Bring It On, Ghost: Episode 11

by LollyPip

New information comes fast and furious in this episode, as usual sparking more questions than it answers. Whatever you thought you knew about Hye-sung and his motives, you may as well start from scratch because this episode will turn all of our theories on their heads. And as the search for the truth intensifies, so does the effort to hide it at all costs, putting more people in danger and changing the game completely.

 
EPISODE 11 RECAP

Hyun-ji fades away, leaving Bong-pal to search for her all over the riverboat, growing increasingly scared and worried. He runs all the way home but she’s not there either, and on his bed Bong-pal finds all of the nice clothing he got for her. With shaking hands, he picks up the dress she wore on their one date, and it shimmers and disappears.

On his table Bong-pal finds the birthday cake from Myung-chul, and he realizes now that Hyun-ji lied to him — she must have spoken to the monk, and he must have said something to make her leave.

Myung-chul is busy doing some research on Hye-sung when Bong-pal calls him to meet.Bong-pal is pretty calm, and he asks what Myung-chul said to her. He quickly loses his calm and screams, demanding an answer, so Myung-chul admits that he told her to leave, and by Bong-pal’s behavior he guesses that she did. He says that Bong-pal can’t afford to be hanging around with a ghost, but Bong-pal just leaves, disgusted, to go look for Hyun-ji.

Elsewhere, a man drives his taxi late into the night, fighting exhaustion. On a stretch of road marked by a sign warning of frequent accidents, his radio begins to short out, so he looks down for a moment to adjust it. When he looks up there’s a bloody girl in a white dress standing in the road, and the driver plows into some roadwork equipment in order to avoid hitting her.

In the morning, the Sundae Soup van pulls up to the accident site, and is Chun-sang wearing a ponytail?? OMG I can’t. The detective on site tells him that a lot of accidents have occurred here, always at two o’clock in the morning, and that a lot of the drivers reported seeing ghosts.

Hye-sung visits the memorial site of Bong-pal’s mother (which I believe is in the same temple where Bong-pal’s exorcism was carried out), and he tells her picture that if she hadn’t done that “unnecessary thing,” he wouldn’t have turned out this way. “Why did you leave that and keep annoying me until now? You should have known that your attempt to save your son would lead to the deaths of your husband and son.”

Detectives Yang and Kim visit the home of a woman who was recently robbed. Yang seems distracted, looking around the house and taking special note of family photos, especially the ones of the woman’s son who lives in the U.S.

He realizes that Hye-sung’s mother had no photos of her son displayed this way, which seems strange since by all accounts, he’s someone any woman would be proud to have as a son. Not to mention her expression when she saw Hye-sung that day they visited her, which looked nothing like a mother seeing her son.

Detective Yang decides to look into Hye-sung’s father’s death, which was determined to be an accident. He still thinks there’s more to this story.

Bong-pal spends the day running around to the different places where he and Hyun-ji used to go, futilely calling her name. In-rang nurses his heartache in a different way, drinking and listening to sad love songs. Chun-sang tries to snap him out of it but In-rang just screams that he’ll kill the guy that Hyun-ji likes. He’s even freaking out Chun-sang, and that’s saying something.

Chun-sang finds Seo-yeon on campus worrying about Hye-sung, who’s cancelled class. She texted him, but he’s not answering her.

Hyun-ji visits the amusement park where she confessed to Bong-pal, but her mind is filled with Myung-chul’s pleas for her to leave Bong-pal for his sake. She tells herself that she made the right decision, although she doesn’t look very happy about it. Bong-pal also goes to watch the Ferris wheel, and both of them spend the evening thinking about each other, and crying to be apart.

After the Ferris wheel closes, Bong-pal spots Hyun-ji sitting in one of the cars, but when he calls her name she quickly disappears. She reappears nearby but has a sudden dizzy spell, which gives Bong-pal time to catch up with her. He asks if this is because of what Myung-chul said, and tries to take her home.

But Hyun-ji yanks her arm out of his grasp and says that she’s not leaving because of Myung-chul — she was going to leave anyway. Bong-pal says that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of their relationship, but Hyun-ji retorts that she does. She only decided to stay with him because she wanted to ascend, and she just forgot about that for a bit.

Confused, Bong-pal asks Hyun-ji if their time together meant nothing to her. She just asks in return if he thinks a ghost can really be happy among humans. He’s the only person who can see her… “I don’t want to live a lonely life just to be with you!”

