Disney+ Hotstar’s latest Korean series starring Kim Tae Ri and Oh Jung Se, Revenant, is back with another enthralling, goosebump-inducing episode.
We ended the previous episode with Gu San Yeong accusing Yeom Hae Sang of enjoying the luxuries earned by murdering a child. A guilt-ridden Hae Sang had attempted suicide. San Yeong is experiencing a temporary loss of vision, and the evil spirit tells her that she would want it just like her father. Unbeknownst to San Yeong, Gu Gang Mo had approached Na Byung Hee to find out how to acquire a juvenile ghost.
In this episode, we explore some of these topics in depth. Hae Sang’s attempt at suicide might have failed, but he is still filled with grief over his family’s actions. He wants to right their wrongs but might lose his life in the attempt.
While the episode satiates one’s curiosity and the need for progress in the plotline, in true Revenant fashion, it raises many more questions.
Revenant Episode 8 Recap: Do Gu San Yeong and Yeom Hae Sang Reconcile?
Hong Sae apologizes to Mun Chun and tells him someone wanted him to trail the latter. Mun Chun remains unresponsive, casually slurping his ramyeon. Hong Sae is surprised at the trust his superior places in him.
Mun Chun is curious why someone would want to keep an eye on the Rookie Shaman of the Violent Crimes Unit. Hong Sae revealed that it was someone from Junghyeon Capital. While looking into the company, he found out that people who were obstacles to its growth committed suicide, similar to the bruised suicides.
The two detectives make a timeline of bruised suicides, beginning with the year 1958. Mun Chun does not fail to jab at Hong Sae for abandoning the storage unit.
The duo finds a pattern in the cases. From 1958 to 1978, all the deceased were related to Lee Mok Dan’s case. The deceased from 1979 to 1995 are related to Junghyeon Capital. Beginning in 2000 until his death in 2022, the victims were related to Gu Gang Mo. The two latest bruised suicides are related to Gu San Yeong.
Hong Sae recalls the content of the argument between San Yeong and Hae Sang earlier that night. He tells Mun Chun that the Yeom family earned their wealth by murdering a child and turning her into a juvenile ghost.
Holding on to that thought, Hong Sae wonders whether Junghyeon Capital’s section on bruised suicides was related to Lee Mok Dan’s section. Mun Chun offers to investigate the cases related to Lee Mok Dan, while Hong Sae will look into Junghyeon Capital.
San Yeong finds her father’s bag of medicines prescribed by ophthalmologist Bae Hee Chul. He had been visiting since 1999 and showed symptoms of temporary loss of vision, unlike San Yeong. It might be genetic.
There is no cure because the condition’s cause has not been found. He should have turned blind in the next year or two or in the next five to six years. But the doctor had met Gang Mo on the streets not long ago, and his vision had been normal.
San Yeong stares at her shadow and remembers Gang Mo’s ghost apologizing that he had no choice. She wonders whether he accepted the evil spirit to recover his vision and whether she has to do the same.
San Yeong meets with her mother to check out the store she bought near the subway station. While Gyeong Mun keeps asking her where she disappeared, San Yeong suggests ideas for the store. Gyeong Mun seems interested in the idea of a cafe. San Yeong gives her a brochure of a nearby barista academy where she had enrolled Gyeong Mun.
Gyeong Mun is persistent in wanting to know where San Yeong disappeared, and she gets anxious to know she was at Hwawonjae. San Yeong assures her that she just wanted to spend some time in her childhood home and get the house fixed so they could sell it at a higher price.
San Yeong then visits Se Mi and apologizes for her behaviour at the wine bar. She drives her to Hwawonjae in her expensive secondhand car. She introduces Se Mi to her grandmother and her father. They head over to the backyard to celebrate Se Mi passing her exam.
Still from Episode 8 of RevenantSe Mi tells San Yeong that she would not forgive her that easily and asks her what had happened to her. San Yeong hesitates but then ends up telling her that a heinous evil spirit possesses her. Two people are dead because of it, but she needs the spirit.
Se Mi does not believe in San Yeong. She asks her why she is flirting with Hong Sae. San Yeong is shocked that Se Mi was more affected by her flirting with Hong Sae than her insulting Se Mi. The two engage in friendly banter over San Yeong and Hong Sae’s supposed relationship.
After putting Se Mi to rest, San Yeong goes to clean up. She tells the evil spirit that it is right; she wants the spirit. She asks what it needs and what she should do. San Yeong wakes up the next morning with Woo Jin’s photograph near her hand.
