‘Please Come Back, Mister’ Ending: Certain Confusing Details Of K-Drama Finale Theoretically Explained

Prior to its airing, the series Please Come Back, Mister was highly anticipated because it would mark the return to K-dramas of Jung Ji Hoon, who is better known by his stage name Rain. The concept for the K-drama was interesting, which assisted in a more than descent viewership rating for its debut episode. Not only that, the plot, direction, and acting were excellent throughout the run of Please Come Back, Mister.

Unfortunately, it had the poor luck of airing on the same days and the same times as Descendants of the Sun. As a result, viewership for Please Come Back, Mister decreased gradually ending with a meager two percent viewership rating average for its finale.

Fortunately, for Please Come Back, Mister, it is available to watch again through streaming sites that specialize in K-dramas. It is getting a “second life” as fans of Descendants of the Sun are now watching it, and thoroughly enjoying Rain’s comeback. However, almost all fans have the same general confusions when it comes to the series finale. Certain details seem to be confusing. For those who want to understand, this article will provide a theorized explanation on said confusing details.

For those who are unfamiliar with Please Come Back, Mister, the K-drama is based on the 2002 Japanese novel Mr. Tsubakiyama’s Seven Days by Jirõ Asada. Two men, Kim Young Soo (Kim In Kwon) and Han Gi Tak (Kim Soo Ro), die but refuse to go to Heaven as they both feel they have unfinished business in the world of the living. Now alive again, they want to square their affairs away before their allocated amount of time of two months expires. However, Young Soo and Gi Tak do not return in their own bodies. Young Soo is now handsome, tall, and muscular, taking the name of Lee Hae Joon (Rain) while Gi Tak is a very beautiful woman taking on the name Han Hong Nan (Oh Yeon Seo).

Now take note there are some rules both Lee Hae Joon and Han Hong Nan have to follow while alive again. First, they cannot reveal their true identities. Second, revenge is forbidden. Third, they cannot engage in human affairs. If they break any of these rules, a punishment so severe will be inflicted upon them that even their handler, Maya, a worker for the Re-Life Centre who controls and watches over Hae Joon and Hong Nan’s actions, is afraid to speak of.

Nevertheless, Lee Hae Joon and Han Hong Nan do their best to square away their affairs in the living before they return to Heaven. If it only were that simple in a K-drama. Complications arise and it all comes full circle during the finale in which viewers generally understand what is happening, but there are some details that require a theoretical explanation. Fair warning, the remainder of this article will contain plot spoilers. Not only that, only those who have watched Please Come Back, Mister in its entirety will understand some of what is being explained.

DramaFever provided an excellent recap of the final episode in which they covered it thoroughly. However, they, like many others who watched the finale, were confused with certain details with the ending in which many revolve around Han Hong Nan. Remember how Hong Nan had to follow three rules? Well she broke all three of them, as shown halfway through the episode.

1. Han Hong Nan indirectly had her revenge when she told Lee Hae Joon to “let her go” when she was hanging off the side of a building with Na Suk Chul holding onto her. She could have saved herself and Suk Chul but choose not to. In the process, Suk Chul, who is the man responsible for killing Han Gi Tak in her previous life, dies too.
2. When Han Hong Nan interfered in the situation between Shin Da Hye and Na Suk Chul prior to their fight that made both she and Suk Chul hang meticulously off the side of a building, Hong Nan engaged in human affairs.
3. Finally, Han Hong Nan revealed to Song Yi Yeon that she was Han Gi Tak, thus revealing her true identity.

Han Hong Nan finds out that the punishment for breaking the rules is being erased as if she never existed. This also goes for her previous life as Han Gi Tak as any memory of him is erased from existence too. Despite this fact, it is believed that one person, not including Maya and others in the Re-Life Centre, is allowed to remember the person being erased. That person is Kim Young Soo who is no longer Lee Hae Joon.

Knowing that one person from an erased person’s life is allowed to remember the erased person, the relationship between Maya and Choi Seung Jae comes full circle. Earlier in the K-drama, Maya finds Seung Jae to be an attractive man. In the finale, it is revealed that Seung Jae has a picture of a boy with a woman who looks like Maya. It is possible that Maya was a person who died but came back to life so she could square away unfinished business. Apparently, Maya must have broken the rules because she has no recollection of Seung Jae yet she feels some sort of connection to him. Choi Seung Jae, however, remembers Maya, which means he is the one person to remember Maya after her life was erased.

The epiphany that people who violated the rules and are erased from the memories of those who have known them in their previous and Re-Life lives, are not themselves erased is the final puzzle piece that completes the ending. Han Hong Nan is alive but has no recollection of her life as Han Gi Tak, or the prior two months as Hong Nan living her Re-Life life. The girl at the end of the finale who bumps into the real Lee Hae Joon, the one who was stranded on an island throughout the entire series, may indeed be Hong Nan. This is further enforced by Hong Nan’s mannerisms being similar to when she was first adjusting to being a woman back in the third episode.

Ultimately, the aforementioned explanation is all in theory. Unless the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) or any of the cast or crew of Please Come Back, Mister come forward and thoroughly explain the fine details of the ending, we can only imagine. K-drama fans can make up their on minds by watching Please Come Back, Mister for free (with ads) on either DramaFever or Viki.

[Image via Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) Promotions of Please Come Back, Mister]