The Guest: Episode 15

by odilettante

Now that they know who Park Il-do is, the trio risk everything to chase after him. It seems pretty pointless to worry about losing their jobs (or even their lives) when the fate of the world rests on their shoulders — or at least the fate of the innocent people who find themselves caught in Park Il-do’s destructive path.

 
EPISODE 15 RECAP

Hong-joo’s driver — now possessed — stabs Hwa-pyung in the stomach at the same moment Sister Kim jams a metal pole in her eye. Hwa-pyung collapses, and as the possessed driver is about to stab him again, Priest Yang shouts at him to not to hurt Hwa-pyung any more.

Yoon runs to where Hwa-pyung is huddled on the ground, but Priest Yang has already been freed and has run away. At Hwa-pyung’s urging, Yoon runs after the driver and priest, desperate to catch Park Il-do.

Yoon finds the driver seemingly waiting for him on the other side of a bridge, and he grabs his rosary and starts to pray — but the searing pain in his chest causes him to drop to his knees. The possessed driver smirks, then turns around and runs straight into a Truck of Doom.

Back at Sister Kim’s house, Kil-young watches helplessly as the paramedics carry away Sister Kim’s body. Detective Go can’t believe that they found Sister Kim alive, after believing Hong-joo murdered her — only to have her commit suicide right in front of them.

Kil-young hurries to the hospital as soon as she hears about what happened to Hwa-pyung. Yoon is also at the hospital, waiting by the ER, and he fills her in on their forest adventures. Kil-young wonders if it’s okay for Yoon to be there since he’s supposed to be in priest prison, but Yoon simply says that he’s already in trouble, so might as well do something truly worthy of being defrocked.

It’s the same for Kil-young, since she knows she’s precariously close to losing her job, too. When Yoon suddenly double-overs in pain, Kil-young worriedly asks if he’s okay. He gasps out that he’s fine as the spirits remind him that the next time they meet, Yoon will die.

Hwa-pyung wakes up in the hospital, thinking about Priest Yang’s warning that he’s too distracted — that he fails at protecting those who need it most. Aw, but he looks happy to see that Kil-young and Yoon have been waiting to see him.

Hwa-pyung calls to check on Grandpa, and discovers that Priest Yang — by way of the “charitable” assistance from Sharing Hand — transferred Grandpa to a different hospital. But when the ambulance driver who originally picked up Hwa-pyung’s grandfather is found dead with his eye stabbed out, Grandpa’s disappearance is determined to be an abduction.

Priest Yang is now a wanted man as the police issue a warrant for his arrest. Hwa-pyung’s worried about what Priest Yang — or, rather, Park Il-do — will do to his grandfather. Hwa-pyung decides that they can use Hong-joo to contact Park Il-do, except she’s taken a sudden overseas trip. How convenient.

Until they find out from the police where Priest Yang is — or until Hwa-pyung has a vision — they’ll just have to wait and worry about what Park Il-do wants with Grandpa.

At a small, country gas station, Priest Yang watches the young attendant fill up the tank in the ambulance. The young man side-eyes the priest for driving such an unusual vehicle, but when the young man is berated by his boss, Priest Yang finds a new victim as he gently holds the man’s hands. He tells the young station attendant that he needs the boy to guide them.

Kil-young gets reprimanded by her boss for accusing Hong-joo of murder when that was clearly impossible since Sister Kim killed herself in front of the cops. Ohhh, so that’s why Park Il-do possessed Sister Kim — to save his niece.

At least Kil-young’s boss actually seems apologetic, although he’s surprised at how willingly Kil-young accepts the responsibility and her subsequent suspension until the disciplinary committee makes a decision if she should be fired or not.

Detective Go is confident that Kil-young will be back soon, since she didn’t do anything wrong. But Kil-young doesn’t mind the break, since now she’s free to do something she couldn’t do when she was a cop.

The trio head out to find Priest Yang, starting with the priest who used to know Priest Yang back when they worked in a small country village together. The old priest says that Priest Yang seemed normal at first, but eventually Priest Yang started to change, and began to insist on learning more about demons since one of his own family members was once possessed.

