Lore In Stone Cities

Mini Recap: Spoilers- Spoilers- Spoilers!

With the arrest of Min Joon Gook and his sudden desire to tell the truth, Do Yeon learns Soo Ha stabbed Hye Sung one year ago. She follows the rigid rules of the law and issues a subpoena for Soo Ha for attempted murder.

Soo Ha and Hye Sung decide to continue living together. Soo Ha is still bothered by Hye Sung’s occasional comments about him being gone someday, but he tries to bury his feelings of uneasiness.

Soo Ha decides to answer the subpoena- while Hye Sung begs him to lie and say he did not stab her. Soo Ha says he must tell the truth, it is the right thing to do.

Lawyer Cha decides to defend Min Joon Gook in order to tell Joon Gook’s side of the story. Hye Sung supports him, because she does not want Joon Gook to get the death penalty (remember Mom’s words, an eye for an eye will make the entire world blind).

Lawyer Cha learns of Prosecutor Do Yeon’s subpoena of Soo Ha, and confronts her. He begs her to consider that the law, no matter how set in stone it may be, should have a heart- after all Soo Ha is the reason they caught Min Joon Gook (not to mention Joon Gook did all that killing and framing and killing and things).

Prosecutor De Yeon sees the light and drops her indictment of Soo Ha after questioning him. Soo Ha returns home (after tearfully bidding farewell to a still angry Hye Sung) to find Hye Sung has found her journal, the same journal he kept for the last eleven years. At the sight of him walking up the road Hye Sung rushes towards him and declares that she loves him (even if she doesn’t show it enough) and that she will wait for him if he has to go to jail. Soo Ha explains the charges were dropped. The two kiss. I faint.

The story winds down as Prosecutor De Yoen returns to her home to grab a bag for her Mom (who is still very much estranged from dear old dad). She runs into her Dad and they have a cold meeting, it is obvious he will not admit his wrong. Later we see De Yoen at her biological father’s bedside as he nears his end.

Min Joon Gook is sentenced to life in prison, we get a feeling that he realizes he was the guy that started it all.

Soo Ha, who has taken the police academy entrance exam, is in his academy interview . He begins to explain to his interviewers, much as Hye Sung had during her interview in episode one, what got him to this point. He mentions four people that have made him want to be a police officer: Lawyer Cha, who turned him into a man by always leading by example and calling him out on his wrongs. Prosecutor De Yeon who had the ability to admit her wrongs and learn from them. Min Joon Gook for showing him what not to become. And of course Hye Sung for becoming someone who follows the truth.

Our last scenes are of Hye Sung, taking sign language lessons and then using her new skill during a client meeting. Our last words are, signed by Hye sung “I am your public Defender” The end.

Thoughts

Lee Bo Young was an awesome character, in my opinion,  because she was an effectively endearing smart ass. And a pretty entertaining one at that. She acted cool, she called prosecutors grass hair, and she didn’t think twice about it. With the serious undertones of this story Jang Hye Sung had a more staid side as well; and that was the side that made me, as a viewer, really connect with this character. She was strong to some people, but a vulnerable smart ass to others (her Mom, Soo Ha). A well rounded character, it will be hard to spend Wednesday and Thursday without her flippant and super confident remarks.

Soo Ha was no less endearing as a character, more so because he was the one that we watched grow up during the drama. He started as an unapparent loner, apart from his peers but ever among them- with his gift forcing him into a weird kind of isolation. This isolation was broken when he ran into the girl he had chased after for years, a girl that was now a woman. I loved Soo Ha because he was a kid sometimes, an adult others, but always someone that I felt like stayed true to himself. Which is a rare trait, and one that made him consistent but torn, a fascinating watch.

The ensemble cast was also great- from Lawyer Cha to Min Joon Gook to Do Yeon -these characters infused the basic concept of evil and good with heart and a huge grey area of human motivation that was always fascinating in its delivery.

The main love line of I Hear Your Voice, if internet buzz and news is to be believed, should have belonged to Lawyer Cha and Lawyer Jang. I am extremely happy that our story took a turn towards Soo Ha, I know some people found the age gap too much to get over but I thought this couple was extremely endearing, had strong chemistry, and were easy to cheer for (with the couple year jump forward, mind you). Lee Jong Suk as Soo Ha did a phenomenal job, and so did our main female lead, Lee Bo Young. I have a hard time thinking either character would have been half as awesome if they were played by any other actor.

The strength of this show was its ability to keep my heart pounding. I Hear Your Voice relied on suspenseful twists and quirky characters to push it forward while staying fresh and exciting.  I always felt like what I had just watched was interesting, from minute one to minute sixty three I was always at the edge of my seat. Scared, happy, laughing, and biting my lip I Hear Your Voice was anything but a boring watch.

The supernatural element of the story struck me as well, because it was not overplayed to the point of becoming the center of the stories universe. While our main male character could hear others thoughts, his ability was a compliment to keep events rolling, but never dominated our plot. Not to say that supernatural dramas are not great, they are (huge fan), but somehow this plot line was refreshing for how it kept up the out-of-this-world by containing it entirely within very worldly problems.

On an end note- My tears were only recently dried when I decided to push aside my sorrow at the dramas end and check the news- only to find out Lee Bo Young is engaged. Wow, talk about a buzz kill for the images of Soo Ha and Hye Sung still swimming through my head. It isn’t bad news, by any means (I am a fan of both Ji Sung and Lee Bo Young and congrats!), it just doesn’t help with the story that I finished five minutes ago. I expect Lee Bo Young has probably been sitting on this news for a while- I doubt this show would have done as well if she suddenly announced she was engaged halfway through the drama (because, yunno, fans everywhere hate a cannonball hitting their ship, no matter how water logged their ship may be). Hold on…I need to go fix some sails. Cheers! Or should I say ahoy!

Parting Thoughts- Because I am just so thankful it happened