When the Devil Calls Your Name: Episode 13

by LollyPip

The concepts of “good” and “evil” seem so clear-cut… but are they really, or is it a matter of perspective, and the values one holds the highest? If there’s one thing this show has shown, it’s that even a demon can do good, and a deity doesn’t necessarily always mean well. The question this episode raises is whether it’s the act itself that’s good or evil, or the intention behind the act, that determines one’s moral core.

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

After being rejected by a soulless Ha Rib, Luka calls Yi-kyung, heartbroken and in tears. She runs to meet him, but Luka is too distraught to pay attention and he steps into the road, only to be blindsided by a truck. Yi-kyung stares at his broken body in shock, while nearby, Messenger watches them.

Yi-kyung begs for Luka to open his eyes, but it’s too late. Finally at her limit, Yi-kyung screams to the sky, “Why? Why do bad things keep happening to me? WHY?! What did I do so wrong?”

Sensing something, Tae-kang follows his instincts to where Yi-kyung is still wailing over Luka’s body. He starts towards them but a voice commands him to stop. Messenger approaches him, saying, “He who disobeys a deity, to nature. He who disobeys nature, to Hades. Humans who were sacrificed, to their rightful places.”

Tae-kang asks if that’s a joke, but Messenger says that this is the destiny that Luka should have met days ago. Tae-kang argues that Luka’s destiny restarted when he returned to life, and that the deity has no right to take things back. He objects to Messenger’s claim of “the deity’s will,” calling it cowardice, and yells at him for speaking of the laws of nature while meting out an unnatural death.

Messenger apparates in front of Tae-kang, a glowing sword in his hand. He swings at Tae-kang, but another sword blocks him — it’s Manager Gong wielding a heavenly sword of his own. He asks Messenger incredulously if he killed Luka, but Messenger just orders him to move or pay the price.

Manager Gong offers to take Tae-kang’s punishment, but Messenger claims it’s the deity’s will that Ryu dies. He pleads with Manager Gong to accept it, and several more messenger angels appear, all with swords. Tae-kang’s eyes glow as he warns them that he will fight back.

He summons his own sword, which he uses to cut down the first messenger who attacks — the female messenger he’s fought with previously. He takes out the other three with one swing, and even Manager Gong is horrified by his ruthlessness. He begs Tae-kang to stop, but Messenger says it’s too late, and he slashes Tae-kang from behind.

He raises his sword to finish the job, but Manager Gong screams and runs Messenger through. Messenger disintegrates, Manager Gong sinks to his knees, and Tae-kang stares at his father in disbelief. Manager Gong gazes up at Tae-kang and asks, “What are you trying to do?”

Tae-kang forces himself to harden up and walks away from Manager Gong, leaving his father sobbing with grief. As Tae-kang looks at Yi-kyung huddled protectively over Luka’s body, he thinks, “You abandoned me and obsessed over humans just so you could do this?”

Ha Rib pulls up and sees Luka lying in the street, and it takes him a moment to realize that Luka is dead. Even Tae-kang hangs his head as Ha Rib pleads, “Luka, wake up, it’s me. It’s your dad.” Yi-kyung murmurs, “Ajusshi…?” but Ha Rib ignores her to face Tae-kang.

He screams that Tae-kang promised nothing would happen to Luka, but all Tae-kang can say is that this is the deity’s cruelty and stubbornness. Ha Rib gets up, threatening to kill Tae-kang, who tosses him to the side without even touching him.

Seeing the blank contract lying beside him, Ha Rib gets an idea. He asks Tae-kang to make any alterations he wants, so long as he saves Luka, but Tae-kang refuses to change Ha Rib’s contract again. Looking pointedly in Yi-kyung’s direction, he says there’s only one option left.

Ha Rib approaches Yi-kyung and asks her, “Sign a contract with me. You get to wish for something. We can save Luka if you wish for it.” His eyes go a little wild as he tells Yi-kyung that all she has to do is sell her soul to the devil, and in return she gets to make four wishes. He says she can help her family and become rich and successful, if she just uses one wish to save Luka.

Yi-kyung stares at Ha Rib and Tae-kang, and Ha Rib realizes that she’s in shock. He shakes her, yelling that she needs to wake up so she can change her life and save her friend. But Tae-kang informs Yi-kyung that due to the seriousness of Ha Rib’s request, her soul will be harvested immediately, and he’ll only be granting her one wish.

