‘Can This Love Be Translated?’ Finale Recap

Kim Seon Ho as JOO HO JIN and Go Youn Jung as CHA MU HEE in ‘Can This Love Be Translated?’

NETFLIX

Well, we’re finally here at the end of Can This Love Be Translated, this warm, albeit mixed bag of a show. We’ve seen our heroine Cha Mu Hee (Go Youn Jung) work through her struggles with her alter ego Do Ra Mi, we’ve seen Joo Ho Jin (Kim Seon Ho) be around for her and then draw back and then be around for her again, and we’ve seen Hiro-san (Sota Fukushi) largely exist to perform occasional mini rants in the background. I’m quite interested to see how (and whether) the Hong sisters are going to stick the landing with this one, since all the different threads have been largely tied up so far. Do Ra Mi has vanished, Mu Hee and Ho Jin are finally together, the reality show filming is wrapping up. Where will they go next?

Note: This is a play-by-play recap of the finale, written like we’re watching together. There is another more formal, comprehensive review of the series here, as well as a behind the scenes non-spoiler interview with Kim Seon Ho and Go Youn Jung.

At the end of Ep 11, both our protagonists CHA MU HEE and JOO HO JIN were sat next to their secondary love interests in a confined space, with an impending awkward conversation hanging over their heads.

Mu Hee and HIRO KUROSAWA are at a screening of the reality show they’d been filming for months. We see all the moments we’ve lived with them already — Mu Hee running to find Hiro in Canada, both of them walking up the walls of the castle in Italy, dancing with strangers in the square — but neatly packaged in cutesy editing and artfully placed voiceovers.

The montage ends with Hiro’s confession to Mu Hee, and Mu Hee’s classic “Okay. Thank you. Me too.”

The producers nudge each other in glee, clearly happy with the results, but assure Mu Hee and Hiro that the loveline angle can be cut out if they’re not comfortable with it. “Unless you end up dating and it becomes a scandal, of course. But you aren’t dating, are you?” asks the producer.

A more mistimed question there cannot be, as Mu Hee has just belatedly realized Hiro’s feelings for her were, in fact, real, and that she does not, in fact, return them, and additionally: Hiro is well aware of that fact.

Hiro’s manager NANAMI (Hyunri) gets ready to translate, but Hiro shocks everyone by responding in perfect Korean that he doesn’t mind. Everyone oohs and aahs over this development, but Mu Hee just looks at Hiro and sighs.

We cut back to Ho Jin’s conversation with the former love of his life, SHIN JI SEON (Lee Yi Dam) — also formerly his brother’s fiancée. “I liked you from the second time we ran into each other,” Ji Seon confesses. “But I felt awkward when I found out you were Jin Seok’s brother, in case you figured it out.”

Perhaps one reality show ago, this would have floored Ho Jin, but now he simply listens quietly before responding in kind: he was also always careful around her in case she’d catch on. Ji Seon is surprised. “So Ho Jin-ssi, you really—?” Ho Jin calmly smiles that he never thought he’d tell her this, but the fact that he is so comfortable in doing so means he’s finally over it, and the zombie movie that was his unrequited love is finally over. Yay for closure!

He spends the next two hours of the trip explaining the whole story, right from Enoshima Island, where he confirms to Ji Seon that Mu Hee took the infamous photo of him.

Meanwhile, Hiro and Mu Hee are now strolling through an aquarium, with Mu Hee wondering why he didn’t ask the producers to cut out his romantic confession as revenge.

Hiro says he’ll just snitch on her to Ho Jin for flirting with him first, but she simply replies that Ho Jin knew everything from the start, even helped her out for a bit, hee. Hiro is incredulous. “You said all that to the guy you like? Are you stupid?” We’re with you there, buddy.

They stare at the glass for a bit longer, and Mu Hee then sincerely thanks Hiro for being a great guy (mmm ok), and dashing on screen. That’s what she thought throughout the shoot, she says. “How wonderful it would be if dating were nothing but happiness and beautiful views with a great guy like you. Nothing to worry about or feel anxious about.” At the end of it all they even had a ‘happy ending’, she muses, guessing that that’s why Do Ra Mi she do it.

