I’m not a literature major but who cares? 🤷‍♀️ It’s my blog and I want to talk about a concept often used in literary circles: liminal space. I’ll do my best to explain it as I understand it. It’ll easy for you to grasp.

The word “liminal” may look highfalutin, but you’ve seen its cousin before– the word “subliminal.” Their root word comes from the Latin “limen.” “Limen” means “threshold.” If you look at your front door, you’ll see a plank of wood (or a step) that separates the outside world from the inside of your house. When you take a step and cross over it, you’re said to be crossing the threshold.

With that image in mind, you can now understand “liminal space” in two ways.

One, it can be narrowly understood as a SPACE that you cross over to get from one place to another, like that threshold between the exterior and interior of a house. Or two, it can be metaphorically understood as a MOMENT in time when you take a step and cross over from one state of mind (or state of being) into another.

Liminal space is about this crossing-over. It’s basically a transition period. And liminality – as used in the title of this thread — simply dwells on this transition period between two spaces and moments in time.

Do you get it? Easy-peasy, right?

Now, why am I bringing it up?

Four reasons:

One, the drama has lots of these liminal spaces.
Two, there’s a lot of confusion going on during these liminal spaces.
Three, life is full of these liminal spaces or transition periods. Too often, we’re waiting in confusion for things to clear up.
Last, Classy Bitches like to explore things from a different angle than whine when things don’t go their way. (Tsk tsk tsk. Meghan… 🤦‍♀️🙄)

Here are examples of the liminal spaces in this kdrama. I’ll explain more about characteristics of liminal spaces as we go along. 🙂

1. The opening scene

To me, it’s quite significant that the kdrama began when and where it did: Seohae’s dad waking her up. This is a perfect example of a liminal space.

She was in a liminal state of consciousness: she was half-asleep and half-awake. She was groggy but she was about to come to her full senses.

Then, she was also in-between worlds: she was at a departure area. She was leaving her world and going to another world. She was set to step in a time portal.

Finally, she was conflicted about the purpose of her time-travel. She was ready to cry when her father told her to stay away from Taesul and to enjoy a life. She had no choice but to heed her father because in THAT world, her father’s commands trumped her wishes. Once she crossed over to the other side, however, there was nothing to hold her back and she contacted Taesul.

Hence, I view this whole opening scene as a perfect example of a liminal space in drama. We know that she was on the threshold of something unknown and potentially dangerous. It’s a point of no return. Once she stepped on the uploader, and crossed over to 2020, she wouldn’t see her father again.

2. Her appearance by the train tracks

She woke up and didn’t know where she was.

Symbolically, I thought she found herself at another threshold. You see, the area located around the train track is typically inhabited by the homeless, transients and the “fringes” of society live. But she followed the tracks and arrived at the depot where the Control Bureau gathered waiting for her.

To me, she entered her liminal space at the moment she climbed on top of the train.

This is another characteristic of a liminal space. Aside from being a period of transition, it’s also a period of waiting. Although Seohae left her old world, she couldn’t fully step into this new world just yet. So she must wait – on top of the train — to cross over safely.

No doubt she felt trapped because she was surrounded by the field agents. But she knew she couldn’t hurry the process. She needed to wait until the men left.

We’ll never know how long she spent hiding in plain sight. But her appearance outside Jaesun’s Chinese restaurant meant that she managed to escape the Control Bureau and crossed the metaphorical threshold and entered the new world.

3. The lost time with Jaesun, August 12 – August 15

We can confirm that she met Jaesun on the night of August 12 since it coincided with Taesul’s release from the hospital. We can also verify that she parted ways with Jaesun in the morning of August 15 because that was the day of Taesul’s conference in Busan. However, despite knowing the start and end dates, we cannot establish how many hours she actually spent with Jaesun.

And that’s because when we arranged all the events in a timeline like so:

Sisyphus: Eps 1 & 2 Timelines for Taesul and SeoHae

we discovered that nothing that happened to her during this time period actually lined up in a linear fashion in the outside world.

