The thread is open. This is the penultimate episode.
6.00am PST
9.00am EST/Canada
10.00am Caracas
2.00pm in London
3.00pm in Paris
4.00pm in Athens
10.00pm in Singapore
Next on the rewatch list for our Saturday Squad is Nine: 9 Time Travels (2013): Rewatch on Sat, Dec 16.
Enjoy the rewatch!
Yeah! Thanks @pkml3. The penultimate episode. The last but one. In my part of the world, it’s called the second last episode LOL.
It is exciting because we want a happy ending but can’t see how Writer-nim is going to be able to pull it off…. stress…. tension….Heh!
I’ll be back in 10 hours time (with time to spare before the party)!!!
Same feeling as with “my love from the star”. How on earth can they be together?
I am posting some thoughts. I had in an earlier episode. Because I think they are becoming more and more Salient.
BD Is such an admirable character. He stays true to himself Over two time lines. He is such a steadying force for the flighty HJ. As we had previously wondered, does HJ Have a growth arc, or is she there more as a helper along the way for the male leads hero arc?
Hi GB and MM !!
Hi @MM, I’m cruising in after a watch of the first episode of Love Me Love My Voice. Not bad!!! I’ll definitely keep watching that show.
As for HJ in Queen and I, she does not seem to grow much. Still childish, flighty… maybe she becomes more thoughtful and mature after some ‘suffering’. We’ll see how it goes in the last episode. 🙂
Did I post the link to the hot deleted scene of the last episode? I don’t remember.
Coffee is reheating (uggh, woke up late). But caffeine!
Hi @WE, no, you didn’t post the link, I think. I don’t recall seeing a link.
Hi SD !
Hi @GB, @WE, @MM.
Hi @SD… We start NOW!!!!
Hi @SD.
Hi FF.
I find that and post it on last episode thread maybe?
Hi @FF, just started!
HJ is awake at 1.30am and too happy to sleep. She’s got the talisman and is happy to know that BD won’t be leaving her (or so she thinks).
@WE, I don’t remember seeing any link too.
Ok, it starts on dream life. The drama should be already over, with 2 episodes of only sweet moments. LOL.
@WE pls post
Hi @FF, @WE, @MM, @GB! Starting!
@WE, 2 whole episodes of lovey dovey scenes would be BORING!!! It was better SJJ’s way.
LOL he’s asking her questions that she cannot answer… except on neckties. Hah!
His questions on the telephone to HJ Result in some funny conversation. Intellectual curiosity on his part and frustration on her part
@MM… HJ should do what I do… tell him that I’ll go find out and show him how to do research for himself LOL.
Ah, I like the actress acting in this scene, she does funny expression and sighs and various mouth sounds.
BD asking serious questions at 1.30am…. yawn. He should just search for info on the web.
HJ is so full of herself, saying how good her taste is in choice of the apartment, how courteous she is to come over to tell him about neckties … when it was the excuse she was looking for to be with him. She’s after kisses, the sly girl!
@GB, when I read some people comments on MDL, I wonder if they don’t want that: 2 episodes of lovey-dovey. But the truth is: they would be bored and not happy anymore. People are full of contradiction. 🙂
I like how she solves her frustration at not being able to answer his questions
LOL …Lustful world where everything exists just for kissing. Everything looks lustful because HJ is the one who’s lustful, that’s why. He knows she’s just coming up with random excuses to kiss him and wants to know what else she’ll come up with. Heheheh!
She was just looking for a reason to go see him and ‘date’.
So, we still got 5 minutes of sweet moments. ^^
SJJ isn’t too harsh with this drama, lot of cheese.
Hi all,
@WE I missed the deleted scene so hope you repost.
In regard to HJ’s arc…there are some signs of maturation already. For example, she is not talked out of her belief that BD is real. She holds fast to what she knows is true in her heart. Episode 15 will be a serious challenge to her flighty nature, for sure.
There are several elements of 15 about which I’m puzzled…
When he says it’s like the whole world is made for a kiss, I took that to Be a good description of her emotional character.
@WE, this episode is the 2nd Dating Episode and the dating part only takes about 10-15 minutes in all… just enough time. Longer and I’d be wondering where the action is.
Compared to being 300 years apart, being able to see each other in 5 minutes was amazing to HJ. She says this just a few hours before we get their separation in time.
Manager asks her to be discret, and ofc, she goes in famous resto with boyfriend, lol.