She turns to Hiro and apologizes for leading him on, and thanks him for being the prince of her dreams that she longed to meet as an escape from her reality. Hiro tries to pretend he understood none of that, but Mu Hee’s on to his inexplicable language genius.

The scene would have ended great there, but now it’s time for Hiro’s monologue: he tells her he wonders what would have happened if he’d said yes when she Do Ra Mi asked if he liked her. “I’m so bitter about that,” he says, which would’ve been quite sad if he hadn’t deliberately said the whole thing in Japanese. Mu Hee says she doesn’t understand, so Hiro just calls her an idiot in Korean (max rizz).

Ji Seon and Ho Jin have finally reached Busan, and say their goodbyes on the footbridge. We see full closeups of both their faces as they say bye to each other. Ji Seon turns around first, and Ho Jin watches, smiling, as she walks away, before turning around himself. We see them both walk in opposite directions, and the opening title comes up for the last time.

Back in Seoul, star novelist and No 1. Mu-Jin shipper KIM YOUNG HWAN (Kim Won Hae) is having a chat with Mu Hee’s uncle and aunt, who think they’re there to discuss featuring Ho Jin’s grandfather’s extensive collection in their library. Mr. Kim, however, is here to ask about Uncle’s youngest brother, whose daughter they adopted. His colleague Mr. Oh told him that the youngest brother actually died from a serious illness, but Mu Hee said her parents died in an accident; could they clarify?

Uncle asks if Mr. Kim knows Mu Hee well, to which Mr. Oh replies effusively that they were caught between her and Ho Jin because they’re such a cute couple. Mr. Kim adds that Ho Jin is like a son to him (aww), to which Aunt says in that case he should persuade him not to associate with Mu Hee. She says even though they took her in because she was family, they didn’t want to let ‘that child’ anywhere near them. Okay girl, relax a little will ya?

Ho Jin is finally back in Seoul, wondering to Mu Hee if it’s too late for them to meet. Mu Hee is at the same station, all covered up in a hat and trench coat, ready to meet him. They have an adorable back and forth, all “Oh, you must be tired, do you want to go home?” and “I’m not tired, but you have a long day tomorrow, you should rest,” which goes on till a dejected Mu Hee is surprised by Ho Jin, who says he’s not tired at all and thanks her for coming to see him. You GUYS.

Mu Hee says she waited in the cold for him but was going to go home without meeting him in case he was tired. Ho Jin just takes both her hands and says, “I’m going to spell this out for you, so listen up. I like you so much that I would come to see you even after three sleepless nights,” at which point all the anxious attachment/words of affirmation girlies let out an audible cheer.

They go to a terrace overlooking the city at night, and it looks like the one she saw in her dream of seeing the northern lights in Seoul. Ho Jin then plugs what I’m pretty sure is a paid placement for an objectively cool sounding thing: an International Dark Sky Association, which designates dark sky preserves where you can watch the stars away from light pollution. After some research I’m assuming the preserve in Korea he’s talking about is this one in Yeongyang. You’re welcome.

The two decide they’ll see the Milky Way together sometime (a natural progression from the northern lights), joke around about Ho Jin being closer to the stars because he’s taller, and make out a little. You know how it is.

Meanwhile, Jin Seon is with her hometown friends, celebrating her broken engagement. All of them are quite tipsy, and her friends vehemently express their support, saying it’s better to have called it off now than for it to end in divorce (like another of the friends at the table, hee). Her friend offers to set her up, and they squeal at her to get with a celebrity or a hot oppa, ha.

Ji Seon reassures them: she’s already met someone tall, really good looking, and younger than her. More squeals of support, and demands to see a picture. Fortunately she doesn’t need to search for long because YONG WOO (Choi Woo Sung) is right in behind them, in the flesh. Ji Seon stares in a tipsy haze, but Yong Woo just smiles and introduces himself as the handsome hunk she’s dating. Even more squeals and “Oh, he really is handsome!”

