Revenant (2023) K Drama Episode 8

Episode 8 of Revenant starts with Mun-chun arriving at the police station late in the evening. He finds Hong-sae is also still working. They get some ramyeon and Hong-sae tells him about Chi-won’s offer. Mun-chun is not surprised and assumes that Hong-sae didn’t betray him. 

Hong-sae tells him that Chi-won’s offer piqued his interest, and he started looking into Junghyeon Capital. His investigation led him to discover that the company’s enemies all died in mysterious ways. They all committed suicide and had red bruises on their arms. Hong-sae admits that he doesn’t think these cases are suicide and is starting to believe Mun-chun is onto something.

In turn, Mun-chun shares with him his hunch that everything started in 1958 after Mokdan was kidnapped and killed. They go through all the information they have and make another discovery. It seems that these suicide cases are divided into three. The first group surrounds enemies of Junghyeon Capital. The second group involves Gang-mo and the third group involves San-yeong. 

Hong-sae also tells Mun-chun about the big fight he witnessed between San-yeong and Hae-sang. He heard San-yeong was angry with Hae-sang because his family made an enormous fortune after killing a kid and turning her into a juvenile ghost. Mun-chun is surprised and Hong-sae insists that all these cases are related. Mun-chun asks him to dig up more on Junghyeon while he works on finding out more about Mokdan’s case. Mun-chun promises to let Hong-sae choose their next case. 

The next morning, San-yeong visits an ophthalmologist named Hee-chul. She learns she has a rare optic atrophy, just like her dad. Her father, Gang-mo, visited the doctor almost a decade ago. The doctor was sure Gang-mo would lose sight in a few months. He was shocked to run into Gang-mo a few years later and his eyesight was fine. San-yeong realizes that her dad wanted the evil spirit to keep his vision. The doctor informs San-yeong that she will lose her eyesight in a few months unless she gets a miracle like her dad. 

San-yeong wonders if she should keep the evil spirit like her dad. She later visits her mom and tries to convince her to dream big. She also informs her mom that she is staying at her grandmother’s place until they sell the house. She claims she wants to fix the house while also trying to remember her childhood memories. She assures her anxious mom that she will be back home soon.

She then visits Se-mi and apologises. Se-mi is unwilling to go easy on her but tags along. She is shocked to learn San-yeong also owns a house and a car. Se-mi also learns about San-yeong’s dad and grandmother. They spend the night talking and having a great time at the house. 

Se-mi confesses she was hurt to see San-yeong get close to Hong-sae and asks if they are dating. San-yeong apologises again and denies the dating allegation. She explains that a ghost possesses her but Se-mi doesn’t believe her and thinks she is just making an excuse. Later that night, San-yeong gets more conflicted about what to do. She wakes up the next morning and sees the photo of Woo-jin standing beside the portrait of the hungry ghost. 

Elsewhere, Hae-sang is overcome with guilt and travels to Baekchagol Village. He visits the North Jangseung and starts performing a ritual using his own blood. He wants to meet Gang-mo’s spirit to ask how to get rid of the evil spirit. 

Back in Seoul, Mun-chun meets with an old friend and asks for his help in digitising the Lee Mokdan case files. Mun-chun needs to be able to read some of the words that are invisible. In the meantime, Hong-sae meets with the son of one of the victims of Junghyeon Capital. The man tells him how his dad died while he watched. He believes an invisible entity killed his dad but he was unable to prove it. His dad was indeed killed by the evil spirit who possessed Hae-sang’s dad at the time. 

On the other hand, San-yeong is investigating the painting of the hungry ghost when she gets a call from the Baekchagol village elder. He informs her that they found Hae-sang passed out under the North Jangseung. They tried to reach his family but his grandmother refused to help. San-yeong drives to the village and finds Hae-sang completely out of it. He refuses to eat and keeps looking at the wall. San-yeong notices a dark entity (the spirit of darkness) on the wall that keeps growing. She is not the only one who can see it; Ms Park can see it too. 

San-yeong asks Ms. Park to help but she says she doesn’t know how to save Hae-sang and is not willing to help even if she did. Hae-sang is sinking into a guilty void and blames himself for his mom’s death. He is mentally trapped in the void and will die if he doesn’t escape it soon. It takes a while but San-yeong finally figures out the answer. She quickly puts Hae-sang in her car and starts driving east. The only way to save Hae-sang is to get him to the light, which in this case is the east, to see the sunrise. 

