Hyun-jo, a resident of Black Bridge Village, finds Yi-gang, who she last saw in summer 2017. She asks him what happened to him and he tells her that he was kidnapped and held for ransom. ..
In 2019, Hyun-jo is waiting at Black Bridge Village when he spots someone through the foliage. They run and he gives chase, eventually tackling them to the ground and revealing their identity – Sol.
Hyun-jo confronts Sol about the murders, but Sol only acts confused. Hyun-jo changes the direction of his questions, asking why Sol is even there. When Sol pulls out his phone, showing Hyun-jo a message identical to the one Jin-ok received, Hyun-jo realizes that Woong-soon was behind the murders. Woong-soon also grew up in Black Bridge Village and knew Jin-ok well. ..
In 1991, Jae-gyeong leads a village discussion about the cable car. Nam-sik, Se-wook’s father, and Woong-soon’s father are openly against it along with Jae-gyeong. Some of the other villagers consider opting for the compensation payout.
Hyun-jo is looking at old photos of the village kids who include Sol, Hyun-su, Yang-sun, Se-wook, and Woong-soon. Sol says he was too young to remember what happened in 1991, though he does tell us that the third death was Se-wook’s father. He also has no explanation for the goblin lights.
Sol left for Seoul after the village was demolished, leaving Woong-soon and Se-wook the only two people left in the village. Woong-soon has been caring for Se-wook ever since. ..
“Woong-soon, do you know who these people are?” Hyun-jo asks. “I noticed they’re not on the list of residents for Black Bridge Village.”
Hyun-jo revisits the police station to question Woong-soon’s junior about the investigation into the bus incident. The officer explains that Woong-soon submitted a report and ruled it an accident. ..
Hyun-jo goes to find Jin-ok after she missed their meeting. Jin-ok’s neighbour explains that her pancreatic cancer worsened and she has been hospitalized. Another old resident won’t cooperate with him, and Yang-sun’s grandfather has moved away. ..
Hyun-jo tells the group of rangers that he’s been searching for military dog tags lost on the mountain. They say they saw some in the Black Bridge Village cave before it was cleaned out. Hyun-jo mentally goes through the items in the cave and pieces together that they were all used in the murders.
After the rangers left, the culprit entered the cave and took all of the items, including Hyun-su’s dog tags. He then flashed back to when Hyun-jo and the other Rangers were tasked with clearing the cave. None of the ranger stations were assigned to this task, so we can only assume that he did it on his own.
Hyun-jo is certain that the culprit would not have been able to take the items off the mountain or throw them out. He begins searching for them but keeps coming up short.
Yi-gang messages Hyun-jo, asking to meet up. As he leaves to see her, he gets a vision of a sign pointing to Deokseoryeong, blood-soaked snow, and glimpses of a motionless person. An announcement for heavy snowfall plays on the radio in the background.
Hyun-jo, Yi-gang, Gu-yeong, and Il-hae continue their journey down the mountain. Yi-gang can see Hyun-jo, but he is stopped at the man-made bridge. ..
Yi-gang tells Il-hae and Gu-yeong that the murder victims are connected to Black Bridge Village and asks them to install a video camera at Seokyi Cliff in Dowon Valley before 5:30pm the next day. ..
We flashback to Hyun-jo’s spirit telling Yi-gang that Woong-soon is the culprit and that he had another vision. In an extended version of the vision, we see the culprit’s watch displaying the date and time.
Il-hae and Gu-yeong agree to keep this a secret from Woong-soon, reasoning that Yi-gang is a prime suspect because he knows the villagers and the mountain.
Elsewhere, Woong-soon meets with Jang Hak-su, the illegal herb collector who saw Hyun-jo. Woong-soon asks Hak-su for illegal herbs and Hak-su says he’ll have them by tomorrow.
At 11:36am on the morning of September 12, Gu-yeong and Il-hae head to Seokyi Cliff while Hak-su is stalked by the culprit on a restricted trail.
At 12:01pm, Hyun-jo has a vision of the culprit pushing Hak-su down a different drop. The watch in the vision now reads 2:02pm. Gu-yeong and Il-hae are two hours away from Seokyi Cliff. ..
Yi-gang reviews the video footage of herself at Black Bridge Village and finds that the culprit is watching her from behind some shrubbery.
The culprit, a man in his early twenties, tells Hak-su that he needs to tie up the victim so that he can steal their belongings. Hak-su is hesitant at first, but the man insists and asks for help. Hak-su agrees and starts to tie the victim’s hands together with a piece of rope. The man then takes a knife and starts to cut the ropes around the victim’s neck. Hak-su is terrified as he watches the man make his way towards him with the knife. He knows that if he makes any noise or moves, the man will kill him and take everything that the victim has. Finally, after cutting through several of the ropes around the victim’s neck, the man reaches Hak-su and pulls him close. He then takes out his knife and begins to stab him in the chest multiple times.
Gu-yeong and Il-hae are the only two people who can hear Hak-su’s scream and change course in his direction. When they reach him, he’s already dead. Yi-gang deduces that the culprit heard her talking to Hyun-jo and changed the time and location of his next kill.
Hyun-jo arrives at the scene of the murder and recalls when Hak-su told him that anyone who sees him dies. He realizes that this has indeed been true. ..
Knowing Yi-gang can see him, Hyun-jo finds the radio Da-won dropped and bashes his hands down onto it until he can finally touch it. He radios Yi-gang, urging her to leave the mountain and live happily. Gu-yeong and Il-hae only hear static.
At the hospital, Hyun-jo is hooked up to a number of machines that start to glitch. His spirit disappears from the mountain by 2:42pm. By 2:42pm, his vital signs have gone flat.
The Episode Review
The police are now convinced that Woong-soon is the culprit, but they are still not sure who else could be behind the attack. It makes no sense that he would run from Hyun-jo in Black Bridge Village if he’s innocent, and he could still be involved in the attack, leaving Woong-soon as another false lead.
This episode confirmed that Hyun-jo knows the killer, which creates a plot hole in the earlier scene where he could have used Seung-chul to relay this information to Yi-gang. ..
Interestingly, Hyun-jo’s first vision of Hak-su’s death included a scene with a snake that came to pass even after the culprit changed his plan. If the first vision had also shown him the new time, perhaps it wouldn’t have even mattered whether the culprit changed anything – his new plan was already written in his future. The mountain certainly likes to skimp on the details.
In the latest episode of “Death Note,” it was revealed that Hyun-jo is in fact a shaman who can see the dead. This revelation has many people questioning Hak-su’s beliefs about Hyun-jo marking people for death. It’s possible that those who are already close to their time of death can see him because the veil between life and death becomes thinner for them. ..
This is an ominous sign for Yi-gang, and Hyun-jo was willing to give up his life to warn her away. Unfortunately for him, it’s unlikely that telling her to leave and live happily with no explanation will get the job done.