Outside, Ji Seon sits mortified while Yong Woo offers her water. He came all this way based on a single text and searched the whole market, he says. Ji Seon tries to explain that she was just showing off for her friends, but he just says he likes being shown off, so they’re all good. But wait, he has something important to say. “Shin Ji Seon-ssi,” says Yong Woo. “Will you marry me?”

What? Sir, you’ve been with her for exactly three seconds, right after she broke off a years-long relationship, what is going on? Ji Seon is as confused as I am, apparently. Yong Woo kneels (he’s bought a ring and everything??) and repeats, “Let’s get married.” As Ji Seon stares in shock, her friends cheer in the background, chanting at her to say yes, ha.

She grabs Yong Woo and legs it to a quieter friend-free beach, where it is suddenly a very pink dawn.

Yong Woo finally explains all the haste: he’s going to the UK to work for a sports agency, which has always been his dream, but he also never wants to break up with her. Ji Seon jokingly asks if he’s worried she’ll cheat on him when he’s gone (I meaaan, you did stress on this plan multiple times during your first meeting with him, so). Marriage won’t be necessary, Ji Seon says, and Yong Woo’s face falls. “Instead, let’s go together,” she continues. Yes gurl take your time!

She explains that she’d been planning to take a year off to study abroad anyway, and she could just go to the UK instead of the US (as a person of colour in 2026, that’s probably a better idea, albeit marginally). She hadn’t told Yong Woo about it because she’d been wondering whether to stay for him, or if that was getting ahead of herself. Yong Woo cuts her off with a hug, thanking her for hesitating because of him, and the two walk on into a slo-mo sequence, laughing about Ji Seon’s Busan dialect.

Elsewhere, Mu Hee is updating her psychiatrist on her progress: she sleeps well now without meds, and Do Ra Mi seems to have disappeared. She wonders out loud why that is, perhaps because she shared a lifelong secret with someone she relies on? Doctor theorizes that Do Ra Mi could have something to do with her childhood, which Mu Hee counters by saying that’s impossible because the character is from a movie she filmed only several years ago. He then suggests that she only thought it was Do Ra Mi because the symptoms began after her filming the movie. Maybe the person she’s seeing isn’t Do Ra Mi at all?

Wait, another twist, with about half an hour to go? Incheresting, but also, dare I say, rather unnecessary? But I could be wrong.

Mu Hee fills Ho Jin in on the phone, and he recalls Do Ra Mi telling him everything came from Mu Hee’s own head. “She looked like me, was terrifying, and kept criticizing me. Naturally I thought she was Do Ra Mi,” Mu Hee ponders.

She’s out shopping for Yong Woo’s going away present, sighing that it feels like she’s sending away a younger brother. Aww, those two. Ho Jin is at home, waiting for a guest that he says he’ll tell her about later. He hangs up looking pensive, and goes to a flashback of him talking to Do Ra Mi in Italy. At the time, he theorized that Do Ra Mi didn’t emerge from a rapid change in Mu Hee’s environment, but rather from a deeper and darker past.

Mu Hee is happily shopping when her Aunt shows up. Simultaneously, her Uncle walks into Ho Jin’s house, waxing eloquent about his grandfather’s collection of classics. Ugh, those two.

Uncle is here to tell Ho Jin two things in person: first, would he consider donating to their foundation (dream on, pal)? Ho Jin is visibly un-enthused, and Uncle guesses Mu Hee has given him an unfavourable impression of them. “I wonder just how terribly you treated her to assume that right away,” Ho Jin replies. Oooh, shots fired!

Uncle just doubles down, telling Ho Jin that Mu Hee is a cunning girl prone to telling lies depending on the circumstances, but he’s shot down again, as Ho Jin says she just sounds like a clever person who caught on fast to the fact that she could never be honest in a “place surrounded by lies.” Okay Joo Ho Jin, I was not familiar with your GAME.

Aunt is worse, if you can believe it, taunting Mu Hee for shopping at expensive places and “wanting things out of your reach” simply because she’s “somewhat famous” now. Ah, but Mu Hee’s not the shrinking violet she was earlier. She corrects Aunt matter of factly that she’s not just somewhat famous, she’s earned so much money that these things are well within her reach. Yes, Mu Hee, you tell ‘em!

