Summary
Beyond the Bar puts animal lovers through the wringer in Episode 11, taking some more personal turns in time for the finale.
You can tell we’re approaching the end of Beyond the Bar because we’re getting into the territory of needlessly long episodes. Granted, this is the case every time for something like Bon Appetit, Your Majesty, even though you generally feel every minute of that, but Beyond the Bar has been a leaner show thus far, benefitting from its breezy case-of-the-week format and its hour-ish runtimes. Episode 11 dilly-dallies a bit, making things feel just a teeny bit long-winded, though based on everything I’ve seen thus far, I still expect it to stick the landing, more or less.
Another late-season quality is also present here – a more personal touch. What that means for the audience is more of Hash, the dog that Seok-hoon and his ex, Yeon-a, share joint custody of. And more dogs are always a good thing, in any show. But it also means a more personal angle to the case, since Yeon-a and her new fella, Won-jun, are planning on moving to Singapore after their baby is born and taking Hash with them. Seok-hoon’s taking the matter to court, and Jin-woo and Hyo-min are pitching in to help.
As if we needed any more reminders of how much Seok-hoon loves Hash, there’s a whole plot in this about the pooch getting kidnapped, just to make the message clear. A man who asks Seok-hoon to represent him in a privacy violation case turns out to be a creepy animal abuser, and Seok-hoon not only rejects the case but looks into representing the phone shop employee who leaked the story, and later walls the dude up when he makes Hyo-min uncomfortable. In response, he kidnaps Hash and breaks his ribs, sending a video of the wounded canine to Seok-hoon. He and Hyo-min hunt the man down and rescue Hash, and Seok-hoon absolutely batters the guy with the tacit encouragement of the police, who clearly would rather he were no longer on the street.
As if this wasn’t enough for Seok-hoon to be getting on with, he’s also roped into Na-yeon’s ongoing case. Yun-geun is their smoking gun in the Hynic Core matter, since he was being blackmailed by Du-sik, up to and including his seduction of Na-yeon for a promised promotion. Now he has to help Yullim, and Seok-hoon promises he’ll be protected in exchange.
Beyond the Bar Episode 11 doesn’t neglect Hyo-min either, providing almost equal attention to her personal life, and especially her backstory with her mother and sister. I like this because it highlights how what is essentially a misunderstanding can fester into real resentment, and it also ties the past and present together rather nicely. With Hyo-min’s father on the cusp of moving away for a bit, the idea of a pet to keep his wife company is suggested, and Hyo-min’s mother is drawn to a deaf kitten, clearly paralleling her almost obsessive focus on Hyo-min’s sister.
Neglect is a complicated thing, and it doesn’t always stem from hostility or innate evil. Hyo-min’s mother loved her sister so much that she hurt her, and Hyo-min could never quite see that the root cause was an abundance of compassion. You can have too much of a good thing. And the wrong actions, even for the right reasons, can break down communication and relationships. People who’re misunderstood will go wherever they can to find the understanding they crave.
This idea of understanding, of course, relates to Seok-hoon and Yeon-a, since he has struggled to process the idea that she is having a baby with someone else when she never wanted one with him. But it turns out she did want one with him; she had second thoughts after telling him she didn’t feel ready, but complications with the pregnancy made up her mind that she shouldn’t go through with it. Seok-hoon, though, never gave her the time or space to explain this; he never considered a point of view other than his own. So much of this show and its nuanced legal cases have been about this very theme, so it’s nice to see it coming home to roost just in time for the finale.
What will that finale have in store for our leads? I’m hoping not a romance, though it’s a possibility we must consider. Ultimately, though, I think the show has put in enough solid work in enough key areas to have earned some trust that it can close things out appropriately.
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