The cycle continues except the risks only get worse. After offering himself as a source of support and help to the rest of the team, Da-il discovers that he himself might not be in the best position to continue doing that. Along with all the other challenges that our team faces, everyone encounters the biggest issue yet: Da-il.
The Ghost Detective: Episode 9 Recap
After saving Kim Gyeol from rescuing himself, Da-il suddenly disappears without a trace. Yeo-wool nor Woo-hye can see him nor do they comprehend what’s going on. It’s 1AM and Da-il finds himself trapped inside his physical body. He can’t move, but he does witness an older lady inside of a house covering his body with a blanket once she realizes that it’s 1AM.
Woo-hye changes her mind and doesn’t want Kim Gyeol to die just yet. It wouldn’t be fun that way if he was to be dead. She ends the conversation with Yeo-wool and Kim Gyeol and resumes with her plans. Meanwhile, Kim Gyeol admits to Yeo-wool that it was his fault that Yi-rang died. He was threatened by Woo-hye herself to kill himself, but he couldn’t do it so he sacrificed Yi-rang instead. Yeo-wool is saddened and angry by the news, but comments that she too doesn’t want Kim Gyeol to kill himself just yet.
Yeo-wool desperately searches for Da-il, but he’s no where to be found. She notifies Sang-seob and Chae-won of his disappearance. Nurse Jeon – who’s held inside of a detention center for the time being – desperately requests to meet with Yeo-wool. However, his demands are unmet.
He’s then visited by Woo-hye herself who demands for answers on Da-il’s body. Why didn’t Nurse Jeon tell her about his body? Where did he hide Da-il’s body? Nurse Jeon reasons that he did it as a way to protect Woo-hye from being discovered by Da-il, but she grows angry. Nurse Jeon adds that he should have killed himself or killed Woo-hye 25 years ago when she had jumped off the rooftop of the building. Maybe then, all of this wouldn’t have happened. Woo-hye’s anger gets to her and she leaves the detention center.
Yeo-wool recounts the details of what happened right before Da-il disappeared from thin air. She remembers his red eyes which Chae-won explains means that his soul is being possessed by evil. If he continues to abuse his powers of touching physical things, he might turn into an evil spirit. However, if Da-il is still a ghost, he’ll surely return. Yeo-wool heads back home to her apartment just in case Da-il is there. However, she doesn’t find him there. Unlike last time, the apartment hallway is empty.
Jung-dae is questioned by his colleague about the other day when he was suddenly locked inside the interrogation room with Nurse Jeon (and Da-il). Jung-dae’s colleague wants to know who exactly was this Da-il that was inside of the room with him at that moment. The two detectives are also consumed with another revelation: Nurse Jeon is discovered hung inside of his prison cell. They trace the details leading up to the death through CCTV recordings and finds one of the prison guards with red eyes standing outside his cell. They grow suspicious of the guard’s behavior. Meanwhile, Yeo-wool can’t seem to stop thinking and worrying about Da-il.
The next morning, Da-il finds him back in Kim Gyeol’s apartment where he had disappeared from the night before. He’s stuck and he can’t seem to move his body. Da-il is eventually greeted by Woo-hye who begins to ask him a series of questions. What is his priority: to find his physical body or to catch her first? Da-il attempts to help Woo-hye get rid of her guilt, but it doesn’t work. Woo-hye admits to killing her father unlike what others think.
The drama then takes us back years ago to when Woo-hye was twelve. On the night that her father and brother had died, she was offered some soda mixed with poison by her father so that they could all die and end their sufferings. However, as she learned much later, her dad’s original plan was to kill both her and her brother so that he could live by himself. As we saw, his plan never came to fruition and he ended up dying when Woo-hye switched her poisonous drink with his clean drink.
At that moment, Da-il manages to break free and strangles Woo-hye by the neck. However, Woo-hye already has a way to escape from Da-il: Yeo-wool is in danger from getting attacked. She’s managed to control somebody to attack Yeo-wool and possibly kill her. Da-il lets Woo-hye go in order to protect Yeo-wool.
