Recap Korean Drama "Island (2022)" Episode 6

The season finale of Island opens with Chan-hee and Yohan being taken into the house of an Italian family. The family has a young child who needs a kidney transplant. Chan-hee’s kidney is taken but it fails to help the child so the family takes Yohan’s kidney.

What happened to Yohan and Chan-hee as kids?

The man abandons Yohan out on the street where the priest that was with Yohan in Italy picks the injured child up and takes him under his wing. Present-day Yohan follows Chan-hee to his bunker in the cabin and the two brothers try to bond despite the awkward tension.

Chan-hee apologises for not being able to protect Yohan while the younger of the two apologises for not being there to help his brother when he needed him the most.

What do Ban and Gong-tan discuss?

Su-jin breaks down when she discovered that her fiancee was dead and Mi-ho tries to calm her friend down. Ban confronts Gong-tan in the forest and the two demon slayers soon learn that they were both fighting from opposite sides. Gong-tan is too powerful for Ban to destroy as he derives all his power from the demons.

Gong-tan claims that he did not want to fight his brother – Ban and tells him that it is Wonjeong (now Mi-ho) who deceived them years ago. He asks why he was still trying to protect her when Ban was the one that killed Wonjeong in the past.

Yohan brings Chan-hee to the house where Mi-ho lives and introduces his brother to her. Chan-hee is awkward around Mi-ho. Once Yohan and Chan-hee are in his room, they discuss how Yohan turned out to be a priest all thanks to him praying to find Chan-hee every day.

What happened to Chan-hee?

Chan-hee wakes up in the middle of the night as Yohan sleeps and recalls what Gong-tan had said to him. Gong-tan had told Chan-hee to kill Wonjeong in order to end his suffering and pain. Chan-hee actually is possessed by a demon but tries his best to control his urges.

He ends up sneaking into Mi-ho’s room and learns that she is in the shower. Chan-hee is about to attack her by opening the shower door but learns that Ban had cast a protective shell around her. Ban fights Chan-hee causing a huge commotion outside that wakes Yohan.

Yohan fights Ban for beating his brother and that gives Chan-hee the chance to flee. Meanwhile, Ban tells Yohan that his brother was possessed by a demon and flees to catch him. Gong-tan intervenes and stops Ban from catching Chan-hee. He is upset that Ban intervened when he was sure to kill Wonjeong (Mi-ho) this time.

He calls Ban a coward for protecting a mortal who was making him weak. Gong-tan offers Ban the opportunity to join forces with him or die at his hands. Mi-ho is shocked to see the state of her room when she leaves the washroom. She asks Yohan what had happened but the priest is too shocked to answer her.

Why are the lust demons trying to kill Mi-ho?

The next morning, Ban is in a very bad state after his fight with the lust demon that possessed Chan-hee and Gong-tan. He makes it to the forest somehow and looks at a large deer atop the mountain. Mi-ho somehow makes it to the funeral of Su-jin’s fiancee and is unable to muster the courage to pay her respects.

She goes to find Ban and asks him questions about the attack on Su-jin’s fiancee. She finds him in bad shape in his usual spot in the forest. Ban tells Mi-ho that she is the reincarnation of a saint called Wonjeong. He claims that once the saint is awakened, all evil from the world will end. This is what is causing the lust demons to kill her in order to stop her from awakening.

What will Mi-ho do to save Ban?

Mi-ho decides to accept her fate and asks if Ban was going to accept his own fate. Ban thinks to himself how his fate was to kill he but mentions that he wanted to keep his promise. Mi-ho claims that she does not care if he was a half-demon who tried to kill her, she trusted Ban and wanted him to be at her side.

Ban coughs up blood and goes away by himself asking her to leave him alone.  Mi-ho is determined to find something about Wonjeong and meets Yeom-ji’s grandmother – Baek-joo and asks the old woman about the legend around this saint. The old lady tells Mi-ho that Wonjeong is a saint that mended broken things. Years ago, Wonjeong had fixed the barrier stone in order to save the world from demons but it was broken again.