The old priest doesn’t know which family member Priest Yang said was possessed, but he does know that Priest Yang’s father died before his born, then his mother died soon after he was born, and that Priest Yang’s brother and he were adopted by two different families.

Sighing, the old priest says that Priest Yang was such a good, upright man, until about twenty years ago when he suddenly changed. A flashback shows the old priest arriving at the church to find Priest Yang in his raincoat covered in dirt, standing in the middle of the aisle.

Wondering why Priest Yang would need a raincoat when it isn’t raining, Priest Yang simply stares at the crucifix hanging on the wall, muttering that he should have never become a priest. He adds that humans can never beat demons. When the old priest grabs Priest Yang to talk to him, Priest Yang twists the old priest’s arm and yells at him to never speak to him again.

Back in the present, the old priest tells the trio that it was terrifying seeing Priest Yang become like that. Then he eyes Yoon, musing that Yoon has a similar aura to Priest Yang. He advises Yoon to stop being an exorcism priest or else he’ll become like Priest Yang.

Switching topics, Yoon asks if the old priest knows what happened to Priest Yang’s brother. The old priest thinks for a moment, trying to remember Priest Yang’s birth name — but all he can think of is that the brothers were born “Lee” something-or-other.

Kil-young puts the pieces together and realizes that Priest Yang’s older brother is Lee Sang-chul — the son of Lee Chul-yong, the first man Park Il-do possessed sixty years ago. Ohhhhh, the demon runs in the family, apparently.

They still need to catch Park Il-do before he kills them, and Kil-young wonders if Yoon can perform the exorcism. Yoon says that he can — he must, since it’s their only hope. But Hwa-pyung says there’s another way.

As they drive to the town where the old priest and Priest Yang used to work, Hwa-pyung remembers a conversation he had with Yook Kwang, where he learned that a way to rid of Park Il-do (if exorcism doesn’t work) is by killing the person possessed by the spirit. In doing so, the spirit is forced to return from whence it came.

However, with a powerful spirit like Park Il-do, he could find a way to escape to another body, so the only way to be sure to get rid of Park Il-do is for the person being possessed to kill himself after trapping Park Il-do in his body through a shaman ritual — a ritual that Hwa-pyung begged to learn.

When Yoon asks what other way there is to get rid of Park Il-do, Hwa-pyung halts mid-sentence as he suddenly falls into a trance. Yoon and Kil-young quickly recognize what’s happening and pull over to wait for Hwa-pyung’s vision to end.

Hwa-pyung’s vision is of the newly possessed gas station attendant who attacks his boss. Hwa-pyung relays what he saw and the trio are on their way. The police are already at the gas station by the time they arrive, and the possessed man — with his eye already stabbed out — clambers onto the trio’s car, staring at them and pointing off into the distance.

Then he drops down dead, no longer possessed. Hwa-pyung realizes that Park Il-do is telling them where to go.

Priest Yang drives the ambulance along a country lane that’s nearly deserted except for a bus load of merry travelers that are stuck on the side of the road. Priest Yang looms over the beleaguered bus driver who’s busy fixing the broken vehicle. The priest offers to help — but of course that only results in the bus driver becoming possessed.

The possessed bus driver grabs his wrench and enters the bus, brutally killing all of the travelers. Hwa-pyung sees this in a vision, and by the time the trio arrive at the stranded bus, the police are already there — one of them even vomits due to the brutality of mangled bodies on the bus.

Hwa-pyung is frustrated that they arrived too late, but when they see the bus driver standing down the road, pointing into the distance, Hwa-pyung knows that Park Il-do is telling him to continue east — to keep going to the sea. Then the bus driver stabs his eye and dies.

Priest Yang arrives at his destination — a nursing home in the small village where he used to work. He’s greeted by the nursing home director who remembers volunteering with Priest Yang back in the day.

He wonders if Priest Yang has decided to move back, and Priest Yang ominously muses that since everything started here for him, this was the best place to return to. He brought Grandpa along since he knows the old man’s grandson will be visiting soon.

There aren’t many patients at the nursing home, though, and the director admits that he’s been having financial difficulty and will be selling the nursing home. They’re interrupted when a police officer asks to meet with the director, wanting to see if he’s been in contact with Priest Yang.

