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Island: Episodes 9-10
by solstices
Our villain makes a move, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake. Memories resurface and motives come to light, bringing back echoes of the past — but also subverting history for a newfound second chance.
EPISODES 9-10
Sensing the malicious energy creeping up on her, Mi-ho instinctively sends out an energy burst, stunning Goong-tan into retreating. Ban and Yo-han arrive to find Mi-ho suspended in the air, surrounded by a force field. When she finally comes to, Ban catches her as she falls — mirroring the memory she saw of Won-jung’s death in Ban’s arms.
Afterwards, Granny Geum advises Ban to rein in his feelings for Mi-ho, since the vessel will cease to exist once she regains Won-jung’s memories. Our main trio returns to the villa for safety’s sake, and Ban tries his best to keep his distance. Mi-ho isn’t convinced, though, and neither am I.
On the other hand, as our heroes grow closer, our villains drift further apart. Corrupting yet another spirit in order to wreak havoc, Goong-tan sics the malevolent entity on the town. It takes the form of an ominous black smoke, from which there is no escape. Possessed by it, Soo-ryun heads to the school rooftop in a daze — then walks right off it.
Yeom-ji arrives just seconds too late, tears spilling over in the wake of witnessing her friend’s final moments. Without a shred of sympathy, Goong-tan merely shrugs that it was an inevitable course of action — apparently it had to be Soo-ryun because she’s “special.” Yeom-ji doesn’t fight him on it, but her grief and disbelief are clear as day.
A flashback gives us more context regarding Yeom-ji’s allegiance to Goong-tan. It’s still not clear how they met, but we see a haggard Goong-tan chancing upon a young girl. Later, when she wields a knife in self-defense against her abusive father, he grabs her hand and guides the blade into the man’s torso. Grateful to Goong-tan for saving her life, Yeom-ji has been gathering information for him ever since.
It turns out Goong-tan invoked Geuseunsae, a demon that draws out the darkness in people’s hearts. Manipulating them to think the worst about themselves, it takes hold of a whole school, turning it into something akin to a zombie flick. Except it’s a little difficult to take it that seriously when Yo-han starts conducting a mass exorcism using the PA system and a hose.
In any case, the students are given a sprinkler shower of holy water. With a little help from Ban’s force field, they’re all contained within the school campus, and the exorcism takes hold. Goong-tan’s plans are thwarted yet again. Or are they? In the midst of all this chaos, Mi-ho has been left a sitting duck. The second half of Goong-tan’s scheme involves using Mi-ho’s grief and guilt against her — and Soo-ryun, whom she’d grown to care about, is the last straw.
While Ban is off dealing with the possessed victims, Geuseunsae misleads Mi-ho with Soo-jin’s likeness, then instills doubt in her about Butler Jang’s loyalty. Butler Jang has no choice but to reveal his true identity as a priest — he’d approached a young Mi-ho for the ultimate goal of awakening Won-jung.
Devastated by her broken trust and blaming Won-jung for ruining her life, Mi-ho ends up on the ledge of the balcony. If the vessel disappears, then so will Won-jung, right? But someone catches her as she falls — Mi-ho looks up to see Won-jung smiling kindly down at her. The entirety of Won-jung’s memories flood into Mi-ho’s mind, and at the end of it all it’s Ban who’s holding her hand.
Back in the safety of her bedroom, Mi-ho tenderly cups Ban’s cheek, assuaging his guilt over Won-jung’s death. Then she apologizes tearfully for not being Won-jung, regretful that she still can’t create the barrier.
Watching over all this, like a spurned third wheel, is Goong-tan. Revealing himself, he attacks, but Ban protects Mi-ho in the nick of time. Yet again, it escalates into a fight, and Goong-tan emerges with the upper hand as usual, sneering at Ban’s diminished physical capabilities.
Ban’s weakened state gets the better of him, and his dagger misses its mark entirely. Seizing his chance, Goong-tan flings the dagger at Mi-ho — but in a reversal of the past, Ban shields her. The blade lodges itself into Ban’s back, and the force of the blow sends them both tumbling off the balcony.
