I’m opening this thread in case some of you want to discuss it here.
Kairos is a hodgepodge of a lot of things, but comedic, it is not. The hero, Kim Seo Jin, seems to be living a successful life. He has a trophy wife,
darling daughter,
— The little daughter did scare me, though, when she came out of nowhere, grabbed his hand and signaled him to be quiet. She reminded me of a Chucky doll.
as well as a personal driver, and personal secretary.
The staffer on the left, the driver on the right. Obviously, the two are guilty. Do you see those ugly-fugly bangs? In kdrama, those are telltale signs that they’re evil. Bangs are like horns in the olden days.
While having a wife and child depicts him as a lucky family man, having a personal driver and secretary depicts him as a successful corporate guy. His family isn’t something he can manage like he does his job.
He takes decisive control of anything work-related. He’s the youngest and most competent director of Youngsan, a construction company with businesses worldwide. Even when he purposely arrives late to the chairman’s meeting, the chairman hangs on to his every word. His showboating is so obvious that the other directors grumble in his earshot.
In contrast, at home, he can’t even tell where to hang up a star on his daughter’s bedroom ceiling.
His world implodes when his daughter goes missing while they’re attending a charity event for his company. He sends a mass text to everybody on his phone about his missing daughter, and one of the recipients is Han AeRi, a young lady who had texted him to return her phone to her.
That’s how they met…by phone.
Aeri lost her phone so she uses her mom’s phone to contact HER missing phone. He answers HIS phone but hangs up, thinking she misdialed. Irate, she texts him, demanding her phone be returned at once. Desperate, he texts back a flyer of his missing daughter.
When she sees the flyer, she remembers the child buying ice cream at her convenience store. She texts him so, “I’m asking you to return my cell phone. Why are you sending me a strange picture? But this child, Da Bin, I’ve seen her.”
Quickly, he calls her up to arrange to meet her, and just as quickly, she agrees to the meeting, too. She needs her phone back and he wants to know information about his daughter.
At this precise moment, they are in the same “kairos.”
Do you remember what I said about kairos?
Kairos refers to a concept of time. In Western philosophy, time can be seen either as chronos or kairos. Chronos is how we often live our lives. We measure our time “chronologically.” We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, and so on. We see time as a quantity.
Kairos on the other hand is how we should experience our lives. We live in THE MOMENT. We should “weather” the emotions of living as a human, in sad times and happy times, in loving times and in lonely time, in hopeful times and despairing times. As such, we’re not simply looking at the quantity of time, but the QUALITY of time. Kairos means being in the RIGHT MOMENT, the appropriate moment, or the best moment.
If we’re looking at time from the “chronos” perspective, then SeoJin and Aeri are talking to each other at precisely 10:33 pm. However, if we regard time from the “kairos” perspective, then SeoJin and Aeri are connecting with each other because they’re living in THE MOMENT. That moment is when a glimmer of hope enters their desperate world.
They don’t know it but they’re passing by each other as they speak. Her incoming text interrupts his suicide, thus he’s saved from death in the present. In return, he will save her from committing murder so she won’t be riding this prison bus in the future.
lol. This where the circular concept of time confuses most audience.
They both arrange to meet the next day. They show up at the restaurant as promised, and linger long past the appointed time. But neither one sees the other person waiting there. They angrily think that the other person fooled them and stood them up
Thank goodness SeoJin isn’t stupid because he figures out that they’re living in different time dimensions. Chronologically, he’s living one month ahead of her. But everyday, at 10:33 at night, they can contact each other on the phone and be fully present to each in THE MOMENT.
Once the viewers understand — or buy into — this concept of time being circular, as opposed to being linear, then they’ll see that events are going to be fluid, and that the logic of a singular cause-and-effect is gone.
For instance, in Episode 1, the police determined that the kidnapped daughter had been killed based on a bioscopy result. The bioscopy had been done on the severed finger mailed to the parents, and the test results indicated that the body was dead when the finger was severed. With the tragic news, SeoJin and wife fell into deep despair and grieving.
However, (this is a spoiler) in Episode 5, everything was upended because the child is revealed to be alive and well, in the company of his wife.
We cannot know for certain whether the child is alive because she wasn’t killed in the first place or because the SeoJin and Aeri successfully altered the past. When they changed the events, they changed not only the end results, but also the original motives and the original masterminds. It’s not anymore a kidnapping and murder. The original crisis has now mutated into an extramarital affair and a workplace conspiracy. Did SeoJin’s wife and his personal secretary really plan the kidnapping and the child’s murder all along? Or is this an alternate reality the result of SeoJin’s “correcting” the past?
If the past continues being reconstructed, I wouldn’t be surprised if SeoJin ended up being the guilty one here.
