Recap Korean Drama The Heavenly Idol 2023 Episode 5-6

We resume from last week’s face-off between Rembrary and Jung-shin, and Rembrary comes out tops. Afterwards, Dal goes through the five stages of processing WTH she just witnessed: shock, coming to terms with Rembrary’s true identity, freaking out about his Artist of the Year vow with Yeon-woo, psyching herself up to do whatever she can to make the win possible, and finally, a strong warning for Rembrary to not let anyone find out who he really is.

But guess who’s on the verge of finding out that Rembrary — or blueberry, as Dal now calls him — is not from this world? It’s Wild Animal’s new roadie, Gam-jae. And on their first meeting at the agency, both guys hilariously get into a staring match which Rembrary ends up losing. Heh. Must be due to the depletion of his divine powers after his face-off with Jung-shin. Anyway, thanks to the whole Jung-shin mess, the news of Rembrary saving the staff member at the Sing Survival studio goes viral — with several collaborative reports from fans who insist that they were healed of their various illnesses after meeting Yeon-woo. Heh.

The virality of “Yeon-woo the healer” is great news for the agency (and Wild Animal by extension), and while Rembrary couldn’t care less, Dal is very worried that people might find out who he really is. I mean, the agency is already planning a meet-and-greet session at a hospital! Lol. “You have to be Yeon-woo and act like the healer rumors are no big deal,” Dal says to Rembrary — who cringes at the thought of doing Yeon-woo-like aegyo. “I’m 120 years old,” he replies. “Must I do something so childish?” 120 years old, huh? Okay, grandpa.

Anyway, since hiding his calling is not part of grandpa’s aesthetic, Rembrary admits to having healing powers on a live stream — but then he goes on to say the power resides within everyone as long as they help the sick people around them. Phew! Diplomacy and sincerity are always a good combination, and Dal can’t help but be impressed. But his refusal to do finger hearts and cute poses on the stream isn’t going to help him win Artist of the Year. Determined to win the award by other means, Rembrary turns to what Yeon-woo actually wants to do: acting! But unlike Yeon-woo, Rembrary is hilariously terrible at acting — although he ends up getting the drama role.

 

Rembrary finally has an encounter with The Evil One, and the summary of the meeting: killing Rembrary is too easy; The Evil One wants him to live in despair and terror until he ends his own life. Okay, The Evil One is such a coward! Holding the lives of everyone in the vicinity hostage in an attempt to intimidate Rembrary? That’s low. But with his childish antics and a name like “The Evil One,” I cannot take him very seriously. And I don’t think the drama itself takes him seriously either.

But trouble begins to brew in the kingdom of darkness as Black-Hooded Minion becomes increasingly impatient with The Evil One’s antics. He threatens The Evil One to either do away with Rembrary once and for all, or risk losing “their” support. But The Evil One calls his bluff since he has gotten himself a very malleable minion: Jung-shin. And to Jung-shin, The Evil One introduces other red-eyed minions — who hold powerful positions in the society.

One of the new red-eyed minions ends up getting exposed as the sponsor of several male celebrities, and unfortunately, Rembrary is caught up in the scandal when all he did was heal the sponsor lady and accept her business card. Rembrary gets arrested and made the face of the sponsorship scandal, and to compound matters, Black-Hooded Minion attacks him in lockup with the intention of killing him and obtaining his divine powers. Uh-oh!

For some reason, Rembrary can’t activate his divine powers while wrestling with Black-Hooded Minion, and he gets stabbed during an escape attempt. The good news is, the resulting injury isn’t serious and Dal is able to spin the incident into a pity party for Rembrary — while simultaneously clearing his name with his call history since he wasn’t in contact with the sponsor lady. Except for the one text he sent in concern over her health. Phew!

 

As it turns out, Black-Hooded Minion is among a set of humans who lost their bodies after signing a deal with an evil deity, and the only reason he wanted to obtain Rembrary’s divine powers was to hand the powers over to said deity. Apparently, the evil deity is his actual master, and is a different evil from The Evil One. Errr, how many realms do we actually have in this show’s universe?

The Evil One discards Black-Hooded Minion for going against him, and Black-Hooded Minion gets killed by the deity’s priestess since he failed to obtain Rembrary’s powers. Then we learn that the evil deity also plans to descend to earth, and I wonder if we have enough time to entertain these heavenly beings who keep popping into the Earth like it’s their playground!

