I kinda like this episode, kinda don’t. But now that we have gotten certain questions out of the way, I think the good stuff is going to roll in!
Ma Wang realises that Ji Seon Mi has allowed the bookseller to take the young Ji Seon Mi away and is annoyed – because then the one who made the contract with Son Oh Gong is under the power of the bookseller now. Ma Wang wonders if that means the power of the Guemganggo (along with the love) can be transferred like that too.
However, Son Oh Gong has beaten the bookseller up, showing that he obviously doesn’t love her. The bookseller tries to provoke him into finding the book with young Jin Seon Mi, but Son Oh Gong’s like – why should I? I’m better off this way.
Without Seon Mi’s blood, Bu Ja starts to rot at an exponential rate, causing PK to be distraught. In the meantime, Seon Mi is undeniably disappointed that without Sam Jung powers, she wouldn’t be able to call Son Oh Gong anymore.It’s kinda like an empty feeling of celebration. She finds him at Ma Wang’s house and he treats her coldly, claiming that she doesn’t look pretty anymore (meaning no love).
Ma Wang wants to sign a new contract with the bookseller, in order to continue raking points for his quest. However, he learns from her that the power of the Guemganggo did not transfer. This means that Son Oh Gong still loves Seon Mi. Seon Mi leaves in tears but Oh Gong, with his back turned, thinks that she really has no feelings for him.
Ma Wang then tries to provoke Seon Mi by reminding her that the love will transfer, and seeks out Son Oh Gong to find out who he really loves right now. Son Oh Gong is in the midst of packing to travel to a warmer place and reveals that because he loves her, he has become strange and wants her to lead a life like any other normal human. This is the reason why he’s leaving, and not because he wants to take this chance to get rid of the Guemganggo. Ma Wang is hilariously touched and offers his own larger suitcase. In return, Son Oh Gong gifts him a bottle of wine.
General Frost is upset with the lingering souls of the children and both him and Soo Bo Ri are frustrated with the humans. Rather than the bookseller, it is the humans who mistreat the children who are more evil.
Seon Mi tears when she looks at the bell, thinking that it’s still a love bell. She visits a haunted apartment with Han Joo, but is unable to see the ghosts inside. She sees this as a chance for her to finally be normal. Okay very very questionable – what?? (Refer to end of post for my question!)
Son Oh Gong pretends that his conversation with Ma Wang was just a pretense to shake Ma Wang off, but we all know that was his true feelings. Ma Wang tries to find out from Seon Mi the way to activate the Guemganggo but Seon Mi leaves in a huff, only to find Son Oh Gong in her office.
They then have this tug of war kind of conversation where Son Oh Gong wants Seon Mi to tell him not to leave while Seon Mi acts nonchalant. Oh Gong comments on the spirit hanging by her side but Seon Mi says that she will just be like a normal person – not knowing is better. While leaving, Oh Gong runs into Han Joo and Jonathan and decides to ask the spirit to play around. Seon Mi runs out of her office and gives Oh Gong a proper and formal farewell, causing Oh Gong to be furious – after all that he has done for her, he only gets a thank you? The couple separates in a huff again – which makes me think, what’s the point of this scene? It’s just like a second tug of war from the office!
Later, Seon Mi goes on a date with Jonathan and the young boy seeks her out because he wants her to speak to his sister. Seon Mi however, can’t do that anymore. Meanwhile, Son Oh Gong entertains the sister – wow this man has great affinity with children eh HAHA.
PK hears from the peddler’s grandson that nothing will stop Bu Ja’s rotting unless she eats a human and quickly lures Seon Mi into meeting Bu Ja. Bu Ja is already reaching a zombified state and PK quickly shoves her into the van since Ma Wang is arriving. The van shakes vigorously and a woman screams. Ma Wang quickly opens the door but we see Seon Mi hugging a calmed down Bu Ja.
Everything taken in totality (Son Oh Gong, her powers and ability to help spirits, Bu Ja etc), Seon Mi goes to find the peddler, wanting her book back. This is because the only way for a child to escape the book is through her own will. Son Oh Gong also hears the same from the sister spirit and arrives at the bookseller’s house. He is surprised to see a Seon Mi, who attempts to kiss him.
In reality, that’s the bookseller and she leads him to Seon Mi, who lies asleep on the book with her soul. Son Oh Gong provokes the bookseller that she’s just an evil spirit living off the children’s souls and she cries in anger, because all along she thinks that she’s saving their souls from the humans. In a poof, she disappears. Slightly dubious that you can end the bookseller so easily….
