Now that our genius engineer has discovered the truth behind these strange events, there is no going back. With his life in danger, his protector has a lot cut out for her as they continue running from their pursuers who have time and knowledge on their side. Fortunately, our future warrior has a few tricks hidden away and isn’t afraid to do anything.
EPISODE 4 RECAP
Back in the present, Sun-jae approaches the unconscious time traveler while Mr. Park asks Seo-hae about her number. She tells him that she’s around 250,000, and Mr. Park chuckles since they’re all from the 10,000s. He explains to Tae-sool how the success of the download is a mere ten percent, but even then, half of those travelers get caught by the Control Bureau.
Given the odds, Mr. Park assumes that something went wrong with Tae-san’s trip, and Tae-sool starts feeling sick. Bingbing reminds them through the earpiece to keep Tae-sool from throwing up in the van, but her warning came too late as Tae-sool hurls all over Mr. Park’s shoe.
After Tae-sool learns that Sun-jae has his phone, he commands it to send his location to Seung-bok, and the Control Bureau intercepts the message. Before the brokers can react, Tae-sool thrusts the needle into Sun-jae’s thigh and retrieves his phone.
While the others are distracted, Seo-hae escapes the warehouse, and Mr. Park orders Sun-ho to chase after Tae-sool first. However, their plans change when the Control Bureau arrives, and the brokers take the suitcase before fleeing the scene.
Tae-sool makes his escape as well, but the time traveler suddenly wakes up and grabs his leg. He claims to know where Tae-san is, so Tae-sool drags the traveler with him. Cursing Seo-hae for leaving him behind, Tae-sool manages to leave the building but doesn’t get very far from the Control Bureau.
With both his exits blocked off, Tae-sool has nowhere to run until Seo-hae rams her way in and tackles Officer Choi. She holds back the Control Bureau as Tae-sool carries the traveler to a nearby electric car and breaks open the window.
While he hijacks the car, Seo-hae fights with the Control Bureau who have enough sense to hide their guns in public this time. Tae-sool honks the horn, yelling at Seo-hae to get in the car, but the Control Bureau apprehends her. She screams at Tae-sool to leave, so he does exactly that. Pfft.
After throwing Seo-hae into their van, Officer Choi asks about Tae-sool, but she refuses to answer. He grabs her face, but when that doesn’t work, he slaps her and pulls out his gun. He threatens to kill her if she doesn’t talk, but Seo-hae tells him that she isn’t dying today.
He presses the gun to her head to test her theory, but Seo-hae’s eyes grow wide as she looks out the window. A car slams into the van, knocking out the Control Bureau, but Seo-hae braced herself for the impact and remains conscious.
Tae-sool opens the door and the first thing he does is berate her for not getting in the car sooner. She snaps back at him for actually leaving, and he points out that she ran away first. She calls them even, and he pulls her out of the wreckage.
The time traveler’s present self, police officer JUNG HYUN-GI (Go Yoon), scolds his ailing mom for eating ramyun again instead of her strict diet. When she refuses to eat the food he prepared, Hyun-gi kicks away the table and storms out of the house since he’s on duty tonight.
While resting at a convenience store, Hyun-gi complains about his mom to his partner, but the other officer tells him to appreciate her while she’s still alive. They get a call about a robbery and head towards the store to check it out. When they arrive, the flustered victim tells them that the robber ran down the alley, so Hyun-gi investigates while his partner takes down statements.
Officer Hwang meets with Seung-bok and the chairman as an agent from the National Intelligence Service here to help find Tae-sool. Seung-bok tells him about the message he received earlier, but Officer Hwang is dubious about the sender.
Seung-bok offers to show him the message then, but when he goes through his phone, no such text exists. Officer Hwang acts as if Seung-bok made up the whole thing and takes his leave. Once outside, he calls his men to keep tracking Tae-sool’s phone.
Tae-sool slams his phone down—presumably unable to contact Seung-bok—and future Hyun-gi wakes up in the back seat. He asks for the date, and Tae-sool tells him that it’s August 19th to which Seo-hae promptly adds the year as well.
Hyun-gi gives Tae-sool an address, but instead of information about Tae-san, he asks for a ride to a different place. Tae-sool pulls the car over, reminding Hyun-gi about their promise, but Hyun-gi yells at him to hurry up. Gritting his teeth, Tae-sool agrees to take him there first, and Hyun-gi looks at a crumpled photo of his mom.
