Bulgasal: Eps 13 & 14 Open Thread

The thread is open for spoilers.

I’m guessing that last week’s Ep 12 was the peak of the romance for this drama’s OTP and it’s all downhill from there on out. With that in mind, I’m posting all the scenes Hwal and SangUn were together.

He cooked her breakfast. I’m glad he remembered to feed her.

I really think Lee Jin Wook would have looked better if he had his hair trimmed just a couple more inches.

But this shot reminded of the painting, “American Gothic” by Grand Wood. Hwal looked so dour.

Grant Wood. American Gothic, 1930. The Art Institute of Chicago. Friends of American Art Collection.source: The Art Institute of Chicaog.

Oh, the product placement! His and her Audi. I guess this is better than couple shirts.

We got the obligatory faint-in-his-arms trope.

Hmph!  I don’t know why the director wasted film to shoot this scene from different angles. But I kid you not; it annoyed me that he used a bath towel instead of a  wash cloth (or face towel) to clean that wound on her neck. What’s next? A foot towel as a hand towel?

Let’s enjoy the show.

 

18 Comments On “Bulgasal: Eps 13 & 14 Open Thread”

  1. Kalispera @Packmule3!

    Thank you for the new thread!

    Oh… Episode 13 made me sad.☹️
    As it seems Episode 14 will made me sadder… 😢

  2. GrowingBeautifully (GB)

    Thanks @pkml3. As I haven’t watched the episode, I’m still feeling chipper. LOL, ‘annoyed’ is the word that pops up for me as I watch this series, and I’m not speaking of using the wrong towels but of the unnecessary time it’s taking to tease us over the ‘romance’ and the ‘family’.

    Hi @Cleo, I just watched a sombre show… now I wonder if I want to get into a saddening Ep of Bulgasal. LOL. Later, perhaps. I’ll go for breakfast first.

  3. Hang in there, @Cleopatra. One more week of Bulgasal. Maybe you can watch Lee Jinwook in “The Time We Were Not in Love” afterwards if this drama doesn’t end happily for the OTP.

  4. @GB, I don’t think we can find a more toxic relationship than that of Hwal and SangUn. A THOUSAND YEARS of unrequited love? Of love and hate? Of misunderstandings??? Goodness!

    Yet I keep watching because I want to know what the real deal is. So kudos to the screenwriter for keeping me guessing. lol.

  5. GrowingBeautifully (GB)

    @pkml3, I hesitate to watch the next episodes, wondering if the toxicity will permeate my poor viewer’s spirits, just before Lunar NY!

    I still hold out hope that what was said about forgiveness, letting go, not going in for revenge anymore will come to pass. That will be the best antidote to toxic relationships, requited or not!

  6. I know, right? I thought the shaman was encouraging him to end his revenge and forgive, 600 years ago. But now the same shaman is saying that “they” aren’t supposed to met.

    I’ve wondered who the shaman meant by “they.” If it’s Hwal and SangUn, then how can Hwal forgive her if they encounter her. Forgiveness isn’t the same thing avoidance. lol.

    But as of Episode 12, the forgiveness requirement has been fulfilled. SangUn already asked for forgiveness for causing him 600 years of pain, and he asked for forgiveness for 600 years of hunting her down.

  7. GrowingBeautifully (GB)

    @pkml3 It’s well and good for Hwal and Sang Un, but how about our love-to-hate-him Eul Tae? I wonder if there is any forgiveness in store for him or by him, because he’s been in the habit of choosing evil. I guess I’d like even him to get his hole patched up, and for him to go back to being human and dying. Everything back to their places, as they say.

    Trouble with this Show is the lack of reliability of what we are ‘told’. I’m never sure if anything Shaman or anyone says, will hold true in the following episodes.

  8. Thank you @Packmule3.

    I was not sad about the couple. I was sad about their “family”.

    Thank you for the recommendation I will keep it in mind!

  9. ******SPOILERS!!!!!******

    Kalimera,

    Let me tell you what we have found out for the 1000 timeframe.

    Hwal / Man in Blue and Sang Un / Lady in Red were a couple.
    As it seems the Lady in Red couldn’t become pregnant and she was fascinated with the human children.

    Hwal couldn’t understand her fascination and he was afraid that she would leave him.

    Since the memories were fracture again I will say the following and return to my argument.

    My comment in the previous thread about the “madness” makes total sense after watching Episode 13.

    We saw that Hwal manifested it when he saw Imu’s dead body he went bersek and he lost his humanity. That means his “fight or fright” mechanism is to lose logic and become a beast when he is in danger or feels threatened or boils with anger.

    Something that @Packmule3 also wrote in her Post on Episode 12 about Sang Un and her fighting powers.

    He was disgusted by the three police officers who voluntarily brought Imu, Si Ho and Do Yoon to Dark Hole and his Monster accomplice to torture and murder them.

    Even though, Hwal said harsh words to Imu / Mrs. Lee he truly loved her. Hence, his madness took over when he saw her dead body. Sang Un was crying.

