The Start-Up finale left most longtime viewers pretty satisfied as it managed to rebound from a two-week slump. It was filled with tearjerking scenes and flashes of character development that the show had long deprived us of after a three-year timeline jump almost halted its momentum to a complete stop.
But despite how decently the finale wrapped everything up, we still can’t help but feel like it needed a little more oomph.
And I’m not talking about how Seo Dal-mi should have chosen Han Ji-pyeong over Nam Do-san, because even if they are still the better pair, we knew that JiDal was going to be a long shot.
I’m talking about the loose threads and what if’s the writers left hanging that we were hoping to get some answers on, but didn’t. Here are the top moments that made us go “this should have definitely happened” after the Start-Up finale.
Warning: Spoilers for the entire show are up ahead!
One of the brightest spots of this show was the blooming romance between Lee Chul-san and Jeong Sa-ha. I know I speak for all of us in Team Ji-pyeong when I say that watching this relationship develop was such a stress reliever from all the pain we were feeling.
Before the Cheongmyeong Company (formerly known as Samsan Tech) submits their Tarzan bid, everyone in the team promises they’ll do something super crazy if they end up winning it. Chul-san pledged that he was going to shave his head, Do-san said he was going to propose, and Sa-ha said she was going to introduce her boyfriend to the team… who happens to be Chul-san!
It was heavily implied that Cheongmyeong Company ended up winning the Tarzan bid, which means that the two of them were finally going to make it public. And even if they didn’t, how great would it have been to see the look of disbelief and shock of the other people when they learn that the two were officially an item?
After years of Sa-ha denying her feelings for Chul-san and finally warming up to him, I would’ve loved to have seen Dal-mi’s face and the inevitable high-five and obnoxious celebration that the San friends would have done after the big reveal.
Instead, all we got to see was Sa-ha silently defending Chul-san in a dinner scene by smacking Do-san with the elastic band of a party hat. I will admit though, that was pretty satisfying to watch.
Whether or not it was a shock to you, Kim Yong-san joining Sandbox because of his grudge against Ji-pyeong was set up to be a gripping storyline. Unfortunately, it got swept under the rug pretty quickly which was one of the most questionable moves of the show.
At the point of the reveal, Start-Up seemed like it was going to conclude the main love triangle once and for all because Dal-mi was obviously going to pick Do-san regardless. That was going to leave the Ji-pyeong character with not much to do, and up to this point, Yong-san was just a comic relief who was almost always in the background.
So when the elevator scene between the two happened, I thought: finally.
But the only good thing we got from it was that intense confrontation, and an unapologetic Ji-pyeong. Hearing how he somehow caused a person’s death helped him reflect on his character for a bit, but he was back to his former self pretty soon. Then Yong-san became a nothing character afterwards.
It was just a missed opportunity that didn’t garner much favor for both characters.
Three years later, Yong-san goes back to Ji-pyeong to ask for his honest and unfiltered business advice which I’m guessing is supposed to be the conclusion of this storyline. It was a pretty underwhelming resolution to a supposedly “big reveal”.
It was so random to have Yong-san’s final big moment to have been with In-jae when his beef was with Ji-pyeong all this time.
Seeing these two try to work together despite their personal differences would have been nice to watch. Maybe the viewers could have also seen Ji-pyeong pay tribute to his brother in some way because if you’re not aware, being accused of someone’s death is a serious thing.
Behind Ji-pyeong, Won In-jae Seo In-jae was probably the supporting character that got the most screwed by the writers. While I would have hated to see her romantically involved with Ji-pyeong as a Pair the Spares decision, there were just too much unfilled blanks in her story.
While I enjoyed In-jae’s arc a lot, it was weird seeing her walk alongside the love triangle in the final scene after she was shoved aside so much throughout the entire series. She was not treated as importantly as them even if there were a lot of viewers that liked watching her scenes. Thank God the writers suddenly remembered her existence during the Start-Up finale because we were able to tie up her story in a nice little bow.
However, we needed to see more of her even after she had reconciled with the Seo family.
We never really got to see In-jae at “her worst” throughout the show. While we get that she is emotionally strong, her walls were always up and we never got to see much of her beyond the bad boss CEO persona. She was defined by her rivalry with Dal-mi, but we know that is she sooo much more than that.
