Hwayugi: Episode 2

by girlfriday

I’m already loving this setup, which has a funny should-I-love-you-or-eat-you relationship between human and monster at the center, like My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho did. In practice it’s more like they took the blueprint of Journey to the West and mixed it with vampire lore and a contract relationship, but it comes together in a surprisingly natural way. It really helps that Seung-gi is so perfectly cast as this infuriating but endearing hero, who shows just enough warmth under his devilish façade to make me love him.

The second episode had some major missteps in production though, and there was a series of broadcast accidents that occurred when it first aired, from stuntmen’s wires hanging all over the place to CG green screens showing. The worst was when commercials repeated instead of the last twenty minutes of the broadcast, and the episode just cut off without an ending. It’s worrisome to see live-shoot mishaps so early into a show’s run (you couldn’t have just premiered a week later?), and I hope they can get it together and air tighter episodes from here on out. Episode 2 was re-edited and re-aired in full on Monday.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

In the past, little ghost-seeing girl Sun-mi runs up to the other kids at school and attempts to join a game, only to have them spit on the tree she touched in case she brought them bad juju. Left alone in tears, Sun-mi apologizes to the tree and ends up with a cut on her hand, and the scent of her blood spreads through the air.

A schoolgirl ghost calls to Sun-mi from atop the tree and asks to play, saying that her blood smells nice. The ghost creepily stretches her arm all the way down to pull Sun-mi up, but thankfully Grandma arrives just in time to yank her down to safety.

Grandma warns her not to bleed, and Sun-mi asks if she has to hide alone for the rest of her life. But Grandma assures her that someone with the fate to protect her will come, and tells Sun-mi to be strong and live well until then.

As she says this, Grandma begins to fade and disappear. Oh how sad, Grandma was a ghost? Sun-mi, who’s wearing a mourning pin in her hair, watches her fade away in tears.

In the present, mischievous Monkey King Sohn Oh-gong wraps the cut on Sun-mi’s arm with a bandage, and tells her to keep it covered because demons are attracted to the scent of her blood—the blood of Sam-jang, the monk.

He confirms that he originally came here to eat her, but says he was shocked when he saw her face: “How can I eat you when I know your face?” Ha, glad you have some standards.

Sun-mi thanks him for protecting her, and he says very casually that they have 25 years of unforgettable connection between them. She’s surprised since he said he never once thought of her, but Oh-gong admits that he was just trying to act tough.

He decides that he can’t just leave her unprotected when demons will flock to her, and declares that he’ll honor his promise from 25 years ago. He offers to break their old contract and sign a new one to become her protector, and puts out his hand.

Sun-mi is moved by the gesture and reaches out to touch his palm, but then she notices the eager look on his face, which gives him away. He really does have the worst poker face of all time.

She realizes that he’s trying to break their original contract because it’s preventing him from eating her. Oh-gong’s eyes glow red at her words, showing his true intent. Argh, bad Monkey!

Sun-mi dares him to go ahead and eat her if he can and stalks off, and Oh-gong blocks her path and leans in menacingly. He slams his hand against the wall so hard that he takes a piece of it with them as they fly clear out to the other side, and they float there glaring daggers at each other.

Oh-gong’s roommate, Mawang, reports to heaven’s messenger that Oh-gong didn’t eat Sun-mi right away, so there must be a reason he couldn’t.

Sun-mi downs a shot of soju and asks if Oh-gong really intended to eat her if the contract hadn’t prevented him, while he’s just fixated on where his acting went awry. She says that him being nice to her was the first tipoff.

In his defense, Oh-gong says that she’d get eaten by some other demon anyway, because she’s Sam-jang. He pours himself a shot and just breathes in the smell, while Sun-mi asks what the hell a Sam-jang is.

Mawang’s secretary asks the same question, and he explains that Sam-jang is a human with a royal summons from heaven, and that a Sam-jang has appeared in this present life before a big misfortune befalls the human realm.

Secretary Ma points to the coincidence that Sun-mi, who freed Oh-gong from his prison, is the Sam-jang of this generation. But Mawang says that it’s because she freed him that she was given the fate of Sam-jang, as her punishment. Oh.

