The thread is now open for spoilers and theories. It’s the Queen’s command.
Let’s enjoy the show!
20 Comments On “Jirisan: Eps 5 & 6 Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
The thread is now open for spoilers and theories. It’s the Queen’s command.
Let’s enjoy the show!
Comments are closed.
Thanks @pkml3! I’m enjoying this version of Gianna Jun. She’s both the herald and the queen, and all have to fall away before her.
This is gold! Thanks pm3. Loving this Gianna version too… reminded me of My Sassy Girl the movie. No aegyo is a big plus points… for me 🤭
Why is it that the female side characters have internalized stupidity?
1. The snake wife
2. The park ranger Yang Soon
3. The lottery ticket seeker
🙄
For those who are tuning in through iQIYI, do you have dubbed versions too?
There’s actually dubbed versions coming soon, my language included 😃. I’ve watched the 8-min trailer of the dubbed ver and I’m just so thrilled because they got some of the best voice actors in the country and they did a wonderful job.
I missed watching dubbed kdramas, afterall that’s how most of us was introduced and fell in love with them first.
I’m excited to rewatch this drama when the dubs are available.
What has been established in Ep 4 and 5?
In 2018, Se Wook, with someone giving him instructions, was the civilian that Private Ahn had seen and received the yoghurt drink from. He had also left the yoghurt drink for Lee Geum Rye who had died as a result. From Hyun Jo’s visions, Se Wook had left a potato bomb that killed the snake poacher Choi Il Man.
Se Wook was instructed to kill his cousin, Ranger Yang Sun. He implicated their grandfather as the potato bomber, and told Yang Sun where her grandfather had been in the mountain. He hoped that she would be killed with the 2nd potato bomb. She avoided death. He then received instructions to go ahead as planned. He visited her and ensured that she drank a yoghurt drink. He had run away from the rangers and been killed in the mountain, presumably by the mastermind behind the killings who had used him as an accomplice. After he died, more people were still killed.
Before he was found, someone without gloves, took away his notebook in which were the list of victims, places and method of being killed.
Slim List of Suspects unless it’s someone we have not been introduced to yet:
Policeman Kim Woong Soon (unfriendly towards Hyun Jo).
Boss of Haedong Branch Jo Dae Jin (shown with yellow ribbons in hand and a ribbon in his desk drawer).
Team Leader Park Il Hae (complains a lot about missing staff but seems unlikely).
Ranger Jung Goo Young (sweet on Yang Sun and unlikely).
Kim Sol (the expert in the spiritual aspects of the mountain and informative. Seems unlikely).
Can’t think of any females so far if Yang Sun is out of it and the Snake Poacher wife is out of it. The crazy lottery ticket girl, Hee Won seems unlikely. New rookie girl was not around in 2018 as far as we know. I presume that’s why Yi Gang trusts only her.
It seems the killer had planned ahead who the victims would be. In the notebook of Se Wook we have a List of Victims with method of killing and places where they were killed/were to be killed:
1) Kim Hyeon Su. Baektogol, Jangseungdae, yoghurt. (Mentioned in Hyun Jo’s notebook from Ep 4: Kim Hyeon Su. Sept 15th 2017, Died in Baektogol during ruck march.)
2) Seo Geum Ja. Yangseokbong, Saenyeok Rock, lost footing. (Mentioned in Hyun Jo’s notebook. Seo Geum Ja. Nov 16th 2017. Yangseokbong Peak, the rope broke)
3) Lee Jong Gu. Deokseoryeong, Buam Cliff, lost footing. (Mentioned in in Hyun Jo’s notebook. Lee Jong Gu, Jan 20th 2018. Fell from Buam Cliff, Deokseoryeong)
4) Kim Jin Deok. Daeyeongri, Narigol, lost footing. (Mentioned in Hyun Jo’s notebook. Kim Jin Deok. Mar 23ed 2018. Fell in Narigol, Daeyeongri … [exploded and died??? Not clear if this is with reference to Kim Jin Deok])
5) Lee Geum Rye (Granny who visited restricted area often) Baektogol, Bullet Tree, yoghurt. (Private Ahn met a civilian who was checking Lee Geum Rye’s backpack and who gave him a yoghurt drink. This happened in 2018).
