Heavenly Ever After is a K-drama that feels almost like a strange kind of fan fiction. The TV show tells the story of a woman who decides to stay physically 80 years old when she goes to heaven because her husband once told her she looks prettiest at her current age. The real reason the situation feels messed up, though, is that her husband decided to go back to being younger, but she stayed old. Somehow, even in heaven, this is an almost unaccepted relationship. Not because people gossip and stuff, but simply because it looks odd. In this episode, we see some adorable little animals because it reminds us that our pets have feelings too and that dogs are so loyal they’ll be with us even in the afterlife, or rather, be waiting for us. A lot of this show makes zero sense, like why there are people videotaping heaven and why pets have to become humanoid once they’re past the pearly gates, or even the cult-like leader that is the manager. Anyway, with that said, I’ll dive straight into the episode.
Spoiler Alert
Does Nak-Joon Become Old?
In the first half of episode 2 of Heavenly Ever After, we see Nak-Joon and Hae-Sook trying to bridge the gap between them. Nak-Joon does tend to be a little bit silly or a little bit like, “How could you make such a trivial mistake?” The funny part is that Hae-Sook has that device that speaks her mind when she’s not being honest, something that heaven does for people over the age of 80, but this device just leaves her frustrated because everyone around can hear her inner thoughts. Nak-Joon takes Hae-Sook to the park, where he runs round and round until he’s completely tired out. This is something he has wanted to do since he got paralyzed. Back in the day, when Hae-Sook had asked him what he’d do if his legs started working again, he had said that he’d run until his legs felt like they couldn’t function anymore. I suppose the whole point of this kind of earthly heaven is to fulfill your wishes and experience life to the fullest.
At home, or in the park, or even when they have to sleep, Hae-Sook feels self-conscious. Even when it seems like Nak-Joon genuinely doesn’t mind that she’s old, given he often calls her pretty and cute as always. Hae-Sook would still rather sleep separately, just as they did back on earth, with her on a mattress on the floor by his bed, because he couldn’t move. The next day, Nak-Joon takes Hae-Sook to work, which looks almost like a bank for the dead. Here, you can use your wrist as a debit card to buy food and get your inquiries answered. This is where Hae-Sook meets the center director. He’s got a glowing white halo around him because he’s higher up in the heavenly order, but Nak-Joon doesn’t.
Hae-Sook is sent to heaven orientation, where she meets a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law duo who made a deal on earth where the mother-in-law would become the daughter-in-law’s child. They kept the promise, and that makes things so odd to look at but also shows that anything is possible in heaven. At the orientation, the biggest takeaway is that people whose behavior isn’t great can be sent to hell, too. Nothing is eternal, so people must follow rules and be good.
Why Did Nak-Joon Tell Hae-Sook To Carry An Umbrella?
In a flashback, we learn that whenever Hae-Sook went to work, she would ask her husband what the weather looked like to him. He’d always tell her what it looked like, but many years later, he learned from his caretaker that Hae-Sook would get splashed at in the market, which is why he started telling her to take an umbrella every time she went to the market. Interestingly, the skill to open an umbrella is what Young-Ae wanted her to teach before she died. Meanwhile, at night, Hae-Sook can hear Young-Ae crying because she misses her. Young-Ae even goes to a shaman, who pretends that Hae-Sook’s spirit is still roaming the earth. Meanwhile, Hae-Sook meets Sonya in heaven (we knew it!). Somehow, she doesn’t turn back into a cat when she’s with Hae-Sook, though all the dogs whose owners find them are thrilled and stay with them.
After watching the dogs run up to their owners and finding the three abandoned dogs, Hae-Sook returns home to her husband. They try to change her age, or at least his age, even though that literally makes him cry, but the answer is no, because once an age is chosen, it’s locked in. Fortunately for Nak-Joon, this plan doesn’t work. Hae-Sook tells Nak-Joon that she wasted her young years, and now she regrets it more than ever. Finally, Hae-Sook is able to hug her husband when he tells the story of the caretaker who told him that he was lucky to have a wife like Hae-Sook. Nak-Joon had cried by himself and felt guilty for doing that, too, because his wife was going through so much because of him.
Does Young-Ae Die?
At the end of Heavenly Ever After episode 2, Young-Ae tells the shaman to tell Hae-Sook that she’s coming to her very soon. The next thing we know, she’s crashed into something off-screen, which makes it seem like she’s died. In a flashback earlier, we saw that she was one of Hae-Sook’s clients’ daughters. But she saw that the girl was living in the worst conditions and decided to give her some food. Her mother was dead, but the kid was tough and all alone. Hae-Sook convinced her to call her dad, but when Hae-Sook actually came back to see her dad, she learned that he is hitting the kid. Instead of taking the money back, Hae-Sook basically bought the girl off her father. This girl grows up to become Young-Ae. But the really funny thing at the end of episode 2 is that Nak-Joon’s planned a surprise for Hae-Sook, but a random woman shows up, immediately hugging Nak-Joon when she sees him. This makes Hae-Sook really angry, and she pulls them both by their hair. But does this woman actually know Hae-Sook, or has she just heard the names from back in the day? Is she Hae-Sook’s older sister? Or just some random person who has been transferred wrong.