Aunt just stares and says, “Now you’re the very image of her.” Okay, it’s becoming super obvious now, I see what’s happening. Aunt tells Mu Hee that Uncle is at Ho Jin’s right now because his family could be of great help to them to they had no choice but to tell him about her.

Mu Hee’s mom was not part of the family, explains Uncle. She was a mistress who apparently tried to use her child to stop her partner from leaving her, and when that didn’t work, caused a huge tragedy as revenge. He continues that it’s a shameful part of their history they want to keep hidden, which is why he came all this way. Ho Jin coolly responds that he needn’t have done that, since Mu Hee already told him everything, so HA.

Aunt gets the same information from Mu Hee, but she is incredulous. All she takes away is the realization that Mu Hee does remember what happened to her parents that day.

“I remember everything,” confirms Mu Hee, as we flash back to the full events of her fateful birthday. A voice says “Happy birthday, Mu Hee!”, and a man falls to the ground after eating cake. A woman in a lacy white and black dress walks up to little Mu Hee with the cake. We don’t see her face yet, but I have a pretty good idea. “Mu Hee-ya, you should eat some too. Let’s all be happy together.” Ack, but this can’t be what Do Ra Mi meant when she told Mu Hee she should be happy though, right?

Uncle continues that ‘that woman’ laced her daughter’s birthday cake with poison and tried to die with her, and Mu Hee fell off the balcony, perhaps because she tried to run away. They were relieved that she had no memories of the incident. Someone give that girl a hug.

Ho Jin is quietly furious. “You turned your back on her,” he tells Uncle, not even looking at him. “Ever since she was a child, Cha Mu Hee has carried the weight of those awful memories on her own.” You tell ‘em, Ho Jin. Uncle just says they couldn’t bear to look at her because she was her daughter, and then gives Ho Jin the only remaining photograph of Mu Hee’s mom, which he’d been keeping in case she ever brought it up. Ho Jin holds it up, and everything falls into place for him.

In the shop, Mu Hee asks why Uncle and Aunt hate her so much despite it not being her fault. Aunt says they were afraid of her, and asks her to remember her mom. But then again, how could you forget, she says, since Mu Hee sees her face every day in the mirror? She walks away, leaving Mu Hee to face her reflection. “Mom.” Yup, the woman who looked like her, was terrifying, and kept criticizing her was her mother, folks! Ah, the k-drama of it all.

Ho Jin looks at the photo, in which Mu Hee’s mom — the scowling spit of grown Mu Hee — is helping her daughter with colouring.

“Do Ra Mi has my mom’s face,” remembers Mu Hee, as her mirror reflection morphs into that of the woman holding the cake.

They’re back in her pink nightmare world, and Do Ra Mi-Mom holds out the cake to little Mu Hee again, telling her they can all be happy. Behind her, there’s a fallen mannequin of a man with blood around his mouth. Yeesh. Little Mu Hee doesn’t want the cake though, because the chicks died after eating it, as did Dad. Mom asks why she wants to be left in the world alone, because there would be no one left to love her. “You could never be happy,” she says. Little Mu Hee just whacks the cake away and runs away, and we see the actual mom from her birthday, hair neatly tied back, watching her daughter hesitate, cry for her mother, and then fall off the balcony.

In real time, grown Mu Hee falls with her little self to the floor, musing that she never fully managed to get away from her mom.

She decides that she has to spend all her remaining time to try again to break free from this delusion. Do Ra Mi-Mom seconds that motion so she can finally get lost, says goodbye, and blows out the birthday candles.

In the darkness, we hear Ho Jin’s voice telling Mu Hee he loves her. She opens her eyes to a gaggle of doctors in a massive hospital suite. She’s been out for three days, as informed by a tearful Yong Woo, who thought it would be a coma like last time. Stay in Korea, Yong Woo!

