The thread is now open for rewatching Ep 10.
Are you ready, Growing_Beautifully, Welmaris, Janey, nrllee, Fern, Kuroshio, Cleopatra, FGB4877, and Carolina?
Usual time: 13:00 UTC
08:00 am EST
05:00 am PST
09:00 pm Singapore, Philippines
08:00 pm Indonesia
03:00 pm Greece
Enjoy the show!
Great that you’re super early @pkml3! I’m ever sooooo ready LOL! 🙂
Hi Everyone, see you tomorrow!!
Kalimera @Packmule3 et al!
Of course, we are ready 😀
Anneyong! @GB Unnie!
Annyeong Doensaeng @Cleo! It’s nice being online at the same time with you this Friday. 🙂 I need to slowly put down some thoughts on Our Beloved Summer and reply to several of us. Read ya again!
@GB Unnie,
I am glad you are online as well! I have a hectic schedule since Wednesday. I want to answer to you on “Our Beloved Summer”. If I don’t do it today, I might do it tomorrow. See ya again! <3
Oh my goodness – the photo!
I had better ditch the c-drama for one day and concentrate on getting up to speed with this week’s Goblin. Many thanks, @GB and @packmule3.
I am eager to get back to Goblin and my rewatch friends. Looking forward to Saturday!
Kalispera from my part of the world, @GB, @Cleo, @Fern, Welmaris and @PM3!, how did this week went for you? 😀
Muy buenos dias, @FGB4877. Everything is going well – we have had some winter sunshine in the last 2 days. I hope to join everyone, but have been busy with some work this week. If I can’t attend, I will look at the comments.
Hello dear FGB and Fern, chilly nights give way to pretty cool to middling hot days over here. Every day there’s the threat of rain, but the rains have abated for a bit.
I hope to see you and read you whether today or in the days to come!
13.5 hours to party time and counting!
I’m going to bed now, as it’s almost 11pm here in California. Being a night owl, this is early for me; I hope I fall asleep right away! My alarm will be ringing in 5-1/2 hours, so I’d better say goodnight.
See you in 6 hours @Welmaris! 🙂
Kalimera @FGB!
I am a bit tired. I had a lot to do but I am okay. How is your part of the world? Did you cook anything significant you want to share with us?
Kalimera Everyone,
I am here 😀
Kalimera, @Cleopatra, I am here! I hope @GB, @FGB, @Fern, and others are joining us in two minutes.
Mmm…As it seems I am the only one online at the moment.
Should I start as planned or wait 5 minutes in order to start with someone else?
Hey @Welmaris!
Kalimera to you! 😀
Good afternoon, everyone. I am here. Indian food leftovers for lunch and feeling sleepy, but I may be able to stay for a while at least. I didn’t watch the entire episode yet.
Hi All, I’m very sleepy but I’ve been drowsing here and we can start now!!!
Hey @Fern,
Stay as long as you can. 🙂
Let’s start!
Hey @GB Unnie,
As it seems today is a weird day….
Good morning1
I’m here
Heh! that hazardous hand hold that Reaper has been avoiding like the plague. We get to see a bit more of the past life story. Just snippets.
Time is shown us more or less in reverse? Of course the broken bowls are ominous.
So, the Grim Reaper because Sunny held his hand, started to see Kim Sun’s previous lifetime. He knows that she is Kim Shin’s sister but he doesn’t know that he is the King.
Hi @Cleo, why is it a weird day?
Greetings everyone. Happy New Year to anyone I haven’t greeted since then.
Kims Shin is pretty worried because he knows that holding the GR hand’s things will become weird…
@GB Unnie,
We were all almost in time for different reasons.
I woke up after a nap but I still have a headache…
Hi Carolina, glad you’ve made it!!
Hi Fern and everyone else too.
LOL does Sunny have no other qualifications or identity except ‘beautiful woman’?
Good morning everyone!
My comments didn’t post. Not sure if this thing is refreshing right. I’m here!
@Cleo I took a nap to try and be more awake, but I’ve been getting very sleepy around this time lately. Still sleepy after a nap as well.
We get the editing cutting between the previous Kim Sun and the current Kim Sun… it seems the Show would like us ot be clear about who’s whom.
Hey @Carolina!
Sunny seems to be beautiful but this is because we don’t know much about Kim Sun either.
Sunny is the only person from all the gang that held her memories. That means for me that she is more than beautiful. She is gifted like the Sun.
