Revenant: Episodes 9-10

by lovepark

Our heroes must find a way to get rid of the spirit before it destroys them and the people they cherish most. However, the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous it gets, and every step forward feels like a trap. Will our team be able to solve this mystery and stop the spirit, or will it bring them to their demise like all those before them?

 
EPISODES 9-10

Things ramp up this week as our heroes discover a pivotal secret concerning the spirit inside San-young. However, anyone who gets too close to the truth meets their untimely end, and the latest victim is Mun-chun. His death is ruled a suicide like all the others, but Hong-sae and Hae-sang know better, which makes this loss even harder for them to accept.

Still harboring doubts about San-young, Hong-sae tails her in hopes of finding more clues, and comes face-to-face with the spirit again. He has a longer interaction with her this time around, and without any preconceived notions about the spirit, he notices something the others missed: it does not act like a young child. Though Hae-sang dismisses his theory at first, his own research leads him to a middle school yearbook, and suddenly, things start to fall into place.

Meanwhile, San-young also comes to the same conclusion as she realizes that the timeline of Mok-dan’s disappearance does not align with the spirit’s memory. The only logical explanation is that someone else turned into the ghost… which means Hae-sang’s grandmother is hiding more secrets.

With her vision worsening at a rapid pace, San-young joins Hae-sang’s search for the five objects, but unlike the others, she hopes to keep the spirit tied to this world. Sensing something off about her, Hae-sang begins to distrust San-young, but still allows her to tag along since he needs her powers to figure out the spirit’s name.

They arrive at an abandoned building to look for the fourth object and find it hidden in the ceiling. As soon as San-young touches it, she freezes in place, and then lurches forward, screaming for water. She runs to a nearby convenience store and breaks the fridge to guzzle down an entire jug.

As Hae-sang stops her, the spirit possessing San-young blames him and his family for starving her for seven days and killing her. He accepts her condemnation, but points out that she acted the same as them by using him for her own gain. He asks why she needs the five objects, and the spirit tells him to find the last one if he wants to know the answer.

Digging more into Junghyeon Capital, Hong-sae discovers a hospital tied to the company and hears a strange story from the director: Hae-sang’s grandmother killed Woo-jin. He passes this along to Hae-sang who then takes this information to Vice President Kim. Realizing that the person he serves killed his son, Vice President Kim breaks his vow of secrecy and tells Hae-sang everything he knows.

One night, he overheard Hae-sang’s father ask Grandmother for a way to break the curse in order to save his wife. He said that money was not worth it, so she handed him the instructions… but it was a trap. Hae-sang’s father fell ill and starved to death — the spirit physically stopping him from even taking a sip. Wow, worst mother of the year.

At the station, Hong-sae comes across another crucial piece of information — this time about San-young. He confronts her at her house, but stops his interrogation when he notices her fidgeting. Pretending to leave, he catches her stumble around the room. With no way to hide her condition, she tells him that the spirit can fix her sight, but Hong-sae reveals the reason for his visit: the spirit’s next target is her mom.

San-young freaks out after hearing the news, but Hong-sae calms her down enough to tell her that he plans to catch the spirit possessing her. He asks what she wants to do now, and she says that she needs to see Hae-sang. Once everyone is gathered, she tells the others that she wants to get rid of the spirit, too.

In order to trust her, Hae-sang asks her to share everything she knows and correctly guesses that the spirit threatened to hurt them if she said anything. Both Hae-sang and Hong-sae assure her that they are not afraid, so San-young tells them what she saw when Mun-chun died. She remembers the first character on the sheet, and Hae-sang deduces the rest from that: it was Mok-dan’s family register.

The team hits a dead end, though, since the original copy was destroyed, and they have no other leads about Mok-dan’s family besides her name. Despite these setbacks, Hae-sang discovers a silver lining and informs the others that “The Safe Day” (the one day a year when ghosts cannot appear) is soon approaching.

The night before The Safe Day, the spirit possesses San-young and finds Hae-sang’s grandmother. She tells her that he will come tomorrow to learn her name, and Grandmother asks if she plans to kill Hae-sang. The spirit wonders if she cannot, but Grandmother says that she already killed her husband and son: “Why would a grandson be any different?” We see in a flashback that Hae-sang’s grandmother joined hands with the spirit from the beginning, and in the present, she vows to keep her promise, calling the spirit Hyang-yi.

So many questions! The biggest one is about that ending and the way the show edited those scenes together. On the surface, it seems the spirit is talking with Hae-sang’s grandmother, and her paper calendar says that it is the 27th of February. However, in between, the show cuts to Hae-sang and Hong-sae looking pensive, and on Hong-sae’s phone, the date is February 28th, The Safe Day. Either Vice President Kim lent them a hand to trick Grandmother, or we’re seeing two different times spliced together for some undetermined reason.

The big reveal this week is the spirit’s true identity. While there were plenty of hints that the spirit was probably not Mok-dan (or at least not just her), I thought it was a good twist that answered a lot of questions and introduced a handful of new ones to propel the story forward for two more episodes. It explained one of the biggest mysteries lingering in the background — why did the others fail? — while also establishing the reason behind their demise. It isn’t a coincidence that San-young and Hae-sang thought it was Mok-dan because the spirit and Grandmother have been using her name and death as a cover from the start of their alliance. However, it’s still unclear what Hyang-yi wants so desperately to the point of killing people because if she was after revenge, then why not take Hae-sang’s grandmother?

From the way Hae-sang’s father acted while possessed, it seems Hyang-yi is bitter about having her life cut short, and in some ways, it reflects San-young’s desire. Unlike Hae-sang who sacrifices his well-being to pursue the spirit, San-young has always valued self-preservation above all else. The reason she wanted to get rid of the spirit in the first place was because it made her lose control of herself and endangered her life. Thus, when the spirit aligns with her wishes, San-young falters more than she ever did before. However, what makes our protagonist different from the spirit or Hae-sang’s grandmother is that she cherishes something even more than herself: her mom. Once the spirit targets her mom, San-young does not hesitate for a moment because, to her, there is no point in seeing a future where her mom does not exist.

This concept of ties is significant throughout the show, and serves not only as the protagonist’s motivation but also as a central theme separating the heroes from the villains. San-young and the others work better together and make progress by using their connections, whereas the villains work alone and see others as expendable. The spirit moves from host to host, killing them when they become useless to her, and Hae-sang’s grandmother does not value any sort of relationship — she only cares about money. It’s their lack of connections (and compassion, in general) that makes them feel ominous because it heightens their selfishness and ruthlessness.

The importance of ties is also evident through Hae-sang who, at his core, is a lonely soul who lives in a world no one else can see. Contrary to his grandmother, Hae-sang craves human connections, but he thinks no one understands him so he keeps them at a distance. However, so many people around Hae-sang care for him deeply, but the heartbreaking thing is that he never realizes this fact until they are gone. Even with Mun-chun, Hae-sang only understood how much the detective treasured their relationship after he died when he saw the socks kept safely in the closet for his next birthday. It makes sense, though, that Hae-sang struggles with opening up since he grew up in a house where his only remaining family member wanted him dead. Hopefully, once they defeat the spirit, Hae-sang can find peace and learn that he is deserving of love like everyone else in the world.

 
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