Just then, Priest Yang steps into the hallway, back-lit by a light that glows bright and brighter as demons chatter. Everyone in the nursing home slowly advances towards Priest Yang like unsuspecting moths dazzled by a flame that will soon possess them.

Hwa-pyung gets another vision — but not from a possessed would-be murderer. It’s from Park Il-do himself, and it reveals the location of the seaside village.

Officer Oh returns to his squad car, and his partner asks how the visit went. Officer Oh, now possessed, grumbles that he has nothing to live for in this crappy village — and then he gulps down an entire bottle of water. That’s never a good sign.

The nursing home secretary is also possessed as she complains about how she works all the time while her husband does nothing, growing viciously more violent with her pencil sharpener. The nursing home director returns home, seeing his family now through newly possessed eyes. He bitterly accuses them of only caring about money. He glances over and sees his golf clubs.

The trio arrive at the director’s house, and Kil-young shows him her police badge, telling him she just wants to ask him about Priest Yang. The director carefully hides a bloody golf club behind his back as he smiles, lying that he hasn’t seen Priest Yang in twenty years. Meanwhile, the director’s wife and daughters huddle in fear having locked themselves in the bedroom.

Just as Yoon and Kil-young turn to leave, Hwa-pyung runs up and asks if he can use the bathroom. When the director says it’s not a good time, the trio realize something isn’t right, and they tackle the man as the demons inside writhe in anger. Hwa-pyung yells at Yoon to start the exorcism, but Yoon recoils in pain and then staggers out of the house, dropping to his knees as he realizes that the curse is affecting him.

He prays for strength to endure to until the end — to last long enough to get rid of the demon. Hwa-pyung finds him and sees Yoon’s rotting in flesh, wondering if it’s due to the prophecy.

Hwa-pyung stares in growing horror as Yoon despondently quotes the curse the demons have laid upon him. Shocked, Hwa-pyung realizes that if Yoon performs another exorcism, Yoon will die.

Meanwhile, Kil-young asks the terrified wife if her husband met with anyone recently, and the wife tells Kil-young about the priest who came to the hospital with an old man in an ambulance. The sounds of police sirens — and demons chattering over the loudspeaker — get her attention.

Kil-young makes sure the possessed director is bound and gagged as she cautiously approaches the front door, where Office Oh starts off knocking — only to gradually grow enraged as he tries to break it down. He then crashes through the window.

Kil-young grabs the golf club and swings it right at his head, which would take down a normal man — but because he’s possessed and doesn’t feel pain, all it does is make him pause for a second.

She tries to fight him off, and Hwa-pyung returns to the house in time to help, but it takes Yoon pressing his rosary crucifix against Officer Oh’s head to make the possessed man collapse in pain — and the effort also makes Yoon collapse, unconscious.

Yoon gradually comes to his senses in the backseat of Kil-young’s car. They inform him that they’ve tied the possessed officer up with the nursing home director and sent the director’s family to a neighbor’s house for safety.

The trio head to the nursing home to find Priest Yang, which they find easily enough without any other possessed villagers blocking their way.

They spread out to track down Priest Yang, with a reminder from Hwa-pyung that none of them should deal with him alone and to call once they’ve found the priest. Hwa-pyung seems more intent on finding his grandfather, but all the rooms are empty.

Kil-young hasn’t found anyone either, and she worries about Hwa-pyung, who tries to hide how much pain he’s in because of his stab wound. But Hwa-pyung is desperate that they find Priest Yang before Yoon does, since he can’t let Yoon perform an exorcism. Kil-young wonders how they’ll stop Park Il-do without Yoon’s help, but Hwa-pyung reassures her that he has a plan.

The only thing he asks is that, no matter what, Kil-young must protect Yoon. Her mother died to save Yoon, so Kil-young shouldn’t let him die, either.

Yoon finds the room Grandpa is in, but the door is locked. He hears Priest Yang’s voice asking why he’s there, but no one is in the hallway. Yoon follows the voice to the rooftop, where Priest Yang stands on the edge of the building, looking down on the village.

