To me this episode showed three ways the dead regarded the people they left behind.

The first dead person is pretty obvious. The CEO ghost cherished his granddaughter, Sulli. (I don’t care what her character name is, she’s Sulli to me.) A kiddie photo of her with her grandpa was kept in a children’s book like a memento of a happy day.

She sent a current picture of herself to him with a note and he regretted not finding her a good husband before he died. He arranged a match for her with Chansung. He spoke with her on the phone to give his “message beyond the grave” in a dream. And, contrary to Manwol’s commentary on the today’s youths, she listened well to her dead grandpa’s wishes. He hovered near her to witness their encounter. Even in death, he cared for her happiness and well-being.

The second one is Manwol. Though she isn’t strictly dead, she’s an “un”dead, a living person who should have been dead. She treasures Yeonwoo just as much as the CEO ghost cherished Sulli, but the way they regard these people they left behind is like night and day.

Take for example, the photograph. She doesn’t need a photograph as a sweet keepsake of a happy day, like the CEO ghost, because, each single day, she carries the curse of that fateful day with her.

Then, their reaction at the sight of their loved one. The CEO ghost was delighted to be with his precious granddaughter. But Manwol cries at seeing her old comrade – in front of Chansung, too.

Moreover, the CEO had open channels with Sulli. Thanks to the dreamphone, he could communicate with her. Although Manwol owns the expensive phone business, she doesn’t have that luxury to phone-a-friend. She can’t say a word to Yeonwoo. Despite feeling the “most grief” over Yeonwoo’s death, as Chansung said, she can’t contact him.

CS: Do you want to go close and speak to him even if it’s just a word?
MW: I don’t want to. What would I say?

Here, Ma Go’s advice to her when she met Mira is relevant. Ma Go said to let the person “pass by” as Manwol was part of a previous life. “To you, she may be an object of an unfinished grudge. To her, you’re a piece of her previous life which she doesn’t remember.” Of course, Manwol is unaware that Yeonwoo/Police Officer has fleeting, disjointed images of the past. But Yeonwoo’s flashes of memories can be reconstructed in a new way, with a happier outcome, according to Ma Go 3. So what good will Manwol’s reappearance do him?

BTW, I said the firefly was his, not the Captain, didn’t I? Yeonwoo remembers fragments of the past because his spirit-creature continues as a glorified bug with twinkling butt. I thought it was funny that he didn’t believe in ghosts.

Ooh. The dramatic irony!

On a sidenote: Please don’t expect me to deplete my scant brain power explaining this reincarnation claptrap. Believe me. I spent my 20s dabbling in agnosticism. If reincarnation made logic to me, then I would have settled for Hinduism/ Buddhism/ shamanism/ Jainism/ Sikhism/ animism/ witchcraft. However, if you want me to explain this in a Heidegger-ish fashion, then here:

Yeonwoo has a spirit, soul, body, and mind.

His spirit continues to live in the past.
His soul recognizes Manwol, although in flashes and fragments.
His body doesn’t recognize her.
His mind refuses to believe in any phenomenon that defies logic and science.

CS: He was like family to you. That being the case, is it all right not to?
MW: It’s not all right. It’s a bit sad.

And here’s the major difference between the CEO ghost and Manwol. Not only did the CEO have the means to communicate with Sulli, he actually had something to tell her as her doting grandpa. For instance, he told her to date Chansung.

In contrast, although Yeonwoo had been like family to her, she has nothing to tell him. What she has to say is better left UNSAID.

So, it’s NOT all right for her to be unable to contact him. It’s disheartening.

Also, did you notice how she said, “It’s a bit sad?” That’s a significant change in Manwol. Whereas before she’d shriek in outrage when she was the slightest bit annoyed, she’s now minimizing a highly emotional moment. She isn’t just a “bit” sad. She feels wretched. And she downplays it. I’ll explain more in a bit…

CS: I brought you this kind of connection again.
MW: Thank you Gu Chansung.

Chansung is the connection. The nexus. He’s the missing link between Manwol and her 1000-year fate. And now that he’s here, everything’s coming together. That’s ONE significance of the book “Being and Time” in the story. His existence at this particular moment time isn’t accidental.

The third dead person is Chansung’s mother.

Now, she’s a pretty interesting character because the Hong sisters don’t come out directly that Chansung was an unwanted baby.

See here: compared with the CEO ghost and Manwol, her links to the living should have been the closest. After all, the CEO ghost had a granddaughter, Manwol has a friend whom she treated as family, but she had a son, Chansung.

It’s sad then that, of all three people, she was the one with the least to say to the person she left behind.

Okay, I’ll have to finish this later because the spirit of my Sketchers is calling me for a jog.