In a whirlwind of a week, our heroes finally put the puzzle pieces together in both the present and future, gearing up for the fight of their lives. As alliances between the villains shift and re-form, for once our heroes gain allies of their own, giving them a bit of hope after weeks of racing against time to stop one tragedy after another.
EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP
Ae-ri’s mom comes home, after refusing to give Chairman Yoo the incriminating recording. Ae-ri works on figuring out the reason for her mother’s disappearance, since Mom steadfastly refuses to say anything.
In the future, Do-kyun overhears the police labeling Seo-jin their prime suspect for the accident. He extracts Seo-jin from the hospital and takes him home, revealing that he’s been in touch with Ae-ri and knows about their time-traveling phone calls.
Confused and traumatized, Seo-jin remembers Taek-kyu injecting them all with something after he hit them with the truck, and vows to kill Taek-kyu himself.
They meet him, and Seo-jin strangles Taek-kyu until he admits that Chairman Yoo ordered Hyun-chae’s death because she was blackmailing him.
Now he has the info he needs, Seo-jin drops Do-kyun, and the act. Turns out Seo-jin already talked to Ae-ri before Do-kyun picked him up. YES! (I never thought I’d be this emotional about two drama characters talking on the phone.)
Ae-ri and Seo-jin separately realize that Yoojoong Construction was more at fault for knowingly unsafe construction, but pushed all blame for the collapse on its partner company. When Ae-ri finds out that Chairman Yoo and Taek-kyu visited her mother in the hospital the day before Ae-ri found her, it all comes together for her.
But a month later, that epiphany has signed Ae-ri’s death sentence. Seo-jin and Gun-wook team up to prevent Ae-ri’s murder from the future as she works on it in the past, and they finally convince Ae-ri’s mom to tell them what she knows.
In both timelines, Seo-jin learns conclusively that Chairman Yoo had his father killed.
And finally, Seo-jin goes to meet Ae-ri.
She’s holding the wristwatch he gave her 19 years ago, after he finally emerged from the rubble—her dad’s watch, stopped at 10:33, given to Seo-jin by the man who was buried with him.
What an incredible pair of episodes! I have to give this production team the kudos they deserve. As thrilling and well-done as this show always is, that fake-out with Seo-jin apparently becoming a murderous amnesiac was so perfectly anxiety-inducing. As Ae-ri said to Seo-jin, they keep averting one disaster after another, and nothing really changes. Even I’m beginning to be weary as a viewer.
Pacing-wise, it’s so smart to make this the moment that the characters feel that fatigue and hopelessness too, and finally gain a way to solve the core issue. It was believable, and painful, that after grieving his family multiple times, with a serious head wound, Seo-jin would lose grip of both his memory and his convictions—and then, the reveal that it was all part of Seo-jin and Ae-ri’s plan to get Do-kyun to reveal what he knows! Such a great moment. I yelled out loud.
These were heavy episodes, with Ae-ri’s little family grieving her death, and Seo-jin realizing the truth behind his father’s murder. (Seo-jin tearing up as he helped Ae-ri and her mom talk across time…me too, dude. Me too.) But they were powerful ones, because the protagonists are gathering not only information, but more allies. Now Ae-ri and Seo-jin have not only her friends, but Mom, Kim Jin-ho and their dads’ friend on their side. Even Do-kyun has finally realized that Hyun-chae isn’t as loyal to him as he is to her, perhaps throwing an additional wrench into Yu’s plans.
It was chilling to hear Chairman Yoo tell Seo-jin bluntly that it was enough of an apology to take him in at Yoojoong, as he basically admits responsibility for all those deaths. Yoo is clearly the big bad, and Taek-kyu is motivated solely by self-interest, but Hyun-chae grows more interesting by the week.
My read is that her idea of love was so twisted by her abusive father that she’s lived her entire life using others to get ahead—but Seo-jin’s change of heart towards his family seems to be cracking that cold resolve. I wonder if Future Hyun-chae called off her murder plan, staying in the car and giving Taek-kyu the perfect setup to carry out Yoo’s orders and bump them all off.
Now that they know all about the collapse, Chairman Yoo’s casual blackmail and murder of who knows how many people, and the fateful connection between Seo-jin and Ae-ri that lets them talk for that magical moment every day, I’m excited for our heroes to get ahead of these misfortunes for once, and hopefully turn the tables on their foes instead of constantly being taken by surprise. And I’m STOKED to see them finally joining forces in the present. I was initially against a romance between the leads, but last week I admitted that I’ve come around to the idea. Now I have Forest of Secrets feels about these two. Like Shi-mok and Yeo-jin, I just ship them as humans, whatever form that might take—I want them to be in the same time and space, helping each other, as partners of any sort.