Revenant: Episodes 7-8

by lovepark

Our heroes find themselves on diverging paths, and as the past comes to light, it drives a wedge between them. Unable to trust or confide in each other, they face the spirit on their own, but the weight of their forebears’ sins proves too much to carry. As they wrestle with their own demons and doubts, our heroes must make a choice before the darkness in their hearts consumes them.

 
EPISODES 7-8

San-young and Hae-sang have split, and the division between them only grows wider as they learn more about the evil spirit and its origin. Though they follow different trails, all clues point to the same horrifying conclusion, but before we dive deeper into this secret, a bit more context.

With guidance from the evil spirit and an unlikely partnership with Hong-sae, San-young digs deeper into the student hungry ghost Kim Woo-jin. This leads her to Hae-sang’s family and their conglomerate Junghyeon Capital, nicknamed samdocheon (the river between our world and the next). As she puts the pieces together, San-young suddenly loses her vision, and the past begins overlapping with the present.

At the same time, Hae-sang learns that he had a younger sibling who died, continuing the pattern of sacrificed second-borns. With Mun-chun’s help, he investigates the shaman who created the juvenile ghost and learns from her descendant that she received a large sum of money for the heinous act… from Junghyeon Corporation. Though he struggles to accept it at first, Hae-sang confirms his fears that his family was involved and confronts his grandmother.

1958. With their company facing troubles, Hae-sang’s grandparents took drastic measures and hired a shaman to make a juvenile ghost. Accepting the condition that this evil spirit would curse them for generations, they watched as the girl died for their greed, and in the midst of this gruesome scene, Hae-sang’s grandmother smiled.

In the present, Grandmother shows no remorse for her actions and seethes at Hae-sang for his impudence. She reminds him that he lives in luxury thanks to their decision all those years ago, and if it wasn’t for his mother stopping the spirit from possessing him next, they would have been even richer. Her admission sends Hae-sang reeling from the house, and out in the storm, he stumbles across San-young.

While Hae-sang learned the truth from his grandmother, San-young experienced the same event through the spirit and followed her to this house. She screams in agony as the memory overtakes her, and when she comes face-to-face with the grandson of those villains, she burns with rage: “After horribly killing that young child to create a juvenile ghost, did you enjoy living in a nice house and shamelessly spending your money?”

Unable to deny her accusations, Hae-sang wanders aimlessly with no place to call his own and ends up on a bridge where Woo-jin joins him. The latter realizes that the secret is out, and we flashback to the night he learned something he should not have: Gang-mo sought out Grandmother for a way to make a juvenile ghost.

Hae-sang asks his dead friend if he had fun watching him play the fool and tosses away his material possessions. Sensing his emotions, spirits start gathering around him, but Hae-sang is too absorbed in his own self-loathing to notice. When his warnings fail, Woo-jin steps in to block the spirits, and Hae-sang finally comes to his senses as his friend disappears over the edge. He shouts for Woo-jin, but his friend is gone, leaving Hae-sang all alone in this world.

With a desperate urgency, Hae-sang vows to get rid of the evil spirit that his father and grandfather made, and uses his own blood to write over a jangseung. However, his attempt seems to have failed, and the nearby villagers find his unconscious body on the ground.

Returning to her grandma’s house, San-young tells the ghost that she will not live like those people, but the spirit says that she will want her, too, just like her dad. Seeking out her dad’s old ophthalmologist, San-young learns why Gang-mo was possessed, and for the first time, she feels the temptation: she inherited a rare case of optic atrophy.

Hiding her condition, San-young makes amends with her mom and friend before continuing her quest. However, her motivations are unclear this time around, since San-young admits to the spirit that she wants her and asks what she wants. While she searches for the temple that the spirit points her to, the village head calls her to come help Hae-sang.

By the time San-young arrives, Hae-sang is unresponsive, and a spirit of darkness threatens to crush him. Remembering what he once told her, San-young drives him east to keep the spirit at bay, but the darkness grows more menacing as the night deepens. All the while, Hae-sang remains trapped in his own mind and runs through the halls of the university with dead bodies surrounding him.

With the spirit of darkness gaining on them, San-young pulls the car off the main road and drags Hae-sang’s limp body down a hill. Unable to carry him on her own, she falls and almost loses her grip on his hand when, suddenly, he reaches out to her, and the sunlight hits them.