Hello, Carolina. I saw 2 comments from you. Joining and just now.
We can read you @Carolina!
So Sunny was 3rd time lucky in her guess that Reaper is a grim reaper. LOL. How stunned he was!
@Cleopatra, is that why she calls Goblin brother? She played that down.
@GB,
I think that the past Kim Sun love the King but she was with her brother. Mostly because she realized how bad influenced he was under.
As for the new Kim Sun / Sunny, she always is alone. She is like a jewel left inside her store in order to others watch it from a far, like the Queen she was in her previous life.
@Fern,
The Queen aka Kim Sun always called Kim Shim Oraeboni!
That’s why in this current life Goblin asked Sunny. Why did you call me like that…Especially with the same name they both share.
@Cleopatra, it seemed to me that she was waiting for GR for a long time, maybe years.
Yes, thank you. My connection must be slow. Sorry about that.
@cleo I don’t remember Sunny having her memories. And Sunny is gifted like the Sun, I didn’t think of her as having a gift.
I’m stopping so I can write. I’m at the part where GR is trying to figure out who Sunny is.
All the main characters seem to have a gift
Sunny just said to the Grim Reaper the kind of their relationship and I feel it is kinda the same when they were married in their previous life.
She was alone in the Queen Palace and didn’t see him that much.
Grim Reaper bothers to write out the clues as to Sunny’s identity.
1) Her face matches the young queen Kim Sun
2) Kim Shin recognises her as his sister
Is Sunny then the reincarnation of Kim Sun the sister of KS.
Not sure?
Then he tries again.
1) He cried the first time he saw the portrait of Kim Sun and
2) He cried when he first met Sunny.
Why did I cry? What was the feeling? (Pain/grief?)
Are the two women’s history related to my erased memories?
Poor GR is still not sure even after all that.
@Carolina,
She will remember later on and she will make the CHOICE not to give away her memories…
I think that Goblin is fairly sure that Sunny is his sister’s reincarnation. Back at the house, poor GR is trying to use logic to determine who she is and why he is so affected by her.
Hello Ladies, how are you?. I am still fixing my arepas. Will start soon!!! 😀
Eun Tak is accosting KS because it displeased her that he was too super interested in his boss in front of his bride LOL.
You were bluffing about buying up the whole chicken store… the GR ended up paying for everything! Goblin is consistently stingy!!!
Sunny, by grabbing Grim Reaper’s hand, unlocks images of Kim Sun’s past, which are also his past. We don’t know yet if Grim Reaper recognizes the young king in the memories as himself. Grim Reaper does put together the Kim Sun of the past images with the portrait of Goblin’s sister. Goblin, watching the other two through the window, may be seeing the visions of their past because he’s seeing their immediate futures.
Without having all his memories regarding Kim Sun restored, Grim Reaper tries deducing the truth about Sunny and how she relates to Goblin and himself.
Poor ET, the Goblin’s Bride, is left out of all the past-memory drama because she wasn’t there 900 years ago to share it with Goblin, Grim Reaper, and Kim Shin…lucky her. But in the present she’s jealous because she thinks Goblin is interested in hitting on Sunny.
Hello @FGB!
Cook and come when you can! We will read you!
Ah, first the pepper seasoning and then the ketchup. Poor GR can’t concentrate on anything. Thank goodness Goblin is there and willing to speak with him about his own recollections.
Now, we see that the previous King gave a specific order to Kim Shin.
He was going to give his sister to King’s brother and would protect him from doing harm and from dying.
So, Kim Shin from the very beginning, was following his King’s orders and his promise.
Hi @FGB! Enjoy your arepas!
I’m at the stage where Eun Tak is giving KS a mild dressing down for being a stingy person who’s super interested in her boss.
LOL we get to hear that he never did manipulate it such that she’d definitely get the job with beautiful Sunny. He just narrowed down her job choices to a fried chicken place. What do you think. Is that the truth?
At least ET is learning something about Goblin and his sister’s past lives by overhearing the conversation with GR in the kitchen.
LOL ET is still on and on about wanting her 3 wishes to be granted – to get a job and a boyfriend.
KS is giving her the eye “Why do you keep mentioning a boyfriend?” – It seems she has in mind that a boyfriend has to be a young chap and in college, like Tae Hee oppa. KS can’t be called oppa, so he does not qualify! LOL.