He accepts some of the responsibility for changing her fate since he sent her into the forest 25 years ago, and Secretary Ma asks if that’s why he’s going to protect her, as messenger Patriarch asked of him. But Mawang’s nose twitches as he admits that the scent of her blood is extremely tempting.

We see that he’d gone into Sun-mi’s empty apartment after Oh-gong had cut a giant hole in her wall, and he’d collected the droplets of her blood on the ground into the orb on his ring, which made his eyes glow red.

Even now, the scent from his ring makes him shudder, as he says that her blood has awakened his temptation for the first time in a thousand years. He thinks that it’s too dangerous to keep Sun-mi close, and Secretary Ma quickly agrees that he should keep his distance.

Mawang points out that he’s been practicing restraint for centuries, but can’t imagine how Oh-gong is stopping himself from eating Sun-mi, since he’s a monster too, after all. Secretary Ma corrects him that technically, Oh-gong is a Taoist immortal, and although he was ousted from heaven, he’s in a different class altogether from monsters.

That grates his ego tremendously, of course, not that she notices. Secretary Ma just pleasantly offers to bring Sun-mi here so he can eat her, and Mawang snaps that he’s practicing asceticism so that he can be a Taoist immortal too.

Sun-mi realizes how dangerous it is to live as Sam-jang, and Oh-gong prods her to give up on this life, since hers is rather bleak and friendless anyway. He says that all she has to do is say it out loud, and he’ll eat her painlessly.

He argues that being eaten by someone she knows is better than being afraid her whole life (is it though?), and offers to protect her for a week or two, then end her life at the moment she chooses. He actually says this like he’s offering her a favor. Unsurprisingly, she turns him down and stomps off.

Oh-gong grumbles to himself that this is all because of that contract, and then wonders how Sun-mi of all people ended up being Sam-jang.

Sun-mi barely gets down the street before a black cloudy demon reaches out and yanks her into an alley. Even her talisman umbrella doesn’t work to ward it off like it does with ghosts, and she’s terrified when the demon just knocks the umbrella aside and chomps down on her arm.

Thankfully Oh-gong appears and fights the demon off with a few swift moves. He pulls up Sun-mi’s sleeve and chides her for getting bitten again, calling it dirty. I’m pretty sure germs are the least of her worries?

Sun-mi’s legs give out when she learns that that was a demon, and she murmurs that this must be her end, after a lifetime of being cursed and bringing misfortune to the people she loves.

Oh-gong takes that as her accepting her fate to be eaten, but she grabs his hand and says that he’s the only one who can protect her. But he argues that he was technically protecting his food. Hee.

He gives her two weeks to think over his offer to become his next meal, and she wipes her tears angrily, calling him a jerk. He points out that she’s leaving her umbrella behind when she walks away, but she doesn’t bother to pick it up.

Mawang comes home to his least favorite sight—Oh-gong’s coat hanging from his bull statue—and tells Oh-gong that if he sees it hanging there one more time, he’s going to throw it away. Oh-gong: “Why would you throw away the bull? It’s the perfect coat hanger.” Hahahaha. I love how infuriating he is.

Mawang finds it odd that he’s sewing up an old umbrella, until Oh-gong says that it belongs to Sam-jang, who happens to be the girl Mawang sent into the woods 25 years ago. Oh-gong is surprised to see that Mawang already knew, and accuses him of sending Sam-jang to free him on purpose.

But Mawang tells him that freeing Oh-gong from his prison is the reason Sun-mi was given Sam-jang’s fate, as her punishment, and Oh-gong grows quiet at that.

Mawang asks why he hasn’t eaten Sun-mi, wondering in disbelief if he actually feels sorry enough not to eat her. Their attention is diverted by something cooking on the stove, and when Oh-gong says he’s working on a new seasoning, Mawang asks agog, “To eat Sam-jang with?” LOL.

Oh-gong just tasks him with simmering the sauce and perches on a rooftop to wait for Sun-mi. Sure enough, she returns to the alley looking for her ghost-warding umbrella, and he notes to himself that she must not have given up on this life if she came back for her weapon.

