The fourth episode of At the Moment is not without its loopholes. It may not even be a perfect love story, but it is just one of those tales that show how powerful the sacrifice of true love can be. Not to sound too poetic, but even the universe doesn’t allow that emotion to be misunderstood. Beyond the Stars is a very special episode, and this is the recap of it.
Spoiler Alert
Why does Yao Chih Hsuan think she is a time traveler?
The reason Yao Chih Hsuan believes that she is a time traveler is because she thinks she graduated two weeks ago, and it is still 2012. The audience realizes right away that either Chih Hsuan has some mental health issue, or she has lost her memory. The pandemic is still in full swing, and for Chih Hsuan, she is in a world she is yet to understand. Chih Hsuan believes that her alter ego or someone else wrote the books that she is famous for, and all she wants to do right now is go back in time. But before that, she needs to buy some toilet paper before the supermarket runs out of it. Unfortunately, she is too late, and all she finds is a neighbor she did not know she had who offers to help her.
Lin takes her to his house, where Chih Hsuan feels sad upon watching the news, thinking that she is going to lose more of her life without her knowledge. She tells Lin that she has time-traveled and lost ten years of her life without knowing how that happened. With the pandemic disrupting their lives, she will likely lose a lot more years, and that is making her cry. That is when Lin tells her that he is an alien, so he believes her story because he has a similar one. Chih Hsuan decides that it is the moment to do something crazy, and that is when she kisses him, causing him to pass out. The next day, Lin leaves some food outside her door, and they continue talking. Over time, Chih Hsuan finds herself falling in love with him, as they keep talking all day and night, and they simply know how to be with each other. Chih Hsuan mentions that Lin understands her in a way that she doesn’t know herself, and despite being a writer of romance novels, she had never thought that it was possible for her.
As much as Chih Hsuan is hell-bent on the idea that she is a time traveler, she doesn’t accept that Lin is an alien. She thinks that it is something he is saying so that he can keep talking to her. But again, she feels happy that he believes her time-travel story. It is a funny concoction in Chih Hsuan’s brain, but she is happy, and that is all that matters. Chih Hsuan suspects that Lin may already like her. His telescope is aimed at her house, and he hugged her the first night they met, unprovoked. Unassuming strangers don’t do that, but even Chih Hsuan kissed him.
Whenever Chih Hsuan has an interview, Lin helps her with what to say, as the former cannot remember any of her writings since she has ‘time-traveled.’ But Lin has read all her books because his ex-girlfriend was a fan of Chih Hsuan, and she brought them all over to his place and made them read them, as her favorite author had said that people who loved each other mixed their lives. With time, Lin became an indispensable part of Chih Hsuan’s life, and she was already in love. But things change one day when Lin goes for a jog, and he video calls Chih Hsuan. He tells her about some of the stars and constellations in the sky, and Chih Hsuan remembers that this is not the first time he has told her this. It is like a memory from the past, and she immediately tells him that they fell in love after this. But at that exact moment, the call is disconnected, and Chih Hsuan is unable to talk to Lin. She waits for him the entire night, and he only shows up the next day, saying that he went to Pluto for some work. Chih Hsuan has had it, and she wants them to speak truthfully. She tells him that she loves him and is already aware that they must have been a part of each other’s lives. Chih Hsuan wants answers, but Lin is not able to give them to her. He disappears from her life, and Chih Hsuan doesn’t see him for a long time, until one day, when the security guard gives her a pen drive that Lin left for her when he came to vacate his house.
Is Lin Dead Or Alive?
Lin starts telling Chih Hsuan a story that the audience had probably started suspecting at this point. Chih Hsuan and Lin had first met in 2018, and they soon fell in love. Chih Hsuan was the ex-girlfriend who had brought over her books to Lin’s house, and he had similarly taken her stargazing. They had a beautiful relationship until one day, when Lin was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Instead of telling Chih Hsuan the truth, he breaks up with her so that she can move on from him. However, barely a few moments later, Chih Hsuan has an accident, and the result of that is her memory loss. She has completely forgotten Lin and the last ten years of her life.
Lin was spending this time with her so that she would be able to acclimate to her surroundings better. Also, perhaps the pandemic meant that he couldn’t seek immediate medical attention, and he continued to live in his house as Chih Hsuan’s neighbor. But when he saw both of them falling in love with each other again, he knew he had to get away before things reached a point where all his efforts would go to waste. Regardless, he had left a final message for her as his goodbye.
At the end of At the Moment episode 4, Chih Hsuan has written a new book, which is a love story between an alien and a time traveler. It is one of her few books that has a happy ending, and her editor states that it is a little far-fetched as one is more likely to fall in love than to meet an alien. This means that if a time traveler and an alien can fall in love, then one can live a happy life with their true love. In the final moments, just as Lin had said, the lovers seem to be back in 2012, and they meet once again, this time with the knowledge of who they are, and happily resume their love story. Perhaps Lin has passed away, and this segment is an enactment of the happy ending in Chih Hsuan’s book, which she wished had happened in her own life. The other option is that Lin has survived, and he and Chih Hsuan are living a happy life in a world of their own making, which reflects this unique journey of theirs.
Final Thoughts
This episode could trump the original 50 First Dates. Perhaps these episodes of At the Moment are a test run to see which one of them could be the next hit series to come out of the country. They are absolutely beautiful stories, and we wish they got their due.
