Ooh Interesting! I Thought That Was The Eldest Son In The Wheelchair But Im Realising Now Maybe Not,

Ooh interesting! I thought that was the eldest son in the wheelchair but I’m realising now maybe not, as he was up and standing in the office later.

Ooh so in the OG timeline the gramps/chairman didn’t die in the car crash. So it’s kind of all going down the same way in the ‘new’ timeline as in the OG one.

I hadn’t considered that we would be to see much of Do-Jun’s story continuing after the hit on Hyun-woo is complete hit I kind of want that now. How would he settle back into life again after all of this, with his future knowledge all gone?

Ok first real post here so go easy on me.

If anyone’s been watching the Kdrama Reborn Rich, I have so many thoughts and predictions that I’m sure are going to turn out to be hilariously wrong but I just had to vent *somewhere* so forgive me my crazy ramblings. plus it’ll be fun to look back later and see how shockingly wrong I was.

But also potential spoiler warning in case I’m right about anything, plus I’ll be referencing events in the show up to episode 11.

SPOILERS

—————————————————————

So.

THE WORLD/ TIME TRAVEL/THE RULES

I think the world Yoon Hyun-woo has been reborn into, where he is now Jin Do-Jun has elements of self fulfilling prophecy and timeline correction. My evidence? Yoon Hyun-woo’s mum and the story Yoon Hyun-woo reads in the chairman’s autobiography that he shared with him as Jin Do-jun.

Jin Do-Jun is working off of the knowledge that he has from the previous OG timeline, and as such he can only make decisions based upon this. As Yoon Hyun-woo he didn’t know that his mum had bought stock: either the family never found out after she died or his Dad didn’t tell him.

So though he went to great lengths in the ‘new’ timeline to remove the reason why his mother died in the OG timeline (trying to save his fathers job, trying to ensure his father still got worker protections, finally trading and bartering leverage so that his father wouldn’t be on the picket line protesting and being beaten up on television) in an effort to save her life, he didn’t take any steps to stop his mother buying that stock or to protect its value. He also wasn’t aware how bad her mental or emotional state was in the OG timeline, and so couldn’t have predicted she would take her own life once that stock failed. And so in the ‘new’ timeline he’s blind sighted by her suicide.

So his future knowledge is limited to things he knew, and he might not know all the information about something. In those grey areas Hyun-woo knew nothing about, things can happen or could have happened to affect change. Plus in some ways the timeline will try and correct itself: In both the OG and new timeline the mother died. Some events are inevitable.

Secondly, when the chairman goes missing Do-Jun thinks he knows exactly where he will be, due to a story in the chairman’s autobiography that he read in the OG timeline as Hyun-woo. However this turns out to be wrong: the chairman is luckily nearby but not where Do-jun expects him to be and not for the reasons he thinks the chairman would be there. When Do-Jun shares the reasoning/story he knew from his life as Hyun-woo the chairman laughs, and then states it’s a good sounding story and he will use that from now on.

So Do-Jun’s knowledge from the OG timeline can be compromised or incorrect. Plus the chairman’s statement, that he will use this PR worthy story/reasoning going forward, could explain why this was the version in his autobiography that Hyun-woo read in the OG timeline. Self fulfilling prophecy, plus Do-Jun might not necessarily have the right information.

My read on this? While Do-Jun can make small changes, the larger events will still happen as the timeline corrects itself. The changes he can make are dependant on what he knows, and even that can be incorrect. And he may even *cause* some events to happen.

EPISODE 10/11 AND THE ACCIDENT

We’re made to think that in the OG timeline this crash happened and the OG chairman and Do-Jun were killed. Due to the changes Hyun-woo/Do-Jun has made as 4-2 (befriending the driver) this didn’t happen in the ‘new’ timeline. Wether this is true or not in the OG timeline I’m not sure. But if so the ‘new’ timeline will work to self correct and events will play out as if they had died.