That even gives Ha Rib pause, but he promises Yi-kyung that if she saves Luka, he’ll ensure she becomes rich and successful. Yi-kyung looks down at Luka’s lifeless body, then she says to Tae-kang, “I just want to live a normal life. I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me. I don’t want anyone to be sad because of me.”

Her wish appears on the contract in burning letters, with one simple word: Salvation. She signs, and from the sidewalk, Manager Gong sobs with grief. Luka’s fingers twitch, then both he and the contract disappear.

Luka staggers into the hospital, stunned and bloody, and passes out in his mother’s arms. They get him into his hospital bed, and his doctor tells Sun-ah that Luka has no apparent injuries despite showing up covered in blood.

Yi-kyung goes to the hospital, but without her soul, the world is dark and filled with cackling ghouls instead of humans. Luka wakes as Yi-kyung enters his room, and she says in an emotionless voice that he should be careful when crossing the street.

Ha Rib is still with Tae-kang, and he says he wants to end things between them right now. Tae-kang says that since Ha Rib has fulfilled the terms of his contract, Luka’s life won’t be endangered again. Ha Rib snarls that he made that promise before, but Tae-kang tells him that now that Yi-kyung has a contract, Luka is part of the deal, too, and the deity can’t interfere.

He says that Ha Rib only has him to trust, since nobody else can go up against the deity. He reminds Ha Rib that it wasn’t the deity who rescued him, but Tae-kang himself. He congratulates Ha Rib on winning his soul back for good, but from where he’s watching, Manager Gong shakes his head and calls Ha Rib an idiot.

He tells Ha Rib that everything that’s happening is due to his greed, and calls him out for making Yi-kyung use her only wish on Luka and secure his own safety. Ha Rib says that Tae-kang stole his soul to manipulate him into taking Yi-kyung’s soul, but Manager Gong informs him that his soul is perfectly intact.

He tells Ha Rib that Tae-kang returned his soul the moment he decided to go after Yi-kyung’s — on the roof, when he clapped a hand on Ha Rib’s shoulder and they agreed to finish this. Ha Rib is horrified to realize that what he did was all him.

He thinks about how he felt when Luka was chasing after his car tonight, and tears fill his eyes to know that he acted so cruelly with his soul intact. He says there was no other way to save Luka, but Manager Gong snarls that humans always make excuses. Ha Rib is overcome by fear, understanding that his deal with the devil is over, but he can never escape his influence.

He runs into Yi-kyung, who blandly greets him as Seo Dong-chun. She says she’s known there was an explanation for his disappearance, and that she’s always believed he had a good reason for stealing that money. Her voice completely neutral, Yi-kyung says that even though her life has been unlucky, she never felt alone because she knew he was out there.

She says he’s returned as a much cooler person, but she asks, “So why am I not happy about it?” Ha Rib can only apologize, and Yi-kyung says she’s missed him, then tells him goodbye.

Ha Rib looks in on Luka and thinks to himself that he will suffer from this curse forever. “If I can’t break free from this curse of a contract, does that mean I’ll have to depend on the devil forever? Luka’s fate, my soul, and Yi-kyung’s soul…”

The following morning, Kyung-soo rushes to his father’s hospital room to find him standing for the first time in a decade. Father and son hug, both crying, while Mom watches.

Seo-young offers Dong-hee money to help her since she quit due to the intimate videos her ex posted online. But Dong-hee says that the videos have somehow disappeared, like a miracle.

Kang Ha reconciles with his sister, Hye-won, who hits him repeatedly and screams at him for selling his honor after their family worked so hard to help him become a judge. He remembers the incident he’s dreamed about where he’s being attacked by protesters, including how he got on his knees and begged their forgiveness.

Yi-kyung arrives home to find the whole family there. She says that she’s waited a long time for Stepdad to get well so that she can hear him apologize. He murmurs a short apology, but Yi-kyung demands that he get on his knees and say he’s sorry for everything he’s done, and everything she went through while he was sick.

Yi-kyung’s mom asks her why she’s doing this. Yi-kyung replies coldly, asking what Mom did while Stepdad was hitting her, and why she sent the police away when Yi-kyung was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

Kyung-soo says it’s his fault and kneels to apologize, but Yi-kyung says that Stepdad is the one who did wrong. She does call Kyung-soo out for letting her take the blame for his actions, and calls him a coward. She says to Stepdad that she doesn’t expect him to be good, but to spend the rest of his life in remorse.

Turning to her mother, Yi-kyung says that Stepdad will never change and warns her not to let down her guard. She orders them never to call her again, then she leaves.

