Pachinko Ep 8 Review: Lee Min-ho And Minha Kim Series Finale Lives Up To All Our Expectations

After the emotionally heavy seventh episode, Pachinko returns on Friday with its season finale episode. The episode balances the life of a young Noa, Hansu (Lee Min-ho) and Sunja (Minha Kim)’s son, set in 1938. Having recently turned a hyung (older brother), he is unable to tackle the division of attention from his parents. On the other hand, Hana (Mari Yamamoto) is spearheading her end.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Pachinko episode 8 begins with Noa’s childhood being explored. On one hand, he is still coming to terms with being Mozasu’s older brother, on the other, hand, he watches his father torn apart from his family. It all begins when Noa rushes home from school one day to inform Sunja that his father, Priest Isak (Steve Sanghyun Noh), did not turn up at school to pick him up. A worried Sunja heads to the market with Noa only to find that the church he is a part of is being raided.

She learns that Isak has been arrested. She is informed that someone complained about him to the police for the cops came to the church looking specifically for Isak. Sunja sends Noa to call for his uncle, Yoseb. At the police station, Yoseb attempts to bail him out but the police refuse to let Isak go until he’s proven innocent. Isak and Sunja are forced to leave the police station with Yoseb assuring Sunja that he will take his Japanese boss’s help and get Isak out of jail before the night falls.

However, things don’t go as per Yoseb’s plans. While the company’s owner seemed like he would help, he backs out when he finds out that the tag of unpatriotic/traitor has been associated with Isak. Besides backing out, he also fires Yoseb from the company.

Meanwhile, Sunja notices a fellow Korean woman who seems to be visiting someone in jail. When she reaches out to her, she finds out that her brother-in-law was arrested three months ago and she hasn’t met him since. When the woman learns that Sunja is Isak’s wife, she reveals that the pastor has been empowering the local Koreans. She revealed that he gave people hope to survive but with him behind the bars now, they are scared for their lives.

Sunja realises that there is more to her husband than he told her. She goes down to meet Hasegawa, a Japanese man that Isak was working with. Her meeting takes place in secrecy for Hasegawa and his daughter have been under hiding since the arrests in Osaka began. She finally meets Hasegawa and learns about her husband’s alter life.

Hasegawa tells her that he has heard so much about her while Sunja confesses she wasn’t aware of his existence. Hasegawa says that it was a matter of his family’s safety that he might have chosen to lead a split life. Hasegawa reveals he’s a professor and a communist. He shares that he and Isak dreamt of uniting workers from other countries to fight for peace and fair wages. “So it’s true, you were both working against the Emperor,” a worried Sunja says but she is told that it was the other way around, it was the Emperor who was fighting with them.

Angry, she asks them for answers — asks them to tell what will happen to Isak, to the family. As their fight aggravates, Sunja decides she doesn’t want anything to do with their plans of revolt. Just as she rose to leave, the police bust into the house and arrest Hasegawa and his daughter. Sunja is grilled about Isak and his plans against the Japanese Emperor at the station. As Sunja and Noa leave the police station, Noa spots Isak being transported from the police station. He chases the car while Sunja follows him. The scene breaks your heart, also leaving you wondering if that was the point that truly affected Noa’s exit from Sunja and Mozasu’s life.

Coming to terms with her reality, Sunja decides to take life under control and heads to the market to sell Kimchi. While she struggled to find her foot at first, she immediately caught hold of the market and sales begin to rise.

While Sunja is busy helping her family sail through the tough times, Hansu sneaks into Noa’s life. Noa opens up about Isak to Hansu, revealing that before he was arrested, they would take a long route to school only to hear a musician play the piano on their way. Hansu, who couldn’t hide his fatherly love for Noa at this point, urges him to be better than everyone around him instead of living a mediocre life. He tells him to be better than not just Koreans but also Japanese, so much so that they cannot deny him what is his. The pep talk cements a strong foundation in Noa’s life. He then gives him the watch which he once gave Sunja and sets him off on a path that is different from Isak.

