Revenant (2023) K Drama Episode 3

Episode 3 of Revenant starts with a young man panicking after hearing a knock on the door. He hesitantly opens the door and we see a lady in red heels on the other side. The scene then cuts to the young man committing suicide.

The following day, Hong-Sae and Mun-Chun start looking into the suicide case of the young man. According to the police report, this is the third case at Segang University in the span of a week. All three people were friends and committed suicide in the same way. Hong-Sae digs deeper and sees a post on the university’s website. People were reporting the sound of heels followed by loud banging during the time of each suicide.

Meanwhile, Hae-Sang and San-Yeong are also investigating the Jangjin-Ri lead. Unfortunately, the town was long developed so they rely on getting information from old people who live in the current town. Their investigation leads them to an old man who remembers the old Jangjin-Ri. He tells them that there used to be a sacred tree in the area called the Dukdali tree.

In the old days, children were not recognized as family members and would be buried differently. The bodies of children would be put in jars and hung on the Dukdali tree. In recent times, a lot of people have been committing suicide on the tree so it was cut down. Hae-Sang asks the man about the red ribbon but the old man is clueless.

However, he remembers Gang-Mo as the man who kept visiting his late brother to talk about the history of Jangjin-Ri. Unfortunately, the brother died and the only person Hae-Sang and San-Yeong can talk to is his daughter Lee Tae-Young. The old man gives them her address; she lives at a hostel. Hae-Sang and San-Yeong head over to the address and run into a suicide ghost. They can also see the shadow of the sacred  Jangjin-Ri tree.

Back to Hong-Sae, and Mun-Chun decide to ask more questions about the suicides at Segang University. Mun Chun reaches out to the detective on the case but he believes the students killed themselves because of stress. Later, Mun Chun goes through the police photos of the scene and notices that all three students were raising a unique, expensive type of fish.

He begins to question how the students could afford to keep such a fish. Hong-sae also finds a lead on the students’ social media presence. It seems like all three students were friends with a lady called Lee Tae-Young. However, no one has seen Lee Tae-Young’ since the third suicide happened. They decide to track her down o she can answer some questions.

This leads them to the hostel and they run into  Hae-Sang and San-Yeong who are also looking for Lee Tae-Young. Hae-sang warns Mun-Chun that Lee Tae-Young might be in trouble because based on the shadow of the suicide tree, one spot is missing. Mun Chun doesn’t believe that the students were killed by a ghost and asks Hae-sang to stay away from the case.

As Hae-sang and Maun-chun talk outside, San-Yeong eavesdrops on Hong-Sae’s interrogation of the hostel manager. Hong-Sae spots San-Yeong and tells her that she is suspicious as she is always tied to a case recently. He accuses her of not even being sad about her grandmother’s passing.

The truth is San-Yeong cares deeply and is even ignoring her studies to get to the root of the matter. It is also why she is hesitant to help Hae-sang stop the fourth suicide. She wants to find Lee Tae-Young quickly and get answers, she is not aware that everything is correlated.

The scene cuts to Lee Tae-Young’s room, 306, and we see a woman going through the things in the room. It seems she is looking for something.

After calling it a day, San-Yeong heads home but changes her mind after getting a call from her worried best friend and mom. Her mom is worried that she is hanging out with Hae-sang and forbids it. San-Yeong opts to go to the bridge instead and get some fresh air.

The next day, Hae-sang visits the old man again to ask more questions. He even meets the old man’s wife who seems like she is hiding something. This time Hae-sang asks more about the Dukdali tree and the old man offers to give him a photo they took in front of the tree as a family. Hae-sang quickly recognizes the tree as the same one he saw in the shadow while at the hostel.

He begins to trace the remains of the tree and visits the government office to find out more. In the middle of his investigation, he gets a clue from the photo, it seems there was a ghost in the picture. He calls the old man to get a copy of the original and is told that Tae-Young has it.

Concurrently, San-Yeong returns to the university to track Tae-Young down. Her investigation leads her to Tae-Young’s boss who also happens to be a loan shark. The man comes off as friendly along with one of his other employees. They even offer to help San-Yeong after accidentally hearing her troubling call with the landlady who threatens to throw her mom out if they don’t pay the rent. San-Yeong turns their offer down and heads out but they give her a fish as a present.

