I actually quite like this episode, even if nothing much actually happened.

If there’s one thing which intensifies for me during this episode, it’s my dislike for Bi Ryeom and the urge to poke his face. After So Ah attempts to break the contract, Hoo Ye receives a call from Bi Ryeom. Turns out the gods are in his yard and Bi Ryeom even puts the blind girl on the phone as a threat to Hoo Ye. At least he has the decency to send the girl away, but somehow I wouldn’t put it past Bi Ryeom not to hurt a small human girl if he feels like doing it.

In any case, Hoo Ye rushes to his farm/yard. Bi Ryeom treats him with distaste and calls him a “halftie”. Moo Ra demands to know what happened to Joo Dong – turns out, Hoo Ye ran smack into him when he was running away from the Gate years ago and Joo Dong protected him from a lightning strike. Bi Ryeom asks condescendingly if he killed Joo Dong, as he heard that Hoo Ye had killed a few deities in the past, “Did you want to prove that you are a deity that way?”

In the meantime, my guess was completely wrong hahaha. Habaek had such a stricken look on his face because he found his lost coordinates!! Shockingly, they have imprinted themselves onto the Vanuatu map which So Ah always brings around. This actually makes a lot of sense because if you remember, he lost his coordinates when he fell onto Earth and directly onto So Ah.

Moo Ra is aghast that Hoo Ye left Joo Dong alone and ran off but Hoo Ye’s retort that it wasn’t his lightning which struck Joo Dong leaves her speechless, because both gods knew that they were the ones throwing lightning around. Bi Ryeom doesn’t take the bait however, as he says that his lightning doesn’t hurt deities.

So Ah smiles in tears that Habaek must be going back soon and that their friendship is useless since he can’t even invite her to his coronation. That’s really sad. Habaek warns So Ah against Hoo Ye but she claims that she can see through people better than him.

She accidentally trips and pulls Habaek’s coat from the back (in the classic anime style). Habaek offers his hand, but she declines and brushes past it, much to Habaek’s disappointment as he clenches his fist.

Using the map, Habaek finds…Joo Dong!! Who has lost his memory!! While the gods wonder how on earth a deity can lose his memory, Moo Ra is cold towards So Ah. So Ah turns to leave but can’t resist asking why Moo Ra can’t be more polite.

Moo Ra turns on her high-horse announcement, “I’m the most beautiful deity, the most sublime creature. I’m the mightiest water deity -” Cues grand music which gets cut off by So Ah’s, “Yeah, yeah.” OMG love it, you go girl.

Now that they found Joo Dong and the third stone, it means Habaek can return soon, but Moo Ra notices that Habaek doesn’t look happy at all. Habaek wonders why the stones are kept in the human world, which was the question the High Priest posed to him at the start.

Moo Ra tells him it’s because he has to learn why the human world doesn’t belong to the divine realm, “But you have already learnt that 1200 years ago. We didn’t even want human sacrifices, but they buried a woman alive in the sea so that they could live. We looked after them out of pity and they forgot their place. They returned our love with betrayal and threw our divine world upside down. Humans are cruel, greedy and foolish.”

So Ah doesn’t feel good that Habaek might be leaving and won’t be going home tonight. She wants to go to a noraebang with Yeom Mi but her friend wants to go home to catch a drama (lol story of our lives). So Ah plays on the swing herself and calls Sang Yoo, but even he is busy. When she turns in on the alley home, she is once again disappointed to find it empty.

However, just as she was opening the door, the water ghost calls and she stumbles into her house, facing Habaek. I know the whole thing is supposed to build into that -stumbling and ooh look it’s Habaek- romance and I appreciate that, but I just found that whole fumbling with the keys thing slightly silly.

So Ah pulls on the back of his coat again and ends up crying. Habaek pulls her hand away gently and walks towards her, but she shields away and rushes into her house, while Habaek looks dejected.

Once again, I love the soft intensity but don’t really know what we are being intense about.

Hoo Ye recalls Bi Ryeom’s words about how Hoo Ye only has the power to destroy what he touches and inadvertently destroys the flowers. Ja Ya sees this and corners Hoo Ye in his office. Hoo Ye thinks that he got busted, but turns out Ja Ya thinks that he’s a magician. Nonetheless, something burns inside Hoo Ye and he walks towards Ja Ya threateningly. She turns away but he suddenly grabs her in a back hug, before calming himself down. I read some comments which said that he hugged Ja Ya in order to get the evil destruction urge (/black smoke) to go away, but I actually have a different interpretation. I thought that he ‘hugged’ Ja Ya because he was going to strangle/do something to her from the back, but he managed to quell that urge, hence the black smoke went away. What do you think?

