats with Jae-won about the last year and how she has been coping with her mental health struggles.
After the incidents leading up to Yoon-jin’s death, Jae-won is called back to work for Dereve as the joint CEO. Jae-won’s contribution improves Dereve’s business by a lot.
However, Jae-won decides to quit her job and hands over the responsibilities to Mr Park, the other CEO of Dereve. Mr Park appoints Tae-oh as the new joint CEO of Dereve.
Meanwhile, Jae-won takes some time off work and takes Ah-rin to visit Chang-suk.
Chang-suk and Ah-rin notice how Jae-won is still having a hard time dealing with her mother’s death. Jae-won feels guilty for being too harsh with her mother before her passing and recalls how her mother also needed professional help due to her illness. Chang-suk asks Jae-won to spend some time alone in a house in the woods.
There, Jae-won starts hallucinating her mother and decides to confront the woman once and for all. Jae-won decides to talk to the hallucination of her mother and confronts her for not being a competent enough mother to her. Jae-won shares her feelings and breaks down in front of her mother’s hallucination.
After the conversation, Jae-won finds herself free of the guilt that she was holding onto for so many years. The hallucination of Jae-won’s mother asks her to forget the past and move on towards a bright future she had before her.
While Jae-won is away, Tae-oh meets Chang-suk and confesses his feelings for Jae-won. Chang-suk wonders why Tae-oh was willing to go through the trouble of being with Jae-won, despite her condition. Tae-oh tells Chang-suk that he liked Jae-won.
After seeing how Ah-rin had reacted upon seeing a dead bird, Jae-won decides it was okay for her to know about Soon-young’s death. Jae-won tells Ah-rin the truth and takes her to visit Soon-young’s tombstone. Ah-rin breaks down at first but promises her father that she will be a good child.
Jae-won decides to start working with Dereve as a freelance designer and signs a contract with Tae-oh. Jae-won tries to manage her day-to-day work while also spending ample time with her family.
Secretary Kim asks Tae-oh to go out shopping with Jae-won. During their trip, Tae-oh confesses his feelings for Jae-won and tells her he is willing to wait for her. Jae-won positively responds to Tae-oh, telling him it will be a while before she is ready to date him.
Meanwhile, Tae-joo is released from prison for his help with having Yoon-jin confess her crimes. Jae-won spends some quality time at the beach with Ah-rin and Chang-suk while finally setting the hallucination of Su-kyung free.
The episode ends with Jae-won playing in the ocean with her step-father and her daughter by her side as she looks on to living one happy day at a time.
Out of all the characters on this show, I feel bad for Soon-young the most. Not only was he a good father to Ah-rin, but he was also a very good son to Chang-suk and a dedicated husband to Jae-won. Aside from doubting her for sleeping with someone else and causing unnecessary trouble due to a misunderstanding, he was a force for Jae-won. I wish he were still alive as that would be a plot twist no one would have expected.
However, I get that this is a realistic drama and everything that happened in this episode makes sense. With that being said, Yoon-jin just dying after being hit by a truck was not something I expected.
It is probably the makers’ way of showing us that sometimes, bad characters just meet their fate without making the good characters stoop to their level.
As happy as I am that Jae-won and Tae-oh are together, I still cannot digest this ending because I am still hung up on her and Soon-young.
Despite that, Jae-won deserves all the happiness in the world and I am glad that she finally confronted her mental health challenges and confronted her hallucinations head-on to get rid of them.