    They are complementing one another, even in this lifetime. Sang Un is the emotional type and Hwal is the logical type.

    He smashed two corrupted police officers and the third one was the reincarnation of the second in command who betrayed him in the 600 y.o. timeframe and tell all those lies to their Chief and Hwal’s father.

    In the 1.000 year old timeline, the Man in Blue is in his madness state and we see that villagers are down in the snow dead. The Lady in Red wakes up and she sees that. She tries to stop Hwal and she tries to stab him, he puts in front of him his hand.

    Hence the mark Hwal has in his palm. It was not a curse as the Shaman Lady said, but a reflex. The thing is, even in that state, the Man in Blue tried to save the Lady In Red and he was wounded with two swords.

    The Man in Blue says: “I despise you.”

    That rings a bell right? It does because it was the same words the Lady in Red said to the reincarnation of the Man in Blue 400 years later.

    “I despise you.”

    My guess is and I continue to believe so, that Dark Hole made his Father to go after them. They capture the Lady in Red and the Man in Blue went bersek to the village to retrieve her. She chose the people instead of him. That’s why he told her he despises her. Then, Dark Hole retrieved him when the Man in Blue was wounded and took him to that tree.

    Sang Un has seen fragments of the memories. Whereas Hwal has seen the same memory with the Lady in Red as the perpetrator.

    Since Sang Un has remembered a part of her memories that means that the Shaman’s prophecy would be activated. That’s why Mrs. Lee has died and we are waiting for Si Ho and Do Yoon to follow her.

    Dark Hole killed Mrs. Lee because he gave him an ominous prophesy that said:

    “An evil spirit will come…from the Dark Hole.
    The evil spirit that fed off its father’s blood will rise from the Dark Hole. The evil spirit opened the Dark Hole. And now, it is coming to close it. The Soul will go back to its owner.”

    P.S. @Packmule3 you are right. Dark Hole has definitely a crush on Hwal.

  10. @GB,

    As we have discussed before, this karma cycle goes endlessly, based on the new prophesy the Shaman gave, this time the cycle will close, but that doesn’t mean they won’t suffer casualties.

  11. I also forgot to write that in the present time Sang Un was the one who tried to bring back Hwal from madness.

    She told him that he said he was human and he doesn’t kill innocents.
    (well all those police officers were not innocents).

    She took the blow this time, with her palm. So, they have matching scars.

  12. Anneyong!

    Episode 14 gave us info, sadness and those 12 minutes before the end of the episode that were amazing!

  13. Kalimera!

    Ella did an amazing edit on Bulgasal and the outcome is brilliant!
    The cinematography and several scenes are breathtaking!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hINp8x5BHZI&lc=z22agd5xqljmdpal5acdp43buaqe2gubavyzbekjxxtw03c010c

    Enjoy!

  14. Question/help on tracing the soul. Dark Hole’s soul transfers to Blue Robe guy 1000 years ago. 600 years ago, Dan Hwal is born with Dark Hole’s sole? Then Red Robe Lady kills Dan Hwal, and that soul transfers to her. She is re-born multiple times, so is this Dark Hole’s soul weaving through the 1000 years, interwining the 3 beings?

  15. @Fan of TKEM,

    That happened exactly. The Soul was Dark Hole’s all along.

    The Man in Blue took it, we don’t know the exact reason yet.

    He was born as Hwal and when The Lady in Red stabbed him, she took that soul.

    Dark Hole was killing her in order to destroy his soul and becoming a full Bulgasal.

  16. I already explained all this, @Fan of TKEM. Back in Episode 9 when I wrote about Dark Hole’s origin. Didn’t you get it? 🙂

    I said his soul was being passed around like a hot potato among the three creatures.

    It’s simple logic, really. Two Bulgasal, one human, and one soul.
    Only a human can have a soul and we all know that Dark Hole was originally a human, and the other two, judging from the painting, were originally Bulgasal.

    So, it’s a no-brainer that it was Dark Hole’s soul that got transferred to Hwal, turning Hwal into a mortal. And it’s been passed around like a hot potato, through 1000 years. 🙂

  17. K-drama Grandma (K-d G)

    WOW WOW WOW!! I’m emotionally exhausted by these 2 episodes (I’m invested in the story more than I realized). What hit me most was Hwal’s bewildered deep grief at his backwards in time flashbacks through his life with the Shaman (the knife, those words!!) -oh my heart!!!

    I read the posts and comments y’all made on these episodes, great stuff. I too think there is hope for a redemptive arc, that will restore everything back to where and who they ought to be. Before everyone else ends up dying? Crossing my fingers!

  18. Thank you for referencing back to Ep 9 post. I went back and re-read post and comments. Now, the light bulb is buzzing, hahaha. Now, it makes better sense that Dark Hole wants his soul obliviated, so he can be equal bulgasol with Dan Hwal, and no Red Lady interferring.

    The montage sequence of Dan Hwal and Shaman was nicely done. Reminds me of the first 10-15 minutes of the Pixar movie “Up”. Wiping away tears.

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