To sum up Cha Seeum’s life, as presented in Maestra: Strings of Truth: her husband had an affair, a woman was obsessed with her, and Seeum herself spent her life being scared of a hereditary disease. It is surprising how the writers managed to drag and connect these inane subplots over the course of twelve episodes. At the end of a long show, we don’t have anything to say about whether this was a good story. It was a meager plot that should have been wrapped up in six episodes or so. But for the sake of the six weeks we have spent with Maestra: Strings of Truth, we will try to make sense of it in the recap below.
Spoiler Alert
What is Cha Seeum’s past?
Seeum’s mother had Remington’s disease, and Seeum saw the effect it had on her. After one point, she couldn’t play music, and she also had fits where she did not recognize her daughter. Since the disease was hereditary, Cha Seeum was asked to get tested, but she was scared of the result, which is why she avoided doing it all her life.
Seeum met Jeongjae in the United States, and they dated for three years. Seeum had told him that she did not want to have anything to do with music, but she never revealed the past that made her feel this way. Additionally, Jeongjae was a little controlling, which is why Seeum broke up with him and hasn’t met him in over twenty years. In the present day, she is one of the top conductors in the world, and she has come back to Hanphil for her final gig. Seeum had learned to play the piano at this place, and she had disappeared right before a major concert that had cost the place dearly. Seeum considers it a debt that she has to pay to restore Hanphil to its previous glory. Also, since Seeum has worked all her life, she is ready to step back, not because she is tired but because she wants to stop before Remington catches up with her. This is all before she even got tested, and the only reason for this aberration is because this is a badly written show.
The members of Hanphil initially dislike Seeum because of her harsh ways and the sweeping changes she brings to the place. But over time, when they see the effectiveness of her methods and realize that her ambition for Hanphil is of benefit to them as well, they learn to support and stand by her.
Why was Phil having an affair with Ajin?
Phil lived a double life where he played the doting husband to Seeum for the benefit of her social status and privately had an affair with another woman (Ajin) because she was good at stroking his ego. When Seeum comes to know about this, she wants a divorce, but Phil never wants that. He doesn’t even leave Seeum when Ajin tells him that she is pregnant and Phil has always wanted to have children. Phl tries everything to stay with Seeum. He tries to emotionally influence her using her father and also tries to use the Remington’s card against her, saying that he would reveal that secret if she divorced him. But Seeum was one step ahead of him at all times. She revealed the news of Remington’s herself so that no one could blackmail her with it again. She also gets tested for it, though the results are a long way off. Basically, Phil’s antics forced her to face her fears. Meanwhile, Ajin breaks up with Phil and decides to go to Canada to visit her family, where she could start a new life for herself and her baby. She apologizes to Seeum and asks to be a part of her plan for Luna, since that would also be her last concert with the orchestra.
Do the police catch Luna?
Luna’s sister, Haena, helps Seeum understand why Luna may have been poisoning her. Luna had been abandoned twice in her childhood before she and Haena were adopted by their parents. Luna had always been a good child, and things had been good so far, but in the light of recent events, Haena realized a few truths about the person she was living with. When their mother had diabetes, Luna took care of her by regularly checking her blood sugar levels, monitoring her food, and just keeping an eye on her health. But one time, Haena noticed some irregularities in the readings, which she dismissed as a misunderstanding. Over time, Haena started realizing that their mother was confined to the house, and every time she felt good enough to go out, she would immediately fall sick. Haena understood all these years later that Luna must have been poisoning her to keep her by her side through a cycle of dependence. After their mother passed away, Luna became fixated on Cha Seeum, and she wanted to do the same thing to her. This is why she was making sure that the people around her disappeared one by one, either by murder or through some misunderstanding. When Seeum eventually became weak and helpless because of the poison, Luna would step in to take care of her and keep her by her side permanently.
This horrifying revelation gives Seeum the idea to draw her out. Unless Luna is caught, Seeum’s loved one will always be in danger, which is why she had to do this. Seeum decides to hold the orchestra as planned, and it will be a piece that Luna has always wanted to play with her. She wouldn’t be able to resist joining Seeum on the stage when this happened.
During Maestra: Strings of Truth‘s ending, Luna comes out of hiding to join Seeum on stage. She must have known that it was a trap, but she did not care because this was the event that she had wished for with all her heart, and she needed it to come true. When the police are there to arrest her, she stabs herself in the neck to make sure that Seeum never forgets her. However, the people manage to save her, and she is sent to jail. Luna refuses to meet Seeum ever again because she wants their performance to be the last way Seeum remembers Luna. Some time passes after all this. Phil has been permanently affected by the scotilla-min, and he will probably never be healed. In his brief moments of clarity, he apologizes to Seeum for what he did, but then he forgets about it and thinks that they are yet to get married. In Hanphil, Mr. Oh has taken over as the Chief Conductor, and the entire orchestra tells Seeum to think of them as her home.
Meanwhile, Seeum took the results of her test and opened them near her mother’s grave. Our guess is that she doesn’t have Remington’s because if she did, then it would not have a happy ending, and Seeum wouldn’t be smiling. Secondly, Jeongjae quits his job to travel with Seeum, and she hints that she would be okay with him coming with her. If the results were positive, Seeum would have pushed him away. They are not together yet, but Seeum has opened that door in her heart. Jeongjae is not like his past self, who insisted on controlling her life. He now gives her the space to be her own person and stands by her as needed. A relationship between them is not a bad idea anymore.
Final Thoughts
If Phil’s extramarital affair had not been given so much attention and Jeongjae’s character had been better developed, Maestra: Strings of Truth could have been a better series. In the absence of that, it is just an average way to kill time.
