Before I start with my theories, here are the characters:

Heroine: Yoon TaeYi (TY) alias Park Sun Young
Her Significant Other: Yoo Min Hyuk (MH)
Her son: Park Jin Gyum (JG)
Alice: the name of the corporation that offers a time travel “tourism.” The employees of Alice, like MH, acted as “tour guides.” They escorted their clients to a specific moment in the past of their clients’ choice, and brought them back safely to the year 2050. According to MH, the goal of the company Alice was “to heal wounds from the past.” But the company had a flawed system of screening time travelers and was accepting unsavory clients who were creating problems in the past that would eventually affect the future.

Note: All company cars had the same license number: 124LA 5025. I don’t know if it’s significant but I’m keeping a note of it.

Now, without further ado, here are my theories:

1. The “Book of Prophesy”

Year 2050. Taeyi and MH, two operatives of Alice, traveled back to 1992. In a voiceover, Taeyi stated their mission.

We’re time travelers.

In 2050, our Alice finally succeeded in traveling through time. People became overjoyed at the thought that we can meet our dead loved ones soon, and that the thought that we could live a new life by going back in time.

And so, time became fluid, and so did the world, and people’s lives became that much richer. That is, until the book was discovered. The rumors say that the book contains a tragic ending to the time traveling that had just started. People called the book, “The Book of Prophecy.” I must find the book in order to keep time traveling going. And that is why I arrived in 1992 today.

To find the book.

A brief comment on the cinematography:

Taeyi and MH were shown crossing the dam. To me, this was to establish a comparison. Alice, or the ability to time travel, is an astonishing feat of technology that rivals the construction of a hydroelectric dam. In the same way that the dam engineers were able to control water, and harness its power to generate electricity, the Alice scientists learned to control the flow of time in the hopes of uniting people with their dead loved ones. The enormity and far-reaching consequences of both the dam project and the Alice project are being compared in this shot.

Additionally, the aerial shot was a good way to show how tiny Taeyi and MH are in relation to their mission. This aerial perspective conveys the insignificance of their personal problems and the enormous challenge they face should they attempt to stop time traveling. It’s like blowing up the whole dam.

After Taeyi mentioned finding the “Book of Prophesy,” two books were presented in the next scene.

One book was the children’s book, “Alice in Wonderland,” resting beside a sleeping child, and the other book was the “Book of Prophesy,” being read by her father, Dr. Jang DongShik. Both of them were unaware that a man dressed in military outfit had come to take away the book.

Awakened by the thunderstorm, the child grabbed her book “Alice” and rushed downstairs to her father in tears. As her father comforted her, he spotted the shadow of the assassin creeping outside the room. Quickly thinking, he told her daughter they’d play hide and seek.

Taking her book from her, he laid it beside his. He ripped the last page(s) of his book and gave it to his daughter, making her promise never to lose it. Then he hid her under his desk.

Assassin: Dr. Jang Dong Shik. I’m here for the book.
Jang: So it begins. Did you come from 2050?
Assassin: (smiled, then wagged his finger at him. he pulled out a long knife) Shut up and hand over the book.
Jang: (took out an antique pistol, lol) You can’t handle it. Drop the knife.
Assassin: (killed him)

The assassin then called up his patron to report that he found the book and would bring it right over. He gave his word not to read the book. But he flipped through it and saw that it was missing page(s).

He was about to discover the little girl’s hiding place under the desk when Taeyi and MH appeared. Taeyi pointed a futuristic gun to his head and Taeyi demanded the book. When he asked who sent her, MH answered, “I’m Yoo MinHyuk from Alice. We’ll take the book.” The assassin said, “Just what is this book, that you’re all obsessed with it?”

Three comments here:

First, although Dr Jang was expecting people from 2050 to come for the book, I doubt that he’d been to 2050. For one, he couldn’t tell whether the assassin was from 2050 or not, based on the clothes. For another, he didn’t possess a futuristic weapon with him. His pistol looked like it came from the 19th century. lol. He would’ve been totally outgunned by Taeyi’s weapon.

