Recap Korean Drama The Heavenly Idol 2023 Episode 7-8

After a confession, the confessing party is usually the embarrassed one, but after last week’s “confession,” Dal remains as cool as a cucumber and Rembrary is the one all flustered about it. “You cannot have feelings for me, I am a cleric,” he says to her. And when Dal denies having any such feelings and chalks up her statement to wishful thinking, he hilariously gets angry at her for confusing him. Then Dal goes on to insist that the one she likes is Yeon-woo, and Rembrary is all, “Fine, you can love him forever! We’ll soon swap souls and he’ll return to you.” Lol. Rembrary is so cute!

But the scales soon fall from Dal’s eyes when she discovers that her beloved Yeon-woo wasn’t even behind the replies to the fan mails she sent to him. That two-faced brat couldn’t even be bothered to reply to his fan mails, and Jung-seo has been the one replying on his behalf since the inception of the group. Tsk. It’s obvious the only reason Yeon-woo hasn’t been kicked out of Wild Animal is because of his visuals, and that’s why Tae-in gets upset when Yeon-woo (Rembrary) is made lead vocalist in their upcoming single as opposed to Tae-in who is the group’s main vocalist.

To mend their relationship, Rembrary goes on a temple stay variety show with Tae-in, which also has Jung-shin as a cast member. And since Rembrary lost out on Sing Survival, he has to be Jung-shin’s slave for a day as per their bet. Vows and bets are sacred to Rembrary, and he takes his slavery duties so seriously, that even I am getting second hand embarrassment at his subservience towards his new master.

Tae-in senses something sinister in Jung-shin but he can’t be bothered because he’s on the outs with Yeon-woo (Rembrary). But when Rembrary gets drunk in the process of slavery duties and attempts to drive off to his doom as per master’s orders, a worried Tae-in has to step in before it’s too late. “Were you worried because I’d have ruined the group?” Rembrary asks Tae-in after sobering up. “No, it’s because you were going to die,” Tae-in replies grudgingly. Awwww. *Sniff, sniff* It’s such a sweet make up session — well, up until the point Rembrary inadvertently frightens Tae-in by sensing the presence of ghosts around them. Lol.

With his ghost-y senses activated, Rembrary finally pieces Gam-jae’s identity together. “You’re a reaper!” Rembrary exclaims, and I’m like, of course he’s a grim reaper, duh! He doesn’t give off a dark aura and wears strictly black for mere aesthetics. Neither does he issue constant warnings about the consequences of messing with life and death just to sound mysterious. Pfft.

Gam-jae takes Rembrary — who is desperate to meet Lord Redrin by any means — to the Afterlife, but for someone who has caused much chaos to their realm, the queen is reluctant to help him for free. So, Rembrary is drawn into yet another bargain: he must help the queen capture a newly debuted boy group and annul the contract they made with the evil deity. (Said contract turned this group from humans to goblins, just like the late Black-Hooded Minion). Rembrary must also infiltrate the secret religious group and bring their master (the priestess from last week) to the Afterlife. Only then will the queen help Rembrary to meet with Lord Redrin.

But when Rembrary insists that the religious group serves Lord Redrin and they cannot be affiliated with evil, the queen asks if he thinks Redrin is as good as he believes. Hmmm. From Rembrary’s point of view — which is also our point of view — Lord Redrin is a good deity. But at this point, I no longer know what to believe. And with the discovery we made about Redrin this week (more of that later), I think Rembrary is the only one in the dark about the deity he serves.

 

In other news, I have become a big fan of the Afterlife citizens. Those joyless souls can teleport (which is like a really cool superpower to have), and they are way more efficient than Rembrary when it comes to fishing for information. Rembrary would probably have spent all night trying to find out The Evil One’s location from Jung-shin. But a single encounter with the grim reaper is all it takes for Jung-shin to begin spilling his guts to Gam-jae and Rembrary. LMAO!

The duo even make Jung-shin confess his sins to the trainee he pushed off the stairs in order to debut, and this gets him cancelled by the public, following the trainee’s post about Jung-shin’s evil deeds online. And I hope this public cancellation is the last we’ll see of Jung-shin. But in the meantime, thanks to his intel, Gam-jae and Rembrary get The Evil One’s location. He’s in a meeting with Dal!