6) Choi Il Man (Snake Poacher). Saemagol, graveyard, bomb. (2018).
7) Lee Yang Sun. Saemagol, Bomb, (bomb got crossed out) and next to it was ‘Yoghurt’. (2018).
8) Lee Yang Sun’s name was scratched and Kang Hyun Jo was added to the list. (2018)
9) In 2020, the herbalist took a yoghurt drink that was left cooling in the river and almost died. He claims to recognise Hyun Jo as the ghost.
All those who died from loss of footing would have needed to follow the yellow ribbon markers to fall off the edge of the path? Or be pushed?
So there is 1 mastermind killer with Se Wook as accomplice and 3 methods of killing. The 3 potato bombs Yang Sun knew of had been accounted for, but there might be more unknown bombs. The killings started as early as 2017 as far as we know. After the murder of Kim Hyeon Su, Hyun Jo gets visions.
Thanks for doing this, @GB. I’ll post it separately so it’ll be easier to find.
You’re welcome @pkml3. I’m delighted to share my notes, if it helps us in our murder investigations. Heheheheh! 😇 😆 😉
@GB very helpful! Although they continue to point to Dae Jin with the same days off as when the murders occurred, yellow ribbons and putting him in the exact place Se Wook was murdered – I continue to think that is a red herring. Whoever is behind the killings appears to have a grudge against the National Park Service – the frayed rope and the potato bomb were both blamed on KNPS – and against the visitors to the park. For now, I’m sticking with the cop as my main suspect. I do think Dae Jin knows something or maybe has his suspicions.
Also, is there a little faint spark going on between our leads? When she says “look who has grown up” and he replies “I have for a while now” – it was kinda sexy.
@Good Twin, yup… the same thought occurred to me. Someone has a grudge against the National Park Service who’s getting the blame. But what a horrible way to lay blame!!! If it was a ranger, it’s like it was an infiltration inside job to destroy his own employer. And it’s been going on for years!
The one person who might have wanted to blame the Service should actually have been Yi Kang herself, since her parents died in the flood and she had to practically fish them out of the water herself (if I heard correctly).
I’m not sure about romantic sparks between leads. Yi Kang is so matter-of-fact and sunbae-like, it’s hard to tell at the moment. They do end up having better communication and YK acknowledges that he’s trustworthy, so at least they have a good interpersonal relationship. When we get to see more interactions, we’ll know better. As it is, YK is not calling the hospital except once, to check on him, and it looks like she believes that his spirit is in the mountain anyway, so she’ll try to contact him in the mountain. Perhaps she’s like the herbalist and will be able to see his form, even through the camera of the drone.
Thanks @GB on your notes on the list of victims! It’s interesting that the killer’s list started with the soldier under HJ’s command and that triggered his mystical Jirisan 3rd eye. I’m still trying to understand the “why” of these killings. A grudge towards the park service is possible although it must be very compelling reason for Se Wook to be convinced to readily kill his relatives for it. What would he gain? More deaths and “accidents” will entail tougher rules in Jirisan which will be more restrictive for the local folks.
HJ could have helped apprehend Se Wook earlier when he verified the photo to the poisoned soldier who survived. If they reported their suspicions to the police, Se Wook could have been questioned or tailed at least. It was a lost opportunity. I’m glad that Yang Sun survived and getting into a relationship with the other ranger.
YG’s first love was a good backstory. At least we know there’s a possibility of romance in her life. It’s obvious the first love had already moved on else he could have contacted her way back. Good that he mentioned his wife in their talk to avoid any misunderstanding.
I think the Chief is not the mastermind killer. He was the one who interviewed YG way back, we’ll before these incidences happened. I think he is trying to solve the yellow ribbon mystery and had been removing them during his day off. I like the interview part where he asked if YG is still scared of the mountain and that this is good in a sense that she will not underestimate it. His urge for her to save people seemed opposite to him being the mastermind killer.
Kalimera,
I enjoyed Episode 6 very much last night, even though it didn’t give us anything new on the killer case.