Second, Alice was NOT the only company with the capability of time travel. Unlike Taeyi and MH, the assassin didn’t arrive in 1992 by using Alice. He was an assassin for hire, a mercenary so he couldn’t be one of the tourists sponsored by Alice. Also, his weapon of choice – a knife – looked antiquated, too, and he looked pretty surprised with the ankle bracelet that MH put on him.

I think we should be open to the idea that there are at least two groups of people who are after the “Book of Prophecy.” JG is up against the “tour guides” of Alice as well as another group which is still unidentified.

Third, Dr Jang truly believed that the book contained dire predictions and that the book was worthy dying for. For now, we don’t know who wrote the book. But we hear JG and Taeyi/SunYoung alternately reading the words as they were typed on a vintage typewriter. In Episode 2, such a vintage typewriter could be seen in JG’s old room at his mentor’s house, Det. Go.

To continue with the story —

After they dealt with the assassin, Taeyi handed the book over to MH. He noticed the other book, “Alice” on the table and went to search for another individual in the house. Taeyi remained downstairs, and that’s why she was nearby when the assassin went after Jang’s daughter. Taeyi rescued the child but the child was in hysterics by then. The poor child kept the missing page hidden in her fist.

MH: The police are coming. Let’s go.
Taeyi: She’s in shock. We can’t just leave her.
MH: But we can’t take her. The police here will take good care of her.
Taeyi: Fine. I get it. But at least until they arrive.

She lurked in the shadow till the police came.

Four comments here:

First, about this camera shot. She was staring at the side mirror as they drove off.

I thought this shot was meaning. They completed their mission, but they also left a tragic scene.  Looking at her reflection suggested that part of her was having afterthoughts — or regrets – leaving that young child to deal with the death of her father.

Also, the fact that she was looking at HERSELF in the mirror could also be interpreted as a foreshadowing. She didn’t know it yet but she could have been comforting the child who would later grow up to be the primary driving force behind the Alice project and time travel.

After all, the child heard her father talking about 2050 and saw her father killed by someone from the future. The child was the daughter of a preeminent scientist (I’m presuming the title “doctor” wasn’t referring to a medical degree). As an adult, she could have named the time travel project after her favorite children’s book in memory of the night her father was murdered. 

Second, MH’s and Taeyi’s different personalities were revealed in this scene. MH was logical and goal-driven. His top-most priority was Alice. Unlike Taeyi, he wasn’t moved by pity to tend to the child. Taeyi also resented that he wasn’t concerned that she hadn’t been eating and had been vomiting the whole day.

In her goodbye letter to him, she said that she chose her baby, while he chose Alice.

I find his character noteworthy because his son JG also possessed this cold logic and lacked the “compassionate gene.” But his condition was attributed to biology (i.e., small size of his left prefrontal cortex) and the effect of exposure to radiation (i.e., intrauterine).

Third – and this is important.

Contrary to other recappers’ description, this tattoo on the assassin’s neck wasn’t the letter “M.” It’s the Greek letter sigma. In math, it means the sum of numbers.

The interesting part here is that Taeyi herself had a similar mark. Don’t miss it. 🙂 Hers was the Greek letter omega. JG noticed it on her nape when she donned her scarf.

The Omega is the final letter in the Greek alphabet, and it signifies the end or the last. If Taeyi is the Omega then she’s the end of something. I thought it was prophetic when she said to JG, “It’s my fault.”

On one level, she was blaming herself for JG’s birth and his emotional disability. But on another level, it’s her “fault” because the existence of JG could be the fulfillment of the prophesy and the reason the time travel program would come to a halt. It was all her fault because it was her own choice to give birth to him.

MH didn’t have any. I SCANNED his body in the shower and in the room. hahaha.

He didn’t have a no-nudity clause.

To me, the tattoo on Taeyi’s nape linked her to the assassin. Although their tattoos are just circumstantial for now, I’m not ruling out the possibility that Taeyi aka Park SunYoung aka Omega might not be totally on board with the Alice project.

For one, she wanted to break the rules and read the book. MH had already snatched the book from her and reminded her of the rule not to check its contents.

But she still went ahead and read the book when MH was out of sight.

For another, when she ran away, she brought the book with her instead of leaving it behind. She probably realized that the “Book of Prophecy” was about her and instead of leaving the book for the Alice people to deal with, brought it with her for her own safety and JG’s.