Anyway, this show is much better-conceived than that egg-beater “Alice.” The heroine doesn’t annoy me as much as that “Alice” professor, portrayed by that equally annoying Kim Hee Sun.
I don’t think there’s much need to analyze the drama since the plot can take a different turn whenever SeoJin recreates the past. For now, I can’t see the endgame because everything is shifting around like sand.
But hey! don’t let me stop you from analyzing it, if you want to. 🙂
Thanks for this @pkml3. I’m not sure I have time or energy to do more than watch this show. It’s been a great watch so far, and I keep looking forward to more intervention in the past, to see and how the ripples of change affect the present.
Same. This show is good, but it’s emotionally draining to watch. I don’t know why. Maybe because the protagonists are saving two vulnerable family members: the innocent daughter and the sickly mom.
@pkml3, I figure that the reason we get so drawn in (and emotionally drained) over an otherwise most unlikely, conspiracy-filled thriller, is that Shin Sung Rok and Lee Se Young have sold us on their desperation. I feel as desperate as them to change the present/past.
I felt it was also a great kairos moment when Ae Ri ‘prayed’ to her dead father (hey, we believe in intercessory prayer). She made a call to her own mobile phone but addressed the call to her dad. She asked him to take care of mum.
That was the moment when ‘dad’, or the supernatural, answered her prayer. He linked his daughter’s time to Seo Jin’s time through the phone which belonged to both, thus bridging the gap of time and bringing together the protagonists and victims of Yujung Construction.
In effect the dead victim was making contact with an almost killed victim, since Seo Jin, himself, was suffering trauma from the same building collapse that killed Ae Ri’s dad. Same accident, same phone, same desperation.
Going point, GB!
I knew she was calling on her phone but skipped most of it as additional melodrama I didn’t want to see. 🙂 But you’re absolutely right. From a faith perspective, somebody did listen to her and answered her prayers.
This show is great! It’s really emotionnaly draining because the rythme is pretty fast. In 5 episodes, the FL started as a killer then victim of murderer twice. No time to rest. No stupid romance (not like Alice…)
Hey @Sayaris! yes, no time to breathe *pant*. So much happens each episode and then we have to adapt to the changes in the present that the past has effected.
@pkml3… actually not only same phone, but the number she used was her father’s phone number!! So Seo Jin, Ae Ri and her dad were on the same telephone number so using it was a direct line to ‘heaven’ LOL – but only at the kairos moment.
Oh? It was her father’s phone number?
I seem to recall a scene when SeoJin (SJ) was asking his secretary about a new phone number. Did his secretary apply for a new number for him? Or am I imagining this?
lol. You see, it’s the sort of thing I would ask my secretary to fix for me before I traveled overseas. Get me a phone contact.
speaking of time,
I hope you have a great Friday the 13th!!! 🙂
@pkml3 Seo Jin asked his secretary/driver (can’t recall which guy) to get the details of the previous owner of the phone. The number was obviously not changed since she kept calling the number named “My daughter” ie what her father called her.
That’s how he knew where she lived, and so he could go to her home in his present, but always by that time, they’d missed their kairos moment, and she wasn’t there.
The day she lost her phone and ‘prayed’ also happened to be her birthday (7 August). So the stars were aligned? Her father/god? answered her birthday prayer, in a sense. I say, in a sense, because to begin with, she was the one helping Seo Jin and by end of Ep 5, something bad had happened to mum. So Seo Jin now has to get Ae Ri to prevent that from taking place.
Oh yeah … Friday the 13th LOL. It was a rather busier day today, with 2 colleagues off. It’s been fine (emotionally) and hot (climate wise) and I’m now enjoying an evening munching on cool dragon fruit and reading/answering email.
It also happens to be the eve of the Hindu Festival of Diwali – the Festival of Lights. Took the opportunity to wish my Indian colleague. It’s been a pretty good Friday, whatever the date!!
It seems that construction site accident from 19 years ago is a pivotal event. The news announcement mentioned a college student. Is that Seo Jin? The very first episode started with SJ being in an accident. I was not sure then if that was a nightmare or a memory. SJ did say that he experienced some strange event 19 years ago.
This show reminds me of “Nine: Nine Time Travels” and that is not a bad thing.
Hi @Snow Flower, I believe you’re close. The protagonists of the current timeline kidnapping likely have a connection to Yujung Construction’s disasters. The thing is that the daughter of Kim Jin Ho who died, did so in an Amusement Centre fire, I believe, and it was a more recent accident. So Yujung has a pretty ‘bad’ track record when it comes to building safety. I am guessing that there are cover ups, and Kim Seo Jin was not aware of what was going on. As the series progresses, he becomes aware of a conspiracy.
Yes, by Ep 5, we know that the student in the collapse of 19 years previously, was KSJ. I’m wondering if the other man in the washroom with him was actually Ae Ri’s dad. He was a construction worker. That could be another link between why Ae Ri and KSJ are connected now.
