Veterans of this blog know that I don’t do recaps. I prefer discussing themes and nitpicking details. If you dislike what I have to say, please go somewhere else. Don’t obsess or hate-follow. Unlike AOC, I don’t think you really want to date me.
Two things for now.
1. Dark Hole
I see that some people (not on this blog, though) are getting confused about Dark Hole’s motives because they’ve forgotten what Dark Hole said about killing her soul in Episode 5. So let’s revisit that infamous lunch scene.
The subs are from Netflix.
Dark Hole: I know the reason why you were cursed by that woman, too.
Hwal: You know the answers to all that?
Dark Hole: Are you curious? I can tell you. But in return you have to help me destroy her soul.
Hwal: Why are you trying so hard to kill her soul? You monsters used to live in the mountains and kill any humans you saw. She used to be your kind.
Dark Hole: My kind? (Tearing up) Humans also go after their own kind. They kill and steal from each other. We’re just like humans. Once something goes wrong, we can’t go back. Even if hundreds of years pass by and it’s just the two of us in the world.
He opens his shirt.
I pointed out that he had a heart locket, right? Yes, he’s missing a soul because he’s an immortal, but I think what’s more significant is that he’s missing a heart.
Dark Hole: This is her curse. No amount of blood or years will heal this wound. It keeps rotting and healing over and over again. And the pain repeats too. For a thousand years, the pain won’t stop. Gosh. I carried away. This hole will heal once the woman is gone. And I want you to help me.
Hwal: How?
Dark Hole: Only Bulgasal can destroy one’s soul. And when a soul has been destroyed eight times, it cannot reincarnate.
SangUn’s soul (also, Hwal’s soul) has previously been destroyed seven times. Unfortunately for Dark Hole, the twins, SangYeon and SangUn, were born on the 8th reincarnation. Dark Soul was able to destroy Unnie SangYeon’s soul for the 8th time, so her soul won’t reincarnate anymore. But Unnie put a strong spell on her younger twin SangUn’s soul to prevent Dark Hole from killing her soul.
Hwal: So you killed her every time she was reincarnated? You did that seven times? So this must be the last time.
Dark Hole: Yes. That’s it. But I can’t seem to do it one last time.
Hold on a second there.
Unless the writer made an error here, Dark Hole did NOT kill every time the Lady in Red reincarnated. In one reincarnation, the Painter/Building Owner Monster claimed to have killed her (or was he exaggerating?) If only Bulgasal can kill a soul, then the monster might have kill her physically, but he failed to kill the soul.
Theoretically then, the Lady in Red could have been reincarnated and killed MORE than 7 times, but only the murders that were committed by Dark Hole himself counted towards the destruction of her soul. Those times when she was murdered by monsters did NOT count.
That’s most likely the reason Dark Hole insisted that the monsters didn’t touch the SangUn.
For instance, he didn’t want the Rain Monster to touch her. He wanted to kill SangUn himself or her soul wouldn’t be destroyed.
To continue…
Dark Hole: I’m sure the older sister did something. Whenever I try to destroy her soul, dark blood keeps seeping out from the dark hole.
Remember the flashback in Episode 5 of the night of the Dark Hole’s attack, Sangyeon said, “You will never be able to kill her. You won’t be able to touch her.” Dark Hole was baffled, “What are you talking about?” And Sangyeon answered, “The dark hole won’t go away. She will put everything back in its place.”
But as it turns out, according to the Gapsangoe, when he killed the 7th reincarnation, Kim HwaYeon, he was in so much pain. The Gapsangoe said, “I saw it when Dark Hole killed you. When he stabbed you in the stomach with a sword, his stomach was also bleeding. What’s the bond between you and him? You were the one who was stabbed. Why was he in pain?” All the while the Gapsangoe was choking the life out of SangUn, Dark Hole was also writhing in pain in his living room. Afterwards, there were scratch marks on Dark Hole’s throat, too.
However, what I find inconsistent about this mirroring pain is, if Dark Hole can feel SangUn’s pain each time she’s attacked, then how come we’re only seeing this in Episode 7? She was previously attacked by the Rain Monster at the laundry place and grabbed by the ankle by the Teoreokseon. How come Dark Hole didn’t feel any pain back then?