We’ve seen the chairman is loosing mental capacity, likely a combination of the stress of the crash compounding his chronic condition. I think (once it comes to light) the siblings will use this to question his decisions regarding Do-Jun and the succession, and act to remove him as chairman. It will be as if the grandfather *had* died, but likely much more messy and dramatic within the family (due in no small part to Do-Jun’s actions in the series so far to ruin them all). Within this messy transfer of power I think Do-jun will loose much of his power and influence in company: the siblings taking the opportunity to get revenge on him for his actions in episodes 2-10. So in regards to the *succession* it will be as if Do-Jim *had* died in that crash.

But wait! In the OG timeline Do-Jun died in that first ‘accident’. And we can guess this lead to much of the tension we see between 4 and 4 Alpha and the rest of the family in the OG timeline in episode one. And why 4 Alpha wanted to ‘know the truth about the accident’. Surely this will be changed in this new timeline due to Do-jun’s survival?

No.

I think the timeline will move to correct itself.

I think there will be a second attempt on Do-Jun’s life, by the same person as the first (at this time we don’t know if this is his cousin Jin Seong-jun or Seong-Jin’s father/ Do-Jun’s uncle Jin Young-Kim: all that has been confirmed is that it’s not Seong-Juns wife, Mo Hyun-min). In this second ‘accident’ Do-jun will survive but, realising that this family member won’t stop trying to kill him and not wanting to put other friends and family at risk, he’ll decide to allow the family to think he is dead, and continue to work from the shadows to take the Jin family down. Do-Jim will realise that with his grandfather/the chairman having been removed he has lost much of his protection within the company and family, and he might not survive a further attempt on his life.

Do-jun will go into hiding, I think only telling his CEO friend Mason Oh that he’s alive and working to take Soonyang down. And once the ‘new’ timeline’s Hyun-woo turns up at Soonyang, Do-jun can use this resemblance to move around the place practically unnoticed: why would you think it’s Do-jun who’s been famously dead for 15 years? Much more likely to be a minor employee wandering where he shouldn’t be.

In essence I think the ‘new’ timeline we are in will eventual become the OG timeline, with some small changes. Think Harry Potter time turner rules: small things can change, but the overall narrative remains.

This second ‘accident’ will take the place of the first from the OG timeline: in this ‘new’ timeline Do-Jun’s mother 4-alpha will be suspicious of foul play as she overheard Do-jun and his father confirming the first accident was an assassination attempt. This will lead to the family breaking ties with the Jin’s until 2022, when 4-alpha once again returns for answers, offering her shares in the company as a bribe for the one who knows the truth.

The second ‘accident’ and Do-jun’s supposed death will cause Seo Min-young ( the prosecutor) to shut herself off enough to become the cold and focused person we saw in the OG timeline, and explains why she has a target on the Soonyang company: in this ‘new’ timeline she also knows the first ‘accident’ was planned and so will believe that her boyfriend has been killed by his family.

And my final out there prediction….

THE KILLERS IDENTITY

The whole series the main background mystery has been ‘which family member killed Hyun-woo in the OG timeline?’.

I think… Do-jun killed himself/hyun-woo in the OG timeline, and will order the hit on the Hyun-woo in this ‘new’ timeline.

Firstly and mainly, he will realise the self fulfilling prophecy and cyclical aspect of this life. In order to go back and effect these changes, Hyun-woo has to die and in that way (violently betrayed) so that he is motivated to destroy Soonyang once he becomes Do-jun.

Secondly Hyun-woo has to die in the course of brining Soonyang’s corruption to light, so that afterwards Do-jun can reveal himself, come back into the light and revel in the groups destruction. Do-jun can’t reveal himself if Hyun-woo is still alive: they’re in essence twins. Questions will be asked and mainly by Hyun-woo himself as to why they are identical. But no one is going to suspect foul play if there is clearly Hyun-woo’s body, in the centre of an international corruption scandal, with a well documented life working for Soonyang, who can’t speak for himself anymore to contradict Do-Jun’s and explanations.

Plus as time passes from Hyun-woos death people will forget *exactly* what he liked like and only remember that he resembled the prodigal son who has just returned, Do-jun.

