The thread is now open.
Growing_Beautifully, Cleopatra, Welmaris, Janey, nrllee, Fern, Kuroshio, FGB4877, and Carolina, you aren’t too busy this weekend to do your usual rewatch, right? I heard the preparation for the coming Chinese Lunar New Year is in full swing.
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
Gifs from lavenderbyun’s tumblr
Enjoy the rewatch!
Thanks @pkml3. I’m okay for our usual rewatch party in spite of Lunar New Year preps. The bigger preparation will only happen on Monday. 🙂 Who else celebrates LNY among us here?
Thanks @pm3!
Hi GB, do you do something for LNY?
I’ll join hopefully. Other than giving $1 to my kids and our neighbors (they do the same for our kids) there are no plans for LNY. Our neighbors do take out lol so I just ask for recs =)
Looking forward to this again.
Hi @Carolina, compared to others, I keep my LNY very simple.
We have the Reunion dinner (nowadays it’s hot pot and barbeque) on the LNY eve, followed by visiting on the first or second day of New Year. Since we still have Covid restrictions on, we hardly visit. The number of visitors for the whole day is also limited. We’ll be visiting only 1 aunt and 1 friend and gorging ourselves on goodies. I can feel the weight coming on around my tummy and hips already!! 😬 😂
I hope to join you tomorrow!!! Will try to do my homework.
@GB – have a great lunar new year!!! We celebrated it more actively when I was in the Philippines as we have big Filipino-Chinese community there -lots of decorations and treats. The only tradition I kept in the US was to give red envelopes to my kids (they like for the $$). Maybe we’ll have hotpot also this time. Do you eat together during the eve or on Feb 1 itself?
Hi @Janey! Yeah, the only time the ‘kids’ (they are all young adults!!) want to visit older folks is when they can get some $$$.
We give red packets to our old folks and unmarrieds too. Feel very poor at the end of the New Year season.
Since my in-laws live with me and they are the only/main family we have, we eat together on the eve and other days. I just got back from the busy supermarket after getting hold of more food and sauce for hot pot. I keep saying we’ll reduce the quantity next time… then I worry I didn’t get enough!!! I hope this will be the last of my marketing for this week. 😉
Kalimera everyone and Happy Lunar Year to all those who celebrate it!
I will be online later on! See you in 3 hours!
Hi @Cleo! See you in 55 minutes time!!
Hey @GB Unnie!
I am here 😀
Hello, Goblin watchers! It’s nice to see @GB and @Cleopatra online. I hope we find out today how @FGB has been doing this week. I hope he’s feeling better.
Hello, hello! 5 minutes to go everyone!!
Hey @Welmaris! I do hope you are okay!
Yes, @FGB hasn’t been online this past week…
@Cleo, yes, true. I haven’t seen FGB at all.
I hope you’re fine!
OK let’s start now!!!
@GB Unnie,
I am okay. How are you?
Yes, let’s start!
And an early Gung Hay Fat Choy to those who will be celebrating the Lunar New Year. My hubby is out of town on a business trip, so it’ll just be me and my older daughter going out for Chinese food on Tuesday evening, as that’s the day she’s off work.
Time to start!
Creepy Tutor Park ghost…not a great way to start my morning. Eeek!
So, the plot thickens and we get to see the Evil Scholar teacher of the King, who is a nasty spirit.
@Welmaris!
I do hope you will have a great day with your daughter!
Creepy Tutor Park’s spirit. Is an understatement!
@Welmaris @Cleo
Park is so vile. Enough to turn us off our breakfast/tea/supper!!
ET has such good control of herself. I’d turn and run screaming!
The Unnie ghost is stupid? They haven’t realized that this ghost is not a simple ghost but an evil Spirit?
@GB Unnie,
So very true!
This song always come brings in mind this couple…Sunny and the Grim Reaper…
@Cleo, Yeah, the ghosts are not smart. I guess any fellow ghost is considered ok to them. Park probably asked to be introduced to the Goblin’s bride so they took him to ET.
Our Hanza:
“But then…have you ever thought of wanting to find your memories?”
Another Hanza:
“No. What are forgotten memories? Isn’t it the same as no memories?
It wasn’t there from the beginning, so why…”
Our boy is missing Sunny and is reliving his memories.