KSJ has been traumatised by that accident, and still takes some medication for his anxiety attacks (or whatever he suffers). In Ep 1 we began with his nightmare memory of his accident, and when the car he was in came out from the tunnel, he woke up and took a pill/medication. Probably tunnels, being enclosed, dark spaces, bring on the anxiety.
His staff know about his condition and apologised. They also probably know that they can affect him adversely by piling on the stress. I’m thinking that it could be, that he’s been deliberately gaslighted, by the kidnapping and related horrific events.
I liked Nine: Nine Times Travel very much. It was time travel with a clear purpose each time, and with repercussions that added smart twists which were consistent with the changes made in the past. I feel, like you, that this show will stand up to that standard. It’s also high praise to say that this show is like Signal in its smart use of a piece of electronic equipment, and in coherence, suspense and the satisfaction it gives, when bad outcomes are successfully avoided.
@GB, I think the restroom guy is not Ae Ri’s father. The memorial plaque listed Mr. Han as 41 years old. The guy in the restroom ( the one without a helmet) looked like he was in his 20s, plus his own father was a construction worker too.
I was not super surprised that Seo Jin’s wife and daughter were still alive. It is not clear yet if this was a result of the timeline being changed or their fake deaths were planned by Mr. Seo. Since a flashback showed that SJ’s wife met Mr. Seo before she was married, I would not be surprised if Da Bin is not SJ’s biological daughter.
I enjoyed Nine and Signal a lot. Tunnel is very good too. If the writing of this show stays as good, Kairos would be a worthy addition to the genre of crime drama with a time travel/magical gadget twist.
@Snow Flower yup, I read (and the thought did cross my mind) conjectures on how KSJ’s wife and lover may have planned to fake the kidnapping and deaths. A rather complicated and elaborate way to get out of being part of KSJ’s family!! So assuming there was a conspiracy, there must be another reason behind this. ɖීීϸ
yay you are watching kairos. I am gonna come back!
I just managed to watch Episode 6 and was blown away. The suspense! The stress! I just love how the effects of the past take effect in the ‘now’.
I admit that when Seo Jin’s tie pin was found, I was laughing. A strange reaction, probably because it was such a juicy twist, and because I was anticipating so much stress to come, I had to unload some of it first by being hysterical.
Ok! Will catch it later.
Go ahead and write spoilers if you want.
I watched Ep 5 again. He still had the tie pin on while talking to his driver/pers asst about the scratch on his face. As he got off the car, the pin was no longer there.
Subs in Viki for Ep 6 are still at 36%. Might have to go to another site to watch it.
My head is spinning trying to process what happened/is happening. Mom is alive!
Episode 15 – I was so stressed!!! Still so good. I have to wait for another 7 hours maybe for the subbed final episode, but I’ll probably wait until morning.
I’m waiting for recaps before watching, GB. 😂
@pkml3
I’m not sure that closure is the right word to use… but I really like how show has gotten to the stage where past and present Seo Jin is (are) working together with the sole living Ae Ri, and when both Ae Ri’s friends are on board, and even when Seo Do Kyun finally ‘remembers’ the past of 31 days previous. It just feels so right, like coming full circle.
I was just thinking that in line with this ‘sort-of-closure’ sentiment, it seems almost appropriate that everyone has died at least once – a sort of fair sharing out of death LOL. I’m kinda shocked, actually, by the number of our protagonists who died.
In the past there was Kim Yoo Suk, Seo Jin’s dad (killed by Park Joo Young/Chairman Yoo)
Han Tae Gil, Ae Ri’s dad (died in the building collapse)
Gun Wook (killed by Ae Ri)
Kim Jin Ho (by Lee Taek Kyu/Chairman Yoo)
Kwak Song Ja (by Lee Taek Kyu/Chairman Yoo)
Kang Hyun Chae and Da Bin (by Lee Taek Kyu/Chairman Yoo)
Ae Ri (by Park Joo Young/Chairman Yoo)
Seo Do Kyun (by Hyun Chae’s dad)
Hyun Chae’s father (in the fight with SDK)
And so it seems fitting in the penultimate episode that Kim Seo Jin also gets killed (by Lee Taek Kyu/Chairman Yoo) LOL, and in the same way as his father was killed, under the same circumstances and for the same reason.
Then there are also the many innocent who were collateral damage, like Kim Jin Ho’s other daughter. Everyone dies except the main bad guy, so will we get real closure with the death of Chairman Yoo and Lee Taek Gyu in the final episode?
GB, that’s interesting. Everybody dies at least once except the main bad guy. Does the writer mean to say that evil cannot be defeated or conquered? And that all good men (and women) just repeat the same brave, but futile, task of fighting against evil?
Hmmm…interesting.
