When the Devil Calls Your Name: Episode 12

by LollyPip

We learn why having no soul is such a terrifying thing in this episode, as we see what it looks like after someone loses theirs. Walking around without a conscience seems freeing, but it can be traumatic for those who are being pushed away by someone they care about. But the heavens are tired of being manipulated, and if they step in and take action to stop a wayward child, the resulting tragedy could change everything.

 
EPISODE 12 RECAP

After finding out that Ha Rib knows the truth about her stepfather and wants to reveal the information to the press, Yi-kyung goes to his house to confront him. She says into his intercom that he’s like a devil, planning this after everything she’s done to protect her family. When he doesn’t respond, Yi-kyung storms off.

Ha Rib reaches up to answer, but he sees his hand and realizes that Tae-kang has changed him back into Seo Dong-chun. It’s a warning, as Tae-kang is growing suspicious that Ha Rib is prioritizing Luka over his promise to procure Yi-kyung’s soul.

Ha Rib hides behind the couch when Kang Ha shuffles downstairs to see who’s at the door. He escapes outside, but Kang Ha finds him, assuming he was the one ringing the doorbell. Kang Ha chases him down the street after realizing that he’s wearing Ha Rib’s shirt, and Ha Rib gasps, “I’m never bringing someone home again!”

He ends up at Tae-kang’s place, but he freezes in horror when Seo-young’s voice drifts out from the kitchen. Tae-kang invites Ha Rib in, knowing he’ll refuse, and Ha Rib stalks off snarling about damned devils.

On the street, Ha Rib suddenly worries that Luka may be in danger if his contract has been revoked. He hurries to the hospital, but Luka is safe and sound in his hospital bed. In his relief, Ha Rib stays standing in the doorway, and Luka looks up and sees him — or rather, he sees Seo Dong-chun.

They both stare for a long moment, and when Ha Rib finally collects his wits and turns away, he almost runs into Sun-ah. He hurries away in the opposite direction, but she saw his face clearly enough to recognize him.

Reporter Uhm stops Kyung-soo outside the police station, and when he mentions Yi-kyung, Kyung-soo refuses to speak to him. Reporter Uhm gives him his card and says that he knows the truth, and threatens to write whatever he wants if he doesn’t tell him his side of the story. Kyung-soo is saved by Sergeant Oh, who threatens to tow Reporter Uhm’s car.

Ha Rib spends the night on a park bench, without even enough money to buy something to eat. He’d thought he was willing to give up everything as long as Luka was okay, but now he’s swayed by the scent of someone’s cup ramyun. The kind convenience store employee gives him the food he couldn’t afford, humbling him even further.

Yi-kyung finds Kyung-soo on his way home, angry that he told Ha Rib the truth, but Kyung-soo says he felts better after unburdening himself. He fibs that he broke up with his girlfriend, but Yi-kyung says there’s more to life than getting married. She reminds Kyung-soo that Mom has spent a decade protecting him, but Kyung-soo snaps that Mom should have run away a long time ago.

He starts to cry, feeling guilty that Yi-kyung was finally finding some success and happiness, but people still pointed fingers at her. He says he felt good after telling someone the truth, but then that reporter came looking for him. He sobs that he knows how hard Yi-kyung’s life has been, and that it terrifies him, and Yi-kyung hides her own tears and tells him that she’ll make sure nothing happens.

With nowhere else to go, Ha Rib ends up in his old room, but Tae-kang still manages to find him. He asks if Ha Rib is enjoying the past he’s missed, but Ha Rib yells that of course he hasn’t missed this. He says he didn’t need this reminder of what’s at stake, but Tae-kang thinks he’s using his conscience to delay their deal.

Ha Rib retorts that Yi-kyung has a life, and he asks Tae-kang to give her some time to shine. His words remind Tae-kang of Seo-young telling him that she’s using Yi-kyung for personal gain, like she always does, but that it hurts. Tae-kang tells Ha Rib that only those with souls feel things like sympathy, compassion, and consideration, so he offers to temporarily remove Ha Rib’s soul so he can take Yi-kyung’s without being in pain.

He does something to Ha Rib, who wakes up back in his young body. He finds an old box of awards and starts putting them out alongside his newer ones, while Kang Ha tells him that his father, Seo Dong-chun, came by while he was gone.

Evidently Yi-kyung also stopped by and told Kang Ha that the statute of limitations has expired on what Kyung-soo did. Kang Ha asks Ha Rib not to tell the press because Kyung-soo’s career could still be damaged. Ha Rib ignores him and asks where Kang Ha stored the box of his awards from 2009-2010. Kang Ha says he threw it out since Ha Rib said they were worthless, so Ha Rib kicks Kang Ha out of his house for real.

