Delivery Man: Episodes 3-4
by quirkycase
Our taxi driver and ghost sidekick try to get their business up and running, although they run into a few challenges. But they also learn some key information about our amnesiac ghost and her unique situation that lead them one step closer toward figuring out who she is and why she’s still here.
EPISODES 3-4
We open the week by tying up some loose ends from Byung-cheol’s situation, namely his fake mom and her partner in con. They show up and violently demand Byung-cheol’s wife hand over the bank accounts that his real mom left. Byung-cheol somehow becomes momentarily corporeal enough to break the lock on the door so that Young-min can hold the couple off until the police arrive. Afterward, Byung-cheol conveys his final words to his wife through Young-min and passes on to the other side.
I have some serious questions about what ghosts can and can’t do in this universe. Ji-hyun can teleport short distances, but Byung-cheol can’t. Somehow the ghosts can sit on seats, yet they can’t touch anything. Except when they become corporeal enough to smash locks. Or the times where Young-min is able to touch Ji-hyun. With that level of consistency, I’m just going to leave logic at the door and go along for the ride.
After successfully helping Byung-cheol, Young-min starts coming around to the idea of a ghost taxi for resolving unfinished business. It might not be lucrative, but it is rewarding. Young-min’s newfound connection to the ghostly realm also makes him hope that he’ll eventually get to see his mom.
Speaking of his mom, we dive further into the murder mysteries this week and learn that Ji-hyun and Young-min’s mother were indeed connected. They find initials on the back of the hair tie around Ji-hyun’s wrist, proving it was his mother’s. Then, they discover a picture on his mom’s phone of Ji-hyun in her taxi. Young-min doesn’t find that so odd – his mom was friendly and loved getting to know her customers.
There’s plenty about her case that is suspicious, however, which leads the cops to re-question Young-min about the accident (on his mom’s birthday, no less). We see that he was talking to his mom on the phone when it happened. She said something about needing to go to the hospital and then he heard a crash.
After the interrogation, which greatly upsets Young-min, he and Ji-hyun go visit his mom in the columbarium. Oddly, there’s some guy skulking around taking photos of them. Well, probably just of Young-min since Ji-hyun’s a ghost and all.
The cops are also investigating Ji-hyun’s case, noticing the links to Young-min’s mom. Somehow, they only just discover CCTV evidence that shows a motorcycle-riding man shoving Ji-hyun into Young-min’s mom’s abandoned taxi (right after her accident) and driving off. They also discover a notebook belonging to Ji-hyun where she mentions a private investigator who gets orders from some dude on a motorcycle to take photos of bereaved family members. (It looks like the same PI who was taking photos of Young-min.) Oh, and it turns out Ji-hyun’s father is a police chief doing his own secret investigation of his daughter’s death.
Meanwhile, Young-min gets a shaman passenger who can see ghosts (and might be possessed by one?) and wants to force Ji-hyun out of the human realm, but Young-min stops him. They do get some info out of the shaman, though, and discover it’s not the taxi that’s tethering Ji-hyun – it’s that phone Young-min found in his cab.
And that’s how we get the unlikely but not unexpected scenario where ghost Ji-hyun somehow manages to fall into/through/on (not sure of the logistics here) Young-min’s lips when she’s whooshed to the phone in his hand. So, of course, they get super awkward and aware of each other, suggesting some pending ghost-human romance.
Anyway, now that they know the phone is the tether, Ji-hyun can move around freely so long as Young-min keeps the phone on him. The caveat is that the phone needs to be on and, therefore, charged. When it dies, as uncharged phones are wont to do, she’s thrown into some dark borderland/ purgatory where she’s stuck alone on a rock.
This presents Young-min with a dilemma. With her gone, he can actually pick up customers and make the money he desperately needs, but he’s uneasy abandoning her into the unknown. His grandmother Boon-ja ends up making the decision for him when she unwittingly tosses the old phone away. Even with the phone gone, Young-min can’t stop thinking about Ji-hyun.