It was love at first sight for both the Young King and Kim Sun. But because of that she broke the bowls. Someone has commented that was ominous and it was…
@Fern look this scene with the palaquin. We have seen it before. The word Orabeoni is heard twice…
Kim Sun is marrying the King so she is taken to the Palace. Kim Shin was following her on foot. He calls her ugly.
While in this reincarnation Sunny is beautiful.
After watching sageuk I can regnonize the difference in language. 😀
KS plays the angry boyfriend but since he can’t hug and kiss a minor, he compromises with much shoulder patting and head strokes LOL. Kinda romantic still and ET is appeased.
So the ring has to change hands for a while, for research purposes, and he has to report to her what he finds out.
Oh dear GR is ruining his meal!
I miss you the anthem for the King and Queen but also for the Grim Reaper and Sunny…
Yes, @Cleo, orabeoni is the old, formal way of calling someone older brother or oppa.
I’m still slowly watching at the time KS and GR are cooking and talking.
@GB, yes. He never likes to say directly to women that they are beautiful. At least not at first.
Correction: The word Orabeoni is heard twice, transcribed twice.
KS calls his sister a realy beauty but to her face he calls her ‘ugly’.
He tragically died by the sword of his master whom he served and by the very sword given to him by that master. So humiliating, so tragic, so sad.
@GB,
I am a bit further, Kim Shin is saying his story…
We get to see the evil eunuch who threatens Kim Sun
Poor little boy who had only Park Joong Won, his tutor and scholar as his guardian. And the little boy, GR, is listening to the story of some of his life, without knowing it!
It’s so touching that Goblin, speaking to the portrait as he looks at it, tells his sister that he’s finally doing well. Uh, oh…we in Kdramaland know what that means: things will now take a bad turn.
Sunny admits that she was drawn to the ring, and wanted it not for itself, but as a way to connect with Grim Reaper. Immediately on seeing the ring, she felt it was hers. Immediately on seeing Grim Reaper the first time, she also wanted to have him in her life.
Other reactions on first meetings: Grim Reaper cried when he saw Sunny, and cried when he saw the portrait of Goblin’s sister, Kim Sun. Sunny called Goblin oraboni (big brother). In my mind, there’s no question that Sunny is the reincarnation of Kim Sun, Grim Reaper is Wang Yeo, and Goblin is Kim Sun’s brother.
During his conversation with Grim Reaper, it seems Goblin wasn’t able to see the visions Grim Reaper was having when Sunny held his hand. But Goblin is suspicious Sunny is Kim Sun.
Goblin loved his little sister, “my little rascal,” and wishes well for her if she’s reincarnated. He wants her, in her new life, to be peaceful, to do well, and to be loved.
“My little rascal” suggests to me that Kim Shin and Kim Sun’s relationship was lovingly contentious.
And we get to see that with his is setting up Kim Shin as a traitor…
I kinda lost my internet connection.
Poor KS. To follow such orders from the king, how to ensure a teenager king follows the right path and makes the right choices. No way unless KS was a courtier next to the king instead of a warrior who’s always away in battle. The king should have had more backup persons to take care of his brother, Wang Yeo.
Even marrying a young queen would not protect the king. The established Park JW had more power than anyone.
THe King is poisoned by the eunuch and he envies Kim Shin.
Kim Sun is petrified by the words she hears by the King and then the eunuch orders the King to kill Kim Shin.
That’s why the Queen stays with her brother until the end. Because she cannot follow that madness…
Hi @Cleo, I hope you got Internet connection back!
I’m at 18:00 minutes and the dragon path to the king. Park puts the child king at his own feet.
@GB Unnie,
I am in the 33:14 minutes.
I love how Kim Shin is teasing the grim reaper if he is his sister.
Finally here. Will start now…
The thing is that Kim Sun was able to walk well with the bowls without dropping them, until she first saw the king watching her. So is that a sign that they should not have met?
It certainly augered ill to come, with a broken relationship, instead of greater unity.
Oh this scene with Eun Tak’s friend ghost….
I was very touched by the scenes with the friend ghost. I have to watch it again.
Am at where the king catches his falling queen, amid the cherry blossoms.
@GB Unnie,
Same… <3
From that moment on, we learn the whole truth about the past…
Such a pity that as the queen says, she thought it would be nice to meet in the middle, but the king in the end never did. He only listened to 1 person instead of to his wife, never meeting anyone in the middle. He took the easy route of listening to his sole advisor and then walking away after making his royal command.