When she shows up at Soul Entertainment, Yi-kyung looks very different — she’s in heels and a form-fitting dress, hair and makeup done to perfection. Ha Rib says that he’s made sure Reporter Uhm won’t write an article about her brother, but she says she doesn’t care.

Seo-young asks why Yi-kyung is acting so arrogant, but Yi-kyung asks how Seo-young plans to keep the company afloat with a plagiarist composer and untalented, poorly-behaved singers. She says that Seo-young should be catering to her since she’s the only one bringing in money, and Ha Rib has to step between them to keep them from getting physical.

When Ra-in shows up and finds Yi-kyung wearing a jacket from her drama wardrobe, she goes at Yi-kyung and gets shoved back. Yi-kyung looms over her and calls her undeserving with no talent or skills. Yi-kyung leaves, and Ha Rib follows to appease her. Yi-kyung demands that he set up that concert in Asia’s largest concert hall like he promised, so he nervously asks for time, but she says she no longer trusts him.

Shi-ho arrives, upset at having just heard that his own concert was canceled and given to Yi-kyung. She informs him that he’d know why if he read his own fan page. LOL, Ha Rib actually covers Shi-ho’s ears to keep him from hearing Yi-kyung’s insults regarding his music. She confirms that the fancy car Shi-ho drives still technically belongs to Ha Rib, and she decides she wants it.

Manager Kang returns to Tae-kang after having temporarily disappeared when his daughter’s spirit stopped visiting him. He tells Tae-kang that he’s lost his purpose, and that he doesn’t want to live this way or die this way. Tae-kang says he’s not angry, but he’s also not kind enough to find Manager Kang a new purpose.

Making himself comfortable, Manager Kang asks if Yi-kyung will become like others with no soul. Tae-kang replies that she made a wish just like every other human, but Manager Kang scoffs that her wish was decidedly unlike any other wish.

We go back to the previous evening — Tae-kang returned home to find Seo-young waiting at his door. She’d been alarmed by the bloody slash across his back, but she’d been more concerned with the way he lives now, which is very different from the Tae-kang she used to date. She had rationalized that it was his sudden success that changed him, but now she doesn’t think he’s Mo Tae-kang at all.

She’d asked tearfully who he really is, and he’d said to her, “I wanted to take revenge. You were always so self-centered. I wanted you to feel desperate. I wanted to hurt you and make you hate yourself. I wanted to make you suffer. As much as you hurt me, I wanted to see you hurt.”

Seo-young had ripped the cross necklace from around her neck, thrown it in Tae-kang’s face, and asked what he did to the real Tae-kang. She’d offered to let him choke her like like she saw him choke the messenger, but Tae-kang had only said wearily that he wants to end this.

At home, Ha Rib calls out to Tae-kang and demands that he show himself. Tae-kang rings the doorbell obediently, and Ha Rib confronts him for making him believe he didn’t have his soul. Tae-kang claims innocence, but he says that even if he had tricked Ha Rib, he didn’t force him to do anything. He mimics the way Ha Rib screamed at Yi-kyung to sign the contract, thanking him for showing how cruel humans can be.

Ha Rib asks what Tae-kang was trying to confirm, and Tae-kang says proudly, “That I’m right and the deity is wrong.” He says that he wouldn’t have let Luka die like that and Ha Rib admits that he’s thankful, but he’s angry that Tae-kang used him and others to prove the deity wrong. He says he’d kill Tae-kang if he could, but Tae-kang just marvels at yet another human who’s lost his fear.

He tells Ha Rib to take solace in the knowledge that he saved Yi-kyung from a miserable life, and that his own soul is free to pursue happiness. Ha Rib changes the subject, asking Tae-kang if he’s keeping the truth from Seo-young out of consideration. Tae-kang starts to deny that a demon would be considerate, but he looks nervous when Ha Rib says that Seo-young asked if he has anything to do with the strange events lately.

He says she even asked if Tae-kang is a devil, and tells Tae-kang to be glad Ha Rib still has his soul. Unable to meet Ha Rib’s eyes, Tae-kang claims he’s just bored, but Ha Rib calls out the lie. He says that nobody is happy because of Tae-kang, including Seo-young, so he’s in no position to talk about happiness.

Ra-in’s drama finally begins filming, and she’s cringingly bad. During a break, she tells Seo-young that she’s confident she’ll succeed because she sold her soul, but she looks worried. Seo-young asks if Ra-in sold her soul to Tae-kang, and Ra-in nods.

