The Island New Korean Web Series Season 1 Episode No 1 Review
The island 2nd Episode Recap
On the way, Wonjeong collapses and the two boys are forced to carry Wonjeong back to the palace. Lord Jongryeong fumes and asks his guards to punish the boys for what happened all those years ago. Wonjoeong promises the boys to come back to save them and asks them to stay alive until then.
Back to the present day, Fr Giovanni arrives on Jeju Island just hours before Min-ho is attacked by the demon that is Secretary Kang. Butler Jang welcomes the priest to a secret mansion deep in the forest. He talks to Giovanni and is shocked that the exorcist is a very young Korean. Butler Jang begins to list Fr Giovanni's notable exorcisms over the years. Giovanni Butler tells Jang how he too has done an admirable job protecting the savior all these years.
Butler Jang looks confused and Giovanni explains the prophecy. He states that after he failed to protect the world from the demons in his first birth, the savior had to be reincarnated a second time to end the darkness that would arise in the world due to the demons. The priest adds that Won Min-ho is the reincarnation of the savior, claiming that he returned to Korea just to protect her.
Butler Jang escorts Giovanni outside and asks to meet Ba, who has come from the darkness, along with priest Min-ho. That night, Butler receives a call from Jang Min-ho, but is unable to help him in time. Ban arrives and kills the demon along with Secretary Kang. Min-ho is shocked by what he sees, but Ban tells him to stay in town if he wants to survive the aftermath of this attack.
Ban leaves him alone and breaks the protective shield that prevents the demon from escaping. The cops, along with Butler Jang, rush to Min-ho's rescue and find him disheveled. The cops question him, but his description of a demon doesn't fit them. Everyone tries to calm Min-ho down, but the cops just laugh at Min-ho's story. They mock Butler Jang, angering him.
The butler refuses to let Jang Min-ho talk to his father, saying that he must be tired. Min-ho overhears the conversation and is disheartened to hear how Butler Jang refuses to trust him. His informant tells him about an incident at the cliff, and Min-ho decides to take a taxi there.
A man tries to awaken the demon inside the Dol Hareubang statues by singing an evil song. At the same time, Min-ho arrives somewhere near Jeju Island's airport. At the airport, a security guard is possessed by a demon, but Min-ho buys a ticket to escape to Seoul on his own without Butler Jang's knowledge.
The airport staff alerts someone and tries to stop Min-ho from leaving, and one of the other security guards escorts him to the waiting room. Min-ho learns that it was his family's orders to prevent him from leaving Jeju, and reluctantly waits in the room as the guard who accompanies him tries to make small talk with him.
The possessed guard tries to attack Min-ho, but the other guards distract him as he runs outside the airport. Min-ho runs to the car and opens it, but the guard catches up with the car.
Min-ho tries to get in by speeding through the streets of Jeju with a guard on his roof. Jin falls in front of the car, and Min-ho gets scared after running over him. Surprisingly, the demon is still very much alive and continues to haunt Min-ho.
He manages to break open the window, but Min-ho crashes into another Dol Hareubang doll in the middle of an abandoned highway. The car Min-ho was driving overturned, but Min-ho somehow escaped. The possessed guard continues to chase him, but Ban's dagger stabs him just in time to save him. Min-ho begs Ban to save him, but the man is annoyed by having to save him not once, but three times in the past few days.
Ban shows the demon who he really is and puts on a show for Min-ho, who kills the demon. As he did with the others, Ban collects the demon stone left behind after killing the demon of lust. Min-ho is shocked to learn about Ban's demon-slaying job, but he asks if he remembers anything. He doesn't.
Ban tells him about the lust demon and claims that they have been in the land of Jeju since ancient times. Min-ho assumed that Ban was the only one who could destroy the demons and wondered why they were chasing him.
Ban tells Min-ho that his destiny is attracting monsters, and tells him with a straight face that the only solution now is his death. Min-ho asks him if running to Seoul or abroad is easier than running away from the demons, but Ban claims that the demons will still follow him there with a straight face. He leaves Min-ho alone after asking him to fight them if he can (disappears into thin air).
