I loved this drama. I find it so sad and telling that so many people didn't. I'm sorry that it's so hard to follow for some people. Perhaps it shows the dismal literary education given in public schools nowadays...
As another person said, this tale is reminiscent of the Bronte sisters - as of course the writers throw in viewers' faces through out LOL I wonder how many of those watching EVER read Wuthering Heights?
At any rate, those pretending our heroine didn't grow weren't paying attention. She was misled from the very beginning about the characters of both these men, which led to her making the original choices she did. Her original self never questioned her perception of reality, dying without truly understanding either man.
I have to interject here that I think the 1980s version of our detective, despite what we find out in the last episode, was basically a good, decent man who would have been horrified by his reincarnated self's actions. In fact, when that prosecutor decides to redeem himself, I think it's because he did get his memories of his previous incarnation back. I had been totally in sympathy with our 1980s detective, but when he reappeared as that self-righteous prosecutor, so willing to bend the rules and manufacture evidence just because HE had decided someone was guilty? Oh, no. Hated him and even wondered if HE was the reincarnation of the supposed serial killer.
Speaking of that tortured soul of a '2nd lead' ? Well, HE had been led around by the nose by that father of his! I'd been convinced that he'd hallucinated his father, at first - that he'd killed his abusive father & then developed 2 personalities. I kept that idea for at least a third of the drama because the writers did a very good job of leading us down that rabbit hole! Another red herring - at first it seemed as if our heroine had gotten the heart OF that 'murderer'.
Now, our leading lady is not as quick to judge as her previous self. She does think about things more thoroughly, without accepting everything at face value. She lets herself get drawn in by our prosecutor, but she hasn't a clue about his real character in the present. With our reincarnated 'murderer', however, she does gradually find out what he's like - she's drawn to him because she feels pain & pity every time she sees him.
Those people whining about 'stalker stalker' - BOTH these guys 'stalked' this woman, you know. Also, it was out of fear for her safety, not out of some 'stalker perversion'. But some people simply fail to see nuances at all.
Bottom line, the entire drama shows how the main female lead slowly figures out the TRUE characters of both these men, and also which one cares deepest for her, and also which one SHE truly cares most for! I found this journey to be somewhat hard to follow at times, and some questions remain unanswered (our detective from the 1980s didn't die from being knifed - those guys in black suits came & dragged him off somewhere, & bashed his head in with a rock - this NEVER gets addressed properly). Also the whole 'switching of the artificial insemination donor' is just brushed off a bit too easily.
However, I did indeed like the ending - found it satisfying. Our reincarnated heroine put her past behind her, knowing that she'd not been fully informed in that life, and faced the future with the man who truly loved her enough to die for her (while giving her to his rival). That's just soul-fulfilling.