REVIEW: ‘Motel California’ Episodes 11-12

Viki’s Motel California Episodes 11-12 marks the end of an angst-ridden, turbulent journey. It’s been a rough ride, with the push-pull nature of Ji Kang-hee’s (Lee Se-young) and Chun Yeon-soo’s (Na In-woo) relationship drawing much of the attention. The previous episode’s foreshadowing of Ji Chun-pil’s (Choi Min-soo) health takes centerstage in these final episodes, forcing Kang-hee to reconcile with her regrets and fears, bringing to focus what’s actually important now more than ever.

But first, Kang-hee needs to deal with the fallout from Episode 10. The opening scene focuses on an exchange between Kang-hee (Oh Eun-soo) and Yeon-soo (Lee Su-ho) when they are kids. It’s a cute discussion, with Kang-hee schooling Yeon-soo on what love means. It builds on all of the interactions their younger selves have had over the years and how Yeon-soo has made adjustments over time to become the one she loves. Jumping forward to their current argument, Yeon-soo wraps his arms around Kang-hee and tells her, “We knew that when we were 10. Why don’t we know it now?”

Children are often smarter than we give them credit for, while adults are notoriously dumb. Part of growing up is rediscovering the knowledge that we’ve lost, and Kang-hee has struggled with that since returning to Hana Town at the start of the series. With the resurgence of old memories, she’s collapsing under self-imposed blame, a learned trait that has developed due to the town’s mistreatment of her. Rather than confronting it head-on, though, she’s doing what she’s always done and is walking away.

It’s meant to protect her, but it also shows her loved ones her lack of resilience. It’s no wonder that after she leaves town again, Chun-pil, Yeon-soo, and Hwang Jeong-gu (Woo Mi-hwa) agree not to tell Kang-hee about Chun-pil’s cancer diagnosis. At the forefront of it all in Motel California Episodes 11-12 is concern for Kang-hee’s well-being, with Chun-pil, in particular, not wanting to burden his daughter with the painful memories the knowledge will bring. The truth is that more people care for Kang-hee than she can ever imagine.

Motel California Episodes 11-12 is when Kang-hee finally gets things.

It takes Geum Seok-kyeong (Kim Tae-hyeong), an outsider to the situation, to knock some sense into her. Deep in her feelings, he pulls her out of her malaise. He points out her behavior, saying that she never even gave Yeon-soo a chance to respond to any of the things she said. Seok-kyeong takes the other side, and somehow, this gets through to her enough to return to her town to try to discuss things. In the process, new light is shed on her memories in Motel California Episodes 11-12.

Memories are fickle things. Throw in emotions, and they can be pretty easy to confuse. Yeon-soo and Kang-hee get confirmation she had nothing to do with the accident that killed her mother and his father all those years ago. In fact, Kang-hee’s actions directly save Yeon-soo’s mother, Park Soo-ji (Ji Su-won). In an emotionally fraught scene, Soo-ji reveals how the town’s gossip became too much, and she was going to Thelma & Louise off a cliff. Because Kang-hee’s teddy bear was stuffed in her car’s exhaust pipe, the engine stalled and, ultimately, prevented her from completing the act.

Her actions didn’t kill anyone. She’s not as horrible as keeps thinking. This revelation culminates in a heartfelt scene where Kang-hee addresses her inner child. It’s much-needed after all the self-flagellation Kang-hee has gone through this season. But the emotions are only going to ramp up in Motel California Episodes 11-12, with the truth of Chun-pil’s health coming to light.

No one in this series has learned that you can’t keep secrets. It never goes well. After Kang-hee discovers a litany of pills in her father’s room in Episode 11, Kang-hee follows them on a trip to a nursing home. None of it makes any real sense until she stumbles on Chun-pil signing intake papers. The truth comes tumbling out, and how actors Lee Se-young and Choi Min-soo navigate the intricate emotions of the scenes moving forward reveals the complicated nature of cancer diagnoses and the ripple effect.

You can’t look away from Lee Se-young and Choi Min-soo’s performances.

Episode 12 deals immediately with the emotional aftermath of the discovery and features Lee Se-young’s finest performance of the series. While Yeon-soo is there to comfort her, the emotional whirlwind can’t be held back, and the grieving process hits her hard. Finally, though, she acknowledges how good of a father Chun-pil actually is, and knowing that she will lose his support and guidance nearly breaks her. Not helping is how he continues to take care of everyone else’s needs.

Over the course of Motel California Episodes 11-12, Chun-pil goes full speed ahead in taking care of loose ends, which directly impacts Kang-hee and her friends, who’ve become his surrogate children. He formally adopts Cha Seung-Eon (Koo Ja-sung), uplifting him from the status of orphan. And, through an act that signals to Kang-hee that something else is at play, he starts the process of selling the titular Motel California. Knowing he’s essentially evicting Kang-hee’s friends, he offers to help them financially.

There’s a sad underlying reason for his actions. He’s afraid and doesn’t want to cause any more sad memories for Kang-hee or her friends. His will to live is dwindling. Selling Motel California means there’s nothing left for him to hold onto, and Kang-hee knows this. And for the first time in an incredibly long time, she is motivated to do something for her father, and we watch in a montage how she starts to make that happen.

Ultimately, Kang-hee succeeds, and her father remains at the forefront of her mind, with a joyous holiday/birthday mashup celebrating him and wrapping up the finale. This care and concern is welcome, softening Kang-hee and showing how much she’s grown in Motel California Episodes 11-12. However, the changes in attitude and the actions taken in the second half of Episode 2 are a little faster than believable. An additional episode could have helped with how quickly things seemed to shift.

“Love is being by each other’s side.” – Kang-hee

The same can be said with how quickly the townspeople suddenly treat Kang-hee at the end of Episode 12. It’s actively distracting how differently they treat her, particularly the elders of the village, when she goes to check on her father. Somewhere along the way, this development got lost in the storytelling,g and it is glaring. As for Kang-hee’s peers, they are also suddenly supportive, but there’s some hesitance. This is a little more believable, but it still feels like we missed a couple of steps getting to this point in the story.

It’s a shame because Motel California Episodes 11-12 spend time developing and finalizing the relationships of its supporting characters. Ryu Han-woo (Jung Yong-ju) and Yoon Nan-woo (Choi Hee-jin) confirm their love for one another and start dating by the series’ end. Han A-reum (Lee So-e) and Seung-Eon also take things a little further, with A-reum working to help Seung-Eon get his GED. Lastly, after so many episodes of denying each other, Seok-kyeong and Esther Park (Seo Ye-hwa) found themselves in their own version of a relationship.

It’s a little bit of a whirlwind finish getting to the end of the series, with time spent wrapping up core storylines and addressing Kang-hee’s reconciliation with her father. One resounding feeling becomes clear, though, by the end of Motel California Episodes 11-12, and it comes from Kang-hee’s mouth. “Love is being by each other’s side,” she says to a younger Yeon-soo. Throughout the course of the series, Kang-hee struggles as she leaves her family and friends again and again.

Motel California Episodes 11-12 is a culmination of her learning that to love is not to run away. It’s sticking by your friends and family through the trials and tribulations. It’s confronting problems head-on and never backing down. While the journey to get there was more frustrating than not, the final moments of Kang-hee surrounded by Chun-pil, Yeon-soo, and her lifelong friends show us the journey may have actually been worth sticking around for—just maybe a little less angst next time.

Motel California Episodes 11-12 and the rest of the Kdrama series are all streaming now, exclusively on Viki.