The thread is now open for spoilers.
I think this director has a weird fetish for back hugs, lol.
1. From Episode 1
2. From Episode 3
3. From Episode 4
source: marcofffca-sonca9’s tumblr
4. From Episode 4
5. From Episode 7
source: dangermousie’s tumblr
6. From Episode 10
source: dangermousie’s tumblr
I’m looking forward to more back hugs because I can’t imagine front hugs between Hwal and SangUn at the moment.
In my opinion, any feelings they have for each other right now can’t be legit love, but more a form of trauma bonding. They feel a connection because they’re going through an ordeal where they’re required to live together and depend on each other. Hwal may confuse his protective instinct and guilt for affection. Meanwhile, she’s falling for him because he’s the one who can ensure her survival and her sister’s.
As much as I’m a romance junkie, I just don’t think it’s looovvvvve.
Let’s enjoy the show.
Anneyong! Let us see what it will happen tonight!
Episode 11
We learned something we didn’t know before, IF what Dark Hole told to Hwal is correct that I believe it is up to a point.
Bulgasals always are born in pairs and one is the lifeline for the other. So in order Dark Hole to die, that means Hwal needs to die as well.
Also, Lady in Red gave the grudge to Hwal 1000 years ago.
So, everything started 1000 years ago. If that is the case then the Lady in Red and the Man in Blue was Sang Un and Hwal.
Since Dark Hole accused them from his brother’s murder, the Man in Blue was killed then and Dark Hole became a Bulgasal in his place. I guess what we were discussing in the previous threads, that Hwal’s soul isn’t Hwal’s, but Dark Hole’s is coming to be true.
Let us see what it will happen tomorrow.
P.S. Do Hyun is alive!
Hi @Cleo! and @pkml3
I did my jump into the middle, to watch Episode 11, after having missed Episodes 6-10. I was glad to see that the blood-letting has eased off, but that hands getting cut and Hwal getting stabbed is still the standard practice.
So the Bulgasal is always a duo?
The sibling thing seems significant. Dark Hole had a brother, Do Yun had a brother, Sang Un has her sister (and a dead twin). It’s a bit messy that in different lives, the similar individual, Kwon, was father to Dark Hole and adoptive father to Hwal. So in that convoluted way, they are brothers who are fated to kill each other, unless another solution can be found.
The logic of this dramaverse seems to be that what was put in place 600-1,000 years in the past wrt the Bulgasal and the curse, must still be in place in the present.
If Dark Hole had a brother before, then, then he must have a corresponding ‘brother’ now, who is Hwal. However the Lady in Red is also a twin in the present. Wouldn’t it have been neat if 1 of the twins was assigned to stab OET in the heart (stole his heart and left a hole!), while the other twin was to win the heart of Hwal by loving him, both conquering the Bulgasal at the same time?
We still are waiting to know why the Lady applied the Bulgasal curse upon Hwal (and maybe Dark Hole). If the Lady in Red and the Man in Blue are deities, then they are deities who keep losing their power as they come and go in human form, in different lives, sometimes keeping and sometimes losing their memories. It’s still a mess.
This episode gave a lot of tremendously long sweet, ‘family’ sequences. It felt like an interlude before a return to horror, but show has decided to confirm the romance at the end of the episode. I guess the odd numbered episodes lure us into relaxing while the even numbered episodes will have the worrisome cliff hanger.
Coming back in after a hiatus, I am at least relieved to find that Hwal has added more warmth and expression to his reactions/responses to the humans around him. It looks like it is an effort for him, however, and not quite organic.
I found the Hwal-Dark Hole conversation almost lame and ludicrous before Dark Hole took over to fight. Lee Joon’s Dark Hole does a good job of looking comically facetious and deceptively innocuous, before he heads in for the kill. His spiel about how it was Hwal 600 year earlier, who had told him to bring the Lady and to turn him into Bulgasal is probably a load of cr*p. LOL.
P3, GB, and Cleo (easier to type, do you mind?), I love your ideas!!
Those screenshots, ha ha! So many hugs.
Yes! The repeated twin and sibling themes seem like hugs clues, and linked to the idea behind the painting of the Red Lady and Blue Man.
More story twists, I love it! But I too doubt that what Dark Hole is saying is entirely true. A little true perhaps, in yet-to-be-revealed backstory of how this whole mess began, since we still don’t know much about the Blue Man. Besides, how many half truths and lies has Dark Hole spun so far? Many! He has his own agenda, I think. I don’t trust him at all.
