The thread is now open.
Growing_Beautifully, Cleopatra, Welmaris, Janey, nrllee, Fern, Kuroshio, FGB4877, and Carolina, are you ready? Aren’t you watching the Winter Olympics?
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 rewatch!
Thanks @pkml3. Oh no, are we at THAT episode already?? Yeah, well, since our purple tongued evil spirit ghost popped up, I guess it’s THAT time today. 13.5 hours and counting!!!
This episode was interesting, hope will read you all tomorrow!
Dear Everyone,
I won’t be able to attend this afternoon due to family matters. It sounds like a nervous or sad episode from what has been written already. Stay brave. I will catch up on the comments in the evening.
Hi there, I’m here on and off and waiting for party time. Is anyone about?
Kalimera Everyone ! I am here 🙂
@GB Unnie,
I don’t know if I would be able to type a lot today…
Hi Cleo! Glad to see you, as always! Did you see that @WEnchanteur popped up on the Happy New Year thread?
Cleo, is your elbow hurting you a lot?
@GB,
I did on my notifications! I had a busy Friday and I am sleepy today. I got up in the morning to make veggie ramen!
I wanted to be in tune with you guys and your pretty dishes for the Lunar Year!
No, @GB, it is about what we are going to see. I don’t know if I would be able to type. The episode is an emotional rollercoster.
I’m glad that your arm is OK. Yes, I was just writing …
… In the last episode we see that Reaper kisses Sunny so that she gets the memories of her past life and remembers her brother. She tells him that both KS and Reaper were in her past life. He makes Sunny remember only what makes her happy and says goodbye. Strangely, he does not get confirmation from her if he is Wang Yeo or not. So in the beginning of Ep 13, he is still wondering if he really is Wang Yeo or not.
This is an episode of change, of coming to terms with ‘old/new’ identities, of facing comeuppance, of facing loss… loss of friends,… loss of memories,…loss of loved ones. What an emotionally draining episode.
I had trouble doing my own private rewatch. I wrote notes more than once.
It is time to start! Let’s go with tissues near at hand.
Episode 13 hit me harder than any other I have seen so far.
So, I totally understand you!
Let’s start!
I’m here. Just sat down to my computer. Even though I’m starting a couple minutes late, I can’t skip the intro. I love the music, especially the drums. Sets the mood, for sure.
Watching it again, the scene of Kim Shin walking towards his king juxtaposed between the present and the past. The expression on Wang Yeo’s face (intensely holding himself back, preparing to explode) is so different from that on Reaper’s face (apprehensive, unable to believe that he was Wang Yeo). KS’s steps are as resolute as before, to confront the king.
Previously he carried the sword in hand, and was cut down. Now he carries the invisible sword in his chest and grabs Wang Yeo’s/Reaper’s throat.
It pained me to see that those two who have become friends and allies are their greatest enemies in their past life.
KS to Reaper : “Your Commanding General, Kim Shin is here to see you, Your Majesty. I appear before you again, Your Majesty for the first time in 900 years. I don’t know if the centuries of being alive blinded me to this fact or if it was due to god’s hatred toward me. You were so close, and yet I hadn’t realised that you were Wang Yeo.”
Reaper in tears : “Am I really that man in the end? Am I really Wang Yeo? Was that young and foolish face, mine, in the end?”
The thought comes that in other kdramas, people can recognise their first loves of childhood, but in this case both KS and GR couldn’t recognise each other when they were far older than children before. Maybe it really was the curse of god that blinded them.
What a great acting by both of them, Gong Yoo and Lee Dong Wook.
Hi @Welmaris, good to see you! Looks like it’s the 3 of us again this week. 🙂
Remember in one of the earlier epiosdes, Reaper was so hurt at being thought of as a sinner like maybe a murderer by KS and Deok Hwa?
Now he faces his past life, where he was an even more abhorrent cause of many deaths, more horrible than he’d imagined, or wanted to be.
Hey @Welmaris!
Good to have you on board!
ET opens the doors to look in on empty rooms. Reaper’s room is so clean, in muted tones of white and wood. So different from the vibrantly coloured temple where he stands looking around him. Reaper is in the temple filled with the names of the many people executed by his royal decree – it was far from empty.
Reaper’s questions to the dead who surround him.
“What in the world did I do?”
“What memories of mine did I have erased?”
“What kind of decision did I make?”
Just how cowardly was I?”
We find that his cowardice is still an issue even in the present.
I am going to stop and trascribe this conversation that shows how deeply Eun Tak was thinking and behaving:
KS: WHy aren’t you asking anything? Did you know…that he was Wang Yeo?
ET: It was something that the deceased told me. I wasn’t sure about his intentions, so I thought It shouldn’t be relayed to you carelessly. However, whether I told you or not, I thought that a fate that’s meant to be avoided will be avoided and if it’s a destined meeting, then you would meet it. I’m sorry.
