This article contains major spoilers for Love to Hate You Season 1, Episode 10, “A Passionate Goodbye”, including an open discussion of Love to Hate You Season 1’s ending.
A fitting release for the February romantic season, Love to Hate You is a South Korean romantic comedy series with some atypical attitudes to gender roles and stereotypes. It’s about the relationship between a cynical and promiscuous female lawyer named Mi-ran and a darling of the Korean rom-com scene, Kang-ho, who is secretly a bit of a pig. Through contrived circumstances, they meet, fall for one another, and are faced with all the usual challenges that the leads in rom-coms always are – or at least versions of them.
But does the whole thing have a happy ending? Let’s break down the finale, “A Passionate Goodbye”.
Love to Hate You Season 1 Ending Explained
Why do Mi-ran and Kang-ho break up?
The main inciting incident of Love to Hate You Season 1 Episode 10 is the public revelation of Mi-ran’s promiscuity, which causes all kinds of problems in her personal and professional lives.
She’s hounded while out and about. She’s told to quit by her boss. Advertisers don’t want any part of her and nutty fans go so far as to throw things at her. Of course, this is wildly exacerbated by Kang-ho’s stardom. Society is ill-equipped to deal with a woman who behaves in the same way as a man at the best of times, but when that man is a beloved public figure? The odds are certainly stacked against Mi-ran.
It seems very much like the best course of action is for Mi-ran and Kang-ho to break up, for the preservation of both their lives. The workaround seems to be announcing a break-up but carrying on a relationship in secret, but not everyone gets this memo, including Won-jun, who takes the opportunity of presumably never seeing Na-eun again to confess his feelings for her.
Mi-ran and Kang-ho try to carry on their relationship privately, but it proves impossible to do given their public profiles, and they’re spotted leaving a karaoke bar together. Everyone, including Won-jun, is annoyed by the deception, so a decision has to be made.
Kang-ho holds a press conference to explain himself, apologize for the ruse, and ultimately announce that he won’t be breaking up with Mi-ran at anyone else’s behest. On the contrary, he stages a very grand and public marriage proposal that Mi-ran actually rejects in order to spare him further humiliation and character assassination. She’s trying to protect his reputation and career, but it means that what was previously an act is now real – Mi-ran and Kang-ho legitimately break up.
Do Mi-ran and Kang-ho end up together?
Luckily everything works itself out and Love to Hate You builds towards a happy ending. Just like how Mi-ran’s public image being tattered was the start of the downfall for her and Kang-ho, the repairing of that reputation thanks to anonymous testimony from people extolling her virtues and good deeds is what allows them to ultimately see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Mi-ran’s actions against predatory males have formed a major part of the season – and aren’t forgotten about here in the finale either – so it only makes sense that all her good deeds would eventually count for something.
At Na-eun’s urging, Mi-ran calls Kang-ho to meet and patch things up. So, Mi-ran and Kang-ho do end up together. So, too, do Na-eun and Won-jun. Everyone’s a winner at the end of this long-winded romantic saga, even if it took a while for it all to come together.
You can stream Love to Hate You Season 1, Episode 10, “A Passionate Goodbye”, exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the Love to Hate You Season 1 ending? Let us know in the comments.