Then, his colleague EUN-SOO’s mom with Alzheimer’s goes missing, so he and another friend help search the city for her. Eun-soo is beside herself, talking about how her mom is like a ghost no one else can see – only Eun-soo knows who she is. That hits a little too close to home for Young-min, so after they find the missing mother at the police station, he decides to bring Ji-hyun back.
He retrieves the phone and searches far and wide for a charger to fit the old phone model. As soon as he charges the phone, Ji-hyun is pulled back from purgatory into the human realm. Ji-hyun is super grateful and touched that he even overpaid for the charger to get her back.
They resume their ghost service, and while Young-min has lost all fear of spirits at this point, Ji-hyun still gets freaked out by creepy looking ghosts. However, when one such customer tries to leave without paying, Ji-hyun can’t stay still. Doesn’t she know their taxi driver is destitute?! In lieu of payment, the woman offers info about a ghost “hotspot.”
Sure enough, they find tons of ghosts willing to pay for Young-min’s services. And that’s how they meet a ghost who went to school with Ji-hyun. She’s thrilled to meet someone who knows her name, age, and even that she used to compete in kendo. The ghost classmate is just as thrilled to meet her since she’s his first love.
He tells Young-min his unresolved business is to complete his bucket list items, like watching a movie and fine dining, with his first love. Despite being paid handsomely, Young-min is put out by this request and pulls some petty moves, but he ultimately goes along with it. This would be fine, except no one tells Ji-hyun about this arrangement! She’s smart enough to catch onto what’s happening, but still.
When Young-min learns that the ghost plans to confess his love so he and Ji-hyun can go to the other side together, Young-min childishly gets mad at Ji-hyun. He lies that he doesn’t care if she goes with the ghost and acts like a jerk, rightfully leaving Ji-hyun angry and hurt. She was only putting up with this date stuff so Young-min could earn the money he needs.
Now they’re both miserable, and Ji-hyun wonders if she should just leave with the nice ghost who likes her. At the last minute, on their way to the confession spot, Young-min turns the car around. We end as the full force of his feelings hit him, and he realizes he’s in the problematic position of liking a ghost.
The tone of this drama doesn’t feel tragic, but I don’t see how a romance between Young-min and Ji-hyun is going to end happily unless she’s not actually dead. I would guess she’s in a coma or something, but that’s seems unlikely since we did see her father visiting her gravestone. That said, her situation is clearly uncommon for a ghost, so there’s likely some twist that could lead to a different ending for her than for other ghosts.
On another note, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of Kyu-jin so far. He kind of pops in and out, but he’s barely interacted with Young-min and Ji-hyun at all. Although he comes off as a dedicated doctor, something feels off with him. Maybe he’s just hiding something – he has been the only taxi passenger seemingly unaffected by Ji-hyun besides the shaman – or maybe he’s an evil murderer. Only time will tell.
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1 Bunny S.
March 11, 2023 at 6:39 PM
I think the doctor left the boy to die knowingly. He got out of the
room and not even a minute later the nurse came asking for help. He is suspicious. No not another typical villain story.
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Unaspirated
March 13, 2023 at 5:20 AM
Did they have a shot of a syringe in there somewhere? Did I imagine this? I left that scene thinking that he injected the kid with something that made him code and then insisted on being the one to try to resuscitate him. So that he could have control over his life and death, power-trip-style? So that he could be a hero but then it went wrong? I have no idea. Still honestly think he could be a red herring and the show is going to pull a fast one.
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Moriaelini
May 31, 2023 at 8:52 PM
Is everyone watching same show I am? The doctor is not the one who looks suspicious to me, the male nurse or orderly does. He is definitely up to something.
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2 miso
March 11, 2023 at 9:20 PM
There's a lot that doesn't make sense. Hasn't the girl been 'dead' for 3 months now? But the phone didn't run out of battery until just the right (wrong) moment! The CCTV thing was also ridiculous. How do you not check those in the case of a hit-and-run??
The leads, however, have a cute vibe that makes me want to stick with the show. The drama with the 2 doctors is odd but I guess we'll get to which one is the actual bad guy soon.
