Flowers
Episode 6 of Move to Heaven begins with an old man called Kim In-Su working as a janitor, lifting heavy boxes and bags. However, he’s hit by a car while moving and it injures him badly. Getting dressed, he ignores the doctor’s advice and discharges himself. He heads into an adjacent room where his wife happens to be. Funnily enough, he runs into Sang-Koo outside, smoking. He encourages the man to stub the cigarette out as the pair continue on their way. He even calls Sang-Koo “sir” as a sign of respect. In Korean culture that is, of course, a big thing for an elder to call a junior sir. Meanwhile, Na-Moo visits Lawyer Oh and continues to express concerns about Sang-Koo, discussing all the woes he’s caused Geu-Roo so far this season. However, the three month period still stands so there’s not much more he can do. He does, however, refer to Na-Moo as Geu-Roo’s “good tree.” Sang-Koo also shows his worth too, lavishing praise on Na-Moo to her Mother when they cross paths. As Na-Moo heads off on her own, Sang-Koo and Geu-Roo both work together and prepare for another request. Although, Sang-Koo calls it an order to begin with until his nephew corrects him. They both show up and find a note written by our elderly couple, apologizing to the ones who “came to clean up after us” and confirming that they’re leaving the world together. It turns out the request from three days ago came in while In-Su was still alive and he was well aware that he was going to die. He wanted to do so on his own terms alongside his wife, Mi-Seon. She too was a long-term patient at a nursing home. Sang-Koo is not happy and likens it to murder. He eventually heads outside, scoffing at the notion and refusing to clean. Geu-Roo heads inside and begins cleaning up the belongings, telling Sang-Koo he’s going to dock money from him. Eventually Sang-Koo does show and help but when he opens up the window, finds a hidden door leading to a beautiful greenhouse. The social worker challenges Sang-Koo’s notion of suicide upon seeing this, telling him it’s an act of love. Geu-Roo decides against cleaning out this area for now, settling on visiting Block 105 of the apartment block across the way. Once there, Geu-Roo begins knocking on the different doors, looking to give back the plants from the greenhouse. Within this we receive a telling flashback of In-Goo and his time with the landlord of the apartment block. A young girl helped raise funds to buy him an air conditioner but he simply waved away the gift, telling the old man to buy one himself. Meanwhile Sang-Koo sits with the social worker, Yoo-Sin, who confirms that the couple took pills from the hospital. He clearly got them wrong and this is only made worse by his situation with Soo-Cheol. Sang-Koo confronted that black-haired club promoter and told her it’s her fault if Soo-Cheol dies. He pleaded with her to bring him back no matter what. Kim In-Su was given the awful diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer and with this, decided to grant his wife’s wish and head home together. For the funeral the gang realize there’s no family but they do start collecting up all the different flowers to place as a sign of respect. Each of these hold a different meaning and with little Min-Ji there too, they all pay their respects. Sang-Koo also bows his head too, eventually collecting up a wreath from a funeral next door to use for In-Su’s. In fact this, coupled with old business cards from 1981, are enough for Geu-Roo to head into the funeral hall to give out to different people. Most don’t recognize who In-Su is but when the Chairman shows, he most certainly does. With a walking stick, he heads into the room next door and sees the flowers laid out. He lights an incense stick, which signals the way for all these other workers to join in and bow. It’s a beautiful sign and one that sees our social worker, Yoo-Rim, growing closer to Sang-Koo. Geu-Roo notices this too and after dropping a card off, gives Sang-Koo a plant from Mr Kim’s greenhouse to look after. It’s from Yoo-Rim and it holds significant meaning. That night, Sang-Koo receives a call from a sobbing Soo-Jin, claiming Soo-Cheol is in a critical state. Fighting back tears, Sang-Koo charges out the house and toward the hospital.
The Episode Review
Once again Move to Heaven delivers a moving and gripping chapter, one that really lays on the waterworks once more as our elderly couple decide to commit suicide and pass on together hand in hand. Given the terminal illness diagnosis In-Su had, and how poorly his wife was, the pair have clearly had a tough life. The symbolic use of flowers and all those workers showing up to pay their respects works beautifully to honour the couple’s memory and it really was a beautiful ceremony. Even Sang-Koo got involved at the end there. In fact, Sang-Koo’s character development across the season has been amazing to see. He’s grown so much thanks to Move to Heaven and he really has moved from this angry and arrogant Uncle to someone who genuinely cares about others. His symbolic head bow at the end of the funeral is telling enough to show this. As the episode comes to a close, this Korean drama has been a wonderful watch and the ending certainly hints that we’ve got a dramatic episode to come.