So yeah, I think Do-Jun will have to spend the next ~20yrs working from the sidelines and background to make small issues and problems for Soonyang and the Jin family, kind of like how he did before he was revealed as the main investor in Miracle. Lots of sneaky work and near misses, kind of a death by a thousand cuts plan. And he will set up/add to/make worse the things he knows the family will do between now and present day, so that they will be caught by prosecutors in 2022. And when that time comes the whole group and family will be taken down in one go.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the world, we’ll have to wait and see if it’s correct! I haven’t read the web comic the who is based on so I have no idea what’s coming down the line.

Anyone agree? Or really disagree with these thoughts?

What I’ve learned about how my brain works:

About 2 weeks ago I finalised plans with my father to help me put a new fence post in my garden. The old one had rotted at the bottom, it was leaning, he said it would be the work of an afternoon to dig out the base, secure and concrete a new one and attach it to the existing fence. Date and plans confirmed, I ordered all the supplies to be collected on the day of the build.

This little bit of ‘DIY prep’ clearly activated an area of my brain which had been dormant through the winter.

That night I decided I would also like more green in my dining room: I’d seen and saved something on Pinterest several months before, so now was clearly the perfect time to make it. I ordered plastic hedge panels, cut them to size, wove them together using spare twine, wired the whole thing with spare string lights, and used green zip ties to attach fake succulents all over. I then drilled 5 large bolt holes in my wall to hang this art, ordered enough 2x4 wood to make a frame, measured and cut to size, stained it, attached corner brackets and TaDa…. 5ftx5ft wall art where 3 days before there was nothing.

So main DIY day comes and we do the thing, the new fence post is up and it’s all secure and great. Job jobed. My father leaves.

Once again my brain wakes up and goes ‘we like this accomplished feeling, more please’.

In the 5 days since the fence post was fixed I have:

Bought 2 more bags of white gravel (my front garden has needed this for almost 5 months), Put weed killer down on the existing gravel, in a garden shop sale I’ve bought 4 more large terracotta plant pots, bought 9 new summer/autumn heathers to go in them, sourced enough wood mulch, peat moss, and ericious soil to fill them all, reorganised and styled these new pots alongside my existing plant pots filled with winter/spring heathers, and weeded the rest of my front garden; ordered gravel boards to support and provide a level base for my small area of decking, sealed them and secured them to one another; researched and chosen the rose bush I will be planting in the spring; chosen and ordered enough fence paint to cover my garden (and ordered fence paint brushes), decided on the colour of my kitchen tile paint and bought foam rollers so I can start next weekend.

What I HAVE NOT DONE in the last 5 days, or the 5 before that when I first felt this dormant DIY urge:

Called my local plumber/handyman to fix the crack in my bathroom sink, which has been there since September, and means I can’t properly use said sink and have had to have a plastic bowl placed inside so I can wash my hands and/or face.

This weekend I plan to do more DIY and probably mine-sweep my local store for cheap plants to take home and ‘rescue’. Despite my best internal efforts, I will likely not call the plumber.

I don’t know why I’m like this.

I can handle roughly 100 people dissolving in acid but I draw the line at the goldbug launch presentation

I haven’t read the book and only have vague recolections of the movie (though I remember sobbing violently at several points) but I hoped I’d love Netflix’s One Day adaption. And of course I did but one of the things I loved was so unexpected.

I love how they portrayed Sylvie.

Particularly how that relationship both ended and endured. How even at the start there were issues but the small kind you want to work on and work through. She knew her family were hard work but she was on Dex’s side and wanted him to be accepted: but still knew that her opinion was the one that mattered. Dex knew he didn’t fit it but he was trying so damn hard to, and hoped that if he kept trying it would be enough eventually. And she wasn’t this demon or harpy, even people who just met her liked her. She was a nice person.

So many times when the male lead is with another woman before they eventually get together with the female lead this ‘other woman’ is portrayed as toxic, unmanageable, cruel, snobbish, etc… or even just unpleasant to be around; someone we’re happy for the male lead to leave. Maybe it helps us to support the male leads pursuit of the female lead and not confront his poor behaviour as a romantic partner if that ‘other woman’ is unlikable and we’re happy to see her gone?