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Bunny S.
March 11, 2023 at 10:49 PM
We need to throw the logic aside to stick with the show. But that is not a problem as long as it is good.
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Unaspirated
March 13, 2023 at 5:21 AM
I don't think the phone was on before. Young-min found it in the first episode and turned it on, right? And that's when she appeared for the first time. Not sure where her spirit was before that though...
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miso
March 13, 2023 at 5:06 PM
Actually even switched-off phones lose charge, esp. old ones and this one has been on for days too. But I'm trying not to think too hard about stuff like that or the DNA tests that get done within a few hours lol.
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3 Blue (@mayhemf)
March 12, 2023 at 7:51 AM
This show has lost me.
The ghost world is too fluid. I don’t know what’s the deal. Apparently ghost can sit on laps and kiss but not do other things. Also I find it weird that he caught feelings this early on.
I was hoping the show would be more funny.
The leads are really sweet but that isn’t enough for me. This story would have worked for me if we didn’t get all these other ghosts and their stories which make me feel disconnected from the actual story. I also don’t understand why the detectives are checking a dead woman’s car only now! Didn’t the case close awhile back?
Anyway. It’s a drop for me. Will follow the weecaps!
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hacja
March 12, 2023 at 12:07 PM
You know, I agree with everything you say. But I think its interesting how of the three fantasy ones playing now, Kkodu, Heavenly Idol, and this one, I think I will stick with this one. All have similar writing problems, all should have been funny and are not, and all feel the need to introduce multiple themes/plot complications as if the original fantasy premise wasn't outlandish enough. Better writers could have made all of these campy fluffy fun, but in every case, they failed.
Still, I think the reason I won't be joining you in dropping this one, YET, is that I like the male character in this one-- a struggling taxi driver--the best, even if the actor isn't quite as good as the male leads in the other shows. Also, loving a person who dies and becomes a ghost--how often has that been been done in some sort of "unable to let go of grief and move on trope," and I've always disliked it. So this one where the ML falls in love with a ghost who he didn't know as a person is really kind of an amusing twist to me, especially since she was in her life, slightly older and obviously better educated. So I'm curious to see if, as a ghost, she actually reciprocates his feelings, but if she doesn't in the end--when she goes to the "other side" (What other side? The geography of this after world is very unclear to me!) I'm not going to be lamenting the "bittersweet" ending!
Of course, I'm talking as if I'm going to stick with this one now--probably in several episodes I'll be writing "why didn't I listen to @mayhemf and not waste more time watching this dud!"
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4 Slice-of-Life Dramatics
March 12, 2023 at 5:27 PM
I'm throwing all logic out of the window and just going along for the (taxi) ride. But the ML's acting really bothers me, it's awkward and he tries too hard to make all those exaggerated expressions as though it's acting.
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5 Unaspirated
March 13, 2023 at 5:32 AM
I'm still having fun with this, but not thinking about most of it too hard.
Except the phone needing to be charged. I've thought about that way too much. I can't decide if I eventually want an explanation for dead phone purgatory (weirdly accurate representation of how it feels sometimes when your real life phone dies hahaha) or if I just want them to gloss over it completely.
I'm also in camp "I don't think she's actually dead" after that conversation with her dad in which we find out he didn't have an autopsy performed. He could have been visiting someone else's ashes in that early scene (or I'm forgetting something important. also very possible).
If I was Young-min, I would have pulled all the same stuff with the "dates". He gets to keep the remaining money, so why wouldn't he try to do it all on a shoestring budget? Pushy ghost #3 had unrealistic expectations anyway, it's not like they can actually eat. I wish Young-min had had a little more faith in Ji-hyun though - she gave him pretty clear signals that she was going along with it for the sake of the business and I don't think he needed to get so mad. Hopefully he gets past this stage quickly.
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Moriaelini
May 31, 2023 at 8:57 PM
I think she is in a coma, they showed someone visiting a woman in the hospital that looked like her in an earlier episode. I think her father wanted it to look like maybe she died for some reason. It sounds crazy, but this is kdramaland too.
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