What does seem true from the psychic sister’s view into past lives, is that both Bulgasals need to die to break the curse and restore whatever went wrong at the beginning. Supposedly. Hmmm…
You all raised some interesting ideas: Can karma or fate be changed by mending/healing/saving what was broken instead of destroying/killing it?
I’m relieved the stabbed boy is okay! I love how the family is starting to bond, it’s sweet. The friendships forming are cute. That fishing part was adorable, I’m a sucker for scene like that!
Where is the plot going to go from here? I’m so curious!
Kalimera @GB and @K-d G!
Yes, @GB Unnie, Bulgasal are a duo. I totally get that. It has to be balance. Yin – yan and so on.
I wanted to specify something because @K-d G made a question above.
Karma has NOTHING to do with Fate.
Karma is a universal law that says what you do has a consequence.
If you don’t atone for that, you won’t get out of it. From what I have gathered, you can carry karma that might have come several lives ago lets say.
So, in our dramaverse all started 1.000 years ago.
Dark Hole made a choice that had also a consequence. He became the killer of his own brother. He was a murderer. Not only he didn’t accept the punishment in human law, but he also made his father / Detective Kwon to seek justice upon another.
So, Dark Hole not only killed his brother, he manipulated others in order to kill someone innocent. Because of all these, the Lady in Red cursed him. If she was a deity, then she gave him Punishment.
But he didn’t stay put. He continue to kill and terrorize humans.
How bad do you think Dark Hole’s karma is?
The worst part is that he hasn’t feel any remorse to his actions. Even with stabbing Do Hyun, you might think that he felt something for the kiddo but no. It was all an act.
Since some people were affected by his actions, all those are brought in this karma cycle and are repeating the same things.
I agree @GB Unnie, I don’t think that he said to Hwal the truth about Lady in Red.
I believe that the Man in Blue and Lady in Red were lovers. What made Lady in Red to hate him 600 years ago I don’t know but it could be a bravado.
If we take into consideration HOW Sang Un is treating Hwal, that means in her psyche a part of her truly loved Hwal.
Since Dark Hole was always hunting down Lady in Red, she didn’t have time to address her feelings, but she was always calculating what she has to do.
As I have told you before, we have an unreliable narrator. What Si-Ho saw it was not the truth, but a fragment of the truth.
That’s why in Episode’s 12 preview we got to see the Shaman Lady / Mrs Lee’s inner child to give her a deer warning NOT to see memories of a previous life.
Si-Ho is preoccupied. She won’t trust Hwal, because in her past live she blamed him for all their misfortunes.
That’s why the cycle is unbreakable. Dark Hole started it, but the other game players, Sang Un and Hwal are changing it.
Sang Un without her memories is falling for Hwal. Hwal reveals his innermost thoughts to her. Why? Because something connects them together beyond time.
As for their little family. I believe they are already a family. I am glad that they are sticking together and I do hope we get to see that baby being born in the end!
Correction to the last three sentences:
That’s why the cycle is unbreakable. Dark Hole started it, but the other game players, Sang Un in this lifetime and Hwal have started to change it.
Sang Un without her memories is falling for Hwal. Hwal reveals his innermost thoughts to her. Why? Because something connects them together beyond time.
Hence, Dark Hole’s actions to make Hwal don’t believe Sang Un and kill her for him. He is losing. Against them. He is losing his grip to taking initiatives. He is not controling what is happening. He is one vs two.
As for their little family. I believe they are already a family. I am glad that they are sticking together and I do hope we get to see that baby being born in the end!
I continue to skip all otp’s scenes cos I find them ridiculous lol… I don’t care about those looks, those “look at me, like me” interactions. I will rely on your good ladies for summary of their love story 🤭
Anyhow, I feel OET’s desperation when he screamed what have you done?! He seems honest on the story, may be some are false😁 i.e Hwal wanting to be a bulgasal. But why waited 400 years before he did it? Because he needed to wait for adult hwal having someone he holds precious? Because without it the revenge and killing between Red lady and Hwal won’t happen?
And why did Red Lady and KHW (esp) felt remorse/hate towards Hwal to the point of willingly leading him to his death in order to get rid of OET? And she will keep on living… Isn’t that some sort of her own agenda to save only herself? Whatever bad OET did in the past, I can’t put Red Lady reincarnated in a good person group for this reason. Isn’t it convenient for her that Hwal is willing to die for his dead family? Convenient to fit her purpose… he might not remember his past of 1000 years ago but he genuinely care for his wife and family of 600 y.o.