Safe from the spirit, they sit on the cliff and take this moment to share their thoughts. San-young tells Hae-sang that she knows logically that he is not to blame, but it was not until she saw the ghosts on the drive here that she realized that he may have been atoning for his family’s sins this entire time. He also admits to her that he wanted to die, but when he was trapped inside the illusion, he only thought about living. Thanks to her taking his hand, he was able to survive.

Clearing the air, the pair team up again, and with Hae-sang’s help, they easily locate the temple from the photo. This leads them to the location of another suicide and the third object Gang-mo buried. While San-young wonders why their parents failed to stop the spirit, Hae-sang thinks they should keep searching and contacts Mun-chun.

Also having reconciled, Mun-chun and Hong-sae are busy working on the case, and with their combined efforts, they find a string of similar suicides starting from Mok-dan’s death. Using his connections, Mun-chun gets ahold of an important piece of evidence, but his discovery puts him in danger. San-young feels the spirit move, and they warn Mun-chun to stay inside and not open the door for anyone but them.

Their bizarre request spooks Mun-chun, and he jumps when Hong-sae walks into the office — a false alarm. However, seconds later, they hear another knock. Mun-chun remains on edge, but then, they hear Hae-sang’s voice from the other side. Hong-sae goes to let him in, but to his bewilderment, San-young stares up at him with a smirk. “You opened the door.”

Nooooo! I can’t even blame Mun-chun for this one since Hae-sang gave him such terrible instructions, but I can’t fault Hae-sang either since he never heard the spirit impersonate anyone before. As a viewer, I know the spirit’s tricks which heightens the tension in the final scene, but sadly, none of the characters do which means I’m left screaming at them to stop while knowing that they will not. The spirit’s target is most likely Mun-chun since Hong-sae poses less of a threat, and narratively, it would be more impactful for the disbelieving officer to witness the supernatural firsthand. It would be best if neither of them died (maybe they can save each other), but I doubt the spirit will be so easily thwarted.

The big reveal this week was about Hae-sang’s grandmother, and the shock from this secret came more from the depth of her depravity than any sort of twist. The show hinted at her involvement from the moment she was introduced, but I was still taken aback by her callous attitude and unceasing greed. Her husband and son died — most likely due to the possession given their early deaths — but her only regret is that Hae-sang didn’t follow the same path to hell as them. She’s evil (and definitely the worst TV grandma I’ve seen in a while), but interestingly, she seems less dangerous than the spirit. She lives in fear, and from the way she clings to superstitions and holes herself inside her house on rainy nights, it seems she knows that the spirit may be after her.

In contrast, Hae-sang’s reaction to his family’s secret was gut-wrenching, especially because the show gradually built up to this watershed moment and pushed him off the edge with no safety net. From the beginnings of his characterization, Hae-sang was a rich grandson — his house, his car, his clothes, and even his job all proclaim his privilege. Even if being part of the one percent never made him happy, his grandmother is right; he never had to experience the struggles of poverty because of her. Thus, when he learns the family secret, he essentially loses a part of his identity, no matter how much he tries to distance himself from it. Nothing he owns is his, and even his only friend disappears to save him much like his mother. It’s no wonder that Hae-sang recklessly moves ahead to stop the spirit because he has no tether to this world besides his goal to right his family’s wrongs.

The use of the spirit of darkness to depict Hae-sang’s emptiness was frightening and fascinating. It’s unclear how much of his illusions were manifested from his guilt versus actual memories. Did he see himself when he opened the door or does he imagine himself there now after knowing what his mother did for him? I also really liked how this event led to our protagonists’ reconciliation because it gave them both a chance to gain a new perspective on life and understand each other better. San-young learned that Hae-sang has been suffering for his family’s crime his entire life and some scars aren’t outwardly visible. For Hae-sang, he saw that he isn’t alone in this world after all, and San-young, who’s practically a stranger to him, risked her life to save him because he deserves to be happy, too.

As always, the show answers one major question which leads to another. Right now, the next big conundrum is why Gang-mo and Hae-sang’s mother failed to stop the spirit if they knew how to suppress it. From Mun-chun and Hong-sae’s investigation, it seems there were never enough deaths to bury all five objects (Hae-sang’s grandfather and father have four ghost-related deaths associated with them as does Gang-mo). Does this mean the spirit switches host after a set number of murders? Also, why is the spirit guiding them to the objects if they are needed to defeat it? Everything feels like a trap, but I can’t quite grasp what makes me feel so uneasy because the biggest question still remains: what does the spirit want?

 
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