But ok, no one in the resto at this hour.
The fettucini meal was quite entertaining. He’s like HJ in that he will NOT admit that he made a mistake. So much pride, both of them!
Hi @LL, glad you’re able to join us today.
Those fools give me an urge to eat spaghetti.
@LL, Hi !!
Yeah yeah, of course I’ll post that so sexy moment that it was deleted from the drama. ark ark ark.
@MM, she likes to be a bit of a lustful wench LOL.
Her contribution to their relationship is her playfulness And her ability to attach emotionally In contrast to his more Rational mind
She thinks about her second date but her first date cannot even be completed and he’s disappeared on her.
14:15 – He teleports without saying the words.
Damn-it!!!!!!!
He just disappeared while queueing for candy and return to Joseon time? Does the talisman have a mind of its own now?
The talisman turn dark… something is happening to someone who had a hand in making the talisman.
In between we get HJ calling Jo to find out if the talisman is in her box or not… It magically returned to its own time.
Harsh plot twist, something goes wrong for no reason he understands, then…
… even worst… talisman blackened.
Because of course, when things goes badly…
HEY! Just makes them even more bad!! 😀
@GB It is the reverse in our house
@FF There are rules to the talisman that even the monk did not know. It cannot be controlled by intentions of anyone.
Flashback, he tries to understand why!
But not fully get the answer.
Returning to its own time, the talisman shows what is required of BD. He is no longer 5 minutes away but 300 years distant from HJ.
When he finds poor Yun Wol, he puts 2-and-2 together and figures out why the talisman became dark. He later says her death caused it because it was her sincerity that went into the power of the talisman… her death took away something of that power.
In flashback we see what happened to Yun Wol. It was a senseless killing… just out of spite and for not other reason.
@MM, I was thinking the same thing about the relationship between BD and HL. Her playfulness lightens his spirit; given how serious he is all the time he neeeeds playfulness. And she needs her playfulness leavened by seriousness; although the tragedy of losing him, what is it 3 times? and like a death each time, no real hope of him coming back, is a lot.
I was so shocked the first time through with his disappearance. I thought I understood how the time travel worked in this series and then poof!
@GB, yes, thanks for the explanation. It helps me.
The main villain is dead, but the right hand man alive, so he’s the new main villain now.
Another connection to my love from the star. They have a date at the namsun tower Where he appears and disappears very quickly
He literally and figuratively has Yun Wol’s blood on his hands. She had warned him that no good would come of using the talisman for selfish reasons, but even she did not know what would happen with the talisman if she died.
BD is an amazing fighter considering that he took a long time off from fighting.
Strangely, although BD is stabbed, he’s relatively okay compared to when he was shot by arrows.
This villain is so good with a sword. BD is having hard time. Can’t defeat him without loosing a lot.
@MM, wow you can remember A Love from Another Star in detail??
@MM it’s so apt that she’s waiting in the phone booth… she’s waiting for him to come and for a call.
That make me think “my love from the stars” is a good drama for rewatch. Lot of great actors in this.
@GB Yes after a few rewatches.
Yun Wol died such a wrongful death.
@GB, BD is indeed amazing. He was stabbed so many times and he still appeared at the temple as if he is not injured at all.
@SD, this show’s time travel rules changed when BD made an emotional connection with HJ. It was not longer just the talisman that controlled BD’s time travel.
It makes sense now… emotions have a hand in the talisman and in how it opened up a portal in time. First was Yun Wol’s emotions. Then HJ’s. So when YW died, the time travel faltered on the talisman side.
@WE, SAME thought!!! Love From Another Star would be great for a rewatch.
Now the big classic of SJJ drama:
FL crying and suffering while her man is lost in time, another dimension, or anywhere (she could do a sci-fi drama, the guy would be lost in space or in a black hole).
@FF, that was the lack of realism that bothered me a bit. He was injured but didn’t seem to show it much.
Here’s their last meeting. *sob*
BD disappears from present while waiting to buy cotton candy. Talisman was shown to have been in HJ’s drawer at home, yet he time travels. BD returns to discover death of YW and his killing of “the bad guys”while HJ waits in phone booth. So he was needed back there to avenge her death, and talisman turns up and turns black!!! At this point our understanding re rules for BD’s time travel are thrown out the window.
Wait: the talisman is dark, he cuts his head and come back in present time??!!
@LL, wait until you see that the talisman can turn an even darker full black.