He floats it down to her and playfully keeps it dancing in midair behind her for a little while, smiling to himself at his little game. How cute. He eventually lets it fall so that she can find it, and without revealing himself, he rattles a can down the alley to scare her into hurrying home safely.

Sun-mi curls up in bed with her umbrella in her arms, vowing not to give up on life, and out on her rooftop balcony, Oh-gong keeps watch while idly flinging bits of light into the sky to take down demons.

He sighs at the flimsy bed sheet hanging up where he took out a chunk of her wall, and mutters to himself that she’s very annoying food. Uh-huh, suuuuure.

In the morning, Sun-mi has dark circles halfway down her face as she sits in her office, and then remembers that all she has to do is figure out Oh-gong’s name to make him hold up his end of the contract. She decides not to waste any time and takes out a stack of client files, and goes about shouting each name out loud.

Her employee Han-joo finds her acting crazy again, and he mentions that the CEO of Lucifer Entertainment came by to see her yesterday, but she has no idea who that is. So he brings up a clip of Mawang judging his idol audition program, and Sun-mi’s eyes widen to recognize him as the man who sent her into the woods as a child, even using the same “You pass!” catchphrase he did with her.

Sun-mi asks where to find him, so Han-joo gets them onto the set of the audition program by a PD who bought a building through them.

Meanwhile, Mawang judges another contestant with his usual flair, and in the dressing room, his co-judges snipe at his attention-hogging showmanship: “Who does he think he is, JYP?”

Secretary Ma leans in to whisper, “Shall I kill them?” Keh, that’ll never get old. Mawang just waits until the PD comes in and passive-aggressively asks when the ratings peak, giddy to hear that it’s when he does his showy “You pass!”

Filming resumes, but when the next contestant is called out, it’s Sun-mi who appears. She says that she came because she’s desperate and that he passed her once before, and though Mawang recognizes her immediately, he pretends not to.

Sun-mi declares that she’s going to remind him just how special she is, and then unwraps the bloody wound on her wrist… before launching into a song. What. The scent of her blood brings demons flocking to the stage, and both Mawang and Secretary Ma’s eyes glow red with hunger.

She fights off demons with her umbrella as she sings, though to the rest of the world, she just looks like a crazy lady with embarrassing dance moves. Mawang has a terrible time trying to tamp down his hunger, but finally gets it together long enough to slam his fist down and dissipate the demons. Then he shouts, “You pass!” making him seem like the crazy person.

Oh-gong visits his friend Frosty, who asks about Sam-jang. Oh-gong says that he’s figuring out how to eat her without getting indigestion, and working on a new seasoning, which he wants an opinion on. Their quiet conversation is interrupted by the arrival of idol superstar PK, who is followed by an entourage of screaming fangirls.

Oh-gong calls him “Pig” and PK is deferential, asking “hyungnim” very nicely for just one bite of Sam-jang, haha. Oh-gong points to his army of fangirls who feed him with their love, but PK argues that Sam-jang is special.

He’s surprised to hear that Oh-gong has yet to eat Sam-jang, and wonders if he’s practicing restraint like Mawang, which he doesn’t see the point of when Oh-gong was kicked out of heaven and imprisoned for so long. Annoyed, Oh-gong threatens to turn Pig into boiled pork, and PK immediately wishes him a full recovery of his powers and bows before scurrying away.

Frosty thinks that Sam-jang must really be a big deal for PK to come all this way, and Oh-gong says he stayed up all night just to protect her from demons. He quickly amends that to say that he stayed up to protect his food, and tells Frosty that she’s gone to see Mawang to learn his name, but she’s safe with him because he won’t eat her.

Sun-mi begs Mawang to tell her the name, but he says that no matter how many times he tells her that Sohn Oh-gong is Sohn Oh-gong, she won’t remember it. Sure enough, even a second after hearing it, she can’t recall it. Mawang says that she never will, until Oh-gong returns the memory that he stole from her.

She argues that the contract is useless if she can’t call him by name, and Mawang’s eyes light up with curiosity. He realizes that this is the reason Oh-gong couldn’t eat her, and tells her that a contract with a human is binding. He promises to help her find something to capture Oh-gong and get around his tricksy loophole.