Seo-young shows up with a battered and filthy Shi-ho, who got into a fistfight. A baggie of what looks like drugs falls from Shi-ho’s pocket, so Ha Rib calls the police, but Seo-young grabs the phone away and Shi-ho explains that it’s just the salt served with soondae.

Ha Rib is eerily calm as he tells Seo-young to send Shi-ho to another agency, but not to let him be affected by his “garbage.” Seo-young says she’ll be responsible for Shi-ho, but Ha Rib tells her that attitude will come back to bite her eventually.

In the morning, Ha Rib arranges for a new manager for Yi-kyung to take Dong-hee’s place. He has Yi-kyung brought to him, angry that she refused to be interviewed, and says she has to shed the weight of her past to be successful. Yi-kyung argues that her family isn’t dead weight, but Ha Rib calls her a selfish hypocrite who doesn’t consider Kyung-soo’s guilt or her mother’s pain.

She fires back that he’s the one using her family for gain, but he calls himself an angel who will rescue her from the sewer. He laughs derisively when Yi-kyung gets on her knees to beg him not to do this, then says coldly that the article will run.

He calls for Seo-young next, and when she notes that he’s never been one for expensive bars like the one they’re in, he says he got scared that he’d die before spending all his money. He tells her that Yi-kyung knows the article will run tomorrow, then expresses concern when she washes down medication with the alcohol, but only because the alcohol was pricey.

Seo-young asks about Tae-kang’s singing lessons, and Ha Rib admits that he could only help him so much. She asks how he went from being a good singer to being tone-deaf, but Ha Rib just says vaguely that the world is more complicated than it seems.

She tells him that Dong-hee came to her for help after catching two guys leering at “private” photos of her online. Ha Rib says that’s none of their business, and Seo-young gapes at his callousness. She says they may not be human (because of the things they have to do for their careers), “But let’s not be monsters.”

Tae-kang squirms when Ra-in approaches him, still dressed in virginal white. She asks when he’ll buy her soul, because she’s getting stomachaches from holding in her farts, LOL. He agrees to buy her soul in self-defense, so Ra-in closes her eyes and puckers up, but he just orders her soul to leave him alone and tells her that she’ll get all her wishes, whatever.

She kisses him and says she’ll be back to discuss their relationship after she crushes Yi-kyung.. I almost feel bad for Tae-kang — he looks so traumatized. He tells Manager Kang that Ra-in’s soul is almost non-existent and thus is impossible to retrieve even if he wanted to… “Maybe the deity was so overworked that he forgot to even give her a soul…?”

Ha Rib agrees to meet with Sun-ah, but he tells her he doesn’t know where Seo Dong-chun is and that she’s mistaken about seeing him. He asks how she ended up in Montenegro, so she says that after Luka’s first surgery, she sold everything and took him on the furthest flight she could afford.

They ended up in Paris, and she used to leave him in their motel room while she worked. One day he was gone when she returned, and she found him in a park with a man who was a classical singer, and who offered her a job as his housemaid. He turned out to be the prime minister of Montenegro, and eventually they married.

Ha Rib says that it’s a good thing she left Korea, and something about his expression reminds Sun-ah of Dong-chun telling her never to contact him again. Ha Rib says that if her business in Korea is concluded, she should take Luka and go home. They’re unaware that Luka is nearby listening in, and he hears Ha Rib say that Seo Dong-chun is probably dead.

Chung-ryul peruses an online article that published pictures of Tae-kang and Ha Rib fighting, with speculation that they’re a couple, hee. He wonders what their real relationship is, and why Ha Rib lives under an assumed identity and looks so eerily like Seo Dong-chun. Suddenly it all clicks into place.

Ha Rib heads home, only to find Chung-ryul there to brag that he’s found Dong-chun — standing right in front of him. Ha Rib growls that he’s crazy, but Chung-ryul just bear-hugs him and marvels that he looks exactly like he did when he was young.

Ha Rib slaps Chung-ryul’s hands away, but Chung-ryul whispers that he caught him, and reveals that he also sold his soul. Ha Rib asks what Chung-ryul is trying to steal from him this time and tells him to get lost, but Chung-ryul asks if Yi-kyung knows the truth. He wonders what the media would think about all this, but Ha Rib just warns him to keep his mouth shut if he doesn’t want his eyeballs plucked out.

Homeless again, Kang Ha tries to call Dong-hee as he’s about to talk to the man who recognized him, but she’s not answering her phone. The man tells him that his younger sibling came to see him once, to return a gift he sent to Kang Ha as thanks for deciding a case in his favor.

Chung-ryul questions Tae-kang, who says that Ha Rib and Dong-chun are two different people, but Chung-ryul clings to his conviction that they’re the same person. He reminds Tae-kang of his first wish, for Tae-kang to destroy everyone who looked down on him, wondering why Tae-kang didn’t destroy Dong-chun. Tae-kang says that he won’t fulfill a wish that harms another of his clients.