@GB, I don’t understand how the talisman works now. Why BD can travel back and forth when the talisman has turned black?
@WE, the talisman only worked this one last time. Since YW died, it turned dark… next turning black could mean only 1 thing… the other person who created the talisman also died.
Oh gosh, it’s unstable, he goes soon after in the past.
WHY?? WHY?!!, just to make us MAD ?!!
@GB Your comments are very helpful to understanding the time travel in this show.YW’s Role Highlights The importance of sincerity.
To the time travel.
Hi @FF, please read what I wrote above to @WE on the talisman. That’s my guess.
Poor HJ is grieving a loss.
I don’t get it. The talisman was black because of the ginsaeng death.
Then it turns even more black? Totaly dark?
I missed it on screen.
Thanks @MM. That’s my guess. I noticed that when the talisman was cut, there was still a connection based on the OTP’s connection with each other. The main thing they shared was the emotional connection. So I just attributed the present separation and ability to come back to that as well.
The fight scene between BD and the new evil character, the ‘right hand man’ is very well staged. We get a sense that the RHM is a much better swordsman, but BD deliberately takes a strike (twice!) to get close enough for a killing blow. I think this was staged by someone who knew something about sword fighting. RHM is so confused by this strategy; he would not be one to risk his life in such a fight, and so he succumbs.
So he does not go back immediately when he is injured in the sword fight
@WE, the talisman turned full black… Now long scenes of BD going in search of the monk who wrote the talisman and a month passes by.
HJ is still in mourning.
@SD, yes the RHM died by his BD’s sword… BD threw the sword so that it was stuck at neck height, then took the blade of the sword and killed the RHM with it. Really painful for me to watch. I couldn’t figure it out for a long time, how he killed him.
The monk died, so ofc, he can’t create a new talisman. It’s crazy those monks able to create time travel machines like that, everyday at breakfeast… 🙂
Best boyfriend ever!!! He thinks about HJ’s suffering and decides to burn the talisman in the hopes that she would forget him and stop pining away. Such a painful decision, because memories are all he has of her and he might lose them too. It’s such a risk.
He writes the ALL important letter.
@WE, The monk who created the talisman died, that’s why the talisman shut down totally. All the spirit of the good intentions had died at their source.
Lot of BD voice overs, but admit it, it’s quite nice to get what the people think and feels.
The voiceover of BD’s letter is actually pretty significant. He realises that he has to pay the price for all that he received from using the talisman. It was only right and just, even in the supernatural.
“In order to preserve my life, I had to give up an equivalent price. This only made sense. That I thought I could keep even one of those things (friends, values, honour, HJ) was my own foolishness.”
I did not catch the second time The talisman blackened until this time. And now I understand why he disappeared. Just as they were reconnecting.
Back to our earlier conversation about the growth of HJ. I think that this is one of those points, her suffering here, where her character grows. You cannot suffer this much grief and not change. In some respects, although her flightiness is part of her character, so is this, her persistence in the face of adversity. A truly flighty person would not wait hours and hours the first day and then days and days for the return of someone who might not return. Although her character grows in the drama, we mostly see the grieving and not the growth. It is like it is a hidden aspect of her character, one that only comes out in suffering. But in some ways the persistence was there at the very start of the drama, when she tries so hard to get the part (even though her shoe breaks).
Ahhaha, it’s good. “if you read it one day, I hope you doesn’t realize what it is about”.
(sorry for the bad rewording)
Just to make that draaaamaaatic!!!
@SD, thanks for pointing out how HJ had some spine in her all along. Yes, grief will change something is a person. Hopefully most persons grow from it and don’t turn bitter.
@SD, I don’t know. I’m quite easy about characters. They do what they do. 😉
I like that BD decides to burn the talisman. then it is clear, that he has let go and is prepared to pay whatever price for having enjoyed ‘extra lives’. When the story moves forward, it can no longer be the talisman that unites our OTP.
@GB, so here, we go in a “transmuted” form of the talisman.
Some kind of strange energy will go from the old talisman to a new one, the smartphone?
How her friend persists In viewing their relationship as unhealthy and a romantic disappointment.
Such beautiful cinematography in the woods
@WE, I felt that rather than the energy moving to another item, that this time it was BD and HJ who inadvertently made their own talisman in the telephone calls he made, because of their emotional attachment to each other.
