I doubt people will check out this thread since it's an unpopular daily drama but I feel like ranting about it-
I'm pissed about it not actually happening in the drama after all this time and left me hanging, it was totally misleading and I was expecting an epic love triangle story. Does anyone else feel the same? I loved the opening scene, it had a dreamy vibe with the plain beach scenery/sea gulls, background music and inner monologues. Then I got hooked to it even more when the MLs show up in front of the FL and they have a staring contest, wanting to fight over the FL. They play a mesmerizing background music with female vocals as the FL realizes who she loves and the camera pans away from them. I don't know if they just wanted to make this as a random eye catching introduction scene or if it was meant to take place in the later episodes but didn't happen because of some behind the scenes issues with the writer/Lee Jae Woo and a new writer/PD worked with the drama? This scene was used in the teasers/trailers so I thought this would be a significant event for the plot.
I've always thought Ji Eun was thinking about/waiting for Sae Hoon as the man who she still refers to as her love but after the last few eps when she got married to Jung Min with kids and started arguing with him I thought she'd finally be at the beach thinking: "Love exhausts me" but then the other line doesn't match the plot "I kept running away because I felt sorry for the one who'd get left behind" it looked like she got over Sae Hoon long ago, she barely had any romantic development/screentime or feelings for him after ep 20 timeskip and it wouldn't make sense for her to go back to him now after all that she's been through with Jung Min, plus with only a few eps left it's pointless for him to come back anyways. "But today, I finally realized that you're the man I love" sounds more like for Sae Hoon since she "hated" him and tried to move on with Jung Min but she probably realizes her true feelings for Sae Hoon since she still loves him deep down - when she sees Jung Min she is surprised but has teary eyes when seeing Sae Hoon.
Also, I notice that background music with the female vocals from the beach scene usually plays in the first half of the drama or whenever Sae Hoon is on screen (ex. end of ep 5, 27, 28, 46) it felt like the main theme music of the drama, yet it stops playing entirely later (?) along with Sae Hoon's disappearance at ep 70 and the filler characters Ah Jun/Seo Eun Joo show up. The music gave life/tension to the drama before but then the drama also lost its charm without the main character who we started out with and we all know obviously who the FL will end up with now, which makes it boring because it would've been more satisfying/a true win if both MLs had equal amount of screentime to shine and less predictable who the FL ends up with until it's almost done. This arc got draggier than usual and the main story/theme of Phoenix died down with lack of story/motive and more use of flashbacks/longer recaps in the beginning of every episode (at one point, even 2 episodes had the exact same ending scene of Choi Myung Hwa getting hit on the head) Meanwhile Seo Eun Joo became a copy of Mi Ran's character with the borderline personality disorder, she does the same thing as Mi Ran did (like with the surveillance camera in Ji Eun's old house except Mi Ran was more obvious that she was a bitch) and she also killed herself in the end with a suicide letter like with the original version of Mi Ran.
If the beach scene was intended to happen in the later eps and Lee Jae Woo didn't leave the drama, I think he could've actually been endgame for Ji Eun just like with the original version or at least try to win her over again even if Ji Eun chose Jung Min in that scene. His second opportunity to love her probably meant he broke his engagement with Mi Ran and/or got his heart problem fixed. This scene would've been the turning point/climax of the drama and more exciting to watch if we could actually see the real MLs fight for the FL's love instead of the annoying Ah Jun who eventually left on an airplane, his arc was forgettable and a waste of time. Although I still don't get what was the point of giving Sae Hoon a heart problem when he didn't have any health problems in the original and how this was relevant to the overall plot. It's a shame we never got to see how his story truly unfolds/ends or if Ji Eun would eventually fall for him again somehow even though I love watching Jung Min, I fell for his character when he first showed up in front of Ji Eun.
What are your thoughts about the beach scene and how different the drama would've been if Lee Jae Woo stayed in the drama and they actually included this scene into the plot?
*I tried to make this topic in the 2020 version page but somehow it ended up at the original Phoenix page instead.