Luka leaves the hospital again (seriously, they need to tie the kid to his hospital bed) and goes to see Yi-kyung at home. He overhears Dong-hee ask Yi-kyung if she helped get the videos deleted, but Yi-kyung says she doesn’t care about the videos or about Dong-hee and her ex, and Dong-hee leaves crying.

Yi-kyung is packing up to move when Luka goes inside, and she alarms him by treating casually things he knows she treasures, like her patched-up guitar. He says she’s not behaving like the Kelly he likes, but she says nothing’s changed, then asks cruelly if he still believes in miracles.

When Ha Rib arrives home that night, he finds Luka sitting outside his house with his luggage and Yi-kyung’s guitar. Luka says he’s lucky Yi-kyung gave him her guitar, but his smile is full of pain. She had told him that the “miracles” were occurring because of him, and that his father even sold his soul to save him, and became Ha Rib.

Luka looks at Ha Rib, his father, with tear-filled eyes and says, “It hurts. I’m sorry for being sick all the time. I’m sorry.” Ha Rib blinks back tears of his own, but there’s nothing he can say. Luka thinks, “Thank you, Dad,” as Ha Rib squeezes his hand and tells him kindly that he needs to go home.

Manager Kang takes Manager Gong for a drink and asks what happens to Yi-kyung now, and whether she’ll live the rest of her life without her soul. Manager Gong slurs that the memories of pain will hurt her more than the original pain itself, but he adds that she won’t go down without a fight, and that the deity made a bet with the devil because he believes in people.

They proceed to get roaring drunk, and Manager Kang yells at Manager Gong for blaming everything on the deity. He calls the deity a psycho for placing bets on humans instead of just leaving them alone, and Manager Gong looks up at the sky and bellows, “He’s right. You’re a psycho!” HAHA.

Manager Kang isn’t finished — he also calls Tae-kang a psycho for not talking out his problems with Manager Gong instead of running away and stealing souls. Manager Gong gets angry at Manager Kang for saying he should have just beaten Tae-kang (Manager Gong: “What could I do? He’s bigger than me!”), and when he asks if that’s how Manager Kang raised his daughter, Manager Kang completely loses his cool and they get kicked out of the restaurant.

Having bonded over fatherhood, Manager Kang and Manager Gong stumble down the street with their arms around each other. Manager Gong starts to cry and calls himself incompetent, but Manager Kang assures him he’ll find a way, then says his behavior is unseemly for a former angel (Manager Gong: “I’m a Buddhist now.” LOL!).

Eventually Manager Kang makes it home and finds his wife sitting in the dark. He gives her the divorce paperwork which he’s signed, and says he’s giving her everything. His wife calls him a selfish jerk, and he accepts her censure.

Dong-hee is in the process of moving out of her apartment when her ex pops up to ominously brandish the USB where he’s saved the intimate videos of her. Yi-kyung shows up, but she ignores the ex’s taunts and demands that Dong-hee hand over her old phone, which has all of her songs recorded on it.

Soulless Chung-ryul tells Ha Rib that he’s purchased all of the copyrights on their old music, planning to release a new Liver and Gallbladder album with Yi-kyung. He gloats that any profits on the music belong to him now, since Seo Dong-chun “died” without a legal next of kin, but Ha Rib vows to stop him somehow.

Yi-kyung interrupts to say that Ha Rib won’t be able to do that. She’s got a copy of the picture of Ha Rib hugging her outside the hospital, and she says she plans to out him as having plagiarized her music. Chung-ryul sits there laughing as Yi-kyung pulls out the phone with her proof that she wrote her songs first.

Ha Rib promises to get her soul back, but Yi-kyung says she’ll get it back herself. She orders Ha Rib to leave Soul Entertainment, and he pleads with her not to side with Chung-ryul, but she just asks how Ha Rib is any different. Ouch.

Tae-kang lets himself into Seo-young’s place and is surprised that her dog doesn’t attack him. He goes looking for dog food and finds Seo-young’s extensive medicine cabinet instead. As he’s leaving, another messenger shows herself (cameo by Lee Sang-hee).

She doesn’t speak, only smiles serenely, and Tae-kang asks, “Is it now? You’ll take me now?” She replies, “In time,” and Tae-kang walks away, though he pauses to say it was good to see her. Hmmm, interesting.

