Recap Korean Drama "Island (2022)" Episode 2

Episode 2 of Island starts with a flashback from the Ancient Jeju era where Wonjeong tries to free Ban and Gong-tan from Leader Jongryeong. Unbeknownst to Wonjeong, Ban accidentally attacks her. She tries to persevere the attack from the half-demon and begins fleeing.

On the way, Wonjeong collapses and the two boys are forced to bring Wonjeong back to the palace. Lord Jongryeong is fuming and asks his guards to punish the boys for what happened all those years ago. Wonjoeong promises the boys to come back to save them and asks them to survive until then.

Back to the present day, hours before Min-ho was attacked by the demon possessing Secretary Kang, Fr Giovanni arrives at Jeju Island. Butler Jang welcomes the priest in a secret mansion inside the forest. He talks to Giovanni and is shocked that the exorcist is a Korean who is also so young. Butler Jang starts listing Fr Giovanni’s notable exorcisms over the years. Giovanni tells Butler Jang how he too was doing a commendable job protecting the saviour for all these years.

Butler Jang appears confused and Giovanni explains the prophecy. He states that after she was not able to protect the world from demons during her first birth, the saviour was to be reincarnated a second time in order to end the darkness that will be set in the world due to the demons. The priest adds that Won Min-ho is the reincarnation of the saviour and claims that he was back in Korea just to protect her.

Butler Jang escorts Giovanni outside and the priest asks to be introduced to Min-ho as well as the man from the dark – Ban. That night, Butler Jang gets a call from Min-ho but is not able to help her in time. Ban arrives and kills the demon alongside Secretary Kang. Min-ho is shocked at what she sees but Ban tells her to stay in town if she wishes to survive what is about to follow this attack.

Ban leaves her alone and breaks the protective shield that stopped the demon from fleeing. The cops, along with Butler Jang, rush to rescue Min-ho and find her disheveled. The cops interrogate her but her description of the demon does not sit right with them. Everyone tries to pacify Min-ho but the cops are only laughing at Min-ho’s story. They mock her, infuriating Butler Jang.

Butler Jang avoids letting Min-ho speak to her father and states that she is probably tired. Min-ho overhears the conversation and is disheartened when she hears how Butler Jang also refused to trust her. Her informant tells her about something taking place on a cliff and Min-ho decides to take a cab there.

A man tries to awaken the demon inside the Dol Hareubang statues using a sinister chant. At the same time, Min-ho arrives at a place near the Jeju Island Airport. Inside the airport, a security guard is possessed by a demon but Min-ho gets a ticket in order to flee back to Seoul on her own without Butler Jang’s knowledge.

The airport staff alerts someone, and tries to hamper Min-ho from leaving and one of the other security guards makes escorts her to the waiting rom. Min-ho learns that it was her family’s orders to stop her from leaving Jeju and unwillingly waits in the room while the security guard who escorted her tries making small talk with her.

The possessed guard tries to attack Min-ho but the other guards distract him as she flees outside the airport. Min-ho runs toward and open car but the guard catches up, grabbing the car.

Min-ho speeds up the streets of Jeju with the possessed guard on her rooftop, trying to break in. The demon ends up falling from the front of the car and Min-ho is scared after driving over him. To her surprise, the demon is still very much alive and continues to chase Min-ho.

He manages to pry the window open by cracking it but Min-ho crashes into another Dol Hareubang doll in the middle of the abandoned highway. The car Min-ho was driving is overturned but Min-ho escapes out of it somehow. The possessed security guard continues to chase her down but Ban’s dagger stabs him in time to rescue her. Min-ho pleads with Ban to save her but the man is just frustrated by having to save her not once but thrice in the last couple of days.

Ban shows the demon who he really is and puts up a show for Min-ho as he slays the demon. Just like he did with the others, Ban collects the remaining demon stone left behind after the lust demon is killed. Min-ho is shocked to learn about Ban’s job of demon slaying but he asks if she remembers anything, if at all. She doesn’t.

Ban tells her about the lust demon and claims that they have been on the land of Jeju since the beginning of time. Min-ho assumed that Ban is the only person who can destroy the demons and wonders why they’re chasing her.

