No doubt, love is a learned, emotional reaction. To give love, you must possess love. One cannot accept or know what he does not understand. Park Jae Eon proved that in droves. He may have fallen in love at first sight, but he didn't have the fortitude to recognize love when it stared him in the face.
I can't say I pity Nabi for how things ended as the writing was on the wall, and she knew even before she started, whatever it is, she started with Park Jae Eon, it was doomed and even more for her final choice. Everything notwithstanding for Nabi to still have lingering feelings, I appreciated that. Liking someone isn't something one can turn on and off as they please. I've been there, so I know how she felt. And it's these bit nuisances that make Netherless so relatable yet noncommitted at the same time.
I loved Do Hyuk, and I believed he was a great friend and could have been a great boyfriend to Nabi, but at the same time, I thought he deserved to be with someone willing to give him their all without the lingering feelings and memories of something or someone that could've been but never happened. I hated seeing him anxious around Nabi and competing with the thought of Park Jae Eon. It made me doubt she was what he needed in his life. So in that sense, I liked that Nabi didn't take his feelings for granted.
I adore Kyu Hyun, so I am happy for his happiness; even if that person was Bit Na and Ji Wan and Sol Yoon, I am over the moon for both of them to finally decide to take a risk on love matter its form. If there is anything I truly adored about this drama, it's them. So a happy ending for them was worth the wait. I guess the accident with Nabi's school project was a declaration of fate in a way that Nabi and Park Jae Eon belong together. A way to give Park Jae Eon a redeeming arc. Whatever it was, I didn't find it corrigible or cute, but then it wasn't meant for me. I suppose I hadn't realized how much I didn't appreciate Park Jae Eon despite pitying him. I felt there was too much bad blood between them that helping her with her school project would be the catalyst to forgive all.
Everyone makes mistakes in life, but that doesn't mean they have to pay for them for the rest of their lives. It doesn't mean they are bad. It means they are human. I guess that was the gist of the message that Nevertheless tried to convey in its ending. Even as I say that everyone deserves a second chance, I had hoped Nabi wouldn't give it to Park Jae Eon. Yes, people make mistakes and shouldn't be punished forever, but they need to know there are consequences to their choices, and particularly Park Jae Eon needed to learn that in that sense, I feel the drama failed me. But then one cannot help who they like despite knowing they may not make them happy.
I loved the exhibition, especially Yoon Sol and Nabi's; they were breathtakingly beautiful. The drama spent a great amount of time at the art school and around the projects and had many of its best moments there, so I greatly appreciated how it wrapped up that aspect. If I can commend Nevertheless for anything, it would be for the realistic yet compelling way it depicted young adults' life-changing love. The sense of desperate attachment. Each couple fears loss; the conflicts regarding freedom and possessiveness, honesty and deception, trust and jealousy, togetherness and separateness, satisfaction and sacrifice.
But more was how relatable the all-consuming experience was from that magical match that includes: sexual attraction, mutual enjoyment, emotional knowing, social compatibility, sensitive consideration, physical affection, friendship feeling, and romantic excitement, all combining to create a sense of caring, commitment, and completeness that make that other person the only one for you even if not the most ideal.
In a way, I think the writer kept the ending as realistic as possible; it made sense that Nabi would end up with Park Jae Eon despite everything or maybe because of it and that she chose to be with that magical love even if it wasn't one she believed would give her the eternal happiness she wants. Because in the end, and this is the message I got from the drama is that love is risky because the person we love the most can hurt us the worst. Love that feels forever does not necessarily last forever. And we can’t always measure the other person’s love for us by our love for them. Watch the final episode here.