Well done crime drama / mystery

Unusual in that it's only 6 episodes, and the conclusion wrap-up is only minutes long. Usually these dramas last 12 or 16 episodes with a full hour devoted to what happens to each character. Here this was extremely abbreviated. The main story drops several hints pointing in the right direction to figure out who was behind the crimes without giving anything away. The separate arc involving the two detectives is particularly well done and arrives at a satisfactory conclusion. Of course, rewatch potential is for following closely the early hints leading to the conclusion. The best measure of a series is the urgency felt to watch the next episode and I found myself looking forward to each next episode.

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Great Story, Ambiguity Improves

Min Sang Un (MSU)’s dual suicide attempt should have ended the Bulgasals’ time on Earth. Dan Hwal (DH)’s last second Hail Mary Pass kept them alive but created an unstable unbalanced situation dominated by strong dark emotions among the three Bulgasal demigods and human souls entangled in their karma. DH 1,000 years ago was motivated by love which turned to great anger at her betrayal (in his eyes) which gave rise to mutual curses and DH’s creation of the sub Bulgasal Ok Eel Tae (OET) to evade MSU’s dual suicide attempt. This imbalance generated by hatred remained festering for the 1,000 years until at the end, DH rediscovered his love for MSU, and realizing the harm he had caused in his angry reactions a millennium ago, sacrificed himself to prevent any more harm to his human family. The DH that sacrificed himself for the same humans he had cursed so many years before was a different character from the angry Bulgasal at the beginning. And the loss of memories in her last reincarnation allowed MSU to let go of her dark emotions generated by the past events and become willing to sacrifice herself to save DH, another major character arc growth.

DH accused MSU of trickery in having herself reborn as twins and he didn’t believe, at first, that she couldn’t remember prior life events. OET made the same accusation and also, at first, did not believe MSU could not remember. From the story we know that in fact she could not. The messy bickering continued over 1,000 years until some higher power perhaps decided the suffering punishment for DH and MSU had gone on long enough and motivated by the desire to have them find their original love intervened by having MSU reborn as twins, one with the bitter revenge filled memories against DH and OET, and the second containing the hidden power (see below) but no memories. The first twin is killed as expected as normal, but the second survives to be discovered by DH who keeps her alive to uncover the mystery hidden by her lost memories. The struggle between them eventually turns from adversarial to one of friendship and finally a rediscovered love from when their immortal relationship ended 1,000 years before.

Why did MSU die? She was shown twice to have special non human powers (further below) reflecting an echo of her original Bulgasal form. But she was very much a part of the original web of mutual curses that bound the three’s existence together, and when the two Bulgasals died her emanated special power ended and she was also fated to pass over from her wound (similar to Do Yoon who survived). That she would die was hinted at in Lee Hy Suk(LHS)’s prophecy that spooked OET to kill the shaman when she said, “The soul will go back to its owner.” In other words OET’s soul would be returned to him from MSU or i.e. she will die.

Do these demigods have souls? Probably not human souls but perhaps something else. And whatever higher deity intervened to bring about the end of the Bulgasal feud, when DH sacrificed himself for the human family he cursed 1,000 years before, when MSU returned to confront OET and sacrificed herself, that triggered the final stage. They all three died, and the original two demigods were allowed to be reborn into human reincarnations, find each other, and hopefully make better choices.

Bulgasals are immortal demigods. The concept of a human soul and who has one becomes important because Bulgasals lack them. There is one human soul first transferred from OET to DH 1,000 years before, and later from DH to MSU 600 years ago.

An aspect that is key to understanding the ending and that is included in the story but not highlighted is that humans who used to be Bulgasal have special powers. We see this three times in the story.

The first example is that of the human DH who 600 years before seemed to have super human abilities to kill monsters beyond anything displayed by his peers. In the womb he scared off the corpse eating monsters and then survived a birth from a dead mother. His childhood was difficult. As an adult the soldiers first said he was cursed by Bulgasul then that he was blessed by Bulgasal and that the monsters feared him as much as they fear the Bulgasul itself.