ET tells KS how she knew that Wang Yeo was Reaper : “A deceased soul told me. I didn’t know what their intentions were so I didn’t think it would be right to tell you without confirming.” (This is ET again being consistently prudent.) “But if you two had been fated to pass each other by, you would have done so. And if you two had been fated to meet, you two would have met anyway.” – So true in their universe of fated-ness.
However it was wise that she left it, since she did not know what the evil purposes of Park might have been, in giving her all that info.
Poor Deok Hwa is still dismissed. None of his questions get answered by KS.
I’m so glad Goblin has come to care for Grim Reaper since they became roommates, because if that affection wasn’t there, Grim Reaper’s throat would have been ripped out. I’m also glad that Grim Reaper has developed some humility where Wang Yeo had none.
Am I…him? So I really am…Wang Yeo?
Grim Reaper asks the questions of himself because his memory is impaired, but it is also a question of whether he is still that same young and foolish king after having worked as a Grim Reaper for 300 years and witnessed so much death and grief.
Even though Goblin remembers vividly every detail of the day he, his sister, and his men died at Wang Yeo’s command, he still cannot destroy Wang Yeo in anger. Kim Shin has also changed in the 900 years he’s been Goblin. He’s been a guardian, advocating for the downtrodden. He’d been tasked during his lifetime to be a guardian for Wang Yeo. In the end, Goblin could not betray that role despite having righteous anger.
Goblin’s biggest mistake is that he still doesn’t believe that the heavens are on his side, even after having the almighty reanimate him as Goblin and speak directly to him through Deok Hwa.
Dear Friends, how are you?. I am still recovering but this particular episode was very relevant as it was the downfall on one hand, but originally the “feels” crowd in DramaBeans criticized a particular Goblin decision that was (from an overall perspective) the right one. We’ll get to that one.
Hi there my dear @FGB. So glad you could make it this week. Yes, this episode is full of FEELS and a good target for angry ‘feeling commentors’.
While Sunny and ET chat about past memories in the apartment below, on the rooftop, the hoobae grim reaper (Choi Woong) argues with landlady Samshin about the unfairness of dividing the cost of water equally with Sunny, but she won’t budge. She does not like GRs.
Her sympathies are with Sunny.
Instead of actually responding to what the Reaper Choi is saying, she seems to be reflecting on what Sunny and ET are discussing in the apartment below.
Samshin : “She said she moved here after ending her long-term lease elsewhere. I feel so bad for her.”
Reaper Choi asks about feeling bad for him instead.
Samshin : “Yeah. Whether it be the first or fourth, every single time is important. Isn’t that right?” (She is referring to reincarnated lives)
Choi : “What are you saying? Also my water pipes are frozen, so no water is coming out of them! So why should I have to pay the same amount as her?”
Samshin : “Exactly. isn’t fate sad? Will such a high price have to be paid, in the end?” (Again she’s thinking of the price that KS and Wang Yeo are paying.)
Reaper Choi is fed up and asks for Samshin’s name but she will only accept cash payment. (LOL. She totally dismisses Choi the way KS dismisses Deok Hwa).
Hey @FGB! Good to have you on board!
Actually I found that this episode gives me the answer to the question that I asked last week. The reason that the female Reaper was tricked into holding Sunny’s hand. It was in order for Park Joong Won to confirm that Sunny really was Kim Sun. After this, he st out to attack Sunny more than once.
Park looks in on Sunny in the restaurant. “So you were Kim Sun after all, you wench. You must die by my hand in this lifetime as well.”
Reaper comes in time to stop Villain Park from doing something to Sunny. He is unaware that he is looking his former tutor/evil goader in the eye. But it is appropriate that he is inadvertently saving Sunny from Park this time, when in the past Park had goaded him into killing Kim Sun. Nice mirroring and turnabout in the writing.
Truly tought, we have one omitted person that wonders around spreading havoc and the Heaven doesn’t do anything about him. They are all waiting for Kim Shin to step in.
Park’s evil excuses/justifications : “All I did was fan the flames of their dark desires.” (Typical of evil people, they put the blame on others.) Am I the one who blinded them? Or did they choose to close their eyes on their own.”
We find to our surprise that he was in the background and the cause of several unfortunate events revolving around ET.
He was behind the driver who killed ET’s mother.
He was the one who goaded the thief whose accident would have caused the crash into the bus that would have killed ET.
Park had also been the one to get the husband to push his wife off the rooftop, and to do almost the same thing to ET.
I wonder if this means that he knew how to target the Goblin’s Bride even before she was born? And all through her life?
*Sob*
KS recalls the good times that he and Reaper had had: cooking together, drinking together, talking to each other, and the laughter they’ shared. It is such a sweet collage of memories It is so sad. It is more lonely to lose a friend.
Reaper calls DH but KS answers and says nothing. The two of them just listen to the silence. Realising who is on the other line. In just this way they keep each other company, now. No laughter, no words. Just in silence. *sob*
“So the Heavens are still by your side?”, meaning that he was the biggest sinner yet he still got the lightest sentence of them both.
I’m pausing a bit because I feel my video is going on a bit faster.
So true Cleo. Why was god so useless in dealing with malicious spirits? Even the grim reapers couldn’t handle him (I wonder why) Everything left to goblin. And is there only 1 goblin?