But here they made it clear: Sylvie is a kind nice woman who loves Dex, and didn’t handle the crumbling of their marriage well.

It was almost voyeuristic how we saw the breakdown of her and Dex’s marriage. It seemed so bloody real. New baby, no sleep, renovating the house, all of it building up until you’re being a bitch and you know you are, and you’re apologising after the fact for what you said but you don’t know how to talk around the fact that you still meant some of the things you said. And a partner who you know is struggling with direction and purpose, and you want them to do well, but *god* you’re the one fielding questions and having to go to bat for them every time someone asks, and as a result you never feel safe to take a break or question them yourself.

And (I don’t know how intentional this was) but Dex’s joking tone which is clearly meant to relax and reassure just came across as him not taking things seriously or being trustworthy. Sylvie lists a whole range of food options for Jasmine while she’s out for the night, clearly showing she has prepped *everything* ahead of time: she isn’t leaving Dex in charge of finding or cooking Jasmine dinner, she’s leading him by the hand to the ready made stuff and telling him now to reheat it. Kind of like he’s a child too. It really shows how capable she feels he is.

And then Dex jokes about giving Jasmine crisps. He’s clearly trying to break the tense atmosphere and joke around with his wife, but it just comes across as ‘I wasn’t listening to you, I don’t realise how much work you’ve done, you were right not to trust me to cook dinner because look what I immediately suggested, you can’t rely on me’.

In all their conversations the tone of their voices just show they’re not sure how to talk to one another anymore, that they know everything they say will be taken the wrong way and so they have no idea how to speak.

It felt like no one was particularly demonised or made into a caricature. Just two people who were different, put under stress until they broke and grew apart. And Sylvie had been responding to this state of her marriage by having an affair, so she is clearly in the wrong there and the one who causes the divorce etc, but… I don’t know; here it comes across more as a plea for help or freedom in the midst of her confusion and less a lack of care or thought for Dex and her daughter (like I remember it coming across in the movies).

Even when they have the brief mention of dramatics and anger around the divorce, afterwards she’s back in the picture as a level headed co-parent: joking around to relate to Emma, sharing co-parenting pains with HER too (‘Jasmin’s learning the violin?’ ‘Yes that’s why we’re fleeing the country’). And genuinely congratulating them in their relationship and marriage.

You don’t see many ex-wives in media who are so openly concerned about how their ex-husband is handling his second wife’s death. She’s present, caring and supportive. And keeps reaching out to him well after she could be forgiven for stepping back.

So yeah I loved all of One Day and yeah it made me cry AGAIN, but I also loved how real they made those significant relationships look. How adult and complicated and messy and ‘no one was a monster/you were both wrong in different ways/there is no right and wrong’ they played out as.

Just because she wasn’t the ‘love of his life’ doesn’t mean she was a footnote either.

Ok first real post here so go easy on me.

If anyone’s been watching the Kdrama Reborn Rich, I have so many thoughts and predictions that I’m sure are going to turn out to be hilariously wrong but I just had to vent *somewhere* so forgive me my crazy ramblings. plus it’ll be fun to look back later and see how shockingly wrong I was.

But also potential spoiler warning in case I’m right about anything, plus I’ll be referencing events in the show up to episode 11.

SPOILERS

—————————————————————

So.

THE WORLD/ TIME TRAVEL/THE RULES

I think the world Yoon Hyun-woo has been reborn into, where he is now Jin Do-Jun has elements of self fulfilling prophecy and timeline correction. My evidence? Yoon Hyun-woo’s mum and the story Yoon Hyun-woo reads in the chairman’s autobiography that he shared with him as Jin Do-jun.

Jin Do-Jun is working off of the knowledge that he has from the previous OG timeline, and as such he can only make decisions based upon this. As Yoon Hyun-woo he didn’t know that his mum had bought stock: either the family never found out after she died or his Dad didn’t tell him.

