“Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” has officially come to an end, airing its final episode on December 3rd and came to an end on a high note scoring good ratings.
“Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” episode 16 had an unexpectedly ended on a bitter-sweet moment and also slightly confused fans, today, we’re here to recap “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” episode 16 and look back on the series as well.
Note: the below recap is a highlighted recap of the most important moments of Tale Of The Nine-Tailed episode 16, its not a full recap.
Related: “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” Cast Surprising Facts You Must Know
The final episode starts with the aftermath of Lee Yeon’s sacrificing his life for his lover. His brother Lee Rang and Ji Ah are unable to move on. Lee Rang drowns himself in alcohol; Ji Ah continues to beg halmoni to do something to bring him back camping outside their place for a long period of time.
Hyun Ui Ong decides to return to halmoni’s side, the illness has disappeared and Ji Ah’s friend is good again.
Shin Ju continues being a gentleman checking up on both regularly to make sure they’re ok, he hands Lee Rang a video message by his brother which was left for him in case he’s died. He spends the first month crying every night.
Lee Rang seems to have slightly gotten better, Ji Ah decides not to forget Lee Yeon and wait for him, she ends up making a sort of documentary interviewing the people he loves to keep his memory alive, the documentary is for her viewing.
Shin Ju proposes to Yu Ri in the most romantic way possible, he sings her and asks her to marry him, she warns him she comes with a package, but says yes. The entire gang get together to celebrate their engagement.
It also appears that the cook (Bok Hye Ja) has gotten together with Team Leader Choi who also joins their celebration.
Meanwhile, Halmonie is trying her best to see if there is a way to bring back Lee Yeon, but it’s not working.
After 6 months
Ji Ah celebrates her birthday and gets sent a present from Lee Yeon who prepared it for her before his death, it’s a wedding dress that she wished for along with a letter where he talks about the beautiful times they’ve spent together telling her she’ll get used to him not being around.
Meanwhile, Yuri, the kid, and Lee Rang all live together with Shin Ju, they’re causing him trouble but they look like a happy family.
In another day while Ji Ah was at a park she runs into Lee Rang, it appears that he hasn’t given up and has been going around trying to find a way to bring back his brother.
He is supposed to meet the fortune teller who turns out to be one of the afterlife judges, the one responsible for reincarnation. They make a deal to bring back Lee Yeon but of course, they have to give him the most valuable thing they cherish.
Ji Ah tries to offer her memories but he declines, she then suggests offering her life but Lee Rang explodes in anger telling her she shouldn’t die after all the things his brother has done to keep her alive.
He offers his soul instead despite the fact that it appeared he didn’t have the will to live previously, he now does and thus, his soul became valuable again. Lee Rang tells Ji Ah to bring the family so he could see them one last time; sadly, he misses the chance to say goodbye.
Another funeral is held.
After sometime, Ji Ah is handed an umbrella that looks exactly like the one Lee Yeon uses, she runs after a man who looks like him, she hugs him tightly as they reunite, he explains he’s no longer a nine-tailed fox and asks if she’d be okay with it.
After both reunite and spend the rest of the day together, the next day Lee Yeon sees the documentary that was kept in his memory as a way to keep up with everything that’s passed.
He also goes to see Shin Ju and tells him he’s human now and suffers from the things humans suffer from. He takes his little brother phone and finds out he’s left one final message for him. He talks about how much he cared for him and how this message is a payback to the message he’s received after his death, Lee Rang says he wishes his brother will be reincarnated ‘preferably with an extremely ugly face.’
He ends his video message with,
‘If we ever can, let’s meet again…’
The next day, Lee Yeon goes to visit halmoni and her husband who talks about the calls she’s made for him, he sits down for a meal with them after explaining that he won’t be able to come here again since he’s human.
On a field, Lee Yeon and Ji Ah get married promising to be there for each other.
After more days have passed, Lee Yeon is still suffering to get used to human life and complains about it.
In a park, he is sitting down on a bench and sees a little kid fall from his bike, he goes to help him only to see the face of his younger brother Lee Rang when he was a kid, he helps him get back up and sees him off.
Later, he picks up Ji Ah who complains about seeing this man with a weird mask at the police station who wouldn’t take it off.
During night, Lee Yeon gives one final speech in voiceover about human life that is filled with firsts and lasts. He then wears a suit after Ji Ah falls asleep, he takes his umbrella and goes off to find that person Ji Ah talked about. He hunts him down and the final scene shows his eyes lit like a fox again, is Lee Yeon back to being a nine-tailed fox?
The end
I don’t like the ending!
It might sound cruel but I would’ve been fine with Lee Yeon staying dead and Ji Ah just going on with her life, just like he did waiting for her for 600 years. It would’ve come full circle by then.
For starters, the episode felt unnecessarily long. The writing of the episodes leading up to the finale was becoming annoying to me, “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” was a fun watch but didn’t need to be 16 episodes long. Many kdramas suffer from that, the need to be the industry standard 16 episodes, when will screenwriter stop stretching scripts beyond their intended stay? and when will producers also stop feeling the need to produce 16 episodes? and when will the broadcasting stations realize that?
I have many things to nitpick with “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” and especially its last episode because somehow it felt so uncalled for, as if the entire build up leading to Lee Yeon’s sacrifice meant nothing, if you’re going to bring him back regardless, was anything ever worth it? Were the tears worth it?
The emphasis of “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” was always based on how Ji Ah sacrificed her life for Lee Yeon and how in the present day, there was no way around the difficult situation they’ve been placed in, one has to die in order for the world to go back to normal. That’s what the screenwriter emphasized on, why abandon that idea in favor of a happy confusing ending?
The ending I liked would’ve been sad but expected. Lee Rang sacrificing his soul would’ve been better suited at the end of the 15th episode, instead of killing his brother, he takes the imogi with him to that river, that would’ve been the best way to end it but that wouldn’t have made for a 16th unnecessarily long episode stuffed with filler scenes, now would it?
Also, Lee Rang has committed many awful deeds too, how is it that he gets to be reincarnated?
The happy ending aside, the entire talk about Yeon becoming human felt so confusing and so out of place. Why did the screenwriter insist on making scenes about Lee Yeon talking about human life only to show him at the ending scene looking like this? He goes around complaining about it, repeating over and over again how it’s difficult to adjust and then it ends that way.
Here are my explanations for “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” ending:
Lee Yeon is either half-human half-fox or he’s still a nine-tailed fox.
However, if that’s true, it also doesn’t make sense, why would he be reincarnated as a half-human and how is that possible?
The other possible explanation is that he struck a deal with halmoni and her husband after he’s gone there to ‘say goodbye.’
The last possible explanation is that Lee Yeon was never reincarnated but only brought back to life in his original form. the most logical one.
Regardless, this defeats the entire purpose of Lee Yeon’s reincarnation, the man wanted to live a normal human life. His brother is a half-human half-fox since his mother is human but he’s been alive all those years already, does this mean Lee Yeon won’t age? But he’s said he’s human, wouldn’t Ji Ah notice that after a while?
also, its not like Ji ah disapproved of his identity to begin with, she didn’t find issues with it and rather embraced it, so running with that uncalled for ending scene made me question why I liked this drama so much to begin with.
I reviewed the first episodes “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” previously and talked about how much I liked it. I like well-written scripts but I can’t say “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” kept up the same enthusiasm as its first half.
The ending annoyed me so much that I began to look back on the second half more seriously and it annoyed me even more.
I won’t deny I enjoyed “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed,” but again, another drama second-half ruins the good that came from it.
So these are my thoughts on “Tale Of The Nine-Tailed” ending, what did you guys think of it? did you like it?