@FGB, the weightage of the punishment always did seem unfair. God said the punishment was based on the weight of the lives taken by KS. Maybe he killed more people? But perhaps being able to forget was not such a good thing after all, since he suffered pain without understanding why his heart hurt.
I was feeling sad when the GR was feeling lonely. He went to Eun Tak and wanted her to understand him. I am glad she was quiet when needed.
Wise answer from Eun Tak as usual: A spirit told her, but she didn’t know its intentions (she decided against foolishly spread potentially destructive rumors). If they were fated to meet then she shouldn’t interfere in Fate’s hand.
Grim Reaper, in the temple looking at the plaques of all the people whose deaths he caused, does feel guilt and responsibility. He’s grown.
I like that ET doesn’t prevaricate when Goblin asks if she knew that Grim Reaper was Wang Yeo. She gives a clear answer for her silence on the matter: she didn’t trust her source, the ghost of the evil tutor.
Goblin shows kindness to Grim Reaper by letting him stay in the house. ET recognizes that their moving out of the house is in consideration of Grim Reaper.
All, even Sunny, are shaken by the revelation of Grim Reaper’s identity. She’s also aware of being attracted to him despite his having been the cause of her death in her previous life. Remembering the kiss Grim Reaper gave her to unlock her memories as Kim Sun, Sunny called it erotic.
From what Sunny tells ET about Kim Shin’s stubbornness, it sounds like she didn’t want him to return to the palace, but he did anyway. I had thought she’s written him a letter asking for help communicating with Wang Yeo and protecting him from his tutor.
ET meets Reaper. I wonder whether she told him Park’s name so that he could put that name in his report. At first he does not know that the Special Case was Park, but at the end, he callled Park’s name.
BTW Hello @GB and @Welmaris, and Kalimera @Cleo!!!
Sunny visits KS to say that all that was in the distant past, lifetimes ago, but to him it’s still his current life.
KS : “That may be a part of your past life, but that was a part of my current life. I’ve been living since then, after all. I have no place to retreat to, so all I can do is continue forward. And that man killed you.”
Sunny : “He didn’t kill me. He killed Kim Sun, not me! I’m Sunny and this is my current life. But if you insist on pressing forward my answer is the same as it was in my previous lifetime. Go, orabeoni.”
KS : “Forgiveness is not what I have in mind for Yeo if I press onward this time.”
(But he does not know what punishment to mete out, upon someone who’d become his friend. As @Welmaris says, even KS has changed and mellowed. He does not resort to killing as his first response.)
Sunny : “Don’t worry about me. I’ll truly become happy in this lifetime, orabeoni.”
She was only marginally happy, doing what was right although it broke her heart. Poor Sunny.
Hey @FGB! 🙂
I really like this episode. Their maturity has changed the game for all of them.
Goblin’s punishment to Wang Yeo is incredibly meaningful, poetic and beautiful: last time Wang Yeo deserted Kim Shin, so now Goblin abandons Grim Reaper. He still loves and cares for his friend as the wordless calling shows.
The rooftop scene of Sam Shin and the junior grim reaper gives some comic relief, lightening the heavy mood, but it also serves like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action. Sam Shin’s words are in response to the situation between Kim Sun and Wang Yeo, not junior grim reaper’s water bill and frozen pipes. He’s so frustrated by their lack of communication that he asks Sam Shin’s name: which, I suspect, is to call it and bring her to her afterlife. I highly suspect that’s not something his superiors would condone.
The Grim Reaper will be punished by the Audit Team and he gets back all this memories. How excrutiating that would be for the Grim Reaper and the person he has become to remember all those awful things in his past life.
Grim Reaper fearing an empty home…
Reaper is looking at the drawing of the sword which he cannot see.
The wind chimes of his tea room summon him urgently.
The Investigative Agency of the Reaper Department came.
He is punished for using reaper powers for personal matters.
1) Erased human memories
2) Disclosed details of a death announcement
3) Did not take any measures after having his true identity exposed
4) Restored a human’s memory of her previous life.
5) He manipulated humans’ behaviour or removed them forcibly.
His punishment is to remember : “So face your sins once more. That is the suitable punishment for all the crimes you’ve committed.”
So KS didn’t need to punish Reaper after all. It was all done for him, once again… it was Wang Yeo/Reaper who brought the punishment upon himself by breaking the rules.
“Your memories of you sins in your previous life as well as your greatest sin, which was ending your own life which adds up to 600 years of hell altogether have been restored to you. You are now on probation as a grim reaper and will stand by until further notice.”
(So this explains why Reaper says he only became a grim reaper about 300 years previously. He was in hell for 600 years first.)
“I really was Wang Yeo. I killed both of them. I killed myself.” He swipes the things off his table just the way Wang Yeo did when he was a stupid king.
Wow. Goblin’s tolerance for alcohol has increased. He’s knocking back whiskey like it’s water, and it is not making him giddy in the least.