SK always provides some much needed comic relief. Even when HJ sobs in her arms, the actress makes SK’s responsive crying a bit over the top. I have seen this actress in another drama recently (My Unfamiliar Family); she seems quite skilled at this technique of acting with a bit of overacting to provide a relieving tension.
I think the scene where HJ is coupling his new phone with hers One or two episodes ago Is an explicit Playing out of creating a new talisman Where there are many Other implied scenes Related to their emotional connection..
@GB, mmh mmh, ofc, HJ have some kind of monk wisdom ‘u know? ahahaha.
I have to leave. Will try to recover time for everything I didn’t have.
fully obsessed with the “bookstore” drama writing, madly.
goshhhhh. I can’t do things halfway. It steals all my time. T T
@MM, yes could be. Their finding each other often took place at the phone booth and through calls. It’s true that one of the rules for him to travel to HJ’s time had to be fulfilled. He had to want to give up his life entirely in his own time.
I really like the songs at the end of this episode.
WOW Powerfully emotional ending
Goodbye @WE!
@MM, you know already so @SD, @LL, @FF, would you be interested in joining a first watch conversation of a Chinese drama? The Love Me, Love My Voice thread is already up and a few of us will be starting on it now that the episodes have aired. The more the merrier!
@MM yes, not the cringey music but proper emotional songs of longing. I never did bother to get the OSTs, come to think of it. I may.
@GB as we see next week- His willingness to give up his life completely.
@MM and @GB, I like that reasoning, that we see many examples of the phones representing the emotional connection between BD and HL. If I remember correctly (I will see next week) we do get a flashback to the scene where HL connects their phones. And @GB, the idea he had to give everything up in order for that connection to become a way for him to travel back is also good. He was continually called back to his own time (in reality – well fantasy reality) and in his thoughts.
Regarding the blackening of the talisman. I did not realize this on the first watch, but when BD learned of the head monk ‘going to Nirvana’, i.e. dying, we learn that the head monk had died at approximately the same time as YW. I didn’t pick up on that the first time through the scene. Sort of a double whammy.
@GB I took a quite look at the description of ‘Love Me, Love my Voice’. I will take a look. Do you watch at a particular time?
@GB, I am not sure if I can join the first watch of the Chinese drama. I currently have so many things on my plate that take up much of my energy and I doze off during re-watch parties due to exhaustion. I will check out the threads and jump in if I can.
@SD, I also didn’t pick up that the deaths of the 2 people who created the talisman were the reasons for it to also ‘die’. I only picked up on it when BD made the connection. He actually put it into words that the talisman turned dark because YW had died.
Yes, the timing of the monk’s death was also not too long after YW’s.
You’re right that he was constantly called back to his own time. He had a loyalty to the people there. It was only when he no longer had any ties with his life of 300 years in the past, that he was able to go to HJ with whom he’d made new ties.
@SD, I’ll watch LMLMV whenever I can, and comment on it along the way with EPISODE NUMBERING to indicate where I’m at. As we don’t need to do a simultaneous commenting, you can come on to comment whenever you have watched an episode and want to post something about it. It’s not as taxing as our rewatch parties. It’s like a normal open thread for any show. 🙂
Sure thing, @FF. Come when you can. You just need to mention which Episode you’re commenting on. Less stress than our parties. I’ll be around to read and respond to comments over the course of the show (and beyond!). 🙂
One thing that HJ is not shown doing this episode (which should be considered strange) is to check on the annals of 300 years ago. Of course it would no longer say anything about BD, because he was supposed to have died. But if I were her, I would have check just in case he turned up somehow in the records.
The other ‘strange’ thing that SJJ never addresses is how BD can have a place to stay in his own time now, since he gave up everything the last time he left his own time… he should have no home or money. His wonderful success in getting clothes that fit him to wear every time he travels back and forth is also a cause for wonder.
SJJ probably learnt from this to set the time travel to not too distant into the past LOL. After this she wrote “Nine: 9 Times Time Travel” and kept the time separation to be 20 years. Heh!
Does anyone know where to find the complete OST of this drama? Spotify and youtube do not seem to have one, at least one that’s easily located.
@GB Thanks for invite for LMLMV but am watching too many Kdramas/shows right now, and with Christmas, New Years and a few family December birthdays I can’t tack on anything else right now.
Thanks for the insights regarding the further darkening of the talisman and its relationship to death of monk.
So in this episode we see “out with the old (talisman)”and “in with the new (phone.)” Each of these is so representative of its time period.