He tells her Ho Jin is on the way, and Mu Hee panics because she hasn’t washed her hair, hee. Yong Woo tells her Ho Jin will be glad to see she’s clearly fully okay, since he had to wither away at home to avoid the reporters and visiting crew. Ho Jin walks in at that moment, and there’s a whole tearful reunion, if understated and wordless.

In a random gym elsewhere, Hiro (why is he still here) is pummelling a punching bag with all his might when Nanami runs in with news that Mu Hee is awake. He’s visibly relieved, chuckles that a zombie wouldn’t die so easily, and promptly falls to the ground from exhaustion. Apparently he’s been at this for three days. Nanami helps him take off his gloves and they squabble a bit about overexertion and taking revenge on the zombie (mmk Hiro, time to move on methinks).

Mu Hee pores over the picture of her mother (may I say, looking the most angelic she has all season, which is a high bar), and Ho Jin cuddles up next to her. She notes they really look the same, and Ho Jin assures her that they’re not at all the same person (little meta joke there for ya). There’s a pause, and Ho Jin says there’s still something she doesn’t know. What now?

Apparently on that birthday, someone reported that a child fell so the police came and were able to save her parents as well, so they’re alive. The father she thought had died from the poison was actually her youngest uncle, so her father is actually her uncle who loves abroad!? This makes sense to Mu Hee since she didn’t see her dad too often as a child, so she could’ve mixed up the two. Her father’s family told her her parents were dead to cover up (?) the whole thing since she supposedly didn’t remember anything anyway.

Mu Hee takes it all in slowly, Ho Jin hugs her as she cries, and we will now take a five second break to scream into the void.

Hiro is now spiffily dressed and artfully fighting multiple bad guys in a gilded hotel lobby. It’s an audition tape for a Hollywood movie, and the director is loving it. Hiro tells them he shot it in a hurry because he desperately wanted to join the project. The director comments that he was surprised Hiro asked to audition at all, given his popularity in Japan.

Hiro’s prepared some words in English, and tells the director he was scared to ask for an audition for fear of rejection. “But I learned one thing. If I don’t fight for something I really want, I will be left with nothnig but regret. This time I will not run away from the fight.” Nanami looks on with pride that he’s matured.

Mu Hee’s visits her Uncle and Aunt, and requests them to ask her father the whereabouts of her mother. She needs to see with her own eyes that she’s alive, so she can finally be free.

Ho Jin helps Mu Hee with her luggage and cribs that he’s worried about her going. She counters that it’s just Koreatown and there’s always Papago, ha. He wants to go with her as moral support though. Mu Hee recalls how she was convinced they’ll break up, and tells him she knows he told her they’re definitely breaking up anyway to calm her anxiety, but she doesn’t want to break up at all, so they should just break up right now (?) and then she’ll come back in a month and threaten him into dating her again. I mean, whatever works for you, I guess. She asks him to please give in so they can be happy together for a long long time. Ho Jin tells her to bring her worst, and they stand there gazing at each other against the blush sky.

Presumably a few weeks later, Ho Jin stares out his window and wonders how she’s doing, but his reverie is broken by Yong Woo, who asks if he can take some of Ho Jin’s gochujang to the UK. And can he take some soy sauce too? And perhaps some—Ho Jin just barks at him to take it all and grumbles that Ji Seon is a bad influence.

Ho Jin’s mum comes by to pack up her father’s collection for donation, saying she’s going to need several visits to get through it all (you just want to hang out with your son, don’t you?). Ho Jin admits he’s perhaps thinking of selling the house and buying an apartment to get married in (NO, Ho Jin, that is a terrible tradeoff, don’t do it!). Novelist Mr. Kim pulls a Yong Woo and keeps asking if he can take some of the antique books home and he walks away squabbling with Ho Jin’s mom as he looks outside the window again, remembering that “Cha Mu Hee-ssi liked this house” (so does everyone! Don’t sell it!).

There’s a shot of him typing away furiously in a coffee shop — finally another novel, maybe?

He’s now in a dear little Christmas market with his Italian friend, switching between Korean and Italian at the drop of a hat. His friend invites him and Mu Hee to a Christmas party, but Ho Jin says they’re broken up right now. “You got dumped again?” his friend laughs, and Ho Jin stalks away, walking past a pub where a familiar reality TV crew is celebrating submitting their final cut today.