Turns out however that Joo Geol Rin is in the office too. He has taken care of Hoo Ye for 3000 years (omg the poor boy has been abandoned for 3000 years?) but Hoo Ye thought he just didn’t want to come anymore when he stopped visiting. Joo Geol Rin tells him that it’s because he was exiled, but he was worried when Habaek brought the bloodied stone to him. He’s glad to see that Hoo Ye is doing well and has control over his power, so he turns to leave for good but Hoo Ye asks him about the “female human” whom Habaek is with.

Cue to our couple – So Ah offers to whip up breakfast for the both of them but spends two hours on it. Habaek is naturally unimpressed and says that he only tells the truth, “It’s bad.” So Ah scoffs. She’s a psychiatrist, she scored well in psychology and she knows – she knows that Habaek lied about why the deities punished her ancestors. She thinks that Habaek keeps going back to the Shim story as a way to escape facing the truth. Habaek puts on a stiff face and hilariously (to me) diverts the topic by asking if she wants to go home together that day. Funnily, So Ah stops pursuing the topic and tells him that since it’s her day off, let’s do something else instead.

The couple thus cleans the house together!! Awww so cute, watch them as they knock into each other while dusting, how Habaek so casually and innocently helps So Ah with the books on the top shelf, or how they end up with a water fight. At the end of the day, So Ah lies on the floor and invites Habaek to do the same because it’s good for the back. He declines initially saying he’s a man, but So Ah’s like “So what”, so Habaek plonks himself right next So Ah and she frantically rolls herself away.

Habaek rolls after her hahaha and tells her that he has learnt from the newspapers that all men are animals. “So do not tell men to lie down with you like this. Don’t hug any guy from behind and cry like you did yesterday.”

While So Ah grumbles that he’s acting like a brother, he suddenly leans in close….to get up. Hahaha. He murmurs that he wants a warm bath, and the next thing we know the couple exits a sauna. I would have loved to watch Habaek in a sauna. Imagine all the ahjusshis that he pissed off! Also, I know some people are grumbling about how generic the romance has become, but I genuinely am quite tickled by this couple and enjoy watching their interactions, even if there’s no dialogue.

So Ah realises that she doesn’t really remember what she did with her off days, showing that before Habaek, she was probably living her days aimlessly and lifelessly. She sees kids playing on a swing and tries to teach them how to do it the ‘proper’ way, only to fall flat on her face. She tells Habaek not to come over, but the water god has already stalked off in embarrassment hahaha. Unbeknownst to the couple, Joo Geol Rin and Hoo Ye are watching them. Joo Geol Rin tells Hoo Ye that So Ah must be the deities’ servant and explains why, “1200 years ago, you…” He pauses then continues, “Her ancestors committed a grave sin.” This little slip shows that Hoo Ye had something to do with So Ah’s family and why she became the servant. Joo Geol Rin encourages Hoo Ye that he should have the servant instead; she would understand him and he wouldn’t be so lonely. The process of growing and dying is too tough for him to handle alone. Hmm, so you mean Hoo Ye goes through the human life cycle continuously?

Habaek puts his hand over So Ah’s wound but it doesn’t heal. While So Ah thinks that Habaek is making fun of her, I think that Habaek is genuinely sad he can’t do anything for her. So Ah threatens to scrape his name off the wall, but Habaek throws the rock away. So Ah then picks up another one and Habaek is distracted (hahahahah that man) when she says, “Oh look fried chicken!”

We are back to Moo Ra and the watch/earring advertorial but this time it’s funny because the man faints AGAIN. Moo Ra can’t take it anymore and tells her manager to tell the director that they can either fire her or him, “Forget it, just pay the cancellation fee!” Bi Ryeom keeps sniggering and making jibes, causing Moo Ra to be really irritated.

His face soon evolves into his usual hateful expression when he sees Hoo Ye walking towards him. As Hoo Ye passes him by like a gentleman, Bi Ryeom provokes him, “We are in the process of fixing Joo Dong. You ruin things and we fix them. That’s the crucial difference between you and us.” Moo Ra can’t take it anymore with his childish attacks towards Hoo Ye, pointing out that even Habaek isn’t doing anything. This however makes me think that there is something behind Bi Ryeom’s hate towards Hoo Ye. Perhaps Hoo Ye has killed someone important to Bi Ryeom before. Nonetheless, I fear that the drama has thrown Bi Ryeom too far down into the dark waters to redeem him in my eyes. Like come on! Hoo Ye has been doing nothing, literally nothing in this episode. Bi Ryeom is the antagoniser and if Hoo Ye ends up doing something horrible and gets punished for it, I hope Bi Ryeom goes down with him.

The secretary reminds Hoo Ye about the unresolved contract with So Ah and he finally realises that there’s something with that land. He drives there and finds the Gate of the Gods.

Indeed, that’s the place he was cast out years ago. He laughs in tears and pain as he looks at the stones on the floor where he landed years ago, and the trees in the surrounding which looked so ominous then. Awesome acting!