Now, Baek-joo states if Wonjeong is awakened again, she will be able to fix the barrier stone and stop the demons from entering the human world. She claims that Wonjeong will also be able to fix Ban and turn him back into a human. She mentions that the man is exhausted and deserves a break.

Mi-ho wonders if awakening Wonjeong in herself will help her save Ban. She asks Baek-joo for advice and the old woman asks her to start working on building the barrier again. Mi-ho is confused by what the old woman says and wonders how she will be able to fulfil the task. Baek-joo tells her that she will know it all when the time is right and leaves with Yeom-ji.

Does Yohan kill Chan-hee?

Yohan finds Chan-hee and threatens to kill him for murdering so many innocent people. He wants Yohan to kill him in order to end his suffering once and for all but the younger brother is hopeful to fix his brother somehow. He promises to find a way to make his brother a human again. Yohan starts exorcising Chan-hee and the process feels like torture for the demon.

Yohan is apologetic for hurting his brother but continues the exorcism despite Chan-hee gruntling in pain. Chan-hee starts begging, asking Yohan to stop but the priest would not stop. Things get worse and the demon is awakened inside Chan-hee. Yohan uses a special exorcism ritual and tries to save Chan-hee but as it turns out, nothing can save him.

Chan-hee begs for Yohan to kill him and end the trouble once and for all. Unwillingly, Yohan picks up his sword to kill his brother. The priest is broken after not being able to do something so tragic.

What does Yohan ask Ban and Mi-ho?

Baek-joo tells Ban how Mi-ho wanted to save him which gets him thinking. Just then, Yohan asks Ban to help him save his brother. He wants to learn how Ban lives a normal life despite having a demon inside him and hopes that he would be able to save his brother in the same way.

Ban refuses to help him and states that something like this is too painful for Chan-hee to handle. Yohan does not lose faith and hopes to seek Mi-ho’s help. He pleads with Mi-ho to help save his brother who he met for the first time in 10 years. He claims that Mi-ho was able to help Su-ryeon from being possessed by Benjulle.

Yohan gets on his knees and begs Mi-ho to help him. She recalls what Baek-joo had told her and agrees to go see Chan-hee. Mi-ho is initially scared to see Chan-hee but sees faith in Yohan and Chan-hee. She holds Chan-hee’s hand and the man turns into a lust demon.

Does Yohan die? What happens to Ban and Mi-ho?

Chan-hee is about to attack Mi-ho but Yohan stands in front of her just in time. He suffers the attack from Chan-hee and is thrown to the other side of the room. Chan-hee is about to attack Mi-ho again when Ban appears all of a sudden and fights the demon off. Chan-hee is about to kill Mi-ho after injuring Ban when Yohan gets up all of a sudden. Yohan strikes Chan-hee with his sword.

Chan-hee claims that Yohan took away his chance at living a life free of pain by killing him. Yohan is in a lot of pain but draws the sword out asking his brother to have a peaceful death. Ban takes over and kills Chan-hee while Yohan prays over his brother’s soul.

What happens at the end of Island Season 1?

Ban asks Mi-ho to accompany him as Yohan is left alone to mourn the death of his brother. An epilogue shows Gong-tan entering a den where he sits on the throne and all his family members wait for him. On his right hand sits Yeom-ji who calls him her uncle.

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The Episode Review

Damn, this was painful to watch. I really love Choi Tae-joon as an actor and whatever short-lived his performance in this show was, it really was one of his best so far. I wish we got to see some more of Chan-hee and Chan-hyeok (Yohan) together and I am sure this drama will have fans manifesting Tae-joon and Eunwoo starrer K-dramas in the future!

I am not really satisfied with the conflict around Mi-ho and she always seems to be the damsel in distress. This plot is getting really old now and I want some badassery from Dae-hee’s character. Ban is really that cold, brooding, typical bad boy who is always there for his girl but I wish he would have helped Yohan to show us his redemption arc.

We can already guess that another season is coming soon with the plot twist in the epilogue. I wonder if it was intentional how Yeom-ji seemed to hate Ban every time she came across him. It will be interesting to see more of Gong-tan in the next season because seeing so little of him in this one really was somewhat of a buzzkill.