Truthfully I’m holding out only because I’m just somehow very enamored with Ha Baek and Hoo Ye.

I don’t hate this drama as much as some people, but I think it’s undeniable that the show did not live up to its fullest potential. This is a world that has lots to be tapped into and even at the second last episode, I don’t think we have even fully gone below the surface. Especially in the last few episodes, the plot is mostly driven by Ha Baek’s and So Ah’s love which supposedly, at this point in time, will end tragically.

After the sun sets, So Ah confides in Ha Baek that she remembered how the last time they came to watch the sunset, there were 12 clams in the soup she drank after. Her parents were quarreling so she couldn’t stop counting the clams as an escape.

The quiet, somber mood in the ride home is later broken by the comic relief of So Ah learning that in the world of deities, they practice polygamy. After all, as Habaek justifies, they live forever – how can they only love one person in that lifetime? He insists that he hasn’t been married before, although So Ah insists that Lady Yuwha is his daughter – homage to the comics?

Habaek keeps ordering So Ah to deliver water, which at first I thought was him trying to avoid the issue, but turns out it is his way of staying up so that he can watch the tv with So Ah.

It starts off cheerily enough but So Ah’s joke inadvertently reminds the couple that he’s living. She quietly asks Habaek if she can be greedy and requests that he remembers her for as long as he can.

You know, I’m okay with the whole idea that Habaek-has-to-leave and that he came back to make sure they have a proper goodbye, but honestly all that has happened in the last few episodes is them being sad that Habaek has to leave.

In the morning, Habaek cooks breakfast for So Ah but pretends that it’s for himself. So Ah tears up because this is the first time someone cooks a proper breakfast for her. I do hope at the end of the show, So Ah gets over this childhood trauma. It’s getting a little old, even if So Ah’s trauma was an important point to the show.

One thing I do like in this episode however, is how much better Hoo Ye is. He is cheeky. For one, he brings the clinic’s key to So Ah’s house since he couldn’t find a pot to leave it in, as per Ha Baek’s instructions.

Somehow, Hoo Ye ends up having breakfast with the couple. Habaek is obviously threatened and starts to show off his knowledge of So Ah – how she’s a terrible cook and sleeps everywhere – and their intimacy – he carries her to bed every night and she gets very shy whenever she sees him naked.

It seems like it’s Habaek 1, Hoo Ye 0, but Hoo Ye simply takes that in stride and reveals to So Ah that he’s her new landlord. Habaek sees how So Ah bends over backwards thanking Hoo Ye profusely and suddenly shouts to prove his worth, “I’m! A King!” Hahaha, as if that has any relevance to the topic at hand.

Hoo Ye picks up an old photo of So Ah and once again wonders if they have met before. Habaek changes into proper clothes and orders So Ah to make some tea. So Ah obliges but scoffs at Habaek’s attempt to appear important and patriarchal.

Anyway, we have the same showdown between Hoo Ye (time, money) and Habaek (king) – who wins? Hoo Ye subtly shows the results by reminding So Ah about working at his farm to pay off the penalty. Once again, Habaek hilariously tries to ask for money from Moo Ra, who hangs up on him.

Bi Ryeom serves breakfast to Moo Ra’s bed and wonders if he needs to take another 50 or 100 steps to get into her heart. He almost immediately gets a call from Habaek (also asking for money) but turns him down.

Habaek is annoyed and threatens under his breath to turn them into sparrows when he returns to the world of deities. The two nonetheless meet and Habaek offers to pay Bi Ryeom interest in the form of favours if he lends him money.

Bi Ryeom finally puts down his pride and asks Ha Baek how Moo Ra is like. While we watch Moo Ra telling Hoo Ye to destroy Habaek so that he leaves as a wreck, Ha Baek tells Bi Ryeom that the two of them are beyond friends, leaving Bi Ryeom to shake his head at how little Habaek knows about Moo Ra.

Left with no choice, Habaek comes up with the brilliant idea of working for Hoo Ye instead – as a king, he thinks he’s 50 million, and therefore Hoo Ye has to pay him for working on his farm.

In the (now getting very stale) power struggle between the two men, it seems like Hoo Ye now has another card up his sleeve – humans are lonely from the moment they are born.

Jin Geon passes something to Moo Ra, which pleases her very much, and I think Habaek instinctively senses what happened. This is especially since the subsequent scene is of Hoo Ye telling So Ah that Habaek has the powers of all deities, although he cannot revive the dead and he doesn’t have Hoo Ye’s power. I’m glad they had this scene, because I’m always eager to watch JUST HOW POWERFUL THIS HABAEK IS??