He leads Sun-mi through a closed marketplace to a shop called General Store, where the proprietor is waiting for Mawang and hands him a jar of potion. He wonders if this will make Oh-gong docile, but the shopkeeper says she has something incomparably more powerful if he’s looking to tame an unruly monster.

As they head to the back, Sun-mi looks around the store wondering what kind of odds and ends they could possibly sell here. When she opens a box of ginseng and pokes at one, it talks back to her.

She opens a large jar next, and inside she sees a vision of herself in bridal dress, leaning up to kiss Oh-gong. Omo.

Alarmed, she gasps and nearly falls over, and the shopkeeper’s grandson takes the lid from her. He says that it’s a bad omen jar that shows things that always come true, but only bring misfortune.

She’s still thrown by the kiss when Mawang comes out from the back and happily announces that he’s obtained the perfect item for their needs.

Elsewhere, a bride and groom happily look around their new apartment the night before their wedding, and discover a strange photograph of a traditional wedding that they assume was delivered by mistake.

But the bride inside the photograph moves when they aren’t looking, and later when the woman returns to retrieve her purse, she notices that the bride’s gaze has changed in the picture.

In that moment, the bride’s eyes glow red and she asks if the woman wants to get married in her place, and then a piercing scream rings out.

Patriarch hears about the bride thief from the bartender who’s friends with Oh-gong, and Patriarch sighs that it’s because there are more and more demons these days that heaven brought Sam-jang down to earth in this lifetime.

The bartender didn’t know that it was because of demons that Sam-jang came, and Patriarch tells her that Sam-jang’s calling is to protect the earth from demons. She doesn’t see how a powerless human could do such a thing, but Patriarch says that heaven would never send her down without a plan, and that what’s meant to happen will happen.

Oh-gong waits outside for Sun-mi to come home and totally smiles when he sees her approach. He calls her out on going to see Mawang, knowing that she did a whole song and dance (literally) and still can’t remember his name.

He suddenly pulls her close and tells her to shut her eyes, and Sun-mi asks in fear if he means for her to die now. But he blurts that she has to close her eyes so that he can surprise her, and then yanks back the sheet that was covering the gaping hole in her wall.

He says he patched it up for her remaining time here to be cozy, and then suggests that she choose him because she won’t find a nicer predator anywhere. She tells him to try harder then, so that she has no regrets left and can die willingly, and Oh-gong asks what she wants to do before she dies.

Sun-mi declares that she wants to eat with family, have a drink with a friend, and go on a date with a boyfriend.

Cut to: the two of them eating at a family restaurant, role-playing as uncle and niece. She says that she’s always wanted to order family-style, and Oh-gong tells her to order anything she likes, which makes her smile.

Next they go to a bar, where they role-play as coworkers-turned-friends who’re developing feelings for each other.

At round two, Oh-gong rattles on and on about how she should really go to army to learn how to live among other people, and also because “there are far scarier things than ghosts in the army.” Pff. Sun-mi gets tired of listening to him and proceeds to get drunker and drunker.

For the romantic portion of the evening, Oh-gong takes her to a Christmas tree display and tells her to take a selfie like everyone else. Sun-mi starts to take a picture by herself, but he notes the other couples and throws an arm around her, pulling her close for a couple photo.

That just makes her think of the kiss she saw in the bad omen jar, and Sun-mi pulls away abruptly, saying that she doesn’t need a photo.

Oh-gong says that he’s done what she’s asked, and snaps his fingers and makes the tree lights go off, dispersing the crowd. She wonders why he did that, and he points out that those people aren’t her family, friends, or lover: “You’re the only one left all alone.” He asks if her life doesn’t seem even more pathetic and lonely now that the twinkling lights have all gone off. Oh, you’re being cruel.

He whispers like the devil in her ear, asking if it isn’t the perfect time to give up on life. Sun-mi’s eyes pool with tears, but she turns to him and says, “Even if I don’t have family or friends or a lover, in my life I have me.” She says that she’s proud of herself for surviving on her own and wants to keep living.

He’s taken aback when she thanks him sincerely for being her family, friend, and lover for a day, and then she takes out the box that Mawang gave her at the General Store. She lies that she bought it a few minutes ago at the gift shop because she’s always wanted to exchange gifts like any other couple.

