Marry Me or Not Episode 15 Recap

Marry Me or Not Episode 15 Recap By Ninja

Preshow Bit: Our two leads review the question that has been raised in previous episodes: What if Justin and Vivienne never met each other? 

Without meeting each other, Justin perhaps would've eventually accepted a girl his mother set him up with. The girl might not be someone that Justin would have the urge to marry but she is also someone that he wouldn't necessary have the desire to break up with. 

Holding hands with the "mom approved" girlfriend, Justin would go to Vivienne's wedding. Content to marry the man who gives her a predicable romance even if he doesn't make her heart skip a beat, Vivienne would walk down the aisle...until she stops and turns to looks at Justin. His polite smile disappearing as Vivienne turns to look at him, Justin stands up unconsciously as he and Vivienne stare at each other. 

Deciding that the best way to figure out her dad's "affair" is to simply have everyone involved meet together, Vivienne bring Mama Hao home for a big show down...which ended hilariously with the mothers becoming best drinking buddies. 

Thanks to a little switcheroo by Sheng Nan, Vivienne is surprised when Justin shows up at her house. Feeling a bit sheepish, an apologetic Vivienne takes Justin to her front room and reveals their completely unconscious parents to him. 
Convincing Justin to let Mama Cai stay the night, Vivienne listens patiently as Mama Cai suddenly wakes up and goes on a drunken rant. Standing right outside of Vivienne's door, Justin listens with a sinking heart as his mother's drunken words reveal how much pain and self doubt she has been harboring. 
Feeling ashamed that he has never once listened to his mother as patiently as Vivienne did, Justin is thoughtful when Vivienne suggests that perhaps Mama Hao still has some feelings towards his father. 

Bidding Vivienne goodnight, Justin starts to leave but suddenly turns around and tells Vivienne of the dream he had when they first started dating. In a soft voice, Justin tells Vivienne of the peaceful dream where the two of them did the simplest things together. Tearing up as Justin describes the dream and how natural it felt in the dream to do all those ordinary things with her, Vivienne is unable to say anything as Justin turns around to leave. 
Finally snapping to action when Justin steps out of the gate, Vivienne calls out Justin's name but could only tell him to drive safely. 

The next morning, a very embarrassed Mama Hao wakes up with the memory of how she had confessed to Vivienne about her fear of losing her precious son to her future daughter-in-law. Sheepishly bidding Mama Cai goodbye, Mama Hao is surprised when she walks out to find her two kids already waiting for her. 

Sitting both of their parents down, Justin and Sheng Nan are united as they hand their parents the divorce papers to sign. Despite being flustered when they saw the divorce paper, Justin's parents nonetheless declare their utmost willingness to go through with it. 
Still using his lawyer tone as he assures his parents that he has made sure all of their assets are divided fairly, Justin brings out a purple box and asks his parents to divide that particular asset personally since it falls under sentimental assets. 

Suspicious immediately when he sees how panicked his wife became the moment she saw the purple box, Daddy Hao ignores Mama Hao's protest and opens the box. Dumbfounded as he looks through the box's content, Daddy Hao looks at his wife in disbelief as his two kids list off all the small mementos their mother had kept to remember the all too rare moments when he had shown affection towards her. Still speechless as he picks up an old movie ticket stub and sticky notes he had written years ago, Daddy Hao finally realizes his wife does love him after all. 

Smiling with contentment as they watch their parents walking out arm in arm to go on a movie date, the two siblings can't remember the last time they have seen their parents so happy together. Turning her expectant gaze on her brother, Sheng Nan asks "If our parents can patch things up, then when are you going to get back together with Vivienne?" 

Evasive, Justin replies "It's not time yet."
Obviously not convinced, Sheng Nan demands "Then when?"
Giving his sister his trademark stoic expression, Justin answers "You will know when the time comes." 
Stunned when her mother suddenly shows up at work and offers to introduce a good man to Vivienne, a frustrated Sheng Nan gets into a tug of war with Mama Hao as she switch into BBF protector mode. Unwilling to have the mother and daughter arguing over her, Vivienne relents and agrees to look at the photo of the man Mama Hao wants to set her up with. 

Turns out, the man Mama Hao wants to introduce her to is none other than her own son, Justin. 
Scarcely able to believe it when she realizes that Mama Hao is really setting her up with Justin, Vivienne looks at Justin shyly as he sits down. Unfortunately, Vivienne's budding happiness is soon squashed the moment Justin opens his mouth. Going right into his combative mode, Justin starts to list off the many obstacles that are no longer standing in their way and demands to know what other excuses Vivienne could have to not get back together with him. 

