When the Devil Calls Your Name: Episode 10

by LollyPip

They say you have to hit rock bottom before you can start to climb back up again, but nobody ever talks about what a cruel place rock bottom can be. It’s no wonder that a soul-hungry demon has so many souls to choose from, because desperate people are willing to make desperate bargains. But when one’s soul has already been sold, there’s nothing left to bargain with when tragedy strikes and a life-or-death decision has to be made.

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

Ha Rib cries on Yi-kyung’s shoulder, and when he looks up, there’s an emotionally-charged moment when it seems like they might kiss. Instead, Ha Rib spots Kang Ha and tosses Yi-kyung right off the bed, HAHA.

Kang Ha and Ha Rib argue over whether Ha Rib hit Yi-kyung, while she slinks out, grumbling, “I’d rather he had hit me.” Ha Rib is also rattled, but then he realizes that letting Yi-kyung close might create an opportunity.

Luka tells him mother that he’ll get the heart surgery he needs, but he refuses to sit in the hospital until then. She sees a book on his desk about fathers, and Luka argues that his birth father never knew he existed, so he wants to meet him and give him a chance.

When Ha Rib returns to work, all Chung-ryul wants to talk about is his and Yi-kyung’s TV performance. Seo-young shows Ha Rib a news article calling him “Seo Dong-chun reborn.” She wants to reveal that he’s Dong-chun’s son, and to release the album she rejected all those years ago when Dong-chun brought her his demo.

She’d said it wouldn’t sell, so Ha Rib asks, “Will it sell?” and watches for her response. But Chung-ryul interrupts to gush about a father/son collaboration (ugh, I just want him to shut up), so Ha Rib tells them that Seo Dong-chun is dead.

Chung-ryul’s attitude suddenly changes, and he sneers that Dong-chun can’t die before selling his building for the redevelopment and making a ton of money. He mentions that Dong-chun stole money from his son’s wedding, and Ha Rib thinks, “He knows.” Chung-ryul doesn’t believe Dong-chun is dead, and he orders Ha Rib to tell Dong-chun that his old friend wants to see him.

Ha Rib storms out and Seo-young follows him, but he tells her to worry about Yi-kyung. She happens to walk by just then, which reminds Ha Rib of their almost-kiss, but he just gripes at her for taking the bus instead of her car, or better yet, calling him for a ride.

Seo-young decides that Yi-kyung needs a manager, and Ha Rib practically pulls a muscle volunteering for the job. Ignoring him, Yi-kyung suggests Dong-hee, but when Ha Rib insists, she’s all, “Okay, let’s go.”

Contrary to his outward excitement about Yi-kyung’s song, Chung-ryul doesn’t appreciate the calls he’s getting from reporters looking to interview Seo Dong-chun. He calls his pet investigator and orders him to tail Ha Rib and locate Dong-chun.

Yi-kyung has decided to have her stepfather admitted to the hospital, so she calls Kyung-soo to help her and Ha Rib transport him. Her mother predictably objects, but not very much. The doctors run tests, and the verdict is that after so long, there’s very little chance Yi-kyung’s stepfather will ever get better.

Mom complains about the cost of hospitalization, but Yi-kyung says that even with a poor prognosis, he’ll be better off. In addition, she says they all need this in order to move on with their lives, and her mother doesn’t argue with her logic.

When they’re alone, Yi-kyung thanks Ha Rib for today. She asks why he’s being so nice, and he snaps that it’s because he wants her to become a top artist. Yi-kyung says sheepishly that she knows now she needs help, after so many years of wanting to succeed on her own.

Yi-kyung still wants to hire Dong-hee as her manager, and while they kiss and snuggle with excitement, Manager Gong makes a loud call to hire some new part-timers because his are about to quit. Awww.

Ha Rib agrees to meet with Sun-ah, Luka’s mother. She tells him that Luka refuses to go back to the hospital (Ha Rib: “Why is he so stubborn? I wonder who he takes after…”) but she thinks he might listen if Ha Rib talks to him. Ha Rib says it’s pointless, so she may as well let Luka do as he wants.

She tells Ha Rib that as soon as he recovers, she’s taking Luka back home to Montenegro. As Ha Rib tries to act like he doesn’t care, Sun-ah finds something familiar about his hands. They remind her of the day she met Dong-chun back in 1988, when she’d been a waitress at this same restaurant.

A customer had been groping her, and Dong-chun had casually tripped the drunk patron while pretending he was doing nothing more than feeding a stray cat under his table. Sun-ah had been too shy to say anything, and he’d left without even acknowledging her.

