K-drama Grandma (K-d G) wrote this:

I’m glad there are so many great theories, because I’m totally lost at this point! If I understand right, the detective is the reincarnation of both Bulgasal’s dads? Plus both Bulgasal’s are brothers, and both used to be human? We have no idea of the story of who the red lady Bulgasal is, or how/if she is related to either of them? Or who the 2 deities are, or if they are 2 of the 3 remaining Bulgasals? I’m fascinated -and confused!

Yes, I think it hints that the reincarnated blind son is now either between life and death, or dead. We’ll see. His reincarnated mom having womb pain as he was stabbed, wow! Hopefully she won’t lose this (reincarnated?) baby, who was stillborn in her former life. So much intertwined fate between them all!

This is what I know, as of Episode 9.

1. Detective Kwon, aka General Dan, was the father of mortal who would turn into Dark Hole during the Year 1000 of the Goryeo Period.

2. Dark Hole aka Ok Eul Tae, was originally a human. He wasn’t born a Bulgasal but he became one under unknown circumstances.

Note: Bulgasal is a term meaning “immortal.” He/she lives forever because of the absence of a soul.

Note 2: That Ok Eul Tae was originally human makes him on par with Hwal because Hwal was also born human, but was transformed into an immortal when he killed the immortal Red Lady.

One big difference between Dark Hole and Hwal is that Dark Hole succumbed to his monster instincts and decided to kill and drink human blood. Hwal refused to do so because:

a. his foster father, General Dan, made him swear to remember that he was originally human. He was to abstain from drinking human blood, so he wouldn’t turn completely into a monstrous Bulgasal.

b. he developed an aversion to it. I found it funny that SangUn offered him her wrist to drink from and he looked grossed out.

3. Dark Hole was originally a sickly individual.

He was so sickly that his father (the chieftain or ruler of a tribe) favored his second son and decided to make him his successor. Dark Hole was angered by this.

I’m hoping that Dark Hole showed pity on DoYoon and his brother because he was once that sickly child.

4. Dark Hole killed his younger brother.

A couple witnessed his murder, but before Dark Hole could attack them to silence them, the Red Lady came out of nowhere and stopped him.

It would have been nice if Dark Hole had spared DoYoon’s life out of a sense of atonement. He already killed his younger brother a millennium ago. He could feel remorse for killing another one who looked up to him as a Hyung.

5. If we go by the facial appearance, the younger brother whom the mortal Ok EulTae killed in Year 1000 was NOT Hwal.

6. The preternatural strength of the Red Lady, along with her glowing eyes, indicated that she wasn’t human. As I said before, since Episode 1, that she was most likely a deity. Some people could argue that she was a spirit or a monster, but judging from the halo, I say she was divine creature.

Note: the painting on Dark Hole/Ok EulTae’s wall must have been commissioned by him. He could have commissioned an artist to paint the scene according to HIS specification. The painting wasn’t an iconography or icon meant fo religious worship like the one found in Hwal’s room. Instead, his painting seemed to tell the legend or origin of the Bulgasal.

7. In Dark Hole’s painting, there was a Red Lady and Blue Lord with halos.

I assume that they represented yin and yang, or a complementary couple. Although we mostly only saw the Red Lady roaming the forest, I think there was a male deity – hidden in the background – who was her other half.

The two of them would be the original immortals or Bulgasal.

8. I predict that male counterpart of the Red Lady was Hwal.

Before he was born as an infant, he was a deity like the Red Lady. They were the original lovers/couple.

The OTP isn’t Hwal and Dan Sol aka SiHo, but Hwal/Blue Lord and the SangUn/Red Lady.

9. I say that Hwal was a long-lost lover of the Red Lady because this would explain why SangYeon (the Unnie and Twin Sister of SangUn) became emotional at the thought of Bulgasal finding them. She became teary-eyed.

I doubt she was crying out of fear. I think she was crying at the thought that Hwal (her lover in Year 1000) was out to kill her because of the mistaken belief that she had killed his family.

It was a bittersweet moment for her. She was glad to see him again after so long, but she had to prepare to die at his hand.

10. We must remember this:

Two Bulgasal.
One Mortal.
One soul.

That soul must belong to a mortal, aka Dark Hole/Ok EunTae. The two original Bulgasal, the Red Lady and Blue Lord, did not have a soul.

In order for this circular fate to end, the soul must be returned to its original owner, and the owner killed. SangYeon hinted at this in Episode 5.

She told Dark Hole, “You will never be able to kill her (meaning SangUn). 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.”

This was a prophecy that SangUn would succeed in returning/replacing the soul to its real owner, Ok EunTae. The soul was making the rounds, going from one Bulgasal to another, and it was high time it returned to its original owner.

That’s why Ok Euntae was desperate to have Hwal kill off SangUn. If she was eliminated with his soul inside her body, then he didn’t have to fear ever again that his soul would be returned to him.

11. My Theory

We all saw that Red Lady became mortal when Hwal’s soul transferred to her, then Hwal stabbed her.

Hwal: Why did you do it? Why did you have to kill my innocent wife and son? You could only have killed me. Tell me why. Tell me why!
Red Lady: (communicating telepathically) This was all your doing. What have you done? You have created more bad karma. And you have brought upon another retribution. I despise you. Truly, I despise you.
Hwal: What do you mean?
Red Lady: I will be born again with this scar that you have given me. (and then she disintegrated into embers)

There seemed to be three conditions:

First, the Bulgasal stabs the human (i.e., SangUn) carrying Ok EunTae’s soul.
Second, Ok Euntae’s soul must transfer to the Bulgasal, thus switching the Bulgasal into a human, and the human into Bulgasal.
Third, as soon as the Bulgasal has changed into mortal being, the Bulgasal stabs it to death

I’m guessing that a similar event took place with Hwal in year 1000. He accidentally became mortal when he stabbed Ok EunTae and Ok EunTae’s soul transferred to him.

The Red Lady could have tried to stab him to get Ok EunTae’s soul out of him.

Remember his dream? Hwal blocked the knife with his hand. That wound became his mark.

I’m guessing the Red Lady cursed the mark so she could find the Ok EunTae’s soul when Hwal reincarnated. Unfortunately, when Hwal reincarnated, he didn’t have any memory of his previous life. To make matters worse, he was fed with all the folklore about the evil, frightening Bulgasal.

Methinks that when the Red Lady stabbed Hwal in the forest, she didn’t expect the soul to migrate to her. She was horrified because the soul was actually Ok EunTae’s, not Hwal’s. Hence, she said that he created “more” bad karma, and that she “despised” him.

The scar on her shoulder was similar to the mark that Hwal had on his hand. The reason their wounds healed and left only a scar was because they were originally deities. Their scars linked them.

In contrast, the dark hole in Ok EunTae’s chest cannot ever heal because he was human to begin with.

12. Experience of Pain

The reason Ok EunTae and SangUn can feel the same pain is because SangUn’s soul used to EunTae’s soul. More pain for SangUn means more pain for EunTae.

The reason that Ok EunTae felt excruciating pain in his chest when Hwal removed the sword from HIS chest (the tunnel scene in Ep 4) is because of yin-yang energy. They feel pain in inverse proportion. More pain for Bulgasal A means less pain for the Bulgasal B.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

That’s it for me. I hope this helps.