Ban tells Min-ho that her fate draws the monsters to her and states, with a straight face, that the only solution now is her death. Min-ho asks her if fleeing to Seoul or abroad would be an easier cop-out to flee the demons but Ban claims that the demons would follow her there as well, again with a straight face. He leaves (disappears into thin air) Min-ho alone after asking her to try and fight them if she can.

The next day, Fr Giovanni (John) is doing the rounds in the forest and he spots some of the demon antlers on the ground. He collects one of them and begins assuming how these antlers would have come about. He is looking for a mountain structure, precisely the one that Ban is at. Ban dutifully rests the demon stone near the mountain.

Ban then goes to Granny Haenyeo’s Home, a small restaurant run by Baek-joo, the old woman from the previous episode. Baek-joo asks Ban if Min-ho is really Won-jeong after all. Meanwhile, Yeom-ji, a student from Tamra High School finds another Dol Hareubang on her way back from school. Yeom-ji interrupts Ban as he is having the meal Baek-joo prepared for him causing him to leave without having a single bite.

Later that evening, Butler Jang, who as it turns out, is also a priest, talks to Fr Giovanni about his research on the lust demons. The young priest asks about the man in the dark, aka, Ban and Butler Jang warns him stating that all his curiosity will vanish when he meets the dangerous demon slayer. Dr. Giovanni accepts the challenge.

Meanwhile, Min-ho is still thinking about what Ban said to her about her fate. Butler Jang brings her some tea to put her to sleep and tries to stop her from taking sleeping pills. Min-ho argues that she would have nightmares if she did not consume the pill but refrains from doing so to keep his heart. After Butler Jang leaves, Min-ho swallows the pill along with the tea.

She makes a prayer to all the gods in the world asking them to save her but is scared when she hears a noise outside her window. It is Ban who appears inside her room, out of nowhere and plops down on a chair in her room as if they are the best of friends. Min-ho asks if the monsters were in the house trying to kill her and Ban shows her the demon stone, implying that he has already killed the one that was there.

Min-ho wonders how many demons there are in total and Ban shocks her by saying there were so many that he never counted them. She gets to thinking what can be done so Ban gives her the stellar idea of just trying to hide. Min-ho argues that she could not do so because the monsters could possess the people close to her in order to kill her.

She wonders if killing herself is really a good idea afterall since no one wished for her to be alive anyway. Min-ho gets upset and emotional initially but suddenly turns tables at Ban when she asks him to start working as her bodyguard in order to protect her. She thinks that Ban actually followed her because he fell in love with her but the demon slayer cannot hold back rolling his eyes at the comment.

Min-ho uses her miraculous convincing skills and gets Ban to sign an agreement with her. She starts using her sense of humor, or lack thereof to joke with Ban and reads out the terms of their agreement to him but it gets to him and he starts to leave. Min-ho tries to stop him and apologises to him, asking him to stay the night and protect her for once.

Ban notices her desperation and watches her fall asleep as the sleeping pill hits her. He stays by Min-ho’s bed and cannot help but notice the scar on Min-ho’s chest similar to that Wonjeong had. Ban casts a spell over her in order to shield her from bad dreams and she falls into a calm sleep.

The next morning, Min-ho wakes up in a chirpy mood only to see that Ban has signed the agreement without mentioning his salary request.

Ban is back at the mountain structure resting the demon stone from the night before. There, he recalls his last interaction with Wonjeong. A flashback shows Ban being completely possessed by the lust demon as he kills Wonjeong (who looks like Min-ho). Present-day Ban wonders if he should be thankful of Wonjeong for not remembering him or if he should be upset about the fact instead.

The Episode Review

Phew, this show is really something. On the one hand, I am glad that there is a horror show that is not too scary for scaredy cats like myself while on the other hand I wish the makers would not make this another typical Korean drama with the romance and the melodrama.

It would appear that Island is sticking by the webtoon’s narrative though, and I am sure we will have some more intense horror scenes as we near the end of the show. I really hate the fact that we are getting so little of Eunwoo, but I guess we should be content with the exorcism scene from the last episode.

There’s great chemistry between Da-hee and Nam-gil though and it goes to show how cheery Da-hee is as a person because of the way she portrays Min-ho. I love the addition of comedy in the show too, which helps to break up the more dramatic beats and gives some much-needed levity. Let’s hope the makers continue to follow this pattern in the episodes to come as well.