Cho PD frets that she was trembling while typing out the captions to avoid a couple hundred million won in late penalties, and Ji Seon tells her not to worry because the show will be a hit. Cho PD is not convinced because after all, Ji Seon will be safely in the UK when the numbers come out. Ji Seon flaunts her ring and announces drinks are on her today, which brings up the mood again. They’re toasting when the Kim PD (the one who disappeared at the beginning of the shoot) rushes in, pretends like he didn’t leave them high and dry, and puts the drinks on the company card instead, ha. This is just how he plays the game, apparently.

As Ho Jin walks through the market, he comes across a performer singing ‘Waltz for the Moon’ by Hodge, which was his and Mu Hee’s special song. He gets a text, “Babe. Want to go see the stars with me?” and beams from ear to ear.

He’s in the dark sky observatory they talked about earlier, and there’s a voiceover with more promotional material. He waits nervously, and is glancing at the brochure when he hears a voice saying “Have you come to look at the stars?” in Korean, and an artificial one repeating it in English. It’s Mu Hee and her (actual) Papago!

He looks at her, overcome, as Mu Hee tells her phone it needs to do a good job to make up for how long she’s been away. Papago translates that she’s missed him, but he’s still speechless so Mu Hee tries Japanese instead, saying she’s really missed him. Still nothing. Now in Italian: “I’ve missed you so much that it nearly killed me.”

She wonders if he’s mad at her, and he says he was having trouble to find the words. Aww, she’s even brought a bouquet of giant artificial clovers so they’d have clear skies! You cutie. Mu Hee says he can swear at her or use a universal language (the middle finger, ha), and Ho Jin says that sounds good and kisses her instead (the other universal language).

As they kiss, Verdi’s La Traviata plays in the background, and Mu Hee says they’ve finally reached their happy ending. “Wait,” says Ho Jin. “Let’s change the music, because our ending will be a perfectly happy one.” He snaps his fingers, and the theme song plays as they watch the stars together.

Phew, we did it folks! We made it to their happy ending. Lots to talk about, of course, but reminder that this is an episodic recap and a more formal series review can be found here.

I cannot but mention Go Youn Jung, who’s consistently been the clear standout on the show and also this episode. She’s had to play almost three different characters with wildly different personalities, and just in this episode swing between a plethora of emotions with ease. Secondary to her acting chops but also important: she is just so? Beautiful? The styling team has knocked it out of the park yet again.

I love the way Ho Jin stood up to Mu Hee’s uncle for her, but even more, I love how Mu Hee has a healthier, more secure sense of herself by now and was able to stick up for herself as well. Hiro’s arc is neatly tied up too, although he’s generally not had much to do in the show, and that extended to this episode too.

As for the rest of the episode, well, hm. We could have done without two thirds of it, if not more, in my opinion. It was all nice and sweet seeing them be happy with each other, and sure, there were minute breadcrumbs leading up to the mom reveal, but what was the need? And at the eleventh hour?

They made such a big deal about how she needs to dispel the delusion forever, and the only way to do that would be to confirm with her eyes that her mother is alive, and we just…don’t see her do that? In fact, she says nothing at all about which Koreatown in the world her mother is in, whether she’s actually alive, what she said, are they okay with each other now, nothing. She goes, breaks up with Ho Jin for a month, and about five minutes later, is back being adorable on our screen again.

All in all, the show tackles a thoughtful premise — even two people speaking the same linguistic language will need their thoughts translated — and almost got it right but took a couple of tangents after the halfway mark. It’s a shame, because the idea had tremendous potential and a Go Youn Jung acting her heart out, but oh well.

It’s been such a treat to have Kim Seon Ho back in K-dramaland, and thankfully both our leads will be back round later in the year: Youn Jung in Netflix’s We’re All Trying Here with Goo Kyo Hwan, and Seon Ho in Disney Plus’ Portraits of Delusion opposite Suzy. I will 100% be seated, but until then, remember to look at the stars, everybody!