Queen of Tears – Revised Ending and the Death of Hong Hae-in in 2034

Despite the fact that “Queen of Tears”concluded on April 28th and achieved the highest rating of 24.9% in tvN’s history, there has been a flood of theories from viewers who were dissatisfied with the ending.

In the previous episode, Baek Hyun-woo (played by Kim Soo-hyun) and Hong Hae-in (played by Kim Ji-won) made a vow to stay by each other’s side through any hardships and live the rest of their lives together. The final scene showed the two happily walking with their daughter, followed by a scene of an elderly Baek Hyun-woo with gray hair visiting Hong Hae-in’s grave. In the end, Baek Hyun-woo and Hong Hae-in were reunited in heaven, looking young and vibrant once again.

Despite the happy ending for the couple, who literally grew old together and spent their entire lives as a couple, some viewers still had regrets. Some expressed sentiments such as, “I can’t believe this is how a sweet romantic comedy ends,””I think it would have been enough to end the drama with the scene of them having a daughter,”and “Their last kiss scene was in episode 5. I was hoping to see more happy moments between Hyun-woo and Hae-in.”

In online communities, there were intense debates surrounding the topic of “Queen of Tears.”One post in particular, titled “Original sad ending of ‘Queen of Tears’,”garnered a lot of attention.

Based on the post, a potential conclusion was that Hyun-woo and their daughter joined Hae-in in Germany. This is why the production team opted to only cast a child actress and did not include an epilogue depicting the daughter’s growth.

In the final epilogue, there were only pictures of Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s daughter with their grandparents, but not with her parents. The netizen who made the post pointed out that there were also no photos of Hyun-woo and Hae-in when they were older. They speculated that there may have been two different endings filmed and the second one was chosen at the last minute, just two weeks prior.

A netizen also shared a still image of Hong Hae-in’s grave with the date “31.10.2034”written on it. They speculated that the original plan was for Hae-in to die in the drama in 2034, but the ending was later changed to 2074. It appears that the intention behind the date “2034”was to show that she had spent her remaining time happily.

After this detail was revealed, several netizens left comments stating that Park Ji-eun’s previous drama, ‘Crash Landing on You’, also had two different endings. Some even speculated that the two main characters may have gotten divorced again when they saw the pictures in the frame. Others mentioned that after learning the explanation for the first ending, they now understand why Hae-in’s grave is in Germany.

Some individuals also shared varying perspectives, including “A positive conclusion is preferable to a negative one,””I believe sticking with the original plan, the sad ending, would have more significance,”and “The drama has concluded, nothing can alter that.”