"While You Were Sleeping" drama: episodes 31 and 32 recap

 Air Dates: September 27th to November 16th on SBS, aired Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:00 pm with two episodes per night

 Ratings(Nielsen) for the two episodes- 8.7% and 9.7%

Main Cast:

Bae Suzy as Nam Hong-Joo

Lee Jong-Suk as Jung Jae-Chan

Lee Sang-Yeob as Lee Yoo-Bum

Ko Sung-Hee as Shin Hee-Min

Jung Hae-In as Han Woo-Tak

Shin Jae-Ha as Jung Seung-Won

Hwang Young-Hee as Yoon Moon-Sun

Park Jin-Joo as Moon Hyang-Mi
Kim So-Hyun as Park So-Yoon
Lee Yoo-Joon as Oh Kyung-Han

 Slightly higher rating for the final two episodes but not much more than other shows, only once did it go over 10%. For this last recap going back to the way they were done up until the 24th episode. Quite a but happened in these two shows but less than previous episodes, guess the main reason for that is no new developments could be added in. But there also was some filler thrown in as some of the scenes were stretched too far out.
 We also saw some flashbacks, the length of the two shows were 59 minutes with perhaps 30-35 being interesting, one forty minute episode would have worked better. Was nice though being reminded of some of the older events, so many crimes and trials had happened and had forgotten about too many of them. Kim So-Hyun's appearance had slipped my mind as she had played the character of So-Yoon from episodes three through eight, I really think she's got a promising future. She appeared briefly in the final episode playing the piano at a wedding and it wasn't for who you would think.

 More on the wedding at the end of the post but if you've read the previous recaps you know there's only one story we're all interested in. That's the trial of Yoo-Bum who us facing a pair of major charges along with a few minor ones that could land him in Goulburn for a long stretch. There's been one day of the trial with two more to follow, won't go into too many details of what's happened but they'll be in the post for episode thirty if you want to read it.
 So far the prosecution has the edge but not a huge one, thanks to Yoo-Bum's attorney Hae the trial could go either way. Hae is the head of the Hae Kwang Law Firm where Yoo-Bum works, his boss knows how corrupt he is but Yoo-Bum delivers victories and huge profits. In the above bottom screenshot is Choi who used to be Jae-Chan's assistant.
 He's now working at the Hae Kwang firm but he's still a solid and upstanding person. He was a witness on day one of the trial, his words and other evidence got twisted around by Hae but luckily Choi was saved in court by Jae-Chan. On the second day of the trial Yoo-Bum had given him a ride in his luxury car. Choi had noticed suitcases in the backseat, he told the prosecution of what he saw and they're working on getting a travel ban on Yoo-Bum.

 On that first trial day Hong-Joo had also been a witness, she gave a superb testimony which was quickly blown apart by Hae leaving her flustered which is the word of the day. On to the second day of the trial where there's one more major witness who is officer Woo-Tak. He was first on the scene at the office building where the murder and attempted murder took place. Woo-Tak had rushed to the roof where Yoo-Bum had been carrying an unconscious Hong-Joo. She had been injected with a lethal drug by Ju-Won, she was the actual serial killer who had gone uncaptured by the police and Yoo-Bum.
 Hong-Joo managed to pull out of it a very undramatic way, her recovery could have been so suspenseful yet how it was done was one of the low points of the series. Woo-Tak's testimony is straight on but there is an issue and it's a huge one for the defense. Woo-Tak is color blind and would be unable to identify the two umbrellas found at the rooftop scene, those are the most important pieces of evidence for Yoo-Bum's murder and attempted murder charges.
 Only a few were aware of his problem, Han who was his partner and Hong-Joo. Jae-Chan was the one doing the questioning, it staggered him when Woo-Tak announced in court about his being color blind. Besides hurting the case against Yoo-Bum it's also going to affect his career as an officer, after the trial Woo-Tak was forced to resign from the force. Jae-Chan had no clue about Woo-Tak's condition and was unsure if he should continue questioning him.

 Woo-Tak assured Jae-Chan and the court he was still a credible witness, though he couldn't see colors that made the rest of his vision stronger. Guess that's like other disabilities, a person who can't see well can hear much better and there's other various examples like that. The judge believed
Woo-Tak so he can go forward with his testimony and it went very successful, even Yoo-Bum's attorney didn't bother to re-examine Woo-Tak.
 Yoo-Bum is in dire straights, at the end of the trial's second day Hae has informed him he won't be representing him any more, Hae knows when a case is lost. Yoo-Bum needs to forget about his plans on leaving for the Tanami Desert, we did see him with his passport and plane ticket for there but the travel ban for him is now in effect. Except for the first time Yoo-Bum met Ju-Won he's always been such a cool, calm and collected guy but now with his life caving in he's starting to panic and is in a desperate state.
 Yoo-Bum meets Choi outside the courtroom and the pair have a discussion, Yoo-Bum thought Choi had his back covered until his testimony but the exact opposite had been true. Choi advises Yoo-Bum to give it all up, there's nothing more he or anyone can do to save him. Not the words that Yoo-Bum wanted to hear and now that panic state he's in has reached major proportions. Two recaps ago said it would't be a loss to lose a major character with so few shows to go, sadly my words rang true......

