Even heroes need to rest, and though it is only for a brief moment, our time traveling warrior lets down her guard and genuinely enjoys a normal day filled with people, food, and laughter. Unfortunately, their pursuers did not get the memo, and in a blink of an eye, another happy memory is tainted. Our genius engineer is forced to pick between his friend or the world, but knowing him, I think we all know what he’ll choose.
EPISODE 9 RECAP
While Seo-hae tries on a headband, she picks one for Tae-sool as well, but he backs away from the tacky tiger ears. She immediately launches into a sob story, mentioning the lack of people, food, and a mom in the future, and Tae-sool relents to her puppy-dog eyes.
As soon as he puts on the headband, Seo-hae laughs and calls him dumb for actually listening to her. He takes it off in annoyance, but she places it back on his head, telling him that he looks cute.
They spend the day trying out all the rides, taking pictures, and eating snacks. Seo-hae excitedly suggests the Viking next, but Tae-sool shakes his head since he swore off all thrills after nearly dying in a plane crash. When Seo-hae refuses to leave him alone, Tae-sool sighs and agrees to ride with her.
Mom thanks Seo-hae for the help and notices the locket around her neck. She is amazed by the coincidence since she has the same one, and Seo-hae silently stares at her with tears pooling in her eyes.
Little Seo-hae asks Tae-sool if they met before, and he tells her that they haven’t met yet. As he watches her leave, he receives a call from an unknown number and picks it up. On the other line is Sigma, and Tae-sool drops his cone. Meanwhile, outside the park, the Control Bureau arrives and storms the area.
Sigma comments on Tae-sool’s cute headband, and from a distance, he waves at him. Tae-sool tells him to come out and face him, but Sigma chuckles. He asks if Tae-sool will choose the girl or the world since he reported Seo-hae to the Control Bureau.
Present-day: September 30, 2020. Seo-hae slowly regains consciousness and screams at her captors to show their face. Hyun-gi tries going in, but Officer Hwang tells him that he cannot interrogate Seo-hae since she killed his mom. He objects to the order, but the other officers drag him out.
Seo-hae glares at Officer Hwang as he enters the room and acts chummy with her. Giving her a quick lesson on time travel, he tells her that the low chance of success is not due to mechanical malfunction but rather genetics.
He holds up a needle and explains how they figured out a way to make time travelers disappear. He injects the needle into her, and immediately, Seo-hae screams in pain as she flickers in and out.
Officer Hwang warns her that two more shots will break her down completely and demands to know her plans with Tae-sool. Seo-hae smirks at him, asking why the Control Bureau doesn’t know already, and Officer Hwang stabs her with the needle again.
Besides Seo-hae, the Control Bureau holds the brokers as prisoners, and Mr. Park watches his battered men with worry. He causes a ruckus, and a guard enters his cell to quiet him down. However, Mr. Park wrestles the guard’s baton away and corners him.
Sun picks up Tae-sool but looks dismayed when the latter returns empty-handed. He asks how they will get in, and Tae-sool pulls up the video of Seung-bok and compares it to Sun. He asks the younger man to look mean, and Sun scrunches up his face to mimic angry Seung-bok. Heh.
Tae-sool’s genius plan is to have Sun pretend to be Seung-bok, and with a nice suit and a bit of a scowl, the hospital directors fall for their little trick. Tae-sool gives Sun instructions from outside, and the unlikely duo make a fabulous team as Sun excuses himself from the tour group and takes the elevators down to the basement.
All Sun has to do now is plug the USB into the main server, but that’s easier said than done. The first obstacle is a broken door, but Tae-sool easily opens it by hacking into the system. The next problem is an iris scan, but this, too, hardly poses a threat since Tae-sool saw this coming and created special contact lenses for Sun to replicate Seung-bok’s eyes.
Once Sun makes it into the main room where the Control Bureau keeps their prisoners, he hides behind a wall and uses his speed to sprint past the guards into the server room. Meanwhile, Hyun-gi washes his face in the restroom when his colleagues enter after interrogating Seo-hae. They complain about the new prisoners, and Hyun-gi quietly sneaks away with their badge.
COMMENTS
On multiple occasions, people make Tae-sool choose between saving someone he loves or the world, and every single time, he chooses the former. Unlike a more typical hero who believes in the greater good, Tae-sool cares about those around him more than some arbitrary sense of saving the world. In the end, of course, he tries to save everything—the world and his loved ones—but if he really had to make a choice, I could see him letting the world burn in order to save the ones he loves. This characteristic of Tae-sool is one of his defining traits and explains so much of his personality and the underlying conflict that fuels the show. Tae-sool is somehow related to the end of the world, but no matter how many warnings he receives, he refuses to simply lie low and avoid his fate. He charges ahead to discover the truth even if it might cause harm because Tae-sool wants to save the people around him, too. He doesn’t believe in sacrificing others to stop a future that may or may not happen, and as a result, his doggedness creates problems for Seo-hae who wants nothing more than to keep him safe.
On the other hand, I love this aspect of Tae-sool because a hero who is willing to throw everything away for one person is much more interesting and relatable. It might come across as selfish, but the show already established Tae-sool’s heroic nature when he saved the plane. The audience knows that Tae-sool would risk his own life to save others, but if the time comes when he is forced to sacrifice someone else for the greater good, would he make that choice? Especially if the cost is his brother or Seo-hae? I’m sure Tae-sool will have to go through this dilemma over and over again because this question seems to be the crux of this show outside of the time-related ones. While Tae-sool is a genius who seems infallible at times, we also see him as a broken human being with vices and shortcomings. However, I don’t see his ability to love as a weakness. Rather, I would count it as one of his greatest strengths because, at the end of the day, this is what pushes him past his limits to achieve the impossible.
I like the budding relationship between Tae-sool and Seo-hae even though I still have some misgivings about the romance. Unfortunately, I did not find Tae-sool’s interactions with little Seo-hae endearing, and despite my fondness of Jo Seung-woo, even he couldn’t make the writing not feel creepy. Though I’m fine with adult Tae-sool with adult Seo-hae, I don’t understand how their relationship can actually blossom into a romance without bending some time rules because I’m definitely not okay with little Seo-hae growing up and ending with much older Tae-sool. (This unintentionally comes across as grooming, and I definitely do not want to think of Tae-sool that way.) However, outside of romance, I really like the two of them together and adore their found family dynamic. They care about each other and have an understanding that the other will always save them no matter the situation. This unwavering trust is what makes me love Tae-sool and Seo-hae as a pair even if I don’t necessary want them romantically entangled just yet.
While the show still has the same problems (lack of tension, plot holes, etc.), I am liking these later episodes more than the earlier ones and find the characters more entertaining (not the Control Bureau, I doubt I will ever enjoy seeing them on my screen). Besides the leads, I really like Mr. Park, mostly because it’s Sung Dong-il. Most of the time, the show doesn’t deserve his acting prowess, but regardless of the quality of the show, he still delivers a riveting performance that makes Mr. Park feel dangerous and mysterious. Though it was pathetic of the guard to get so easily bested by a tortured prisoner, it was not Mr. Park’s fighting skills that made him menacing in that scene but his demeanor. The air of calmness radiating from his whole being as well as the boiling rage hiding behind his eyes, all of these combined are what made Mr. Park’s threat work in that moment, and even though the guard had no reason to believe it, he instinctively knew that this wasn’t a man he could beat. This is what a strong performance can do for a character—lift them off the page and infuse them with emotions that speak louder than words.