Oh-gong opens it to reveal a gold bracelet (a take on the circlet that the Monkey King wears on his head in the original novel, which tightens when the monk recites a verse), and Sun-mi thinks back to Mawang telling her that this object will bind her contract-signer to her, and cause him shooting heart pains if he ever goes back on his word. Muahahaha.

He’s immediately suspicious of the gift, but Sun-mi just says it’s something else she’s always wanted to do, and when she threatens to take it back, he refuses and puts it in his pocket.

She thanks him for making this the best Christmas Eve of her whole life, and says that today isn’t the day she wants to decide to die. He softens at that and remembers that he said he’d give her two weeks, and even turns the tree lights back on to make her happy as she goes.

Oh-gong comes home and flings his coat on the bull statue as always, only this time, Mawang is sitting in the dark waiting to catch him in the act. LOL, you have way too much time on your hands.

Mawang growls that he’s going to burn it like he warned, and Oh-gong just tells him dismissively to go ahead. But while throwing his hissy fit, Mawang discovers the bracelet in the coat pocket and realizes that he can’t burn it with that inside.

He tries to ask if Oh-gong wants to check the pockets before he burns it, going around in circles until Oh-gong is shouting for him to just burn the damn thing and Mawang is arguing that you shouldn’t burn a perfectly good coat, ha.

Oh-gong grows pensive and asks if Mawang has ever seen a human who has nothing, protecting their life like it’s precious. Mawang says he sees that all the time in the eyes of young people who come on his audition program, though he points out that most of them eventually lose it. Oh-gong muses, “Those eyes that wanted to live… were impressive.” Mawang asks if he intends to protect those eyes, and after a beat, Oh-gong asks if he burned it.

Mawang holds up the coat and says he didn’t, but Oh-gong is referring to his Sam-jang seasoning, and shouts that he let the sauce burn. Wah-waaah. Mawang stomps on the coat in impotent fury, wondering how to get that nutjob locked up somewhere, and crying over what he had to do to get his hands on the gold bracelet.

But Oh-gong finally remembers that he left something important in his coat pocket and comes to retrieve the bracelet, seeming relieved to find it.

At the General Store, Patriarch learns from the shopkeeper that the bracelet went to the right place, and that the things that are meant to happen will happen.

Oh-gong goes to see his friend CEO Sa Oh-jung, and the business minions behind him gape when CEO Sa greets the younger-looking Oh-gong very politely as “hyungnim.” I will never tire of jondae/banmal reversals.

Up in the office, Oh-gong tells CEO Sa that he wants to break a contract with a human, and CEO Sa agrees to find a good lawyer to consult. He says he’ll look into the bracelet as well, which Oh-gong says was a Christmas gift from Sam-jang.

Sun-mi’s two weeks are up, and she wonders if Oh-gong has put the bracelet on yet. She and Han-joo get a visit from the groom who’d just bought the newlywed apartment through them, and he says with bloodshot eyes that he’ll forfeit his deposit because the wedding was called off.

They learn that the bride has fallen ill, and Sun-mi and Han-joo check the apartment looking for clues. Sun-mi finds the old wedding photograph as she looks around, and she’s able to spot the bride ghost inside. But the moment she does, she gets sucked into the photograph.

Han-joo finds nothing but the photo when he comes looking for her, so he just brings it back to the office. Oh-gong is there looking for Sun-mi, and Han-joo says timidly that she just disappeared, which happens often.

It doesn’t take long for Oh-gong to notice the moving bride in the photograph, and he runs off with it, then crashes PK’s interview to grab him too. Oh-gong asks PK how to get inside the photograph, and PK wonders nervously what happens if he can’t get back out.

PK says the groom is a carnal lust monster amassing brides, and tells Oh-gong to go to the place where the photograph was taken, so Oh-gong takes an old camera to the spot, which serves as his portal.

Oh-gong arrives in the other dimension in the middle of a Joseon wedding, which now has seven brides for the one monster to marry. The monster, whose true face looks reptilian, tells Oh-gong that this is the world he made, and if he’s killed in it, everyone will stay trapped inside forever.

