In It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, Moon Gang-tae, a caregiver, has dedicated his life to taking care of his autistic brother, Moon Sang-tae. Things become different when he meets Ko Mun-yeong, a popular children’s book author with an antisocial personality disorder. So, what happened in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’s ending? Is it a happy ending for everyone?
Warning: This article contains spoilers for It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. Read at your own risk!
Table of Contents
- It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Recap: The Truth About Ko Mun-yeong’s Mother
- It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Recap and Ending Explained: What Happened to the Show’s Main Characters?
- It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Ending Explained: What Happened to Everyone Else?
- It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Ending Explained: Why Did Sang-tae Leave?
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It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Recap: The Truth About Ko Mun-yeong’s Mother
Ko Mun-yeong’s mother, Do Hui-jae, is actually Park Haeng-ja, the head nurse of OK Psychiatric Hospital, and she’s the one responsible for the death of Choi Hee-jin, Gang-tae and Sang-tae’s mother.
Years ago, Hee-jin started working as a housekeeper at the “Cursed Castle”. One day, Hee-jin finds Mun-yeong outside and the latter tells her that maybe she should just kill a bird with a broken wing because it couldn’t fly anyway.
This concerns Hee-jin, so she tells Hui-jae about this and that there’s a hospital her son goes to. This results in Hui-jae killing her, as she thinks that Hee-jin was talking as if Mun-yeong was a lunatic.
Ko Mun-yeong’s father, Ko Dae-hwan, found out about this and was terrified. He had a brain tumor, and he did not want his daughter to become a monster like her mother when he died.
Hui-jae/Haeng-ja laughs about this, so Mr. Ko pushes her over the railing. Mr. Ko believes he killed his wife, so he hides her body in the basement. Later on, we see the body inside a suitcase, dumped in a lake.
But it turns out, Hui-jae didn’t really die, and she’s been watching them all along with a new face and name. Hui-jae/Haeng-ja ends up in prison for her crimes, and when Mun-yeong visits her, she tells her that she will erase her from her memory.
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It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Recap and Ending Explained: What Happened to the Show’s Main Characters?
After everything that happened with Do Hui-jae/Park Haeng-ja, Gang-tae and Sang-tae plant a tree for their mother at OK Psychiatric Hospital. They also put their picture with Mun-yeong to let her know that she’s family.
However, Mun-yeong thinks that she shouldn’t be with Gang-tae, so she pushes him and his brother away. Mun-yeong goes back to her old self where she doesn’t eat for days.
However, Gang-tae looks for ways to make her eat. He tries to win her back and succeeds in doing so. He goes to Mun-yeong’s mansion and professes his love for her. They end up spending the night together.
Sang-tae quits his job as a part-timer at Jae-su’s restaurant to become an illustrator. Gang-tae also quit his job at OK Psychiatric Hospital to try out new things. Mun-yeong wants to quit being a writer, but she decides to publish the book she and Sang-tae worked on.
Later on, they hold a book launch at OK Psychiatric Hospital. However, as expected, Sang-tae and Mun-yeong end up arguing over who gets to read the book.
The event ends with both of them fighting while Gang-tae tries to stop them. This amuses the audience, and it also shows that nothing ever changes. To quote Director Oh, they're the "troublemaker trio".
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It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Ending Explained: What Happened to Everyone Else?
Nam Ju-ri and Mr. Lee Sang-in do not become a couple, but the finale does hint that they might get together in the future as Mr. Lee decides not to go back to Seoul and tries to hold Ju-ri’s hand.
However, with regard to Mr. Lee’s career, things aren’t very bright for him as he loses the only copy of the manuscript of Do Hui-jae’s last book, which would have produced a lot of money.
Mr. Lee blames Seung-ja for this, but the latter finally fights back. Later on, we see that Seung-ja actually found the manuscript in a pile of trash, but she decides to keep it for at least a month as punishment for Mr. Lee always picking on her.
Jae-su, Gang-tae’s friend who’s been following him and his brother all his life, gets called “big brother” by Gang-tae. However, Gang-tae also told Jae-su that it’s time for him to do what he really wants and go where he wants to go.
In OK Psychiatric Hospital, Director Oh gives patient Pil-ong shoes as his last prescription so that he can go out and find his door.
Director Oh later finds his son Cha-yong, a caregiver at the hospital, sleeping in the storage room. He scolds his son, and the hospital staff are shocked to learn that Cha-yong is actually the son of the director.
We also get an update about the other patients in Mun-yeong and Sang-tae’s book launch. Kwon Ki-do, the patient with a manic disorder who's the son of an assemblyman, is now studying for the civil service exam.
Kang Eun-ja, the patient who thought Mun-yeong was her daughter, goes back to running her restaurant. Joo Jeong-tae and Lee Ah-reum, the patients who had a relationship, are reunited in the finale.
The supporting characters get a happy ending in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. Now, back to the main characters.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Ending Explained: Why Did Sang-tae Leave?
Things do not really stay the same between Gang-tae, Mun-yeong, and Sang-tae as the latter decides to leave the two at the end of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.
The trio receives a camping car from Director Oh. So, they go on a long trip with no destination, as this is what Gang-tae always wanted to do.
While Sang-tae enjoys their trip, he reveals that he wants to go somewhere else. He wants to work as an illustrator and make more children’s books, and another author already wants to work with him.
Mun-yeong says that she also needs Sang-tae, but Gang-tae asks his brother if he will be okay without him. Sang-tae acknowledges that “Moon Gang-tae belongs to Moon Gang-tae” (something Gang-tae screamed at his mother when he was younger).
Sang-tae emphasizes that Gang-tae doesn’t belong to him, and the latter starts crying. Sang-tae thanks his brother for everything, and Mr. Lee arrives to pick him up.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay ends with Sang-tae going separate ways with Gang-tae and Mun-yeong, as he pursues a career as an illustrator, while the two carry on their trip.
Throughout the series, we see that Sang-tae is possessive when it comes to his brother. He even gets jealous of Gang-tae and Mun-yeong’s relationship because he believes that his brother belongs to him.
Growing up, their mother always told Gang-tae that the reason he was born was so that he could take care of his brother. So, Gang-tae always believed that his only purpose in life was to look after Sang-tae.
In the finale, we see that they let each other go – not because of conflict, but in order to grow. Gang-tae can finally try new things and pursue what he wants, while Sang-tae can learn to be independent.
The series, after all, is about growing as a person, fighting your battles, healing from painful experiences, and moving on from the past. In the end, we see the main characters in a good place, and they’re off to becoming better versions of themselves.
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