@Cleopatra, I’ve just been mopping my eyes with the ghost friend of Eun Tak and her mother. How amazing. Then going to the end of the pier to have a one-sided conversation with her mother…
@Fern,
Same over here…
Evil Park sets KS up as the rival of the king to get the king jealous and to justify the king’s and murder of KS and his family.
KS is ordered to go into battle and die, to notify the king of his death and never to return.
I remember thinking back then how does the king gets to be manipulated so easily. I guess the king saw eunuch as a father figure?
Yes @Carolina, it seems that Park was successful in keeping everyone else away from the young king, so he was the sole influence and the only one Wang Yeo trusted til the end. Everything that the queen was trying to warn against, Park had already put up a counter attack for in the king’s mind, so that Wang Yeo would not listen to her.
@Carolina,
The Eunuch shaped the King as he wanted since he raised him from a little boy.
What is strange is that this young king had no other advisors at all. Everyone one disappeared, leaving him alone with just one evil serpent whispering in his ear.
I have to sign out now. It has been lovely and I look forward to next week.
Bye @Fern! Have a nice evening ahead!
One couple is splitting and the other is going out!
Awww man I’m crying on the ghost friend. Even though I knew it was coming.
What a nice friend.
lol goblin taking credit for his gesture of opening the door. And NASA lol
Eun Tak is finally an adult and she wants SUL and ROMANCE!!! LMAO!
Bye @fern read you soon. Take care
I like how Eun Tak tries to make up for the treachery of Park and Wang Yeo by telling him 3 things that will cheer him up.
1) Flowers look good on you…any kind of flower. Not just buckwheat flowers. KS is surprised by her saying something sweet out of the blue and is looking at her earnestly.
2) Ahjusshi is really my type. (Strange/weird and beautiful LOL. That makes him smile) Any time and moment. (So no need to be jealous over Tae Hee oppa. LOL)
3) Ahjusshi you have a really good personality.
She’s giving him consolation or cheering him on. More romantic and touching than kisses and all that.
Park Jong Won, a professor from Sungkyunkwan, was the tutor for the young son of the king. Wang Yeo was the child of the previous king and a low-born woman. He was born after his father, the king, died. His mother died shortly after he was born. His older brother became king when their father died. The succeeding king and all the others in line to the throne died. At their time of death it appeared they died of an hereditary illness, but the truth is they were poisoned. All of the palace officials that questioned the goings-on also mysteriously died.
General Kim Shin received from the previous king, Wang Yeo’s older brother, the command to protect Wang Yeo. Part of the plan to protect him was to have him marry Kim Shin’s younger sister, Kim Sun. So that marriage was arranged at the command of a king.
Even before the marriage took place, Park Jong Won was poisoning Wang Yeo against both Kim Sun and Kim Shin. “A marriage to a petty military official’s sister? It would have been nice if the late king had withheld his last wish.”
Park Jong Won’s plan was to have Wang Yeo completely under his control, so that he could exercise power through him. Park Jong Won was greedy for power, and resentful he wasn’t of royal lineage so he could wield it directly.
Wang Yeo seemed pleased with the prospect of marrying Kim Sun once he saw her. She became a “variable” in Park Jong Won’s plan for full control over Wang Yeo: someone else who could possibly influence him in opposition to Park Jong Won.
It is confirmed that Kim Shin and Kim Sun had a teasing relationship. Kim Sun expressed worry that she wasn’t going to see her brother again before she got married, not having seen him all day while traveling to her wedding. Walking beside her palanquin, Kim Shin says to his sister, “I should have [stayed away]. I have no idea what I find pretty in such an ugly face to come here.”
Despite their veiling their affection in teasing, it is obvious there is love between Kim Shin and Kim Sun. He doesn’t want her to worry about him, even though he doubts he’ll be able to respect her wish to come visit her often in the palace.
Shin: Your brother lives on the battlefield. Here, no news is good news.
Sun: As if I didn’t know. Don’t worry about me. I will be happy, Orabeoni.
And Gong Yoo is dashing while hitting all those guys… LOL
He is smiling with Eun Tak’s drunken state…And we know what is coming ! LMAO! Her first kiss!
Goblin stopped time again!
Kim Sun and Wang Yeo’s love story is a grieving for all the flowers (beautiful relationships) that we didn’t appreciate until it was far too late.
Buying green onions and then walking dashing in a cat walk again…But with a twist! LMAO!