Hae Sang goes to Baekchagol’s newly erected jangseung in the north. He cuts his hand and changes the direction of the totem, as Grandma Park had done. He needs to meet Gang Mo to know how to get rid of the evil spirit created by his family.
Mun Chun goes to a document appraisal centre to get the records of Lee Mok Dan’s documents checked. His friend, Jeong Heon Gi (cameo by Lee Yoo Joon), tells him that restoring the document would be difficult as the case is very old.
Hong Sae visits a witness to the bruised suicide case of 1983. The witness, Choi Jin Ho, asserts that his father did not commit suicide. He was killed by the then-CEO of Junghyeon Capital, Yeom Jae Woo, Hae Sang’s father.
A young Jin Ho had opened the door and found Yeom Jae Woo at his doorstep, but the man disappeared when he turned back again. He then heard his father’s gasps and saw his father hang himself. There were no traces of Yeom Jae Woo even in surveillance cameras.
San Yeong goes searching for the painting of the realm of hungry ghosts that was in the background of Woo Jin’s photograph. She receives a call from the village head of Baekchagol, asking her to drop by.
The villagers had found Hae Sang unconscious near the jangseung. They had tried calling his family, but his grandmother expressed no concern. The older women try to feed him, but Hae Sang remains unresponsive. A dark shadow slowly spreads in the room.
Hae Sang recalls the events of the evening of his mother’s death. He opens the door, but he comes face to face with himself this time. His mother accuses him of killing her.
San Yeong sees the darkness spreading across the room’s walls, but it is not visible to the villagers except to Grandma Park. She comments that it won’t be long and leaves without elaborating.
San Yeong follows after Grandma Park and asks her what that thing is. She reveals that it is a ghost, the spirit of darkness. San Yeong is sceptical initially, as she can see it without a mirror. Grandma Park reveals that the more one stares into the darkness, the more it will grow until it engulfs the person.
As the darkness grows, Hae Sang sees Lee Mok Dan in memories of his daily life, accusing him of her death. He is running down a hallway where Lee Mok Dan, covered in blue cloth, is crawling out of every door.
San Yeong remembers a conversation with Hae Sang in which he told her that his mother was driving eastward on their escape route. Ghosts are wary of the light. She drives off with Hae Sang in the same direction, but the spirit of darkness is catching on.
San Yeong’s car gets stuck, so she pulls Hae Sang out to escape, but he is too heavy for her. She keeps dragging him away, telling him that it is not him, when a light shines behind her. Hae Sang gasps, regaining consciousness, and grabs her hand with both of his. The sun rises, and the spirit of darkness recedes.
Still from Episode 8 of RevenantThe duo watch the sunrise. San Yeong confesses that she hates Hae Sang. She understands that it was not his fault, but she is unable to forgive him. But while they were escaping the spirit of darkness, she saw the ghosts at every spot on the route. The sight petrified her.
San Yeong recalls wondering how Hae Sang sees the same thing every day, and maybe that was his atonement for his family’s sins. Hae Sang reveals that he thought he deserved death. But those visuals made him want to live. He thanks San Yeong for grabbing his hand.
San Yeong shows Hae Sang the photograph of Woo Jin with the realm of hungry ghosts in the background. She thinks the spirit is pointing them to the temple where it was taken. Hae Sang is surprised, considering the photograph should be in his family home, but San Yeong tells him that she found it in one of the drawers at Hwawonjae.
Mun Chun is visiting another friend, Cheon Il Man (cameo by Choi Gwi Hwa), the team leader of Geumcheon Police Station’s Violent Crimes Unit. Mun Chuun had asked him to trace an object.
The object belonged to the village head of Jangjin-ri. The old man had dementia and was admitted to a convalescent hospital in Seoul. Upon his death, his belongings were passed on to his guardian, Gu Gang Mo. Mun Chun receives a message from Heon Gi that the document has been restored and rushes there.
Hong Sae visits retired officer Jin Jo Young to ask about the suicide of prosecutor Lee Taek Hee in 1979. Prosecutor Lee was a very tidy man, with not a speck of dust in his home. But the police had found a bunch of strange fingerprints belonging to Yeom Jae Woo. But he had an alibi.
On a call with Mun Chun, Hong Sae updates him on the progress of his investigation. He found similarities between those and the section of bruised suicide cases San Yeong was associated with.
Revenant Episode 8 Ending Explained: What Does The Evil Spirit Want Gu San Yeong and Yeom Hae Sang To Find?