On the morning of August 13, she woke up and she didn’t know where she was.

She mistook Jaesun, who was bringing her a breakfast tray, for an enemy and she quickly defended herself with a pen.

In the next minute, however, she turned her defenseless back on him to open her suitcase. So much for being battle-hardened soldier!

To me, the time she spent with Jaesun teaches us a lot about her liminal space.

For one, a liminal space doesn’t have to brief or instant. It can be prolonged and stretched-out in a continuum, just as if Seohae was floating in and out of sleep. That was she did during this “lost time” with Jaesun.

One moment, she’d wake up from a dream of being shot on her wedding day,

and in the next moment, she’d be dripping blood, just like in her dream. Although it was just a nosebleed, the blood was ominous.

Time in this luminal space seems to blend in seamlessly. She could be indoors, shading herself from the sunlight through the window, then in the next breath, she would be standing outdoors, marveling at the warmth of the sun and the clean view of the city.

For another, a liminal moment lingers between imagination and reality. We saw Seohae body glitching like a hologram, and the Control Bureau agents missing their shots as if she was a ghost.  But no hologram could have that big of an appetite like hers. .

Since there are no clear boundaries between thoughts and actions, and between space and time in a liminal space, its effect can be disorienting to the viewers.

I for one was very confused when I saw Jaesun bring home bananas twice in a row. And I was perplexed when I watch her eat breakfast on August 13, then board the 10:20 train to Busan on August 15…on the very same day.

But one thing that was very clear to me during this liminal moment of hers was her dread for August 13. She had written down in her diary, “2020.08.13. Do not open the suitcase!! (Call Han Taesul!) Take it and run?”

And run she did.

She had no choice really. She disregarded her father’s order and wanted to run after Taesul. She worried that he had opened the suitcase, despite her warning, and that people were going to kill him as a consequence.  When the Control Bureau sprang a surprise on her, she ran to escape them. She was almost captured, but she wasn’t done running yet.

She taunted them that she wasn’t going to die that day, before throwing herself and Jaesun off the roof.

In a broad sense, falling off the rooftop was akin to crossing the threshold. This was another liminal space. She took a plunge and committed herself to saving Taesul.

She found herself fast-forwarding to August 15.

4. Train to Busan (zombies optional), August 15

By Episode 5, I could no longer ignore that every critical event in Seohae’s life began with her waking up from sleep. There’s a consistency in the shot selection of the director that was begging for attention. The camera would focus on a tight close-up shot of Seonhae’s eyes when she awakened. Did you notice it?

Take for instance this Busan incident on August 15. She and Taesul were on real time when they fled from the sniper, and then the police. They were about to make a getaway when Mr. Park and his Asian Mart minions arrived. They were brought back to Seoul on Mr. Park’s van.

When she woke up, she didn’t know where they were, and how long they were unconscious.

Just like before, the camera took an extreme close-up of her eyes as she awoke. I think the director wants to draw our attention to her awakening.

It wasn’t long before the two started bickering, each one blaming the other for their situation. Taesul asked for her name, and when she said Seohae, he said, “Seohae? Like the ‘West Sea'”? I think he was implying that the name was an old-fashioned one.

Note: The West Sea is also known as the Yellow Sea. I’m not Korean, but I think that was the sea that Seohae was looking at on the cab ride to the Busan convention center.

They were so noisy squabbling that they alerted their guard who brought them out to Mr. Park. Mr. Park turned on the tv for them. They were not the least bit surprised to hear that it had been 72 hours since Taesul was kidnapped.

I was.

I don’t believe that 24 hours have passed since their kidnapping, much less 72 hours. But okay…if 72 hours did pass as the TV announcer said, then it would be August 18 when they woke up.

They accompanied Mr. Park to witness Jung Hyunki get downloaded from the future. Thanks to some quick thinking by Taesul, they escaped from Mr. Park. Taesul temporarily lost Seohae when she ran away, leaving him to deal with Hyunki.

