Recap "Green Mothers' Club 2022" Episode 16

Episode 16 of Green Mothers Club starts with Jae-Ung arresting Chun-Hui. She hug her kids goodbye and promises that she’ll return soon. She tells Eun-pyo to look after them for the time being.

At the police station, Chun-Hui is questioned over Jin-Ha’s death and whether she died because of an adverse reaction to the drugs she supplied. Chun-Hui claims it’s pure coincidence that Jin-Ha died that day, bringing up that the real queries should be levelled at Luis, who was acting suspicious that night, whispering to someone on the phone in his study.

While they talk, Chun-Hui’s past is brought up regarding the drug mix-up, which of course was Ju-Seok’s fault. Jae-Ung doesn’t believe her.

There’s also trouble at the Man-Su household too, as Yun-ju confronts him about Chun-Hui’s arrest. Believing that he cares more about her than their own family, she forces him out the house.

What does Eun-Pyo find out in her investigation?

The Eun-Pyo household is also going through the motions too, with Jae-Ung confronting Eun-pyo about Chun-Hui and her ties to Jin-ha’s death. She argues with her husband (just as a reminder, he’s an experienced investigator), pointing out that he’s wrong about this case.

Their fight is broken up by Ju-Seok arriving to collect his kids. Eun-Pyo refuses to open the door, until the kids burst past her and leave anyway.

Professor Lee rings to remind her of their upcoming meeting. Well, Eun-Pyo has no time for silly things like her career, she’s doing her husband’s job as investigator instead.

Eun-Pyo heads off to the prison first to speak to Chun-Hui about Jae-Ung’s revelation that she was injecting Jin-Ha. Just as a reminder, Chun-Hui emotionally manipulated Man-Su and didn’t think twice about destroying their family unit. When she learns that Chun-Hui was supplying drugs to Jin-Ha, she’s shocked.

Who is Rhea Bennett?

Eun-Pyo next meets Rhea and asks her who she is. She notices her nametag on the suitcase and realizes that this is probably Luis’ sister. She does some research at the bookstore and learns that Luis and Rhea were adoptive siblings, and Luis was in love with her. To straighten things out, Luis asks to meet at his place.

Luis admits to Eun-Pyo that he married Jin-Ha because she looked just like his sister, Rhea. She was suffering because of this revelation and the night Jin-Ha died, he was with her. Luis wanted Jin-Ha to be just like Rhea but soon realized that wasn’t the case and decided to leave her behind to be with Rhea.

Man-Su arrives to see Ju-Seok and urges him to testify the truth to reduce Chun-Hui’s sentence. He goads Man-Su into submission but the guy snaps, pushing him down and reminding him that his wife has been through absolute hell just to try and keep their relationship going. When Man-Su leaves, Ju-Seok begins crying.

What did Chun-Hui see the night of Jin-Ha’s death?

Eun-Pyo eventually heads back to see Chun-Hui, determined to know what happened that night. Jin-Ha was one of her customers and soon became reckless and wanted constant injections.

The night she died, Chun-hui head over and listened as Jin-ha mentioned how she felt like she had a mum in Eun-Pyo’s mother. She was distraught and in a lot of pain when she realized the woman didn’t recognize her in the present. Chun-Hui ignored her crying and left, which is the last time she saw her.

What actually happened to Jin-Ha? Did Luis kill her?

Now, there are a fair few teasing moments dotted throughout the next few minutes. Rhea receives a letter, Henry tells his father something and Eun-Pyo talks to Luis. So what’s going on? Well we’re about to find out. That night, Luis was on the phone to Rhea, who wanted him to leave and join her. Eventually though he refused to leave Henry.

While talking to her outside, Jin-Ha found the messages to Rhea on the laptop and realized this is why he wanted to leave in the first place. Jin-Ha opened the window, sat on the balcony, smiling. She tried to lean over and commit suicide but Luis held onto her arm, trying to stop her. It’s no good and eventually she slipped, tumbling to her death.

After confessing this to Eun-Pyo, he decides to turn himself in. He believes he’s not supposed to be happy and doesn’t want to leave Henry alone in this Hell.

Man-Su and Yun-Ju eventually hash out their problems, with Man-Su admitting that Su-In and Yun-Ju are the two most important people in his life and that won’t change.

How does Green Mothers Club end?

Just before Chun-Hui is taken away to serve her sentence, Eun-Pyo hurries off and promises to visit her. The scene then eventually cuts to Eun-Pyo and Jae-Ung heading off together to meet their kids, marvelling at Dong-Seok getting on well with the other kids.

Eun-Pyo also goes back to working in a school while becoming close with all the other mums too. She even helps a new mum get adjusted to the area and settle in with all the mums.

A fair amount of time must have passed though as Chun-Hui is eventually freed and appears before Eun-Pyo. The pair hug it out and eventually head out together, talking. It appears Ju-Seok has done the right thing, telling the police the truth about his wife. It would appear he’s done the right thing, finally, letting Chun-Hui move forward with her life.

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The Episode Review

So the final episode of Green Mothers Club bows out, wrapping up most of the big questions this show has raised while also losing sight of the mother/child relations that this show initially started with. Eun-Pyo also claiming that Chun-Hyi is the sole reason for her becoming settled in the neighbourhood is a bit of a laughable stretch too, given she actually caused her life to be a living hell for half the season.

The biggest issue I had with this episode comes from Jae-Ung and Eun-Pyo’s relationship. We’ve never actually seen the history between these two and worse, the show brushes over their issues in this final episode. Even when Jae-Ung is trying to explain what she’s doe wrong, she’s still arguing with him and failing to see his side of things.

I understand writing a protagonist with flaws, it’s certainly better than a Captain Marvel Mary Sue with absolutely no weaknesses. But then at the same time, there’s a fine line between weakness and outright incompetence.

EunPyo has been infuriating to watch at times and although I appreciate this feeds into the believability of her character, it’s also very frustrating to sit and watch play out. It’s perhaps even worse that she never really has any consequences for her actions, especially not here with Jae-Ung, who just brushes all of this under the rug so they can play happy families.

That’s pretty damning too because I would imagine Jae-Ung didn’t get his promotion at work off the back of his wife interfering with an ongoing investigation. It also throws into question the “threat” on Chun-Hui’s life. Presumably there is none because the police just rounded up all the dealers and there’s no one after Ju-Seok and the others.

So technically, there’s no reason to think she couldn’t have just left her kids with her aunt and done her time. Running away from the police and trying to leave the country just makes her look incredibly guilty.

The whole Luis/Rhea situation has been one big, massive mess and a large part of this drama that hasn’t worked. Thankfully that’s over now, and the ending certainly wraps everything up with a neat little bow. Compared to other k0drama on TV right now though, this one has been somewhat of a misfire.