Park was poisoning Wang Yeo as he did with everyone else. The female Grim Reaper was giving him “tonic”. Basically he has lost his mind and was mourning for what he had done to his Queen.
KS is at the temple with the tablets of all who had died that day and he asked them what he was to do with Wang Yeo. He thinks he should punish him but does not know how.
“What do you all think? What should I do? What should I do about him?”
The answer comes quite soon. Little does he know that he’ll have Reaper asking him to kill him. Still a case of cowardice on Reaper’s part? KS does the only thing he can… as @FGB says, he abandons his friend in derision, the way he was abandoned by him.
Grim delivering the truth to Sunny with a kiss is as poetic as it gets: Love might not protect you from the harshest truths but still reassures you that at least your loved one is there for you and trusts you can deal with such a heavy burden.
We now know, how the jade ring was in Samshin’s possession. Wang Yeo gave her to her, when she asked.
@Cleo in the collage of Wang Yeo losing his mind there is young king looking neat, then young king with hair awry and then adult king with hair in a mess, looking demented. Show bothered to show us the quick progression in a few seconds, before he throws the ring to aged Samshin granny in the past life.
@GB so true. He lost his mind.
I was so sad when Wang Yeo realized what he had done in his past life. He was so guilt ridden.
I guess Samshin wanted the ring as a means to reunite the lovers in the present life, probably hoping that they’d get a second chance, but the bad karma followed them into the present as well. So maybe Samshin should not have bothered.
The conversation between Sunny and Eun Tak, ¿Why did my hardeaded brother return?, ¡he should have saved himself!”, meaning he could decide to just abandon a foolish king and live his life as he saw fit… yet Kim Shin decided to follow his Loyalty to the bitter end.
It is hard to be loyal to a fool.
Wang Yeo’s worst mistake was thinking that he was not loved, when he had a wife and Kim Shin and at one time, his own brother. Still although our hearts ache for Reaper, it’s harder to feel sorry for Wang Yeo.
So evil tutor ghost has been a catalyst to bring all these events revolving around Goblin to a head, even though he claims to have been trying to avoid Goblin for 900 years. He was feeding off the greed and evil within people, but it so happened he fed off of some whose subsequent actions would harm Eun Tak, and Goblin stepped in to reverse the harm.
@GB,
True. Still, Grim Reaper became someone different than Wang Yeo.
@FGB, in the end KS honorably carried out all of his duty til the end, loyal towards a foolish king. He carried it out even in his dying, and so owed nothing to the older brother king either.
Grandma Samshin is such a troll!!!, but her sympathy are with the living, as they are the creatures she delivers into the world, and especially those four who got a very miserable lives.
Sunny :”You said that you’re orabeoni’s, the goblin’s bride. That person and I had a connection in our past lives, so I get it. But why has your fate become entangled with orbeoni’s?”
ET “Because that’s my fate.”
“Do you do weird things, too?”
ET remembers her most tragic role as bride but puts a positive spin on what she can do.
To the question on why orabeoni became a goblin ET says it’s because the world needs miracles. Beautiful and strange miracles. Sunny accepts that from ET.
Sunny : “What about the grim reaper then? Is it because everyone dies?”
ET : “Because life is a bit lonely since death exists.”
ET sees Villain Park outside the store. He comes in and threatens Sunny.
They are saved with the mark on ET’s neck emits a pulse of energy that repulses him. ET falls unconscious. Sunny saw the flash of blue light from ET.
It could be that Villain Park chose to scare Sunny in ET’s presence, so that ET’s goblin mark would become weaker, and she’d lose her connection to goblin.
It’s worrying that ET’s birthmark could act on it’s own but it didn’t summon Goblin. Their connection is fading. It seems the only way for her to reach him is by blowing out a flame.
@GB,
The Evil one knew what he was doing all along. He doesn’t expect what will happen next though.
Remembering all the poison Wang Yeo spewed to his queen, baselessly accusing her and her brother of treason, I bristled when Grim Reaper said to ET, “Seeing how you’re not asking anything, you must be on the Goblin’s side. I’m sorry, but just once…couldn’t you be on my side?” My concerns were mollified when he asked ET to return the jade ring to Sunny. This time being on his side was something he wanted out of concern for Sunny, not something selfish that would cause Sunny pain.
Abuse feeds on secrecy… that of the victim and its tormentor. Park is abusing the Lady in Wait again.
KUDOS to Eun Tak for not falling into his game like the poor Lady in Wait did.
Reaper is outside Yoo Shin Woo’s home to see KS and tell him about ET’s imminent death. KS tells him to protect Sunny.
Reaper asks him why he kept going forward to see the king.
KS : “To tell you what I was not able to. I asked to visit you thousands of times after you bestowed the blade upon me, but you who were my brother-in-law as well as the king only ever sent messages to me to tell me to wander the borderlands. And only when you were sure that I’d die did you show your face to me.”
GR : “So what was it you wanted to say that you went to such lengths?”
KS told him that the previous king took care of him by neglecting him.
“You received love from the former king, your half-brother, from my sister who’d been your lover, and from me, who protected your Goryeo.”
