Maintaining its steady streak of ratings is Netflix’s live-action adaptation of manhwa (webtoon) See You in My 19th Life.
Starring Shin Hye Sun as Ban Ji Eum, a woman who is able to remember her past lives, this Korean fantasy is full of drama, romance, and some humor to balance out all the angst.
The story revolves around Ban Ji Eum trying to connect with Mun Seo Ha (Ahn Bo Hyun) from her past life, and then some more people.
Mun Seo Ha has so far been seeing shadows of his first love, Yoon Ju Won, in Ban Ji Eum. As her sister, Yoon Cho Won, is added to the mix, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Ban Ji Eum to hide the traits of Yoon Ju Won in her. In this episode, we explore whether Yoon Cho Won realizes that Ban Ji Eum is the reincarnation of her sister or if Ban Ji Eum reveals the truth to Yoon Cho Won.
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We begin the episode with a flashback to the day of the accident, as a young Seo Ha is trying to hold on to the corpse of Ju Won. The memory is, in fact, Seo Ha’s nightmare as he holds on to Ji Eum, crying for Ju Won not to go.
Ji Eum sends a sad Cho Won home and stays back to take care of Seo Ha. She discovers the birthday gift she, as Ju Won, gave him on the day of the accident. She touches it tenderly and bursts out crying.
On the other side, Cho Won is guilty and devastated, realizing the weight of the trauma Seo Ha carries on his shoulders. We see a flashback from the funeral home. A young Cho Won had accused Seo Ha and told him to stay away from her family lest he kills them too.
Early the next morning, Ji Eum wakes up from a nightmare about being shot with an arrow. The shaman bells might indicate the involvement of Kang Min Gi, but it is not very clear what his role in it is.
It was not just Ji Eum who had a restless night. Seo Ha wakes up from a nightmare with a constant, painful ringing in his ears. Do Yun finds him bleeding, with the house trashed and the television and music system volume set to max.
Worried, he calls Cho Won, asking about the previous night. Cho Won reveals that he was out drinking with Ji Eum. Seo Ha decides to take the day off and doesn’t let Ji Eum in when she goes to visit him. On her way back, she meets Han Na, who refers to her as Ju Won, but Ji Eum doesn’t recognize her.
Seo Ha does his regular retrospection under water, reflecting on his moments with Ji Eum. Unable to reach him on call, Cho Won rushes to his place and sees him lying underwater in his swimming pool. Thinking he was dead, she starts crying. Do Yun arrives and calms her down with some tea.
Over a cuppa, Seo Ha confesses to Do Yun that he might like Ji Eum. She reminds him of Ju Won, and it is driving him crazy. He wonders whether he is allowed to love and whether his feelings for Ji Eum can be called love. Do Yun encourages him to go with the flow.
Later, Cho Won encounters Do Yun at a subway store and expresses her wish to talk to Seo Ha. He excuses himself as soon as possible but texts her that he will be driving to the beach with Seo and that she is free to join them. And the good wing-woman that she is, Cho Won seeks out Ji Eum to join.
At the beach, when they’re alone, Ji Eum, noticing a change in his feelings, takes the opportunity to use one of her three chances to ask Seo Ha out. She tells him to take his time and leads him to a dance. Cho Won and Do Yun spot the two from afar and wonder whether they’re dating. Cho Won remarks that she would like it if the two dated. It is unclear whether she is referring to Seo Ha and Ji Eum or herself and Do Yun.
Still from Episode 5 of See You in My 19th LifeIt starts raining, and Cho Won offers her family’s vacation home as a refuge. Ji Eum takes a shower and goes to sleep, feeling slightly unwell from getting rained on. As she is taking care of her, Cho Won is reminded of her deceased elder sister, Ju Won.
Cho Won joins Seo Ha at the fireplace, and he inquires about Ji Eum. They finally have a heart-to-heart, where Seo Ha reveals that Cho Won is a lot like her sister. He was avoiding her because she reminded him a lot of Ju Won. It was difficult for him to look at her and not think about Ju Won and how she might have looked and behaved if she had the chance to grow up. Cho Won expresses her understanding, and a proud Do Yun watches them patch up.
Min Gi stops by Ae Gyeong’s restaurant to apply for a part-time job. Ae Gyeong faints from chest pain. He calls for an ambulance and stays the night with her, unable to get hold of her phone to call her guardian.
