The Nice Guy: Episodes 13-14 (Final)

by stroopwafel

It’s not easy doing the right thing, but our protagonist is willing to put his life on the line if it means following his moral compass. At long last, we see what is at the end of our hero’s journey as a gangster, how the repercussions of his decisions impact his loved ones.

EPISODES 13-14

Though Seok-chul has pulled through after being stabbed, he knows that danger is still just around the corner. It’s not his life he’s worried about though, it’s JANG WOO-SEOK (Oh Seung-baek), his teenaged attacker who’s now most in danger.

Woo-seok is holed up in a rundown motel, and in a total state of shock at his own actions. He hadn’t even wanted to hurt Seok-chul, and he only agreed to the hit because Sang-yeol threatened to hurt his mother. When he gets a call from Seok-chul, all he can do is tremble in fear and apologize. Seok-chul knows that it was Sang-yeol who masterminded the whole plot, and warns him that hitmen are disposable and disposed of in gangland. He tells Woo-seok to start moving now if he wants to live, and to turn himself ASAP.

Woo-seok understands the urgency of Seok-chul’s warning…but unfortunately for him, Sang-yeol has already ordered his men to pick up Woo-seok.

The next day, Seok-chul watches in horror as a breaking TV news report recounts the discovery of a body. A teenaged boy was found in the river, already dead from a “motorcycle accident.” Heung-man confirms that there was no accident, Sang-yeol killed Woo-seok. (I’m a little shocked that the show actually went there and killed off Wook-seok. It was a grim reminder that though there are a few softies, the gangs are actually full of frightening people.)

There’s no question now that Seok-chul will be taking action against Sang-yeol. He first clears the air with Tae-hoon. It takes Seok-chul all of three seconds to convince Tae-hoon to visit him in the hospital and convince him that the restaurant trap was Sang-yeol’s doing. (I’m so glad that the last episodes had more Tae-hoon+Seok-chul time because I really loved their friendship.)

Tae-hoon tells Seok-chul to focus on recuperating because he’s going to take care of Sang-yeol himself. But to his utter confusion, Seok-chul asks him not to do anything. Seok-chul has a plan, and that plan is to handle Sang-yeol “his way.” At that, Tae-hoon merely scoffs. What, is he going to nicely ask Sang-yeol to turn himself in? The man has a point, and Tae-hoon is sincerely worried because he knows just how low Sang-yeol can go. At Seok-chul’s insistence, Tae-hoon agrees to step back.

Gangland is in disarray. Despite Chairman Kim surviving the collapse, he decides to retire for good. Instead of officially crowning a successor, he decides to spend his days fishing and just let Sang-yeol run things into the ground. His near-death experience has made him see the light, so he is letting go of his pride and his beloved gang.

So now Sang-yeol is running around unfettered, and treating the other gang members like his personal bodyguards. Not only does he instruct them to recruit new members and attack Tae-hoon’s gang, he never moves without at least a small cadre of men surrounding him for protection. It’s not totally clear if he’s afraid of Tae-hoon or Seok-chul (or both), but at any rate he’s drunk on his own power and convinced that no crimes can be traced back to him.

But pride goeth before fall, and Seok-chul realizes that Sang-yeol’s car could have critical evidence tying him to the murder. While Doo-shik breaks into the car, Seok-chul distracts him with a phone call.

During the call, Seok-chul throws down the gauntlet and tells Sang-yeol he knows everything. He just has one request, for Sang-yeol to turn himself in. Sang-yeol plays it cool till the very end, but ultimately Doo-shik gets away with the blackbox footage showing Sang-yeol committing the murder.

Instead of heading straight to the police with the footage, Seok-chul holds on to it. He takes his family out to a big dinner, and after spending time with Mi-young, he writes a long letter to her. It feels ominous, as if he’s saying his final goodbye.

The next day, Seok-chul takes his letter and leaves it at the columbarium where Mi-young’s mother was laid to rest. Mi-young waits backstage before a big performance, wondering where Seok-chul is, but he’s already on his way to Gang HQ.