Ha Rib goes to Tae-kang’s home and asks Manager Kang where Tae-kang keeps the souls he’s taken, but Manager Kang says he doesn’t know, and that it wouldn’t matter even if he did. Not believing him, Ha Rib asks again, and this time Manager Kang says cryptically, “The tardigrade. You still have hope.”

Tae-kang shows up to sneer that hope and foolish regret are the same things. Promising this is the last time he goes back on his word, Ha Rib asks Tae-kang to take his soul and return Yi-kyung’s. He says he understands that without a soul and emotions, he can’t empathize with others, but that it’s no way for a human to live.

Tae-kang doesn’t see the problem, thinking that lack of empathy sounds convenient, and Ha Rib asks him again to return Yi-kyung’s soul. Tae-kang asks Ha Rib if he’s willing to give up Luka’s life for Yi-kyung’s soul, and when Ha Rib doesn’t answer, Tae-kang tells him to leave.

Manager Kang goes with Ha Rib and notes that he’s now alone, which is the worst consequence of the contract they signed. Ha Rib regrets putting Yi-kyung in that position, and he asks how he can fix this for Yi-kyung. Manager Kang says it will be painful, but there’s a way.

He says that he’s heard a soul can sometimes return to its owner, but Ha Rib complains that they don’t know how to make that happen. Then he recalls CEO Song, who posed as the devil when Ha Rib sold his soul. Before he died, CEO Song had mentioned that he sometimes felt regret.

Manager Gong tells Ha Rib that they’ll just have to figure this out on their own. As he walks away, Manager Kang sees a van pass by and realizes that the driver has passed out. He hops into a parked truck and follows the unconscious driver, then pulls in front of him. He slows down, letting the van tap his bumper, trying to stop the momentum.

He eventually manages to halt both vehicles, but they end up in the middle of an intersection. As Manager Kang breathes a sigh of relief, another truck comes through and side-swipes him. Just before he’s hit, he sees little Woo-ram waving to him from the sidewalk.

His vehicle is sent flipping wildly across the intersection, but Manager Kang doesn’t care because he’s happily reuniting with his daughter. She asks why he came so early and he says it’s because she wouldn’t see him, pulling the cutest pouty-face, and they skip away together hand-in-hand.

Ha Rib comes upon the accident scene and is stunned. He thinks that the deity’s punishment is far too cruel, as he realizes that he’s lost his only ally.

 
COMMENTS

I never thought I’d say this about a character I like, but I’m so happy that Manager Kang died (excessive Trucks of Doom aside). All he wanted was to be with his baby girl, and now he has both his wish and his soul. He went to his death happy, and that’s really all anyone can hope for in their last moments. But I’m concerned about Ha Rib, because Manager Kang was the only one who could help him figure out how to return Yi-kyung’s soul to her. Now all he’s left with is the hope that sometimes a soul returns on its own, and the clue “tardigrade.”

I had a suspicion that Ha Rib had his soul back by the time of Luka’s accident, but what I don’t understand is how he didn’t know. Everyone else views the world very differently without their soul, so why didn’t Ha Rib realize his was returned when the world cleared up for him? But he has it back now, and I’m much more worried by Yi-kyung’s behavior now that she’s lost her soul. She’s not just cold — she’s turned downright vindictive, and she’s plotting Ha Rib’s downfall with the full knowledge of who he really is and what he’s done. She’s gone from being near-angelic to downright terrifying, and I’m more scared of what Yi-kyung is planning than I ever have been of Tae-kang.

At first I was really surprised at Tae-kang’s emotional response to Luka’s death, until I remembered that the whole reason he became a demon was because he couldn’t accept another unfair death. It’s so tragic that the very ideal that should make him a wonderful angel — commitment to fairness and punishment for wrongdoing — is the very reason he became a demon. I can’t say I disagree (within the context of the show’s mythos) with Tae-kang’s issues with the deity, and the way the angels stand by while terrible things happen and call them the deity’s will. It’s easy to sit back and do nothing and call it destiny, when you could step in and save someone.

I’d be angry about Luka cheating death for a third time, but when I think about it, I believe that the whole point is that Luka’s life is being unfairly used by the deity to make some kind of cosmic point — basically, that he can do whatever he wants whether or not it’s right or just. Luka’s repeated resurrections are supposed to be unbelievable, because who survives two heart surgeries and a speeding truck? Not to mention the fact that it benefits Tae-kang to keep Luka alive, because he provides a convenient chain for Tae-kang to yank Ha Rib around by. The question is, will Ha Rib go the same way as Tae-kang, or will he become a better person despite the way the deity is manipulating him?

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