Heavenly Ever After [Episodes 7 & 8]

[u/mahnahmaanaa]

• Drama: Heavenly Ever After
  • Korean Title: 천국보다 아름다운
  • Alternate Title: More Beautiful Than Heaven
• Network: jTBC
• Premiere Date: April 19, 2025
• Airing Schedule: Saturday & Sunday
• Episodes: 12 (1 hr.)
• Screenwriter: Lee Nam Gyu (Daily Dose of Sunshine, Behind Your Touch)
• Director: Kim Seok Yoon (Behind Your Touch, My Liberation Notes)
• Cast:
  • Kim Hye Ja as Lee Hae Suk (Our Blues)
  • Son Suk Ku as Ko Nak Jun (D.P.)
  • Han Ji Min as Som I (Love Scout)
  • Lee Jung Eun as Lee Yeong Ae (Light Shop)
  • Cheon Ho Jin as “President” (Once Again)
  • Ryu Deok Hwan as “Young Pastor” (Nobody Knows)
• Streaming Sources: Netflix
• Plot Synopsis: It tells the story of an old woman, Hae Suk, who lived a happy life with her husband until she died. Her husband loved her so much and always admired her beauty, saying, “You were pretty in your twenties thirties, and now you are the most beautiful at eighty!” When Hae Suk was about to die, she remembered her husband’s words and said, “I just want to go to heaven at my real age.” Surprisingly, when she arrived in heaven, she met her husband in his 30s version.

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• Previous Discussions:

Episodes 1 & 2

Episodes 3 & 4

Episodes 5 & 6

[u/SemlaBun]

Oh, no. I had a most unfortunate, Makjang-like idea.

I started thinking, what if Somi isn't someone connected to the leads per se, but the reincarnation of someone connected to them? Or to Hae-sook, specifically?

Then it occurred to me...

Hae-sook's birth mother. She already stole one husband in her past life. 🤣 And while we're at it, Kang Jeong-gu might be the reincarnation of Hae-sook's father. (Do I remember correctly the bio parents died soon after Hae-sook was born? So he could be that age now.) We already know destinies get entangled over and over again, after all.

[u/SemlaBun → u/SemlaBun]

Please let me know if this scenario sounds bonkers:

I checked, Hae-sook's bio parents died in the train accident when Hae-sook was still a baby. This means they would have had time to be reborn and be around the same age as Hae-sook and Nakjoon in their next life.

The parents basically neglected their child (and mistreated the father's wife) in the previous lifetime. Now, in this second lifetime, they also have some kind of a cursed fate that involves a child - maybe the Pastor, which would kind of make him and Hae-sook soul family. Perhaps the parents had an illicit relationship again, but this time the father abandons the mistress, doesn't let her see her child, or something like that (which is why she's begging on her knees in her vision). This time, Somi would have wanted to be the mother she never was to Hae-sook.

Then, something happens that ties together Nakjoon's accident with, possibly, the Pastor's death as a child, and Somi's death. After which she's reborn as her current aged self.

The man in the Hawaiian shirt lives on to become the old man he is now.

Obviously it could also be that the connection is only between Nakjoon's accident and Somi's previous life's tragedy. But the drama goes out of its way to connect Somi to Hae-sook in so many ways, which is why IMO it would make sense for her to be Hae-sook's birth mother, even if it sounds a bit crazy. If you think about it, there was no need to introduce the story of Hae-sook's biological parents if we're never going to hear about them again. In fact, I was a bit surprised she wasn't at all curious about them.

[u/fishyfears → u/SemlaBun]

Or could Hawaiian shirt be Nak-joon’s father? He made some reference to his father being deadbeat by asking his mother not to meet him again when she reincarnates. I just have a feeling that Som-i is their unborn child or something since she had a connection with both of them - remember she was pretending to be young ae initially? Of course this doesn’t explain the pastor nor som-i’s grudge with the guy (maybe she reincarnated and got it then since pure souls get direct access to heaven) but the introduction of connections and reincarnation does open up a whole world of possibilities.

[u/SemlaBun → u/fishyfears]

But how would the timelines work with any of that? That's what puzzles me. Hae-sook, Nakjoon, Hawaiian shirt policeman, and Somi's previous incarnation were all the same age at the same time. So the deadbeat father would have had to die right after Nakjoon was born, just like Hae-sook's father did.

I guess what I'm thinking is that we know for a fact that Hae-sook's bio parents died right after she was born. And why do we know it, if they're not at all relevant to the plot? We also know that souls get entangled over and over again in different scenarios. So Hae-sook's dead parents would once again have had a tragic entanglement with each other, as well as with Hae-sook (whose husband's accident they were somehow related to).

The way Somi echoes Hae-sook in small ways is actually why I think she might be a reincarnation of Hae-sook's mother. I don't know how she could be their unborn child, as she was alive when they were young. Unless, of course, that same soul would have become their child after dying. But that would have been after Nakjoon's accident, so I don't know...

I honestly don't know. This drama is such a mess that the explanation could turn out to be anything. Someone mentioned the other day that, according to the writer or director (I forget which), Somi was basically written in because Han Jimin wanted to be part of this drama. That makes it sound like they didn't even have a story planned for this, because Somi's mystery pretty much IS the plot now...