She says that she wants to recover her memories and ascend, and that being with Bong-pal makes her feel lonely. He asks if she really means it, if she’s really not happy with him, and Hyun-ji says that she does mean it. Bong-pal finally gets it, and leaves her standing there.

He doesn’t turn back, so he never sees Hyun-ji’s tears. He cries too, as he sits and drinks, and Hyun-ji berates herself for crying when she’s the one who left.

Since Bong-pal hasn’t been answering his phone, Chun-sang and In-rang go to his place to find him in person. In-rang isn’t happy about it, especially when Chun-sang says that he could see Hyun-ji and he points out that he can’t see her anyway.

Bong-pal is deep into his fifth bottle of soju by the time the boys find him, and he sadly says that Hyun-ji isn’t here when In-rang asks. His chin wobbles and he says that she left, and she’s not coming back. At that, In-rang plops down and joins him in the drinking.

Chun-sang has to piggyback Bong-pal home, though In-rang can barely stand by that point, either. Ha, he trips over a car and sends Chun-sang on without him. Chun-sang finally gets Bong-pal home and onto the couch, and Bong-pal starts to whine in his sleep, “Don’t leave, Hyun-ji-yah.”

Chun-sang goes back downstairs for In-rang, who’s by now passed out, propped up on the car. Chun-sang piggybacks him back to their room, wondering what he did to deserve this.

At his clinic, Hye-sung turns on Bong-pal’s dad’s phone, and sees that the last person to try to call him was Bong-pal. He remembers killing the man, and telling him his son will be next to die if he doesn’t tell him what he wants to know. He scrolls down the call list and sees one call from Hanil University Hospital.

A quick internet search finds that the number belongs to a woman named Kang Hee-jung, who works at that hospital as a neurotherapist. Hye-sung calls her and greets her like an old acquaintance, and he asks if he can visit her at work soon.

The next morning Myung-chul heads to Bong-pal’s apartment, and finds Bong-pal still sleeping it off on the couch. He lets the poor kid sleep and looks for food, and goes out when he finds the cupboard is bare.

Hyun-ji spent the night in the park, dreaming about her one memory she recalls from her life — lying in the rainy street after an accident, and seeing the name of a study academy nearby. She wakes, and this time she can remember the name of the school.

Bong-pal finally wakes to find a bag of food on the table for him, and a note from Myung-chul to stop drinking and skipping meals. He takes everything of Hyun-ji’s — her toothbrush, her study books, and even the photos from the trip — and throws them away.

Meanwhile Myung-chul gets a call from his shaman friend, who says that one of the temple monks wants to talk to him about Bong-pal’s father. The monk is worried about Bong-pal’s dad too, since they haven’t seen him in five years, not even for his wife’s memorial day.

But then yesterday, a guest had spent a long time looking at his wife’s photo in the temple. The monk wondered if he had something to do with Bong-pal’s dad’s disappearance. Myung-chul shows him the picture of Hye-sung and the monk confirms that it was him, and that he also saw Hye-sung five years ago.

Bong-pal’s father had come to pick up his wife’s belongings, and had spotted Hye-sung on his way into the temple. The monk saw him see Hye-sung, and run away in fear. Myung-chul wonders who Hye-sung is, and why he’s following Bong-pal.

Chun-sang is annoyed with both Bong-pal and In-rang when they get to school, letting a woman drive them to uselessness and drinking. He takes them to the club room to “toughen them up,” which apparently involves a lecture on depression and how to overcome it. When a client calls, Bong-pal wants to take the job even though Chun-sang doesn’t think he’s in any shape for it.

Hye-sung visits his friend Dr. Kang, the neurotherapist, who he knows from some previous volunteer work they’ve done together. He asks after Bong-pal’s father, Park Ji-hoon, but Dr. Kang says that they haven’t had a patient by that name.

Hyun-ji borrows a computer at an internet cafe to look up the school she saw in her dream. She goes looking for it and wanders into the street, where a car honks as it barrels down on her. But it was actually honking at a live girl, who gets injured, and it triggers another memory for Hyun-ji.

It’s dark, and she’s looking through her school bag frantically as she walks to her uncle’s place after cram school. She gets a call from her mother, which distracts her, and she walks right into the street. A white car hits her without even slowing down, and she lies in the street as it starts to rain, bleeding copiously from a head wound. Now she stands in front of the school in the street, and realizes, “This is where I died.”