MSU provides two other present day significant examples. One occurred in an early episode (E3 1:05) when DH was rushing back to the laundry factory to stop a human monster from killing MSU with a knife. He was too late. The monster knocked MSU to the ground and we see the monster prep for his attack, only hesitating to gloat. The scene abruptly shifts from her prone on the ground to the monster sitting on the ground bloodied, battered and cut up with MSU standing over him holding his knife. She abruptly returns to her meeker self and drops the knife which the monster picks up for another try. Only then does DH intervene. MSU doesn’t seem aware of what she did.

The second is much later (E12 minute 43) when MSU is waiting alone in a car in a remote woods for DH to find OET and return. OET managed to phone one of his police henchmen who shows up and attacks MSU stabbing her in the exact place of her twin’s birth scar on her shoulder. (This initiates incremental memory recalls.) DH shows up but again he’s too late. MSU has been stabbed but she fought off the policemen and stabbed him badly. The henchman later says to OET, “She suddenly became strong. She wasn’t herself.”

These three examples point to humans who used to be Bulgasal having unusual latent powers. The incidents involving MSU could have been written around easily. In MSU’s first incident DH could have arrived early enough to intervene. In the second DH could have arrived again soon enough to save her after the first stab wound. This aspect implies that although MSU isn’t Bulgasal now that she once was leaves her more than an ordinary human and very much a part of the Bulgasal triad.

A review of key events at 1,000 years and again at 600 years before.

The first key event occurs 1,000 years ago when a series of misunderstandings between the two Bulgasals - DH and MSU - result in both near death with wounds to their hearts. MSU’s was self inflicted and DH’s brought about by three humans. DH curses all three humans - one to be reborn and suffer the loss of his arm, the woman to never be able to give birth to healthy children, and the boy to always be reborn into blindness. OET, whose machinations brought about the violent clash, the deaths of many people and the looming end of the two Bulgasals, shows up and leads the dying DH away. A desperate DH takes OET’s soul making OET a Bulgasal (whose heart is unwounded). Before DH dies he orders OET to find him when DH is reborn as a human and make him a Bulgasal again, and to ensure he complies he puts a curse on him leaving him with the dark bleeding hole in his chest and in constant pain.

Another 400 years goes by. We do not know how many times DH is reborn during these four centuries. However, rewatching the events in E1 with the knowledge gained in the E16’s flashbacks an ongoing 400 year struggle between MSU and OET is hinted at. DH was reborn repeatedly. While OET probably did not dare attempt to directly kill DH at any age because he feared triggering another switch back into his original mortal form, he seems to have searched for, found, and then begun murdering the people around the young DH to induce the humans to kill him. MSU, as reluctant to kill humans as she was 1,000 years before, acted to protect DH when she could up to taking a knife in the back and feigning death. This repeated cycle probably angered MSU. She would likely direct her anger at OET for all the killing of humans and at DH for the starting the whole mess to begin with. During DH’s last human life MSU saves him at least twice until this cycle is broken and he is rescued by a passing general (one of three cursed by DH 400 years prior). DH grows up and marries the general’s daughter (the second human cursed by DH) and she bears a son who is blind (the third cursed).

The adult DH, as the adopted son of the general, undertakes a campaign to kill any and all monsters around. Initially his men see him as an evil spirit cursed by Bulgasal and then as he kills many monsters they see him as an evil spirit blessed by Bulgasal. For reasons unclear all of these monsters will only be reborn as humans (and lean toward serial murdering) and hold a grudge to kill anyone carrying DH’s soul (i.e. MSU).

To kill the Bulgasal (DH only knows about one) and remove the curse from himself, his wife, and his son, DH leads a troop to the mountain where the Bulgasal is rumored to reside. This does not go well and most of his troops are murdered by OET along with his wife and son. While grieving over the corpse of his son, MSU approaches from behind and stabs him fatally in the back. While MSU holds the sword in his back we are shown the soul transferring from DH to MSU. DH becomes a Bulgasal and MSU a human. DH in turn stabs MSU twice and there are some more harsh words exchanged (with no explanation as to why she stabbed him, or her connection to the murder and mayhem all about). MSU dies as a human but in the same way that DH did 1,000 years prior when he became human just before his death.

Why she stabs him is the weakest link of the overall series plotting. This weak link is also the main driver for much of the later plot twists. The few words exchanged in the moments before MSU dissolved don’t explain why she protected him before this but tries to kill him now. How did she miss the presence of OET accomplishing all the slaughter finished just moments before?