So though he went to great lengths in the ‘new’ timeline to remove the reason why his mother died in the OG timeline (trying to save his fathers job, trying to ensure his father still got worker protections, finally trading and bartering leverage so that his father wouldn’t be on the picket line protesting and being beaten up on television) in an effort to save her life, he didn’t take any steps to stop his mother buying that stock or to protect its value. He also wasn’t aware how bad her mental or emotional state was in the OG timeline, and so couldn’t have predicted she would take her own life once that stock failed. And so in the ‘new’ timeline he’s blind sighted by her suicide.

So his future knowledge is limited to things he knew, and he might not know all the information about something. In those grey areas Hyun-woo knew nothing about, things can happen or could have happened to affect change. Plus in some ways the timeline will try and correct itself: In both the OG and new timeline the mother died. Some events are inevitable.

Secondly, when the chairman goes missing Do-Jun thinks he knows exactly where he will be, due to a story in the chairman’s autobiography that he read in the OG timeline as Hyun-woo. However this turns out to be wrong: the chairman is luckily nearby but not where Do-jun expects him to be and not for the reasons he thinks the chairman would be there. When Do-Jun shares the reasoning/story he knew from his life as Hyun-woo the chairman laughs, and then states it’s a good sounding story and he will use that from now on.

So Do-Jun’s knowledge from the OG timeline can be compromised or incorrect. Plus the chairman’s statement, that he will use this PR worthy story/reasoning going forward, could explain why this was the version in his autobiography that Hyun-woo read in the OG timeline. Self fulfilling prophecy, plus Do-Jun might not necessarily have the right information.

My read on this? While Do-Jun can make small changes, the larger events will still happen as the timeline corrects itself. The changes he can make are dependant on what he knows, and even that can be incorrect. And he may even *cause* some events to happen.

EPISODE 10/11 AND THE ACCIDENT

We’re made to think that in the OG timeline this crash happened and the OG chairman and Do-Jun were killed. Due to the changes Hyun-woo/Do-Jun has made as 4-2 (befriending the driver) this didn’t happen in the ‘new’ timeline. Wether this is true or not in the OG timeline I’m not sure. But if so the ‘new’ timeline will work to self correct and events will play out as if they had died.

We’ve seen the chairman is loosing mental capacity, likely a combination of the stress of the crash compounding his chronic condition. I think (once it comes to light) the siblings will use this to question his decisions regarding Do-Jun and the succession, and act to remove him as chairman. It will be as if the grandfather *had* died, but likely much more messy and dramatic within the family (due in no small part to Do-Jun’s actions in the series so far to ruin them all). Within this messy transfer of power I think Do-jun will loose much of his power and influence in company: the siblings taking the opportunity to get revenge on him for his actions in episodes 2-10. So in regards to the *succession* it will be as if Do-Jim *had* died in that crash.

But wait! In the OG timeline Do-Jun died in that first ‘accident’. And we can guess this lead to much of the tension we see between 4 and 4 Alpha and the rest of the family in the OG timeline in episode one. And why 4 Alpha wanted to ‘know the truth about the accident’. Surely this will be changed in this new timeline due to Do-jun’s survival?

No.

I think the timeline will move to correct itself.

I think there will be a second attempt on Do-Jun’s life, by the same person as the first (at this time we don’t know if this is his cousin Jin Seong-jun or Seong-Jin’s father/ Do-Jun’s uncle Jin Young-Kim: all that has been confirmed is that it’s not Seong-Juns wife, Mo Hyun-min). In this second ‘accident’ Do-jun will survive but, realising that this family member won’t stop trying to kill him and not wanting to put other friends and family at risk, he’ll decide to allow the family to think he is dead, and continue to work from the shadows to take the Jin family down. Do-Jim will realise that with his grandfather/the chairman having been removed he has lost much of his protection within the company and family, and he might not survive a further attempt on his life.

Do-jun will go into hiding, I think only telling his CEO friend Mason Oh that he’s alive and working to take Soonyang down. And once the ‘new’ timeline’s Hyun-woo turns up at Soonyang, Do-jun can use this resemblance to move around the place practically unnoticed: why would you think it’s Do-jun who’s been famously dead for 15 years? Much more likely to be a minor employee wandering where he shouldn’t be.