Ha! I’m at the part where DH is at the department store.
DH: if you were to know the truth, you would be really surprised. Someone surprising that’s from way up there who starts from the bottom.
Can’t write fast on this iPad lo. But I thought what DH said could b meant both as a chaebol and deity.
GR; “made in heaven” lol
“Thought it would be nicer for us to meet in the middle”. Yes, that is what a good relationship starts with.
LOL Reaper’s hat is made in heaven. It got cold in the store. Reaper can freeze and unfreeze his phone.
GR wants to hold her hand again to get more images of her past. It’s New Year’s Eve and GR is about to get dumped.
Wang Yeo and Kim Sun are attracted to one another. There was potential for a good relationship between them, but Park Jong Won poisoned it with his words. “You must control the strength with which you hold that lowly thing in your hand. If your grasp is tight as though your treasure it, that lowly and precious thing will die without fail. Because of that hand, a foolish child, a lowly maternal family, a wife’s family that is even lower than your mother’s family.” Park Jong Won reports these rumors with double purpose: to kill off yet another dissenting noble, and to lower Kim Sun in her husband’s esteem. He also uses his words to shake the king’s self esteem. PJW claims to be Wang Yeo’s father in all but blood, yet he doesn’t have love for WY as a person, only as a means to power.
Now, I remembered this episode’s ending… :’-(
What a cute idea ET has of romance LOL. She can drink quite a bit without getting drunk. Still I think she was a bit tipsy when she wanted the kiss.
LOL she thought KS hired the guys to show off to her. In the end he wants to entertain ET. I’m the one being entertained while ET drinks on and on.
Old school duel with a mop handle LOL. He wields it like a sword.
Heheheh! the thug’s friends cause him more pain than KS.
The Goblin and the Reaper are talking and Kim Shin finds out that Sunny is his sister…
AND now we see who the grim reaper was in his past life, the King himself.
Episode 10 ended for me. From this time and beyond the episodes will become steadily sad with the peak in Episode 13. *sighs*
Poor Reaper ends up alone on New Year’s Eve when he’d expected to hold Sunny’s hand.
Now the cool model walk with green onions LOL. What a spoof out of that tunnel, with those expressions, in those great overcoats. They didn’t kill the motorcyclist because they were cool LOLOL.
LOL slow walking with onions and the bike. This is one of the reasons I like this show. The funny parts and sweet moments between the characters.
Bwahahahah! Fried Egg Fashion! Good way to make them a couple fashion statement. Egg yolk with egg white works too!
Or head and tail of Beansprouts Fashion LOLOL.
Loved the scene between Eun Tak and her mother friend’s ghost. It dawned on her that she was well loved.
Chairman Yu’s impending death – KS wisely does not inform DH. There will always be regrets in the face of death. It’s best to not know in advance.
I have to go for now! Have a nice weekend!
Read you all laters! xo
Yes @FGB, ET finally realises that she was not alone afterall. Her mother’s friend became her friend and protected her future in her mother’s savings. That poor lonely girl.
Bye @Cleo!
@cleo bye!
From the time PJW got access to Wang Yeo as a young child, influencing his decisions, Kim Shin and Kim Sun were doomed. In PJW’s mind, they were two more impediments to be removed, just as the previous king and his heirs had been eliminated. “So, just some lowly sister of some petty military officer, cease your admonitions. I’m not the one you should be lecturing to. It’s your older brother. To the borders where he was sent to be buried, he is still victorious. Isn’t that will of his quite vicious? They are saying there are two kings to one nation. Two suns in one sky. If that is not treason…then what is?” By doing well his job as general, winning battles and staying alive, Kim Shin was being branded as a traitor. He was supposed to die for the convenience of the court, as planned by PJW, but wasn’t complying. Gaining fame for his victories was not Kim Shin’s own doing, but the response of others to the news of his successes. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that PJW himself started the whisper campaign to pit Kim Shin against the king just to have a reason to tear him down. “As the military officer’s power grows, the royal family is put into a dire crisis. Strike the head of Great General Kim Shin. Insist he’s wrong and show your power.”