If bulgasal always comes in pair then I think the red lady x hwal were them. OET became one after killing her partner. She wanted to kill OET so she cursed a baby to be a bulgasal. He lived a life leading to doom of revenge and regrets so that with these emotional roller coaster when the time came, OET will attack, she will kill Hwal and he became a bulgasal, in return. We are still unclear for her reason to curse him and kill him. I am assuming she is planning for these future events, with or without her dead partner’s agreement. 🤷♀️
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@Cleopatra,
The fact that DoYoon survived Dark Hole’s attack (for now) can be a good indicator that the Ahjumma Lee’s prophecy is NOT written in stone.
Hwal and SangUn can avert disasters she predicted by working together and making good choices.
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.
However, it’s also possible that Ahjumma Lee was referring to SiHo as the “person with no memory” and not SangUn. If that’s the case, then DoYoon and the rest are still in trouble of “bleeding from every orifice and die.” 🙂
@pkml3 I recall that it was said that Shaman made many wrong predictions in the past. If things in the present are not too different from the past life, then Ahjumma Lee is probably wrong some of the time too.
@Cleo, I’m finding that whoever the narrator is, they, and no one is reliable in telling us the stuff that is going on, in this show. Something said at one time may be overturned a little while later.
@Packmule3,
I agree with you, because as I have said above and as you have posted as well, they can work together. Something that didn’t happen in the first place. I am talking about the 600 years timeframe.
I believe that Hwal and Sang Un are changing the rules in the game.
I also agree that we don’t know who the person with the lost memories really is. We assume that it is Sang Un but it could be Hwal and Si-Ho.
@GB When you have an unreliable narrator, you learn the truth a certain point in the story that is almost in the end. 🙂
Episode 12
We get to see that Hwal was the one who took OET’s soul and created Dark Hole in the first place. We saw a glimpse from the 1.000 timeframe.
So, the soul Dark Soul wants to destroy is his and that is because he is a half Bulgasal and not a whole one. That means he wants to become a true Bulgasal that would be in the same league with Hwal. I guess Dark Hole is not that strong as he says he is.
At one point they have had come into a mutual understanding and the next second kaboom!
We also saw that Sang Un got a scar in the same place her Unnie had so her memories kinda came back or to be precise the Lady in Red is coming out of her subconscious. BTW, Hwal did a nice job with the stitches!
Sang Un saw how Hwal killed her in the past and she went even beyond that in the 1000 timeframe.
I strongly believe that what she saw, it was not the whole truth.
She attacked Hwal and we get to see in the preview, that based on what happened their “Family” will propably die, since Sang Un kinda got her memories back and they didn’t listen to any of them and went back to the old house. In the next episode, Dark Hole will take them away, keeping his promise / threat to Hwal.
As it seems Dark Hole has a Complex with Hwal.
So, he will try to kill again everyone, Hwal and Sang Un love this time around in order to punish them.
AGAIN we are in the exact point where Hwal and Sang Un might be losing those who they love. If that is going to happen? We will get to see in Episodes 13+14.
One of my hunches that I haven’t shared with you, based on the painting we have seen for so long:
The Man in Blue / Hwal and Lady in Red / Sang Un may be the originals Bulgasals, but they cannot be in the same place at the same time, because that taints their bond somehow.
I continue to believe that Hwal is not a bad guy. The memory Sang Un had is fragmented. I truly will continue to say so that the narrator is unreliable and we will learn the whole truth in Episodes 15-16.
I read a comment on MDL that said that the Director revealed that they made the story in that way from Episode 8 and unwards to have doubts for everyone.
So as not to know who is innocent or not, I will add.
This strengthens my point. The truth is not what we are being showed so far.
My guess, Dark Hole made his Father the Tribe Leader to hunt down the Bulgasals. They took as a captive Lady in Red and the Man in Blue went to retrieve her.
Why did she wake up and stabbed him in the past as well?
Because if their bond is tainted when they are together as I have said above, that means one of them is experiencing spontaneously madness.
OR the black outs Sang Un’s have experienced herself and told to Hwal in Episode 12.
That’s all for now!
Correction :
The mutual understanding was between Hwal and Sang Un!
When OET said Hwal wanted to be Bulgasal in Ep 11, it’s another lie because we see in Ep 12 that it was him who always wanted to be immortal.
I think the original Bulgasals are Hwal and Sang Woon. Accdg to OET, they were created as one. When OET said that Hwal has a one sided love, I think it’s probably him who has a one sided love. Whether it’s towards Bulgasal Sang Un or Bulgasal Hwal, I still don’t know. I’m guessing towards Bulgasal lady because she saw him when he killed his brother. She must have developed a love at first sight towards him and he could have schemed to separate the two Bulgasals.