Fourth.

Considering how damaging the book could be to the Alice enterprise, I find it odd that the company and MH didn’t do a more extensive search for Taeyi whereabouts after she ran away with the book, or send the drones to look for her. Oh well. I’m assuming that we have MH to thank for. In episode 2, he expressed that he had no desire to see her again. In this case then, his concern for Alice was superseded by his feelings for Taeyi. He felt hurt and betrayed so he didn’t want to chase after her even though she brought the book with her.

MH: …There are people who gave up a lot for Alice.
Boss: Are you talking about yourself? Did you give up Taeyi for Alice?
MH: Let’s not talk about that.
Boss: If it’s not that, why don’t you go and look for her?
MH: Didn’t you hear from Manager Oh?
Boss: I know that she’s married and living well.

Manager Oh is a shady character. He lied about Taeyi. Could he be the man who was tailing Taeyi on the night she was killed,

and who was standing outside her gate after she died. That was in 2010, when JG was only 18.

MH: Then?
Boss: You two separated in 1992, and that’s 29 years ago for TaeYi. But for you, it’s only a matter of one year ago. And you and Taeyi’s child…
MH: One year is a long time. (walked out)

lol. I’m getting “The King: Eternal Monarch” withdrawal symptoms here. I’m not doing the calculation again.

2. The drones: two operators

I think the drones were being operated by two different groups. One set of drones was obviously controlled by Alice, like the drone that tracked JG’s car as he chased MH and the hammer client (he killed his brother with a hammer).

But there was another drone that seemed to be leading JG to discover the operation of Alice.

It was the drone that was hovering on the night that his mother was killed. He saw it while he was searching for his mom. Then it zoomed past him as if wanting him to follow it back to his house where his mom was dying.

The drone wanted to be seen.

And it scanned him.

This was the drone that was hovering outside the apartment of the abducted child. Again, he saw it in the air, and it scanned him. It seemed to me that the drone was waiting for him to appear so it could lead him to the fountain where he met Fountain Taeyi for the first time.

I doubt that these drones were operated by Alice (unless there were done by rogue colleagues of MH) because:

a) MH had no idea these were going on. If he knew, then he would have known that Taeyi was killed back in 2010, and a new Taeyi had reappeared in 2020.

b) when JG took a picture of it, it didn’t show up on his camera…UNLIKE the other drones that were reported to have been spotted around the city. Photos had been uploaded of those other drones, but JG couldn’t take a picture of this one.

See that?  🙂

So, as I said, there might be two groups working behind the scene. One was protective of Alice and wanted its success, and the other one could be anti-Alice or the resistance group that wanted Alice terminated.

3. Two Taeyis?!!!

I don’t think they’re the same individual. The Taeyi JG met at the fountain wasn’t the Taeyi he met in the classroom.

This is MY theory so you’re free to make your own.

The woman in the classroom could be Dr. Jang’s daughter who was all grown-up now. If she was about 8 years old (Korean age) in 1992, she’d be 36 years old in 2020, and 66 years old in 2050. That’s why I said earlier that the young child could be one of the architects of the Alice time travel program.

BUT note this: Jang’s daughter could NOT be the 2050’s Taeyi who travelled back in time with MH. She would be too old to be THAT Taeyi. Plus, at 66 years old, there was no way she could bear a child.

Now, why do I say that the Fountain Taeyi and the Classroom Taeyi are different? Three reasons.

First, their clothes were different. (lol. I always pay attention to clothes.)

The Fountain Taeyi was wearing all black with white cuffs. She wore a belt. Her heels were serviceable black pumps. Her long hair was behind her back. She wore big hoop earrings. She looked like an Alice representative trying to blend in with the crowd.

In contrast, the Classroom Taeyi was wearing a colorful argyle sweater on top of a pink blouse that wasn’t tucked in. Her black pants were accessorized with buttons on the side. Her heels were stylish. Her hair was hanging down her shoulders. She was wearing clip earrings. She looked colorful.

Second, their first encounters were different.