Moreover, if Dark Hole felt immense pain when SangUn was being strangled, how will he bear the pain should Hwal decide to kill SangUn?
My theory:
Dark Hole felt Gapsangoe’s attack on SangUn acutely because Gapsangoe bore a grudge against him. It said, “At first I was deceived by Dark Hole so I set that woman’s house on fire.”
It resented Dark Hole for killing SangUn first.
To continue again…
Dark Hole: So I want you to do it for me. What do you say? Simple, right?
No it isn’t that simple at all. Since monsters can’t kill souls, he has no choice but to rely on Hwal to kill SangUn’s soul once and for all. However, the introduction of this concept of mirroring pain, i.e., he feels pain when SangUn feels pain, is going to throw a spanner in the works.
Hwal: (nodding) It is simple. But you know that the soul you want me to destroy used to belong to me, right?
Dark Hole: (eagerly) Please, do that. You need to make that sacrifice. Destroying her soul and getting rid of her for good will be the perfect revenge. It’s perfect for both of us.
Hwal: What if I say no? What if my goal isn’t getting rid of her, but reclaiming my soul?
Dark Hole: Then we’ll do this over and over again. First, I’ll find her and kill her. I’ll do it again when she’s born. I’ll find her and kill her every time. Find her and kill her. Rinse and repeat. This cycle will continue. I may not be able to destroy her soul, but I can kill her.
He can’t kill her soul, but he can kill her bodily ad infinitum.
Remember in Ep 4, he told her, “If I can’t crush your soul this time, you might as well just die.” But the sword appeared out of nowhere and stabbed him from the back. He had no choice but to retreat before Hwal arrived.
Dark Hole: Then it will be hard for you to get your soul back. I always find her before you do. I always have. (staring at each other) Hundreds of years is not a long time for me. But can you last that long? How can you stay alive without drinking human blood?
Hwal: (standing up)
Dark Hole: Wait. Where are you going? I have so much left to say as I’ve lived for so long.
Hwal: The bottom line is that you cannot destroy her soul.
The problem with Dark Hole is that he lies, and he lies well. He can’t be trusted because he’s a master manipulator.
2. The Prophecy
As far as I know, the Ahjumma Lee had three episodes of being in a trance.
The first time was when she was about to mop the floor.
The second time was when she turned on the gas to heat the kettle. DoYoon noticed that she was spacing out.
The third time was upon Hwal and SangUn’s return from their adventure with Gapsangoe. They found the house renovated and DoYoon quickly shifted the blame onto Ahjumma Lee.
She was in the kitchen, sitting on her haunches.
Hwal: What is all of that?
Ahjumma: (no answer)
Hwal: What are you doing in the dark?
Ahjumma: The one with no memory is here.
Hwal: What?
Ahjumma: (slowly rising) The moment that person regains her memory, everyone will die.
Hwal: The one with no memory? (he turns around to look at SangUn)
Ahjumma: In the same way that they died in the past lives, their necks will be bitten into. They will bleed from every orifice and die.
Then, the Detective Kwon entered the house.
Detective: What? What happened here? Everything’s different. What’s going on? What’s that sound?
Ahjumma: Oh dear! The kettle is all burnt! (turns it off) When did you get here? (asking Hwal) What? (asking the whole room) Why are you all looking at me? (grins)
The most logical choice is SangUn. She has no memories; she used to be dangerous Bulgasal so strictly speaking, if she ever desired human blood again, she could bite the necks of SiHo and DoYoon again.
However, it’s good to remember that everybody in that room has no memory of the past. Anyone of them can activate shaman’s prophecy.
a. The Ahjumma
Her prophesy can be considered self-referential. She has no memories of her life prior to fire accident when she was 6 years old, and she has zero recollection of her previous life as a shaman. Should she regain her memory, the curse could reactivate. Already, she made SiHo’s nose bleed during the palm-reading session.
I thought it was interesting that the Ahjumma’s inner child (or subconscious mind) spoke directly to SiHo as if she sensed that SiHo trying to penetrate and fathom her consciousness.