Ban awakens in a cave, and Mi-ho hugs him in relief. His healing powers have slowed down significantly, but thankfully he didn’t sustain a mortal wound. Aww, Mi-ho rests her head on Ban’s shoulder, and he lets her. She asks him about his old home and the stone towers that he stacks there, and Ban finally opens up to her, explaining that it’s his way of atonement.
An earlier scene expands on this point, when Ban finds himself faced with an unwelcome visitor — Goong-tan has come to meet him in the old cell they once shared. When Goong-tan wonders why he chooses to remain here after all this time, Ban claims the familiarity is comfortable, but it’s also clear that he doesn’t think he deserves anything better.
Ever the cynic, Goong-tan scoffs at Ban’s stone memorials for the dead. Then he adds salt to the wound by taunting that he’s certain Ban is going to kill Won-jung/Mi-ho again, conveniently glossing right over his own part in that tragedy.
In response, Ban hits the nail on the head — Goong-tan has been sending lust demons after Mi-ho because he’s still too scared to confront her himself. The place he ended up sealed in was a void in every sense of the word; utterly empty of time, pain, and even the capacity for thought. It’s no wonder Goong-tan is terrified of being trapped there again.
After his defeat at Mi-ho’s hands, Goong-tan is absolutely seething. Back in his lair, the incessant cries of a baby get on his frayed nerves — and he shuts it up by ripping the young mother’s heart out. Yikes. The wrathful Goong-tan goes on a rampage, slaughtering the rest of his followers as they flee in a panic.
Uh, why did he even gather these people in the first place if he was just going to mindlessly massacre them all? And where was the White Cloak Cult this week? I guess this scene was mainly to establish that Goong-tan is off-his-rockers evil, which at this point is already pretty obvious to us (and a horrified Yeom-ji).
I wish the show didn’t take such a one-dimensional approach with Goong-tan’s character, because there’s so much to mine. We’re told the effect that his imprisonment had on his psyche, but we barely see it because he’s simply painted as a bloodthirsty monster. From his perspective, he was deceived by humans, then locked away for centuries as punishment for what he felt was justified revenge against his abusers. That could have made him a truly complex and empathetic character, but right now it just feels like wasted potential.
Similarly, Yo-han is also underutilized, with many of his powers going unexplained. Then there’s Ban, whose emotional range is mostly reduced to taciturn brooding and longing gazes in Mi-ho’s direction. I wish the drama would give Ban more to work with, especially since he had a particularly poignant line this week — “I am desperate because I am a weak human.” Ban isn’t simply fighting for a goal, or for a larger purpose; his willpower is strong because he fights in order to live.
To be honest, I don’t mind a monster-of-the-week format if it ultimately serves our main narrative, threading each case together into a coherent progression. Unfortunately, the Geuseunsae arc feels clumsily executed and clunkily edited, making it somewhat tedious to sit through. We have such compelling character relationships and such capable actors amongst our main four, so it’s a shame that the drama isn’t capitalizing on that.
What’s worse about these weekly crises is that Mi-ho gets reduced to a damsel in distress. Where’s the spunky heroine of Episode 1, who flipped a grown man over without breaking a sweat? What happened to her physical training and shooting prowess, which previous scenes made it a point to display? Are they just saving it all for her to do something impactful in the finale week? If so, that’s too much setup and certainly not enough payoff.
As we head into the finale week, I can’t help but feel weary and apprehensive. The endless physical altercations are starting to grow stale, and the predictable plot threads mostly result in us skimming over poignant moments of character growth and relationship development. I don’t know how this drama somehow manages to do too much and not enough all at once, but it does.
Still, the drama has been shifting its chess pieces into position for a final showdown, so I’m still holding on to the hope that it’ll at least deliver a satisfying ending. Preferably, one that gives all our major characters something significant to do — because what’s the use of setting up such interesting supporting roles and conflicting character allegiances if they’re just going to be relegated to the sidelines? Island, please don’t let my faith be for naught!
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