Once conscious, Ae Gyeong requests that he not reveal it to anyone. Ae Gyeong has been sick for a while, and the doctors were unable to diagnose it. She was hiding it from Ji Eum.
Back at the vacation house, Ji Eum cannot help but reminisce about her childhood with Cho Won. She goes exploring and finds the doll she had hidden in the grandfather clock and Cho Won’s growth chart with all the height markers.
Unknown to Ji Eum, Cho Won watches her find things that only she and her sister know about. Overcome with emotion, she questions Ji Eum, who says that she just chanced upon them. Unbeknownst to them, Seo Ha has been watching them. He excuses himself and goes for a walk in the rain.
Lying through her teeth, Ji Eum manages to evade Cho Won and follows Seo Ha out. He reveals that he finds her strange and rejects her proposal from earlier that day. He says that his first love was not successful and doubts whether hers will be.
The four head home the next day. Cho Won wonders about Ji Eum and Seo Ha’s relationship and asks Do Yun if he knows how they met. He reveals that they met when they were young, and Cho Won wonders when. She spends the next few days remarking on the similarities between Ji Eum and what she remembers about her deceased sister, Ju Won.
Ji Eum goes home and is surprised to find Min Gi working part-time at Ae Gyeong’s shop. Too worried about Ae Gyeong’s health, she doesn’t pay much attention to him.
Jang Yeon Ok, the current CEO of MI Grand Hotel, enters her office and sees Seo Ha sitting there among the ledgers of the past three years. He threatens to sue her for misappropriation of the hotel budget if she interferes with his work. Furious, she tries to hit him with the ledgers, but Ji Eum bears the brunt of the hit.
Lee Sang Hyuk, Seo Ha’s maternal uncle, takes her aside to calm her down. Realizing her insecurity over her son’s position in the company, he promises to help her out if she leaves Seo Ha alone. Han Na visits the hotel and encounters Sang Hyuk but doesn’t approach him.
See You in My 19th Life Episode 5 Ending Explained
Ban Dong U, on the other hand, gets a visit from loan sharks for debt repayment. He suggests they approach his sister, who works in the MI Group. He brings up her boyfriend, who also works with her. They plan on kidnapping Seo Ha.
Seo Ha can hold himself well in fights, as he was the inspiration for Do Yun’s younger brother, Do Jin, to take up professional wrestling. The kidnapping attempt was witnessed by Do Jin, who followed them. He joins the fight to prevent any media coverage about MI Group’s Chairman’s son’s involvement in assault. Neither is it good for a pro athlete to be involved, so Seo Ha tries to stop him. The kidnappers and Dong U run away, hearing the sound of sirens. A neat trick by Ji Eum to avoid confrontation
Thrilled to meet his sister-in-law, he invites her to join them for dinner. Seo Ha sees Ji Eum choking on the smoke, so he takes her out for a breather. She asks him what he liked about his first love, and they get physically closer when Ji Eum asks Seo Ha to describe her eyes.
Still from Episode 5 of See You in My 19th LifeDo Yun reveals to Cho Won that Ji Eum once admitted to having ulterior motives. She jumps to conclusions of her own and proceeds to drown her sorrows later that evening. She drunkenly calls Ji Eum, asking her to meet.
She accuses Ji Eum of using her fondness to know more about her sister, Ju Won, and get closer to Seo Ha. She perceives Ji Eum to be playing with her emotions by acting like her sister.
Unable to see her once-sister bawling, Ji Eum ends up revealing that she can remember her past lives and that she was Ju Won in her past life.
See You in My 19th Life Episode 5 Review
That was a pretty lengthy build-up for Ji Eum revealing her identity to Cho Won. We do get glimpses of the dynamics of the relationship between the two sisters.
It is understandable that Seo Ha might have problems facing Cho Won, but he could have maintained contact with her parents at least. We see in the flashback from the funeral that her mother didn’t have any qualms about extending emotional support to a young Seo Ha.
Since Ae Gyeong accepted Ji Eum as her uncle, it should not be much of a problem for Cho Won once she crosschecks the facts.
Min Gi and Han Na are as elusive as their first appearances in the series. Since their characters seem to be original and not part of the manhwa (webtoon), it might bring some interesting twists to the story.