The drive east is not easy as the spirit of darkness follows closely behind them. Luckily, San-yeong manages to get him to the east and pulls him out of the car to watch the sunrise. Hae-sang finally snaps out of it and thanks San-yeong for saving his life. He thought he could atone for his family’s sins by dying but realised that was not the solution. San-yeong admits that she is still angry with him but on the drive, she saw the ghosts he constantly sees. It made her think how lonely, frightening and sad it must be for Hae-sang. She tells him that maybe that is his atonement. Although she can’t forgive him, she understands him. 

They drive back to Seoul, and San-yeong asks him about Woo-jin and the painting of the hungry ghost. Hae-sang is surprised to learn that Gang-mo had a copy of that picture as it was supposed to be in his grandparents’ house. 

Back in Seoul, Mun-chun stops by to talk to an old friend. Mun-chun had asked the guy to look into the Jangjin-ri case. He is surprised to learn that Gang-mo knew the old village head of Jangjin-ri and was even his guardian. The village elder had no family, so Gang-mo took over all his valuables. Later, Mun-chun gets the restored Mokdan case files.   

Concurrently, Hong-sae meets an old detective who worked a case on one of the suicide victims who were linked to Junghyeon. The detective tells him they were sure that Hae-sang’s dad was the killer but found no evidence. On the day of the murder, Hae-sang’s dad, Yeom Jae-woo, was miles away, and there were many witnesses to prove his alibi. Ultimately, they concluded that the lab made a mistake since they couldn’t explain Jae-woo’s fingerprints at the crime scene.

Hae-sang and San-yeong visit the Hungry Ghost painting and Hae-sang narrates what happened to Woo-jin and how his coveting got worse. In the beginning, Hae-sang tried to cover up for his friend out of fear. Woo-jin was his only friend and he didn’t want to lose him. 

Eventually, he told Woo-jin the truth about the ghost that possessed him but didn’t believe him. Soon after that, he committed suicide. Hae-sang questions why the evil spirit keeps leading them to the painting of the hungry ghost. San-yeong thinks that it might have something to do with her dad. Hae-sang then remembers what Mun-chun told him about the North Gyeonggi reservoir suicide case related to Gang-mo. 

He sees a small poster advertising the 25th Liberation Ceremony at Seokimsa. He tells San-yeong about one of Gang-mo’s acquaintances who died nearby. He reckons only the energy of someone killed by an evil spirit can suppress the object containing a loose-haired evil spirit’s energy. This means that Gang-mo buried one of the five objects there. 

They quickly rush out to find the object Gang-mo buried. It turns out, Gang-mo buried it under a tree and they recover a ball of black rubber band. Once San-yeong touches it, she has a vision.  Hae-sang insists they must find all five objects and identify the spirit. 

We then see a flashback of Gang-mo burying the objects. Hae-sang is sure his mom and Gang-mo wanted to exorcise the spirit but failed. They died because they most probably left something out.  Hae-sang hopes they can find out what they did wrong. He calls Mun-chun and asks to meet. 

Mun-chun tells him he was also about to call him as he has new information. They agree to meet at the police station. After the call, San-yeong has another vision like she did when her grandmother died. She starts crying as she agonies that there will be another victim. She doesn’t know who it will be but knows the evil spirit is heading to the Seoul Police station. Hae-sang warns Mun-chun to keep the door locked until he gets there.

Mun-chun finds it odd but promises to do so. A few minutes later, Hong-sae enters the office and Mun-chun asks him to lock the door. Soon after, a knock is heard, and Hae-sang’s voice calls out, asking for the door to be opened. Mun-chun believes Hae-sang has arrived, so he orders Hong-sae to open up. 

The episode ends with the evil spirit in San-yeong’s form smirking at Hong-sae before telling him, “ You opened the door.”

The Episode Review

What a gripping episode! Once again, we can’t help but praise Kim Tae-ri’s duality. Her performance in this show is worthy of all the best actress awards. 

Back to the plot, it is almost ironic that San-yeong thinks she has a right to hold Hae-sang accountable for his dad’s mistake. Her dad did the same thing; if you analyze it carefully, she and Hae-sang are victims of their parents’ greed. What makes her think that she can blame Hae-sang but cry victim when it comes to her dad? 

As we get closer to the end of this series, the stakes are being amped. We can’t help but wait eagerly for the next episode when we discover Hong-sae and Mun-chun’s fate. Who do you think will be meeting his untimely death?