Wedding Impossible (2024) K Drama Episode 11-12

Ah-jung is in rough shape and hardly managing to keep it together. In a heartbreaking scene, she confesses to her family that the marriage was a fake — she just wanted to have the leading role for once in her life! And she really likes Ji-han. Then she sobs her heart out, Mom gives her a hug, and her supportive family is back to their normal selves.

Ji-han embarks on his plan to disappear by telling Do-han that he takes full responsibility for what he told the press, and now they should go their separate ways. Also, he just can’t bear to see Ah-jung in a state of despair after his decision to “save” her. So he runs off to the countryside alone, biding his time and pining over her, until the two of them are imaging they see each other at every turn, they’re so delirious with heartbreak.

Meanwhile, we get the chaebol-iest of chaebol scenes with Grandpa calling Ah-jung to his office to have a word with her. Except, rather than outright forbid her from seeing his grandsons, he implores her to marry Do-han. If she doesn’t, Do-han will publicly confess his secret — and does Ah-jung want to be the downfall of both his grandsons? Jeez, this guy with the guilt trips.

But uri Ah-jung is not our typical heroine. She gives her two cents, bravely stating that Grandpa should be nicer to his grandkids and stop saying he’s doing messed up things for their benefit. Then she bows and walks out the door, and I love this girl with guts who can just tell off the head of a conglomerate like it ain’t no thang.

When she walks out, though, Do-han has already gone ahead with his own press conference, where he comes out to the world and says the engagement was a fake. Then he’s at the airport, headed back to New York, and calling Ah-jung to say goodbye. It’s not about her, he says. He did it so he can live for himself. The important part is that they’re still besties — and even though we saw this coming from a mile away — it’s really great to see Do-han so happy and relaxed for once.

Ah-jung is on her own now, without either of the Lee boys to keep her company, but she wises up and realizes that Ji-han is probably hanging out in that seaside town where they had their awesome date. She goes there to find him and we’re walked through the most depressing date ever (I mean, when even sparklers seem sad, that’s saying something). They both know what’s going to be said, so they delay it as long as possible.

Then finally, Ah-jung comes out with it: “I think we’ll be miserable if we get back together. How can we get back together when Do-han did that for us?” (Huh? That’s exactly why you should get back together — so Do-han’s actions aren’t in vain.) Then she says she really liked him and bids him goodbye. All right, so we’ve got two noble idiots in the house.

Then we’re off to a one-year time skip where our leads have gone their separate ways. Ji-han has started his own company, breaking off from LJ Group, and finally gets the validation he needs from Grandpa. As it turns out, the Choi siblings’ father was the cause of their mother’s death, but Grandpa takes full responsibility on himself because when he got to the scene of the accident, he pulled Ji-han out of the car just before it exploded into flames and his only daughter perished inside.

Ji-han learns that Grandpa just couldn’t look at him because seeing his face reminded him of what he did wrong to lose his daughter. He’s finally ready to settle the matter by telling Ji-han that if he had to do it again, he’d still save him.

And just as I’m wondering what this information will do for Ji-han’s rain aversion, Ah-jung is there, waiting outside in the rain with a red umbrella on his mom’s memorial day. They smile at each other and end up going for coffee to catch up on what they’ve been missing in each other’s lives. They definitely still have rapport, but some of the tension is gone, and they seem like old friends.

But underneath, they’re both still pining for each other. We see that Ah-jung has gained some notoriety as an actress and that Ji-han has been watching her episodes on repeat, memorizing the lines, and making himself sick with longing. Finally, he waits outside her house all night in his car, supposedly to return the red umbrella she left with him, but really because he lurves her.

She hops in his ride and asks to be dropped at her shoot, where he sticks around to watch. He’s very worried she’ll be doing a dangerous action scene, but finds out it’s worse: she’s doing a kiss scene. His jaw hits the floor and she toys with him, “I thought you said you were happy I wouldn’t get hurt.” He shouts, “But my feelings are hurt!” Aaaand their adorable banter is back.

Ji-han is so jealous that he picks an argument with her kissing co-star (Ryu Kyung-soo) and Ah-jung has to get between them. But it doesn’t quell much aggression when she calls her fellow actor oppa. “Oppa? Oppa?!” Ji-han isn’t joking, which is what makes it incredibly funny.

Poor Ji-han is about to have an even harder time when Ah-jung’s acting friends tell him that Ah-jung is actually dating her co-star. They (along with Ah-jung’s family) are wary of Ji-han coming around again after all the heartache Ah-jung suffered because of him.

Ji-han goes out and gets wasted with Chae-won (who’s now a close friend of his with no feelings left, apparently) and ends up in Ah-jung’s care when Chae-won doesn’t want to deal with his drunken, cuddly nonsense. In his inebriated state, he tells Ah-jung, “I spent every day thinking about you. Staying faithful and loyal. How could your love change?” Then he begs her to break up with her boyfriend. And Ah-jung is eating it up with a spoon.

It’s a sham of course. Ah-jung has no beau and being around Ji-han is making her wonder how she ever held back all this time. After confessing he loves her in front of her entire family, Ji-han ends up proposing on a park bench. “Let me be your husband,” he says, while detailing the kind of daily life he hopes they’ll live together. They’ve already done the hard stuff (meeting of families, living under the same roof), so getting married should be the easy part.

They give each other a series of cute pecks all over the face before kissing for real as we cut to a wedding scene. Except, it’s not their wedding. Ah-jung is at the alter with a different groom (cameo by Lee Soo-hyuk), and when it starts to rain, Ji-han is grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her out of there.

It’s a wedding scene in whatever she’s shooting and the filming can’t continue with the rain anyhow, so Ji-han is there to “object.” They run off in the rain in their formal wear, meditating on the impossibility of being honest all the time and how living is a series of lies. We end with Ah-jung in voiceover, telling us that she can be herself when she’s with him and she’ll love him for who he is too. No pretending.

So, yeah, evidently a wedding really is impossible in this drama because even after a no-holds-barred proposal, we still get no wedding. Wouldn’t that be the punchline to the whole show? I wasn’t expecting Ji-han to boldly propose like that after a year of not seeing each other (I mean, they barely had a chance to date!). But if you’re going to have an engagement, then shouldn’t it be like, Wedding: Totally Possible?

As much as I loved this drama in its first half, the momentum really dropped off in these last episodes. The side stories were not interesting enough to fill the time, and even the plot points that got drummed up into serious melodrama fizzled out when it came time to explain them at the end (really? We find out what happened with LJ Group on a news clip?).

I appreciate that the drama knew it was a tornado of tropes and called out that fact every chance it got. But still, it didn’t do enough to subvert those tropes in the process of making fun of them. So, in the end, it didn’t win me over with its self-consciousness.

The leads were the highlight here, with their sparky interactions and teasing rapport (even if there was over-reliance on Moon Sang-min’s looks when all else failed). Our second leads were also noteworthy, and I was disappointed that Chae-won’s character was so underutilized after building up her personality so much. And bringing Do-han back to Korea at the end was a nice touch, but still, I would have liked to see more of the aftermath of his coming out (I know. Not the point of the show. But it ended up feeling like nothing more than a plot device).

All in all, there were excellent moments in this drama. It’s just how they were strung together that didn’t always work. I stayed liking our heroine and her non-contract boyfriend right to the end, but liking all the side stories, plot circles, and filler that came with it? Impossible.