Chung-ryul wants Dong-chun’s (Ha Rib’s) life ruined, furious that he got a longer, better contract for his soul, but Tae-kang points out that Chung-ryul’s contract is over. Chung-ryul asks what he has to do to be young again, too, so Tae-kang does some fancy hand-waving… then tells him to drink tonics and exercise, hee.

After he’s gone, Tae-kang tells Manager Kang that with Chung-ryul’s soul gone, he’s become a sociopath without a conscience. Tae-kang admits that he temporarily took Ha Rib’s soul to get rid of his conscience, so that now he won’t hesitate to do what it takes to bring him Yi-kyung’s soul. “That’s how I salvage humans,” he reveals. “I help them stick to their instincts so that they can fulfill their desires.”

He lets Manager Kang leave early, knowing it’s his day to see his deceased daughter. But Woo-ram isn’t happy today, having been told by Messenger that her daddy hangs out with bad people so he can see her. She tells Manager Kang that Messenger says she’s dead, and that she should move on so Daddy could become a better man.

Panicking, Manager Kang says it’s not true and begs her to stay with him forever. But Woo-ram insists that she needs to leave, and they’re both crying as she gets on a bus and rides away with the knowledge that Messenger promised that her mom and dad would reconcile.

Now that she believes she’s sold her soul, Ra-in embraces her “evil” side. She switches to wearing scarlet and gloats when she learns that the lead in her upcoming drama was fired in the aftermath of a scandal, and Ra-in has been promoted to lead.

Yi-kyung comes to talk to Seo-young, who tries to convince Yi-kyung that she no longer has to take the blame for something she didn’t do. Yi-kyung still wnats her to block the article, and when Seo-young refuses, Yi-kyung asks her to understand what she’s about to do next.

She also criticizes Seo-young for firing Dong-hee, so against Dong-hee and Ha Rib’s wishes, Seo-young tells her the truth of why Dong-hee was let go. Yi-kyung attempts to call her friend, but Dong-hee still isn’t answering.

Kang Ha is also still trying to reach Dong-hee as he walks through a fish market. He leaves her a message saying that he spoke to the man who knows him, and that he thinks the woman he keeps dreaming about is his sister, Hye-won (cameo by Ryu Hye-rin). He’s at the fish market because Hye-won works there, and when she sees him, she slaps him and demands to know where he’s been.

Yi-kyung goes to Dong-hee’s home, where she finds her friend hiding behind a hoodie and mask. Dong-hee is obviously packing to move, and she pleads tearfully for Yi-kyung not to confront her ex, who posted those pictures online.

Yi-kyung yells at her not to hide or run away when her ex is to blame, heartbroken that Dong-hee kept this bottled up. She calls Ha Rib to yell at him for not telling her about this, and when he says coldly that her knowing wouldn’t change anything, she marvels that he really is a horrible person.

She says she regrets ever meeting him, because she’s not the kind of person whose dreams come true. She vows that she’ll no longer have anything to do with him, but Ha Rib surprises her by offering to stop the article so nobody finds out about Kyung-soo’s guilt. He promises to fix Dong-hee’s problems, too, and that Yi-kyung’s dream will come true.

As promised, as soon as they hang up, he calls Reporter Uhm and tells him not to publish the article yet. He meets with Tae-kang to say that he’ll bring Yi-kyung’s soul to him today, and he says that if this is what it’s like to lose his soul, it’s not so bad beyond seeing the occasional gaunt skeleton.

He confirms that once he delivers Yi-kyung’s soul, he wants nothing further to do with Tae-kang. As they’re driving away, Tae-kang is pleased to have proven to Manager Gong that he’s right about humans, but Manager Kang is suspiciously silent. Tae-kang gets out of the car to walk and heads to Seo-young’s building, but something has him on edge.

Seo-young spots him, but he’s on a mission, and he grabs an old woman and slams her against a wall. She laughs and says he seems nervous about his upcoming punishment, so Tae-kang grips her throat as his eyes burn. The woman changes into her messenger form as Tae-kang says he creates evil from good, and that he’s no longer a being like her.

He throws her into another wall, and sends her back with another message: “Go tell him that to stop me, he must come himself.” He walks away, never having seen Seo-young or the shock she’s in after what she just witnessed.

The woman stumbles to Messenger, who’s arguing with Manager Gong again. Manager Gong asks for two days to make things right, but Messenger says that the deity has decided that Tae-kang can’t go back now.

Ha Rib gets the blank contract from home then heads out to get Yi-kyung to sign away her soul as he promised. But Luka is in front of his house, and he asks, upset, why Ha Rib wants him to leave. Ha Rib tries to walk away, but Luka calls out, “Seo Dong-chun-sshi,” and Ha Rib stops in his tracks.