The Fountain Taeyi wasn’t shocked to see the drone hovering. Neither was she shocked when time suddenly froze right before JG was about to be hit by the truck. Surely, they were both aware of the supernatural event. I suspect that she had a hand in stopping time because, apart from JG, she was the only other individual who wasn’t immobilized. She took a couple of steps towards JG, then she stopped.

Then, when time unfroze, everybody rushed to JG to see if he was hurt. The Fountain Taeyi stood her ground. She seemed to heed her own warning to JG before she died.

JG: Mom! Mom, what happened you did this? Get up quickly. Mom, just wait a little bit. I’ll call 911.
Taeyi (as SunYoung the mom): (turning off the phone) That person…left. My son, you’ll be okay.
JG: What you mean I’ll be okay?
Taeyi: Jin Gyeom. My son. It’s all my fault. You need to know
JG: Stop talking, Mom.
Taeyi: If you see me.
JG: Stop talking!
Taeyi: Listen carefully. If you see me some time again, you mustn’t act like you recognize me. You must avoid me at all cost.

JG: What are you talking about? Why should I avoid you?
Taeyi: My son. When did you grow up so much? Thank you for being born as my son. In your next life, be born as my son again. Okay?
JG: I don’t want to, Mom. You have to give birth to someone better than me. Have a son that worries about you when you’re ill and can console you when you’re sad. Then, even if you’re not my mom, I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you no matter what.
Taeyi: (dies)

There was something about Fountain Taeyi that gave him pause. Perhaps it was her stillness or her serious face. Whatever it was, it made JG remember his mom’s warning to pretend not to recognize her.

Then, when a teardrop fell on the group and ended the frozen time, he was hit by the truck. Fountain Taeyi still kept her distance. Although she must have been concerned (or at least curious) about his injuries, she didn’t approach him. The fact that she deliberately maintained her distance indicated to me that she knew him and was adhering to her own rule not to acknowledge each other.

In contrast to Fountain Taeyi’s unshakeable calm and the paranormal nature of their first encounter, JG’s first meeting with Classroom Taeyi was more ordinary. She was insulting her students, “Ya! You don’t understand this? How can you be majoring in Physics when you don’t even get this? Are you all idiots?” Then, she threw her pen to the floor in a display of temper.

This time, he had a different memory of his mom flashing in his mind. This is significant because it meant that unconsciously, he could recognize the difference between the two Taeyis, although he didn’t understand it.

With this Classroom Taeyi, he remembered his mom silently and tearfully rubbing off the graffiti from their wall.

This flashback made clear how arrogant Classroom Taeyi compared to his mom, SunYoung. As SunYoung, Taeyi bore the burden of raising him, alone in a strange world, with equanimity. To blend in with strangers, she became subdued and meek, almost like a martyr for her son.

If SunYoung had been teaching this physics class, she would have been patient with the students who couldn’t grasp the physics problem, in the same way, she had been patient with the hysterical daughter of Dr. Jang, and her own son JG who couldn’t console her when she was sick.

Unlike SunYoung, this Classroom Taeyi was testy and demanding. When JG entered her classroom unannounced, she yelled, “What is it?” As he walked down to the front of the class, she demanded again, “I said, who are you?” Then when he was standing in front of her, she asked one last time, “What is it?” She didn’t back down. And she behaved like a normal person would have behaved anytime a stranger approached her – she’d asked who he was.

One thing for sure, had this Classroom Taeyi been at the fountain when JG was hit by the truck, she wouldn’t have been standing still just watching JG. She would have rushed to his side, demanded the bystanders to call the ambulance, and insulted JG for getting in the way of the truck.

Third, the Classroom Taeyi is an unknown individual.

This is important. JG found her on his own. No drone led him to her.

And the Alice operatives seem to be unaware of her existence, too. When MH asked his colleagues where Jin Gyeom was, he was told, “At a college. I don’t know why he’s here though.”

They didn’t know that there was a college professor who looked like Taeyi and an expert in advanced technology/time travel/gadgets/physics. She was under their radar.

If my theory is correct that there are two Taeyis instead of one, then it’ll be interesting to figure out which one of the two Taeyi/SunYoung was warning JG not to contact, the Fountain Taeyi or the Classroom Taeyi.

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So there you have it, my first impressions and theories for this new drama. If time allows, I’ll follow this kdrama.