Oh-gong convinces the groom that he only means to reclaim the bride that belongs to him, and the groom says he’ll allow it, if Oh-gong can find her among the seven. He isn’t allowed to go near them, and with their faces covered, Oh-gong can’t tell them apart.

But then he remembers Sun-mi’s lotus-scented blood, and makes a butterfly in his palm to go find the scent. The butterfly lands on one bride, and Oh-gong succeeds in picking Sun-mi out of the crowd.

The groom still isn’t convinced that Sun-mi is Oh-gong’s bride, and she’s locked in some sort of trance that prevents her from recognizing him. Thinking quickly, Oh-gong takes out the bracelet she gave him and reminds her how much she wanted him to have it.

When she doesn’t respond, he puts the bracelet on his wrist. Aaah, it’s on! That seems to snap her out of the spell, and when he puts his hand out for her to hold, she takes it. That effectively brings her back to her right mind, and she gasps to see that she’s wearing bridal clothes.

They’re just about to walk away when the groom suddenly gets a whiff of Sun-mi’s blood, and Oh-gong yells at her to run. They dash away and leap through the doorway that he first came through, but nothing happens and they’re still stuck in Joseon.

It turns out that PK has packed up the portal camera on the other side, though he doesn’t get far before Mawang catches him in the act. PK pouts that Oh-gong wasn’t even going to share Sam-jang with him, so he thought he’d keep her trapped inside and then go eat her when she was tired out.

Mawang chides him for thinking that he could defeat Oh-gong, but then realizes that if they burned the photograph, Oh-gong would stay trapped inside that world forever. PK says that he doesn’t have the power to do that… but Mawang does, and a mischievous smile spreads across his face.

No matter how much Oh-gong and Sun-mi run, they keep looping around the same places, and he realizes that they’re trapped, and that PK betrayed him. Things go from bad to worse when they smell a fire, and Oh-gong knows there isn’t much time left before they’re stuck for good.

On the outside, Mawang watches the photograph burn up with a devilish smile, while PK starts to look worried.

Sun-mi recognizes their surroundings from the vision she saw in the bad omen jar and instinctively purses her lips together. Oh-gong knows that it means these events were destined to happen, and asks what they did in her vision.

She hesitates, saying that it could bring them misfortune, but Oh-gong says there’s no time and prods her to hurry up and do it so they can get out.

But he’s surprised when she takes a deep breath and steps closer… and then closes the distance between them with a kiss. He looks at her, stunned and unsure at first, and then when he recovers, he raises a finger to chide her.

Only his hand begins to shake violently, and the bracelet suddenly takes on a life of its own, piercing his wrist and spreading golden tendrils through his veins until they wrap around his heart and tighten. He doubles over from the shooting pain, and then the bracelet reforms itself.

Oh-gong shouts, “What have you done? What is this?!” Sun-mi is just as surprised, and all she knows is that he can’t kill her if he’s wearing that. He says that she’s right, and has figured out that he will suffer immense pain when she’s in danger… like right now.

He says that their contract is binding as long as both of them are alive, and then snaps his fingers. A shining ball of light floats down to his hand and he puts it back into her head—it’s her memory of his name.

She confirms that she remembers his name now, and Oh-gong grabs her shoulders and says, “Only you can call me forth now.” Then he flings her into the air, and she vanishes through a portal, coming out in the real world.

She’s alone in an empty field, when PK pulls up and announces that he’s here to escort her on Mawang’s orders. He claims to have been on his way to reopen the portal, but says that she’s impressive for coming out on her own. He adds that the other brides came out too, and we see the apartment bride and groom reunite in the hospital.

Sun-mi asks after Oh-gong, and PK says he can’t come out because the photograph will have burned up by now. Sure enough, the photograph burns to a crisp as Mawang chuckles in glee.

Secretary Ma congratulates Mawang on getting rid of the groom monster and trapping Oh-gong in that alternate world forever, and he delights in finding a way to imprison him.

Sun-mi worries about Oh-gong, calling him by name, and PK tells her not to waste her time on such pointless worrying. She asks if there’s a way to free him, but PK says he doesn’t have that kind of power.