We’re not saying she needs a romantic partner (although that scene with Yong-san in the finale got us pretty excited), but give us some backstory or some flashforwards — a glimpse of that protective and loving big sister that we saw when she was but a little child. Or at least let us see what she does outside work hours.
The most gaping hole for me was not knowing why she was affected so much by halmeoni‘s loss of vision. I know the both of them must have had a loving relationship way back when, but we never really got to see that.
Alex was built up to be this sneaky nasty villain that destroyed Samsan Tech… and then he fell from the face of earth. The lack of any believable villains in the final leg of the series hurt it tremendously. And no, the twins and Morning Group were never a believable threat.
The only person who successfully took a shot at Do-san and Co. was Alex. So what ever happened to him after three years?
It seemed like the team and the writers forgot how this man singlehandedly crushed the protagonists’ dream to take NoonGil worldwide together. And since the San trio seemed to enjoy their stay in 2STO a lot, are we to assume that they patched things up with Alex? Is he shaking his head in his office because he lost them to Dal-mi again?
Of all the things the timeline jump destroyed, it was the presence of a true antagonist that really brought it all down. Wouldn’t it have been nice if 2STO teamed forces with Morning Group to take down Cheongmyeong Company? Instead, we got a lame ransomware attack that amounted to virtually nothing.
Beside, it’s always a delight seeing Jasper Cho in our screen, so we definitely needed some Alex intervention in the Start-Up finale.
Oh Ji-yeong, Ji-pyeong, Ji-pyeong, I am so sorry you had to settle for scraps. There were a lot of moments involving him that I was half-expecting to see in the Start-Up finale that just never came to fruition.
Yes, he needed the scene where he was going to personally invest in that guy’s start-up to help orphans find sponsors. It was a great “pay it forward” moment that seemed like the perfect way to pay off his long-standing debt to halmeoni. But that was just one of his many, many stories that we needed some additional exposition on.
We already went over his story with Yong-san. So let’s get to the love triangle shall we?
While I will say that Ji-pyeong not ending up with Dal-mi was disappointing (like all my other “acts of service” people probably felt), it wasn’t really what pissed me off about the finale. We never got to see a true confession scene happen between the two.
There was the lunch date, but that seemed more like an FYI-type of deal. It was definitely no “pick me, choose me, love me” scene that we were hoping to get, and we were going to get until Do-san ruined it.
All three Reply series with equally intense lovelines had the “loser” confess his feelings to the girl, so I really wanted the show to have something similar. Alas, beggars can’t be choosers.
The bigger issue is that Dal-mi never really outright rejected Ji-pyeong; she never explained why he wasn’t her choice. I’m not saying she owes him an explanation, but it was just frustrating for a JiDal fan to not get a satisfying scene from the two of them. Hell, I would have settled for a monologue or just anything from Dal-mi to clear out the vagueness about her choice in the whole love triangle situation.
It was also a bit heartbreaking not to see Ji-pyeong in the picture (literally and figuratively) with the Seo family when we were given a glimpse of the future. While he probably still spends his free time with them, it’s depressing just to even think that it is not the case.
Ji-pyeong never needed to be romantically involved with Dal-mi or any woman to be happy — his arc was always about finding family and a strong support system. He might have gotten that with halmeoni but we know that deep inside, our Good Boy just wants and needs a loving family.
TL;DR: more cute dinner scenes with him and the Seo family please!
Again, the Start-Up finale actually left me satisfied. But I couldn’t help but think of the opportunities the writers had missed out on as they struggled to squeeze in ten episodes’ worth of storylines into the last four episodes. I’m telling you: that three-year timeline jump should have never happened — it almost killed the entire thing — and you’ll probably hear more about that when I give my review of the show.
I will give it to them though: watching Dal-mi and Do-san resolve their greatest personal obstacles is one of the reasons I am happy with how it all turned out. All I’m saying is I kind of wish the writers gave the supporting characters enough shine to finish out their business too.
Did you enjoy the Start-Up finale? What scenes were you hoping the show would have gotten into? Let us know in the comments below!
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