Kokdu: Season of Deity: Episode 13

by DaebakGrits

With baseball interrupting our regularly scheduled programming this week, our leading lady only has one episode to process the revelation that her boyfriend is the god of death. Although there is a lot of prolonged angst, there is also a surprising amount of progress as our characters finally piece together the puzzle that the audience already solved.

EPISODE 13

I’m not sure if I should be happy or disappointed that I only had to watch one episode of Kokdu: Season of Deity this week. I’m not terribly pleased that this change in schedule will prolong my overall misery, but slugging through one episode was less painful than usual. Considering a bulk of this week’s episode was spent on watching Gye-jeol process the shocking news, I think I’m leaning towards being relieved that I got a small reprieve. Because — and it should come as a shock to no one — love-struck Gye-jeol doesn’t do so well after having her rose-tinted glasses ripped off her face.

For starters, she’s so shocked and disgusted that she completely forgets about poor kidnapped Cheol, who — I’m happy to report — watched the bomb explode and witnessed his sister’s miraculous escape from the safety of a nearby out-of-blast-radius room. The police show up and untie him, but all that action is done off screen because we must focus on how utterly upset Gye-jeol is about her boyfriend’s identity and his murderous pastime.

At first, I struggled to follow her emotions and what exactly was causing the most distress because, I’ve got to say, if my boyfriend told me he was an otherworldly being whose divine duty was to eliminate child killers and rapists, I’m not sure I’d be all that mad — shocked, but probably not mad. So after some time apart, which gives Gye-jeol the freedom to process her emotions and put words to them, we learn that the part that upsets her the most is the fact that he’s immortal. Going to be reallllly hard to do the whole having a family and growing old together thing if Kokdu doesn’t age or die.

Gye-jeol’s rejection leaves Kokdu appropriately distraught, a regular old bundle of sadness because he can’t fault Gye-jeol for being upset that the reality of their situation does not align with the happy future she envisioned for herself. Once again, Kim Jung-hyun proves he’s largely carrying this drama on his shoulders because when he broke down in front of Gak Shin — oof! Right in the feels. Although I found this separation arc very contrived, Kim Jung-hyun made me want to reach through my screen and hug Kokdu. Cha Chung-hwa was also absolute perfection, too, as she listened and cried helplessly with him.

After stalking a despondent Gye-jeol around for a little bit, Kokdu and Gye-jeol meet in a church confessional. Gye-jeol tries to give back the ring and end their relationship for good, but Kokdu promises that he will find a way to become human for her. When Gye-jeol agrees to give him time, it marks the beginning of the end of our OTP’s separation. Truthfully, their mini-breakup is pretty much over at this point because Gye-jeol is back to staring at her phone, waiting for Kokdu to call, and she has to remind herself that goblins don’t become mortal as easily as the fables and K-dramas would have her believe.

While Kokdu and Gye-jeol have been dealing with their relationship woes, the police have been investigating Cheol’s kidnapping and the associated explosion. Cheol and his partner summon Kokdu and Gye-jeol in for questioning, and since neither Kokdu nor Gye-jeol are aware that Cheol saw them arrive and then go poof during the explosion, they agree to tell the police that they were looking for Cheol but weren’t nearby for the explosive finale.

At the station, though, Cheol is noticeably quiet as his partner tries to poke holes in Kokdu and Gye-jeol’s alibi, which seems on the verge of collapsing when they’re told that an officer arrived on the scene shortly before the explosion and there’s a video of the incident. Kokdu and Gye-jeol tense as they watch the dashcam footage, but — whew! — it cuts out before showing anything. Turns out, Cheol’s need to protect his sister is stronger than his unwavering sense of justice. Thus, he tampered with the video.

Kokdu quickly figures out that Cheol sabotaged the evidence, and the two men have a little heart-to-heart. Kokdu gives Cheol a quick rundown of his real identity, and Cheol reluctantly agrees to team up in order to bring down Chairman Kim. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend — or so they say. I’ve got to admit, I like that my two favorite characters are now on the same team, and I hope this means we’re in store for some epic buddy-cop-and-goblin shenanigans in the future.

As Cheol combs through CCTV footage to find a shot of Joong-shik’s face, Kokdu ponders the conundrum that is Yi-deun. Why would Chairman Kim throw the poster boy for his new drug under the bus? Chairman Kim’s unpredictable and seemingly illogical behavior leads Kokdu to suspect that there’s a bigger secret that our villain is trying to cover up. So Kokdu takes matters into his own hands and pays Joong-shik a little visit.

After Kokdu scares the bejesus out of him, Joong-shik confirms that Yi-deun used a pseudonym when he participated in the clinical trial, and that alias is the only name on the patient list that Kokdu wasn’t able to identify. Yi-deun is also the only one still alive, which prompts Kokdu to have Yi-deun looked over by doctors unaffiliated with Pilseong Medical Center. The outcome isn’t good; Yi-deun has thyroid cancer.

Kokdu’s encounter with Joong-shik — along with an earlier kiss with Gye-jeol — triggered more memories from his past, and now he recalls both his and Gye-jeol’s tragic ends. It’s put a bit of a damper on his mood, which is compounded by the fact that the stab wound he sustained while choking the truth out of Joong-shik hasn’t healed. Ok Shin suspects that the wound is a message from the Creator, a reminder of the pain and suffering Kokdu will encounter if he remains on earth. Or is it all part of Kokdu and Gye-jeol’s historically tragic fate, which is in danger of repeating itself?

I’m leaning more towards the latter, thanks to the mysterious ajumma who makes yet another appearance this week. After identifying Joong-shik as the man who kidnapped her, Gye-jeol feels a stab of pain in her head as a brief memory from her past life hits her. The magical moment shatters her gaudy engagement ring — good riddance — and when she goes to get it repaired, she’s reunited with the ajumma, her patient from Episode 1, at the jewelry store.

While the ajumma tells Gye-jeol to give up on the ring, Gye-jeol’s eyes fall on the hair pin she used as a weapon in her past life to commit murder-suicide. Like Sleeping Beauty drawn towards the spindle wheel, Gye-jeol picks up the hair pin, and memories of her past life come rushing back to her. Along with the memories comes the realization that she’s the reason Kokdu has been cursed all these years. Cue: her crushing guilt and tears.

We end our episode with Gye-jeol embracing Kokdu and crying on his shoulder, but I’m not sure where our story will go from here. With one bad guy in jail and the truth behind Chairman Kim’s drug unveiled, three episodes feels excessively long, so I wonder if we’re going to kill some time by learning more about Kokdu and Gye-jeol’s past lives.

Honestly, now that our mysterious ajumma has entered the story, I’m a bit more curious about Seol-hui and Oh-hyun. When she gave Seol-hui the hair pin in the past, the ajumma’s cryptic words and knowingly sad gaze indicated that she was aware of the tragedy that would ensue. So exactly what is the deal with this doomed love story? It feels like Kokdu and Gye-jeol are being punished for actions that these other worldly beings set them up to complete, and if that’s the case, how unbelievably rude is that?

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Kokdu: Season of Deity: Episode 13