I agree with you @GB Unnie, someone from the village is killing people for revenge. The thing is why Se Wook became the killer’s accomplish and why he wanted to kill his cousin. Especially after her grandfather took him in.
I continue to believe that the Chief has nothing to do with the killings.
In the Interview scene in Episode 6, where Jo Dae-Jin asks YG if she still blames him for the perish of her parents is important to me. He goes to the mountain to remove those yellow ribbons.
I am sceptic though, about the Police Officer Kim Woong-Soon. He was the first one who went to Se Wook’s house and didn’t see the killer nor the notebook. We shall see if he is involved or not.
I have another theory but it involves the mastermind being someone off camera for now. The character description for the Dae Jin described him as dedicated to his work and someone whose family has left him. I am wondering if it is his son (or daughter). Age wise his children would be close to same age as Se Wook and YG. It would explain someone with a grudge against KNPS and how the killer came to know Se Wook if the went to school together. It also might explain what DJ is doing on the mountain with the yellow ribbons. I don’t think anyone is aware yet that Se Wook has an accomplice except maybe DJ, HJ, and now the younger ranger. I’m just writing fiction here …..
Hi @Good Twin, I like your fiction. Why not?
An as yet unseen (to us viewers) family member of Dae Jin, may have a score to settle against the mountain and/or the National Park Services and Dae Jin for neglect… So all 3 get a bad name by the many deaths/accidents.
True that if this was Dae Jin’s son/daughter, they might be the right age to know Se Wook. They might be a bit younger … Se Wook was Yi Kang’s age. When she went for the interview with Dae Jin she had been working in Seoul for a while after failing her entry exams, so she was in her early twenties? Dae Jin at that time looked like he might have had kids in their teens.
We just need to keep checking the actor list to see if any new names and faces pop up!
I just finished both episodes and SSK!!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍 MY HEART! LOL
The awkward and dorky and cute at the end first love 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Gianna was already in the mood but he just got to mention his wifey loving the mountain and just like that, the motorbike and beach memories go poooffff!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Love the new couple as well! Sooooo cute and original. Winter Garden who? Ik Song what??? First love of twenty frigging years after multiple relationships and a failed marriage right on your face, woman? Brain, where are you at? 🤪🤪🤪🤪
SSK told Gianna in his own indirect way that he came by regularly to the mountain but he didn’t see her and decided he’s moving on with another person… life goes on … he is definitely not gonna live such a pathetic life like some people cough Shin cough Lee cough HP.🤭🤭🤭
About the Chief, why is writer keeps putting him there on our face as the possible suspect? Obviously, he may just be a red herring. Right now there have to be someone else in the ranger team. But who??? 🤔🤔🤔 And what is the motive of having that hit list??? List of Jirisan’s habitual trespassers? Of witnesses? But why???
Ok back reading!!
Again, SSK #swoonnnnn ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤…
The parallel of missed opportunities because both parties do not call each other
Gu Yeong and Yang Sun did not meet for their movie date on Christmas Eve because neither felt it was advisable to call the other. There would have been a difference in what happened at the Bidam Shelter if Gu Yeong had not thought he’d been stood up and gone to the Shelter.
Because GY was there to see to the generator, HJ was able to save Yim Cheol Gyeong and they were able to apprehend the criminals. If HJ had been alone at Bidam Shelter, he’d have tried to fix the generator on his own, Yim might have been left in the snow and died, the criminals would have ransacked the Shelter and gotten away. So it was fortunate that GY thought he’d been stood up and went to Bidam Shelter.
The other missed opportunity of course was Yi Kang and Yim’s 3 meetings “as if it was fated” but nothing came of them, because neither one of them called the other. However, we consider that Yim stole money to buy a motorbike to take YK to the sea, which did not suit her. It was probably not their destiny to be together. It’s interesting that he still married a woman who loved the mountains.
My guess on why Yim never called YK is that he was embarrassed. He’d only wanted to see her again in order to confess to stealing the money and lying to her. But if he didn’t run into her, it was easier for him to not make any move to call her either. Why she never called him is not known.
Parallel for the Jirisan Killings?
