#((anyway i love them sm i'm going to end up being crazy abt these two I Know It))

[ladyseidr]

@florietiae asked: ❝ you make me feel like i can accomplish anything. / sam @ jess ♡ ❞ ( meme )

"Yeah, that was kinda my evil plan all along." The joke carried more affection than humor, falling softly from her mouth at Sam's shoulder. She was tucked at his side on the couch, some mostly-forgotten sitcom droning in the background. "You can, by the way. Accomplish anything, I mean. You're a good man, smart. . ." And here she leaned back to gaze up at him, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "Not to mention, very attractive." The ghost of an almost-laugh escaped her, hand sliding up to the nape of his neck, fingers playing with the back of his hair.

"For what it's worth, you do the same for me." Jess had her own insecurities, perfectionism that could strain her own nerves to their limit. Sam was like an anchor, grounding her before she could drift out into a storm. "I can't imagine doing all this without you." She cupped his face, thumb stroking across the skin of his cheek. "It makes us a good team, I think."

[overthinkingkdrama]

re: Save Me. What did you think about the scene where Sang Mi and her mom look up @ sky and talk about God, crediting Him for looking out for them or w/e? It's not like I'm here to say ALL RELIGION = CULT or anything, but the sudden attempt by the show to underline that distinction felt cowardly, or at the least lazy, since SM didn't seem religious before (except spiritual, cos of her bro's spirit). When the show is abt humans saving each other from human evil, this scene left a weird taste...

So, I do know exactly what you mean by the final piece of narration coming across as a bit strange, even apologetic. I do understand if that rubbed a few people the wrong way. It was rather ham-fisted, I’ll admit.

Personally, I wasn’t terribly bothered by it, and I’ll try to explain why.

As far as I’m concerned there are two possible ways that you can take the ending narration. Either it’s A) a hasty last minute concession to any religious viewers that the show runners don’t think that religion in and of itself is evil or that being religious makes your crazy pleasedon’tsendusnastyemails or B) a hasty attempt to give the ending thematic resonance when there was not enough time for a proper falling action. Most likely what we’re looking at is a little column A, a little column B.

As to the first, I understand the impulse to make the clarification and I don’t particularly blame them for it even if they final narration served to take us out of the story a little bit. The very connotation of the word “cult” should maybe clue us in that this can be a bit of a touchy subject. Nobody wants to be thought of as “part of a cult.” The very classification of what constitutes a cult or “cult mentality” is controversial. Although primarily associated with religious and often para-Christian groups, “cult” isn’t even a specifically religious classification. It’s a sociological delineation, that can be associated with ideas like mob psychology, the bystander effect, and mass hysteria. All things that you can see at work watching Save Me if you care to unpack it that far. These aren’t issues that particularly, or even disproportionately affect the religious. As you said: these are human problems.

In that way, I don’t think it’s bad to step back a moment and say, “Listen, we don’t believe that spirituality, or the belief in a deity is dangerous, in itself. In fact, it can be very beneficial for some. But, as with any strong conviction, it can be manipulated and twisted into something quite damaging.” I don’t think there’s any harm in that. Remember the political milieu that this drama is being released in, back in the home country. Remember there might be more than a few viewers very sensitive about these subjects, or many who are personally affected by something like what this drama presents.

As to the second, while I do feel rushed, I don’t feel that the attempt at thematic closer comes entirely out of left field. As you said, Sang Mi is shown to be at least somewhat spiritually inclined. And the show does not rule out entirely the possibility of some kind of spiritual reality in play with out characters life. Take Cha Joon Goo, our prison barber, who has several religiously charged monologues address at religion generally, or to God specifically. The Im family’s visit to the baksu, or shaman, in the early episodes is left ambiguous regarding Sang Mi’s mother’s condition having some kind of spiritual basis. And even Sang Jin’s frequent spectral appearances are never clearly demonstrated to be wholly in the mother’s head, to the point that later in the show I began to wonder if they would clarify once and for all that Sang Jin’s spirit really was hanging around Guseonwon out of concern for his mother and sister. (Thankfully, they chose to keep the ambiguity.)

Especially in light of her visit to the columbarium with her mother, and Sang Mi’s statement that she believed her brother was finally able to go to the “real” heaven I took the final narration to be in connection with that. I didn’t really read the final narration as “crediting [God] for looking out for them.” I felt it was more generally an affirmation of spirituality generally. Or a sense that the world isn’t essentially a senseless and cruel place. There is some kind of order and goodness extant in the world, and evil people like the Father and the leadership of Guseonwon won’t actually win out in the end.

The worship of New Heaven’s Sovereign that the cult was built around was not a hopeful religion. Despite the cultists constant repetition that the Father was going to give them the chance to board the “ship of salvation” to be with their dead loved ones, each true believer lived in perpetual fear that they would lose their “seat”. They lived in a world where they were constantly in peril, had to practice constant vigilance. Where all opposition in life could be blamed squarely on Satan and his devils, who could possess your body the moment you let your faith waiver. It was a belief system of constant terror and jockeying for position. When you take that perspective, Sang Mi’s affirmation of hope (a hope grounded in a sense of personal autonomy in mind and body) doesn’t seem so entirely out of place.

That’s my two cents anyway.

Jona