Our Hanza: “I…miss that.”
Another Hanza: “Don’t. We are all sinners.
How do you know what’s behind that longing?”
Our Hanza: “I know… Even though I know…Every step I take because of this longing, even though I am afraid where it would reach, I..keep longing for that.”
The revelation of who else Deok Hwa is, is so interesting. All three of them were kept from seeing that DH was more knowledgeable and powerful than he should be as a mere human boy.
@GB Unnie,
Logic flew out of the window with them…
I liked what the Nabi Shin said:
“God just questions. Fate is the question I throw, the answer…you can find it. “
@Cleo, I was thinking that especially for Reaper, fate seems more like the unwanted answer instead of question ie no matter what, if he is Wang Yeo or Park (at this stage he does not know who he is yet) he will still be the enemy of KS (which saddens him) and he still cannot be with Sunny.
@GB Unnie,
So very true. The Reaper is burdened by the life he doesn’t remember anything about and he is going to find out in this episode.
He wants Sunny but he cannot be with her. True.
We begin the sadder last one third of the show with CEO Yu’s death. Poor KS. Now ET knows what it is like to be immortal. At one time she said she wanted to be immortal too. I like her very mature and wise words… interesting that ET gets to say these things that should come from an older person.
“That’s why the people left behind have to live their lives to the fullest. You may shed tears sometimes but you’ll laugh a lot and be strong again. It’s only right to repay the deceased for the love they gave you in that way.”
The string music as Ghost Park walks in is excellent. So moody!
ET is more uncomfortable with this ghost than any other she’s encountered. She puts lighters and matches in the pockets of all her coats, wanting to be able to call Goblin at any time. This ghost has an evil aura, and she feels endangered.
Grim Reaper says he was hit by peach blossoms, not cherry, per the Viki subs. I wonder if that’s a mistake–since at the end of last episode, Sunny spoke of cherry blossoms blooming in the middle of winter–or she went out and bought a bough of peach blossoms specifically to “out” Grim Reaper. It sounds as if peach blossoms have some mystical qualities, since the grim reaper co-worker mentions the lasting effects of being hit by peach blossoms. I’ll have to do some research later.
I wonder if Grim Reaper is drawn to Sunny by love of her, the Queen of whom she’s the reincarnation, or because he longs to recover his memories (which Sunny sparks).
Deok Hwa is being revealed as having knowledge beyond what he humanly should have. Goblin is the first to realize DH is the incarnation of the divine.
Almighty DH says he “loves him particularly.” But the weight of Kim Shin’s life of killing others is heavy. Even after he was reanimated as Goblin, he continued his killing ways (at least at first).
“God just questions. Fate is the question I throw, the answer…you can find it.” (This alludes to free will.)
The look in Deok Hwa’s eyes is so different when the almighty is speaking through him.
What does it say of Kim Shin’s character and what he’s learned (or not) in 900 years that the moment he discovers the almighty inhabits Deok Hwa, he wants to attack the almighty in anger and resentment.
I was thinking about the conversation that Samshin had with god.
S : “So the goblin and his bride have finally met.”
G : “It was fate.
S : “Why drag the king/Wang Yeo into this? How could you make the one with a sword in him meet the one who stuck it into him?”
G : “Another fated encounter. And he was looking for a place to live, so…
S : “There’s a limit to the amount of trouble you should cause. What in the world are you thinking?”
G : “I have a particular fondness for them.” (If he kept around them because he was fond but let them suffer for hundreds of years… how if he’d not been fond?!?! That explains why he was always fluttering around them.)
S : “It’s been 900 years since that child, KS was first punished. Is that still not enough for you?”
G : “Such is the weight of a single life.”
S : “Why didn’t you create a utopian world then instead of creating sin.” (One of the great fallacies is that god could create sin, instead of that it’s human choice.)
G : “Because humans wouldn’t seek out gods if I’d done that.” (Another petty reason… what an immature god.)
S : “Each and every one of them was created in love. Stop tormenting them! Stop keeping that child blind to the truth, too. Let them recognise each other, no matter what choice they make.”
God nods. (So that’s why he let Wang Yeo’s face flash before KS to shake them up.)