Hae Sang takes San Yeong to find the painting in the photograph. Hae Sang had clicked the picture. He had taken Woo Jin to see the painting of the realm of hungry ghosts when he found the hungry ghost trying to kill their housekeeper.
Hae Sang told Woo Jin that a hungry ghost possessed him and that he wasn’t responsible for the deaths of the students in his school. Woo Jin did not believe him. He had clicked the picture so that Woo Jin could see his red eyes in it to confirm.
Hae Sang remembers keeping the camera in its place in the study, but it had appeared in Hwawonjae. He wonders what the evil spirit is trying to tell them. San Yeong wonders whether it is related to her father. This reminds Hae Sang of the bruised suicide cases related to Gang Mo that Mun Chun had told him about.
One of the deceased among those bruised suicide cases, Gang Mo’s student, was found at the North Gyeonggi reservoir, which is nearby. The next object could have been buried there, as it contains the energy of the person killed by the evil spirit.
A monk recognizes Gang Mo. He had donated a flowering tree the previous year. The duo heads over to the river bank and finds the tree. The black rubber band is buried near it, the third out of five items. San Yeong touches it and sees a woman hanging from the beam of the ceiling with a black rubber band.
San Yeong is curious about the binyeo, a traditional Korean hairpin symbolizing a woman’s marital status, and the glass bottle, the fourth and fifth items. Gang Mo mentioned in his thesis that five objects must be found and the evil spirit’s name must be identified to get rid of it.
Both Hae Sang’s mother and Gu Gang Mo tried to get rid of the evil spirit by burying the objects in places that suppressed the energy within them. But the spirit got to them before they could seal it. San Yeong is astounded to realize that her father died trying to get rid of the evil spirit.
San Yeong questions why they failed to get rid of the spirit. Both knew the five items as well as the name of the evil spirit, yet they failed. Hae Sang suggests finding the other two objects. They might be able to find the reason for their failure, too.
Hae Sang contacts Mun Chun, who tells him that Lee Mok Dan’s case file has been restored. Hae Sang plans to head over when San Yeong drops her flashlight and enters a trance.
Mun Chun checks Lee Mok Dan’s family register in the restored documents and finds she wasn’t the secondborn.
San Yeong snaps back, gasping. She felt the spirit leave her body. There will be another victim. She tries to see through the spirit’s eyes and tracks her path to the building of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Station that houses the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit, where Mun Chun is.
With San Yeong, Hae Sang is on his way to the police station. He calls Mun Chun and warns him not to open the door even if someone knocks. San Yeong consoles Hae Sang, saying that she had not seen the face of the victim. It might not be Mun Chun.
Still from Episode 8 of RevenantThe door clatters, but it is just Hong Sae. But Mun Chun is spooked. He orders Hong Sae to lock the door. Hong Sae is grabbing two cups of coffee when there are knocks on the door. He goes to open it, but Mun Chun stops him. The knocking persists. Mun Chun gestures for Hong Sae to get away from the door.
A calm, masculine voice identifies itself as Yeom Hae Sang. Mun Chun sighs and lets Hong Sae open the door. But at the door is San Yeong, who creepily smiles, “You opened the door.”
Revenant Episode 8 Review
That wasn’t a cliffhanger ending. It was a ‘heart pounding so fast that it would fall out of the chest cavity’ ending. Considering Hae Sang’s panic when he called Mun Chun, the latter should have been suspicious of how calm the voice through the door sounded.
Then again, why lock the door and make the person on the other side knock when you could not have locked it? Is the spirit able to open doors on its own?
The chances of Mun Chun being the next victim are quite high. He received a considerably high amount of screen time in this episode. As did Se Mi for the cases she was involved in.
If the juvenile ghost is supposed to fulfil all the desires of its host, shouldn’t San Yeong’s desire for Mun Chun, or whoever the next victim is, to be alive stop the ghost?
If Choi Man Wol has chosen Lee Mok Dan among the secondborn children the villagers gathered, how is she not the firstborn in her family register? We have a theory. Jangjin-ri’s malicious custom of creating juvenile ghosts calls for secondborn children because Confucian customs ask for the protection of firstborns.
Lee Mok Dan not being the firstborn would make sense if the secondborn child was male. Society was patriarchal. To ensure the continuation of the family line, Lee Mok Dan’s parents might have protected her secondborn brother and sent her to the gathering.
The little moments—Hong Sae and Mun Chun’s bonding over ramyeon, the friendly banter between Se Mi and San Yeong, and Hae Sang’s surprise over San Yeong buying a new car, among others—bring a lightness to the overall dark theme of the drama. They prevent the scale from tipping over to the dark side.