The restaurant owner comes over to tell Ha Rib that he didn’t take his change last time he was there, tipping off Sun-ah that he’s a regular customer. Ha Rib quickly leaves, muttering to the owner, “Don’t talk to her about me,” but the owner tells Sun-ah that Ha Rib’s been coming here for ten years, always alone.

Ha Rib uses his ownership of the building as an excuse to install a better lock on Luka’s door, and gives Luka a new phone, saying it’s so he can call his mother. But Luka’s first call is to Ha Rib sitting right next to him, then he calls Yi-kyung even though they’re right outside her door, hee.

She emerges in slouchy clothes and a skincare mask, but when she sees Ha Rib, she runs back inside to put on makeup and a skirt. PFFT, Ha Rib forgets what he’s saying mid-sentence when he gets an eyeful of the pretty, and instead of finishing what he was saying, he just gives up.

Yi-kyung mentions her first photo shoot tomorrow, and when Luka asks to tag along, both Yi-kyung and Ha Rib bark “NO!” using his illness as an excuse. Luka pouts that he just won’t get surgery, so Ha Rib caves.

The photo shoot goes well, and Yi-kyung looks gorgeous. Ha Rib notices how Luka looks at Yi-kyung with his heart in his eyes. Later Yi-kyung mentions that she’s cold so Ha Rib drops his shirt over her shoulders, and Luka wilts a little over the blanket he’s holding. Dong-hee steps out for a phone call, and she preens when a man approaches and asks if she’s “Kelly’s” manager.

When they arrive at the Soul Entertainment building later, Yi-kyung is stunned to find the van mobbed by screaming fans. She agrees to sign autographs, and when Ra-in arrives a bit later all prepared to greet her fans, nobody is interested. HA.

Ra-in finds Manager Gong’s fishcake stand and shrieks that Tae-kang won’t buy her soul. Manager Gong tries to explains how souls work, but Ra-in only tries to sell hers to him instead, in exchange for “the devil’s” heart (Manager Gong’s eyeroll is everything). She asks why her soul being too pure is a problem, so Manager Gong says Tae-kang is looking for a grade one soul, something only sacred beings possess.

She decides she just needs to become a sacred being, and the next time Tae-kang sees her, she’s looking suspiciously bridal. Tae-kang tries to hide behind his book (LOL), and when Ra-in says she’s trying to be more “sacred,” he asks dryly if she’s spoken to any fishcake vendors lately.

He loses his temper when Ra-in insists he buy her soul. He turns burning eyes on her and says in his most demonly voice, “Let go. I am done being kind to you.” Ra-in only finds it sexy and clings even tighter, but Tae-kang is angry enough to shrug her off and even ignores Seo-young as he stalks away.

He growls that Manager Gong is making a mockery out of him, and tells Manager Kang who Manager Gong really is: the leader of all heavenly messengers.

Manager Gong is currently talking to a messenger conduit, who looks like a woman but talks in a manly yet weirdly robotic voice. Manager Gong says he only wants to look after “her,” not get involved in the human world, but he can’t just let Tae-kang do as he pleases. The other messenger says Manager Gong’s obsession will make things worse, and we see flashes of the real speaker. Manager Gong snaps, “Come here in person and say that! And do something about the sound quality, it should be better in this day and age.”

Seo-young witnesses Ra-in’s embarrassing display over Tae-kang and warns that if she gets caught in a scandal, she’ll cancel Ra-in’s tour and her drama. Ra-in just asks if Seo-young is also trying to sell her soul, then decides that Seo-young isn’t Tae-kang’s type.

Seo-young sends Ra-in to practice her lines and takes some beers to Tae-kang’s place, forcing her way in even though he says he’s tired. Tae-kang tells her to enjoy herself and leaves, but he stops just outside the door and hits his pounding chest, frustrated.

When he hears Seo-young laughing at a show she’s watching on his laptop, he apparates back inside to protect his leather couch from her spilled beer. Seo-young looks startled at the way he appeared out of nowhere, and he hands her another beer, telling her it’s her last.

She borrows one of his shirts since hers got wet, and Tae-kang’s brain turns to mush. He notices that Seo-young wears a cross necklace and asks if she believes in a deity, but she says she only believes when she needs to.

Tae-kang says gruffly that deities aren’t good for anything but excuses. Seo-young says that may be true, but she couldn’t survive if she couldn’t at least pretend to be forgiven for her sins. She tells Tae-kang that she puts her conscience away when she’s working, so it’s convenient to believe in a forgiving deity.

She falls asleep on the couch after a while, and Tae-kang sighs that she’s high-maintenance, but he gently tucks a blanket over her. She grasps his hand and sleepily asks him to sing for her, but although his singing lessons are finally doing some good, he stays silent.