Tae-hoon broods and tries one last time to convince Seok-chul to let the police handle things. Tae-hoon tells Seok-chul that at a crossroads, he doesn’t have to choose one of the paths in front of him; he can choose to turn back.

But stubborn Seok-chul can’t be swayed. He has Heung-man hand deliver the blackbox footage to Byung-soo (conveniently keeping him away from the violence that’s about to explode) and he texts Mi-young that he left her a letter and lyrics for a song at the columbarium.

At Gang HQ, he tries to get Sang-yeol to go quietly, and you can imagine how well that works. It’s basically Seok-chul against his entire former gang. It looks pretty dire, but then a wave of men flood in, attacking Sang-yeol’s men. Tae-hoon couldn’t sit back and let Seok-chul go it alone after all. Thanks to the assist from Tae-hoon, Seok-chul is able to break away and corner Sang-yeol. The two men battle it out, but Sang-yeol is outmatched. Seok-chul lets out all his frustration and anger on Sang-yeol’s face, and the police arrive mid-beatdown. Both Seok-chul and Sang-yeol are arrested.

At the ensuing trial, both men are found guilty and sentenced. Sang-yeol goes away for 20 years, unrepentant to the end. The judge notes that Seok-chul acknowledged his crime and repented. With his family and friends in the courtroom for support, they watch as Seok-cheol is sentenced to two and a half years (which seems long for an assault case, but I am not a lawyer).

Seok-chul gets plenty of visitors once he’s in jail; Tae-hoon, his dad, and Mi-young. In possibly the most infuriating scene of the series, when Seok-chul sees Mi-young on the other side of the visiting glass, he simply looks stricken and gets up without speaking a single word to her. Literally, not even a grunt of recognition. I guess it’s because he didn’t want Mi-young to see him in that state, but still!

We jump ahead two years, and happiness abounds for the whole family. Seok-chul’s relationship with his father is much better, and the entire debt on the house has been repaid by an anonymous benefactor (a.k.a. Seok-chul and Tae-hoon). Seok-kyung is engaged to Byung-soo and doing well for herself selling used cars. Seok-hee is living her best life in the U.S with Ki-hong, now married, and she and Ki-hong are due to make a visit to Korea just as Seok-chul is due to be released.

Mi-young continued to build her career on social media and her steadily growing fanbase allows her to pivot to mainstream radio and media. The family have kept in touch with her, with Mom giving her a steady supply of homemade kimchi. Though it seems that she and Seok-chul literally never spoke after that terrible visit, their feelings for each other are unchanged.

By chance, Seok-chul catches a radio appearance by Mi-young where she sings a new song. She talks about the lyrics and explains that the first verse was written by someone who is like a tree for her and that she penned the second verse. The lyrics tell the story of their relationship, and Seok-chul tears up as he listens to her sing.

It’s finally D-Day and it seems as though Seok-chul has no one to greet him. But he only takes a few steps before he sees a vision in yellow in the distance. It’s Mi-young, wearing the same dress Seok-chul had bought her. It’s a poetic callback to their promise to stay together regardless of what life may bring, and to be the tree that weathers the storm for each other.

I will never truly be unhappy about a happy ending, but this one was slightly bittersweet. It felt inevitable that Seok-chul and Mi-young would end up together, so to just have the time jump and the wordless reunion outside of the prison came across as lazy writing. We didn’t even get to see them hug!

I would have loved way less screentime devoted to Seok-kyung and more time spent on the romance, or any of the other various relationships that Seok-chul had. Seok-chul’s friendship with Tae-hoon is one relationship I would have loved to see more of, as their trust in one another was what made it impossible for Sang-yeol’s scheming to fully succeed. It was also Seok-chul’s good nature (and being a nice guy in the best sense of the word) that both saved Jin-ho’s life and allowed for Seok-chul to find a refuge for both himself and Mi-young.

The Nice Guy was a decent watch overall, but never lived up to its potential for me. The show stretched itself too thin, and tried to be too many things at once, rather than focusing on what made for the most compelling storylines.

 
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