I thought that was so unlike her and I’m making a mental note of this.

She reappeared just in time to help him and Hyunki get away from the Control Bureau. But she was captured, and knocked unconscious.

When she came to, the Control Bureau assistant threatened to kill her if she didn’t reveal information. She insisted that she wasn’t going to die that day.

As if to prove her prescience, Taesul came out of nowhere and rammed their van with his electric car. Of course, she already knew when she was going to die. According to her diary, she was already dead on her birthday.

That short nap of hers, courtesy of the Control Bureau, resulted in another fast-forward in time. Hyunki asked what day it was, Taesul answered August 19. For good measure, SeoHae specified that it was August 19, 2020. Since Hyunki was a time traveler, the year was also important for him to know.

Now, what’s the liminal space here?

For me, Seohae’s liminal space came twice and both involved taking Taesul’s proffered hand. The first time was when he helped her out of the van. And the second time was when they jumped off the bridge.

Visually, it’s easy to see that she was crossing over when she physically moved from one place to another. She stepped out of the van with Taesul’s help. She jumped off the bridge with Taesul’s guidance.

Symbolically, however, she was transitioning from being strangers to allies. Taesul originally distrusted her and suspected that she was a terrorist. But then she crossed over and became a partner. He didn’t leave her behind in the Control Bureau’s custody; he came to rescue her. Next, he worried about her safety and wanted her to hold onto his hand when jumping off the bridge.

This marked a new stage in their relationship.

5. Seoul, August 19

The other interesting thing I discovered about liminal spaces is that they’re a bit similar to the “shadow/stage” plot device. People who watched “Extraordinary You” with me would know what “shadow/stage” is.

But for people who didn’t watch it, here’s my summary:

The heroine in “Extraordinary You” is horrified to discover that she’s only a minor character, or an extra, in a manhwa. Once she’s awakened to the truth of her limited existence, she rebels. At first, she dislikes being an extra because she wants to be a main cast. In time, she grows to dislike her lack of free will and freedom more than she dislikes being a second-stringer. She detests that she’s a mere puppet, forced to perform “on stage” and to follow a script dictated by the comic book artist.

To her relief, however, she learns that whenever she’s “in the shadows” and isn’t required to act a role on stage, she’s free to do whatever she wants. She realizes then, that the solution to her quest for freedom is to be expunged from the comic book. Being off-stage, out of the limelight and out of the writer’s mind, she can pursue whatever she wants.

pic credit: letstalkabouthis.blog

That’s MY summary of the plot of “Extraordinary You.”

Obviously, “Sisyphus” isn’t about a manhwa but a myth, and Seohae and Taesul aren’t teenagers. But to me, the major similarity of these two kdramas is that their protagonists are trapped in a story that’s predestined to fail so they wrestle against their fates.

Taesul, for instance, must face at least seven assassination attempts and survive each one of them, if mankind is to be saved from a nuclear war.

July 15th Plane accident
August 15th Conference sniper
August 19th World Cup Bridge chase
August 27th Banquet hall at Kim Hanyong’s residence
September 15th Sniper at Tool Shopping Center (Hannam-dong, ending episode 6)
September 30th Amusement Park (Seohae’s birthday)
October 4 Ja-ae Hospital
Hope Nursery School in 2020

from @royangi

For her part, Seohae must foil all the assassination attempts and keep Taesul alive.

Moreover, just like the heroine in “Extraordinary You” who went in the “shadows” whenever she wasn’t needed, Seohae goes in the “shadows” too when her intervention isn’t required to save Taesul. My theory is that she sleeps when she isn’t needed in action.

That’s why her days can’t be numbered correctly because some days are skipped over.

In contrast, when she’s needed to prepare and carry out her mission, she wakes up…or is aroused from sleep.

With this theory in mind, it’s easy to understand why her timeline is off-based, and non-linear.