Se Wook was killed presumably by his partner-in-crime. The body of Se Wook is shown to viewers but we learn later that it was not found, even after 2 months. This could mean that the killer may have hidden the body, and that no one knew if Se Wook was still alive. However we hear YK telling Rookie Lee Da Won that the crimes did not end. “There was someone else. The real criminal.” And she asked Da Won for help. So YK seems to know that there was another killer. We have to wait to know if Se Wook’s body was ever found.
There were 2 criminals, a man and a woman in the drug squad bribery crimes. If we take it that Show may be giving us a parallel to the 2020 crimes on Jirisan, then the as yet unknown real Jirisan killer, might be a woman. We have so few female suspects, unless we have yet to meet her.
For 2 months after Se Wook disappeared HJ had not had visions. Looking at YK’s photos, he suddenly gets a vision of a wildfire on the mountain. If he only gets visions of criminal activities then this is arson. Presumably this is the prologue to how he ends up in a coma.
Parallel On-the-Run Backstory
1997 – YK and Yim met after she had run away and came back with a broken arm at age 14. They were at a Training Center for wayward kids (so I guess it’s not surprising that Yim went in for stealing money). While YK was single minded about reaching the top of the Cheongwangbong Peak first without any help, Yim had stayed on to help other climbers and ended up last.
YK felt somewhat put out possibly because she had not thought to help anyone else but herself. When asked to shout from the peak, YK was the first to scream her frustrations. However Yim had remained silent. He said that he had no one to shout something to since he had no parents. This resonated with YK. She might also have admired him for having kept up with her in the mountain climbing and for helping the others.
After the training stint, she tried to run away again, but granny caught her at the bus stop. She hit Yim on the back in frustration that he had somewhere else to go while she didn’t.
2003 – By chance, when YK ran away to Seoul, she met Yim again while they were both at work. He was giving out flyers for the restaurant he worked for. She start working at the same restaurant. Yim proved to be reckless and self-serving when he stole the money to buy the motorbike. Both of them lost their jobs as a result and lost touch. At least he returned the money to the restaurant.
2006 – Yim meets YK by chance at Bidam Shelter over a lost item. It was a notebook. He notes that the Shelter managed lost items tightly.
Yim : “Only the owner can take them, right?”
YK : “Yes. You can’t take anything unless you know what it is.”
(This may have given Yim the idea later to use Bidam Shelter as the place to use for the real or pretend bait, to hook his crooked colleagues).
YK : “Are you a cop now?”
Yim : “I’m just a low-rank constable for now.”
YK : “That’s the opposite of the humiliating life. You got what you wanted.”
Yim : “You too. You look better with the mountains than the sea.” He wants to confess something to her but before he can, she has to rush off because of an emergency.
Yim : “Will I see you if I come back here? I’ll visit often. See you again.” (He could have left his number!!!)
We hear after this that she had decided to stay on in Jirisan. It was partly because she hoped to meet Yim again. However she tells HJ that the reason was not because of Yim.
HJ hears her drunken retelling of her life and sees photos of her and realises that she stayed on as ranger because she loved the mountains. However, defensively, possibly so that she would not appear weak or soft, she kept protesting that she hated mountains. Also, although she never admitted it, she was likely also waiting for Yim to turn up again.
2018 – Yim takes on the role of being a wanted criminal on the run and again in the course of work, He and YK meet each other. Yim plans a police operation where he had put out false information that there was evidence at the Bidam Shelter, to exonerate him. This was bait to hook the true dishonest detectives.
I feel it was not the right thing for him to have done, since by using the Shelter, he endangered the rangers. Two of them were hit on the head and their generator had been deactivated. The detective threatened YK with a gun which could have accidentally been fired. They had no power or radio, the mobile signal was weak and if the phone line had been cut, and they had been immobilised, they could have died before the police got there.
He merely apologises to YK at the end (I felt he should have done a big apology to the whole National Parks Services)
Yim to YK : “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it’d get this dangerous. On top of the weather conditions, the plans got changed at the last minute.”
He should have thought of all the possible things that could go wrong on a snowy mountain. A very unwise move and should not have been allowed by his superiors.
In any case, it was not when YK was settled, but when YK or Yim had been on the run, or was running away that they end up meeting each other. I guess that’s a pretty strong sign that they are not meant to be together.
