After surviving storms, car chases, and a plethora of battles, our time traveling warrior nears the end of her journey. While she might know a lot about the future, she still experiences a lot of new adventures and emotions in the present and finds some amazing people along the way. However, this also means that our genius engineer is running out of time before he is forced to make his ultimate decision: saving the woman he loves or the world.
EPISODE 12 RECAP
Dad hands over his gun to Seo-hae and orders her to shoot him first if she wants to find the uploader. She asks why he is so afraid, and he tells her that he is scared of her dying. Seo-hae says that her fear is giving up without even trying and implores him to help her find the uploader.
Unable to refuse his daughter’s pleas, Dad accompanies Seo-hae and they pass through abandoned roads and a makeshift cemetery without much trouble. They arrive at their destination, but before heading inside, Dad takes out his pack of valuables which should be enough for one ride.
They hear footsteps approaching from behind and take cover in some bushes. The convenience store gang runs through the clearing in pursuit of them, and Seo-hae wonders aloud how long they have been chasing them.
A voice tells her that it has been two days, and a man emerges from the trees, pointing a gun at them. He asks for their name and why they want to ride the uploader, so Seo-hae says that she plans to stop the war by saving Tae-sool. The man reveals his face, and Tae-sool’s bodyguard Bong-sun recognizes Seo-hae from the Busan attack.
Dad wonders why they did not flee the country if he knew about the war, and Seo-hae tells him that the Control Bureau barred them from flying. She knows his next question as well and tells him that he sent her to the past.
She mentions all the remarkable things she experienced in the past—eating real fruit, going to the amusement, seeing her mom—but most importantly, she found good people who would risk their lives to save her. She wants them to never suffer the horrors of war and will change the future.
Seo-hae interrupts their conversation and tells Tae-sool that they should leave. Mr. Park disagrees and reminds Tae-sool of his promise to fix the downloader. Though willing to keep his end of the deal, Tae-sool asks what will stop the brokers from killing them once he hands over the solution. Mr. Park laughs at his silly worries since he will kill them either way and calls in Bingbing.
Tae-sool informs the broker about the password he placed on the USB for safekeeping, but Seo-hae tells him to trust her and hand it over. Reluctantly, Tae-sool gives them the password, one-eight-one-eight (which sounds like swear words in Korean), and Bingbing gets the downloader working again.
As the group leaves, Mr. Park shoots at the wall and stops them. He says that they still owe him a debt for all the troubles they put him through, but Seo-hae tells him to take responsibility for his own life. If he believes the future cannot be changed, then everything that has happened was predetermined.
Mr. Park admits to feeling powerless, but his answer sounds like excuses to Seo-hae. She lets him in on a secret and tells him that the future has already changed. The bullet that hit Sun-jae was actually meant for her, and as a precaution, she brought medicine to heal her leg. She tosses them the bottle and drags Tae-sool out of the room. Unable to kill them, Mr. Park shoots the door and screams in frustration.
Seo-hae shares everything she knows with Tae-sool, including the grave she found and the subsequent dreams she has about the future. He guesses that she created a time paradox, and according to her future-self’s memories, their final day is in the chapel at their wedding.
Tae-sool has a good idea about what happens next since he met Sigma, and Seo-hae confirms his suspicions about Sigma forcing him to choose between her and the world. She tells him that she will die even if he builds the uploader, but Tae-sool sees it as another chance to fix things. He does not want to lose her, but Seo-hae makes him promise to not build the uploader this time.
Sun joins Seo-hae outside, and she thanks him for helping save her. He says that he barely did anything, but more importantly, he asks if everything she said about the last day is true. He wants her to leave with him, then, but Seo-hae rejects his offer.
Calling him by his full name, Seo-hae points at the city and tells him that everything is gone in the future. He asks if they can stop the war if they get rid of the person who invents the uploader, but Seo-hae stops him from even finishing that thought.
He asks if she likes Tae-sool, and in response, she returns his watch to him. Adding salt to the wound, Tae-sool comes out with two mugs, and Sun stalks off.
The images depict Tae-sool’s future and the art style resembles the one in Sigma’s painting. Despite finding the culprit, the name is gone, so Tae-sool and Seo-hae go to the school to check the records.
In the hallway, Tae-sool spots a bulletin board with student introductions and asks Seo-hae about her favorite things. They only have seventy-two hours left, and Tae-sool wants to know as much as he can about her.
She shares her favorite foods as well as her favorite song with him, and he asks about people next. She says that she respects her parents the most, but when he asks who her favorite person is, she gets embarrassed and refuses to answer.
When Tae-sool heard the rumors about Won-joo’s house, he remembered him talking about seeing the future and rummaged through his desk for his latest drawing. As he feared, he found the disturbing image of the house and family burning.
After school, Won-joo appeared before Tae-sool, crooning about the silence. He said that he followed his instructions, and Tae-sool called him crazy. He pushed the other boy to the floor, and Won-joo glared at him, accusing him for being no different from the others. Whispering in Tae-sool’s ear, Won-joo vowed to kill everyone, and walked away.
The last half of the episode was dedicated to Sigma and his backstory. Unfortunately, it was a dull segue that failed to raise him above his cardboard-cutout-villain status. The creators added some random character to the story, and while I did feel bad for the child, it’s hard to connect with him, especially since the show kept emphasizing the similarities between little Won-joo and adult Sigma (we get it, the man was creepy since elementary school). The show does not offer much nuance to the character, and he ends up being the crazy bad guy our heroes have to take down. Though Kim Byung-chul is great, even his acting can’t make Sigma an interesting antagonist.
With only four more episodes left, it’s clear that the show wasted too much time meandering around unnecessary plot points and characters. There are too many underutilized characters (the brokers, Seung-bok, Bong-sun, Hyun-gi, etc.) and a lot of the action sequences were dragged out to the show’s detriment. The sets for the future were cool and probably cost a lot, but many of those scenes could have been cut as well. In the end, the show is trying to be too many things at once, and the big budget seems to have taken away from the storytelling instead of enhancing it.