Han Joo takes care of the young brother and hugs him as he cries. A purple ball of light disappears near them. What is this? Is it the sister’s spirit?
Seon Mi brings the young Seon Mi back and wakes up – causing Bu Ja to immediately be okay again and Ma Wang to have contortions. Seon Mi asks if she should let out some blood to test if her Sam Jung powers back but Oh Gong playfully slaps her hand away, saying that he’s tired from dealing with the bookseller. She admits that she didn’t feel good thinking that the power of the Guemganggo could transfer, and Son Oh Gong replies, “The owner of my Guemganggo is only Jin Seon Mi.” I think it’s slightly strange (amusing?) that they are couching their love in ownership language, but I suppose it makes sense in the particular context of this drama.
Seon Mi wants to reactivate the Guemganggo and kisses Oh Gong, before cute-ly and shyly murmuring, “Activate.” Oh Gong then replies, “That wouldn’t do,” and leans in for a deeper and longer kiss – while the bells of the charm ring in the distance.
—-
At the end of this episode, I have ONE important question. It has been bothering me all week – How does losing Sam Jung powers equates to losing the ability to see ghosts? Jin Seon Mi could see ghosts way before she even let Son Oh Gong out right? If I recall correctly, she tried to scare the ghost away with her umbrella, which was why Ma Wang was able to strike a deal with her using the umbrella he had. I really hope someone out there has a good explanation for this, or that the drama will address this later. If not the basic premise of the show is flawed!
Other than the strange concept here and there, I like this episode because we see Oh Gong acting on his autonomy, rather than under the power of the Guemganggo. I also like how the show consistently shows the different ways in which humans bring out the evil spirits. It’s not a new premise, but still rather thought-provoking and slightly humbling too. Even if this is just a drama, I think it has focused on some social issues pertinent to today’s society. Sometimes, I find myself putting my phone away just because I remember how Oh Gong was trying to mimic the humans and using his phone!
Now that we have confirmed both of their love for each other, I can’t wait to see where this takes us. I’m not a fan of the tug-of-war scenes – one is enough but two? That just makes it draggy. So I’m glad that we are over that stage and we can now move on to the grittier and more substantial part of their relationship, and how that plays into saving humans.
At the moment, my guess is that if the bell’s prophecy was to come true, then it would be something like Seon Mi being in danger, Oh Gong sacrificing himself to save her, and then he becomes human so that the two will be together. I don’t know if I necessarily like the idea of him becoming human so I hope it doesn’t end that way.
(Administrative note: words for this recap will go up faster than screenshots just because of my schedule! But this will be updated soon.)
<3thoughtsramble
THOUGHTSRAMBLE 
In regards to the question you have: I’ve been wondering the same thing, and I’ve come up with a theory that I’m choosing to believe (the alternative is the existence of a glaring plot hole, and nobody wants that). I think that, perhaps, she stopped seeing spirits because her wish was to become “normal.” Her entire life was spent wishing for a normalcy that she had never experienced, and finally she gets her wish. The only problems I have with that are these: why was her wish granted? She didn’t do anything except make more trouble, frankly. You would think that she would be punished rather than rewarded (as being Sam Jang has been regarded as a punishment). Secondly, she supposedly became Sam Jang after releasing Son Oh Ging from the Five Elements Mountain, but why was she even able to see spirits before becoming Sam Jang? I guess my problem is not that she became unable to see spirits, but that she was always able to do so, even pre-Sam Jang Summons.
Also: when Jin Seon Mi’s soul was trapped in the book and she was no longer Sam Jang, Son Oh Gong still loved her even though it was painfully unclear about who the owner of the Geumganggo was. Was he released from that contract, thus his feelings being revealed as true? Because he didn’t love the bookseller and he was unable to hear Jin Seon-mi when she called. Furthermore, Ma Wang told Son Oh Gong during his confession of love for JSM “wow, you’re really in love.” Is this Ma wang’s way of telling him that his feelings are true? You would think that, with that combination, the contract would have been frozen.
Speaking of frozen Geumganggo contracts: what the heck was that with the Fairy Ha and General Frost freezing and melting it simultaneously?? Why is that even in the show? It seems pointless, but maybe I’m missing something. Also, it showed the Geumganggo being frozen AND General Frost admitted to freezing it, so it seems that he had no idea of his sister’s shenanigans. If that truly were just two spirits playing tricks, I don’t see the point of adding it to the show as it contributes nothing (or at least very little, save some confusion of JSM’s part).