How YK became a ranger
Grandma lied that she was sick and dying in order to get YK to return to Jirisan. She wanted YK to work for the NPServices who are giving bonus points for local residents who worked for them. The job suited her because she was a good climber and knew the mountain well, and no college degree was required.
Grandma : “You’ve always crawled up mountains. And now you’re saying you hate them?”
She went under protest for the 2006 job interview with Jo Dae Jin, spending most of the interview looking elsewhere instead of at her interviewer. In spite of that she got the job.
Jo Dae Jin knew her and her parents : “Are you still afraid of mountains?… Not bad. It’s better than underestimating mountains. There aren’t many applicant around your age. Give it a try.”
YK : “No, thanks.”
JDJ : “Do you still think that I made your parents die? Then, why don’t you save people from now on? I couldn’t save them but you’re different from me. If you’re scared that people die up there, save their lives before they die.”
She stares off in silence, but does not protest.
JDJ : “It seemed like you don’t have anything important to do from your resume. Show us what you’ve got here.” And he leaves her expecting her answer to be yes.
So it seems like her grandmother brought her back and possibly Jo Dae Jin got her to be a ranger to face the demons she’d made of the mountain, if it was true that she feared it. After her parents died in the mountains, she had tried to run away to the mountain and then from the mountain. But as Yim noted, the mountain suited her well.
It turned out that she made a better no nonsense ranger than even Gu Yeong, who couldn’t even tell a grandad to stop drinking alcohol on the mountain.
2018
YK : “How pathetic is this. Everyone else is enjoying Christmas. But what are we doing here? This is why I really hate Christmas.”
HJ : “Did you really like Cheol Gyeong that much? So much that you couldn’t leave the mountain?”
YK : “What on earth are you talking about?”
HJ : “I think it’s true.”
YK : “It’s not.”
HJ : “Then what? Why do you keep saying you hate mountains but stuck around here for years as a ranger?”
She grabs his sweet potato makgeolli : “I don’t know why I’m doing this.”
He can’t stop her from drinking in time so he gets to hear her regale her life story from age 6 onwards again LOL.
He has to carry her back to her grandma’s.
He recalls how in her drunken telling of her life story, she said that she was able to climb the mountain on her own by age eight. At age nine she started walking along ridges. she had said : “You’ve never seen stars up there, right?”
HJ realised to himself : “She couldn’t leave because she loves mountains.”
Bookending
The episode begins with YK and HJ looking across the expanse of mountain ranges.
We are back in 2018 and HJ and YK remark on how Jirisan is beyond Cheongwangbong Peak and is far and wide.
When in 2018 Yim Cheol Gyeong confesses to YK that he had stolen the money to buy the motorbike to bring her to the beach, he says : “I wanted to tell you if we ran into each other here, but I guess Jirisan is big and wide. It took this long” (About 12 years!!!) “I’m sorry I lied.”
YK : “Aren’t you embarrassed now?”
He laughed : “I’m fine. Maybe because I’m much older now. I’ll call you next time when I come here for hiking. My wife loves mountains too.”
YK becomes all official telling him to wear the right gear and not to bug her by getting lost.
At least Gu Yeong and Yang Sun had learnt their lesson and had hopefully communicated well, so that both met outside for their Christmas movie date.
In 2020, although Jirisan is big and wide, HJ is still able to maintain contact with YK, even without a phone, even when he is comatose LOL and vice versa. What irony that those alive and well cannot telephone each other, due to preconceived notions on putting pressure on the other, but HK and YK manage to communicate.
Yes, @Janey.
I agree with your theory on Chief Jo. Although the director and writer are trying hard to put him in the spotlight, e.g., placing him in the vicinity of the dead Sewoon, I think he’s removing the yellow ribbons to discourage the illegal hikers from reaching the summit.
The evil mastermind on the other hand was removing then re-tying the yellow ribbons to lead the illegal hikers astray where he could push them off the cliffs or kill them.
And like I said, he doesn’t wear skinny jeans, tapered and hemmed. An ahjussi like him typically doesn’t bother with the hem of his pants.