Kim Shin had no recourse to defend either himself or his sister. Even before he returned to the capitol and stepped foot onto the palace grounds, he was a condemned man. His sister, Kim Sun, knew this, having heard such directly from the mouths of PJW and the king. Even knowing Kim Shin’s inevitable death, Kim Sun called him back to the court to try and speak with the king. As I see it, it wasn’t Kim Shin’s obliviousness and stubborn persistence that killed his sister and his loyal troops, it was Kim Sun that laid an impossible obligation on her brother that led to all the deaths, including her own. “The path to the king was too far. In the end I could not reach him. Even though I knew I could not reach it…even after knowing that…I…I could only go forward. That place was my last battle and I was to die there.” Kim Shin, in his last moments, strove to fulfill his sister’s last request of him, and also fulfilled Wang Yeo’s command that he die in battle. It was a tragic death. It was an unnecessary death. PJW framed it as a traitorous death, but it was the death of a righteous person. I believe that is why the almighty gave Kim Shin another chance by turning him into Goblin.
Goblin does recognize the thinking behind the king’s wanting him dead, even though it was based on false assumptions: “I returned in violation of the royal command. I disregarded the young king’s jealousy and fears. I couldn’t forget the late king’s plea to protect Yeo. I needed to save the lives of the innocent. And above all else, my sister was protecting that dummy’s life with her life.” General Kim Shin never coveted power the way PJW did. He wanted to protect Wang Yeo in his role as king, as did the Queen, Kim Sun. Neither wanted to usurp the king’s power, but wanted to end PJW’s wicked influence.
Thanks @Welmaris for the details. You are right about KS helping/defending his sister and king. So do you think the ring holds Sunnys past regret?
I have to go 🙁
Thanks everyone for the fun rewatch. It is so much better. See you all next time.
We have another “is Grim Reaper Sunny?” moment. Grim Reaper is showing Goblin Kim Sun’s ring that he borrowed from Sunny.
Goblin: You didn’t take that back to give to me, right? I don’t want to be in that kind of relationship with you.
Reaper: Concentrate please. Look at it properly. Have you seen this?
Goblin: You, perhaps do you wish you were my sister? Is that why you asked about my past? Put on the ring Let’s see what happens.
Reaper: Don’t come close. Don’t come close, I said!
Goblin: Sun, are you receiving love now?
Reaper [backing away and shaking his head vigorously]: Ahhhhh!…I want to be alone now.
Goblin: My Sun also liked to be alone.
Reaper: Leave. I said, leave!
Neither one seems seems intent on proving Grim Reaper is Kim Sun: rather, Goblin is bringing the theory to light as a way to highlight its improbability, and Reaper is quick to deny it.
Bye @Carolina! See you again. 🙂
ET says several kind things to Goblin. After overhearing the story of his previous life and death, she wants to comfort and encourage him. Because the tenor of their relationship leans more toward teasing, Goblin is suspicious. He questions what ET meant when she asserted that he’s her style in every way. “How am I your style specifically?” He smiles at her response, “Strange and beautiful.”
… And finally Sunny’s cat is out of the bag 😉 .
It has been a beautiful episode. Will read your comments later and reply properly 😀 .
Bye @FGB and @Welmaris! I’ll read you later!
I had forgotten (having first watched Goblin long ago), so I got chills when I learned that ET’s ghost friend in the school library was her mother’s best friend in school. “Why would I be by your side then? I was there because you are her daughter.” Out of love for her school friend, she protected her daughter, ET, by keeping the bankbooks out of the greedy aunt’s hands. ET is grateful, but also concerned about her mother’s friend, Go Jeong Hyeon. “Because of this…you wandered and could not go? Because of me?” The ghost friend’s response is touching: “While I was wandering around, I did feel the fun in watching you grow up.”
This does beg the question: Why did Go Jeong Hyeon wander from the time she was killed, just before high school graduation, until the time her friend Ji Yeon Hee gave birth to Eun Tak? I can understand she may have felt compelled to stay and watch over both Ji Yeon Hee and her nameless baby when they both became miscellaneous omitted, if she even knew about that fact. My impression is that Go Jeong Hyeon’s ghost is restricted to the school’s library, which means she didn’t get to see Eun Tak until ET started to attend that high school. Perhaps she heard about Eun Tak’s birth from the other ghosts’ rumors about the Goblin’s Bride being born. And it seems the ghost gossip network kept the subject of Eun Tak, the Goblin’s Bride, going for all the years ET was growing up. When ET met new ghosts, they seemed to know her identity. ET often got the impression they wanted her to use her influence as the Goblin’s Bride for their benefit, even before she met Goblin during her senior year in high school. I wonder if Go Jeong Hyeon helped influence the decision for ET to receive financial assistance to attend that high school.