It took 900 years for Wang Yeo to get the answer about being loved.
KS wanted to hear the king say ‘I will bestow this sword to you with rage and fear so strike down park Joong Won/Heon.’ That was the only thing I wanted you to tell me. I had no idea that that blade would end up being plunged into my own chest.”
KS suddenly gets an epiphany. He realises the answer to god’s question of Fate. The sword was fated not to kill the enemies of Goryeo, so much as to kill the true enemy of the king, Park Joong Won/Heon.
KS recalls Park jeering at him ‘You and I have both lived for 900 years. So you can’t cut me with that blade you’ve forged from water.’
KS : “So no matter how far away I go, I’m destined to take this sword in my hands eventually.” Lightning and thunder strikes.
He tell Reaper : “The purpose of this blade was that, in the end. To kill Park Joong Won/Heon”
He knew that it meant that both he and Park would need to die at the same time.
Hum, I wonder why my most recent comment is awaiting moderation. @Packmule, you may have to do something for it to post properly.
The answer to what Wang Yeo was thinking was what Kim Shin told him into his face!
The Grim Reaper: …What did you want to say?
KS: The former King. He took care of you by not caring for you. From the late king who was your half brother, from your lover who was my sister, from me who protected your Goryeo, that you received love.
It’s such a good choice of cinematography to have KS and Reaper on the steps halfway, having the conversation on love for Wang Yeo and the purpose of the sword. They are not at the top of the hill like before, but halfway to being friends again. They are still on the same page.
Kim Shin finally understands why the sword ended into his chest…
How did I miss that the first time around?
@Cleo we said the same thing about the KS explaining why he went up to the king and about the sword in his chest.
In her conversation with Goblin, Sunny tries to differentiate between her lifetimes, insisting that as Sunny she’s her own person. She remembers being Kim Sun, but she isn’t only Kim Sun. She and Kim Sun may share the same fate involving Kim Shin and Wang Yeo, but as Sunny she has her own destiny because she can make her own choices. However, she chooses to give Goblin the same advice Kim Sun gave Kim Shin: Go. Move forward. Sunny does so, even knowing it may cause her pain because she is fond of Grim Reaper.
@GB,
We are getting there and they are in the same page. They had come with an answer to Nabi Shin’s Question… Kim Shin realized it first. Grim Reaper would just follow.
I just saw @GB Unnie! <3
Sunny speaks to Reaper on the bridge and he realises that she has not forgotten.
GR : “How do you remember me?”
Sunny : “You made a mistake when casting your spell. ‘Forget all of the sad and difficult moments you’ve had in your life. In both your past life and current llife. And forget about me too. You will at the very least have a happy ending, like this.’ ”
Every moment she spent with him was both happy and sad so she did not forget him.
Sunny : “How could you tell me to only remember the happy times, but forget you? That doesn’t quite make sense, because every moment I spent with you was a happy one, even if each and every moment with you was also sad and difficult. So did my dying to protect you become your happy ending? Seeing as how you look so young now you didn’t live very long, did you?”
GR : “Every day, I dearly missed you.”
Sunny : “So why did you go and do that, if you were going to miss me?”
GR : “Because I was foolish.”
Sunny : “It would have been nice if you’d realised that sooner. But what am I to do. I even fell for you in this lifetime, too. Maybe because you’re just so handsome?”
She takes off the ring and gives it to him : “Here. Let’s really break up this time. I don’t want to suffer because of you in this lifetime. This is the only punishment I can give you. Goodbye Paeha.”
Although Sunny remembers, it’s less painful to at least know why she is suffering. Better than what poor ET had to suffer when she was made to forget.
@Cleo, yes, the answer to god’s question on Fate. All along ET and Sunny had the answer. They chose their own destiny. KS took a long time, after being angry with god and feeling it was unfair. He had to grow up, out of that attitude.
Reaper, at least, always chose to break the rules for his friends. He does it again for ET this last death announcement.
Kim Shin wanted to spend time with Eun Tak. So they went a trip. Oh boy…The next 20 minutes will be…*sobs*
Every time a drama has a nice, happy time together, it could be a farewell trip. What a nice collage of their times of falling in love and being together … and poor KS is in tears alone. Such a good collage.
He needed an excuse from her to bring him back to her. As he looks at the contract, it would be the excuse that he was able to use.
@GB,
Gong Yoo nails it here… 🙁
All the crying scenes were perfect by everyone…
Kim Shin says goodbye to his loved one by afar…*cries*
In preparation for the showdown with Park, KS brings her to the rooftop and tells her to summon him when he called her on the cellphone.
He comes back to give her a long goodbye kiss. Kisses are so few and far between so far, so this one has such special significance. He’s desperate, knowing he’ll never be able to kiss her again.
He can teleport to where Park is but he can’t teleport back to ET. Very strange logic. He needs a portal like a door or a summons. However he can teleport back to his own home. It’s one of the limits of his movement that almost gets ET killed.
ET is alone on the rooftop looking at the children’s Goblin book, not seeing Park anymore.