God says to himself about Deok Hwa : “How disappointing. I quite liked him because he’s handsome.” God can be so facetious, as if looks alone mattered.
Anyway, this is the kind of god that our characters have to manage with.
Eun Tak is a very smart bee @GB Unnie.
I got a bit behind because I was trascribing some scenes…
I love the Destin necklace. It means ‘a fate decided by the heavens’ in French. An absolute fate that is beyond human beings’ eternities. But for them, they chose not fate but to live beyond the curse of the sword. So their destin was different from what god/heavens had proposed.
He’s a jealous Goblin. No men within 30 cm of that necklace LOL.
@Cleo, I’m transcribing some too, that’s why I’m quieter this week LOL.
I love Sunny’s personality. I respect that she tries to get to the truth when she’s confused by something, then does her best to accept that truth even if it seems impossible. She’s so practical despite being thrown into a new genre, as ET has described it. And although Sunny thinks she’s slow-witted, the truth is that she’s been quick to pick up hints and make correct assumptions from them.
The grim reapers at lunch in Sunny’s chicken restaurant sense she has something more to her than most humans. Maybe it has to do with her being Goblin’s sister? She recognizes them as all being grim reapers, and is cool about it.
@GB Unnie we have slightly different subs on Viki!
Eun Tak : “I guess this is what it’s like, being immortal.
Chairman Yoo will keep turning back, saying, “Nari / He makes me worry.”
So the people left behind must live more digilently.
We might cry from time to time, but we should laugh more.
Again, with confidence. That…is the courtesy for the love you have received.”
This scene is so beautiful. I am trying not to get emotional, since we all know what it will happen next.
Does anyone know why Park Joong Won/Heon want the female grim reaper to get her memories back?
Park Joong Won tempts the female reaper to hold Sunny’s hand.
He says that he’ll be there in Sunny’s memories. Why does he want her to know? What does he want to provoke? In the end the female gr does not have any contact with either ET or KS or even GR so why do we have this scene?
It seems it’s not for the plot but in order for us viewers to know the kind of sin that GReapers committed.
@GB Unnie, same over here…
Great messages on loving our lives and those who are no longer with us.
The scenes with Kim Woo Shik, the reincarnation of KS’s 2nd in command are so warm. Suddenly we get this to counterbalance the menace of Park and the sad, anxious ending. Love the music here.
@GB Unnie,
Park is manipulating her. Because he wants to get close to our Grim Reaper for you know why…
We get to see what happened in their shared past…
@Cleo, it seems like Park is playing with ET’s mind and trying to test if she still has the strong link to ghosts and to Goblin. But the female reaper has no connection to our main leads… so strange, that scene.
I wonder what the significance of being in a small cramped space is. KS likes it very much because he gets to be very close to ET but he won’t admit it. They keep mentioning the small, cramped space though, as if there’s more meaning to it.
@GB Unnie,
The female reaper has connection with King Wang Yeo / our hanza.
I am stopping this episode so many times.
The coming of the little boy in the back alley and Park behind him is interesting. At this stage, I wonder if god is in the boy already since he has left Deok Hwa. Then, the ghost does not recognise god and god does not care that Park is bothering ET.
Is it another game to god?
Now ET learns who GR is and she knows Park’s name. So she is fully informed of identity, but not yet of the full relationship between the 3 of them. However she can put 2 and 2 together.
To himself Park admits that what he wants is the demise of both WY and KS. We know that he needs ET’s hands in order to pull out the sword. So he’s hovering around her. He’s waiting for her to not be able to see ghosts so that she’ll not be able to call KS for help until it’s too late.
ET mourns the loss of the bromance and the lovely relationship they have in the house. We get the flashback of my fave scene of them laughing freely with DH taking photos of them.
GR has been ignorant of a lot, but now he meets ET to talk out his suspicions. We see that he, too, has been putting 2 and 2 together. He guesses that by his reaction to Sunny and to the drawing of KS’s sister, that he is someone from their past.
He is so sad, knowing that he is the hated person from their past.
@Cleo, yes the connections of the female reaper is there but the only reason we get the scene with her is for us to know the past a bit better. Otherwise it adds little to the plot. I found it an odd addition to the episode.
Now poor Sunny does not know that Reaper is meeting her to say goodbye.