Flustered when Justin even takes out her list (the list with reasons of why she should and shouldn't be with Justin), Vivienne's temper is soon raising to match Justin's. Reminding Justin of the dream he mentioned to her before, Vivienne declares "I also had the same dream. But do you know what I felt when I woke up? I was scared. What if all those were really just dreams and after doing everything we can we find out things are not so wonderful. What happens when we find out dreams are just that, dreams?" 

Frustrated when Vivienne finishes her speech with the request for more time to figure things out and have the confidence that their relationship would work out, Justin questions "What if you can't figure it out?"

Standing up in anger, Vivienne storms out after saying "Don't you know what I want by now?!" 

After a moment of stunned silence as he stares at the empty seat in front of him, Justin finally snaps out of stupor and chases after Vivienne. Already upset as she blindly walks away from her meeting with Justin, Vivienne almost breaks down in tears as she runs into someone in her haste and spills the content of her purse all over the sidewalk. 

Coming to a sudden stop as he spots an upset Vivienne shoving her things back into her purse, an expression of pain crosses Justin's face as Vivienne's parting words replays in his mind. 

The next morning, Mama Cai walks in to Vivienne's room and catches her right in the act of trying to decide if she should call Justin or not. Snatching the cell phone away from Vivienne, Mama Cai gives a long chaotic spiel about how the heaven and earth is conspiring against our two leads that very day so she is going to keep the phone for a while just to make sure her daughter doesn't contact Justin. 

Closing Vivienne's bedroom door behind her, Mama Cai happily informs her husband that the mission has been accomplished. 
On her way to work, Vivienne is at first puzzled then delighted when random strangers start to gather around her to perform for her. Ushered into a mall, Vivienne continues to be dazzled as various performers sing and dance around her until she is finally led to a room filled with her closest family and friends. 
Turning around as the red curtain slowly raises, Vivienne waits with abated breath as Justin finally shows his face with a bouquet of flower in hand. 

Handing Vivienne the flowers, Justin proceeds to make his speech "You said you are not sure if we keep going we would really find happiness at the end of the road. To be honest, I can't answer your question, because the answer requires both of us to discover it."

Tearing up, Vivienne asks "But what if we can't find the answer. What if I was never the one that was meant to find the answer with you."

With conviction, Justin replies "That's not possible, because even before we met fate has already brought us together."  After flash backs of Justin meeting Vivienne across various different times and places, Justin declares "The first time my heart trembled, then the second time, then the third time. The girl that made me heart skip countless times has only ever been one person." 
Taking out a ring, Justin kneels down and proposes "Will you marry me?"

As all their loved ones gathered around them, Vivienne finally says "Yes, I will." 

Everyone should have an orchestra playing in the background during a marriage proposal. 

The End! 

Um... not yet. We get a bonus scene of the nerdy young Justin losing his heart as he notices Vivienne for the first time. 

The very last scene: 

Maybe none of us are perfect,

But this doesn't mean,

We can't have a perfect love, 

Because love, is something that you need to take for yourself, 

For all the "must marry" women. 

 (Must marry or the B word, it's a play on words.)

The End

Thoughts

Ah, happy ending! By the way, how many of you guys were thinking the most unromantic question of "Holy cow! How much did a guy have to spend to hire that many performers AND an orchestra AND reserve the mall?!" during the proposal scene? 

 My obvious lack of romantic bone aside, I was fairly happy with the ending with only a minor puzzlement at the weird way Justin tried to get back together with Vivienne at the cafe. I guess it is possible that Justin was harboring some resentment of his own at Vivienne's readiness to give him up so easily but his anger disappeared when he saw how distressed Vivienne was when he followed her out. 

Marry Me or Not certainly was not as popular as Bromance was with the audience but to be fair I actually think this show had a tighter story than Bromance. From beginning to the end, there just seems to be an obvious confidence on the writer's part about where the story should go and how the characters will grow. I was pretty happy with the acting in general and was impressed with the many thought provoking dialog between the characters. 

The show was incredibly skilled in making me as the audience crave that "one and only, yet ordinary" love but also presents some realistic self doubt that almost everyone harbors in some corner of their heart. Overall, a great show and definitely one I will miss! 

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