Child (or the ahjumma appearing in a child form): Who is it? Who’s watching me? You’re watching my soul’s memories, right? If you are, take them. Take all of my soul’s memories. They’re painful. (screaming)
I wonder if the child meant the memories from 600 years ago when she was an old hag. Remember, I told you that she was partly responsible for the miserable life of the young Hwal because she taught the villagers to shun and hate the child because of a curse.
b. SiHo
She too has no memory of her previous life.
I wonder what her reaction will be when she discovers that her sister was formerly Bulgasal? SangUn is adamant that her past be hidden from SiHo. Most likely, she thinks that SiHo won’t understand.
Moreover, it’ll be awkward for SiHo if she discovers that she was previously married to Hwal and had two children with him.
I can see her repeat the same mistake from the past should she insist on being independent, and running away with her child. She’ll be an easy target for Dark Hole.
c. DoJoon
He too doesn’t remember his past.
If ever he finds out that Hwal was his father in a previous lifetime, he’ll feel guilty for spying on him. He’ll stop cooperating with Dark Hole, and Dark Hole will resent that, Dark Hole seems to be jealous of his time and attention. I can see him going after SiHo and DoJoon should he lose DoJoon’s loyalty.
BTW, I don’t know if you noticed that when Hwal and SangUn walked into the living room, the game show host on TV was saying, “Dad’s here.” lol. It’s not as if we didn’t suspect that Hwal was the dad of DoJoon.
d. Hwal
Although he knows more than the rest of them since his memories span 6 centuries, he’s missing his memories of the most critical period. He can’t remember why he was born as a baby cursed by the Bulgasal, and why he was cursed by Bulgasal after he killed her.
The moment he regains his memories, Dark Hole won’t have any more reason to pretend to be nice to him. The killings will start all over again.
e. SangUn
She is the logical choice, of course, although strictly speaking, she didn’t regain her memory on her own. It was her her “foster” grandma who filled her in on the missing pieces of her past so she was now better-informed.
The Grandma revealed that on the day the fire broke out, her Unnie warned them that Bulgasal would be coming and that they should run away. But no one believed her.
Grandma: It was his fault. He caused everything. You told us that it was all because of Dark Hole.
SangUn: What do you mean? It was all Ok Eul-Tae’s doing?
Grandma: A man with a scar on his hand has been after you for 600 years. It’s because Dark Hole killed that man’s family 600 years ago, and made it look like you did it.
After she exposed Dark Hole’s lies to Hwal, Dark Hole could no longer convince Hwal to join him in killing SangUn. His next best option is to target the family members of Hwal and SangUn.
That’s it for now. I’ll write about the theme of “Contradiction” next time.
I liked that dinnet scene with the original Bulgasal, and I’ll come back to post on the prophesy oncs Ive viewed episode 8.
However, what I’m still unclear about is how the Dark Hole Bulgasal was planning to murder SangUn if huring her pains him and he feels her every injury. How did he kill her body in the previous births in that case? Is this a plot angle that yje writer just thought about out of the blue or will this be logically explained later🤔🤔🤔
Exactly, @Phoenix.
Previously, Dark Hole’s plan to cajole Hwal into murdering SangUn for him made sense.
But after the Gapsangoe incident, when he was in pain, when the monster was strangling SangUn, it makes us rethink this whole murder-for-hire.
I suspect there’s more to the Gapsangoe incident. Dark Hole was stunned to hear of her whereabouts. He was disconcerted, fazed. He knew he was in trouble.
I bet the twin Unnie figured something out before he killed her. Like how to increase his pain while hurting her so the pain becomes a deterrent.
Oh well. We’ll see this weekend. I’ll write about the theme of contradiction later.
Hi all! Not an active poster but I just wanted to share my thoughts for @Phoenix. I think Black hole was able to kill red lady and destroy soul for seven times not sure how many times she got killed by other monsters in the span of time.
So my theory is from the previous incarnation not only Gapsangoe saw dark hole experience pain while killing red lady even she herself first handedly saw his pain. So in this incarnation as a twin sister with all the previous memories she made use of this. She cursed him and made sure her twin sister is safe from him. When he tried to kill sangun after killing her twin sister he did experience the pain and thats when Hwal came in search of her.