Mun-Chun and Hong-Sae decide to pursue the case and look into the report about the sound of heels. As the cases have been ruled as suicides, they don’t have the clearance to investigate further but they are still determined. They go over the CCTV footage of the night of the suicides and notice Tae-Young visited each time but they are unable to trace her movements after that. It seemed like she disappeared into thin air.

Hong-Sae finds it weird that she visited every time on a specific timeline and wears the same clothes in each case.  The CCTV footage always shows her leaving but disappearing soon after she gets to the street. It is at this point that Mun Chun gets a call from Hae-sang warning him that Tae-Young is in danger. It is likely the person is supposed to fill the fourth empty spot on the suicide tree. After calling Mun-Chun, Hae-sang starts to figure out why the old man’s wife seemed off.

In the meantime, San-Yeong returns home and her mom confronts her about failing to mention Seok-Ran’s death. She is worried after hearing San-Yeong went back to the house but is relieved after learning nothing happened. Gyeong-Mun suggests they accept the inheritance from Seok-Ran but San-Yeong refuses. She promises to figure things out and rushes out the room. It seems like she is about to be possessed again.

The investigation into Tae-Young leads the two detectives to her great-uncle and aunt. The old man is surprised to hear that Tae-Young is missing and in danger. He wonders why his wife never mentioned the call from the police. This is when she opens up and tells them that Tae-Young took a loan from a loan shark. They started coming after her, and after seeing what happened to her friends she got scared and went into hiding. Her great-aunt helped.

Concurrently, San-Yeong decides to visit the loan shark and get a loan. She doesn’t find him at his office but is surprised to find out about Tae-Young’s loan. It begins to dawn on her that the loan shark is not as good-hearted as he claimed.  She also starts to see the shadow of the tree and the bodies hanging from it.

Before she can collect herself, the loan shark returns and blocks her from leaving. He thanks her for her help as she told them about Tae-Young’s remaining relatives. He starts attacking her, asking her to sign a debt contract.  We don’t see what happened though, as the scene cuts to her walking along the street and calling Hae-sang to warn him that Tae-Young’s relatives are in danger. Luckily, Hae0sang was already at the house as he had figured it out too.

He walks in and finds Tae-Young hiding in one of the sheds in the compound. He can also hear the sound of heels and loud banging. For a minute, he hears a door knock and it triggers his memory of his mom’s death. Nevertheless, he forges on and rescues Tae-Young from her attacker. In a surprising twist, the attacker is one of the employees of the loan shark who is dressed in ladies’ clothes to hide his identity. The police arrive in time to arrest him and San-Yeong arrives in time to see him being driven off in a police car.

She is glad that everyone is safe but also desperate to ask Tae-Young questions. She shows her Gang-mo’s photo but Tae-Young is still reeling from shock and is a crying mess. Hae-sang tries to pull her aside and ask her to be patient but San-Yeong lashes out at him. She tells him that she doesn’t have the luxury of time and Hae-sang asks her to go home and rest. He promises to ask Tae-Young questions after she calms down.

Tae-Young tells her great-uncle that she already tore the photo and he relays the information to Hae-sang.  Hae-sang calls Mun-Chun and informs him about the hideout of the loan shark. Mun-Chun tells him that they already know because the suspect told them everything and they are on their way to pick the boss. Hae-sang is more concerned about the fish the loan shark gave to the students. He asks if San Yeong got one too, but Mun-Chun doesn’t know.

Mun-Chun arrives at the store to find the loan shark boss scared out of his mind and the aquariums destroyed. They check the CCTV footage and we see the man destroying his own shop while San-Yeong stands by, laughing at him.

Hae-sang tries to call San-Yeong but she is hypnotized by the fish and unable to pick up. He tries to track her down and finds her at the bridge carrying the small fishbowl. Hae-Sang realizes that the ghost has possessed San-Yeong. San-Yeong turns to him and smiles before telling him it has been a long time since they saw each other.

The Episode Review

This was another captivating episode and once again the storytelling and acting are top-notch. We gotta commend Kim Tae-Ri’s duality in this show, seeing how smoothly she switches from normal to possessed San-Yeong gives us goosebumps. That closing scene deserves a standing ovation!