She doesn’t realize that Hye-sung drove by while she was looking around, and saw her there in the street. He makes another call to Dr. Kang, and asks her to look up another patient, Kim Hyun-ji. He wonders to himself, does she remember?

We see the night of Hyun-ji’s accident from Hye-sung’s perspective, and as expected, he was the one driving the car that took her down. He’d obviously been waiting for her, and he’d been the one who touched her face as she lay in the street bleeding. He’s asked her where “the thing” was, but she’d been unable to answer, so he’d stolen her school bag.

A passing ambulance triggers another memory for Hyun-ji, of being wheeled into a hospital surgery room with her mother crying over her. This time Hyun-ji sees the name of the hospital, Hanil University Hospital, and even the doctor, Kim Joo-sung. She recalls being taken into surgery and soon flatlining.

With a solid lead now, Hyun-ji goes to Hanil University Hospital, and the first thing she sees is the woman from her memories outside the doors, on the phone — the woman she thinks is her mother. She’s telling whoever she’s talking to that she’s going to go home, since they can’t guarantee what will happen.

Hyun-ji follows the woman home, wondering if this lonely house is where she used to live. She finds a teenager’s bedroom full of pictures of herself and her parents, and learns that she used to study marital arts (and was good, judging by the number of trophies).

She goes back out to where her mother is now asleep on the table next to a picture of their family, and she sits next to the woman. Hyun-ji cries and says she’s sorry that she came so late. Outside, Hye-sung watches the house, knowing that Hyun-ji is getting close to the truth.

The team’s newest case is, of course, the haunted road… legend has it that thirty years ago when the road was being built, a woman died and became the ghosts. There have been fifteen accidents on that stretch of road since then.

Right on cue, their radio turns itself on, and a woman’s creepy, giggling voice can be heard in the static. The boys get distracted trying to turn the radio off, until Bong-pal screams, and they look up to see a woman in the road. Chun-sang slams on the brakes, but the van drives right through the woman.

Bong-pal gets out and tells the guys that it wasn’t a person but a ghost, though he doesn’t see her now. The boys head back to the van, but a hand grabs Chun-sang’s ankle from under the car — it’s the ghost! The boys fall down screaming as she pulls herself from under the car with her fingernails (~cringe~), then stands to loom over them.

Bong-pal jumps in right as the ghost attacks, and the boys run back to the van and leave him to fight her. Bong-pal punches the ghost over and over then flips her through the air, and finally a solid kick to the head causes her to flare and dissipate for good. But before anyone can relax, another car speeds past the van, heading straight for Bong-pal.

Hyun-ji’s mother wakes to a phone call, and whatever the other person says has her up and running out the door. Hyun-ji follows her, worried, back to the hospital — and when they arrive, Hyun-ji has another short dizzy spell.

Bong-pal was hit by the car, but not badly, though Chun-sang and In-rang insist on taking him to the hospital anyway. They unknowingly end up at the same hospital where Hyun-ji is at the moment, and lead Bong-pal inside.

Whoever Hyun-ji’s mother is here to see has gone into shock, and is being transferred to the ICU. The patient is wheeled out on a gurney and past Hyun-ji, who looks down to see… her own face. Her mother follows the gurney calling Hyun-ji’s name, and Hyun-ji hunches over in pain and shock.

The boys don’t realize that it’s Hyun-ji’s body that’s wheeled right past them, and soon Bong-pal is declared alright. He’s got an injured arm and a bonked head, though he declines an x-ray. Chun-sang insists, and the boys go to get Bong-pal checked in.

Hyun-ji’s doctor manages to stabilize her, though he can’t tell her mother why this keeps happening. Hyun-ji stands by her own bedside, shocked to see herself lying there in a coma, but crying at the realization that she’s not dead after all. She thinks that Bong-pal will be happy to learn this news, and goes to find him.

But Hye-sung is watching the whole thing, and now he also knows that Hyun-ji isn’t dead. It’s confirmed when his friend calls to tell him that Kim Hyun-ji was admitted five years ago after an accident, and is still in a coma. He asks if there’s a chance she’ll wake, and his friend thinks it’s unlikely — though there’s always hope.

Hyun-ji runs to the hospital lobby and sees Bong-pal, and she calls out to him, but he doesn’t hear her. She belatedly wonders why he’s at the hospital, and she follows him outside. Now he hears her calling to him, and he slowly turns, looking stricken before he even sees her face. She runs into his arms and says she’s sorry, and in her hospital room, Hyun-ji’s fingers start to twitch.