 

Dal’s meeting with The Evil One was on an official basis since his earthly host is a big shot in the entertainment industry. But as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, she knew right away that she was in the presence of The Evil One — who Rembrary always spoke about. Unfortunately, her death wish against Liz Ri’s hate commenters last week is all the opening The Evil One needs to baptize her into red-eyed minionhood. Although, it is worth noting that Dal isn’t easily susceptible to the minionhood, and that’s probably because she’s a good person regardless of the death wish.

According to The Evil One, there’s nothing more amusing than having Dal betray Rembrary, because there’s nothing more painful than being betrayed by the person you trust the most. And The Evil One would know this, because from all indications, he just might have been betrayed by Lord Redrin herself! At least, that’s what he thinks.

This is something I didn’t see coming, and now I want to know the full story behind his gaze at Lord Redrin’s apparition with such longing and sorrowful eyes before the swift realization that it was just an imposter sent by the secret religious group. Oof! What in the love between fairy and demon is going on here? And how did the religious group even know that there was something between The Evil One and Redrin to the point of sending an imposter to him?

 

Anyway, back to The Evil One’s office, it’s a clash of the titans between Evil, Rembrary, and Gam-jae, with each one showing off their respective skills. Teleportation ultimately wins, and our people manage to get the hell outta the office before Evil can harm them any further. Phew! But it’s not a complete loss for Evil, because he is left with the realization that Rembrary might actually have feelings for Dal. Oh boy!

After temporarily dealing with The Evil One, Rembrary and Gam-jae move on to their next agenda: locating the newly debuted boy group. The group’s name is Evil Boys (how fitting!) and unsurprisingly, they’re already number one on the charts — probably an indication that their Faustian bargain with the evil deity was for success. The arrival of the new group also serves to finally cast a spotlight on Wild Animal’s maknae CHA HAE-GYEOL (Shin Kyu-hyun) — who recognizes one of the evil boys as the leader of the gang that used to bully him in high school.

Hae-gyeol’s past as a bullying victim is eventually leaked online, and netizens cyberbully him even more. So, the poor boy ends up running away because he already has a nonexistent presence in Wild Animal, and he doesn’t want to further be a nuisance to the group. Sigh. But the members find him anyway, because it’s okay to be a “nuisance” sometimes, and they share a heartwarming reunion that had me blinking several times to stop my tears. (But an equally emotional Gam-jae goes on to hug himself instead of joining the group hug, and my tears get replaced with laughter!)

As for Dal, she still retains some elements of black magic after her encounter with The Evil One, and that’s because the black magic is tied to her refusal to forgive herself after what happened to Liz Ri. As a side effect of the magic, Dal’s innermost thoughts and desires pop out from time to time — although most of her thoughts are hilarious things like attempting to play hooky, and the occasional fangirling on Rembrary.

But to hone in on Dal’s self-hate even more, The Evil One visits Liz Ri in the hospital with an assignment for her: suicide. Thankfully, Rembrary arrives just in time to stop Liz Ri from jumping off the Rooftop of Doom. Phew! He gives her a gift from Dal: a compilation of positive netizen comments, and a letter conveying Dal’s wish for Liz Ri to move on and live happily.

In turn, Liz Ri conveys her forgiveness to Dal, saying she doesn’t resent her for what happened. And out of ways to comfort Dal — who still refuses to forgive herself — Rembrary goes in for a healing forehead kiss, and that prompts Dal’s real confession as we close this week’s chapter. “It’s not the black magic. I think I like you.” Woosh!

Love story aside, this has to be the most confusing week yet. For a 12-episode drama, there’s way too many things going on in this show, and I cannot be the only one who is fed up with the entire otherworldly drama. I mean, we are having bloodsucking goblins now? Come on, Show! Honestly, I really miss the fun and light-heartedness of the earlier episodes, and I’d like nothing better than for the different branches of evil in this drama’s universe to wage war against themselves and spontaneously combust, so we can all move on to better things.