Meanwhile Reaper is looking at the ring and suddenly looks at the card. He realises that ET’s death time has changed to be that night.
ET saw the last of the Buckwheat dried flowers blow away in the wind like ashes and it triggers her thinking of her fading birthmark. She starts thinking of the reason why Park had turned up only recently. “So it was because of me. And you waited until my birthmark became faint.”
Park : “I’m impressed. But it’s too late now.”
ET speaking as if she can see Park : “You’re planning to use me to draw Ahjusshi’s sword.”
Such a smart girl. This has been wonderfully consistent throughout this show.
ET totally understands that she must die before Park possesses her to kill KS by drawing out the sword. What a brave, self-sacrificing girl. I’ve always loved the character of ET.
Wang Yeo finally does his part to be on the side of KS when he comes in time to summon Park. The sword is fiery red and not blue.
All those regrets that the shaman announced about the ring were not Kim Sun’s but Wang Yeo’s…
Park is annoyingly satisfied : “So this is how my life ends. But what I did was not in vain, because I’ve killed you once more. See? It’s the end for you now.” Park dissolves in smoke while KS’s body emits bright burning embers.
KS never forgets his role as warrior to the king. He turns to Reaper : “Forgive me your Majesty. I will now send word to you that I’ve died a heroic death.” Wang Yeo/Reaper is in tears.
He drops the sword that disappears. ET seems to have fainted again and woken again. She runs to embrace KS.
KS : “My life must have been a reward because I met you.”
ET : “No, I don’t want that. Please. You said that you wouldn’t let go of my hand. You promised me!”
KS : “I’ll try asking god, to let me come back with the first snowfall of the season. I’ll ask just for that. I’ll try asking God to let me do that.”
ET : “Don’t say things like that! Don’t leave me like this! Please! How am I supposed to live without you? I love you ahjusshi. I love you!”
KS : “Me too. I love you. Until the end. I already had.”
The music and ET’s tears. *sad*
It’s hard for us to see it, but KS’s disintegration is supposed to be a gift or grace from God. He rejected this fate as well by refusing to go on into the afterlife, just on the off chance that he’d be able to come back to ET at the first snow. What a tremendous love.
Kim Go Eun is amazing in crying scenes. Her wailing me brought more tears than before… *sighs*
At least this time around, I was just crying and not sobbing.
@FGB, Yes, it seems those regrets, sins, and the negative elements were mainly Wang Yeo’s. It was a ring that he chose for her. A sign of them them being bound together forever – a circle without an end. At least Sunny was able to sort of end it in her lifetime.
Episode 13 ended for me as well.
Have a beautiful day ahead! I will read you later on!
I noted that I always had a question about the birthmark. It’s meaning and purpose is not entirely clear. In the past, when ET was in danger herself, it sort of summoned KS. Then it starts to fade and is tied to her being able to see ghosts and grim reapers.
When she was in danger at other times, the birthmark did not get activated. Then when she’s out to defend Sunny, it activates again, but this time it repels the ghost but does not summon KS.
It seems to have faded out too much and come to the end of it’s ‘power’. It seems like even to this knowledge, evil Park is privy. Show never explains how he knows, but perhaps the other ghosts told him. ET should have been warned as well, I feel.
Bye @Cleo! See you.
I think I’ll head off too. Goodbye everyone! I’ll read you later.
Dear Friends, I am still where a lost Wang Yeo is giving the ring to Samshin, but since you are probably at the end of the episode, I will tell you about the scene that conflagrated the “Feels” crowd: the scene where Kim Shin uses a limp Eun Tak’s hand to get the sword out.
The DramaBeans “Feels” crowd cried bloody murder since he circumvented her consent to draw the sword, he “r*ped” her of sorts.
The absolute truth is that Kim Shin IS a warrior, one that finds a foe that has been killing for hundreds of years, that has been targeting his own family in front of him and he must decide between stopping him for good (even if he must exchange his life to vanish Park) or let those terrible events to claim his loved ones.
We learn during Grim Reaper’s audit a little more about how sinners become grim reapers: “Grim reapers are those who have committed great sins in their past lives, and while living through 200 years of hell, they are those who chose to erase their memories.”
Grim Reaper remembers being a grim reaper for 300 years. Add to the 200 years of hell, and it totals 500 years. There are still roughly 400 years unaccounted for for his afterlife span of years to match Goblin’s.
There are a few things that bother me about the flashback on Wang Yeo’s life after the killing of Kim Sun and Kim Shin. Why would Park Joong Hun want to poison him? Was there some other puppet king through whom PJH could wield power once Wang Yeo was gone? Also, how could all the citizens in the market place recognize the mad king? He was not wearing the official clothing of his position. How could they recognize his face? Commoners would not usually have opportunity to see their monarchs in person, much less often enough to become familiar with their looks. Did he wander in his madness often enough that he became familiar to them? If so, how was he able to exit the palace without guard?