One of the themes highlighted in this episode, and throughout the whole show, is feeling gratitude and expressing gratitude. ET, despite all the hardships she’s endured, feels deeply grateful for those who stepped up to care for her: her mother, her mother’s deceased friend, Goblin, etc. She makes a point to say thank you. And we see Goblin also thanking people he’s helped for growing up well.
The first kiss (because the one in the buckwheat field was just a peck): Show waited until ET was culturally reached the age of majority (past midnight on New Year’s Eve of the year she’d have her 20th birthday). Goblin may be her ahjussi, but ET and Goblin are both adults when they share their first romantic kiss. I think it’s sweet and romantic that Goblin tells ET that holding himself back hasn’t been easy: “I’m not evading. It was hard to evade you even once.” ET’s face looks so radiant after she gets her first true kiss from Goblin. And he looks so happy.
Bwahaha! The setup and comedic recreation of Goblin and Grim Reaper’s slo-mo walk through the fog is perfect. Thank you, Show, for giving us that New Year treat (per the show’s timeline, and not too far past for us rewatchers).
Goblin and Grim Reaper talking while day drinking…
Reaper: There’s something I didn’t tell you. That I saw Sunny’s past life.
Goblin: You said it was a secret.
Reaper: Sunny seems to be a reincarnation of your younger sister.
Goblin: Sunny is? Not you?
Reaper: Sunny’s face in a previous life is the same as the face of the woman in the portrait you have.
Goblin: You’re sure of it? What did you see?
Reaper: The woman I saw was standing in a spot in a palace. She was wearing white and her ranking seemed high. She was shot in the chest by an arrow and she collapsed while bleeding.
Goblin: I told you that. Maybe not the white clothes, but the arrow…I don’t think I said that. What else? Did you see anything else?
Reaper: While she was riding in a palanquin when she saw someone, she smiled, through a small window. She smiles as she asks, “Am I pretty today?” A voice answered her. “You’re ugly.” [Simultaneously, Goblin says “You’re ugly.”] Is it really your younger sister?
Goblin: It’s her.
The last image we have of Episode 10 is Grim Reaper as he looked as an adult in the Goryeo era. He looks good with the facial hair and manbun. Why doesn’t Lee Dong Wook do period dramas more often?
I can see where some might think that the GR was Sunny, based on the ambiguous glimpses he gets of her history. He was teased twice about it by Goblin, in an early episode and in this one. (But perhaps in the same vein as Goblin telling both ET and his sister that they are ugly – he loves to tease GR.) But I also think the GR would know if Sunny in a previous life was him or not, judging on him having had other experiences seeing people’s past lives. Then we have the glimpse of him as an adult king at the end, with the same face. Yes, @Welmaris, he does look good there. 😉
I want to clear up a couple of things.
First, I suggested that ET’s ghost friend Go Jeong Hyeon was limited to the school library; on reflection that can’t be correct, because she was the one who always took the bank books out of the greedy aunt’s possession. She must’ve been able to wander outside the school library.
Second, although many commentators over the years on many online sites discussing Goblin have called Park Jong Won a eunuch, I don’t believe he was. We’re told he was a professor at Sungkyunkwan who was appointed to be young king Wang Yeo’s tutor. A eunuch serving in the palace would not have the autonomy and authority PJW exercised. He would be more like the character Hong Deok Ro we saw in The Red Sleeve, able to come and go as he wished, outside the hierarchical structure imposed on servants within the palace.
What I don’t understand is why there were no elders of the extended royal family to act as regent for the child king. No dowager queen? No uncle? We’re told that PJW eliminated many people in order to open the path to the throne for Wang Yeo, but did PJW kill all of WY’s senior relatives? I know this is fiction, and the plot required WY to be isolated and vulnerable, but I wonder how such a situation could come to pass in real life. With people mysteriously dropping dead in the king’s palace, the crown prince’s palace, perhaps the dowager queen’s palace (Wang Yeo’s grandmother and/or aunt), you’d think someone would figure out there was a serial killer in the court. The previous king, who asked KS to protect WY, did seem suspicious about the manner of his own death, but laying responsibility only on Kim Shin and Kim Sun to protect Wang Yeo seems a weak plan. At the time of the previous king’s death, Kim Sun was as young or younger than Wang Yeo, so not an effective protector. And why didn’t Kim Shin have a greater presence at court following the previous king’s command? I can’t imagine how KS could protect Wang Yeo from his childhood enthronement until age fifteen if he wasn’t by the young king’s side. Did the previous king think Kim Shin could protect Wang Yeo by proxy? I’m just musing, and rambling, because I’m finding it hard to believe that systems in place for generations would break down so completely before Wang Yeo took the throne.