In essence I think the ‘new’ timeline we are in will eventual become the OG timeline, with some small changes. Think Harry Potter time turner rules: small things can change, but the overall narrative remains.

This second ‘accident’ will take the place of the first from the OG timeline: in this ‘new’ timeline Do-Jun’s mother 4-alpha will be suspicious of foul play as she overheard Do-jun and his father confirming the first accident was an assassination attempt. This will lead to the family breaking ties with the Jin’s until 2022, when 4-alpha once again returns for answers, offering her shares in the company as a bribe for the one who knows the truth.

The second ‘accident’ and Do-jun’s supposed death will cause Seo Min-young ( the prosecutor) to shut herself off enough to become the cold and focused person we saw in the OG timeline, and explains why she has a target on the Soonyang company: in this ‘new’ timeline she also knows the first ‘accident’ was planned and so will believe that her boyfriend has been killed by his family.

And my final out there prediction….

THE KILLERS IDENTITY

The whole series the main background mystery has been ‘which family member killed Hyun-woo in the OG timeline?’.

I think… Do-jun killed himself/hyun-woo in the OG timeline, and will order the hit on the Hyun-woo in this ‘new’ timeline.

Firstly and mainly, he will realise the self fulfilling prophecy and cyclical aspect of this life. In order to go back and effect these changes, Hyun-woo has to die and in that way (violently betrayed) so that he is motivated to destroy Soonyang once he becomes Do-jun.

Secondly Hyun-woo has to die in the course of brining Soonyang’s corruption to light, so that afterwards Do-jun can reveal himself, come back into the light and revel in the groups destruction. Do-jun can’t reveal himself if Hyun-woo is still alive: they’re in essence twins. Questions will be asked and mainly by Hyun-woo himself as to why they are identical. But no one is going to suspect foul play if there is clearly Hyun-woo’s body, in the centre of an international corruption scandal, with a well documented life working for Soonyang, who can’t speak for himself anymore to contradict Do-Jun’s and explanations.

Plus as time passes from Hyun-woos death people will forget *exactly* what he liked like and only remember that he resembled the prodigal son who has just returned, Do-jun.

So yeah, I think Do-Jun will have to spend the next ~20yrs working from the sidelines and background to make small issues and problems for Soonyang and the Jin family, kind of like how he did before he was revealed as the main investor in Miracle. Lots of sneaky work and near misses, kind of a death by a thousand cuts plan. And he will set up/add to/make worse the things he knows the family will do between now and present day, so that they will be caught by prosecutors in 2022. And when that time comes the whole group and family will be taken down in one go.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the world, we’ll have to wait and see if it’s correct! I haven’t read the web comic the who is based on so I have no idea what’s coming down the line.

Anyone agree? Or really disagree with these thoughts?

As I’m fascinated by What Ifs and alternate scenarios, and I’m going over back how I felt about Dex and Sylvie, I would LOVE someone to explore an alternate version of their lives.

(I also have a soft spot for rare-pairs, or in defiance of ‘the big destined love’. Every now and again. For balance and literary roughage.)

———————-

Across Dex’s life there’s reinforced messaging that Dexter doesn’t know what he wants, that he lacks purpose and drive and care, and this frustration only adds to lots of his other struggles.

But there is one thing we’re told Dexter once cared about: at some point in his childhood Dexter *loved* photography.

His mum mentions it when they get lunch, and thought we realise later that she was dealing with lots behind the scenes then, her remembrance of this hobby and her retelling of it then are actually quite hurtful and ham fisted. She (in a loving way) disparages this hobby, implying that Dexter wasn’t very good at it, and that this obsession confused his parents who (by the sounds of it) didn’t support or nurture this love.

And that would be interesting enough, coming in the same conversation that she bemoans Dexters lack of purpose and worries that it will cause him unhappiness in his life. But Dexter’s reaction to this memory is fascinating.

