In the final stretch of our story, our heroine makes peace with the past and reconciles with her father, marking an end to this traumatic chapter in her life.
The path leading there might be unsatisfactory, but let’s get behind it and hope that our leading lady can enjoy some happiness now that she finally got together with our veterinarian male lead after years of being separated.
- Main Leads: Lee Se-young | Na In-woo | Kim Tae-hyeong | Choi Hee-jin | Choi Min-soo
- Addictive Meter:
- Overall Rating:
- Rewatch Value:
- K-Dramas of Similar Vibe: The Interest Of Love | When the Weather is Fine | What Comes After Love
Bunny S. watches Motel California on Viki
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 & 04 | 05 & 06 | 07 & 08 | 09 & 10 | Finale Week Recap + Series Review
Motel California Finale Week Recap
Unsurprisingly, the whole I-killed-my-mother-and-your-father cliffhanger turns out to be a big misunderstanding. Kang-hee and her teddy bear are innocent and have no hand whatsoever in the accident. Not that we didn’t see coming, but now this plotline feels more ludicrous.
Kang-hee coming to terms with the past and letting go of all the hatred and pain was nice to watch Also, Lee Se-young and child actress Oh Eun-seo (who plays Kang-hee’s younger version) excelled in the scene where Kang-hee embraced her younger self. But couldn’t the drama have thought of another way to give Kang-hee growth without resorting to that silly twist? Also, couldn’t we have reached that point a bit earlier, or at least gotten a better build-up to it, since it now feels like more of an afterthought as we are already in the final arc?
With the accident arc wrapped up, the drama shifts its focus to Chun-pil’s terminal illness. As we come to learn, he was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago and went through chemotherapy, yet didn’t complete the treatment process. Now Chun-pil has a relapse but refuses to get treated. When Yeon-soo ends up learning about Chun-pil’s condition, he pleads with Chun-pil to get treated. But the thing is: Chun-pil wants Yeon-soo to keep it a secret from Kang-hee.
Despite Yeon-soo’s efforts to keep the truth from Kang-hee, she finds out about Chun-pil’s condition. At first, Kang-hee is mad at them for keeping her in the dark. Then she sobs her eyes out, scared of losing Chun-pil and regretting the way she treated him in the past. From here on, it is all family love and forgiveness with Kang-hee making up with Chun-pil and trying to make the best out of the time they have.
지강희 사랑해 지춘필 건강해 모캘즈 행복해🥰
강희가 마주할 과거 기억?#모텔캘리포니아
금토 밤 9시 50분 방송🏩#이세영 #나인우#최민수 #김태형 #최희진#mbcdrama #MBC금토드라마 #MBC #MotelCalifornia pic.twitter.com/DG3uKRlvBd— MBC DRAMA (@mbcdrama_pre) February 13, 2025
In a shocking move, Chun-pil moves out of the motel and puts it on sale only for Kang-hee to talk him out of it and announce her plans to renovate the motel and turn it into a nursing home so that Chun-pil would stay there comfortably. For someone who spent her life hating motels, the 180 turn is quite perplexing. But the drama wants to serve a good feel finale even if it feels forced.
As we end the drama, everyone gets their “happy” ending. Chun-pil moves back into the motel. The motel extension is now open for guests, with a grand opening ceremony thrown to celebrate this joyous event. Yeon-soo’s mother gets together with her suitor. The villagers get their unearned redemption arc and are painted as nice people, brushing off everything they did to Kang-hee in the past. Both Seok-kyeong and Nan-woo look happy with their partners. And lastly, our leads can now love each other freely without worrying about anything.
Motel California Quick Series Recap
In a story about first love and reunited lovers, our heroine Ji Kang-hee returns to her hometown after staying away for over a decade. Elated to see her again is Cheon Yeon-soo, Kang-hee’s childhood friend and first love who kept her in his heart all those years and yearned to be with her.
Motel California Series Highlights and Musings
Depicting flawed people with insecurities is an interesting and brave choice. Yet for this kind of story, character growth is crucial. However, between Kang-hee’s continual denial of her feelings, the love quartet, and the back-and-forth between being friends or lovers, the story went around in circles and lost its initial spark. By the time we got some much-needed character growth for Kang-hee, it was already too late since we were too frustrated by her actions to care about her. Not to mention how irritating the process leading to that growth was.
It also didn’t help that the drama only dropped bits and pieces about Kang-hee’s past, leaving us to connect the dots and guess the rest. One time, we see Kang-hee blame Chun-pil for losing her younger brother. Then, the drama pulls the rug from under us with the affair and the tragic car accident without caring to explain how things turned out like this, leaving us to rely on our imagination once again.
A lot was going on in the drama, but rather than tackling those plotlines, the drama went with the twist of having Kang-hee unwittingly cause the accident. Which was unnecessary and added nothing to the story since Kang-hee already had enough reasons to feel traumatized. That wasted time would have been better spent on Kang-hee’s healing or her reconciliation with Chun-pil, which was magically solved by the terminal illness arc and lost its significance.
The writing might have failed us, but we got some stellar acting from the much-talented Lee Se-young and her childhood counterpart, Oh Eun-soo, who has a bright future ahead of her. Kim Tae-hyeong also shined and we will tune in to watch his next projects. Na In-woo and Choi Hee-jin were good in their respective roles, and we are always happy to see Choi Min-soo on screen who added charm and depth to Chun-pil’s character. Had it not been for him, Chun-pil might have come off as annoying.
In hindsight, the drama had some grand themes, like the importance of loving oneself and how one should face things head-on since running away doesn’t solve anything. But those messages came too late after our interest had dwindled. Also, the childhood friends squad could have made for interesting secondary characters, but they were underutilized and mostly used as filler.
We won’t say that Motel California was an awful watch. But it wasted its potential and fizzled out after a promising premiere. Lovers who want to be together but get torn apart because of their insecurities/external circumstances is an engrossing theme. But sadly, the drama couldn’t capitalize on its strengths and traded them for less appealing plot points. What a drama this could have been!
— MBC DRAMA (@mbcdrama_pre) February 13, 2025
Photos and Videos: MBC Drama
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