But unlike the other realms where devotees live in the same realm as their respective overlords, this deity’s devotees actually live on earth. And surprise, surprise, they’re members of the secret religious group Yeon-woo was about to join. Yunno, that group whose insignia is a symbol of Lord Redrin! Uhmmm, what is going on here? And why do these evil people have a statue of Lord Redrin in their temple?

Whatever — or wherever — this new realm is, even The Afterlife is having issues with them because someone from there has stolen one of The Afterlife’s holy relics (making it possible for whoever stole it to enter the earthly realm), and The Queen of Underworld wonders what in the world Gam-jae has been doing on earth. No one — including his earthly boss — knows what he’s been up to of late, and Sun-ja has to remind him that his good looks don’t give him the right to slack off on his roadie duties. Lol.

Not even at this crucial time when Rembrary has gone viral again for his “loving gazes” at Jung-shin on Sing Survival. LMAO! You have to admit though, the viral clip is well edited, and this is clearly the type of interaction idol fans eat up! It doesn’t also help that Rembrary keeps chasing his drama co-star MAENG WOO-SHIN (Kim Seo-ha) on set, begging to be introduced to the secret religious group — which Woo-shin is also a part of. Aigoo! Abort mission, Rembrary, these guys are not who you think they are! Unfortunately, The Evil One catches on to Rembrary’s interaction with Woo-shin, turns Woo-shin into a red-eyed minion, and then sends him to find out all he can about the deity’s power. Evil versus evil? That’s bound to be interesting!

 

Meanwhile, Sun-ja decides it’s time for Wild Animal to release a new single, and Dal takes charge of the project. But Dal wonders whether she has the right to handle the project considering it was due to her mistake at her former job that malicious rumors sprung up about the idol who later attempted suicide (and has been in coma since then). “I wanted to create the perfect idol group,” Dal tells Rembrary when he asks why she’s in this line of work. Growing up with parents who constantly fought, stanning an idol group was Dal’s only source of comfort — until the group got into a scandal, and her world crashed.

To Dal, perfect idols = happy and comforted fans, and maintaining that perfection in the idols she manages is the only thing she can do for fans like herself who derive comfort from their idols. It’s a noble thought, of sorts, and considering there’s no one more noble than Rembrary, he decides to visit the comatose idol, LIZ RI, and bring her to consciousness in a bid to make Dal happy.

Unfortunately, his goodwill gesture backfires as Liz Ri is upset to have been brought out of coma when the rumors about her are still mainstream (even after two years!). Dal has a panic attack on witnessing Liz Ri’s devastation, and the last thing Dal says before she passes out is that she wishes she had been born in The Other World, and met Rembrary before he became a pontifex. Yikes! Is this a confession?

 

From Rembrary’s reaction, the confession — if that’s what it was — totally took him off guard. But if his actions are anything to go by, Dal has grown to be more than just a very understanding manager to him. The whole “why is Yeon-woo your resting place when I — the lookalike — am right here?” exchange between Rembrary and Dal did not go unnoticed by me, and jealous Rembrary is such a cutie. But how is a romance going to work with his pontifical vow of celibacy? Heh.

Speaking of vows, who else wanted to smack Rembrary for making a bet over Sing Survival rankings with Jung-shin? Unfortunately, no thanks to his arrest, Rembrary ended up finishing last (Cash in third place, btw), and he lost the bet. Now he has to be Jung-shin’s slave for a day. How is it that Rembrary learned nothing from the vow of confusion with Yeon-woo? Not that he knows that his vow with Yeon-woo is skewed, anyway.

It’s not that much of a big deal, but for a supposed idol show, we’ve got three weeks left, and I still don’t know the name of Wild Animal’s — perhaps, nonexistent — fandom. How then am I supposed to get fully invested and stan the group? For obvious reasons, Rembrary is my Wild Animal bias — even if he never asked for the idol life. Just like he never wanted to be a pontifex until The Evil One wiped out his village. He was dying of a stab wound when Lord Redrin appeared to save him, and that’s what made him become a cleric — although he still thinks about his late family from time to time.

The other Wild Animals also have their stories: from Cash’s panic disorder to Jung-seo and his hospitalized mom. The previously cheerful Tae-in grew into the cynical and perpetually angry Tae-in we have come to know, as a result of his frustration over their stagnant career. And as for the maknae of the group, well, he barely has a personality. Sadly, that’s something he shares in common with failing idol groups: they largely go unnoticed by the general public. Anyway, papa bear Jung-seo remains optimistic that the tables will turn for Wild Animal, and that’s why he is my bias wrecker.