While looking around in PK’s car, Sun-mi notices his cell phone and remembers Oh-gong telling her that his dongsaeng is the head of the company that makes them, and she insists that PK stop the car when she spots the building up ahead.

Sun-mi is prepared to sound like a lunatic and asks the receptionist to see the “highest person” here, as a friend of his hyungnim. She’s shocked when it works, and CEO Sa recognizes her right away as Sam-jang.

She tries to just tell him about Oh-gong being trapped in the photograph and leave, but CEO Sa asks if Oh-gong is wearing the bracelet she gave him, and whether she knows that it causes him piercing heart pain. She says that she needed it because Oh-gong wasn’t holding up his end of their contract, and CEO Sa asks her for details about their original deal.

When PK mentions to Mawang that Sun-mi was asking for ways to rescue Sohn Oh-gong, Mawang picks up on her using Oh-gong’s name. Her recalling the name is a twist he didn’t expect, and he growls to realize that she could summon Oh-gong back.

As Sun-mi walks outside, she thinks back to CEO Sa telling her that Oh-gong used all of his strength to rescue her, because she is the owner of the bracelet and he must protect her.

She wonders if she’s doing something crazy, and says aloud, “Then return to protect me.” With that, she takes out a pen dagger and slices her hand.

The scent of her blood fills the air, and in no time demons are swirling around her, clawing their way up to her face.

She’s frozen in terror, but finally gets it together and shouts, “Sohn! Oh! Gooooong!”

The demon hands draw closer, but when she looks up again, a figure is flying toward her, silhouetted by the moon. It’s Oh-gong, who lands at her feet with a demon-chasing punch and a satisfied smile.

 
COMMENTS

Like any good magical contract relationship, this one has some great push and pull in the dynamic where both parties need something from the other, and are unwittingly growing attached while trying to outsmart each other in their game. I eat this stuff up. It’s just the beginning between Sun-mi and Oh-gong, but there’s already a great give-and-take between them, because for all of Oh-gong’s supernatural powers, he’s not so sneaky as he’d like to think, and they’re pretty evenly matched when it comes to lying and reading each other. It sets us up nicely for the romance down the line, especially now that Sun-mi has some power in their relationship. She’s smart and resourceful, while he’s all magical brawn and no deep thought in sight. But their connection has these genuine moments that come out every time she’s vulnerable with him and he’s helping her despite himself.

I also like that Oh-gong is such a different kind of hero, a wild card with an unpredictable nature. I mean, to have a hero who’s actually faced with the moral conflict of whether or not to eat the heroine is hilarious, and definitely uncommon. Mawang is the more traditional type of hero we’d get in a vampire story, for instance, where a monster is fighting his demonic urges and trying to live the straight and narrow, and tempted by the heroine’s delicious blood. But Sohn Oh-gong is almost completely amoral at this stage, and sees nothing wrong with seeing her as a tasty snack, which cracks me up and keeps their dynamic fresh and interesting. Every time you think he might just start to care and have a heart, he turns his attention to how he’ll season her.

There’s endless joke potential in this kind of character, because even in the first two episodes, every time I thought Sun-mi had gotten through to him, there was more bottom to be uncovered. Of course, that’ll come to bite him in his monkey’s ass someday when he falls sincerely in love and isn’t taken seriously, but this is why his childish, infuriating nature isn’t actually hateful—because we see his foibles so clearly, and the mistakes he’ll make before he even makes them. It helps immensely that he’s an incorrigible rascal, not an evil bastard, especially the way Seung-gi plays him.

It’s probably Oh-gong’s friends that indicate that there’s more to him than a selfish monkey with a taste for humans, and they’re also a huge part of making the mythology feel complex and layered. I especially love moments like the General Store full of magical odds and ends, which is a tried and true fantasy trope for a reason—you believe in the magical power of any object that comes out of that place, and it fills out the world in a believable way. So far the peppering of monsters and demons and magical elements has been just enough to pique my curiosity and build a supernatural world (when the CG is done, mind you), and I’m happy to be whisked away to a new dramaverse. Fingers crossed that the production team gets the editing and effects under control to keep us there. Here’s a suggestion: Make the episodes shorter! More sleep for everyone!

 
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