Hye-sung enters her room and stands over her bed, then suddenly a cloud of black mist bursts from his skin and Hyun-ji’s life support machine goes haywire. Outside, Bong-pal asks what happened, and Hyun-ji’s spirit says that she won’t leave him again. She manages to say, “Bong-pal, I’m alive…” before Hye-sung’s mist reaches her body, and Hyun-ji’s spirit starts to gasp and flicker.

Hyun-ji’s body flatlines, and Hye-sung’s black mist disappears. Hyun-ji’s spirit collapses in Bong-pal’s arms, while doctors work desperately to bring her body back to life. Her spirit continues to flicker, and as Bong-pal calls her name, she disappears.

Hye-sung smirks as Hyun-ji’s body dies… but then, a beep sounds. And another. And another. And Hyun-ji opens her eyes.

COMMENTS

Hyun-ji is not dead. Thank goodness! Also, I knew it, though at this point I think we all could tell from the clues that she was never actually dead. And not only is she not dead, but she’s fully alive and, I assume, back in her body. I honestly expected the “in a coma but still a spirit” phase to last a bit longer, but this show is pretty good about moving plot points along swiftly, so I’m not unhappy that Hyun-ji is fully alive now. I do expect her to not remember anything that happened while she was in a coma, including her relationship with Bong-pal, but if the show plays it so that this time Bong-pal is the pursuer and Hyun-ji the pursued, I won’t be upset.

It’s no surprise that Hyun-ji’s accident is somehow related to Hye-sung’s search for whatever it is, since we all guessed that weeks ago as well, but I’m glad to have it finally confirmed. Though some of the secrets in the plot have been easy to guess, I’m just consistently stumped by Hye-sung and whatever he’s looking for that’s worth killing to get, and that involves both Hyun-ji and Bong-pal. I’m assuming that whatever Hye-sung was looking for when he hit Hyun-ji was the thing she lost, so there’s no guessing what it is or why she even had it in the first place. And it’s obvious that, now that Hye-sung knows that she’s still alive, her life is in more danger than ever. He’s failed twice now to kill her — he won’t fail again.

I knew we’d come to a point in the show where Taecyeon would have to do some acting that amounted to more than “grouchy and cute,” and I was looking forward to it, though with hesitation. I haven’t seen a lot of his acting but I, like many others, found him adorable and engaging but still stiff and green. So far I’ve thought he’s doing quite well as Bong-pal, better even than I expected, but I was half-dreading that that would break down when he was called on to do some real emoting. I’m happy to say that I found him extremely believable showing the distraught and worried side of Bong-pal, and I never did “catch him acting” — he even carried some pretty layered moments, such as when he was talking to Myung-chul about Hyun-ji and he was so angry, yet so hurt and scared. I saw all of that, and it was pretty darn good. Just wanted to give the guy a little credit for playing opposite a powerhouse like Kim So-hyun, and carrying his weight effectively.

I still appreciate that Hyun-ji wasn’t being a Noble Idiot with her decision to leave Bong-pal, and she wasn’t even doing it for the usual drama unselfish “I love him more than myself” reasons. It’s true that a human and a ghost could never have a healthy relationship, but that wasn’t not even her only motivation. The show has been laying the groundwork for quite some time that Hyun-ji feels lonely whenever she and Bong-pal are around anyone else, because he’s the only one who can see and hear her. Even with Chun-sang and In-rang, who accept her as part of the team, she can’t truly be one of them because they can’t interact with her directly. I was actually proud of Hyun-ji when she said that she doesn’t want to stay and be lonely, even for Bong-pal. That shows me that she considers her own needs as important, which is something that we don’t see enough of in dramas. I like seeing a strong female character who knows what she wants and needs, and understands that love doesn’t always conquer all.

And it’s good that she insisted on the separation, because without it, Hyun-ji might not have ever known that she’s still alive. She would probably have stayed with Bong-pal for a while, but eventually her body would have died and she would have disappeared for good. I love that the show used the necessary separation to further the plot instead of stall for time (I HAAATE when shows do that!), which is just another example of how smart and cleverly-written Bring It On, Ghost has been from the very beginning. I have been, and continue to be, impressed with its use of the standard tropes in more modern, intelligent ways, and I trust that we can expect this level of great storytelling through to the end.

 
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