Seo-hae turns to Tae-sool and tells him that they time travel because of regret. It’s an emotion everyone around Tae-sool seems to have as Seung-bok finally signs the document to dismiss their current CEO and Seo-jin looks at a photo of her and Tae-sool.
While Hyun-gi tucks his mom to bed, Seo-hae explains to Tae-sool how people still wish they did things differently even if they know the future can’t be changed. Hyun-gi apologizes to his mom for mistreating her, but she tells him that it’s okay. He says that he missed her, and she reaches out to touch him once last time. Mom takes her final breath, and Hyun-gi caresses her face as he calls out for her.
Tae-sool recognizes the address as the chairman’s estate, but before he can register everything, the Control Bureau breaks open the door. They storm the now-empty living room, and a smoke grenade rolls between their feet.
The invaders fire blindly into the room, but Seo-hae simply slinks within their ranks and takes them down under the cover of the smoke. They shoot towards the bedroom, and Hyun-gi covers his mom as bullets riddle his back.
The Control Bureau uses a fan to clear the air, and Seo-hae takes cover in the kitchen with Tae-sool. She sees him opening up coke bottles, and he holds up a canister of butane gas, giving her a quick science lesson. He releases the gas into the bottles, and then flips them over, sending the impromptu rockets right into their enemies’ heads.
Once all the Control Bureau men fall down, Hyun-gi stumbles towards the others and hands them his car keys. With his dying breath, he tells Seo-hae to forgive him no matter what since it’s the only way to win.
Officer Hwang orders his men not to shoot as they approach the car, but before they reach their targets, Tae-sool grabs Seo-hae and runs. As they jump over the edge, someone shoots Seo-hae in the arm, and she lets go of Tae-sool’s hand.
Seo-hae sinks in the river, and her diary floats out of her backpack. In voiceover, Seo-hae narrates the first entry, which is from herself. She knows that she’ll be dead by the time she reads this, and tells herself to not freak out over what she sees. Their task is to save Tae-sool in order to stop the war, and they’re the only ones who can do it.
As Seo-hae loses consciousness, she remembers her dad’s warnings to never meet Tae-sool. She slowly closes her eyes, and from above, Tae-sool swims towards her and reaches out to grab her hand.
COMMENTS
While the same issues still plague the show, I found this episode to be the strongest yet. Now that people have finally answered some of Tae-sool’s questions, the plot is moving forward in earnest, and the show can get past the initial stages of setup and introductions. We’re finally told Seo-hae’s main objective (to save Tae-sool in order to stop the war) and given hints to her importance as well. From the diary entry, it seems the theories about a time loop may be true, and Seo-hae, for some reason, is in a unique position to save Tae-sool. It also explains why she doesn’t care about her own safety as much and seems to avoid capture no matter the situation (e.g., the train scene in episode one). She knows that death can’t stop her, and though it’s unclear how many times Seo-hae has gone through this loop, it seems safe to assume that this isn’t her first time at least.
The show has focused on Tae-sool so far, but since the big secret has been revealed, hopefully we’ll get more insight into Seo-hae as well. From what we’ve seen, I get the impression that she has changed a lot, too, since all this time traveling business. In the future, she seems more hesitant and afraid to act when in danger. She doesn’t rush into things and shoot first like she does in the present-timeline. Instead, she seems fearful and tentative. Something must have happened to make Seo-hae the way she is now, and from her talk with Tae-sool, it feels like she has a personal motivation in this mission that pushes her to risk her life over and over again to save him. Though it wasn’t narrated, at the end of the page in her diary, Seo-hae tells herself to protect the person she loves. It could be about her mom as mentioned in the first episode, but there’s also the possibility that Seo-hae is talking about Tae-sool. They may be linked to each other, which might also explain why Seo-hae is the only one who can change the future. Since we know Tae-sool invents the uploader, maybe he built it for Seo-hae. It makes no sense for Tae-sool to make it for Tae-san because his goal is to stop his brother from time traveling, so there must be another reason. I doubt Tae-sool is the type to create something simply because he can despite knowing the negative consequences, so some other regret must have made him want to risk everything and turn back the clock. Consequently, the show pulls a reversal, and it’s no longer Tae-sool who holds the key to this big mystery but Seo-hae.