The man arrives at Yeo-wool’s apartment and struggles to get inside. Terrified, Yeo-wool calls for Jung-dae’s help so he rushes to her apartment. However, Da-il gets there first and manages to fight off the man. He then enters the apartment afterwards and reunites with a frightened Yeo-wool. She grows relieved upon seeing him and jumps right into his arms. She was worried that Da-il had disappeared forever; with him, she was finally able to feel like she wasn’t alone. Though she might have others around her, she feels different when with Da-il. It’s unfortunate that she has to keep reminding herself that Da-il is just a ghost and not a human being. Jung-dae overhears their conversation from outside the apartment and grows sad. Instead of entering, he arrests the man outside in the hallway.
While at the same bus stop that Kim Gyeol and Yi-rang used to stay at, Kim Gyeol begins to hallucinate and he suddenly sees a figure of Yi-rang. He grows confused as to how she’s still alive, but as he will soon discover, it’s not Yi-rang he’s talking to but rather Woo-hye. In the form of Yi-rang, Woo-hye wants Kim Gyeol to help her defeat Da-il. If he helps her, she’ll let Yeo-wool live. Kim Gyeol too is controlled by Woo-hye and he follows after her.
Chae-won informs the rest of the team that there’s a chance Da-il can live again. It just depends on his condition and how quickly they find his physical body. Da-il sets out to talk to Nurse Jeon, but they all learn that he’s dead. Chae-won heads out to check Nurse Jeon’s body along with Jung-dae. They reach the conclusion that he must have gotten strangled by someone instead of hanging himself. With Jung-dae waiting on the side, Chae-won uses her psychic abilities and powers to trace the moments leading up to the death. Jung-dae witnesses her using her powers.
Da-il visits the prison cell to gather any additional evidence. In the midst of doing so, he finds a message written on the wall that states “mom.” With Sang-seob’s additional research, they discover that Nurse Jeon grew up in an orphanage so he couldn’t have been referring to his biological mother. Instead, the message must have been talking about the director of the orphanage he grew up in who was like a mother figure to Nurse Jeon. Our trio heads to the orphanage to pay her a visit.
Yeo-wool and Sang-seob put on an act and inform the director of the orphanage about Nurse Jeon’s unfortunate death. After gaining her trust, she shows them a document containing personal information of other patients that Nurse Jeon also took care of alongside Woo-hye. Just earlier that day, a young man came to visit to express his gratitude for Nurse Jeon. Our trio once again sets out on another trip to visit these patients. Maybe one of them has Da-il’s hidden body.
However, an entire day of searching results in no success. Our team fails to find the house with Da-il’s body and it’s time for Da-il to leave. When Da-il does return to his physical body, he finds himself inside a house and the same old lady is watching some television. He also discovers a calendar hanging on the wall with the logo “Jaeil church.”
That night, Yeo-wool continues her investigation and concludes that the old woman accompanying Da-il’s physical body must be Woo-hye’s mom. Back at the house, the mother approaches Da-il after seeing him awake and prepares to inject him with some kind of medicine. She claims Da-il to be her son, and adds that she’ll do anything to protect him.
Jung-dae interrogates the prison guard who was seen in front of Nurse Jeon’s prison cell before his death. The guard admits to having seen Woo-hye before she controlled him. Jung-dae informs Yeo-wool of the news which then helps her reach her next conclusion: Nurse Jeon must have been in contact with Woo-hye’s mother the entire time. Woo-hye was unable to find Da-il’s body because he had it hidden with Woo-hye’s mother who Woo-hye doesn’t know the whereabouts to. Yeo-wool and Sang-seob decide to head out to the same city where Nurse Jeon had taken care of Woo-hye’s physical body. Woo-hye’s unfamiliar with places outside of her neighborhood.
Along with Chae-won, the three finally arrive at the location of Woo-hye’s mother’s house. Inside, Woo-hye’s mother reiterates once again that she’ll save Da-il and make him at peace. Da-il stumbles onto the floors and faints.
My Thoughts:
GAAAAAAH, this drama is such a troll! Lol. First it made us believe that Da-il was alive in his physical body, but in actuality, he just returned to his physical body. Now I’m wondering if someone needs to stab his physical body in order for him to wake back up. Technically, he’s a ghost just like Woo-hye was, but it wasn’t until she was stabbed that she became alive. Does someone also need to hurt or stab Da-il for him to be alive in his body again?