Kyung-soo and his partner go for a drink after work, and his partner’s pride in his smart, capable son has Kyung-soo looking a bit sad. Meanwhile, his mom gets frustrated while trying to feed their stepfather in the hospital, and she throws his food on the floor and screams at him to just die.

A reporter snaps pictures of her tantrum from the hallway, but he’s gone by the time Kyung-soo arrives. Mom is calmer, and she tells her husband that he already ruined her kids’ lives, so he can’t die and make them killers, too. Kyung-soo drops off some food so Mom won’t eat Stepdad’s leftovers again, and he says he won’t blame her if she wants to stop this.

The story with the photos of Mom’s breakdown is released on the same day a magazine prints a story about Ha Rib being Seo Dong-chun’s son. Dong-hee tearfully confesses that she told the reporter about Yi-kyung’s stepfather being in the hospital because he promised to write something nice, but she swears she didn’t say a word about Ha Rib.

Chung-ryul shows up at the hospital to talk to Yi-kyung, and he says that he remembers meeting her at his son’s wedding ten years ago. Yi-kyung recalls that he’d stormed into the police station after she was accused of stealing the wedding gift money, and had slapped her viciously and accused her of colluding with Dong-chun. No wonder she looked scared when she met him again.

Chung-ryul says pleasantly that it’s all in the past, and he asks her where Seo Dong-chun is now. She says she doesn’t know, but Chung-ryul believes that Yi-kyung is in league with Ha Rib and Dong-chun to get revenge on him. He threatens to tell the world that they’re scamming everyone if she doesn’t tell him where to find Dong-chun.

Avoiding the reporters, Ha Rib and Luka sit to talk, and Luka complains when Ha Rib hands him a soda then cracks open a beer. Luka swipes the beer and says he should drink while he can, since he won’t be allowed after his surgery.

Luka says he’s always wanted to drink with a grown man since his stepfather doesn’t drink. He asks if Ha Rib has ever felt that way, and Ha Rib thinks, “It was a very long time ago. I once dreamed of doing something like this. Having a drink with my son.” He savors the moment, assuming this is the one and only chance he’ll ever have.

Later, Luka admits that he’s scared he’ll die if he doesn’t get the surgery, but he’s also scared he’ll have the surgery and never wake up. He says that he felt the same way the first time, but the doctor told him that everyone has an unseen being that protects them.

He tells Ha Rib that he still believes it, because he saw his protector, who’d looked at him as if telling him to be strong. Ha Rib realizes that Luka is talking about him, the time they saw each other before Luka’s first surgery. Luka asks Ha Rib to be there on his surgery day, and Ha Rib pulls himself together and says it’s no big deal, but of course he’ll be there.

Luka is visibly relieved, and he suddenly changes the subject and asks if Ha Rib likes Yi-kyung. Ha Rib splutters a denial, and Luka grins widely, relieved since he likes her. That unsettles Ha Rib, but he gives Luka a supportive pat on the butt anyway.

Chung-ryul introduces Luka’s mother to some important-looking people as the wife of Montenegro’s prime minister. Manager Kang shows up and hands Chung-ryul a familiar-looking envelope with a bill inside that says his seven-year contract ends in three days. Whoa, Chung-ryul sold his soul! Tae-kang joins them, and Chung-ryul makes the connection that Tae-kang is the demon.

Since Dong-hee is Yi-kyung’s new manager, Kang Ha takes her out in one of Ha Rib’s cars to teach her to drive. She’d rather talk about how bad she feels that Yi-kyung easily forgave her for talking to the reporter, which causes her to get confused and accidentally rear-end another car. Kang Ha gets out to talk to the driver, who recognizes him and calls him Judge Jung.

At the hospital, Seo-young confesses to Ha Rib that she leaked the story about him being Seo Dong-chun’s son. She says she did it because she was hoping the story would bring Dong-chun out of hiding and Ha Rib could unburden himself of his bad memories. Ha Rib just says, “Fine,” and walks away.

He visits Luka before his surgery, and Luka asks what kind of father Dong-chun was and if he really hit Ha Rib. Instead of answering, Ha Rib sings a little song about being together with your father.

Luka likes the song and asks when Ha Rib wrote it, but Ha Rib says it’s Dong-chun’s song. Crying now, Luka asks where Dong-chun is. Ha Rib wipes his tears away and says he doesn’t know, and quickly leaves before he starts crying, too.

As Luka is put under for surgery, he recalls the one time he saw Seo Dong-chun’s face. He thinks, “The man who was by my side then. It was you, right, Dad? Right?”

Something goes wrong with the medical equipment, and the doctors work frantically to stabilize Luka. Ha Rib, Seo-young, and Sun-ah wait anxiously for an update from the doctor, and when it comes, the news isn’t good — Luka may be dying. Sun-ah cries in Seo-young’s arms, but Ha Rib walks out of the hospital and into the rain.

