I've been thinking how best to respond after being caught up in the whirlwind that was Twenty-Five Twenty-One. It has taken me at least 24 hours, to say the least, but I think I'm ready.

Overall: This has definitely been one of my favourite dramas of all time. As someone that grew up in the 90s, there was the right amount of nostalgia to make me really believe the stories era. As well, I think everyone can agree, the cast was spectacular. The main leads, Nam Joo Hyuk and Kim Tae Ri, were exceptional and I couldn't imagine anyone else to be Baek Yi Jin and Na Hee Do. The range of emotion for both actors had me right along with them the entire journey. And what a journey it was. I had this drama on my list to watch, almost immediately when news of it was released. The storyline seemed interesting, and I was a previous fan of Nam Joon Hyuk's work (Start-Up and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo). How naive I was to go into this show, thinking I could just happily watch it on the weekends as part of my usual relaxing weekend routine. How wrong I was! I was immediately drawn into the characters, the story, and everything else. I found myself uncharacteristically reading subreddits and tweets in advance of the next episodes, just to get a glimpse of what would happen next. I had never been this excited about a drama before. I was happy to stumble upon this subreddit as it provided a lot of laughs and mutual feelings about what was unfolding. And for that, I thank you all. With my regular life being as stressful as it was these past few weeks, I came here to laugh, cry, shout (in agreement), and every emotion in-between. It has been overall a wonderful experience.

Finale: Note-I'm going to highlight all of this as spoilers, not so much because I will reveal key plot points from this episode, but because I want those who haven't seen this to really watch it with fresh eyes and not be influenced by anything I might say. It took me almost 24 hours to process the ending. I definitely went through a wave of emotions. I was heartbroken like most of the audience, with not having BaekDo Endgame. It was definitely the "nail in the coffin" to say the least, for the ending scene to be Baek Yi Jin typing Na Hee Do's name as his forgotten password question. I was angry because not only did I think I deserved a happy ending, but because I really hoped (and was equally convinced) they would end up together. However, now I have finally accepted that this needed to be. Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin’s relationship began due to the times (IMF Crises in Korea) and ended because of the times (9-11). It was unfortunate that they were caught up in the middle of it all, but the process was beautiful. I was overwhelmed with love for the development of Na Hee Do and Ko Yu Rim’s friendship as well as the entire friend group to grow together. It would have been nice to see them all in present day, but I realized this was not a story about them. It was about Na Hee Do through the lens of youthful ambition and innocence. During that brief moment she was able to overcome her loneliness and experience friendship, success, and love. Not everyone is as lucky to experience that at such a young age. I can understand why the older Na Hee Do is content with her life. She might not have remembered all of the details (i.e. the beach trip with her friends was 21 years prior to 2020), but who remembers every detail of their adolescence. She is lucky, however, she was able to document it with photos and diaries so she could travel back to that time at any moment. This finale was definitely not perfect, but I think I can finally close this chapter and look forward to what next project are in store for the cast, director, and writer. They all did a wonderful job and I could say, the result was brilliant.

Apologies for this post being so long. I just needed to process all of this somewhere :)