GR and Sunny’s scene is intense. The kiss is not romantic but tragic.
“I who give you nothing but wrong answers, hope that this, at the very least is the right answer.” GR is going to break all the rules of Reaper conduct by kissing Sunny and giving her back her memories, so that he can check whether he is in them or not.
I don’t know that Sunny would have really wanted to know but she is not given a choice. It’s such a sad knowledge to find that one’s beloved betrayed one and one’s family out of sheer foolishness.
*SPOILERS*
The ring that Sunny coveted and which seem to call to her – We see the ring as the sign of Sunny/Kim Sun being the queen of Wang Yeo. It was forced on her finger and tied to Wang Yeo’s bitterness at not believing that she loved him and that she was on his side.
Because Sunny was made to remember, in the end, the ring became tainted by the horrific past and was not something that she could ever keep. The bane of remembering.
What a contrast to the Destin necklace that ET never coveted but received. She did not remember KS later, but she always wore the necklace, not knowing why she had it or who gave it to her.
“The woman who loves you is the sister of a traitor.” What a simple statement of identity and partisanship. She cannot take sides, so Wang Yeo decided and killed her.
The farewell kiss between Reaper and Sunny ironically takes place next to a bright street lamp, throwing light upon their dark past, and next to the Peach or Cherry tree whose blossoms are still attached. What horrible irony that it’s the same spot where KS and ET had a special moment.
It’s time for Chairman Yoo to die. Goblin loves him so much, but feels great guilt that he spent his whole life in service to him. He wishes Chairman Yoo a new life unencumbered by service, free to live for himself. But Goblin is grateful, deeply grateful, to Chairman Yoo for the life he shared with him. What sorrow… I am glad Goblin has ET there to comfort him in his grief. So many times in 900 years he’s had to go through this transition all alone.
It is difficult to watch Kim Shin grieving, knowing he’s had to do it time and time again, and it never gets easier for him.
It looks like Goblin buries all his assistants on that hill in Quebec, regardless of where in the world they’d lived their lives.
“So, the people left behind must live more diligently. We might cry from time to time, but we should laugh more. Again, with confidence. That…is the courtesy for the love you have received.” ET speaks these comforting words from personal experience. This is how she lives her life.
Deok Hwa is fully human in his grief at the loss of his grandfather, and guilt for having treated him badly. I wonder if the almighty within him also feels his anguish.
Goblin, Eun Tak, Grim Reaper, Deok Hwa…there’s so much love in that household. Seeing this beautifully manifested in how they gently care for one another is why this show resonates so deeply.
After all the times DH and Sam Shin have crossed paths on the bridge then gone drinking as fellow deities, this time DH doesn’t recognize Sam Shin at all. DH must be in fully human mode.
Sam Shin doesn’t seem to be omniscient. She suspects that Chairman Yoo has gone, but speaks as if she needs DH to confirm it to be sure of it.
Reaper gets confirmation that KS and he himself was part of Sunny’s past life. He can tell it didn’t end well by Sunny’s tears. He tries to give her his last parting gift to erase her painful memories without removing her happy ones. She was supposed to forget Reaper as well.
He wanted her to have a happy ending. But it didn’t work out.
Ah the touching scene where Sunny reveals that she remembers KS as her brother. *sob*
What a nice sibling hug.
Something about Grim Reaper’s longing to have connection, to have an uncle like Deok Hwa has Goblin, causes Goblin to see King Yeo’s face in place of Grim Reaper’s. What drove Kim Shin to his death was concern for Wang Yeo, a charge laid on him by the previous king to protect his heir. After his father, the king, died, Wang Yeo was alone. Kim Shin was not able to be in the palace to protect the child king because he kept being sent to the battlefield: a plan devised by Tutor Park to keep King Yeo isolated and under his sole influence.
GR gets another death announcement card for ET, but he has to teach DH how to play Baduk.
GR gets pain in the heart since his name was written by KS for the sky lantern. KS felt that he owed the dead a debt and sent off lanterns once a year.
And oh dear, ET can no longer see ghosts.
This episode and the next…*sobs*
KS is dying to tell ET that Sunny remembers him. He forgot to find out how she came to remember her past life.
ET is concerned that evil Park had something to do with this and tells KS. Wise move. KS finds Park but finds that he cannot kill him with the water sword.