So Ah delivers water and Habaek gets into his mind that a wet man = sexy, so that darn man puts the kettle above his head.

I mean yes, it’s sexy but that sight of Habaek with a kettle on top of his head is just hilarious hahaha.

So Ah later wipes his hair and he quietly asks, “I’m telling you this because I’m selfish…try your best to not be lonely for as long as you can.” Since Habaek already knows he has to leave soon, this explains his sad expression when So Ah happily holds his hand as they walk home after a day’s work.

True enough, Moo Ra turns up gleefully in a red dress with a red card. Even without her saying, we know that the 7th red tide has come. It’s time for Habaek to leave.

It is Habaek’s turn to be angry, lost and sad, but So Ah is the one who brings him into the house and prepares dinner. Habaek asks why she has never once asked him to stay, and she jokes that she’s not the type of girl to hold men back.

She makes nonchalant and crude remarks about how Habaek will be nothing if he doesn’t become king. Habaek is naturally upset, but we all know So Ah doesn’t believe in that and soon enough, she breaks down in tears too.

Moo Ra is so happy and says that she has even thought about not telling Habaek the message so that he will stay here forever. We know finally know ‘what happens if Habaek doesn’t go back’ – he dies if he doesn’t become king, which is why Ha Baek doesn’t hesitate returning even if he hates it. Bi Ryeom knows she’s just saying that out of spite. Truthfully, although I see the appeal in this second-lead couple, and I do think they act well, I just can never get on the Bi Ryeom-Moo Ra ship.

So Ah visits the place where she committed suicide – turns out she studied hard, she was doing well in school even after her dad abandoned her. It was only because she suddenly had this thought – when there’s so much love in this world, why did the deity not save any for me? Why did the deity leave me out? Why did the deity hate me? Her calling her dad was kinda the ultimatum – if he didn’t pick up, the deity hates her.

Now that she has to say goodbye to someone she loves, she wants to know if she has matured since then. She thanks Habaek for the love he has given her.

Ja Ya, whom I’ve now concluded is completely irrelevant to the story, is actually becoming surprisingly funny – Secretary Min’s order for her to become a decent human being actually leads her to study the DNA genome and she’s so confused as to what the man’s “cryptic” instructions really mean.

I don’t really know what’s going on but I think Bi Ryeom dug out some fan gifts for Moo Ra and keeps using them, and she’s secretly upset because I think she pretends she hates gifts from “filthy humans” but actually adores them. In any case, Bi Ryeom’s diamond ring gets rejected again.

Yeom Mi, who has been agonising over her dream for the past episodes, finally reaches the end of her dream – “that person, is the person who saved me. But the person who saved me is going to be the deity that takes away my soul.” In confusion? No worries, because Yeom Mi tells you what it means – “that means you’re going to die.”

-the end-

Honestly quite underwhelmed by these episodes and I think it’s a waste of all the talent we have seen so far. Contrary to some views, I think Nam Joo Hyuk has actually been doing a good job. In fact, it’s the way he tears, the way he holds on to his pride, the way he gels into this human world, makes Habaek such an endearing, vulnerable and yet, strong character. I wish So Ah’s characterisation received a lot more love – although she’s probably going to get over her trauma by the next episode (we can only hope), I think it was too simplistic to be satisfied with that as indication of character growth.

I will leave most of my views for the finale recap but right now, I’m offering a theory. Remember how Joo Dong’s gone and he tells Soo Ri (in this episode) that he is coming back soon? I think he will bring a gamechanger piece of news, and I think that So Ah may be a reincarnation of Nak Bin. I’m not a fan of this outcome, because we have come to know So Ah as a character in her own right, and nothing of Nak Bin other than her betrayal…but there are some strange indications to this effect. Why did Hoo Ye say that he has seen So Ah before? Could it be because 1200 years ago, Nak Bin hid in his cave before? Also, what if the prophecy Yeom Mi had was not in relation to the present So Ah, but the past Nak Bin? Then it would make a lot of sense, won’t it? That Habaek saved Nak Bin’s life, but he was also the reason why she died. In that case, perhaps So Ah jumped into the river to be a sacrifice to the water gods once again.

I do have other theories in mind, wondering if Hoo Ye saw So Ah before because he saved her from drowning and she forgot, or if So Ah’s drowning was what Habaek would save her from. I don’t know, but I sure hope the ending will be satisfactory!

<3thoughtsramble