I had high hopes that Da-il was alive in his body. I really did. I thought that maybe things would finally be okay again and that Da-il would be able to reunite with the team and continue to chase down Woo-hye. It’s not like he hasn’t been doing that the past few months, but it just sucks to be reminded that he’s a ghost. There’s limits as to what he can or cannot do as a ghost and it definitely makes things harder. It also makes you sad to be reminded that he’s a ghost and not a human being so the chances of him returning to his physical body are uncertain. You don’t know if he’ll ever be alive again and that’s the sad part. Things are shaky, rough, and iffy, and the uncertainty is definitely there. Our team is in a fight against not only Woo-hye but time as well and they must win as soon as possible.
This entire drama has primarily been gains and wins for Woo-hye and not so much for our team. I understand that this entire drama is about our team going after her so they’re not going to immediately win right away, but it does get a little tiresome seeing Woo-hye being so controlling in this game. It gets tiring seeing her win every battle and watching her control anyone she wants to take advantage of. I understand that Woo-hye was tricked into dying when she was younger, and technically she did kill her father as a 12 year old, but why take that anger out on other people? What did others do to her for her to hurt them? It just makes me puzzled as to why she’s killing people. Is she killing people because she’s angry she almost died at a young age? Are there other reasons as to why she’s killing so many people? Once again, it just goes back to the entire idea of why. I want to know why she’s killing people, not so much how she’s killing them or how our team is catching her.
Bringing Woo-hye’s mother into all of this was random (like everything else in this drama is), but it was also a decent surprise. I’m not sure why Nurse Jeon would be in contact with Woo-hye’s mother who Woo-hye herself doesn’t have many recollections of, but it makes for an interesting case. Did Woo-hye’s mother mistaken Da-il for her own son who she’s trying to save? She did reiterate that she would save Da-il or that she’s only trying to protect him and make him at peace. She seems to be treating Da-il as if he’s her son, but I’m not entirely sure how Woo-hye’s mother perceives him, how she feels about him, who she thinks Da-il is, etc. Why did Nurse Jeon save Da-il’s body and bring him to Woo-hye’s mother anyways? There are many questions I have, and hopefully the drama will shed some light on them in upcoming episodes.
I didn’t actually think Woo-hye would kill Nurse Jeon since it seemed like he was someone she needed, but now that she’s in her physical body, I guess there’s no need for him any longer. It was surprising to me though since Nurse Jeon was a pivotal person in her life, but I guess he never really felt anything positive towards her. All Nurse Jeon did feel this entire time was guilt, regret, and shame so losing his life now wouldn’t hurt him. Now that Nurse Jeon is no longer alive, I wonder if anything will change. Will catching Woo-hye now get any easier?
Honestly, the most heart-breaking scene for me so far into the drama would be the moments where Yeo-wool yearned for Da-il’s presence in this episode. When he suddenly disappeared, she was so clueless and afraid. She was also so sad because Da-il was someone she relied on for the past few months, and someone that she grew into trusting. Yeo-wool had become accustomed to being around Da-il that it felt foreign and scary for her when he wasn’t around. It was so bittersweet and beautiful to witness her recall memories of them together, but it was also sad knowing that this could be a possible future for Yeo-wool. She might have to live without Da-il in the future like she experienced within those few hours and it’s a scary fate that she doesn’t want to think about or confront. I think this could explain as to why she’s so desperate to find Da-il. Yeo-wool doesn’t want to live in or imagine a world without Da-il because she realizes that she does want to be with him.
More so than anything, I’m worried about Da-il. I doubt he’s dead, but I do think his physical body is heavily injured which means his condition will worsen so his chances of returning to his physical body alive is slim. I’m not really sure how it works since it seems like there’s many rules in this world of ghosts and comas and physical bodies, but hopefully our trio will save him just in time. He didn’t appear at the office that morning like he was supposed to so that’s not a good sign. Just like all the other times where Da-il saved Yeo-wool, let’s hope Yeo-wool will be able to save him this time.
Note: Extra screen shots from episode 8 & 9 🙂
MaryMeKpop 