The necklace Goblin gives ET before her first day at college is the one he saw her wearing in his vision of her as an adult in the Quebec steak restaurant. He bought it in Quebec after he had the vision. The pendant is a word in French that means “…a fate set in heaven…An absolute fate that is far beyond the realm of humans.”
Goblin has a ulterior motive, giving ET this particular necklace. “No meeting, no blind dates, no romance, and no Oppa Tae Hee. No man in a 30 cm radius from this necklace. This is the kind of fate I’m thinking of.”
Even though they tease each other, and ET knows that she can easily push Goblin’s jealousy button, she’s ultimately thoughtful about his feelings. I like that she sent him a reassuring message, even though I’m sure it was in the show as PPL.
Since ET did not tell KS that Wang yeo was GR, Park takes the opportunity to tell KS himself. He wants the 2 enemies to kill each other if possible or at leas for KS to kill Wang Yeo. Now that he’s played with KS’s mind, Park disappears.
KS searches for Reaper and interrogates Sunny, who still protects Wang Yeo.
I wonder how he found out that Reaper went to the Buddhist temple to see the names of the people that KS paid respects to. KS makes the walk up to see his king, and to accost him face-to-face at last.
@GB Unnie,
There is a reason they showed it us. *sighs*
Once again KS approaches his king with a sword that he should have left at the door/outside, but this time KS carries the sword embedded in his chest. His greeting is a choke hold around his kings neck LOL and *sob sob*.
The most ugly turn was for them to fight.
Friends in this life, foes in another.
I was always sad about this.
I love this song so very much.
@Cleo, me too. Show made the bromance and the friendships with ET so sweet that we never wanted them to find out and to fall out. It was a cruel thing that god did, putting the enemies together, but at the same time, it was the only way to get them to confront and resolve their bad past and to get them to forgive and move on. They were stuck in that state of not remembering, not forgiving for over 900 years. So I guess god had to be cruel to be kind.
The Episode ended for me.
I have to log out for now. Glad we were all online @GB Unnie and @Welmaris!
Seriously, next week it will be too hard to type…
@GB Unnie,
I agree with you. I know it was needed in order for them to resolve this issue. Still, next episode…
Yes, @Cleo, I both look forward to and dread next week.
See you! Take care. I’m also going offline for now. Getting too sleepy. 😴
Goodbye @Welmaris, I’ll read you later.
The actor who plays Kim Shin’s lieutenant, Yoon Kyung Ho, is someone I recognize from seeing him in many sageuks. But as a character in modern times, cleanshaven with short hair, I don’t recognize him at all!
“Because you saved a nation in your past life.” That is the reason given to Kim Woo Sik by President Kim for all the perks being given him along with his new job at Cheon Woo Group. So the lieutenant’s and Kim Shin’s deaths weren’t in vain. That’s nice to know. And I find it touching how he knows it isn’t to President Kim he should be grateful, it is to the emotional man who spoke to him just before his job interview. Their souls connected in that moment when Kim Shin voiced his thanks to, and his concern for, the man who’d faithfully served him and the man who’d lived a reincarnated life apart from him.
One time when Grim Reaper was looking at the portrait of Kim Sun, he spoke his thought that somehow the ache in his heart began with her. Now we have the ghost of Park Joong Hun saying that “The start and end of this tragic story is…Wang Yeo.” As he did in his life, he knowingly distorts the truth. PJH is the one who directed Wang Yeo on the path that led to the deaths of his Queen, Kim Sun, and his protector, Kim Shin. His greed for power was his motivation back then. His lust for revenge–for the destruction of Goblin, Grim Reaper, and Goblin’s Bride–is what motivates him now. He has no remorse for the sins he committed. He behaves as if he is justified and blameless for all his actions past, present, and future, even though he is self-aware of his obsession with power.
At timestamp 50:23 in Episode 12, Grim Reaper puts to rest (in my opinion) the question of who is reincarnated as Sunny. Grim Reaper, himself, tells ET, “Kim Seon is reincarnated as Sunny.”