Wang Yeo, on the night he decides to kill himself by drinking poison: “My people, my subjects, my woman, too…and even I myself…no one…loved me. Till the end, from anyone, I was not able to receive love.” His perception and the reality don’t match. His queen did love him, even to the point of giving her life to protect him. His brother-in-law, Kim Shin, also gave up his life trying to break PJH’s wicked hold on him.
When the grim reaper auditors punish Wang Yeo by returning to him the memory of all his life’s sins, they also clarify that he’d spent 600 years in hell. With 300 years of working as Grim Reaper, that adds up to 900 years. I wonder why there’s discrepancy in the script? Maybe the subtitles were in error.
All his sins restored to his memory, Grim Reaper says through tears of grief and remorse, “I see I…was Wang Yeo. I…killed them all. I killed myself.” He is not the same arrogant king as before.
Back at the temple, where he has continuously honored the memories of those who died 900 years ago, including Wang Yeo, Goblin muses, “What are all your thoughts? What should I do? What should I do with him?” Goblin looks vulnerable, emotionally broken, not stubborn as he was when he met his death.
Goblin and Wang Yeo–Grim Reaper with all his memories restored–have their confrontation back at Goblin’s house. Goblin is angry, yet contains his urge for violence. He is not a killing machine. He will not kill Grim Reaper to appease his own anger or fulfill Grim Reaper’s wish to escape his punishment of facing his sins.
Imagine a soldier dressed as a civilian trapped in the middle of a shooting spree that is unarmed but whose wife has a concealed weapon in her purse. The thing is, she is in shock. Should he try to calm her for ask her permission to use her gun while the shooter nears? or get the weapon off his shocked wife and stop the killer?. If you were in a life emergency, would you like the person that can solve the situation to act resolutely or to “do it properly” for his wife?.
@GB and @Cleo, i am still way behind. Will end the episode later or just read the DramaBeans recaps, as this particular episode, even if it is excellently written, directed and acted, emotionally drains me.
@Welmaris, will also read you later! 😀
Sunny has a loving, forgiving nature. Even knowing all the negative things represented by the jade ring, she chooses to wear it because it also holds her memories of Grim Reaper, whom she adores. She puts a positive spin on his following her: not knowing that he’s been charged by her orabeoni with protecting her from PJH, she says his continued presence makes her feel she’s on a date. I wonder if Wang Yeo was ever aware that Kim Sun hovered on his periphery, watching his activities, and felt that same sense of connection. I suspect not, since Wang Yeo was convinced he never received love: his emotional receptors were blocked by the poison of PJH.
Wang Yeo has his moment of reckoning with Kim Sun, when with all their memories restored Sunny talks with Grim Reaper on the bridge. She asks an important question: Why, if he was going to bitterly regret having killed her, did he do so? He admits he was foolish. Kim Sun had called Wang Yeo a fool before she met her death. Sunny says, “I wish you had realized it sooner.”
The only punishment Sunny can mete to Wang Yeo for killing Kim Sun is to break up with him. She refuses to fall in love with him in this lifetime. Wang Yeo’s bitter regret, his missing Kim Sun, will have to continue at least through the end of this existence of his.
The something-bad-is-coming trope for couples is often a sunset date at the beach, but this time it is a sweet getaway for Goblin and ET at a traditional house in the middle of the city, where they immerse themselves in domestic bliss.
After the date, when Goblin is back in Chairman Yoo’s house, he reviews the contract that ET had written before their first attempt to remove the sword. When he reflects on how he won’t be around to meet ET at the first snow of every year, he’s stricken with grief. Kim Shin loves Eun Tak so deeply, and desperately wants to live a happy life with her.
I could not watch the end of this episode and write at the same time. The emotions I feel while the story unfolds are too real to stop and comment on them. Well done, show. You hit the mark.
I will say that watching Goblin’s face in his last moments was the beginning of healing, for me. He looked so calm. There is no question that he and Eun Tak loved each other to their fullest ability.
On losing Goblin, Eun Tak was wracked with grief. And who is Eun Tak, now that she has fulfilled her fate as the tool of Goblin’s destruction?
Hi Everyone,
I’m sorry I’ve missed the last 2 rewatch. I’ll be reading your comments though. I’m too tired to wake up in the morning.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Hi @Carolina, good to know you’re well. Yeah, I kind of knock off early in the evenings, being too tired to stay awake! I’ve yet to read thoroughly the comments after I went to bed. 🙂
Hello, @Carolina! Take your time watching, reading, and writing. Whenever and however you can join us, your contributions are appreciated.
Several times during our Goblin rewatch comments have been made about the petty nature of the almighty god. In truth that almighty is Writernim, the ultimate puppet master of all these characters and plot developments. The question is whether the almighty’s attitude reflects the screenwriter’s values, or are in contrast.
In the flashback when Wang Yeo, in the throes of his grief and madness, wanders through the town marketplace in his sleeping attire, the only person who doesn’t prostrate herself and hide her face is Sam Shin in the guise of the old lady. This does not startle Wang Yeo, as if he recognizes the authority in her despite her appearance and current occupation (doing something as mundane as prepping string beans). He readily agrees to her request for the jade ring, but does show arrogance by throwing it on the ground instead of handing it to her. As for the bloody clothes Kim Sun wore at the time she was killed, Wang Yeo looks down at them cradled in his arm, “The fine silk dress has no owner, it seems. Perhaps…are you looking for it? Then…take it.” He then tosses the clothing into a fire. By burning it, he’s sending it to Kim Sun in the afterlife.