Bi Ryeom finds out at the same time that So Ah has sold the land to Hoo Ye, so he descends behind Hoo Ye and punches him (okay mechanism of arrival is said by me, I don’t actually know how he got there). He claims that Hoo Ye has coveted the land and approached So Ah intentionally. In order to protect himself, Hoo Ye smiles threateningly, “You said that I ruin things while you fix them. That’s what I’m planning to do on this great land of yours.” He even admits that he was indeed the one who did something to Joo Dong, “But what can you do? Can you kill me? Can you do a better job in that…than me?” However, Hoo Ye is really not that evil. As he turns to walk away, you can see that his smile melts away into a face of vulnerability. Team Hoo Ye.

Habaek looks disappointed that So Ah has sold the land to Hoo Ye but protects her from Bi Ryeom by saying that he was the one who allowed her to do so. Bi Ryeom lashes out. If Hoo Ye fills the land with people, then the gods won’t be able to use the gate anyway and will have to abandon it. If the gods stop visiting, the human world will disappear. He never once thought that Habaek was pathetic for losing his powers, “But I never once forget my identity just because I fell in love with a human being, but then again, this isn’t your first time.” So we know for sure now that Habaek has fallen in love with a human being before, which was why Moo Ra was so scared that he would fall in love with So Ah this time too! I suppose this human being is Nak Bin? But then how does that tie in with the Sky God?

Jin Geon calls Bi Ryeom, who in turn tells Habaek, “Go and see what your servant…no, go see what your woman is up to.” So Ah at this moment in time is meeting Hoo Ye because he wants to know if the reason why she broke the contract was because someone didn’t want her to sell the land. So Ah acknowledges that it was a factor, but explains that she just didn’t feel at ease even though he didn’t force her not to sell. “I learned that the one who have more should help those who have less…from my father.” She also learnt that the strong should protect the weak. Even though Hoo Ye thinks that the man (Habaek) doesn’t have less than her, it doesn’t mean that he’s stronger than her. “The damage of me giving up a million dollars is less than the damage of him losing the land.” Hoo Ye directly asks if it’s because he’s the wind.

The camera pans out to show Habaek watching from the outside. So Ah declines to answer the question, since it has nothing to do with her decision. Hoo Ye replies that he has forgotten that she tends to care too much for others, and that that’s the reason why he was interested in her. Now that he knows her reason, he will try to convince his employees. He agrees with her philosophy but doesn’t agree that the man he wishes to help is weaker than her.

Hoo Ye leaves the restaurant first so he spots Habaek outside the restaurant. Even though he can’t see through Habaek’s feelings, he can tell that he’s filled with anger, contempt and confusion. Hoo Ye declares that he has no interest in the gate; he only wants Yoon So Ah. Uh-oh. It doesn’t matter that she’s the deities’ servant, “This is the world of humans, and this is my turf.” So Ah referred to him as the wind, “No, as the wind that stopped blowing.”

So Ah leaves the restaurant next in the other direction and calls Habaek. She’s happy because she did something for Habaek and wants to meet for dinner, but the dude arranges to meet at the tree where they first met (I think). So Ah wonders why he looks so serious, as he replays Hoo Ye’s words that So Ah thinks of him as just a wind that stopped blowing. Habaek asks if she sold the land and she admits it, but she has asked for the land back. Habaek dismisses her gesture by saying that her selling and asking for it back is not important. This is a blow to So Ah, who has fretted over the decision for days (yeah we’ve been through that). If that’s not important, then what has she been doing all this while?

Habaek mutters that they shouldn’t treat fake wings as wings that could fly. After all, he is returning to his world. As he turns around, So Ah murmurs, “Those who smile during hardships are winners. The ones who endure are minors. The ones who cry are losers.” And Habaek has completely turned her into a loser.

Moved by her words, Habaek walks towards her, “I’m leaving. I have to leave,” but in contradiction to his words, he pulls her towards him and kisses her.

He leans back and whispers, “I said I’m going to leave,” but once again pulls her by her back. And this time, So Ah closes her eyes and returns the kiss.

I think everyone is going to have a different reaction to the kiss. I anticipate that some people will think Habaek as a jerk. Like, Come on dude you said you are leaving and yet you are trying to have her at the same time? Selfish! Haha. But somehow, I liked the kiss. I see his words as conveying the poignancy of the scene, as a way to contradict his actions and thus makes his desire to stay even stronger. He has to leave, yes, but he doesn’t want to, and this is why he says “I have to”, never “I want to”. Just like how he constantly reminds So Ah that he’s leaving, So Ah’s acceptance of the kiss is also sad and sweet at the same time.

Even though technically nothing happened in terms of concrete action, I do enjoy this episode because there was some movement. I just wish they stop baiting us with the back story and give it all to us already! Anyhow, I’m looking forward to the next episode!

<3thoughtsramble