In the flashback to Kim Sun’s life, there’s the scene where Wang Yeo is confronting the queen because of her loyalty to her brother. I haven’t understood why he said, “Do you wish to die! Why are you dressed like that?” She’s wearing the same outfit we see her wearing in all the scenes from the Goryeo era, from the first moment she met Wang Yeo to the moment she dies with an arrow in her chest. Why would he question her choice in clothing at that moment? I think it is because he’s suggesting she should already be wearing mourning clothing. “In your heart, you are already mourning.” Wang Yeo places an either-or scenario in front of Kim Sun: Either he lives and Kim Shin dies, or Kim Shin dies and he lives. Kim Sun calls him a fool. She sees, but he doesn’t, that there are other options. They don’t have to choose only between those two, requiring someone to die. They could both live. But in Wang Yeo’s mind, twisted by Tutor Park, Kim Sun can only choose between her husband or her brother. She can’t have both. One must die.
King Yeo shuffles through the spilled contents of the queen’s jewelry box, gifts he’d given her but she doesn’t wear. He selects the jade ring, and forces it onto her finger. He’s making her choose him over her brother, asserting his position as her husband. He is claiming his place in her life is superior to her brother’s. “So you should wear this and greet your traitor brother like a queen.”
For the first time in a flashback, we see Wang Yeo asking Kim Sun, “Whose side are you on? Even once, was there a time when you were one my side? Even just once, did you have me in your heart? Even for just a moment, did you ever love…me?” Kim Sun’s response is to slap him (which would be a fatal offense). I believe she does so because his words are so ridiculous given her behavior since she entered the palace as his Queen. She tried to be by his side, but he never came to her. She appeared on the periphery as he pursued his daily life, but he never acknowledged her. She tried to maintain a happy outlook despite her hurt, disappointment, and feelings of rejection. Tutor Park drove the wedge between them by coaching King Yeo to not become attached to her, to hold her lightly. It was not Kim Sun who caused their rift, it was Wang Yeo following Tutor Park’s guidance. King Yeo asked Kim Sun to choose between him or her brother. In the same manner, Kim Sun should have clearly asked Wang Yeo to choose between her or Tutor Park. She did clearly assert that Tutor park is an enemy, but she didn’t ask Wang Yeo to make a choice.
Wang Yeo: You’ll have to decide. To live as my woman or die as a traitor’s sister.
Kim Sun: The woman who loves the king is a traitor’s sister.
Kim Sun’s response answers both of Wang Yeo’s questions. Yes, she loves him. She is the king’s woman. And she is Kim Shin’s sister. She is the sister of a traitor. She is both, not either. It is not her choice if she lives or dies, it is Wang Yeo’s.
During their kiss, Sunny sees her past life but Grim Reaper doesn’t. After their kiss, having confirmed that she is Queen Kim Sun and he is King Wang Yeo, Grim Reaper asks Sunny to look into his eyes. He alters her memory by saying, “May all those shining moments of happiness remain and all the hard…and sad moments forget them. Be it in the past life or the present. And also…forget me, too. You, at least…will hopefully have a happy ending like this.”
Previously when we’d seen Grim Reaper altering people’s memories, he was very specific: for example, “You hit a wild boar.” This redirection of Sunny’s memories is vague. It will be up to her subconscious to choose which are the hard and sad memories to suppress, and which are happy moments that will remain in her consciousness. As Grim Reaper walks away from Sunny, her hand goes to her heart as if she feels pain there, and she crumples into a crouch in tears. The memory wipe was not instantly effective as we’ve seen it be in the past.
When Goblin comes to Sunny’s chicken shop, she instantly recognizes him as her brother, the general, from the past. She also remembers from the present that she’d paid for the sweet potatoes, telling Goblin that it was her gift and she doesn’t need to be repaid.
It is a gift to both Goblin and Sunny that she remembers their past relationship and their mutual love is restored, but it is also a source of pain to both of them. “I am sorry for belatedly recognizing you, Orabeoni. And the promise I would be happy…I was not able to keep it. I am sorry, Orabeoni.”
Grim Reaper directed Sunny to only retain the happy memories of her past and present. Sunny tells Goblin she wasn’t able in the past to remain happy, as she’d promised him. So we see evidence that Sunny still has control of her memories, since she can decide what falls above or below the threshold of hard and sad. She has been able to retain memories of moments she deems both hard and happy, or sad and happy. And I think this is why this show lingers in our minds long after we’ve watched it. It is filled with moments that hit many of our emotions all at once, so digs deeper into our memories.