Its startling to see him so uncomfortable. He seems genuinely hurt and confused by this summation of his hobby; whether this is in response to the general sense that his mum didn’t think he was very good, or specifically that it was directed at his fascination with photography we can’t know for sure. But it gives an impression that there *was* once something that Dexter loved to do, or was fascinated by, and it was disparaged by his parents who didn’t support his interest and now he is seen as generally lacking any purpose or anything he’s interested in.

However you look at it it’s an interesting juxtaposition within one conversation. (I also kind of wonder if other interests were also treated this way, and so Dexters lack of care or interest is partially a learned behaviour…but I digress)

We get a call back to this photography again much later in the series, when the camera focuses on several taped up photos of gravel on his childhood bedroom wall. Again whatever the intention of this, it does remind us as the audience of Dex’s previous hobby that was important enough to him that he still keeps mementoes of them on the wall.

And though Dexter struggles massively with purpose and direction, we see in his last years with Emma that with the right support (and probably following on from a period where he reached the right level of desperation to swallow his pride and self motivate) he can choose a direction and job that he enjoys.

So I kind of love to wonder what other way his life could have gone.

What if, for whatever reason, Dex and Sylvie don’t go to Tilly’s wedding? Whatever the reason, probably combined with Dex both wanting to see Em again but also being slightly terrified of it, they can’t make it.

So Dex and Em don’t get their emotional reconciliation scene; they still likely make up and become friends again (Sylvie is still preganant, they’re still getting married, Dex will likely still invite Em and Tilly at least) but without them having that time and privacy at Tilly’s wedding to lay out all their cards…. are they *as* close afterwards as they could have been?

Does a Dex who hasn’t fully regained that romantically-tinged friendship with Emma (they shared a quick kiss minutes after he shared he was engaged and about to be a father!) then turn to Sylvie more than he did in the series? With Emma back as a good friend but not kind of a flirty-friend does Dexter emotionally commit a bit more to Sylvie and their marriage?

As they don’t re-meet Callum at Tilly’s wedding I think it’s unlikely he’s invited to theirs, hence Dex probably doesn’t get an offer to work for him.

So a Dex who is still professionally unfulfilled, looking for job options and a change, right when everything else in his life is also changing (marriage, fatherhood)… does this Dex now have a similar level of desperation/motivation as the one who we saw in Paris? Could this Dex also find the motivation to retrain in a new field, but not as a chef (as he hasn’t worked in a cafe) but instead…. as a photographer?

There was *something* there that drew his attention and held it as a kid, something which a appealed to him and made him proud of his little foray into that world. And when people are struggling with purpose and direction, don’t they say go back to what you once liked?

A Dexter who rediscovers this childhood love, now with the focus and need of an adult to try something new: that would be interesting. Also I think Sylvie is a model (?) in the book, so if that’s the case she probably has contacts or friends to help her new husband learn the ropes. It might even help their relationship to have her able to help him work on that passion, and for him to have something he is definitively working towards: both for them and also to reassure her family.

Plus if they don’t meet Callum at Tilly’s wedding, who then doesn’t offer Dex a job, Sylvie won’t be having an affair with him. In addition being with a Dexter who is slightly more emotionally attached to Sylvie, with a new career to focus on, and who hopefully feels less impotent might mean Sylvie doesn’t feel the need to cheat at all?

Do I ultimately think they would stay together? Probably not. They do appear to have differences in personality which would mean they aren’t the best of bedfellows. Dex’s sense of humor is shown to grate when Sylvie needs reassurance, and Sylvies inability to relax comes across to Dexter to be a lack of trust or belief in his competency. I don’t think different circumstances would have magically ‘fixed’ these differences in attitude and personality.

But I do think they could have ended better, and had a nicer and more interesting middle-period, before they went their separate ways.

But a Dexter who got to explore that tiny bit of passion and interest we’re told he once had? That would have been a fun version of him to get to see. And the poetic irony of Dexter finding purpose in the field his mother once disparaged, who found that interest and passion she worried he lacked in something she dismissed and mocked, would have been so narratively satisfying and well tied off!