We’re on the verge of the Twinkling Watermelon finale, and the tension is at its maximum strength. This series has become an integral part of our lives, and we wait for Mondays just to watch a new episode (wishing the blues away). As we approach the last episode, the suspense surrounding Eun-Gyeol’s future intensifies. However, the conclusion of episode 15 is nothing short of surprising. Just as it seemed like everything was falling into place for Eun-Gyeol and his family in 1995, a shocking twist of fate is revealed. Let’s quickly dive into the episode.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Episode?
In a flashback (for the lack of a better word) from before Eun-Gyeol’s time-traveling expedition, we see Yi-Chan record an original song to participate in the youth competition. Ma-Joo reminds him that they don’t have a band any more thanks to the big fight with the gang at the festival rehearsal, but Yi-Chan is certain this song is fantastic and is determined to have Mr. Choi hear it. He makes it to the White Knight store, but Mr. Choi is dealing with his own problem at the moment and refuses to listen to Yi-Chan’s song. On his way back, Yi-Chan gets hit in the neck with a yo-yo (remember those things?).
The kid who’s playing with it apologizes to Yi-Chan, who warns him not to play so close to the road. When the mother finds them, she starts thanking Yi-Chan for dealing with her son, but the yo-yo rolls onto the street with a speeding car approaching. Yi-Chan manages to save the kid from getting hit, but as we know, he ends up deaf from this accident. Eun-Yoo heard this full story from Eun-Gyeol’s brother, Eun-Ho, when she was in the hospital. She had assumed it was just a novel he was working on, but it was a story that Eun-Ho had heard about his father and wanted to share with his younger brother. Yi-Chan had cut all ties with his high school friends after that accident because they reminded him of how much his life had changed since. When Ma-Joo recognized him in the hospital, Eun-Ho got interested in knowing more about him. It was Ma-Joo who told Eun-Ho the story.
Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Eun-Gyeol and Eun-Yoo figure out how to keep Yi-Chan safe the next day (which is when the accident is meant to occur). In the meantime, Yi-Chan’s grandmother treats Chung-Ah like her own grandchild and gets to know her well. Yi-Chan gets a chalkboard made for them to converse on. When Eun-Gyeol returns, he is stopped by the police, who’ve come to pick him up for Chung-Ah’s kidnapping. When they cross the station, Eun-Gyeol notices that they’re not heading there and his captors are not actually police. They’re thugs sent by Chung-Ah’s teacher (the Wicked Witch of the East). She knows that he has no family, no proper identification, or anything, so she plans on sending him off somewhere by boat after writing a letter to admit that he kidnapped Chung-Ah for ransom and left with the money for good. Fortunately, the Chairman’s assistant followed the car to get evidence of what the principal was up to so that the Chairman would believe them.
In the meantime, the Chairman has returned home, found the attic, and fired all the staff for helping the principal torture his daughter. He even slaps her for claiming his daughter is stubborn and saying that was reason enough to lock her up for all those years. Eun-Gyeol had already faxed him the information he needed to make sure the truth came out. Eun-Gyeol returns just in time to see it happen and calls Yi-Chan to bring Chung-Ah to the house. Yi-Chan’s grandmother tells Chung-Ah to come back anytime she likes. Yi-Chan walks her to the house, but Chung-Ah holds onto his hand, making him go in with her. Yi-Chan asks to talk to his future father-in-law alone and tells him that his grandmother spoke to Chung-Ah well, even though she didn’t know sign language. He understood that if someone really wanted to communicate from the heart, they would be able to do it anyway. He gives the Chairman a book of sign language, telling him that he never had a father who could be a shield from society, but the Chairman could be that for Chung-Ah. Yi-Chan has both misgendered the quote he’s used and said it’s by Hemingway when it’s actually by Stendhal. The Chairman still appreciates the message, though.
Now, Eun-Gyeol can return to his grandmother because he believes his duty to Chung-Ah is done. The three of them sleep in the same room out of sheer joy, but Eun-Gyeol notices Yi-Chan missing in the middle of the night. It turns out he’s writing an original, and when Eun-Gyeol hears it, he’s shocked to realize it’s the same song that his teacher had asked him to write the melody for in return for the vintage guitar in his possession. Eun-Gyeol helps Yi-Chan finish the song on the condition that he doesn’t play it for anyone before the college festival (which he plans on participating in in the future) and stays home all day the next day. For once, Yi-Chan doesn’t make a fuss, admitting that everything Eun-Gyeol has asked of him thus far has been for his own good.
Does The Accident Still Take Place?
The next day, things follow just like in Eun-Ho’s story until the whole band shows up to eat Yi-Chan’s grandmother’s food. Eun-Gyeol invited them to have band practice. On the other hand, he coordinates with Eun-Yoo regarding what’s happening in the street where the accident is meant to happen in all probability. Eun-Yoo sees the kid and tries to teach him the same lesson that Yi-Chan did, but the kid runs onto the street without warning. Fortunately, nothing happens, and Eun-Yoo informs Eun-Gyeol that Yi-Chan is safe from danger because she saw it all happen with her own eyes. He invites her home, and she says she has to check one last thing before heading there. According to Eun-Ho’s story, Mr. Choi had a visitor when Yi-Chan showed up, which is why he sent him away. Eun-Yoo wants to find out who that might be, and to her shock, it’s her mother.
Eun-Yoo finally remembers when she meets a worried Eun-Gyeol that her mother had said she’d visited her biological father once when she ran away from her adoptive parents in the US. She didn’t muster up the courage to say anything to him, though, and just ended up drinking some tea and leaving. Eun-Gyeol is shocked to learn that Mr. Choi is his guitar teacher and life coach. The man who taught him to face bullies and the man who gave him his father’s song, Eun-Gyeol, runs back to find him one last time before leaving. In the meantime, the band has found the recording of the song, and Ma-Joo manages to steal it away to show Mr. Choi. Yi-Chan follows him out to stop him and take the cassette back.
At the end of Twinkling Watermelon Episode 15, Eun-Gyeol finds himself in a tough spot when a speeding car approaches him. Before it can hit him, though, Yi-Chan shows up and pushes him out of the way, getting hit himself. This is Yi-Chan’s canon event, so there was no way Eun-Gyeol could’ve changed it, but he did make altercations in whatever way he could, making both his parents’ lives much better in the future. But the episode has a heartbreaking ending where Eun-Gyeol crawls up to his unconscious, bleeding father and hugs him tight, crying out his apology. In a voiceover, we hear Yi-Chan say that he never had a father, but Eun-Gyeol became one to him. He promises to be born as Eun-Gyeol’s father in a future life. We better prepare tissues for the final episode of Twinkling Watermelon.