Hah! @Welmaris, you’ve raised the same questions I did upthread! It was unbelievable that there was no one else for little Wang Yeo except PJW. It was also too weird that the big brother king should rely on KS, a soldier, to take care of his brother, when KS would be out of court and not near the child. This is one of the few weak parts of the set up/script. Not quite believable.
@GB, you asked if Sunny has any qualifications other than being beautiful. That question had had me thinking since yesterday. Comparing what we know about Sunny and Kim Sun:
Sunny
–Runs a business that doesn’t draw in many customers, yet manages to stay afloat financially and move her shop to a more upscale location
–Spends a lot of time alone, waiting.
–Speaks her mind openly
–Will go all-in in pursuit of something she wants
–Has a caring heart and offers practical help without fuss
–Says her lips never touch alcohol, then drinks because she wants to get drunk
–Is intrigued, rather than put off, by Grim Dealer’s odd behavior
–Goes to a shaman to learn more about Grim Reaper, then decidedly disbelieves and ignores what the shaman says
–Considers her physical beauty to be her calling card to the world, yet is matter-of-fact about it rather than vain
–Has a soft heart, and allows herself to follow its lead. Truly cares for ET as a person, not just an employee. Fears being emotionally hurt by Grim Reaper, yet is willing, up to a point, to build a relationship with him while knowing few facts about him.
–Is an orphan. No other known family members.
–Calls Goblin Oribeoni from the first time she meets him. Squabbles with Goblin.
Kim Sun
–Is General Kim Shin’s younger sister and only remaining family member.
–When she and Wang Yeo are small children, the king, with his dying wish, commands they marry in hope of protecting Wang Yeo.
–Works at learning to behave like a refined lady of the court. Is not naturally adept at it. Pulls up her skirts and runs like a tomboy to meet the king the first time.
–Is thought pretty by her brother, but to her face he calls her ugly. She knows he’s teasing and doesn’t take it to heart.
–Is loved by her brother; he calls her his little rascal. They have a comfortable, teasing relationship
–Wang Yeo is pleased when he sees her for the first time
–Assures her brother she will be happy at the court after marrying the king
–As queen, is physically and socially isolated in the palace.
–Is concerned about the welfare of her husband, the king
–Is powerless against the plottings of Wang Yeo’s lifelong tutor and advisor. Her attempt to admonish the advisor is met with anger and threats.
–Despite poor odds of success and awareness of risk to her life and others, tries to communicate with Wang Yeo and separate him from his toxic advisor
–Trusts her brother above all others
–Demonstrates calm courage while in great peril. Maintains a noble demeanor.
–Is willing to sacrifice herself for the welfare of her husband, the king, and the country in an attempt to eliminate an evil influence
–Suffers a fatal injury, unjustly inflicted, without outcry
–After her death, Wang Yeo becomes obsessed with her, himself painting many portraits of her.
I have somewhere I need to go this afternoon, so I’ll leave this here for now. I invite anyone else to draw parallels from these lists.
Talking about weather: here in the mountains ringing the Los Angeles Basin, it is c-c-c-cold. At 4pm the outside temperature is 41°F / 5°C. A mountain community news outlet reported last night, “20-30 vehicles stuck on ice, Some facing wrong way, installing chains…We’re receiving reports of ❄️ at higher elevations, sticking…Be prepared. Keep chains and emergency supplies in your vehicles.” I’m staying warm in my cozy cabin, grateful it is habitable after the rain, snow, and ice storms a few weeks ago. Tree trimmers finally made time in their full schedule to clear the fallen oak branches off my roof and cut down the most dangerous broken branches still dangling from the big, old oak that overhangs my cabin. Here’s a link to a GIF of a brave, talented trimmer at work in the tree crown about 30 feet / 9 meters above my cabin. https://drive.google.com/file/d/18YILM406e5kKAUtpM4ixBFUHjSuM1sBJ/view?usp=drivesdk
Well, darn…I typed the above comment into the wrong thread. The discussion of current weather conditions was in the thread for Episode 11. Oh, well…