My Liberation Notes Episode 16 Recap: Life Goes On, One Step At A Time

My Liberation Notes (나의 해방일지) is a Korean drama series directed by Kim Suk-yoon and stars Kim Ji-won, Lee Min-ki, Son Suk-ku and Lee El, alongside other cast members. The series has 16 episodes. My Liberation Notes Episode 16 has a runtime of 81 minutes.

Netflix describes the series as:

THREE SIBLINGS, EXHAUSTED BY THE MONOTONY OF DAY-TO-DAY ADULTHOOD, SEEK TO FIND FULFILLMENT AND FREEDOM FROM THEIR UNREMARKABLE LIVES.

– My Liberation Notes Episode 16 Recap contains spoilers –

In My Liberation Notes Episode 16, Mi-jeong sees her ex-boyfriend on the street but ignores him completely. Mi-jeong and Gu have been meeting up a lot and they talk a lot when they meet. Gu tells Mi-jeong that he drinks because when he is sober, his past haunts him. Mi-jeong also opens up and tells him that she doesn’t want her money from her Ex because then she would have no one to curse when she is angry. She curses her ex-boyfriend when nothing goes her way.

Gi-jeong has cut her hair short because she is confused and the only thing she can handle by herself is cutting her own hair. She had an awkward and humiliating moment with Tae-jun when he sighed in relief after she told him that she was not pregnant. She has been pretending that everything is okay when it is not. She meets Tae-hun during lunch and he gets surprised by her new look. They talk out the issue maturely and Tae-hun tells her that he sighed in relief because he didn’t want another kid to grow up and suffer in this cruel world.

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Chang-hee’s new business has been doing good and he makes more money than he could have ever made at his job. When he goes back to Sanpo, his friends ask him why he didn’t continue with his original business plan but he wants to keep the secret to himself. At the time of his machine’s test, Hyun-a’s boyfriend passed away and Chang-hee chose to be by his side to send him away peacefully. He finds it mystical that he has seen so many people pass away at his age.

Gu’s boss has given him permission to close down the shop of the manager who steals their money, however, Gu gives that manager a chance to get back into the business and leave his gambling habit. Gu drinks a lot and its side effects have started showing. He often hears the bells ringing in his ears. He wants to quit but he can’t and that’s when Mi-jeong tells him to welcome his past with a laugh than with fears. She tells him to face it and escape it.

My Liberation Notes Episode 16 Ending

The liberation club meets again because one of the publishers wants to publish their notes as a book. The members find it uncomfortable because they are very personal. However, this reinstates their club and they start holding club meetings again. All of them haven’t been fully liberated from what they wanted to escape but doing more can help them achieve that.

Tae-hun brings egg bread to Gi-jeong three days in a week because she likes it. Gi-jeong has realized that no matter what she has fallen in love with Tae-hun. Chang-hee accidentally enters a Funeral Director’s class instead of an exhibition and finds out his real purpose in life- beyond making money and paying a debt. He always believed that life led him to the place where he belonged and it turned out to be true this time as well.

Gu gets into a fight and beats up everyone he sees and lets out all of his suppressed anger and frustration. He finds what he does not meaningful anymore and fills up the bag with all the money that he has at home and leaves, probably to quit the job. He dresses differently than usual and tries to follow Mi-jeong’s rule of ‘Five Minutes of Happiness.’ He buys alcohol from the store but gets a sign from the universe and does what he wanted to do for so long. He throws away the alcohol and is ready to face his past, present and future being sober.

Mi-jeong has become more talkative than before and her hate for all humans has been dying down slowly. After reading her liberation diary from a year ago, she realizes that her life is divided into two parts- life before Gu and life after Gu. She feels lovable and she feels that she can do anything she wants. Though she doesn’t realize it yet, she has already liberated herself for the most part. Both Gu and Mi-jeong helped each other to liberate themselves.

My Liberation Notes Episode 16 Review

My Liberation Notes Episode 16 was the perfect end to My Liberation Notes that started off with the mundane and unsatisfying lives of three siblings from Sanpo and a runaway, anonymous man from nowhere. The series did not show fairytale romance or a miracle that makes everything better instantly. Life is a continuous path of ups and downs till the last day. There will be happy moments and sad moments and we will have to go through them to learn the ways of life.

Life never stays the same and it changes for sure. The change might not be huge but all the small changes usually lead to something big that we couldn’t get in one go. Chang-hee’s life saw a lot of changes and in the end, he got everything that he wanted but he had to go through many hardships. Restless Gi-jeong also found someone who made her calm. Gu and Mi-jeong found each other and went from pitying themselves to loving themselves.

My Liberation Notes Episode 16 is available to watch on Netflix.

Also Read: My Liberation Notes OST: 5 Songs To Comfort You On Lonely Days