DH: Why did you do it?
Why did you have to kill my innocent wife and son?
Tell me why.
Tell me why!
MSU: telepathically (This was all your doing.)
(What have you done?)
(You have created more bad karma.)
(And you have brought upon < > another retribution.)
(I despise you.)
(I truly despise you.)
DH: What do you mean?
MSU: (I will be born again with this scar that you have given me.)

Many questions could have been answered in this exchange but the writers (deliberately) left things vague. To begin with DH’s question - Why did she do it?

She clearly states she despises DH which may explain why she blamed him for the murder and mayhem and stabbed him in the back. Perhaps she saved him when he was a child because she has a soft spot for kids who have not yet made bad choices in life - the potential for good. When she encountered him in this situation she concluded he made bad choices and decided to end his human life to be reborn and try again. Much of the later story hinges on this deliberate ambiguity, but the overall story framework would have worked better if at the end we were provided a clear motivation for her decision at that moment to plunge the sword into DH’s back.

Why does she believe this was all his doing? And what is this ‘this’ that he did? The current killing? Or all the bad for the last 400 years? Perhaps she is aware of all the effects on the humans his curses have had for the last 400 years? Did MSU believe that DH killed all those people - his own soldiers and family?

Perhaps the three - DH, MSU, and OET - became bound in a web of curses tying their destinies together such that the only solution to end the bad karma was for all three to die. Humans who were once a Bulgasal retain some shadow of the power and also remain in the web of curses. The human MSU was tied to OET because she had his original soul which was further tied to DH’s original curse on OET (i.e. his dark hole) and when the two of them died any protection that had been extending to her failed making her succumbing to her wound inevitable.

There was an imbalance created by DH’s taking of OET’s soul to evade the end of the two Bulgasals. That was further complicated by OET’s attempts to evade taking back his soul and even more so when MSU (either by accident or design) stepped in to switch with DH turning him back into a Bulgasal.

If she reincarnated eight times in 600 years then it is likely that the human DH over his 400 years would have reincarnated several times also, but OET failed to seek him out and change him back into Bulgasal probably because he did not want to become a sickly mortal human again. Instead he seems to have deliberately sought DH out and induced humans to kill him. DH seems to have foreseen this reluctance and layered his curse so that OET could not relieve his suffering by retaking his soul back from anyone other than DH. This is the likely reason that whenever OET tries to crush/break MSU’s (OET’s) soul he feels crushing pain. However, he can kill her which does nothing to relieve his suffering and she just reincarnates.

There’s lots of sand in the destiny gears. Over a 400 year period OET failed to restore DH. It’s possible that MSU deliberately (or accidentally?) stepped into the stalemate between OET and DH by taking DH’s OET soul herself. Once this happened OET needed (or eventually ((600 years)) came to believe he needed) the renewed DH Bulgasal to intervene somehow. OET believed that if DH killed MSU then that would somehow remove his dark hole and allow him to attain his goal of remaining as Bulgasal with DH as Bulgasal. More likely DH’s original curse prevented OET from ever resolving his dark hole problem even if DH had cooperated.

In E13 the shaman LHS delivers a prophesy to OET which triggers him to kill her. This prophecy ties together elements from E1 through events in E16. She said,
1) An evil spirit will come from the dark hole.
2) The evil spirit that fed off its father’s blood will rise up from the dark hole.
3) The evil spirit opened the dark hole.
4) And now, it is coming to close it.
5) The soul will go back to its owner. x 2

OET only knows and is obsessed with the dark hole that DH gave him 1,000 years ago. But we having seen the final episodes know that the line #1 dark hole is probably the well that DH will be thrown into. DH is the evil spirit (in E1 600 years ago his soldiers called him the evil spirit who kills monsters) that will feed off his father's blood and then rise up from the dark hole i.e. the well. DH is the evil spirit that opened the dark hole in OET's chest 1,000 years ago and whose actions will soon close it. The soul that will go back to its owner is OET's soul currently residing in MSU. This line prophesies her death so that OET's soul can return to OET in the afterlife.

Weak points aside I have no complaint about the overall story in part because the deliberate ambiguities make it more interesting.

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