With his back to the younger priest, Priest Yang wonders why Yoon didn’t try to save the villagers — or is it because Yoon can’t save them, because he’s afraid of fulfilling the third part of the curse. Yoon asks why Priest Yang, er, Park Il-do possessed the villagers, and Priest Yang muses that humans are weak and foolish with plenty of darkness inside of them. It’s that darkness that becomes a demon.

Yoon clutches his rosary, clearly ready to use his last attempt at exorcism. But Priest Yang turns around, asking about Yoon’s darkness. The older priest reminds Yoon that he warned him to stay away from Hwa-pyung.

As Yoon doubles over in pain, he still tries to stay focused, asking if Priest Yang’s soul still exists. There’s hurt in voice as he plaintively wonders if Priest Yang was ever real. Priest Yang says it’s pointless to ask such a question, since nothing has meaning anymore — the end has already begun.

Officer Oh’s partner stops by the house to check to see if everything’s okay, shocked to discover Officer Oh and the nursing home director tied up in the bedroom. He rushes to free the men, but as soon as he does, Officer Oh attacks his partner. The nursing home director tracks down his terrified family at the neighbor’s house.

Throughout the small town, possessed villagers from the nursing home stumble and stagger, now blood-thirsty demon-filled zombies thanks to Park Il-do.

 
COMMENTS

Oooooh, so much good stuff in this episode. Well, except for all the killing, of which there was a lot. (Couldn’t Park Il-do just leave a note instead of a trail of bodies?) I never expected we’d get zombies, but I’m kind of excited because it’s a pretty ingenious way to not only play around with yet another horror genre, but it continues to up the stakes for our heroes. If they don’t get rid of Park Il-do fast, soon an entire village will have self-destructed.

I’m relieved that Hwa-pyung finally knows about Yoon’s curse — the full curse. And sad, too, of course, because I don’t know if I can ever forget that look in his eyes as he realized how much pain Yoon has been in — and how close to death, just to help Hwa-pyung defeat Park Il-do. I don’t fully know why Hwa-pyung is so desperate to save Yoon, but I’m not complaining, because I want to save him, too. I want to save all of the trio, but considering that the two choices we have to rid the world of Park Il-do is either Yoon dying or Hwa-pyung dying, well… I’m just not sure everyone will survive until the end. I especially don’t believe Yoon is currently strong enough to exorcise Park Il-do on his own, which makes me worried about the determined look in his eye (despite the pain) when he met Priest Yang on the rooftop. He needs to call Kil-young and let her know where he is! He can’t do this alone! Yes, I know he’s a stubborn idiot who’s already accepted his martyrdom and doesn’t want to harm his two friends. But he needs them! The three of them can’t handle Park Il-do on their own, but they can manage him together. Er, right? Right?

I’m still shocked that Priest Yang is Lee Chul-yong’s son. Considering how much Park Il-do likes to destroy all the family members of anyone he’s possessed, it makes sense that he’d find his way to Priest Yang (although I’m not sure how the seemingly not-crazy-or-possessed other son has avoided the demon’s wrath). It could feel a little bit like lazy writing that everything is connected, but that’s just what this demon likes to do. Kil-young defending the nursing home director’s family from the demon possessed police officer reminded me of the way Kil-young’s mother tried to protect Yoon from his older brother — only this time she was able to stay alive and get them to safety. Or almost safety, since who knows if the trio will be able to stop Park Il-do in time to save the the villagers.

Which is why I’m nervous about the trio being led to the village, because it almost feels like a trap, like he’s been waiting for them to show up just so he could pick them off one-by-one. Argh, why did they split up in the nursing home?!? They need to stay together! That’s their only hope and saving grace! Park Il-do feeds on people’s darkness, but the trio are each other’s light. When one of them is weak, they hold each other up, they support each other, heck, they’re even willing to die for each other. It’s like that old metaphor of a stool — with two-legs, it will wobble and fall-over, no longer fulfilling its purpose. But with three legs, it can stand strong — no matter what kind of two-ton demon is sitting on it.

At least, that’s what I hope will happen. That’s what I need to happen, as I breathlessly wait to see how this final battle is resolved. Who will live? Who will die? And will it have all been worth it in the end?

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