First a little explanation: this drama is a two-part series, consisting of 13 episodes. The first part is called Tsuma wa, Kunoichi, and the second is Tsuma wa, Kunoichi Saishusho.
This drama is set during the Edo period (1824-5), decades before Commodore Matthew Perry helped open Japan to the Western world with the Convention of Kanagawa. This historical event has some significance in the story of Tsuma wa, Kunoichi because the male lead is involved in a plot to build a ship that can sail farther than Japanese ships had sailed before, which was a huge deal for a country determined to remain isolated from the West.
(Major spoilers for episode 10 of Trot Lovers.)
I saw it coming. Honestly I did. There was just too much cute happening. But I still had hope that maybe, just this once, all that happiness and cute wasn't just the calm before the storm, the sweetness of sugar before the bitter pill, the joy of freefall before the reality of gravity sets in.
I know that we see the same things over and over again in kdramas—I mean, I have already dedicated posts to tropes and cliches. But this is one trend that I find especially worrying. There are many, many instances of dramatic cliff-edge cliffhangers in Dramaland, and especially in sageuks, but something is definitely amiss with my beloved Lee Jun Ki.