 The above screenshots should be able to explain everything, perhaps the nicest and dependable character in the series who was Choi has unfortunately met his end. Though you can't see the driver it shouldn't take you more than one guess who was behind the wheel, there's one more murder charge now added to the lengthy list of crimes committed by Yoo-Bum. It wasn't an instant death which gave Jae-Chan some time to have a final conversation with Choi.
 Jae-Chan had been looking for Choi and was only about a hundred feet away from him when the car had smashed into him. They talked but there wasn't much Choi said that made sense to Jae-Chan as he was babbling about his brother who we all know about. For a few minutes it was just Jae-Chan holding his friend in the parking lot, the ambulances took so long to arrive but when they did it was too late. There was one other event in the parking lot.... that was with Yoo-Bum getting hauled away by the police!!!!

 Choi was another person who could see the future in his dreams, he had dreamt of Jae-Chan and Hong-Joo in the burning house and because of that was able to save them. We're now in the final episode and most of the action took place in the 31st show. Things have settled down, there was a funeral for Choi and at it Jae-Chan had given as an offering all of the envelopes filled with money Choi had sent him and his brother for a decade.
 Woo-Tak is now out of a job but perhaps he can get one as a prison guard. If he can that'll put him closer to his friend Yoo-Bum who has been sentenced to life in prison, shame there was no courtroom scene of it as I would have loved to see his reaction. As far as everyone else goes their activities are back to normal except for Woo-Tak, bit more on him later. This final episode was chock full of filler save for two scenes and we'll get to them now to wrap things up.

 Right before he was sentenced Yoo-Bum wanted one more conversation with his rival Jae-Chan, these two have a history going back to their teens. Behind the two way mirror the other prosecutors were watching Yoo-Bum's rantings, he wasn't there to plead for mercy or to appeal the verdict but wanted to blow some steam off towards Jae-Chan and the whole legal system. Much of what he said was true, he knows all about the many mistakes the prosecutor's office has made but that'll do him zero good while he's sitting in his cell save for his visits from No-Mis.
 Shame there wasn't a love child with Hong-Joo, when this drama started out she had been dating Yoo-Bum and wonder what she was thinking? We didn't see as much of Hong-Joo the last four episodes except for her turn as a witness, most of these last episodes featured Yoo-Bum, Jae-Chan and Choi in every scene. Before we forget let's visit Woo-Tak one last time, he's out of a job but may have a future. He had been moping around for a while but was paid a visit by Hong-Joo and Jae-Chan who had brought him a pile of law books. That's now Woo-Tak's future as he's going back to school to study law, that's six or more years at school so wonder how he'll support himself?

 The last major scene was a wedding, if you haven't been watching the show you would have had no clue it was going to happen and also the character's dating had never been mentioned here. That wedding was one between the prosecutors Lee and Son who were both likable characters. Son was mentioned here as it was her son that needed a kidney transplant to survive which did happen. In long shows like this one it's easy to forget about events from twenty shows ago, remember for the first half of the series when the dreams of the trio was the major focus of the show?
 Dreams didn't play nearly as big of a part the second half but actually that may have made the show more interesting. But then again we could have learned more about the dreams such as why or how did they acquire this power? As mentioned Kim So-Hyun made a guest appearance, she's been in America studying music at a prestigious university but made it back to the wedding where she played the piano. Also looks like Jae-Chan's brother Seung-Won and her may be about to start dating. As is tradition after a wedding the bride throws her bouquet, at first Jae-Chan had caught it.
 Only a woman is allowed to catch it, on the second toss you all know who plucked it out of the air. One more brief scene which lasted about a minute, it took place a year later with Jae-Chan and
Hong-Joo waking up together! In Korean dramas you rarely see two people who spend the night together if they're not married, it held to form here as you can see in the third screenshot below.

 After 32 episodes and twenty recaps there's nothing more to add in about this drama, I truly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. That's the only rating I give dramas as unlike films never give it a number rating like 9/10. Few slow stretches here and there plus perhaps the final episode could have been more edgy but if there were just a few down moments in a 32 episode series that's perfectly fine. Hope it does well at the upcoming awards shows, to me the actor who really deserves an award is
Lee Sang-Yeob as Yoo-Bum, his character was the best one I've seen all year.
 Will check him out in another drama but don't think his roles have been as big as this one. Upcoming will be "The Package" recaps as there's eight more shows to view along with two new series starting soon. This was the first drama I was able to recap every show and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, episodes being half an hour made it much easier for me to recap.