@pkml3 You know, don’t you, that we watch shows like Kairos and Uncanny Counters to see the bad guys get their comeuppance. We are expecting a whole lot of satisfaction going into Ep 16. I hope baddies don’t just end up in jail (out from which they’ll wheedle themselves) but experience a degree of suffering and since almost everybody died… maybe they’d die too, but in the usual Disney style where it’s not the good guys who kill them, but the bad guys’ mistakes that do them in.
In Uncanny Counters, we have the satisfaction of seeing the underdogs (I mean, how much more under can anyone be… they were in comas!!! And an orphaned school kid who used to limp) wield a good degree of superhuman power, specifically to take down evil. We are also fed the knowledge that the evil spirits attach themselves to characters who already have the desire to be evil, therefore, by getting rid of the spirits, they are also battling crime and corruption.
Thus every time they haul up another spirit to Yung, we are supposed to have one less deadly bad guy around. Still, though, there’s nothing to stop more spirits from flocking in to those evil human hosts.
In Kairos, we have mere mortals aided by supernatural foreknowledge, and ever changing scenarios, so that they have to be on their toes and exercise every bit of intelligent deduction to be one up on the baddies. They seem to have gone for the all or nothing option, where the future Seo Jin dies, so that the past Seo Jin and Ae Ri can shape events. It’s fantastic suspense since there’s no turning back now. If neither SJ nor AR survive, then evil continues unabated, therefore I rather believe Chairman Yoo has to die.
Well I watched Ep 16 and it certainly gave closure, although it was not as extreme as I’d hoped. The changes in the time line made sense. Once events changed in the past, the flow of subsequent events would always be affected.
I liked Ae Ri’s wish upon the star, a note of wisdom, in which she acknowledged that all the minutes in our days are valuable. And I liked that Ae Ri and Seo Jin have decided to make their own future, uninfluenced by unnecessary foreknowledge, as they ignore the calls at 10:33pm.
At the last episode, Hyun-Chae’s has finally realized what’s truly important in her life after losing Do-Gyun. I find this intriguing because when SJ lost his wife and his kid in episode 1, he realized how much he really treasures them in his heart. I can’t help but compare the character development of SJ and HC of episode 1 and the last episode. Losing their precious ones is the only way the they would come to their humanity. We see SJ finally becoming an active dad to Dan Bin and we see HC finally opening up to SJ showing humanity.
Somewhere deep in my heart, despite everything that happened, I still wanted HC, SJ, and Danbin to be a family. For some reason, I just felt empathy for HC and how her character came to be all psycho and twisted.
I’m not saying that we should justify HC’s actions but to understand that she was lost and didn’t know what to do her whole life. As a means of surviving she tried to kill her dad and this might be the start of her demented way of solving problems. This leads me to wonder if there is a deeper meaning why she married SJ and stayed with him a while.
In the Prison Scene we get to understand the motive of HC a little better.
Investigator: “You could have just divorced him. Why did you do all of this?” “Was it for money?”
HC: “It was… all because of my greed” “At that time, I had gone to submit paperwork withdrawing from school” “I was getting tired of the poor man I was living with, then I met you” “You seemed like the savior who could help me recover everything I had lost” “I was struggling because I didn’t want to lose anything” “But I lost everything that was precious to me”
It’s quite intriguing why HC did not divorce SJ early on. I thought that it was because of the money, but something still doesn’t feel right. I honestly thought that HC saw a future with SJ where she will gain love, social status, and a family. If HC had gained that from SJ from the start, I think she will not have gotten this far in the drama. SJ was shown to have a cold personality and was always busy for his family. However, when their family went to a camping trip HC has shown a bit of humanity. What SJ has been a warm husband continuously from the start? Would things have changed?
Despite of SJ knowing that his wife cheats, he still cared for her and fulfilled his role as a husband and a father. From reading the analysis post, I agree with Lacia that SJ may have shown mercy to HC when he warned Do-Kyun of his impeding death. He knows that HC cares for DK. If only SJ knew early on about her abusive childhood from the start… would it have changed anything?
It’s an unpopular opinion but I still hoped that SJ and HC would not continue with the divorce. I truly think that HC could still work it out with SJ whom she sees as a “savior”. Thanks to DK’s sacrifice that HC finally gains humanity and snaps out of her twister mind of thinking. I wished that she still gets to be a mother to Dan Bin and a wife to SJ.
Just finished it today. I thought it ended on a quiet yet meaningful note rather than with a bang, but I was OK with the ending.
The show was well written, and it followed its own logic very consistently.
@Gummybears, I think that there is a chance of a future reconciliation between SJ and HC. The whole experience changed both of them, so I hope that he is not going to deny his own daughter to stay in contact with her mother. For all her faults, HC did love and care for Da Bin and SJ should realize it. But both SJ and HC need some time apart for now.