Sorry this is so long. I have so many question.
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I think Summer Fairy was lying, trying to protect SunMi and prevent her from falling deeper in love with ohGong. Because when Patriarch confronted General Frost, he sure seemed to be saying the freezing worked. But that the Geumganggo was deliberately added to muddy the waters and prevent Sun Oh Gong and Seun Mi from realizing their true feelings for each other. For whatever reason, the heavens must worry if they know they love each other, it might interfere with their mission. (Which is ironic considering their uncertainty is what almost led to the mission being ruined in this episode.)
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Now it seems like they threw in the Guemganggo to prevent Oh Gong from killing Seon Mi?
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Hello! On hindsight, the plot of Guemganggo being frozen is pretty pointless – it didn’t tell us more than what we already know, so yes I agree with you on that. My own interpretation is that General Frost managed to freeze it for a split second, and the Summer Fairy melts it almost simultaneously, such that the “I love you” Oh Gong said is true. As for the Bookseller’s episode, I think the power of the Guemganggo didn’t transfer to the book seller because she couldn’t activate it. Therefore, you are right, it was in limbo – which is also the reason why Oh Gong superficially used this as a reason to get away because it’s his chance to escape from the Guemganggo. Also if I’m not wrong, he couldn’t hear the old Jin Seon Mi call him because he made the contract with the young one, which is why he heard a young Jin Seon Mi’s call for him when she first went into the book.
Looking forward to more discussions with you!
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Ok – regarding your main question – it confused me at first but here’s my interpretation… The book demon didn’t just take the Sam Jang soul, she took SunMi’s unhappy childhood which included/was due to the ghost-seeing ability. Like she looked at child SunMi (at some point after the contract she made with OhGong) and said, let’s take away everything about you that makes you unhappy/different: Sam Jang soul, ghost-seeing abilities, a contract with someone who’s name you can’t remember. That left adult SunMi without her ability to call OhGong and without her ghost-seeing ability. But because it was the adult SunMi and not the SamJang part of her that activated the Guemganggo, the Guemganggo didn’t transfer.
As for the scene where SunMi tells OhGong goodbye – at first I felt the same, that it was kind of useless. But I think this was actually the same scene as before but in reverse. Earlier, OhGong let her go because he thinks it’s what she wants even though he’s desperately looking for any sign it is not what she wants so he can stay. He’s motivated out of love for her, while also hurt that she doesn’t love him enough to want to keep him around, right? At the same time she is just hurt because she thinks he stopped loving her immediately and so she pretends she’s glad to be rid of him.
But then at the office, the way he was having cups tipped over out of jealousy seemed to tell her that OhGong still cared, right? So when SunMi realizes he still likes her, she gets past her hurt and is able to act out of her love for him. But it’s her turn to sacrifice out of love, letting him be free since that’s what she thinks *he* wants, while also hoping for any sign that he would rather stay with her. They were stuck in a circle of noble idiocy.
Techincally, I don’t think the Guemganggo was ever deactivated. But everyone can see OhGong truly loves her because his actions exceed what the Guemganggo would force him to do. If it was just the Guemganggo, he’d hang onto her. The true love is what motivates him to let her go even though it hurts.
And because I don’t think the Guemganggo was ever deactivated, it didn’t need to be reactivated. So my favorite part about when SunMi kissed OhGong was that she was all “just to be careful we better” and he’s all “look at her making up excuses to kiss me.” lol
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Thanks for your interpretation! What a life saver!! I was really SO frustrated about this loophole, which spurred me into writing a recap just so I can hear people’s views. Indeed, HEHE he had such a ‘passionate’ eyes moment when she kissed him because he knew that she’s just kissing for an excuse HAHA.
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I’ve had the same question regarding her ability to see spirits. Glad to see this review here and know I’m not alone!
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No problem! I was SO frustrated with this but sparksofember’s reply made me feel so much better! Hope you gave it a read and maybe that solved your doubts too
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I think the part you said about Jin Seon Mi being unable to the ghosts anymore is because the little Jin Seon Mi has been taken away by the bookseller. What do you think?
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Hi there! Sorry for the late reply, unfortunately I don’t quite remember the details of the show anymore but yes that’s definitely a possible interpretation! That the bookseller took away what represents the entire little Jin Seon Mi, before and after the contract with Son Oh Gong.
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I know this is an old post and drama but I put the drama off until now. The whole episode I thought the same thing. She could see spirits way before meeting our monkey, that part didn’t make sense. I’m glad I’m not the only one noticing that!
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