Again after years later he tried to kill her but the same repeated. So he changed his course of plan to set Hwal against red lady.
And other thing that I wonder why did black hole went against Hwals family when they don’t even know the existence of 2 bulgasal. Does black hole not able to kill her before 600 yr just like the present time and thats why he made Hwal against red lady? Or the curse is also repeating in its own way?
@BluePearl:
Thank you for sharing your theory😊 Yes, it makes sense that SangUn’s twin before dying, as part of that curse made it impossible for Dark Hole hurting the surviving twin himself. The problem is even if Hwal kills SangUn, will it not injure or kill Dark Hole too then? How to counter that because he mirrors SangUn’s pains? Is there any indication that when the soul is retrieved by Hwal (after killing SangUn or throwing her inside the well), Dark Hole will resurrect again?
Well, like @packmule3 said, maybe the writer is planning to reveal that later.
That later question you asked also made sense. Clearly Dark Hole turned them against each other even in the previous Joseon lifetime. Lots of loose threads left in this drama still.
There is that painting of them as Gods too. I’m more interested in knowing the backstory to Joseon times, if there is one. How did this all start and why? I think that’s why I’m still in this, though I’m kimd of skimming through episodes.
@Phoenix
Same here I too want to know the starting point form where everything went wrong.
And as for your question it does make sense. If Hwal does kills twin it might also kill dark hole as well. Only if the red lady made sure the curse bounds to whoever tries to kill SangUn in the process black hole experience pain.
Just my theory 😅
But if the writer makes the twist that when the owner of the soul (Hwal) tries to retrieve his he may break the curse of sought..😂😂😂
Think it may be too obvious that it’s her maybe who’s memory is lost is hwals and when it returns it’s hom that will kill everyone?
There’s a picture in the dark holes house with her and a man who’s back is turned and all the monsters in it that his killed so think that’s a clue as well
Maybe they are after his soul as a Bulgasal king?
Regarding her could she have wanted a normal life and gave her soul or ‘power’ to dark hole and share pain?
Can’t wait to find out love this Kdrama and leads
Welcome to the blog, @Kavna. Yes, I agree. It’s too OBVIOUS that the shaman/Ahjumma Lee was talking about SangUn’s memory loss, so I suggested other possible suspects. As I said, all of them in the house, as well as Detective Kwon, has some of form of memory loss because they can’t remember their previous reincarnation.
I think however that Dark Hole will do the killings — not SangUn or Hwal — because his lie has been exposed by SangUn’s revelations.
Broadly speaking, SangUn’s revelation can be interpreted as a “return” or recovery of her memory. Those were part of her twin sister’s memories.
Hmm… The dead twin told SW that Hwal is the weapon (sort of) that can kill OET. It brought me back to Ep1 and 2 where we can see 2 person being stabbed to death i.e. Hwal and Red Bulgasal. However, given the consistency of the wound being carried over through incarnations, the dead twin bore them as well as Hwal when he was a baby because she inflicted it in his past life as human/bulgasal/deity. But who carried a wound on his/chest? Now, we know OET carried a cursed wound on his chest inflicted by Red Bulgasal. If he can’t touch SW because it means he is killing himself *defensive mode on autopilot*, SW/Red Bulgasal and Hwal needs a medium to kill OET. And the Red Bulgasal knew who i.e. Hwal. She stabbed him right in the middle of his chest, more or less at a similar location to the dark hole on OET’s chest. She did not expect to receive Hwal’s soul cos she was surprised by it. And she hates him for something, perhaps for making her do it over and over again. So my guess is Hwal in his previous life has forced Red Bulgasal to use him in order to kill OET. A sacrifice on his part because simply no one else can. So the theory that the three of them probably all a bulgasal is possible. While two living peacefully by just drinking animal blood, the other one has got a taste of human blood and become greedy for immortality and power i.e OET. Hence, the painfully tears and reflection that monsters from the same kind also inflicted pain towards each other as human does between human. He felt betrayed by his own kind/crush😂.