Episode 4 of Revenant is an onslaught of information! It’s a time of discovery for San-Yeong’s team as well as the detectives, and we get to learn a lot more about the evil spirit that’s taken over San-Yeong. Additionally, we get to see loads more ghosts in this episode, and we’re desperately waiting for the next episode! The previous episode ended with San-Yeong standing on the bridge, looking like she was about to jump off, but instead, she managed to throw the fish bowl. That’s when it’s clear that San-Yeong is not in her right mind, but it’s the evil spirit that’s talking in her stead. Hae-Sang is reminded of the time his mother died as the spirit begins to talk to him through San-Yeong.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 4?
The evil spirit tells Hae-Sang that he’s grown up well and that it’s nice to see him after so long. Shee teases him with a reminder of what happened all those years ago, and in a flashback, we see Hae-Sang’s mother yell at him to leave the red hair accessory that he opened up out of curiosity. Hae-Sang had become small when he first noticed it was the evil spirit talking to him, but now he commands her by telling her that the red hair accessory belonged to a girl whose hair had just begun to grow. It was a talisman meant to protect her from harm. Hae-Sang has vital information that can help him discover the spirit’s name, meaning he can get rid of her soon enough. He shows her the hair accessory, and this makes her shudder, and just before San-Yeong is back, she recites the numbers 21 and 176 a few times. It’s almost like a hint to help Hae-Sang figure something out about the spirit. Hae-Sang drives San-Yeong back home and tells her she should avoid bodies of water and that ghosts don’t like daylight. She’s worried that she’ll do something terrible, considering how things turned out at the aquarium. Hae-Sang gives San-Yeong money for the rent because the ghost will prey on her weakness. She accepts reluctantly, but she has no other choice.
Through the burnt notebook in San-Yeong’s grandmother’s house, only a single piece of information was recoverable. This is evidence enough though, because it’s a newspaper clipping of a girl who had been missing for two weeks in 1958. San-Yeong and the professor both end up at her grandmother’s house to find information on the numbers that the ghost mentioned. Before the professor terrified San-Yeong by coming to the house quietly like a ghost, she discovered something about juvenile ghosts that caught her eye. When kids died of disease or were sacrificed, they became “juvenile ghosts.” They’re unable to find anything of substance related to the numbers, and they go on the hunt for San-Yeong’s dad’s room. They discover a room with pictures of San-Yeong and her parents; it looks like her father missed her very much. Amidst the chaos, they get a phone call from Tae-Young’s grandfather asking them to visit.
Tae-Young apologizes for being out of sorts the day they met last and thanks them for their help. She then tells them that she did remember seeing San-Yeong’s dad, and it was just a year before. He had visited her grandfather in 1958 to ask about a missing girl named Lee Mokdan. He had shown them the same paper clipping from the newspaper that Mun-Chun had been handed over by the team that recovered the book. Tae-Young’s granduncle then tells the two of them that the girl had been missing after a game of hide and seek, and people thought she had been kidnapped. They decide to head to the library and find the paper clipping that could give them the information they need. In the meantime, the detectives take their newspaper clipping to a legendary old detective who knew about a lot of old cases. Mun-Chun shows him the newspaper clipping and asks for any information he might have. He tells Mun-Chun and Hong-Sae that he did, in fact, remember this case and that the girl’s body was discovered soon after those two weeks. She was completely starved, with one finger missing. Mun-Chun wondered if it was a wild animal, but the detective told him it was a person who had done this.
Back in the library, San-Yeong discovered a clipping with some information about the case. It says a shaman created a thing called a “Yeommae.” The girl was starved for 17 days, after which some rice was put in a bamboo tube as an offering to her, but when she tried to grab it, she was killed by stabbing. Later, the girl’s missing finger was used as a host for deities. Hearing this, Hae-Sang tells San-Yeong that Yeommae could mean the act of using a doll or killing a child to create a juvenile ghost. San-Yeong remembers her discovery of the juvenile ghost and shows him the research she did. It turns out the page numbers are 21 and 176, the same numbers she had recited earlier. It shows a ritual done with straw dolls called the “Baekchagol.” Hae-Sang takes San-Yeong to a village that still performs this ritual. They think they might get some information about San-Yeong’s father in this village.
In the meantime, we see an old man pray to some straw dolls in the village, and a woman hears her daughter scream for her at her door. She just sits down in sadness rather than opening the door, knowing it’s a ghost. When San-Yeong and Hae-Sang arrive at the village, the chief is having an argument with that woman about the ritual. She says it should be done away with completely because everyone in the village is old now. Elsewhere, Mun-Chun and Hong-Sae meet with the daughter of the man who wrote the article in 1958. Shockingly, she tells them that he had committed suicide on the same day that the article was published, and she was the one who discovered his hanging body. He, too, had the same bruises on his hand as the rest of the people connected to this case. She tells them that San-Yeong’s father had visited her about the same thing just a year ago and wondered if they got the clipping from him. It is clear to Mun-Chun that San-Yeong’s father is at the center of this case, so they need to dig up more about him.
Why Are The Ghosts At The Village?
At the village, San-Yeong discovers that her mother actually lived in the same village back in the day, and that’s where she met her father. San-Yeong had been told her mother’s hometown was Seoul, and she immediately called her to find out the truth. San-Yeong’s mother is mortified when she realizes that her daughter might be in that village and tells her to get out of there immediately. At the same time, one of the old men ends up having a stroke, and San-Yeong cuts the call. San-Yeong noticed a ghost in the mirror at the time and asked the professor if that was why the man had died. Hae-Sang tells her that there are many wandering ghosts there, and it’s possible that the man’s condition has worsened because of their presence.
Hae-Sang tells everyone to head home carefully and not look back on the way. He tells them to lock their doors and be careful that night. The chief is confused that he’s taking the side of the villagers, considering there is a lot left to do for the ritual. Hae-Sang tells him that there are wandering ghosts in the village, and he needs to see the straw dolls so he can ward them off. They discover the dolls are missing, and the chief tells them three people are in charge of cleaning the room with the dolls. They head to the houses of the three, one of whom is the woman who heard the knocking of her daughter. All three of them look to be in grave danger. San-Yeong saves one of them after she’s pushed by a ghost in front of a fast-moving vehicle. Hae-Sang visits the old lady and realizes that she can see the ghosts too. It turns out she was sitting across from her dead daughter and was happy to see her. She didn’t care if this meant she had to die now and go be with her daughter. She tells him she burned all the straw dolls, which let all the wandering ghosts into this village. Because the dolls were burned, the ghosts had arrived in the village, and there was no salvaging them. The episode ends when, on her way out, San-Yeong sees multiple ghosts in the traffic mirror. She runs for her life and falls down. But when she stands up, she sees her father’s ghost in the window of a store.
In the preview of the next episode, we see that San-Yeong may be committing some grave crimes because of the evil spirit. It also seems like they’re sure the ghost is that of the missing child. There is a dialogue about how the entire village may have taken part in her death, meaning this shaman may have sacrificed her to bring fortune to the village. Or something on those terms, anyway. It might be that San-Yeong’s father knew she would be the one affected because her parents had something to do with the village where the ritual was done.