He shows up at Tae-kang’s place, soaking wet, and gets on his knees. He begs Tae-kang to save his son’s life, offering his own soul as payment, even willing to trade his life for Luka’s. Tae-kang looks ecstatic to see a father so torn to pieces over his child, but Manager Kang understands Ha Rib’s pain and can’t even watch.

Tae-kang offers Ha Rib one chance — if he brings Yi-kyung’s soul right now, he’ll completely nullify Ha Rib’s contract.

At the hospital, the doctor tells Luka’s mother that there’s nothing more they can do, and Sun-ah collapses in grief. Yi-kyung finally arrives, and when Dong-hee says that Luka may not make it, she wanders aimlessly back outside.

She runs into Ha Rib, who’s sitting on the curb in the rain, so she moves towards him to shield him with her umbrella. Ha Rib looks empty inside as he asks, “I’m sorry. Right now, I need your soul.” Yi-kyung says she wishes she could sell her soul, and holds out a hand to him.

Ha Rib says that when he was young and his father beat him with a guitar, he vowed to make music no matter what. He says it went well at first and he thought it would last forever — he never imagined himself as an old man moping in a tiny room. He tells Yi-kyung that he wanted to do something with his life, to be young again and show people how he felt, even if it cost him his soul.

But he says he forgot about something precious, and now he wonders who he loves, or if he’s ever loved anyone. He gets to his feet and tells Yi-kyung, “It will be hard to believe, but I feel like I’ve lived a hundred years.” He pulls the contract from his pocket, but before he shows it to Yi-kyung, she steps in and hugs him, thinking, “I want to be your microhabitat. Your shelter.”

But Ha Rib only has one goal right now, and he continues, “I’m sorry but… your soul. Can you give it to me?”

COMMENTS

It was so cute the way Ha Rib pretended not to care about Yi-kyung and Luka in this episode, while obviously caring about them very much. He wasn’t fooling anyone with his indifference, especially when he’s helping Yi-kyung with her sick stepfather and buying Luka a new phone. So it’s a huge game-changer that Ha Rib has now gone from not even wanting to admit that he likes the kid, to begging Yi-kyung for her soul to save him. I honestly don’t know where things will go from here — whether Luka will die, or whether Yi-kyung will be willing to trade her soul for Ha Rib’s sake. There’s just no way I can see that everyone will come out of this with their bodies and souls intact.

It shouldn’t have surprised me to learn that Chung-ryul has also sold his soul, especially since he somehow ended up much more successful than Dong-chun even though Dong-chun was the talented one. Chung-ryul’s contract was only for seven years, which means he sold his soul three years after Ha Rib did, and I can’t help but wonder why? What did he want so badly that he was willing to risk his soul for it? Until now, Chung-ryul hasn’t been much more than an annoyance, but I have a feeling that he (and his expired contract) are about to throw a huge wrench into things.

When we first met Luka, he was so sweet and a little goofy, like a big fluffy puppy, and I never anticipated he would be this capable of breaking my heart. He’s so innocent yet so wise, which makes sense now — many children who have survived possibly terminal illnesses are wise beyond their years. And Ha Rib loved his son enough to sell his soul for him before he even knew him, but now that Luka has a name and a face and is someone Ha Rib cares about, I’m not at all surprised that Ha Rib is willing to sell even Yi-kyung’s soul to save his son again.

Ha Rib has finally reached his rock bottom, and it’s really, really hard to watch. It says a lot about who he really is that his own failures couldn’t break him, but facing the loss of a son he barely even knows is enough to strip away every shred of his pride and dignity. Yes, Ha Rib begged for his soul once before, and he was desperate then, but when he pleaded with Tae-kang to save Luka, it was like there was nothing left of him but the bone-deep need of a parent to save their child.

I do believe that Ha Rib understands exactly what he’s doing by asking Yi-kyung for her soul, and that having to choose between Yi-kyung and Luka is killing him inside. But he’s been forced to choose, and losing Yi-kyung is a risk he’s willing to take. At the very least, this time he’s not trying to trick her out of her soul but is just asking her to give it to him, which is an odd sort of honesty, but honesty nonetheless. And as selfless as Yi-kyung is, I won’t be surprised if she does give up her soul in exchange for Luka’s life.

RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: When the Devil Calls Your Name
• Stolen dreams and brutal honesty in tvN’s When the Devil Calls Your Name
• New character posters for tvN’s When the Devil Calls Your Name
• Jung Kyung-ho’s world goes up in flames in tvN fantasy comedy
• First look at Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong in tvN fantasy comedy
• Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong reunite in tvN’s new fantasy thriller