He’s only telling Ha Rib that he saw “Dad,” and that (he thinks) he and Ha Rib are brothers. He asks again where Dong-chun is, saying that he just wants to meet his father, but Ha Rib says he’s mistaken. He drives Luka away from his house then literally drags him from the car, and he snaps that even if Luka is Dong-chun’s son, he can’t accept him.

He screams in Luka’s face that he’s not his brother, and that Seo Dong-chun doesn’t consider him his son. He tells Luka to go back where he came from, physically shoving Luka away from him, then drives away and leaves him chasing after his car yelling, “Hyung. Hyung!”

Ha Rib’s eyes fill with tears as he watches Luka in his rearview mirror, urging him not to run. Eventually Luka stops and sinks to his knees in the street, clutching his chest.

After seeing his daughter for the last time, Manager Kang calls Yi-kyung. He meets with her and tells her calmly that Seo Dong-chun sold his soul to a demon in exchange for wealth, success, and youth. She thinks he’s telling her a story until he says that Ha Rib is Dong-chun, and she recalls the familiar broken guitar, and how hard he argued against her singing Liver and Gallbladder songs.

Manager Kang continues that the demon is living in Tae-kang’s body, and that he’s seduced many people into trading their souls for four wishes. Manager Kang even reveals that Ha Rib’s first wish was to save the life of his son, and suddenly so many things that Ha Rib has said to her make sense.

As she’s leaving, Yi-kyung takes a call from Ha Rib and tells him that she’s going to the hospital to see Luka. She asks him straight out if he’s Seo Dong-chun, and Ha Rib curses, assuming she heard it from Chung-ryul.

He hangs up, and Luka calls Yi-kyung, sounding heartbroken. He sobs that Ha Rib told him Dong-chun doesn’t want him as a son, and Ha Rib doesn’t want him as a brother. They’re not far apart, so Yi-kyung runs to meet Luka and spots him across the street.

She tells him she’ll go to him, but in his grief, Luka blindly walks into the street. Yi-kyung watches in horror as a track slams into him, unaware that Messenger is watching them, dressed in white and surrounded by a heavenly glow.

 
COMMENTS

This can’t be happening. I refuse to accept that Luka is dead. His tenuous hold on life is what started this whole nightmarish situation in the first place, and logically I understand that he’s been living on borrowed time ever since, which was only reinforced when Manager Gong saved his life a second time. But he’s the only good thing Ha Rib has ever had in his life, and he’s literally gone to Hell and back to save Luka, so it terrifies me to think what Ha Rib will do if Luka dies. Not to mention that he’s just the sweetest, most innocent soul in Ha Rib’s life, who never wanted a single thing but for his father to know and love him, and it would be too unfair of him to die thinking that he was rejected not just by the father he’s never met, but by the man he’s come to think of as his brother.

But if Luka does die (and I don’t see how he could possibly cheat death a third time), I think that his death will end up being a game changer for everyone. Without the very reason he sold his soul in the first place, I’m most afraid that Ha Rib will go off the deep end. We’ve already seen what he’s capable of without a soul, but I believe he’ll be much, much worse with a broken soul and no reason to value it. Even Tae-kang has shown in subtle ways that he cares about Luka’s life and wishes him no harm, probably because Luka reminds him of the innocent murdered child that caused his own rebellion.

I could be completely wrong, but something tells me that when Tae-kang supposedly took Ha Rib’s soul temporarily, it didn’t actually work. The look on Ha Rib’s face when he drove away from Luka looked tortured, and if he had no soul, he wouldn’t have wanted Luka to stop running and exacerbate his heart condition. I think that if Ha Rib really didn’t have a soul, he would have just told Luka the truth about Seo Dong-chun because he wouldn’t care about how Luka felt. But Ha Rib took care to tell Sun-ah to take Luka home, then lied to Luka again about himself and his connection to Dong-chun, which makes me suspect that he’s still trying to take care of Luka. Ha Rib believes that his son is better off without him, and I don’t think he’d care what happened to Luka anymore if he really was walking around without his soul.

I actually think there’s a good chance this soulless act has been just that — an act to keep Tae-kang from finding out that Ha Rib still has his soul. I think he’s made his decision between Yi-kyung and Luka, and that he’s behaving coldly to keep himself from feeling the guilt over sacrificing the woman he cares about for his son. But if Luka dies, it will completely change everything, and not just for Ha Rib. Manager Kang has shown glimpses that he’s not really a bad person, and he’s also just lost his reason for having sold his soul. The sorrow of a parent for a lost child is crushing, and there’s no telling what Ha Rib might do if he believes that Tae-kang has gone back on his word.

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