As time has passed in the relationship of Goblin and ET, as Goblin has postponed having the sword withdrawn, two things have happened: their love has deepened, and ET’s birthmark has faded. The birthmark’s disappearance may be caused by more than Goblin straying from ET’s purpose as a tool of his destruction. Their fate is immutably set by forces outside them, but Goblin and ET embarked on a path of their own, their destiny, through the choices they made, which included cherishing the love between them. Their supernatural connection–the birthmark and its signaling ability–faded as their love connection grew.
@GB commented on the scene outside Chairman Yoo’s home where Grim Reaper and Goblin met in the middle of a long flight of stairs. It was a meeting halfway of emotion as well as location. Stairs do play a large part visually in these past two episodes, with the flashbacks to the palace in the Goryeo period and the scenes at the temple. At the palace, Kim Shin was not able to proceed all the way to the top of stairs where Wang Yeo stood: he was cut down after climbing only half the steps. At the temple Goblin did reach the same level as Grim Reaper, but since Grim Reaper’s memory of his earlier life was still impaired, Kim Shin was not able to speak to Wang Yeo, so his mission was not completed. Outside Chairman Yoo’s house, in the middle of a long course of stairs, Grim Reaper came to Goblin: he’d sought Goblin at that location and traversed half the distance, step by step. That is not something Wang Yeo, young and foolish, had been willing to do. Having gained humility, Wang Yeo was finally able to receive the message Kim Shin died trying to convey.
A question was raised: How did Park know about ET’s birthmark, its powers, and the fact it was fading? Although Park said he’d tried to avoid Goblin for 900 years, we are shown that he’s been in ET’s vicinity since before she was born. We also hear from ET’s ghost friends that Park has wandered long in the nether world. I suspect he’s a master in gathering information to use to his advantage, even more than he was in life. And at least one ghost noticed that ET’s birthmark was fading and told her about it, so it is likely Park heard about it from ghosts’ gossip.
@GB, you also bring up the issue of it seeming Goblin cannot teleport back to the rooftop confrontation with Park without ET calling him by blowing out a flame. I think it isn’t a matter of Goblin being unable to return to the rooftop where he left ET, I think it is a matter of his wanting the timing to be just right. If he arrived at the rooftop before Park, and Park saw him on arrival, Park would flee. That opportunity to destroy Park would by lost, and they’d have to try again to entrap him. Here are the possible outcomes, contrasted:
–ET draws Goblin’s sword, Goblin dissipates, Park arrives and ET has no protection from him. Park kills ET, then continues his evil ways, going next to kill Sunny. (If timing was not just right, this might have happened.)
–Park and Goblin both arrive on the rooftop. ET cannot bring herself to remove Goblin’s sword. Park inhabits ET and uses her body to draw the sword and kill Goblin. Park emerges from ET’s body, then kills her. Park remains a Miscellaneous Omitted, wreaking havoc in the world and powerful enough to evade grim reapers indefinitely. (This was Park’s plan.)
Goblin may not have anticipated Park possessing ET. If Grim Reaper had not arrived at that critical moment and called Park back out, Park’s plan would likely have been successful. If people are bothered that ET was unconscious as her hand was used by Goblin to draw the sword, they need to consider the needs of the moment. Both Goblin and ET were both in mortal danger. Goblin used the necessary means to protect ET: nothing but that sword would put an end to Park.
That the color of the flame on the Goblin’s swords are different is a fact that escaped me when I first watched this drama. I did realize from the beginning that the sword Goblin would wield from time to time was not the sword from his chest, and that in Quebec he brought it into being from the waters of the fountain, but this go-around I finally understood that the sword he could hold in his hand was always a water sword. Blue flame = water sword. Red flame = sword soaked in the blood of battle victims. Blue is the hottest flame, burning with more energy than red flame. Red flame and embers signal a cooling fire. Embers are partially consumed pieces of fuel. As Kim Shin and his sword reach the end of their long life as Goblin, their energy has ebbed.
@Welmaris Thanks for addressing many of my comments. What you say make sense, although again, that some of it had to be guessed at, is probably a sign of a plothole or two.
I like how you thought of the East Asian religious concept of burning something in order to send the burnt thing to the afterlife. I’d forgotten that.
I especially like your analysis of their meeting mid way on the flight of steps, and why Wang Yeo could finally receive KS’s message. I felt it was also poetic and appropriate that he finally did receive the message he commanded KS to send him, regarding his heroic death, on the top of a roof ie high up, close to heaven where the king, who is considered son of heaven, is.
Once again it was Wang Yeo who had to come to ‘meet’ KS, to receive his message, a reciprocity that finally ended the cycle of his past life’s relationship with KS, and of KS’s only life.