Back in the 1970s, Hana is slowly losing her battle with AIDS. While she is in immense pain, her mother is unable to brace herself for the end. Meanwhile, Solomon (Jin Ah) finally informs his father, Mozasu, about the deal failing and his firing. Mozasu orders him to return to America but Solomon breaks it to him that he cannot return anymore because he lost his visa.

He tells him that no one except Yoshii-san is open to working with Solomon after the disastrous deal. Mozasu, in a state of shock, learns about Solomon and Yoshii-san’s meeting and the plans to expand the Pachinko Parlours in other countries. Mozasu instantly shoots down the idea. When Solomon points out that his father and grandmother have always told him that there is no shame in the business, Mozasu argues that he has no shame about the work but that is no place for his son.

Mozasu then reveals that Yoshii-san’s infamous grandfather offered the Pachinko parlor deal to him as well many years ago but his wife and mother, Sunja, stopped him from it, sparing his ill fate. The argument goes on for a bit before Solomon puts his foot down and decides to proceed to work with the Japanese businessman.

Solomon takes a seat beside Hana, who fights for each breath. While she confesses this isn’t how she thought she would die, she seems to slowly come to terms with her death. While she pours her heart out, a helpless Solomon expresses his regret for not trying to find Hana earlier, for not leaving her behind when he was sent to the US. However, now, he seems to be in a rebellious mode. He refuses to let his family dictate his life anymore. Hana urges him to pursue everything he wants to, at least for her.

Solomon makes his way to Yoshii-san’s office and instead of offering to sit down on a deal for the Pachinko Parlours, he tells him that he has his eyes on the Golden Hotels, the same property for which his previous company wanted the Halmoni to sell her house. He proposes an idea that Yoshii-san couldn’t refuse, making them partners in the deal. While they shake hands over the deal, he also asks Yoshii-san for a personal favour for Hana.

Back in the hospital, Hana’s mother wants her to fight for two more days before they decide to take the drugs that could leave her unconscious for most of her final few days. But, Hana breaks her hope by telling her that her condition is not improving. Instead, she is ready for a long, long sleep. The mother-daughter duo begins to prepare for the most difficult farewell.

On the other hand, Mozasu opens up to Sunja about Solomon, trying to understand where he went wrong with regard to Solomon’s life. Sunja reminds him that Hana’s health is of prime importance at the moment but Mozasu cannot help but wonder why a certain ‘they’ are barging back into their lives through Solomon.

Sunja assures him that Solomon is a good boy who was raised well and Mozasu shouldn’t worry about him. It is then that Noa is finally brought to the spotlight. Mozasu points out that Noa too was raised properly but life took him in a shocking direction. Mozasu reminds her that despite loving people, they don’t really know them — this brings back memories of Isak’s arrest, leaving Sunja in tears. Angry, she tells Mozasu that his brother was different from Solomon and assured him that whatever happened with Noa will not happen with Solomon.

Just as the family began to start saying their goodbyes to Hana, Solomon barges in and decides to take her to Hawaii, where she seemingly will take her last breath. Sunja meets Solomon and hands him the iconic watch that once Hansu gave her. It seems like the watch refuses to leave the family’s back, Sunja admits that she thought the watch was a curse to them but she now realises that this is the watch that saved the family time and again. She decides to pass on the watch to him, as a sign of giving him her share of hope as he embarks on one of his toughest journeys in life, bringing an end to the first season of Pachinko.

Also read: Pachinko: Will Lee Min-ho and Minha Kim Return For Season 2? Here’s What We Know

Unlike the previous episodes of the season, the finale episode of Pachinko season 1 had several high moments. The episode offered every character a space to shine. While the emotional turmoil that each character went through was beautifully portrayed, the episode also left breadcrumbs for us to follow in the second season. As always, the series finale lived up to the expectations of delivering a visually appealing episode.

With the season coming to an end, there is no doubt that Minha Kim and Lee Min-ho were the stars of the first season. It is to see what the second season holds for fans.

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