There’s so much crying in Episode 12! They’re tears of gratitude. Tears of loss. Tears of fear. Tears of undefined, raw, overwhelming emotion.
On the steps of the temple containing the plaques of Kim Sun and Wang Yeo that Goblin has maintained for 900 years, through deaths and burdensome immortality, Kim Shin finally completes his journey to speak to Wang Yeo.
The pace of this show keeps speeding faster as it approaches the final episodes, rather than lagging because of filler. There is no filler (despite the requisite product placements in some scenes). In this episode we have many important revelations to the viewers and to the characters themselves. We’ve had story arcs draw to a close: Chairman Yoo, and Kim Shin’s lieutenant being two lines that had satisfying closure. (It was sad that Chairman Yoo died, but those he loved returned his love, and his character and accomplishments were appreciated. I will consider my life well lived if such is my end.) A protagonist, previously in the background, has come to the fore to propel the action.
I look forward to continuing this roller coaster ride with you, my Goblin rewatch friends, next week!
Dear Friends, how are you?. Sorry for not making it. I am still recovering from last week and my main tools to do so are food and sleep.
Will read you soon!!! 😉
Hi @FGB, glad to know that you’re not totally laid up, but can come by. It sounds nasty. Please continue resting and recovering.
We missed you and got a little concerned that we’d not seen you on any of the days last week. Continue to take care of yourself! *Long distance hugs and prayers are being sent to you*
@GB, sometimes just knowing that there is someone wanting to hear you are OK is a gift big enough… Many thanks!!! 😀
@GB, as I read it, the photo booth scene has ET taking the lead in wanting physical contact with Goblin. She even teases Goblin, which he doesn’t pick up on, about something happening to make the heart race. I highly suspect that for young folks, photo booths are the site of many make-out sessions! But ET gives Goblin her monthly payment toward the money he “loaned” her for her graduation, to be paid back over 80 years. Knowing how Goblin loves and protects his money, ET jokes that his heart will skip a few beats over receiving the envelope of petty cash. Just before ET exits the photo booth, she gives Goblin a peck on the lips. That’s when he realizes the benefits of being in tight quarters with his girlfriend.
Sam Shin is in favor of everyone’s identities being revealed to themselves and the others. Once that knowledge is out in the open, they can make informed choices. She’s approaching it out of concern and love for her children. It is interesting that ghost Tutor Park wants the same thing–to have everyone’s past exposed–but he wants to weaponize it. It is part of his plan to destroy his enemies. He is counting on the conflicts of the past continuing in the present, tearing everyone apart. If they are united against him, he doesn’t stand a chance, but sowing discord plays in his favor. What he doesn’t take into consideration is the power of love. Sam Shin understands love, and trusts in it. She trusts her children to eventually come to the right decisions. Ghost Park is so steeped in evil that he is blind to the notion of love leading to grace and forgiveness.
@GB, I think Park wants the female grim reaper to remember her past because she’d been his minion. Perhaps he believes with her memory restored, she’ll help him in the present to destroy Goblin and Grim Reaper. In the Goryeo era she seems to have, at the direction of Park, slowly poisoned people using tonics–the previous king, and then Queen Kim Sun–but King Yeo (very rudely) forbade his queen taking any tonics, disrupting that plan.
I find some interesting variations in the timelines for grim reapers. Wang Yeo died 20 years after Kim Shin, just before Kim Shin was reanimated as Goblin. Goblin has been in existence 900 years. But Wang Yeo thinks he has only been a Grim Reaper for 300 years. Has he forgotten the other 600 years? The female palace servant who was Park’s minion and bearer of poisoned tonic: she was a new addition to the grim reaper team, from a more recent batch than Wang Yeo and his co-workers. From the perspective of a normal human lifespan in the Goryeo era, her death must’ve been within a few decades of Wang Yeo’s, if not immediately after, so where’s she been during the intervening time? (I haven’t watched ahead, and I don’t remember if we’re shown how she dies.) What I can assume from these variances between time of death and becoming a grim reaper is that either souls can be left in suspension for hundreds of human years, and/or time moves differently for the dead.