When Hwal took something from him and created a dark hole, I think that was the moment OET turned immortal and Hwal became mortal. Perhaps Bulgasal Hwal was devastated after Sang Un felt betrayed by him that he wants to die by becoming human.
I still feel that it’s the soul that matters for monsters or the Bulgasals. Since OET’s human soul is in MSU’s body, he wants to kill MSU because he said he’s only a half Bulgasal. MSU probably needs to die for him to be the full Bulgasal. Since Bulgasal lady’s immortal soul is in Hwal’s body, when OET was begging Hwal to stay with him and not to abandon him, I felt like it was Hwal’s should begging Bulgasal lady’s soul. Bulgasals are meant to be one so OET is probably attached to Hwal so they can be together if the human soul in MSU finally dies its last death.
I can’t wait for next week. It will be intense between Hwal and Sang Un given she just stabbed him out of nowhere.
Cleopatra, thanks for explaining the difference between karma and fate. So much hinges on personal choices (and their consequences) rather than on predetermined things -great to learn!
Sallie, What a shock to see how Dark Hole became that! Plus another of his lies exposed. Such a lying liar!
Packmule3 & Growing Beautifully, since the Shaman lady has incorrect (or incomplete?) prophecies every reincarnation, what real use are they at all, I wonder?
What gives me total chills is that when the psychic sister in this present life looks at her/the others in their past lives, the Shaman knows and confronts her in that past life as if it’s this present life, but knowing it’s a future life!! I’m saying it poorly, but hopefully you get my intent? Oh and that the sister came “back” with her hand bleeding from being hurt “then”? So spooky!!
Miracle23, those are interesting questions about the Red Lady. The soul and karma “hot potato” that’s been mentioned (I love that phrasing so much, haha!), maybe will be some of the answer?
I really enjoy reading everyone’s comments here and in the other Episodes, even though I don’t respond in all of them. It’s great hearing the explanations and theories!
Thanks Packmule3 for all your work to do this for us!
Just finish ep 12. About time you shed some light on her motives and him 1000 years back, writer nim. 😏This vengeful version of SW brought me back to that face of red bulgasal when she stabbed hwal 600 years ago. So, if we go with this theory, assuming OET spoke some truth before finally gave up on Hwal, plus the recent flashback,
1. Hwal loves Red bulgasal but she hated him i.e. OET said about a damned unrequited love? It shows in her face when she stabbed his hand 1000 years ago and she killed him 600 years later. I think watching little hwal growing up clueless of his past, red bulgasal might have a change of heart though in the end she still put that sword through him.
2. That snicker look on Hwal’s face standing im midst of dead bodies is not a look of regret. It is satisfaction, evil. Did she reject him and cause him to run amok?
3. The ones who forget and whose revival of memories would trigger bloodbath could possible be Hwal x SW themselves due to that unresolved history between them.
Only OET knew the whole truth about them. Maybe he will be the one to stop them.🤷♀️
I am staying until the end, and I am hoping I won’t be disappointed like I was with Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol’s ending! Lee Joon’s Dark Hole character/performance is keeping me around! He is doing awesome with his big baddie with major insecurities, abandonment issues, and flipping between powerful and scared little boy. Plus, his wardrobe is the best out of all the characters. His latest is a big blue scorpion on the jacket’s back; be awares, else you will be stung!
So we come to know that bulgasals are born as a pair to begin with (obviously with no souls) and that they are each other’s lifelines can can only die at the same time.
1000 years ago, hwal turns OET into a bulgasal amd I really can’t figure out the reason behind it. Hwal probably didn’t do that involuntarily (what I think is that IF MSU and Hwal were the OG bulgasals, they should probably know the rules). There must have been a compulsion cause of which he (hwal) had to give up being a bulgasal.
OET realises that he can’t become a full bulgasal unless and until his soul his completely destroyed. So, 600 years ago, hwal is reincarnated, but he doesn’t remember anything about his past life (idk why). OET seeks to destroy his soul, but MSU stabs hwal and takes his soul before OET destroys it. And I think she knew that she would get back OET’s soul once she turns human (cause again OG bulgasals should know the rules) and develop a way where she could prevent OET from destroying is soul.
MSU remembers her past life even after getting reincarnated multiple times (I think it was part of her plan, just buying more time). Finally, she casts a spell on OET’s soul so that he can’t destroy it.
Well, let’s say she didn’t turn hwal into a bulgasal. Then OET would have killed a helpless hwal (along with his soul) who doesn’t remember his past each time he reincarnated (8 times in total). So he (hwal) probably couldn’t have casted a spell on OET’s soul like MSU did, and OET would have succeeded in becoming a full bulgasal.
@Packmule3,
Can you open a new thread please?