Her father woke her up, saying it was her turn. She reluctantly left her world, and arrived in the year 2020, just when attacks on Taesul were about to begin.
August 13, she woke up to call Taesul to warn him not to open the suitcase. Then, she woke up once more to take one good look at this world she was leaving to pursue Taesul.
August 14 wasn’t important, so that day was passed over as if she was “in the shadows.”
August 15, she appeared at the train station, ready to go to Busan save him from a sniper from the future.
August 16 and 17, no attacks were imminent, so she “slept” through these days.
Then, on August 18/19, Taesul woke her up. They met HyunKi and they ran away from the Control Bureau.
August 19, she conked out after the dive off the World Cup Bridge. Taesul lugged her to SeoJin’s hospital at 11:17 pm.

lol. Didn’t he think that SeoJin would show up to check who disabled her alarm using Taesul’s fingerprint?

Interestingly, she missed meeting  SeoJin because she slept through the visit. But while she slept, Taesul was busy at work. When she woke up the following morning, Taesul had already shopped for their clothes, and bought enough food to feed at least three starving elephants. This was before 9 am.

Her question: Where am I?
Question: Has she ever slept in the same place twice??

His snarky answer: I don’t want to tell you. How are you feeling?

This day, August 20, was an important day. They almost walked away from each other because Taesul didn’t want her services. But as they walked from each other, they both experienced dizzying spells.

I like how the camera showed their disequilibrium by tilting the camera. Remember this? It’s called Dutch angle.

The world only righted itself when they were together.

In the same way that the comic book characters in the “Extraordinary You” couldn’t deviate from the original story, Seohae and Taesul cannot make an exit from their Sisyphean myth and work independently.

It seems to me that the liminal space requires Seohae to cross the threshold with Taesul. She cannot walk away from him, and neither can he.

I said I like this shot. It communicates their new comfort zone…graphically.

6. The Q&T Chairman’s residence, August 27

From the evening of August 20 through morning of August 27, Seohae’s existence was “in the shadows.” We didn’t see nor hear anything about her. This was her liminal moment, of course. She was biding her time for the event on August 27.

All we know is that when she woke up, she wasn’t disoriented like in previous times. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Taesul watching her sleep.

We also learned something new about her from Taesul. She had nightmares.

They left his house, and prepared for the party at the Chairman’s place. Of course, somebody was watching them. My guess is it was Sigma. He seemed to like to spy on people.

7. Hannamdong Tool Market, Sept 15

All this time, I’ve only talked about liminal space from Seohae’s perspective, so let’s do it from Taesul’s POV.

I don’t think that Taesul has experienced these same liminal moments like Seohae has, most likely because:

a. he wasn’t a time traveler,
b. he doesn’t have memories of her, or awareness of having lived through this before, and,
c. he died.

Unlike Seohae who had a younger version of herself living in that moment in 2020, Taesul had none.

If I were Seohae and I wanted a fallback, or an emergency plan in case I failed my mission, I would give my younger version the diary. The diary would contain a list of instructions on what to do. That way, if I died before I completed my mission, and Taesul created the uploader in 2021 (after my death) and triggered a nuclear holocaust, I could rely on my younger version to correct it in the future.

This is why Seohae had no recollection of getting married to Taesul, and bopped him on his head saying, “I saved your life! (then chiding herself) I shouldn’t have come here.”

She wasn’t lying nor being coy. She really had no clue because it wasn’t her who married Taesul in that photograph but her previous self.

The only transitional period that I could see for Taesul came after his return from the hospital in Episode 6. He looked disoriented as he walked in his living room. And if you notice, the camera panned around him twice.

Here’s the first time.

Here’s the second time.

Notice anything?

The second time the camera panned the room, a red ceramic appeared on the table. I encircled it in white.

It could be a blooper. Who knows with this prop coordinator?