It is part of the curse on Goblin that his immortal life progresses at a human pace, and he doesn’t forget anyone with whom he crosses paths. He has felt and remembered every moment of his 900 years as Goblin, plus the years he lived as a human before his death. Those that commit great sins during their lives become grim reapers, but they do not usually retain conscious memories of their lives prior to death. Yet there seem to be exceptions. Grim Reaper still has his nonconscious emotional memory: that’s why he squabbles and competes with Goblin, why he’s drawn to the jade ring, and why he instantly responds deeply to Sunny and the portrait of Kim Sun. Another grim reaper remembered and recognized his human wife, then chose to run away with her. The almighty, speaking through Deok Hwa, told Grim Reaper it was his own choice that his memories were not retained. That makes me think of the recently deceased in Grim Reaper’s tea shop who are given the choice whether or not to drink the tea that removes their memories. Grim Reaper always advises them that forgetfulness is a blessing, but maybe that’s only his opinion, not doctrine.
How wonderful you checked in with us, @FGB4877! I’m sorry you’ve been sick. Is it one of the COVID variants? It sounds like you’re giving yourself time and care to properly recover, which is good.
Thanks for answering my query on the significance of the small, cramped space of the phone booth @Welmaris. It reminds me that my generation never cared for cramped spaces in which to take photos with friends LOL.
Yes, I believe you are right. KS totally missed the cues and the significance (like me) and wondered why they were doing stuff in that tiny space.
ET was ironically teasing him that being close to her didn’t make his heart race, whereas getting her pittance of a salary would.
Ah, what a punishment to get merely a peck at the end of all that time in the booth, when he could have had a grand session of making out LOL. But of course, he’s too dignified for that at this stage, since ET is only a college student.
Another thing that just struck me, KS had called ET and nagged her like a parent would, about being still out when to her it was not yet that late. Anyway, she would have been on her way to work and not home, so his nagging was really a bit much. Summoning him into that tiny space and giving him the chance to remember that she’s his girlfriend (proven with sweet couple photos) and not his charge, was probably the other unspoken reason for that interlude in the photo booth. Heh!
When she’s about to leave it first, he’s suddenly reluctant, realising it’s pretty cosy in there. He lamely says it’s cold outside as an excuse to stay in there longer. I love how she pushes his buttons by mentioning Tae Hee oppa. However he is appeased to know that Tae Hee has gone overseas, and is no longer a threat.
Leaving him with a peck on the lips when he got too full of himself was a great ending tease. No matter that he was a great warrior or as goblin could predict how great Mencius would be, when a girl’s kiss totally disarmed him!!! LOLOL.
*SPOILERS*
The scene with the female grim reaper is the last one that we see of her in the present. We may see her again in her past life, serving the poisoned tea/medicine, but not her death. Other than informing us of her role in the past/how Park operated, and what kind of sin led to being a grim reaper as punishment, I couldn’t figure out what the present-day female GR-Park scenes were for. I guess the past scenes cemented also the reason for Wang Yeo’s becoming a grim reaper, since he voluntarily collaborated with the poisoner to get himself killed.
I’d like to know the logic that enabled Park to escape being nabbed by a grim reaper and hauled in for punishment. He, too, looks like a candidate for grim reaper, but no one, (not even the almighty who should know him), seems to have been able to catch him.
I too have felt that the number of years between death and entering the ‘job’ of grim reaper, or even of goblin, seems to be very varied. It does not happen at once and it may only take place decades or hundreds of years later. I assumed that it was all up to the capricious will of the almighty, since we are never told the logic.
The erased memories do seem to be limited only to the cerebral level memories, since the feelings remain. We know that ET too will suffer this terrible kind of memory loss when she cannot explain the way she feels because she cannot remember what made her so sad. So I agree that the idea that the drinking of forgetfulness tea as a ‘blessing’ is a false understanding or false advice or a wrong opinion. If it cannot erase the feelings that went with the memories, then it is more a bane than a boon to drink it.
@FGB!
Good to see you writing us here! As @GB Unnie said above, we got worried when you were MIA. I do hope you are feeling better today!
Feel free to join us this Saturday! Have a nice week ahead!
P.S. I need to read you @Welmaris and @GB!