The next day, Mr. Giovanni (John) is walking around the forest and sees some of the demon horns on the ground. He collects one of them and begins to think about how these horns are formed. He searches for the mountain structure, the very structure where Ban is. Ban obediently places the demon stone next to the mountain.
Ban then goes to Grandma Haen-yeon's House, a small restaurant run by Baek-joo, the old woman from the previous episode. Baek-joo asks Ban if Min-ho is really Won-jong. Meanwhile, Tamra High School student Yeom-ji finds another Dol Hareubang on her way home from school. Yeom-ji interrupts Baek-joo as he eats the food he made for him, causing him to leave without a single bite.
Later that evening, Butler Jang, also a priest as it turns out, talks to Fr Giovanni about his research on demons of lust. The young priest asks about the man in the dark, aka, Ban, and Jang, the butler, warns that all interest will disappear when they encounter the dangerous demon slayer. Dr. Giovanni accepts the challenge.
Meanwhile, Min-ho is still thinking about what Ba told him about his fate. Butler Jang brings him tea to help him sleep and tries to stop him from taking sleeping pills. Min-ho claims that if he didn't take the pill, he would have nightmares, but to save his heart, he didn't. After Butler Jang leaves, Min-ho swallows the pill with some tea.
He prays to all the gods in the world to save him, but is frightened when he hears a voice outside his window. In her room, it's Ban who appears out of nowhere and sits on the chair in her room like best friends. Min-ho asks if the monsters in the house are trying to kill him, and Ban shows him the demon stone, which reveals that he killed the one already there.
Min-ho wonders just how many demons there are, and Ban shocks him by saying that there are too many since he never counted them. He begins to think about what can be done when Ban gives him the idea of just trying to hide. Min-ho argues that he couldn't have done it because the monsters could have people close to him to kill him.
Since no one wants him to survive, he wonders if killing himself is really a good idea. Min-ho is nervous and emotional at first, but he suddenly turns against Ban when he asks him to start working as his bodyguard to protect him. She thinks that Ban actually went after her because he was in love with her, but the demon slayer can't help but roll her eyes at this comment.
Min-ho uses her miraculous persuasive skills and forces Ban to sign the contract. He starts to use his sense of humor, or lack thereof, to joke with Ban and read him the terms of the deal, but it gets to him and he starts to leave. Min-ho tries to stop her and apologizes to her, asking her to stay the night just once and protect him.
Ban senses her desperation and watches her drift off to sleep as the sleeping pill hits her. He stays by Min-ho's bedside and can't help but notice the scars on Min-ho's chest, similar to Wonjeong's wound. Ban casts a spell on her to protect her from bad dreams and she falls into a peaceful sleep.
The next morning, Min-ho wakes up in a groggy mood, only to find Ban signing the contract without mentioning his salary demand.
Ban returns to the mountain structure, resting the demon stone from the night before. There, she remembers her last relationship with Wonjeong. A flashback shows that Ban was completely possessed by a demon of lust while killing Wonjeong (who looks like Min-ho). Present-day Ban thinks he should thank Wonjeong for not remembering him, or be upset at the truth instead.
Episode Review
This show is really something. On the one hand, I'm glad there's a horror show that's not too scary for scaredy-cats like me, but on the other hand, I wish the creators wouldn't make this another typical Korean drama with romance and melodrama.
It looks like Ada is sticking to the story of the webtoon and I'm sure we'll be treated to more intense horror scenes as we get closer to the end of the show. I really hate that we get so little of Eunwoo, but I think we'll have to settle for the exorcism scene in the last episode.
Da-hee and Nam-gil have great chemistry though, and it shows how much fun Da-hee is as a person the way Min-ho describes her. I also love adding comedy to the show, which helps break up the more dramatic beats and provides some much-needed levity. Let's hope that the creators will continue to follow this example in future episodes.
No comments