But if it’s NOT a blooper then it must have been Seohae who left it there for him to spot. Seohae would know how to get inside his home using the backdoor entrance/exit. She was the one with a specially-made EMP. She would think the wedding pic was a joke.

He probably saw it, but he wanted to keep the pretense in order to know what his two best friends were up to. He gave Eddie Kim a chance to come clean. But it was clear that Eddie Kim deferred to SeoJin’s opinion. I think he went along with Seojin to figure out who she was working with and why.

As for the conversation he had with Seohae, I don’t think that Seohae was physically present. He imagined that encounter.

TS: Seohae. Seohae? Seohae. (reaching out to her) What?

lol. That camera shot reminded me of Seohae lifting her hand to block out the sun.

SH: (glancing at the moon, then pointing at the clock. The time says Tuesday, Sept 5, 22:00)
TS: The time. It’s 22:00. The moon. (he calculates) The moon’s azimuth. Its’ 315.9 degrees. Then the date is…September 15th.

Look: Seonhae doesn’t do math. She wouldn’t know about the moon’s azimuth even if the moon fell down from the sky and hit her on the nose at 90 degrees.

But Taeseul would know. He was outside gazing at the night sky. To me, it was his subconscious mind figuring out how to calculate the day by using the moon’s compass bearing. However, Seohae was his inspiration or her “muse.” She jogged his mind. If you ask me, I think this is a foreshadowing of how he’ll invent the uploader in the future.

SH: A month after we first met at the conference.
TS: (smiling) Right. A month after we met. That’s right. I remember everything. I remember everything about you.

Again, I think he was conversing with Seohae in his head. He was beginning to remember and connect the dates. He was tearing up because he was relieved to know that he wasn’t going insane.

SH: Five.
TS: What?
SH: Four. Three. Two. One.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was practicing some sort of self-hypnosis so he could recall for himself the things that SeoJin and Eddie refused to tell him. That’s how he remembered that Mr. Park asking for the key, and the Control Bureau chief asking him for the key, too. Then, he remembered Seohae and their meeting in Busan on August 15. He could have set a specific length of time for his self-hypnosis and a timer to wake him up (in this case, the breaking of the ceramic).

Once he woke up, he knew without a doubt that SeoJin was the one behind his prolonged hospital confinement, not Eddie. Like Mr. Park and the Control Bureau, Seojin wanted the key.

SJ: Taesul. Be careful. You’ll hurt your feet!
TS: (looking at the ceramic) This isn’t mine.
SJ: What?
TS: This isn’t mine.
SJ: Taesul, let’s pick up where we left off. Do you remember where the key is now?
TS: Is that important right now? I made it up, anyway.

Meaning, why was SeoJin asking about the key found in a suitcase if she was adamant that Taesul was simply delusional and made up the conspiracy about the time travelers. After all, the suitcase belonged to a time traveler.

TS: Or did it all happen in real life?

Meaning, if she believed the key existed, then his story about the time traveler was real. He looked at the EMP and there’s a flashback to the night of the party when he gave Seohae the key. He saw the photograph with the note, “I don’t want to get married to you either,” and smiled.

SJ: What’s it?
TS: Nothing.
SJ: What’s that?
TS: I gave this to someone? But it’s right here.

He closed the blinds to darken the room and the activated the EMP.

I think this is as close as Taesul could get to experiencing a liminal space. He doesn’t seem to have any use for it because he didn’t travel back in time. He doesn’t need to “transition.”

To me, the function of this liminal space is twofold:

one, to reconcile the time paradox and inconsistencies as Seohae crosses over from her futuristic world to the present, and

two, to demonstrate Seohae’s steady commitment to the mission.

As I said early, it’s a point of no return for her. Every time she crosses a new threshold, she takes one step further towards her final destiny. She can neither turn around nor avoid it. But, although she’s unable to change the big events that necessarily will have to happen (e.g., the sniper, the bridge, the party, ninja guys at the market, etc.), she continues to alter the little things that she can, in the hope of averting the catastrophe.

🙂